Is It Smart To Think About Thinking Smart?

Has it become time to rethink or perhaps retire the often overused word “Smart”?  It helps if you understand that an easy to park and (not quite as much as you might think) good on gas milage SmartCar remains a smart purchase until less than a nano second or so before that rapidly growing Buick in your rearview mirror smartly inserts you into its grill ornamentation, and at that point, eh.. maybe it’s not so smart. Even Kim Kardashian with all her layers of protective fat and all of the junk that’s been stuffed in her trunk wouldn’t do very well after taking a hearty 60 mph rear end probing from a few tons of GM steel. In the, so to speak, end, is the SmartCar going to be remembered as the Yugo of the 21st century?

Where are you going to hide now, smart guy?

That experience is similar in the way a “SmartPhone” can be considered to be a smart accessory until the exact instant in time that your dense yet apparently empty forehead collides with a dumb yet solid telephone pole or similar unmovable object as you walk along, you all absorbed in texting those tweets.

Did your phone leave a lasting impression on you”?

Ironically enough, moments after you’ve tried to become one with that pole, that smart ass friend of yours who was walking beside you probably said “Oh wow, I’ll bet that smarts”

Typical smart ass friend, version 1.0

Der  Fatherland’s Neu Klitzeklein SchmartKart?

You’re sure to have a seat when you get to the bar

The avenger, out in search of a Buick

N.B., The ownership of any and all photos, opinions, and/ or quotes above (including those of my own) belong to the material’s creator(s). Credit is given when it’s known, but as everyone knows, success usually has a million parents and failure is an orphan.

Feel free to ignore any ads that are shown below this advisory, I don’t get to choose them and even more sadly, I don’t make a penny off any of them, so in the holy name of capitalism I rebuke and don’t endorse or support any of them, unless of course they’re made of funny stuff…..  

P.S., check back for occasional updates and rewrites….

FAIR USE NOTICE: THIS SITE CONTAINS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THE USE OF WHICH HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. I AM MAKING SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN MY EFFORT TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, DEMOCRACY, SCIENTIFIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, ETC. I BELIEVE THIS CONSTITUTES A ‘FAIR USE’ OF ANY SUCH COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AS PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 107 OF THE US COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107, THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: HTTP://WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU/USCODE/17/107.SHTML.  IF YOU WISH TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE FOR PURPOSES OF YOUR OWN THAT GO BEYOND ‘FAIR USE’, YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.  

 

Will It Let You Wave Away All Those Dots?

I get it that some feel crazed paranoia could cause events to spontaneously happen, all I can say in defense of this blog is that those damned dots were just screaming at me, begging to be connected. As I mentioned in a previous post, many parts of current technology that may stand innocently on their own will only need a small bump to have their combined digital thermometers stuck far up into a region where the sun doesn’t often shine. By the way, I’m not talking about the space under the Kim Kardashian moomoo (that’s how I spell it, it’s similar to a Hawaiian MuuMuu but I think it’s Armenian for “Wide Bovine Load Follows”) that she wore on the oh so brief honeymoon for her oh so brief marriage.

Nope, no WMD’s to be found in here…

 Dick Cheney’s dark  hide-a-way revealed

Technos who had their uber revelation fest recently were shown what the next generation of TV’s to be pushed on us after all of the 3D crap goes to its well deserved burial ground will be like. I’m talking about interactive TVs that will respond to spoken words and / or body movements, and do those things their owners (some may call them their slaves) want to have done, i.e., change channels, adjustment of the volume, whatever. Remote controls will become the update to the slide-rule or buggy whip on one of those History Channel shows, the ones covering things that were once an everyday necessity, but now lay on a shelf in the garage, obviated by the creation of a product you didn’t know you needed until you tried it.

Crap in 3D?  It’s still crap!

So, here we are with a device stationed in our home that will be easily connected to the ‘Net in the name of ‘Netflix, Hulu, etc… sitting there all patient, waiting and ready to do our bidding. This technology is a beauty and a joy to behold, but at the same time you take into consideration that it’s doing business on a two way street when it’s connected, also ready to report to whoever controls the external end of these things. And I mean report as in it can relay not only what kinds of movies that we prefer, but also records what movements we do whilst watching them and perhaps what, if any, clothes we might be wearing on that day.

Doing my best J. Edgar?

This could be considered to be all no harm – no foul so far, but when this technology is combined with government level facial recognition capability, as it will need to have someday so it can monitor and report back just how many smiles we generat when we are watching a program or security wise to prevent visitors in our home from overriding our wish to watch ” LaVerne and Shirley” or whatever, then won’t our TV need to be watching us as intently as we watch it, perhaps with even more eyes, the better to scan us with?

