Adapting to Life Down Here

This has taken me nearly 20 years, and I am not finished yet. Because the world I left behind has been changing.

I am sitting here, in my pajamas, in front of three laptops, only one of which is working. I just finished reading, for the second time, The Year in Ethereum.

My old brain can barely understand what this is saying, but it can understand one thing: something important is going on here. That most people do not understand in the least.

They are making a new world, that requires new people, to make it work.

When I came down here, in 2001, I was a refugee from Silicon Valley. I had only one thing going for me: my Social Security retirement payments, that came once a month, like mana from Heaven.

I lived with a local family: Marielos and her son Agusto, for five years. In the Central Metropolitan Area, where most of the county lived. It was overcrowded and dangerous, and I wanted out.

I traveled in Nicaragua, the country to the north, and Panama to the south, looking for a good place to live. No luck. Then I saw the Valley of Orosi, moved here, and stayed here.

I was still in pretty good shape and rode my Bicycle everywhere. Then my body went to pieces, and I suffered from Seizures. All of a sudden I would lose consciousness, fall down, and could not get up.

They called an ambulance, and off I went to the Hospital in Cartago! Ray showed up and he had a long conversation with the doctor, in Spanish, and they decided I was having Seizures.

This diagnosis did me no good because it did not tell me what caused them, or how to avoid them in the future. I kept having them, and I came up with my own solution.

If I paid close attention to my body when I was walking, I could tell when I got tired. If I sat down, right then. I would not have a Seizure. I could call a taxi, and it would take me home.

The Community of Christ is de-emphasizing its Mormon Connections

It is doing this quietly, however, and to the best of my knowledge has not made this a written decision.

The history is clear: first the LDS church, then the RLDS church, then the Commutyof Christ, that automatically acquired all of the RLDS membership and property.

The theological changes were less clear, and they had formed a committee (that included my cousin Florence) to ask God what these changes should be.

People who are interested in Technology

These people like to use their heads, while most people like to use their guts.

I noticed this when I looked into Erhereum. The people there, are very interested in their technology. I noticed their interest more than their technology itself, which is very technical.

I also noticed this when corresponding with my brother. He is now working as a volunteer for his church and is thrilled to be doing this. I sometimes make some suggestions about how he could do his job better, which he ignores.

Why? I ask myself. And the answer is obvious: he doesn't want to do things better. He is a typical American, who is destroying America. And can see nothing wrong with this.

The deadly feedback loop

Americans hate America and are destroying it.

This situation has happened in two steps. First, they notice they are being treated badly. Second, they respond by destroying it.

And they are not aware of most of this. They know something bad is going on, but they do not want to know that it is caused by them.

The Falsie

The grocery store I usually go to is operated by Chinese. And they have a young woman operating their check-out counter.

Her breasts have grown recently, and I was puzzled by this, what was going on? Then the light dawned on me: she was wearing falsies!

I haven't seen these for quite a while, but there they were, bigger than life!

Is the Human Race Finished?

I used to think not. As the oceans rise, we will move to higher ground. We can live without Miami.

We can even live when surrounded by people who do not like us. We have been doing that for some time.

The latest virus will greatly reduce our numbers. This has happened before.

Even a combination of things we cannot imagine. That leaves us with 0.1 percent. That is still a lot of people.

One thing may finish us, however: our ability (and desire) to destroy ourselves, that has been growing.

With Crypto, you Own the Bank

But that might not help that much.

The banks have money (that is what they are for) but they don't have anything else.

"But money is so handy," You may reply. "You can easily exchange it for anything else!"

Not everything else, perhaps, but damn near everything else.

What's the deal with this Crypto stuff? Isn't it nothing but Code? Yes, but the right kind of Code.

Code has the advantage of being easily checked. If you put the right kind of Code, in the right kind of Machine, you get useful results, worth money. This what makes computer companies so rich!

The right kind of Code.

My Trip to Walmart

Costa Rica, like everywhere else is supposed to be in lockdown. If you walk out of your house the nasty viruses will get you! 

So it was with some trepidation that I boarded a bus to Cartago. The bus worked fine and with only minor interruptions, I was soon shopping at Walmart (that should have had everything I needed).

It had nothing, but a pair of pajamas!

I got on the bus back home. Nothing eventful happened.

I put on my new pajamas and went to sleep.

