James' World 2

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This holiday season has been a doozy. Scrolling through my bills feels like trying to zip up a bursting suitcase — even when I sit on it, there’s just too much in there to squish it closed. I can’t possibly need all this stuff, I think. Why can’t I pare back, live more simply? 

I know I’m not alone. And in our defense, there’s a good reason we’ve gone a little nuts lately. This is the first time in three years that many of us will get to spend Christmas with extended family. We’re going out to parties again. After so much caution and uncertainty, isn’t it fun to live large, even be a smidge reckless?

Still, when I look at the financial fallout, numbers stacked together in a list, it feels excessive, even gluttonous. Enter the sudden appeal of “money diets,” “spending fasts,” or “financial cleanses,” all unfortunate names for the same concept of reducing your expenses for a fixed period of time (often in January, following the holiday free-for-all).

As a rule, I hate when people use dieting metaphors with money; not to mention, diets don’t work. But I must admit that my current spending habits aren’t sustainable, and the idea of making some clear, intentional changes at the beginning of next year sounds pretty good right now. I talked to some experts about how to cut back in a thoughtful way that won’t backfire. Come January 1, here’s what I’ll be doing.

Think about what you’re trying to accomplish.

The purpose of this exercise isn’t punishment. If you’re feeling ashamed or even just vaguely gross about how you’ve managed your money recently, it’s time to let yourself off the hook. Your bank account is not a scale for weighing your moral integrity, and stripping your life down to bare bones won’t make you a better person.

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Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images

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A few months ago, I was on vacation with my boyfriend when I decided it was time for me to say goodbye to my caffeine habit. I’d been relying on a cup of coffee or loose-leaf tea to get me through the workday slog, PM activities, and even yoga classes since college. I didn’t need a health app to know my reliance on caffeine was psychologically unhealthy. And working in the health writing world made me aware that it can be physically damaging, too: The Mayo Clinic lists migraine headaches, insomnia, fast heartbeat, muscle tremors, and others, as side effects of drinking more than four cups of caffeinated coffee a day (or its equivalent in soda, energy drinks, and tea). I was no “five shots of espresso a day” gal, but, I wondered: If I eliminated caffeine from my daily routine, would I lose the late-night jitters and afternoon crashes I’ve become used to? In turn, would I have more energy, be more productive, and sleep better, too?

The first work week was brutal. I thanked heavens I worked from my apartment, and this 17-minute Yoga with Adriene Energy Practice on YouTube became my best friend. But, by the following week, the afternoon wall I hit faded away (even sans Adriene) and I had a much easier time falling asleep. Fast-forward to two months later, and I’m happy to report I am still—somehow—caffeine-free. All the benefits I’d hoped for are real, and I even beat my mile time at Central Park’s reservoir. The five simple guidelines that follow are ones I’ve been living by:

1. Ease into it on vacation.

If you want to fast-track to the Land of Despair, starting your caffeine detoxification at work is an excellent idea. I found vacation an ideal time to lay off my caffeine habit. I could pop Strawberry Lemonade Nuun Electrolytes tablets to my heart’s delight. I could sleep in. And lying on the beach breezing through trashy romance novels doesn’t exactly require much concentration and energy. Once you have a week or so under your belt, post-vacation Monday still ranks pretty low, but at least you won’t have to add caffeine headache to your woes. your body also will likely find it easier to adjust to abstinence.

2. Keep a running list of all the ways giving up caffeine is improving your life.

Better sleep. More money in your pocket for artisanal seltzer. Less sugar or dairy in your diet (unless you drink your coffee black). Freedom from what is, technically, an addiction.

“Behavior change is often supported by connecting to the bigger values—the things that are important to you—that drive your life,” says Washington-based nutritionist Meghan Cichy, who specializes in the treatment of eating disorders and chronic dieting. “When our perspective is more positive and connected to our values, it can actually help us to feel less crappy about going through it.”

. Illustration By George Wylesol

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Also, called a ‘Quo Vadis’ haircut

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Such questions are still relevant today, asked by ecologists, public health officials, conservation biologists, forensic practitioners, and those studying evolution and ancient environments — and they drive shoe-leather epidemiologists and biologists to far-flung corners of the world.

