Of Fly-by Parks and Dronebrellas

The time is coming that soon there will be places dedicated to taking your drone out for a walk … or a fly. Maybe even a good-natured race with other enthusiasts. Xmas is coming, literally and figuratively, for those in the drone market … and the rest of us better stake out our safe places.

Imagine the size of a space needed to have a designated drone flying and racing space! Not to mention the worries about what all those eyes in the sky, zipping and zapping here are there, are taking in as they buzz us and everything within reach of a publicly dedicated buzz zone. (My mind wonders here, BTW, to prescription medical marijuana for some reason.)

Some time ago -- always way ahead of the game -- I suggested that what was needed as a Dronebrella -- some kind of device capable of opening on demand to put a shield over us, electronically protecting us from being “reigned on” from being “seen” or invaded from above. It is already the case that, if I said something using words like terrorist, bombing, etc. in this post, there could be a camera up in the clear blue skies checking out my activities. And that’s not a sporting threat.

Funny thing is people have such different perspectives on drones -- similarly to the layering of a wedding cake, at least one commentator has already noted -- that it’s already hard to say whether what they do above us will be for good, bad, or just annoying reasons. Likely the latter, but who can say for sure?

I seriously believe it won’t be long before someone makes the device that will allow us to walk along in our small electronic bubbles, shielded in part from being seen from these eyes in the sky and separated even more from the humans we supposedly share the lands with.

What that will mean as we all bump and bounce into each other is hard to say, but I do hope that dronebrellas can have other duck and cover benefits. I wouldn’t mind a safe and secure place to watch the drone races while secretly downing a bite or cake, or maybe even a place where I can cut out a different bight of what lies ahead.

Selective Socialism & Dickle-Down Consumption Taxes

Made a joke about this concept -- assuming it is one -- this AM, pre-coffee. Not always a good idea. I believe this one might just fly though, given some of the other nonsense that has been floating around the Twit-filled virtual-verse, mostly by Conservatarians, about inventing a new consumption instead of income tax.

They are running from the idea of equality and desperately need something to anchor their philosophical babies on. Only thing is we know all too readily that this is just another ill-informed Reaganesque slice of deception intended to refill the dickle-down septic system.

Still, if digitalized in the name of blended values, I'm game to give empowered technology a shot.

Who says consumption (i.e., sales-type) assessments have to be blindly equal? Instantaneous monetary systems are more than capable of making generally agreed upon classification assignments of the size of the tax we each pay as we conclude any transaction. Them little nano monsters the rich embed in the financial sector can play both sides of opportunity if they are programmed too!

Why shouldn’t the uber wealth-gluttons pay, say, 20% tax on basic necessities while mere humans pay … say … 2%? If we are burdened with tax assignments, we might as well use them to make the buying field balanced.

I wasn’t around when it was done but setting up Social Security assessments such that everyone paid the same for a limited period of time likely made some semblance of actuarial sense -- I’m willing to concede that (though I’m really skeptical about what history has recorded). But even so, the game has changed and the exploitatively well “algorithmed” profit-takers are advantaging universal access and prosperity at the expense of the rest of us. Blending the values of profit and purpose can easily compensate for this, if we might be willing to label that approach a form of … perhaps … selective socialism?*

Democratic socialism sounds good to some but seems naive in the face of massively manipulative online resource games.

And given this, I’m willing to bet someone else’s money to at least give it a try.

* In fairness, others previously came up with this term. I’m twisting it to a particular snarkism. And "dickle-down" as a term ... not sure that worked at all, but I do like the feel as it rolls off my brain.

Chewing on the STEM

Heartbroken. Devastated. Lost in my AM grounding of breakfast confidence.

Twits of various types; Tweets, of course; at least one notable scientific/geopolitical assessment, AKA a World Health Organization presentation all suggested today a devastating lesson: that bacon, ham, and sausage add up to health as zero sum as that offered by cigarettes! Oh. Come. On! SHOW ME THE NUMBERS!

For some time I’ve been teasing people with a proposition I’m now willing to bring out of the closet. The nation should scratch all efforts -- and I mean all efforts -- at teaching math in conventional ways in our schools. All math initiatives should be directed towards instructing children about the satiating numbers tied into the vast array of recipes for making, preparing, selling and consuming food -- preferably healthy and smart food, I guess.  

If you look at the whole menu, such numbers would indeed add up.

How food is grown, how it is harvested, what is done to GMO-itize, all of these activities can and should be understood in terms of the 0s and 1s of what we consume. Kids, and their parents, should be fed glutenous servings of numerical digital transactions about everything from the physics of seed germination to the human biotransformation of vitamins and nutrients to the business of making and selling the good, bad and fast versions of the stuff that ends up on our family plates.

Human survival is massively dependent on us crunching down orders after orders of food-related mathematics, and we might as well get used to swallowing these caloric calculations -- the bitter ones and the sweet ones.

I believe a formulaic case can be made that we can no longer deal with the operational mechanics of most mathematical transactions anyway. Does anyone actually know what happens when spreadsheets or algorithms digest the digits we feed them? Which adds up convincingly to the idea that if we teach children to perform the operations of the tastiest aspects of the math about what they eat, they’ll get the idea behind what math matters and be able to do their own calculations later using just as healthy of logic. 

I haven’t swallowed the supersized logic of the STEM meals being offered because it is overloaded towards heavy, fatty profit-taking, thus mostly being an exercise in filling the bellies and bloating the bottom lines of businesses that savor the science, technology, engineering, and math of their own excess. A totally immersive menu of the numbers associated with food (and the culture of eating, IMHO) could do better. And, with a little practice, I'm willing to bet that we could show our work as they numbers added up to giving us lucious and filling first through courses, some of which should be offered as amuse bouches by those who appreciate the ROI to having us all at the table of change. 

Barack2.0

As I've been saying with snarkitude for some time, the perfect role that the administration should be playing -- as should any and all Democrat contenders -- is that of the voice for continuing what Obama has done. He, like Hillary, played the role of more conventional politicians to get into office, and, I believe, wanted to do more of that. But when push came to stubborn, he had no choice but to be creative, knowing change through action is better than no change at all. And that will likely continue to be necessary as Ryan seeks to establish himself as the despot of the failed Republican mess.

Hillary and Bernie should review Barack's accomplishments and shape their strategy, point by point, on what has been started. Which should include letting it be known that deviations from progress will not be easily won by the Do Nothing Party.

Wanna get there first? You could just buy the shirt ... or take a look here from time to time!  http://SuperBowlSF2016.blogspot.com. (My attitude extends to other markets as well!)