Eventful, huh!

Panic

People have been susceptible to this ever since they invented writing, and started living together in large units.

This word was used to describe financial panics in the 19th Century, but this was changed to Recession or Depression, especially the Great Depression of the Thirties.

Presently, panic over the latest virus is sweeping over the world. Everything is in lockdown, and people cannot get their groceries.

The Book of Abraham

This is one of Joseph Smith's writings, of which there were many.

This is mentioned frequently in the book the Kingdom of Nauvoo, so I decided to learn more about it, and bought An Introduction to the Book of Abraham.

The original papyrus documents have been lost. Their contents, writings in Egyptian Hieroglyphics, were not anything like the document Joseph Smith published in the Times and Season in Nauvoo, in the 1840s.

He began his career as a finder of buried treasure that Americans thought was on their property - but did not know where it was. Joseph had a seer stone that he placed in a hat, placed the hat over his eyes, and then could see the buried treasure. He had a number of translation assistants he used (or claimed to use) during his short life.

This is a scholarly work, outlining in great detail. something that Smith dreamed up easily, at various times, and then published.

This was a man convinced of his own great worth - the exact nature of which varied frequently. There are still people who believe he was a Prophet of God.

We have Developed a World we cannot Cope with

There are two important words in that title: Develop and Cope.

Develop is a word we are fond of. There are developed countries, developing countries, and undeveloped countries. Young people are developing their bodies and their minds. Software Development is our most productive activity.

Cope, in Merriam-Webster, is:
// to deal with and attempt to overcome problems and difficulties.

Clever animals that we are,  we have made a world so much better, we can no longer understand it.

Not Being is the Best Way to Be

People have realized they are in an impossible situation and have found this solution for it.

I do not agree, but I can see where they are coming from. From their viewpoint, the situation does seem impossible. And changing their viewpoint is impossible.

This is the situation most people are in. But there are still people who see things in a different way. Is their influence increasing or decreasing? Impossible to say, but for my own sanity, I have to assume things will get better.

I have looked the worst in the eye, and have come away feeling things can get better, and may get better.

People are obsessed now with the latest virus, and are relieved to forget the bigger problem I am discussing.

I can return to the larger reality, and just say "This is the way it is!" This virus may kill us, but that is the least of our problems.

The Destructiveness of the Industrial Revolution

I am not the first one to write on this subject. But I come to it from an unusual perspective: Mormonism in the 19th Century.

This includes the original LDS church founded by Joseph Smith and the RLDS church that my family belonged to. Both were hugely affected by Industrialization -  and completely unaware of this.

I grew up in Ft. Madison, Iowa, an Industrial town, that has since become part of the Rust Belt. My father was a band player in his youth and operated a photography studio during WWII.

I have personally noted the life-denying stance of most people in the world. They do not seem to be there.

Why girls are attractive to men

"Don't be an idiot." you may be saying, "Everyone knows why: it's sex!"

But maybe you want a better answer, to help you in this particularly difficult area. How many people do you know that have a good relationship with the opposite sex?

My marriage was typical, it was a mess. Beth was beautiful, but she was crazy! And this is a bad combination.

Living with her was full of little problems. I could deal with any one of them but taken all together they were too much!

They were too much for her also, and in the end, she killed herself.

She was the same age as my youngest sister and they were friends in High School when she lived with my family.

Beth's family was crazy, and so were mine. But hers was worse.

I Didn’t Think Gaslighting at Work Was A Thing Until It Happened To Me

Medium

It's amazing what you can learn from scanning through your inbox.

This is a critical skill we should practice carefully.

Hi! Is a new word in the Spanish Language

Languages always borrow words from other languages, and this was an improvement.

It is totally English in its conciseness (only two letters!) Its closest Spanish equivalent would be Buenos!, a shortened version of Buenos Dias! (many good days!). Which means the same thing.

Smart Computers, Stupid People

I have mixed feelings about Computers especially their Software, which continues to be developed at a rapid pace. So rapidly, my old mind cannot keep up with it.

This problem goes back to the Nineties when I was working in Silicon Valley, and Software was just taking off. This takeoff can be seen as a guided missile, with a defective guidance system.

People were so excited about it, they went crazy. Got the picture?

Back then, very few did. They just went nuts. It took them twenty years, from 2000-2020 to gain some sense of order. Which for most people, never happened.

