The Glass Key

 

Global Happiness

Mapped: Global Happiness Levels in 2022

What really makes people happy? While countless academic researchers have tried to get to the bottom of this, the truth is, it’s a complicated question to answer.

Happiness levels depend on a number of factors, including one’s financial security, perceptions of social support, feelings of personal freedom, and much more.

This map pulls data from the World Happiness Report to uncover the average happiness scores of 146 countries. It shows average scores from 2019 to 2021, and highlights which countries are the happiest—or unhappiest—and why.

How is Happiness Measured?

Before diving in, let’s briefly touch on how happiness levels are measured in this report.

The numbers shown represent the survey data from thousands of respondents for each country, who are asked to rate their subjective well-being (happiness score) using the Cantril life ladder question. For more information on the methodology of this and technical notes, go here.

The report also does a regression analysis to look at how happiness scores could be explained, by looking at tangible and intangible factors that could factor in:

• Social support
• Life expectancy
• Freedom to make life choices
• Generosity
• GDP per capita
• Perceptions of corruption
• Positive and negative affects

Similar to last year, the report takes special considerations to track how COVID-19 has impacted aspects of our daily lives, and how it’s affected global happiness levels.

Editor’s note: there are several countries covered in last year’s report that were not included in this year’s dataset, including Haiti, Maldives, and Burundi.

Zooming in: Regional Happiness Levels

Worldwide happiness comes in at an average score of 5.6, which is a slight improvement since last year’s report. Below, we dive into each region’s happiness levels.

North America

Current Mood: Happy (6.3)

Like last year, Canada ranks first as the happiest country in North America. However, it’s lost some ground on the global ranking, placing 15th this year compared to 14th the year prior. In contrast, the U.S. climbed three places in this year’s report and ranked just under Canada with a score of 6.97 (7.0 after rounding).  READ MORE...

Hungry

 

A Unified Theory of Math

Within mathematics, there is a vast and ever expanding web of conjectures, theorems and ideas called the Langlands program. That program links seemingly disconnected subfields. It is such a force that some mathematicians say it—or some aspect of it—belongs in the esteemed ranks of the Millennium Prize Problems, a list of the top open questions in math. Edward Frenkel, a mathematician at the University of California, Berkeley, has even dubbed the Langlands program “a Grand Unified Theory of Mathematics.”

The program is named after Robert Langlands, a mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. Four years ago, he was awarded the Abel Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in mathematics, for his program, which was described as “visionary.”

Langlands is retired, but in recent years the project has sprouted into “almost its own mathematical field, with many disparate parts,” which are united by “a common wellspring of inspiration,” says Steven Rayan, a mathematician and mathematical physicist at the University of Saskatchewan. It has “many avatars, some of which are still open, some of which have been resolved in beautiful ways.”

Increasingly mathematicians are finding links between the original program—and its offshoot, geometric Langlands—and other fields of science. Researchers have already discovered strong links to physics, and Rayan and other scientists continue to explore new ones. He has a hunch that, with time, links will be found between these programs and other areas as well. “I think we’re only at the tip of the iceberg there,” he says. “I think that some of the most fascinating work that will come out of the next few decades is seeing consequences and manifestations of Langlands within parts of science where the interaction with this kind of pure mathematics may have been marginal up until now.” Overall Langlands remains mysterious, Rayan adds, and to know where it is headed, he wants to “see an understanding emerge of where these programs really come from.”  READ MORE...

Campfire

 

Got Your Head in the Clouds?

The heavy mist seems to cling to everything. Walking through the haze makes any forward motion feel like a fruitless effort.

Any of this sound familiar? It may be because you’re languishing—a feeling of stagnation or emptiness. And naming it is a first important step, Penn’s Adam Grant, a professor of Management with the Wharton School, explained in a New York Times article. Once you can identify languishing, it can help bring clarity to one’s experiences.

Furthermore, charting our collective response to a disaster such as a global pandemic allows us to recognize where we are and how we can move forward. The American Psychiatric Association has identified emotional phases of disasters to understand how communities of people react over time.

A disaster event is followed by the heroic phase, where people come together—that lasts for a short time during the honeymoon period. This is followed shortly by disillusionment when reality sets in over what is actually happening and what it will take to recover. Languishing can occur during this period of disillusionment and recovery. Over time, recovery and reconstruction occur.

