#5SmartReads - May 13, 2022

Hitha on nurdles, neurotransmitters, and NATO's likely newest members

May 13, 2022

Variant-specific vaccine boosters are in late-stage development, and are likely to be authorized and available by the fall.

But will we have availability to it? That’s on Congress, and it’s not looking great right now.

Now I firmly believe our executive branch can be a little more prudent in the orders they place now (the government purchased 700 MILLION doses that were never distributed).

That said, we need to place orders in the coming weeks to be prepared to inoculate the most vulnerable people and those who seek to be vaccinated as soon as they are able with the Omicron-specific booster, along with funds to invest in equitable access and education to our most vulnerable communities.

content warning - suicide attempt

Who has used the word “adulting” without irony? I am. I’m that person, and have used this term with earnest - and have also felt betrayed by the term during certain low moments.

So has the inventor of the word (and author of the eponymous book), Kelly Williams Brown. And she’s baring it all in her latest book Easy Crafts for the Insane: A Mostly Funny Memoir of Mental Illness and Making Things (which I plan to get into this weekend).

It’s incredibly brave and gratifying when people you admire are so brutally honest and vulnerable in an interview. I’ll leave you with the quote I’ve been thinking about, on resilience and suffering:

“The question of resilience is a difficult one. It’s shortsighted and incorrect to think that suffering makes us better people. I think that we all have the opportunity to figure out what our narrative is. The more you can give yourself an understanding that is perhaps a little less painful than what actually happened, the better you’ll be able to get out of bed in the morning.”

…with Sweden planning on joining Finland in seeking NATO membership as well.

While this seems perfectly rational by the Nordic countries (Russia’s neighbor Estonia shares a border with Russia, like Finland), the Kremlin’s response is more threatening, warning them of “military and political repercussions” if the countries do join NATO.

While Putin’s invasion of Ukraine continues, the alliances within Europe are shifting to protect the rest of the continent and aid Ukraine in expelling the invasion. Nothing is going to happen overnight, but this would be a big shift indeed.

Spend enough time with me, and you’ll hear me blab about my serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and endorphin levels.

And if you know these terms but don’t totally understand what each of them does, you should read this very smart piece, both for the introductory neuroscience lesson and how to master your neurotransmitters with 5 simple steps.

Some of these tips are seemingly simple, but actually practicing them does require a level of energy and investment we sometimes don’t feel up for. Push through those limiting feelings and do that brain dump in your journal, or try the progressive muscle relaxation instead of mindlessly scrolling.

Did I order Dr. Leaf’s book after reading this post? Most definitely. I can’t wait to dig into it after I finish Atomic Habits.

“A nurdle is a bead of pure plastic. It is the basic building block of almost all plastic products, like some sort of synthetic ore; their creators call them “pre-production plastic pellets” or “resins.” Every year, trillions of nurdles are produced from natural gas or oil, shipped to factories around the world, and then melted and poured into molds that churn out water bottles and sewage pipes and steering wheels and the millions of other plastic products we use every day. You are almost certainly reading this story on a device that is part nurdle.”

I did not know what a nurdle is before I read this. Nor did I know that all nurdles make it where they’re supposed to be…and what happens when nurdles end up in our water and our land.

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