They are living through a global disaster, having no sense of what is going on.

How Joseph Smith and the Early Mormons Challenged American Democracy

This is a review of the book Kindom of Nauvoo, which I am reading myself, in the Kindle version. The New Yorker does a good job with this review.

What do People See in the Book of Mormon?

For a sister of mine, she sees scripture. She will not explain what that means, except that it is important to her, and people like her.

This the typical response of a religious person, and it poses a problem for a nonreligious person like me. Can I talk to religious people about their religion?

For some religious people, this is impossible. And this is the first thing to determine when talking to them. What things will they talk about?

My family had their own religion: the RLDS church. This has gone through some complicated changes that most of them do not want to talk about. I have to be diplomatic when trying to talk to them about this and realize this is probably forbidden territory.

I have a brother who is still active in the church but will talk about a few things. But finding out what they are is hard work.

Playing with Computers

This industry has perverted the use of the word "Play". It assumes computer users are dummies and want to get even dumber.

The Computer has made people stupid. This has been said in a number of ways, but it needs saying again: as the Computer gets smarter, people get dumber. Their intelligence gets transferred to it.

The smartest people become programmers, and the people who not so smart learn how to use them. Two kinds of people result, those who can control them and those who can use them (which takes less intelligence).

These intelligent people are not better people. they just know how to control the latest technology, how use it to boss other people around.

We are having an Emergency, want to be Part of It?

I am serious about this. We have been in an emergency mode for some time, and are now just recognizing it.

This time it is a virus that is killing us, but we have been dying for a long time, from many causes. So many causes, they cannot be enumerated individually.

All we can do is wave our hands and say: "It's too much! Whatever it is, it's too much!"

Although most of us will say nothing, but let the shock register in our bodies. That have gone numb, but not completely numb.

We do not want to be dead, but we don't seem to have much choice.

Eliza Snow

I continue to read the Kingdom of Nauvoo, but I had grown tired of reading about Polygamy.

His coverage of Eliza Snow, however, was a relief. She was one of Smith's many wives, but she was also a poet.

O, how shall a compose a thought
when nothing is composed?

How shall I form ideas, as I ought
on subjects not disclosed?

Smith's reformation project offered stability in an unstable world. but still caused significant anxiety, even for those who embraced it.

Bernie

NYTimes Magazine

This helps me understand the guy.

This is another article every American should read, but will not. There is an audio version of it also, but they will not listen to it either.

I am tempted to say: they are nothing!

Computers are Hard to Understand

And do doubt they feel the same way about us - People are hard to understand!

In fact, I am taking a course right now, about teaching computers how to understand people - so they can use the huge number of computer products being pushed at them.

This not "Understand thyself" it is "Understand everything, but thyself".

They do not want to Understand their Lives

This was what I learned when I last visited the USA.

My cousin, who lives in Northern Virginia (part of the DC complex) was the perfect host and made me feel right at home.

He was from the Cleveland Ohio area and went to college to be a Social Worker. But could not stand this kind of work. He was married at the time, with children. His wife left him in disgust, taking the children with her. He was still a young man, but a complete failure.

Fortunately, he had a Sister who lived in the DC area, and she and her husband invited him to live with them while he got his life sorted out. He did this and took Adult Education courses, which included tests to see what occupations he was suited for. He then took surveying courses and got a job as a surveyor. And remarried.

When I visited him, a few years ago, he was a successful surveyor, and owned a fine house, with his wife. He told me his story, and I was impressed with it. But when I asked him what make his life in Ohio so terrible - he would not talk about it. That was one subject he would not touch.

Why? Because that would be understanding his life back then.

The Internet was Designed for Text

This made it ideal for programming languages, and anything that could be expressed in numbers (or digits) such as money. And even music, once it was turned into a stream of numbers.

The Internet's newest use is with Droid technology: bitcoin, Blockstack, and Ethereum. I will not try to explain these, but only say they are hot - as you can see on news,bitcoin.com.

This process of digitizing (turning analog information into digital information) can be done very quickly.

Browsers are able to turn any digitized information back into analog. Medici.tv, for example, has a huge catalog of classical music performances. You can watch opera, wearing your pajamas!

The Two Networks of Our Time

These are the Internet and Cellular. Both rely on the Computer.

