Santa Cruz

This is the name of a brand of refried beans, that I am eating for lunch.

The name can mean holy cross (the cross Jesus was executed on) or the name of location (such as Santa Cruz, California) - or, as I have indicated, a brand name.

The last one is the most common one in Costa Rica - it says "Buy me. and eat me!"

Artificial Intelligence: it will kill us

YouTube

This is also a TED event.

This guy does a good job of explaining the dangers inherent in Artificial Intelligence (AI) - when its intelligence goes wrong.

He does not say so much about when it works fine - such as the Stock Market example. Technology is a double-edges sword, and always has been.

But the latest technology, is not just smarter than we are - it has created a new reality, that operates independently of our own. And is grabbing much of the money in our reality.

We cannot complain, and say "Keep you hands off, that's our money!" Because it cannot hear us.

The Powerful Appeal of Not Being

It is powerful, because it is so easy, and because you cannot be blamed for anything bad that happens.

You can simply say "I was not there!" When bad things happen. And take credit, when good things happen.

This is better than just being invisible, and idea that has been around for a long time. It lets you be invisible, or visible - depending on which would do you the most good.

This implies two versions of the Self - (1) a Self that exists, and can be referred to, and (2) a Self that does not exist, and cannot be referred to.

The Internet world is full of links, or references. If you cannot be referred to, you do not exist in that world!

Which is fine, for many people - because they do not want to be there.

The Land That Failed to Fail

NY Times
.
This articles shows how the Times has kept its lead in Global Journalism.

It uses some advanced formatting, that is amazing. 

If you want to keep up on the world (and many people do not) - read this.

STDs in Sri Lanka

WIRED - the Era of Cheap STD Treatment is over

This story happened when I was living in Sri Lanka in the Seventies. I knew nothing about Sexually Transmitted Disease, but I was going to find out for myself - by getting one.

I was a young man who was eager to have sex, with anyone - and I knew nothing about safe sex, No one had ever told me about that.

I had sex with a woman, who must have had a number of STDs, and I contracted one of them from her. I saw a number of doctors in Sri Lanka, and they had no idea what was wrong with me!

So I returned to New York City, and visited a clinic there. They knew what was wrong with me, and gave me a shot to take care of it - for free!

This did not fix the damage that had already occurred to my left knee, and I had to live with that.

Three Time-saving Tips for DBAs

This email plopped into my inbox this morning. This is what it said:

In today's complex data landscape, DBAs must manage a wider variety of databases and platforms in their organization's environment, from basic performance to security and backups. They may be inundated with numerous emails and alerts regarding the database operations that need to be screened through to find the real issues.

Having a tool that simplifies your management of multiple databases and automates your day-to-day tasks can improve your productivity and free up time to focus your attention on more important tasks. Join IDERA's Patrick O'Halloran to learn how DBArtisan can address your multi-platform database administration and management tasks more effectively, including managing changes for multiple databases, refreshing non-production systems with production data, and automating and scheduling jobs.

Heaven's help the poor Database Administrator, whoever he or she may be! 

The Conflict between the Good and the Bad

Awareness of the Good and Bad is built into the Human psyche. And the conflict between the Two is killing millions of people.

You probably read these statements, without being moved by them. And said to yourself "So what? These are only abstractions, and have nothing to do with real life."

If you feel this way, you are entirely normal. Most people feel this way. And most people, you feel certain, cannot be wrong.

I can feel this way also, easily. But deep down, inside me - I know differently.

This conflict peaked out in the Nineties, when I was working in Silicon Valley. All of us there, knew something was terribly wrong. But we did not know what it was. And we were strongly encouraged not to know, what it was.

I had many therapists there, there were all kinds of them, and a new kind was invented every month, But none of them would state the obvious - that Silicon Valley was Bad. They were afraid of saying this - deathly afraid.

Why? Because anyone who felt this way. was unemployable. And without a job, you might was well be dead.

The first thing everyone wanted to know was "What do you do?" And everyone was ready with an easy answer.

Bigger is not necessarily Badder

I'm sure you can see my point, but let me elaborate on it.

The first move toward making things bigger - was in what we now call Civilization. People quickly learned, that the powerful could take from the weaker. And larger cities could have larger (and more powerful) armies.

That was not enough however, they had to be better equipped, and organized. And better organization was critical.

This trend towards ever bigger empires, culminated in the Roman Empire. And when it collapsed, a thousand years elapsed before the Modern World could be developed.

But organization could be overdone, as it was in the middle of the 20th Century. The Movies, and then Television created millions of people that acted as one - the Masses, who were not very bright, and wanted a strong person to lead them.

Very recently, in the last 20 years, or so. The Cloud has appeared - where large numbers of computers can be organized in a large numbers of ways - and rented to anyone. The blog I am using now, is stored on a cloud so efficiently, it is free! And so is YouTube, offered as a free service by Google.

Google can do this, because it is so big - and getting bigger all the time, because it is educating its users, and making them smarter, technically.

But they are not any smarter, socially.

This contrast between technical intelligence, and social stupidity is amazing - and so far, no one knows how to overcome it.

TED talks about about Imagination and Knowledge

TED

I got this from Carlos E. Perez, whose mind seems to be in overdrive.

The videos are provided by YouTube.

FDA approves ‘precision medicine’ drug for different cancers with same mutation

Washington Post

The price for the breakthrough drug is high. The drug’s manufacturer, Loxo Oncology, Inc., and its partner Bayer, announced Monday night that the wholesale acquisition cost will be $32,800 for a 30-day supply of capsules for adults. The cost for the liquid formulation for children will be based on the patient’s surface area but will start at $11,000 per month.

The only way to find the mutation is through much broader genetic tumor testing. But while patients at academic medical centers with advanced cancer typically are tested, many people do not undergo genetic tumor testing in the community settings where 80 percent of cancer patients receive care. And while Medicare covers some genetic testing, private insurers are much less likely to pay for it.

Any Law, hundreds of pages long, cannot be Good Law

I assume this is obvious to you. The Human mind cannot comprehend this much verbiage.

I suppose this is why it is used. It hides many facts - so that everyone can agree to it, on the surface. Many people have to agree, and they all they want something that satisfies them.

When it is implemented however, people will not refer to the law they agreed on - but look at how it is enforced, instead. And then do, whatever they can get away with.

A New Capability Maturity Model for Deep Learning

Medium

This was written by Carlos E. Perez, who is holding my hand, as we explore Deep Learning together. His thinking on this subject keeps getting better - as you will see, as you read this.

I don't mind telling you, that I have followed this policy all my life - of following someone else. It's, not a foolproof policy, and sometimes I have abandoned a leader, or they abandon me. But letting them break trail, is easier, than doing the work myself.

Weapons of Math Destruction

I just bought the Kindle version of this book, following a tip from DataCamp. And I must say, I like the author, and I think you will too.

