Once upon a time

Politicians at least pretended they were "common folk".
Now, its, "I own 12 homes, 27 cars and feed caviar to my cats."

Congress was tumultuous, rowdy and considered the voice of citizens.
Now, Congress is a joke, a ship of fools, a mockery of reason.

Government was considered inspirational, a problem solver and protector.
Now, government is petty and run with the false goal of bottom-line management.

The U.S. military's backbone was citizen soldiers.
Now the military hires ninjas, assassins and Hessian technicans.

Labor unions were active, went on strikes and protected workers.
Now, workers go along with management, accepting unions as passé.

Retirement plans, healthcare packages and paycheck raises were common.
Now, work until you die, pay for your own healthcare and don't expect raises.

Colleges and universities were academic and somewhat altruistic in purpose.
Now, besides being consumed by sports, colleges are glorified trade schools.

Teachers, firefighters, doctors, engineers, authors, artists and scientists were role models.
Now, hedge fund managers, CEOs, TV singers, actors, jocks and gamers are role models.

Children were disciplined and taught many topics including manual skills and they exercised.
Now, children are team players, taught to take tests, aren't required to use their hands and aren't exercised.

Gender equity, racial equality, poverty, bigotry, ignorance were unresolved issues.
Now, gender equity, racial equality, poverty, bigotry, ignorance are unresolved issues.

Once there was anticipation of peace and no wars, of personal improvement, of enlightenment.
Now ....

Anthem

Amen.

Daddy, tell me about

Daddy, tell me about tigers.
Ah, they're almost all gone.

Daddy, tell me about rhinoceros?
Well, they too are disappearing.

Daddy, why are they gone?
Hmm, people like to kill exotic animals.

Daddy, are whales smart?
Sort of, but we harpoon them anyway.

Daddy, what's a harpoon?
A harpoon is shot from a cannon to kill whales.

Daddy, why do they kill whales?
Oh, for money.

Daddy, where does oil come from?
Deep underground.

Daddy, does anyone own the oil?
People on top of the ground claim it as theirs.

Daddy, if oil is from the Earth, doesn't everybody own it?
Wealthy people with guns say it's theirs.

Daddy, why isn't water free?
People decided to let businesses own all the water.

Daddy, why do people pray?
Because most people don't have things.

Daddy, what do people pray for?
Usually a better life or a better place after they die.

Daddy, I'm frightened, can we turn the lights on?
No, the power company said I have to pay my bills.

Daddy, can't you pay the bills?
No, daddy doesn't have a job.

Close your eyes, things will be better ... tomorrow.

----------



Bill Stankus
02/26/12

back in the day

Once upon a time, back in the day, in a time long gone, when men were men and women were women and children were named Timmy or Penny and they played with toys made of metal ... hand waving was common and handshakes weren't elaborate rituals ... and cigarettes cost a quarter a pack ... when common things weren't festooned with safety stickers and objects were sharp ... when commercials on TV were jingles about soap and smoking ... penile dysfunctional pick-up truck drivers didn’t yet exist ...


It’s true, baseball was played in daylight, on plain grass and doubleheaders weren't sexual positions ... football was alright ... a bunch of guys with crew-cuts wearing no frill jerseys permanently splotched with grass stains and blood ...the bigger guys didn't have front teeth and their names were Bubba, Tiny and Big Bob ... none of the players celebrated or pointed to the sky or did dances or beat their chests ... they preferred pounding the crap out of each other then going out for beers and pizza ...


Thank god for Mad Magazine and 15 cent comics ... girls wore skirts and rode their bikes and a guy could happily ride his bike wearing jeans, a white t-shirt and Keds and there were no dumb-ass ugly foam helmets ... Seat belts? What kind of sissy thing is that? Unless you did street racing, then seat belts were ultra cool mostly because your mama didn’t have them in her station wagon.