The 1987 paper, Barkay and her colleagues published in the Journal of Microbiological Methods outlined a method — “Direct Environmental DNA Extraction” — that would allow researchers to take a census. It was a practical tool, albeit a rather messy one, for detecting who was out there. Barkay used it for the rest of her career.

Today, the study gets cited as an early glimpse of eDNA, or environmental DNA, a relatively inexpensive, widespread, potentially automated way to observe the diversity and distribution of life. Unlike previous techniques, which could identify DNA from, say, a single organism, the method also collects the swirling cloud of other genetic material that surrounds it. In recent years, the field has grown significantly. “It’s got its own journal,” said Eske Willerslev, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Copenhagen. “It’s got its own society, scientific society. It has become an established field.”

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Matthew B Laramie/USGS

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If you’re like most Americans, you eat more sugar than is good for you. But it’s entirely possible to eat less sugar without sacrificing much — if any — of the pleasures of eating. Surprising as it may sound, many people who have cut back on sugar say they find their new eating habits more pleasurable than their old ones. This guide will walk you through why sugar matters, how you can make smart food choices to reduce sugar consumption, and how you can keep your life sweet, even without so many sweets.

The first thing to know: Added sugars, of one kind or another, are almost everywhere in the modern diet. They’re in sandwich bread, chicken stock, pickles, salad dressing, crackers, yogurt, and cereal, as well as in the obvious foods and drinks, like soda and desserts.

The biggest problem with added sweeteners is that they make it easy to overeat. They’re tasty and highly caloric, but they often don’t make you feel full. Instead, they can trick you into wanting even more food. Because we’re surrounded by added sweeteners — in our kitchens, in restaurants, at schools, and offices — most of us will eat too much of them unless we consciously set out to do otherwise.

How Did We Get Here?

It’s not an accident. The sugar industry has conducted an aggressive, decades-long campaign to blame the obesity epidemic on fats, not sugars. Fats, after all, seem as if they should cause obesity. Thanks partly to that campaign, sugar consumption soared in the United States even as people were trying to lose weight. But research increasingly indicates that an overabundance of simple carbohydrates, and sugar in particular, is the No. 1 problem in modern diets. Sugar is the driving force behind the diabetes and obesity epidemics. Fortunately, more people are realizing the harms of sugar and cutting back.

What to Cut

Health experts recommend that you focus on reducing added sweeteners — like granulated sugar, high fructose corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, stevia, and molasses. You don’t need to worry so much about the sugars that are a natural part of fruit, vegetables, and dairy products. Most people don’t overeat naturally occurring sugars, as Marion Nestle of New York University says. The fiber, vitamins, and minerals that surround them fill you up.

A typical adult should not eat more than 50 grams (or about 12 teaspoons) of added sugars per day, and closer to 25 is healthier. The average American would need to reduce added-sweetener consumption by about 40 percent to get down to even the 50-gram threshold. Here’s how you can do it — without spending more money on food than you already do.

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Originally published on Mar. 9, 2018

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Protesters in Dearborn, Mich., earlier this month. Credit… Nick Hagen for The New York Times

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Scientists in Scotland have revealed a remarkable discovery of a “very strange” 240 million-year-old “Chinese dragon” fossil.

The international team from National Museums Scotland revealed their discovery — found in Guizhou Province in southern China — of the Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, a 5-meter-long aquatic reptile from the Triassic period dating back an estimated 240 million years.

“With 32 separate neck vertebrae Dinocephalosaurus orientalis had an extraordinarily long neck that draws comparison with that of Tanystropheus hydroides, another strange marine reptile from the Middle Triassic of both Europe and China,” scientists said announcing the discovery.

“Both reptiles were of similar size and have several features of the skull in common, including a fish-trap type of dentition,” officials continued. “However, Dinocephalosaurus is unique in possessing many more vertebrae both in the neck and in the torso, giving the animal a much more snake-like appearance.”

