Fast Company

Want to be happier? Science says buying a little time leads to significantly greater life satisfaction.

Buying things won’t make you happier. But research shows that buying time can, as long as you do it the right way.

By Jeff Haden December 29, 2021

Remi Muller/Unsplash;Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash]

In 1930, the influential economist John Maynard Keynes assessed how technological and economic advances had reduced the number of hours the average person worked. He predicted that within two generations, most people would work only three hours a day.

Working hard wouldn’t be a problem. Filling all that free time would, for most people, be the problem.

While Keynes got a lot of things right, he swung and missed on that one. Technological advances have not freed up the average person’s time. Neither have broader economic advances.

Nor has increased wealth. In fact, some studies show that the more money people make, the less time they think they have.

Add it all up, and money can’t buy you happiness.

Unless, purposefully and consciously, you use a little money to buy a little time.

In a 2017 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers surveyed thousands of people who sometimes paid other people to perform tasks they didn’t enjoy or didn’t want to do. Like mowing the lawn. Or cleaning the house. Or running errands. Stuff they needed to do, but didn’t particularly want to do.

Unsurprisingly, people who were willing to spend a little money to buy a little time were happier and felt greater overall life satisfaction than those who did not.

Correlation isn’t always causation, though. Maybe the people who spend money to buy time are happier simply because they have the money to buy time?

Nope. While relatively wealthy people who spent money to buy a little time were happier than relatively wealthy people who did not, people at the bottom end of the economic spectrum who spent money to buy a little time were happier than those at the bottom end of the economic spectrum who did not.

No matter how much you make, no matter how wealthy you are, buying a little time makes you happier. (With a couple of catches; more on that in a moment.)

Just to prove the causation point, the researchers conducted a further experiment. One week, participants were given $40 and told to spend it on any item or items they chose. The only restriction was that they had to use the money to buy “things.”

The next week, participants were given $40 and told they had to spend it on freeing up time. Cleaning. Maintenance. Delivery. Paying someone to do something they didn’t want to do so they could use that time to do something they did want to do.

You’ve already guessed the result: When the participants bought time instead of things, they felt happier, less stressed, and more satisfied.

There is a catch. The researchers found that “spending too much money on time saving services could undermine perceptions of personal control by leading people to infer that they are unable to handle any daily tasks, potentially reducing well-being.”

Granted, most of us can’t afford to spend so much money buying time that we feel inadequate or incapable. But still: Making a conscious decision about which tasks to occasionally farm out is key.

And why you decided to farm out that task. If someone always cuts your grass, then you’ve likely made that your new normal. You probably still feel too busy. You probably still feel time is scarce.

The key to buying time is to consciously decide how you will use the time your money freed up. Buying time will make you happier only if it feels intentional and purposeful–not because you don’t have the time, but because you want to use the time you have differently.

Instead of cutting the grass, you might decide (again, to make this work you have to decide) to spend the time with family or friends. Or working on that side project you can’t seem to get to. Or reading. Or working out.

In short, doing something you enjoy–doing something you want to do–with the time you bought.

That’s when money can buy you a little happiness.

No matter how much you make.

This article was originally published on our sister publication, Inc., and is reprinted here with permission.

Daily Beast

Pro-Trump Group Invented Voter Fraud Claims Months Before Election

Kelly Weill – December 27, 2021

A well-funded far-right group—that made inroads with Stop The Steal organizations, paid a former police captain more than $200,000 to hunt ballots, and became entangled in a roadside stickup—was making war plans for Election Day 2020 months ahead of time, documents reveal.

The fringe group, the Liberty Center for God and Country (LCGC), led a lucrative fundraising blitz in the run-up to the election and quietly networked with now-notorious election denialists. Their work came to light in October of that year when former Houston Police captain Mark Aguirre allegedly rammed his SUV into a man’s truck, forced the man onto the ground at gunpoint, and accused him of transporting 750,000 fraudulent ballots. Aguirre’s claims were baseless—his victim was an innocent air conditioner technician—and no widespread voter fraud has been found in the 2020 election. Aguirre was indicted this week for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The criminal charges outed the LCGC, which had quietly moved hundreds of thousands of dollars in the name of preventing voter fraud in the months before the election, launching a website and fundraisers in the months before Nov. 3.

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In the fall of 2020, as Donald Trump trailed Joe Biden in the polls, Republican activists sought ways to sow doubt in the event of a possible Trump loss. Aguirre and LCGC were among them.

“We are private investigators in the State of Texas who have uncovered an illegal ballot harvesting operation in Harris County,” Aguirre wrote in a GoFundMe campaign in late September 2020. “Our team is spearheaded by Mark A. Aguirre retired Captain of the Houston Police Department Lic.#C14256. We have collected evidence from 2018 displaying the massive absentee mail in voting fraud. We are currently in the process of collecting more evidence and information that will directly impact the upcoming 2020 election.”

Aguirre’s description of himself as a “retired” police captain (he’d actually been fired for a disastrous raid) was the least of the fundraiser’s lies. Although the fundraiser shed little light on Aguirre’s “team,” the fundraiser was launched one day after Aguirre signed an affidavit in a lawsuit accusing Houston-area Democrats of widespread voter fraud.

The lawsuit, filed by Republican activist Steven Hotze, accused Texas Democrats of a plot to defraud voters, in part by offering early voting and more voting locations. Some of its claims rested on supposed evidence collected by Aguirre and a former FBI agent who, like Aguirre, later became a private investigator.

