I'm no fool. I'm not stepping into the van until AFTER I get that free chrome extension ;)

I've been on a quest for some self improvement and actually made some progress this year. I was massively helped by reading the following three books and getting off of Aspartame (not part of the question I totally admit but added due to its positive effect on my life):

1. "The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You" by Elaine N. Aron (Amazon link here: https://www.amazon.com/Highly-... and her website here: https://hsperson.com/ ). I always knew I was a bit "different" from the average person (more sensitive to things, people, sounds, etc., needing to be alone more and bypassing highly stimulating activities that other people seek out) and this book finally explained why.

2. "One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way" by Robert Maurer (Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Small-S... ). Description from the site: "Improve your life fearlessly with this essential guide to kaizen—the art of making great and lasting change through small, steady steps. The philosophy is simple: Great change is made through small steps. And the science is irrefutable: Small steps circumvent the brain's built-in resistance to new behavior." The book and steps actually work and the psychology behind it is solid.

3. "Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity - A Must-Read Guide to Dealing with Distractions and Regaining Focus in the Modern World" by Gloria Mark (Amazon Link here: https://www.amazon.com/Attenti... ). A wonderfully written book by someone was at the ground floor of the Internet revolution and saw first hand how it works to suck you in and not let your attention go, with real world recommendations on how to get at least some of that attention back. Highly recommended.

4. I found out from personal experience that Aspartame, the non caloric sweetener, is not good for you. Scientific studies have shown that it can induce anxiety and "mental deficiencies" (Link to Papers: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... and https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... ). I"m a prime example of how very true that is. After I got off of it, I found that my anxiety levels were massively decreased and my mental acuity was far better. And I made no other personal changes other than to get off of that particular sweetner (the "just do one thing better/differently" is part of the Kaizen "just do one step" change philosophy). So do you self/body a positive thing. Just try not having Aspartame (if you consume it) for a week and note any personal changes/improvements. Just an idea to think about.

I'm sorry, but the PBS that you grew up with doesn't exist anymore. I wish it did. I honestly do. But PBS decided that it was just going to cater to the Liberal/Progressive wing and not ALL of the country. Every time I see Nature or Nova they have to sneak in "People/the country is bad to the environment". Every time they talk about the Government it always has to be bad. And they do not seem to have programs devoted to the 3/4 of the country that is Rural.

Listen, I understand that it is hard to get programming that is universal to both Liberal/Conservative tastes. But PBS doesn't even try now. It's even worse on PBS Radio. So if they are this bad, they deserve to die. And I don't like that but it's the truth.

One of my degrees is in History with an Emphasis of the History of Science. Scientists (and humanity in general) have this fundamental craving to try and explain things. Unfortunately, when supplied with observations of things that they cannot understand, they have to fall back on what they know to described something that they can't explain. This leads to things like the "luminiferous aether" (which was massless, frictionless yet as sold as rock) to explain how light traveled and to things like "dark Matter" (hey, we CAN'T detect it but, hey, it's gotta be there, right?...RIGHT??) to describe/explain the rotation of Galaxies. It's the ultimate "when all you have is a hammer, every solution involves you hitting something". So right now the Physics/Cosmology community is hunting around for something to explain all these physical observations that can't be resolved using their normal box of explanations. Basically, they don't know yet if Dark Matter/Energy is real or not, it's just the best construct that they have. My feeling is that Dark Matter/Energy will go away when they discover the real explanation, but that's just me.

I'm going to get down modded for replying, but I'm going to do it because it needs to be said. As your Parent Poster stated "As for not anti-anything, they are very much anti-gun. I never heard any pro-gun pieces from them.". Please note the specific observation: You never hear any Pro-Gun pieces from them. And this observation is correct.

Firearms are like any other thing in life. They have both negative and positive things/uses associated with them. NPR only talks about the negatives and never the positives. And yes, there are positives. One of the main ones is being able to be used by the People to overthrow any President who wants to destroy the Democracy and create a Fascist Regime. Sound familiar?

