#or like I watched enough kids movies on Netflix that they get aggressively marketed to me on Facebook 😂😂

[lyssitalennon]

it's vivo time again

[halcyonnhood]

Sight and Sound [5sos Fanfiction] Ch. 1

Authors Note: This fanfiction is based off of Bird Box (a netflix movie) and there will be touchy subjects involved. Suicide plays a major part in this and the plot, so be aware. This fic is something that I want to post just because I enjoy writing it :) 

This chapter is basically an intro and doesn’t involve the boys until the very end, so if you don’t want to read it....Don’t, I guess?? It’ll help though. 

Chapter One.

The epidemic began in Europe just a mere two weeks ago in the early weeks of fall. When the news started reporting about these ‘invisible’ forces causing chaos and driving people to kill themselves if seen, it seemed like an eerie joke. How could some supernatural being cause thousands of people to commit suicide? It seems like a scenario straight out of a horror movie, in my opinion. The only thing that I know is the fact that Europe is far enough away to give temporary safety.

                                             /   /   /

“How’d the lesson go?” Diana’s sing-song voice questions.

“It was okay. The kid can’t memorize a damn thing though” I sigh and turn to finish locking up the music store. “How was the market?”

“Horrible. I had this old man fight with me for 30 minutes straight over an expired coupon.” She explains with a rather disgruntled tone. “But Matthias promised to get us pizza to boost our moods,”

“Huh, weird. My shift this morning was sooooo easy.”

As a college student, it’s impossible to survive with only one job, so I had to take up two. Working at the market on main street and giving piano lessons at “Downtown Jams” in the afternoons takes up majority of any free time. If I’m lucky it leaves just enough time to spend the late afternoon and early evenings with Diana and my older brother Matthias. Most of the time, our bonding is enjoyable, but not when he expects us to walk across town to his favorite pizza place. Although I must admit, the pizza truly is the best in town. The walk there is quiet and peaceful, just the occasional sigh or brushing of arms with Diana until we’re nearly there and she stops suddenly, causing me to bump into her.

“What the fuck,” Diana’s voice is wavering and fearful.

“Wh-”

When I find where her line of vision is focused, my heart drops to the bottom of my feet and nausea washes over me. A middle-aged woman stands on the corner of the street, blood seeping down the sides of her face as she forcefully slams her head into the corner of the brick building. Diana grabs my arm just as the woman collapses backwards, the deep wounds across her forehead gushing blood and causing the dark liquid to pool on the cement. She pulls me towards the corner of the building, stepping over the unmoving woman and leading me to the pizza shop in a rush. When we’re safely in the building, she just turns to me with wide blue eyes and horror painted across her features.

“Tenley?” Matthias questions before placing a hand on my shoulder. “Is something wrong?”

“Matt, oh god” I pull him into me with shaky arms for a quick embrace. “We need to leave, we need to go, we need to get home. They’re here,”

“Woah, Ten calm down. Who’s here?” Matthias questions cooly.

“The things. I-” My own voice is uneven and wavering, but I swallow harshly and continue “The things from Europe, some woman just killed herself and we need to leave”

“Okay, okay. We can get to my house, it’s only a couple blocks away” He affirms and looks down at me cautiously. He runs a hand through his hair nervously, then smiles warmly. “We’ll be okay. We’ll get home and I can keep you both safe,”

“I don’t know if we should leave,” Diana comments with her back facing the windows. “We seem safe enough here,”

“I know you’re scared” Matthias tells her softly, “But if we stay here we’re going to die, more people are already dying"

“I don’t want to die”

“You won’t, I promise. We’re gonna go outside and run to my house, alright? I don’t care what you see, just keep running.” He addresses us both firmly. “Ready?”

“No,”

Matthias takes a deep breath, ignoring my frightened comment and grabs both of our hands before tugging us outside with him. As we take off running in the direction of his house, all it takes is one look to see all the chaos happening right in front of us. People are running, screaming, and just scrambling to get to their homes. No matter where I look I can’t escape the sight of people killing themselves, the dead bodys, and the blood splattered everywhere. My eyes are blurring with nervous tears and I feel myself start to trip up, but Matthias just keeps a tight grip on my hand and pulls me along with him. Matthias abruptly stops and I wipe away the tears before looking up to find a horrifying sight. His hazel eyes are glazed over and his face contort into an expression I’ve never witnessed on my own brother; fear. Within a second his eyes are turning a greenish color, his pupils blowing and looking frighteningly dark.

“What the hell is that?” Matthias stares at the empty space in front of him, much to my confusion. “Ten, what the-”

“Matt?” I shake his arm violently, “What is it?”

