Observations Along the Road

Roadkill Along the Information Superhighway

Category Archive: 'news-chum'

Look For The Label

Written By: cahwyguy - Wed Apr 24, 2013 @ 11:41 am PDT
Posted in news-chum, rant | 2 Comments »

userpic=soapboxAs you might have noted, I haven’t posted the last few days. Partially I’ve been busy, and partially no articles I’ve seen have gotten me to the point where I wanted to start writing. Until now. So while I munch my salad, let me climb on my soapbox…

The Atlantic has a very nice piece on labels in relationship to the Boston Bombers. The piece is titled: “The Boston Bombers Were Muslim: So?” The article explores why we want to turn to labels in times of crisis. If we can simplify the problem to a few labels, we don’t really need to think. This is what leads to the mentality that all muslims are terrorists (which they are not), and often leads to hateful acts against large groups. I’ll note this isn’t just an American problem — were one to go to the Middle East, you would find such similarly broad brush thinking against “Americans” or “Westerners”.  I believe that if you look at many terrorist attacks, you’ll see a desire to lash out against a label as opposed to an individual.

I’ve written about this problem before in reference to an increasing desire to see things in a binary fashion: good/bad, black/white, and never shades of grey. This polarization has grown in the world, certainly since the 1980s, and perhaps since (or perhaps because of) the cold war. We see it on Facebook and in newspaper comments, where posts go on and on that the world would only be a better place if (liberals)(conservatives) were all gone. Extremist Muslims would be happy with a purely Muslim society. Extremist Christians want a Christian society. Extremist Jews want a Jewish society. Extremist liberals want all conservatives gone. Extremist conservatives want all liberals gone. Do you see yourself in any of those?

What’s common here? Blind extremism. Taking a hard and fast position on the extreme side of an issue — be it politics or religion — is a sure way to live your life by labels. Fight the urge. See beyond the first impression, see beyond the labels. Recognize that there are shades of grey in the issues, and that truly evil individuals are rare (and you can recognize them by their laughs).

Humans have a tendancy to see things that are not there. I’ll give you two non-political examples. First, did NASA Mars rovers really draw male genitalia on the surface of Mars? Second, well, you’ll have to look at these images to see what is really not there.   Turning to the political now: don’t judges based solely on labels. Remember that people tend to fall into a bell curve: for every label, there will be those who are fanatical with respect to the label, those who might have the label but it mean nothing to them, and the vast bulk of people who are somewhere in the middle. All Muslims are not terrorists; most are moderate and believe in peace. All Christians are not in agreement with Westboro Baptists. All liberals do not want to create a socialistic welfare state, and all conservatives do not just want to turn things over to big business. All Liberatrians, well, you got me there :-)

But seriously, the Atlantic article makes a good point: we need to fight the urge to want to label people and then neatly bin them based on the labels. How do we do this? The answer is simple: listen. When you read and converse, don’t do so to sway people over to your side, but to gain an understanding of them. Show them you are listening, and see them more than just the label. Or, to put it in 1980s terms, people are not the alligator on their shirt or the label on their jeans.

Music: Rock Island (Bethany Yarrow): “Come To Me”

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Old and New: Los Angeles International Airport, Old Computers, and the Lion that Roared

Written By: cahwyguy - Sat Apr 20, 2013 @ 6:29 am PDT
Posted in news-chum , , , , | No Comments »

userpic=psa-smileToday’s news chum brings together three articles all related to history and old things:

 

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You Are What You Eat: Kool-Aids, Buffet Leftovers, Pet Food, and Superbugs

Written By: cahwyguy - Fri Apr 19, 2013 @ 11:27 am PDT
Posted in news-chum , | No Comments »

userpic=pastramiToday’s collection of lunchtime news chum is all related to food. The first item is a bit frivolous, but the latter three taken together present a chilling picture about what we — and our pets — eat.

