Care Bears.

(Image: ABC)

In this time of increased hate and intolerance, many parents are no doubt eager to teach their children to become generous, caring human beings. So they share with them stories about altruistic behavior, usually featuring talking animals or other fantastic creatures.

Newly published research reports such tales, however adorable, are surprisingly ineffective.

"Contrary to the common belief, realistic stories, not anthropomorphic ones, are better for promoting young children's pro-social behavior," reports a research team led by Patricia Ganea of the University of Toronto.

She notes that, in this first-of-its-kind study, four to six-year-olds "were more likely to act on the moral of a story when it featured human behavior."

Turns out those tykes are more literal than we realized.

The study, published in the journal Developmental Science, featured 96 children, who began by "choosing 10 stickers to take home for agreeing to participate." They were also told that another child of their own gender was not chosen and thus would not get any stickers. If they wished, they could share some of theirs by placing them in an envelope.

They were then randomly assigned to read one of three books. One-third read Little Raccoon Learns to Share by Mary Packard, which uses anthropomorphic animals to express the idea that "sharing makes you feel good." Another third read an identical story, except the illustrations of the animal characters were replaced with images of humans. The final third read a book about seeds that did not address the concept of sharing.

After answering questions about their view of the characters, they chose another 10 stickers as a thank-you gift, and were again given the opportunity to donate one or more to another child.

"After hearing the story containing real human characters, young children became more generous," the researchers report. "In contrast, after hearing the same story but with anthropomorphized animals, children became more selfish."

The researchersNicole Larsen, Kang Lee, and Ganeaare quick to note that generosity also declined in the group that read about seeds. In both cases, this seems to reflect a reluctance to give a second time. The animal-centric story didn't induce selfishness, but it didn't block it either.

Further analysis revealed that "children who could relate these characters to humans and human behaviors were able to act according to the moral of the story." But perhaps surprisingly, "children overall attributed animal characteristics to anthropomorphized characters far more often than they attributed human characteristics to the same characters."

So the fanciful creatures caught their attention, but they didn't truly relate to them, and thus didn't emulate their behavior. That may change if parents who read the story to or with the child point out the parallels; future research will explore that possibility.

For now, however, these results have a clear moral: "For children at a very young age, fantastical stories may not be as effective for teaching real-world knowledge, or real-life social behaviors, as realistic ones."

They're cute and all, but it's unlikely the Care Bearscreate much caring.

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Anthropomorphized Animals Fail to Teach Altruism - Pacific Standard

Dear Dr. Tim,

Every time I go out to pick raspberries I come home with chiggers. They itch like the blazes and especially so in very sensitive places. What are chiggers and why am I plagued by them?

Thanks, Itchy

Dear Itchy,

Americans should not have to tolerate rude behavior, especially from something as small as a chigger! And yet, that is just what we are exposed to every summer from May through September throughout the country. Chiggers are adolescent mites, so tiny that they are seldom seen. Several can actually fit on the period at the end of this sentence.

Most self-respecting mites feed on plants. It is only the teenage mites that bite people. Apparently, once they mature to adulthood, they grow out of their immature and obnoxious behavior of biting people, and live the rest of their lives feeding peacefully on plants.

Gangs of juvenile chiggers all have the following M.O. (modus operandi). They hang out on the tips of tall grasses, shrubs and weeds and wait to drop off onto any larger animal that happens to brush by. Usually these animals are birds, amphibians or small mammals but the mites are just as happy with the odd human that passes by. When chigger mites fall onto shoes or pant legs, they begin climbing in search of tender, moist skin to bite. They seem to concentrate in areas where clothing fits tightly against the body, such as around the ankles, groin, waist or armpits. This is exactly the rude behavior that I am talking about. A bite on an arm or back of the neck can be scratched in public. But public scratching of the groin, armpits or under the bra strap is an entirely different matter. It is socially unacceptable, politically incorrect and may even be illegal in some countries.

But, scratch you must. Once chiggers bite, there is no alternative. Chiggers do not burrow into the skin but rather pierce skin cells with their mouthparts and inject their special chigger saliva. This saliva contains enzymes that break down cell walls and causes the skin cells to liquefy. Meanwhile, human immune systems quickly react to this foreign enzyme resulting in, not only infuriatingly and intense itching, but also in the formation of a hard, red wall at the location of the bite. Chiggers capitalize on this body reaction by using the round wall, called a stylostome, as a straw to suck up their meals of dissolved body tissues, and then they promptly drop off. They are gone. They seem to never think twice about the trouble they have caused others. Meanwhile, the itching intensifies over the next 20 to 30 hours even though the mite is no longer present. Depending on the persons individual sensitivity and body reaction, itching may continue for days or even weeks.

So, what can be done? And probably most important, how does one stop chigger bites from itching?

Well, aside from amputation, physicians can sometimes prescribe an antiseptic/hydrocortisone ointment. This may help ease the itch and reduce chances of secondary infections caused by the itching and scratching, but it is not a perfect answer.

The best solution is prevention. Avoid getting into chiggers in the first place. Stay away from tall grasses and shrubs where chiggers are known to live. Chiggers love to live in brambles, as most people who pick black raspberries know or quickly learn. They also inhabit taller grasses close to the ponds and streams where bank fishermen stand. (Both raspberry pickers and fishermen can easily be spotted due to their obsessive scratching).

If you must go in those areas, tuck your pant legs into your socks and apply insect repellant containing DEET to the shoe and ankle area. This will stop many of the mites from gaining access to the skin and beginning their climb to areas where clothing fits tightly. (Theoretically, avoiding tight-fitting clothes or even going naked might help. If nothing else, it will certainly confuse the little biters not to mention friends and neighbors.)

I have found that if you know or suspect that you have been in chigger-infested habitats, take a hot, soapy shower as soon as possible. The mites are so small that it may take them several hours to crawl from shoes to where they want to bite, so you have plenty of time to wash them away. This is an effective prevention. Change your clothes and put the clothes you were wearing into the washer and dryer.

These methods are for the prevention of bites, but since you have already been bitten, happy itching.

Tim Gibb is a professor of entomology at Purdue University. He can be reached at gibb@purdue.edu

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SPINELESS WONDERS: Happy itching when chiggers feast on human flesh - pharostribune.com

In The Evolution of Beauty, Yale ornithologist Richard Prum elaborates on Darwins theory of the effect of sexual selection on evolution. Beyond survival of the fittest, the sexes have asymmetric interests. Males, with their cheap sperm, seek to sire as many offspring as possible. Females with their expensive eggs and limited lifetime reproductive opportunity, seek to pick the best mates. Males compete with one another for control of females. Females seek to avoid male control and to choose their mates freely. In many species, male competition results in bigger, stronger, and more weaponized males, as in huge sea lion males with long tusks. Prum focuses on female choice.

