Flash

 

All Nighter

 

All About the Democrats

Flashy

 

Free Speech or Disinformation?

In a Friday piece for Time magazine, the outlet’s national correspondent Charlotte Alter dismissed Elon Musk’s quest for free speech on Twitter as a white male "obsession," and merely an entrepreneurial way to acquire influence and power in the world.

She also claimed that Musk’s idea of free speech is about the right to spread "disinformation" and has nothing to do with the Founding Fathers' original intent.

Alter began her piece by insinuating that Musk should have put his $44 billion into something more worthwhile than what he sees as "free speech," a phrase she put in scare quotes throughout the piece.

She wrote, "They say that something is worth what someone will pay for it. If that’s true, then protecting ‘free speech,’ which Elon Musk has cited as a central reason he agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion this week, may be worth twice as much as solving America’s homelessness problem, and seven times as much as solving world hunger."

She added, "It’s worth more (to him, at least) than educating every child in nearly 50 countries, more than the GDP of Serbia, Jordan, or Paraguay."

The author then proceeded to wonder why a rich techie like Musk would even care about freedom of speech and how it "had become paramount concern of the techno-moral universe."

She asked, "Why does Musk care so much about this? Why would a guy who has pushed the boundaries of electric-vehicle manufacturing and plumbed the limits of commercial space flight care about who can say what on Twitter?"

She then cited professor of communication at Stanford University Fred Turner for the answer, who agreed, "It does seem to be a dominant obsession with the most elite." He stated, "[F]ree speech seems to be much more of an obsession among men," and part of "the entrepreneurial push: I did it in business, I did it in space, and now I’m going to do it in the world."  READ MORE...

Timelapse

 

Wealth Literacy VERSUS Financial Literacy

In today’s society, there is much discussion about how young individuals are financially illiterate, as if financial knowledge were sufficient to enable them to accumulate money.

However, despite the fact that millions of individuals have read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” one of the best financial literacy books available, there is a disconnect between the basic ideas of financial literacy and their application in the pursuit of financial independence. There is still a bridge to wealth-building that novels such as “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” have failed to cross, and it is somewhere out there.

This is not a bridge of financial literacy, but rather a bridge of financial wealth literacy. In the event that I were the president of a university, I would make certain that my business program included the following courses:

(1) What is Leverage and How Does It Work?

(2) The Four Pillars of Financial Success

(3) How to Make Money Investing

(4) Cryptocurrency , Gold and Precious Metals

(5) How to Make the Most of Your Time

(6) Exposing and dispelling common investment myths; and

(7) Networking

Following the completion of the fundamental curriculum, I would deliver numerous more classes, including the following:

(1) The Relationship Between Politics and Investing; and (2) The Relationship Between Politics and Investing
in
(2) Taking Advantage of Technology to Increase Wealth

The knowledge gained from all of these courses would provide an adequate basis for building wealth without the need for considerable trial and error, hardship, or outright failure on the part of young adults. Instead, traditional institutions of higher learning do not provide such courses at any level and instead remain entrenched in curricula that are geared toward theory rather than application, such as statistics, economics 101, marketing, and financial management.  READ MORE...

Cat Fall

 

Floating Cities of the Future

The world’s first prototype floating city that adapts to sea level rise has just been unveiled at UN headquarters in New York.

OCEANIX Busan, in South Korea, aims to provide breakthrough technology for coastal cities facing land shortages and the threat of climate change.

When built, the three interconnected platforms, totalling 15.5 acres, will provide homes for a community of 12,000 people.

It’s one of many solutions being found to the growing issue of rising sea levels.

Housing the growing global population is one of the key challenges facing policymakers today - and one made even more challenging by climate change.

Without curbing emissions, it’s predicted more than 800 million people, living in 570 cities around the world, could be at risk from sea level rise by 2050, according to the C40 network of global cities addressing climate change.

The network estimates the cost of rising sea levels and inland flooding could reach $1 trillion by mid-century.

But it’s hoped that this sustainable floating city prototype could go some way to solving the problem of providing safe homes for vulnerable coastal communities.

‘Solutions to global challenges’
OCEANIX Busan, based in the waters off South Korea’s second-largest city, was recently unveiled at the UN headquarters in New York. It’s a collaboration between UN-Habitat, the Busan Metropolitan City, and OCEANIX, a blue tech company based in New York.