“Based on interviews, review of documents, and other information, I have identified the individuals in charge of the ballot harvesting scheme,” Aguirre wrote.

Aguirre’s involvement with Hotze went deeper than the lawsuit suggested. In late August, according to business records, Hotze formed the LCGC. The group’s earliest web presence called on Trump to designate three days “for national repentance, fasting, and prayer.”

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Hotze was already a known figure in Texas and Republican politics. An anti-LGBT crusader since the 1980s, Hotze made inroads with the state’s conservatives, aided by money from his medical practice where he offered “hormone replacement.” Before the 2020 election, Hotze filed a flurry of lawsuits attempting to restrict expanded voting in Texas, like early and drive-through voting. In September and October 2020, he also charged headlong into conspiracy theories about the upcoming election, making long Facebook videos and posts detailing what he said would be a Democratic effort to steal 2020 via voter fraud in Harris County, Texas.

“The Socialist Democrats know that Harris County, where Houston is located, is ground zero for the upcoming general election in Texas and nationwide,” he wrote in a post shared by the LCGC. ”As Harris County goes, so goes Texas. As Texas goes, so goes the nation.” (This is not true, either of Harris County’s significance in Texas elections, or of Texas’s role in national elections.)

In order to crack down on alleged fraud pre-election, the LCGC allegedly hired Aguirre to investigate people it suspected of running fake ballot rings. According to charging documents, Aguirre admitted to surveilling the home of air-conditioning technician David Lopez-Zuniga, on the suspicion that the Houston man was running a scheme to force children to sign 750,000 fraudulent ballots. Aguirre allegedly rammed Lopez-Zuniga’s car off the road, forced him onto the ground at gunpoint, and knelt on his back before an actual police officer was able to intervene. The day after the incident, the LCGC sent $211,400 to Aguirre’s bank account.

The LCGC was pulling in big money, its fundraisers suggest. In addition to Aguirre’s GoFundMe, which earned at least $2,600, the group operated its own GoFundMe, which raised nearly $70,000 from mid-October to mid-December.

The LCGC also registered as a nonprofit—a status that would be useful when networking with a burgeoning movement of voter fraud hoaxers.

Shortly after Trump’s loss in November 2020, a website called Every Legal Vote purported to show evidence that Trump had actually won. The site billed itself as something of a supergroup among the emerging field of election-denialist organizations.

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“This site is a labor of love by American citizens,” Every Legal Vote’s now-deleted “about us” page reads. “Our Founding Sponsors: The Economic WarRoom, Allied Security Operations Group, Liberty Center for God and Country are building a coalition concerned with protecting our sacred elections from tampering and fraud.”

The Economic War Room is a web series run by Kevin Freeman, a senior fellow at an Islamophobic thinktank, the Colorado Times Recorder noted when a local politico promoted the Every Legal Vote site.

Allied Security Operations Group (ASOG) became notorious in its own right, after it was involved in an effort to “audit” voting machines in Antrim County, Michigan. Its founder, Russell Ramsland Jr., authored a report about their findings that was wildly misleading, in part because he confused the states of Michigan and Minnesota, using their voting data interchangeably. The ASOG report nevertheless became a popular document in Trumpist circles, with Rudy Giuliani citing it as evidence of fraud.

The ASOG was also a leading candidate to conduct a doomed “audit” in Maricopa County, Arizona, although they were dropped after observers pointed to their botched Antrim County report. Texts from officials involved in the Maricopa County audit reveal that ASOG was also working with Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel credited with distributing a now-infamous PowerPoint presentation on how lawmakers could invalidate the 2020 election and install Trump as president.

The LCGC did not return requests for comment about its relationship with the ASOG. But at least one ASOG fundraiser underscored a financial link between the two groups.

“ASOG urgently needs your help to continue their vitally important research,” read the fundraising plea on an election-denial website early this year. The fundraiser encouraged donors to give their money to LCGC, which was a nonprofit.

“For 501c3 Donations: Write checks to Liberty Center for God and Country,” the fundraiser said. It did not include LCGC’s address in Katy, Texas. Instead it asked supporters to send money to ASOG’s Addison, Texas offices, where a staffer “will get them to LCGC and insure your donation receipt.”

The Washington Post

Hong Kong is clinging to ‘zero covid’ and extreme quarantine. Talent is leaving in droves.

Theodora Yu and Shibani Mahtani – December 27, 2021

HONG KONG – Ellie May Paden, 26, came to Hong Kong over a year ago for a new opportunity and a budding relationship. Her LinkedIn page says she is “fortunate enough to be teaching English as a foreign language in a beautiful city,” with a photo of the glittering downtown skyline.

Paden, who runs a side business selling scented candles, found herself isolated by extreme quarantine rules that require anyone returning from abroad to spend weeks in confinement at a cost of thousands of dollars, irrespective of vaccination status. She missed her grandfather’s funeral and the birth of her niece, but she hoped that as vaccination rates rose, Hong Kong might open up.

It wasn’t to be. Paden is now selling her stock of candles and heading back to the United Kingdom before relocating to Canada, joining the swelling ranks of expatriates leaving Hong Kong over its approach to the pandemic.

“No other country takes it as far as three weeks,” Paden said. “It is kind of insane.”

With China exercising ever-tighter control over Hong Kong, the city is hewing to the country’s strict “zero covid” policy extolled by Beijing as evidence of a superior political system. Yet the approach has largely cut off Hong Kong from both China and the world – a severe blow for a place that built its success on global connections. Even more than recent political changes, the authorities’ refusal to adapt to living with the virus is eroding Hong Kong’s viability as an international city, according to almost two dozen diplomats, chambers of commerce, recruiters, pilots and other expatriates.

