New topics from BetterHelp

I would like to add  non-anonymous contributions to this Blog. I know anonymous ones encourage people to express themselves more "freely" but  also can stimulate negativity. On the other hand,  contributors who identify themselves "own" their topics and are more likely to attract serious discussion.

Starting today, we have a special guest contributor, Marie Miguel. She has been a writing and research expert for nearly a decade, covering a variety of health- related topics. Currently, she is contributing to the expansion and growth of a free online mental health resource with BetterHelp.com. With an interest and dedication to addressing stigmas associated with mental health, she continues to specifically target subjects related to anxiety and depression.

Here is her article on the importance of mental health.

The Importance of Mental Health

We all strive for good health and good fortune, but this sometimes comes at the cost of our mental health.

Sacrificing your mental health is something that you should never do. In this post, we will tell you why that is and what you should do in order to have the best mental health possible.

First, What Is Mental Health?

We have an idea of what mental health entails, but we may not know the exact definition.

Mental health describes our well-being. It is composed of three categories: emotional, psychological, and social needs.

When you are feeling sad, angry, or feel other emotional issues, your mental health suffers. When you have a mental health disorder, or you’re not taking care of your mind, your psychological needs suffer. When you are not speaking to anyone, your social needs suffer.

Mental health is more difficult to measure than physical health because it’s sometimes a challenge to know what is going on inside one’s mind.

Why Mental Health is Essential

Here are some reasons why mental health is a need for everyone.

It Helps Us Handle Challenges

At all stages, life has its own challenges. From working to planning for the future, and from unexpected events like COVID and other uncertainties, you need to be mentally strong. If you are not, you may not be able to handle what life throws at you.

You’re not weak if you have moments where you can’t handle life. However, it’s important to take a breather and improve your mental health.

It Connects With Your Physical Health

When you are mentally unwell, it may have an impact on your physical health. For instance, when you are depressed, you will be unable to get out of bed or work out. Not working out can lead to obesity, which may lead to diabetes and other mental health issues.

It can have an impact on other parts that can affect your physical health, including your hygiene.

Makes Us Productive

Whether it’s for your job or for your own hobbies, being mentally well is important to get the most output out of what life brings you.

Helping Your Mental State

With all that said, there are some ways for you to improve your mental state. These include:

• Eating right and exercising.

• Doing mediation and practicing mindfulness.

• Getting a full night’s sleep.

• Keeping to a routing.

• Trying new hobbies that interest you.

• Seeking help from a therapy.

Why Therapy Can Help

Some people are skeptical of therapy, or don’t feel like they should go.

We should make it clear that there is nothing wrong with wanting to go to therapy, and doing so can help to save your life in some cases.

There are some mental health conditions and life situations that you may be unable to do on your own. Speaking to a professional can help you get to the bottom of what is concerning you and allow you some peace of mind.

Here are some signs it may be time to talk to a therapist:

• No matter what you do, you never have energy.

• You feel like everything you do is for nothing.

• You’ve been consuming drugs or excess alcohol.

• You no longer enjoy what you used to.

• Your mood seems to swing at the drop of a hat.

• Many people have noticed that you’ve changed.

These signs may mean you should talk to a therapist. Talking to someone can end up saving your life in some cases, especially if you have severe depression or are turning to drugs to solve your problems. A therapist may be able to assist you.

Online Therapy is a Solution

If you want to speak to someone, but you don’t know where to turn to, online therapy can help.

You can speak to a therapist from the comfort of your own home. The therapist is licensed and ready to work on your schedule, which makes it convenient for you.

In order to learn more about what online therapy means, go to BetterHelp. There, you can learn more about therapy and talk to a therapist of your choosing.

Wuhan leak to be investigated.

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9632403/Biden-orders-National-Labs-examine-unexamined-evidence-pandemic-probe.html

So the DOE and NNSA labs are going to examine if the pandemic came from a lab leak at Wuhan. The picture in the above article showing LLNL equipment looks like NIF. I am not exactly sure how NIF will be used but I am guessing they are actually going to use the supercomputers. Well this could be interesting, suppose it does turn out to be a China lab leak, what happens in that case. Do you just say we are going to boycott the 2022 Olympics and call it even?

Infinite racism threads

 Thank you Scooby for terminating the "racism" threads and putting your blog back on an even keel.

Ben and Steve

 Ben Santer does not want Steve Koonin to speak at LLNL

https://blog.ucsusa.org/science-blogger/climate-denialism-no-place-at-lawrence-livermore-laboratory

Tackling systemic racism requires the system of science to change

 "Nature" will change its science to combat systemic racism

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01312-4

Since the labs publish in Nature and Nature family journals this will have some kind of impact.

Racism in science is endemic because the systems that produce and teach scientific knowledge have, for centuries, misrepresented, marginalized and mistreated people of colour and under-represented communities. The research system has justified racism — and, too often, scientists in positions of power have benefited from it. That system includes the organization of research: how it is funded, published and evaluated

Ending systemic racism will therefore require those in the system, including Nature, to collectively acknowledge and study these facts, and to ask: how and why did this happen? We need to thoroughly understand the root causes, even as we seek energetically to remedy the ongoing damage. Some have already started down this road. Projects at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and the University of Glasgow, UK, have investigated these institutions’ past ties to the slave trade and how they prospered from it, helping to build a more accurate and complete account of science history.

Too often, conventional metrics — citations, publication, profits — reward those in positions of power, rather than helping to shift the balance of power.