“When we talk about the amount of people who are languishing, we are talking about people who are not reaching their full potential,” said Lisa Bellini, MD, MACP, senior vice dean for Academic Affairs and a professor of Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.    READ MORE...

Just Walking By

 

It's All About Today...

 How many of us spend time worrying about what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow???  

We need to spend our time focusing on today...

Why???

Yesterday is water over the dam as they say and tomorrow may or may not become what we worry it might become...

Statistically speaking, we have just as many successes in our lifetimes as we have failures...  many of us do not realize because we have not been trained in statistical analysis...  therefore, it makes little to no sense to us...

We also, in part, let ourselves be judged by our peers so what we do or do not do is influenced by how they might perceive us if we did or did not do something...

For those of us who are elderly but do not consider ourselves old (yet), we understand the concept of looking at today...  and not the past nor the future, although, we have photos of our past that we look at from time to time.  

For those of us who are handicapped (both physically and mentally), we also understand the concept of today and living every single minute with purpose, acceptance, appreciation, and gratitude.

For those of us who are spiritually enlightened, we understand the concept...  and, not just see and understand today, but spend time with all of nature's voluntarily free beauty that has been made available to each and every one of us...  who is willing to let shine into our souls and become one with its magnificence.

It is said that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder and I am sure that this is true, but nature's beauty is unavailable for interpretation as it is just there to behold and infuse with our own inner beauty that seldom comes out to see the light of day and that is sad because we were given birth solely for this purpose and finally accept that reality just before it is too late.

Funnies to Brighten Your Day

 

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My Biased Views

 I am always amazed by the number of people who consciously make the decision to drive their vehicles 10-15+ miles over the speed limit, regardless of the posted speed...

My first thoughts revolve around the notion that they are late for work...  but then that excuse only goes so far...  especially on the days when no one should be working.

My next thought revolves around the fact that these people just like to drive fast because it makes them feel good...  like some big shot...  because when they get where they are going they are not big shots at all...

But, the people that BUG me the most are the ones who drive these HUGE PICKUP TRUCKS and/or HUGH SUVs who think that the road belongs to them...  I have found that most of the HUGE SUV drivers are females (age doesn't seem to matter) and most of the HUGE PICKUP TRUCK drivers are under 6 feet in height and obviously have some sort of identity crisis.

When I was a teenager, I owned a 1967 Plymouth Barracuda convertible with a 383 and a custom-made 5 speed with a racing cam and fuel injectors.  I drove that BAD BOY flat out all the time, especially on the interstates driving back and forth to college between VA and NC.  But sometime between the ages of 25 and 30, I simply outgrew the need to drive fast.

Nowadays, I leave the house well before I have to in order to make sure that I am always 15 minutes early and that I have accounted for unexpected accidents or delays on the highway.  I always get there early, but then I never have to drive fast because I am late.   If early, I simply park wherever drink the coffee I brought with me while reading FOX NEWS on my smartphone.  

I have also discovered that if I drive the speed limit or a little faster, I get better gas mileage, and while that is not absolutely necessary it is still nice to know that I am being careful with my retirement monies.

As I drive, I watch all the foolish people passing me by like I am standing still and just smile and wish them all well...  except for the rude ones who drive right up to your ass-end as if demanding that you pull over whether there is room to pull over or not.  when this happens, I just look around and admire the landscape that I am passing wondering if I will see cows today or not...  Eventually, my tailgater gets pissed and passes me on the other side, and gives me the middle finger salute to which I nod politely and smile.

I really enjoy driving these days...

Turning Square

Invasive Plants

Invasive plants are those that have been introduced by humans and which then go on to damage natural habitats. They grow and spread rapidly, smother native plants and flowers, often overwhelm native animal and insect life and may transform a landscape dramatically.

Invasives can be trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, annuals or aquatics and are often first planted because they are useful or attractive plants for our yards. Some native plants can also spread rapidly, but these are not usually classified as invasive.

Many invasive plants were deliberately introduced to natural habitats, for various reasons, then spread unexpectedly. Some escaped from gardens and yards, some were accidentally introduced.

It is important to remember that many plants are invasive in some parts of the country, but perfectly well-behaved in others. So each state has its own list of invasive species, your local Cooperative Extension Service or local nurseries can provide detailed information.

Controlling invasive plants is often difficult. As with how to get rid of weeds, hand pulling or digging is a widespread approach, and in some areas insects or fungi that feed on a particular invasive have been introduced. Weed killers are also sometimes used but come with their own risks. Deer can make the problem worse by eating native plants but not invasives.

