Thursday Things: Balloons in the Sky Edition
9 February 2023. Vol 5 No 6. By Dan McGirt. #183
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I always feel like somebody’s watching me. Photo by ian dooley on Unsplash
Scary sky balloons of yore
Balloons were in the news recently, because that’s just the world we live in. While the saga of the “Chinese spy balloon” has come to an end, it reminded me that this is not the first time America has been beset by mysterious airships. Let’s go back to the thrilling days of yesteryear once more…
In the late 1890s, strange airships started being spotted sailing across the country’s skies. While lighter-than-air airships had been around since the 1850s, their capabilities were far more limited, and they were not nearly as big as those being observed. Witnesses described the ship, or ships, as being 150 to 200 feet long and moving at speeds of roughly 135 to 150 mph. Airships at the time were generally smaller and only moved at speeds of around 5 to 7 mph.
Happy Subscribers may recall I touched on this topic briefly in my conversations with the ChatGPT AI a couple of months ago. So it was a little bizarre to see an echo of that history play out in the sky this past week.
The first sighting occurred in November of 1896 in Sacramento, California, when hundreds of witnesses observed a steady light attached to some kind of large vessel pass across the sky overhead. Some said they could hear voices singing from the ship. One witness, R.L. Lowery, told the news that he could hear a man issuing out orders, “Throw her up higher; she’ll hit the steeple!” According to Lowery, the airship had a cigar-shaped body with wheels at the side and appeared to be powered by two men seated on a bicycle-like frame.
The sightings continued across the country for several before coming to an abrupt end in the spring of 1897. Was it a secretive airship inventor testing his airship? Mass hysteria? Aliens? All of the above? The record is unclear, but the Airship Panic of 1896-97 remains a fascinating bit of weird history.
All about the sleep
Sleep sometimes eludes me, so I was delighted to stumble across this item recently in Forbes: How To Turn Your Brain Off At Night, According To A Sleep Psychologist. It is an interview with Dr. Jade Wu, “a board-certified behavioral sleep medicine specialist” who has a new book out, Hello Sleep: The Science and Art of Overcoming Insomnia Without Medications.
I occasionally have difficulty falling asleep at a reasonable hour and sometimes that leads to periods of where I’m waking up at 3 am or 4 am to begin the programming day and consequently falling asleep early in the evening until I manage to ease myself out of that cycle over several days. One night of bad sleep can have aftershocks that linger for quite a while. So I’m always interested in advice on falling asleep when the Sandman is falling down on the job.
Here is the bit promised in the article title:
Often, we think it’s because of our racing thoughts that we can’t fall asleep. But really, it’s because we’re not sleepy that there’s room for the thoughts to race through our minds. That’s why one of the best things to do when you’re experiencing “busy brain” in bed is to make sure you’re actually sleepy, instead of merely feeling tired. If you’re not sleepy, it’s time to get out of bed and enjoy some extra “me” time until you are. Staying in bed and trying really hard to clear your mind will only invite your thoughts to swirl faster.
That’s not unreasonable. If you’re not able to fall asleep maybe it’s because you’re not sleepy! You can’t really force yourself asleep, so stay up a little longer until you are. Sound advice, sleep psychologist!
If you know you’re sleepy, but it’s still hard to drift off because there’s a big event coming up or a stressful problem you can’t stop worrying about, you can practice getting out of your head and into your body. Turn your attention to your breath, or notice how your body feels, slowly walking your attention from your head to your toes. If insistent thoughts come into your mind, it’s okay. Simply notice them, without judgment, and gently turn your attention back to your body.
And sometimes you really are sleepy, but your brain is stuck on something bothering you. That’s the tough one. Her advice to get out of your head and focus on your body and breath, I can report, does work with practice.
The rest of the lengthy interview is also interesting if you’re curious about sleep. She discusses various myths about sleep, including whether we all really need 8 hours of sleep each night, tips for sleeping when you travel, and other good information.
Coffee with cream for the win
Paradoxically, one of our other frequent topics at Thursday Things is coffee, which in excess is the enemy of sleep. Today we want to note a brief item in the genre of “science says coffee is good for you”:
A Splash of Milk in Coffee May Have Health Benefits We Didn't Know About
Science has shown that just the smell of coffee can make us feel alert, and luckily for coffee fans, there are health benefits, too. Coffee is a source of inflammation-fighting antioxidants and drinking it before exercise has fat-burning benefits.
Now a new study suggests that adding a dash of milk that contains protein can boost the health benefits of your cup of coffee.
Researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark examined how antioxidants called polyphenols interacted with amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, and found that combining them has twice the effect on fighting cellular inflammation as polyphenols alone.
This is excellent news to me because I like a splash of cream in my coffee. Coffee with cream is literally how Thursday Things gets written! And if you take your coffee with cream too, well, now you’ve got the science to back it up. Thanks, Science!
“Mmm, polyphenols!” Photo by Sonja Punz on Unsplash
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