Author: wwducat

About: Writer, Technology guy, Photographer, Possibly EX-Software QA Engineer, Worker Bee. Interests: SCUBA, Working out, Friends, New Views, New Vistas, Photography
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Even the dog is over it

Climate change my ass!

We’ve had weeks of spring, the dog is fully into the quarter’s shedding so his coat is thinning. He looked at the wet snow shifting between rain, hail, sleet, then back to snow.

He looked outside this morning at the accumulated snow then turned around & went back to bed.

This is super annoying! The snow is that wet heavy stuff that’s a pain to clear.

The back deck says it’s 35°F but still it’s snowing & sticking.

On the plus side, thus far it’s not the predicted 18”

On the down side it’s more than the revised prediction of 1”

Now, we’re just waiting for the snow to stop. I’m pretty sure that it’s only going to be myself and the young neighbor at the end of the street doing snow clearing. Everyone else had the good sense to get the hell out of Dodge.

We finally got breaks in snowfall around noon and spent the next 3 hours clearing. I think we got 7-9 inches of snow, which was more than enough. As I mentioned it was the wet heavy snow that is a pain to remove, but which must be removed before it freezes to the pavement.

When I say breaks, it was interesting, There were bands of snow, then periods of sunlight. The temp also started rising so working outside wasn’t to bad either.

Tomorrow there’s supposed to be more snow but the temperatures are supposed to be lower during the night, I’m hoping that means the snow will be light and fluffy.

Later in the week it’s going to be sunny and in the 60s. That’s going to make a really big mess. 

There’s one good thing about this. 

We haven’t had any idiot snow players.

Jesse being outside running around in the snow while I was out clearing the street tired him out he’s snoring on the couch right now while I negotiate with my my aching back about the next move I’m going to make. 

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Okay I’m really over this!

California retailers are responding to the insanity of legal thieving ($900).

Stealing is okay according to the morons in California’s legislature, as long as you don’t steal too much. (They should heed their own advice!)

California retailers are locking the damn doors, even though they’re open. So someone like me. You know, a decent law abiding person for whom stealing is the furthest thing from their mind, can’t just shop.

No, I have to ask permission to walk into some stores. I have to be buzzed in, or I have to be escorted while I’m in the store.

People don’t understand that when I’m shopping I’m moving. I’m not lingering over something unless it catches my eye. My mode of shopping annoys retailers who’ve had to open locked doors and give the super secret hand shake.

I’ll zip through a store in 5 minutes or less, if I don’t see something I like, I’m gone!

If we’ve gotten to the point that lawlessness is the rule, not the exception, we’ve got serious problems. Problems that might only be solved by gunfire.

Unfortunately if retailers are resorting to these tactics in my area (60 miles away from Los Angeles, 500 miles from Oakland and San Francisco, 100 miles north of San Diego), then in California at least, crime has apparently become the norm.

I remember being told in school that one major difference between America and Russia was that, in Russia there were lots of criminals and high crime. In America we had law and order, we could safely walk the streets.

40 some odd years later and i find myself asking is that still true?

I found myself enjoying that the Russians had found four of the assholes who shot up a music hall within 2 days. They didn’t give a shit about those pieces of filth. The Russians went ‘old school ‘to get information out of the criminals. One dude had his private parts wired up to some electrical device. Another had an eyeball fall out, (oops), a Third had an ear removed, the fourth was beat senseless and appeared for his arraignment unconscious.

Apparently, these criminals started singing like birds. So the Russians knew who to hunt down next.

The Russian people walk the streets of Moscow tonight safe. They get onto and off of subway trains that are clean. They walk through stations that are brightly lit, clean and beautiful.

We used to be the same.

If you’ve ever been to San Francisco, you may have seen BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Stations. There was a time 30 years or so ago when me going to the Bay Area meant riding BART. I loved it. The stations were all clean, the trains were clean, it was safe and I think many, if not all of the stations were unique works of art. it was a pleasure to use the system, and I looked forward to my visits.