The resultant brain drain is altering the face of the financial hub, which some Western companies now consider a hardship post, as fewer people are willing to take the places of those leaving. The number of overseas professionals and investors admitted to Hong Kong under its general employment program dropped from about 41,000 in 2019 to 15,000 last year and 10,000 through the third quarter of 2021, immigration data shows. With quarantine rules unlikely to be lifted within the next year, departures of foreign businesspeople and other expatriates are set to accelerate.

“The long-term damage has already been done to Hong Kong’s viability,” said one senior Western diplomat. “There is an absolute lack of predictability that businesses don’t like.”

Authorities have defended the approach, insisting on the need to keep the virus out – a goal health experts say is unsustainable – as they prioritize reopening to mainland China. The strict measures already included collecting stool samples from young children in hotel quarantine. This month, the omicron variant’s spread led Hong Kong to further tighten rules, lengthening quarantines for most arrivals and threatening holiday travel plans with sudden flight bans for airlines that unwittingly bring in even a few infected passengers.

In a survey released this month, the British Chamber of Commerce found that 70 percent of respondents hoping to add staff in Hong Kong had encountered difficulties, with many citing quarantine restrictions.

“As the rest of the world opens up to international travel, there is a risk that Hong Kong will become increasingly isolated as an international business center,” an overview of the results said, adding that senior executives were relocating to Singapore or Dubai, where borders are more open.

Jan Willem Moller, chairman of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, said that about a quarter of Dutch businesspeople have left this year, and that the departures would “increase significantly” if the quarantine rules stay in place. “Inflow has pretty much dried up, as well,” he said, adding that colleagues at other chambers reported similar patterns.

– – –

On the front line of quarantine restrictions are pilots, especially at Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific. Some have been on “closed loop” rotations, alternating between working and isolating for extended periods before they can reenter the community. On layovers, pilots and aircrews are forbidden to leave their hotel rooms, keeping them in a hermetically sealed bubble.

Cathay has occasionally tried to force hotels overseas to provide its pilots and aircrews with single-use card keys to stop them from leaving their rooms, two pilots said. Eight pilots spoke to The Washington Post for this report on the condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions from their employers.

“A lot of colleagues are at breaking point,” said one pilot who resigned recently after more than 15 years flying for Cathay. “I’m tired, and I can’t see the future.”

At least 240 Cathay pilots have quit since May, according to employees who reviewed internal numbers. The carrier is reeling, with staff morale at “rock bottom” after hefty pay cuts last year and more departures imminent, several pilots said. In a statement, Cathay Pacific acknowledged that the regulations were a burden on aircrews, and said it plans to employ “several hundred pilots in the coming year.”

“Our goal was to protect as many jobs as possible, whilst meeting our responsibilities to the Hong Kong aviation hub and our customers,” the airline said.

Resentment spilled over last month when more than 120 students were ordered to a government quarantine camp known as Penny’s Bay after they were deemed to be contacts of a pilot who was among three who tested positive on return from Germany. In a statement this month, the Oneworld Cockpit Crew Coalition, a federation of pilot unions from the Oneworld network, which includes Cathay, said the airline’s pilots faced “untenable” working conditions.

One pilot who has flown with Cathay for more than 20 years said the exodus “is only just beginning.”

“Another year, two years, three years or more of quarantine in Hong Kong and there will be almost nobody left. Some pilots haven’t seen their wife and children for two years,” the person added.

Tightened quarantine measures have led other carriers, including British Airways and Swiss International Air Lines, to suspend Hong Kong flights. Cargo operator FedEx said last month that it would shut its crew base in the city and relocate pilots over the next 16 months.

One FedEx pilot decided he could not wait that long and will leave permanently early next year.

“With pretty much every expert agreeing that unfortunately covid-19 is here to stay, what exactly is China or Hong Kong’s end game?” he said.

– – –

On top of the quarantine rules, Hong Kong temporarily bans flights by airlines found to be carrying at least four passengers who test positive for the virus on arrival. Qatar Airways, Nepal Airlines, Air India, Korean Air and Cathay Pacific routes from some cities are currently subject to bans, which are often announced with little warning, throwing travel plans into disarray. Three of these routes, including Cathay Pacific flights from London to Hong Kong, were banned just before Christmas.

Flight changes have prevented people from seeing dying relatives and complicated travelers’ efforts to return to Hong Kong. A shortage of rooms at quarantine hotels has added to the frustration. Meanwhile, businesses including banks, media and restaurant groups have begun to pay staff thousands of dollars to offset the costs of quarantine, adding to the burden of operating in one of the world’s most expensive cities.

“We understand that it doesn’t make a lot of business sense,” said Syed Asim Hussain, co-founder of Black Sheep Restaurants, which is shelling out about $650,000 to help employees with quarantine fees. “But we heard murmurs that the rules will stay in place for most of next year, and so we knew we had to act.”

The Hong Kong government has acknowledged the disruptions, but maintains that the regulations are essential from a public health standpoint and to allow the city to reopen to the mainland. China appears to have put those plans on hold because of the omicron variant.

Officials have tried to offer sweeteners in the interim. In an interview with local media, Eddie Yue, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the de facto central bank, said that it had put together a team to deliver “wine and gourmet food” to quarantined finance workers in hopes of making them “less angry with Hong Kong.”