“Matt, no” Diana joins in shaking him aggressively to get him out of the trance.

“We need to keep running, c’mon” I plead with him, “Please, Matthias! Lets go!”

Nothing can draw Matthias out of the trance, no matter how much I pull on his arm and scream at him to keep moving. Diana just stares at me with the same shock and desperation written across her features as we both realize his dreadful fate. It doesn’t stop us from both choking out a sob as he tears his arm from my grip and reaches into his pocket, pulling out his treasured pocket knife. Without a second thought, I reach out and grab ahold of his arm, using my entire body weight to attempt to pry the knife out of his hand. There was no way that I could just passively watch my own brother kill himself, yet the prying idea failed. The knife just leaves a gash along my hand and cheek before it’s embedded in the side of his neck, blood spurting out of the artery leaving him to fall helplessly to the ground.

After a few moments of staring at Matthias’s lifeless and bloody body in shock, I tug on Diana's hand until she reluctantly follows behind me. We run in the direction of the familiar neighborhood, this time with our heads down and it seems farther than it ever has before. With the amount of people also running to reach safety, it becomes congested in the streets with everyone growing more terrified and pushy by the second. With my eyes focused on the ground it becomes difficult to dodge the masses of people and before I can stop my self, I’m tripping and my face is bashing against the pavement. While struggling to pull myself up, all I can taste is the metallic iron from the blood oozing from my nose and it’s nearly enough to make me hurl right on my own shoes. Diana pulls me up by my arm and all I can make out is yelling from the house beside us.

“You both have to come back inside, they’ll be fine. We only need you” One of the voices screams from my right.

“They’re young girls!” The second male voice screams back. “They need help,”

Within seconds, I feel another hand on my shoulder and I can make out two pairs of mens sneakers on the ground in front of us. The hand pushes us lightly towards the right and I can feel panic building in the pit of my stomach, unsure of whether to fight back.

“Keep your eyes closed.” The boy tells me softly, his voice smooth and inviting. “You can open them when we tell you,”

With my eyes closed, I literally put my blind trust into this man as they still lead us to the right and softly telling us when to step up. The warmth of the house is inviting and as soon as both Diana and I are in with the door shut, we’re told that we can safely open our eyes. After I blink and adjust to the darkness of the house, I turn to find four tall boys watching Diana and I closely. The boy beside me has warm hazel eyes and a soft smile tugging at his pink lips, a small gesture of kindness in such horrid events. He then just pats me on the shoulder carefully and takes a step away from us.

“I’m Ashton,” He greets.

Tags: @5sos-luna (since they’re the only one who showed interest). If you want tagged, ask? 

[kyrsten-cregger]

Netflix Assessment

Competitive Advantage

Netflix, the leading provider of Streaming Videos on Demand, has an uncertain future ahead; however, it can secure its future with sustainable competitive advantage. According to the case, Netflix’s competitive advantage comes from being one of the first platforms in the industry and being a well-known brand. Sure there are other platforms and more platforms joining the competition; however, Netflix has multiple years of subscribers, content, data, and finances that will help it maintain its lead for some time. With being one of the first platforms, Netflix was able to secure a high reputation in the industry and able to monkey with their content in order to provide subscribers with what they want to view. The data and capital raised during its lead in the industry will also remain a competitive advantage; however, this is not as sustainable. As the data shows, other platforms are sweeping the competition, stealing subscriptions, and even taking content away from Netflix. Therefore, Netflix’s most sustainable competitive advantage lies in its original content creation. With the plethora of revenue generated during its first few years, Netflix began reinvesting into original content creation, funding movies and shows that are original and solely on its own streaming platform. Furthermore, the cost of creating their own content is one-time, consistent amount; therefore, they will pay for themselves as enough subscribers watch them and purchase subscriptions to watch them. Netflix is also able to use its consumer data in order to make better-informed decisions in what type of content to create and what shows/movies to continue funding. If Netflix is able to hone on to the wants of their consumers, they will be able to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage by creating content that users must subscribe to in order to view in the first place.