Radio, ah radio music ... talk radio? The only talking was from some guy named Crazy Larry  ... he took phone-in song dedications, told us the names of singers and bands, he blew a whistle or honked a horn and carried on about top 40 songs ... only on AM ... FM, that’s another story ... Egg Head Country ... mostly Miles Davis jazz, unpronounceable classical music and, late at night, there were real serious discussions about obscure Louisiana dixieland bands, tragic musicians, with nary a commercial to bother the flow.

Oh sure, there were problems... buying condoms was a big deal problem ... condoms were usually located behind a counter serviced by a gray haired old woman who looked like your deaf and loud aunt ... and, it was tough buying Playboy magazine ... usually you had to wear a disguise and go to the next town about 25 miles away  ... and pretend you were in the Navy and shipping out in the morning ... you figured they wouldn't notice you being 15 years old ... so you shopped for stuff you didn't need ... a box of aspirin, a tube of toothpaste, Ex-Lax, some gum and sir or madam, that issue of Playboy on the shelf behind you.

TV was fun ... as long as you liked what your father wanted to watch ... but fathers in those days usually napped between dinner and bed time so you could risk changing the channel and watch something besides Mannix or Barney Miller ... adults are really lame ... god, I needed a car. ... and please god let me get enough money to buy cool Detroit Steel ... not a beater or a Pinto or a Gremlin ... there was always something happening on the other side of tracks, somewhere near the bars with winking neon signs ... "Hey Johnny, did you get to second base?" ... huh ... "You scored?"


It was difficult figuring out your mother or any other mother you met ... if they didn't see you, you could sometimes see them giving the evil eye to people, especially single women ... mother was always giving father the evil eye so he would raise his newspaper higher ...  according to TV, women enjoyed grocery shopping, wearing dresses and going to a man forbidden place called a beauty shop ... but women also gave vibes of being tougher than men ... I knew of a least six mothers who were probably mob connected assassins.

Those good old days ... lots of baloney sandwiches, cream rich milk, meat loaf and cubed Jell-O salads ... everyone's parents and most of your teachers smoked and drank ... was there more sin back then? ... I don’t know... there were rattling nukes, flocks of scowling nuns, 6 o'clock dinner time TV news in color of exploding napalm and monks setting themselves on fire ... and Billy Graham had a traveling tent show ... Oral Roberts was also a tent act ... they said over and over we were sinners ... “Oral Roberts!”  Who would name their kid Oral?


In the day, there were only 2 or 3 real swear words ... Fuck and motherfucker were the proprietary property of guys who like fighting with switch blade knives and stealing hubcaps ... Douche bags were really douche bags not muscle headed illiterates ... posers with their arms tat cartooned ... bleached spiked hair or decked with a backwards cap ... and prone to wildly waving their digit and pinky fingers in the air while holding a beer in their other hand ... Yo, babe, kiss my pythons.

Which reminds me, I wonder if all those Timex watches are still ticking? Did they really freeze Walt Disney? And, Paul's dead, right?  Betcha it was a fat guy who invented polyester leisure suits and sensible shoes ... Bras are still made with mystery hooks and Master Lock connectors ... it's difficult to believe Eddie Murphy was once funny ... Go Speed Racer, Go.

Today's effort starts here

Now, I'm going into my bubble.

Later.

There's a spy in front of you

If you go to Google's home page and click on "about" ... the first thing seen is there mission statement.

"Our mission: 

Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful."         

Google what are you doing and what have you become?

Apple recently raise a complaint and now Microsoft is saying the same thing: 

Google is circumventing your computer's privacy settings.  

Naughty, very naughty.

There's a number of articles about this, here's one from CNN.

Related and perhaps different,  I really don't know ...

I've written a previous blog concerning the fact that my computer gets unknown cookies from blogs I visit. That seems wrong and I thought it was a function of Safari, the Apple browser.  

A note about these tag along cookies.  If your blog has things you've added via the design page gadgets ... for example, book clubs, political webpages, cute photos or humor from a third party... chances are, visitors to your blog will get cookies from those sidebar references ... even if your visitors never visit those sites, cookies will be deposited in their computer.