The Daily Astorian, Oregon

‘I thought I would never get it, and boy was I wrong’

Abbey McDonald December 27, 2021

Gigi Thompson doesn’t remember the August night when she knocked on her neighbor’s front door, desperate for help. She doesn’t remember getting in the neighbor’s truck to go to the hospital, or saying goodbye to her husband and asking him to watch over their pets.

She doesn’t remember being transferred from Providence Seaside Hospital to St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland the next day, or getting the scars on her neck.

What she does remember, from moments in and out of consciousness, is the feeling of the oxygen mask tight on her face and her sense of suffocation.

She remembers a nightmare that seemed so real, where she died and cold hands pulled her into the darkness of a mortuary drawer as she kicked at them and begged God for more time. She doesn’t think she’ll ever forget that.

Thompson spent 122 days in the hospital after contracting COVID-19.

Her neighbor drove her to Providence Seaside on Aug. 15, and she was quickly transferred to St. Vincent, where she stayed until early November. She then spent another month back in Seaside, getting less-intensive treatment and physical therapy.

Thompson has pieced together what happened through conversations with doctors, family and friends.

Her neighbor filled her in about the night she was admitted. Her daughter told her she had approved the emergency tracheotomy that cut into her neck, leaving scars but saving her life. After she woke from a monthlong coma, a doctor told her she had nearly died twice.

Grateful

There’s a lot to be grateful for, Thompson said. She can walk a little bit and can dress herself. And she has hope that her health will improve with time.

“That experience with COVID, that actually changed my life for the better,” Thompson said. “I have a better outlook on certain things, and I always try to keep a positive attitude.”

Thompson, who is 72 years old, was discharged from Providence Seaside on Dec. 15 after several months of treatment for the virus. She exited the hospital in “Rocky” themed attire, wearing boxing gloves, an American flag and a nasal cannula.

The hospital staff lined up and clapped, some teary-eyed, as they said goodbye to the long-haul COVID patient.

Two days later, Thompson sat at home after her nurse left for the evening. Her cat, “Amara,” which will have her 22nd birthday in March, sat on Thompson’s lap as she told her story over the phone.

“She just won’t leave me alone. She has to sleep on me and keep touching me to make sure I’m still there,” Thompson said.

Being back home has been an adjustment. When she first arrived, her husband, her son and a neighbor had to carry her wheelchair up the stairs to the front door. They’re looking for first-floor apartments, but finding few options.

She can’t make dinner anymore, and for now has resigned to observing and critiquing her husband’s work in the kitchen.

“I’m doing OK. It’s time-consuming, that’s what healing is,” Thompson said. Her statements were sometimes punctuated by brief coughing fits.

Thompson’s daughter, Carol Dickeson, said she is amazed her mom got through her battle with COVID.

“She had one foot in the grave there, and that scared us,” Dickeson said.

She talked to the hospital daily for updates on her mom, calling from her home in Colorado.

“Just the thought of losing her? Oh man, that was — it really, really scared me,” Dickeson said. “She’s a feisty woman. She’s very, very feisty and she’s a fighter. She won’t let nothing keep her down.”

Thompson worked in the fishing industry her whole life, from shrimp picking in Gold Beach to Pacific Seafood in Warrenton, and up to Alaska for a time. She retired in her 50s after an on-the-job shoulder injury while hauling 35-pound crab buckets.

Dickeson described her mom as selfless, and said she always had a place at her table for neighborhood kids. She said her fried chicken recipe was so good that her siblings would ask her to make extra just so they could share it at school.

“With my mom, she’s always …” Dickeson said, before getting emotional. “There’s not enough time to say enough good about my mom. She always — always — is looking to help other people.”

A struggle to get vaccinated

Prior to her hospitalization, Dickeson and her siblings had struggled to convince their mom to get vaccinated.

“Now that she’s had this COVID, and went face to face with that. She’s taking it seriously now,” Dickeson said. “So I’m glad she went through this to realize that it’s not funny or anything, and I’m glad that she survived it. I’m happy that my mom’s still with us, and we get to put up with her wittiness.”

Now Thompson can assure them that she received two vaccine doses during her stay at Seaside, having changed her mind after dealing with the virus firsthand. She plans on getting the booster as soon as she is eligible.

“I thought I would never get it, and boy was I wrong. It smacked me down like nothing. And I’m glad I got those two shots,” Thompson said.

Thompson is a mother of eight, including two stepchildren and an adopted daughter. She described the support of her family and her faith as her strengths.

“With my strength in the Lord, and my kids and my husband, we all got together. And so many people — people I didn’t even know — were texting my phone and saying, ‘God bless you Gigi. We’re so happy you made it. You’ve been through the wringer.’ And I said, ‘I have literally been at hell’s door and came back,'” she said.

She thanked the hospital staff for their work and said that she’s glad to be alive.

“There’s still things that I want to do, and things I want to see. I’ve been a fish filleter for over 40 years. I did a little bit of logging for three years, and raised my children before all that. Life has been alright, you know, it’s like a roller coaster,” she said. “I’m here and I’m so grateful that I am here, and I want to thank everybody for everything that they have done.”

The Washington Post

Men across America are getting vasectomies ‘as an act of love’

Emily Wax-Thibodeaux December 26, 2021

After Andy and Erin Gress had their fourth child, Andy decided it was time for him to “step up” and help with the family planning. So he did something that the mere thought of makes some men cringe: He got a vasectomy.

It was early one morning last winter – a brief moment of peace, before juggling getting the kids ready for online school and work Zoom calls. He happened to see a local news story about discounts being offered during “World Vasectomy Day.” He made an appointment that day.

