App Half-Life

App Half-Life . . .

Ok, “Half-Life" as in:
Half-life (t_½) is the amount of time required for a quantity to fall to half its value as measured at the beginning of the time period. While the term "half-life" can be used to describe any quantity which follows an exponential decay, it is most often used within the context of nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry—that is, the time required, probabilistically, for half of the unstable, radioactive atoms in a sample to undergo radioactive decay.

Not “Half-Life” as in the Half-Life App on Android.—although you can get a Half-Life calculator for your Smartphone, should you wish to calculate the half-life of a radioactive isotope.

But I digress. I am wondering about the half-life of computer-Smartphone, or just Internet applications generally.  I have been noting that Facebook has been largely deserted by our grandkids (that is today’s teenagers). Apparently, when the old folks began adopting Facebook as a preferred social media channel, the kids all said, “whoa, I’m out’a here.” It’s now  akin to an old folks home.  And that started me thinking about application half-lives.  I am wondering first, how we might describe the half-life of an app. First, perhaps, why do we have things like free apps, e.g., Facebook.  Well, Mark Zuckerberg allows you to become a member of Facebook without charge, because he then gets to throw advertisements at you and to track your every move –he’s sort of your friendly neighborhood commercial NSA guy. He probably knows more about you than does NSA, and that's worth megabucks.  So, given that he has hundreds of millions of users now being tracked by his Facebook servers, why would Zuckerberg pay $19 billion for What’sApp? In case you have been living in a cave,

“WhatsApp Messenger is a proprietary, cross-platform instant messaging subscription service for Smartphone’s. In addition to text messaging, users can send each other images, video, and audio media messages as well as their location using integrated mapping features.”

Well my guess is that Zuckerberg understands that Facebook is already past it’s half-life and is on the way down (not out, but down . . . old apps never actually die, they just languish on old folks’ computers).  So, soon I imagine, today’s teenagers will talk about Facebook as we might about the Commodore.

And then I started paying attention to E-Mail. I receive maybe 60-70 E-Mails a day.  But, of that number, I receive maybe one from a real person, a friend or family member.  The rest are either news, or commercial enterprises trying to sell me something.  I get e-mails from The Emirates, who want me to travel there. I get several a day from V-Tech, Radio Shack, Sears,  BH Photo, LD Products, Group-on. . . but you get the message. I also get newsy stuff several times daily from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Manchester Guardian, the BBC, the Canadian service (CBC) the Australian service (ABC) and a half dozen other news outlets.  But from people?? Oh my, No.

Now, the other thing I notice is that I get periodic e-mails from the Nigerian scam folks, in its many incarnations, or I get notices from our ISP that they detected and deleted from our inbox a virus-laden e-mail.  So, the risks of being on the Internet are increasing daily. So, that makes me wonder about the half life of E-Mail (at least the open road kind of E-Mail). I know that many businesses and health entities use E-Mail as in-house communications channels and those might be different.

I am wondering when ordinary folks, the ones being targeted by our commercial NSA-like entities, will tire of E-Mail, and then tire of the Internet itself because of the risks and the annoyance factor of commercials.  So, does the “open-Internet” itself have a half life fast closing on itself and degrading as we speak?

What then—go back to writing letters?  I wondered about Smart-Phones, which have replaced conventional desktop computers for our teen friends. They largely don’t use desktop communications, preferring to texting, tweeting, et al, on their Smartphones. But Smartphone’s are just little computers connected to the Internet, so they are as likely as PCs to be overloaded with commerce as the PC applications, and our teen friends may begin moving to other safer high grounds (where old folks fear to tread). Not sure where that might be, but look to your teens for news of the new forms (I understand that teens have discovered that two tin cans, connected by a string performs well as a communications device. Think of that. What will they think of next??