A few points of view, of you?

O.K. then, on another level that I’ve just decided to add in, much like how Google and an large number of other interfaces and their “cookies” will keep track of where we go on the ‘net, and once there what we choose to download, how long we stay, and what the kind of subjects are that we watch most often, our TV viewing choices will be building a data base that will define us. “G” mail (think about what the first letter in “Google” is) and others will use this data base beyond what they do now to pre-load the ads that accompany the e-mail that you haven’t even opened yet, targeted adds they call them. This is the kind of eyeballing that could give an airport TSA inspector an erection, assuming that they had the proper equipment for it.

Would you like to try one on for size?

So when you’re home for the evening  and watching “Elevator Girls In Bondage” for the third time… That’s right, you there, the one the TV knows as viewer number three in the Blah household at 12345 N. Blah street, the viewer with the chubby oval face, receding brown hair, blue eyes, an overweight yutz who stands about five foot ten, a wearer of glasses (aha, another link) with a box of kleenex (like the scanner at the market, it will be need to able to read and identify all of those trade names and  barcodes or RFID chips in or on the products) or Handi-wipes, and a squeeze tube of moisturizer positioned handily (sorry, no pun intended) on your lap, yes you, you are now another well defined element that can be found and marketed to an economy that buys targets.

No, I really can stop anytime

But wait, much like what we learned in those commercials for Ginsu knives, there’s more to cover so we need to return to the paranoia section mentioned at the top….. While ATT U-Verse, Time Warner, Comcast, DISH, DIRECT NETWORK or whoever it is that provides your connection to the web for TV is busy handing you over to the Kimberly Clark Corporation as a viable buyer of one or more of its products to be pitched to, at the same time they may also be adding you to a list maintained by people or various governmental agencies that  are interested to know any details about folks who are interested in anything that someone somewhere may once have defined as porn.

 Hence the paranoia……

So many dots embedded in your permanent record, and so little time left to do anything…..

N.B., The ownership of any and all photos, opinions, and/ or quotes above (including those of my own) belong to the material’s creator(s). Credit is given when it’s known, but as always, success usually has a million parents and failure is an orphan.

Feel free to ignore any ads that are shown below this advisory, I don’t get to choose them and even more sadly, I don’t make a penny off any of them, so in the holy name of capitalism I rebuke and don’t endorse or support any of them, unless of course they’re made of funny stuff…..  

P.S., check back for occasional updates and rewrites….

FAIR USE NOTICE: THIS SITE CONTAINS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THE USE OF WHICH HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. I AM MAKING SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN MY EFFORT TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, DEMOCRACY, SCIENTIFIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, ETC. I BELIEVE THIS CONSTITUTES A ‘FAIR USE’ OF ANY SUCH COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AS PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 107 OF THE US COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107, THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: HTTP://WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU/USCODE/17/107.SHTML.  IF YOU WISH TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE FOR PURPOSES OF YOUR OWN THAT GO BEYOND ‘FAIR USE’, YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.  

 

 

Big Bang Theory For Burr Tilstrom’s KF&O

First, you have to know that KF&O  has nothing to do with Kentucky Fried Ostriches or fried anything else, it’s the secret (o.k., it’s not TOO secret) code name for the 1950’s era T.V. show that was called Kukla Fran and Ollie.

Let’s start out with a possibly over your head Big Bang Theory KF&O joke….

If a (possibly) lesbian couple named Fran and Polly were to move in the Pasadena apartment building that’s featured in the T.V. show “Big Bang Theory”, in subsequent episodes you might find Koothra, Fran, and Polly standing around together, with Fran and Polly doing all the chatting while Koothra desperately searches for a drink.

L to R, Kukla, Fran (Allison) and Ollie, Kuklapolitans all.

To the pedants and pissants out there, yes I know that Kunal Nayyar’s actual screen name is  Rajesh Koothrappali, or Raj for short and not Kuthra, but this barely works as a joke as it is, using a sort of similar sounding name to Kukla, and besides the humor in any of this will likely make no sense at all to Chuck Lorre or his show’s viewers that are under the age of 60 unless they are fans of  very early t.v. shows. As far as the new couple being two women, you need to be familiar with the cause of the aforementioned Raj’s specific speech impediment, and B.B.T.’s need to add some new and different sort or blood for storyline purposes.

Don’t touch your mouse / trackpad, there’s more to follow soon, stay tuned

All photos, opinions, and quotes above belong to their actual creators.

N.B., The ownership of any and all photos, opinions, and/ or quotes above (including those of mine) belong to the material’s creator(s). Credit is given when it’s known, but because success usually has a million parents and failure is an orphan, blame will not be so attributed. 

