Five Q-and-A

 1.  What is the simple explanation of the 'Bell-Curve'?

No matter how you stack the deck or think you are genius....only about 10-percent of people are in what you'd call the gifted range.  About 30-percent are in the somewhat gifted range.  And sixty-percent are definitely less-than-gifted.  

2.  Is there anything ever clean about 'energy'?  

No....not unless you lived out of some cave or hut in Montana.

3.  Are a quarter of the US population living in some cult-like trance?

Yeah, it's best that you not explain this to them.

4.  Why can't movie studios produce anything original?

Original writing has been dead since the 1970s.

5.  Can a governor suspend some right from the Constitution?

Like that NM governor suspending open-carry of weapons?  Well, yeah.  She could halt all booze sales if she felt that was a threat to mankind.  She could probably even suspend sex, if she felt it was some 'evil'.  

Old People Stuff

 I sat and looked over this listing.

I probably haven't used a rotary phone since like 1988 (Panama days).  

My MySpace account?  It's still there, I checked back during Christmas. 

Phonebook?  The Germans haven't issued one for about five years now.  

My paper-map?  When I left AZ in 1992....I threw the old one away.  

My one dictionary?  When Bitburg was closing down, I took my one and only dictionary on the office-desk home (dated from 1981).  I still have it but I doubt if I've opened it since 2000.  

Opening up an encyclopedia?  Probably for the last college class in 1985.  

I never opened a AOL account.  

What Would Happen In A Scenario Where Joe Biden Passes On Before The Primary?

 Well.....things go to hell in a hand-basket.

You end up with VP Harris moving up....a selection process where a new VP is pursued, and has to pass through the Senate.  It's anyone's guess who Harris would select, but I'm guessing she would NOT select Governor Newsom.

President Harris would then enter the primary period, and likely find that there's not a lot of enthusiasm for her.  RFK would likely gain quickly some momentum and the general view would be that he's the only possible candidate at that point.

The ability of the news media to sell Harris and her 'brand'?  She'd have to clean up her poor speech problems, and present herself as some 'great' political figure (which would be difficult).

It's one of those amusing discussions that you've have in a bar after the third beer.  

Here's the odd factor....there beyond Joe Biden, there must be at least fifteen Senators/House members....in this age group, and I could see some 60-day period where you might have Biden and two or three 'old' folks pass on.   The media question....isn't it remarkable that so many old folks died?  And the response would be...yeah, why is that?

Once There Was a Jungle

 I was stationed in the mid-1980s in Panama....for three years.  It was an rather odd period, and I could probably write a 400-page book over local events/history.  

One interesting aspect that I got into a discussion one day with a American canal employee (he'd been there for years)....about the southern part of the country....the Darien Gap.

It's the southern quarter of the country and extends for about 30 miles into Columbia.

On jungle status?  Five-star.

Back in the 1950s....some discussion had come up about making a road-way through the jungle....so you drive from Alaska all the way to the southern tip of Chile.  Eventually, they reasoned that the Gap was not capable of supporting such a road.  Nothing was ever built.

Prior to the last decade, you'd hear about such-and-such adventure team either treking through the jungle there, or even taking a 4x4 jeep down some trail.

Key negatives?  Snakes, gators, and Pumas.  It's about sixty to eighty miles (depending on where you leave from or arrive), and you can figure a max of maybe ten to fifteen miles a day (at least in the 1980s).  Figure four to six days of walking in such a setting.

Well...it got brought up in the past week....around 350,000 folks (mostly Venezuelan folks) have made the trip in 2023 so far....heading north to the US border.  My guess is that it'll hit 450,000 by the end of the year.  Your guess for 2024?  It might go well above half-a-million.  

An established trail now?  Yeah.  And I'd guess that a thousand folks a day are now walking this trail as a minimum.

Panama disturbed by this?  You see differing views.  The Gap was supposed to be a barrier where people didn't penetrate the country.  As long as people continue walking north, I don't think it'll be a big deal.

Affecting the population of Venezuela?  Well....before Covid, they had a population of 28-million.  Since Covid and this exit-stuff?  I doubt that the 28-number is correct and might suggest that it's starting to get near 26-million.  

The problem is...once you prove the Gap trail is utterly safe......nothing much would hinder a 12-year old Venezuelan kid from taking the walk and exiting crappy conditions in Venezuela.  3,200 mile walk?  If you throw in an occasional bus or train ride....a kid could probably arrive in El Paso in 20 days.