“We cannot solve today’s problems with yesterday’s tools. We need to innovate solutions to global challenges. But in this drive for innovation, let’s be inclusive and equitable and ensure we leave no one and no place behind,” Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Maimunah Mohd Sharif said at the launch.

The floating city is designed as three interconnected platforms, totalling 15.5 acres, that will initially provide homes for a community of 12,000 people, potentially rising to 100,000, with construction due to start in 2023.

Each of the platforms has a specific purpose - living, research, and lodging - while the link-span bridges that connect them to the land create a sheltered lagoon, providing space for recreation on the water.  READ MORE...

Mesmerizing Motion

 

AN OPEN SOCIETY

Open society (French: société ouverte) is a term coined by French philosopher Henri Bergson in 1932 and describes a dynamic system inclined to moral universalism.  Bergson contrasted an open society with what he called a closed society, a closed system of law, morality or religion. It is static, like a closed mind.  Bergson suggests that if all traces of civilization were to disappear, the instincts of the closed society for including or excluding others would remain.

The idea of an open society was further developed during World War II by the Austrian-born British philosopher Karl Popper. Popper saw it as part of a historical continuum reaching from the organic, tribal, or closed society, through the open society (marked by a critical attitude to tradition) to the abstract or depersonalized society lacking all face-to-face interaction transactions.

Popper saw the classical Greeks as initiating the slow transition from tribalism towards the open society, and as facing for the first time the strain imposed by the less personal group relations entailed thereby.

Whereas tribalistic and collectivist societies do not distinguish between natural laws and social customs, so that individuals are unlikely to challenge traditions they believe to have a sacred or magical basis, the beginnings of an open society are marked by a distinction between natural and man-made law, and an increase in personal responsibility and accountability for moral choices (not incompatible with religious belief).

Popper argued that the ideas of individuality, criticism, and humanitarianism cannot be suppressed once people have become aware of them, and therefore that it is impossible to return to the closed society, but at the same time recognized the continuing emotional pull of what he called "the lost group spirit of tribalism", as manifested for example in the totalitarianisms of the 20th century.

While the period since Popper's study has undoubtedly been marked by the spread of the open society, this may be attributed less to Popper's advocacy and more to the role of the economic advances of late modernity. Growth-based industrial societies require literacy, anonymity and social mobility from their members — elements incompatible with much tradition-based behavior but demanding the ever-wider spread of the abstract social relations Georg Simmel saw as characterizing the metropolitan mental stance.

Investor and philanthropist George Soros, a self-described follower of Karl Popper, argued that sophisticated use of powerful techniques of subtle deception borrowed from modern advertising and cognitive science by conservative political operatives such as Frank Luntz and Karl Rove casts doubt on Popper's view of open society.  Because the electorate's perception of reality can easily be manipulated, democratic political discourse does not necessarily lead to a better understanding of reality. Soros argues that in addition to the need for separation of powers, free speech, and free elections, an explicit commitment to the pursuit of truth is imperative.  "Politicians will respect, rather than manipulate, reality only if the public cares about the truth and punishes politicians when it catches them in deliberate deception."

Popper however, did not identify the open society either with democracy or with capitalism or a laissez-faire economy, but rather with a critical frame of mind on the part of the individual, in the face of communal group think of whatever kind.   An important aspect in Popper's thinking is the notion that the truth can be lost. Critical attitude does not mean that the truth is found.

So, now we are back to that concept of TRUTH...  and, what exactly is truth?  Is truth the conservative points-of-view or is the truth the liberal points-of-view?  

It has always been said and believed that whoever wins the wars writes the history books and the history books give us the truth about what happened...  so, even that is biased...

TRUTH AND THE PRECEPTION OF REALITY is SOROS but, if one's perception of reality can be easily distorted then one's truth is also distorted based upon who distorted the reality...

Truth is synonymous with religion in a sense as they both are perceived by their followers as being the current reality...  and yet, the truth of the religious is disbelieved as truth by those who are not religious citing scientific facts...  and, they make the claim that the religious have had their perceptions of reality distorted...  and yet, to the religious they think...  how can this be?