Female choice, given free rein, can lead to arbitrary standards of beauty and behavior in a species. Among neotropical manakins, females do all the work of raising chicks while males contribute only sperm. Males dance, sing, and flash their colors on communal display grounds known as leks; the females arrive, watch, pick a male for a quickie, and leave. The females favor only a few of the males; the rest may never get to mate. Blue manakins have even evolved a cooperative dance among a group of five or six males; females choose between groups of dancers, mating with the alpha male.

Prum moves from birds to humans. Humans, he points out, are far more cooperative than our African ape relatives, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos. Men and women dont differ as dramatically in size as male and female apes. Unlike apes, humans tend to monogamy, he says, because females need help raising the kids. Prum also cites surveys showing that women do not prefer big, square-jawed macho males; rather, they go for men with moderate physiques and gentle behavior. Prum goes on from here to many interesting observations on possible effects of female choice, such as why do men, unlike apes, have long, dangling penises?

Yet in offering a generalized account of human behavior, Prum misses a human society that supports the female choice theory especially well. That society is the Hadza, as described in Nicholas Blurton-Jones new book: Demography and Evolutionary Ecology of Hadza Hunter-Gatherers (2016).

The Hadza are an ancient hunter-gatherer tribe living in northern Tanzania near Lake Eyasi. Traces of their culture in the area date back at least 130,000 years. The area is too dry for agriculture and the tsetse fly makes it unsuitable for livestock. But theres an abundance of seeds, nuts, berries, honey, and especially, underground tubers. The Hadza live in small groups, moving every few weeks depending on seasonal availability of foods. While all other group-living animals, including apes, consist of close kin, Hadza groups are quite fluid, with unrelated individuals continually coming and going. Like all hunter-gatherers, the Hadza are extremely egalitarian and cooperative.

Hadza men spend their days hunting with poison arrows. But they dont hunt the small game they learned to capture as boys. Rather, they hunt for big game, like baboons, antelope, zebra, or buffalowhich they very rarely catch. Some men never catch anything. But when a man does nail a big animal, the meat is equally shared among the whole group, gaining him prestige. One anthropologist has called this a show-off strategy.

Hadza women do almost all the work, including caring for children and gathering and preparing food. They get little contribution from their husbandsmaybe an occasional piece of honeycomb or a small bird, which the men expect their wives to prepare. In compensation, however, its the women who chose their husbands (often for only a few years). What sort of men do Hadza women prefer? Successful huntersnot good providers!

When the men are not hunting, they sit around in the mens place chatting, smoking, eating tubers prepared by their wives, and fiddling with their bows and arrows. Theres almost no violence among the men. Disputes are resolved by long discussions, or at the worst, one of the men will leave and join another group. If you look at pictures of Hadza, both sexes are small, thin and wiryno great differences in size or appearance. Both sexes go for bead necklaces.

Like the blue manakins, the Hadza seem to fit Prums model of extreme female choice. The women dont depend on their husbands for much besides sperm. Theyre free to choose the show-off hunters, who sire more children, but may actually contribute less to their childrens nutrition. Judging by the peacefulness of the men, female choice seems to have tamed male-male competition.

While all hunter-gatherer societies are highly egalitarian, not all allow as much freedom to women. In the Amazon rain forest, Ache men supply some 80% of the food by hunting. These men may ritually sacrifice children over womens objections, and engage in lethal quarrels. Hadza women seem to derive their independence from the terrain, where it takes no more than a sharp digging stick and knife, a leather sling and water gourd, plus long hours working in the hot sun, for women to fully provision themselves and their childrenand grandchildren. Another unrelated African hunter-gatherer society, the !Kung, lead a very similar life.

The latest evidence from Africa shows hominids manufactured flint tools as long as 3.3 million years ago. Once there were stone knives, female hominids must have used slings to carry themalong with food and infants. A Hadza life style could date back millions of years. Anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, in Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding (2009), attributes human cooperativeness to womens shared mothering of childrena trait quite absent in apes. She draws examples from the Hadza. Blaffer Hrdys female cooperativeness together with Prums female preference for cooperative males might explain the evolution of the most cooperative species on earth: humans.

In Aristophanes comedy, Lysistrata (411 BCE), Lysistrata persuades all the women of Athens and Sparta to withhold sex until their men agree to end the long-running Peloponnesian war. Was Aristophanes onto something?

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Part II Beauty, Cooperation, and the Hadza Hunter-Gatherers - HuffPost

Technical and scientific advances in the past 10 years have made it easier to forecast big storms and warn of potentially dangerous weather, but meteorologists say it could be decades before they can accurately predict freak events like the flash floods of August 2007 that killed eight people in southeast Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

In terms of overall forecasting, we do pretty well in terms of knowing when theres a threat of heavy rain, said Bill Graul, meteorologist for WKBT in La Crosse. The problem I think is always going to be, especially in our lifetime, in pinpointing where that train of storms is going to set up. Thats always going to be a problem.

Forecasters point to two technological advances at the National Weather Service dual polarization radar and new satellites that provide a much clearer picture of whats happening in the skies.

Installed in 2012, dual-pol radar uses both horizontal and vertical waves that better estimate the size and shape of particles in the air, which can help meteorologists distinguish between hail and fat raindrops, and thus know when and where heavy rains are falling. The GOES-16 satellite, launched earlier this year, delivers higher resolution images that make it easier to see systems forming.

Were able to see more meteorological features in a faster time frame than weve ever been able to see before, said Frank Pereira, a meteorologist with the national Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, which issues guidance to the Weather Services 122 forecast offices, such as the one in La Crosse.

Pereira said scientists are now learning how to plug that satellite data into the computer models used in forecasting.

National Weather Service meteorologist Dave Schmidt said the biggest improvement for his organization is training. Each forecast station has a scientific operations officer, or SOO.

He keeps us on our toes with training, trying to keep us on the cutting edge of how to utilize this evolving science, Schmidt said. We never stop learning. We just try to keep evolving with the science.

Still, meteorologists say while they have a good idea whats going to happen seven to 10 days out, predicting exactly when and where storms systems will form and train as they did in 2007 is a different matter.

