Category Archives: Uncategorized

Construal:

Construal is a social psychological term that refers to the way in which (or the process of) people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the world around them. We all need to interpret the world around us so that we can make sense of the world and determine our own actions and judgements. For example, imagine you are walking down the street and in front of you someone stops, falls to the ground, grabs their chest, and starts to turn blue. You would begin to interpret this situation, running through all the possible explanations for this situation and the person’s behavior. Is it a joke, are they choking, having a heart attack, is this an emergency, etc. This would be construal – your interpretation of the situation. [Alleydog]

Incidentally, the by-line of Alleydog is “Psychology Students’ Best Friend,” which niggles at me as intuitively ungrammatical. Construal noted in “Why giving up on goals is good for you, and how to know which to ditch,” David Robson, NewScientist (15 November 2025, paywall):

The key, then, is knowing your priorities and recognising your personal responsibility for planning your time. For many of us, however, it can be difficult to determine which goals to abandon, which to shelve and which to pursue. “It takes a lot of self-reflection,” says Fujita. For this, he recommends using what psychologists call “construal-level theory” – although you might think of it as putting on your perspective goggles. If a particular situation feels extremely personal – the emotions it invokes are raw and you find yourself focusing on the fine details – then try to zoom out to see the bigger, more objective picture. This raises the construal level, which is known to help clarify people’s thinking about many life decisions.

This is the sort of political behavior that could incite fury.

Just two weeks ago I covered DJT’s 20% decline in price, or equivalently, if I may speak a bit roughly, the 20% decline in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp.‘s value. Since then, DJT’s been leading the market downward, a sloppy metaphor since Trump Media & Technology Group Corp is not a leader in its service industry or any other aspect of the worldwide, or even nationwide, economy.

Yes, if you’re doing the numbers that’s another 20% slide in two weeks.

Assessing the motivations of millions of investors is an enormous exercise in chutzpah, and I do not blame the reader who takes the advice of a license professional and moved on from DJT. I would, too.

I take the suggestion that investors are voting on the future of the Trump Administration to be intellectually weak and an instance of confirmation bias. That said, given the decision of one of Trump’s historically strongest supporters to abandon the President, a President who, at times, seems completely at a loss as to national and world events, and a number of other negative developments, the plunge of DJT’s price may be connected to investors assessing the likelihood of Truth Social continuing in the long run, as well as other ventures, including cryptocurrency.

And I will be the last to suggest those who hold on through thick and thin will get a reward. A poorly run corporation with poor prospects usually ends up in the bankruptcy bin, and that’s my assessment of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp.

But don’t take my judgment. I’m not a licensed financial advisor, I’m just a casual investor with nearly 40 years of experience.

Look around for other opinions.

Last week Friday, Andrew Sullivan’s Weekly Dish column was headlined, Are The Wheels Finally Falling Off MAGA? Two nights ago, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), one of the iconic riders of the MAGA/Trump wave, announced her imminent resignation from Congress.

Greene was unhappy with how the President was treating her:

Holobiont:

A holobiont is any agglomeration of a host, microbiome, virome, and other related organisms that each function together as a whole. [ScienceABC]

“Each” seems superfluous, even confusing.

Noted in “This book is a great insight into the new science of microchimerism,” Helen Thomson, review of Lise Barnéoud’s Hidden Guests, NewScientist (8 November 2025, paywall):

This fascinating idea – that we are a holobiont, composed not only of human cells and microbes but also fragments of others – and its implications sit at the heart of Hidden Guests: Migrating cells and how the new science of microchimerism is redefining human identity by Lise Barnéoud.

Barnéoud traces not only the serendipitous discovery of these microchimeric cells, but also how their interpretation has been shaped by culture and politics. The notion that fragments of parents, siblings and even fetuses embed themselves within our bodies and brains can stimulate wide-ranging feelings.

Not that I’m a critical part of the social media community, but for those who wonder, it’s been the week of the chest cold.

Breathing easier now.

Readers may recall President Trump issued a flurry of lawsuits as he took office, and among them was a lawsuit against Selzer & Co, a now defunct but respected firm in the polling business.

Today I learned the suit was dismissed by the judge.

