Category Archives: Human Behavior

PROVIDENCE, R.I. Keenly intelligent, extraordinarily adaptable, and willing to eat almost any available food whether natural, including small animals, birds, insects, and fruits; scavenged roadkill; or easily obtainable human-provided sources such as garbage, pet food, birdseed, and compost Rhode Islands coyotes are on the move again.

Typically, adult male and female coyotes breed in late winter and the female gives birth to a litter of 4 to 8 pups in April. Consisting of the adult pair and the pups, this social unit will be maintained until the pups become yearlings and disperse on their own or get booted out by their parents. Noisy, hungry pups must be fed.

That means adult coyotes will be seen and heard foraging and hunting for food in rural, suburban, and even urban Rhode Island neighborhoods over the next several months. As daylight hours increase, adult coyotes may spend more time actively foraging during daytime than they would at other times of the year.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) advises Rhode Islanders that the No. 1 key to minimizing interactions and conflicts with coyotes is reducing food sources available to them, either intentionally or unintentionally around our homes and neighborhoods. Coyotes that rely on natural food sources remain wild and wary of humans. Feeding coyotes or any wild animal however, makes them less fearful of people and they can become casual or even bold when encountering people.

If you see coyotes that are bold and brazen, its often directly related to intentional feeding or easy and reliably available food sources associated with human activities, said DEM wildlife biologist Charles Brown.

Intentionally feeding wild animals habituates them, causes them to lose their inherent fear of humans, and may lead to brazen behavior. It also leads to a whole series of problems, including frequenting areas close to homes and preying on domestic animals such as chickens, cats, and small dogs.

Coyotes play an important ecological role by controlling populations of rodents, resident geese, and in some cases white-tailed deer, Brown said. Shy and elusive by nature, most coyotes usually make every attempt to avoid interactions with people.

Coyote attacks on people are very rare. On the other hand, more than 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year in the United States, over half of dog bite injuries occur at home with dogs that are familiar to us, and over 800,000 receive medical attention for dog bites, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

HOW TO CUT DOWN ON COYOTE CONFLICTS

Remove attractants from your yard. This means removing all food and water sources like pet food dishes and birdfeeders and keeping barbecue grills clean of grease. Dont put meat or sweet food scraps in your compost pile, and keep compost in secure, vented containers. Put your trash in containers with secure lids and store them in sheds and garages away from doors if possible. Put garbage for pickup outside on the morning of collection, not the night before. If you have fruit trees, pick up fallen fruit.

Cut back brushy edges and dense weeds from around your yard and structures like sheds. These areas provide cover for coyotes and their prey.

Chase coyotes off your property. Keep coyotes wild by hazing them, which means doing things to scare them or chase them away. According to the website CoyoteSmarts.org (or here on Facebook), the following actions are effective hazing tactics:

Protecting pets. Keep pets, particularly cats, indoors. Coyotes dont distinguish between domestic and wild animals and are likely to view cats and small dogs as potential food and larger dogs as competition. For the safety of your pets, always keep them leashed when outdoors and feed them indoors. Outdoor feeding can attract many wild animals. Do not leave small dogs outside unattended, especially at night.

When confronted by a coyote. Stand up and look big. Wave your arms. Yell loudly. Dont lose your head. Keeping an assertive posture and making eye contact will convey a message of authority that coyotes will typically respect. Maintain eye contact. If the coyote does not retreat, walk slowly away toward the house. Do not turn your back on the animal.

Report aggressive behavior. Coyotes that exhibit bold or aggressive behavior towards humans should be treated with caution and reported to authorities. Also, animals that appear or act aggressively or are noticeably sick should be reported to the DEM Division of Law Enforcement (222-3070) or to your local animal control officer. Also, any contact between a coyote and a dog or other domestic animal should be immediately reported to your veterinarian and animal control officer.

Never feed coyotes. Feeding coyotes or other wild animals causes behavioral changes that will almost certainly cause unintended problems for neighbors and the animals that were meant to benefit. Report neighbors that are feeding coyotes to the DEM Division of Law Enforcement (222-3070) or to your local animal control officer.

Adult female coyotes typically weigh 33-40 pounds, while males typically weigh 34-47 pounds. They often look heavier because of their thick fur. The first appearance of coyotes in Rhode Island occurred in the mid-1960s, part of a range expansion into the eastern United States that began at the end of the 19th century.

Coyotes can currently be found in all Rhode Island communities except New Shoreham. They may hunt and travel alone or sometimes will travel as a group, usually an adult pair with their offspring from the most recent litter. In our area, coyotes are mostly nocturnal, mainly to avoid interactions with people. They remain active year-round and do not hibernate. Coyote pairs are territorial and will exclude other coyotes from their established territory.

Coyotes are now well established as part of our native fauna and unless you live on Block Island, you can expect that coyotes occur in your town or neighborhood and at some point, you may actually see one in your yard, on the bike path, or crossing a farm field, said DEM wildlife biologist Charles Brown. Not all coyotes exhibit bad traits and those that do have likely been encouraged or conditioned to behave that way because of human behavior.

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DEM Offers Tips on Preventing Conflicts with Coyotes - Portsmouth Press

Human Behavior

Mary E. Fissell: Pandemics come and go. The way people respond to them barely changes. – Greensboro News & Record

May 17, 2020 medical

Pandemics have been afflicting humans for millennia, probably for as long as weve lived in large groups. Outbreaks struck the ancient Greeks, the Byzantines, the Incas and the Native Americans, among others. A century ago, the so-called Spanish flu, which as you probably know by now didnt actually originate in Spain, killed about 50 million people, and perhaps many more, around the world.