When youre talking about a high-impact event across a narrow, localized area, were not going to be able to accurately predict that very far in advance. Were still on the time scale of probably hours when it comes to something of that magnitude and locality, Pereira said. There are so many aspects of the atmosphere that were trying to model and predict. Its such a complicated system.

The problem is compounded by the Driftless regions topography, where runoff from a 6-inch rainfall can turn dry runs into raging rivers in just minutes.

After the Mississippi River flood of 2001, La Crosse County Emergency Manager Keith Butler took pictures to show people what to expect the next time the river reaches 4.4 feet above flood stage. But theres nothing to prepare people for when creeks take out bridges or hillsides liquify.

WXOW meteorologist Dan Breeden said he expects forecasting to get better as meteorologists refine computer modeling of the new data, but progress has been slower than he expected when he started his career 35 years ago.

Were better at it incrementally, but there hasnt been anything over the last 10 years to say aha, weve got this, Breeden said.

Graul notes that advances in communication and social media have also played a role in improving public safety.

On the night of the 2007 storm, Graul said, it was hard for him to get information about what was happening on the ground. Now with ubiquitous cell phone cameras and social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, hes bombarded with crowd-sourced information any time theres a storm.

The information flow these days is probably 10 times what it was, he said. That would have been a huge help 10 years ago.

And that communication goes both ways: with a new WKBT mobile weather app, Graul can draw a box around a particular valley, neighborhood or even a block and instantly alert users in that area to potential hazards.

But warnings only go so far, Breeden said, if forecasters cant convince people to heed them.

Im not sure thats improved a lot, he said. People are people when they want to get home they drive through water.

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Despite advances, freak storms, human behavior challenge weather ... - La Crosse Tribune

The following is an edited excerpt of "A Finer Future: Creating an Economy in Service to Life" by Hunter Lovins, which is currently undergoing a Kickstarter campaign to aid the author in self-publishing the book.

Imagine:

The day dawns fine and clear. You stretch your 87-year-old bones in your bed, luxuriating in the tropical sun pouring in through the super-insulated windows in your PassivHaus co-housing unit in Indonesia. Initially designed for northern climates, the concept of super-efficient buildings has transplanted well to hot climates, with some modifications (PDF), and keeps residents comfortable year-round with only solar energy from the roofs to power it.

Small, but suited to your needs, your unit is part of a larger community committed to working together. This has allowed you to stay in your own home as you age, eating communally with your neighbors when you wish, but fixing your own meals in the trim kitchen when you want privacy.

You were alive in 2015 when a group of applied mathematicians released the Human And Nature DYnamical Study (HANDY) study that warns, "Cases of severe civilizational disruption due to precipitous collapse often lasting centuries have been quite common." Its subtitle: "Is Industrial Civilization Headed for Irreversible Collapse," crisply sets forth the thesis.

Using a NASA funded climate model, it explored the history of prior collapses to understand long-term human behavior. It did not set out to make short-term predictions, but the warning is stark: Under conditions "closely reflecting the reality of the world today ... we find that collapse is difficult to avoid.

It described collapses due to: population decline; economic deterioration; intellectual regression and the disappearance of literacy (like in the Roman collapse); serious collapse of political authority and socioeconomic progress (repeated Chinese collapses); disappearance of up to 90 percent of the population (Mayan collapse); and some so complete that the forest swallowed any trace until archaeologists rediscovered what has clearly been a complex society (many Asian collapses).

These collapses, the study argued, were neither inevitable nor natural; they were human-caused.

These collapses, the study argued, were neither inevitable nor natural; they were human-caused. They inflicted massive misery, often for centuries following them. The study identified two underlying causes of collapse throughout human history:

These features, the study concluded, have played "a central role in the process of the collapse" in all cases over "the last five thousand years."

The study elicited reams of criticism, most posted on ideological websites. Critics objected that the studys use of mathematical models made collapse seem unavoidable. To be fair, the HANDY authors stated, in terms, that collapse is not inevitable.

But its analysis led you to change your life. And today, in 2050, it feels very distant.

Children play outside in the central spaces, safe from cars, which, as in the early car-free city of Vauban, Germany (PDF), are banned from this and many neighborhoods. A few residents still own electric cars, although they pay handsomely for the privilege, and wonder why they do, as their vehicles reside in garages where the carshare program used to live. Now almost no one drives herself: driverless cars deliver last mile services and regional transit works spectacularly well.

Today the air is clean. When you moved here, 34 years ago, 10,000 people died each year of acute air pollution across Indonesia.The killing smoke spread across Southeast Asia from forests burned to clear land for palm oil plantations. Since Unilever and other major users of the oil shifted in 2020 entirely to algae oil, the palm oil market collapsed, except for a vibrant smallholder palm industry.

Their trees are integrated into sustainable forestry initiatives that support rural communities. Tied closely to the eco-tourism industry, this has enabled Indonesia to ensure that the once endangered orangutans and tigers have plenty of forest home in which to flourish, adding to visitor appeal. Indonesia once exported almost half of the world's palm oil (PDF). Unilever (PDF) and governments like Norway funded the creation of a domestic algae oil industry that now employs twice the number of people who once worked on palm plantations.

Today the air is clean. When you moved here, 34 years ago, 10,000 people died each year of acute air pollution across Indonesia.

A world away from your snug co-housing unit in Indonesia, New York City is settling into autumn. Arjana, a young African graduate student, steps off the electric trolley that now runs down the middle of Broadway. A few blocks north of Wall Street, an urban farm runs the length of Manhattan, and what were once concrete canyons now echo with birdsong.

It is part of a program begun back in 2016 called Growing Roots, which has created urban farms across Manhattan and now dozens of other major cities. Like your neighborhood in Jakarta, Manhattan is car-free, with space once taken up by vehicles freed for housing and local food-production.

Arjana stops to chat with the previously incarcerated young woman who is just ending her day weeding the kale patch, suggesting that they should try growing cassava.

They both laugh as Arjana hurries off to her evening classes at the Bard MBA in Sustainable Management. Sent to study social entrepreneurship and sustainable development, she is only the latest of thousands of students funded by the German Marshall Plan with Africa to study at innovative programs that teach them how to regenerate their continent so that the refugees who once fled to Europe now have a flourishing life at home.

Its working. With stronger, locally based economies growing across the continent, the temptation for young men to hire themselves out to terrorists has declined. Renewable energy now powers Africa, and because it creates ten times the number of jobs per dollar invested than central fossil-fueled power plants, it has become the job creation engine for the continent.

Unilever and governments like Norway funded the creation of a domestic algae oil industry.