The Parents posters other comments points to the other problem that NPR has. Because they are NOT balanced in their coverage, when the DO get it right (Yes, Russia did help out Trump, Yes the Israel conflict is a mess) NPR is dismissed. If you can't trust NPR in something that you vitally care about (2nd Amendment Rights) then your going to dismiss them on the lessor items. And yes, for many people, 2nd Amendment rights is a one issue thing. If you don't get that right or at least be viewed as being impartial/covering both sides, then you've lost them. And NPR does not realize that.

And the posters comment that NPR does not have anywheres near a balanced staff is also correct. That's not just NPR, that's Media in general. And that is just an observation, not a criticism. The media in general will lean left, that's part of the business. And even the Media will tell you that. The problem is when your a nationwide network that goes out to all corners of the country, both Red and Blue, you have to fight that. And NPR never did. They could not even handle one of their own journalists (Juan Williams) being honest about how he felt (nervous) when he got on a plane with Muslims. Note that Williams was not blaming Muslims, he just gave his honest response about how he felt. That was enough to get him fired. Rather than deal with the honesty and use it as a basis to move on to a discussion of WHY he felt that way and how we, as a country, could move beyond that, NPR choose to fire him. They showed, in one act, their stupidity and liberal bias.

Just to add to your very valid statement, most of the deaths listed here ( https://darwinawards.com/ ) involve men and risky behavior :)

Not disagreeing with you, but I seem to remember a paper once that talked about the fact that the human immune system appears to "over react" to many benign things and that this immune behavior may have been due to some evolutionary event in our history. One of the disadvantages of this strong response appears to be things like allergies that suddenly crop up for no apparent reason.

I read the article. Basically, this article has two narratives (people have range anxiety and people also have stuffed garages) that they try to link in one sentence. Very poorly written. The "fears and concerns about charging" are NOT about charging in the family home, it's about when the person owning the electric car takes a trip and is concerned about "can I get a charge for my car along the trip". Now admittedly, that concern is less now but it's still a fear. If your taking a trip along a main highway, you'll most likely find a charging station. If, on the other hand, you take a trip along the back roads of many states, you might find your charging options severely limited. Last year, I took a trip from California to Arkansas to see the Solar Eclipse. On the way back, I had to take a HUGE amount of back roads to a hole in the wall Oklahoma area to see a relative. I never saw one Electric recharging station on that section but saw 10's of gasoline stations.

The Article then goes into multi-family homes that can't easily run a line to a 240 VAC charger. That's not an "Anxiety" about charging, that's a hard limitation. So please stop trying to connect the two.

..of the Pot calling the Kettle Black.

It could very well be true. Climate change does not affect every area equally. Some geographical areas will actually get better temperatures/climate than beforehand. San Diego (where I live) is a case in point. Our average temperature has actually stayed mostly the same. We've had lower than normal temperatures the last two months. However, our incidents of higher humidity has increased. From what I have read, our normal weather environment shifted northward.

We are going to have a freaking AWESOME light show!! The Greatest since Comet Hale-Bopp hit Jupiter. We will have "Hit on Something" bar drinking parties, massive migrations to Star Parties, massive telescope sales, self proclaimed "End of Days" Prophets claiming that the moon will split apart and destroy the Earth, and lots of people just meeting in the back yards with fellow enthusiasts to watch the event. THAT'S what will happen.

You were 1/2 there! It's actually shame and GUILT!! And I'm NOT a Catholic, I got this tidbit of info from a Catholic Girl ;)

The title is the entire comment. Enjoy :)

When I first moved into my San Diego house in 2003, the front porch light would be covered with flying insects at night. We had a huge thriving Bird population. Now I hardly see insects and birds are much less in number (except for the pigeons, who feed off of the humans). Along with one of the prior Slashdot stories talking about how people are cloning animals and lessening genetic diversity thereby making them much more susceptible to diseases/pathogens, It's a bit scary how much humanity is messing up the ecosystems.

"You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!"