Sustainability

According to the article “Does Netflix Have a Competitive Advantage?” by Jeremy Bowman, in the past year, Netflix has proven that it does in fact have sustainable competitive advantage. Bowman states that Netflix’s sustainable competitive advantage boils down to 2 characteristics: pricing power and increasing profitability. For example, Netflix chose to raise its subscription from $13 to $14 in the 4th quarter of 2020. Although Netflix is almost double the cost of many competitors (Disney+ for $6.99, Apple TV+ for $4.99, etc.), Netflix is able to charge the higher cost without fear of losing too many subscriptions. Bowman claims that Netflix’s pricing power is the product of an aggressive content spending strategy in order to create and offer something for everyone. The other platforms have not dabbled in original content creation nearly as much as Netflix. If they were to start dabbling in content creation, we could expect the prices of those subscriptions to rise as well in order to be able to fund original shows and movies that are geared to the consumers’ wants. On the increasing profitability side, Netflix finally told investors that they expect to see a break-even point and positive free cash flow sometime in 2021. Free cash flow was a huge challenge for Netflix for many years, as they prioritized original content creation in order to rake in higher subscription volumes. It seems as though their aggressive content spending strategy may soon pay off and even lead to an economic “moat” between Netflix and its competitors. This “moat” will be the core of their sustainable competitive advantage as they are financially able and sound enough to continue content generation in focus of gaining and retaining subscribers.

Bowman’s article directly supports my thoughts on Netflix’s sustainable competitive advantage. For one, Netflix’s beginning stance in the industry allowed them to start and increase their subscription volume which led to a financial competitive advantage. Although I speculated their well-known presence in the industry to be the main advantage, Bowman contributes their early presence in combination with their early content strategy to be the true competitive advantage. For instance, Netflix was quick the game to collect subscribers as well quick to offer original content that retained subscribers. I am more speculative about their financial advantage considering Netflix has always found free cash flow to be a challenge. Furthermore, their recent financial earnings can be closely attributed to consumer trends in relation to COVID-19. There is no evidence that trends will remain the same after COVID-19 is a thing of the past.

Competitive Environment

Netflix’s competitive environment has grown significantly in the last couple years. At the beginning, Netflix’s main competitors were Amazon Prime and Hulu. More recent additions to the streaming industry include Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, CBS All Access, Peacock, ESPN+, Quibi, and Paramount+. The market is saturated by enough competition that the threat of a monopoly is not in the picture. However, all competitors can be seen as substitutes to Netflix, and there is an ever-present threat of entrants that want to play the same streaming game. According to the case though, many subscribers are willing to pay for multiple streaming services. Netflix happens to be one of the contenders that most subscribers are willing to hold on to.  As far as suppliers go, Netflix is making a strong decision to rely heavily on original content creation as other competitors began to “steal” access to pre-existing content. Original content creation has 1 flat cost, which can be covered by continued and new subscriptions. On the buyer side of things, Netflix attempts to provide content for all. Therefore, they are attempting to market towards families with young kids, adults that work from home, and teens. Other companies, such as Disney+, are focusing their marketing efforts on target markets like just families with young kids. Netflix and its competitors seem to be focusing on adding and creating content that will positively reach their specific target markets; however, its competitors seem to be using a lower-cost initiative to try and steal some market share.

Threats

The biggest threats to Netflix include Amazon Prime, Disney+, and HBO Max. For one, Amazon Prime has no lack of subscriptions and no lack in popularity. Amazon Prime’s challenges have been trying to market their streaming services and procuring/creating content that is wanted by their consumers. In other words, Amazon Prime is finding it a challenge to compete with Netflix’s content; however, Amazon Prime has the funds and resources to collect and analyze data that could potentially eliminate this problem entirely. As for Disney+, they are a big threat to Netflix because they have already secured the rights to their own content, Pixar’s, Marvels, and Discovery’s, as well as started to create new original content. They even started releasing content so people can see it at home compared to the theaters. They also offer their streaming services at a much lower price. HBO Max on the other hand, offers their product at a higher price; however, they have the rights to more “blockbuster” movies and will start creating more “blockbuster” content with bigger celebrity names involved. If any streaming service is able to perfect their content creation, offer enough variety, and at a lower price, any streaming service stands as a threat to Netflix.

Consumer Trends

In the streaming services industry, there are multiple emerging consumer and industry trends that are super important to track. One consumer trend is “couch time”, or the increasing desire to stream shows and services during and due to the pandemic. In fact, 56% of respondents said they are watch 2 or more hours of streaming services on a given day than before the pandemic (euromonitor international). Some parents even use streaming services as a make-shift nanny to watch over their kids, while other adults now working from home feel the need to have a relaxation break in the middle of the work day to relieve the stress. Another consumer trend is the desire for a lot of variety and multiple options to stream. That being said, Americans are spending more and more on streaming services in a month and most subscribe to multiple streaming services.  For example, families with children have 3.8 services while homes with no children subscribe to 1.7 services (Flint, Mullin, & Rizzo, 2020). Consumers are spending more time viewing streaming services, have more time to get through all of the content, and therefore look to more providers to keep up this trend.