Now the whole world runs entirely on renewable energy, as Stanford professor Tony Seba predicted back in 2014 that it would. In the years following, hundreds of companies, from Google and Apple to Ikea and Unilever, led the conversion to 100 percent renewable power. They realized that failing to act on climate change exposed them to increased risks from physical disruption to financial loss.

Countries like Scotland, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dubai, Germany and Saudi Arabia followed suit. Cities joined the race. It simply was better business to shift from fossil fuels that were threatening the climate and implement the cheaper, job-creating renewable technologies.

Coupled with regenerative agriculture pioneered by the Africa Centre for Holistic Management at Dimbangombe, we are running climate change backwards. Regenerative development has not only enabled Africans to produce sufficient food for all its citizens, it is ending hunger in every country. The practice of holistic grazing actually takes carbon from the air and returns it to the soil, where it is needed as the building block of life. Coupled with the success of renewable energy, over the last 30 years, the world is beginning to cool, and the climate becomes more stable. Soon, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will have returned to preindustrial levels.

But you sigh deeply, thinking about just how close it was. We turned from collapse only at the last moment.

The rest is here:
To avoid collapse, humanity needs a new narrative - GreenBiz

Californias plan to cut energy consumption by 80 percent by 2050 cannot be achieved with current proposed policy changes because most solutions focus on changing technologies rather than changing behavior, a new UC Davis study suggests.

With all the advances in building more energy-efficient air conditioners, better-insulated homes and cars that run on less or no fuel, consumers actually have increased their energy consumption. The expected energy savings have been outweighed by people living in larger homes with more appliances.

Add to this the phenomenon of a population that has shifted from non-users or people who used fans and open windows to cool their homes, for example to users. Those are the consumers enticed by marketing of high-efficiency air conditioners with consumer rebates, the study said.

What is needed is policy that focuses on reducing the overall consumption of energy, according to the study. To do this requires more sociological research that focuses on consumer behavior.

The average person doesnt think about how many kilowatts or the unit price of energy theyre consuming when they turn on the lights or heat up the stove, said Bridget Clark, a UCD doctoral candidate in sociology and author of the study. For most people energy is essentially invisible, just as people are essentially invisible in most energy research.

Clark presented her paper, Getting to 80 Percent: Mobilizing Feedback, Lifestyles, and Social Practices Research to Shape Residential Energy Consumption at the American Sociological Association annual meeting in Montreal on Tuesday.

In her paper, Clark looked at the goals of recently passed legislation mandating that the state cut its greenhouse-gas emissions by 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030, and a further reduction to 80 percent by 2050.

Along with these cuts are authorizations for policy changes, technology improvements and other measures, such as rebates and upgrades in the electrical grid, that would help California achieve its goals.

But policy changes and technology improvements wont work, she argues, mostly because people still desire to be comfortable in a cool (or warm) room, have convenient ways to cook food, and have lighting in their homes they consider to be warm and pleasing.

Instead, Californians should consider interventions similar to those undertaken elsewhere, such as in Japan, the paper suggests. In 2005, as a means to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the Japanese government mandated that all government buildings could not be heated or cooled when temperatures are between 20 and 28 degrees Celsius (68-82 F).

But, the government also changed employee dress codes. Marketing consultants were hired to create campaigns to transform the meaning of smart and appropriate work attire to encourage more layering in the winter and lighter fabrics in the summer. Within two years of implementation, the so-called Cool Biz program led to an estimated 1.14 million-ton reduction in emissions.

While current solutions that seek to increase energy efficiency of various technologies, invest in renewables and regulate emissions are important first steps these current strategies will be insufficient to make the deeps cut that the state is mandating, the author concluded. Instead, using social practice research, the government should take steps to better implement policy solutions that incentivize and change human behavior.

It is time to stop treating the end-use consumer as just a barrier to energy-efficiency measures, Clarke said. Through deeper examinations of the ways in which energy consumption is socially and culturally determined we can begin to construct more holistic policies that take into account why and how people actually consume energy.

UC Davis News

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'Getting to 80 percent' on energy cutbacks requires behavior change - Davis Enterprise

It was nighttime, a soft summer night, and I was standing onEighty-second Street and Second Avenue, in Manhattan, with my wife andanother couple. We were in the midst of saying goodbye on the smallisland between the bike lane and the avenue when a bike whooshed by,soundless and very fast. I had been back in New York for only a week. Asis always the case when I arrive after a period of months away, I wastuned to any change in the citys ambient hum. When that bike flew past,I felt a shift in the familiar rhythm of the city as I had known it. Iwatched the guy as he travelled on the green bike path. He was speedingdown the hill, but he wasnt pedalling and showed no sign of exertion.For a moment, the disjunction between effort and velocity confused me.Then it dawned on me that he was riding an electric bike.

Like most of the guys you see with electric bikes in New York, he was afood-delivery guy. Their electric bikes tend to have giant batteries,capable of tremendous torque and horsepower. They are the vanguard, thevisible part of the iceberg, but they are not indicative of what is tocome. Their bikes are so conspicuously something other than a bike, forone thing. For another, the utility of having a battery speed up yourdelivery is so straightforward that it forecloses discussion. What liesahead is more ambiguous. The electric bikes for sale around the city now havebatteries that are slender, barely visible. The priority is not speed somuch as assisted living.

I grew up as a bike rider in Manhattan, and I also worked as a bikemessenger, where I absorbed the spartan, libertarian,every-man-for-himself ethos: you need to get somewhere asfast as possible, and you did what you had to do in order to get there.The momentum you give is the momentum you get. Bike messengers were oncefaddish for their look, but its this feeling of solitude andself-reliance that is, along with the cult of momentum, the essentialelement of that profession. The citywith its dedicated lanes andgreenwaysis a bicycle nirvana compared with what it once was, and I havehad to struggle to remake my bicycle life in this new world of goodcitizenship. And yet, immediately, there was something about electricbikes that offended me. On a bike, velocity is all. That guy on theelectric bike speeding through the night was probably going to have tobreak hard at some point soon. If he wanted to pedal that fast to attaintop speed on the Second Avenue hill that sloped down from the highEighties, then it was his right to squander it. But he hadnt worked togo that fast. And, after he brakedfor a car, or a pedestrian, or aturnhe wouldnt have to work to pick up speed again.