And on another of our exoplanets, it is said that the Mexican police, aided by our American crime fighters, have captured El Chapo, the king of drugs. They plan to incarcerate him, at least until he can buy and renovate their prison system and then move it to the  Cayman Islands. But, with this news, I began to wonder about our global banks, you know, the ones that have been handling his cash transactions and managing his off-shore banks. What ever will they do now that they are losing their biggest customer? Bank bonuses may well be on the way down. Poor babies.

 

Armageddon

In his latest book, The Revenge of Gaia, James Lovelock, a prominent British climate scientist, predicts that by 2020 extreme weather will be the norm, causing global devastation; that by 2040 much of Europe will be Saharan; and parts of London will be underwater.

Worse, he argues that global warming has passed the tipping point, and catastrophe is unstoppable. Relative to many of the proposed approaches, he argues, "It's just too late for it," he says. "Perhaps if we'd gone along routes like that in 1967, it might have helped. But we don't have time. . . . he fears we won't invent the necessary technologies in time, and expects "about 80%" of the world's population to be wiped out by 2100. Prophets have been foretelling Armageddon since time began, he says. "But this is the real thing."

To read the article in The Guardian, see http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2008/mar/01/scienceofclimatechange.climatechange?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

It’s fascinating to think ahead to 2100 and begin to grasp what he is saying. Think: by 2100, everyone now alive will, arguably be dead.  But, more to the point, he asserts that only 20% of the people born between now and 2100 will still be alive—the world will lose 80% of its total population.  This, all because the climate deniers (aka the 1% and the large global polluters—see Koch Brothers) have been denying that such a thing as climate change is occurring. And, they have been spending untold millions to sway the world’s decision-makers so as to avoid anything like real action.  Lovelock asserts that, had the world’s global powers begun taking action during the 1960s, when they knew that such effects were occurring, we could have avoided the disaster he now predicts is inevitable. So, thanks to the polluters of the world, and all the 1%ers who have backed them.

Some recent articles have stated that people like the rich republicans who try to block anything and everything that Obama wants to do are striving for a Downton Abbey life, i.e., they are the lords of the manor and everyone else would be servants. But really, in this case, they are much worse than that. Here we are talking about the destruction of most the world’s population, now and into the foreseeable future. Apparently, we will run out of arable land and our food supply will shrink to a point that it will no longer support the population. And he is not even worried about the likelihood of wars.  Remember, that the stupid people of the Earth are mostly heavily armed and willing to destroy neighbors just because they can. So, should food become scarce, guess what will happen?

This argument is so devastating that it seems almost unthinkable. But, we have been procrastinating for so long that I assume his argument has to ring true at some stage. And the republican flat earth society continues to deny that climate change is real.  Maybe when they’re all dead, they will believe.

Ah well, onto other topics.

And speaking of stupid people, it seems on another exoplanet, the nation’s big banks are refusing to do business with the supply side of the legal marijuana business in Colorado and Washington. Mainly, I gather because the Feds still think marijuana sales should not be legal.  But really, banks are afraid of doing business with legal entities carrying on legal business because of the fear of running afoul of the law? Really? Aren’t these the same banks that seem to have no problem laundering drug money for Mexican drug gangs and setting up offshore accounts for them. Or selling fraudulent real estate transactions, or carrying on fraudulent hedge fund operations. These banks??? Well, the mind boggles.

News of the Middle Ages

Conundrum: a question or problem having only a conjectural answer, as in:

1.      “Why do we continue to invest our Nation’s blood, honor and treasury in a place (Afghanistan) still so firmly rooted in the 12^th century?” Or,

2.      “ Why do theoretically modern peoples of the world continue to invest their support for an institution still so firmly rooted in the Middle Ages (Catholic Church)?”

Two reports out today to amuse and enlighten we peoples of the world. 

