Musings of Old Man Joe

Irish guy living in Los Angeles

Climate Change

Of course it’s true, I saw it on the internet!

By 4 Comments

Sharing what?

I remember when I was living in Ireland and reading the news I would be able to watch and listen to Irish news, English news and read American news. It was great to get a perspective rather then just one news source. it’s something I will say to anyone today is read alternate news sources so you don’t exist in a news bubble.

What has happened since the 1990’s has been a revolution in social media. What I believe this has done is create a world where we/us are able to exist in a bubble we create and due to a algorithm set up by Google and Facebook we are fed articles and media to prop up the story of belief we are trying to prove to ourselves, whether it’s a fact or not.

So let’s look at say ten years of social media has achieved for us, are we particularly more sociable than we were before we had these things. I would say probably not, it’s true to keep in touch with loved ones is cheaper and easier than it was ten years ago. Is the quality of the social experience better?

I think the worst part of the whole thing is the deviation from facts, the way we no longer use trusted sources for our information. These are for myself trusted sources.

  • BBC news
  • RTE news
  • NPR news
  • Any Times newspaper

I know there are many more but my point is to read multiple sources to get a better picture. And avoid news posted on social media that is not from a trusted source. And remember opinion pieces are just that, somebodies opinion. What happens when you don’t rely on trusted sources for news?

  • Anti-vaccinations
  • Brexit
  • Alt-Right
  • Anti immigration
  • people actually don’t believe in climate change
  • Trump

I am also wary of local stations after this report on Sinclair came to light!

It’s amazing to me that in the age where we have more knowledge at our fingertips than any time in the history of our planet, that so much crap is shared and believed. The Russians from 2015 started a media campaign to influence the election in the United States. What I wonder about is why did the Russians not only want Trump to beat Hilary Clinton (who was maligned badly by the Russians through Facebook), but they also picked him among the other GOP candidates for President. As a failed business man he couldn’t get credit in the United States so it was Russian banks that financed his business schemes. Which is why the sanctions were not popular to the Trumps. Trump is a conspiracy theorist who can do great damage in the oval office, maybe that was the plan overall, to destroy the united states from the inside.

The us against them is straight out of the fascist playbook, which is also propagated by the algorithms of Facebook and Google so we see only what we want to see be it fact or not. In society today there are points of contention that were not in existence thirty years ago. This is due in part to the internet and outlets like Fox News that has led to the creation of radical views through social media.

Apple has recently opened it’s news app, I am not an Apple fan boy although I use and love their products, I try to keep an open mind to these things. But to create an app which will give us news from real sources is genius and my hope is that they will at some point allow sharing to social media to counter the effect of fake news from Russia and propaganda from Fox News & the Sinclair Group.

Peace!

Blade Runner 2019

By 5 Comments

I remember watching blade in the early 1980’s, and to be honest although I loved the movie I was young and appreciate it much more today than I did then. Just like 2001 a space odyssey which was also way ahead of it’s time, I wondered back then what the world would truly be like in the years to come, and if I would even see it!

Flying through Los Angeles in 2019

It’s funny how science fiction in many ways is being brought to science fact, but not exactly how we envisioned and not in the time line we thought.
After the Moon landings in the late 1960’s until 1972 we all (well myself anyway) thought that after such an event there would be no turning back.

Well as we know now those missions were not really for science but just a pissing contest between the USSR & the USA. It was a shame but just after that the world stepped back to the time before the moon shot and carried on arguing about money and religion and rights (all very worthy subjects but not for this post).

So in the 1980’s and 90’s the world of computers, hardware and software start the play on the technology of our time. Hardware & software have always been almost racing to see who can get ahead, it was never an even race. It was probably when the iPhone came out in 2007 it was the catalyst for the tech companies to get their shit together and produce the solid state hardware in bulk and at a decent price to let the technology move forward.
it would seem there always has to be a profit or war for things to move forward.

blade runner movie poster with Harrison plus cast

Blade Runner Final Cut Set in Los Angeles in 2019

So here we are in 2019 the time of replicants and Blade Runners out to find them. How have we done with the real world?