  • He’s The Man. CGI has come to the Kool-Aid man, and with it a new backstory and family life. No longer content to just crash through walls, we’ll learn how he gets dressed in the morning, and what he does during the day. However, there are so many questions it makes the mind boggle. What does Kool-Aid man look like before he showers, as he doesn’t have a lid? When he urinates… well, you get the (umm) pitcher.
  • Recycling the Scraps. The LA Times has a really interesting article on a Nevada pig farmer. This farmer makes a living by taking all the food scraps from all the buffets in Las Vegas, cleaning, heating and mixing them, and feeding them to his pigs… which he subsequently slaughters and sells back (as meat) to the casinos. What struck me most was the line: “He grabs chunks of ham and slices them to piglet-mouthed size.” Yup. Pigs are being fed on ham.
  • Our Dog Food Contains Real Dog. Pigs, it appears, aren’t the only cannibals. Slate has an interesting article on what goes into the meat and bone meal in most pet food. Shockingly, the answer might include other pets. Euthanized shelter animals sometimes end up at rendering plants, along with all other sorts of stuff (including lots of biochemicals). After reading this, I’d think twice about commercial food.
  • Human Food Isn’t Safe Either.  Lastly, all the antibiotics being fed to animals is having a side-effect: We’re starting to see anti-biotic resistant bugs in our meat. A recent study showed that antibiotic resistant bacteria was turning up in 81 percent of raw ground turkey, 69 percent of raw pork chops, 55 percent of raw ground beef and 39 percent of raw chicken bought over the counter in 2011. The rate of occurrence in salmonella superbug strains in chicken rose from 50 percent in 2002 to 74 percent in 2011.

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Ending It All

Written By: cahwyguy - Thu Apr 18, 2013 @ 11:30 am PDT
Posted in news-chum, social-networking | No Comments »

userpic=socialmediaToday’s lunchtime news chum brings together a collection of articles dealing with the end of things: the end of life, the end of relationships, and the end of your connection to social media:

  • And When I Die… And When I’m Dead, Dead and Gone… A big, unspecified, legal morass is what happens to all of your social media accounts when you die. Google is attempting to be proactive regarding this, and has rolled out what they call an “Inactive Policy Manager” — essentially a “dead man’s switch” that triggers when your account becomes inactive. After a set period, you can tell it to either send email to someone you designate and/or delete all your accounts. Specifically, it can send your data from many Google services to your digital heirs, alert your contacts, delete the accounts, or do all or none of the above. It affects Blogger, Contacts/Circles (in Google+) Drive, Gmail, Google+ profiles, Pages and Streams, Picasa albums, Google Voice, and YouTube. It can also serves as a useful self-destruct button–that is, you can have your account auto-destruct after trying to reach you using other e-mail addresses and by text message.
  • Wipin’ Away the Ex. Sometimes it’s not you, it’s your ex-whatever. You’re tired of them, and don’t want to see them anymore. But there are traces of them all over your Facebook. What do you do? The answer is KillSwitch, an application that will delete all digital traces of your ex from your Facebook. As the LA Times describes it, the app bills itself as a fast and efficient way to make breakups less agonizing by “seamlessly and discreetly removing all traces of your ex from your Facebook timeline.” Without notifying the ex that he or she is being digitally deleted, the app wipes out traces of the person from your Facebook timeline. It also works for deleting other kinds of Facebook relationships, including friends, co-workers, and former in-laws. Currently, KillSwitch requires that you still be friends with the person you want to erase. They’re working on a way to use the app even after “defriending” the person, as well as a “breakup severity switch” for those more amicable breakups. As an aside and appropos of breakups, here’s a wonderful letter that imagines Aladdin and Jasmine, 30 years later.
  • Getting Rid of the Social Connection. One thing that it is difficult to do is sever your ties with your social network. The New York Times has a nice article today going over all the ways to do it. What they don’t discuss is how these networks make it very sticky — all your friends are there, and so the effort of establishing a new presence is extremely difficult. This is why they push deactivation, as opposed to pure deletion.

Music: The Captain and the Kid (Elton John): “Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way”

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Clearin’ O’ The Links

Written By: cahwyguy - Sat Apr 13, 2013 @ 7:30 pm PDT
Posted in news-chum | No Comments »

userpic=lougrantAnd finally, we close out the week by clearing out the links:

