Old buddy, old pal

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. New Fed Chair talks of regime change and ending inflation; Understanding food noise; and why it’s sometimes best to just say no! 

Let’s get into it!

The term “food noise” was likely coined in response to the effect GLP-1 drugs have on stifling food cravings and keeping temptation at bay.

A study published in the journal Appetite included a linguistic analysis of internet trends and found the term only began taking off in 2023, and since then, has made its way from social media communities to pharmaceutical and medical journals, along with marketing departments.

According to lead author and Arizona State University anthropologist Alexandra Brewis, the explosion of the term’s popularity in 2024 was driven by a “novel-to-many shared experience” that’s taken a psychological phenomenon people had always lived with, and turned it into a symptom of sorts that can be treated with medication.

In a recent article, she highlighted the potential dangers of medicalizing a typical human experience by applying a term that’s faced minimal scientific and medical scrutiny, beyond anecdotal expressions on websites like Reddit, Twitter, and TikTok.

She noted that taking GLP-1 medication can certainly have positive outcomes, but cautioned against taking a nascent/novel concept and jumping straight to the conclusion that the concept is a problem and GLP-1 drugs are the solution.

Not every concept can be directly translated between different languages. Some languages don’t have the words to describe something being described in another, for example.

According to a recent report by researchers at Anthropic, users have probably noticed the way the company’s Claude model appears to communicate differently depending on the language it’s being prompted in.

However, they also conceded Claude’s priorities and core “values” may even be different, based on the user’s language.

The report assigned a “values axis” to the bot based on analysis of over 300,000 anonymized and randomized conversations with Claude.

Here’s what values the researchers looked at:

• Deference or Caution: prioritizing obedience or warning about danger

• Warmth or Rigor: empathetic or direct

• Depth or Brevity: detailed or high-level

• Candor or Execution: self-doubting or willing to make a move

Without assigning a positive or negative connotation to any conclusion drawn, the researchers found the bot to be most deferential in Arabic, most cautious in English, warmest in Hindi and Arabic, most rigorous and truth-seeking at the cost of warmth in English and Russian, and deepest in English.

A research paper published in Frontiers in Psychology investigated the social implications of ambiguity in communication. Specifically, it looked into what happens when a person sends mixed signals instead of directly saying “no.”

Anecdotally, ambiguous rejection is a method typically used by women prior to a relationship and by men during one. Neither intends to hurt the other, and the ambiguity is usually driven by the desire to avoid inflicting pain.

However, in the paper, social psychologist and lead writer Gil Freedman found ambiguous rejection often leads to confusion and the indirect encouragement of further action. The proverbial chase is almost predicated on this assumption of expected action, for example.

On the other hand, action taken on the premise of ambiguous rejection is often fruitless, leading to further confusion, and likely frustration and anxiety.

A direct “no” clarifies where both parties stand, and though sometimes painful, Freedman’s research supports the idiom everyone already knows intuitively: it’s better to rip off the band-aid.

In fact, in the paper, he likens the evidence in favor of directness to jumping into a pool of cold water: it can be quite unpleasant, but it’s an immediately understood declaration of unwantedness.

Bruce Dickinson is a licensed airline transport pilot, an internationally-competitive fencer, and—oh yeah—the singer for Iron Maiden and one of the best frontmen in the history of heavy metal.

A true renaissance man, he’s enjoyed decades of touring the world with Eddie and the boys, putting on some of the most theatrically-mesmerizing performances.

In a recent interview with Metal Hammer he explained why he keeps going at 67.

“When I walk out onstage,” he said, “it’s one of the few moments during my life when the rest of the world can go to hell.

“On a really good night, you completely lose yourself in some weird higher power that takes you over. You inhabit the song, your voice just seems to anticipate everything, and that’s why I do it.”

From sword fighting with a 25-foot-tall Eddie and blasting a flamethrower on stage to dangling over an audience from a chandelier, the singer has done some pretty wild stuff with regularity. What’s the one thing he hasn’t done but wishes he could?

“I wanted to have a zip line from the PA tower to the stage, and that’s how I would enter the stage. It was just too f––ing complicated.

It’s a disaster!

We’ve got a fun one for you, Staker! We’ll be testing your knowledge classic disaster films, with today’s trivia 😱 🎥