Its a cheat! my friend Rob Kotch, the owner of Breakaway CourierSystems, said, when I got him on the phone and asked him about electricbikes. Everyone cheats now. They see Lance Armstrong do it. They seethese one-percenters making a ton of money without doing anything. Sothey think, why do I have to work hard? So now its O.K. for everyone tocheat. Everyone does it. It took me a few minutes to realize thatKotchs indignation on the subject of electric bikes was not coming fromhis point of view as a courier-system owneralthough there is plenty ofthat. (He no longer employs bike messengers as a result of the cost ofworkers compensation and the competition from UberEATS, which doesnthave to pay workers comp.) Kotchs strong feelings were drivenso tospeakby his experience as someone who commutes twenty-three miles on a bicycle eachday, between his home in New Jersey and his Manhattan office. Hehas been doing this ride for more than twenty years.

There is this one hill just before the G. W. Bridge that is a goodsix-degree grade, and it goes for half a mile, he told me. If youcommute to Manhattan on your bike, you have to find a way to get up thathill. A lot of people are just not willing to commit to that muchexercise on their way to work.

Recently, though, he has noticed a lot of people cruising effortlesslyup the hill on electric bikes.

Its a purely pragmatic decision for them, he said. Its just a muchcheaper and faster way of getting to work than a car. So they use anelectric bike.

He described a guy on one of those one-wheeled, Segway-like things.

He passed me going up that hill, then took the long way around to thebridge. I use a shortcut. I thought I got rid of him, but when I got tothe bridge, there he washe was going that fast!

I laughed and told him about a ride I took across the Manhattan Bridgethe previous night, where several electric bikes flew by me. It was not,I insisted, an ego thing about who is going faster. Lots of people whoflew by me on the bridge were on regular bikes. It was a rhythm thing, Isaid. On a bike, you know where the hills are, you know how to time thelights, you calibrate for the movement of cars in traffic, other bikes,pedestrians. The electric bike was a new velocity on the streets.

And yet, for all our shared sense that something was wrong with electricbikes, we agreed that, by any rational measure, they are a force forgood.

The engines are efficient, they reduce congestion, he said.

Fewer cars, more bikes, I said.

We proceeded to list a few other Goo-Goo virtues. (I first encounteredthis phraseshort for good-government typesin Robert Caros The PowerBroker,about Robert Moses, the man who built New York for the automobile.)

If its such a good thing, why do we have this resentment? I asked.

He wasnt sure, he said. He confessed that he had recently tried a friends electric bike and found the experience appealing to thepoint of corruption.

Its only a matter of time before I get one, he said ruefully. Andthen Ill probably never get on a real bike again.

In some ways, the bike-ification of New York City can be seen as theultimate middle finger raised to Robert Moses, a hero for building somany parks who then became a crazed highway builder who wanted todemolish part of Greenwich Village to make room for a freeway. But areall the bikes a triumph for his nemesis, Jane Jacobs, and her vision ofcohesive neighborhoods anchored by street life, by which she meant theworld of pedestrians on the sidewalk?

The revolution under Bloomberg was to see the city as a place wherepedestrians come first, a longtime city bike rider and advocate I know,who didnt wish to be named, said. This electric phenomenonundermines this development. The great thing about bikes in the city isthat, aesthetically and philosophically, you have to be present and awareof where you are, and where others are. When you keep introducing moreand more power and speed into that equation, it goes against thephilosophy of slowing cars downof traffic calmingin order to makethings more livable, he said.

Some bicycle-advocacy groups are cautiously optimistic about electricbikes, or even cautiously ecstatic. E-bikes have the potential todemocratize bikes for millions of Americans, Paul Steely White, theexecutive director of Transportation Alternatives, said, adding that hewas bullish on e-bikes, though it has to be done right. I get hislogic. Think of all the people who will be drawn onto bicycles by thepromise of an assist when going uphill. The most important factor forbike safety, more than bikes lanes or helmets or lights, is the numberof cyclists on the streets. The more people who ride bikes, the saferthe conditions for everyone on a bike. (Hence the name of the bikeadvocacy group Critical Mass.) In this equation, bikes are the rarespecies that can be introduced into an urban ecosystem for the purposeof discouraging cars.

I went into a bike shop and asked about the electric bikes for sale: twothousand and change each.

We dont call them electric, the salesman said. We call it pedalassist.

I asked if he had tried one. He gave me a huge smile. He had, and heloved it.

Why? I asked.

It looks like youre pedalling, but you are not doing nothing.

A few weeks after this exchange, Iwas in Paris. There are bikes everywhere, often in the lanereserved for buses, and cars proceed with great civility toward peopleon two wheels or two feet, at least compared to New York. The other day,while pedalling down Boulevard Saint-Germain on a Vlibthe Parisversion of a Citi Bikea woman in a dress with short blond hair cruisedpast me, her stylish bag flung over her shoulder. I immediately thoughtof that sense of joyous stealth or imposture implied by the bikesalesman in New York. She was pedalling, but there was no question thather speed and momentum derived from something other than her effort. Westopped together at a red light. When it turned green, she placidlysailed ahead and out of sight.

I immediately searched out an electric bike to rent. I found a store onthe Rue des coles that sold stately Holland bikes, both electric andregular. The guy agreed to rent one to me, and I began sailing aroundtown. I found the effect narcotic and delightful: on a flat road, Imoved faster than I did on a normal bike, with less exertion. Downhillswere no different than a normal bike. Uphill, I maintained speed, withjust a tiny bit more exertion. Now and then I could feel the happy bumpof electric power. Assisted living was so pleasant! The only problem wasthat, like some mouse in a cognitive-behavior experiment, I began tocrave that bump. It was the effect of the assist I wanted; it was thefeeling of being assisted.

This is an issue of shared values and perspectives, my bike-advocatefriend said. This whole thing is about attentiveness. How do you dealwith technology and the frailties of being a human being? Bicycles aremechanical augmentation of walking, really. It gets pretty etherealwhyis it bad to have a motor when you are already using gears? Who gives ashit if you are using a motor?

But, I feel there is a clear line between human power and non-humanpower, he added. I think there should be a very simple classification:human-powered or not human-powered. And if you are not human-powered,you should not be using human-powered infrastructure. You should be inthe street. E-bikes being licensed as motorized vehicles is good.E-bikes being in human-powered infrastructure is no good. . . .

At which point we arrive at the insidious genius of our iPhone, Google,A.I. era, in which the distinction between human behavior that is andisnt assisted becomes almost impossible to detect, and thereforeto enforce.