San Francisco was a beautiful jewel of a city. It was safe. It was a walking town, and if you got tired there were always the Streetcars, MUNI busses, or BART. On a sunny day, walking the streets of the city was a joy. The color and vibrancy, the oddball businesses tucked into old buildings made every block a new discovery.

I wanted to live in San Francisco. I wanted to get rid of my car, use mass transit, live in a quirky old building, work in the city, and watch the sun set over the bay every night. Of every place I’d been, San Francisco was the first and only city I’ve ever fallen in love with.

The last time I was there was about 10 years ago. I felt unsafe from the moment I walked into the BART station from the airport. At every station, there were people who were obviously ill. Either from drug addiction or psychological impairment, they appeared to be homeless, living in the stations. It was necessary to run a gauntlet of mentally ill or “high” people just to get to a train.

The trains formerly, sparkling clean and comfortable, were filthy as were the stations. When the train I was riding entered the tunnel going under San Francisco Bay, I hoped that at least the tunnel maintenance had been done properly. That had never been a concern for me before.

That was the last time I was in San Francisco. Now in the post COVID era I have no desire to go back since it’s gotten so much worse. It’s heart breaking what has happened to what was a model of efficient transportation, and a spectacularly beautiful city itself.

Permissiveness, has destroyed or is destroying California. It has been eroding all aspects of the state for a very long time.

I’d really like to see police allowed to do whatever it takes to put a stop to crime. If that means nightsticks liberally applied, or saving the taxpayers money by putting down criminals with a bullet I’m good with it.

I suppose I’m saying, I no longer see criminals as humans. They rip through stores like locusts and I’m all for them being exterminated like locusts.

Probably a little harsh… I’m just really tired of accommodating criminal behavior.

Update: 3/29/2024

Well, I’m going to be looking for a new barber. The owner of the shop has decided that they need to charge 1/2 upfront for an appointment.

This was slightly annoying when I booked my every 4 week appointment. Then I thought about it.

My Barber said the upfront charge was because of excessive cancellations, without the individuals having the courtesy to call.

Okay, but… I’ve never missed an appointment, and the 1 time in a year that I needed to reschedule. I called to reschedule 2.5 weeks ahead of the appointment. In contrast, due to health issues my barber has rescheduled on me 2 or 3 times.

I really like my barber, but I really don’t like being punished for the “crimes” of other people. I understand that the shop has a problem with the appearance of preferential treatment so they have to treat everyone equally.

I on the other hand, can express my displeasure with this new policy by not making appointments in the future. This will likely mean I will take my trade elsewhere. Being able to walk in for a haircut isn’t something that works because as the only barber shop in town they’re pretty busy.

OR maybe they were busy. I honestly wonder what this new policy is going to do to the business.

I can say, they’re pricy. I’ve stuck with them for two reasons. 1) I like my barber. 2) I like to support local businesses.

I’ll not be making another appointment. Especially since perhaps Sports Clips will work out better for me. I can combine a less expensive hair cut with shopping for groceries, and puppy supplies.

This is just another example of how the breakdown of civil behavior, courtesy and professionalism, negatively affects us all.

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Good Golly, It’s almost April!

I’m losing time. It’s time for me to bite the bullet and get a massage. I don’t want to spend the money but having my lower back in spasm every other day is just not cutting it.

It’s not new damage it’s just spasms to the point of inflexibility. It’s also been taking the wind out of my sails when it comes to doing anything. I swear sometimes lifting a coffee cup is painful.

The last couple massage folks were nice, but I failed to make a connection with them. I’m not sure if that was because of them or me. Meaning I never let my guard down with them. The other issue is that I have to drive to LA or to Palm Springs and then drive back. Either option is a pain in the ass due to traffic and the general stupidity associated with traffic.