It's amazing how much you can learn by surfing the Web, if you don't mind getting into dangerous waters -  where you might learn something.

On Being Fulfilled

My first sexual partner was crazy. I might as well say that, up front.

I was a young Electronic Engineer. She could not hold a job - and was trying to get pregnant by me, so I would support her financially.

In one of our conversations, I was describing something about my job, that paid very well. She interrupted me to ask "But does it make you feel fulfilled?"

If I had been smart, I would have left her, right then, because there was no future in our relationship - as the future soon showed.

You may ask me "What happened to her?" I have no idea, although I sometimes ask myself the same question. I never went back to her part of the country, which is probably just as well.

Whatever happened to her, it was just as well, I did't know about it.

One of the fathers of AI is worried about its future

MIT Technology Review

Yoshua Bengio is a grand master of modern artificial intelligence.

Alongside Geoff Hinton and Yan LeCun, Bengio is famous for championing a technique known as deep learning that in recent years has gone from an academic curiosity to one of the most powerful technologies on the planet.

Deep learning involves feeding data to large neural networks that crudely simulate the human brain, and it has proved incredibly powerful and effective for all sorts of practical tasks, from voice recognition and image classification to controlling self-driving cars and automating business decisions.

Bengio has resisted the lure of any big tech company. While Hinton and LeCun joined Google and Facebook, respectively, he remains a full-time professor at the University of Montreal. (He did, however, cofound Element AI in 2016, and it has built a very successful business helping big companies explore the commercial applications of AI research.)

Family Life can be Painful

NY Times

We are finally beginning to notice this. And this woman's family is no different.

My family is no different either, but we have not faced our pain, as well as she has.

I do wish more people would read this - but most people do not do much reading at all.

Reading is an advanced skill, that has to carefully nurtured, and takes time to learn.

Opioid Nation

New York Review of Books

In 1982 I wrote an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, which began, “Few things a doctor does are more important than relieving pain.” I still believe that. I ended with these words: “Pain is soul-destroying. No patients should have to endure intense pain unnecessarily. The quality of mercy is essential to the practice of medicine; here, of all places, it should not be strained.”

As long as this country tolerates the chasm between the rich and the poor, and fails even to pretend to provide for the most basic needs of our citizens, such as health care, education, and child care, some people will want to use drugs to escape. This increasingly seems to me not a legal or medical problem, nor even a public health problem. It’s a political problem. We need a government dedicated to policies that will narrow the gap between the rich and the poor and ensure basic services for everyone. To end the epidemic of deaths of despair, we need to target the sources of the despair.

I want to add my own editorial, about a more general problem. The trend to avoid thinking, and avoid reading. There are many excellent articles, such as this one, but too few read them. 

Khloe Kardashian, and what she claims to be

MailOnline

This woman lives the fast life, but in many ways a common one.

She cycles through this sequence

• Have sex, and get pregnant
• Have baby
• Get tired of baby, and give it to the father of the child

When she is not doing this, she is a Television personality, presenter, socialite, businesswoman, and model.

Wikipedia states, that a sex tape, the reality TV series and her sister Kim's popularity led to the Kardashians being able to cash in by endorsing products. These include waist-slimming pants, beauty products and Coca-Cola, for which they are paid (as of 2016) $75,000 per post on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Before you launch your machine learning model, start with an MVP

VentureBeat

I can just barely understand this - but maybe you can, much better.

In any case, you can tell easily enough if this is not for you - and you can move on.

Dat

Dat documentation

Dat is a modern version of Git. I cannot used Git on my Laptop, but I can use Dat, with no problem!

It is now one of the many things I cannot understand very well - but I can use anyway.

They are Nothing, but think they are Everything

This makes me sound like a antisocial freak, I know. But I intend it as a plain description of fact - this is the way most people are.

And the rest of us, who can see what is going on - have to take this into account.

The practical consequences are far-reaching. When I email with my siblings, for example, I have to take into account, that they will distort the facts to suit themselves. And not get too upset about this.

ISO 9126

Wikipedia

I discovered this by accident, and don't know what to make of it.

The fundamental objective of the ISO/IEC 9126 standard is to address some of the well known human biases that can adversely affect the delivery and perception of a software development project. These biases include changing priorities after the start of a project or not having any clear definitions of "success". By clarifying, then agreeing on the project priorities and subsequently converting abstract priorities (compliance) to measurable values (output data can be validated against schema X with zero intervention), ISO/IEC 9126 tries to develop a common understanding of the project's objectives and goals.

This is about projects, something discovered in WWII, and used ever since - usually by self-appointed project managers. who have no idea what they are doing.

Its different criteria are ililties - Analysability,  Changeability, Testability, Stabililty, and so on.

In my twenty years in the Computer Industry (1980-2000) I never saw this used. But all of the companies I worked for went out of business - so perhaps it is being used by the survivors - Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft. But even here, it is not used very much.

The usual focus is on stock price, not product quality. Upper Management assumes (correctly) that the stockholders have no idea what is going on, and can be easily managed.

Yunnan coffee is culmination of years of partnership

Starbucks Newsroom

Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China. And Starbucks is proud to be there. 

Lots of companies claim they are ethical - but Starbucks walks its talk. 

Coffee was First an Islamic Beverage

I am taking the Udemy Coffee Cred course, and this image is part of its history of coffee.

Note the huge turban on the lady on the left - indicating her superior status/

No One Understands Donald Trump Like the Horny Narcissist Who Created Dilbert

Slate

He arrived on the pundit scene with a splash: He announced way back in the summer of 2015 that Trump was going to win the Republican nomination. He came to this knowledge not via fancy polling models or sophisticated political science analyses, but just by watching the election unfold through what he calls his “Master Persuader lens.”

Good Coffee smells Good

The last time I bought my favorite coffee (Rey Selecto) I made a mistake and bought the whole grain coffee, instead of the ground. So I took it to the local Coffee Store, and asked the owner to grind it for me.

He opened the bag, and carefully sniffed it, several times. And told me (in English) that it was good coffee! I was impressed, because he judged my coffee to be as good as his coffee. Even though it is mass-produced, and cheaper.

When I last visited the States, I went with my cousin to Starbucks store, I noticed he was unhappy going there, because we had to walk there, and not use a drive-in - which to his way of thinking, was the right way to buy things. I also wanted to taste their latest blend - and that was not what he was interested in either.

For him, other things were more important than the taste of his coffee. What these other things were he could not say, and did not want to say - but he knew what they were, instinctively. They were part of what any successful American knew.

To be fair however, I must also say. that many Americans are very knowledgeable of the coffee they use. Udemy has a course called Coffee Cred, that will make you an expert on this. And I am taking this course.

We Cannot Amuse Ourselves to Death

Medium

This article is about Neil Postman, one of America's unsung heroes.

Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas; they exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities, and commercials.

I am not sure this is all the accurate anymore. People have gone one step better - they do not exist, and they do not argue. 

