Dirty Beards

I have a beard for a long time. I think I was in my early 20's when I first grew a beard. The hassle of shaving, of slashing the face into a bloody pulp every morning, was the prime motivation for growing it. I am not sure if there was any other reason, for having a beard then were not seen as unusual or a making of a statement. I surely didn't do it as a protest against society. Besides, most of my life society has protested against me, not I against it. Long ago I surrendered to society. I like my beard and shall keep it until the life is taken from my body. But just now I read some disturbing "beard news".

Have I got horrifying news for you (especially if you are near a beard)! A new study in New Mexico (I suspect they hate beards there) released by Quest Diagnostics into beard dirt says that some of the beards studied contained normal bacteria,  but several others were comparable to toilets. Yep! They claim my beard my be as clean as a toilet bowl full of poop. "If there were similar samples in the water system it would have to be shut down for disinfecting," the Quest said in its report. But wait! Have there not been many studies that also say your computer keyboard and cell phone are as dirty as a toilet? (I'll wait while you wipe your keyboard with antibacterial wipes and I wipe my beard with wipes too) 

So I am thinking now that maybe beards are normal for dirt, fecal matter, bacteria and the rest. It has long been said that the filthiest place with the most fecal bacteria in a home is not in the toilet, but the kitchen sink. Most city water systems can also be dirtier than my beard. So why slander the bearded ones of the earth?  Germs are  everywhere, we might as well accept it, and when we're having a bad day we should remember that people like the ones at Quest are spending their lives deep in dirt, researching beard bacteria and whatever else humans come in contact with. No wonder they have dirty minds. 

Nonsense to that study, I say! Uh...but I do request that the ladies shave their legs regularly. We bearded men do have our standards for cleanliness.

British Style Election Campaigns

A couple of weeks ago on the eve of the British parliamentary elections, I watched a "questioning session" of British candidates for Prime Minister on a government channel of TV. It was fascinating for a number of reasons and proof that the ugly and poorly functioning electoral system of my own country is replicated elsewhere, a reminder that politics in the modern age of a democratic society is more about show than substance.

This questioning thing was in place of a debate among the three candidates, supposedly to give the candidates direct access "to the people".  It involved a studio audience of randomly selected citizens, often openly hostile, that asked rather direct and often rude questions of the the Labor, Liberal and Conservative party leaders who were campaigning to see which would have the most party members elected. The party with the most candidates elected will have its leader be named Prime Minister. Each of the three candidates was called a liar more than a few times by the questioners,  and each of the candidates simply smiled when insulted and thanked the questioner for the insult. Curious, indeed. In the U.S. our traditions mean the politician would never directly be called liars, I guess because it is already be assumed that he or she is a liar. Why else run for political office?

The questions were about issues that were the often same as those posed by interviewers (we rarely get the chance to ask the politicians directly)  in today's U.S. elections- welfare reform, the bad economy, too many immigrants entering the country. There were also some unique to the Brits. (whether, for example, to stay in the EU). Like our own candidates, the three politicians dodged, equivocated and changed the subject. But the TV moderator who called on each questioner interrupted when the politicians did so and addressed all three with a, "You didn't answer the question. Please do now". I loved that because in several cases it forced a direct reply.

The audience seemed to dislike all three and often booed answers or expressed disdain for the candidate and his policies. I wish we did that here!  Britain may be in a bit of distress now, but I think their campaign style is a better way than the one we have here that. Ours insulates the candidates and allows them to hide behind handlers and lets them use empty rhetoric. Wow! I would love to start a question to Hillary Clinton with, "Given you are a serial liar........" I should move to Britain.

Spelling Bees

Are you a good speller?  Could you spell words like 'fibbertigibbet' (a silly person)?  Ever enter a spelling competition? If you think you are a good speller, take this test to see if you are Spelling Bee eligible.  http://spellingbee.com/sample-test When I was a primary school student the teachers frequently had "spelling bee" competitions among the class. We had no geniuses who could spell the obscure words , but we had fun. I don't think kids have spelling bees in school as much as they used to because all they seem to know how to spell is lol and the other texting foolishness they embrace. Maybe someone should have an acronym identification contest fort the kids today.  It's b/c (because) txt (text) 411 (information) is NP (no problem) for them. How do kids who can barely spell 'cat' remember all of that chat acronym vocabulary?

Anyway, there are some nerd kids left who are amazing spellers, mostly the ones who read those...what did they used to call them...oh, 'books'...instead of poking an electronic keyboard device all day with a finger. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the old line and official spelling bee contest that defines U.S. kid spellers (more accurately, it's 285 spellers from the 50 U.S. states, and from American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense Schools in Europe and some from  the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea). The spellers range in age from 9 to 15 years old, but more than 80% are between the ages of 12 and 14 and are selected after winning local spelling bee competitions. And this year there was a a tie between two contestants.

