Punishment of the Innocents

Last gym day of the week, and pleasantly sparse with folks, especially boisterous educationalists. As shule winds down its session, they get fewer and fewer, which, of course, leads to the hypothesis that educationalists exercise in direct proportion to the teaching (?) of students?

Anyway, much ado about the Yankee government scandal over the Internal Revenue Service investigating special interest non-taxable groups. From my experience with the IRS, its the non-taxable part that attracts the boll, they could care less about one’s politics so long as taxes are paid with proper humility and proskynesis.

It has become evident however, from the posturing of the chief executive, that a stage of post-glitch governmental operations has been reached known as the “Punishment of the Innocents.” This usually follow the “Hiding of the Guilt” phase. At this point the YG will conduct an investigation that will – probably – determine that career civil servants acted improperly and will be severely punished by being fired or worse. This will not be what actually happened; it is only a scapegoat activity. What likely actually happened is some overzealous political appointee (and yes, I know that is redundant) will have instructed the civil servants who work for this pol to do this evil.

Why do such happen? Simply, because we have political appointees. They have no controls other than elected politicians who appointed them. And civil servants cannot talk to the elected politicians. So any improper or illegal instructions from a political appointee have to be obeyed or the civil servants will be fired or labeled whistleblowers.

This is the tyranny of modern bureaucratic democracy. We do not trust those who work for us but we do trust those who steal from us.

And we punish those who work.

government, politics, tyranny, evil

Shule Show

Two day, and the gum was relatively deserted. Must be getting close enough to summer for the denials to mount up. Science podcasts today and aside from a rather extended discussion of dark energy on one of the NPR ‘casts, not particularly sticky. So unsticky in fact that I find myself at a loss to offer comments on anything.

Except a rather naive segment on a road show aimed at exposing high shule students to climate change. The come-on is that climate change isn’t taught in public shules. Thud. Flat.

Why isn’t it taught? Probably for the same reason that evolution isn’t and mysticism is. Political pressure. It isn’t on the tests because politicians don’t want it on them. It’s one more symptom of what is wrong with the shules and our country.

But the question I want answered is why was the presentation permitted? Are there still rebels out there?

education, science, climate, politics, tyranny

Phone Religion

Mundane day again and week in. Happily back to gym although the podcast, an episode of the CBC’s “Best of Ideas” in their series on secularism was too PC, trying to press the idea that religion should be more than an individual matter. All they managed to do was further the argument that religionist organizations are all about control and only pretend to be about religion.

On which azimuth, I see [Link] that MegaHard is going to recant their stupidity – which demonstrates theirs is less than Canonical’s? – and reinstate the START button with their first major update of W8. Or could it be that they have discovered that they have a product without a market? Stats I have seen indicate box users are avoiding W8 like Vista while sales of slabs and smarts are well below the cut-and-run level.

What this does tell us is intriguing, especially in light of the whole ‘it’s the apps, not the OS’ theory. Evidently the OS does matter if it keeps you from running the apps. Gee, who would have guessed?

I noted yesterday in an eNewsLetter that sales of FaceBookFone are even worse than those of W8. Isn’t it wonderful that MegaHard now has something to brag about?

On which azimuth, I see [Link] that the Ubuntu phone is eminent. Wonder how big a thunk this one will make? But the really big question is whether Canonical will come to their senses and get back to being an OS and not a disaster?

I hate to say it, much as I dislike Gooey, but at least they are a secular organization to Apple’s religionist one.

computers, cellular telephones, OS, nonsense

Perpetuation of the Species

Ice Cream Day! And I am still desensitizing my newly exposed roots after oral surgery, so no frozen yogurt for me. There is however a promise of absence of precipitation from the weather beavers this day which is the holy day of maternity. And they also fortell a last coolness of spring before the early onset of torrid summer. 

