It's Sunday.  Are you happy?  I asked Google Genesis about this. Ipsos Global Happiness Studies : Roughly 64% to 71% of adults globally report being generally happy or satisfied with their lives, with about 14% to 15%] describing themselves as "very happy". [ 1 , 2 ] Gallup World Poll / World Happiness Report: Rather than asking if people are constantly joyful, Gallup asks respondents to evaluate their current life on a scale from 0 to 10 (with global averages hovering around a score of 5.57 out of 10 ). Finland ranks as the overall happiest country with a score of 7.74 . [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] My sense of happiness is sinusoidal, keeps changing, jumping around from prolonged euphoria to a sense of doom.  However, compared to those around me, overall, I would place myself in that 14%s to 15% Ipsos category mentioned above as generally very happy.  In the Gallup World Poll, I would think that 7.74 would be about right for me, like the average for Finland, the happ...

Humanity is flawed, certainly Homo sapiens , but also species of the genus Pan , chimpanzees and bonobos.  Some of you don't know much about the bonobo ( pronounced buh-NOH-boh, with the stress on the second syllable ). I have been intrigued with the bonobo since a visit I long ago took to the Stuttgart Zoo.   I was looking into their compound, and one of them pulled up a chair, sat down and stared at me.   Unlike a chimp, the bonobo is skinnier and walks almost like a human. I thought, for sure they were our closest relative. I checked and learned that we all shared a common ancestor about 6 to 7 million years ago, almost 99% of our DNA. The chimpanzees and bonobos split into different species 1.5-2 million years ago, while Homo sapiens genetically separated from Neanderthal/Denisovan lineage maybe a million years ago. In the bonobo society, females are slightly smaller, but tend to rule the tribe because they form closer coalitions among themselves.  T...