Im a historian who studies medicine in 17th-century England, and lately Ive been thinking about one particular pandemic: the bubonic plague that struck England in 1665, killing at least 200,000 people, including about 15% of the population of London. As we struggle to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic, what strikes me most is how similar our experiences and responses are to those of the people living in England more than three centuries ago. No Zoom, no Instacart, no Tiger King, but human behavior in the face of plague seems remarkably familiar.

Just as today, a global economy was a key driver of the English epidemic. Bubonic plague, which is bacterial rather than viral, is typically spread to humans by fleas who have fed on the blood of infected rats. Earlier plague epidemics such as the Black Death of the 1300s, which may have wiped out half the population of Europe came to Europe via merchants traveling back from Asia along the Silk Road. In the same way, contemporary observers reported that the 1665 epidemic may have been brought to London by Dutch trading ships; the epidemic had already spread there a year earlier. In the months before it reached England, authorities had tried, obviously without success, to quarantine ships from the Netherlands and other plague-affected places.

Another conspicuous resemblance is socioeconomic. In the United States, weve seen that COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting poor people, as well as blacks and Latinos. Overall, these groups tend to have poorer health and less access to health care, and they are more likely to live in crowded, unhealthy conditions and to work in jobs that require them to come into close contact with others who may be infected.

In New York, for example, the death rate among blacks is twice as high as it is for whites; for Latinos, it is 60% higher. In Louisiana, blacks make up a third of the population but so far account for almost 60% of COVID-19 deaths. About 5,000 meatpacking workers, and perhaps many more, have tested positive for the virus to date, largely because of a lack of safety measures and the industrys cramped and grueling working conditions.

The situation 350 years ago in London was similar. During the epidemic, the London city government counted the dead, tracking how many people died of plague in each parish. This work was performed by searchers of the dead, who were often older poor women. These parish lists, known as Bills of Mortality, were printed up and sold weekly, a kind of early version of ZIP-code-by-ZIP-code health reports from state health departments.

Examining these lists, both 17th-century readers and historians have found that, no surprise, the poorest neighborhoods tended to have the highest death rates from the plague. The reasons for this are probably similar to the causes of todays disparities the poor were already less healthy, lived in dense, unsanitary neighborhoods and did the citys dirty work.

They also could not leave. Even without our current scientific knowledge, people knew that the disease moved from place to place. And once it reached English shores, people practiced social distancing as best they could, by getting away from the worst disease hot spots. Just as we are seeing today, those who could afford it left the cities for the countryside, where there was less disease; the classic medical advice of the time was leave quickly, go far away and come back slowly.

Even King Charles II left London, for Salisbury; when the disease showed up there, he went to Oxford. The poor, though, were largely stuck. They had no place to go, and they needed the work they were doing to survive.

And just as they are now, rumors flourished. In recent weeks, hydroxychloroquine, diluted bleach and bananas have all been promoted as treatments, with little or no evidence backing them up. Conspiracy theories have proliferated, including the false claim that Bill Gates is somehow behind the pandemic. In 17th-century England, wigs became the focus of rumor. At the time, this was a big deal; elaborate powdered wigs were the height of fashion for both men and women. During the epidemic, however, people came to fear them as a source of disease they were made from human hair, and who knew where it came from?

Other rumors spread, too: Perhaps the two comets seen a few months apart had presaged the plague. Stories of women taken to plague hospitals against their will, and houses suddenly shut up, spread rapidly. All the while, city church bells rang incessantly to mark the passing of parishioners.

Over the past few months, weve also seen officials and others use scapegoats to explain the pandemic. In the United States, China, where the virus originated, has been the most common target. Unsubtly, some leaders and media figures have called the pandemic the Chinese virus, or the Wuhan virus, after the city in which it first appeared. In recent months in the United States, there has been a sharp increase in anti-Asian bias, and 30% of people in a recent survey said they had witnessed an incident of such bias.

Past outbreaks have been no different. During the bubonic plague of the 1300s, Jews were accused of poisoning wells and food supplies, and pogroms destroyed thousands of communities across Europe. Other European cities blamed prostitutes and ran them out of town when a plague threatened. In 1665 in England, those Dutch ships were all too easy to blame because the English were at war with the Dutch at the time. Its worth noting that these ways of thinking have recurred more recently: At the turn of the 20th century in the United States, tuberculosis was called the Jewish disease, and Italian immigrants were blamed for outbreaks of polio.

By early 1666, the outbreak had abated, to the point that the king and other well-off Londoners returned. Life slowly returned to normal. For reasons that remain mysterious, this was the last large outbreak of bubonic plague in England.

Today, as we face another disease, one that we still dont understand very well, 17th-century England reminds us that despite the enormous leaps weve made in science and technology, humans themselves remain in many ways the same: imperfect, not always rational and still deeply vulnerable to novel nasty microbes.

Excerpt from:
Mary E. Fissell: Pandemics come and go. The way people respond to them barely changes. - Greensboro News & Record

Human Behavior

Where Is The 100 Filmed? The CW Show Filming Locations – The Cinemaholic

May 17, 2020 medical

The 100 is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama that follows the story of the people who are sent to Earth to find out what it looks like now for the continuation of humanity. Ninety-seven years ago, a nuclear disaster had wiped out most of the people. The survivors fled and lived in the space station orbiting the Earth. But now, the makeshift home is running out of space, and they need to get their feet back on the ground.

One of the key points about the version of Earth that the show presents is that it strays away from the urbanity of the current world, and lays emphasis on the basic ferality of human nature by posing it with the wildness of nature. With the social structures as we know them out of the picture, the mercurial nature of human behavior is brought to the fore.

In the form of the Grounders, the Reapers, and the Mountain Men- the series presents a complex web of human thought-process and their basic instinct of cruelty and survival. To reflect the same danger in their surroundings, the series relied on a lot of outdoor locations. Here are all the places where it has been filmed.

