Global Voting

Democracy is a fine idea, and it should apply to everyone. Everyone should have a vote, and every vote should be equal. But should everyone vote on everything?

Probably not, only on things that apply to them. And the Internet should be used as much as possible. 

There must be some way for the voter to identify himself or herself. And the equivalent of an account or database, where personal data can be accessed. The pattern of the Iris of the eye was used successfully in the Iraq War. 

Everyone must have access to a voting machine, such as a laptop. that will allow him to perform these actions easily. 

This is my second try at this.

There should be a list containing everyone in the world - an ID number for everyone.

There should be a list containing every country in the world, and each state in every country.

And a list showing what state each person is in, 

Every voter will be loaned a headset containing headphones and microphone.

Each question is voted on by every person in evey state. Each question can have many answers, but only one can be selected. Each answer can be (Yes, or No)

The final answer for each question will provided as an audible reaponse at end of each question. 

My Strong Antisocial Feelings

I believe in therapy because I know I have problems, but it was a long time before they noticed this, the most troublesome part of my personality.

This is probably because most people (therapists and their clients) don't want to know it exists, and they should do something about it. 

I had moved from Silicon Valley to Costa Rica. And as was my custom, I had a therapist, an American psychologist. It didn't take long for me to realize he wasn't much good, but he was cheap. I was depressed and was raking Nytol for this, but it was not working. He sent me to a local psychiatrist since I would need a prescription for different antidepressant medicine.

This guy was competent (he spoke several languages, and charged a lot) and he diagnosed my condition as antisocial, and increased my dosage of Nytol. Eventually, they realized Nytol was useless and stopped using it. but that was later. Meanwhile, I suffered.

Smooching, bur Nothing More

Girls were a problem for me when I was in college. 

I was supposed to have a girlfriend, with whom I was publically affectionate in public. So everyone could see what a normal person I was. 

But I did not feel this way. How did I feel? Not heterosexual or homosexual but asexual, like my father, who wrote love letters (in French) to his Haitian girlfriend.

I had a motorboat that pulled a plank that my friends could ride on. One young woman made it obvious to me that she was open to more (a lot more). But I had to go back to college and get my engineering degree. 

We had a serious problem, that no one could help us with. 

When Technology is the Devil

Picture me as a small boy, standing on a box my father has given me, running Prints through the Hypo, He has already exposed them, and developed them in his favorite place, the Darkroom in his Studio, in Ft. Madison Iowa.

We had no idea this would soon end, as the rest of our world, did in the Fifties. We had worked hard to get get where we were, and could not imagine it ending. Bur it did, with the election of Trump, quite a while latter. How did this happen?

I will use my own life as an example. I did the right thing: I went to college and became an Electronic Engineer. 

This meant I knew a lot about Vacuum Tubes. the dominant technology of the time. You cannot imagine how useful they were. If you had a Radio in your cat, it had tubes in it. If it quite working, as it often did, you took your screwdriver out and removed it from your car, and took it to a drugstore, An ordinary drugstore, because it had a Tube Checker. You used it to check the tubes in your radio, one by one. If you found a defective tube, you bought a replacement for it, right there. You were back in business.

The first TVs also used tubes, especially the output display: a large tube with a flat face.  As TVs got larger, these tubes got larger. I remember when our town Marshall (the force of law in our little town) fired his gun through the TV and through the front window of a local bar. There was still glass on the sidewalk when I walked to school Monday morning. 

In 1980, vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors, tiny things that could perform many functions. A Phone, with a few chips in it could do everything. I was out of a job. 

This was a crisis, bur I solved it by changing jobs. I became a Technical Writer, and then a Programmer, 

My father was not so lucky, he lost his Photography Studio, and every business he developed to replace it. He got a lucky break, he sold his property in Nauvoo, Illinois, And was able to retire in Mexico, in poor health. 

Flat on my Back on the Sidewalk

Yesterday, being the day before Xmas was not a good day to go shopping. But there I was, with all the young folks, with their young bodies and minds, scanning all the goodies in a Walmart store. Too much stuff!

But I was just getting started, I was there mainly to get a new laptop, that Amazon shipped to Miami, and was then flown to Cartago, the nearest large town. You can see it here.

I got on the bus home with too much stuff. On the sidewalk to my apartment, splat! down I went, and there I stayed. 

"This is not normal!" Ray said, (as if I needed reminding.)

You don't have to be Smart to be Good

 I'm not smart, and this does not bother people too much. 

Lots of times I am not good either, and this does bother people. 

There are companies that help you to be good, mainly Microsoft and Google. Right now Google feels better to me, altho Facebook probably feels better to you. Check out Google Workspace and Microsoft Teams. 

It's important to push being good to the top of your list of priorities, and these companies can help you do that. 

I know this is all about Business, instead of People, but we have to use what we got. 

Things have gotten Too Complicated

 I'm not the first one to say this, everyone has, in all kinds of ways. Most commonly by saying nothing at all.

What can I use as an example? Benedict's Newsletter. It's free, and it's enough to scramble anyone's brain. So far, it's up to No. 367. 

"But this is about Computers!" You will say. And Computers are not real. What they are we do not know, but we do know that. 

They are something, we can agree on that, and this something is important. And this guy Benedict is writing about it (at great length). And all we can say is "duh".

Or, if you live close to me, you can visit Cafe Christina, just up the road. Where the wife will give you a tour of the place, a sample of their coffee, and explain their philosophy. (They are very Organic). 

Except they have gone out of business. 

The Rise of the RLDS Church

It arose when Joseph Smith learned how to commit miracles using a stone (a seer stone). But he already had a far more important talent: the ability: to make other people believe in him, no matter what he did. 

This also made other people hate him and resulted in his untimely death in 1844. 

When he died, there was no more church until Brigham Young took over, and led the LDS over the Rocky Mountains to the Great Salt Lake, where it still remains strong. 

Joseph's wife Emma remained in Nauvoo, Illinois with her four sons, children of Joseph. 

Nauvoo was a ghost town, but she stayed anyway. And did not inform her sons of Joseph's transgressions, which included polygamy. Her sons grew up and married local women, but had no money.

Meanwhile, another Mormon group formed in Northern Illinois (nearly as far North as Chicago). They called it the RLDS (Reorganized LDS). They needed a religious leader and selected Joseph Smith's oldest son Joseph Smith III (who was in Nauvoo) for this. He moved North, with his family.

THE RLDS bought land in Southern Iowa, and built a town on it they called Lamoni. JS III moved there with them, and took over leadership of the Church, and made it grow in membership and income. 

But this growth did not continue for long when it moved to Independence, Mo. It remained a small church, and for this reason, I dropped out in 1960. It now calls itself the Community of Christ church. 

Deliberately Stupid People

 Stupid People may be that way for many reasons, and they are not usually aware of it. 

I worked as a Technical Writer from 1980-2000. and was well-paid for it (as much as for a Programmer), because users have to be told how to use the apps they are buying. And they are not usually too smart. 

I was making money out of other people's stupidity. First, the Programmer (or Developer) would explain his program (or app) to me, and I would then explain it to the User. Everyone got happy. Except those who were deliberately stupid.

Instead of getting smart, they got stupid and were satisfied with this state of affairs, that was made especially for them. 

This has forced Tech Writing itself to get better because the Seller wants the Buyer to see how easy it is, using a friendly video. The User becomes Smarter, without his knowing it.

Inequality

Is Dominant in our time. And people can see nothing wrong with this. Some people are better than others and should get paid more, they think. 

Bur how much more? And for what skills? Is being up the corporate ladder good enough? Or does it take more than that?

There have always been skills that have hard to obtain and worth more. And some that are easy to obtain (big tits, for example) and also worth more. 

Computer programming skills get a plus from me. I have been there and done that. And know how hard it is.

Some people feel a faster gun deserves the same respect. Or a dishonest gun. 

My Father, the Photographer

He ended his life in failure, as many of his generations did. 

I should describe his transition from a rich photographer in Ft. Madison, Iowa to a poor baker of ehole-wheat bread, in Nauvoo, Illinois. 

Late in his life, he had a lucky break and sold his property for a lot of money. and was able to retire in Mexico, in poor health. 

He was an ardent believer in the RLDS church, which also failed. This was typical of America in general. Failure was so pervasive, Americans elected Trump to save them. 

The Washington Post gives his successor, Biden, slight chances of success

The Church in Lamoni

The church is the RLDS church, which spent a lot of time in Lamoni, Iowa, before moving to Independence, Missouri. 

The time in Lamoni has not been documented, which I intend to do here. Why wasn't it documented?

Because the church leader was Joseph Smith III, was averse to that sort of thing. 

