You Should Avoid Doctors and Judges in the Late Morning

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We already know that judges become considerably more severe in their sentencing as the morning wears on and they get tired and hungry. Today, Susannah Locke passes along a new tidbit of research showing that doctors prescribe more antibiotics as the morning wears on. Why? Probably because they’re making poorer decisions thanks to growing fatigue, or perhaps giving in more easily to patients who are demanding a damn pill even if it won’t do any good.

So here’s your choice. If you want your doctor to do something you think they probably don’t want to do, make an appointment for late morning or late afternoon. There’s a better chance they’ll just give up and give you what you want. On the other hand, if you actually want a proper diagnosis, your best bet is early morning or, in a pinch, right after lunch.

This has been your latest installment of news you can use. I wonder if this advice also applies to bloggers?

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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