Friday, April 28, 2006

Inequality



Once more. Dear friend, once more. I know I should not sit and think, besides hurting my small withered brain it is for the most part useless, resulting in nothing more than a headache.

Nevertheless, here I sat half listening to a podcast about Papua and the complexities of that situation and then followed up by listening to a report on the middle east and its complex web of problems, when it occurred to me that the root of theses problems and for that matter most problems is one of inequity. The poor in these counties are really poor and politically powerless and are faced with massive hurdles just to make ends meet and feed their families and into this mix is the incredible wealth of a small number of people in some of these countries. This I think is aggravating the rise of fundamentalism and the instigation of hate between groups in the region. This region is going to explode into a mass of hatred and will become a true world disaster unless some forward thinking peacemakers do something real soon.

In society when one group become so privileged that the mass of the population are suffering great hardship and the elite are so wealthy, beyond the imagining of the masses. There seems to be an inevitable a redistribution of the wealth, now the methods used thought history have been, for the most part, ineffective and to a large extent merely replaced one group of individuals with another group. There does seem, however, to be a pattern regarding this.


In our own society the rich are getting so fabulously rich and the poor poorer, that the fracturing of the society is inevitable unless an intervention is forthcoming. Now I would not pretend to know what form this intervention or the direction of the fracturing of the society will go, but I do get an uneasy feeling that we are perched on the edge of a very tumultuous time in the history of the human race.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Uninspired thoughts


You ever have a time when you are so totally uninspired to fire up the computer to vent you wrath at the void?

Well I have, and for the past two days have been unable to get worked up over anything very much, I did notice two things though that I do have some half hearted thoughts on. Mind you I do not want to go out onto the streets and wave placards or write to my elected representative about either, although I get the feeling I should.

The two issues are a world apart both in geography and topic.

The first is the planning by the Australian Government to introduce a ‘smart card’ this is by default an id card.

I thought quite a while ago that the electorate had decided that the Australian people did not want one, however, all governments are only temporarily bound by the will of the people and all of them have a tendency to want to draw to them more power.

The introduction of a defacto id card is but one way they intend to subdue the compliant population. For the record I think it is a bad idea, I for one do not trust any government enough to responsibly use the power that a national id system would give them.


The other issue is the rising gasoline prices here in the US; I noticed an interesting article this morning suggesting the rising numbers of people brewing their own ethanol at home using old-fashioned stills.

The days of the revenue cops are on the way again. We will soon see a still on every street corner, and I for one don’t think it could be such a bad thing to depose the energy giants a little.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Chernobyl shelter is crumbling

Birds and rainwater are inside the steel-concrete shelter hastily built over the reactor that blew up in 1986, and officials worry about what is getting out.

read more | digg story
Personal Smile Day

Today I saw a sad thing, a person I deal with sometimes came into my office and he was not a happy camper, not angry just profoundly sad. His demeanor was that of someone that had just given up on being happy, and had sunk into a demise of depression. This got me once again to thinking after he left, that perhaps we should all work a little harder to be happy. Even if we cant feel happy, ecstatic or joyful, perhaps just faking it by smiling at others might help to make us feel better. I have to admit that I on occasions am not the happiest, bright and shiny happy creature, so I will work on this as well.


I looked up happiness in the online wikipedia and found the following. It seems to me that we do have some pretty strict rules on being happy, some of them are beyond my reasoned understanding but the rules like everything else we learn are complicated and I suppose serve some useful purpose. I think the definition is not quite as satisfying as I would like, as I think we can all be fulfilled and happy most of the time if we work on it.

Happiness is a prolonged or lasting emotional or affective state that feels good or pleasing. Overlapping states or experiences associated with happiness include wellbeing, joy, sexual pleasure, delight, health, safety and love, while contrasting ones include suffering, sadness, grief, and pain.
Societies, religions, and individuals have various views on the nature of happiness and how to pursue it.
(1)


It is my view that if we smile we feel better and it is infectious, others feel better and tend to smile at you when you smile at them, this in turn makes you feel better yet. A kind of self-fueling chain reaction.

