Home

Civility in CyberSpace

11/23/2012

Brian Random Thoughts , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I’ve been trying to think of a good way to enlighten some of the younger generation that what they post on social media sites such as Facebook matters.  Not just photos, but the language they use.  Sometimes vulgar.  Sometimes profane. Sometimes just inconsiderate.  I don’t think I could have found a better means than this article.  The crassness of, mostly younger, Americans is bordering on the absurd.  While I understand blurting out in anger or frustration on the rare occasion of something REALLY appalling, I find it completely incomprehensible that people think it appropriate to use such language in everyday, casual “conversation”.  This though is for a later time.

Regarding what one puts on these social media sites, if you are not concerned about what your family and friends think, ok.  Although I’m curious as to why you wouldn’t be.  However, if you don’t think your employer (or potential employers) will find out, think again.  If you don’t think it will impact your career progression, think again.  If you don’t think it will affect your employability, think again.  And keep in mind,  it’s not like a “slip up” in the office or just whatever language you may use in the bar scene – things of  which there is no record and that will be forgotten over time (presuming they don’t impact you immediately).  I don’t want to suggest such things are ok.  Consider civility in all aspects of your life.  But always remember, what you post now will live in cyberspace forever!  Try and chalk it up to youth.  See how far that gets you.  Always think long-term.  Our 21stCentury technology has given us many advantages.  However, if you want to make the most of them, consider how you use that technology.  This is not the first instance and certainly will not be the last…  Consider the following:

=====

MSN News (22 Nov 12)

Mass. woman loses job after posting photo on Facebook

A Massachusetts woman who posted a controversial photo on Facebook of herself at Arlington National Cemetery with her middle finger raised has lost her job due to controversy over the picture.

A Plymouth, Mass., woman whose “clowning around” photo at Arlington National Cemetery became the focus of online furor after she posted it on Facebook has resigned her job due to the controversy.
Lindsey Stone, a Plymouth, Mass., resident, posted a photo of herself on Facebook with her middle finger raised and pretending to shout next to a sign asking for “silence and respect” near the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. The photo was taken by a co-worker, Jamie Schuh, when the two were on a business trip to Washington, D.C., last month.
The posting ignited an online furor that included a “Fire Lindsey Stone” page on Facebook. Stone apologized through her father, Peter Stone, according to a Washington, D.C., TV station. Her father said she was clowning around and was reacting to the sign and not Arlington Cemetery.
According to the Boston Herald, Stone has resigned from the Cape Cod nonprofit, LIFE Inc., that she worked for and her resignation has been accepted. In a posting on its Facebook page, LIFE Inc., said both Stone and Schuh were no longer employees of the nonprofit.
“We deeply regret any disrespect to members of the military and their families,” the LIFE Inc. post said. “The incident and publicity has been very upsetting to the learning disabled population we serve.”
Both Stone and Schuh had been placed on unpaid leave while LIFE Inc., which helps adults with special needs, investigated.The Boston Herald quoted her father as saying: “She’s not happy at all. She’s just devastated. She had no idea that she was going to hurt anybody. It was never her intention.”
>>> The day is at a close, the night is drawing in and my cigar awaits – ’til next time…

Why penguins can’t fly

11/22/2012

Brian Random Thoughts , , , , Leave a comment

My students wanted me to write a post explaining why penguins can’t fly (it was THE question on one of their course quizzes).  Although I’m giving it away for any future students that may read this (I can always change the quiz), as my Thanksgiving gift to them (and Christmas and all their birthdays and any other occasion upon which I wouldn’t give them a gift anyway), here goes…

Considering the four forces of flight (thrust, drag, lift, weight), Bernoulli’s Principle (an increase in the speed of the fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure), and Newton’s Second Law of Motion (F=ma); it is intuitively obvious why penguins cannot fly.  Let us begin with the forces of flight.  Penguins weigh a lot.  Lift must be generated to overcome that weight.  Lift is generated via relative wind across properly and appropriately designed airfoils.  Bernoulli’s Principle requires an airfoil, in this case the penguin’s wings, designed to create a pressure differential (lower on top, higher on bottom) large enough to lift the penguin.  This requires that relative wind previously mentioned.  Relative wind is generated through thrust.  Thrust must first overcome drag.  Have I mentioned that penguins weigh a lot?  Since F=ma, and taking into account the mass of a penguin and the penguins wings not being designed in such a way as to create any real lift, a force great enough to overcome said mass and accelerate it to a speed swift enough to generate the required relative wind thereby creating the needed pressure differential, and thus lift, is impossible for a penguin to achieve.

Of great note to many of them – I did not ONCE mention water.

