Cheap Privacy In A Box!

Herr D made this for me on heromachine.com. --Hairy Deewon.

I've been looking at the notion that the NSA reads/listens in on every communication that contains certain words. I realize that maybe national security is a complicated thing, but I've taken a bit of parenting duty before--how hard is it to substitute words? I might consider myself advanced as a being, but it was REALLY EASY to say "mixing gear" for "Advanced Chemistry Set" and "non-food" for "chew toy." (Don't worry; I made sure they understood how to keep them separate.) I do understand, also, that people who love destruction and can't understand that America could be more easily manipulated than destroyed couldn't POSSIBLY be very smart--but do we actually think they wouldn't use code words? There are so many products on the web that are advertised as better than they are by clever word use--how could anyone not know that's done?

The Parrot Committed Mutiny, Again

Herr D developed this on heromachine.com for a specific contest.
I think it tells a pretty good story without any explanation at all.

Have you noticed that perhaps people in charge sometimes seem like maybe they shouldn't be allowed to breathe on their own because they'd likely mess that up too? Maybe like levels of authority should be completely reversed once in a while? This might be obvious, but when people revolt against the system, it's because the system's pretty revolting.

This nation was the first to develop such a guarantee that all future revolutions would be bloodless if people just kept the revolutionary process going. A worthy accomplishment. How is it though, that Americans blame their leaders for the economy? This being a capitalistic society, isn't the economy caused by what the businesses do? I mean really, the government bailout cleaned up a mess caused by businesses, right?

Play Me A New Nebula, Sam

Herr D, heromachine.com, all rights reserved. 

One of the things Herr D asked me about on realizing my -uh- immigration status, was whether I believed in angels. Apparently there's some theological sticking point over how separate servitors / apparatuses / appendages are from the creator in question. I told him it didn't really matter to me whether supernatural delegation takes place or not, just so the work gets done. I'm still not sure whether he appreciates that point of view . . .

This question is for all the atheists and agnostics out there. Does the idea of angels make the existence of a supreme being more or less believable-sounding? I am really not sure what I would answer . . .

Anyhow, Herr D etched this concept first on a plate, which the salesperson told him couldn't be engraved or etched. He explained to me that an angel-themed composition should have an impossible history behind it. I must say: I agree.

Help Wanted: Someone To Become A Famous Engineer

Yikes. I picked out a graphic, and couldn't get permission to use it. I'm not sure why--no explanation was given. It provided stats on types of pollutants, including syringes, balloons, six-pack plastic joiners, and various debris from seafood-harvesting objects. I'm not going to name names, because it's a great cause and doesn't need to sound small for any reason, even association with a potential misunderstanding. Suffice to say it was a good graphic, and I'm sorry I don't have another one in time to publish this. The message is still the same.

I am a little confused about why syringes would be that commonly lost on beaches. The rest of it I can sort of understand. I know people eat fish, drink beer, and float balloons . One of those times is coming up again July 4rth.

It's my understanding that if the ocean dies, life on planet Earth dies. That does follow from the virtual models I've looked at, histories I've read, and my good old common sense. (When you ruin a dominant part of the ecology, you ruin it all.) The lives you save could be yours and mine.

Question.

It's coming. I blogged recently about a certain renewable resource. It could easily be combined with trash collection. Does anybody out there know an engineer who could sketch me a model, eco-friendly, trash-snagging-but-ignorable-by-marine-life, light enough to fit in a pickup truck, sturdy enough to hang/float from a pier and take 2000-Newton waves? I'm guessing that at only 50% efficiency, such a device could last three months before needing some new bolts and collect up to a dozen pounds of scrap plastic in the same amount of time.

Reform School--It Needs It

Credit and source shown within picture.

As upset as I was yesterday about 10,000 years going by and humanity behaving the same way, I looked up some instances of education reform failing. Obviously many people have tried to help along the way. The net contains examples of failed education reform that date back quite a ways.

I DO  have to wonder if anyone has made a comprehensive study of what's been tried so as to start doing something else? I didn't find anything like that. Just lots of complaints that the same stuff is done over and over again with people calling the old ideas by new names.