The 100 follows the story of 100 juvenile detainees who are sent to a post-apocalyptic Earth to find out if the planet is ready to be habitable again. These young people have to survive the harsh environs of the Earth, which is still recuperating from the nuclear apocalypse that had happened some 100 years ago. The 100 offers a captivating world to us and presents our planet in a new light. Despite a lot of cultural and scientific differences between our world and that of The 100, it still looks a lot like ours, though less populated. All these beautiful backdrops for The 100 can be found in Canada. Vancouver, British Columbia serves as the central filming location for the series.

Throughout seven seasons, The 100 has extensively employed locations in and around Vancouver. Some scenes have been filmed in the Vancouver Film Studios and Aja Tan Studios. However, the story requires a lot of outdoor locations, throwing the characters into dangerous situations that Earths new surroundings impose on them.

Filming under water is a challenge. Fortunately, our camera man is up to it, putting on his swim trunks to get the perfect shot. #the100 pic.twitter.com/M7jhi0dSGh

The 100 Writers Room (@The100writers) May 11, 2017

#the100 BTS: Here's a shot of the mystery room still being completed before filming the next day. pic.twitter.com/aczjdX6Ur5

Shawna Benson (@shawnabenson) March 3, 2016

Vancouver locals will find a lot of places familiar with the world of The 100. Seymour Mainline and the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve appear in a lot of episodes in the series. The Spur 4 Bridge is also a familiar sight in the show, along with the Spur 7 Beach. The tunnels of the Britannia Mine Museum have appeared in the earlier seasons of The 100. The lush surroundings of several parks have been used to portray the picture of an uninhabited Earth. These places include Lynn Canyon Park, Twin Falls, Upper Coquitlam River Park, Widgeon Valley National Wildlife Area, and Stawamus Chief Provincial Park.

NEWS | #The100 cast and crew was filming at BC place in Vancouver yesterday. pic.twitter.com/LczvTyjvvf

Bellarke News (@InfoBellarke) September 15, 2017

Gibsons Mansion and The Vancouver Club serve as the exterior and interior setting for Alies Mansion. The series has also been shot on location at Surrey City Hall, Oceanic Plazza, Annacis Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, West Cordova Street, Guinness Tower, Blieberger Farm, Canada Place & Burrard Street.

The cast and crew of #The100 begin filming the final season today lets send them some love! pic.twitter.com/lijYPwgwRw

Eliza Taylor Daily [Fan Account] (@dailyejt) August 26, 2019

The Gravel Pit near Mid-Valley Viewpoint has also been used as a critical location in several episodes. Apart from this, the Coal Harbour Seawall, Gillies Quarry, Minaty Bay, and Widgeon Slough North Dock also feature throughout several seasons. The infamous Riverview Hospital also serves as one of the filming locations for the sci-fi series. All the places near the water bodies in The 100 have been filmed in places like Britannia Beach, Steve Falls Dam, Watts Point Beach, and Lighthouse Beach.

Filming of the season finale of #The100 #The100Season3 @yvrshoots pic.twitter.com/ezvkVZaJbg

@Sandra (@SandraOlsson) January 22, 2016

NEWS | From the beginning to the end today marks the last day of filming of #The100. A heartfelt thank you to Bob and Eliza for being the best Bellamy and Clarke we could have asked for. #BellarkeForever pic.twitter.com/AFStnWMhJ1

Bellarke Buzz (@BellarkeBuzz) March 14, 2020

Dine In Maine: Listen to these podcasts while you prep – Press Herald

May 17, 2020 medical

Its easier to destroy a pair of headphones than you might think. How do I know? Messy, hard-earned experience.

One pair sliced cleanly into three pieces as I bisected a stubborn butternut squash. The next dangled, then tangled into the ball whisk of my Kitchen Aid as it launched lashings of chocolate buttercream across my kitchen.

Eventually, I caved and bought a Bluetooth speaker. It was either that or give up listening to food podcasts as I cook, and that felt like a bridge too far.

For me, podcasts about the culinary world breed a sense of connection to other home cooks, as well as chefs and restaurateurs, growers and producers. They reinforce the context that frames what I do with my hands as I assemble the components of a dish.

Theyve also introduced me to stories and ideas I might never have sought out on my own. Everything from how to preserve unused cookie dough (freeze it into logs), to the separated-at-birth melodrama of Zinfandel and Primitivo (They took a DNA test; turns out theyre 100% the same grape.)

Whether youre new to food podcasts or a veteran listener, I hope youll find something appetizing in this list of eight of my favorites. Some began airing this year, others have archives several hundred episodes deep, but every one would be worth sacrificing a pair of headphones.

Note: There are many ways to access podcasts. Apps like Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher all make locating episodes simple. Many home audio devices, like Amazons Echo (Alexa) and Google Home, also allow access through simple voice requests.

Gastropod

Since 2014, celebrated writers Nicola Twilley and Cynthia Graber have explored the hidden stories behind how (and what) we eat. Each episode takes a single topic caffeine, artificial flavorings, the cherry tomato and refracts it through the overlapping lenses of culture, science and history. Meticulously researched and always entertaining, Gastropod uses the low-key charm of its hosts to sneak up on you. Before you know it, youll be captivated (and peckish).

Quintessential episode: Museums and the Mafia: The Secret History of Citrus (Season 4)

Gastropod.com

The Splendid Table

What began as a nationally syndicated Minnesota Public Radio program aimed at an audience of home cooks, The Splendid Table has, over 21 years, mutated into the leviathan of food podcasts. In no small part, thats due to its early embrace of technology. Splendid Table was one of the first programs to host its own website (starting with featured recipes, then a dinner-themed newsletter and, eventually, full episodes of the show). Some of its popularity is undoubtedly also due to the expertise and charisma of its hosts, Lynne Rossetto Kasper and, since 2017, Francis Lam. With more than 700 episodes in its catalog, theres enough compelling audio content here to keep you busy for months.

