Thursday, August 7, 2014

Bits and Pieces for August 2014





 

There is but one thing to be done, though how difficult!
The foolish must become wise -- and that they can never be.
The value of life they never know;
they see with the outer eye, but never with the mind,
and praise the trivial because the good is strange to them.

(quoting Arthur Schopenhauer, translated by T. Bailey Saunders)


As corporations and people in the United States have endured to the max over-taxation and government regulation pushing them down them like a giant corkscrew, U.S. officials strive to make it more difficult for the burdened to escape the claws of bureaucratic oppression, in search of nations of residence elsewhere, all the while waving flags and pretending to be all-American protectors.  Instead of reforming taxes and regulations, we have a government bent more toward ever more control, all nicely, patriotically -- dangerously and erroneously -- wrapped in the flag, so as to drown out protests from "un-American" citizens.  Why would socialists and new Nazis  not  clamor to get a piece of this action?  Government agencies and personnel dedicated to the weakening and destruction of even more American values deserve, perhaps, Christmas gifts of African fruit bats.  Cute little devils. . .

The world's public relations firms go nuts:  News reports recently named several powerful and influential PR firms whose officials will no longer accept clients which deny climate change.  What?  What?  I think we can all agree that the climate constantly changes, but these opinion-shifters apparently reference the ridiculous computer model stuff which declares us in utter chaos soon.  This is all so reminiscent of newspapers and magazines which ran  UFO stories only if they were humorous or absurd; taking such things seriously was forbidden on many an editor's desk.  PR corporations, probably unrealized even by themselves, are taking the same approach, closing their minds and embracing the assumed, unproven and nonsensical over the rational and open-minded, perhaps in order to satisfy the public sheep herds and/or some internal corporate mentality masturbation fantasy in the flawed science boardroom.  Go figure.

Where did the boys go?  Yes, I know this is the era of women and girls and this minority and that minority, but what's going on with young men lately?  Maybe it's just me, but almost every time I watch a TV news or feature story or commercial, or happen upon something in a magazine, one would think either that boys are the new silent minority or their numbers are becoming extinct, as those of the female gender gain considerably more attention.  Just an opinion here, but I wonder if boys of all ages aren't being purposefully ignored or shut out of various situations in order to enhance the existence of other folks?  The realization that far more women now often attend universities than men appears both hopeful and troubling to me.  Of course, there are  feminists who wish males would disappear from the face of the planet altogether, but that's a different story. . .

Speaking of men and boys, I'm going to miss you, Gary McKinnon:  Computer Weekly.com (July 29) reports that England's notorious hacker of American government sites, an innocent boy just innocently looking for innocent evidence of UFOs, has assumed a career as an online search expert.  Now that he's won his 10-year legal fight against extradition to the USA, where officials anxiously anticipated encounters just short of awarding him gift certificates to the waterboard spa, McKinnon's new duties include working his magic on web sites to improve their ranking on search engines.  As far as that hackneyed old thing about busting into U.S. military computers (proving, sorry to say, that young Gary demonstrated ingenuity "they" didn't have -- that is, he hacked what they lacked. . .), as I've written previously, I looked forward to McKinnon's guest visit to the United States, and additionally advised that he shine his shoes to appear top-notch upon arrival in the court system.  Sadly, I and the American media shall be deprived, forcing our attention back to the never-ending pseudo-journalistic hell known as  Kardashianism.

What's disturbing?  The tendency of the White House and other government institutions to assure that a third person (a "minder") accompanies officials interviewed by journalists.  This "third wheel" remains in the background, but monitors admissions and/or assists with providing the "correct" words and information dispensed by the interviewee.  The gov will claims that these folks are present just to assure accuracy of reporting, but the rational among us might wish to use the word,  spy.   Big Brother is just the title of a TV show, right?  Sure am glad the White House employs a battery of psychologists so we'll know what and how to think.  They must be of tremendous benefit to the whistle blower mentality.

High-tech investor Elon Musk suggests in Business Insider that artificial intelligence may well become The Terminator if not carefully watched.  Insignificant me? At a certain point, I doubt that watching will solve any such  impending disaster.  It's gonna be digital doom for sure, unless the computer is sacrificed for something radically different, so different that the word,  computer  bears no relationship whatsoever to the alternative.