What I'm Reading (Sept. 19)

With 12,000 known species, incredible strength, a range of habitats that rivals ours, and a very socialized, although hierarchal organization, ants are spectacular despite their diminutive size. 

“They are born workers, but do not do much work. Their days are spent lollygagging about the nest, where their siblings shower them with gifts of food. They seem to elude the ravages of old age, retaining a durably adolescent physique, their outer shells soft and their hue distinctively tawny. Their scent, too, seems to shift, wafting out an alluring perfume that endears them to others. While their sisters, who have nearly identical genomes, perish within months of being born, these death-defying insects live on for years and years and years.

They are Temnothorax ants, and their elixirs of life are the tapeworms that teem within their bellies—parasites that paradoxically prolong the life of their host at a strange and terrible cost.”

From The Atlantic, The Never-Aging Ants With a Terrible Secret

The latest wonder drugs, the GLP-1s, have pushed the former wonders, metformin, and aspirin, off the podium altogether. While the mechanism of action remains unclear, the possible diseases improved by the GLP-1s continue to grow. 

“GLP-1 receptor agonist medications like Ozempic are already FDA-approved to treat diabetes and obesity. But an increasing body of research finds they’re also effective against stroke, heart disease, kidney disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, alcoholism, and drug addiction.”

A summary for the rest of us from Astral Codex Ten, Why Does Ozempic Cure All Diseases?

Consider the following:

“I think the most interesting result that we found in the Gallup survey is a number, which we absolutely did not expect to find. We found that with respect to the happiness of the experiencing self. When we looked at how feelings, vary with income. And it turns out that, below an income of 60,000 dollars a year, for Americans -- and that's a very large sample of Americans… people are unhappy, and they get progressively unhappier the poorer they get. 

Above that, we get an absolutely flat line. I mean I've rarely seen lines so flat. Clearly, what is happening is money does not buy you experiential happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery, and we can measure that misery very, very clearly. In terms of the other self, the remembering self, you get a different story. The more money you earn, the more satisfied you are. That does not hold for emotions.”

Is there a plateau in happiness? Or is it that we can’t define happiness? Or is it, as the late and missed Daniel Kahneman suggests in this TED talk, that there is more than one form of happiness? From TED, The Riddle Of Experience Vs. Memory  (There is a transcript for those who don’t want to enjoy the video)

I will readily admit that our refrigerator is an ungodly mess. But fridgescaping seems a bridge too far. What is fridgescaping?

“Milk goes in farmhouse pitchers, eggs line ceramic trays, and butter hides under dishes shaped like animals. Berries, ever ubiquitous, are placed attractively in vintage bowls, raw vegetables stand at attention, and items that have no place in a fridge — bouquets of flowers, photos in frames, string lights — are given prominent placement. 

I find myself deeply disturbed by all this. Fridgescaping — and its pantry cousin, decanting — prioritizes displaying and arranging food, instead of preparing and eating it. But it also removes all the labor, the mess, the physicality, and the pleasure inherent in eating, and replaces it with public performance.”

From Vox, Organize your kitchen like a chef, not an influencer

My high school and college “job” was parking lot attendant at a famous restaurant and adjoining nightclub in LA. We lived on tips, making the role of tips in income salient, at least in my memory. 

“Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have a “no tax on tips” proposal.

So let’s enter tip territory.”

From EconLife, What We Need To Know About Tips