On the industry side of things, streaming service providers must compete for consumer attention. One industry trend is creating original content for their viewers rather than getting caught in a bidding war trying to secure other content. Considering the pandemic shut down a lot of studios and production, there has been less content to procure and consumers are consuming at record level speeds. Netflix has been a leader in original content creation; however, other providers like HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Hulu are later to the game, but starting to see the importance of it more and more. Another industry trend is the seek for opportunity in the international sector. While most of these streaming platforms are native to America, international markets are now being viewed as untapped streams of revenue. Netflix has seen incredible growth in subscribers, so it is not long until the other platforms expand their market internationally as well. The challenge then becomes offering content and services that are perceived just as well on an international stage.

Global Consumer Trends of 2021

Consumer trends are key for a firm’s success because they can either make or break the business. On a positive side, Netflix will be impacted by the consumer trends craving convenience, phygital reality, playing with time, and shaken and stirred (euromonitor international). Netflix is able to cater to craving convenience very easily. Netflix is an online streaming service that offers entertainment in the most convenient way possible. Furthermore, Netflix’s platform is built upon the idea of phygital reality. People once were able to go to movie theaters to consume entertainment. Now the same experience can be consumed directly from their streaming devices at home. Moreover, Netflix is up and running 24/7; therefore, they are able to cater to the consumer’s desire to consume entertainment at any time that is convenient for them. Some newer consumer trends can also affect where Netflix takes its next step. For instance, they can cater to the shaken and stirred trend by creating content that is built to foster a balanced, fulfilled, and self-improved well-being. In fact, it may be beneficial for Netflix to spend more resources in this particular area. On the negative side of things, it is just as important for Netflix to be aware of the trends that could negatively impact them. For example, Netflix should be weary of the Outdoor Oasis trend and how movie theaters could take this to their advantage. If movie theaters were able to provide an outdoor experience at cheaper costs, consumers may be more willing and interested in consuming their entertainment in a new, outdoor experience. Therefore, Netflix should make the effort to secure their position as a leading entertainment provider for the long-run.

[rosehoare]

The future of love

Published in Sunday magazine, 2014

Ready for Valentine’s Day? It’s the day we celebrate the romantic notion that you can love the same person your whole life!

I mean romantic, as opposed to realistic. Because, let me tell you, my friend: by committing ourselves to monogamous relationships with one person (just one! That’s half what’s considered reasonable to help yourself to from a biscuit sampler), we are behaving like sexual anorexics, starving our basic, hardwired hunger.

From a computer scientist’s point of view, forging a face to face connection belongs in the too hard basket. And from a philosopher’s point of view, we are living in an age of such overweening narcissism that we might not be capable of real, scary, grown-up love anyway.

Nevertheless, since our weak minds cling to the delusion of love and our culture obsesses over “cute couples”, and since being single can get to feeling like a slow withering of the soul, the question persists: how can we stay in love and be happy?

Last September, ethicist Brian D. Earp and some colleagues at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Neuroethics co-authored a paper proposing a chemical intervention to a crummy problem we have inherited.

That old “men just aren’t built for monogamy” cop-out turns out to be backed by data observable across species, and championed by evolutionary psychologists.

“The engine of natural selection is that you want to maximise reproduction,” Earp says. “We’re not puppets of our genes, but from an evolutionary standpoint, it makes no sense to have one sexual partner your whole life.”

Things were simpler for our Pleistocene-era ancestors. They lived half as long as we do, roaming around in groups of about 150 relatives, raising their kids communally. And after three or four years, the parenting was done, whereas we live in a more information-rich world, where raising a child to the point where it can fend for itself like the feral kid in Mad Max doesn’t really cut it anymore.

(Procrastination being what it is, I could tell you a lot more about this colourful Pleistocene era, with its woolly mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers and other such “megafauna” which we may, in our lifetimes, see “rewilded” in a Jurassic Park-like situation. Google it if you don’t believe me.)

The point is, Pleistocene parents used to be able to get back amongst it very quickly, while today’s parents are committed to parenting until the child is 16. And even after that, couples are expected to spend decades more as monogamous romantic partners.

Clearly, Earp says, “there’s a gap to make up between what our human dispositions are like and what we expect of ourselves. The question is how do we make up that difference?”

Currently, we respond to the problem with infidelity (10-54% of wives and 20-72% of husbands) and divorce (around 42% in New Zealand). We go to relationship counselling but plenty of couples don’t benefit from it. So Earp suggests we try huffing oxytocin.

Oxytocin is the hormone we naturally produce in situations related to attachment. It floods our system when we orgasm, when we go into labour, when we breastfeed, when we hug. When you come home and see your dog, you get a burst of oxytocin, and your dog does too.