His wife had taken birth control pills, but she struggled with the side effects. She had worked as a night nurse through four pregnancies, and the couple had children ranging in age from 2 to 11.

“The procedure was a total relief, almost like the covid shot – like I’m safe now,” said Gress, who works in higher education. “I wanted to man up.”

But Gress’s action wasn’t just about his family. He also believed he should do more to support his wife and other women who don’t think the government should decide what they do with their bodies. “I’ve seen the miracle of life,” he said. “But I’ve also seen kids who are born into poverty and misery and don’t have a fair shot.”

With the Supreme Court set to decide the fate of Roe v. Wade next year and with more than 20 states poised to ban or impose restrictions on abortion depending on what the court decides, some reproductive rights advocates say it is time for men to take a more active role in both family planning and the fight for reproductive rights.

In their own form of protest, state lawmakers in Alabama, Illinois and Pennsylvania introduced legislation that highlights the gendered double standards with regards to reproductive rights.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, a Democrat, introduced “parody” legislation this fall in response to the Texas law that amounts to a near-total ban on abortion. Rabb’s proposal would require men to get vasectomies after the birth of their third child or when they turn 40, whichever comes first. It would be enforced by allowing Pennsylvanians to report men who failed to comply, for a $10,000 reward.

“As long as state legislatures continue to restrict the reproductive rights of cis women, trans men and nonbinary people, there should be laws that address the responsibility of men who impregnate them. Thus, my bill will also codify ‘wrongful conception’ to include when a person has demonstrated negligence toward preventing conception during intercourse,” Rabb wrote in a memo about his proposal, as reported by the Keystone.

Rabb, a father of two who had a vasectomy in 2008, noted that he only had to discuss his choice with his wife and his urologist. The point of his proposal, he said, was to highlight the sexism, double standard and hypocrisy inherent in the antiabortion debate. But it blew up in a way he didn’t expect.

“I underestimated the vitriol this proposal brought,” Rabb said in an interview, adding that he received thousands of hate-filled emails, Facebook posts and even death threats. “The notion a man would have to endure or even think about losing bodily autonomy was met with outrage, when every single day women face this and it’s somehow OK for the government to invade the uteruses of women and girls, but it should be off limits if you propose vasectomies or limit the reproductive rights of men.”

Since Dec. 1, when the Supreme Court heard a case that is expected to decide the future of Roe v. Wade, social media has been filled with tweets, memes and quips using tongue-in-cheek humor to point out how men’s role in reproduction is almost never talked about. “Against abortion? Have a Vasectomy,” says one bumper sticker.

Koushik Shaw, a doctor at the Austin Urology Institute in Texas, said his practice saw about a 15% increase in scheduled vasectomies after the Sept. 1 Texas abortion ban went into effect.

Patients are saying “‘Hey, I’m actually here because some of these changes that [Gov. Greg] Abbott and our legislature have passed that are really impacting our decision-making in terms of family planning,’ so that was a new one for me as a reason – the first time, patients are citing a state law as their motivating factor,” Shaw said.

Advocates say they want to be clear: They are not pushing vasectomies as a replacement for the right to obtain an abortion, nor do they believe men should have a say in the decision to have an abortion. In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled in Planned Parenthood v. Danforth that the father’s consent to an abortion was no longer required, largely because of a risk of violence or coercion in a relationship.

Doctors who perform vasectomies say they want men to be open and comfortable talking about the procedure instead of recoiling in horror at the idea, said Doug Stein, a urologist known as the “Vasectomy King” for his billboards, bar coasters and ads at child support offices around Florida.

“An act of Love,” for their partners, “the ultimate way to be a good man,” is how he and others market the procedure.

“It’s a remarkable trend in the family planning community of recognizing and promoting vasectomy and birth control for men, where this was once considered more fringe,” said Sarah Miller, a family medicine doctor who has a private practice in Boston and joined Stein’s movement.

Advances in the needle- and scalpel-free 10-minute procedure need a cultural push and maybe some fun to make men less bashful around doctors coming near their “junk,” Stein said.

He has a full-time vasectomy and vasectomy-reversal practice in Tampa and has traveled the world performing the procedure. He was inspired by his concern about population growth, but he also wanted to empower men to be responsible.

Stein, a father of two, had his own vasectomy more than 20 years ago.

Reliable statistics on the number of men who have sought vasectomies since the Texas ban and the U.S. Supreme Court hearing aren’t available, doctors say. But, Miller said, she has seen an increase in patients at the small clinic she opened in Boston less than three years ago because she couldn’t believe “the paucity of options for men and people with men parts.”

At one point, she was told that vasectomy was not considered part of family planning, and she had to make her own arrangements to get the necessary training.

“It warms my heart to hear men say, ‘I am so nervous, but I know this is NOTHING compared to what my wife has gone through,'” she said in an email.

“It’s outrageous that we don’t have more contraceptive options for people with man parts,” Miller said. “There’s even a misguided sense that birth control is not a man’s job. That men can’t be trusted, or that they would never be interested, and that has led to lack of funding and development,” she said.

Engaging men in the abortion debate is tricky, experts say, because on the abortion rights side, men don’t want to be viewed as questioning a woman’s right to choose. And on the antiabortion side, the procedure is viewed as murder. But some abortion rights advocates contend that men have a huge stake in legal and safe abortions, and “the fact we’re not out there fighting every bit as hard as women is shameful,” said Jonathan Stack, a co-founder with Stein of World Vasectomy Day.

“The quality of life for millions of men will be adversely affected if this right is taken from women,” said Stack, a documentary filmmaker who made a film about Stein called “The Vasectomist.”

