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00:27:20.260Well, I do think there's a whole lot of research going into this.
00:27:23.020And the latest stories include how we're also going after the rare earth minerals to get rid of China's monopoly on that and reduce the risk of the supply chain around that.
00:29:05.480How does gossip make them feel included?
00:29:11.560I don't know if it does make them feel included.
00:29:14.140I think it makes them feel more connected to those celebrities, which are kind of like authority figures.
00:29:19.040So, it might just make them feel higher status, you know, if they can feel like they know more about these celebrities than other people, that they might feel better informed and, you know, more authoritative somehow.
00:29:32.060Maybe they don't have that banter with friends.
00:29:34.120So, they're like, oh, I have this banter.
00:29:36.520You know, I don't have a friend group to banter with.
00:29:39.820So, I can, you know, talk about celebrity gossip.
00:29:42.400Maybe I'm speculating their lives don't feel interesting, or maybe they're not interesting.
00:29:56.480Well, I think I like that take you had about people not having somebody to care for, you know, and it's like a cat.
00:30:04.860You know, you get a cat, you get a celebrity, and you care for them, and you, you, you, you know, and that's why any celebrity, it doesn't matter how terrible we think they are, there's people out there that love them very much, right?
00:30:19.140That they really care for them, and they watch everything they do, and it feels good.
00:30:23.760You know, like, I watch my cat right here, and like, I want to, I look him up on my Blink, right?
00:30:29.440So, if you don't have a cat, yeah, get a celebrity, I guess, you know, I like that.
00:30:33.640Well, you could care for the celebrity, or you could hate that celebrity, and the gossip can go either way.
00:30:43.180It gets you going, it gives you energy, it gets you on the streets, you know?
00:30:47.720All those protests are great, because everybody's out there getting some exercise, you know, getting the energy out, and, you know, expressing themselves in America.
00:30:59.020As long as they don't, you know, block the cops and respect, you know, people, you know, it's fine, but, but the law, the law, nobody's above the law, and, and then, and then we're going to be fine, so.
00:31:11.740I wonder if we'll have any, um, protester marriages come out of this, like, people who met, you know, throwing bricks at ice and stuff, and they fall in love, and like, you could have a new reality show.
00:31:22.760There, there was, um, in Portland, um, you know, I, Nick, Nick Sorter, Nick Sorter, Sorter, um, he was, uh, around these protesters, and some of them had gotten, he interviewed a couple, and they were like, we met last time we protested, and like, and he just, like, led them on to speak, and they were just so, oh my God, they're so woke, but, you know, it's just,
00:31:51.880I mean, if you're single, if you're single, and don't have a job, and you, like, hate Trump, man, you, it's like a, it's like an amazing club of people that they all hate the same person, right?
00:32:05.760It's amazing, I mean, I wish I had somebody like that, that I could go and, and meet somebody like that, you know, that's why one of those, uh, SCAT local meetups that Jimmy's making, because then you have something in common, like, oh yeah, we all love SCAT, let's have some coffee, right?
00:32:21.280So, um, yeah, I mean, there's been hundreds of stories about the importance of having a lot of close social connections, and how it makes you healthier to have friends, so I think it's just a basic human need, and, um, one of the other parts that I would add here is that they point out in the story that marketers could use this for isolated groups, so it's also something to watch out for.
00:32:42.680If you're feeling isolated, you might, they may be able to take advantage of that by using gossip to attract you, and to market things to you, and sell things to you, and so it's something to watch out for from a persuasion perspective.
00:32:55.320I think it also ties right into Ciel Dini's book, Influence, where he points out that authority figures are a very effective tool for persuasion, and that they don't have to be real authority figures.
00:33:08.220Like, what the primary example he uses is some, I forget which one, but some, a doctor, like, actor that played a doctor, and then they would use him on commercials in his doctor's coat to sell stuff, and people would respond to it.
00:33:21.000It was very effective, and even though everyone knew he wasn't a real doctor, they still gave him that authority just by watching him in the lab coat, and, you know, pretending, essentially, that he was a doctor, and so it is something to watch out for if you're trying to just protect yourself from being persuaded in a nefarious way, or, I guess, if you want to persuade people, you can maybe find ways to use this to your advantage, but, um, you know, it is one of the small principles.
00:33:48.880Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe I can put my avatar in a lab coat.
00:33:54.140Do not put a lab coat in the cell phone.
00:36:06.500I don't know if it's a reframe, but maybe you could just say if you're feeling stressed out, it might just be a good idea to step away from the phone and not expose yourself to multiple stresses because it could have bad impact on you.
00:37:03.580Well, if you want to get into the political news, we have more going on with Russia and Ukraine, although it's really more of the same.
00:37:11.440I think they're doing trilateral peace talks, so that's with Russia, Ukraine, and the United States.
00:37:17.100At the same time, Russia has picked up their attacks again, so there's power outages everywhere.
00:37:21.520And they, you know, had an attack on Tuesday that was the biggest since the beginning of the year, with 70 missiles and hundreds of drones attacking their energy.
