Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford (2021) Rutherford & Fry’s Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything.

I’m not sure who Adam Rutherford is. Professor Hannah Fry has presented a couple of quirky programmes for the BBC. She’s a model scientist and role model for those girls that think science is just for boys. Science matters they tell us. But is also, like everything else, biased. Their Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything is tongue-in-cheek. Because anyone and everyone knows that the complete guide to absolutely everything is on your phone.

Well, not my phone. Because it does basics. Call and text but not internet or pictures.

Confirmation bias isn’t something that happens to someone else (as we think it does). Everything I read and think about the moron’s moron, the thieving rapist, friend of Jeffery Epstein and former President who is the current President of the United States makes me double-down on my belief in his incompetence and unfitness for public office or to be classified as Home erectus. An opinion the majority of Scottish men and women (most Europeans) also share.

Like Rutherford and Fry’s invitation to think about bias blind spot. For those of you that like maths. Ah, not in this universe. I get it time can be relative. Rutherford and Fry invite us to imagine a fourth dimension in which our shadows are like a corporeal body. Or something like that. I didn’t and don’t get it. My imagination is limited. Talk of fifth and sixth dimensions, well, that’s like Gwyneth Paltrow and her Sliding Doors moment when she decided to pursue a career in making natural candles that smelt like her fanny. And sold them to succours with more money than blind spots.

With an estimated 70% of US citizens overweight, compared to around 30% of the poorest in the poor in Britain we need to talk weight-loss drugs.

‘Size Matters’ Rutherford and Fry tell us. Whether you’re fat or thin, you pee on average for twenty seconds. How long you stand trying to squeeze it out also matters, but that’s a different story in bipedal life.

I was more interested in their footnote.

‘The average US citizen is worth $250 000.’

‘At the time of writing (2020) Jeff Bezos is worth more than $200 billion’.

I remember reading about the more fortunate Russians before oligarchs looted their county having wealth six times more than the average Soviet. Joe Stalin might even have a Lada and little cottage in another country they’ve conquered.

‘The average height of a human is 1.65m’ (5 feet five inches).

I used to be around 6 foot. But lost an inch and a stone (I never weight myself. Because, really, scales should be banned from all bathrooms. But it was a nurse doing it, I didn’t mind. Found it interesting to compare my weight with about five years ago).

In terms of hard cash, I don’t measure up to Bezos. If height was wealth he’d be 1 300 metres tall. I would be slightly smaller.

'The Karman line is one commonly used boundary that separates the Earth from space, and is set at 100km.'

I wouldn’t reach up to his ankles. Most of us would need to jump to reach the skin on the sole of his foot. Wealth matters. I couldn't even be a skelf.  Yet we’ve stopped talking about it.

Words like rich no longer add up. Millionaires are mundane. We need to add other qualifying statements to measure up.

In measuring up we need to adopt the Wonder Women stance. Psychologist Amy Cuddy gave a Ted talk about how a certain posture makes you—women, in particular, more powerful and owns the room. Think about squeezing a billiard ball out and your stress levels will drop and confidence fly above Musk’s spacecraft’s. Viewed more than 61 million times. Accredited in countless books and articles.

Total bullshit. To own the room, it helps if you own the country, like President Xi and Putin.  

Scientific experiments need to be testable and replicable, like Trump’s Presidency. It proves Americans are the dumbest and most easily manipulated people on this small planet. That’s my opinion. When challenged we double down—you may have your own facts. I’ve mine. The Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything offers no answer in this dimension. Read on.