This parallel found expression one afternoon in Paris, while I was on the electricbike in route along the Seine, way at the edge of town. The road wasmostly deserted, the riverfront lined with shrubs and trash. I took outmy phone to take a picture of the scene as I cruised along and then,creature of my era, I pressed the little icon that brought my own faceonto the screen. I took a selfie. When I lowered the phone, I saw anolder man walking along the river, waving at me in a strange way.

He had white hair, wore a rumpled suit, and held his waving hand in apeculiar position that I now realize is how one would hold a pocketmirror if you were trying to make it reflect a beam of light. At thetime, I only noticed that there was something patronizing about his bodylanguage and wave, like he was trying to get the attention of a child.Before I had to time to even consider waving back, he turned his palmtoward himself. With impeccably expressive poise, he mimed an orangutanstaring sadly at his own reflection. I sailed onward, chastised andfrozen-faced, moving a bit faster than I otherwise would have. I didnthave time to react. He is still vivid to me in this pose, his bodylanguage and mopey face indelible. You always remember the picture youdidnt get to takebecause its preservation in memory depends entirelyon you.

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The Electric-Bike Conundrum - The New Yorker

Glamping with goats and the eclipse. Pet safety and the eclipse. Have you reached peak eclipse yet? If your answer is Nope! well, weve got some more pertinent eclipse information for the animal lovers in the audience.

Zoos across the country have been curiously preparing for Aug. 21. These wildlife sanctuaries all agree that the eclipse will be a learning opportunity, and many are enthusiastically opening their gates and inviting the public to watch the solar event.Most are unsure how their wards will react to the phenomenon, but some have offered predictions about which animals may exhibit the most unusual behavior.

According to the Little Rock Zoo in Arkansas, some drama may ensue among five species in particular. Education Curator Katie Holloway tells THV11 they include barn owls, armadillos, sloths, elephants and chimps. PEOPLE rounded out the list with five more compelling species.

1. Barn Owls (and other birds, especially song birds)

Although theyre usually asleep in the afternoon, these nocturnal birds might awaken and start looking for food. The Wausau Daily Herald says nocturnal birds, including a variety of owls and nighthawks, have reportedly become active, taken flight or called out during total eclipses. Starlings and other birds may return to their evening roosts, as will fowl and pigeons.

2. Three Ringed (or Three Band) Armadillos

The Little Rock Zoos expert says these armadillos can jump up to three or four feet vertically and its likely to occur!

3. Sloths

Good morning!

A post shared by Krista (@yellowkray) on Jun 19, 2016 at 6:22am PDT

These slow-moving sweethearts might get hungry and go on a feeding frenzy, although it will take up to 30 days for sloths to digest whatever they happen to eat during the eclipse. (We suggest watching the eclipse along with them at Oregons Zoological Wildlife Conservation Center.)

4. Chimps (and other primates)

The Little Rock Zoo says that chimps (and primates in general) are capable of overreacting to all kinds of things, so it expects these guys to go bananas. However, Sean Putney, the Senior Director of Zoological Operations at the Kansas City Zoo,predicts the more intelligent and intellectual animals will respond in ways that are more human-like: Will they be smart enough to know that this is going to be over in a couple of minutes? Or will they start to move towards their evening quarters as well thinking its time for bed? Itll be interesting to see.

The Mother Nature Network recounts a story about chimps who climbed to the top of their structure and turned their heads skyward during a 1984 eclipse.

5. Elephants

Our countdown to the New Year continues with Nos. 4, 3 and 2 of our #Top10 Best of 2016 list. Landing at No. 4, the opening of #AlaskanAdventure back in June. The splashgrounds 18-foot-tall humpback whale, 75 bronze sculptures, including jumping salmon, puffins, orcas and brown bears, and 200-plus misters and water spray nozzles were one of the highlights of our summer AND yours! The critically endangered #SaltCreektigerbeetle, one of #NorthAmericas most endangered insects, finds itself at No. 3. Our Butterfly and Insect Pavilion crew have been helping this local since 2011, working with the @usfws, the @negameandparks and other partners to collect adult #beetles in the wild, shepherd them through the egg-laying process at the Zoo and fish their newly hatched larvae from tiny burrows in a custom sand mixture. Our crew produced 27 larvae for reintroduction into the wild at the start of the project. Numbers have since soared to more than 1,300 larvae, enough to boost reintroduction numbers and establish a Zoo-based assurance colony. At No. 2, the most highly anticipated animal arrival at the Zoo, probably ever: the arrival of six African #elephants in Omaha. On March 11, the world watched as 17 African elephants flew across the globe to the United States in a joint mission to rescue the animals from drought-stricken Swaziland. One male and five females call the African Grasslands at our Zoo home, six at Wichitas @sedgwickcountyzoo and five at @dallaszoo. Just look at them now! #OmahaZoo #2016

A post shared by Omaha's Zoo & Aquarium (@theomahazoo) on Dec 30, 2016 at 3:13pm PST

The Little Rock Zoo predicts that elephants will make the most noise during the eclipse. They tend to trumpet when things are out of the ordinary, so they may sound off on Monday. Dan Cassidy, the general curator at Omahas Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, suggests watching the elephants as well. He says if its dark enough, they may go back into their barns. Dr. Joel Parrott, president and CEO of the Oakland Zoo, seems to agree. He says that the smarter animals, like elephants, will be more interesting to watch. Dr. Don Moore of the Oregon Zoo is on board with this, too. He says the pachyderms mightthink its dinnertime and start looking for food.

6. Giraffes

The Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha says the giraffes may behave similarly to elephants and head back to their barns, thinking that nighttime has descended.

7. Whales and 8. Dolphins

Once again, the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium predicts unusual behavior, this time amongst sea mammals like whales and dolphins. To test the waters, so to speak, Tradewinds Charters out of Depoe Bay, Oregon (known for its year-round pod of gray whales), is offering a two-hour whale-watching tour during the eclipse. And according to Time, Dr. Douglas Duncan of the Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colorado says he witnessed whales and dolphins act strangely in the Galapagos during a 1998 eclipse. He told Time thatas the sky darkened, about 20 of the marine mammals surfaced, arching in and out of the water.

9. Llamas

#llamasofinstagram

A post shared by Derek Verzuh (@derek_verzuh) on Jun 14, 2017 at 7:02pm PDT

Dr. Duncan also told Time that hes witnessed llamas act strangely during a 1994 total solar eclipse in Bolivia. He says a pack of llamas suddenly seemed to show interest in the sky, claiming that there were none of the animals around while a group of people observed the event, when out of nowhere, about 15 llamas gathered around them during the partial phase of the eclipse and gazed at the sky along with the humans during the totality of it. For the life of me, I cant tell you where they came from, he said. When the total eclipse ended, the llamas kind of got themselves into a rough line and they marched away.

