133 a song of screencraps

We start with the disgusting drain in the sink of the studio where I work. Not sure what I cleaned last week, but over the weekend it grew. Considering planting these sprouts just to see what they are.

FYI, this is a metaphor.

Then on to the singularity. I've been exploring VR a bit, it really is the future. If I can be impressed by this, I can only imagine what a real headset with handheld controls is like. This is a storytelling medium that is about to explode, and I'm wondering how I can get in on that. Ideas?

(Also, if your ideas happen to include real contacts, so much the better.)

And more singularity.

Machine learning is learning to set up it's own guard rails. What used to take programmers years of careful thought, say, why you want to identify a picture of a cat versus a dog, now they're letting the machine figure it out for itself. What am I looking at and why?

But in my mind, all of this is like watching a dog do tricks for treats, and thinking, "I've trained this beast real good." Meanwhile, you've got dog fur everywhere, in your house, car, and clothes, you go for three walks a day, sleep on the edge of the bed because it's in the middle, all your gifts are dog themed, you installed a dog door and a dog run and draped all your remaining furniture, the stuff it hasn't destroyed, in blankets.

Sure, you're totally in control of the dog. But really?

I say this from experience.

Man, I'm doing pretty good at staying out of the shit so far.

Yesterday, I got this wrong. These new CDC guidelines are for people with symptoms. According to the experts who have gotten many details of this disease wrong, after ten days if your symptoms are getting better and you haven't had a fever in 24 hours, you probably aren't contagious.

You might want to give it a couple extra weeks, just in case.

Caitlin Johnstone lives and works in Australia, but writes about America. Sometimes, an ocean of perspective helps you see just how batshit crazy someplace is.

People call Bernie radical.

Here he is radically celebrating the fact that he was able to get *almost* half of the "liberal" members of the Senate to agree to theoretically cut military spending.

By about half of what it has gone up in just the past three years. Ooo radical!

Here he is sounding like a complete nutcase who could never govern in a bipartisan way. Absolutely no understanding of compromise, or how to get the GOP to cooperate.

And really, just refusing to fall in line.

What a hot head! Crazy Bernie.

Yeah, he totally would have made a mess out of America. 

Think about it. We'd be spending trillions on free healthcare, rather than...uh... What exactly are we spending the trillions on?

This seems like a good time for this one...

My sister-in-law sent this. No more change at the grocery store.

One of my sci-fi novels, Swimmer, is set in a future where there is a wired and wealthy elite living alongside poor and unhealthy masses. (I know, hard to imagine.) The proles aren't part of the digital economy, and they rely upon old coins for currency. Quarters are really valuable.

Good morning, America.

How are you?

Don't you know me?

I am your native son.

 I'm the train...

They call the city of New Orleans...

And I'll be gone five hundred miles...

When the day has gone. 

 Feel the wheels rumblin'...

'Neith the floor...

And the sons of Pullman porters...

 And the sons of engineers...

 Ride their father's magic carpets...

Made of steam...

Mothers with their babes asleep...

 Are rockin' to the gentle beat...

 And the rhythm of the rails...

Is all they dream.

Did you follow that? It was something about how there are lasers and leaf blowers...on all sides.

File under: unconfirmed rumor

However...

But...

And...

Still, part of the reason this virus is out of control is it is a weakling.

And if you actually set out to fight it...

It is possible.

We just have to have the desire, and leadership. But the rest of the world is showing us it can be done.

We just can't go see that in person.

Finally, even more news that the world isn't the way we've been told.

Actually, I've heard evidence that pre-homo-sapiens-sapiens, people like a neanderthal or denisovan, were in Southern California about 120,000 years ago, before the last ice age.

People have enjoyed living by the water for a long time, and the coastline during the ice sheets was 30 miles out from where it is now, so, yeah, a lot of history is missing from our narrative. 

Miss this place, and you, Mom!

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