>>> The day is just beginning, the night and my cigar are a distant thought – but ’til next time… Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thoughts from Xavier Lerma – Freelance writer for Pravda

11/20/2012

Brian Random Thoughts , , , , Leave a comment

Xavier Lerma, a freelance conservative writer and columnist for the Russian news organization, Pravda, living in Moscow had much to say today [20 Nov 2012] about the reelection of President Obama and the American people…

In 2009; Vladimir Putin who was Prime Minister of Russia at the time gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Lerma stated that Putin said that the world should avoid the Soviet mistake.

Interestingly enough, Lerma pointed out that Putin had said the following.

“We are reducing taxes on production, investing money in the economy. We are optimizing state expenses. The second possible mistake would be excessive interference into the economic life of the country and the absolute faith into the all-mightiness of the state. There are no grounds to suggest that by putting the responsibility over to the state, one can achieve better results…Unreasonable expansion of the budget deficit, accumulation of the national debt – are as destructive as an adventurous stock market game.”

“During the time of the Soviet Union the role of the state in economy was made absolute, which eventually lead to the total non-competitiveness of the economy. That lesson cost us very dearly. I am sure no one would want history to repeat itself.”

Lerma went on to say, “Well, any normal individual understands that as true but liberalism is a psychosis. O’bomber even keeps the war going along the Mexican border with projects like “fast and furious” and there is still no sign of ending it. He is a Communist without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so. How shrewd he is in America. His cult of personality mesmerizes those who cannot go beyond their ignorance. They will continue to follow him like those fools who still praise Lenin and Stalin in Russia. Obama’s fools and Stalin’s fools share the same drink of illusion.”

“Let’s give American voters the benefit of the doubt and say it was all voter fraud and not ignorance or stupidity in electing a man who does not even know what to do and refuses help from Russia when there was an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead we’ll say it’s true that the Communists usage of electronic voting was just a plan to manipulate the vote. Soros and his ownership of the company that counts the US votes in Spain helped put their puppet in power in the White House. According to the Huffington Post, residents in all 50 states have filed petitions to secede from the Unites States. We’ll say that these Americans are hostages to the Communists in power. How long will their government reign tyranny upon them?”

“Russia lost its’ civil war with the Reds and millions suffered torture and death for almost 75 years under the tyranny of the United Soviet Socialist Republic. Russians survived with a new and stronger faith in God and ever growing Christian Church. The question is how long will the once “Land of the Free” remain the United Socialist States of America? Their suffering has only begun,” said Lerma.

=====

I agree with much of what Mr. Lerma says.  However, his suggestion that Communists are in power here in the U.S. is overshooting a bit.  The current administration does not want Communism.  In the true sense, they would have to give up their power.  One of the reasons the USSR never made it that far (and I would suggest never actually tried).

According to Merriam-Webster, Socialism is any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and[/or] administration.  It is also a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between Capitalism and Communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.

The USSR stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  Although the ultimate goal was supposedly Communism (from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs), it was never actually achieved (nor do I believe, at that level of society, could it ever be).  The USSR never made it past Socialism where the government made the decisions.  Communism was expected to be a voluntary utopia.

However, from each according to what the government decides, to each the same, is the state in which the USSR got fixed and is where we in the US are now.  The difference is at least their leaders pretended to want to go further.  They pretended the desire to achieve that utopia.  Those currently in power in the U.S. have no desire to go beyond the Socialist state.  It would mean giving up control and giving in to a philosophy of equality.  As with the leaders of old in the USSR, they claim to protect the proletariat, they have no desire for equality with them.

Where Mr. Lerma is unquestionably correct is that the experiment of the USSR failed and so too will it here.  The only question we both seem to have is: how much damage will be done prior to enough people realizing it?

A future post will discuss my claim that we are now, and very well may forever be, the Union of American Socialist Republics.   A slight twist on what Mr. Lerma suggests. But believe it our not, I coined mine prior to actually reading his. He was close. I’m spot on.  While we will still be in union, I don’t believe we are, or will truly again be, united.  As well, states or no states, we are definitely republics.  Unfortunately, Socialist Republics governed by-in-large by those in leadership of the Socialist Union.

>>> The day is at a close, the night is drawing in and my cigar awaits – ’til next time…