A Chronicle of Life and Pain in Upstate New York

NY Times Magazine

This story reminds me of life in my hometown of Ft. Madison, Iowa. They were both Industrial cities that lost their industries. But the situation in Troy, New York was much worse - half the town ended up in jail.

People will ask me "Why are you so interested in this horrible stuff?" All I can say is "Because that is the dark underground current, that is running our society. You have to look at the lower layers of iceberg, not at what is showing at the top."

I first viewed it on my Fire tablet. But I could not zoom there, which make it useless,

I downloaded it for display on my Kindle for PC app. This gave me a full-screen display, and allowed me to zoom vertically, but the right side of the zoomed display was not visible. All in all, it was a big improvement, and I spent hours looking at it.

Deep Learning is helping Some People learn Better

I am still reading The Deep Learning AI Playbook: Strategy for Disruptive Artificial Intelligence, and learning a lot from it.

While at the same time, dealing with people who cannot learn much of anything.

What does this mean for the future of all of us? Not much, because there is no all of us.

The World has gotten Worse in my Lifetime

While its Technology has gotten better. It has gotten better for Things, but worse for People.

But the People do not realize this, They are well-adapted to a World that is not good for them. So well-adapted, they do not realize what bad shape they are in.

Is this the end of the world? No, it is only a world gotten worse. People still muddle along, making the best of a bad situation.

And as the world overheats, they will be in a worse situation yet.

A World that is Good for Everyone is Not Possible

Because there are simply too many people - and more are being made all the time.

We have to ask, instead - how many people can Planet Earth support? Each one equipped with a Laptop and a fast Internet connection. That will cost about $500 each.

The women will have to be provided with adequate birth control - and strongly encouraged to limit the number of their children.

All of this is possible, theoretically. But impossible practically.

Most people (but not everyone) do not want to live in a good world, but in a bad world, instead!

The Cloud is a Big Deal

It is changing our world, in some fundamental ways, that most people are not aware of, because this is happening in a virtual world, they are not aware of.

For them, if they cannot see it, smell it, or taste it - it doesn't exist. But, they have to admit, it does attract a lot of money! Why, they have no idea.

I was part of this crowd, in Southern California, in the Eighties. It attracted the worst kind of people, as new technologies always do, Hundreds of companies sprang up, and then died - like mushrooms growing on manure.

This craziness also produced the Internet, and the dot-com boom. The net result, was that most of these companies died - to be replaced by only a few - Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.

And the Cloud, that they all used, that made them more efficient and powerful.

The only thing that some people noticed, was that the good jobs were now Computer jobs. And most people did not notice that - or much of anything else.

The Computer became smarter, but most people became stupider.

This is Illiberal Democracy, and it exists almost everywhere/

My Legs are Giving Out

Being old is no fun! Modern medicine lets us live longer, but cannot stop the decay that inevitably sets in. I take my pills every day, but they can only do so much.

I can no longer ride a bicycle, because I have lost my sense of balance. I go on a walk every day, but I cannot go very far.

The latest thing to go are my legs. I can hobble around, but the pain in them is building up.

The one thing that has improved is my depression, that was severe when I was working in the Computer Industry, in California, from 1980-2000.

That was a life, I would not wish on a dog. But the people there, can see nothing wrong with it They have developed a strange immunity to that kind of pain.

People like to Go Crazy

This certainly applies to me - I have been crazy all my life. And I have just realized this is a common condition.

People can solve the little problems of their lives, but not the big ones. And don't seem to want to, because going crazy (for any reason whatsoever) is so pleasurable, and socially acceptable.

How can you tell when a person, or group of persons, is acting crazy? Mental health professionals have trouble defining the many kinds of mental illness, and curing them, so how can anyone  else?

The answer is simple - the ability to judge the sanity of other people is one of our intuitive skills - without which we could not have survived, as a species.

If this skill degenerates (as it has, recently) we are in big trouble.

The Cloud is Real

And I am paying real money to learn about it.

Google not only has their own Cloud Platform (GCP) but also has a course (on Coursera) telling people how to use it. They are a technical company and also an educational company!

The course is carefully paced, so anyone can use it. If you want to be part of the ecosystem created by the Computer, this course is for you.

The Vanishing - The plight of Christians in an Age of Intolerance

Harper's Magazine

This is not an easy read, but it is an important one.

Christianity is vanishing  in the Middle East - because they are being killed in vast numbers.

Some of them are fleeing to an America, that does not understand their complicated history.

A Nervous Splendor: Vienna, 1888–1889

Amazon

This book is about the final days of the Hapsburg empire.

This is what the publisher says about it:

A Nervous Splendor deftly tells the haunting story of the prince and his city, where, in the span of only ten months, “the Western dream started to go wrong.” Other young men with striking intellectual and artistic talents, all as frustrated as the prince, moved through Vienna during this period—among them a young Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Theodor Herzl, Gustav Klimt, and the playwright Arthur Schnitzler, whose La Ronde was the great erotic drama of the fin de siècle. In this book, the bestselling author of The Rothschilds and Thunder at Twilight creates a portrait of a time and place that is “as lush, beguiling, and charming as an emperor’s waltz".

The Developers and the Users

This is about Software, and the two categories of people in it - the Developers and the Users.

I was with the Developers, when I worked in Silicon Valley in the Nineties. And I was shocked by their attitude toward the Users. They were much better than them (they thought) and they could use them as they pleased.

There was no ethical requirement, that they treat them fairly. The Developers were on the top, and the Users were on the bottom - and they had the right to make more. Even if they delivered lousy products.

That was in the Nineties, since then most of the companies these guys worked for, have gone out of business. Thank heavens!

The handful of companies that remain, have become user aware (that's why they survived). But they still struggle with ethics, and don't know quite what to do about that.

The Huge Change in Housing

In the 19th Century, a house was just the material it was made of - bricks, stone, and lumber. It had no wiring for electricity, pipes for running water, garages for its cars - or insulation to keep the heat inside or central heating.

All these would be added in the 20th Century. And the lack of any of these, greatly decreased its value. Insulation would be critical, because it could not be added to an existing structure. Everything had to be designed, and built into a modern house.

Our parents were not aware of these huge changes, and thought they could buy a fine old house for much less, and live with its disadvantages. I grew up in one of these old houses, where only a few rooms were heated, and we froze most of the winter.

We made sure we would live in better housing - and we did.

Our Technology is Depleting Us

It is taking more from us, than it is giving us. And this imbalance was greatly accelerated by Television, that made extreme demands on us. It insisted that we be, what we could not possibly be - the perfect consumer.

And the Computer continued this trend - by making us better consumers of nearly everything.

The attitude of a consumer is simple "Gimme more!" It assumes we are empty, and need constant refills - of everything.

Are we really this way? I don't think so.

Our basic needs are simple, and easily met. We have to pay attention to them, and resist the blandishments of advertising.

We have to be more socially aware, and more aware of the social effects of our technologies on us.