Well due to Star Trek we have our mobile communicators, automatic doors are all over the place. We can ask computers and most of the time they can give us an answer (excluding Siri of course). Uber states it will have flying cars in or around 2020.

So considering we the people did stop after the moonshot due to budget cuts and domestic stuff, the timeline hasn’t been too bad considering!
It’s not as dark in Los Angeles as it is in the movie, but of course it was trying to get across a future when people didn’t try to stop climate change or worry about genetic manipulation or disease. In George Orwells 1984 big brother was the government and people for years have been worried about the government watching you. Well in many countries the government does watch you. But even worse is corporations using apps and the internet to watch not only what you do and see, but save the information to sell that information to whoever, and the people went willingly!

I will be optimistic for the future and say even though some people voted against their best interests that the times will change, mistakes have been made in the past and they can be rectified.

Peace!

perplexed

By 7 Comments

Those that have been so kind to read the few words I post on here, as I am studying quite a bit & the old life thing going on I don’t have too much time to post.
I have found it difficult to put into words what I see politically and globally with what is going on.

Last night I was watching the series by James Burke entitled “The day the universe changed!”

We are back in 1984-1985 and the cold war is still up and running, the threat of nuclear war still looms & the world wonders what the future will hold.
We all know the mission to the moon was a pissing contest between Russia and the United States. With a side mission called scientific discovery. I was about 9 years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon & got to dress up as a spaceman in my class.

When I was in my teens I would read boys books about time and space and the future science will bring. It was exciting and full of hope for the future. Western countries stood for freedom of expression and movement, the idea you can make it if you try! The United States was by far the biggest economy so it was felt the best opportunities were there, not that it was any more free than any other western country.

Russia & China being the opposite of freedom, no freedom of movement and being told what you can and cannot do was not the way for the future of society, if we were to go to space and beyond!

Of course times change and the cold war ended & we left the moon and didn’t go back because we won the contest. The funding for science dropped because funding was never really about the science. Time moves along and technology moves into the mainstream. So there is money to be made, and today we have the web (light & dark). We have access to more info than any humans since the beginning. This was going to be the new dawn of humankind.

But of course the dark side was always possible, and with the availability of knowledge was the availability of crap, social media, fake sites, scams, identity theft, click bait, Fox News!

The Russians discover they can fight a media war because people aren’t equipped to filter, and they don’t know where to get news they can trust.
Trump calls any story he doesn’t like fake news because it doesn’t stroke his ego. News media continue to give time to stupid people to give the impression of being fair. People begin to believe the stupid people because they are getting exposure.

And then there was this!
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE RISE OF AMERICAN FASCISM 

Before the 1970’s the christian right was part of the rest of the united states, probably just as happy with the moon landing and what science might bring for the future. A baby wasn’t a baby until it was a baby, not today when some consider a few cells to be a baby. But things changed and it may change what was once the bright future of the United States.

For some the multi-diverse idea of society breaks what they consider the mold from their youth. It was a fiction but real enough to them, and they feel it is gone & want to rekindle the past. They have been deceived into thinking it can come back. Society and business moves forward because business in the end wants to make a profit. The old industries are no longer really viable but they have been told the reason is immigrants, unions, the other side selling jobs overseas.

Business did move overseas, but it was purely for profit, and cheap labor. But another  reason not mentioned too much was due to technological advances. Now we have people being voted into government who don’t believe in science, who want to make the United States a purely christian country, which goes against freedom of religion. I believe in freedom of religion, you should be able to practice what ever religion you choose. But do not try and impose your religious beliefs on me. If you take away my right to choose, I may as well be living in 1985 Russia or China!

Fire Season, Power lines, stupid people.

