Two of a kind

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Several factors are making pre-war oil prices unlikely over the long term ; Europe's largest river cruise ship launches next spring; and here’s a different way to think about technology…

Let’s get into it!

In just under a year, AmaWaterways’ second double-width riverboat will launch in the Danube, the 1,700-mile river that runs through ten European countries, from Donaueschingen, Germany to the Black Sea.

The AmaRudi will accommodate 196 passengers, housed between 96 state rooms and suites, and will offer increasingly popular itinerary items, including docking for longer in major cities, along with quiet activities focused around health and wellness.

“More travellers are making the transition from ocean cruising to rivers, and many are looking for a sense of space and choice,” said AmaWaterways co-founder Rudi Schreiner. “AmaMagna was one of the most rewarding projects of my career, so having this new ship carry my name makes it especially meaningful. I see it as part of the legacy we have built together over more than two decades of river cruising.”

The AmaRudi will be the largest riverboat across Europe’s fleets, which are growing rapidly in line with demand for cruises that stay within sheltered waters and allow passengers to slow down.

Aggressive but slow traffic, bad weather, missing green lights, potholes everywhere—they’re all little inconveniences in the grand scheme of things, but when experienced dozens of times on a single commute, it’s not surprising that it could take a minute to shake them off before going into work.

A study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology aimed to affirm this, challenging previous research that suggested stress from commuting wasn’t something to be concerned about throughout the day.

The researchers identified the main factor as a lingering feeling of “irritability.” Worrying about someone’s erratic driving once you’re in your morning meetings probably isn’t what anyone wants to be doing, but it’s a reasonable expectation for someone who dealt with it the whole way in, according to the study.

"When you're driving and someone brake-checks you or rides your tail, those are subtle annoyances that cumulatively create a negative experience," said lead author Jake Gale, an assistant professor of management at the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis. "Literature did not have a clear answer or definition as to why humans act this way."

Studying 80 commuting full-time employees for 15 days, Gale and his team found irritability to be a defining factor in productivity and morale loss early in the day, and also determined that listening to relaxing music before going in can combat the problem.

In about five billion years, the Sun will run out of fuel and when stars run out of fuel, they expand at a rapid pace before simply withering away, exploding, or collapsing inward.

The bloat stage is the process by which our Sun will become a red giant, and when it does, Mercury and Venus will be engulfed in the fiery plasma, immediately ceasing to exist.

Will Earth be next? Most astronomers and planetary scientists have assumed in the past that Earth would be swallowed as well, but new research suggests it may actually stand a chance.

The study was published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, and leveraged various models that took stellar evolution and tidal models into account, and adjusted them based on the physical conditions that would be present in the inner solar system as the Sun began to expand.

If most other things remained equal except the circumference of the Sun, the Earth would certainly be engorged. However, a red giant Sun would not be as massive, and would actually have a smaller gravitational pull on the planet, leading the astronomers to suggest Earth could actually survive by drifting into a wider orbit.

As for humanity, would it survive? Zero chance. The planet, however, could endure.

According to French philosopher Susanna Newsonen, technology isn’t necessarily a problem for mental health, but our relationship with it can certainly cause some problems.

In an article for Psychology Today, she documented her observations on the matter, and proposed what she calls “The Summer Experiment,” which consists of several ways of reshaping the relationship that has, itself, reshaped the human experience.

For example, she puts an emphasis on experiencing things through our own eyes rather than through the literal lens of a phone. How often do you see people at concerts experiencing the music by watching it on the screen of their smartphone as they record it, likely while thinking about how excited they are to post it online?

Capturing moments and converting them into content are antithetical to the Summer Experiment. Newsonen will be capturing them with the cameras in her eye sockets and saving them on the camera reel in her hippocampus.

When documenting via memory isn’t enough, she’ll be writing things down in a journal with a pen, not on a Facebook status or X post. The journal is not for others, which allows her to be free with what she’s creating, rather than tailoring it for whatever’s most likely to go viral.

You can read about the rest of the experiment here, and maybe even start putting your own together.

Cut from the same cloth

From the Bradys to the Partridges and beyond, we’ll be quizzin’ you on classic TV siblings, with today’s trivia!