Women are Destroying Men

This is now so common, most people do not notice it. And to make it even worse, they deny it is happening. It is happening alright, and it should not be ignored.

If someone asks women why they are this way - they are surprised by the question, and simply say "Everyone else is doing it, why should I be any different?"

I think they are reacting to the suffering men have imposed on women for thousands of years. But they are overdoing it - and are treating men, the same way men had treated women. Never stopping to think how unnecessary all this is.

This is part of a package, where everyone treats everyone else badly. And considers this perfectly normal. Somewhere along the line, their values have flipped - and become the reverse of what they were before.

This change has extracted enormous costs - both mental and medical, on the persons it effects. They may have to use two canes to walk around. Or undergo painful, radical surgeries.

The Few at the Top, make the Most

This is so common, few notice it. But they should. Because this determines how much is left for the rest of us.

Still, the rest of us are reluctant to ask the important question "How much are you grabbing for yourself?" This is not a question they are supposed to ask, and they take a big chance asking it. They are supposed to take whatever they get, and not complain about it.

What happens in any company, or any other organization, in our Capitalist economy? You know the Golden Rule - "Those that have the Gold, make the rules."

This also applied in Communist countries. Stalin, for example, not only got everything - he send anyone who disagreed with him to the Gulag.

The few at the top, are the same everywhere. The only question we have to ask is - how many of them are there? Compared to the rest of us.

This is an easy question to ask, but a hard one to answer. In America, for example, how many are at the top? Impossible to say, because they take care to be invisible. And because the few were difficult to define - just where do you draw the line?

Those at the top take care to blur the boundary, by promoting a few who are not really them, but close to them.

A National American Digital ID

Everyone should have an ID, that can be easily used for one person only, and cannot be faked.

A system like this, has already been used by the American forces in the Iraq War. It involved Retinal Scans to identify persons leaving from and returning to controlled areas.

If this had been used in Afghanistan, killings by persons, who appeared to be friendly, but were not - could have been avoided.

Inside the US, this could be used to sort individuals into special interest groups, for voting purposes. Individuals could declare which special interests they are interested in, and could vote for candidates who support, or disagree with, that interest. These preferences could be stored in a National database.

This would be more efficient, than lumping everyone together, that live in the same voting area.

I am listening to WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH FLORIDA? that goes into this problem. Florida contains many different kinds of people (I know a few myself) with very different interests.

Americans have Destroyed America

But they have denied this entirely. They are in an impossible situation, but are not aware of this.

Their only response, is to use more drugs - including the most important drug of all, radically different, and defective worldviews.

In this way, America is no different from the rest of the world - that is subject to many insanities. So many, it is hard to focus on only a few.

But today I want to focus on one, that is global in scope - self-destruction.

This in itself, is nothing new. Empires have always come and gone. But in today's world this process happens much faster. In decades, not centuries.

This is due to our advanced technology - mainly Television. People all over the world are watching TVs, that are flooding their minds with more information, than they can absorb. And as a result, they are going crazy.

This is a new kind of craziness - marked by empty minds. They have been brain-washed, to use a new term, by having their minds washed by too much information. In the seconds it takes them to absorb a new scene - it is replaced by another one. This rapidly changing scene, becomes normal - and they become addicted to it.

How Google Photos Became a Perfect Jukebox for Our Memories

NY Times

My father was a photographer, and made plenty of photos of me, his first born - Harold D Smith Jr.

Now I will have to get Google Photos and mix photos of me, with my siblings, my mother, our house, our mill, our bakery, and our orchard - to make something new altogether.

Skype on Windows 10

I just used this to call the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). It was a hassle getting all the settings right (turning numbers on and off) but eventually I got the job done.

But some capabilities are no longer there. I cannot make video calls, and I cannot make group calls.

I have just got Skype as a Chrome app. I will see how well this works.

El Chapo Puts the Drug War on Trial

NY Times

Here is the final paragraph:

A first step is simply to acknowledge that the current drug policy is failing. If it continues stumbling on, in another 25 years we’ll probably be focused on a new kingpin, along with more tales of drug money, police corruption and mountains of corpses.

This doesn't apply to me, my family had plenty of problems, but drug use was not among them. 

But on the other hand, my family had close ties to Mexico, and I can remember how quiet and peaceful it used to be. Mexico's losses are America's losses also. 

Kiss Ass

Shakespeare would have used this phrase a lot, if it had been available - but the English language hadn't advanced that far yet.

But the idea would have been familiar enough - to make people like you, (and do favors for you) you have make them feel good. The best was to make them feel good, is to tell them how wonderful they are. And tell them this frequently.

I am thinking of a guy I grew up with in Ft. Madison, Iowa. I became an Electronic Engineer, and was working for the Army's Research Lab in Ft. Belvoir, Va. He was living with his wife and children in Alexandria Va. not far away. I used to visit them for lunch on Sunday. At the time, he was nothing, career wise.

But then he went to work for the Pentagon, rose quickly through the ranks, and soon outranked me. He had found his place in the world, and soon became rich. I'm sure he did this legally. There is so much money sloshing around in the Pentagon, it can't help rubbing off on you. If you are willing to help it along.

I should done some of this, when I was working in Silicon Valley in the Nineties. There were plenty of stupid people there, doing stupid things - but they needed to be told how great they were. If I had  done this, they would have kept me on board - instead of letting me go.

I worked for the last American robotics company, I could see its software was defective, and didn't bother to learn it. As a result, I was quietly pushed overboard. The company failed, not long after that.

If I was smart, I would have made them think, I approved of their lousy software, while I learned some of their technology that was advanced - and used it at other companies. This would not have been honest of me, but it would have been smart of me.

The Democrats in the House, are Adjusting their new Power Structure

Politics is about Power, and getting the most of it - for the politicians, and not for the people they represent.

Now that the Democrats have won the House, they are busy dividing that power among themselves. Determining who gets to be on the best committees. This is not getting much attention from the public, but you can be sure it is getting the intense attention from the Democrats themselves.

Where did language come from?

NAUTILUS

Problems in general are often well posed in terms of language and language remains a handy tool for explaining them. But the actual process of thinking—in any discipline—is largely an unconscious affair. Language can be used to sum up some point at which one has arrived—a sort of milepost—so as to gain a fresh starting point. But if you believe that you actually use language in the solving of problems I wish that you would write to me and tell me how you go about it.

Then he goes ahead to explain how language probably happened - a fascinating story, I hadn't heard before. 

I have experienced language loss personally. I was running in a wilderness area, when all of a sudden, my legs stopped working, and splat I fell face down on the ground. I managed to throw up my arms to protect my face, and they were badly scratched, and my glasses were broken. Two young men, riding their bicycles, saw me fall, and rode off to notify the park ranger.

But I managed to get to my feet again, and staggered off towards the trailhead. I could hear a fire engine coming to meet me. They are the first respondents to any emergency in California, They gave me some oxygen, that made me feel better. Then an ambulance showed up, and took me to the nearest hospital. 