Stack said that while filming the documentary, he would ask men: “Why are you choosing to do this?”

“They expressed something rarely heard in films about men – love or kindness or care,” he said.

“I had already come to believe that there was a story about masculinity that was not being told – not of power and control or rage, but of alienation, of insecurities, of uncertainty and of fear,” he said.

“We already know that men don’t always want to wear condoms, or they don’t work, or well, they take them off,” Esgar Guarín said with a sigh and chuckle. He is a family medicine doctor who runs SimpleVas in Iowa and performed Gress’s vasectomy.

Guarín trained under Stein and joined his movement. “We have to invest in helping men understand how easy and safe vasectomies are,” he said. After having two children, Guarín performed a vasectomy on himself.

The doctors also started “Responsible Men’s Clubs,” chat groups where men can share information such as how sexual performance is just fine after the procedure, and that it “doesn’t take away their manhood, but in fact makes them a better man,” Guarín said.

One man asked for a sort of “vasectomy passport,” a letter from Guarín to show his wife that sex would now be free of worry.

Brad Younts, 45, said his wife, Lizz Gardner, wants him to become a “vasectomy evangelist,” after he had the “simple procedure” without any problems.

“Men are big babies. Considering everything women go through – menstruation, Pap smears, OB/GYN visits,” said Younts, who lives in Chicago. “I’m proud I did it. And I went on to tell two friends who are also looking into it, too.”

Yahoo! News

Climate change losses piled up again in 2021

David Knowles, Senior Editor December 27, 2021

Global insurance losses from extreme weather fueled by climate change topped $100 billion in 2021, according to a new report, the fourth time that threshold has been crossed in the last five years. 

“The top ten most expensive events financially all cost over 1.5 billion dollars of damage with Hurricane Ida in the U.S. topping the list at $65 billion,” stated a report released Monday by the British nonprofit Christian Aid. “The floods in Europe came second at $43 billion.”

Along with Hurricane Ida, which made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm on Aug. 29 before cutting a path of destruction across much of the eastern United States, the July floods that struck much of Western Europe in July resulted in $43 billion in insurance losses. The Texas winter storm in February that disabled much of the state’s electrical grid caused $23 billion in losses, while July’s catastrophic flooding in China’s Henan province accounted for $17.6 billion in losses. Rounding out the five-biggest extreme weather insurance losses of 2021 was the flooding that resulted from record-setting rainfall in British Columbia, Canada, in November that tallied $7.5 billion in losses. 

Climate scientists have linked the rising intensity of hurricanes and speed at which they develop to warmer ocean and air temperatures caused by climate change. Research has shown that climate change is destabilizing the jet stream, unleashing polar vortexes like the one that hit Texas. Studies have also shown that for every degree Celsius of warming, the planet’s atmosphere holds an additional 7 percent more moisture, making extreme rainfall events more likely.

In its own analysis released earlier this month, Swiss Re, an insurance firm based in Zurich, noted that massive extreme weather losses have become commonplace. 

“In 2021, insured losses from natural disasters again exceeded the previous ten-year average, continuing the trend of an annual 5–6% rise in losses seen in recent decades. It seems to have become the norm that at least one secondary peril event such as a severe flooding, winter storm or wildfire, each year results in losses of more than USD 10 billion,” Martin Bertogg, an executive at Swiss Re, said in a statement. “At the same time, Hurricane Ida is a stark reminder of the threat and loss potential of peak perils. Just one such event hitting densely populated areas can strongly impact the annual losses.” 

In 2021, extreme weather events once again struck densely populated areas with alarming frequency. Those effects will continue as humankind continues to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to creep higher each year, scientists warn. 

As a result, future annual insurance losses exceeding $100 billion are all but guaranteed if the world continues on its current warming trajectory, the Christian Aid report warns. 

“Unless the world acts rapidly to cut emissions these kinds of disasters are likely to worsen. Steve Bowen, meteorologist and head of catastrophe insight at insurers Aon has noted that 2021 is expected to be the sixth time global natural catastrophes have crossed the $100 billion insured loss threshold,” the report stated. “All six have happened since 2011 and 2021 will be the fourth in five years.”

CNN

Virginia family gets keys to Habitat for Humanity’s first 3D-printed home in the US

By Sara Smart, CNN December 27, 2021

(CNN)One Virginia family received the keys to their new 3D-printed home in time for Christmas. The home is Habitat for Humanity’s first 3D-printed home in the nation, according to a Habitat news release. Janet V. Green, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg, told CNN it partnered with Alquist, a 3D printing company, earlier this year to begin the process. Alquist’s crew printed the house.

World’s largest 3D-printed neighborhood to break ground in Texas. The 1,200-square-foot home has three bedrooms, two full baths and was built from concrete.

The technology allowed the home to be built in just 12 hours, which saves about four weeks of construction time for a typical home.

April Stringfield purchased the home through the Habitat Homebuyer Program. She will move in with her 13-year-old son just in time for the holidays. “My son and I are so thankful,” Stringfield said in a live feed streamed on Habitat’s Facebook page. “I always wanted to be a homeowner. It’s like a dream come true.”The concrete exterior of the new Habitat for Humanity 3D printed house. To purchase the home, Stringfield logged hundreds of hours of sweat equity, Green told CNN, which is one of the requirements for homebuyers through the program. “Every Habitat affiliate in the nation and worldwide sells home to partner families who have low to moderate incomes,” Green said. “They must have and maintain good credit and be willing to partner with us. “”I’m excited to make new memories in Williamsburg and especially in a house, a home,” Stringfield told CNN affiliate WTKR. “Some place I can call home and give my son that backyard that he can play in and also for my puppy to run around the yard.”Janet V. Green, right, welcomes April Stringfield, left, to her new home. The concrete used in the house’s 3D construction has many long-term benefits, such as the ability to retain temperature and withstand natural disasters, like tornadoes and hurricanes. Stringfield’s home also includes a personal 3D printer that will allow her to reprint anything she may need, “everything from electrical outlet to trim to cabinet knobs,” Green told CNN.