On the face of it, oxytocin seems like a miracle drug for couples counselling. It reduces anxiety and stress (even when couples are discussing a ‘chronic source of conflict'). It boosts trust, eye contact, empathy and attentiveness. Under the influence of oxytocin, couples remember their good times more readily.

It even improves monogamous impulses: last year, neuroscientists found that after inhaling oxytocin, men in relationships displayed less interest in a pretty female than single men.

But it has a few wacky side effects. Oxytocin can turn the volume up on us-and-them feelings like envy, schadenfreude and ethnocentrism -- it makes people less friendly to strangers than they would otherwise be. For people with aggressive tendencies, oxytocin seems to actually enhance aggressive behaviour. It also brings up more bad memories for those with anxious attachment to their mother.

“Oxytocin isn’t just this universal enhancer that makes everything more positive, happy and trustworthy,” Earp says. “It interacts with the person, who they are and what their attachment styles are.”

All the same, for the right people and in the right environment, Earp thinks oxytocin shows promise. “I don’t want to have to be constantly spraying something up my nose in order simply to function in my relationship, but if I used it in a counselling session while I’m learning more productive communication behaviours or something like that, and then I weaned myself off of it but I retained what I’d learned, that could be very useful.”

But enough of bringing our Pleistocene impulses into the 21st century with experimental chemicals! Hasn’t technology already brought us further than that? Set the flux capacitor to 2045, Marty. Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!

Dr James Hughes is a sociologist and executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies in Connecticut. I wanted to ask him about the possibility of love with an artificial intelligence (AI).

Some futurists predict that, by 2045 or thereabouts, we will experience something called the Singularity, a point when artificial intelligence will overtake human intelligence, and keep improving at an exponential rate, leaving us all in its dust.

Some people find the prospect of AI menacing. Dr Hughes is not one of those people (although he is concerned about the effect it might have on the labour market). He doesn’t find the idea of a relationship with a disembodied AI all that outlandish.

For one thing, he says, we already interact with AI a lot. Software that uses algorithms and big data to predict what we want -- Netflix, Google, dating agencies -- are a form of AI. And Hughes says we already know that humans “anthropomorphize and seem to take a great deal of emotional comfort from relationships with technology”. In the 1960s, an MIT scientist created a rudimentary chat bot and programmed it with a script for psychotherapy. He was disturbed by how readily people opened up to it.

“The Roomba is another example: the little circular robot vacuum cleaners that wander around your house and suck up your dirt? People were naming them. They would feel heartbroken if one got broken and they’d send them back, and if asked ‘do you want a replacement’, they’d say ‘No, I want my one back’.”

Hughes says the attractions of electronic forms of love and romance are manifold: an electronic partner is constantly available, there’s less risk of sexually transmitted disease or unwanted pregnancy, and you don’t ever have to bicker with your robot lover, unless that’s what you’re into.

And yes, let’s get to the part you have probably been wondering about: sex with a robot or a remote human, via teledildonics and whatnot, promises to be fulfilling and, according to robot sex expert David Levy, commonplace by 2050.

When it comes to the burden of emotional and sexual engagement in a relationship, technology is already helping pick up the slack: a new sex app developed for Google Glass allows partners to stream each other’s points of view, can flash up sex advice in flagrante delicto and can even dim the lights. (Can you imagine anything sexier than watching your partner issue a pre-coital voice-activation command to their wifi-enabled home lighting system?)

Researchers are currently programming facial recognition software to help people with autism read emotional cues, so, Hughes says, “We’re looking at a future where ‘Your wife seems to be happy right now, but she’s really mad at you’ suddenly flashes up on your Google Glass.”

Regardless of whether it’s with a human you only connect with in World of Warcraft or a robot, Hughes believes technology will enable unimaginably richer connections. We’ll use haptic technology that responds to touch; facial recognition software that helps read moods, and nano-neural interfacing that enables us to share thoughts and memories.

“There may be AI in the future who, because of the depth of their programmed understanding of the human mind and emotions, knows you ten times better than anybody else could,” Hughes says.

Ah, but would I feel known? However nice it might be to have a robot lover who can suggest a movie I’ll love, wouldn’t I somehow still compartmentalize my feelings for an AI as being of a different, lesser order to what my feelings could be for a human?

Not if you can’t tell them apart, Hughes says. A classic test designed by math genius Alan Turing pits an AI against a human intelligence, and asks us to guess which we’re communicating with. “Every year, we see AI getting higher and higher thresholds of people guessing they’re human,” Hughes says. “The interesting thing about the Turing test is lots of humans fail it. There are humans whose interaction and style of communication is such that they can’t communicate as fully realised human beings.”