By the time I got there, I could not talk - only make strange noises. I lost conscious, and when I woke up, the next morning - I was tied down in hospital bed. Being without language is a frustrating experience! I could not explain to myself, what had happened to me. But gradually I recovered, could talk, and I was released from the hospital. 

I had a TIA (Temporary Ischemic Attack) where the blood supply is lost to some part of the brain. If blood is returned less than 24 hours later, no permanent damage occurs. 

CRYPTO-GRAM, November 15, 2018

Crypto-Gram

This is depressing reading - but it is realistic. Security-wise, we are in bad shape, and it seems to be getting worse. 

The Genius Neuroscientist Who Might Hold the Key to True AI

WIRED

Is this guy a genius. or some kind of nut? The man himself is not sure.

Whatever he is, the article is interesting reading.

The writer lives in Atlanta, George, one of the most reactionary states in the Union.

Barbara Epstein (1928–2006)

NY Review of Books

This article was written by many people, and each of them have a different memory of her.

Only one thing is clear - she was an East Coast person, who lived her life in Boston and NYC. Coming from the Midwest, as far from this as you can get, I am in awe of it.

Artificial Intuition: The Improbable Deep Learning Revolution

Amazon

I got this book by accident, because for me, it was free! I was searching for something about Artificial Intelligence (AI), a very hot subject. But this book puts those in the toilet.

It's amazing for all the other books it quotes - including those that directly contradict it. You really need to read it in the Kindle for PC viewer, so you can keep the other writings it refers to.

He believes Deep Learning is causing a revolution. But I am not so sure of that. It is expanding our horizons, and this can be seen as a revolution.

My Therapist Cousin, who was always Better than he Needed to Be

You read that right, my therapist was also my cousin. We grew up in Nauvoo, Illinois, on the banks of the Mississippi  River, one mile apart. He was five years older than me, and his mother was my mother's sister.

He was my role model, as we grew up. And he stayed that way for a long time.

I followed him to the U of Missouri, where he graduated in Psychology. And became one of those persons who understood what people were like - or claimed they did.

I barely noticed, that he treated his wife badly - something I should have paid more attention to. Our relationship was terminated abruptly, by him, when I got married. He had to be the only important person in my life.

I grew up in the Midwest, and never really Left It.

When you spend the first 20 years of your life somewhere, you never really leave there. And for me, that place was the intersection of the states of Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. As Midwestern a place as you could possibly get.

A place with little culture of its own. And little awareness of this lack of culture. My family thought this lack was natural, and thought nothing of it. It was part of their RLDS church, that was an integral part of them.

In the last half of the last Century, this isolation was ended by the Television, that intruded itself into every home. And which people could not help, but watch. And then the Computer, that most people thought of, as a new kind of TV.

The Strange Ability to Not Be

I keep coming back to this subject, that no one else is interested in. Because it seems to me, to be so fundamental.

It is true, however, that no one else is interested in it. And I have to ask myself "Why?"I am reading
How Brexit Broke Up Britain, and was struck by this passage in it:
The real agenda of the Hard Brexiteers is not, in this sense, about taking back control; it is about letting go of control. For people like Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, the dream is not of a change in which regulation happens, but of a completion of the deregulating neoliberal project set in motion by Margaret Thatcher in 1979. The Brexit fantasy is of an “open” and “global” Britain, unshackled from EU regulation, that can lower its environmental, health, and labor standards and unleash a new golden age of buccaneering hyper-capitalism.

I like that final phrase buccaneering hyper-capitalism, because this says so much in so few words. And because it is one result of not being. If people do not exist, they cannot be blamed for anything that happens, because of their negligence. 

Not being produces a host of undesirable results. For example - these people cannot see anything wrong with being bad. In fact, they rather like the idea, because it lets them get more. 

Building Machines That Learn and Think Like People

Cornell University

Specifically, we argue that these machines should (a) build causal models of the world that support explanation and understanding, rather than merely solving pattern recognition problems; (b) ground learning in intuitive theories of physics and psychology, to support and enrich the knowledge that is learned; and (c) harness compositionality and learning-to-learn to rapidly acquire and generalize knowledge to new tasks and situations.

I would like to see more about each of these topics, but as far as I can see, this is not provided. 

The Phone puts the User in the Center of the World

The most popular appliance in the world today is the Phone. That makes the User a very important person. He (or She) may not be much, until they look into their Phone, that puts them instantly, in the center of the world.

The Phone is a miniature computer that connects the User with two networks - the Cellular and the Internet. That are everywhere. All she has to do is tap on her phone to command the world to do her bidding! 

Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies

Amazon

I am taking a course about this on edX - U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self, using my Laptop to view the videos. And I am reading the book on my Fire tablet. I have both open at the same time.

I recommend you do the same. You will have the best of two worlds.

We have to Start from Where We Are

And where we are, right now is unusual, and has never happened before in the history of the world.

We have learned how not to be.

And this has enormous implications. What we were 50 years ago is not who we are now.

Well-meaning people (and there are a lot of them) try to make us better, not realizing they are talking to radically different people. that cannot understand what they are saying.

For example, the people after the election of Trump in America, or after Brexit in the UK.

These events have resulted in two different populations that cannot understand each other.

Mitch McConnell and the Ancient Metaphor that Created Modern Sexism

Medium

I get many emails in my inbox, but I only link on this blog to a few of them. And this is one of those.

I am confused about my sexuality, and this helps me to clarify it.

Using the Computer to determine Congressional Districts

Here is how to do this.

Every state has many voting districts, where people go to vote. How each district voted in the past is well known. And these could lumped together with adjacent districts, that voted the same in the past, to make a larger one. This step could be repeated, to join more adjacent districts, that have voted the same in the past - until no more similar districts could be found. Every district in the State, would be labeled, as assigned to a larger district, or not.

This part would be easy, and you would end up with a number of voting districts, formed from smaller districts. What comes next, would be more difficult. This patchwork of voting districts, made by a Computer, would be presented to a government body, assembled for this purpose. They would have to decide what to do next. The large number of districts made by the Computer, would have to be reduced to the number available. The advantage here, is that all this would be done in the open, not in secret.

We live in a terrible world

This is something we all should know, be continually aware of, and share with each other. Along with one other thing - that we have excellent intuitive skills that we can use to help each other. When we try to override these, and think only of ourselves - we are in big trouble.

This is highlighted by an article in today's Washington Post. WWI was caused by people who could not live together peacefully.

Now that we have the Computer to help us in our thinking, we should make sure it is helping us to work together. Having articles. like the one above, is not enough - the Computer should make it clear that we are one species. and we can work together easily.

As it is working now, it is only making things worse - and this seems to suit most people. When they use their Phone, it makes them feel better. If it showed them the world as it really is, they would feel worse. At least at first, but once they got over that initial shock, they would see how people could work together.

