Solitude

The Sun/The Moon

Life satisfaction, what does that mean? Good question is it not? For yours truly, restlessness is part of the equation but many times, solitude works in reacquiring balance in one's life without question. Less noise in the system applies as it seems solitude is more than just apt according to the Big Think article titled Why very smart people are happiest alone.

In a 2016 published study about how our ancestral needs impact our modern feelings, researchers uncovered something that will surprise few among the highly intelligent. While most people are happier when they’re surrounded by friends, smart people are happier when they’re not.

The savanna theory — also called the “evolutionary legacy hypothesis” and the “mismatch hypothesis” — posits that we react to circumstances as our ancestors would, having evolved psychologically based on our ancestors’ needs in the days when humankind lived on the savanna.

150 seems about right ...

The study found that people, in general, were less happy in areas of greater population density. The report’s authors see this as support for the savanna theory because we would naturally feel uneasy in larger groups if — as evidence they cite suggests — our brains evolved for functioning in groups of about 150 people:

• Comparing the size of our neocortex to other primates and the sizes of the groups in which they dwell suggests the natural size of a human group is 150 people (Dunbar, 1992).
• Computer simulations show that the evolution of risk aversion happens only in groups of about 150 people (Hintze, Olson, Adami, & Hertwig, 2013).
• The average size of modern hunter-gatherer societies is 148.4 people (Dunbar, 1993).
• Neolithic villages in Mesopotamia had from 150–200 people (Oates, 1977).
• When a group of people exceeds 150-200 people, it will tend to break into two in order to facilitate greater cooperation and reciprocity among its members (Chagnon, 1979).
• The average personal network, as suggested by the typical number of holiday cards sent per person per year, is 153.5 people (Hill & Dunbar, 2003).

Any more than that, crazy comes into play.

The data they analyzed supports the assumption that good friendships — and a few good ones are better than lots of weaker ones — do significantly increase life satisfaction for most people.

In highly intelligent people, though, the finding is reversed: Smart people feel happier alone than when others, even good friends, are around. A “healthy” social life actually leaves highly intelligent people with less life satisfaction. Is it because their desires are more aspirational and goal-oriented, and other people are annoyingly distracting?

However, just in case this makes too much sense, the study also found that spending more time socializing with friends is actually an indicator of higher intelligence! This baffling contradiction is counter-intuitive, at least. Unless these smart people are not so much social as they are masochistic.

Works for me. :)

Blade Runner ...

Toons

 

Wish fulfillment

Having a friend for dinner

Under construction

A forbidden romance

& pigs fly

A certain kind of Krazy

Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

A certain kind of Krazy looms now that Agent Orange announced, for a third time, his pursuit of the presidency in order to stay out of jail, also includes the Freedom Caucus, poised  to make life hell for Kevin McCarthy, the toady forced to walk the tight rope in trying to manage the razor thin majority the repugs will have in the house beginning in January 2023.

To whit ...

Votes are still being counted in several states, but it appears that Republicans will very likely win a majority of House seats, while falling short in the Senate. The midterms will come down to several outstanding House races in California and Colorado where the GOP candidates are currently ahead, plus the Senate runoff in Georgia. Should present trends hold, Republicans will have something like 220 House seats and 49 Senate seats.

While this would mean Democrats have lost their national trifecta, it’s not great for Republicans either. They were eagerly expecting a massive electoral sweep, with a comfortable 20- to 40-seat margin that would give them firm control of the House. Instead it’s going to be a razor-thin margin with a notably unruly caucus.

Meanwhile, conservative elites have widely attempted to blame Trump for the poor result, but he is not going away quietly. On the contrary, he announced his presidential campaign on Tuesday night, and is already launching savage attacks on expected challengers like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—or “Ron DeSanctimonious,” as Trump recently called him. The next two years of internal GOP politics are going to be a reality TV catfight for the ages.

As proof ...

Moreover, several House seats that Republicans picked up are exceptionally vulnerable. In New York, they won several districts that went comfortably for Biden in 2020. Facing likely political extinction, some of those members might be induced to vote for a compromise nonpartisan Speaker, or even switch parties.