The first is a report that the Afghan parliament just passed a law that essentially prohibits family members or victims from testifying against the members of their families who have purportedly committed acts of mayhem, and even murder against them or other members of the family. The new Afghan law will allow men to attack their wives, children and sisters without fear of judicial punishment, undoing years of slow progress in tackling violence in a country blighted by so-called "honour" killings, forced marriage and vicious domestic abuse. The small but significant change to Afghanistan's criminal prosecution code bans relatives of an accused person from testifying against them. Most violence against women in Afghanistan is within the family, so the law – passed by parliament but awaiting the signature of the president, Hamid Karzai – will effectively silence victims as well as most potential witnesses to their suffering.

So, there. Now Afghan men can continue to practice their 12^th century concepts of morality on the women and children in their care. So says the official government of Afghanistan. And that’s what we are being asked as an American public to support? That’s why we have invested blood, sweat and tears, over the past dozen or so years?  So that Afghanistan can continue to reside firmly in the 12th century? Perhaps we need to bring back Emperor Babur and then return our own troops to their home shores.

And then there is the second report. A special United Nations Human Rights committee  has issued a report that, “The Vatican "systematically" adopted policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades. The committee urged the Vatican to open its files on pedophiles and bishops who concealed their crimes.

In a devastating report hailed by victims, the U.N. committee severely criticized the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception and abortion and said it should change its own canon law to ensure children's rights and their access to health care are guaranteed.”

Finally, some authority is calling it like it is. The Holy Roman Catholic Church has been corrupt ( I believe that systematically raping children could be classed as corruption) from top to bottom.  And the good folks of the world over, who have been practicing the teachings of this institution, are being forced to accept that it has been following corruption.  My doesn’t that make the faithful feel good?

And on another exoplanet, Bill Nye, a “science guy” debated Ken Ham, president of the Creation Museum. Ham believes the earth was created 6,000 years ago and fossils were formed in Noah's flood. Yeah, and Punxsutawney Phil  can actually read the weather maps to accurately predict our weather based on whether he sees his shadow on one day in February. Hahahahaha  Oh, by the way, Ken Ham may or may not actually believe the claptrap he preaches. He makes money by conning the folks out there who remain uncertain. We call such people con artists, or sometimes charlatans . . . on the other hand, maybe the Tooth Fairy is real . . . and Santa Claus . . . don't forget Santa Claus . . .

Ta ta folks.

Religion and Disease

Looking and listening to the news of the day is getting downright dispiriting. Still only partly awake when the BBC came on the air this morning at 6:00, we were assaulted with the news of the day—Rioting, shooting, blowing things up in Syria, Iraq, the Ukraine, Russia, Egypt, Thailand . People are having so much fun killing other folks who aren’t quite like them, mainly because of religion (or power, but religion seems to be all about power these days).

Then, on the radio, came a guy talking about how evolved we are, relative to the Neanderthals and other early folk-like critters. We are evolved because we are socially conscious. We think, we imagine, we are aware of other things beyond roasting a piece of meat over the fire. We have conjured up a funny concept of a creature we call God, and, as a result of our really smart brainpower, we have created lots of rules of living that we make believe we were given by the God.

And, of course, when other folks ignore our rules of living, we kill them, just because they’re, well different, and we know that different is inherently threatening. Not wishing to have our rules challenged, we generally kill the folks tossing out the challenges.

So, that’s our daily news digest. NEWS FLASH: some folks in some land blew themselves up and brought a few dozen other folks along with them.

So, I began thinking about our “evolution” to this higher order being. And, then I began to wonder about the evolutionary advantage of making up stuff about a GOD thingie, and trying to make everyone think alike. And I was drawn to two possible conclusions: 1) if we all really thought alike, isn’t it likely that we would cease evolving, and become stagnant, and eventually die out as a species, because something else would take our place?; 2) we seem so vaguely crazed about ensuring that our version of the RULES and our version of the GOD becomes the only version left standing that we run an increasingly serious risk of a self-induced apocalypse—you know, nuclear winter and all that, which might also have a deleterious effect on our survival.