We have the technology to do this, with excellent computer translations, and the ability to include diverse points of view. All we lack is the willpower to do this.

I have just discovered that that the handheld format, with its limited screen size, and lack of multiple tabs. is not adequate for viewing serious books, I have switched to the Kindle for PC, that lets me do some serious viewing. I now have a whole library of Kindle books on my PC, many of them, I did not know about before!

One of these is on Nautilus, and it deals with the origin of Language in the Unconscious! I took the time to read it, and I hope you will too.

Changing Who You Are, or Changing the Way You Solve Your Problems

These are two different ways of solving the same problem - how to make a better world.

The first believes a fundamental change in people themselves is necessary, the second believes a change in their problem-solving skills will be enough.

The first takes a moral approach, the second a technical approach. Either one, has a series of steps that can be followed.

In practice, another approach is used - just muddle along.

I lean toward the technical approach, and a skillful use of the computer. This will not solve any people problems, but it will give them time to work on them.

Google has Poor People Skills

The most direct way of seeing this, is the way it handled the  complaints of its workers, this last week. It kept saying, it was listening to their problems, and would answer them. But never did.

As if that was enough. You suspect, it was hoping these problems would just go away, if it waited long enough. These are extremely poor, people skills.

A more indirect way, is its poor way of explaining its technical products - of which there are many.

I am trying to learn Angular, an Application Platform that it has built, that is awesome. And awesomely simple, I am sure. But its own documentation is not up to the job (and that is putting it charitably). Another company (learn-angular.com) is explaining it, in a way my 82-year old mind can understand.

You suspect it believes explaining things to people, is not important. People should be smart enough to understand, without any explanations. This is probably true, but only for a few, extremely intelligent people. The rest of us, the 80 percent, will not understand - and cannot use their products.

We are Emotional Beings, not Logical Beings

This was what was wrong, with the Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason. It tried to make us more logical, than we actually were. 

We are not very logical, but we more than compensate for this with our Emotional Intelligence, and our Social Skills.

I am reading Artificial Intuition: The Improbable Deep Learning Revolution that takes a different approach to AI, or Artificial Intelligence. And makes all the other books out there, look stupid. 

He says Deep Learning is how our brain works. Our brains are intimately connected to the rest of our body, especially our muscles. As Einstein himself pointed out. And, at a slightly higher level, our Emotions, that are intimately connected to our facial muscles. 

Amazon no longer allows Product Reviews

I just bought a Waterpik from Amazon, and I wanted to write a review about it. But it now longer allows this to be done! 

I can, however report to you, on this blog - that it works fine, better than previous models. 

The 2000-2010 Decade

This is when the Social Media appeared, and when Software Development took off. All based on the Internet, that had appeared in the Nineties.

The hashtag was invented in 2007, and is now used by anyone in the know - that I have to admit, does not include me

I have two nieces, 7 years old, who announced to the world, on Facebook - that they are now boys!

In all this rapid change, I have tried to keep up with the developments in Software - but I have to admit, not very well. To play in this game, you need the latest equipment - and that is not cheap!

Most People do not want a Better World

They will say they want this, but in fact do not.

This is one of the oldest dynamics in the world - saying one thing and doing something else. And we should not be fooled by it - but we are.

After thousands of years of Civilization, we still have the same basic problem - we don't have the smarts to see what is going on, right under our noses.

We want to be deceived! And we support those who deceive us.

There are No People anymore

I'm sure few people have come to this realization, consciously. But they have unconsciously - and this can be determined by their behavior in many situations.

People are natural imitators, but this has developed into an obsession. They do not want to be different, in any way. And if other people do not exist, they do not exist either.

"What do you mean, when you say, they do not exist?" You may ask. I mean they are not capable of acting on their own. And they are not aware of this. That last qualifier is important - they are not aware of this.

They are not capable of acting on their own, because there is no self to do any acting.

I have exaggerated, there are a few people out there, and they are important - but there are only a few. And many of them, have concentrated on getting the rest to not exist.

A foundational strategy pattern for analysis: MECE

O'Reilly

I cannot understand many of the advanced Software ideas - but this one I can understand, even though it is bit of a stretch.

Here is an example:

Your lists must be lean. That means making them directive toward work that someone will go and do, or providing the data that allows a decision-maker to decide the best course of action.

They Do Not want To Change

I am taking a course from MIT, on edX - U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self. And the instructor is talking about the Structural Disconnects that are part of the problem. 

While I am watching this video, I am thinking of two groups of people (1) those who are taking this course, and (2) the much larger group, who are not - and would not take it, under any circumstances. "Why," I am asking myself. 

And the answer is clear - because it might make them change. 

The Revolutionary Power of Diverse Thought

TED

This presenter is a woman from Turkey dressed entirely in black. A few hundred years ago, she would have been burned at the stake. But now we can see her on our computers.

This is progress.

Making a Better World, and Making Money are not Compatible Objectives

This what made Silicon Valley intolerable for me. For it, making money was more important than anything else. And no one noticed this was its fundamental objective. That would have been too embarrassing.

Every one said they were making a better world, but what they actually did, was far different.

In the first job I had as a Tech Writer, in Orange County, in the Eighties - I was hired to make the destruction of a fine company seem like a good thing. It was the first company to get into Computer Graphics. This was a huge breakthrough in Computer technology.

A secret group plotted to take over the company. At a meeting of its Board of Directors, the President of the company, who was responsible for its success, was fired - and a new group took over. They now owned the cow, and they were going to milk it for all it was worth.

Looking back at it, this is easy to see. But at the time, this was not obvious at all - because they covered their tracks so well. No one kept track of where all the company money went, and they could quietly pocket much of its money - as long as they remained legal, which they were usually careful to do. They were legal bank robbers, and they carefully honed their skills. And without knowing it, I was helping them along.

This went on for twenty years (1980-2000) in Southern California and then in Silicon Valley.

I would like to say, I had a clear idea of what was going on. But I didn't, I just felt something was not right - and didn't know if that was because of me, or something else. Everyone was saying, I was in the wrong, not everyone else. A very confusing situation!

What I actually did, was pretty radical - I moved to Costa Rica, and stayed here. I can look back, and see what was wrong - but cannot explain this to anyone else.

I want to give credit to the NY Times, and its article Sundar Pichai of Google: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’

In Superstar Cities, the Rich Get Richer, and They Get Amazon

NY Times

I sit here, in a small town in Costa Rica, reading this on my Laptop. How does this apply here?

Quite easily, actually. All Costa Rica has to do is teach some of its students English, which it is already doing - but not very well. And then send these students to study in America, which it is already doing - but not very well. And make fast Internet access here, more common.

It needs to import the technology that will make it rich. The schools here - and there a lot of them, need to focus on technology, not just on making better people.

It has to decide where it wants to be, twenty years from now. It made this decision once before, in 1947 - and as a result, is now the richest country in Central America. It invested in its future - and this investment has paid off handsomely.