A federal court dismissed a lawsuit against pollster J. Ann Selzer over her pre-election poll showing Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump in Iowa during the final days of the 2024 campaign. …

“I am pleased to see this lawsuit has been dismissed. The First Amendment’s protection for free speech and a free press held strong,” Selzer said Thursday. “I know that I did nothing wrong and I am glad the court also concluded that there was never a valid legal claim.” [kcrg.com]

That slightly sweetens a career termination that included estimating Harris lead Trump by three points three days before Election Day. Trump beat Harris in Iowa by thirteen points, a result which must have Selzer’s career off with fewer regrets.

And gives the First Amendment more of a commanding advantage over lawsuit-happy politicians.

Aurum:

Aurum, the Latin word for gold and the source of its chemical symbol, “Au” [Wikipedia]

Noted in “Donald Trump is selling fool’s gold from the White House,” Hayes Brown, MS Now:

The president’s aurum-plated predilections have long been a punchline for others. In 1990, the Baltimore Sun reported that a new line of hotels in the region would provide “luxury of a very different type than the Donald Trump model.” The chain will “offer luxury by inference,” the hotel’s general manager said. “It is achieved through attention to total comfort, rather than by gold fixtures and lots of fake marble in the bathrooms.”

A reminder that some of English’s roots are in the far fields of Rome.

Nancy Mace, Rep from South Carolina and would-be candidate for the South Carolina’s governor’s seat:

The establishment is in PANIC MODE. They are doing everything they can, including falsifying police incident reports, to STOP US. And it’s not going to work. If they can’t find it – they’ll just make it up. They’ll do everything they can to destroy us. [Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire]

This comes after her own incident at the Charleston Airport.

So is Mace just a nut? Oddly enough, I don’t think so. One of the electoral tactics of this latest crop of GOP officials is the classic The world’s out to get us! As I figure this is all Mace knows, she’s trying to continue to use it – against her own Party.

It’s not a good look, is it?

My friend Charles puts it eloquently:

Tying Trump to Epstein isn’t a “smear” if Trump was really abusing underage girls. This is the “transparency” MAGA was asking for until they realized that Dear Leader is probably guilty of some seriously bad stuff. My conservative friends might ask: “what if Clinton is in there?” to which I’d respond – ANYONE involved with abusing underage girls should go down HARD, I don’t care who they are. RELEASE THE FILES.

Bravo!

But this should be the common, shared wisdom of the American citizenry, and certainly the Democrats’ alleged concealment of Biden’s mental decline is of the same category, if not the same magnitude, as concealing a 32-times convicted felon’s possible and alleged abuse of underage girls.

I do repeat, alleged.

That it needs to be said speaks to the general corruption infesting the current political culture of the United States, doesn’t it? I characterize it as unwarranted arrogance a belief, adhering to both sides, that there is no need for compromise, that the other side is so evil….

Bah. Writing this yet again leaves a vile taste, blurs my sight, poisons the air.

Look, I don’t mind people “being political,” but joining an organization, meeting a bunch of people who confirm your quietly held positions, and thinking that it must make your positions right … is wrong.

Criticizing your own positions effectively is one of the hardest things an intelligent being can do.

If you like references to Space Invaders or really big hats, this may be for you. The fashion itself? Meh.

When it comes to blowouts, this guy knows how to enumerate!

Every race. It’s basically been every race.Governors. Mayors. Long-held GOP dog-catchers. School boards. Water boards. Flipped a dungeon master in a rural Iowa D&D club. State senators. State reps. A janitor in Duluth. State justices. Three GOP Uber drivers.Just everything.

— John Pfaff (@johnpfaff.bsky.social) 2025-11-05T05:20:49.393Z

Who knew the Democrats targeted DMs?!?!?

The GOP yapped about the No-Kings demonstrations for a while, but here’s a poll:

The high election interest and focus on Trump also come as millions of Americans have participated in “No Kings” protests against the Trump administration. In this survey, 43% say they consider themselves supporters of the No Kings protest movement — with the group largely composed of Democrats but also including around 4 in 10 independents. [NBC News]

Which, as Steve Benen notes, is better than approval of the MAGA movement. … 4 in 10 independents suggests there’s room to grow, but also that independents are only beginning to pay attention to the role of government in keeping the economy perking along.

But the bluster of various GOP members over simple facts on the ground betrays their basic disconnect from the ways of honest American government, doesn’t it? It’s quite one thing to suggest that IF the other side gets power terrible things will happen, but it’s quite another to deny simple reality, such as the composition of the No Kings demonstrators.