Quintessential episodes: Any of the often hilarious annual Turkey Confidential call-in programs. The shows website describes the first in this series (2006) as Thanksgiving triage at its best.

splendidtable.org

The Sporkful

Host Dan Pashmans podcast began as a cross between entertainment and therapy: a release valve for him to process his most obsessive culinary thoughts. Indeed, in 2010, he began The Sporkful with an entire episode parsing the differences between panini and grilled cheese, then moved on to programs about calculating ideal ratios of butter and salt for popcorn, and even tactical planning for dinner at a buffet. In recent years, Pashman has turned The Sporkful into a more interview-oriented podcast, but it has lost none of its original appeal.

Quintessential episode: Episode 19, in which Pashman and NPR science correspondent Robert Krulwich use physics and geometry to optimize sandwich construction and consumption.

sporkful.com

Eaters Digest

Originally birthed in 2015 as Eater Upsell, a podcast primarily about well-known North American chefs, writers and television personalities, this podcast hit an inflection point in 2017, right around the time the restaurant world recognized it had a Mario Batali-shaped #MeToo problem. Since then, and especially under the aegis of current hosts Amanda Kludt and Daniel Geneen, Eaters Digest has branched out to explore the forces that shape the ways we eat out (and, often, in). If you want to find out whats happening right now in the world of food, this should be your first stop.

Quintessential episode: Ruth Reichl and the Rise and Fall of Gourmet Magazine (March 20, 2019).

eater.com/eatersdigest

Cooking Issues

Descriptions can be deceiving. When I first came across Cooking Issues in 2010, I thought it was just another call-in show designed to help home cooks figure out how to roast a squash or debone a duck. I quickly recalibrated my expectations when I heard hosts Dave Arnold and Nastassia Lopez delivering their rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness advice and discovered the programs orientation toward science and modernist techniques. That doesnt mean you cant listen to find out how to use a bread machine, but a week later, you might wind up learning about avant-garde gastronomic approaches like dispersing aromas with a vape pen or attaching electrodes to food to initiate ohmic heating.

Quintessential episode: Episode 215 (July 21, 2015) featuring legendary author and fellow food-as-science scholar Harold McGee.

heritageradionetwork.org

Home Cooking

When I read last month that Samin Nosrat author of the James Beard Foundation award-winning Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and host of the Netflix miniseries of the same name and Song Exploder podcast creator HrishikeshHirway were combining forces to host a podcast about cooking during the current pandemic, I subscribed without listening to a single episode. Both bring an easygoing expertise to interviewing guests, like baker Stella Parks and actor/latke aficionado Josh Malina, and offer clear, adaptable answers to listener questions about whether to soak beans and how to make bread when flour is scarce.

Quintessential episode: Home Cookings debut (March 27, 2020) Bean There, Done That and its quick, three-sentence how-to-cook-a-bean recipe.

homecooking.show

Food Court with Richard Blais

Another newcomer, this podcast is unique among its peers because of its game show format. Hosted by Atlanta chef Richard Blais, a former Top Chef: All-Stars champ, Food Court is a rollicking hybrid: part trivia quiz, part debate-based panel show. Each episode features entertaining guest contestants who argue on either side of some of the most contentious culinary issues pie vs. cake, cheap vs. expensive coffee, and most controversial of all: cilantro, yes or no? (For the record, the answer is yes.)

Quintessential episode: Bagels: Toasted vs. Not Toasted (April 7, 2020)

ihr.fm

The Food Coma Podcast with Joe Ricchio

Freelance food writer and former food editor for Down East Magazine, Joe Ricchio is an absolute blast to listen to as he hosts this mostly Maine-focused podcast. Long a fixture of the Portland-area food scene, Ricchio radiates an infectious enthusiasm for his culinary-world guests and their work. Episodes begin with a broad theme (food entertainment, human behavior) but quickly detour into tangents that are at once engaging, revealing and frequently side-splittingly funny.

Quintessential episodes: Relationships with Nellie Edwards (January 27, 2020), wherein Ricchio tells you what he really thinks of using Groupon discounts at restaurants, and Network TV, Motorcycles, and Vulcans with Rob Caldwell (January 6, 2020), a Freaky Friday episode that turns interviewee into interviewer.

foodcomapodcast.com

Andrew Ross has written about food and dining in New York and the United Kingdom. He and his work have been featured on Martha Stewart Living Radio and in The New York Times. He is the recipient of three recent Critics Awards from the Maine Press Association.Contact him at: [emailprotected]Twitter: @AndrewRossME

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Dine In Maine: Listen to these podcasts while you prep - Press Herald

Human Behavior

Wehner: ‘The human capacity for self-deception is tremendous’ – Henry Herald

May 17, 2020 medical

Brian Stelter asks Peter Wehner, a veteran of past GOP administrations, about the willingness of Trump supporters to excuse unpresidential behavior. "The human capacity for self-deception is tremendous," Wehner says. And "they feel that they are in an existential fight, an existential struggle, and Trump is on their side."

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Wehner: 'The human capacity for self-deception is tremendous' - Henry Herald

Human Behavior

Safe driving dependent on 3 parts: car, road, driver | News, Sports, Jobs – The Adirondack Daily Enterprise

May 17, 2020 medical

Consumer Reports had an interesting article, asking the question can we save more lives with advances in safety technology that is reshaping the auto industry. CR questions why the highway death toll is still so stubbornly high. Good question.

