Category: government

Influx by Daniel Suarez – a review

On By Rick McIn books, governmentLeave a comment

… a world in which decades of technological advances have been suppressed in an effort to prevent disruptive change. …

Particle physicist Jon Grady is ecstatic when his team achieves what they’ve been working toward for years: a device that can reflect gravity.

Their research will revolutionize the field of physics—the crowning achievement of a career. Grady expects widespread acclaim for his entire team. The Nobel Prize. Instead, his lab is locked down by a shadowy organization whose mission is to prevent at all costs the social upheaval sudden technological advances bring. This Bureau of Technology Control uses the advanced technologies they have harvested over the decades to fulfill their mission. …

Amazon

influx

“Influx” isn’t different, deep down, from the “suppressed new invention” plot used by Robert Heinlein, Ursula K. Le Guin, Poul Anderson and many others going back to H.G. Wells himself. …

WSJ review

The highlight for me were scenes where people can alter their own gravity fields, with very interesting effect. It would make a great film.

An Artificial Intelligence is directed to kill the heroes of the book. But the AI is conflicted. The computer does both. Tries to kill. And tries to save, both at the same time. 🙂

Daniel Suarez is a darling of the Tech / Geek crowd.

Daniel Suarez (born December 21, 1964) is an American information technology consultant turned author. He initially published under the pseudonym Leinad Zeraus (his name spelled backwards).

His career as an author began with a pair of techno-thriller novels. The first one, Daemon, originally was self-published under his own company Verdugo Press in late 2006. It was later picked up by the major publishing house Dutton and re-released on January 8, 2009. His follow-up book Freedom TM was released on January 7, 2010.

… Kill Decision, was released on July 19, 2012. His latest book, Influx, was released on February 20, 2014 …

The Daemon (2 book series) is brilliant. Kill Decision and Influx are not nearly as brillian. But they are still good.

I recommend Influx. And will continue to buy his books into the future.

rated 3.92 / 5.00 on Goodreads

less skeptical about Global Warming

On By Rick McIn climate change, economics, government, things getting worseLeave a comment

Though the majority of scientists think the Earth is warming, most believing it being somehow caused by you and me, I’ve remained skeptical.

Until now.

I was a skeptic because the time frames cited were in the 10s or 100s of years. That’s NOTHING in geological terms.

But long term data like this via the Washington Post are more convincing.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

If that data is solid, “warming” looks real enough to me.

Key glaciers in West Antarctica are in an irreversible retreat, a study team led by the US space agency (Nasa) says.

It analysed 40 years of observations of six big ice streams draining into the Amundsen Bay and concluded that nothing now can stop them melting away. …
BBC

If those glaciers really do disappear, over the projected next couple of hundred years, they would add roughly 1.2m to global sea level rise.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the Earth is warming. … What do we do about it that would actually have any positive effect long term? And what would it cost? 😦

related – the NASA press release

email openinternet@fcc.gov

On By Rick McIn economics, government, internet, product complaintsLeave a comment

… the FCC voted to move forward with their new proposed net neutrality rules. While somewhat tempered from the original rumored proposal, the proposed rule is still far-sweeping and controversial. …

If you have strong feelings about the proposed rule, now’s your time to be heard. …

The e-mail inbox the FCC set up for accepting comments …

openinternet@fcc.gov

Consumerist – How To Tell The FCC Exactly What You Think About The Proposed Net Neutrality Rule

open internet

Here’s the message I sent them:

faster internet, wider delivery and more competition

Tell me honestly that Wheeler’s current proposal will result in faster internet, wider delivery and more competition.

You can’t.

It won’t.

We want what they have in Korea, Japan and Europe. Or better.

DISAPPOINTED in the FCC and the Obama government. This is the kind of anti-competitive legislation I’d expect from Republicans.

