Musings of Old Man Joe

There and back again!

science

perplexed

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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!

It’s Sunday so why not talk about religion!

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Good Morning, happy Sunday!

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I was raised or as we say where I grew up, brought up a Catholic, which for me just meant church on Sunday. I went to Catholic schools primary & secondary, and was an Alter boy in two churches (not at the same time). I am surprised I never put this stuff on my resume! In my late teens I started to question my faith, or lack of!

Around this time I remember being on retreat at a place called Allington castle.

At that time it was being managed by a group of Carmelite Friars who I found to be very different from any Priests I had ever met. They were more contemplative, calm, much more open to talking about questions of faith and other religions. I say truly to this day if I had to be a religious person I would be a Friar, they were really cool! And you cannot say that too much about any western religion. It was there I learned about the different faces we put on depending on our situation, and this has stayed with me ever since.

I remember in one of my (many) previous jobs I was a inventory manager, and I can remember when the staff and myself were out for a company lunch, which was an excuse for me to treat them using the company credit card. Even if I tried to walk behind my staff, they would nearly always wait for me and walk either beside or behind me. I was always fascinated by this behavior. And any time you see people walking with the boss which you can see every day, I see the same behavior. I freely admit I as a boss used to fuck with it to see what my staff did, sorry peeps. Luv you!!

Which brings be back to the faces, and how they change. After I left management and started the next career (non management) I was able to change the face, but I wonder how does my changing face work with my ex employees. Will they still look at me the same way they did, if we all met for much would they walk behind me today, or would they have moved on! Trust me when I say I do not require or need people to walk behind me, just found the behavior interesting. It makes me wonder what people I see now are like when the face they put on is taken away, who are you really? Who are we when we remove the face, we have our political views face, our father brother face, we can be cruel or kind.

Went off topic a bit but getting back to religion, or lack of. After leaving the Carmelites I had pretty much decided I wasn’t a person who had the faith to continue pretending. I became an Atheist. As an Atheist I have as much moral fiber as any person who claims to be religious, I respect a persons faith, what ever religion you choose to practice, it’s your choice and I believe in choice. I will not question your religious beliefs or how you practice your faith, unless your religious practice breaks a law of the land.

All I ask is you respect my choice to question everything, I don’t have your faith and don’t believe in a God. I don’t believe in a happy place we all go to when we die where it’s going to be really great for all time! Gee that would be really nice, but I guess I don’t, not that I don’t want to, but I just don’t and I guess you can’t convince me so please don’t try!

As I get older I have acquired the older guy wisdom face, simply because I am older, not ancient, just older. I have kept some of the confidence I acquired when I wore the manager face, I have the calmer face of a person who has seen things and I am trying to figure what’s really important and what is not!

Once again, Happy Sunday!

A new era in science and discovery, thank you China.

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185566965This week we saw China landing a probe on the surface of the moon, as I type the rover “Jade Rabbit” is moving over what has been deemed very interesting young lava flows, between one and two and a half billion years old. The United States space administration NASA  has been banned by congress from doing business with the Chinese, and China was banned from the International Space Station (ISS) because of human rights violations.

Now China is probably about ten years away to catching the united states in space technology, but with the current US attitude to spending on science the US is probably just giving away it’s lead in space. China is determined to move forward and not make the mistakes the US made in throwing away it’s advantage. Will the US like other Asian nations meet the threat of a China in space with updated funding on technology to counter this new threat. Neil DeGrass Tyson has said many times that it was competing with the Russians that created the Apollo moon missions and very little to do with science. I agree with him on this and wonder when the Chinese missions will give the united states congress the impetus to start a new venture into space.

Will this be a boon for space exploration or a venture to make competing technology for a new space race/ cold war scenario? Personally I don’t see China moving backwards due to more freedoms for some in the nation, and increased personal wealth among it’s citizens bringing better standards of living, it would be hard to move in reverse now.Where it could get messy is with China’s capability to launch satellites and possibly the means to shoot down other countries satellites, it may turn into a technology war. With Hacking of government facilities from China and other nations that don’t like the United States, and the absence of urgency by the United States in securing it’s Government cyber self. And the outsourcing of Government work in the name of expertise but with out proper oversight, leading to leaks AKA Edward Snowden.

My solution is to separate science and government completely and allow China to have access to the ISS, as the Unites States moves away from government funded space exploration and into the private sector. It seems a bit naive to think the Chinese won’t get access to this technology anyway.  We could use diplomatic means to allow Non-Chinese to be on their Space missions in the future. I think the Chinese on one hand would prefer we didn’t do this as it might take away a bit of the glory, but it may suite the Wests interests by not creating a new cyber war.

Our Government should take vital systems off the web so that no hack will be easily possible from abroad. The United States government needs to stop outsourcing jobs to the private market place and hire the real people to keep our data secure, this isn’t big government but it’s smart government. There also needs to be a new definition on what is private and what is not in this new mobile technology world. Our antiquated notions of privacy don’t cut it when everything you do is now open to not just who you share it with but their friends and anyone else with access.