As the CR article continues, it makes it clear that there are three parts to safety: the car, the road, and the driver.

The cars

We are doing an excellent job using technology to develop crash-avoidance safety features in cars, such as automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection, forward collision warning and blind spot warning. CR believes that these safety systems should become standard on all models because they save lives. But with every new safety feature there is a corresponding negative side. Drivers may rely too heavily on what they perceive as the ability of the technology to bail them out of trouble.

The promise of self-driving cars is so exciting because the technology could significantly reduce traffic deaths. More than 90% of crashes are linked to driver error, according to National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. In theory, a robot-driven car doesnt fall asleep or get drunk. It doesnt make human mistakes.

The roads

A poorly designed road can escalate a small error into a fatality. Traffic engineers know that a minor change in the sweep of a curve or an unclear road sign can have an impact on safety. For this reason, dozens of cities in the U.S. are completely rethinking road design with safety top of mind.

In the U.S., there are about 12 roadway deaths per 100,000 people per year, according to the World Health Organization. In much of Western Europe, its fewer than five. In Sweden, its less than three. Some communities are changing their street design and traffic laws. In 2014 New York was one of the first cities in the U.S. to adopt the Vision Zero concept, which calls for city planners to rethink everything about roads, bike lanes and pedestrian routes. The goal is to eliminate all vehicle-related deaths.

Speed limits also play a key role in road safety, yet outside of cities, the trend has been to set them higher. During the 1970s energy crisis, the U.S. adopted a nationwide 55 mph limit. Now most states have a speed limit of 65 or 70 mph on highways. Seven states have adopted an 80 mph speed limit on some highways, and the speed limit is 85 mph on a 40-mile stretch of Texas tollway between Austin and San Antonio.

The driver

Motorists have become used to driving faster than the posted speed limit no matter the number, says Russ Martin, director of policy and government relations at the Governors Highway Safety Association. Even though almost everyone recognizes that speeding isnt safe, they do it anyway.

Its no mystery that driver mistakes contribute to highway crashes and injuries. Drunken driving, speeding and failing to wear a seat belt are three major reasons. Sometimes drivers engage in more than one of these risky behaviors at the same time. Each contributes to about 10,000 traffic deaths per year. Human behavior remains the most common contributor to crashes, but its also the hardest to change.

Safety advocates say the solutions are well known. Seat belt use, for example, is higher in states with strong enforcement. States with tougher drunken-driving laws have lower death rates. Most states ban driver texting and the use of handheld devices while driving, but many drivers do it anyway.

Many drivers think they can multitask while operating a car safely. But National Transportation Safety Board research shows thats a myth; humans can focus cognitive attention only on one thing at a time, says Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the NTSB. We try to fix human nature here, but thats really hard.

Hard or not, we need to do it.

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Safe driving dependent on 3 parts: car, road, driver | News, Sports, Jobs - The Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Human Behavior

Archaeologists Uncover a Lost World and Extinct Ecosystem – SciTechDaily

May 16, 2020 medical

Looking out at the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain from the cave entrance at the Pinnacle Point, South Africa, research siteleft, 200,000 years ago during glacial phases and lower sea levels, and right, today where the ocean is within yards of the cave entrances at high tides. Credit: Erich Fisher

Archaeological sites on the far southern shores of South Africa hold the worlds richest records for the behavioral and cultural origins of our species. At this location, scientists have discovered the earliest evidence for symbolic behavior, complex pyrotechnology, projectile weapons, and the first use of foods from the sea.

The Arizona State University Institute of Human Origins (IHO) field study site of Pinnacle Point sits at the center of this record, both geographically and scientifically, having contributed much of the evidence for these milestones on the evolutionary road to being a modern human.

The scientists working on these sites, led by IHO Associate Director Curtis Marean, have always faced a dilemma in understanding the context of these evolutionary milestones much of the landscape used by these ancient people is now submerged undersea and thus poorly known to us. Marean is a Foundation Professor with the ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Honorary Professor with Nelson Mandela University in South Africa.

The archaeological records come from caves and rockshelters that now look out on to the sea, and in fact, walking to many of the sites today involves dodging high tides and waves. However, through most of the last 200,000 years, lowered sea levels during glacial phases, when the ice sucks up the water, exposed a vast plain. The coast was sometimes as much as 90 km distant! Our archaeological data shows that this was the prime foraging habitat for these early modern humans, and until recently, we knew nothing about.

That has now changed with the publication of 22 articles in a special issue of Quaternary Science Reviews titled The Palaeo-Agulhas Plain: A lost world and extinct ecosystem.

About ten years ago, Marean began building a transdisciplinary international team to tackle the problem of building an ecology of this ancient landscape. ASU, Nelson Mandela University, the University of Cape Town, and the University of California, Riverside anchored the research team. Funded primarily by a $1 million National Science Foundation grant to Marean, with significant funding and resources from the Hyde Family Foundations, the John Templeton Foundation, ASU, IHO, and XSEDE, they developed an entirely new way to reconstruct paleoecologies or ancient ecosystems.

This began with using the high-resolution South African regional climate model running on U.S. and South African supercomputers to simulate glacial climate conditions. The researchers used this climate output to drive a new vegetation model developed by project scientists to recreate the vegetation on this paleoscape. They then used a wide variety of studies such as marine geophysics, deep-water diving for sample collection, isotopic studies of stalagmites and many other transdisciplinary avenues of research to validate and adjust this model output. They also created a human agent-based model through modern studies of human foraging of plants, animals, and seafoods, simulating how ancient people lived on this now extinct paleoscape.