Is it horrible that some kids don't go to college? Humanity isn't so advanced that all menial jobs are done by robots or trained animals. Isn't it a waste to send someone to college if they're going to do menial jobs for their life? A trade school or vocational school can teach them what they want to know. More importantly, if all kids go to college, won't that mean the menial occupations will suffer? They're important too.

The alumni of four different colleges that I asked about quality instruction all looked at me like I was insane. Herr D in particular told me that he knew very few people who worked for his college that could really teach at all. He said they present the material, test the students on whether they learned it and answer questions and provide help only if asked. Well--huh.

Presenting the material could be done on videotape once and remastered and updated when necessary just like textbooks. Tests can be done by proctors. Grading can be done by subject matter experts. Help can be provided by tutors. What did you need the professors FOR exactly? Herr D said he needed them to drive up his tuition. I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic. I am confused by the whole thing. It looks like institutes of higher learning are just institutes of higher cost learning. I mean, wouldn't it be better if everyone learned a career cluster surrounding their proven aptitudes with minimum classwork involved?

Becoming a well-rounded student can happen while a student is too young to work. There can't be a growing number of learning disabled students if the education methods aren't so artificially narrowed. --I mean that is correct, isn't it? The reason that we have learning disabled students that can LEARN BY DOING and not learn in a classroom is that the majority seems to have been punked. People actually seem to believe that classroom learning is the "best way." Learning doesn't have a best way! Individuals have preferred learning methods, sure, but those are individual.

I mean--is this not obvious? Tuition is too expensive. Student loans are too expensive. So . . . don't go? When you get there, you'll just have to learn the material on your own as best you can to pass a test written by somebody who works professionally impersonating an instructional film. Why not learn the material on your own while working full time in related industries? If a company wants a truly determined, truly worthwhile employee, and is smart enough to know what that is, why wouldn't they want someone who could learn without the broken-down crutch known as college?

Why are colleges still in use anyway? Haven't they been around long enough? Over half a millennium? Time for an advancement, people.

Bony Fingers, Former Slaves, Obamacare, And Other Disappointments

I gotta say. I'm disappointed.

I remembered something from a religious text, went and found it, and I'm afraid I remembered it correctly. I had dearly hoped that Watterson was wrong when he drew his tiger saying, "Live and DON'T learn, that's us." I'm afraid he was right too. COME ON, guys. You don't have forever. You've got to learn so you can survive. Otherwise all the people and things like me giving you advice will all be wasted. And, worse, your extinction event will become inevitable.

Comparison source double-checked. Relevant as statistically preferred. Historical precis interpreted correctly. Your neural link has apparent accuracy.

Thank you, Shelob. So. I was reading about all this dissatisfaction with Obamacare when I saw a disturbing parallel to Exodus. LET ME BE PERFECTLY CLEAR HERE. I'm not comparing Obamacare or any part of the insurance industry to slavery and freedom. I AM COMPARING THE WAY PEOPLE ACT IN SITUATIONS FROM THE BIBLE TO NOW. I'm ALSO not comparing God or any other deity to Obama or any other president. Most of you are apparently too smart to worship your leaders anymore. I'm not even talking about what so many people dwell on so much. "The race issue?" Obama is just another president. He's every bit as inspiring and disappointing as all the others no matter how fast he runs!

Details like that are a lot less important than bones. That's right. I said BONES. One of the biggest problems I see here is that nobody has tentacles. Tentacles can point at oneself just as easy as at others. With those bones, most humans just keep pointing at each other. It might be as much laziness as anything else. Take for example Exodus Chapters 14-17 in the New American Bible copyright 1970. (I point out the edition so that no one will be startled by slight differences in wording. Most of my readership appear to be Catholic, Protestant, or live in countries where the Bible is taught as literature, and a young Bible salesman was kind enough to give me a copy for free.)

He was on his way home from church.