The artist who made the smiley face said in a speech the following,

Sometimes we forget that. Sometimes the world seems big and filled with problems that are too hard to understand much less solve. We start to believe that we are too small to make a difference. But that’s not true. The truth is that every one of us has the ability to make a difference every day.” (2)

He even had launched a world smile day a great concept, so I am going to make this my personal smile day, how about you?





1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness
2.http://www.worldsmileday.com/

Monday, April 24, 2006

Sprint GPS


I came across this article from the ABC online (1) this morning and once again it got me to thinking.

While I can see the valid uses of this technology. The technology is quite amazing. I have some pause in unfettered enthusiastic support for the product. My paranoia quickly ran into overdrive with thoughts of an overenthusiastic government tracking me, or worse my wife keeping tack on me or perhaps my boss wanting to know just what I am up to and just where I am when he is paying me.

Now I know that I am being paranoid here, as the government would not breach my right of privacy with this technology, umm wait on, did they not just install a monitoring office in a phone company, are they not doing this already. I guess the government is doing it so that pipe dream of freedom just bit the dust, but I know my partner would not do it, umm, maybe. My boss I know would, the only thing stopping him is his tightwad attitude, he may do the math and find that it is cheaper just to pay me rather than pay extra to find me.


First, the federal government is requiring new phones to include global positioning system chips to assist police and fire services in finding distressed people who make emergency calls with mobile phones. (2)


Now I am beginning to get really paranoid after reading that quote from that blog, could it possibly be that the government is really planning this to track those it does not like? Or is the government really just trying to improve the quality of the safety net in our society?

CE Petro (3) in that blog raises some very good points among them was the possibility of lawsuits from those being tracked by others trying to hurt them, such as an abusive husband/wife.

The more I think of this the more concerned I get, the potential for abuse is greater, I believe than the benefits.

1. http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Technology/story?id=1880779&page=1
2. http://movingoutmovingon.bloghi.com/2006/04/17/cellular-leash-lets-parents-track-kids.html
3. http://toaaw.typepad.com/toaaw/2006/04/cell_phone_extr.html

Friday, April 21, 2006

Presidential Authority

Nixon was pardoned for some crimes committed while he was the President of the United States, by President Ford in 1974. (See link for overview of this and other pardons)

Perhaps given the unprecedented secrecy of the current President GW Bush, there should be no pardon given by the next President for the soon to be Past President GW Bush.

I have not enough information to be able to make any judgment of many issues because of the secrecy, I think that there should be a commission given the job of determining if President GW Bush has committed any crimes while President and if he has then he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

There are just too many questions in my mind about some of the decisions made by President GW Bush that should be examined after he leaves office.

Some of the answers I would like to see, and this by no means an exhaustive list:

What involvement has the US had in the extraordinary renditions reported on?

Does the US really have the authority to hold people without trail in Cuba?

Did the President knowingly lie to the world about the reasons for the Iraq war?

These are just the tip of the iceberg there is so much I and the rest of the world just does not know, I for one just simply want the truth.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Life in the 21st Century


I made a mistake this morning I stopped to think, now in the ordinary course of events this is a definite plus, however, this morning I began to think on just how complicated life has become for all of us in this new century.

To keep up with technology you need to work at it almost twenty-four hours a day, and then you always miss something Don’t get me wrong I love the new things that technology has enabled me to do, but it does get a little overwhelming at times. Being able to have a voice and having others read/listen to what you have to say is such a great thing that it must be a worry to the traditional media moguls, but to the everyday person like me it is a great boon. It just seems that the rate of change is accelerating beyond my ability to keep up.

The advances in medical technology are truly amazing and awe inspiring, yet many in the world do not have access to even basic health care, the disparity of health care access in the world is a true testament to the inordinate amount of resources devoted to things such as war and ego boosting ‘national projects’. Even in the so called developed world there is an increasing number of ‘have nots’ who can not afford primary health care and use the emergency heath system at a much greater cost to us all. One wonders if in the not too distant future there may be a caste of people who enjoy almost never ending long life with a corresponding well-being and there would be the rest of us short lifers. Some things need to change radically in this field before this too becomes an excuse for militant action by the people excluded.