Hmm, sounds good I cannot imagine anything going wrong with this.

Maybe we might be better off when China takes over the world.

Senators Probe Acting NNSA Chief About Livermore Pits, Foreign Uranium

 Contributor's note:

Sorry, this website requires a subscription, maybe a free review of this story will emerge at some point.

"Senators Probe Acting NNSA Chief About Livermore Pits, Foreign Uranium"

"In a budget hearing that was mostly a best-of, a couple senators asked the acting head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) about alternative means of meeting the mission objectives of the day, including by producing pits at the Lawrence Livermore..."

https://www.defensedaily.com/senators-probe-acting-nnsa-chief-livermore-pits-foreign-uranium/nuclear-modernization/

UFOs and the labs

 Here is an odd one that may be related to the labs. There is suddenly a bunch of talk about UFOs being with the Pentagon now confirming much of the recent military videos. Now Obama has confirmed that these things are real. So if this stuff is a real and they start investing money into it would the labs going to get involved in someway.

https://nypost.com/2021/05/18/barack-obama-says-ufo-sightings-appear-real/
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/15/politics/unidentified-aerial-phenomena-defense-department/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/17/politics/ufo-pentagon-explainer/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-military-intelligence-60-minutes-2021-05-16/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/pentagon-ufo-harry-reid-navy.html

Harassment question

 Can a LLNS manager refuse an employee's request to have a 3rd party present in a meeting where the employee alleges this particular manager has been harassing them or other alleged inappropriate conduct? In this Weinstein and Cuomo period, one would think not.

Los Alamos lab packed prohibited metal in sparking waste drum

 Los Alamos lab packed prohibited metal in sparking waste drum

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/report-los-alamos-lab-packed-prohibited-metal-in-sparking-waste-drum/article_293da0dc-b1a5-11eb-9bb0-fba77ee68de6.html

Vaccine rumor

 There is some talk that if you do not get the vaccine or have not gotten the vaccine that you will facing disciplinary action. The other

rumor is that this coming rather fast. I would figure they would have tell us first that but maybe they are just going spring it on us out of nowhere. Anyone hear anything?

Woke publishing coming to science

 .

The Political Science world is abuzz about a professor who is leaving academics because of the increasing nonsense in the ability to publish. In money of the social science journals publications are being evaluated on if they cite enough women or other minorities groups
not the actual results of the paper. This gotten bad enough that some people are just giving up on the field.

“Four times, at four separate journals, this past year I submitted an article and received no feedback other than: a) you don't cite enough women, b) you don't cite [unrelated] literature on 'bias', c) nobody could possibly understand an article without p-values. Top reason I quit.”

https://twitter.com/knrd_z/status/1391819873047793666?s=20
https://www.poliscirumors.com/topic/no-country-for-white-men-polsci-academic-on-why-he-and-others-are-leaving

The obvious question is when is this coming to science journals. Personally I have not seen this in science journals or heard of it but there is some hints that this is coming.
Biden just recently put out a plan to make science grant money be based on diversity. Viden also made a pick for the Office of Science that how should I say not exactly qualified. Even some scientists with pretty far left leaning finds this choice bad.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-scientific-method-identity-politics-11620581262

President Biden has nominated Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, a soil biogeochemist from the University of California, Merced, to lead the Office of Science. Ms. Berhe will be the first black woman to lead the science office, happily lending a more diverse face to science in this country.

Ms. Berhe’s research program on soil chemistry, exploring the capture of carbon dioxide, is relevant to climate-change policy. But her research expertise isn’t in any of the Office of Science’s major programs, and she has no experience as a scientific administrator and minimal experience with the Energy Department itself. Past directors have been established researchers from one of the major fields supported by the department, or they have administered large private laboratories

Good times ahead.

Former Sandia employee indicted for stealing federal funds

 Former Sandia Labs employee indicted for stealing federal funds

https://www.krqe.com/news/former-sandia-labs-employee-indicted-for-stealing-federal-funds/

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5775998/Joshua-Cordova-Indictment.pdf

Honeywell fined!

 Honeywell, which manages Sandia National Laboratories, was fined $13 million for sharing military specs with China

 https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military

Mandatory vaccine?

Should the labs make it mandatory to have a vaccine as a condition of your employment?

The fox in the henhouse

 April 2021 DOE IG Special Report: Internal Contractor Auditors at LLNL and Two Other Named Labs have a "fox-guarding-the-henhouse problem"

"The Department’s M&O contractors’ internal auditors are hired by, supervised by, paid by, and responsible to the contractors.25 In addition, the contractors’ audit executives typically have their personal bonuses tied to contract award fees.26 This creates a fox-guarding-the-henhouse problem. This design flaw is particularly problematic because an incurred cost audit is the single most critical audit measure available to control Federal expenditures and to ensure that Federal contractors are not overpaid, resulting in fraud, waste, or abuse.

26 The OIG has documented these bonuses at Lawrence Livermore, Idaho, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories."

https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2021-04/DOE-OIG-21-26%20Amended.pdf

SNLs' economic impact

According to the results of an independent study, Sandia National Laboratories technology transfer activities have resulted in more than $95 billion in economic impact from 2000 to 2020. Additionally, the report indicates Sandia has also supported about 21,000 jobs per year...

 https://www.krqe.com/news/business/technology-transfer-of-sandia-national-laboratories-results-in-over-95b-of-economic-impact/