Given how important and universal the experience of love is, philosophers haven’t made a very impressive job of explaining its mysteries. In fact, some of the most influential philosophers had abysmal love lives. Nietzsche sprang a proposal on a girl he barely knew, was rejected and died alone. Kierkegaard had a nice girlfriend, but got emo and broke off their engagement. Sartre and De Beauvoir came close with a markedly bohemian relationship - lots of intellectual chats, no fidelity, no marriage, no kids.

So far, so romantic. Then along comes Alain Badiou’s In Praise of Love.

In an interview format, the elderly French philosopher describes love as a sharing of perspectives that creates a new reality, an event as irrevocably life-altering as when Keanu takes the red pill in The Matrix.

Dr Tim Rayner, a philosopher at Sydney-based consultancy Philosophy for Change, has been pondering love ever since he gave a disastrous speech about its essential unknowability at his brother’s wedding years ago, and he thinks Badiou has come closest to nailing love, on behalf of philosophy.

“Badiou thinks when you fall in love with someone, you see your life again -- not just as it could be, but as it should be.”

“It’s a real world that we’re drawn into,” Rayner says. “It’s not like a window that we can look through and go ‘that was interesting’ and move on. We feel compelled to actualize it, because it’s part of who we are.”

That’s Badiou’s philosophical ideal of love, but it’s not how he sees things enacted. Rayner says Badiou is especially cranky about people looking for “risk-free” love based on mutual compatibility -- the kind of casual, exploratory relationships orchestrated by dating services, where, if things get tough, it’s easy to walk away. Anyone hoping to make love more convenient, to gain the ecstatic feelings without hazarding any disruption to their life, is missing the point. Love, the only way Badiou would have it, is necessarily fraught.

“It’s a very frightening place to be,” Rayner says. “You’re violating the sanctity of the ego and putting yourself in a position of vulnerability. But you need to go there to create the common space of love. And since we do live in a fairly egoistic society, for some people, that’s too much of a leap to make. But if you are going to commit yourself to the love experience, you have to say ‘my life is no longer just about me, it’s about us, and everything I do from now on is about strengthening that bond’.” Then you have to figure out how you’re going to change the world together.

Maybe the new reality you create together is being Hollywood’s hottest power couple. Maybe it’s doing a really sensational home renovation. For a lot of couples, it’s having kids -- a transformative experience that can have meaning for couples beyond fulfilling an ancestral drive.

That’s a traditional perspective, but Rayner says you can experience Badiou’s kind of love outside of a romantic relationship, too. For Badiou, a militant Maoist who agitated in the ‘68 uprisings, comrades can have a kind of comradely love forged by being engaged in a common struggle. And Rayner thinks colleagues -- workers or artists -- collaborating on a project can feel powerfully bonded by the experience of co-creation.

And if you’re single this Valentine’s Day, take heart: you, too, can experience Badiou’s world-reconfiguring, romantic love, all by yourself.

“When you meet another person who just sweeps you off your feet and gives you a sense of how your whole life could be different, often those kinds of relationships are unrequited”, Rayner says. “I mean, the best romances are, right?”

[midlifewithavengeance]

5 Things To Know Before You Buy Blue Light Blocking Glasses

The blog article 5 Things To Know Before You Buy Blue Light Blocking Glasses was originally published on Midlife With A Vengeance Blog

How much time do you spend thinking about your light consumption? If you’re like most people, the answer is: not enough.

Controlling light exposure isn’t something our pre-industrial, pre-digital ancestors had to worry about. But in today’s perpetually lit-up world, it’s important for us all to regulate how we consume light–and the timingof light our consumption. Light has tremendous effects on sleep and health, and too much light, especially in the evenings, can seriously undermine sleep. Blue light, we’ve learned, is especially detrimental to sleep and health, when we’re exposed to too much of it and our exposure comes at the wrong times of day and night.

Where’s all this blue light coming from? Screens are a major source. But so is environmental lighting, including the energy efficient lights in our own homes and public spaces, from airplane cabins to movie theaters.

Limiting screen time is one way to reduce and control light exposure. But for most of us, it’s not going to get us consistently the protections we need from excessive blue light exposure. That’s why blue light blocking glasses are important to consider. Unlike filters that go over individual screens, light-blocking glasses go with you—so you’re always prepared to limit your exposure to blue light when you need to.

Some of you may already know, I have developed a line of blue light blocking eyeglasses– you can check them out here: www.sleepdoctorglasses.com.