We have to start there, late in the 19th Century. With leftovers from the original LDS church in Northern Illinois. They formed their own church and called it the RLDS (Reorganized LDS). 

They needed a religious leader, and after some negotiation, selected Joseph Smith's oldest son, Joseph Smith III, as their leader. These people have since disappeared because they were mainly interested in farming. 

They bought land in Southern Iowa, and built a town there called Lamoni, which still exists. 

JS III, who had moved with them, assumed leadership of the church, and it gained in membership and income. 

 

Faith in the Church

The Church for my family was the RLDS church. Looking back at it, it was remarkable how much faith we had in it. 

This lasted me until I graduated from the U of Illinois, where I was surrounded by nonbelievers. It was obvious to me, that Church was not important, so I dropped out. 

I was the only one in my extended family that did this, except for a cousin's wife who joined the Catholic church. 

The rest still believe, even if they never go there. Every church has this problem: many inactive church members. 

In my family, my brother Steve is still a true believer, and still has faith in the Church. 

He has informed me that he belongs to an informal group inside the church that is involved with its Historical Properties (such as the building in Lamoni). But this building is mostly filled with junk. 

I have suggested he build an online tour of the place, but he is not interested. 

My Father and his Father

Were entirely different people. 

We don't know much about Grandfather and Grandmother Smith's early life except they were poor. When  they heard the Santa Fe Railroad had jobs in Ft. Madison, Iowa, they moved there.

Grandfather jot a job as a Safety Inspector.. When a train came into the yards, he was waiting for it for it with a long-handled hammer. He walked down both sides of the train, tapping on each wheel to hear if it was cracked.

Defective cars were repaired there in a place called Shopton. This employed many people, but the work was so dangerous the Railroad had it's own hospital. 

Then the Railroad Strike of 1922 happened. We cannot imagine now how important this was. It was a War between the Railroads and the Unions where people both sides were killed. 

My father's sister Zera married Walter Sanford, and he moved in with them, while he went to High School. The rest of family moved a farm in Illinois, where Grandfather had a stroke that crippled him.

They moved back to ft. Madison, where Grandmother went to work for the Railroad again. She was always a hard worker, and had a good head for money, something her husband never had.

Dad went the U of Iowa, but dropped out because of the Depression. He joined the Marine Core and was assigned to Haiti, where he learned French, and his French teacher had a daughter his age.

They wrote love letters to each other (in French).

Dad went on to be a small businessman, which made him a higher-class socially. while the rest of his family remained working-class. 

All this was very important at the time, but of no importance now. 

For the World to Work

We have to want it to work, and really want it to work for all of us. 

Is this possible? Probably not. 

Can we do better? Yes. How much better? 

That depends on us.

Can the Computer help us with this? Yes. The right kind of smartwatch, if we all wore it, would do the job. 

 What are the chances of this? 

Zero. 

Our Lack of Understanding

Once again, I am trying to understand what is wrong with our world, and I am coming back to the same word: understanding. 

This is the attitude of our times "I don't know, and I don't wanna know!"

Know what? Anything. 

Just as the floodgates of our knowledge are opening up, something is slamming them down! Telling us "You don't want to go there!"

Being Good to Myself and Good to the Computer

This is my project for today. And I want to show you it is possible. 

That is the new development in the world today - making programming easy, I can't make it perfectly easy but I can come close. 

First it's an attitude, you got to treat your computer right! It's trying help you, you got to help it. 

Congress Was Afraid of The President

The last time this will ever happen, 

Why? Because he knew every one of them personally, 

And they were scared of him. I don't have to tell you who that president was.

How did you guess?

Why are we in Afghanistan?

What do we hope to accomplish there? 

There has been a lot said recently about nearly everything, but little about this. 

"And there is not going to be much said, either," You can say. "Most wars are stupid, and this war is no exception." 

Google Photos

Google Photos stores photos up to 16 megapixels and videos up to 1080p resolution. The service will be free and unlimited until June 1, 2021. The service automatically analyzes photos, identifying various visual features and subjects. Users can search for anything in photos, with the service returning results from three major categories: People, Places, and Things. The computer vision of Google Photos recognizes faces (not only those of humans, but pets as well), grouping similar ones together (this feature is only available in certain countries due to privacy laws); geographic landmarks (such as the Eiffel Tower); and subject matter, including birthdays, buildings, animals, food, and more.

I just found this today, by accident. Most people publish their photos on Facebook because it is so easy. But this lets you computerize them!

The Computer has Made us Stupid

It should not have done this, but it has. and I will explain how it has, using my mother as an example. 

Why my mother? Because she was stupid but domineering. and could easily control my technical father. 

The Computer is the same way, it is stupid but can easily control us. 

I used this combination when I became a Technical Writer, which paid me very well. 

Dogs use this also, they are stupid, but can easily control us. 

This is also used in religious settings: stupid people easily rise to the top and dominate everyone else. 

One of my ancestors was a member of the Royal Family of England

An illegitimate member, of course.

This was hardly surprising since illegitimate children (of all kinds) were common for most of history. If the mother and father had been living together for some time exclusively, parentage was assumed. 

This was the case with Julius Ceasar and Cleopatra, whose children were well known. 

Who was this person in my case? 

Some distant relatives of mine (the Fishers) have researched this and come up with a probable answer. But my closest relatives have kept this information for themselves. 

Love of the Latest

 Not everyone has this passion, but for some it is overwhelming, and they will do anything to get it. 

This what caused the Computer boom of the Nineties. People did not know what the Internet was, but they knew it was the Latest Thring and it would make a more profitable world. They were right. but not for the reasons they anticipated. 

The Internet created a new world they could not understand in the least and would drive them nuts. 

Those that could understand it (such as Google) became very rich. What about the rest. (90 percent of the population?) 

Tuf shit, that's what. 

Poverty of Personality

People can be developed in two ways: economically and morally, And there is a big difference between the two. You agree I am sure. And you put yourself in the second category. 

I disagree. 

I have made serious mistakes most of my life. Other people have made worse mistakes, but that does not excuse mine. 

To err is to be human, and you and I make them frequently. 

Making Globalization Work

This has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while, and I finally took it down to read it. And I now urge you to do the same. 

Joseph E. Stiglitz, the author, knows what he is talking about. Hee has been to every conference on the global economy for quite a while. And has a large Wikipedia article. 

For a shorter introduction, just pick up his book and start reading it, with a marker pen in your hand. 

People could do Wonderful Things

If they want to. But that is a pretty big IF.

Let's give that some thought. And talk of what is, instead of what could be.

What are people really like? Damned if I know. 

But I am certain of one thing: they are not very nice, as a general rule.

They can be nice sometimes, but not consistently. 

People and Change

This is a complicated subject, because people are so complicated. 

Language is an example. It can be simple (as most computer languages are) or it can be so complicated (the Navaho language, for example), that only young children can learn it. 

I am trying to learn the Angular Web Framework, which has its own languages. Each language is simple, but the way they are put together, is very complicated, believe me. 

People are like languages, some of them change frequently (the liberals), but some of them very seldom (the conservatives). 

What I ate today

I did two things today: I ate and I read, and I want to write about those. 

The public food in Orosi is cheap and is tasty. So I take it home and eat it here, where I don't have to wear a face mask.

The first thing I bought was some pastry at a bakery, It was sweet with a layer of ham. They went down easily, with some espresso coffee. 

I next read from the Kindle novel, Finding Dorothy, about the wife of Frank Baum, who was long dead. He was the author of the OZ books. She was on the set where Hollywood was making a movie based on his books.

It's an easy read. 

Was Nauvoo an Improvement over Ft. Madison?

Yes and No. 

It was beautiful compared to Madison. And in that way, it saved my life. And it had 25 cycle electricity. in some places, that we quickly being converted to 60 cycles. A fine concrete highway ran thru the middle of town. 

There were many small businesses, including Mayor Horton's garage. that employed several of the town's alcoholics. There were 3 small grocery stores, and a bank, that knew everyone in town (in 1950) so cashing a check was easy. 

It was a small town with few jobs, where Madison was a big town (15,000) with plenty of jobs. Madison was integrated (I went to grade school with black kids). But Blacks in Nauvo had leave town at sundown. 

The teachers were not much good, but they were kind. If you wanted a good education (as a teacher or a student) you went to Ft, Madison.

Debating has Changed

You should start by reading the article on the Lincoln-Douglas debates on Wikipedia. 

Each debate lasted 3 hours and was published in numerous newspaper articles. The main interest was in slavery. And was soon followed by the Civil War, the worst War ever, up to then. 

