Keeping all the balls in the air
Life can feel like a juggling act most of the time. You can occasionally drop the ball. That's ok. And if you can figure out how to make it less likely you'll drop them again, even better.
I’m still recovering from Covid.
What that looks like for me is that I’m tired. Especially in the evenings. It doesn’t help that the T20 Cricket World Cup games are on in the late evening, New Zealand time - but I am still trying to watch just a little of those and heading to bed. I can catch up on the highlights the following day.
Still, I probably need to be taking it even easier than I have been. I have been cancelling work this week - which isn’t great, as I do need the work.
Did I get this wrong? It feels like I got it wrong…
Earlier this week, I took the decision to spin off my writing on “Joyful Midlife Running” to a different Substack. Then, all kinds of things started happening on Twitter (where I have my main social media account), and other platforms. This made me wonder whether I’d done the right thing. I get a bad feeling that having my writing in different places may not be a good thing in what I think could fast become a fragmented landscape.
So, I’m considering re-integrating that back in again and continuing to post about running and middle-aged / older fitness, once a week here on Noise Reduction. I was wondering what you thought about that?
A couple more exciting things to tell you about
I’m in conversation with Nicky Pellegrino at the Verb Readers and Writers Festival, this Saturday evening (5th November from 7.15-8pm) at Bicycle Junction, 1 Marion Street, Wellington. It’s part of the evening Litcrawl event, a series of free talks at various venues all over the city - and looks like a lot of fun. The theme of the talk is “Calm Down! –– how we hate that term and why, infact, we should.” I’d love to see you there.
I’ll be holding an online workshop called Sleep Better, Feel Better, based on my “Little Book of Sleep” on Thursday 24 November, 9am - 10.30am - check here for more details and to sign up.
Why does the far right appearing to be rising across the globe?
Even though Bolsonaro lost the election in Brazil, the vote was very tight. And now, the right is back in the ascendency in Italy and Israel too. What is going on? Or are we thinking about this all wrong in our old categorisations of left and right?
We discuss what Norris calls the “silent revolution in cultural values” that has occurred across advanced democracies in recent decades, why the best predictor of support for populist parties is the generation people were born into, why the “transgressive aesthetic” of leaders like Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro is so central to their appeal, how demographic and cultural “tipping points” have produced conservative backlashes across the globe, the difference between “demand-side” and “supply-side” theories of populist uprising, the role that economic anxiety and insecurity play in fueling right-wing backlashes, why delivering economic benefits might not be enough for mainstream leaders to stave off populist challenges and more.
Check out the 90-minute conversation on podcast here, and the full transcript is available too. It’s well worth your time.
Feeling Chirpy
Being around birds appears to be appears to be linked to lasting mental health benefits. As a proud member of the Young Ornithologists’ Club as a child, this wasn’t a surprise to me. It’s amazing how much some time in the garden watching and listening even to the birds in our neighbourhood can act as a little mental health reset.
This exciting research underpins just how much the sight and sound of birdsong lifts the spirits. It captures intriguing evidence that a biodiverse environment is restorative in terms of mental well-being. That the sensual stimulation of birdsong, part of those daily ‘doses’ of nature, is precious and time-lasting. - Research partner & Landscape Architect, Jo Gibbons
Balancing socialising and solitude: Have you found the right combo yet?
Being lonely is bad for your health. Lonely older adults are at a greater risk for heart diseases, high blood pressure, and strokes, as well as dementia than their non-lonely peers. Because of all these reasons, efforts have been made to find ways to improve older adults' social lives so they can fulfill their basic human needs to connect with others.
However, recent research has shown that there isn't a simple relationship between having more social contacts and feeling happier. Periods of solitude bring benefits, too. One of these benefits is that they allow us to ‘recharge’.
The team found that, on average, an episode of social interaction lasted 39 minutes and a bout of solitude lasted about five hours. But they also found that the length of time that a participant spent engaged in one or the other influenced what happened next.
When a bout of solitude was an hour longer than usual, the participants subsequently engaged in a social interaction that was a little longer than usual, too (though this was slight: 0.6 minutes longer, on average). When a social interaction was one hour longer than usual, they subsequently spent longer in solitude (16.8 minutes longer). These findings support the idea that older people regulate the time they spend in solitude or in interacting with others according to shifts in the levels of their need to belong and their need to conserve energy.
Is Twitter heading the same way as MySpace?
Remember MySpace? Probably only if you are of a certain age. What about Friendster? That’s even more niche. But what do these social networkd have in comment? Answer: they were both massively popular with millions of users and then disappeared? Could that happen to Twitter now too?
The risk for Twitter, as for any social network, is “unraveling,” Garcia said. Something happens to raise the costs or reduce the benefits of being in the network. It could be a failed redesign of the interface or some kind of flame war (or a takeover by a divisive gazillionaire). So a few people who were only marginally attached drop out. Some of their friends now have less reason to participate, so they drop out, too, and so on. - David Garcia, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz, Germany
How a-ha is leading the charge in Norway's electric car revolution
Remember a-ha? I went to see them as a 17-year old at the Royal Albert Hall in London, complete with thin leather cords tied around my wrists, a’la Morten Harket.
Well, they’re still around and making music, but they have been doing a lot more, especially around the adoption of electric vehicles. In fact, they’ve been doing this since 1989.
Since the mid-1970s Norway has become one of the richest oil producing nations in the world. The country has a sovereign wealth fund worth almost £1trillion built up from the proceeds of its oilfields to act as a "pension fund" for when it runs out… Fellow A-ha member Magne Furuholmen said:
"Our hands are black from the oil that we got to rich off.
"I think we carry a certain responsibility of being in front, leading the way, for that reason.”
There are now more than half a million EVs in Norway which has a population of just 5.4 million.
Scotland, a country of the same size, has about 50,000 EVs, one 10th the number.
In the first half of 2022, 78% of new car sales in Norway were pure electric.
The country intends to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2025 which is five years ahead of the UK.
Find out more here.
That’s it for this week. Can’t wait to get your feedback, but for now, I’m going to do a little light exercise, make myself a cup of the and have a momentary lie down.
Cheers,
Sarb
Tēnā koe Sarb, perhaps having your content in one place might be a bit easier. Your audiences can be directed to one repository, and decide which content is of most interest. At the moment just look after yourself and do what serves the most. Mauri ora!