How 3D printing could help save Hong Kong’s coral

While this is the first 3D home for Habitat for Humanity in the US, it certainly won’t be the last. Green told CNN it hopes to continue partnering and developing the technology used with the printing. “We would love to build more with this technology, especially because it’s got that long-term savings for the homeowners,” Green said.

The Hill

Biden may face midterm reckoning on Supreme Court reform

Samuel Moyn, American Historian December 25, 2021

President Biden has largely managed to avoid the fray of the Supreme Court reform debate in his first year in office by outsourcing the issue to an expert study group. But his time on the sidelines may be running out.

Now that his court commission has wrapped up its work, and with a potentially explosive Supreme Court ruling on abortion expected this summer just months ahead of the midterms, Biden could soon find himself facing intense pressure from the left to take a bolder stance on reforming the 6-3 conservative majority court.

According to Samuel Moyn, a professor of jurisprudence and history at Yale University, the proposal that ranks as the current favorite among progressives involves expanding, or “packing,” the court with additional members. And if the justices curtail abortion access this term as many expect they will, he said, calls for court expansion may grow too loud for Biden to ignore.

“The growing support for court expansion – with more than 10 times as many lawmakers signing on as when the commission started its work – may begin to create a new political reality that Biden will have a hard time ignoring altogether,” Moyn said. “And everyone knows that if the Supreme Court overrules Roe v. Wade, Biden’s own party or a popular outcry may force him to act.”

As a candidate, Biden deflected the court reform discussion by pledging to establish a study commission. The move succeeded in buying him political cover at a moment of Democratic furor as the court shifted rightward amid what the party viewed as Republican duplicity.

Debate over the Supreme Court reached a fever pitch in the closing days of the 2020 presidential election as Senate Republicans scrambled to confirm then-President Trump’s third nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, ahead of the November vote.

The move infuriated Democrats, who in 2016 were denied a hearing for then-President Obama’s pick to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, Merrick Garland, when Republicans claimed that election year confirmations are improper – before appearing to violate that claim four years later.

Biden made good on his campaign pledge once he entered the White House, tapping a bipartisan group of some three dozen of the nation’s foremost constitutional thinkers and court watchers. The move once again allowed him to keep an arm’s length distance from an issue that ranks as a top priority among many liberals but has turned off some of his party’s more moderate members.

When the Biden-appointed court commission published in early December its nearly 300-page report, which weighed various proposals such as court expansion and term limits for justices, the endeavor drew a mixed response.

Rather than make specific recommendations, the 34-member group maintained a posture of neutrality, hewing to an accounting of pros and cons instead of advocating for a specific course of change.

To critics, it was confirmation of their suspicions that Biden’s commission was conceived of as a political dodge. Organizations pushing for bolder reforms expressed displeasure at what some derided as the commission’s uninspired result.

“It was clear from the moment President Joe Biden failed to ask the commission for recommendations that the group was not intended to meaningfully confront the Supreme Court legitimacy crisis,” wrote the Project On Government Oversight. “The commission worked diligently and thoughtfully, but its deliberations made painfully apparent that it would only give Biden what he asked for: a book report.”

Even some of the commission’s more progressive members felt it necessary to make clear that their endorsement of the final report carried the caveat that it was not an embrace of the high court’s status quo.

But others say the commission’s work, which included public hearings that drew attention to issues like the court’s flagging perception among the public, may yet deliver a shot in the arm for reform proponents.

“The commission’s public deliberations plausibly increased pressure for reform by giving visibility to individuals speaking up in favor of reform,” said Ryan Doerfler, a law professor at the University of Chicago.

Many experts believe the justices themselves could breathe new life into the court reform movement this term.

The justices are currently weighing decisions on a number of hot-button topics, from issues of church-state separation to the Second Amendment. But one case looms largest: a clash over a Mississippi abortion law that directly challenges Roe v. Wade.

Nothing could galvanize the reform push quite like a decision undermining or overturning the landmark 1973 decision in Roe that first recognized a constitutional right to abortion, according to experts.

Under Roe and the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, states may regulate abortion up to the point of fetal viability, typically around 24 weeks, so long as the restriction does not pose an “undue burden” on abortion access. Mississippi’s law, which bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and makes exceptions only for medical emergencies or “severe fetal abnormality,” is a clear-cut violation of this framework, critics say.

Yet despite nearly five decades of precedent, many court watchers believe justices are poised to set tighter limits on the right to abortion. Experts say that could put the court in Democrats’ crosshairs just as Biden and Democratic leaders make their final pitch to midterm voters in hopes of clinging onto their now-tenuous control over Congress.

“I think if Roe and Casey are overruled, Court packing will be a major issue in the midterm elections,” said Scott Douglas Gerber, a law professor at Ohio Northern University.

The Florida Times – Union

Letters: Guys not taking the ‘jab’ may want to rethink it

Anne Hammock December 26, 2021

Although many understand that COVID-19 is a serious disease, others continue to downplay preventive measures. Despite the deaths of more than 700,000 Americans and the agony endured by survivors, many eligible people in Duval County have rejected vaccination.