The GOP jumped on the bucking horse, and now they don’t know how to conduct themselves properly to survive it. Zealots busy themselves with wrecking all incongruent with their ideological models, while their leader frantically tries to insulate himself from the consequences of his mis-deeds.

Independents are gradually realizing this, but looking at the Democrats can be a dismal business as well. Will we get new, improved Parties, or will it be a choice between Alien and Predator?

Being behind on my reading does make it easier to report follow-up observations. For example, last week’s gubernatorial election in New Jersey, not a special election but a regularly scheduled election, elicited this statement from Steve Benen:

* In the final round of polling in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill narrowly leads former Republican Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli in the latest Suffolk University poll (46%-42%), Quinnipiac University poll (51%-43%) and Fox News poll (52%-45%).

A real nail-biter, eh? “Narrowly leads” hardly sounds like it. Drum roll, please:

Source: Ballotpedia.

A 13 point victory is not a nail biter. I have no special links to pollsters, so I don’t know the internal chatter, but they have to be discussing these results with some intensity, especially Suffolk University.

Monist:

1. Philosophy.
   1. (in metaphysics) any of various theories holding that there is only one basic substance or principle as the ground of reality, or that reality consists of a single element.
   2. (in epistemology) a theory that the object and datum of cognition are identical.
2. the reduction of all processes, structures, concepts, etc., to a single governing principle; the theoretical explanation of everything in terms of one principle.
3. the conception that there is one causal factor in history; the notion of a single element as primary determinant of behavior, social action, or institutional relations. [Dictionary.com]

Noted in “What 350 different theories of consciousness reveal about reality,” Robert Lawrence Kuhn, NewScientist (25 October 2025, paywall):

This first decision comes down to whether a theory is dualist or monist. Dualism, an idea most scientists steer clear of, posits the mental and physical as two deeply distinct substances, neither reducible to the other. For instance, traditional Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – feature a “soul” along with the physical body or brain. On the other hand, monism says that reality in all its manifest forms consists of only one kind of “stuff” at its deepest level. Philosopher Bertrand Russell proposed that a single set of properties underlies both consciousness and the fundamental entities of the physical world.

I admit I tired quickly of this article, which concerned theories of the association between brain and consciousness, and merely skimmed.

It’s been less than a month since my last commentary on DJT, the stock symbol for the company Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., and, if you hold this stock in your portfolio, it doesn’t look good. In those last three weeks, roughly, it’s been an 18% slide in value.

Source: finance.yahoo.com.

This one month chart illustrates the problem for those who appreciate graphs, showing that going back a week or so from previous commentary makes the problem even worse – down 23%.

This suggests investors’ confidence in an offering of a social media platform featuring a President who, in my opinion, has earned the moniker The Mendacity Machine, a cryptocurrency treasury, supporting access to prediction markets, aka betting pools on just about anything you like, the offering of $TRUMP, and a few other things is eroding. It may have to do with the occupants of the C-suites, or doubts about crypto’s long term viability, or the President’s long-term drawing power as the star of a social media platform reportedly struggling. Talk to your favorite investors and you may get as many opinions as you have such friends.

This is in the context of a market that is setting new records, although I will also state that I think we’re seeing the type of frothy market characteristic of a situation in which there are many unfamiliar factors. The government is painfully, even dangerously, incompetent, run by oddballs who’ve clung to opinions far outside that of the mainstream for decades, and by God, now that they’re in power, they’re going to afflict us with those opinions; they’ll frantically deny they have anything to do with the negative consequences that occur.

Just like their role model, Mr Trump. Think of the troubling labor statistics that accompanied his occupancy of the Oval Office, statistics which the President cut off by firing – perhaps illegally – the lead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Notably, his nomination to replace said leader was withdrawn as the Senate signaled it would not approve him amidst general criticism of and laughter at him, him being E. J. Antoni. I’ve not heard of a new nominee, as Mr Trump practices the old art of obscuring the unpleasant while his spokesperson trumpets his transparency, over and over again.

That must make formerly confident investors nervous enough to withdraw investments from Trump. I differentiate investors, people who separate emotion from investing, from MAGA investors, investors from President Trump’s electoral base, who follow emotion in their investing and have bought DJT. I think the MAGA investors are in for an unpleasant surprise.

I see the market as the Pied Piper these days, attracting money that may never return. But I’m no expert, I’m just an investor who’s feeling suspicious about markets in a nation featuring an absolutely untrustworthy President who may be guided by a morality system based on wishful thinking.