So, then my mind began its usual thing of playing. And I began wondering about disease, and epidemiology. And I thought, maybe organized religions are a sort of virulent disease state., spreading slowly throughout the globe.  And, like many disease states (bubonic plague, for example), if allowed to spread unchecked, it could eventually engulf and destroy the globe’s population.  So, perhaps we need  some kind of epidemiologic approach to arrest  the spread . Like many disease states, organized religion has mutated into several different forms and its manifestations differ depending on the receptivity of the hosts.  But still, thinking, say, of colony collapse disorder, now killing off our bee populations, we need to begin seriously examining ways to reduce the incidence and prevalence of these potentially deadly disease organisms.

NIH—calling NIH . . . where are you guys? We need your best epidemiologists on the job now.

Ta ta . . .

Deja Vu All Over Again

I’m waiting . . . still waiting . . .

Waiting for a high-ranking Muslim cleric to utter the words—“this is not Islamic. Those who perpetuate such acts are acting counter to every tenet of religious thinking under Islam. Islam is a religion of peace, and these people have converted it into a religious force of death.”

Yes, I am awaiting such a statement from any high-ranking Islamic cleric. But, no, it’s waiting for Godot, I think. Even worse than waiting for Catholic hierarchy in the bad old days to denounce priests for defiling little children, or their housemaids.

The latest (suicide??) bombing in Kabul killed many innocent folks, and the Taliban gladly claimed credit.  This would be like Charlie Manson announcing to the LA Times—“I just got my latest kill, folks. Still thinking about the next one”.

But the Islamic faith just keeps on truck’n, as though nothing is wrong with Islam. After a time, a religious order gets to be defined by onlookers, even especially, onlookers who do not belong to that faith. I understand that Muslims the world over really hate it when non-Muslims decry their faith and lump all Muslims as actual or potential terrorists.  But I have to say, until someone begins stepping up to the altar of public opinion and denouncing the fools who blow up innocents, so as to obtain their 72 virgins, the global denunciations will keep on coming.  It’s time for Muslim Clerics to denounce the Taliban and all the other Muslim terrorist groups who kill innocents, just to prove a point.

Which brings me to our year of 2014.  Why, well because of its resemblance to 1914.  Remember 1914? That was the year that someone shot and killed the Archduke Ferdinand and kick-started WW I.  Remember WW I? That was the war that killed some ten million folks and laid the groundwork for that other war, WW II that killed  way more than ten million—60-85 million, but who’s counting?

Are we in that same state of mind now? Well, almost the whole of the Middle East—let’s see Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, now routinely see folks blown up or otherwise killed by one ethnic cleansing agent or another. All in the name of religion (aka power). Now the thugs have extended their reach to South Sudan and the Central African Republic, again all in the name of ethnic cleansing of one type or another (again, really just power acquisition).

Then I observe the Europeans, who should know better, squabbling amongst themselves, with the British on the sidelines tossing darts at them. Some of the ideals are at least similar to 1914, similar enough to cause concern. Would the Europeans begin to cease squabbling and begin yelling, and then, as Europeans are wont to do, begin tossing inflammatory objects at one another? Well, we hope not, but hope is starting to get lost  here in the USofA, where squabbling has shifted to name-calling—lying, yelling and  corrupt moves to poison the well of democracy.  

The growing income inequality and the means by which the rich in this country attempt to subjugate the poor and the shrinking middle class are also reminiscent of the early 1900s. Listen to Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of a book on TR and Taft: “To be sure, Roosevelt had faced a pernicious underlying crisis, one as pervasive as any military conflict, or economic collapse. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, an immense gulf had opened between the rich and the poor; daily existence had become more difficult for ordinary people, and the middle class felt increasingly squeezed.” She goes on to say, “Yet by the end of Roosevelt’s tenure in the White House, a mood of reform had swept the country, creating a new kind of of presidency and a new vision of the relationship between the government and the people.”

