cyber beneficiaries

     What happens in cyberspace when you die?  I have read more than one article on this subject recently. A practical way to deal with the problem would be to have the option of designating a "cyber beneficiary"--someone with the legal right and capacity to deal with online accounts for someone who has died. The executor or executrix of an estate, or someone with a durable power of attorney, ought to be able to access online accounts. But how are they to get the passwords, or to know where the accounts are? Anyone who dies with money in an online account has probably left it to someone in a will--but collecting it can be difficult, if not impossible. Another instance where we don't need any new laws--just a "concession" that the laws of physical space also apply to cyberspace.

unpaid internships

     When I run the world, interns will be paid. Internships can be a great opportunity for recent college graduates. They gain experience, professional contacts and references, and may even be hired as regular employees when their internship is finished. Some interns are paid, but many are still "unpaid"-- they work for free for the length of their internship. The problem with this is that these great opportunities aren't really open to all. They are open to the wealthy--the students and graduates who have parents who can support them while they work for free. An internship may involve moving to another city, finding an apartment, paying for rent, utilities, groceries and transportation--all on no salary. Student loans may be deferred during an internship, but what is the intern supposed to live on?
   The effect of these "opportunities" is benefits for members of a club. It's classist, and, yes, racist.  This should be an easy fix.

constituency

     We have another presidential election this year. I would like to see a law passed that prohibits any foreign campaigning by our presidential candidates. Their constituency is in the United States, and that's where they should be making speeches and appealing for votes--not in any foreign country. Voting for the candidate who refuses to do this won't work--when one campaigns overseas, they all seem to do it. Let's get a law passed before the November election.

obsolete old saying

     Remember the old saying  "it's your dime"?  It doesn't mean anything anymore. Back in the old days it meant "you called me, what do you want?"  Back when only the person placing the call was charged for the call. The party who answered the phone didn't have to pay anything. Charging both parties to a phone call was a shocking idea at first, and many people resisted using cell phones because of it. Some are probably still refusing to get cell phones because of the two-way charge, when they can answer a conventional phone call for free--or place a toll-free call for free. If you place a toll-free call (an 800 number call ) with  a cell phone, you pay anyway. When annoying advertisers call you on your cell phone, you have to pay for the call. They are annoying with a conventional phone, but they don't cost anything. Now that everyone can talk on the phone from anywhere, we all have to consider whether or not we are willing to pay for the call. The phone rings, and if we don't know who it is, we don't pick up the call, and we don't return it--many people don't, anyway. Other people ( not so many ) are willing to spend money just to connect with a wrong number, or to find out how a salesperson got their number.

religion, again

     What do people who want to be save want to be saved from? I never have understood this. From the consequences of their own actions? From living with themselves?  From reality?

what happened to the great book scanning?

     If you look for books to read online because what you want is out of print and hard to find, you may find an old book that someone has re-typed, apparently to preserve it in cyberspace--like a weird bit of Farenheit 451. Now that we can scan a book, instead of re-typing it, other people are still arguing about whether we ought to scan the old books at all. Let's scan them, and worry about what to do with them later. Finding an old book online is still too much like potluck. By now the internet could have made all of the rare library and museum collections of the Earth available to everyone--and it hasn't come close. Even if the old books are never made available to the public, and there is no reason why they shouldn't be, the books would be preserved from decay or being accidentally discarded. Anyone who handles old books, or who might handle old books, should be encouraged to scan them. I have yet to see such a message, sent by anyone. Perhaps internet service providers could offer a premium of some kind for the first scan of an out-of-print book.

seeing is believing

     "Seeing is believing", the old saying goes, and it usually is. You can't believe everything you see, but beware of "seeing" what you believe.  Many people do. They "see" what they believe, based on a preconceived notion they got from any random source. They "see" what they believe whether it is there or not.  Drug experience has been described in this way. Drugs work on the mind--that's why people take them--not because they alter the emotions, but because they alter the functions of the brain.  Some drugs are formally called "mind-altering". Some are called psychotropics, meaning the same thing. But it may be that all drugs, including alcohol, alter the mind. People take drugs when they want to fool themselves. If successful at fooling themselves, they can use that belief to fool other people. All con artistry is founded on drugs, as is most crime. On fooling people. Don't make a fool of yourself by trying to fool yourself.

computer viruses

Has anyone ever seen a  computer virus? Or is it all just a hacking problem? If a hacker wants to test your patience, or your system, he or she signs into your accounts as you--while you are online. Pages that seem to move themselves aren't viruses--they're hackers.

more scary stuff

     One of the scarier ideas I hear fairly often is that we don't need to study math anymore, because machines can do that. I would like to have a demonstration of this idea, provided by someone who has never studied any math.