The emergence of a real problem of oil availability looms large over most of the world as a potential life changing event on the horizon, with a dumb ass President in the pay of big oil not able or willing to make the necessary hard choices to begin to address this problem we all have to hold our breath and hope that the wheels do not fall of this creaky system until there is someone in charge that will make the hard choices. With virtually no attempt made to curb the use of oil or the development of new energy sources that do not pollute and are renewable. Call be a cynic but I do not trust the current market system to rectify this.

In conclusion there are these and many other instances of inequity, injustice and plain greed in this green world of ours. Maybe I worry too much; things have a habit of turning our ok, don’t they?

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Global Warming

I have been giving some thought, not much mind you, but some nevertheless on the subject of global warming. It seems to me after listening to and reading some, that one of the major causes for this global warming is the pollution from motorcars.

Now on the face of it is a simple process to remedy this major cause of global warming by simply stopping the use of the gas guzzling cars currently on the road. This is simply not a practical solution to the issue however.

One of the solutions put forward to help alleviate the problem is to use public transport more, well in the US apart from a couple of major cites there is no public transportation system, it is at best fragmented or adhoc, we have spent our infrastructure money over several generations on more roads to accommodate the ever increasing numbers of cars, not on a cheap, workable and reliable public transport system, we have made some halfhearted attempts in some cites but not near enough to go to change the car usage of the average American driver.

We can not in any way blame the American driver for this system, many if not all have absolutely no alternative to using private transportation, there is no usable public transport available to get to work and back, go shopping or even go to the movies in most American cities.
There have been some suggestions put forward to make more use of hybrid cars, well not many people I know can afford one of those, even if they could get their hands on one.

The real answer is an American Government has to make some tough choices on mandating new car pollution levels and to make those cars more fuel efficient, the new mandates just given to the industry by the Federal Government on those issues are laughable, it seems that the power of the oil and car lobbies along with their money have once again bought an Administration.

If any change is to happen the American people need to make far more noise and let their elected representatives know that they are ready for major change. The current cost of gas at nearly $3 might actually be the spur needed to effect change.

What so you think?

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Well, today I am in relief.
Perhaps I should backtrack just a little so that that statement does not seem quiet so, well, here goes.
I have a minor phobia about dentists, so, I had been living with a toothache for a number of months till a few weeks ago.
Well the pain finally defeated me and I went to the dentist, the first trip to the dentist in over 10 years.
The dentist proceeded to take a look into the deep chasm of my oral cavity and proclaimed that I had at least three teeth that were beyond rescue. He then preceded to extract the three of them, well the drugs were fine and for the first time in months
I was feeling no pain. This is good.
The next day I had a really badly inflamed tongue, now I put this down to some minor damage as a result of the extraction of the three teeth.
Over the course of the next week the swelling went down in my gums and my mouth was beginning to heal, except for the tongue.
I began to notice what appeared to be a piece of tooth poking out of the inside lower gum, irritating my tongue and making things difficult to eat and swallow.
Well today I was playing around in my mouth as one is inclined to do and presto out pops a piece of tooth, ahh, relief at last already I am feeling no pain, my tongue is diminishing rapidly in size and I am without mouth pain. The moral of the story, attend the dentist more often, at least every 5 years at a minimum.

Monday, April 17, 2006

I am in love, with Pod Casts after many years overseas, away from my culture I now have access on a daily basis to the best of the commercial and public broadcasts of my home country. This is invaluable it keeps me in contact with what is happening on a daily basis in Australia. I know what is happening, what people are talking about, what the current issues are. I have a job that enables me to play these Pod Casts all day, in effect in the morning I download my Pod Casts arrange the play lists and have for all intents and purposes my daily radio programs.

