Let's Talk About RFK and the Dead Bear in the Park

Do you enjoy tasks that make you think really hard? Be honest – you probably don’t. You might do them anyway, but we'd bet it's not always a pleasant experience. A new meta-analysis has looked at many published studies and found that these feelings are not all in your head: exerting mental effort really can feel unpleasant.We humans can be a contrary bunch. According to the 170 studies the authors analyzed, while we may agree to engage in a range of activities that take mental effort – things like learning to use new technology or practicing our technique in a sport – we generally don’t actually enjoy it that much.“Managers often encourage employees, and teachers often encourage students, to exert mental effort. On the surface, this seems to work well: Employees and students do often opt for mentally challenging activities,” explained senior author Dr Erik Bijleveld of Radboud University in a statement. “From this, you may be tempted to conclude that employees and students tend to enjoy thinking hard.”“Our results suggest that this conclusion would be false: In general, people really dislike mental effort.”This had certainly been theorized in the past, but there was a lack of strong data to confirm it. The papers included in the team’s meta-analysis comprised a total of 4,670 participants in a variety of settings, including college students, healthcare workers, and the military. Twenty-seven countries were represented, with participants being asked about 358 different cognitive tasks in total.No matter the task or group of people being studied, greater mental exertion was associated with greater unpleasantness. In psychologist-speak, mental exertion is “aversive”. It turns out that, as a species, we’re really not fans of thinking hard.However, it’s also true that tasks requiring mental effort are often unavoidable, whether it’s your boss giving you an assignment at work or your sports coach laying down a training regime. Can the study authors offer any hope of making these tasks easier to bear?“When people are required to exert substantial mental effort, you need to make sure to support or reward them for their effort,” said Bijleveld. That’s more like it.“For example, why do millions of people play chess? People may learn that exerting mental effort in some specific activities is likely to lead to reward. If the benefits of chess outweigh the costs, people may choose to play chess, and even self-report that they enjoy chess,” Bijleveld continued.The authors suggest that managers, engineers, and teachers should consider this when planning tasks, designing new apps and tech interfaces, or setting schoolwork. It’s fine to ask people to put in some mental effort, but ideally, you should support them and reward them for it too.An intriguing cultural difference also emerged from the data. While people across all localities universally indicated that thinking hard wasn’t fun, this was less pronounced in studies conducted in Asia than in Europe or North America. The team theorized that this was down to a different educational environment – kids in Asia typically spend more time on schoolwork than their counterparts in Europe or North America, so they may develop greater resilience to mental exertion earlier in life.The upshot, according to Bijleveld, is that “when people choose to pursue mentally effortful activities, this should not be taken as an indication that they enjoy mental effort per se.”“Perhaps people choose mentally effortful activities despite the effort, not because of it.”The study is published in the journal Psychological Bulletin.

The world's climate is in crisis, and it is important to monitor potential tipping points: critical thresholds that, when breached, can lead to snowballing and potentially irreversible changes. As part of an attempt to understand how the ocean melts Antarctica’s ice shelves, researchers sent a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) called Ran underneath the Dotson ice shelf in West Antarctica, to map the region using sonar.“We have previously used satellite data and ice cores to observe how glaciers change over time," lead author Anna Wåhlin, Professor of Oceanography at the University of Gothenburg, said in a statement. "By navigating the submersible into the cavity, we were able to get high resolution maps of the ice underside. It's a bit like seeing the back of the moon."During the expedition, which took place in 2022, the ROV traveled over 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) back and forth under the glacier, reaching 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) into a cavity within the ice. “Better models are needed to predict how fast the ice shelves will melt in the future. It is exciting when oceanographers and glaciologists work together, combining remote sensing with oceanographic field data," Wåhlin said. "This is needed to understand the glaciological changes taking place – the driving force is in the ocean."    