Software is Hard

Especially for us old folks, and everyone else. We are not machines, but they are. Which gives them a huge advantage, in some ways, but a disadvantage in other ways. 

We need to know the difference. 

A TV is not a person, but lots of people think it is, and want to be like one themselves: completely artificial. 

My Balance Disorder

I can no longer ride a bicycle. The last time I tried, I fell down, broke my arm, and had to go to the hospital. 

A balance disorder is a disturbance that causes an individual to feel unsteady, for example when standing or walking. It may be accompanied by feelings of giddiness, or wooziness, or having a sensation of movement, spinning, or floating. Balance is the result of several body systems working together: the visual system (eyes), vestibular system (ears), and proprioception (the body's sense of where it is in space). Degeneration or loss of function in any of these systems can lead to balance deficits.

Two days ago, I went shopping, putting my groceries in a two-wheel shopping cart. While I was putting the groceries in the refrigerator, I fell down and could not get up. I did not panic, just laid there on that cold tile floor, for a while. No perment damage was done. 

Ray bought me a folding cane, a clever thing that helps me keep my balance. 

I might buy a Trike, a three-wheel bicycle, but they cost $400., and will have to be assembled. 

Mostly Mental

This is what the Pandemic has done to us. It has messed up our minds. 

It has messed up our bodies also, but it seems to me, our minds are worse off.

At least mine is. 

I have been desperately trying to act normal, or at least find out what the New Normal is. 

I buy a lot online and many of my orders are messed up too. 

Even Amazon has lost its mind, and the harder they try, the worse they get.

The Ambiguous Life

 What is the best life? 

At one time, we used to give some serious thought to this, and then acted on what was thought best. 

This is no longer our strategy, and I am not sure what our strategy is. But is more short-range in time and distance. And amounts to many strategies in many places. 

The Importance of Intelligence

This was brought home to me when my brother lost consciousness and his wife did not know what was wrong with him - and didn't want to know, because thinking was too hard for her. 

When We compare Ourselves to Computers

We cannot help feeling inferior. They can do so much, and do it so well! 

Ourselves, being living beings, are plagued with parasites who want everything we have. We have to scramble to stay alive. 

In fact, this what makes us valuable: we are alive, something unusual in the Universe! And we need to appreciate that. 

All too often, we do not. And consider it a handicap instead. 

Experts at Explaining Nothing

My brother has something wrong with him, but my family cannot tell me what it is. The last I heard, they were going to drill two holes in his head, one on each side to relieve the pressure buildup, because he could not talk. 

The next day, when I was eagerly waiting for the latest news, they had changed the subject, without being aware of this. 

Meanwhile, I am watching a free programming course, where everything is being carefully explained. 

Two kinds of people are at work here, one can explain, and one cannot. 

My Balance Disorder

When this acts up, I end up on the ground. Or, as in the case yesterday, on the tile floor of my kitchen. Unable to get up. 

So I just laid there until I could get up. Realizing I would have to see my neurologist again. 

Old age (84) is no fun. 

Do I Like the Computer?

I keep trying, but it's not an easy thing to like. 

It is trying, but I'm not an easy person for computers to like. 

As a way out of this, I am asking myself how I got interested in Computers in the first place. Was this my fault, or its fault? Or neither one? 

Back in the Fifties, I became an Electronics Engineer (U of Illinois, 1959). which meant I became an expert on vacuum tubes. These were just what their name implied: glass tubes with a vacuum inside them. That allowed electrons to flow through them. Hence the name: Electronics.

Electrons could move fast, making them high-speed devices, suitable for controlling Radio waves. And Radar was born. It would fire short bursts of radio waves and then wait for a reply. The time for a reply indicated how far away the target (an airplane) was. 

Very useful, and they were rapidly improved, and I had a lucrative career in the Cold War. 

We are Animals

Who are in danger of becoming extinct (as the result of our own actions) as many other animals have. 

Mormonism was Crazy

And still is. 

Many of you will ask "Is this a problem?" And to be truthful with you, I am not sure. 

A certain degree of insanity, in some cases, maybe beneficial.

What are these cases?

Mormons can point to their history when their leader was killed by an angry mob. "Not good." they will say. And we will have to agree. 

They can also say "This was crazy," and we would have to agree. They could also say "He was replaced by Brigham Young, a more capable leader." True enough. 

At this point, my mother would be screaming her head off "But he was a bad man, and should have been killed!"

If she had lived 100 years earlier, she could have been part of the mob. 

Wet Wipes

 These are Clorox Disinfecting Wipes.

They will make your anal area smart - but clean. 

How the Church Tried to Destroy Me

The Church I grew up in was the RLDS, which was not considered such a bad church. But it was bad for me. How was this? 

The reason was common enough: it was Sex. The combination of Religion and Sex is especially potent. 

This was especially true for the founder of Mormonism: Joseph Smith. who believed in Polygamy. His LDS church abandoned this belief when they became a respectable part of the USA, later in the 19th Century.

The founder of the RLDS church, Joseph Smith III, had three wives - but only one at a time, for a total of 15 children. He was just as sex-crazy as his father but managed to look respectable. 

They did not believe in Dancing but had many bizarre activities in Central America. 

The Human Reproductive System

This complicated system is entirely contained in young women. From whom we all were all born. Kicking and screaming. And headed straight for the breast. 

Accidents happen in this system, especially in first pregnancies, and they are called miscarriages.

 Some women cannot have children, so they adopt them and are happy with them (usually). 

What Mormonism can tell Us

Mormonism was founded by Joseph Smith in 1920 after he had written (and published) the Book of Mormon.

He wrote it to make money, but could not sell it. Some of his followers (he always had plenty of those) took it to Industrial England, where the workers there took an immediate fancy to it. And proclaimed the writer a Prophet of God. 

England had a literary establishment, who had no interest in the Book of Mormon. But it also had many industrial workers, who could barely read but could understand the book's simple messages. And they needed a Prophet. 

They boarded a steamboat (that had just been invented) and become more of Smith's followers. They also had a message, "You are a Prophet!" And a Prophet he became. This was a powerful idea and caused his death in 1844. 

It is worth examining just what this idea was. It made its believers important, and they were willing to die for it. It made its believer's religious fanatics. It created a new religion: Mormonism, or Latter-Day Saints (LDS). 

After Smith's death, another Prophet, Brigham Young, led them across the Rocky Mountains, in the longest religious journey in history. 

And it sees no sign of weakening. 

Construction and Destruction

These are the two most basic human attitudes. They are easy to detect and have profound effects. 

What more need I say about them?  Except most peesople are not interested in them!

If humans die, as a species, this will be a slow process, and not one people alive nowwill have to warch.

There are plenty of other endings that might happen quickly (if our planet gets hit by another planet, for example) but we are not worried about these either. 

We are only worried about events that might happen soon, if not right now. 

If we are hurting now, we want this fixed, right now! 

And we assume our doctors can do this for us - whether they can or not. 

ASUS, Amazon, and Me

I'm on the bottom of this Totem Pole. 

I got a new ASUS laptop from Amazon, that does not work at all. I was pissed, to say the least, but decided to pass the problem along to Amazon, who has a procedure for doing this. 

You go to your Orders in Amazon, where it has a spot for you to report your problems. This reporting process is not as easy as it should be, but I got the job done. 

Now I am waiting, trying not to get too frustrated. 

Doctors don't always Know What's Wrong with You

I was lucky, I got my Appendix operated on. If I had been born a few years earlier I would have died of its inflammation and rupture, because I was one sick kid. 

The house I am living in now was bought by an American family who operated a vegetarian restaurant here, with the husband cooking the cuisine of different countries each day of the week. 

Then he got sick and the local doctor (who had been trained in the States) did not know what was wrong with him, so he sent him to the regional hospital. 

They didn't know either, but they operated on him anyway, and he seemed to be getting better. Then he got sick again and died. 

Down here, you can't just be put in a box and buried. A funeral ceremony has to be performed, and they are expensive (about $1000). 

The rest of the family (the wife and two daughters) went back to the States. 

The Revolution of the Car

This was the revolution of my Father's time. 

It was made possible by two additional inventions: the internal-combustion engine, and the pneumatic tire. It could navigate steep curves easily. And was enlarged to become the Truck and the Bus. 

In early America, the biggest obstacle to the way West was the Allegany Mountains. At first, this was thought to be the Potomac River, and a canal was built alongside it. One of its investors was George Washington. 

Bur the way became too steep for it to continue. This convinced George that surveying was necessary, and he became a surveyor himself. 

The Jeep became popular during the War, and shortly after it. My father bought the first Civilian Jeep and it got a lot of use. 