10. Lions (and other big cats)

Dr. Don Moore of the Oregon Zoo thinks that during the eclipse, lions may act more predatory or start looking to be fed. Then again, lions and tigers spend up to 18 hours a day sleeping, so they may never even notice.

In general, many zoos are inviting people to visit during the eclipse and just see what happens.Nashville Zoo invites visitors to watch its new rhinos in particular, using the #NashvilleZoo or #NZooEclipse hashtags. According to WKRN,the rhinos are the zoos newest animals and they have a schedule they go by, coming out of their barn at 9 a.m. and returning at 6 p.m. Before they came here, they were in Africa in a reserve where they spent most of their time outside day and night, so does that change with their behavior? Does it change with light level? Or are they going to be affected by this kind of experience or are they not? Itll be really interesting to see, said Jim Bartoo, the zoos marketing director.

Finally,Jeff Bullock, Director of the Greenville Zoo says this,[The eclipse] just throws everybody off. Animals that are on a diurnal structure will go to bed (during the eclipse). Animals that are used to being up at night will get more active We get a lot of owls, bats, rats and possums, he said of the local wildlife. We may see some of those that we dont usually see when the sun is out.

The rest is here:
Zoo Animals - PEOPLE.com

Executive Summary

Many people have asserted that biological differences can explain the gender gap in math, engineering, and science. To address these claims, we need to examine three interrelated questions: Are there gender differences in outcomes achieved by men and women? If so, is there evidence that they are due to biological differences? Is there stronger evidence that they are due to bias? A review of research finds that the evidence on biological differences is too thin to explain the large gender gaps in leadership roles and STEM careers, while the evidence for gender bias driving career outcomes is much stronger.

Former Google engineer James Damore was hardly the first person to argue that biological differences between men and women determine career outcomes. Many people even smart, science-minded ones have asserted that biological differences can explain the gender gap in math, engineering, and science. A 2005 Gallup pollfound that 21% of Americans believed men were better than women in terms of their math and science abilities (though 68% believed men and women were about the same). The fact that this argument keeps coming up means that we need to engage with it and clarify which claims are supported by evidence and which are not.

To address these claims, we need to examine three interrelated questions: Are there gender differences in outcomes achieved by men and women? If so, is there evidence that they are due to biological differences? Is there stronger evidence that they are due to bias?

To answer the first question: Yes, there are gender differences in the participation of men and women in some STEM fields among college students, and these differences do contribute to the underrepresentation of women in STEM professions. Women are also significantly underrepresented in top leadership positions.

But are these outcome differences due to biological differences? While there are (of course) biological differences between the sexes, social science has shown that men and women are more similar than different on a wide range of characteristics, from personality to ability to attitude and that these factors have a larger effect on career outcomes than biology does.

My former colleague Janet Hyde, a developmental psychologist and an authority on gender differences, reviewed 46 meta-analyses that had been conducted on psychological gender differences from1984 to2004. (A meta-analysis examines the results from a large number of individual studies and averages their effects to get the closest approximation ofthe true effect size.) Hydes review spanned studies looking at differences between men and women in cognitive abilities, communication, personality traits, measures of well-being, motor skills, and moral reasoning.

She found that 78% of the studies in her sample revealed little to no difference in these measures between menand women; this supports her gender similarities hypothesis, which states that men and women are far more similar than they are different. The only large differences she found related to girls being better than boys in spelling and language, and testinghigher than boys on the personality variable of agreeableness/tendermindedness; boys tested higher than girls on motor performance, certain measures of sexuality (masturbation, casual attitudes about sex), and aggression. So there are some gender differences, but most are small to nonexistent.

But can these differences truly be classified as biological? Or are they due to differences in socialization? Its the old nature/nurture debate a debate that can be a false one because most human behavior involves complex interactions between genetic, environmental, and epigenetic influences. For example, one study that Damore cited did find gender differences in personality across cultures,but the researchers described the differences as relatively small to moderate and concluded that human developmentlong and healthy life, access to education, and economic wealthis a primary correlate of the gap between men and women in their personality traits.

And a review of studies on levels of prenatal exposure to testosterone found resultant differences in empathy, aggression, and toy preference between males and females, but found no significant differences in dominance/assertiveness or ability. Unless all of the differences in mens representation in STEM and leadership are the result of their lack of empathy, high levels of aggression, or toy preferences, there is little evidence that biological differences affect work-related outcomes. In fact, based on the research on leadership, we would expect to see that a lack of empathy and high levels of aggression would hurt a persons chances of becoming a successful leader, not help them.

On the other hand, there is a great deal of evidence to support the impact that environment has on gender differences in society. For example, a review of research on gender differences in math test scores shows that the already small effects have declined over time and tend to be greater in countries with less gender equality. In terms of behavior, a study by economists showed that in cultures where women are dominant, theytend to be more competitive than men. Meta-analytic evidence on gender differences in leadership aspirations showed that differences are decreasing over time women are closing the gap in terms of wanting to be leaders suggesting that the gap is more due to society than to biology.

Other data also contradicts the idea that women are biologically predisposed to lower levels of leadership. One meta-analysis of 95 studies found that female leaders tend to be rated by others as significantly more effective than male leaders, and this effect is stronger after 1996. (On the flip side, men rated themselves as significantly better leaders than women, particularly before 1982.) But thisdata does tell us something about the impact of gender roles (as women tend to rate themselves as less effective leaders) and societal changes (since the effects are diminishing over time).

If the evidence on biological differences is too thin to explain the large gender gaps in leadership roles and STEM careers, is the evidence on gender bias any stronger?

Several studies have shown that employers do discriminate against women and minorities. One robust vein of research uses rsums to test how people respond to different candidates with identical qualifications. For example, in one study, professors rated the identical applications of fictional male or female students. When a male name was used, faculty members rated them as significantly more competent and hirable than the female applicant, and they offered the male applicant a higher starting salary and more career mentoring. The reason for this was that women were perceived as less competent by the faculty members; faculty who had greater bias against women rated female students worse. The effect sizes here were moderate to large, unlike those shown in sex-differences studies. And numerous other studies have hadsimilar results, not just in hiring but in promotion rates, performance evaluations, getting credit for good work, and project assignments.

