MY WRITING JOURNAL

Sunday, August 15

The Metaverse

Silicon Valley has been anticipating virtual reality for more than three decades, and keeps running into the same problem: people mostly like actual reality

Maybe this will be my Paul Krugman moment. The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist was famously the winner of a study to establish which op-ed commentator was most consistently correct.

In 1998, he also famously claimed, “By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”

I am not nearly so storied in accomplishments as Krugman. But I do make my living offering predictions and forecasts.

So I might as well say it: I predict that the metaverse won’t happen.

The “metaverse,” for those who don’t know, is a still-mostly-hypothetical virtual world accessed by special virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology.

The idea is to create a sort of next-level Internet overlaid on our physical world. People plugged into the metaverse exist in our physical world like everyone else but can see and interact with things that others can’t.

Think The Matrix or the Star Trek Holodeck or the Fortnite-esque brandscapes of Ready Player One. READ MORE

Dog and Fox

Serious About Climate

Is Biden serious about climate?

His 2,000 drilling and fracking permits suggest not

Just when we must be rejecting new drilling, fracking and pipeline infrastructure, Biden isn’t just tolerating fossil fuels – he’s uplifting them

The latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints a stark and sobering picture: a global future of extreme weather events that are guaranteed to become more frequent and more intense over coming decades.

The horrific flooding that has recently shocked Europe will become more common. The unrelenting fires that have engulfed the western United States and Canada will intensify and widen.

And some island nations, it seems, may already be doomed to eradication by inevitable sea level rise.

The only glimmer of hope offered in the IPCC report is that immediate, aggressive action by world leaders could still prevent a future of assured climate chaos from being even worse. As devastating as a 1.5C global temperature increase will be, a 2.5C increase would be unfathomable.

Being the historical top emitter of climate-killing greenhouse gases, the United States has a clear obligation to help lead the world in rapidly reducing emissions and transitioning the planet to clean, renewable energy.

Yet every indication thus far from the Biden administration suggests that this critical, urgent action won’t be coming. READ MORE

Raising Bridges

Classic Sunday Newspaper Comics

Only in California

California may legalize human composting, a process in which the body breaks down into soil over the course of about 30 days

Is there a greener way to honor those who have died?

Humans have caused unprecedented and irreversible changes to the climate in our time on Earth – pollution that continues even in death. But, across the US, some are posing an alternative: human composting.

Traditional after-death options such as burial and cremation can be tough on the environment, either by taking up land and emitting chemicals into the ground or by using fossil fuels and gas.

That’s why California lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow for human composting, or the natural organic reduction of human remains to soil.

It’s not the first state to do so. Washington state legalized natural organic reduction in 2020, allowing the human soil to be used in a forest as well as given to families.

Colorado has enacted similar legislation – restricting the soil from being used to grow crops that people will eat – as has Oregon. Delaware, Hawaii and Vermont are considering natural organic reduction bills.

Recompose, a Seattle-based company, was the first company in the US to get into the human composting business. READ MORE

What a Voice

Biden's Blue Hydrogen

Infrastructure bill includes $8bn to develop ‘clean hydrogen’ but study finds large emissions from production of ‘blue’ hydrogen

The large infrastructure bill passed by the US Senate and hailed by Joe Biden as a key tool to tackle the climate crisis includes billions of dollars to support a supposedly clean fuel that is potentially even more polluting than coal, new research has found.

The $1tn infrastructure package, which passed with bipartisan support on Tuesday, includes $8bn to develop “clean hydrogen” via the creation of four new regional hubs.

The White House has said the bill advances Biden’s climate agenda and proponents of hydrogen have touted it as a low-emissions alternative to fuel shipping, trucking, aviation and even home heating.

But a new study has found surprisingly large emissions from the production of so-called “blue” hydrogen, a variant being enthusiastically pushed by the fossil fuel industry and probably falling under the definition of clean hydrogen in the Senate bill. READ MORE

The Racoon Means Business

Saturday, August 14

Populist Press

Hiding the Problem

Back Porch Recollections

Some people question my need to discuss stupid politics when there is not a damn thing that I or anyone like me can do about it... but, I tell them that it is my right to speak out... and while I am not displaying any form of civil disobediance, I am opposed to the assinine behavior of so-called intellectual democrats and wonder why they are so hell-bent to F_ _ K up this country...