There are Pod Casts available for all sorts of tastes, there are Tech programs, cultural and political, as well as the idiotic and the bizarre, no matter what your tastes there is a program for you.

Get with the program check out the new world of Pod Casts, you can even make your own and be a radio star in cyberspace!!

Saturday, April 15, 2006


CROCODILE Hunter Steve Irwin has defended his influential lobbying of the Federal Government to put a halt to crock safaris in the Northern Territory.
The Queensland-based khaki-clad wildlife expert took Environment Minister Ian Campbell on a personal tour of Cape York to observe crocodiles in the wild.


Read Here


I for one have always had a slight chill every time I see Steve Irwin on TV here in the US, he has seemed to me to display the yobbo traits of Australia that most of us living away from Australia have tried to get away from for years. A little like the stereotype some still have of Americans all being Rambo types.

I now have to say that Steve has demonstrated some fine qualities, he has vocally opposed some wild ideas from the idiot Government of the Northern Terrirory to allow big game hunters to come in to shoot some of the giant salt water crocs in the territory.

The fact that they did not prevail in this idiotic scheme is a victory for the enlightened people of Australia, and my hat is off to Steve for using his high profile to assist in this endeavors.

Friday, April 14, 2006

I was passed the following and for the life of me have been unable to find where it came from, so if it is your writting let me know, I love it, Enjoy!!!!




How to gainfully employ your night security guard
The security guard straightened his tie and buttoned his uniform jacket before knocking on the managing director's half-open door.
"You wanted to see me, Mr Bignoise?" he said, peering inside. "I'm Jim Jones."
"Oh yes, Jim, thank you," the boss said, gesturing from his chair. "Come in. Come in. Sit down."Bignoise reached into a desk drawer and extracted a file as Jones sat down on the chair at the other side of the MD's majestic blackwood desk.The file was contained in a manilla folder and the words Personnel - Private and Confidential were emblazoned across the front.
Jim Jones had suspected that something was wrong for him to be called to the boss's office; he had one look at the file and he now he knew it."Mr Bignoise, if it's about those boxes I didn't finish packing last night," he spluttered, "I can explain. There was rather a lot of them, and I worked like crazy all shift but just couldn't complete the job. I'll finish them tonight, I promise."
"Boxes?" said Mr Bignoise. "I know nothing about any boxes, Jim."Why would you be packing boxes? You're the night security guard, aren't you?"
"Well, yes," said Jones. "But some years ago, a decision was made to better utilise the time of security guards on the night shift and remove the perception they didn't actually have anything to do."
"That's ridiculous," said Mr Bignoise, who had only been in the job for some months and was still feeling his way and trying to negotiate his way around the effects of past idiotic decisions. "Security guards are employed to provide security, don't you agree? We have a lot of goods in our warehouse that equate to a lot of money we can't afford to lose."
"Yes," said Jones. "But we've never had any trouble, Mr Bignoise."
"Until last night," said the MD grimly. "It seems, Jim, that while you were stacking boxes, a gang of thieves broke into the west wing and removed $220,000 worth of goods on the back of a semi-trailer."
"You're kidding me," said Jones.
"I wish I was," said Bignoise, pulling at his hair with his left hand, while he gently waved his pen with his right hand.
"Well, I didn't hear anything, " said Jones. "My hearing-aid HAS been playing up, but I certainly didn't see anything."
"What times did you do your rounds to the west wing?" the MD asked.
"Oh, I didn't have time for that," said Jones. "I was too busy packing boxes. There were lots of them - many more than usual. We've never had any trouble here before, though, so doing rounds is one of the corners I sometimes have to cut if I am going to meet deadlines."
"Mmm, yes, I see," said the MD, flipping open the folder and chewing at the end of his pen thoughtfully. "It says here, Jim, that you've only been with us a couple of years."
"Oh no, that's not right sir," Jones said. "I've worked for this company for a good 22 years."
"Oh," said the MD. "This file must be wrong then."
Jones peered across the desk at the file. He spotted the mistake straight away, even reading upside down."I think I know what's happened," he said. "Personnel has started a new file on me using the name I go by now."
"Isn't it your real name?" asked the MD, puzzled.
"Well, no sir - actually it's James. Rhys-Jones. "But it's probably an honest mistake. When I worked in the big office, the name suited me. But then I got moved sideways, and people started calling me Jim. Then I was demoted two or three rungs and I thought it best to drop the Rhys. Less prententious."I've hit rock bottom - you can't go much further down than a night security guard who packs boxes, can you? - and most people just call me Jonesy now."
"Oh, I see," said the MD."You certainly HAVE been around the place, Jim. Um, do you mind if I call you Jonesy, too."
"Well, actually sir, now that I'm back here, albeit briefly I expect, I was rather hopingI could be called James Rhys-Jones again. It's still my legal name, you know."
"Of course," said the MD. "I didn't realise you worked up on this floor."
"Oh yes," said James Rhys-Jones. "In this very same office, in fact. It's more or less exactly how I left it, too, when I was removed as managing director, two MDs ago."I expect my initials are still engraved at the side of the desk, eh?"I remember carving them with a pen knife - "J.R-J was here" - the same day I made the decision to give the night security guards more to do during their shifts."Bloody blackwood. It took me half the damn day."
One of my chores at work is to on occasion produce a piece for the company newsletter, the following is one that I submitted and to my surprise it was not printed.