Sound familiar?? Two differences: 1) we don’t have a Teddy Roosevelt in office, nor is there a TR waiting in the wings; 2) we have a right wing press now—the Faux News Network-- that is not really a news outlet at all. It could best described as the PR wing of the royalty core of the GOP.  We also have a supportive unit within our Supreme Court—led by Tony and his houseman Clarence—that has declared that corporations are folks like you and me and that money is speech.  So, unlike the early 1900s, when TR began reining in the dukes of the land, our Congress now opposes any attempt by our president to enact any controls over the wealthy.  So, for the time being, the dukes of the land reign supreme—meaning the Koch’s and others of their ilk are free to despoil our fair land in any way that pleases them.

This separation of the rich from the poor, and the increasing attempts by the GOP to eliminate the middle class, strikes me as  at least similar to the ethnic wars that rage throughout the Muslim world. Theirs are based on religion. Ours are based on money (but maybe there is no real difference between religion and money).

I’m old, so it may not matter for me. But it will matter for our grandchildren, who are still trying to figure out their way in this world.  I worry for them, but worrying is fairly useless.  I suppose, it’s what grandparents do—worry.  I keep hoping (no hope is not yet dead) that the middle class and the poor will finally understand that they are not powerless.  They can vote and they can denounce the people on the right who are bent on destroying their future.  But will they?

We’ll see. Meanwhile, I wonder what’s happening in Sarajevo??

Discrimnation

Discrimination

Reading several articles yesterday about bakers who refused to bake wedding cakes for upcoming same-sex weddings left me scratching my head wondering what’s next.  First, the same issue arose in different states—Oregon and Colorado. In both cases, the bakers are being told they are violating the law by discriminating against Gays.  Secondly this thing presents weird resolution possibilities.

That made me stop and think a bit more. What, I wondered, if the baker had told a Black couple that he would not bake their wedding cake because he doesn’t serve Blacks (or Latinos, or Republicans, or . . .)?  Does that provoke a different reaction among the folks paying attention to this little protest? I think that both bakers are citing their right to religious freedoms as their reason—God has apparently told them that Gays are a No-No, so they really cannot bake their cake.  I mean, what would they tell God? Plus, they might get struck down, ruining their credit rating entirely.

So, as my brain tries to wrap itself around this annoying little issue, one of hundreds in this increasingly annoying land of ours, other little thoughts keep creeping into my brain. I mean, what if the baker acceded to their request, or simply gave in to the demands of the court system and agreed to bake their cakes. If you were that couple, would you actually eat his cake?  I can already envision the aftermath court hearing. “No, your Honor, I have no idea how the Jalapeno peppers got into the cake, and, as for the rat poison, well, that truly baffles me.” If a baker told me that he would not bake me a cake,  I would certainly want to haul his ass into court, but eat his cake??? Hmmm, I don’t think so. I may be old, but I’m not stupid.

So, I’m left wondering how one could ever resolve satisfactorily such a thorny question.  Can one ever discriminate about doing business with someone who is part of a class of people (Gays, Blacks, Republicans) if the discrimination is based on religious beliefs? “Your Honor, my God and I had a conversation about this issue and he instructed me that to serve Republicans would be to dishonor his name. I mean, look at all the crap they are into—cutting off food stamps to poor people, destroying the public’s access to a free quality education, denying healthy care, turning the banking system into a giant gambling machine. So, I really cannot in good conscience supply them with their ration of my high quality marijuana (assuming I live in Colorado).”

So, I don’t have any idea how we can seriously cause everyone to suddenly become rational on this issue of religiously based discrimination.  Unless we tell the bakers that they need now to move their asses to Tehran on the first available flight out. I’m sure they would love living in AllahLand.

And on that exoplanet called Kansas, apparently the righteous lawmakers there have decided that anyone who wants to is now allowed to carry a concealed weapon into any public place he wishes, including your kids school. But, since they are also committed to ridding the state of that annoying tax-sucking machine called public education, it is perhaps not surprising that  we should all start carrying guns into schools.

