MarkFord
A Lenticular Cloud Over the Merapi Volcano in Java, Indonesia
Lenticular (stationary, lens-shaped) clouds often appear above mountains. Click here to watch how they’re formed.
More About the Exhibition of My Art Collection at the Cornell Art Museum…
In last week’s Postscript, I mentioned that the Cornell Art Museum here in Delray Beach is exhibiting a large part of my collection of Central American modern art. Scheduled to close July 28, the exhibit has now been extended through August.
Click here to get an idea of what you’ll see if you are able to get there in person.
Maybe the US Isn’t Rich After All
Most politicians and pundits claim that America is the richest country in the world.
But Bill Bonner, writing in the June 10 edition of Bill Bonner’s Bonner Private Research, does a great job of exploding this “rich myth.” He suggests, as I have in past posts, that one could argue that the US is the poorest country in the world, afloat like a hot air balloon hovering above an invisible spike that will sooner or later blow it all up.
“The proposition on the table is provocative,” Bill writes. “And illuminating. What if we Americans aren’t nearly as rich as we think we are? As outrageous as it seems, ‘fictitious wealth’ appears to explain why the richest country in the world still can’t pay its bills or win its wars.
“Simply put… the idea is that America’s fake money – introduced in 1971 – led to an economy with a lot of fake wealth. In short, much of US stock, bond, and real estate wealth… and much of the US economy itself (GDP)… was ‘f’-ed up – …fictitious, fraudulent, or fantasy.”
Read on here.
How to Mentor a Super-Accomplished Genius
A friend writes to let me know that, as part of a post-graduate program he did at Harvard a few years ago, he’s been asked to mentor a young man that has not only amazing academic and humanitarian credentials but is already a super-successful high-tech businessman and is supposedly super-smart.
“Can you believe I’m going to be his mentor?” my friend says.
I looked at the young man’s resume. It was intimidating, to say the least. I wondered what I would do in my friend’s place.
What I would probably do, I realized, is pretend that I had come down with a very infectious disease and gracefully back out. But I know that my friend is determined to accept the challenge. So I thought some more, and came up with this for him…
Here’s What I Would Recommend
Never give him any direct advice. In fact, try to avoid making statements entirely.
Limit your verbal output to questions. Ask him questions about his thoughts and intentions. If he has a problem, ask him how he thinks he should handle it.
As he answers each of your questions, look at him intently, squinting your eyes and thoughtfully nodding. Every so often, you can make barely decipherable sounds – ranging between soothing and questioning but never clearly one or the other.
If you do this, he will either think he understands you, or he will pretend he understands you, or he will ask you what your non-verbal responses mean.
If that happens, say, “Let me tell you a story.”
Then tell him a completely nonsensical story that ends with a nonsensical denouement. And after you’ve finished telling him that story, begin nodding gently again, but this time with a subtle smile that signifies: “Ah, Grasshopper, I can see that I have raised your level of awareness. I am happy you are learning.”
This is a technique I know you have a natural talent for, because I’ve seen you use it with me when I was spouting BS. Nevertheless, considering this guy’s intelligence, you should improve your technique by practicing it in front of a mirror.
When you feel ready, the perfect time to debut your new mentoring skill would be on your podcast. I recommend videotaping with two cameras so the audience can also enjoy your undeniably wise but enigmatic facial gestures.
If you master this skill, it will not only win over his admiration and affection for you on a level where he will always list you among his greatest advisors, you will be able to advise other geniuses, even heads of industry. And charge a good penny for doing it, too!
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge
Question to My Boston-Based Readers:
How Do You Feel About Your New Mayor?
Boston’s 39-year-old Mayor, Michelle Wu, has stated publicly that one of her top priorities when she takes office is to make many crimes off-limits to prosecution. I doubt she will succeed in making everything on her list into crimes that won’t be prosecuted, but the list is pretty ambitious:
* Trespassing
* Shoplifting (including offenses that are essentially shoplifting but charged as larceny)
* Larceny under $250
* Disorderly conduct
* Disturbing the peace
* Receiving stolen property
* Minor driving offenses, including operating with a suspended or revoked license
* Breaking and entering – where it is into a vacant property or where it is for the purpose of sleeping or seeking refuge from the cold and there is no actual damage to property
* Wanton or malicious destruction of property
* Threats – excluding domestic violence
* Minor in possession of alcohol
* Drug possession
* Drug possession with intent to distribute
* A standalone resisting arrest charge – i.e., cases where a person is charged with resisting arrest and that is the only charge
* A resisting arrest charge combined with a charge that falls under the list of charges to decline to prosecute – e.g., resisting arrest charge combined only with a trespassing charge
Another Artwork Vandalized… This Time with a French Accent
Vandalizing priceless artworks has been a several-years-long form of protest for climate activists. After molesting the masterpiece with paint or tomato soup, they glue themselves to the frame or to the wall beside it. Most of the time, they say nothing, revealing their message through the T-shirts they wear.