Noted on the way home the other day.

Steve Benen is disturbed by this Politico report, behind a paywall^[1], concerning President Trump treating a meeting with the troops as a campaign rally:

Speaking to U.S. soldiers aboard the USS George Washington in Yokosuka, Japan, the Republican did it once again. The New York Times noted, “Trump has been doing this more often at home lately, but it is still striking to see him basically holding what looks and sounds very much like one of his signature political rallies in front of members of the United States military.”

A Politico report fleshed this out in more detail:

In the early hours of this morning, Trump gave another highly partisan speech to the U.S. military, hailing his own political achievements and repeatedly condemning his Democratic opponents and critics in the media. … [W]hat’s most striking is Trump’s willingness to use the troops as a foil for his highly partisan rhetoric. He repeatedly condemned his predecessor Joe Biden, told his audience the 2020 election had been rigged and savaged Democratic governors who resist military incursions into their cities. … Trump also called out the ‘fake news media,’ encouraging the troops to deride the gathered journalists.

It’s worth taking a moment to explore the landscape.

… we must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately. [Benjamin Franklin or Carl Van Doren, Founders Online]

This is more than a meme from the Founding of the United States, it’s an accurate description of the situation: either the British colonies of North America that were in rebellion united, or it was likely that each person would be hung.

But let’s make this a bit more complex. Why is it often old men and women who lead nations? It’s worth a thought on that, especially if my reader is younger and, perhaps, not particularly contemplative.

The answer is not surprising. Experience of all sorts informs judgment, as does having the time for meditation, and even having proper mental models of how humans work.

When I see a group of young people cheering on some old fellow who’s spouting populist ideas of little merit, I’m reminded why we don’t put those young adults in charge. Further, their lack of judgment, a natural condition for folks of their age, make them vulnerable to poor advice and illicit directives.

In a dangerous world, we should be coming together, compromising and looking to the common weal. Instead, President Trump, unlike most leaders, is leading the way into division, risking wrack and ruin, demonizing anyone he sees as a danger to his corrupt and grifting ways. This is a betrayal of the young adults of America.

They should be paying attention to criticisms and not cheering his simplistic and incorrect analyses. They’re getting an up-close look at power-grubbing, and it should sicken them.

¹ I approve of paywalls, actually, as I view the ad model of paying for websites to be corrosive as it removes some, or even all, of the social contract influence that a paid subscription implies. Do I have a sub for Politico? No. Being a working dude, I have not the time for reading it properly, nor the interest.

If you’re finding the price of ingredients for pie to be prohibitive, Max Miller of Tasting History is here to tell you all about water pie.

After some upgrade drama…

Not totally resolved …

We have flowers!

All from last summer.

Ectoparasite:

Ectoparasites are defined as parasites that infest the outer surface of their hosts, which can include species that live exclusively on humans, such as lice and scabies, as well as those that are incidental hosts, like fleas. They can cause intense itching and may transmit diseases through their bites. [ScienceDirect]

Noted in this Animalogic video concerning vampire sharks. I shan’t help you find it.

I don’t know about my reader, but I’d be alarmed if I were President and read this:

A majority of Americans agree “President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy” (56%), up from 52% in March 2025, compared with 41% who agree “President Trump is a strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness.” [Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI)]

Especially in combination with his disastrous address to the top military brass of a few weeks ago, which gave the impression that he had no idea how to deal with them – and they were absorbing the fact that he’s an appearance-obsessed businessman completely lacking in a deep understanding of anything except how to get elected in today’s age.

I wonder about this, which came in mail from AL-Monitor with no link:

On Oct. 27, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned AI company Humain announced Humain One — a new AI-based operating system that lets users talk to their computers rather than click icons. The company, launched in May under its powerful Public Investment Fund and chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, sees systems like its voice-driven OS eventually replacing traditional systems like Windows or macOS.

The new system’s debut, announced by CEO Tareq Amin at the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh, offers another revealing glimpse of Humain’s ambitions. In August, the company introduced Humain Chat, an Arabic-language chatbot built on its own large language model, ALLAM 34B. Now, with Humain One, it’s potentially signaling a bigger vision: embedding generative AI at the heart of everyday computing.

Generative AI in the central heart of my computer? Probabilistic guesswork rather than determinism in everything a computer does?

It may be time to begin life-long abstention from computers. Back to drinking heavily.