Like many people with aphantasia, I had no idea that other people could actually "see" images in their heads. I thought that the conceptual versions of visual ideas that I experience were what everyone was talking about. Late in high school I had a conversation with someone who pieced together that the language I was using for visualization didn't make sense. It was then that I learned that apparently most people do actually "see" imagined images, and that they can be extremely useful for memorization. Then one day when I was in my early 20's I was sitting with my eyes closed due to a headache, and an actual image appeared in my mind. It had nothing to do with anything I was experiencing or thinking — just an *extremely* close image of the petals of a rose with dewdrops. But the image was so unbelievably vivid and, I dare say, more lifelike than actual vision. I was blown away. The image persisted for around 20 seconds before going back to "a detailed conceptual model of what a rose looks like," just like my normal "visualization." I'm in my 50's now, and over the years I've had around 30-40 instances of spontaneous visualization like this. They're very rare, and I cannot summon them in any way I've figured out. They are always highly detailed, and usually very close-up images of seemingly random objects. Only once have I seen a person, and that was an extreme close-up of the skin on my daughter's cheek. So, it appears that I do actually know what it is to visualize mental imagery. I just don't know how to summon it, put it to use, or have it reflect anything useful that I'm thinking or experiencing. I thought I'd mention my experience here to see if others with aphantasia might have experiences like this or related to this.

Oh good grief... does *anyone* remember what they were taught in government in junior high? The Electoral College exists because the President is very specifically NOT elected by the populace. The populace elect our state leaders as well as our Senators and Representatives to the federal government. But the United States is a union of independent states. It is the state governments, NOT the people, who elect the President. The Electoral College is merely the group of people, selected by each state, who cast the state's vote in the Presidential election. Yes, sometimes the elected President did not get the majority of the popular vote. The Electors are not bound by law (in all states) to cast their vote according to popular vote. This is one of the checks and balances, designed by the founders of the nation, that prevents popular will from overcoming individual freedom. We're all taught this in school. Then we get to our first Presidential election and, since it's easier to vote for a man than to look at our ACTUAL Representatives and Senators voting records and cast our votes accordingly, most Americans throw what they were taught out the window and act like we're voting for a monarch. Then we bitch that our leaders aren't responding to our desires... when we didn't even bother to cast intelligent votes for the people whose offices we actually affect.

Since mass is a result of drag on the Higgs field, is also affected by the expansion of the field. Earlier measurements took place in an infinitesimally denser universe, producing infinitesimally more drag on the Higgs field. In a later universe, the field has become less dense due to expansion, so particles have less mass because they're dragging the Higgs field less. Viola! Can I have my Nobel Prize now? ;-)