I’m going to have to do something soon. I’m tried of being in pain.

Speaking of pain…

I believe that I’ve finally collected up all the necessary tax documentation for the accountant. I’m not looking forward to dealing with the tax crap. I know it’s gotta be done, lest the unbridled raw power of the State and Federal governments be unleashed upon me.

I hate like hell, the thought that I’m going to have to write these fuckers a check. Why, when I’m unemployed, forced into retirement, and living on only what’s in the bank + SS should I give these morons what little I have so they can spend it like drunken sailors in Singapore?

One of those questions you’re never supposed to ask is, “What exactly do I get for my tax dollar?”

I’ve never been alone in asking that question. Regardless of the party in power, the people have always believed taxes were too high and the politicians have always found ways to spend beyond the available budget, then raise taxes to fund shitty pork filled bills.

Usually, the government, (State or Federal,) has failed spectacularly at performing their basic tasks. In the midst of failure, the politicians are asking for more money to fund non-essential tasks which they also fail at doing.

I’ve always believed that if a legislative body (State or Federal,) couldn’t pass a balanced budget, the entirety of the body should be flushed. I believe that would light a fire under their asses to do their damn job… If they wanted to keep their job.

There is no accountability, and no recourse. The feds talk about impeachment of this idiot or that idiot, they censure each other, they badmouth each other, but at the end of the day the same idiots are still sitting in their fancy offices, collecting their obscene paychecks, and doing nothing but growing fatter like a tick that’s found a sweet spot on a dog.

Yet, we all keep writing the checks. Or they keep deducting from our paychecks and we have no way to stop them. I’ve been feeling like we re-entered the, “Taxation without Representation,” phase for a long damn time.

Sure, we have elected representatives, but when they get to the state or federal capital they don’t represent the people that elected them anymore.

Instead, they represent themselves, and are willing to sell their grandmothers to a Chinese sweat shop for $5, and their sisters to a whore house on the Barbary coast for $2.

Hmm. maybe the whole tax thing and my back hurting have been why I feel so damn hopeless these days. I thought it was the endless bullshit over the upcoming presidential election.

That’s one of those things that I wish would just shut the hell up. Drop the damn bombs, kill us all, just fucking STOP. Biden, Trump, Al Sharpton, or the idiot brother of your second cousin who’s also your uncle.

I don’t fucking care who’s President anymore.

Absolutely NOTHING will change.

Hmm, I felt exactly the same at the end of the Obama Administration.

Disillusioned and hopeless, wondering if there was another country I could to move to, where I could enjoy a functioning government that wasn’t always in a state of chaos and scandal.

That may be a pipe dream.

Russia? At least there you know the rules.

I have to admit that I like their style when it comes to dealing with criminals, as exhibited by their handling of the terrorists that shot up the concert hall killing 140 people.

Cutting off ears, electrodes on testicles, beating the fuck out of a prisoner to the point his eye “falls” out of its socket?

Yeah!

If we had some of that kind of law enforcement here, I have to wonder if we’d have less crime, less corruption, maintained roads, and a generally peaceful society.

Hell I’d probably be more willing to pay my taxes too. At least then I’d be able to see what my “protection money” buys.

I wonder if we’d have problems at the border if we were known for fucking up lawbreakers?

As we hurdle on towards banana republic status, I suspect these questions will never be answered.

Just to be clear, over at least the past 24 years our government has been degrading. I don’t believe this degradation is party specific, it’s about lowering the bar, turning a blind eye toward crime, corruption, a “not my job” attitude on the part of elected officials, and government departments filled with unelected bureaucrats.

I wonder if Russia would allow an old fart like myself the opportunity to have a small house in the countryside with my dog for my last years.

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Happy Spring Equinox! (Well, technically it starts at 8:06PM PDT)

Well it’s been happy for me thus far.

I’ve been a bit under the weather since Sunday. Part of it I did to myself and because I’m a moron I doubled down on it.