There are about the same number of boys as girls and an oddity for that contest is that  math is most frequently cited as a favorite subject. So much for the myth that one is either math or language oriented. Indian Americans are the best spellers. They have dominated the Scripps Bee for many years.  The theory is that it is a cultural thing, and that Indian Americans study and prepare best for the contest. Only one of those Indian Americans ever won the contest on his or her first try. The rest of them tried multiple times before winning. You can't be lazy and be a spelling champ. Anyway, the success of Indian spellers more than makes up for the lack of Indian Americans (the two who tied  as winners this year are both Indian Americans) who are sports or music champs.

So in this age of spell check where one really need not be a great speller, what is the value in  having spelling contests? Why not forget spelling and just let the geeks rule spelling? It's because words are the building blocks of language and we need to know how to spell them quickly in order to use the language well. When we spell well we use more and more sophisticated words. Spelling  also connects us to history and culture, to science, poetry, and mathematics.

Spelling helps us perfect our use of language, However, I confess that I will use spell check before sending this. I do not need bad spelling to be another affirmation of my stupidity.

Memorial Day Films

It's Memorial Day here. That is the day countries (I think every country has that holiday in some form or another) pay tribute to those soldiers who died in wars in which their country was engaged. There are services at cemeteries for those killed in combat, it's a holiday for government workers, there are recreational activities that involve summer (Memorial Day is considered the first day of summer) and the TV networks show their best and worst "war films" that involve military achievements by the nation.

Wars are always a tragedy and very expensive (the most expensive war in U.S. history was W.W.II). They rarely end well for the "victor" and often the country that loses receives so much assistance from the victory in rebuilding that it winds up with an improved economy and government. Still, wars are never a good thing for the civilian population, which rarely is portrayed in those shoot-up action war films Hollywood  likes to make. Perhaps the best war film ever made was the 1946 classic, 'The Best Years of Our Lives'.

That film had no battle scene, for it centered on how soldiers coming home tied to deal with the many problems after they returned to civilian life after W.W.II. Here is a clip of Harold Russell (He won an Academy award for his portrayal in the film) one of the actors, a real soldier who lost his hands in a battle during the war and who was recruited by the producer to be featured in the film as a character who is forever changed by the loss. This film reminds us that war is not the silly action films we see made about it, but a human tragedy to be avoided at all cost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLDBiSPKgKI

I think people have different reactions to war films. Some hate the and will not watch, others are fascinated by them, some only watch certain types and still others are indifferent. I fall in the certain type classification. I do not like the blood and guts Stallone war film genre. The ones I will watch are the mote realistic ones that deal with one or more issues of was, either for the soldiers or the civilians. Here is a short list of my favorite ones, in no certain order, besides 'The Best Year's of our Lives'.

* Saving Private Ryan ( 1998)- a realistic look at the horrors of combat
* The Dirty Dozen (1967) A silly unrealistic film loaded with stars who hammed it up and made it a fun watch.
* Schindler’s List ( 1993)- Shows in graphic and realistic format the Nazi Holocaust
* Full Metal Jacket ( 1987)- I hated the second half of the film, the combat portion. But the first half depiction of boot camp is dead on target
* All Quiet on the Western Front ( 1930) - Maybe the best. A look at the horror of World War I, this time, from a German perspective. The ending is shocking and realistic
* The Longest Day (1962)- An all-star re-creation of the D-Day invasion with the dialect in both German and English, the original locations were utilized, and an all-star international cast impersonates the people involved, from high ranking officials to ordinary GIs. Each actor speaks in his or her native language with subtitles.  At 3 hours long it is also a candidate for "longest film'".

That's it. There are many war films I have not seen, given I am not a fan of movies. So this is just one perspective of the Hollywood view of war. May your day be a peaceful one!

Personalized License Plates

The vanity license plate may live longer than did the dinosaurs. But  I don't get why people have to put their personal messages on the back bumper of their car, though there seems to be more and more people doing it. Maybe it's just a cheap way to personalize a car, to express an opinion, to show humor, as a way to show an exhibitionist side, or to advertise a business. But I don't want one (I know, you probably think I should have a personalized license plate that says 'Rants Too Much'). There has to be a better way to express oneself than on the back of a car. 