I wish I had a photo of it 

Industriallzation produced a Prophet of God

How this happened we do not know, but it did happen. And the result was the several varieties of Mormonism, beginning with Joseph Smith and his LDS church. 

This connection is not recognized by the Mormons themselves, who prefer miraculous explanations. 

This, however, led to Smith's death at the hands of a mob. 

Our Dislike of Other People

This is one of our strongest urges, but it is almost unknown to us. Because we know we should not have it. 

Most people never feel it, and don't want to feel it. 

I am reading the hook The Precipice, written by the British intellectual, Toby Ord. Should I recommend it to you?

I recommend you read How close is Humanity to the Edge? first. 

Brits and Americans are different, and this will help you understand the difference.

If we Do Not Exist, We have No Problems

This is not true, but most of us think it is. Most of us. 

And there is not a damn thing we can do about it. 

I am sitting behind my laptop, which is telling me (and billions of other people) the same thing. 

But no one is listening.

The Urban Slum

This has become a common component of today's cities. Certainly, in our large cities, and more and more in our smaller cities. Such as the West End of my hometown of Ft. Madison, Iowa. 

President Obama was an example. As soon as he graduated from Harvard, he went straight to Chicago's slums, as a Community Organizer. 

He met a representative of the Banks, who offered to finance his run for the Presidency if he would reduce Bank regulations. This he did and caused the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008. 

The Savior of the Urban Slums ended up in the White House. 

The best way tu be Smart is to Hate People

This is not true, but most people think it is. Why?

This short question requires a long answer. But a shorter answer would be that most people have become unable to tell the difference between the truth and a lie. Note that I said most people. 

In my family, we have a family church: the RLDS church. That our parents worshiped. Not the people in it, but the church itself. 

The young people in the church are not too fond of it. Which their parents cannot understand. 

Defective, Dysfunctional, and Similar States

Defective certainly applies to my latest Laptop, which I got from Amazon. 

You can see it here. 

I went thru the proper turn-on procedure, but it will not turn on. 

I want to take a sled-hammer to it, but I don't have one. 

I keep telling myself "Don't get too upset,  these things happen!"

What does it Take to make Something Smart?

First of all, it has to be computerized. Which means much of its functioning must be caused by the computers inside it. I was looking at the sparrows this morning, each one of which is far more intelligent, but they can not be considered smart.

The first time I was aware of this was when the Smartphone was invented. The first Phones used cellular technology and were correctly called Cell Phones. Each cell was an area covered by an antenna tower, which provided a radio coverage of about 50 miles in radius. 

Soon these were springing up all over the place since many of them were necessary to provide wide coverage. The other side of this technology was a little hand-held device that you could talk and listen to. A little computer with a touch interface instead of a mouse, and a radio transmitter and receiver. It also included a digital camera. This was such an amazing combination, most people did not know what they were using. They just used it, without thinking about it. 

This combination was a network, with all of its advantages. Everybody had to be on it, to talk to everybody else. 

It had many computers: including a master computer that told each tower which device to talk to. 

Then Apple invented the iPhone, which connected their Phone network to the Internet. Immediately every Phone network did the same, and the Smartphone was invented! 

If you review the progress of this invention (which consists of many parts), you cannot help but be amazed. It should have made us smarter also. 

But this does not seem to be the case. 

Between Friends

This book is about life in the Kibbutzen in the Fifties.

I got the Kindle version, and I can recommend it if you are interested in People, which most people are not. 

F#

This interests me. 

It's from Microsoft and uses the .NET library, but I can use it easily on my Chromebook laptop. Google and Microsoft are powerful competitors but can also cooperate easily. It's refreshing to see this in action. 

Microsoft also provides excellent documentation, that even I (with my feeble old mind) can understand. 

I will not say more, because you can easily read it for yourself. 

Pepsi Once Owned the World’s 6th Largest Military Fleet

 Better Marketing

17 Soviet submarines and 3 battleships

You know your economy isn’t doing well when you’re trading battleships for soda cans.

When People are Nothing, Nothing can be Done

And this is just fine for most people. 

At one time, before we changed, this was fine. We had everything we needed. But then we changed, we became Human and could talk to each other. 

This simple invention: Language, has never been repeated. We are the only species in the universe that has it. 

"So what?" You may say.

We have to live with Language (including Computer languages), that's what.

And we can use it to lie, very easily.

The Origins of Totaltarianism

This book, by Hannah Arendt, is a masterpiece. One can hardly believe that English was her second language, and America was her second country. 

Equally, it is obvious that she was Jewish, and smart. 

I have another Arendt book The Hannah Arendt Reader, which has a critical review of Origins, which I can recommend.

It's easier to read than she is.

Disapproval of Yourself

This is a common problem almost everywhere. And is one of the common (but unknown) problems of our time. It certainly is one of mine. 

This mental deficiency actually causes you to have the problem you would rather not have. 

From the Industrial Revolution to the Information Economy

My hometown of Ft. Madison, Iowa is a good example of a town that did not make this transition satisfactorily. It became part of the Rust Belt instead. 

The critical event for my Fathef's generation was WWII. Or, to expand my time scale, WWI, followed by the Depression, followed by WWII. The first half of the 20th Century. 

My generation was given the last half of that century, and I must say we made a mess of it. 

This is strange, because we also invented the Computer to manage all the Data involved in our growing economy. But that did not make us like each other better. 

This problem may be solving itself by using apps such as Microsoft Teams to help us work together. But I must emphsize the may in that sentence. 

Americans who Moved to Costa Rica and then Moved Back

This is the usual situation. They can't stand the US, but then they find they cannot live without it. But some stay with no problem. 

I would like to analyze this, but I don't have enough data (or expertise) to do it. 

I did visit my cousin, who lives in Northern Virginia, and found the situation there is too unusual to draw any conclusions from. 

I can only notice that most Americans have made it very hard for anyone to understand them. 

Angular

Angular is Software, written by Google, who also has written software to explain it, that you can find at angular.io. 

I find this attractive, but you will probably be offended by it. You can easily find out which camp you are in, by trying it out. 

If you can stand it, you will quickly understand many modern software practices. 

Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem"

New Yorker 

What everyone remembers is her statement after watching too much of this show trial: 

The Banality of Evil. 

You have Something they Want

And want badly: your attention. We live in an Attention Economy, and their Computers can tell easily enough if you are paying attention to them, or something else.

We now live a world divided into People who understand Computers (20 %) and those who do not (80 %) and this is a conservative estimate. 

They can not ony tell how smart you are, they can tell who you are. You have a number, and they know what that number is. 

Not too long ago, the world wanted dumb consumers, because they would buy anything. The world is smarter now, and it wants smart people, because they can make money for them. 

Yes, you read that right - smart people make money, and a lot of it. 

Wanting to Be Wonderful

As I was waking up, I gave this some hard thought. I suspect this is not the best of intentions, but where does it go wrong?

What do I mean by being wonderful? Is a celebrity wonderful, by definition? If she loses this, what does she (or he) lose? 

She loses their admiration, which is quite a lot. But is that everything? Yes and No, because you never get something for nothing. If she gets their admiration, what does she pay for that? How does that limit her? 

Let's take a common example: sex. A celebrity confers her approval by consenting to be viewed. This is not sex but is possibly its beginnings. Once I was walking up a street in Bali, watching a woman keeping her little son from walking out in the street. by rotating her breast to attract his attention. It was working, but when she saw I was noticing it too, she froze. She did not want to attract me sexually. 

Or consider me, on the other side of the world, in my role as an Electronics Engineer. Women there evaluate my position (and me) by different standards. 

To evaluate the worth of any situation, you have to consider what you pay for it. 

I have become Depressed

And I know why: the Computer world has become too complicated for me to understand it. I just got the book Eloquent Javascript and it says much the same thing. 

I have reviewed the history of this industry for the past 30 years, and am convinced I am right. 

To see what I mean, look at Borland in Wikipedia. I was at the bottom of this totem pole, but I knew something strange was going on above me. 

It makes me wish I has an honest record of employment I could refer to. 

The Computer and Us

For most of us, the Computer has had little effect - we think. Or more accurately, we are determined to think. 

When, in fact, it has changed our world (and us) completely. To which you may reply "But not fundamentally, we are still what we always have been." 

I won't argue with you, but note (to myself) that you are wrong, and wrong about an important subject. 

Back in the Fifties, when I was in High School, I was going to become a Scientist. I became an Electronics Engineer instead. I became an expert in Vacuum Tubes, which were just that: glass tubes with a vacuum in them thru which electrons could flow freely. Control Elements in them could control the flow of these electrons. Hence the name: Electronics. 