Pulling the threads of all this research into one special issue illustrates all of this science, said Curtis Marean. It represents a unique example of a truly transdisciplinary paleoscience effort, and a new model for going forward with our search to recreate the nature of past ecosystems. Importantly, our results help us understand why the archaeological records from these South African sites consistently reveal early and complex levels of human behavior and culture. The Palaeo-Agulhas Plain, when exposed, was a Serengeti of the South positioned next to some of the richest coastlines in the world. This unique confluence of food from the land and sea cultivated the complex cultures revealed by the archaeology and provided safe harbor for humans during the glacial cycles that revealed that plain and made much of the rest of the world unwelcoming to human life.

Reference: The Palaeo-Agulhas Plain: A lost world and extinct ecosystem by Naomi Cleghorn, Alastair J. Potts and Hayley C. Cawthra, 28 April 2020, Quaternary Science Reviews.DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106308

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Archaeologists Uncover a Lost World and Extinct Ecosystem - SciTechDaily

Human Behavior

Psychology of Overreacting and the Social Influence – The Great Courses Daily News

May 16, 2020 medical

By Mark Leary, Ph.D., Duke University When people overreact, they are often rejected by their peers. (Image: GoodStudio/Shutterstock)

Overreacting is a common behavior in human and even animal societies, and like everything else, also a product of evolution. So, there is an underlying psychology of overreacting that can explain why it happens. In simple words, we overreact to protect ourselves from threats and dangers. Many mammals learned, through evolution, to overreact and not tolerate even the smallest potential threats, in order to protect themselves from real danger.

Our bodies evolved to detect and fight social threats, as well as physical ones because being a member of society became vital for surviving. Hence, we feel regret, our hearts break, and our feelings hurt to keep us from repeating a socially dangerous act. When we overreact, we break all the social rules that evolution has set for us over the years.

This is a transcript from the video series Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior. Watch it now, on The Great Courses Plus.

Evolutionary psychologists suggest that this reaction may be built into human nature, i.e., overreacting is also a product of evolution. Perhaps, animals that immediately killed the intruder instead of waiting to see if it is a real threat had a higher chance of survival. What about humans?

People overreact to anything that mightlead to, for example, being exploited. The psychology of overreacting explainsshouting at a person who blocks your way in the traffic. This reaction is to takea stand and show that you are not the type of person that can be takenadvantage of. If you build a social image as the person who does not care aboutbeing treated unfairly, you introduce yourself as a target for exploitation andsimilar acts. So we overreact to nip the problem in the bud. When we overreact,we do not care if we successfully prevent the problem or we create new problems.

Learn more about WhyPeople Are So Full of Themselves

When people overreact, they goblind to everything but the single cause of overreaction. Imagine someone thatwants to join the traffic of another street. The car that he wants to overtakedoes not let him pass and makes him wait some seconds longer. The driver of thefirst car that was rejected entry gets mad, starts shouting, and chases theother car intending to stop it and attack the car with a baseball bat.

Now imagine that he does that: hemade a fool out of himself, disappointed his wife sitting next to him, hurtsomeone else emotionally and financially, got into some legal problems, and isnow most probably embarrassed. Not blending into the traffic was not even areal problem, but now he has caused some serious problems, even legally. Thepoint is, he might not be a tense person in general, and these behaviors mighteven shock him after he gains back his senses.

People can think of only one thingat a time, and usually, they jump quickly from one thought to another. But whenpeople focus on only one thingthe traffic, in our examplethey literally losethe ability to switch between thoughts and think about other things. When thishappens, all norms, values, and social rules that generally help people controltheir behavior cannot influence them anymore. Hence, we overreact even if ittakes many things away from us.

Learn more about WhySelf-Control Is So Hard

Assuming this is a natural way to behave, we can still seethat some people do it more often. Is it because of their personality? This isthe easiest reason to assume, but it can only be one reason, not the only one.Of course, some people tend to overreact more than others under the sameconditions. But alone, it does not determine the tendency of overreacting.

Another reason for overreacting more is the environment. Ifthere is nothing to protect one from being mistreated, they have to defendtheir rights alone. The next factor is how society views overreacting.

In the absence of effective laws, people tend to overreact more. Under such conditions, people try hard to defend their reputations and react strongly to insults and other signs of disrespect. This is referred to as a culture of honor. In the psychology of overreacting, these circumstances force people to overreact more than those in a society with stronger laws. In addition, it is important how overreacting is viewed.

Learn more about IfSubliminal Messages Affect Behavior

In the old American society, people who overreacted were viewed as weak ones who have no control. When society frowns upon an act, the members try to avoid it in order to remain socially acceptable. But modern American society sees people who overreact as those who can stand up for their own rights and defend their territory. Consequently, overreaction has increased in the modern U.S. In the words of one writer, America has become angrified.

Maybe more than any underlying factor, the social acceptance and the view toward overreacting can control it.

As far as the psychology of overreacting is concerned, overreaction is a natural behavior to stop potential threats before they even emerge.

Every small thing can be a sign of a potentially big problem. The psychology of overreacting explains that people try to protect themselves against any potential threat; thus, they overreact to trivial events.

Culture of honor forms in the lack of a strong observing system and law, when people have to fight for their own protection. It can be explained by the psychology of overreacting and how you need to create the image of a person who cannot be taken advantage of.

If a minimal incident causes a reaction much too big for it, the person is overreacting. In the psychology of overreacting, the reason is protecting oneself against potential upcoming threats and dangers.