Many of are worried about BLM and CRT but these are just temporary FADS that are designed to pacify these minorities until the wealthy have a chance to decide what the hell they want to do with them...

One of our biggest concerns is:

IMMIGRATION

which is followed by

INFLATION

which is followed by

CHINA's ECONOMIC THREAT TO USA

which is followed by

OUR NATIONAL DEBT

which is followed by

OUR DIVIDED COUNTRY

which is not really followed by anything else because this is enough shit for us to concern ourselves with at one time...

Now here's another question: Do you think any of our MILLIONAIRES or our BILLIONAIRES are really worried about any of this... HELL NO... and, why should they be... none of this is really going to impact them in any way shape or form...

What happens and has been happening in this country for the last 100 years is the fact that the MIDDLE CLASS and the LOWER CLASSES are the ones that actually DO ALL THE WORK and the ones that DO ALL THE SUFFERING... whether it be health wise or financially...

AND YET, the wealthy in their cleverness has arranged this current situation where we are fighting ourselves INSTEAD OF THEM... and, it would not surprise me at all if they are sitting in their estates laughing their asses off at us...

East TN Living

Each day that I wake up in East TN and watch the morning news on FOX News, I am thankful that this is where I live and decided to live over 30 years ago... but more importantly, with all these crime increases take place in larger cities and police retiring and the availability of drugs...

My health is stable but there is always the stress of it hanging over my head the fact that my cancers could go aggressive any day... so, each day is not just a blessing for which I am thankful, but a day that I try to appreciate each and every minute which seems rather dramatic but it is true.

After 73 years of life, I have enjoyed 639,480 hours on this earth or 38,368,800 minutes...

And, while it may seem a little silly to figure out these numbers, it instills inside me the value of my life in terms of something other than money or financial wealth as a measure of life.

Each day that I am above ground, I try to look at that day as not just something special but as a day where I try to enjoy and appreciate every single minute... not just the hours but the minutes... which means I try never to be bored but that does not mean I have to do something each minute... but to appreciate each minute...

I watch the news

I prepare my meals

I cook my meals

I watch the news

I watch a couple of episodes of a series

I play with the cats

I post articles to my blogs

I find material for my blogs

I write emails

I read articles

I reflect and contemplate

I discuss the news

I write in a journal

I work outside in the yard

I go to doctor's appointments

I go shopping

I do inside the house chores

I go on vacation

I visit with family and friends

I go to procedures and treatments

I go eat dinner at a restaurant

I sleep each night

There is a lot to like about East TN just as there is a lot to dislike about East TN as well... but, the point of my day is to live that day without any regrets and to keep myself busy... it is not difficult even though living like this may take a little practice...

Modern Slaves

Spending Democrats

Democrats

Populist Press

Daily Sailor Moon

The Flip

Transmitting Sensitive Data

Jack Wallen addresses the challenging question of which browser is best to use for transmitting encrypted data.

The most secure browser for encrypted data is Tor. But there's a catch, and it's a big one.

You might work within a company LAN that doesn't allow for the Tor browser to function. And unless you can get your IT department to open up the network to allow Tor to function, you're out of luck.

But for everyone else, Tor is definitely the browser to beat when it comes to encrypted transmitted data.

Let me offer up a simple example.

Once upon a time, I was hired by a new client. Now, this client didn't exactly engender much in the way of trust in me, but they were willing to pay a premium for me to generate content for them.

But lodged in the back of my mind was this sense I couldn't trust them 100%. So, what did I do? I created a virtual network, detached from my primary network and then deployed a virtual machine attached to that network.

On that virtual machine (running Ubuntu Desktop), I installed the Tor browser.

With that setup, I felt absolutely confident nothing untoward could happen... unless I was dealing with serious hackers. READ MORE

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Sunday, August 15

Saturday, August 14