Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

A had a thought a few days ago, and it had to do with the Drake Equation, which is not  so  much of an equation as it is  a checklist, and a couple of those items have already  been ticked off, since there’s so much more we know about space  than we did  in 1961, when Frank Drake wrote it.

Now we know that there there are lots and lots of suns which have planets, some have lots and lots of planets, lots of planets and even moons and comets have water, so we’re getting real close to the ‘planets with life’ number being really, really high.
It seems likely that intelligent life would be really  high, too.  Human beings are not the largest animal on the planet, not the swiftest, not the most numerous. not the stealthiest or best camouflaged, not the one with the keenest hearing, eyesight, sense of smell, or taste, or anything.  We dominate the planet, we dominate the food chain, we are at the peak of terran evolution because we are intelligent.  A very useful power.

It seems logical that this development should occur wherever evolution occurs.

Now, to the last part, and the next part.  Length of time you can expect an intelligent species to last before it self-destructs, or its planet gets burned up in s Super Nova, or whatever.  And I suspect we can split  those into two groups.  On our planet, so far, it’s 65 billion years and counting.  But, 20 thousand, 65 million, or 100 billion, those will be one kind.  The other kind will be ‘never.’  Once a species colonizes a few planets beyond their own solar system, there  is no reason to assume they will ever go extinct (unless the whole universe does, which  may or may not happen billion of years from now).

So, among the space faring species (this is the idea I had, the point  I am trying to make in this blog) there are probably 3 types, based on the different ways they might inter-react with us.

There are the malevolent ones, the monsters.  They mutilate cattle, they kidnap people and anally  probe them, they want to destroy the Earth, or enslave us, or eat us, or something.

There are the benevolent ones, who want to invite us into the Federation, teach us  more about the universe and aid us in our development as a species.

There are the indifferent ones.

So, where is everybody?

We know type 1 and 2 have never visited, because they would have made themselves known.  The indifferent ones, however, may pop into the atmosphere and take a look, before moving on.  I can’t say as I blame them.

Of course  I am saddened by  Bernie’s speech, and expect that, barring  a  miracle like the FBI connecting  the dots between Seth Rich’s murder  and John  Ashe’s murder, Hillary  Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.

That sucks.  It means the oil companies will be able  to frack the fuck out  of anywhere on the planet they  please.  It means corporations  becoming even more entrenched with government than they are.  It could verywell mean war.

But one other thing I’m really upset  about is the reaction of so  many Sanderistas.  Calling Bernie a sellout.  And a traitor.  That is uncalled for.  He is not stabbing us in  the back.  He’s a pragmatic politician.  I think he’s playing his best hand to get  what  he thinks we can  get, and it’s really not good enough, but that  is not Bernie’s fault.

A few things to remember.

There will still be 1900 Sanders delegates in the first round.  Superdelegates are still going to have to deal with  their consciences  but, seeing  as how so many of them have none, that’s  not likely to hurt  her  either, even if she’s been flat out indicted on  one  of the major charges  pending.

The important thing is  what happens to the Bernie Sanders  movement, this massive wave of political  energy which has  built up and now  has nowhere  to go.  We should focus on getting candidates onto the ballot – Berniecrats – in all districts, state  and federal,  in 2018.  We should have some discussions about  what  our main  goals are.

As to November, our options are as follows:  Vote for  Jill Stein, or write in  Bernie Sanders.  Whichever way  that  goes, we probably should have  an  open and honest  discussion about it and get everybody on  the  same page.

Some people I know will be  voting for Hillary.  I’m not  going to cut them out of my life, although I don’t think much  of their decision.  Some people I know will be voting for Trump.

But I’m not talking  about them.  For progressives, the options are limited to the first  two.  Unless  Bernie actually does get the nomination.  Miracles have been known to happen.

Now, I never got into the whole Pokemon  thing because I just assumed it was for little kids, but maybe I was wrong.  I’ve also never  been too big  on computer games.  I’ve never played Farmville,  or Candy  Crush, or The Sims, or Minecraft,or any of them.