This body of research also shows why advocating for a pure meritocracy rather than explicitly pursuing diversity doesnt help companies overcome bias. In fact, companies that highlight meritocracy may actually cause greater bias against women: Experimental studies show that when an organization is referred to as a meritocracy, individuals in managerial positions favor male employees over equally qualified female employees and give them larger rewards. The author theorizes that calling the organization a meritocracy may create moral credentialing (when ones track record as egalitarian makes them feel justified in making nonequalitarian decisions) or greater self-perceived objectivity, giving them license to discriminate against women.

Calling for a meritocracy and denying that workplace inequality stillexists captures what scientists refer to as modern sexism.Modern sexism is characterized by beliefs that discrimination against women is a thing of the past, antagonism towards women who are making political and economic demands, and resentment about special favors for women. Notably, individuals espousing such views do not regard these notions as sexist or unfair andconclude that, given the even playing field upon which the two sexes now compete, the continuing under-representation of women in certain roles (e.g., management positions) must be a result of womens own choices or inferiority as opposed to discrimination.

In his memo, Damore wrote, We need to stop assuming that gender gaps imply sexism, and that we should assume people have good intentions. But the gender gap in the workforce can be explained by sexism, just as the race gap can be explained by racism. When workplace practices aim to support underrepresented groups, that does not mean they are unfairly biased against overrepresented groups. It just means that we need more than good intentions to change biased behavior.

We all want systems that are fair. But we need to consider how to make them fair for everyone.

Read the original post:
What the Science Actually Says About Gender Gaps in the Workplace - Harvard Business Review

A Chow pup ran frightened under a shed and could not be coaxed out, reads an observation recordedduring a total solar eclipse in 1932. The observation is one of hundreds collected during the eclipse that year on the behavior of animals during the rare event. When day suddenly turns to night during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, most animalsaside from humans wont have any idea what is transpiring. Some animals, primarily those that reside outside, will notice the change but pets that live indoors likely wont even notice the eclipse.

Once the moon moves between the sun and Earth and briefly blocks the suns light from reaching anything in the path of totality those animals and people in the path will experience night-like conditions. Animals that live outdoors might exhibit slightly different behavior than usual during the eclipse, but its hard to know what to expect.

I think its gonna vary between I would say animal to animal, organism to organism, with the larger animals or larger organisms, except for humans, not really being that affected, Sergio Arispe, an animal biologist and assistant professor at the Oregon State University extension service in eastern Oregon, told International Business Times.

Large grazing animals like cows will likely act normally during the eclipse. Photo: Nicolas Vigier/Flickr

The eclipse will cross14 states in the continental United States, first in Oregon cutting right across the country to South Carolina before it heads out into the Atlantic. The states it will be crossing are full of open space and farmland where livestock and wild animals are staples, but Arispe doesnt think the eclipse will impact them much. When it comes to larger animals, cattle, horses, livestock, sheep, deer Some of these animals are dependent on the sun from a reproductive standpoint, Arispe said, But thats not gonna be detrimental or effected in two minutes. Its gonna be so acute, so miniscule in the life of that animal that its not gonna affect those processes.

But smaller animals might present some out of the ordinary behaviors. In 1932, the United States saw a total solar eclipse just like the one expected next week. But the 1932 eclipse covered parts of the Northeast like Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. During that eclipse the public, game wardens and naturalists all recorded observations about animals and their surroundings and submitted them for a journal article, said Arispe. This journal articlewas published in 1935 entitled Observations on the Behavior of Animals during the Total Solar Eclipse of August 31, 1932, and it can still be accessed online.

The moon eclipses the sun shortly before sunset. Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls Multiple observations recorded during the eclipse note cricket activity, several observers even said the cricket noises were all they could hear during the eclipse, according to thearticle. Other observers including some beekeepers who noted that as the darkness increased and totality came closer their bees returned to their hives in larger groups and more and more rapidly than usual as if preparing for night time.

Household dogs were reported to exhibit all sorts of different behavior, one person reported that the dog seemed quieter than usual while another observer said their dog acted as it does when its time to turn in at night. The behavior of the dogs was so variable that it doesnt point to one specific behavior. House cats didnt exhibit any odd behavior either, In general no very obvious reaction appears that seems directly attributable to the eclipse, says thearticle.

While the observations are interesting to read through, theyre not exactly any indication of how animals will act this time around, These were individual observations and definitely not science, said Arispe. But if they were observed once, theres a chance they could occur again. I would say these are a few observations but they were observed. So theres a chance they could happen again... Arispe explained, I wouldnt dismiss what has been reported in the past.

But overall theres no particular behavior Arispe is on the lookout for. Honestly, theres no expectation that theres gonna be any behavior that could be measured, Arispe said.

The behaviors of some animals are unpredictable, but there is one species sure to alter its behavior drastically during the eclipse, that species being humans. Its the people thats gonna be effected, this is gonna be unprecedented in the number of people who will be observing and recording, he told IBT.

Safety glasses or a filter should be used to view the solar eclipse directly. Photo: National Parks Service/Flickr

Millions of people are expected to flock to the states where the eclipse will be visible in its totality, some are even spending hundreds or thousands of dollar on flights. That alone is an out-of-the-ordinary behavior. But some of those people also have certain activities planned for during the event. A group of people who believe in a connection between Christianity and marijuana are planning to burn oil in the countrys largest Roman Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., during the eclipse, reported U.S News and World Report. The oil will have THC, or the compound responsible for the high marijuana offers, in it.

Other religious groups like one in South Carolina will hold day-long rituals to relieve themselves of burdens from the past and bless the future. Using the eclipse as a way to sort of cleanse oneself. And guides for eclipse meditation or cleansing have been popping up online in preparation.

Some states in the path of totality have issuedwarnings that smoking marijuana is still illegal during the eclipse. The Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police posted a press release online warning that Wyomings laws around marijuana would be strongly enforced during the eclipse. Meanwhile smoke shops in Oregon, where the drug is legal, are gearing up for a spike in marijuana sales, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Some people are planning activities a bit more eccentric than smoking while viewing the eclipse. Last week, an ad on Craigslist appeared in the Activity Partners section of the site posted by a self-identifying 40-year-old man. He was seeking a woman to conceive with during the eclipse but the ad has since been removed from the site.

All of these acts are far more out of the ordinary than a dog barking or hiding, crickets chirping or bees rushing to their hives. When it comes to animal behavior during the eclipse, humans are actually most likely to to go the extra mile, sometimes literally, and act different than usual.

See original here:
Will The Solar Eclipse Cause Strange Changes In Animal, Human Behavior? - International Business Times