Hate water-saver
Putting governors on plumbing doesn't work
...unless one thinks half-hour showers and it taking ten minutes to fill the sink basin with dish water is somehow such an essential act of conservation as to really be all that helpful in our efforts to "save the planet".

I think it's little more than a time waster myself.  Just taking longer to use the same amount of water you normally do anyway.



                                    Another site to check out: www.raconteurreport.blogspot.com

                At the computer terminal in the library:
Other patrons are coughing and sneezing---right onto the keyboards!!

Am I the only person wise enough to always bring a napkin/tissue with him on every visit to the library to catch my coughs and sneezes?
How come it's never occurred to anyone else to do the same?

Song Analysis: Radio Radio

I don't know if this 1978 song by Declan ("Elvis Costello") McManus was ever released as a single, but it seems like the kind of song one would expect to find on a "45".  I could even picture a song of this kind getting brief AM radio play during the early '70s.

The song starts out with the listener trying to change stations and the tuning knob breaks, upon which he hears the aftercomments the announcers and staff ordinarily make when they think their listeners have turned their station off.

During this bout of "media metaphysicalism" they brag about how they program their station to toy with the minds of their listeners, how they engage various psyopic ploys and other propaganda techniques to, along with the programming format itself, influence their listeners into a collective compliance with the social systems and institutions.

That the rock and roll stations are actually not this bastion of "creativity", "free thinking", or "defiance".
That all media are, essentially, primarily commercial ventures, and that even rock and roll radio is a lot more conservative, conformist, and in cahoots with the establishment than most would be willing to admit or accept.  That the rock n'rollers are not so "cool" after all.

The gist of this song is the feeling of betrayal the idealistic rock n'roll worshipper  feels upon learning this inconvenient fact of life.

                             Just say "No!" to Artificial Intelligence
I am a bit apprehensive about the notion of everything eventually falling into the hands of Artificial Intelligence.

Take the example of those coupon books supermarkets send their customers by mail.  Anything you've been purchasing on a regular basis, whether frequently or simply on more than one occasion, the have calculated to a tee.

But, say, you decide to favor another product or another brand?  Say there's a certain food product you no longer eat because your system doesn't seem to be able to handle it the way it used to, perhaps due to some of the metabolic changes that accompany aging?

When those coupon books come in they'll continue offering that product you no longer buy.  It'll take at least a couple months before the products you're now buying start showing up in these books----alongside the ones you no longer purchase.

That's what I don't like about all these "A.I." trends.  It's all based on profiling and pigeonholing.  It's bound to miss nuances and idiosyncrasies because it's constantly "summing up" all its subjects.
And they want to put EVERYTHING under control of A.I.?  Medical?  Legal?  Records of home addresses? Records of phone numbers?  Analyzing anyone's lifestyle and habits?

What if one makes a major life change?  Or they come into some kind of financial fortune (a.k.a.: trust fund or such)? Or a traumatic event initiates a permanent change of certain habits?
Is A.I. going to keep up with all these, or are the person's online credit reports going to continue to show information based on how that person's been living the past 20 years or so, simply reflect its summation of that person's "general lifestyle, character, and habits"---some of which would by now be irrelevant?

                                             Musing For Today
I, myself, find the police to be, more than anything else, obsessed with "being good little robots" and with their intimate knowledge of applicable legalese.


                                                     Schadenfreude
When your place is the only one being bombed you tend to take it personally
...but should you find out other places are also being bombed as well, then you start to think maybe it's the "other guy" who actually has the problem, and you feel at least a little bit better about your whole predicament. 

               Just don't call it "immigration" (revisited)
I'm tired of everyone using the term "illegal immigrant".
There is no such thing.  One cannot be an immigrant without being legal.
Because to be an immigrant requires going through whatever legal procedures the country one is attempting to change their citizenship to demands in order for said country to consider whether or not said one is "fit for" inclusion into its society.
And to have that country approve said request and act accordingly.

A better term for those here illegally would be "unlawfully present foreign outsider"---someone who's either overstayed their VISA and continues to hang around, or who's managed to enter another country covertly.

                             Musing #3 For Today
It's not just government, politicians, authority, or the officials I'm dubious of
...a lot of average folks seem to exhibit a lot of the same traits:
*Sketchy
*Somewhat amoral
*Clandestine in their interpersonal interactions