Vacuum Tubes were made in all sizes. The display of a TV was a tube with a flat face. The largest of these was 5 feet in diameter and was dangerous to handle because they could implode explosively. They were the output display of Radars, at which I became an expert. This was during the Cold War, which made a lot of money for me. 

The Computer was made of semiconductors, mainly Silicon. Hence Silicon Valley, where I worked in the Nineties. Where the emphasis was on Software. 

And people-oriented, because only people can make Software. 

Software is a New World

And for that reason, unexplored by most people. It's too strange. 

They are not aware of this, but in my opinion, this is their basic motivation. 

This morning, for example, I decided to learn some more software. Immediately I had a problem: whar Software should I learn more about? There is a lot of software out there, each waving a flag, saying "Learn me!" Any of which would be useful in advancing my career, if I was still working. 

But I am not (I am 83 years old, living in Costa Rica). I can learn anything I want. I decided on Angular, which is up to version 10 now. I have my choice of IDEs. I am tempted to try some new ones by Amexio, but decided to go with the AngularIDE by CodeMix. It's a long download, and it's not working.

Meanwhile, I am cooking pasta with pesto. 

But notifications keep showing up on my laptop, telling me how this or that app would make my life so much better. Maybe or maybe not. 

I have to live in a world that wants to make me better, by encouraging me to venture into this New World. 

How Trump Lost

 New York Review

If he'd governed as he ran in 2016, as an economic populist, he would likely have been re-elected. Instead, he reverted to the Republican playbook. 

This was written by a professor of Political Science, who takes people as they are, not as they should be. 

The Computer and its Teachers

It's amazing how many teachers have shown up. On their own and with organizations, such as Coursera. 

One has to assume that students have shown up as well. Things have changed, at least in the Computer world, where people are teaching and learning on their own. 

Even I am doing this, in my blog, one of the millions out there. 

The world has been divided into Computer people and all the rest. What will the future be for all of us, with Computers getting smarter all the time? And people getting dumber? 

The Gap will continue to widen, but a different Gap. Between those who control our Computers, and those who do not. This is something that has never happened before, and we cannot predict what will happen. 

Civilization

We know when this happened, where it happened, and how it happened. With the use of Clay, that could be used for making houses and walls, and even writing. 

It was then forgotten. 

It was rediscovered by interpreting its writing on brick tablets. Brick was Clay that had been baked, to turn it into a ceramic that would last forever. There was so much of this, they were used by the British as Railroad ballast. 

But it was not interesting at first, because it was boring: long lists of Temple offerings. Gradually, it became more interesting, because novels were written. Some of the characters in these novels were Temple Prostitutes, which may never have existed, but made for a good story.  

But the favorite story was that of a relationship between two men. And believe me, it was interesting because one man was turned from an animal into a man (with the help of a woman). Which seemed reasonable, to the readers of the time - who were determined to be entertained. 

Sex is not Love

There is nothing wrong with sex, it's a pleasurable body function that produces babies, but it is not loving. 

"No problem," you may say, "Just take the Pill (or get a vasectomy) and forget about the babies." I ought to know, I got a vasectomy myself, and it was the smartest decision Beth and I ever made. 

Then why is so much sex going on in the Workplace? Because this makes the Workplace more valuable. 

The Workplace, not the People in it, who are miserable, but unaware of this. 

Control in the Computer World

I am feeling nutty this morning. And I know who to blame: the Computer. 

Computer technology is advancing at a rapid pace - faster than most of us can keep up with it. And this is driving us nuts. Not all of us, but most of us (maybe 99%). 

But we do not know this. In fact, we are confident that we have everything under control. When nearly everything is out of control. 

We have unbelievable control over the Computer, but little control over anything else. 

Oculus Virtual Reality

I bought the Oculus Rift S, and a high-end Windows laptop to go with it. Both of them ended up in the Trash. Close to a thousand bucks gone. 

Now there is the Oculus Quest, with lots of accessories you can buy to go with it. 

Facebook, which owns the company, now owns another sure thing. But I think I can pass this time.

High Tech but Low Sociability

This is what I experienced in Silicon Valley, and I did not like it. I worked for many startups that destroyed themselves, and could see nothing wrong with that.  

I now live in Costa Rica, which is more sociable and less technical, but is also devasted by the coronavirus. 

The most important thing to consider, anywhere in the world, is the virus. I have a special mask for protection that Amazon flew to Miami and Aeropost flew to Cartago, Costa Rica. It had better work, or I, at 83 years old, am dead. 

America and the Computer

The American Government we have now was designed in 1789 by the American Constitution, and now most countries have one. 

A lot has changed since then (to say the least) but our Governments have not changed much. 

The biggest change in the world was the Computer, which has completely changed our Global Economy, and who we are. 

The Computer is about Information and is capable of containing all the information about America, the country who made it, and its networks  (such as the Internet). 

But we have not updated our Government to take advantage of the Computer. This could easily contain a  Database containing all the information for all of its citizens. 

The part of the Database containing information for each citizen would be duplicated in a smartphone app owned by each citizen and copied by each computer he owns. 

When messages are sent between the National Computer and Personal Computers, they would be encrypted, so no one else can understand them. Voting could be done this way also.

This would bring us up to the 21st Century.

I was Mentally Defective

And I still am, but not as much.

How do I know this? Because I can compare my behavior now with what it used to be. And I can see I am smarter than I used to be. Not a lot smarter, but smarter. 

How the Coronavirus Hacks the Immune System

New Yorker 

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.

Myself, I have wondered why we didn't know more about the latest virus to bother us. But this article showed me we already did. Believe me, after you read it (which will take some time) you will too. 

And like these expert immunologists, you will wonder how we ever made it.  

Power Struggles are part of the Human Condition

How can I explain this? It's only natural. We are careful to not offend other people - especially authority figures, such as our parents. and many people want to occupy these positions of power. 

Ar the same time, we must develop our own personalities and skills. Which authority figures do not want. They want to be in power. 

Every one of us most must find his position in society. Which for some is simple - they do not have much. 

They Hate all Computer Things

They consider all of them the same, and all equally bad. This is stupid as it can be, but this seems to appeal to them. 

I am reading about the PowerShell (the most esoteric thing you can imagine) but it appeals to something unusual in my mind. 

They want something usual, I want something unusual. And the two will never meet. 

Pricilla Chan and Facebook

Chan functions as Facebook's protection agency, and is a very effective one at that. She gives away most of the company's huge income. 

Her husband, Zuckerman, can do whatever he likes, with complete immunity. 

Look her up on Wikipedia. 

Hatred of the World we Live In

We live in a bad world and we know it - unconsciously. But this knowledge stays down there, and only affects us indirectly, causing us to destroy it in a number of ways. 

We won't do good things because this would make this bad world last longer. 

We do bad things, and justify them in a tremendous number of ways. 

Many Americans come to Costa Rica, hoping to build a better life for themselves. But they leave after a few years. Why? Because they cannot resist the battleground of American Life. Where America is being destroyed by Americans. 

This would make a good title for this talk: The Battleground of American Life. Most Americans love it, and cannot live without it. 

What do We think of People?

The First Industrial Revolution caused us to value machines over people. Several Revolutions later (after the Computer Revolution) we are beginning to value us - but only beginning. 

We have to recognize that we have an ambivalent attitude toward ourselves. Sometimes we like ourselves, sometimes we do not. And we have to remain aware of this. 

I hardly need to tell you, for most of this us this seldom happens. We are unaware, and will stay that way. 

Our technology (often referred to as Tech) also telling us this. We are making some amazing stuff. But much of it is weaponry.

The Oculus Rift S

This is a Virtual Reality (VR), Viewer

A complicated thing that straps on your head, and puts a miniature TV in front of your eyes. 

It comes with a miniature instruction book full of warnings about its dangers. 

The main danger I can see, is that it does not work. You need a personal instructor for you and only you and your thing. 

Map Making as a Peace Process

In large parts of the world. fighting is going on with few people knowing what they are fighting over. 

Someone should step in and make a map of what they are fighting over. And keep making maps as long as they show what is going on, who is fighting who. 

This could be supplemented by furnishing the combatants with phones so they can talk to each other easily (and we could listen to these conversations easily). This would not be cheap, but would be less expensive than war. 

The Difference between a Friend and Helper

 A helper is someone who helps you when you need them. We could not get along without them. 

They will put you in an ambulance and take you to a hospital. Where professional helpers will know what to do with you. 

A friend is someone who likes you, regardless of your other qualities - like your dog. 

Ray is my helper, and takes me in his car once a week to Cartago, where I can get my packages that are flown in from Miami, that was shipped from Amazon. 