Mike Elgan has 3,291,744 followers on Google+.

https://plus.google.com/+MikeElgan/posts/DQQmXzwrpAi

I trust his opinion as do hundreds of thousands of others. His opinion is my opinion:

Wheeler has managed to forward his proposal to kill net neutrality in a country where almost everybody wants net neutrality. He’s doing it by exploiting the ignorance, gullibility and passivity of the public, the anti-regulation platform of the political right and truckloads of money from the industry he serves at the expense of the public. …

read on … How Tom Wheeler’s FCC plan will wreck your Internet.

email openinternet@fcc.gov

Or don’t complain if your Internet service is slow, expensive and crappy in future.

17-year-old Tea Party candidate

On By Rick McIn government, things getting worseLeave a comment

In some Republican districts, ANYONE who comes out MORE right wing gets elected. It’s a protest vote.

SairaBlairAd-405px

Does a 17yr-old have enough life experience to govern?

I don’t think so. The Tea Party is a valuable protest movement, like Occupy Wall Street, but it’s foolish to consider many of their candidates qualified to govern.

Less than a month before graduating from high school, a West Virginia teen has won her first election. 17-year-old Saira Blair ran in the Republican primary for state delegate and beat the incumbent state lawmaker Larry Krump …

The impressive west Virginia teen may have won the GOP primary, but what does that mean for her and what does it mean for the Republican party? …

In her own words, she is pro-life, pro-gun, pro-marriage, pro-family, pro-business, pro-jobs and pro-West Virginia. As a Republican platform, those stances are easy to unpack. She opposes abortion, She is against gun control. She is against gay marriage. She wants small government and few government regulations on business. She wants to cut taxes. …

Without taking away from the obviously impressing and interesting story that she has created in West Virginia by winning the GOP primary, her qualifications for being a political leader should definitely be in question. …

Opinion By Lydia Bradbury

Saira is getting some positive press, even from an organization her Tea Party boosters would like to ban, the NPR.

Wish her luck.
___

related – A couple of people reminded me of 19-year-old, Pierre-Luc Dusseault, the youngest person ever elected to Canadian Parliament. He gave up his summer job at the Golf Course to sit as an MP.

He was one of a “motley crew of political newcomers” to be elected in that bizarre protest vote against the Bloc Quebecois.

right wing “echo chamber”

On By Rick McIn bad news, economics, ethics, GOP USA, government, product complaints, TVLeave a comment

People ask me why I’m so agitated by the Tea Party and other right wing gasbags. And not nearly as much irked by soft-headed, left wing muddled thinkers.

What makes me mad is disinformation.

Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth. Disinformation should not be confused with misinformation, information that is unintentionally false.

The left wing often spreads misinformation. Poorly.

In the USA (but not in Canada) people make money in the right wing media echo chamber.

In media, an echo chamber is a situation in which information, ideas, or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission and repetition inside an “enclosed” system, often drowning out different or competing views. …

One purveyor of information will make a claim, which many like-minded people then repeat, overhear, and repeat again (often in an exaggerated or otherwise distorted form) until most people assume that some extreme variation of the story is true. …

I love seeing Jon Stewart and Colbert call out the disinformers.

One of the worst is Glenn Beck, “with his violent rhetoric, his frequent and absurd fear-mongering, his nasty vitriol, his “jokes” about assassinating government officials, his baseless conspiracy theories, his race-baiting, his flat-out, bald-faced lies, his many hypocrisies … ”

Well said.

beck-blackboard-coming

Beck left FOX in 2011. But is worth about $90 million today. The more he lies, the more money he makes.

Rush Limbaugh makes around $66 million / year.

The main motivation for those two, Bill O’Reilly and others, is money. I don’t trust a word they say.

FOX and the echo chamber endless repeat daily “talking points“. It’s incredibly boring to count the repetitions of the talking points of the day.

talking points

related – NY Times opinion piece 2013 – Suffocating Echo Chamber

tea seller to Prime Minister

On By Rick McIn economics, government, IslamLeave a comment

Despite a low caste upbringing, Narendra Modi has been elected Prime Minister of India.