00:37:32.180So, it does seem like a drone in an energy war still, which Scott was predicting for a long time would happen someday, and here we are.
00:37:40.760But it does seem like it's, they're going after the grid, they're going after the energy.
00:37:46.320I'm sure that's partly tied into the drones, because if you don't have electricity, you can't charge your drones.
00:37:51.900But I think it's also impacting a lot of people.
00:37:54.200So, there, you know, there's a lot of people that are really cold right now.
00:37:57.180So, I do feel for the people in Ukraine, especially.
00:38:02.460Ukrainians are calling it a winter genocide.
00:38:04.580It's like negative 20 degrees Celsius in Kiev, so that's a bad situation.
00:38:10.360But they are around the negotiating table for another round of trilateral talks.
00:38:15.740You know, they seem to be thinking it's constructive, but I think they still have a lot to work out.
00:38:19.940I think most of it still goes around the territory and whether Zelensky will give up that eastern part.
00:38:29.320Zelensky said, either Russia now believes that there are four incomplete days in a week instead of seven, or they are really betting only on war and waiting for the coldest days of the winter.
00:38:36.840We believe this Russian strike clearly violates from what the American side discussed, and there must be consequences.
00:38:43.000So, it doesn't seem like we're at the end at this point, but they are working on it.
00:38:49.180So, hopefully, we'll see some progress there.
00:38:51.980Owen, is the EU more or less dependent of energy from Russia right now?
00:39:00.000Well, I think they're probably a little less than they have been, or at least they're moving in that direction.
00:39:04.900But I think they're in a bad situation, because they, like Germany, for example, destroyed their nuclear plants.
00:39:11.880Like, they didn't just shut them down.
00:39:13.280They actually blew up the cooling towers.
00:39:15.260So, now they have a huge gap in energy capacity.
00:39:19.240And I think the UK, you know, is a little further away from there.
00:39:22.940But they went with their whole net zero thing, and they kind of shot themselves in the foot energy-wise.
00:39:28.180I think they're one of the most expensive countries for electricity now.
00:39:30.780It's something like 37 cents a kilowatt hour, which is apparently really high.
00:39:35.280So, I think the EU and Europe are, you know, needing to fill that gap somehow.
00:39:41.320And so, I think they are turning to the United States.
00:39:44.300That's the pattern of the stories that I've seen, is that they're bringing over a bunch of liquefied natural gas and things,
00:39:50.440and they're trying to get it from the United States so they don't have to get it from Russia.
00:39:53.420But that's not necessarily a practical or sustainable solution, because, you know, Russia has this pipeline,
00:40:01.160even though they did destroy the Nord Stream pipeline, but they have some pipelines going into Europe.
00:40:06.600So, it's a lot cheaper to get the energy that way than it is to ship it on tankers and do all the conversions for liquefied natural gas.
00:40:49.300Yeah, but I mean, if a preparation for it, don't start cutting off all your energy supplies, right?
00:40:55.560Like you're already cutting you off completely.
00:40:58.540Yeah, I mean, it's a complicated situation just for the same reason that we're kind of enemies with China.
00:41:03.040But we do so much trade with them and we depend on them for so much that we have to be very careful about that.
00:41:08.860And I'm sure that is part of Trump's calculus when he decides what to do about China.
00:41:13.540And, you know, he's been saying a lot of positive things about China lately.
00:41:16.580He had this big, long conversation with Xi recently and says there's going to be all this great stuff coming out of that.
00:41:22.740And at the same time, you know, we just talked with Steve about how we need to get rid of all these Chinese students in our universities that are stealing all our information and, you know, all our ideas.
00:41:32.400And, you know, in my own mind, I at least I just think, OK, Trump is considering all this stuff, right?
00:41:40.000He can't he can't be too hard on China too fast.
00:41:44.740Like I do think he's moving in the direction of reducing our dependency on the rare earth minerals and, you know, trying to get manufacturing back to the United States.
00:41:52.620So I think he's moving in the right direction with things, but I think he realizes that it can't happen overnight and that we still are dependent on them for a lot of things.
00:42:00.480And so we can't just say, OK, we're cutting you off completely because then they'll cut us off completely and that would hurt everybody and it would be horrible.
00:42:07.520So I think I do have some understanding of what might have led Trump to say, I want to make things better in our relations with China, at least in the short term.
00:42:18.780But I do hope that we keep reducing our dependency on them so that we don't have that as a major concern.
00:43:26.940Looks like maybe at least parts of New York are going to be cooperating.
00:43:31.140At the same time, we have Minneapolis.
00:43:33.420There's apparently a flyer that everybody's posting or some people are posting around there that's telling everybody to sabotage ICE and telling them they can get away with it.
00:43:40.260They're telling them to over tighten lug nuts and strip spark plugs and lose papers and give them the wrong food and give them decaf coffee, which is probably the worst.
00:43:49.480And there's claiming they'll get away with it.
00:43:53.360So that's probably the worst part is they're promising that you won't have any consequences if you do all these bad things.