Dressed to the nines

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: U.S. factory job cuts hit 17-year high in month of May; How humans are born to be seen; and why the fries you steal taste better than your own…

Let’s get into it!

Think about the concept of the “average person,” and ponder it for a second. Then think about someone whose eyes you’ve stared into deeply at some point. This could be a good friend, a romantic partner, a parent or child. Most of them probably are “average people,” but that’s not at all what comes to mind when staring into their soul, is it?

According to Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D., Nevada Foundation Professor Emeritus at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada, the problem with modern psychology is that it aims to define a common denominator, rather than emphasizing that there’s no such thing as a single ordinary person.

In fact, that’s kind of an oxymoron, because there is only one of each person—there’s nothing ordinary about maximum uniqueness.

In their infinite uniqueness, each person therefore faces the world alone, unless they can find a way to congregate with other equally unique people, mixing and matching those differences in a harmonious process that’s exclusively human.

Longing to be seen. The key to reconciling the differences is both in understanding them, and in actually caring to understand them. Hayes says this is the foundation of human relatability, and it’s reason number one and one million for why face-to-face contact will never be replaced by any level of sophistication in video calling technology.

Like a Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX’s public stock exploded into the stratosphere immediately following its initial public offering last week.

The stock was initially offered at $135 per share, and resulted in such a torrid run, the company’s market valuation reached $2.99 trillion.

However, as is usually the case in the immediate aftermath of an overhyped IPO, the stock dropped off in the days that followed.

Incremental drops of between 1% and 2% and one drop off of 5% resulted in the erasure of $600 billion in value. It’s an almost difficult to fathom number in any scenario, let alone one describing three days of losses on a blue chip stock.

It’s perhaps even more absurd that it won’t put a dent in the operation. Whereas most entire countries have GDPs smaller than $600 billion, SpaceX has enough to toss the sum around like candy.

“I’d be cautious about seeing this as a second-chance buying opportunity. The drop looks dramatic in scale, but these swings aren’t unusual for a stock with such a small public float,” said Nic Puckrin, cross-asset analyst and founder of Coin Bureau.

Games of cops and robbers are a timeless exercise in thrill-seeking and risk-taking. “We’re not supposed to be doing this,” and “we could get caught” are phrases that come to mind that, in many ways, are descriptions of exactly what makes a lot of things fun.

According to a study conducted by Valentin Skryabin, an addiction psychologist at the Russian Medical Academy of Continuous Professional Education, that same mentality even applies when it comes to “forbidden food.”

By forbidden food, he means food that was taken without permission, and the study featured 120 participants taste-testing identical French fries under four different scenarios.

The first batch belonged to each participant, and the second was gifted. The third and fourth batches were to be taken without permission under low-risk and high-risk conditions.

Almost every participant described the stolen fries as “crispier, saltier, more intense, and significantly more enjoyable.” The stolen fries were described as 40% higher in “taste pleasantness.”

Why?

“First, psychological reactance, the well-documented tendency for restricted or forbidden things to become more desirable simply because they're framed as off-limits,” Skryabin said.

“Second, arousal: taking something you're not supposed to raises your heart rate, sharpens your attention, and that heightened physiological state appears to amplify the sensory signal—the same saltiness hits harder, the same crunch feels more satisfying.”

It’s hard to imagine Twisted Sister doing anything without Dee Snider, let alone going on a whole tour, but that’s life, and the band just announced three additional dates will be added to the fall North American swing with Sebastian Bach on the mic.

The Canadian former virtuoso frontman of Skid Row has his work cut out for him as far as filling the theatrical shoes of Dee Snider goes. Though Bach is no stranger to a little glam here and there, he’s stepping into a whole other type of fun house when it comes to the shock and awe gimmick the “girls” in Twisted Sister like to display.

The tour only has nine dates so far, including the new ones in Gary, Indiana; Charles Town, West Virginia; and St. Petersburg, Florida on Oct. 18, Nov. 14, and Dec. 11, respectively.

They’ll follow previously announced shows in Palmer, Arkansas; Salem, Oregon; Durant, Oklahoma; Puyallup, Washington; and Niagara Falls and Windsor, Ontario.

The tour was cancelled and then brought back with fewer dates after Snider was forced to step aside for health reasons. Initially thought to be significantly ill, he later clarified on his radio program that he’s just not able to rise to the performance level Twisted Sister fans expect of its frontman anymore.

May the Schwartz be with you

On this day in 1987, Spaceballs debuted on the big screen. To celebrate the 39th anniversary, we’re quizzin’ you on Mel Brooks’ movies! So walk this way, and get started with today’s trivia 😏 🎥