For most of us the crucial thing is to make sure invasive plants aren't included in our yards and, if we see any invasives arrive, to pull them out straight away.  

TO SEE WHICH PLANTS YOU SHOULD AVOID PLANTING THIS SPRING, CLICK HERE...

That's What You Get

 

Lost in Spacetime

Einstein’s forgotten twisted universe

There’s a kind of inevitability about the fact that, if you write a regular newsletter about fundamental physics, you’ll regularly find yourself banging on about Albert Einstein. As much as it comes with the job, I also make no apology for it: he is a towering figure in the history of not just fundamental physics, but science generally.

A point that historians of science sometimes make about his most monumental achievement, the general theory of relativity, is that, pretty much uniquely, it was a theory that didn’t have to be. When you look at the origins of something like Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, for example – not to diminish his magisterial accomplishment in any way – you’ll find that other people had been scratching around similar ideas surrounding the origin and change of species for some time as a response to the burgeoning fossil record, among other discoveries.


Even Einstein’s special relativity, the precursor to general relativity that first introduced the idea of warping space and time, responded to a clear need (first distinctly identified with the advent of James Clerk Maxwell’s laws of electromagnetism in the 1860s) to explain why the speed of light appeared to be an absolute constant.

When Einstein presented general relativity to the world in 1915, there was nothing like that. We had a perfectly good working theory of gravity, the one developed by Isaac Newton more than two centuries earlier. True, there was a tiny problem in that it couldn’t explain some small wobbles in the orbit of Mercury, but they weren’t of the size that demanded we tear up our whole understanding of space, time, matter and the relationship between them. But pretty much everything we know (and don’t know) about the wider universe today stems from general relativity: the expanding big bang universe and the standard model of cosmology, dark matter and energy, black holes, gravitational waves, you name it.

So why am I banging on about this? Principally because, boy, do we need a new idea in cosmology now – and in a weird twist of history, it might just be Einstein who supplies it. I’m talking about an intriguing feature by astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter in the magazine last month . It deals with perhaps general relativity’s greatest (perceived, at least) weakness – the way it doesn’t mesh with other bits of physics, which are all explained by quantum theory these days. The mismatch exercised Einstein a great deal, and he spent much of his later years engaged in a fruitless quest to unify all of physics.  READ MORE...

Don't Whistle

 

Toad Breaks Silence

Ecuadoran biologist Jorge Brito was trekking through the forest when he heard what he thought was the chirp of a cricket.

What he found changed a century of scientific belief.

"At first I thought it was some sort of cricket out there vocalizing, but then I paid attention," said Brito, from Ecuador's national biodiversity institute.

It was, in fact, a type of brown toad with rough skin called Rhinella festae that has a prominent nose and had been considered mute since it was first discovered 100 year ago.

"While it did not inflate its vocal sack, you could see a small flicker" on its chin, said Brito.

He caught it and took it to a laboratory to study with his colleague Diego Batallas.

"The first time I heard it, I said: Wow, that's not the sound of a toad, it's like a little bird," Batalla told AFP.

The toad, which measures between 45 and 68 millimeters in length, lives in the mountainous Ecuadoran regions of Cutucu and Condor, extending over the border into the Amazonian region of Peru.

The discovery was first reported in February in Neotropical Biodiversity magazine, where Brito and Batallas described the sound made by the toad.

"It is the first time this unique song of the Rhinella festae has been recorded and it's surprising because it shouldn't sing," Batallas told AFP.    READ MORE...

Potions

The Night Watchman

This came out in 2017, but is very appropriate to today! Interesting!


Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.


Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night."


So they created a Night Watchman position and hired a person for the job.


Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.


Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports.


Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer then hired two people.


Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.


Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back." So they laid off the night watchman.


NOW slowly, let it sink in.


Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter administration?


Anybody? Anything? Anyone? No? Didn't think so!


Bottom line is, we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency, the reason for which very few people who read this can remember!


Ready??


It was very simple... and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.


The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.


Hey, pretty efficient, huh???


AND NOW IT'S 2022 -- 45 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $242 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE!


(THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?") 34 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.


Ah, yes -- good old Federal bureaucracy.


NOW, WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT? What can possibly go wrong?


Hello!! Anybody Home?


Signed.... The Night Watchman

WWIII

 

The Chicken Pecker