The Internet you already know about, but for this posting, I want to explain the Cellular Network, which uses a Radio technology.

It has been very profitable, and cellular towers are everywhere. Each of these serves a small area around the tower, called a cell. Got that?

Previous Radio technology used powerful transmitters that covered wide areas, each using a particular frequency. Since radio frequencies are limited, this limited the number of users. Cellular technology, by contrast, can service a huge number of users.

Each phone message is prefixed with a user number, and phones will only receive messages addressed to them. Many messages can be operational at the same time. Multitasking is a common digital technology.

The cellular networks use low-powered transmitters that can only be received inside their cell. As the user moves to another cell, network computers move him to another cell. Clever, huh!

He (or she) can keep talking, not realizing they are in a different cell, talking to a different tower.

This causes a very big problem: our computers are smarter than we are. We have outsmarted ourselves!

The Chrome Browser and the Chrome Operating System

They both run on the Internet, the technology that created the Computer Era. that has changed everything and confused everyone.

There are two technology companies in this Era: Google and Microsoft. Apple and Amazon are also there and making lots of money, but use the technologies of the other two.

I have two new laptops: Windows 10 and a Chromebook. The Chromebook is much cheaper but only runs Google software.

This a disadvantage because Microsoft has some powerful Software Development tools - .NET Core, Visual Studio, and VS Code. The many online teaching companies like to use Microsoft.

With my Windows 10 Laptop, I can use both technologies: Google (using the Chrome browser) and Microsoft (using the Windows Operating System).  But with the Chromebook, I am limited to Google.

Have I confused you? Get both of them, and use both of them for yourself.

The Mormon Sense of Community

By "Mormon" I mean Joseph Smith in the 1840s, as shown by the Kingdom of Nauvoo book.

He pulled in many ideas from his time, although one them, Polygamy. is hard to understand. What was going on in his head, to obsess him with this dangerous practice, that caused his death?

He wanted to have limitless progeny, that much is clear. What was behind this?

This brings up another fact: the industrialization of his time. He, and his followers, were products of this huge happening., that made machines part of human culture. It also obsessed people with more - they wanted more of everything, including children. Joseph Smith III, his son, had 15 children, for example.

It is hard for us to understand this now, but the figures were clear. People had more children than they could possibly take care of.

And they thought more of their things (their Railroads) than they did of their people. Things were easy to understand, and control, people were not.

It is also important to note this was before the Civil War in the 19th Century, and WWI and WWII in the 20th Century.

This was destruction on a global scale.

The Power Structure in my Family

By this, I mean between my Father and Mother. Which was strongly shaped by the Depression and WWII. And by developments within the RLDS church.

The economic movement, at rhe time, was away from Small Business toward Big Business, and the Global Economy. This made the LDS stronger since they were a Big Business already, and caused the disappearance of the RLDS, who had no awareness of the huge change that was going on.

I will start with my Father. His father was an Irish immigrant and an itinerant farmer, failing on farm after farm. His mother was from an Italian family who had some money. Evidently, grandfather seduced grandmother. Grandmother Smith had a good head for money and supported my Father financially. This pattern of the dominant wife would continue when my father married.

Now my mother, where the record was clearer. Grandmother Sanford was an English immigrant and a strong believer in the RLDS church. She dominated her husband and was responsible for there move from Boston to Nauvoo, Illinois. They considered themselves superior people, which is what attracted my father to them. He married there daughter, Mildred. Who was not very smart, but domineering,

My father was from Ft. Madison, Iowa just across the Mississippi River. Mom and Dad went to live there, in a house owned by Grandmother Smith, where I was born, in 1936. Dad had become interested in Photography and purchased a Photography studio, but it was not making any money.

Then WWII happened, Dad made lots of money, and we moved to a better house. He became active in the RLDS church and used that connection to get tires for his car. We were moving rapidly up in rhe world.

In 1947, when I was 11, we moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. A beautiful fruit-growing little town, where Dad bought 2 acres on the River and moved a house there.

We called it Windy Lane.

Joseph Smith's Mental Condition

It is tempting to just say "He was ceazy1" And say the same thing for all his many followers.

One could even take that further, and say "The whole 19th Century was crazy."

But the question still remains "How were they crazy?"

This question cannot be answered easily. you have to be specific. and refer to specific circumstances. One thing was obvious for Smith: he liked to compose scripture out of his fertile imagination, Starting with the Book of Mormon.