Scientists say the reptile was “clearly very well adapted to an oceanic lifestyle,” as indicated by the flippered limbs and “exquisitely preserved” fishes in its stomach region.

“Despite superficial similarities, Dinocephalosaurus was not closely related to the famous long-necked plesiosaurs that only evolved around 40 million years later and which inspired the myth of the Loch Ness Monster.”

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Scientists in Scotland have revealed a remarkable discovery of a “very strange” 240 million-year-old “Chinese dragon” fossil.

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Here’s an inexpensive, concrete thing you can do to cut your personal carbon contribution: Stop eating meat—or cut down dramatically. Right now.

This is 100 percent not as easy as this blasé, sanctimonious pronouncement makes it sound. There are countless personal, cultural, and economic factors that put this protein at the center of so many diets and lives. And yet, if you can swing it, it’s hard to find an easier way to reduce your individual emissions contribution. That’s not just limited to food. For most of us, it’s easier to stop eating meat than it is to swap out your gas-powered car for an EV, change how you heat your home, or get your utility to generate electricity from cleaner sources. 

It makes a huge difference. According to the University of Colorado, cutting meat out of your diet for one day a week can save more than 20,000 gallons of water and reduce your personal carbon contribution by more than 400 pounds per year. Imagine these numbers at scale. What does a million people practicing Meatless Mondays for a year look like? It looks like taking 348,000,000 car-miles worth of emissions out of the atmosphere, which is huge. What if those million people added another day? What if they didn’t eat meat at all? (696,000,000 car-miles and 2.4 billion car-miles, respectively. Also huge. In fact, huger.)  

Humans will create emissions no matter what we eat, so we can’t fixate on perfection. Farmed vegetables still need to be farmed, which means tractors and trucks burning fossil fuels. Even the act of tilling soil releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and while advances in agriculture can reduce our impact, all of it incurs environmental costs. Our civilization relies on food that we don’t have to forage. Go ahead and @ me, if you disagree — then head out to your trap line and see how many squirrels you’ve got for dinner.

Squirrels notwithstanding, we should all start questioning whether we need meat with every meal. This small, personal moment, that occurs only in our own heads, is a beginning. We’ve been taught that no dinner is complete without animal protein, but that’s dangerous misinformation for so many reasons.

Consider: Raising any kind of meat is incredibly land-intensive. In addition to the physical space the animal occupies, you also need to grow its food, which takes up its own acreage. You have to process that feed, which incurs emissions as you harvest the crop and prepare it.

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I’ve been reluctant to jump into the Sonos game because I know just how addictive it can be once you’ve crossed over — like Pringles, I know I won’t stop at just one. It’s hard to keep resisting deals like the one we’re seeing at Woot today, though. Now through February 29th (or while supplies last), you can buy a two-pack of Sonos Era 100 speakers with a 90-day warranty for $409.99, which is about $90 off the price if you were to buy two speakers separately.

I’m eying the Era 100s as starters for building out my dream home theater, which I intend to pair with something like the Sonos Arc and Sonos Sub. Each Era 100 features two tweeters and a built-in woofer for drivers, which makes it a powerful speaker on its own. While the allure of Sonos is wireless audio, each Era 100 also supports line-in through an optional $19 USB-C dongle for devices that can’t connect over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. They don’t support the Era 300’s spatial audio, but for the money, they sound great by themselves or in stereo, and they remain our favorite starting point in the Sonos lineup for music around the house.

The LG C3 OLED is one of the best TVs you can buy no matter your viewing needs, and thanks to eBay’s ongoing Presidents Day promo, you can currently buy one cheaper than ever. Now through February 19th, you can grab a 48-inch C3 for $817.59 ($200 off) or a 65-inch model for $1,309.59 ($330 off) via Electronic Express when you use promo code PRESIDENT20 for 20 percent off.

It’s hard to go back once you’ve experienced the deep contrast, satisfying color, brightness uniformity, and wide viewing angles afforded by modern OLED TVs. I started with the LG B1 and upgraded to the LG C2 a couple of years ago. The C3 has visuals similar to the latter (only it’s a bit brighter), and I can say without a doubt that most people would be happy with it.

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