The team has now published the results of the survey, including some interesting finds. One such find was strange patterns of peaks and valleys at the glacier's base, where underwater currents are slowly eroding it and moving further into the cracks. What was especially odd was that coming out of these rougher-than-expected peaks and valleys were features resembling sand dunes, stretching up to 400 meters (1,300 feet) long. Analyzing the features, the team believes that they are the result of the movement of water on the underside of the glacier due to the Earth's rotation."If you look closely at the shapes they are not symmetrical, they are bent a bit like blue mussels, and the reason for that asymmetry is Earth's rotation," Wåhlin told Live Science. "Water moving on Earth is subject to something called the Coriolis force, which is acting to the left of the direction of motion in the Southern Hemisphere. If we are correct, there is a force balance in the layer closest to the ice where friction is balanced by the Coriolis force."The pattern of water that appears to have created this pattern is known as an Ekman Spiral.A visualization of the features seen by the drone.Image Credit: Filip Stedt / University of Gothenburg, Courtesy of Anna Wåhlin"When surface water molecules move by the force of the wind, they, in turn, drag deeper layers of water molecules below them. Each layer of water molecules is moved by friction from the shallower layer, and each deeper layer moves more slowly than the layer above it, until the movement ceases at a depth of about 100 meters (330 feet)," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explains on their website.The deeper water is affected by the Coriolis effect, with plumes spreading asymmetrically according to which hemisphere you are in. In the northern hemisphere, the plume spreads to the right; in the southern hemisphere, to the left. "As a result, each successively deeper layer of water moves more slowly to the right or left, creating a spiral effect. Because the deeper layers of water move more slowly than the shallower layers, they tend to 'twist around' and flow opposite to the surface current," NOAA continues.The team notes that the older "teardrop" shapes had tails more parallel to the flow, as expected using Ekman theory, but adds that more observations are needed.The ROV surfacing after venturing into the depths in 2022.Image Credit: Anna Wåhlin / University of Gothenburg, Courtesy of Anna WåhlinUnfortunately, since this expedition, the submersible has gone missing underneath the Doomsday Glacier. During dives, the submersible does not have constant contact with the researchers operating it. Instead, the AUV follows a pre-programmed route and uses an advanced navigation system to find its way back from underneath the ice to open water. However, after several successful dives underneath the ice, during one trip in January of 2024, Ran failed to appear at the rendezvous point. Despite searches with acoustic equipment, drones, and helicopters, the team has been unable to locate Ran since.“It’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, but without even knowing where the haystack is," Wåhlin said in a statement in January. "At this point, Ran’s batteries are dead. All we know is that something unexpected happened under the ice. We suspect it ran into trouble, and then something prevented it from getting out."The team believes this is likely sadly the end for Ran, though they note it is a better end for the submersible than aging and gathering dust in a garage. They now plan on replacing the submersible and continuing its important research.The study is published in the journal Science Advances: Oceanography.

The U.S. Secret Service had no agents stationed in the local police command center when urgent radio dispatches warned of a man with a gun on the roof 130 yards from where former President Donald J. Trump was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, the acting Secret Service director said Aug. 2. "It was so apparent to me that in this incident, in the final 30 seconds, which has been the focus of what happened before the assailant opened fire, there was clearly radio transmissions that may have happened on that local radio net that we did not have," Ronald L. Rowe Jr. said during a Washington, D.C., press briefing. "And so we have to do a better job of co-locating, leveraging that counterpart system, and this is going to drive our operations going forward," Rowe said. The admission appears to answer the urgent question asked by members of Congress and security analysts over the past several weeks: If local police knew about a man with a gun, why didn't Secret Service snipers know? 'We can easily see somebody running around at the ridge of the roof. Why didn’t Secret Service snipers see him?' Officials have cited "siloed" radio communications as a factor in the Secret Service not being up to speed on intelligence gathered by local police. Rowe said a Pennsylvania State Police official was in the Secret Service security room on July 13 but that no Secret Service officials were in the local police command center. "If a state or local [agency] sets up a unified command post, maybe we need to be in that room as well, as opposed to just being in another room and rely on that counterpart system," Rowe said. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) earlier disclosed that radios provided by local law enforcement to the Secret Service for cross-agency communication were never used on July 13. Rowe said the counter-sniper teams at the Butler event communicated via text messages on cell phones — not by radio. Acting Secret Service Director Ronald L. Rowe Jr. testifies at a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee July 30 in Washington, D.C.Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images "With respect to the counter-snipers, they were using cellular text communications," Rowe said. "At this point moving forward, what I've directed now is that everybody should be using the radio net." Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, shot Trump in the right ear with an AR-15-style rifle just after 6:11 p.m. Crooks got off seven more shots before a law enforcement counter-sniper killed him with a bullet that one expert told Blaze News was fired from 448 yards away. 'You could see him sit up and sling his weapon around and aim it right towards us right before the Secret Service shot him.' Crooks stopped firing after eight shots when a Butler County tactical officer shot at him from ground level behind the bleachers at the fairgrounds, the Washington Post reported. There was a 10-second lull after Crooks' eighth shot — fired almost simultaneously with the Butler SWAT officer's shot. Crooks then tried to reposition himself on the roof. He did not fire again and was killed by a counter-sniper's bullet a few seconds later. Video captured by witness Jon Malis from just west of Building 6 showed Crooks turn and look down at the crowd that was frantically trying to warn police. "All I saw was his face kind of turn and look toward us," Malis told News Nation. "The gentleman in front of me, he had his camera zoomed in. I think he was taking photographs, and he said, 'Hey, he's got a gun, and he's aiming it at us,' something like that. "Then when I looked back later with my video zoomed in," Malis said, "sure enough, you could see him sit up and sling his weapon around and aim it right towards us right before the Secret Service shot him." Only a perfectly timed turn of his head to look at a giant immigration chart on a video screen saved Trump from a gruesome death. Trump's former presidential physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, said if the bullet had struck even one-quarter of an inch closer, Trump would be dead. Jackson has examined Trump at least twice since the shooting. Rowe disclosed that Trump did not have Secret Service counter-sniper protection at any 2024 events prior to the Butler rally. “It was the first time the Secret Service counter-snipers were deployed to support the former president's detail,” Rowe said. The Trump campaign instead received “state and local resources” at prior campaign stops and other events. At the press event, Rowe repeated his contention that Secret Service agents and counter-snipers had no idea Crooks was on the roof with a rifle until he fired a burst of eight shots at Trump and the crowd at 6:11:33 p.m. The federal agency responsible for Trump’s safety did not know that local police had surrounded the American Glass Research Building 6 about two minutes earlier or that bystanders west of the building spotted a man with a rifle belly-crawling up the roof. A law enforcement officer who hoisted himself up to peer above the roof line at 6:11 p.m. saw Crooks aim the rifle at him. That officer fell to the ground, then broadcast on police radio that there was a man with a gun lying in a prone position on the roof. This was 30 seconds before Crooks fired, according to a timeline developed by Johnson's office. “Based on what I know right now, neither the Secret Service counter-sniper teams nor members of the former president's security detail had any knowledge that there was a man on the roof of the AGR building with a firearm,” Rowe said. “It is my understanding that personnel were not aware the assailant had a firearm until they heard gunshots.” Rowe’s remarks served to highlight the growing gap between what local law enforcement officials knew in the crucial two minutes before the shooting and what the Secret Service somehow didn’t know. SLUGFEST: Trump vs. ABC Journalist at NAJB Conference | Sen. Ron Johnson | 7/31/2024 www.youtube.com Rowe’s explanation also came against the backdrop of new video captured by shooting victim James Copenhaver from behind Trump’s podium, showing Crooks running across the roof line in the distance. He dropped to one knee and then into a prone shooting position, the video showed. “We can easily see somebody running around at the ridge of the roof, and that’s Crooks,” Johnson said on "Blaze News Tonight." “So the crowd saw him. Why didn’t Secret Service snipers see him?” Rowe backed away from his suggestion made at a July 30 U.S. Senate hearing that local law enforcement officials were at fault for not securing all of the line-of-sight rooftops at the Butler event. “The Secret Service takes full responsibility for the tragic events of July 13,” Rowe said. “This was a mission failure. The sole responsibility of our agency is to make sure our protectees are never put in danger. We fell short of that in Butler. And I'm working to make sure that this failure does not happen again.” 'That building was very close to that outer perimeter, and we should have had more of a presence.' Rowe’s comments are unlikely to assuage the growing concerns and angst in Congress that the Secret Service's historic blunders in Butler came within a quarter-inch of the assassination of the former president and leading 2024 presidential candidate. Local police first classified Crooks as a suspicious person between 4:20 p.m. and 4:26 p.m., when a Beaver County officer finishing his shift saw Crooks sitting at a nearby picnic table and sent a text to his colleagues. A local police sniper took photos of would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks at a retaining wall near the building he used as a perch to shoot former President Donald J. Trump on July 13. Photos via US Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) "Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars just so you know," the officer texted at 4:27 p.m., according to records released by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). "I'm just letting you know because you see me go