There are two books that stick in my mind when I think about the year “1984.” One book (obviously) is the one by that very title, written in 1949 as a warning about where we were heading, both as a nation and as a planet. George Orwell gave us such Read more…
Just a reminder, for some of you, and a Clue for the rest of you… See the embedded video here. This was a “parody” of the news as it was 40 years ago (as I write this). It was that bad then, but by comparison with today’s so-called news reporting Read more…
No opinion on these is being expressed here. Just suggesting these ought to be thought about… by everybody. Why are spies treated differently during war than is every other participant in that war? All sides have spies. All sides have soldiers. All sides have guns. All sides have Old Men Read more…
Almost no one out there in the Wide World — or at least the world touched by Mass Media — understands what “Science” is. I promise you, it’s not what most people think it is, not what you were taught in grade school, either. Ours is an Authoritarian culture. We Read more…
Recently I had opportunity (and reason) to watch 3 different versions of the same movie: Ten Little Indians(1), based on Agatha Christie’s play and book of the same name. 1965 with Wilfrid Hyde Wight, Fabian, Hugh O’Brien, and others. 1974 with Oliver Reed and Richard Attenborough. Badly directed. 1989 with Read more…
I was just reading an article (perhaps a rant, but the author’s numbers and facts seem to check out) that is really very scary in several ways. He brings up some things I wasn’t aware of. But I’ll just touch on a small part of it and then do my Read more…
I hear People come down on Google for keeping track of what one does, or for “listening” to everything one says while within ear-shot of a live microphone(1). Besides the fact that this is largely misleading propaganda probably put forward by Those Who Can’t Honestly Compete with Google (so they Read more…
I’ve been a programmer for a very, very long time. (Yes, before sand was invented, even. 🙂 OK, not quite that long.) I have been watching the standards for software design, implementation, release and after-market support spiral down the rabbit hole for the last 28 years, more or less. (That’s Read more…
I’ll let Linus speak this one… it’s pretty self-explanatory, and 100% correct, besides. Always… ask why? Ask how? Ask how come? Ask in what ways the data *might* be wrong? Who might have a vested interest in the “results” turning out that way? Ask, ask, ask. When you stop asking, Read more…
I just ran into a most curious concept. (Well… “just” might be an exaggeration, but it makes for a great opening line to the posting, don’t you think?) “Alpha Sheep.” Huh? Alpha, in these terms at least, refers to one who dominates and exerts his will over his part of Read more…
Just some things to think about… <He said with a grin> 1 — In studies conducted in England involving Chemotherapy, in double-blind style testing, half the participants getting the placebo lost their hair. Belief, man… what a concept. So why do I have to pay extra on my medical insurance Read more…
This posting is partly an exploration in how language evolves and sometimes has consequences we weren’t expecting. If that doesn’t interest you, feel free to move on. Actually, no — read it anyway… 🙂 There’s a term much in use these days: “3D Printing.” I have been holding that this Read more…
I just received another “update” from the Powers That Be in my county [“county” not “country”], update on CoVid. As with the previous posting inspired by a previous such report, I don’t see that these “daily briefings” can possibly do anything except inflame the population over an issue they understand Read more…
Among a great many other things, I work on computers for people. Something that has always bothered me is that the client has to give me his password(s) for the computer before I can work on it. That’s a security violation. The rule [not that we “do” rules, here, of Read more…
So, given the time of year ‘t is, as I write this, I’ve had several versions of A Christmas Carol playing(1). I just clicked on something (older meaning, not the new-ish one). What Scrooge experienced was in fact what so very many people these days report as NDE’s (near-death experiences), Read more…
This one will be short(-ish). It’s just a thought that occurs to me every time I’m on a cell phone call and the call drops, or every time some one leaves me a voice message and it takes 3 days to show up on my phone, or a text message Read more…
When I was a kid there was a lot of talk in the news, on TV talk shows, at school, and at home about overpopulation. How the world was getting just too crowded. That was with a population of about 2.5 billion. Today we have a population of about 7.5 Read more…
There is a logo, flash, picture, etc. that all real estate advertising in America includes. It is detailed in a document published at hud.gov which has much to say about “fair housing.” What is meant in this document by fair housing is that one can not discriminate against people on Read more…
The 13th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States recently came up for conversation in a group I was with. This is widely held as the anti-slavery amendment, and indeed that was its purpose. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall Read more…
Ok, I harp on this a lot. But that’s because I think it really, really matters. Here’s why. Those who craft stories that get labelled Science Fiction have an obligation to make sure the science is defensible. Otherwise, at best it’s science fantasy — which *is* another genre of story Read more…