But the Freedom Caucus—about 50 of the craziest Republican House members, which is to say, about 50 of the craziest people in the entire country—is already making outlandish demands and plotting against McCarthy. They have presented “requests” that he essentially surrender his formal powers to the committee chairs, and are pondering running someone against him for Speaker. Reportedly, they haven’t settled on anyone yet, but one possibility is Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), last seen joking about Nancy Pelosi’s husband being assaulted with a hammer by a deranged conservative extremist.

A certain kind of Krazy indeed.

When you think about it ...

 

Mark Peterson/Redux, for The New York Times

When you think about it, Agent Orange is like a honey badger, relentless, never giving up and ... hate to say it, charismatic, as the money he's made for the networks, while president, was truly epic and ... DeSantimonious is not charismatic in any way, shape or fashion.

A notion devoutly to be unwished ...

Because American politics has been so dominated by an entertainer, the most inevitable thing in the world is a sequel.

Donald Trump is expected to announce his inevitable 2024 presidential campaign on Tuesday in Florida. He is not as weak a candidate as many people might expect — or hope — him to be. I believe he is most likely to be the 2024 Republican nominee for president, and since we have only two major political parties, he could win in the general election — and that would be bad for the country.

Unless and until somebody else comes into the arena and proves otherwise, and despite disappointing Republican midterm election results that many people blamed Mr. Trump for, he remains the leader of the Republican Party. His style of personalized politics is incompatible with coalitional politics of any kind, and his agenda for personal rule in a second term is shaping up to be a nightmare.

He sets out in this pole position because the G.O.P. is a mess. What the midterms exposed again is that the party as it is currently configured doesn’t make any political sense and is a losing electoral proposition.

But that is not necessarily a problem for Mr. Trump. In fact, a Republican Party that is in disarray and divided by bitter recriminations and factional rivalries is the perfect environment for him. After all, bitterness and recriminations are his main instruments, and it is when Republicans are at their lowest political ebb — when they are feeling the most vulnerable, victimized and marginalized — that Mr. Trump is at his political best.

When you think about it ...

Getty Images

Always alert to an opportunity to position himself at center stage, former President Trump held a rally on Saturday in Latrobe, Pa.

Ostensibly a platform for the Republican candidacies of Mehmet Oz for senator and Doug Mastriano for governor, Trump turned the gathering into a promotion for his own 2024 presidential restoration. 

“We’re winning big, big, big in the Republican Party for the nomination like nobody’s ever seen before,” Trump said, referencing an unspecified poll. “There it is — Trump at 71. Ron DeSanctimonious at 10 percent.”

A honey badger indeed.

Near Real Time

 

The Blood Moon 2022 is the start point of this clip with emphasis on recording a most unusual sunrise on the morning after a total lunar eclipse seen by all on the east coast willing to get up at four and face the wind while watching as nature puts on a show for us rubes. Enjoy.

Daffy Duck anyone?

 

Herschel Walker, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks at a campaign.

Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Question, would you trust this man to run your business or go out with your daughter as these were the same questions asked of Agent Orange when Trump was running for president.

I think not but Herschel's not the chosen one for smarts, he's the chosen one to be a rubber stamp for the repugs.

ABOUT HALF OF Georgia voters cast a ballot for Herschel Walker on Tuesday. Most of these voters wouldn’t trust Walker to run the check-out at a Family Dollar. But that’s the whole point.

Herschel Walker has repeatedly proven himself to be stupid. Herschel Walker’s voters aren’t necessarily stupid. That’s too easy.

Georgia Republicans aren’t stupid. But they see safety in stupid politicians. The stupidity of Herschel Walker isn’t a problem for them. It’s a feature. And writing off Georgia Republicans as country idiots is a kind of smug, lazy thinking that oversimplifies a complicated political problem, not just in Georgia but across the country.

Herschel Walker was not nominated to govern. He was not nominated to bargain. He was not nominated to formulate policy. He was not nominated to exercise judgment. He was nominated to mash the R button whenever a vote comes up, no matter what.