And in an amazing feat of weight-loss prowess, the New Jersey Gubernator, Mr. Christie has managed to defy all physical laws by losing 450 pounds and shrinking himself into a size one suit.  I mean, his Press conference was truly awe-inspiring, watch him shrink over the 2 hours as he explained his non-involvement in that messy little traffic jam his guys created without ever telling him about it. Wow, is he really tiny now, or not??

2014, Here We Come

2013 and On Into the Wilderness of a New Year

I keep imagining that 2013 was just another year. But then I come to and realize, every year is just another year. What do we remember from the year 1913 (aside from the fact that it preceded that little incident in Sarajevo that sparked the Great War that killed ten million folks).  Or 1813, boring, aside from the war begun in 1812, or the little kerfuffle with Napoleon in Russia. Or, say, 1712 . . .when Sweden celebrated February 30^th in a move to return to some old tymie calendar, and then that slave revolt thingie in New York City. Well, how’s about 1013 . . . hmmm . . . well Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, having invaded England, is proclaimed as King within the Danelaw and then on December 25, Sweyn is proclaimed King of all England in London, forcing Æthelred the Unready to flee to Normandy. So a guy named Forkbeard overcame a guy named Atheired the Unready. How great is that?

So, see, things could be worse, huh? Actually, maybe that’s a good sign. We have here Boehner the Unready, planning to take on the Kockbeards during 2014. How’s that for a return to the past? All these 12^th century thinkers (aka the republican party) sitting around sucking their thumbs and planning for a return to power . . . To horse, to horse . . .

But on a more sane plain, what could I make of the year behind us and the one coming up next?

First is the thought that years don’t matter.  Years just come and go. They’re a bookkeeper’s approach to life—counting things, demarcating things . . . What matters I realize is now, this moment. Because I only exist in this moment. Yes, there are consequences to what I do each moment, and consequences live on into the future. But I control only this moment. So, I should at least try to suck the life out of each moment—they are the marrow of life.

Next is this little thing about being OLD. Yeah, I get that each day I’m just a little bit older. But I am now in my 80^th year, and I can’t figure out how I got here. It means that I can no longer pretend to Middle Age, regardless of how/what I feel. So, now all of my moments are old-thing moments. Wow . . . what a concept. When I combine this OLD thing concept with the Zen of Nothingness, it makes each moment loom even larger than usual. So, I plan to pay even more attention than I normally do.

I’m thinking that 2013 wasn’t all bad. I mean, aside from the teabaggers, nationally we seem to be progressing a bit on the civilized thing. Several more states now allow the LGBT community to wed, including Utah. Utah . . . who would’ve thought? Now if only we could arrange to ban all heterosexual weddings, then the institution of marriage would be safe for all time.

And in 2014 I assume we will see peace for all time in all lands . . . well aside from the little kerfuffles (love that word)  throughout the Muslim lands, mainly, but not totally in the Middle East.  (what does that term mean? The Middle East. Why is it Middle. If I’m sitting in Oz, the Outback would more realistically be called the Middle East.  The Middle East isn’t really even the East, except maybe that it’s East of London. It’s after all, West of Tokyo, so maybe the Japanese should called Baghdad part of the Middle West). But I digress. So, I assume that all Muslims throughout the World (including that Middle East place) will now stop blowing themselves up, along with other folks in marketplaces, and Hezbollah will stop lobbing rockets into Israel, and the folks in South Sudan will quit cutting off the heads of little kids in their villages.  Remember that Zen of Nothingness? No more 71 virgins guys . . . they’re fresh out.

So, peace will finally reign supreme . . . at least until January 2^nd, at which time all bets are off, and the crazy folks (them that gots religion) can resume killing their neighbors with impunity, just cuz they’re different. Only kidding . . . nope, I imagine that folks will finally regain some commonsense and cease for all time killing folks just because.

And peace will break out for all time.

And children will receive proper food, care and love for all time.

So come on people. Think a little harder. Just put away the guns and the bombs. Have another glass of wine instead. And toast to the goddess of love.

So come on 2014, we’re ready.