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Psychology of Overreacting and the Social Influence - The Great Courses Daily News

Human Behavior

Op-Ed: Return to work? Reducing coronavirus transmission in offices – Digital Journal

May 16, 2020 medical

Last time topic was conspiracy theories indicating that the novel coronavirus was artificially created. Strong arguments were made against these unsubstantiated ideas. Coronaviruses have been with such for millennia. The previous article also discussed whether there is more than one strain of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. New evidence suggests this is not the case. Although all viruses mutate, this is not, as yet, leading to more virulent forms.The topic for this article is the built environment and transmission risks, plus measures that people can take in their homes and offices. This is an important area, given the number of governments easing lockdowns and encouraging people to return to work. Moreover, given that people spend most of their time inside buildings, understanding the transmission dynamics of coronavirus inside is important.When considering disease transmission inside buildings, scientists need to look at factors like human behavior, spatial dynamics, and building operational factors. Considering how each of these potentially promotes and mitigate the spread and transmission of the virus helps to alert the general public to the different risks.To begin such a risk assessment, it is established that the virus spreads are due to three key measures: close interactions between individuals, fomites (which are objects likely to carry infectious diseases), and through viral exchange and transfer through the air. Based on this, a higher occupant density together with increased indoor activity increases the social interaction and hence connectivity through direct contact between individuals.As people move through buildings, there is direct and indirect contact with the surfaces around them. Viral particles can be directly deposited and resuspended due to natural airflow patterns, mechanical airflow patterns (if you have air conditioning), or other sources of turbulence in the indoor environment including walking. These resuspended viral particles can resettle back onto surfaces. This needs to be considered in the context that infected, individuals with COVID-19 shed viral particles before, during, and after developing symptoms.What can be done when working indoors?With a typical building, the simplest way to deliver outside air directly across the building envelope is to open a window. Window ventilation but increases outside air fraction and increases total air change rate as well within a room. However, measures should also be in place where close proximity would promote potential viral transfer from one residence or office to another.Light can form part of a further mitigation strategy. Daylight has been shown in many studies to shape indoor microbial communities in household dust to be less of the human infectious type compared with dust found in dark spaces. UV light can also help to inactivate the virus.The next consideration is humidity. Based on data related to SARS and MERS, we the viability of SARS-CoV-2 in aerosol is likely longer at lower relative humidity levels above 50 percent. So, if humidity levels can be increased, this could be helpful.Plus we have the standard measures: proper handwashing is a vital for controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2. People need to avoid contact and spatial proximity with infected persons and wash hands frequently for at least 20seconds with soap and hot water.Regular disinfecting of surfaces is also important. Scientific evidence shows 62 to 71 percent ethanol is effective at eliminating the virus from all types of common surfaces.Items should be removed from sink areas to ensure aerosolized water droplets do not carry viral particles onto commonly used items. In addition, counter-tops around sinks should be cleaned using a 10 percent bleach solution or an alcohol-based cleaner on a regular basis.There is also physical distancing. As we cannot tell who is infected and who is not, the best way to avoid spread in some situations is by avoiding large gatherings of individuals. This is also referred to as social distancing. On a wider scale, travel bans and other mobility restrictions have proved effective.Face masks are not very effective for asymptomatic individuals. It is important to preserve masks for individuals who have been infected with COVID-19 and for health care workers and family that will be in consistent contact with individuals infected with the virus. Wearing a mask can give a false sense of security when moving throughout potentially contaminated areas, and the incorrect handling and use of masks can increase transmission they need to be seen as infectious waste items.Further information is outlined in this video:The best thing is to continue to work remotely. If this cannot be done, then some of the measures discussed can help to lower the viral transmission risk.

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com

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Op-Ed: Return to work? Reducing coronavirus transmission in offices - Digital Journal

Human Behavior

CDC offers brief checklists to guide businesses, schools, and others on reopening – Boston.com

May 16, 2020 medical

WASHINGTON With hundreds of millions of people still seeking advice on resuming their lives safely, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a scant six pages of recommendations Thursday to guide schools, businesses, day-care facilities and others into the next phase of the coronavirus pandemic.

The six checklists which also address restaurants, mass transit and camps come days, and in some cases weeks, after many states have begun to lift restrictions on their own. The advice is less detailed than draft recommendations the agency sent to the White House for review last month.

The nation is still awaiting that detailed technical guidance, which the White House has held up and not shared publicly. The delay has left the responsibility for decision-making about reopening to states and localities. It has also left many health experts clamoring for greater transparency.

We need to unleash the voices of the scientists in our public health system in the United States so they can be heard, and their guidances need to be listened to, said Rick Bright, a former top U.S. vaccine official who testified before a House panel Thursday, decrying the piecemeal approach the Trump administration has taken to the pandemic. And we need to be able to convey that information to the American public so they have the truth about the real risk and dire consequences of this virus.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said a day earlier on the Senate floor that the CDC advice must be released.

The country needs the guidance of the nations best medical and scientific experts. These literally are matters of life and death, Schumer said. And thats exactly why the CDC prepared this guidance. America needs and must have the candid guidance of our best scientists unfiltered, unedited and uncensored by President Trump or his political minions.

The White House at first shelved the CDC guidelines. When asked about them, the White House said they were overly specific and in the process of being revised.

A CDC spokesman said additional recommendations may still come from the agency. The six decision trees were ready for release, so the administration decided to put them out while other guidelines make their way through the review process.

The documents released Thursday are aimed at helping facilities decide if theyre ready to open and inform how they do so, he said.

This was an effort on our part to make some decision trees we thought might be helpful to those moving forward with opening their establishment, the spokesperson said.

But with many states already moving on, it is unclear what impact any additional recommendations might have. And the mixed messages from President Donald Trump and other officials in his administration have left state and local officials struggling with decisions on whether and how to relax public-health restrictions.

Trump has been pushing for states to reopen, and on Thursday he traveled to Pennsylvania to urge its leadership to loosen its coronavirus restrictions, especially in areas he said have barely been affected by the pandemic, part of the presidents escalating personal appeal to state leaders to let American life get back to normal.