old saying, amended

     Have you ever heard the old saying "You've got to go along to get along?"  Too much going along, not enough getting along. Many young people are too willing to do what everyone else is doing--or what they are convinced everyone else is doing. They are too willing to "go along".  It's how they "get along" with their friends--even if it means annoying, bothering, or even harming someone else.  We rarely hear about kids who "go along" with their peers by refusing to do something that their peers would think is wrong--it surely happens, but of course, those kids don't make the news.

the internet and crime

     Years ago, you might have read that computers would one day take a real bite out of crime--mainly by co-ordinating information on crimes, arrests and convictions. The information is divided and often inaccessible. Each local police department has information, as do state and federal  investigative and law enforcement units. Criminals make use of the internet to change identities and "personas". Can law enforcement make use of the internet to keep up with them?

helping the homeless

     Charitable organizations will no longer be allowed to feed the homeless on Philadelphia's city streets. They now have to apply for a permit and set up a station with city government approval.  A city office to co-ordinate efforts to help the homeless would be useful. Given a large building to use as a shelter, with kitchen facilities, the various groups and organizations could take turns staffing it and providing food and clothing. If one building, a large one, could be obtained, it could really be staffed every day, with meals available, instead of vans stopping at one place or another once a week. People with time to give, or donations of goods or food, would know where to take them. Where to put such a building might be a problem, but there are a lot of homeless in the area of City Hall.  How about it, Philadelphia? No one sleeping outdoors. What's it worth?

you'd watch soap operas, wouldn't you?

     Millions of people watch soap operas every day. Millions of people watch crime dramas every week. Tens of millions of people will watch the latest war movie. So what's wrong with a little history?  Take Henry VIII, for example. He had six wives. He divorced two of them, ending the monopoly of "the church". He had two of them beheaded. One died in childbirth. One outlived him. What's not to watch?

moral values

     The notion that there are "moral' values, having no connection to practical reality, but merely an end in themselves, is a pernicious one.  Things are "right" or "wrong" for a reason, and young people should be taught the reasons, so that they can learn to reason out right and wrong for themselves.  Is it wrong to steal? Yes. Why? You will ruin your life, your food will taste bad, money will not be enjoyable, even when you have it to spend,  and you will make of yourself someone you don't want to be. Get the idea? 

honorifics

     Thirty or forty years ago, a lot of people thought that honorifics ( Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms. ) , especially in print, would soon go the way of bloomers and button shoes. Now you can have an internet information form rejected because you didn't fill in the title or honorific. What's wrong with addressing people by first and last name, without a title?  It would be much simpler and more modern. Or we could take up "citizen" and "citizeness".

teacher quality, again

     The person to ask about teacher quality is the principal of the school.  It is the principal's job to supervise teachers, to keep them on track professionally, and to review their classroom procedures. If you think that your child's school has a problem with teacher quality,  make an appointment with the principal. Even if the school board hired the teachers, they work for the principal. If you can't get an appointment with the principal, start attending school board meetings--they are open to the public, for most purposes.

when I run the world

     When I run the world,  all school students will all learn how to argue. Yes, argue. They will learn to stick to the point. They will learn to listen to those with whom they disagree, since that's the only way to construct a valid argument of their own. They will learn not to get personal, or to call their opponents names, since that is illogical and weakens their argument. They will learn to define their own point of view, and explain why they hold it. They will learn to clearly state their differences. They will learn not to be sidetracked by emotion--whether the emotion is their own or their opponent's. They will learn what is relevant to their argument, and what is irrelevant. They will practice what they have learned, and practice it thoroughly.
      If we really need to have academic "competition", let's do it by having all students participate--by arguing with one another.

voting, voting everywhere

    I get a lot of e-mail that involves voting--for my favorite product, meal, room, etc. I don't mind the voting, but I would like to see more participation in political elections. So here's a suggestion for advertisers and promoters; how about offering a freebie or discount to people who vote, especially for the first time? Poll watchers could hand out little stickers, or give each voter a bar code.

a quote for you

     "If once a man indulges himself in  murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination."

de Qunicey

a citizenship myth

     One myth about American citizenship that hasn't died is the notion of dual citizenship. No American has dual citizenship, according to the government and laws of the United States. When an immigrant becomes a United States citizen, he or she renounces citizenship in any other country. When an American becomes a citizen of any other country, he or she is presumed to have renounced American citizenship.  This one must be in the "we keep repeating it, so it must be true" file.  I would like to see that file made public, and its myths turned over to the "wiki" for correction.

invoking God in court

     Foreigners who think they know the United States are surprised to learn that we swear an oath on the Bible as part of a court proceeding. Why not just have the judge define the crime of perjury, and explain the potential penalties?

grandpa sharing

     Some people don't like to do any work unless they can do it perfectly.  They fuss endlessly and never accomplish anything. Other people actually worry that their work might be perfect, and so incur the wrath of the gods ( someone actually told me this-- I didn't invent it, although the god was singular, and capitalized--I could tell by the way she said it ).
      Anyway, as my grandpa, a world-cl;ass putterer, used to say--

                                       "That's close enough, for government work"