The Company Car



Written by Stephen J Carlyon


The company car is an amazing thing; it can travel for months without oil or coolant. The company car has been known to run for many miles on a flat tire and only when sparks appear from the rim should a tire be changed and then only after calling the company service people to come out and do the dirty work.

The company car can go from 0-60 in under 8 seconds and if it cant it must need a tune up at company expense, the company car can double as a bulldozer to push large object out of the way. It goes without saying that the company car is also fitted with the worlds best four wheel drive ability and can go places you would never dream of taking any ordinary car.

The company car can also go great distances when the low fuel light is on, and anyway should it actually run out of gas you can always call your supervisor to come out on that snowy, windy night to the back of beyond with a gas can full of fuel.

The company car can of course go from doing 50 mph in one direction to reverse just by changing the gear selection. The company car can mount curbs with a single bound and carry loads many a tractor-trailer would never carry.

The company car is a marvel of modern technology; it can protect you in a crash even when you don’t put on your seat belt. Just an aside, the company insurance company will also pay any damages done even when you don’t bother to tell the company about the 20 speeding tickets you got last week. This is truly an amazing thing to behold, the normal rules of the road of course do not apply when driving the company car and stop signs are purely advisory. The company car makes a great street racer as well so you can cheerfully drag all those rice burners at the lights.

So, in conclusion knock yourself out, it is only a company car. The only downer? The boss takes the costs out of your pay.
Sometimes in my idle moments I think, now maybe this is an overstatement, but I was listening to a pod cast at work and it started my mind to wander down this particular track.

I use Google services as we all do, I use Blogger, Gmail, Calendar, Rss Feed etall.

Now would it not be a good idea if all these services we integrated on to one page so that I could more effectively use these services, while I could see email as it arrived, work on my blog and see new Rss feeds as they arrived. They could also tie into this whole thing interactivity so that I could see if contacts were reading my blog on my google website, the mid explodes with the possibility, now the stickablitlty of this concept would be enormous, I would spend hours being exposed to a constant stream of Google adds scrolling along the top of the page be able to use the google chat etc.

Now I happen to think this is an enormously great idea. What do you think?

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Education bill advances after patriotism debate

A ruling coalition task force agreed Wednesday on a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education after a compromise was reached on the definition of patriotism.
The bill defines patriotism as "an attitude which respects tradition and culture, loves the nation and homeland that have fostered them, and contributes to international peace and development."
The definition, proposed by Tadamori Oshima, head of the panel tasked with drafting revisions to the law, is a compromise between his Liberal Democratic Party and coalition ally New Komeito.