I’d tweaked my back. So It was uncomfortable to stand, or sit for any length of time. That was bad enough and thankfully It’s much better today. But because I’d hurt my back I rushed through food preparation on Sunday night and well…

Let’s just say, “That passed violently and painfully.” It wasn’t quite as rough a night, as the colonoscopy prep but it was a close second. So between that, and my lower back spasming all Sunday night and well into Monday, I’ve been a little out of sorts.

Thankfully Jesse has been a wonderful companion and somehow understood that I was feeling terrible. He was gentle with me on Sunday during our customary long Sunday walk.

Sunday night, he turned himself into a furry heating pad against my back, while comforting me with licks and “head on my hand” in those times when my gut was twisting itself in directions it was never meant to twist. The “head on hand” thing is his way of saying “I’m here, you’re not alone.” He’s very independent so his signs of affection have to be on his terms. Him putting his head on my hand is special.

My back is still a little tweaked, but I woke up this morning appreciative that I felt so much better.

Tomorrow will be the first full day of spring so live it up!

I’ve been seeing signs of Spring for the past week or so. There are these plants with very small purple flowers that pop up this time of year. I noticed they were in bloom on Saturday. I’m waiting for the chocolate flower in the front bed to pop up. I noticed what looked like some green leaf tips, poking out of last years brown stems. Seeing those flowers always makes me smile.

I wish the forecasts would settle down a bit. One forecast says no rain for 10 days, the other says rain tomorrow. One forecast literally said no rain, while it was reporting a “Winter Storm” and telling me Rain would stop soon, even though it was snowing. 

I want to get Jesse to the groomer, but don’t want to spend the money only to have him playing in mud the next day.

I don’t know why I put any faith in the forecasts, they’re almost never right. But Climate Change is settled science. Uh huh… I’ll tell you what, start getting the daily or weekly forecasts right, then we’ll talk about climate change.

I know that’s unfair but I can’t help thinking it. Yes, Yes, Yes, all you Climate Change worshipers following Saint Greta, I know the immediate forecast and the climate change data are only loosely coupled. Yes, I know the one is talking about longer trends and is based on studies of weather beginning at the Industrial Revolution. 

I was being funny.

Please don’t send Greta to scold me for heresy.

After laying around yesterday, I’m trying to get my behind in gear to move on with stuff I have to do and that I’ve been procrastinating on. There’s a lot that needs to be done, much of which I haven’t even started. I’m not just talking about stuff from Sunday. It’s a lot more than that. 

My heart just hasn’t been into what I need to do. Probably because needing to do something and wanting to do something are two different things. You can need to do something but not do it. You can want to do something but not care if it’s done today, tomorrow or next week. For me both have to be aligned or stuff doesn’t get done, I’ll find distractions and excuses to avoid getting stuff done.

When I’m focused, need & want aligned… I’m unstoppable.

Need & Want haven’t been aligned very well for a while now. In the past few weeks or so, I’ve been feeling better, more focused, and less concerned about distractions. In some ways, I’m feeling more like my familiar old self than I have for a while. It feels like there’s something new coming too. I’m not sure what, I’m kinda curious though. 

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Generative Ai is dangerous, Just look at a Twitter feed.

I mean it. There are lots of Twitter accounts presenting some interesting, and clearly AI manipulated,  photos and movies. These same accounts are presenting these photos and movies as “evidence” of various conspiracy theories. 

There’s one video that “shows” someone cutting what appears to be stone and claiming that the mineral band being cut is fossilized blood of a giant. Thereby proving that giants, (Godzilla sized), existed in the past. I lost interest after that it was a lot of blah, blah, blah, from a monotone computer generated voice.

The shape of the material in the video appeared to be more treelike, the saw being used was similar in appearance to a saw I’ve seen used in logging operations to cut logs to a uniform size prior to loading them onto a transport truck. The saw moved far too fast to be cutting stone. 