Over time, information about the long-term health impact on survivors has identified new risks. The “long-haulers,” as they have been dubbed, suffer from a wide range of neurologic, muscular and heart-related problems. Many are chronically disabled which has not moved the nay-sayers to change their minds.

Recently, a panel of urologists examined the data and identified another long-term disability. It is well known that the virus damages blood vessels in the lung, heart, kidneys and brain. Not surprisingly, it also affects the blood vessels of the male genitalia.

Older men fully understand how much their organs depend on healthy blood flow. The panel predicts that as infected younger men have vessel damage, there may be a new and different epidemic of erectile dysfunction.

Men who are rejecting COVID-19 vaccinations, for whatever reason, may want to seriously consider the price they may pay.

NBC News

‘We’re failing terribly’: Colorado’s revered slopes face a major threat

Vicky Collins December 25, 2021

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — During the annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony at Breckenridge Ski Resort in early December, thousands of people crowded onto Main Street under a bluebird sky.

The event was preceded by a dog parade featuring hundreds of Bernese mountain dogs and a foot race with runners dressed as Santas and elves. When the sun finally set, the countdown began as a massive evergreen in the square was bathed in golden light.

The festive scene stood in stark contrast to what could be coming for Colorado and the Rocky Mountains: a severely shortened ski season by 2050, with some areas closing permanently by the end of the century.

Few industries in Colorado are experiencing the effects of climate change more than the once-robust ski industry, which experts say could fall victim in coming decades to rising temperatures, extreme drought and huge wildfires.

Home to some of the most iconic names in world-class downhill skiing — such as Vail, Aspen and Snowmass — Colorado collects $5 billion a year in revenue from the outdoor sport. But many wonder whether the industry can withstand its greatest challenge.

Denver, which lies at the foot of the Rockies, blew away records this year when measurable snow didn’t fall until Dec. 10, making for 232 straight days with no snow. Pitkin County, home to Aspen and Snowmass, had 30 more frost-free days this year than in 1980. And warming temperatures, even at night, prevent early snowmaking, which is essential to a profitable holiday season.

A typical downhill ski season in the Rockies starts in early November and ends in early April, but a 2017 study in the journal Global Environmental Change found that virtually all winter recreation areas in the U.S. could see the lengths of their seasons decline by 50 percent by 2050, and by 80 percent in 2090 for some downhill skiing locations.

The authors estimated that changes in season lengths under extreme emissions conditions could result in a loss of more than $2 billion for downhill skiing in the U.S.

Ideas vary among managers at Colorado’s 32 main ski areas on how to battle the crisis, but most acknowledge that what they’re doing now isn’t working.

“We’re failing terribly,” said Auden Schendler, senior vice president of sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company and a 30-year mountain resident who is alarmed by the increasing lateness of snow and its early departure, which he called the “March meltdown.”

Schendler said he grew especially worried when the Grizzly Creek Fire chewed through 33,000 acres near Aspen in 2020. It threatened the town and led to mudslides along Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon, temporarily cutting off access to Aspen.

“My concern initially was that the industry would be taken out by warmth and lack of snow. But in the last four years, we’ve had two giant, catastrophic fires that basically shut the town down,” he said, referring to Grizzly Creek and the Lake Christine Fire in 2018.

Greg Hanson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder, said Colorado is experiencing shortened winter seasons with first snows coming late and final ones falling earlier.

“We need below-freezing temperatures to get that snowfall, and with the temperatures going up, that is what shortens the winter season,” he said

Melanie Mills, president and CEO of Colorado Ski Country USA, a trade group, said snow is becoming more unpredictable.

“Business doesn’t like unpredictability,” she said. “It’s a major existential issue for the ski industry.”

Skiing is the largest economic engine for western Colorado and drives its second-largest revenue generator, tourism, according to Colorado Ski Country USA.

Ski areas have been working aggressively to switch to renewable energy to generate electricity, conducting energy audits to track their progress and using water more judiciously because most of Colorado’s water comes from mountain snowpack.

Despite efforts by ski resorts to reach zero emissions, zero waste and zero net operating impacts, Mills said it’s not enough.

“We can all be carbon-free, and we still won’t make a dent in the problem,” she said.

To that end, the industry is shifting its focus to advocacy by pushing policymakers to do more to fight climate change.

“This is not a problem that we’re going to solve locally,” Mills said. “And it’s not a problem that the ski industry is going to solve. We want to be part of the solution, but we need action at the national level and the international level.”

Schendler had hoped President Joe Biden’s all-but-doomed Build Back Better plan would be successful because it included some $550 billion in climate-related programs that would have put the U.S economy on track to zero emissions by 2050.

Scientists say that without that kind of action globally, nations will be unable to limit climate change to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.5 degrees Celsius, and avoid its most catastrophic effects.

Lisa Whitaker, who lives in Summit County and serves on the volunteer safety patrol at Copper Mountain, worries the late start to the season is putting too many people on too little terrain, increasing the risk of accidents.

“I would be sad not to be able to ski again,” she said. “I would be devastated if a whole community is wiped out. But when I think about hundreds of thousands of acres burning and the loss of wildlife, that’s much more sad to me than not being able to ski.”

Schendler said it will take a national effort to save not only skiing but other outdoor industries that rely on the weather for survival.

“We have to be noisy,” Schendler said, “and the bulk of the United States business community is not doing what’s required on a problem that costs more to leave alone than to solve.”