“It could be Daffy Duck for all I care,” one such voter told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at a Walker rally in Baxley, Ga. “Just get the Democrats out of Washington.”

Exactly.

Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Adrià Fruitos

Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte's storyline goes like this ...

Forty years ago, on the night they were meant to elope, Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis) found her lover decapitated during a party, the blood on her dress leading everyone to suspect she was the murderer. Now, in 1964, Charlotte is an old recluse and must fight to keep her home. She enlists the help of her cousin Velma (Olivia de Havilland), who was there at the time of the murder. However, soon after Velma's arrival, Charlotte's mind becomes unstable, and she starts seeing her dead lover's head.

In indirect fashion, Charlotte also applies to how many countries the US military is surreptitiously involved with in the year of our lord 2022 as the MIC has also gone mad in its endless pursuit of money.

Afghanistan, Iraq, maybe Libya. If you asked the average American where the United States has been at war in the past two decades, you would likely get this short list. But this list is wrong — off by at least 17 countries in which the United States has engaged in armed conflict through ground forces, proxy forces, or air strikes.

... and we don't include Vietnam in this truly excellent adventure as this CF started over 50 years ago.

What's worse is the fact congress and DOD appear to be in the dark as well.

Congress’s understanding of U.S. war-making is often no better than the public record. The Department of Defense provides congressionally mandated disclosures and updates to only a small number of legislative offices. Sometimes, it altogether fails to comply with reporting requirements, leaving members of Congress uninformed about when, where, and against whom the military uses force. After U.S. forces took casualties in Niger in 2017, for example, lawmakers were taken aback by the very presence of U.S. forces in the country.footnote3_g1o2r643  Without access to such basic information, Congress is unable to perform necessary oversight.

It is not just the public and Congress who are out of the loop. The Department of Defense’s diplomatic counterparts in the Department of State also struggle to understand and gain insight into the reach of U.S. hostilities. Where congressional oversight falters, so too does oversight within the executive branch.

All into the valley of death rode the 600. - Charge of the Light Brigade/Alfred Lord Tennyson

Sagittarius A*

To create the first image of the Milky Way’s black hole, scientists ran numerous simulations of the swirling envelope of plasma that encircles it. This clip shows the version of the animated computer model that seemed to best mirror the radio wave data collected by the Event Horizon Telescope. Credit: Abhishek Joshi/UIUC

In the center of the Milky Way lurks a fairly quiescent monster, a relatively small supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A*, a tiny entity compared to its much larger cousin, M87. How these engines of creation and destruction work vis a vis the galaxies that house them has perplexed researchers for years but with sophisticated tools such as the Event Horizon Telescope, these objects of fascination and dread are becoming better understood as seen by Knowledgable Magazine's in-depth article titled What the image of the Milky Way’s black hole really shows.

Black holes keep their secrets close. They imprison forever anything that enters. Light itself can’t escape a black hole’s hungry pull.

It would seem, then, that a black hole should be invisible — and taking its picture impossible. So great fanfare accompanied the release in 2019 of the first image of a black hole. Then, in spring 2022, astronomers unveiled another black hole photo — this time of the one at the center of our own Milky Way.

The image shows an orange, donut-shaped blob that looks remarkably similar to the earlier picture of the black hole in the center of galaxy Messier 87. But the Milky Way’s black hole, Sagittarius A*, is actually much smaller than the first and was more difficult to see, since it required peering through the hazy disk of our galaxy. So even though the observations of our own black hole were conducted at the same time as M87’s, it took three additional years to create the picture. Doing so required an international collaboration of hundreds of astronomers, engineers and computer scientists, and the development of sophisticated computer algorithms to piece together the image from the raw data.

The new image of the black hole Sagittarius A*, confirms and refines previous predictions of its size and orientation. The mass of the black hole determines its size, or what scientists call its gravitational diameter. The point at which no light can escape from the black hole, called the event horizon, is determined by this mass and by the spin of the black hole. Hot plasma speeds around the massive object in the accretion disk, emitting radio waves. Those radio waves are bent and warped by gravity (through the effect of “gravitational lensing”) to produce the image of the orange outer circles. The black hole shadow and emission ring shown here are gravitationally-lensed projections of the far-side of the black hole’s event horizon and accretion disk, respectively. Source reporting by K. McCormick/Knowable Magazine

Read the rest of this detailed piece to see how our black hole was imaged if you dare. :)

Something's Afoot ... :)

Halloween Rocks. Nuff said. :)

600 billion ...