With the respected eyewear developers Luminere, we put the latest science to work in creating glasses that filter out blue light, to protect sleep and circadian rhythms, and reduce the eye strain and potential eye damage that comes from too much exposure to blue light. We actually created two pair of glasses—every pair of Sleep Doctor glassescomes with a pair of UV-A and UV-B blocking sunglasses. (And both have the same cool, retro style.)

I’m really excited about our glasses, and I love hearing from so many patients and others about how much better everyone is sleeping now that they’re using them. But whether you buy mine or another product, I want everyone to know why it matters so much to protect yourself against excessive blue light exposure—and how to pick the best, most effective glasses for you.

#1: Here’s why you need to wear them

 Blue lightis uniquely disruptive to sleep and circadian rhythms.

What is blue light?  It’s the shortest wavelength of light on the visible light spectrum. Sunlight contains blue light, along with the other visible light wavelengths.Both energy efficient and digital lighting contain high concentrations blue light.It’s not that any and all exposure to blue light is harmful. But because of our constant exposure to digital screens and bright nighttime environments, most of us are consuming way too much blue light—and doing so at the at very worst times for sleep.

There’s a large—and growing—body of research demonstrating the hazardous impact of blue light on sleep and sleep-wake bio rhythms:

Studies show bluelight aggressively inhibits the production ofmelatonin, a hormone that is a central regulator of circadian rhythms and also is essential for sleep. Research shows blue light suppresses melatonin for more than twice as longas other visible light wavelengths—and alters circadian rhythms by twice the degree.

Room light that’s rich in blue wavelength light from high-efficiency light sources also suppresses melatonin.

At the same time blue light inhibits melatonin, it also stimulates the production of cortisol, a major stress and alerting hormone that interferes with sleep.

Exposure to blue light shortens sleep timeand leads to more awakenings throughout the night, resulting in less refreshing sleep and more fatigue the next day.

There’s also some significant emerging research showing that blue light may inflict unique damage on the cells in our eyes. Studies indicate blue light has a unique capacity to inflict damage on the health and function of our eyes, raising risks for eye diseases including cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. (Poor sleep itself can also contribute to problems with vision, as research shows.)

There’s emerging evidence of connection between blue light exposure and elevated risk for certain cancers, including breast and prostate cancers. There’s also a developing connection between blue light exposure and obesity, as well as diabetes.

Blue light exposure isn’t just a problem for adults. Kids, as we all know, tend to be big-time screen users. Research shows that children’s exposure to blue lightat night causes their bodies to produce less melatonin and to feel less sleepy at bedtime.

The good news? A large and growing body of research demonstrates that blue light blocking glasses can be highly effective at filtering out blue light and restoring healthy sleep and bio rhythms. Studies show wearing blue light blocking glasses can:

Improve symptoms of insomnia

Increase sleep amountsand sleep quality

Reset circadian rhythms

Improve cognitive performance, including memory and learning, and how quickly the brain processes information

Read on to learn about how to get these protections by choosing the right pair of blue light blocking glasses.

 #2: They don’t darken your vision

I get this question from my patients a lot. High-quality glasses made with amber lenses will effectively block blue light without darkening vision. Amber lenses absorb blue light and other stimulating light, while allowing other, less alerting light wavelengths to pass through, so you can still see clearly for normal activities such as working on a computer, reading, or watching television. I’ll talk more in just a minute about the benefits of amber lenses compared to clear lenses, along with other features that are important for selecting the right pair of glasses to block blue light.

#3: Blue light blocking glasses can benefit everyone 

We all have different challenges when it comes to our individual light consumption.  Some people spend 10 hours a day in front of a computer; others travel constantly and are exposed to light at odd and changing hours of the day. Gamers log plenty of screen time. Lots of us like to wrap our evenings watching Netflix. These are different habits, that share a common risk: excessive blue light exposure.

I tell my patients: light is medicine. Every one of us needs to manage light exposure to minimize the sleep and health risks of too much blue light. Especially at night, when our bodies need darkness to stimulate melatonin production, blue light blocking glasses can help all of us minimize the sleep-depriving, bio rhythm-altering damage blue light wavelengths cause.

#4: Light blocking apps don’t work

These built-in apps are a good idea in theory. But scientific evidence shows these apps are likely not effective at doing the job they’re intended for: blocking enough high energy light to protect the body’s natural bio rhythms, and the nightly rise in melatonin that makes sleep possible.

For example,a 2018 study found that Apple’s Night Shift app—found on its iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads—DID NOT reverse the melatonin suppression that arises from our evening exposureto these devices.