He can speak Spanish, which is a big help. And provides two Internet connections to our house.

The Return of Great-Power War

Foreign Affairs

Since the closing days of the Cold War, U.S. policymakers, pundits, international relations scholars, and policy analysts have argued that great-power war is a relic of a bygone age. In 1986, the historian John Lewis Gaddis termed the post–World War II era a “Long Peace” because the Soviet Union and the United States had not come to blows. A few years later, the political scientist John Mueller suggested that changing norms had made great-power conflict obsolete. By 2011, the psychologist Steven Pinker was arguing that the Long Peace had morphed into a “New Peace,” marked by a generalized decrease of violence in human affairs. 

Team Work

I have been trying to interest my family in Microsoft Teams. Bur religious people that they are, they are not interested. Teamwork does not apply to Religion. Why?

Because Religion is hierarchical, with its important people and unimportant people. Group decisions cannot be made there. They know they should be able to do make decisions demographically. but they also know they cannot and should not. 

In fact, this applies to most social situations. Equality does not apply there, instead inequality. usually vast inequality. And this is what people feel comfortable with. 

Making Other People do things for You

This is what is behind Business, and in our time, Startups. 

The simplest way of doing this was slavery, the system that ran the ancient world. And much later, the plantation world. This is now considered morally reprehensible because it does not allow the Individual to develop fully. 

Doing this now is difficult. because people have to be convinced that joining you would be to their advantage. They are not going to give away their power easily. 

In some cases, people arrive in power accidentally,  and manage to perpetuate their power, as dictators. This may or may not last. 

People have Problems

This is a huge understatement, but one we ignore with all our strength. 

We look around us and see nothing but people, how can we be a failure? 

Indeed, if there were fewer of us, we would be more successful. We pour gasoline into our cars, which pump out all kinds of nasties. But we say "This is not a problem!"

Splenda and Stevia

Are both artificial sweeteners. They are now packaged together, in little packets

I add them to my espresso coffee. And sometimes, to make it extra tasty, I add a little Irish Cream.

If you treat People badly, What will they do to You?

They will love it, and ask for more. Not always, but usually.

A good example of this was Mormonism. Its leader, Joseph Smith, exploited his followers endlessly. When he was killed by a furious mab, he was replaced by Brigham Young, who worked his people even harder, and was more successful. 

In our time, people are abused in their Office, and they can see nothing wrong with that. 

Our values have become reversed, and we have not noticed this. 

This probably was caused by the Industrial Revolution, a big deal that was followed by another big deal: the Computer. 

Dr. John at the U of Missoui

Doctor John, as he was universally referred to, was John G. Neihardt a man of many talents, including erotic ones (he had a beautiful, talented wife), and taught at the U of Missouri.

I attended that institution in the Sixties and fell under his spell. And I recently downloaded some of his writings, including Audible books.

He would teach during the winter, but move to an Indian reservation in the summer, where his girls would ride horses with the Indian boys. Girls have strong thighs, and they can grip a bareback horse tightly.

l was here he met Black Elk, an Indian Medicine man, who did not speak English or cut his hair. He would tell Nheeihardt the story of his life, speaking thru an interpreter, and then Neihadt, back in his cabin, would type up what he remembered. 

It became his best-seller and is still being sold today. 

Most People pay no attention to Their Mouths

They just chew their food a couple of times and swallow it without tasting it. 

Very efficient. But not good for their body. 

They only use their mouth for talking, for telling other people what to do, right now. 

The Trouble with Smart Things

The move from a phone to a smartphone was natural, we just added the Internet, and most folks never noticed the difference. Calling next door or across the world, what's the difference?

But using your watch to check your pulse rate? Not so exciting. Whatever it is, it's got to be exciting and it's got to be simple, no matter what happens in the background. 

That''s the whole point of progress, to make everything seem simple, whether it is or not. 

If it's complicated (as most things are) todays people will not notice it. Most of what's going on will not be noticed. 

Microsoft Identity Management

I have two new Microsoft laptops, and neither of them works. Because they are stuck at the place where it asks for my identity. 

My little Chromebook, right next to it, is working fine. 

Does this tell you something?

Most People are going to be Left Behind

Take a look at this course listing for Coursera: Coursera Link. 

It's enough to keep anyone busy for a while. But most people will not even try. 

Even a sniff of so much learning makes them nervous. seseser

Microsoft and Google Passwords

Both of these companies want you in bed with them.

Which is totally confusing to most Computer users, who have no idea where they are. 

One of these users is me, who has Google laptops (Chromebooks) and Microsoft laptops (Windows 10). 

They both use the same ID (my email address) but different passwords. 

This is not right, they want me to be smarter than I am. 

Sorry guys, this problem is yours, not mine. 

How the Computer has Affected Us

 It has made us more like it. It has no objection to learning more. when we often reach a limit. 

Altho this has been strongly resisted, since we feel the computer is a foreign power. 

I will make this personal -  how has the computer affected me? 

This is an easier question to answer -  it changed my source of income. The economy I live in. 

I graduated as an Electronic Engineer from the U of Illinois in 1959. Which meant I knew a lot about Vacuum Tubes. 

I am sitting now in front of my laptop, which does not have a single tube in it. But is connected, via the Internet, to billions of other computers, mainly smartphones. 

Has my life changed? So much so, I can hardly recognize myself. I keep asking "What am I?" But getting no clear answer. 

Because much of me, has become mixed up with the Computer. 

I now have to ask myself "How did this happen?" and "What happened?" 

Computers can drive Us Crazy

Ar least they can me. Maybe I take them too seriously and expect them to work right.

Which they often do not. 

My solution? I add them to the trash. 

Religious means Crazy

I come from a religious family, so I know what I am talking about. 

I just went thru an email discussion with a cousin of mine, and I was shocked to find she had distorted it to fit her religious needs. 

Our family belonged to the RLDS church, the second-largest Mormon church. It has since become the Community of Christ church, which involved a number of changes. 

It decided it needed a Temple, and built a strange-looking one. And then found they had no use for it.

In the past, this problem would have been resolved by the Church's Prophet - who would have asked God for an answer. Which would have been written down, and added to the Church's sacred literature.

But this time, it decided to ask the Church members for an answer. They had none. 

Microsoft Teams

 Wikipedia

Microsoft Teams is a proprietary business communication platform developed by Microsoft, as part of the Microsoft 365 family of products. Teams primarily competes with the similar service Slack, offering workspace chat and videoconferencing, file storage, and application integration.^[7] Teams is replacing other Microsoft-operated business messaging and collaboration platforms, including Skype for Business and Microsoft Classroom.

Scan thru this article and see what you can get here.

Getting Stuff Down Here from Up There

I have spent most of the morning doing this. Working with Amazon, Gmail, and Aeropost. 

Amazon is the worst, it has passwords all over the place, and doesn't seem to mind making life hard for you.

A Mission for the Temple

This is part of the decline of the RLDS church. Which had a huge effect on church members, altho they were usually not aware of it. 

I had a cousin, Florence, who was an example of this. As the RLDS church became the Community of Christ church, they erected a Temple that was a round, spiral structure. It did not look like Temple to most people. Then they realized something even more shocking: they had no use for this building.

So they set up a committee, to find a Mission for the Temple. I attended a branch of the Church in Washinton, DC, when this we being done. We stood in a circle, holding hands, while we waited for an answer. It felt good, but no answer came. 

The House I was born in was a Wedding Present

I just now realized this, and I am 83 years old.  

I was born in 1936, during the depths of the Depression. People kept having babies, whether they could afford them or not.

I was born in Ft. Madison, Iowa, a Railroad town, that had plenty of cheap housing for its workers. My father's mother owned one of these houses that she allowed my parents to live in for free. 

The last time I was in Ft. Madison (for a family reunion) a cousin of mine took us on a tour of the West End, where we had lived. The little house I was born in was gone, torn down for its timber. 

The USA wants Control of rhe Whole World

This causes a problem because China wants the same thing. And it has plenty of American Money to do this. 

The US could be reasonable, and decide there were some parts of the world (such as Afghanistan) it did not want. But reasonableness is not part of the Globalization game. It wants everything or nothing. 

And it will kill to get it. 

Has the Computer made People Stupid?

People have become stupid, in politics, and Computers might be one reason for this. 

One reason is the Internet, which has made a global economy possible. This is a good thing for business, but not so good for people, as individuals. Who have been turned into Consumers, with little power of thought. They have become Stupid. 

To put this another way: People, with their limited brainpower, are forced to compete with Computers, with their powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

This has become worse with the advent of the Computer Cloud, which has made Computer services cheaper than ever. 