Feel free to ignore any ads that are shown below, I don’t choose them and (sadly) I don’t make a penny off any of them.

P.S., check back for occasional updates and rewrites….

FAIR USE NOTICE: THIS SITE CONTAINS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THE USE OF WHICH HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. I AM MAKING SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN MY EFFORT TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, DEMOCRACY, SCIENTIFIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, ETC. I BELIEVE THIS CONSTITUTES A ‘FAIR USE’ OF ANY SUCH COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AS PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 107 OF THE US COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107, THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: HTTP://WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU/USCODE/17/107.SHTML.  IF YOU WISH TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE FOR PURPOSES OF YOUR OWN THAT GO BEYOND ‘FAIR USE’, YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.  

A Heterosexual’s Social Media Dilemma!

Earlier today I had a phone call from a very long time friend who sounded upset. He told me, “I looked all around for you on facebook this morning, and I couldn’t find you, what’s up with that?”.

And then he added; “Hey, while I have you on the phone, give me your twitter contact so we can stay in touch”.

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, I took a deep breath and slowly said to him that if he thought about it, we actually were “in touch” at that moment, and all that he needed to do was click on my name in his cel phone’s directory to make that connection anytime he wanted to.

Nothing to see there, so I moved along and wrote the whole thing off as just a weird event. A few days later I was thinking how great it was that I was able to be in contact with everyone that I wanted to, and just as much as I wanted to by just making a call or sending an e-mail, and that I was able to receive or disseminate information in that manner as well. This went well for me until I tried to post a comment to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

Something must have recently changed at the Times, because it said that I was not able to post unless I first logged in to the L.A. Times using Facebook. And to demonstrate the power of social media over the old school media, we find that they’ve borrowed a lot from the Microsoft baseball play book, the one that goes “Play ball with us or we shove the bat up your ass”.  Facebook arranged that the L.A. Times didn’t offer any other choices for this, not even logging using my Google account the way that I’ve always used in the past is an option. However, they were kind enough to offer me a direct link I could use so I would be able to join Facebook on the spot,

Hey,  even my Android (Google!) phone has a link

The reality is that I’m not now and never, ever will be able to log in anywhere where Facebook (or that matter, Instagram, Twitter or any of the other so called social media sites) is the only choice. Perhaps this is because I’m an adult heterosexual male, and not a teenager of either sex or any of the various mid point options between those two main groups, and I have no need for walls for others to post photos, wallpaper, or whatever else it is they do on them.

Is the meaning of this clear to you?

In my view of what’s going on (some may say paranoia) when I find an ad like the one above, or see one in the newspaper for an electronics store I go to that says I will need to log on to Facebook and friend them in order to get special discounts or other offers, maybe that time has come to push back.

I feel that there’s already far too much information on all of us out there, data that’s too easy to access by persons or businesses unknown to us, giving away information that we don’t care to share with anyone, close friends or otherwise.

So I make every effort I’m able to do to stay off that grid as much as possible by not adding any personal details that aren’t relevant but required an application, or optional input when I am funneled through a chute and asked to enter my birthdate, where I was born, what my first pet’s name was, the name of my high school, or any other information on me that has no bearing on what I want, material that’s likely swapped between an ever growing collection of interconnected data bases bought and sold by internet pirates.

Watching those walls closing in?

Well, I’m sure it’s all different for you because…. eh, I’ll get back to you on that. Try to find yourself a comfortable place to sit, make sure your papers are in order, and keep an eye on your Facebook wall for any updates.

N.B., The ownership of any and all photos, opinions, and/ or quotes above (including those of my own) belong to the material’s creator(s). Credit is given when it’s known, but as everyone knows, success usually has a million parents and failure is an orphan.

Feel free to ignore any ads that are shown below this advisory, I don’t get to choose them and even more sadly, I don’t make a penny off any of them, so in the holy name of capitalism I rebuke and don’t endorse or support any of them, unless of course they’re made of funny stuff…..  

P.S., check back for occasional updates and rewrites….

FAIR USE NOTICE: THIS SITE CONTAINS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THE USE OF WHICH HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. I AM MAKING SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN MY EFFORT TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, DEMOCRACY, SCIENTIFIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, ETC. I BELIEVE THIS CONSTITUTES A ‘FAIR USE’ OF ANY SUCH COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AS PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 107 OF THE US COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107, THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: HTTP://WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU/USCODE/17/107.SHTML.  IF YOU WISH TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE FOR PURPOSES OF YOUR OWN THAT GO BEYOND ‘FAIR USE’, YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.