About 9 in 10 of us are using electronics routinely within an hour of bedtime. For many us, that means taking our phones and tablets to bed—to read, to scroll through social media, to stream our favorite shows. This 2015 study shows that our pre-bedtime electronics habitthrows off bio clocks, inhibits melatonin production, stimulates alertness at night and decreases alertness in the morning. A 2018 study involving electronic tablets found that evening use without protection against blue lightled to suppressed melatonin, later bedtimes, less evening sleepiness, longer times to fall asleep, and less alertness the next morning.

#5: Choose glasses with amber lenses—and these other features

Let’s get into the how-to of selecting a pair of blue light blocking glasses. There are lots of them on the market. That’s a sign of just how critical a health and sleep issue blue light exposure has become. But it also makes selecting the right pair of blue light blockers confusing.

First: Avoid glasses with clear lenses.Instead, make sure your blue light blocking glasses have amber lenses.

Why? When light passes through a colored filter (in this case, the eyeglass lens) the filter allows light wavelengths of its own and similar colors to pass through—while absorbing the light of other colors. Amber lenses absorb the short-wavelength blue light that’s highly concentrated in artificial and digital light sources, preventing it from being absorbed by the eye. At the same time, these colored lenses allow longer-wavelength orange and red light wavelengths to pass through. As studies have demonstrated, these long light wavelengthshave the least impact on sleep and bio rhythms.Clear lenses can’t sufficiently filter out blue light, to avoid problems with sleep and alterations to circadian rhythms.

Studies show that amber lenses are effective at preventing blue light from reaching the eye. Wearing amber lenses—and especially doing so consistently at night—can improve sleep quality, correct disruptions to circadian rhythms, and increase overall sleep amounts. Amber lenses also can reduce symptoms of insomnia—trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, waking very early, and feeling un-refreshed by a night of rest.

Here’s another important thing to know: For blue-light blocking glasses to work effectively to help your sleep, they need to block virtually all of the blue light coming your way. Blue light blocking glasses that claim to block 50 or 60 or even 80 percent of blue light do not go far enough in giving you the protection you need for your nightly rest and circadian rhythm health.

My Sleep Doctor blue light blocking glasses, I’m proud to say, filter out 99-100% of blue light—more than any other computer reading glasses available. That’s a result we worked hard to get through rigorous research, development, and laboratory testing.Our glasses employ a patented, rigorously tested amber lens that provides a truly comprehensive shield against blue light.

Here’s what else to look for in blue light blocking glasses:

They’re made in consultation with sleep experts.Before you buy, make sure your blue light blocking glasses have been developed with the help of scientific experts with specific expertise in sleep, and that the product is rigorously tested in laboratory. Look for specific, laboratory-backed results about exactly how much blue light the eyeglasses block.

They block UV-A and UV-B light.Blue light is harmful to our sleep and may also hurt our eyes themselves. UV rays are also harmful to our eyes and to vision. Greater exposure to UV-A and UV-B rays is linked to higher risks for cataracts and macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness. Look for blue-light blockers that filter out both blue light and harmful UV rays.

They’reanti-glareand anti-reflective.  These features help ease eye strain that comes from logging so much time in front of computers and other screens. Combined with the filtering of blue light and other high energy visible light wavelengths, anti-glare and anti-reflective glasses can reduce a great deal of the strain and over-stimulation that comes from our light-rich environments.

They’re comfortable. It’s worth spending more for well-made frames that feel good and easy to wear.

They come with a generous warranty. You’re going to use these glasses A LOT. There’s a good chance at some point they’ll get stepped on, dropped, smashed, or scratched. Before you buy, make sure they come with a warranty that replaces them for a lifetime of use.

All the features I’ve highlighted above, from research and development, to medical sleep expertise, to the quality of materials and design, come at a cost. There’s no magic at work here: all that expertise, craftsmanship, and testing has to show up in the consumer price. If the price doesn’t reflect these critical contributions, then it’s likely they weren’t a part of the process.

For a pair of well designed, rigorously tested, high-quality blue light blocking glasses, expect to pay somewhere in the range of $75-$125. Remember, if you choose a pair that come with a lifetime warranty, you’ll only pay this price once.

MySleep Doctor Luminere Blue Light Blocking glassestick all the boxes, from specially coated amber lenses to a lifetime warranty and a price just under $100 (for two pairof glasses).

Whatever glasses you choose, it’s worth making the investment now in a high-quality pair of blue light blockers. That’s taking a big, important step in managing your daily light consumption.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD, DABSM

The Sleep Doctor

www.thesleepdoctor.com

The post 5 Things To Know Before You Buy Blue Light Blocking Glasses appeared first on Your Guide to Better Sleep.

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