out with my rifle and put it in my car so he knows you guys are up there he's sitting to the direct right on a picnic table about 50 yards from the exit." A counter-sniper positioned in the building behind the one used by Crooks as a shooting perch took two photos of Crooks "lurking around" at 5:14 p.m., according to a timeline released by Johnson's office. A photo of a bicycle Crooks was seen riding onto the grounds was taken at 5:28 p.m. The photos were texted to local counter-snipers at 5:38 p.m. and forwarded to the command center at 5:45 p.m. "So that was 26 minutes before the first shots were fired," Johnson said. "Again, that photo was taken at 5:14, almost an hour before the first shots were fired. "So what happened in that 26 minutes from when the sniper received the photo and his location? What were they doing? Why weren’t they continuously scanning the AGR building?” The security plan for the Butler Farm Show grounds where former President Donald J. Trump was shot July 13. Would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks fired from the roof shown at upper right.Beaver County Emergency Services Unit SWAT According to the site security plan, snipers from Butler and Beaver Counties were stationed in the two-story building just north of Building 6 where Crooks fired from. A Washington County counter-sniper was posted southwest of the event stage, hundreds of yards from Building 6. Rowe said there should have been "better coverage" of the roofs in the AGR campus north of the fairgrounds. "For the protectee, we should have had better coverage on that roof line," he said. "We should have had at least some other set of eyes from the Secret Service point of view covering that. That building was very close to that outer perimeter, and we should have had more of a presence." Local law enforcement that supported the Butler event included the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit, the Butler Township Police Department, the Allegheny County Bomb Squad, the Washington County SWAT team, and Pennsylvania State Police. The Butler site was an even bigger security risk than previously disclosed, according to U.S. Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who served with the 82nd Airborne in Iraq and worked as a counter-sniper for the U.S. State Department. “I laid personally where Thomas Crooks took the shot, and I can tell you from that building you have a vantage point where you can see the shooter at all times," Mills said on Fox News. "We went down to the exact location where President Trump was standing during the incident, and I can tell you, the Kubota manufacturing center about 420-plus yards outside of the perimeter zone was a direct 12 o’clock shot on the president. "Not to mention that there was an entire slew of buildings that was on the opposite side of the stage that also could have snipers from that position," said Mills, who described the Butler event as the "biggest Secret Service and security breach and failure that we have seen in our lifetimes." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The husband of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris committed adultery during his previous marriage to Kerstin Emhoff, and reports indicate that his then-mistress was once the nanny of his two children.On Saturday, Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, confirmed the previous affair in a statement following a bombshell report from the Daily Mail and social media posts from pro-Trump activist Laura Loomer.Citing 'a close friend with direct knowledge of the affair and pregnancy,' the Daily Mail reported that Naylor became pregnant by Emhoff but 'did not keep the child.'"During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions. I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side," Doug Emhoff said in a statement to CNN.Though Emhoff did not name the woman with whom he had an affair, the Daily Mail reported that her name is Najen Naylor and that she once worked as a nanny for Emhoff's two children, Cole and Ella, and as a teacher at the Willows, the elite private school the kids once attended.The affair allegedly occurred around 2009 and reportedly brought Kerstin and Doug's 16-year marriage to an end. What's more, Naylor may have become pregnant as a result of the affair. Citing "a close friend with direct knowledge of the affair and pregnancy," the Daily Mail reported that Naylor became pregnant by Emhoff but "did not keep the child."Naylor, now 47, did not confirm or deny the affair or the pregnancy but did give the Daily Mail a brief statement: "I’m kind of freaked out right now."Kerstin Emhoff, 57, also released a statement about her previous marriage to Doug Emhoff and his subsequent marriage to Kamala Harris: "Doug and I decided to end our marriage for a variety of reasons, many years ago. He is a great father to our kids, continues to be a great friend to me and I am really proud of the warm and supportive blended family Doug, Kamala, and I have built together."Doug Emhoff and Harris, both 59, married in 2014. Emhoff reportedly told Harris about his previous affair before they wed. The affair was also made known to the Biden team in 2020 when Harris was being vetted as a vice presidential candidate.Brian Fallon, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, declined CNN's request for comment regarding the details of the Daily Mail report. He also declined to give a comment on the issue in general.Since Biden dropped his bid for a second term in office and Harris has become the presumptive 2024 Democratic nominee, Doug Emhoff has been stumping across the country for his wife. Harris has made expanding abortion rights a key campaign issue, and Emhoff seems to share her passion for permitting women to kill their unborn children.Months after the Dobbs decision was announced in 2022, returning the abortion issue back to the individual states, Emhoff tweeted: "I remember when @KamalaHarris called to tell me about the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs. The first thing I thought about was my daughter. As a dad and as a husband, I’m going to do everything I can to speak out and help advance reproductive freedom."