Of all the holy days, this is one of the few that actually make sense. Never mind that it was invented by the greeting card industry to sell bad poetry and ugly paper, it still makes sense that we should acknowledge and honor the biological imperative of perpetuating the species. So while Easter and Christmas are sheer mysticism, Mother’s Day at least has some grounding in actuality.

While I’m on the azimuth of mysticism, I should mention a somewhat clumsy article [Link] arguing – that’s the clumsy part – that Android is the new “Windows”, as in the predominant OS. That’s not my criterion but I won’t quibble since the primary reason I cite the article, pointed to me by my erstwhile colleague Magnetic Inductance Force, is to quote

“When users can’t view several windows simultaneously, they must keep information from one window in short-term memory while they activate another window,” writes noted usability expert Jakob Nielsen. “This is problematic for two reasons. First, human short-term memory is notoriously weak, and second, the very task of having to manipulate a window—instead of simply glancing at one that’s already open—further taxes the user’s cognitive resources.”

This is an indictment of tile GUIs at the fundamental level of how humans operate. And it supports my independent (?) assessment that tile GUIs only work for people who work sequentially, not those who work cumulatively!

So micturate on you Unity, Gnome 3, and whatever MegaHard call Metro this week!

Next, some research from U Tel Aviv indicates that Facebook – and other social networking sites – may cause psychosis. [Link] I fear this has to be considered just official, i.e., academic, confirmation of what most nerds and geeks who use FaceBook already know, that there are a LOT of whack jobs on FB. Maybe all but one, maybe two, as in the Amish saying about weird.

Next, a study out of Nawth Carolinia State U that indicates that old coders are better than young coders. [Link] Duhhhhh! What you lose in endurance you more than make up for in guile and deceit. But it’s nice to put that to bed, or at least to strike a counter bow to young coder insecurity expressing itself. Deal with it pups, that’s how you get to be an old, good coder!

Along those same lines, a study from U Washington indicates that the dinosaurs became dominant because of opportunistic success after a major biodiversity crash. [Link] So the rise of mammals – and the demise of dinosaurs – after the Yucatan strike is fair game. And DUMB luck. Remember that homo sapiens!

On which note, a study out of U Colorado indicates that humans who hold extreme political views do so as a result of an illusion of understanding. [Link] This confirms what I have hypothesized for a long time: no one understands politics and those who think they do are wrong and deluded.

This is one of the reasons we need to do away with politics, or at least, political organizations. Firing parties for all members of such may be considered.

And lastly, an article [Link] about a rather telling argument that science and religion cannot be reconciled. Does this mean we can quit humoring the mystics?

humans, behavior, science, politics, religion

Wet Dream?

Found this cartoon [Link]

and promptly asked: why did it take Charley Brown so long to do this?

Maybe he spent too long a period in false (childhood) puberty?

cartoons, humans, insight

Spoil the Moment

Yesterday I ran across this cartoon [Link]

and I was struck by the accuracy of the presentation. It managed to summarize the television news so accurately I was whelmed.

First that the news people seem to have no compunctions about decency, integrity, or honesty, to say nothing about their overt practices of cruelty and inappropriate happiness at misfortune and suffering. I have yet to understand how it can be policy for any organization, not dedicated to the extermination of the human species, to relate on pain, agony, and/or misery with a garish smile. Somehow this seems the epitome of evil.

Only when the matter touches the lives of the folks who own the broadcasting instrumentality does any respect or regard creep in. Any other time it is blatantly false and pretended. And even when they are batted down, the respite is short before their evil pours forth undiminished.

Only the weather forecast is partly worth while since it deals with useful information. And the commercials are a relative respite, which, a mixed blessing, are growing in duration as a fraction of the broadcast.

And the apparent bias in the news read is disturbing. I am not sure which is worse though, the repeated protestations of fairness and objectivity, both of which are clearly subjective in the professional activities of the news media, or their natty lectures to the populace for holding them accountable.

All in all, a good cartoon. It remains to see if we do anything about this cancer it prods.

corporations, prevarication, evil, journalism

Discovery

Child proof packaging is dangerous – for ORFs!