He was almost illiterate, he could barely write. But he loved to talk and dictated most of his writing.

We also have to consider the technology of the time: Industrialization. Which meant Manufacturing and Transportation, powered by the Steam Engine. And the Workers in these factories were described by Karl Marx. Working conditions were atrocious, and produced stunted bodies and minds.

After the Book of Mormon was printed, Missionaries took it to England. They did not take it to London, where it would have been ignored. They took to the Industrial Midlands where the Factory Workers could see it was Divine Scripture. And they departed, on Steam Ships, to be with their Prophet of God.

What can the Church do for the World?

This the question any organization (or any individual) has to answer.

The Evangelicals seem to be answering it to many people's satisfaction. 
!
But we need other people to say "They are wrong!"

Their basic message is "God wants us to be rich!" And He is not interested in providing any social services.

They also believe in inequality, with the True Believers making the most money.

No religion has ever said this before. They always have preached the opposite message.

What's Wrong with America?

I'm tempted to say: Everything. Even tho that would be a copout.

The most blatant problem I have right now is my Laptop, which is not working! I bought another one, and it died also. Life is just too chaotic, and I can see why people have stopped trying to understand it, and have turned to Trump instead.

I can summarize this by saying "Life is not working!" And People themselves are not working.

Let's concentrate on the word copout (or cop-out, or cop out). Merriam-Webster defines it this way;

to avoid or neglect problems, responsibilities, or commitments

My Laptops are doing just that! But they are not just isolated objects, they are part of a huge complex, that is global; Globalization. 

I'm reminded of the song "Stop the world, I want to get off!"

Plenty of people are getting off. Using drugs, and dying of an overdose. 

A modern ‘Hello, World’ program needs more than just code

Stack Overflow

This about Software Development, and not much else. I have included it to show how difficult programming has become.

When I was a programmer, back in the Eighties, I learned to program by taking my portable computer to work and using the C language to draw simple graphics on my printer.

I was a little smart than my fellow-workers. But learning to program made me seem much smarter. And got me a new job, making the same amount of money.

Nowadays, you have to learn a lot more, but you get a lot more money.

Meditation can make You Stupid

Meditation is useful, in a number of ways, but it has some unfortunate side-effects.

I have an excellent meditation teacher; Shinzen Young, who has his own Wikipedia entry. I have also attended events at Spirit Rock, the most beautiful meditation center in the world!

What I have to say maybe typical of meditation in California. It tends to integrate native Indian religious practices, such as the Sweat Lodge and a dance practiced by the Lakota Sioux men that result in chest muscles being severed.

I can see no benefits from these practices, and think they are stupid.

Different Kinds of Intelligence

This idea has been around for a long time, maybe forever. But in our time, for most people, it has been lost.

It is an idea they cannot comprehend. Has the Computer made us stupid?

I think so.

Policy vs. Technology

Crypto-Gram

This guy is one of the truly smart among us, and this is one of his best ideas,

Everybody should read this, and understand it, but few will. I will leave it up to my reader to discuss why this is. You can comment on this posting if you like.

And while you are at it, read the next article: Inrupt, Tim Berners-Lee's Solid, and Me.

The Economy was Taken Over by Large, Transnational Corporations

I have been explaining this the wrong way - by saying the small businesses (including the family farm) had disappeared. No one knew what I was talking about.

But these large corporations were easy to see, and their effects were easy to see also. Manufacturing moved overseas (mainly to China) turning the American Midwest into a Rust Belt.

Even Americans (not the brightest people in the world) could see this simple cause-and-effect.

Men without Guts

The first one of these in my life was my Father.

After he died, Mother opened his strongbox. It had two letters in it: one was from me, where I told him I could never forgive him for marrying my mother. He did not reply to this letter - but he did keep it, knowing that my Mother would eventually read it.

He had no guts, and he knew it.

Mormonism Explained

Mormonism was the product of Joseph Smith's fertile imagination, which in many ways was crazy.

In his book The Kingdom of Nauvoo, Benjamin Park tries to explain how Smith's reasoning was a product of his time, and his own eccentricities.

Joseph thought he could translate any text in any language. Even that contained in an ancient Egyptian papyrus found in a mummy. that (according to him) contained the teachings of Abraham.