I suppose to some I must seem a dull,humorless type seeing as how I spend all my computer time arguing  about politics,  writing this blog, writing  poetry, and….well, that’s about  it,  really.

So, I’m not the most qualified  person  in the  world to be a social  media critic.  Nonetheless, this Pokemon Go game seems to be  taking the world by storm, I’ve read a few news  articles about it, and I’ve got  some  opinions, so here they are.

It’s a good  thing that it’s getting  gamers out  of doors,  interacting with the real world.  A teenager  in Wyoming, looking for Pokemon along the Riverside, found a dead body.  A bit traumatic for her, but  better found than  unfound.  On the other hand, some  accidents have been reported (as dangerous as selfies or texting? maybe), and some people  have figured  out  how to use it to  lure victims in for  a robbery.  So,  kinks are being  worked  out, and  people  need to be careful.
It strikes  me  that the reason for  it’s popularity is that people  do want  to inter-react with the real world, probably always  have, but it’s not easy  in this age of  alienation.  This game may provide a starting point,a bridge for people who mostly know how to inter-react online.  That,too, is a good thing.

It’s kind of like what Google Glasses wanted to be, i.e. a merging  of the real and cyber  worlds, but  for  some  reason that  didn’t  catch  on the  same  way.  Because  people like games.  Silly, silly games.

Will I play it?  Nah, still not a gamer.  No appeal to me, I’m not  even terribly curious.  But, it’s an important social  trend, so I’ll be  paying  attention.

The flat is very empty  now, Sam is on a bus on his  way  to Innsbruck where he’ll be staying with his friend for a  week and Isabel is with her Grandmother, Uncle, Aunt, and cousins in Croatia, they drove down yesterday and will be there a week.
Seeing somebody off  at the bus station (Florenc, in this case) is always  an experience, seeing gaggles of tourists, a group of Japanese girls, a somewhat scruffier group of English speakers, mostly Americans, some may have just been  going to Budejovice, a lovely Czech town which was the bus’s first stop, some to Austria and some to Italy, but all moving from one place to another, changing their scene, changing their lives.

Helena commented how much the  bus was like a plane, with the overhead bins, the screen behind each seat for entertainment, there will probably be a stewardess going up and down the aisle offering drinks.  Being a night bus, most people will probably sleep, and wake up tomorrow morning in a completely different city.

To all who  are traveling tonight, wherever you are in the world,  I wish you a safe and pleasant trip.  Good night.

I loved that  movie.  Sure, it was kind of a suspension of disbelief, action-adventure copraganda film, but there was lots of action, a believable sci-fi premise, and lots of zingers.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, so I might not be remembering this accurately, but one  of my favorite scenes is when the crooked chief of police, or maybe it was the crooked mayor, fired him.  That immediately released him from his oath of office and he said “Thank you,” grabbed the guy and threw him out of a window.  Very satisfying.

So, while wondering what to think about the fact that police killed the sniper yesterday by sending in Robbie the Robot with a bomb, that’s the scene that springs to mind.  Using robots to do police work may backfire on the police.  If they are designed and programmed well, i.e. to truly protect and serve the public, it will inevitably lead to problems for bad, or even inefficient cops.

It may not be long before robots take over most police work.  Already, a lot of traffic violations are caught by cameras, and police cameras are a sort of a robot.  They could be programmed to direct traffic very easily.

Once they are built, they don’t actually need to be paid, so municipalities could not only save a bundle, they could put as many androids out there walking a beat as they need to.  They don’t need to kill anybody.  They just need to take pictures, occasionally stop a suspicious looking character and ask for ID, which they could be programmed to do very politely, and they would never violate their programming, and maybe even apprehend a fleeing person now and then.  They wouldn’t need guns.  They could have telescopic arms 20 feet long, with a rubber grabber claw at the end.
They could definitely serve as prison guards.

The problem, of course, is what would happen to all the people who want to be cops and are suddenly denied that opportunity.  Not to worry.  They can always go into professional cage fighting.