How small should government be?

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big-governmentIn the united States we have a situation that is a bit different from other countries, in that you have two governments over you. One being the State which has it’s own rules and depending on politics is either for or against the Federal Government. This means that we have federal laws to protect citizens that can be completely ignored by the states by finding some loophole. In other countries the laws would be primarily from the Federal level and the state would be in charge of running the state services financially. So the conflict I see today with Conservative governors trying their best to undermine the healthcare law by not expanding Medicare, and not setting up healthcare exchanges seems to be just a United States thing!

I grew up in Europe with universal healthcare, AKA socialism, but the truth is when you break a leg it gets fixed, don’t even have to be in the communist party! So when people cry out socialism over the ACA AKA Obamacare, I wonder with the rest of the planet how you can be so miss-informed. When you sign up for Obamacare it’s with a health insurance company, not the government. You can compare prices and choose the plan you like, that’s called the market place and it’s definitely not socialism. As to the reports of death panels, a true government health plan is Medicare, and as of yet seniors have not heard about the death panels. Most seniors love Medicare, even the ones who don’t realize it’s government healthcare.

Then I hear people saying that government is bad and we need small government, lets take America back to some time in the past. Is this before we had safety standards for industry or building codes. Is this before we had food safety, or tried to have food safety if the FDA gets funding. How dare it try to tell us what to eat, I love contaminated beef. Or maybe that toy from China is the greatest, and the poison doesn’t worry me; I won’t be sucking on it! I know bridges are falling apart, and yes if States politicians  put infrastructure up there and not getting reelected (both parties), maybe there wouldn’t be so much unemployment.

So I come back to my question; how small should government be? I don’t like waste, and this includes my tax dollars, I don’t like to have politicians telling me what to do, vote sensible laws and I have no problem. I respect laws (well most of them anyway). I believe in religious freedom, you should have the freedom to practice your religion with out the government imposing on you. Of course people who are not of your religion have the right to follow their own religion and follow their religions rules (hence freedom). When those religious rules don’t conflict with the laws of the land. Imposing your religious teaching on someone not of your church is in fact religious persecution, and we don’t like that!

So when people say small government do they mean just the federal government, and the disaster aid, one of the most powerful militaries in the world & shear influence of the United States means nothing. They just want the State to be the body in charge, local politics only. Maybe some people just have not liked being part of the Union, and would prefer secession from the United States completely. Form a theocracy and live away from those heathens who believe women have a choice and should be paid the same as men. Have the freedom to marry who you love, and not denounce it in public; but when you are caught just go to therapy and ask god for forgiveness, and it will be ok!

So how big or small should government be?

I don’t give a rats ass, it should not waste my tax money and should be looking after my best interests. Don’t spy on me unless I have actually done something to deserve it. And allow me to pursue endeavors in the future for my families happiness and myself. I am not afraid of government, I get to vote; but I want it to function for my interests and not just for the corporation who makes donations.

What tech scares me?

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What is technology? I am sure the answer today would be very different from even ten years ago. The change has happened fast and has been global!

Today I looked at the next version of the iPhone. It’s hard to believe this innovation started only five years ago.
With the change toward a truly mobile digital society, hardware and software have improved so much that today we should really just look at what works for us, not question whether it will work!

With this innovation in tech, including data networks that allow us to interact in so many new ways, we have as a society met a contradiction.

The tech we want to work so well for us in our digital world needs to know who we are so it can serve our online needs. For this reason some have felt a considerable loss of privacy. While there will always be instances where I agree that data belonging to a individual is a precious commodity and should be protected, my geek self wants to avail of the new innovations in technology; including the mobile integration and the new ways tech will allow me to transact business & interact with friends & family.

We do as a society need to decide what info is normal to give out to function in this new world, & how our info will be used & kept from abuse. This needs to be standardized and universal, because at this stage many different aspects of our digital self are floating around without control and safeguards. Until this is sorted I feel that the general population is at risk, and in a quest for profit some businesses don’t give data handling the security it really deserves; and this lack of clarity does scare me.

The next thing that scares me about the future of technological integration is the lack of education. We are making powerful mobile computers that allow many different kinds of interaction, but as a society, we are not showing our youth how to use these things in a polite manner. Is there no etiquette when it comes to new mobile tech?

People defend the right to be careless in the name if freedom of choice; I still see people texting while driving. If we live in a society and not on an island by ourselves. Society should demand a behavior that allows individual freedom without inflicting those around us with stupidity.

I love tech & innovation. We live in a wonderful dreamland of new opportunities, but as a society can we start thinking about how our digital self represents our true self, and how much of our true self we need to divulge to create that digital self, without putting our true self at risk!