We will never have an OPEN SOCIETY as there will always be those who for whatever reason will try to manipulate our perception of reality.

Ear Massage

Electric Charging for Boats

A series of quayside electric charging stations for boats have been unveiled.

A number of facilities have been switched on along the perimeter of the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park.


The charging stations will mean electric-powered boats and ships will be able to charge their batteries at three locations in the city.


It is in response to the Government's Clean Maritime Plan which aims to tackle air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions.


Battery-powered boats are starting to be seen more regularly on the water with an electric ferry launched in Plymouth in 2020.


The new stations are at Mount Batten, Queen Anne's Battery and the Barbican landing stage.


'Game-changer'
More installations are being developed along the city's waterfront as well as sites being identified in Devon and Cornwall.


The charging network has been created through the Marine e-Charging Living Lab (MeLL) initiative, a consortium led by the University of Plymouth.


It is in partnership with Plymouth City Council, Princess Yachts Limited and Aqua superPower.


Sarah Fear, project and knowledge exchange manager at the University of Plymouth and lead for the MeLL project, said: "This charging network is a game-changer for Plymouth's forward-thinking marine enterprises, and our ongoing research in this field is enabling the city and region to blaze a trail in clean maritime innovation."

Classic Sunday Morning Newspaper Cartoons

 

Flying Car Lessons

A Dutch company that plans to sell flying cars has set up bases in Coventry and Oxford.

Pal-V is going through the final stages of testing and applying for licences and then plans to offer training to potential pilots at the two locations.

The Pal-V Liberty will cost just over £250,000 (€300,000) and the company hopes to sell them from 2022.

Chief Commercial Officer Marco van den Bosch said it would appeal to men and women with "James Bond in their heart".

Andy Wall, the company's sales director, said the company had been developing the car for 12 years and added: "It's getting so close".

The company already has permission to use the vehicle on the roads, but needs permission to use it in the air.

The car can be converted from light aircraft to car in about 10 minutes and drivers will need a pilot licence to fly them.

In driving mode the Liberty can go up to 99 mph (159 km/h), and in flight mode as a gyrocopter its maximum speed is 112mph (180km/h).

The company said it already had lots of orders and Mr Wall said they were being marketed at people who wanted something different, instead of another boat or supercar.

"We've got a lot of guys who really have got the dream of flying and we say this is the fastest way to become a pilot." He said.

Oopps

 

Erotic Art

                    In the ancient Roman world, sexual pleasure was a cause for celebration rather than a source of shame. Archaeological Park of Pompeii

In the 19th century, the archaeologists tasked with excavating Pompeii and Herculaneum ran into a problem: Everywhere they turned, they found erotic art, from frescoes of copulating couples to sculptures of nude, well-endowed gods.

At a time when sex was widely considered shameful or even obscene, officials deemed the images too explicit for the general public. Instead of placing the artifacts on view, staff at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli stashed them in a secret room closed to all but scholars and, according to Atlas Obscura, male visitors willing to bribe their way in. Between 1849 and 2000, the works remained largely hidden from the public.

Fresco of Leda and the swan Archaeological Park of Pompeii

Not anymore. A new exhibition at the Archaeological Park of Pompeii titled “Art and Sensuality in the Houses of Pompeii” draws on selections from the secret room and other sensual images unearthed in the ancient city to demonstrate the ubiquity of erotic imagery in the Roman world.

The show’s marquee attraction is a fresco of the myth of Leda and the swan. Discovered in 2018, the scene depicts the moment when the god Zeus, disguised as a swan, either rapes or seduces Leda, queen of Sparta. Later, legend holds, Leda laid two eggs that hatched into children: Pollux and Helen, whose “face … launched a thousand ships” by sparking the Trojan War.

Painted on the wall of a Pompeiian bedroom, the artwork shows a nude Leda smiling invitingly as a swan nuzzles against her chest.

“[The scene] sends a message of sensuality,” Massimo Osanna, then-director of the archaeological park, told CNN’s Barbie Latza Nadeau and Hada Messia in 2019. “It means, ‘I am looking at you and you are looking at me while I am doing something very, very special.’ It is very explicit. Look at her naked leg, the luxurious sandal.”  READ MORE...

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