That is a quote from the Japan Times Online link here (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060413a6.html )

At first blush on reading this I was struck with the controlling attitude of the Government of Japan in its bald faced dictates in teaching this stuff in the public school system, then I re read it and thought on it some more and have decided that the evidence of the cultural cohesiveness in Japan along with its low crime rates and advancements in industry etc might make some sense in exploring it more. Perhaps we in the west could adopt some of these mores in our society, yes, I am aware that we have a much more racially diverse population and yes we have language barriers within our county to overcome but the underlying factor of teaching love of nation over love of self is perhaps not a bad one to emulate even in a small way.



And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy









What do you think?

Tuesday, April 11, 2006


The whole issue of immigration is one that is complex and involves many issues.

The simplistic solutions from the extreme right and left will never work; there are enough laws on the books right now to enable effective control of the problem the real issue is the will to enforce the laws already in place.

As I have stated in other forums one real way to effectively control the problem is to cut off the supply of illegal jobs, this would encourage people to get in line and immigrate legally.

The scumbags that want a cheap maid or gardener or picker of crops are the ones that perpetuate this inequitable system. They in turn need to be the ones to pay the price. Prosecute those low lifers and most of the problem will go away.

The heat and fire generated by this issue is, I believe hiding the true tragedy of this issue that is the human toll that the whole thing is generating, from the people who loose their lives crossing the borders, to those that are persecuted once they get here to those that are suffering in sub standard conditions of work. Additionally at the other end the costs to the whole community in providing health care, education and law enforcement, these are cost borne by us all.

Prosecute the employers first, stop people from risking their lives crossing and make available a workable immigration system that is the way to end this whole mess.

In My Humble Opinion
Got something to add? Disagree? Then comment………

Sunday, April 09, 2006


Education, this is one of my pet peeves, just how is it possible to have a child in your care for 12 years and not manage to teach that child to read and write. I am in a position to see first hand the product of the modern education system, for a great many kids are sent out into the world functionally illiterate. They can read at a primary level and can sign their names, but much beyond that they can not function at any level that requires some assimilation of ideas from the written word. I believe that teachers, and to a lesser extent parents have failed the children. It is my belief that far more accountability is needed to totally reorganize and make accountable teachers and parents for the outcomes of the children’s education.

We in the western nations are in a position that requires us to be better educated not worse. To maintain our leadership into this century we need a great many imaginative, skilled and educated people.

Every time some brave politico tries to insert some level of accountability it seem that the educators shout from the rooftops about it, it is time for all those responsible for education to bite the bullet and take the bull by the horns and start earning their money, the same money that they have been taking under false pretenses for years.

Saturday, April 08, 2006



This piece was written a while ago but is worth another look, I think so anyway!!

I live in the good old USA, now for someone that is not born to this land, it can be, and often is, a confusing, frustrating and wonderful place to live.
Americans are a very patriotic nation, and in truth they have a lot to be patriotic about, they love their country and most people can see nothing better than America, it is in fact a wonderful place to live, and I for one love living here.
The people are a mix of all things strange and wonderful with the best and worst of all that you can imagine
One of the first things to strike you on arrival in the US is the number of churches, boy do these people love to go to church, unlike Australia where a mere 3% of the population go to church on a regular basis in the US about 40% of people go to some sort of church on a regular basis, and that brings me to the TV church people, my goodness what a bunch they are, I shall refrain from my usual comments on them but they have to be seen to be believed.
Now at the same time this culture produces some of the most bestial people you could imagine, now that to me is a paradox, how a country as seemingly moral as this one can produce and foster such monsters in its midst. I read a piece in my local paper the other day about a mad man that had killed and eaten a little boy, and then served parts of him up to others, now that is one sick man. Now the thing that struck me is that, even in my local paper this piece was on page five not even a lead piece, now what that tells me about the country I am not sure but it is a worry when the public is that sated with violence that this rates only a small page five piece.
Do not get me wrong now, there is much that I love about this country, for one my car, I drive a Cadillac and love it, I also love that I can in almost every town in the country, breakfast at 3 am, now this might not seem a big deal to you, but as one that works strange hours, often long into the morning this is a real big deal.
This brings me to yet another thing, food, once the newness of the change of country evaporates thee comes a time when the tastes of home are missed with much passion for tastes not had for a long time, now the Outback Streak house just not cut it when it comes to those things unavailable here, such as a chicko roll and real fish and chips, not to mention Tim Tams etc.