This document still exists, and its writing is nothing like what Smith claimed.

When Most People are Nothing

They cannot change or be changed. And they consider this the ideal situation. They have arrived!

And they are doomed.

This is the situation I left when I left the US for Costa Rica. Which has plenty of problems of its own, but it still likes people.

"Is this important?" You may ask. Yes, it is vital. People cannot function well unless they are liked.

Let me repeat that. "People cannot function well unless they are liked."

When they are not liked, they become nothing and can do nothing.

But most people will tell them "You are perfect, just the way you are!"

Emotions with two Components

They have a basic existence that is conscious, which triggers a reaction (the second component) that makes the first unconscious.

The relationship between the two is complicated, and in fact: complex.

I will give an example. We are naturally curious creatures, always wanting to know more. But in many social situations, secrecy is required. And we are forbidden to know more.

Can you see the two components here? One is personal and the other is social. And their interaction is intense.

In fact, situations with many components are common. That is why we have big brains: to help us figure things out.

We discovered the Computer, to help us with this. Only to find that this only made things worse. People with computers were fighting other people with computers, and these computers are getting smarter all the time!

Knowing too Much

This probably a new idea for most people. Knowing too much?

Knowing how to do Software Development, for most people, would make them know too much. And they carefully stay away from learning this.

I must carefully delineate between two types of people: computer people and ordinary people. The first is at home with the insides of digital computers, the second is not.

When I was studying Electronic Engineering at the U of Illinois, back in the Fifties, they did not have a course on Digital Computers. Digital technology was too strange for them, and they stayed away from it.

When Solid State arrived in 1980, the Vacuum Tube was made obsolete, and I no longer had a job. But Digital Computer and Software Development skills were highly desirable.

Guess what I did?

Flamingo Bob

There is an article about him in the Feb 2002 National Geographic (with plenty of photos).

I recommend you subscribe to this. It's an easy way to get to know the world.

Not Thinking very Much

This a typical attitude of someone from the American Midwest, now its Rust Belt.

Any thinking that goes on, is on either coast. On the East coast: in Boston, NYC, and DC. On the West coast: in Silicon Valley and Seattle.

Much of this thinking is technical: for and about Computers. These people want to be around other thinking people, even though these areas are more expensive. There are exceptions to this, but they are exceptions.

One thing they do not think about very much - is that they do not think very much, They elected Trump as president, a man who does not think very much. and they will probably elect him again.

Occupation: Housewife

Delancy Place

This refers to The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan - and the Fifties in America. How different things were then!

My brother, and his wife, were this way, then. Now, fifty years later, things have changed, but they are not sure how to change with them.

One sister is a lesbian, married to another woman. Another is hugely overweight and suffering from Diabetes. I am living in Costa Rica. None of these possibilities existed in the Fifties.

We were living in a booming economy and could afford all those new homes in the suburbs, each with two new cars.

Joseph Smith knew how to Cause Trouble

This is easy when you consider yourself a Prophet of God, or some other special being.

Immediately the world is divided into those who support you and those who oppose you. And this opposition, in some situations, can become violent.

This was definitely the case in Missouri in the 1830s. He could not have found a worse place to take his followers. But this was exactly what he did.

He had little social awareness and thought mainly of himself. Which attitude many people found attractive.

He tried to make a new start in Nauvoo, but that ended with his death in 1844, another Mormon War, and some of his Saints leaving the country, for what became Utah.

The Language of Poetry

NY Review 

Not interested in poetry? You have plenty of company. It's an acquired taste, but it grows on you, even as you read it by yourself.

This poet is explaining why this is.

Look Ma, no Brains!

I have been trying to understand people for a long time. And for most people, this is a strange obsession, the direct opposite of their own - they are determined to not understand them. And they consider this their greatest virtue.

They are displaying stupidity as intelligence, and are unaware of the difference.

Some of my readers will object. asking "Aren't you stupid yourself for claiming most people are stupid?" And they have a point: one has to do this discretely.

And, dear reader, this is not all. People can be stupid in some ways, and intelligent in other ways.

People can understand the computer, but not understand their fellow-men (and women).

I have been to job fairs in Silicon Valley and watched many people streaming in from the parking lot, taking their resumes to the nearest copy machine - and companies eager to accept them.

It was a meat market, with the most expensive meat ever, And no one thought this strange at all.