ModiTimeCover

Votes counted so far suggest the BJP is on course for the most resounding victory by any party for 30 years, trouncing the outgoing Congress Party.

The controversial leader campaigned on promises to revive the economy. …

BBC – Indian election: Narendra Modi hails ‘landmark’ win

He’s criticized for being too pro-Hindu, anti-Muslim.

problems with the USA

On By Rick McIn Apple, economics, education, Google, governmentLeave a comment

I’ve got a love / hate relationship.

Many of the best and brightest I know are from the States. The best Gymnastics club. The best Gymnastics equipment company.

Apple and Google are from the USA.

Americans are the most innovative.

But my best guess is that the USA will go down the crapper fast, rather than have a graceful decline as did Great Britain.

There’s a fair bit of truth in this graphic.

problem with the USA

The U.S. government gridlock looks to be continuing for at least the next 6 years.

Republicans are not going to change fast enough to make major improvement.

The Democrats seem to want to copy Republican policy, for the most part. There’s been no serious attempt to improve anything under Obama, aside from a very slight fix of Health Care.

Merde. 😦

separation of Church & State

On By Rick McIn ethics, GOP USA, government, humour, Islam, philosophyLeave a comment

Yep.

That’s a no brainer.

Church and State

The separation of church and state is the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state.

If you value freedom, including religious freedom, you should support the separation of Church & State.

The government should have no involvement in your religion as they should have no involvement in your sex life. So long as you abide by the secular laws of the land.

If your religious practice breaks the law, you go to jail. If you cannot live with that, you must leave the nation. Immigrate to a theocracy, perhaps.

Some American Christians are intolerant.

The kind constantly quoting the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is an expression of fealty to the federal flag and the republic of the United States of America, originally composed by Francis Bellamy in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942.

The official name of The Pledge of Allegiance was adopted in 1945. The last change in language came on Flag Day 1954 when the words “under God” were added.

Here’s the original version (1892) of the start of the pledge:

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

I got on to this topic after seeing right wing Americans irritated and hateful over this incident from Jan 2013.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.


 
A school Cultural club read the Pledge of Allegiance in different languages, one of them Arabic. In that one replacing “God” with “Allah”.

To me the Pledge is just words on paper. Not sacred. Even less a sacred cow than the U.S. Constitution.

Here’s the funniest commentary on the Pledge of Allegiance I’ve seen.

The Whitest Kids U’ Know – Pledge of Allegiance

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

NRA does not fight a gun law!

On By Rick McIn ethics, firearms, government, things getting betterLeave a comment

Historically the National Rifle Association prioritized education, training and regulation of firearms. They were the safety advocates.

By sometime in the 1990s their main story changed to fighting any kind of gun legislation, no matter how minor, no matter how sensible.

Rather than discuss pros and cons, NRA talking headz shouted “Second Amendment” — as if it was Holy Scripture.

They became shills for the corporations who sell weapons.

But here’s a bit of good news.

… a new law in Washington State that will require spouses under domestic abuse orders to surrender their guns to authorities. This is no small matter. Intimate partner homicides account for nearly half the women killed each year, and more than half of these women are murdered with guns, according to federal statistics.

The surprising twist in the enactment of the Washington law was that the N.R.A. traditionally has fought hard against such legislation as a violation of Second Amendment freedom — but not this time. The law was signed by Gov. Jay Inslee last month after unanimous approval by the legislature once the gun lobby backed off from its standard tactic of political retaliation. “This is an election year, and no candidate wants to be portrayed as letting domestic abusers keep their guns,” said the Democratic sponsor, Representative Roger Goodman. …

NY Times

HB-1840-Washington

True gundamentalists should cancel their NRA membership. The NRA has sold out to … reason and common sense. 🙂

Here’s a pro-gun site called Enemy of the State™ railing against this legislation.

related – Michael Enright – Annie Get Your Gun: Michael’s Essay:

It is awfully hard to say something positive about the National Rifle Association, every mass murderer’s friend. …