Saturday, April 08, 2006


There are occasions when I miss home; I am an Australian living in the US. What prompted this latest fit of homesickness was the recent death of Pro Hart.

He is one of the icons I grew up with in the Land of Oz, it seems the sayings you can never go back are quite true, things change, but my image and remembrances are dated from the time I left the country. Mind you it is not that I am unhappy, quite the contrary, I am the most happy I have been in years, it is just that I can feel my country slipping from my grasp.
I had a look at an interesting web site last night http://www.clivejames.com/ Clive has been a hero of mine for many years, his urbane, witty and sometimes insightful comments on contemporary life are a delight. If you value intelligent comment take a look at his site.

Friday, April 07, 2006

I love pod-casts, and today I heard a great one, it had to do with the progression of technology. It was interesting in that the impact of technology is predicted to operate in an ever increasing way in all our lives. The following review is of the man and his book I heard
Starred Review. Renowned inventor Kurzweil (The Age of Spiritual Machines) may be technology's most credibly hyperbolic optimist. Elsewhere he has argued that eliminating fat intake can prevent cancer; here, his quarry is the future of consciousness and intelligence. Humankind, it runs, is at the threshold of an epoch ("the singularity," a reference to the theoretical limitlessness of exponential expansion) that will see the merging of our biology with the staggering achievements of "GNR" (genetics, nanotechnology and robotics) to create a species of unrecognizably high intelligence, durability, comprehension, memory and so on. The word "unrecognizable" is not chosen lightly: wherever this is heading, it won't look like us. Kurzweil's argument is necessarily twofold: it's not enough to argue that there are virtually no constraints on our capacity; he must also convince readers that such developments are desirable. In essence, he conflates the wholesale transformation of the species with "immortality," for which read a repeal of human limit. In less capable hands, this phantasmagoria of speculative extrapolation, which incorporates a bewildering variety of charts, quotations, playful Socratic dialogues and sidebars, would be easier to dismiss. But Kurzweil is a true scientist—a large-minded one at that—and gives due space both to "the panoply of existential risks" as he sees them and the many presumed lines of attack others might bring to bear. What's arresting isn't the degree to which Kurzweil's heady and bracing vision fails to convince—given the scope of his projections, that's inevitable—but the degree to which it seems downright plausible. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The following is from the website about the pod cast:
Technology is ever-changing. But are new technologies on the verge of fundamentally changing what it means to be human? In this hour of Science Friday, Ira talks with inventor and author Ray Kurzweil about technological change and its effects on everything from your health to artificial intelligence. If you manage to live for another 50 years, might it be possible to live forever? Would people today even be able to comprehend the technologies of the future?

I just made a new video from some film taken over the week end of the Bar in Point Roberts, it is silly and all but I like it. The bar is just fun for fun.

It seems to me that the inevitable rubbish we consume every day is going to rot our collective brains, I listened to the news this morning from the CNN, now with the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and with numerous hot spots around the world. The giant news organization of CNN with its worldwide recourses and thousands of news gatherers, the lead story was about a coyote that was discovered in Central Park in NYC.

Have we so soon become sated with news of our boys and girls being slaughtered in foreign wars?

While it is apparent to all that bother to read these rants that I have nothing original to say and that in effect I am just spewing forth the thoughts and ideas of other people, I hope that you may either agree with me or take issue at the things I say and conduct a dialog. Arguments I leave to the professional politicians of this world but I am quite willing to get into a dialog and discuss things, you never know you may even change my mind on some issues.
While I have been fiddling with this thing I added a message board to the home page footer, it is not the best but should hold till I can get a better one.