We’re Not Prepared for the End of Moore’s Law

MIT Technology Review

None (of these plans) are obvious replacements for the promise that Gordon Moore first saw in a simple integrated circuit. We need the research investments now to find out, though. Because one prediction is pretty much certain to come true: we’re always going to want more computing power.

I have noticed something different: people are not happy. Because all this enthusiasm is going into technology, and not into them. 

They cannot understand the basics of digital technology (what digits are) they only want to be entertained. They can understand that well enough. 

Is Religion Crazy?

This question cannot be answered as stated, because it implies all religions are being considered.

But it can easily be answered for a particular religion. And the answer is usually: yes.

The first religion was probably what we now call shamanism. The belief that spirits animate and control everything and people could interact with them directly.

This has been converted into a modern religion, with organizations, teachers, and followers. I was one of them, at one time.

Many of us have to ask this question of the religion we were born into: in my case: Mormonism, or the RLDS church, one of the Mormon churches. My grandparents believed in it completely.

But in the Seventies, it faced a crisis, and could not go on. It is now in a slow decline, and will soon exist only in a minimal condition (as empty buildings). Most RLDS are not aware of this, but their children are not interested in their parent's Church.

The LDS church (the original Mormon church) is still going strong. Its people are still crazy but can operate successfully in today's world. Mitt Romney, a senator from Utah, voted to impeach Trump!

Joseph Smith had Big Ideas he Never Understood very Well

I continue to read the Kingdom of Nauvoo, and Benjamin E Park continues to ask the question "Who was this guy?"

Today the subject is Polygamy, which taxes all his powers of explanation - as he candidly admits. But it was clear that in Nauvoo, Joseph did not know what he was doing either. And this resulted in his untimely death.

My New Booties

Amazon

These take some getting used to, but they are wide and they are warm.

Self-Destruction by another Name

A 60 Million Housing Grab by Wall Street

I am reading the NY Times on my Laptop, in Costa Rica. 

I can hardly understand this article, but I can make out that America is in bad shape. In such bad shape, they cannot understand what happened to them. 

Their solution is not to think about it. 

They still Believe in the Church

But they are not active in it.

The Church, in this case, is the RLDS church. The people are in my extended family, who are not quite sure what their relationship to the Church is, but would probably agree with my summary.

They still believe in it, but are not active in it.

The woman I was married to for five years, in the Sixties, felt the same way. Her parents were very active in the Church, as mine were. But we were not interested in it.

We did, however, get married in the Church. Beth was only 19, so we could not get married at City Hall. We called the local church, explained who are parents were, and said we wanted to get married.

They arranged for a special ceremony after preaching service on Sunday. Then took us out for lunch, took up a collection, and gave us $26!

John C. Bennett in Nauvoo

I am still reading the Kingdom of Nauvoo, an excellent history of the period.

I did not realize how important Bennett was to Joseph Smith and his town of Nauvoo. He was the one who successfully obtained the City Charter from the State authorities in Springfield. while Joseph remained in Nauvoo.

His portrait in the book, in a military uniform is striking, as he was in real life.

He was also a scoundrel, as events soon revealed.

The Saints' Herald

Wikipedia

Growing up in the Church, I noticed the importance of this publication. And was impressed by Wikipedia's article on this. The frequency of publication is nowhere noted.

Some important dates can be gleaned from it:

• The True Latter Day Saints' Herald (1860–76)
• The Saints' Herald (1877–1953)
• Saints' Herald (1954–72)
• Saints Herald (1973–2000)
• Herald (2001–present)

This indicates the move from Plano, Illinois to Lamoni, Iowa occurred in 1876 or 1881. The move to Independence, Missouri, was gradual and the date of 1921 is also approximate. 

The Church spent about 40 years in Lamoni. 

As far as I know, it has no plans to put this important publication online.

The RLDS Church after WWII

During the War, it was a success by being like everyone else.

After the War, this no longer worked, it had to be something different to compete with all the other churches, especially the Evangelicals.

It gradually faded away, until it met its final end, and became the Community of Christ.

The US knew nothing of the USSR

At the end of WWII.

It's hard to believe now, but we had been allies during the War. And the War was won by the primitive conditions inside that huge country.

Military Intelligence on both sides was totally lacking. They only knew one thing: they had won the war, but they had no idea what to do next.