They are Afraid of Being Themselves

I was alerted to this possibility, by a chance acquaintance. He invited me to join him for breakfast, at a restaurant of my choosing. I picked the most expensive restaurant in town.

I complained to him, that people did not know what was going on. He replied that they knew what was going on, alright - but that they were afraid. I wanted to talk some more about this, but he paid the bill, and abruptly ended our breakfast together. This was a subject he did not want to pursue!

I have since noticed this behavior in other people. If they become a success - they panic, and destroy their success! And nothing on earth will make them talk about this.

The Breakthrough that became a Breakdown

I am reading Fire & Blood: A History of Mexico It describes the glory that was Mexico's past, and its sudden ending.

Our family was fascinated by Mexico, and we used to drive from our home in Nauvoo, Illinois all the way to Acapulco, and back, every year-end holiday. When my parents retired, they joined a religious mission in Saltillo, Mexico - that did not last very long.

My father did not last very long, after that - he died, as did the church (RLDS) that he was devoted to.

Unbeknownst to them, they were living through a collapse (or breakdown) of their world. And one part of this breakdown, was a complete lack of awareness, that it was happening.

These people are proud of the fact, that they know nothing.

America conquered Mexico, but did not Keep it

This is part of American and Mexican history. The Americans landed in Vera Cruz, then marched to Mexico City, and conquered it, without too much trouble.

But then they did something unexpected. They returned to their home country, and left Mexico for the Mexicans!

This is not hard to understand, if you put yourself in their shoes. The American army was surrounded by Mexicans, they did not understand, in the least. They realized, occupying Mexico would be a huge job, they did not relish.

They had already taken large parts of Mexican territory, including California, Arizona, and Texas. The Mexicans were driven out, easily enough, and these lands were promptly acquired by American citizens.

Most People cannot Read

They can read, but they do not. If reading exposes them to something new and important - they do not read about that.

This is a shocking situation, I know. I can hardly believe it myself. But once I realized, this was how most people functioned, I could understand them better.

Does Better Technology make Better People?

Probably not.

But I should update this question, to ask about our latest technology: the Computer and its Software. But even that is not a fair question, because people had been so altered by the Industrial Revolution before the Computer came along.

I have to restrict my question to my own situation. I grew up in the Industrial Midwest, became an Electronic Engineer, and then a Tech Writer, working in Silicon Valley.

And I can ask this question for each of my life's phases.

The Industrial Midwest was no picnic. And the people in it were not the nicest. And its most important technology, was the Automobile. That did not make us better people. I thought I was a cut above average, because I had my own airplane, but that did not make me a better person either. I got into a disastrous marriage that ended badly, with the suicide of my wife. That was pretty bad!

Electronics were the result of WWII, and the technology was based on the Vacuum Tube - that was mass produced, in every size imaginable. I ended up working on some expensive, exotic Radar Systems designed to detect Soviet Nuclear Bombers - that never existed. This did not make us better persons either.

Solid State technology made the Vacuum Tube obsolete, and I was out of a job! The technology however, advanced at a rapid pace and produced the Digital Computer. And I was soon working on that. In Southern California, in Ventura county, Los Angeles county, Orange county, and San Diego county. Computer companies sprang up, and then died, like mushrooms growing on manure. This was insane, we were not better, but crazier. I left for Silicon Valley, where things were not so crazy.

/But the craziness followed me there, and got even worse. And even spread northward, to Seattle!

This was too much for me to handle, and I moved to Costa Rica, where people were still friendly. 

Inside the Cultural Revolution

I am reading The Secret Piano, and learning how the Cultural Revolution affected one young woman, who managed to live through it - but just barely.

It's hard for me to believe that such horrible conditions existed, where corpses filed the streets - many of them, students - who had killed each other.

I cannot install Git on my Lenovo Laptop

I have a Lenovo Ideapad 320, the cheapest Windows 10 computer I could find, with 8 GB of RAM, that allowed me to install the Chrome browser on it. This gave me both Microsoft and Google, on my own machine!

But when I tried to install Git on this combination, I could not! Evidently, this was pushing my luck too far.

92-year-old Georgia Voter Blocked

Greg Palast

Abrams also was deeply concerned that our investigation found Kemp was working in secret coordination with Kris Kobach of Kansas. Our new legal actions revealed that Kobach supplied 108,000 of the names that Kemp purged. Purged in secret.

I only know one person from Georgia, and I am sure he knows nothing about this (or anything else, for that matter). 

The Life our Parents lived, is No Longer Acceptable

This was no surprise to me, I had long ago recognized this myself, and no longer lived as they did.

But for most people, this was a huge shock, they could not get over. Human societies are not designed to change rapidly, and they usually do not.

If forced to change rapidly, they go crazy, in all kinds of ways. And one of these ways is Fascism. Or they may become Conservative, a new category that says: "Stop the clock!" Or even "Turn it back!"

And they succeed in doing just that. The real clocks go ticking on, while there's is stopped dead in its tracks. Much to their satisfaction.

Why Everyone Missed the Most Important Invention in the Last 500 Years

Hackernoon

When people look back hundreds of years from now, only the printing press and the Internet will have it beat for sheer mind-boggling impact on society. Both the net and the printing press enabled the democratization of information and single-handedly uplifted the collective knowledge of people all over the world.

The Economic Situation in America

This is an important factor, in the complicated situation, that is America at the present time.

Americans still feel they are an integral part of Capitalism, even though they are not sure what this is. And they suspect that, whatever it is (or was) it has not been good for them.

Obama is a good example of this. He was elected, even though he was black, with the strong support of the Bankers, who wanted fewer regulations for their industry. After he was elected, he reduced these regulations. Which resulted in the Economic Crisis of 2008, that resulted in a huge bailout (of trillions of dollars).

Other countries were also affected by this, but because they did not have the integrated economy that America has, they could not recover so easily. And this has had a large influence on their totalitarian politics.

Americans now have a problem - what kind of economy do they want?

Chicano slums and Black slums

Slums are one of the unfortunate features of modern life, all over the world. People from the country, that had been agricultural workers, are moving to the cities in vast numbers. And settling in the slums there, because they are the cheapest places to live.

In the US, there are Chicano slums and black slums - and they do not mix. And there is the reaction to this - the white men (and their women) who live everywhere, who feel threatened by the numerous disadvantaged - and do not want them to become organized.

This is complicated by religious movements, such as the Evangelicals, who appeal to the poor - but are also intolerant of those who are sexually deviant. 

Are People getting Stupider, or is the World getting Harder to Understand?

Speaking for myself, I definitely got stupider, in Silicon Valley in the Nineties. But so did the whole area. When I moved to Costa Rica, I gradually got better.

This worked for me, but it has not worked for most of the Gringos, who came to Costa Rica, hoping to build a new life for themselves. Most of them went back, having learned nothing. And most of the ones who stayed, have done poorly, mentally.