There is a limit on what a person can have written on his or her license plate Each state makes and requires car license plates. so each has rules about what can and can not print on them. In most cases the "prestige plates", as they call them, can't have profanity, obscene language, or text that ridicules a person, group, or religious belief or being, race or ethnicity. Outside of that, the person who orders a personalized license plate from their states Department of Motor Vehicles can put just about anything on the plate. The states get into murky constitutional free speech issues when they ban certain plates and not others, so if you want 'I POOP' to be on your license plate they will probably allow it. The law says that all states have to make sure there is free speech while they try to discourage putting offensive language on the plate. Good luck to them on that.

No driver is allowed to alter or add anything to a license plate. Therefore, for states seeking revenue, making those who want a personalized license plate pay extra to have the state print their content on them is a pretty good idea. I'm surprised more of the rebel types out there just don't make their own personal comments above, below or on the side of the state issued plates. There is nothing illegal about a metal strip adjacent/touching the required license plate stating whatever offensive statement the state won't put on a personalized plate. But then, bumper stickers already do that to some extent.

In the U.S. there are many millions of those vanity license plates, and usually they express some variation of  Look At Me, Aren't I Clever. It's a harmless and quiet way for those who want attention to get it. Uh, they are harmless unless you put something on your plate that insults too much for those who lack a sense of humor or sense of restraint. And then, there are those announcement plates like 'BLONDE HERE' which might invite a sexual assault or two in the parking lot when that blonde tries to enter her car. Those personalized plates can attract the crazies who might personalize the plate owners car or very person in a less than positive way.

Soooooooooooooo. If you had a personalized license plate, what would it say?

Virtual Reality

It looks like mind control will soon be here. Instead of control of the masses via the empty headed cell phone, within a few years we may be sucked into the virtual reality world, and it may even replace the real one in which we live. I think it's not a pleasant future world. When the virtual replaces the real, no matter how astounding the VR is, we lose some our humanity to a greater or lesser extent . Reality might eventually be redefined as simply being the electrical signals interpreted by the brain. Well, there may be a good to this for me because as they play in private with their VR, many of those annoying cell phone addicts will disappear from public. But will they become the vegetables of their private virtual reality world?

The future of VR was on display recently at Face book's F8 developers' conference in San Francisco. And all the companies and participants say that costs for VR have dropped dramatically, that VR technology is amazing, and that because of this, VR will soon not only to challenge reality's stranglehold on the way we engage with life, but possibly even eclipse it for sheer thrills.

Ugh! Sadly, I can believe it. Just observing kids who are gaming and the masses playing with their cell phones incessantly, shows me that many humans will gladly trade reality for the virtual. That's because in virtual reality a person will have Superman- like powers, going where he or she wants and accessing information at will. Anddddddddd, like cell phones they will enable the individual to run away from the real world in which he or she feels inadequate.

But virtual reality gaming or virtual sex is different from the current social media people love. Most of the successful tech products of recent years have been “social”. They encourage and enable social interaction in new ways. But VR is almost antisocial.  It causes us to immerse in an alternate world apart from the people around us. Cell phones can make us absorbed with electronics, but we do have some recognition when using them that the real world is along side. But with VR, one surrenders totally to escapism.

So even though a cruder form of virtual reality has been around for decades without much impact on the average person, it is ready now to explode in popularity and use. The reason it will become more common is not only the improved technology of it, but because there's a price point will just keep going down. As it becomes cheaper experts in the field agree that gaming and the adult film industry will be used most with VR. And that will bring in many other VR uses.

It may seem better to many, for example, to use VR to watch a football game than to attend the game live in person. With virtual reality you attend an event, a nd you can choose a variety of locations from which to view it, ranging from the stands to a place closet to the field. The game becomes intimate and the stimulation's of the VR version are constant. 

But can VR also be used for propaganda, social control, even brain washing? For example, programs could be written to allow a man to see the world from "a woman's point of view" or government could inform voters of a position that subliminally changes a view to what the politicians want, not what is true. It's best to consider the negatives of a new technology, but it seems people today are conditioned to embrace whatever is new without judging its overall worth to them. So the coming VR experience may become either a dream come true or the might mare of the ages.

AOL Sold

A dinosaur may be dead. That would be the old war horse of internet servers, AOL. 'America On Line' (or for one time frustrated users who were regularly frustrated with the inability to get on line... 'America Off Line'). I'm not sure why Verizon is buying an outdated company with few assets, but it's probably unrelated to technology and more related to the subscriber base attached to AOL. AOL has bought quite a few much more successful companies than itself and  the assets of those companies far outweigh the liability of the AOL brand itself.

Anyway, here's how Lowell McAdam,  the CEO of Verizon, spins it. "AOL has once again become a digital trailblazer, and we are excited at the prospect of charting a new course together in the digitally connected world," McAdam stated. "AOL's advertising model aligns with this approach, and the advertising platform provides a key tool for us to develop future revenue streams."