 In A self-inflicted CF,  yours truly complimented Musk on his engineering skills while at the same time, commenting, with vigor, on his disastrous purchase of Twitter, a truly bad investment of historical porportions as the man knows not his limitations in any way shape or fashion. Seems I'm not alone on this take as seen by Barry Gander's excellent article seen below.

Tesla’s stock has just dropped almost 50% to $193/share year-to-date.

Much of the drop comes from Musk’s purchase of Twitter…seen as a bad move. And now Musk wants to put Twitter behind a paywall.

Technical analyst John Roque of 22V Research says that Tesla’s $100/share is possible if things don’t start improving for the auto maker. If it reaches the $100 mark, Tesla’s market value will have fallen from a high of $1.2-trillion in January 2022 to $300-million. At its current price of $200/share, it is worth $600-billion. So even if it doesn’t drop to $100, it has lost $600-billion in less than a year.

For reference, Ford’s stock price only dropped 6% — so the problem is not in the auto market.

It gets better ...

I have nothing against Elon Musk and hope he succeeds, but let’s get real. Very few of his operations make business sense. If it weren’t for the fantasies of the stock market, he would still be a South African rich guy with pockets full of emeralds. Not a bad gig, but not the razzle-dazzle the markets are agog over.

Here’s how unhinged the investment mind-set is: Consider the business logic of the Tesla operation. The stock market puts Tesla’s value at $700-billion (down from $900-billion a month ago). This means that investors need a return of $70-billion a year for the next ten years. At a current profit margin of 15% — not sustainable, BTW, now that the other companies are in the EV game — Tesla requires sales of $480-billion. To get that, Tesla has to sell 10 million cars a year. The entire global passenger vehicle market sold under 75 million units in 2021. The largest firm, Toyota, has about a 10% market share (7.5-million vehicles). Tesla needs to sell more cars than Toyota to be worth the stock market value. BTW, currently it produces less than 1-million cars/year.

What were investors thinking, that they could get a return ten times higher than reality could deliver?

Factoids ...

Tesla in fact would not have got off the ground at all without help from the government: a $465 million Energy Department loan issued in 2010. The funds were double the amount that Tesla raised when it went public that year. This drew criticism from Republican 1.0 politicians like Mitt Romney, who called the company a “loser”. Investor Jim Chanos called Tesla a “walking insolvency”.

In the book Ludicrous — The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, by Edward Niedermeyer, he notes that:

- Tesla can’t make affordable cars;

- Telsa’s ‘Full Self Drive’ function does not work;

- Tesla is not an automotive story, it’s a celebrity story

He sums it up pretty harshly, concluding that Tesla is a confidence game.

In closing, a question to ask the rich ...

Socialism, BTW, obviously does not apply to businesses. However…If you are a taxpayer making (say) $50,000 a year, then $36 of your taxes goes to support food stamps, and $4,000 goes to corporate subsidies. Which group is the socialist group? Which is really living on “economic rent”?

But you would be comforted, no doubt, by the knowledge that you were at least paying taxes and doing your part. In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now among the world’s richest men, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes. He achieved the feat again in 2011. In 2018, Elon Musk, the second-richest person in the world, also paid no federal income taxes. Michael Bloomberg managed to do the same in recent years. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn did it twice. George Soros paid no federal income tax three years in a row.

These guys could end global hunger, eradicate homelessness, and end malaria, and still have $20-Trillion to take home and split among themselves. You know, in case the polo ponies needed polishing. They could give away $139-Trillion and still be worth as much as they were in 2000.

But Musk is a Republican, so it’s OK.

But it's not ok and, as stated before ...

The purchase of Twitter is one reason for the decline of Tesla’s value.