This would not be a problem if people understood this. But usually, they do not, and do not want to. The Global Economy has given them a lot, and they don't want that taken away. 

This reasoning is unconscious but powerful. 

How Kevin Van Ausdal lost everything while Running for Congress

Washington Post 

The craziest things are happening in Georgia, and this is the latest one. 

I found this entertaining, which means you will not be interested in it. 

The Times calls it "The 31-day campaign against QAnon." The reporting is excellent. 

The Fall of the RLDS Church

But first I must explain the Rise of this church, which happened because of the death of its founder Joseph Smith in 1844, who wrote the Book of Mormon. 

When he died, there were so many bullets in his corpse, they could hardly pick him up to put him in his coffin, to carry him back to Nauvoo, Illinois. 

His wife, Emma, did not explain to her little boys what had been the cause of his death. And the oldest one, Joseph Smith III, assumed all his life that his father was innocent of all wrongs, which was hardly true. 

Emma did not follow Brigham Young to Utah, but remained in Nauvoo, with her sons. 

Meanwhile, another church had been forming in Northern Illiinois of LDS members, who called themselves RLDS. They needed a Religious leader and Joseph Smith III joined them, in this capacity, but remained in Nauvoo, with his family, for a while. 

But the Church insisted that he move to join them, in Plano, Illinois. 

The RLDS then bought land in Southern Iowa, and built a town on it, they called Lamoni. 

JS III then concentred (successfully) on making Lamoni his town. And on making the RLDS church his church. What happened to the original RLDS members I do not know. 

He moved the Church to Independence, Missouri, started a building program, and died there.   

Later in the 20th Century, many changes happened, and the Church became the Community of Christ church. 

These changes were complicated and I cannot say much about them, except the RLDS church was no more. 

A Windows laptop, made for Latin America

Where it is sold should make no difference, but I am here to tell you - it sure does. 

I bought it at a Walmart in Costa Rica, but its software is broken beyond repair, right out of the box. 

Anything made Up North always asks you if everything is working all right, during an install. 

This thing does not. It could be easily fixed, but this would mean recognition of a class of people, that as far as Microsoft is concerned, does not exist. 

A Less Apocalyptic Case for Latin America

 Americas Quarterly

Gee, I hate to sound optimistic, but I can urge you to read this. 

I live in tiny Costa Rica, but it is part of Latin America, and shares many of its problems - and those of the US as well. 

Many Americans move here, in search of a better life. But after a few years they go back. America's problems are their problems, and they cannot live without them. 

A miscarrage in a hotel room

 I got this from the book What Longfellow Heard. 

He need not tell us, he is a young man in love, traveling on the Contenant with his young wife, who has jusr found she is pregnant. This was before electricity and their room was dark. 

A miscarraige on a first prenancy is not uncommon, but they do not know that. She thought she was dying, and made quite a racket. Enough to waken rhe whole hotel, which sent a doctor to their room. 

This is only part of the story, which I urge you to read for yourself.

People are not good for People, or for the rest of the World

And this situation is getting worse as our population increases. 

If asked about this, people will say "Maybe so, but I don't want to think about it." They are being irrresponsible, and pretending they are not important to the way the earth is developing. 

How is it developing? Not so good, but with one exception, the Computer, which seems to be doing fine. 

This bothers people, how can it be doing fine, when people are not? I want to examine this question. 

This is part of a larger problem: how can our technologies (or Tech) improve, when we are not? 

You may say "Because we are animals, and they are not. We have to take time off to reproduce and develop, Once they are built (by us) rhey just run, as we tell them to do." They do not have to think, which causes us lots of problems. 

But for Human Life to happen, we have to think - I think. If we stop thinking, we end up making some huge mistakes. As we have done many times in the past. 

"But we have recovered many times," you will say. But it is not obvious now, how we can, when much of the world is under water. 

Trade Agreements

 Living in Costa Rica, as I do, but shopping at Amazon and Walmart, I get hit by this every day. 

I have a workaround in the form of Aerupost, a company that owns a building in Miami that is a warehouse, where American companies can ship their goods. It then flies them all over the world, pays import duties, and delivers them to their customers. 

The Rich and Powerful in every country get together periodically and decide how much to tax everyone else. If they tax rhen too much, ihis is bad for their retail businesses that they also own. 

To bring Women's clothing from the US into Costa Rica, for example, you double the price. This is good for anyone with a sewing machine in Costa Rica, who can copy the latest fashions. 

Marielos (who I used to live with) could do this, and employed two women full-time, copying clothing from her pattern book.  Her company lived on the edge of the law: as long as it was small, the Big Guys did not bother her. 

Nonspecific Terror

 I have had a variety of mental problems, and this has been one of the worst. I knew something was wrong, and badly wrong, bur I didn't know what it was. It didn't just feel mental, but also physical.  

Our modern lifestyle has something to do with it. We are demanding too much of our bodies and minds, and they get badly out of kilter. 

Like many other people, I have been attracted to the Computer and its Software. And I have written about this a lot. This began in the Eighties and Nineties, and with the arrival of the Internet, it went crazy, and produced a boom, and then a bust. 

It is now beginning to settle down, and become more humane, but this has taken awhile (about forty years, in fact). And meanwhile, most people have become completely confused and irresponsible. 

We should be screaming "All this is too much!" But we have gone crazy instead, and are incapable of realizing this craziness. How could we understand something that has never happened to us before? 

We can criticize Trump easily enough, but not the people who elected him (most of the nation). This would be a big job, one that we do not want to tackle. 

The Military and Medicine

These have always been strange bedfellows. And with the hospitalization of Trump, they have become even stranger. 

With every press release, you wonder who is talking. 

Google and Palantir

One Zero 

This was written 5 days ago, and and is just now seeing the light of day. I recommend you read it. 

Both companies leverage vast amounts of data for unprecedented surveillance.

Not an easy read. 

People do not Understand Programming

I was visiting with a friend yesterday when she asked me what I was doing. I told her I was learning the Python programming language. "What is that good for?" she asked. 

I should have explained that any programming language could be used to do many things, but I know from experience, that most people cannot understand how this works. How information has to be digitized before it can be processed by a computer, but this happens very fast. 

Their minds work much like any animal's, and it cannot understand any other way. They know if they could understand this other way, and think like a Programmer, they could make a lot more money. But they cannot cross this gap. 

Irish Cream in my Coffee

I was surprised to find Baileys stocked in my local liquor store.

My taste for coffee changes frequently, depending on the brand of coffee. But this morning Britt's Espresso coffee, with Splenda and Baileys, tastes just right.  

It's a weird combination of drugs, but perfectly legal. 

Sex in the US and the UK

The US got its culture from the UK, but now the Culture flow has reversed. All the world now wants American popular culture - altho Chinese goodies are close behind. 

The British PM just another child by a woman not married to him. 

I should be overjoyed at this development.= but I am not. I feel I am being used, and that does not feel right. 

To cope with this I have to become another person, someone asexual. not heterosexual or homosexual. More like my father. Who could father children (much to the satisfaction of my mother) but once that was done he slept in another bedroom.

God's Chosen People

This is how the Mormons felt about themselves, in the 19th Century. And many of their neighbors felt the same way, Every town had its own militia (with cannons) and was often at war with other towns. 

This sounds like Latin America (or the Middle East)  does't It? 

Most Things can Only be done a Certain Way

Obvious, huh? But not so obvious to many people, who insist on doing things the wrong way. The way they think they should work. This is especially true in Religion. 

The world consists of many black boxes, where the working inside them is hidden from view. Science (including Computer Science) consists on discovering how they work. 

The latest techniques for this are called Machine Learning (or Data Science). Where people program computers to look inside these boxes. People have to be trained also to work with their Computers in doing this. 

There are many online courses to help them, and they are cheap. 

Smart around the Edges

Stupid in the Center, where it really counts. 

This combination can be hard to deal with, but is very common, because it is so useful, in a negative way. It makes it difficult for those you are talking to, to think. 

Once they begin to understand what is going on, you vanish.

This is easy if your conversation is online. I used to have a friend I emailed frequently with. Then he stopped answering my emails, so I started calling him on weekends. Then he stopped answering my calls. When someone decides to disappear, believe me, they disappear. 

I have another title for this posting: Disappear! It's easy. 

Verbal communication can be easily Messed Up

This was proven by the last debate, that Trump easily dominated. 

I once knew a man involved in the Congression Reseach Service publications, which publish every word uttered on the floor of Congress.  

He said they had a good laugh, reading some of the things that were said. 

The debates in the Congressional Congress (1774-1778) were kept secret, until they were written down, and sent to the States for ratification. 