Taxing the Wealthy

11/19/2012

Brian Random Thoughts , , , Leave a comment

On November 18, 2012, Op-Ed Columnist Paul Krugman (NY Times) made the following comments: “Consider the question of tax rates on the wealthy. The modern American right [sic], and much of the alleged center, is obsessed with the notion that low tax rates at the top are essential to growth.”  Mr. Krugman is, as are most Liberal pontificators, wrong.  The “modern American right [sic]” IS obsessed with the notion of FAIR tax rates for all and constitutional use of the taxpayer’s money.  However, he uses the rationale that “…in the 1950s incomes in the top bracket faced a marginal tax rate of 91, that’s right, 91 percent”.  And that “[t]he best estimates suggest that circa 1960 the top 0.01 percent of Americans paid an effective federal tax rate of more than 70 percent, twice what they pay today”.  He, of course, provides no objectives (necessary or otherwise) for the government’s USE of the money.  Just that there is no reason the government shouldn’t take it.  He ended his diatribe suggesting how well the country prospered under such conditions.  So many of these clueless Libs fail to take into account two very important things.  First, what would have been different for the American worker had the tax rate actually been reasonable?  Would not the additional capital in the hands of the job creators led to even more prosperity?  Far more than the government waste or give-away schemes?  Second, how many other people would have been motivated to “get rich” via entrepreneurship or increase investments in established companies and increase even more the number of high-paying jobs in the workforce?  The considered answer is quite obvious to even the most casual of observers.  Sucking every penny from those that provide jobs is quite ill-advised – or, phrased a less eloquent way, just say plain stupid.  The Modern American Left on the other hand is obsessed with the complete redistribution of wealth regardless of the long term impact to debt, unemployment, wages, etc.  People exist; therefore they must have things.  Somebody else has to pay for it?  Sorry.  They don’t have to work for it?  Of course not.  The Libs’ misguided and imprudent programs cannot be afforded by the “wealthy” when one considers that even taking every dime they have would not be enough.  Hence, the crushing debt.  Not due to too low tax rates but to there not being enough money in the country to pay for it all.  The absurdity of the Left’s position on this is beyond rational.

There will of course be more on this topic in the future.  It is just too easy to explain how wrong they are.  It just baffles me how they can draw so many theoretically intelligent people into their way of thinking.

>>> The day is at a close, the night is drawing in and my cigar awaits – ’til next time…

Apathy

11/18/2012

Brian Sunday Posts , , , Leave a comment

Let us start with APATHY.  In a single word, the encompassment of ALL problems in the world today.

I wanted to start with this to clear a few things up right away.  First, if you want to know why the world is in such dire straits (and have no doubt, it is), this is the reason.  Although I believe it has been in worse, I’m not sure the historic reason(s) can be attributed to apathy.  Second, as you read my posts in the future you may come to conclude that I have it.  But, of course, you’d be in error.  There is great difference between not caring and acknowledging the situation around you. Were I not to care, this blog would be superfluous to my end.  My goal is education.  My greatest adversary is apathy.

> Some have suggested ignorance is that single word.  I would of course disagree.  While everyone is born ignorant and to various extent remain ignorant about most things (there are countless things about which to know in this world), the ones whose ignorance is problematic are the ones to apathetic to educate themselves.  While people are born ignorant, and you really can’t fault them for that, many choose to stay that way – for that you can fault them.

>  It is though, what led to the circumstances of today. Little by little people are giving up.  It is easier (I will speak of this later spread across numerous blog entries) to just sit back and let others do what needs to be done.  Self-satisfaction…  Who needs it?  A true understanding of whatever topic one is addressing… why?

>  Read some newspaper article, usually written by those that lack the knowledge themselves and who refuse due diligence, and you are an expert. Why bother to actually do your own research?  Why bother to substantiate accuracy?  Apathy.

  • As an intelligence officer in the military I HAD to be correct.  Lives often depended on it.  I had not the luxury of a retraction.  Local/National news periodicals, CNN, NBC, etc can always say “oops”.  Often should.  Rarely do.  People then come to believe this is an acceptable manner of living their lives.  Why learn?  Just repeat.  If it is wrong, most won’t know anyway.  Apathy.

>  A few small examples – many more will follow:

  • Drivers that drive slow in the left lane.  Most (if not all) states in which I’ve driven require slower traffic to keep right.  Often times there are even road signs to that affect.  But do people do it?  Do they care if they are blocking traffic?  Do they care about the law?  Apparently not.  While it is not justification for “taking things into your own hands”, I can certainly understand the frustration of those wanting to get by.  And I believe many of them don’t even understand they are doing something wrong.  You may suggest that means they are ignorant, not apathetic.  You’ve be wrong.  While they may very well be ignorant, the fact that they don’t think enough about their fellow man to learn correct, courteous driving confirms their apathy.  On the other hand, if they DO know (as I suspect is the case in some instances), they are precariously apathetic.
  • Not signaling when changing lanes.  On my way to work one day I witnessed a car change lanes not less than 10 times (in the span of just a few miles).  Not once did he signal.  The one time I saw a signal, he didn’t change lanes.  This was during Rush Hour when many of his lane changes were dangerously close to other cars.  I have come to realize and acknowledge, if not complete accept, that these people are far more important than the rest of us and have places to go, people to see, and things to do.  All far more important than whatever the rest of us might have on our list for the day.  Forget HOV lanes.  Consider VIP lanes.  Would you need a special license plate?  How does one prove they are more important than the rest?  Apathy.
  • Wearing pajama in public. Saw one just the other day at Einstein’s Bagels.  Grow women (probably thirties) in PJs and slippers.  Seriously.  At hotels such as Embassy Suites where breakfast is offered.  It may be breakfast but it is still public.  Put some clothes on.  More on clothing on a different day.
  • According to the latest statistics from the US Census Bureau, between 1932 and 2010 the percentage of voting age population that voted in the general elections ranged from 49% (1996) to 63% (1960).  The latest election for which they have numbers showed a percentage of 58.  These are the people that run our country folks.  These are the people that make significant decisions about our lives.  These are the people that take and spend OUR money, send our military to war, determine how our children will be educated (more on this later as well).  And never in, at least, the last 80 years has even 2/3 of the population taken the time to vote.  Apathy.