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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There's a lot of anticipation for the upcoming M4 Macs. The first batch is expected to launch later this year, and a previous rumor says Apple wants to update every Mac with this new processor. So far, the only Apple device with the M4 chip is the new iPad Pro, which was released a few months ago. According to Apple, the M4 processor has a powerful new CPU with 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, with next-gen ML generators. It is up to 50% faster than M2. With a 10-core GPU, it offers Dynamic Caching and hardware ray tracing, with 4x faster performance than M2 iPad Pro. M4 can deliver the same performance as the M2 with just half the power. The Neural Engine comes with a 16-core design, with up to 38 trillion operations per second—60x faster than Apple’s first Neural Engine. That said, in his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman gives an interesting tidbit about the new M4 Macs. The journalist says that in addition to making these computers more powerful, "at least one Mac model will get more dramatic changes." Here's what M4 Mac could get a major redesign Image source: Apple Inc. In the Power On newsletter, Gurman talks about three M4 Macs being released this year: The M4 MacBook Pro, the Mac mini, and iMac. Despite the Mac mini, the other two Macs were recently redesigned. While the M4 iMac will likely switch its accessories to USB-C, we wouldn't call this a "dramatic change." In addition, Apple could revamp the Mac mini with a new design, but we haven't heard anything corroborating this possibility. That said, for these models, we expect Apple to focus on introducing the new M4 Pro and M4 Max chips instead of announcing a major redesign. By 2025, Cupertino is expected to unveil a new MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. Of all these models, the Mac Pro is most likely to get a redesign. In previous years, rumors revealed that Apple was working on an all-new Mac Pro. While many people were disappointed with Apple's similar design with the M2 Ultra Mac Pro compared to the Intel model, it seems Cupertino could finally be readying the "real" version it always wanted to release with the 2025 Mac Pro. Still, we'll need to wait until the second semester of 2025 for the new Mac Pro, as the M4 Ultra (or even a better chip) is expected by the second half of next year. Below, you can learn when to expect new M4 Macs. Don't Miss: When will Apple release new M4 Macs? The post Top insider says one of Apple’s M4 Macs will get a major redesign appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Stunning Yaber T2 Outdoor Projector has a massive 20% discount Today’s deals: $169 Apple Watch SE, $800 off Razer Blade 16 laptop, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, more Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2024: Get $450+ free Today’s deals: $69 AirPods, $230 off Meta Quest 3, $109 Bose speaker, $20 Anker Soundcore earbuds, more

On a calm, clear night towards the end of November 1120, the White Ship set sail from Barfleur in Normandy, bound for England. Crowding aboard the little vessel, a riotous party of some three hundred passengers and crew were all royally drunk – literally so, since the three great barrels of wine they had consumed had been destined for the court of the English king, Henry I. It was his son, the seventeen-year-old William Adelin, chief among the passengers, who had ordered the wine to be distributed, but this generous gesture would cost him his life. For as the ship flew speedily but erratically among the treacherous rocks lining the coast off Barfleur, the inevitable happened. Driven hard onto a rock and holed below the waterline, the White ship sank, and William, his fellow passengers and crew, were drowned in the icy seas. For Henry I this was not just a personal tragedy. The youngest of three brothers, he, himself, had come to the English throne in controversial circumstances, later defeating his older brother Robert and claiming his dukedom of Normandy as well. He had clearly planned a smoother passage for his heir, for William Adelin, his sole legitimate son, had been trained from childhood for his future role, and already acclaimed by the nobles of England and Normandy as Henry’s successor. Even so, there had been challenges to Henry’s rule, not the least from Robert’s son, William Clito, who along with his supporter, King Louis of France, had recently been defeated in battle. Henry was determined Clito would never succeed him either in England or in Normandy, but where now was he to find an heir for his lands? Read moreSection: NewsGeneralEuropeGuest AuthorsHistoryAncient TraditionsPremiumPreviewRead Later 

The hospitality workers' union UNITE HERE has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, a rejoinder to Republican Donald Trump's effort to woo restaurant and hotel workers by promising to make their tips tax-free.