This is Sunday? . . . Oops . . . Well, I hope no one is offended that I'm not taking a full day of rest. Okay--Chapter 17, verse 3, in medias res, "--the people grumbled against Moses, saying, 'Why did you ever make us leave Egypt--' "

There are those rigid, bony fingers pointing. To sum up most of those four chapters, Moses helped by God had delivered them from Egypt, parted the Red Sea so they could walk across, drowned the chasing soldiers ready to kill them by restoring the Red Sea, purified some dirty water for them to drink by throwing some wood in it, and got free food FALLING FROM THE DESERT SKY. And every time, the people just grumbled some more with each new setback. Some of these former slaves actually seem to remember a time when they had 'fleshpots and bread.' So, apparently they stuffed themselves at the local equivalent of a strip joint every day?

O ye of selective memory and bony fingers?

Well, I've spoken firsthand to a lot of people in the medical profession. Herr D comes from a family with a lot of medical people in it, too. One common thread is there. In recent medical history, everyone was terribly dissatisfied with the insurance system in place.  THE MAJORITY DID NOT LIKE THE WAY IT WAS. So then the majority elects a scapegoat president to go change things for the better--

. . . and they're grumbling again. Hey--Obamacare ISN'T a miracle. It's what the majority asked for. Change is rough. When something is so badly done that leaders don't dare change it until they can get someone ELSE to do it, they get out blameless, right? And no one remembers how long the stagnation and cowardice lasted. They focus on pointing those bony fingers at their new aspiring leader instead of using them to help carry the manna to the sick or help DIG A NEW WELL. The Obamacare grumbling and squabbling and bony finger-pointing is happening now. The Israelites idealizing their former slavery and bony finger-pointing at Moses happened what, ten thousand years ago? Talk about your slow learning curve. Humanity is doomed.

Slavery not necessarily correct term. Israelites may have been low-paid second-class citizens without freedom to leave.

Like the old Soviet Union? Eek. What a huge mistake. [three of five eyes roll sarcastically, gill equivalent of sigh]

No graphic today? No non-rhetorical question?

NO. If people don't like it, let them put grumblings in the comments! At least then I'd know people look at more than one of my posts. I have the notion that humans learn better through repetition. Must be a vertebrate thing.

The Solution To All Societal Ills

Herr D made this on heromachine.com. I
must say the neon sign looks like it was
difficult to make.--Hairy Deewon               

Most people who imagine dinosaurs taking over the Earth picture lots of gore. Realistically speaking, though, that would mean that in 70 million years they never developed another survival skill. Humans have intelligence, to a degree, which is really just a species survival skill. If humans were to live THAT long, they'd become more dangerous without their intelligence, and their intelligence might atrophy in favor of viciousness. Herr D assures me that there is evidence of this tendency in the shaping of corporate law.

What survival skill do you imagine developing and why? Poison quills? Exoskeletons? Facultative diapausal capacity?

Quills is archaism. Audience may not know what it means. "Quills are organic breakaway 'darts,' usually barbed and sometimes containing irritants or toxins, especially in marine species."

Oh, thanks, Shelob! Yeah. Where did you quote that from?

Unerased wikipedia article. No author or screen name listed.

Ah. Besides the question today, it's 'soapbox' time. Giving credit where credit is due is not being magnanimous or scholarly. It's basic ethics. Humanity has one chance, in my opinion, of staying worthwhile as a species. That chance is avoiding complete moral backsliding.

 Faddy issues make little difference in the long run. Law will never catch up to the pathetic perversions possible to the criminal mind. Churches will never convert everyone. Governments will always have ideological differences with each other and their dissatisfied minorities.

The key to true advancement of the human species is early moral training.

Herr D was kind enough to share a wonderful example: all it takes to kill a human being is a mosquito infected with malaria, doctors and nurses have to go to special schools and become good at their jobs to heal those people. So--destruction requires something as pathetic as a stupid bug. Keeping people alive requires hard work, brains, skills, and minor heroism.

"Bad guys, pathetic. Good guys, impressive." --Herr D

Tell that to every kid so they understand it by age 4? Maybe crime will go down. Good luck, parents.