There’s another montage of “Ancient” sites that looks like really old black & white photos. The video provocatively claims that governments around the world are hiding “The Truth” from us all. Some of the photos are of buildings or sites that I have seen before with clever additions that look like variations of the “Stargate”, from the movie of the same name. This montage of still photos interestingly has film artifacts, (dust, debris, voids in the emulsion, etc.) Why would a new video montage of “Old” still black & white photos have film artifacts throughout it? Why would the video be jumpy as though it was taken in motion when the subject is a still photo? Why do so many of these photos look as though the scale of the objects shown has been manipulated to make the object appear larger than the “Humans” in frame?

Don’t get me wrong, the image manipulation is very cleaver and quite good. With time, I believe that I have the tools on this computer to learn to manipulate images in a similar fashion. The AI can simply do that kind of manipulation faster and easier.

Therein lies the danger. 

There are a lot of people whose grip on reality is tenuous enough without having their reality disrupted by images that must be looked at critically to determine if they’re real or not.

There are tons of people who look at the incoming flood of data from sites like, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and whatever other social media, as the absolute truth.

These videos are all come ons, they’re supposed to get the gullible to go to a web site to “donate” so the purveyors of these “Hidden Truths” can continue their good work uncovering what’s been hidden from the world. With Twitter and Instagram  subscription models they’re even able to make money just from folks interacting with their wacky videos.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m from the P.T. Barnum school of capitalism. I simply wish I’d thought of it first.

I also want to believe that there are aliens, or unexplained things beyond the mundane scratching and scurrying of the insane apes on this planet.

That’s what these videos and sites capitalize on…

The human need to believe that there is something bigger, better, and more majestic than ourselves.

Religions around the world are based on this need. The Catholic Church in particular has been quite good at monetizing the human need to believe, especially if the rumors about the wealth contained in Vatican City are true.

There have also been a number of “Free Energy” videos recently. These are laughable until you look at the account’s follower numbers. Then you think, “How are that many people, this dumb?” Entropy always wins.

These videos typically show what is clearly the armature from a DC motor. Probably taken from a toy. The windings look like they’ve been done by machine. Anyway the video is often a bit jiggly, (why are a lot of these videos are jiggly? To add / imply excitement at “discovery”?) , but shows the armature mounted such that it can spin freely. There are two wires trailing out of frame, the ends of the wires that are visible, are laid against the contacts of the armature. An LED or LED strip sitting next to the armature, is presumably connected directly.

The scam is that you see two human hands bringing curved magnets (probably from the original casing of the motor) near the armature, and it miraculously begins spinning. But the second miracle is that the LED lights up. Ohhhh Ahhhhh. It’s magic!

No it’s a DC motor. The LED is either being powered by another power source or is in series with whatever is providing power to the armature itself. The coils on the armature create a magnetic field when current is applied. This field is attracted to the fixed magnets the human is holding, causing rotation of the armature. The spacing of the contact pads on the armature causes the coils to be energized and de energized as the armature rotates. So what you have is temporary electromagnetic fields sequentially being attracted to the fixed magnets being held nearby. 

This is not magic. It’s not free energy. It’s science. Worse, it’s simple well known science. 

The account directs you to a ‘free energy” site where you can subscribe, or buy “Plans” for your own free energy generator to experiment with.

Maybe I’m the odd ball. But I was doing shit like this in my bedroom, in a flyover redneck state, at around the time of the Cuban Missile crisis. (Okay perhaps a little later than the actual crisis.) The point is, when my toys broke, I took them apart to see if I could fix them, or to figure out how they worked. I was learning by doing.

Later in school, I was fortunate enough to attend schools with robust science curriculums and since those schools didn’t look or act like prisons, we could bring things from home to augment science classes.

Apparently these days the basics of science are not being taught in school. Which leads to at least one, maybe several generations of gullible rubes, ripe for the P.T. Barnum treatment.