For the first several months of these stunts, museums in most European cities, including Paris, made no arrests, afraid that doing so might jeopardize their standing as Woke cultural institutions. But after about two dozen world treasures were damaged in this way, museum officials allowed law and order to resume.
As a museum lover and an art appreciator, I’ve always despised this form of protest. I imagined the protestors to be brain-dead, and most of them probably were. But in this particular case, the young woman takes a different approach, explaining what she is doing (in French).
It might be the cleverness of her particular abuse or it might be her accent, but I’m finding it difficult to think of her as brain-dead. Rather, I think she’s sort of cute.
Click here.
Overt and Outrageous Voter Fraud
Add this to the examples I included in last week’s issue on voter fraud and election interference: 300,000 more votes than voters in Georgia!
If these numbers are wrong, please send me a link to show me data that proves it. If they are right, how is it possible that this isn’t front-page news?
A Good Time to Live in the South!
America’s real GDP grew by 2.5 percent in 2023. That was a country-wide average. But, as you can see from this map, some areas of the country did considerably better than others.
The lowest real GDP growth in the country was seen in the Great Lakes and Mideast regions, at 1.2% and 1.3% respectively, while the greatest GDP growth took place in the Southwest and Southeast, at 5.1% and 3.1% respectively. (Map created by Visual Capitalist based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.)
Chart of the Week: The Next Phase of the AI Rollout
Several weeks ago, a reader asked my thoughts about AI and State-of-the Art Robotics. These are subjects that the publishing business I’ve been consulting with for nearly 30 years writes about all the time. As investment publishers, their angle is investing – i.e., whether these technological advancements offer big profits for investors and, if so, which sectors and companies offer the greatest potential rewards.
In deference to my reader, and out of concern for my kids and grandkids, I will be writing a Special Issue on the risks and rewards of these technologies in the near future. Meanwhile, I’m grateful to Sean for taking the lead with this week’s essay. – MF
There’s been much ado about the AI rollout recently…
Especially since investors have been hearing that AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
But there’s still a lot about AI investments we do not know.
We do not know who will dominate AI software. (The winners will likely be the big tech companies, since they have the most data.)
We do not know who will dominate AI chips. (Plenty of companies are nipping at Nvidia’s heels, and companies like Google and Meta are trying to take their AI chipmaking inhouse.)
Basically, we do not yet know who will be the big winners in the AI market 10 years from now.
But we do know something for sure…
The amount of power needed to fuel the AI rollout is about to explode.
As of December 2023, there were about 10,978 data center locations in the world.
By 2030, the power consumption from these data centers and new construction is expected to double to 35 gigawatts in the US alone.
Nvidia projects that $1 trillion will be spent on data center upgrades for AI with most of the cost paid by Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta.
Simply put, one of the biggest investments in the coming years will be improvements to the existing power infrastructure.
And there’s one thing we know about this aspect of the AI rollout as well…
Green energy isn’t going to cut it when it comes to data center energy needs.
A hyperscaler data center can use as much power as 80,000 households. Tech companies are already talking about building a data center that consumes as much as 1 gigawatt of power.
That’s the equivalent of 2.5 million solar panels. At 2 square meters per panel, that’s 1,235 acres of land needed to power a single one of these enormous data centers.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but there’s really only one source of energy that has the capacity to handle the energy needs we’re talking about, here…
And that’s nuclear power.
So if you want an investment idea out of all of this, look into data center REITs, utility companies that operate in nuclear-friendly regions, and uranium (miners and the commodity itself).
– Sean MacIntyre
Check out Sean’s YouTube channel here.
Five Quick Bites
* Interesting. In the new world of AI and brain implants, will this be how we learn to speak foreign languages?
* Fun: When it comes to keeping on top of the latest trends in Woke culture, I like Rita Panahi’s approach. There is something about her evident enjoyment in watching “lefties losing it” that works for me. Click here.
* Interesting. Mark Eriewine, the man that keeps Willie Nelson’s guitar in shape, talks about the guitar (Trigger), its history, and Willie’s long relationship with this particular instrument. Click here.
* Interesting. Is it true that dogs are colorblind? This video explanation is fascinating.
* Fun. With a little training, I’m pretty sure I could do this.
The Most-Visited Tourist Spots in the World
This one was pretty easy. I had to guess on three and got one of them right… so, 18 out of 20, or 90%.
A Secretary Bird Swallowing Its Prey
Here’s how the photographer, Dr. Johann J. Botha, describes what we’re seeing here:
“The secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) is an endangered species, but you do come across them in the Kalahari Desert. In Botswana’s Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, I followed two of them hunting on the ground in a dune valley for a mile or so with my vehicle on a gravel road. They caught the occasional small insect, a small snake, and then all of a sudden one chased this ground agama. It caught and killed the agama with its feet by trampling on and smashing the reptile’s head – the secretary bird is the only bird of prey that kills its prey with its feet. It then took it with its beak and threw it into the air to catch it again and swallow it head first, while closing the nictitating membrane over its eye for protection. It all happened in less than a minute.”