By 7 Comments

Recently I have been very despondent with stuff going on, The US has lost respect as a world leader, our President is a joke, he lies openly and yet people still support this man. People have been fed propaganda against the press, and some believe it, and when people don’t understand what the truth is how can they make informed decisions.

It’s fairly obvious that due to climate change summer fire season is going to be a normal state of events. My heart goes out to the thousands of people who have been affected by the fires. I have had family stay with me when they had to evacuate their home. To see the look of devastation not knowing if you will have a home to go to or not is heartbreaking, it should be the primary focus of the government to prepare for a future where this is the new normal.

I know that some of the reason we had fires was due to utilities electrical equipment, and the utilities are complaining that that they cannot afford to keep paying out when there is a fire. The Governor is looking into giving the utilities a break from prosecution if they are known to be in regulatory compliance. And to be honest I see logic in this. If you can still sue some company when it’s doing what the state dictates and it’s not good enough, well we need to change the regulations!

Burying the electric cables is not an option due to cost and maintenance, it’s just easier to maintain a line overhead when you have access. This started me thinking that in this day and age there must be a mix of technologies that would in fact make it mush easier for people to have electricity and require no power lines at all.

It turns out the technology does exist, but as always it’s just around the corner, like the cure for cancer! This company Solar Windows seems to have one answer to electricity production for the future. My contention is with solar windows and roof panels and efficient storage we could eliminate the need for cables and utilities as we know them completely. But as always the move to efficiency is being held up because the power brokers still want to burn fossil fuels and don’t believe what the whole world can see! How do we as a nation get the stupid out of politics?

I can understand different people can have opinions about how to get something done. But they should be able to debate and prove why their way is better. The truth should be the arbiter not alternative facts or bluster, or rage, or disrespect!

Peace People!!

Will we ever get our shit together!

By 1 Comment

I am truly concerned with the direction the world is moving at. Half the population of one of the most advanced countries in the world don’t believe in climate change. Like the scientists who can send craft to space to study different worlds can’t figure out the behavior of gasses on earth.

Before Lead was removed from gasoline due to the effect it was having on people, (making them sick)! There was kickback by the companies who liked the status quo. Eventually common sense gave way to unleaded gasoline.

Tobacco industry fought for years claiming smoking did no damage, even they in the end had to face the fact it wan’t healthy to smoke. Climate change is no different, industry likes to keep the status quo & they will play what ever cards they can. They know the truth and being businesses they are planning for the future The oil & gas climate initiative. I expect smart people to make plans and move forward.

My concern is the millions of people who I believe have been told a crock & at some point are going to discover they have been lied to. It’s not fair to these people who have been deceived, for political gain in most cases. There are real divides between areas of the united states that it feels like we have different countries. With the politics of division running at full speed, how can we come together in truth not fake facts to move forward with the potential this country truly has.

There are real challenges ahead, employment or to be more specific the kind of jobs that will be available in the future have been changing since the 1970’s. I know some would like to blame immigration, but the truth is very easy to understand. Some manufacturing jobs went to other countries because they don’t have to pay as much. In countries with universal healthcare the companies save a fortune as they don’t have to pay for health insurance, which is significant! But the biggest factor in job loss in the united states has been due to automation and robotics. This trend isn’t going to change and in the next ten years a significant percentage of the population will be out of work.

With the advance in driver-less technology and automated delivery services the future does start to look like the science fiction we dreamed of when we were young. It could be absolutely great! But the change in society is going to be big, and for some reason the powers don’t seem to be doing much about it.

Universal basic wage is a idea being tested in a few countries, it’s a base wage paid to citizens to allow then to survive and allow the option of part time work or starting their own business. Some argue it will cost too much, but it’s replacing unemployment and if 46% of the population are in fact out of work you had better find a way to make it work!

Maybe the answer in the end will be something I have not read yet, or maybe with the current people in charge they won’t deal with it at all, and just let people go hungry and tell fake stories to cover their ass. The problem will not go away so we shall all get to see what heppens.