  • Dogs and Moving. Ever wonder what it is like moving cross country with a simpleton dog and a neurotic dog. Wonder no longer. This is one of the funniest posts I’ve read in ages. Oh, and speaking of dogs, I must report (sadly) that the mayor of Idyllwild, a Golden Retreiver named Max, has just passed away. Going forward, Mini Me (a stuffed-animal version of Max) has agreed to step in as the Interim Mayor of Idyllwild. Max’s owners, after suitable grieving, will search for a new Mini Max–a Golden Retriever that will be named Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller, II, and will then officially take over as the Mayor of Idyllwild, completing Mayor Max’s mayoral term through June 30, 2014.
  • Scary Search. Think Google finds everything? Think again. This is an article about Shodan, which finds loads of unprotected critical infrastructure on the great unwashed and unprotected internet. Sometimes I wonder if we’ve grown too fast. Critical infrastructure is a growing concern, so I’ll mention that “cyber-physical systems” is going to be a special topic of this year’s ACSAC. All forms of submissions on the subject are welcome.
  • Playing the Market. I’m not a big stock market person. Back in the 1990s I invested in some mutual funds, and I thought that was that. My financial advisor has recently been recommending some ETFs, and I’ve been scared off by the fees. This is a great analysis of ETFs and why they might be better than traditional mutual funds. For example, right now I’m trying to decide between investing in the Vanguard California Bond Fund, or the PIMCO ETF equivalent. It’s hard to judge return against costs and commissions.
  • By Golly. LA Observed brings news of a new book of interest: Dr. George Fischbeck, the retired Channel 7 weatherman has a new book out, “Dr. George: My Life in Weather,” with ex-KABC staffer Randy Roach. This caught my eye because we really don’t have weather-critters that are the caliber of Dr. George these days. Usually, they are just glorified “pretty boys” or the female equivalent, who provide you no inkling of whether they actually have degrees in meterology or anything beyond AWS training.

Music: New Songs From The Briarpatch (Tom Paxton): “Mister Blue/White Bones Of Allende”

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Facebook in the News

Written By: cahwyguy - Fri Apr 12, 2013 @ 11:24 am PDT
Posted in news-chum, social-networking | No Comments »

userpic=socialmediaLunchtime again, still in a partially unpacked office. So here’s another collection I wrote up Tuesday night — this time, dealing with our favorite social website: Facebook.

  • Name a State Without A Q. We’ve all seen them meme. Have you ever wondered why you see it? Andrew Ducker pointed me to an article that explains the scam. It’s called “like farming.” A Facebook page is created, with an appeal for readers to like, comment or share. The creators, who are working together to build these pages, share it among themselves. They all have big networks, so the pages instantly get into thousands of other people’s news feeds. When those people respond with a “like” or a share, then it reaches their friends. Suddenly, the thing has spread faster than a high school rumor. Then the people who started it, having quickly acquired tens of thousands of followers, sell the page. Now an advertiser has all those names and Facebook addresses. And that advertiser, who isn’t allowed to phone you and whose flyers go straight to your recycling box, is sending you commercial messages on Facebook. Remember: Think twice before you share or comment on that cute viral meme.
  • Facebook Charging for Email. This is something I ran into the other day: If you try to message someone not on your friends list, Facebook wants you to pay $1 or more so the message isn’t treated as junk mail. How do you get around this? Friend the person (the goal of Facebook right), or accept the message as junk mail. This is how Facebook gets you to build your friends list.
  • Facebook Lobbying. Mark Zuckerberg has been attempting to start a Facebook political advocacy group. However, a memo regarding the group was leaked. In the leaked memo, Joe Green, who’s heading the political effort, pledged that technology executives would use their companies to “control the avenues of distribution” and promote their political message. This has led Facebook to postpone the effort. The LA Times also has a nice article on Zuckerberg’s political “wingman”: Joe Green.

Music: A Party With Comden & Green (Betty Comden, Adolph Green): “One Hundred Easy Ways to Lose a Man (Intro)”

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Sex in the News: We Got Surveys, Sexual Assault Awareness Week, and the Average Face

Written By: cahwyguy - Thu Apr 11, 2013 @ 11:21 am PDT
Posted in news-chum , | No Comments »

userpic=tortuga-heuvosI’m eating lunch in an office that is half-unpacked, so today you get a news chum collection that I actually wrote up Tuesday night, and was just waiting to post. So off we go…

First, we have some surveys that are likely to show up on next week’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. The first survey deals with women’s preferences regarding men, and I’ve already mentioned this one earlier this week — the survey that showed that Australian women prefer men with bigger organs (and I’m not referring to the count of their pipes). Since there, there have been a number of good posts related to the subject; in particular, this post on the subject by The Ferrett. Boing Boing also had some interesting observations (note: includes CGI pictures), and points out some obvious facts most discussions miss.