No matter how many times I've emptied Safari's cookies files, deleted the browser's history, emptied the cache and even gone deeper into the OS and deleted a "plist", whenever I opened my blog's dashboard, I still find cookies for sites which don't belong.  I was ready to humph and grump at Apple but I don't think they're the culprit ... it's Google who's doing the cookie plopping.

Numbers-wise, when I open Safari with Google's main page, I get four cookies - all from Google.  Then I type in my gmail address and password and 19 cookies immediately are listed.  Included in that list are a few rogues.

*Update.
After opening three blogs, "Moments of Perfect Clarity", "That's Why" and "Film Noir of the Week" ... the total numbers of cookies increased to 59.  In the next posting I will show the new list.

I chose "Joe-the-Programmer-net" as my test target for watching the cookie list simply because no matter how many times I delete that cookie (or scrub everything from Safari), the cookie for "Joe-the-Programmer-net" reappears.

Using a different computer I Googled this guy ... apparently he's a programmer who hires out to other people.  Why is his cookie like herpes? I especially wonder why I can't delete his cookie from my computer.  Remember, his cookie only appears when I access the Blogger Dashboard (Google's blog business).

Anyway, here's what a scrubbed Safari cookie list looks like when first opened with Google's main page.

And here's Safari's cookie list after signing-in to Google's Blogger.

(Safari has a small-sized window who I stitched together the list and several names are repeated.)

The blogs you see listed have not been accessed, they show-up via a route I can't determine.

I blurred the numbers because I don't don't know what they represent.

As far as I can tell ... cookies aren't benign, they are insidious invaders.  Business sites will say cookies are to make things easier and faster for you to do browsing and visiting their sites ... but if you look at a cookie list which has been in your computer and not cleared away ... you will see a ton of cookies from ad trackers, site counters and a bunch of places (often with disguised names*) who's purpose is one thing: To see and track what you are doing on your computer.

*An example of this, one of the cookies I erased is 'i-m-r worldwide'. I looked up this site and it's, "Nielsen's online audience and consumer-generated media measurement and analysis solutions ..." and it has quite a negative reputation amongst those who worry about internet spying. I inserted dashes in the name so it won't be noticed by web spiders.

And now we have to question Google's motives.  I'm certain they're doing more than tracking with simple cookies because they have direct access to your web pathways and they know what you search for and they know what sites you've visited. 

Things Orwellian and "Big Brother", those faceless, powerful (tho' fictionalized) entities were metaphors for the loss of control people thought they were experiencing ... and they usually blamed invasive government forces as the culprits controlling our Brave New World. Whatever.  

... but maybe the real and larger threat to computer and personal privacy is our trust of search engines, such as Google.

Q&A

Clear conscience? Mostly.
Believer? Myself.
Vices? Nope.

Questions? You betcha.
Certainties? One or two.
Foolish? Endlessly.

Pennywise? Quarterly.
Willing? Yes and no.
Forgiving? Grrrr.

Bearing? Centered.
Confused? Puzzled.
Humorous? Ironic.

Social? Occasionally.
Faithful? Secularly.
Steady? With traction.

Cosmic? Grounded.
Practical? Bushels.
Neat? Lint-free.

Thoughtful? Believe it.
Fighter? Theoretical.
Adventurer? Gung ho.

Prophetical? With mirrors.
Generous? Everything.
Loving? Too much.

.........


Bill Stankus
2am February 20 1212

I know, I know

.... it's not vogue and far more common to read complaints, woes and whines ... but there other things ... often of grand significance.

We do have some amazing technologies other than cell phones and lap tops ... and what's happening in outer space is absolutely amazing-exciting-fascinating.

There's an array of satellites and robots and landers throughout our planetary neighbors, some of which make the Hubble telescope seem like a Model-T Ford.

The photos coming back from these high flying "digital cameras" are stunning.

Take a gander at this.  Or this.

Interested in Saturn, go here and click on "Images".