His visit to the swing state during which he attacked its Democratic governor, whom Trump views as moving too slowly to reopen came on the same day that he cheered a win in Wisconsin, where a court ruling against stay-at-home orders issued by another Democratic governor led to chaos and scenes of bars packed with people. Trumps us-against-them language underscored the rift with federal scientists who continue to warn against lifting coronavirus restrictions too swiftly amid fears of the potential for a new wave of infections and fatalities.

We have to get your governor of Pennsylvania to open up a little bit, Trump said of Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat. You have areas of Pennsylvania that are barely affected, and they want to keep it closed.

Trump also called testing overrated as a tool to track and control the virus, even though the White House has moved to a protocol of testing all visitors and requiring most employees to wear masks.

Trumps approach put him at odds with Bright and Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious-disease expert. Fauci testified Tuesday about the need for accurate, widespread testing and further limits on daily life and commerce.

Trump and other Republicans have increasingly criticized Fauci, confusing the federal message at a time when, Bright said, the crisis demands a single point of leadership.

And we dont have a single point of leadership right now for this response, and we dont have a master plan for this response, Bright said. So those two things are absolutely critical.

Bright said prospects were dim for a vaccine anytime soon, echoing Faucis belief that there will be no fail-safe protection available before schools must make decisions about opening in the fall.

Bright told lawmakers that the United States faces the darkest winter in modern history if it does not develop a more coordinated national response to the novel coronavirus before an expected resurgence later this year.

Our window of opportunity is closing, Bright said before the House Energy Committees subcommittee on health. If we fail to develop a national coordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities.

Trump in recent weeks has urged governors to move more quickly in reopening their states, despite safety benchmarks issued by his administration that many have yet to meet.

The people want to get on with their lives. The place is bustling! Trump tweeted approvingly after the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down an extension of restrictions by Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat. The ruling late Wednesday produced a confusing patchwork across the state, with some localities maintaining limits on businesses and activities.

Were the Wild West, rued Evers during an interview on MSNBC.

The 4-to-3 decision by the high court in Wisconsin limits Evers ability to make statewide rules during emergencies such as a global pandemic, instead requiring him to work with the state legislature on how the state should handle the outbreak.

By Thursday, many of the reopened Wisconsin bars were dark once again, shuttered as more than a dozen cities and counties that have been hit hard by the coronavirus moved to enact local stay-at-home ordinances.

Well, that was fun while it lasted, a patron wrote on the Facebook page of Limanskis Pub in West Allis, which briefly opened Wednesday night before Milwaukee County ordered bars and restaurants to remain closed indefinitely to in-person dining and drinking.

Bars in much of greater Milwaukee were closed, including two communities to the south Racine and Kenosha, cities where covid-19 cases have surged in recent days. But to the north of Milwaukee, some cities and counties chose to allow bars and restaurants to reopen, though many establishments remained shuttered.

In Grafton, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee in Ozaukee County, the Milwaukee Ale House opened its doors for lunch service at 11 a.m. sharp after weeks of serving takeout and delivery business that was not nearly enough to pay the bills, according to owner Mike Stoner.

I take it seriously, Stoner said Thursday afternoon, as he sat at the upstairs bar of his restaurant, which remained mostly empty except for several masked servers and bartenders who stood waiting for customers. I dont know why things have to be so political, so angry. . . . I am just trying to keep my business alive.

Trump has been aggressively calling for states to reopen even as health officials have sent a more cautious message, urging a data-driven and scientific approach.

In mid-April, the White House unveiled a three-phase plan for a gradual reopening of communities. The blueprint called for states to move forward after they met an initial test of 14 days of declining coronavirus cases and continue to progress as they passed additional safety checkpoints.

But many states, their economies in free fall, ignored the requirements for the first phase and moved ahead. The plan did not include specifics that many state and local officials, business leaders and millions of people sought to help them safely resume a version of their previous lives.

The documents released Thursday were reviewed extensively by White House Office of Management and Budget officials who were concerned the initial draft was too burdensome on churches and restaurants, among others.

The CDC removed from an earlier draft a recommendation that no facility open in an area where spread of the virus requires significant mitigation. But it left a warning against reopening against local or state orders. That puts the responsibility squarely on state and local governments to impose those rules.

Usually its the state and local health department that follow CDCs lead and not the other way around, said Matthew Seeger, who has researched crisis communication for the past 35 years at Wayne State University. Its the latest way the current leadership is putting the onus on states and trying to make this a decentralized structure. Thats not how CDC usually works.

Thursdays guidance helps workplaces decide whether to reopen, how to promote hygiene measures such as mask-wearing and hand-washing before they do and how to monitor employees for symptoms of infection, among other advice.

It recommends that restaurants and bars encourage social distancing and enhance spacing at establishments, in part by spacing of tables/stools, limiting party sizes and occupancy, avoiding self-serve stations, restricting employee shared spaces, [and] rotating or staggering shifts, if feasible.

It advises mass transit systems to limit routes to and from high transmission areas before resuming full service.

No decision tree for faith communities was released. Telling houses of worship how to operate stirred controversy when the CDCs original draft instructions were leaked last month.

Public health experts said the way the Trump administration has rolled out guidelines makes it less likely people will heed them.

In many ways, this advice is the only medicine we have, Seeger said. We dont have a vaccine yet. We dont have treatment. All we have is human behavior and that behavior is based on the information people get and whether they will listen to that information.

The Washington Posts Holly Bailey in Milwaukee, Moriah Balingit in Lansing, Mich., and Yasmeen Abutaleb and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

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CDC offers brief checklists to guide businesses, schools, and others on reopening - Boston.com