Two of my favorite Barnum quotes are:

“Many people are gullible, and we can expect this to continue.” – P. T. Barnum

“There is a fool born every minute” – P. T. Barnum

The common thread is that there are people making money from other stupid people. That has been true for as long as there’ve been people and money.

My concern is that people are geared to believe what they see.

Videos have become so easy to make, Generative AI has become commonplace and easy to use. When you factor these things together you’re begging for a new techno dark ages.

All the knowledge of humanity will be available on the internet instantly.

But it’s mixed in with absolute garbage. And a lot of people don’t have the reasoning capacity or facts to separate the truth from the fiction or even to resolve conflicting information using simple logic.

I seriously wonder if, no, when the powers that be unleash disease X as the WEF and WHO dubbed the next pandemic, how gullible people might be.

I could see a scenario like this, on so called “Truth” websites generated by AI using compelling images and fear.

[WARNING! DO NOT DO THIS! THE SCENARIO BELOW IS FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES ONLY]

A Montage of ambulances and fires in a generic city. Headline in the montage, “Disease X Ravages Country, Film at 11:00″

Then images of sick people on ventilators, skin and bones images from the AIDS crisis being portrayed as happening now,  Headline “They’re hiding the truth, they want you to die. We have the cure. Discovered by German scientists in World War I and used to cure diseases running rampant among soldiers in the trenches, this cure can save your family.”
A web address pops up on the video. “With just two chemicals likely already in your house you can protect your family and be safe.”

The web site asks for a one time payment of $29.95 for instructions on how to be safe.

The “Cure” is this. Duct Tape your doors and windows shut. Put on a surgical mask to protect yourself during the “Home Sterilization process”. Then mix Bleach and Ammonia in every sink and toilet in your house. 

The instructions inform you that any discomfort you feel is the invisible mist seeking out and killing Disease X, if you feel discomfort, it means you’re infected and purchased the cure to the disease just in time. Good Job! That $29.95 is money well spent, you’ve saved your family.

A person from my generation wouldn’t do this. Even if we don’t remember why we were taught not to do this. I was taught this as part of a science class in elementary school. I vaguely recall perhaps some flammability? I’m not even sure what the gas produced is. I want to say Hydrogen Chloride but it’s been too long… I don’t remember clearly. I only remember that the combination produces a poisonous gas. Which in an enclosed space is deadly.

I remember science classes being fun because where practical, the principals were demonstrated. There was always a lit bunsen burner in my classes.

These days, with the generations after mine, I don’t honestly know if they’d have the safety protocols in their heads to say, “Uh Nope! That’s a really bad idea.”.

If a convincing AI video said it was safe and effective, or worse if the generative AI used a trusted human face and voice to provide instructions, then people without grounding in basic science, who are fearful and gullible, could be convinced to do something really dangerous.

The scenario above hits on three points in human decision making.

Fear, desire to believe (hope), and payment (if I purchased it, it must have value.) There’s an optional fourth point. Mistrust. 

People are far more likely to believe that the government, the elites, or the powers that be, are either withholding information OR that everything said by this group is 100% factual. We saw this in COVID. There were two very clear camps and questioning the dogma of one of those camps was heresy of the highest order.

For god sake, there are still loads of people in Seattle and Portland running around wearing masks.

That’s the power of belief.

I think generative AI is really dangerous because of all of the above. Plus this one more thing. Humans seem to need to believe that computers are infallible oracles of truth.

That need to believe our creations are superior to the minds that created them, can so easily be manipulated it terrifies me.

AI has the potential to help, in so many ways. The trouble is, in the wrong hands AI can cause great harm and I think even destroy what we know.

Like all tools AI is neither good or bad. That is up to the user of the tool. History however, suggests that AI, particularly generative AI will be used for harm.

If you thought random wikipedia edits were annoying, you haven’t seen anything yet.