>  I coined a “phrase” a few years back to describe those of my students that just didn’t care.  IDC. I Don’t Care.  I know – real original right?  But it captures the essence of so many today.

>  Is everyone apathetic? Certainly not.  However, I have concluded that we are reaching the “tipping point” [Malcolm Gladwell].  How little things can make a big difference.  Once you get past that tipping point you are gone.  Life as we know it is over.  Usually this is not good.  Since we are concerned here with the sociological aspects, as Gladwell states, “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do.”  Have we yet arrived at the tipping point in this country?  In the world?  I’m not sure we have.  However, I AM sure we are darn close.

>  This idea goes along with the “Butterfly Effect”.  In chaos theory, the Butterfly Effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, where a small change at one place in a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state [freedictionary.com].  In mathematics, a nonlinear system is one whose output is not directly proportional to its input.  Yes, I understand and LOVE the last few sentences.  Bottom line:  A butterfly can cause a hurricane.  A recent example – voting for a Socialist leadership results in higher taxes, increased debt, fewer jobs, etc. and, ultimately, the collapse of a society as it was formerly known.  Look at Europe.  Again, I’m not claim we, the US, have reached that tipping point.  However, it is clear a significant number of us don’t seem to care what the consequences of our actions are.  Maybe once they experience those consequences the apathy will subside.  Can you say “too late”?!  While I have no intention of turning this into a political blog, I can assure you there will be a few posts in the future concerning the recent choices of many in the US (as well as a suggested name change).

>  Can we change it?  Well, YOU can.  However, it may take quite a few of you to turn things around.  There are quite a few IDCs with which you are competing.  And THEY have a lot to lose.  Apathy has led to dependence.  Dependence leads to anger if support is removed.  Anger and apathy together is not a good combination.

>  It is going to come to a head in this country and this world at some point.  A new Dark Ages if you will (more on this later as well).  Some are even preparing.  I suspect I will no longer be when this occurs.  However, things do have a propensity in this day-in-age to move swiftly.

>  Again, I have just touched on the problem to bring it to light at the beginning.  Many of my future posts will have an apathy component.  I won’t necessarily tie them specifically to apathy.  I will often leave it to you, the reader, to make the connection.

>   “Remember, upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.”  –Alexander the Great

>>> The day is at a close, the night is drawing in and my cigar awaits – ’til next time…

John Wayne once said, “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” (Hondo, Warnercolor, 1953)

11/11/2012

Brian Initial Leave a comment

In this case, a man’s gotta write what a man’s gotta write.  Why?  Because the world DESERVES to know.

We have issues.  Everyone has issues.  Man made issues.  Forget about Global Warming.  The earth can take care of itself.  That is not to suggest we should pollute with abandon.  Just focus on things about which we should really do something.

>  First, I am not a “certified” expert on anything.  Nevertheless, as a relatively intelligent person with many God given talents, I ensure am unquestionably qualified to communicate valuable opinions (vice preferences) on all topics about which I will write.  There is nothing about which I will write that a “normal”, relatively intelligent, thinking person could not come up on their own.  However, few apparently do.  And many, that may or may not actually think, ignore the obvious.  For convenience, for power, for notoriety, for whatever.  Therefore, I have taken the burden upon myself to grace humanity with a written account of what they SHOULD already know and practice.  You are welcome.

>  Second, there is no logic put into the arrangement or order of my topics.  I discuss ideas as they pop into my head.  All logic is reserved for the individual discussion topics.

Finally, this is not intended to be a political site.  However, on occasion I will post thoughts on political issues.  Do not take this as a vote for or against any political party (as mentioned on my “About” page, I am a Conservative but a registered Independent”) or individual.  Take the thoughts for what they are worth.  Something to consider.

Two things I always keep in mind:

-Alexander the Great once said, “Remember, upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.”

-It is attributed to Edmund Burke having once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

With that in mind, let us progress to those topics of import…

>>> The day is at a close, the night is drawing in and my cigar awaits – ’til next time…

Newer Entries