The second survey is for the ladies:  This one notes that men prefer their women natural. In other words: there’s no need for a Brazilian Wax. Men prefer their women to look like women. Further, unwaxed may be healthier for the women as it reduces infection. Lastly, there is a survey out of France regarding the utility of brassieres. Oh, Peter Sagal… these surveys are calling you.

I’d also like to note that last week was Sexual Assault Awareness Week. The young men at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville took an interesting step in this battle. About 30 men donned high heels as part of the “Walk A Mile in Her Shoes” event. This is the second year that SIUE has held the “Walk A Mile in Her Shoes” activity and the eighth year that the university has observed Sexual Assault Awareness Week on its campus. Organizers said the shoe activity was designed to help men develop a sense of empathy toward the women in their lives. Walk A Mile in Her Shoes is a national campaign that was organized in 2001 was a way to build public awareness of sexual violence issues.

Lastly, here’s a little something Gene Spafford posted on Facebook: The Average Woman from Every Country. Basically, a photographer took more than 4000 photos of women from various countries, and then blended the results. I’m guessing there was some self selection for what the photographer considered beautiful, for the faces seem somewhat similar to me.

Music: Foggy Mountain Banjo (Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys): “Home Sweet Home”

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All The Live Long Day

Written By: cahwyguy - Wed Apr 10, 2013 @ 1:11 pm PDT
Posted in news-chum , | No Comments »

userpic=keyboardA number of articles recently have gotten me thinking about employment and jobs. First, the LA Times has been running a series on the changing workplace. The first part of the series looked at how the relationship has changed between employee and employer. In the past, employers wanted employees to be happy — they wanted long-term employees that were part of the family. They sponsored picnics and special events. I remember those days. Nowadays, except in certain tech industries where it is hard to get the right employees, this employer-love is a thing of the past. The goal is to get the greatest productivity out of the worker. This was explored in the second part of the series, which talked about how employers are tracking employees every move: monitoring what they do on the computer, where they go on breaks, how long and frequent those breaks are. It makes me very glad I’m not in those industries. [Of course, I do get the joy of dealing with sequester related impacts, which is why I decided today would be a great day to take as a vacation day -- my office moves tomorrow, and my mother-in-law moved yesterday]

But, of course, for those with good employers, too much can be bad also. For example, Google gives significant employee perqs, such as gourmet lunches. Alas, the IRS is now thinking about taxing those lunches as a benefit, because the lunches are provided on Google’s nickle (pre-tax), not after-tax employee dollars.

Another interesting article looked at what happened to all the secretaries. When I was at SDC in the 1980s, I truly understood the value of a good secretary. Today, many of the tasks have been moved onto the employees, which doesn’t really save money in the long run. I know that although I enjoy arranging my travel and coordinating administrative stuff, it isn’t what they pay me for and it would be better in the long run to have office staff to do it.

[ETA: Dimensionm on LJ also highlighted this article about workers in Texas. Construction is booming, but the workers are paying the price. Working conditions are dangerous, and workers are subject to abuses such as not being paid for all hours worked, not being paid overtime, and/or not being paid at all. Employers also often classify workers as contractors to avoid taxes.]

[ETA: I'll note that abuses of workers is the real reason that unions were started. No, it wasn't to provide plush jobs for union leaders or to lobby politicians or to create arcane working rules. Unions were originally created to use the power of labor and the ability to stop or slow down work to achieve workplace reforms that made life better and safer for the worker. In these days of anti-union rhetoric, we often forget the good that unions did related to working conditions. Have both weekend days off? Thank the unions. Get sick days and vacation. Thank the unions. Have a 40 hour week? Thank the unions.]

Lastly, there’s the issue of lawyers. Tom Paxton once sang about having too many lawyers. It’s happened. Even at the best law schools, newly minted lawyers are having trouble finding jobs. Some lawyers are even suing their schools for promising jobs that aren’t there.

What’s the point of all this? Simple. Don’t go into a job for the money or the perqs. Work at a job because you enjoy that type of work. That’s where your joy should come from.

Music: Sweet Sixteen (Reba McEntire): “You Must Really Love Me”

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