What happened next was the Cold War, which lasted forty years.

I benefitted from this. My father had benefitted from WWII, and I benefitted from the Cold War.

We became addicted to War. and we are now stuck in Afganistan, fighting another enemy we do not understand in the least.

People have decided to Get Even with their World

They are saying to it "You have not treated me very well, and now I am now going to treat you the same way!"

Dropbox

I have suffered because of this, and I want to tell you why.

Dropbox was made possible because of the Cloud, and it cannot be understood unless the Cloud is understood first. Wikipedia says:

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. The term is generally used to describe data centers available to many users over the Internet.

Dropbox (which is free) makes the cheap storage in the Cloud available to smaller users. 

Before we go into the details of how it can do this, we have to answer the question "Why does it want to do this?"

And the answer is "To make money for itself!" 

The Railroads did the same thing: the difference between what their service cost them, and what the user paid, went into their pockets. This was Capitalism: you paid money to make money. And this made everyone happy. 

Dropbox makes this easy for its users, but it could not make this perfectly easy. I will explain why. 

The Computer runs on Information. we have an Information Economy. Another word for Information is Data. And the presence of Big Computers makes Big Data possible - and profitable. 

That was a long statement, and I will shorten it to "Data is worth money!" And that is why Dropbox

is in business, To make money out of all the data people store in it. It can do this while protecting your privacy (it claims).

This a big claim, the same claim every cloud maker makes, and it is probably accurate. But you should be aware that they are using your data. You have to trust them to do the right thing with it.

If someone else wants to know what everyone else is doing on the Web, all they have to do is ask services such as Dropbox. Facebook also makes money this way - lots of money. 

We can now answer the questions "What is Dropbox? What can it do for me?" I will not go into any privacy questions.

Dropbox provides boxes that you can put your data in, In computers, data is contained in files. And this is what you put in your boxes.

You get a box for each of your devices  - a Laptop and a Phone, for example. And a box on their cloud.

You can get another box anywhere you want it, even in another country, as long as it has good Internet connections.

All of these boxes will contain the same data. Dropbox keeps track of all this data (using the Internet) and makes sure they are the same. You still with me?

On a laptop, you get a dropbox icon on your toolbar (on the bottom of the screen) you can click on, to get a handy window that displays all your files and information about each one.

Each time I add a photo to my Laptop, this also gets copied to my Dropbox. I have a folder there containing all my photos and videos.

As you can see, all this adds up to a lot of data, exactly what Dropbox wants. And for this reason, it makes it hard for you to delete data.

In case you missed the point, I will repeat it - Dropbox wants your data, and the more of it the better. In return, it gives you more data space. and helps you manage it. 

Once it's gone, it's gone

And it doesn't come back

---

What is it?
It might be your mind. Because when your mind (or a group mind) goes away, it is gone and doesn't come back.

Prairie Divide

An ambitious plan to restore the grasslands of the past faces impassioned resistance from the present.

This is in the February issue of the National Geographic, which I subscribe to.

Not too long ago, the government permitted some of the Indians to sell their tribal land. Which they prompted did, and bought drugs with the money. 

This was an experiment that did not work.

Humeston and Shenandoah Railway

Wiikipedia

I have been trying to discover the Railroad that ran through Lamoni, Iowa. This article has a few dates, but not much else. As Wikipedia says:

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Whatever this means. 

Few in the 19th Century were interested in keeping records. 

Fascinating Fascism

NY Review

Fascist aesthetics include but go far beyond the rather special celebration of the primitive to be found in The Nuba. They also flow from (and justify) a preoccupation with situations of control, submissive behavior, and extravagant effort; they exalt two seemingly opposite states, egomania, and servitude.

As I have said elsewhere, this also applies to the followers of Joseph Smith, 150 years after his death. 

Latter-Day Saint

Many churches use this as part of their title, without being embarrassed by it.

One exception is the RLDS church that changed its name to the Community of Christ, which is a more modest title and represents a break with its Mormon past.

All the other churches are still following Joseph Smith, 150 years after his death.

Censure

Merriam-Webster

This dictionary demonstrates the inadequacy of the American Senate, and the American People it represents.

Senator Manchin made this speech, and no one thought it unusual.

I knew a guy once who worked for the Congressional Record. He said his fellow-workers got a good laugh out of reading some of the speeches they were required to print.