The Advantages to Being Stupid

The biggest advantage is obvious: you will be like everyone else. 

We are very social critters, and we do most of our learning by imitating others. 

This works: any three-year-old child can learn any language effortlessly. And some languages, are so complicated, adults cannot learn them. This even applies to Computer languages, where language systems are updated frequently. 

We are not only stupid, we have to prove we are stupid, and make other people stupid also. This happens in any office, including the offices of most Computer companies. 

I have been in these Computer companies, in Southern California and Silicon Valley. And have been watching how most people use their products. 

I see one thing, over and over: Mass Stupidity. 

Millennials and mortgage rates are heating up Seattle’s housing market

SeatleTmes

The housing market in Seatle and Pheonix is hot. 

Many of us have seen this before, and the end is not pretty. 

The Women in Your Life are Your Life

The first woman in your life is always your mother. And how you handle that relationship determines how you handle the rest of your life. 

For a woman, the next most important relationship is a man: her husband. For a man, his wife. These are difficult relationships and often fail. Homosexual relationships are something I cannot help you with, but it seems to me, some consistency is important here. 

Your third relationship is with yourself, which is difficult because you are so damn difficult. One of your problems is straying focussed on yourself. Meditation helps, but can only help. 

Poor Mexico

So far from God, and ao close to America!

Drugs flow North across the border, and guns flow South, in about equal quantities. 

Meanwhile, people like my sister, who lives close to the border, are dodging the bullets.

It did not use to be this way. My family used to drive from Illinois to Acapulco every year-end vacation to enjoy the beaches and the cheap motels.

Reversal of Values

 As I read through the messages on my laptop this morning, I could not escape the feeling that something was terribly wrong with our world. 

This is the first thing we have to face: something is terribly wrong. Not just a little bit wrong, but terribly wrong. What is it? 

It is probably a complex of many forces, and it is our job to tackle the worst of them. Agreed?

Probably not. Most people think we should not tackle our big problems, but content ourselves with the small ones. The big ones are too dangerous. 

I think one of the big ones is a reversal of values. This can happen easily and has a huge impact. We end up liking bad things and hating good things. Thinking we are doing just the opposite. 

The first thing we have to do is admit this is possible. We have been taught that all of the people cannot be wrong all of the time. Maybe so, but if a certain percentage is wrong, a tipping point is reached, where most become wrong. We have to admit this a possibility. 

And has already happened. 

I like to Learn

 Your unconscious reaction to this will vary. But can easily be detected by your actions, by what you do, and are doing. 

I am taking a course on udemy while I munch on a chickenburger with Espresso coffee. I am learning how to use Python with TensorFlow to do Deep Learning - any of these topics should grab your attention. 

Udemy is one of many online courses that will teach you anything. You want to know about Sex? Put Tab A in Slot B. 

Two kinds of People in the World

 Those who can program, and those who cannot.

I am serious about this. This difference keeps striking me all the time. And it probably does you too, even if you try your hardest to ignore it. 

We have to become more like computers, whether we want to or not. 

This is not hard, there are many online courses that will teach you how to code anything. All you have to do is want to learn. 

Most people have learned something that defeats this: they have learned how to not learn and get away with it. This can be done, and be done easily. 

The RLDS Church was Nothing

And, as the Community of Christ, it is less than nothing.

I have a cousin who accepted the task of "Finding a Mission for the Temple." The Temple is the strange-looking building the Church built in Independence, Mo.

I went to church in Washington, DC, where she is the Pastor. And attended the first service of the day, which was devoted to asking for this Mission. We held hands and stood silently in a circle, waiting for an answer. None came, but the experience felt good. 

The biggest damage the Church did, was making us feel is was important. When I realized this deception, I dropped out. The only one in my family. 

Secrets of the Magic Screen

The latest one is the smartphone, which provides everything for its user. Whose brain becomes part of the global Cloud. 

"The Global Cloud?" You may say, "There is no such thing!"

You are right, and you are wrong. There is no universal medium, such as the Eather that was assumed to pervade all space. 

But there are many cryptocurrencies that are driving the world nuts. Facebook, which has one of these things, was grilled for five hours by a congressional committee and ordered to stop work on it. He did not. 

Yesterday, this complex was brought home to me. I bought a special hamburger, that I am eating for breakfast this morning, along with some espresso coffee. 

I sat down next to a woman, who thought I was interested in her.  I wasn't and she immediately got absorbed in looking at her Phone. Her brain and the brain of her Phone became one. 

She was saved from knowing how ugly she was, but she lost her mind. 

When People did not Exist

Because they were not needed, since the Computer could do almost everything they could, and do it better. 

Recently, however Computer companies (such as Microsoft) are now realizing the advantages of emotions in computing, and are incorporating this capability into their products (especially their Cloud products). This is a difficult transition and is far from complete. 

People were eliminated, but we now want them back (suitably modified of course). 

We need a strange mixture of machines and animals which have not been invented yet. 

And we need them now. 

When did our Craziness Start?

When did our technology start? That's an easier question. 

Sometime in the 16th Century with the invention of the Printing Press. And for 1000 years this was our dominant technology. 

We were a scatted bunch of British states along the Atlantic seaboard, but we were writing to each other, and to anyone who could read. Our Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, in his beautiful handwriting. 

We were lucky and had France for an ally. When the French Fleet blockaded American ports, our war with England was over.

We looked at our situation, realized it had to be improved, and set about improving it - with a Constitutional Convention. The first of its kind. This resulted in many debates, held in secret. And the printing of many papers, in the open, where different people set forth their views. These Constitutional Papers are still studied today, to figure out what was on their minds. 

Eventually, it was ratified by enough States and it became Law, with George Washington as our first President. When he retired to his farm, this set a valuable precedent. 

The next 200 years were an age of rapid changes and many innovations. Mainly with the invention of Electricity and Photography. Collectively known as Industrialization. 

The Steam Engine was invented, which made possible the Railroads and the Steamships. which were powered by Coal and then Oil.

All this had a huge effect on our Religions and our Religious wars which became the worst ever. 

Mathew Brady photographed the Civil War. 

The Office Destroys the People in It

When I start thinking about this, I start thinking about my cousin Al, who had a rough experience working in an Office, in Ohio. 

He graduated from college as a Social Worker, and as a married man, with children. How he arrived at this state, I do not know, but it did not last, because he could not stand his job. 

This is a common situation, there are many people who do not like their jobs, but put up with them anyway. Al's reaction was extreme, and he had to quit work, much to his wife's disgust, who took the children and left him. 

He was a failure, at an early age, and it's a wonder he was not locked up in an insane asylum. 

But he had a sister, and her husband, who invited him to live with them, in Northern Virginia, while he got his life straightened out. 

He enrolled in Adult Education courses which gave him tests, to see what kind of work he was suited for. These indicated he could work as a surveyor. So he took surveying classes and got a job as a surveyor. 

He remarried, and with his new wife, acquired a fine house. He was a success!

When I visited him, several years later, He told me his story, which amazed me. But I was also amazed by his refusal to understand how he got to where he was!

He is a Good American, who enjoys the good life without thinking about it.

Lewis C. Bidamon

He had a minor role to play in Mormon history, and also has an article in Wikipedia, which shows how chaotic those times were. 

He fathered a child by another woman while Emma Smith was still living. Lots of Women back then needed protection, and his military connections came in handy. 

Joseph Smith did not want his Portrait Made

There are portraits of him, which were not made of him, in my opinion. 

Photography was being invented, and there are photographs of nearly every important person of his time (such as Abraham Lincoln) but not him.  

Evidently, he didn't want any made. This was one of the strange quirks of his complicated nature. 

Wagner was too much for Costa Rica

The Cult of Wagner

WWII, which created Noth America, bypassed little Costa Rica, who wondered why Germany was not buying their coffee. 

It has a fine Opera House, but Wagner is not performed there. 

Stupidly can make Other People Feel Rejected

 And people react violently to this. 

This what killed the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, one of the stupidest men of his time. Who had no idea where he was. 

The people around him, had no idea of what he was either. 

Lying has been a Common Human Practice

Once we learned to talk (a massive achievement only we have been capable of) there was no need to also be truthful. 

And this was encoded in our laws. Finding the truth is a hard job, and is usually incomplete. 

This is the advantage of using a Computer. If I say a=1, it remains 1, until I change it. 

We can make a truthful Computer (a Functional Computet) but we but we have to make it that way. A computer that can change its mind easily is more useful for us. But it has to be tested frequently to see if it is giving us thr right answers. 

There is even a technology now called Deep Learning where the Compter learns how to program itself! We don't know how this works, but everytime we use Google Translate, we are putting it to work.