The Sun? Try this. Or here for just a pic of the sun.

Maybe you just want to look at the Earth? Here and also this Blue Marble.

And, if you're interested in an overview of the Solar System Exploration programs, click here.

Here are several sites I visit on a regular basis: APOD, NASA's image of the day and HiRISE.

Random

today, just outside, wet n stuff

I dunno, maybe I should write something about the photos ... nah, they're reasonably self-explanatory.

The Kiss

She was a calm person, a bit introverted, bright and purposeful. He was more of an extrovert, still finding his way and unsure of many things.

They knew one another, just briefly, having met and saying hello and one another’s names. Though the informality was the typical, there was a stirring between them. 

Their lives were on different paths but occasionally during chance meetings they talked about small things, common things. During one encounter, the moment seemed timely, eventful, in a calm voice he asked her to join him for a dinner.

She looked into him with a smile full of mystery and he knew there was magic. His senses were heightened, full of new potential, something more, something touched with beauty. She was curious, slightly intrigued and aware.

He arrived at her home, perhaps a bit early, though she was ready and waiting for him. They left for a small romantic place, all dark and filled with mood and atmosphere. It was a restaurant he had noticed but never experienced, his friend told him it would be a perfect place for them.

She enjoyed the wine and meal and was at ease within the cosmopolitan élan. He pretended effortlessness while churning within. They laughed and talked small personal vignettes and agreed on so many things. Their hours together were as a blink.

Driving her home was mostly a quiet affair. In his silence, he was considering how to make things linger; she was still in the now-moment, enjoying it all. Walking the path to her door, holding hands, they were, each in their own way, expectant and wondering.

Stopping, and in a pause that went on forever, they kissed. Every possible sensation, every passionate desire was felt then unraveled. Every second was an hour then timeless. Every touch was pleasure, new and fresh and beyond comprehension. There was texture to air and their lips, fiery and desiring.

Embraced, transfixed, the kisses were spellbinding. He instantly understood he was forever changed, in a place he never expected. Her reaction was more complex, she knew there was much more including sensations of unfathomed desire.

Could the warmth of lips pressed against lips be so different from any kiss previously experienced? Was it possible to be intensely aroused by a single kiss? Another kiss and then another, there was nothing else, just desire.  Wordless thoughts, alive in passion, both enchanted, they looked deeply into one another’s eyes.

Still no tan line

Last week we had 6 sunny days.

You're probably sitting there reading this thinking,, "Whoa, those dudes and dudettes are sooo lucky!"

But there's a 'but' in the message.

Apparently Seattle, on average, gets 58 sunny days per year.

That means with 10 months of the years still to come we've already had about 10% of our allotted sunny days.

That sucks.

I've called my travel agent

"A potentially habitable alien planet — one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface — has been found around a nearby star.

The planet is located in the habitable zone of its host star, which is a narrow circumstellar region where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet's surface.

"It's the holy grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it's not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze," Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, told Space.com. "It's right smack in the habitable zone — there's no question or discussion about it. It's not on the edge, it's right in there."

Vogt is one of the authors of the new study, which was led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution for Science, a private, nonprofit research organization based in Washington. An alien super-Earth

"This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps life as we know it”, Anglada-Escudé said in a statement.

An alien super-Earth The researchers estimate that the planet, called GJ 667Cc, is at least 4.5 times as massive as Earth, which makes  it a so-called super-Earth. It takes roughly 28 days to make one orbital lap around its parent star, which is located a mere 22 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Scorpius (the Scorpion).

"This is basically our next-door neighbor," Vogt said. "It's very nearby. There are only about 100 stars closer to us than this one."

Interestingly enough, the host star, GJ 667C, is a member of a triple-star system. GJ 667C is an M-class dwarf star that is about a third of the mass of the sun, and while it is faint, it can be seen by ground-based telescopes, Vogt said.

"The planet is around one star in a triple-star system," Vogt explained. "The other stars are pretty far away, but they would look pretty nice in the sky.""

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