When I visit relatives, back in my hometown of Ft. Madison, Iowa, I am struck by how poorly they have adapted to the huge changes in their world.
,
I have a cousin who was a dyke, dressed the part, and was proud of her role in life. But she aged poorly, and ended up being nothing, unable to care for the house she inherited from her parents.

The part of town her parents lived in, has become a slum, where only the destitute live. The company she worked for, the Santa Fe Railroad, has also fallen on hard times, and many of its jobs have disappeared.

Anyone with smarts has left town. And that means the ones who have stayed - are not too bright.

What about those who stayed in Silicon Valley, that now includes Seattle? If they were lucky, they learned the Java programming language - and all the other programming tools that soon arrived/after it. But of all the guys I knew in the Valley, none of them went this route.

The lucky ones were maybe one percent of the population. But they have done very well, and are now part of the Software Revolution that is sweeping the world.

This means the rest of the population (99 percent) have no idea what is going on

In a word, they are stupid.

They only want people in their lives, that are compatible with it

The key word here is compatible. And it has a variety of meanings. But basically, it means people we like, and feel comfortable with. People like us.

Another word has crept into this definition: like. It can be a verb, a noun, or an adjective. My Merriam-Webster has a field day with it. 

Not Part Of the Computer World

I am very much part of the Computer World. First thing in the morning, I fire up my Laptop, and go through my Mail. And am not satisfied with myself, until I have done this.

Most people do not feel this way, and seem to feel that the Computer is an unnecessary addition to their lives, that are already too complicated. They will use their email, but only grudgingly.

I feel the Computer is a valuable addition to my life, but they think it is a nuisance.

Casual Theft

This is a form of crime in Costa Rica, that is not considered a crime.

Anything not locked down, or not closely guarded, can be claimed by someone else.

I mentioned this once to the owner of the local language school, who is from Holland. He told me this story:

One of his workers asked to borrow some welding equipment over the weekend. He let him borrow it, but on Monday, his worker told him someone has stolen the equipment from him. He did not believe this, and made his worker tell him what he had done with it. He said he had sold it to pawnshop, and told him which one it was. He had to go to that pawnshop, and pay to get his own equipment back!

He could not report him to the police, because legally, the theft of anything worth less than a certain amount, is not considered a theft!

All you have To Do, is be like Other People

How often I see this! People are very good at being like other people, and always have been.

But now, with the Computer helping them - they are more conformist than ever!

Without their being aware of this, at all.

Culture in Costa Rica is local

It is highly localized - what is done in one place, is not done fifty miles away.

Take, for example: tamales. These are common in the Central Metropolitan Area, often referred to as San Jose - where 80 percent of the population live. You can buy special tamales there, made for special tastes.

But in Cartago, an hour's drive away, you can only find a few - made with Chicken or Pork. Another hour's drive away, in Orosi, where I live - you cannot find any.

People who are Not People, are not Good People

"How can people, not be people?" That is the question you may be asking. But my answer is simple "By not thinking!"

These people will still exist as animals, all their body functions will work the same as before. In fact, their functioning as Computer Objects will be enhanced. But if they cannot think, they are not much good.

Being Good for People

I spent 20 years of my life (1980-200) being good to computers - or actually, being good for the Computer Industry, helping it along. And it benefited greatly.

But I cannot say the same for myself, or all the other people involved in it. We did not do very well, as people.

"What," You may say, "What about the money you guys were making?". Most people were making less, but you were making more! True, but as has been remarked many times, money is not everything. It is not even close to being everything. I will explain.

While I am writing this, I am also learning TensorFlow, the latest software from Google, who also has a training program for learning it. As I flip back and forth between the two tabs, one containing the Blogger program, I am using to write this - and the TensorFlow training program, I am aware of the two different personalities using them.

I have to think differently (I have to be a different person) depending on what I want to do, or what World, I am in. And the Computer World is another world, like no other world we have been in before. As we go into it, we are entering foreign territory, and become new people - not necessarily better people.

"I don't want to think about this!" You are probably saying, and in fact, are doing (or not doing). And most people feel the same way. Let the World go to Hell, and concentrate on saving yourself.

As I am writing this, an article on Meme Warfare plopped into my inbox. This explains the situation, better than I can, and makes me realize I am not alone.

Judy Chicago, the Godmother

NY Times Style Magazine

I read this, while having low-fat Spam for breakfast. It was delicious.

I cannot same the same for this article. I am not into Art, or stuff that claims to be Art - so reading it was a bit of a chore. This woman is prolific to a fault - I can say that, for sure.

I came from Illinois, but downstate Illinois. Chicago was foreign territory, and continues to be foreign to me. She has not exhibited there, one of the few cities has not been in. She has just taken its name.

I grew up in the Midwest, a big part of the country that has now become a Rust Belt. And has no idea what it is.

No one I know there, will bother to read this. And I am not going to urge them to.

Ignorance, in this case, is bliss.

The Privacy Battle to save Google from Itself

WIRED

I can sympathize, with those who throw up their hands in despair, and say "It too hard for me to understand!"

It is hard to understand, no one will question that - but with a little persistence (and maybe more than a little) some light will come shining through.

No one expects you to know everything, right off the bat. But they do expect you to try.

Transcendentalism

Wikipedia

This was an important movement in American history, that has been, unfortunately - forgotten, in the rush to Industrialize everything.

I am not against the making of money (heavens knows) but it does create some problems. And one of them, is to emphasize the Organization over the Individual.

The use of advertisements in political contests

I get desperate emails every day, begging me for money, to buy more advertisements.

I usually don't give them any, because buying votes does not seem right to me. And because these ads, I am quite sure - do not accomplish much.

They usually say, their opponent is spending more - but that only means they are willing to spend more, and they want to spend more too.

History does repeat itself

If it is properly understood.

This is the essence of the Scientific Method. And of Deep Learning. Two big terms, with a simple meaning - pay attention to the basics, because they will repeat themselves.

If what you are expecting does not repeat itself - it's because you were looking at the wrong basics.

It is also true, that undesirable events can also repeat their basics .

How Republicans Became Anti-Choice

NY Review

It is impossible to understand American politics of the past half-century without taking abortion into account.

Many other changes happened during this time period, but none were as galvanizing - or as hard to ignore, as this one. This movie explains how it happened.

They get married, they have some babies, they get rid of their husbands

How often I have seen this! But it is even worse - often, the husband dies.

This makes it easy to classify two types of breakups - those where the husband lives, and those where the husband dies. If the husband dies, the wife is often one of the causes for this.

In the case of my own mother and father, mom was always the boss, and this was the way dad wanted it. In the final years of his life, he was in poor health, but neither of them took adequate steps to diagnose his problems, or care for them. He was 60 when he died.

In my opinion, mother was responsible for his final decline and death. She did not want him to die, but she ended a life in Mexico that he loved. Never realizing, that would result in his death.