Good luck to Verizon with AOL. In the early days of the internet, the 90's, AOL was the main "dial-up" server for Americans. It was a slow process, and not just because of the technology. AOL was a virtual monopoly and acted that way, often indifferent to customer service. I never had an AOL account (I swear it!) but I do remember the jokes about AOL's speed and about disconnection. In the late 1990's when AOL announced it would start charging a flat fee instead of the expense hourly rate for being on line,  people started logging on and staying on line for along time, thereby tying up the AOL lines and making it very hard for others to log in. AOL connections were flooded with users trying to get on, and many canceled their accounts due to constant.  That's when AOL customers starting fleeing to other internet providers.

But before burying AOL it would be fair to cite some of the innovations that AOL brought to the net.  The first is that AOL provided an affordable on line provider service, making the internet explosion possible. It was also the first internet provider to offer flat rate charges rather than hourly rates to use the net.  Also, AOL started the first chat platform and chat room. 'AIM' was a worldwide phenomenon at the time.

Like everything else, AOL had it's day and will be so re branded by Verizon that we will only have memories of  it. Good bye AOL. Thanks for the memories.

Naked Gardening Day

You can tell that May is here. The weather gets warmer and people are out working in their gardens. Uh, some of them outside forget to put their pants on, it seems. That's because since 2005, when some fellow in Seattle, Washington came up with the idea for this holiday, the first Saturday in May is celebrated by some as 'Naked Gardening Day' (I swear that I am typing this while fully clothed). It's supposed to be a holiday celebrating gardening "as nature intended."  But I am not sure my neighbors would approve if I was daffy enough to try that.

Why garden naked? According to the web site that sponsors Naked Gardening Day , we should do it because "it's fun" and secondly, it's apparently the second activity families would consider doing together in the nude. (Not that! Swimming is the first.)  The site says that, "Our culture needs to move toward a healthy sense of both body acceptance and our relation to the natural environment. Gardening naked is not only a simple joy, it reminds us, even if only for those few sun kissed minutes, that we can be honest with who we are as humans and as part of this planet."

Apparently, England is the place where the Naked Gardeners can be seen more often....if you want to look at that sort of sight. But people from all around the world are encouraged to find an opportunity to strip and tend to whatever garden they have access to, even if it's  gardening in full public view.

The web site says if you get naked and pull weeds you should share  your experiences of doing it experience with "someone close".  (or perhaps the police officer who arrested you for breaking the public nudity laws of your city) The Naked Gardening Day site claims that " If people tried gardening naked once, they would smile. Not only would they smile, but they'd see that nudity is actually a pleasant and inherently good thing. Either that or they might find an opportunity to garden  in the patch adjacent to the prison cell they have been assigned by the judge who likes his cucumbers clothed.

I'll pass on Naked gardening Day. It seems that May is also the month for more reverential holidays I should honor. There's Lumpy Rug Day, Candied Orange Peel Day, Fatigue Syndrome Day, Dance Like A Chicken Day and No Dirty Dishes Day that will occupy too much of my time for me to get naked in the petunias.

Robbery Or Social Media Addiction?

How stupid can an internet social media addict be? Dominyk Alfonseca might be the archetype of that.  Dominyk staged a robbery of a Virginia bank...sort of.  He handed the bank teller a note asking for her to give him $150,000 of the bank's money. Dominyk said he left the bank with a bag of money. Within half an hour, Virginia Beach police officers found him and arrested him charging him with robbery. Uh, Dominyk claims that the robbery was just for show, not reality.

The "maybe" robber posted pictures and a video of the robbery on his Instagram account showing the note he gave to a teller at the branch Monday, as well as the teller piling money on the counter. "For real, I didn't even do it for money, you understand? I didn't do that for money. I knew my page would get exposure."  He said he hoped by posting the items to Instagram, he would get the attention of "certain people", some of whom had stolen ideas from him during the course of several years. Exactly what he hoped to accomplish once he had their attention, he wouldn't specify. But then Dominyk might not only be addicted to Instagram, but also a bit stupid.

Well, he's been charged with bank robbery, not with social media addiction. Dominyk says he just want publicity and and that "justice will be served all around when he is set free as the prosecutor realizes he didn't mean to rob a bank. Maybe Dominyk can find a lawyer to plead a "social media addiction" defense. With so much evidence every day of humans lost in their virtual world, unable to differentiate between reality and lunacy, it might be a winning defense. Who among us hasn't witnesses similar acts of  irrational behavior by a raging cell phone texter? A jury might relate to that and let Dominiyk go (further into his life of fantasy). It's all kinda sad, I must say.