Campaign 2024

 Trump: Under Crooked Joe Biden, the world is in flames, our border is overrun, inflation is raging, Europe is in total chaos, the Middle East is exploding, Iran is emboldened, China is on the march, and the worst, most incompetent, most corrupt president in history is going to drag us into World War III,

This is the sort of discourse we are going to have to endure for the next several months. For better or worse, it will have this effect: there will be no reason to enter into an argument with any Trump supporter, as their persistent existence has proven that they are too stupid and too childish and of too narrow an intellect to engage in any kind of meaningful discussion. 

I generally try to avoid any kind of political statement on my blog(s) but I have to go on record, in case anyone was wondering, that I'm not buying this garbage.  In typical irony for the Trump era, making America great again means getting past Trump and getting things back to what we once regarded, perhaps loosely, as normal, or at least not coarse, stupid, ignorant, self-serving, destructive and insulting. 

Sunset

 So the advantage of digital photography over film is the immediate satisfaction of seeing your picture right away. This is yesterday's sunset. I must have taken a dozen pictures, but only at the last did I think to turn off the lights inside the apartment so I wouldn't see their reflections in the window glass. Duh. 

(And even then you can see a slight reflection of a window with the blinds turned open, in the upper right corner.) 

A Few Pictures

 I've been on this film kick for a little while, because my son got into it and I jumped on board--I used to shoot film all the when that's all there was. I switched to digital cameras when they got more or less affordable, some time in the 2Ks, and I have a couple of nice digital cameras at the moment. 

I know this isn't a photography blog. Suffice it to say that pictures made from a film camera have a different quality than those made by a digital camera. You might say, there's less quality, but I believe there's something psychological going on that renders a certain charm to film photography. They say it's the grain, or the colors. To some, there's probably not enough difference to fuss over. It's certainly different, as the photographer, to take pictures knowing that you won't see how they come out for a few days to a couple of weeks. The act of taking pictures then takes on a certain mystery and requires some deliberation--things that just don't happen with a digital camera. Not in my experience. 

Anyway, below are some pictures from a roll I shot a couple weeks ago. They were all taken in Kansas City, in and around downtown, where I live. 

Recalling Stupid Things I Once Said

 Once while under the influence of cheap beer in a crowded bar one Friday night I bumped into a very tall lady. I said something stupid, like, "wow, you're as tall as I am." She looked down at me disdainfully and said, "I'm TALLER than you," to which I replied, "yeah, but I know Karate," which was a mistake because she really was taller than me and I really didn't know Karate.

But What About Autonomous Vehicles?

Over here at the blog,  Jewish Young Professional, JYP brings up one of my favorite rant like topics: What do I think of autonomous vehicles? 

[rubbing hands together gleefully]

Where to start. The story goes a building developer once asked Gene Rodenberry what kind of tech did he use to make the bulkhead doors on the Enterprise slide open the way they did. The answer: two guys behind the scenes pulling them open on cue. 

 I'm trying to say there is a mythology of technology that gives technology more credit than it deserves. This is where we're at with autonomous vehicles. Obviously there is money to be made, so the forces that be are leaning hard in that direction, but it's all BS. 

 Please don't say, well, it's going to get better and better over time. The same can be said of a ten-year-old driving a raised 4-wheel drive pickup. The reality is, we're just not ready, the tech is just not ready, etc. I can imagine a scenario where autonomous vehicles would be a real help. One is on freeways/Interstates. With the right software, traffic flow could be optimized and it would all be faster (probably) and much, much safer--provided only if every car on the road was autonomous and under the control of an overseeing AI entity, (yikes,) let's say. 

As an aside, let me say here that under any scenario, if only some cars are autonomous, and not all, regular human drivers are going to mess with them. Big time. They'll resent them, fear them, and ultimately get the best of them. We are clever monkeys, make no mistake. Anyway, implementing this angle seems to be far in the future. Mixing in AVs with humans just doesn't seem like a good idea. 

 Some perspective is needed. This is all about scaling down employee numbers for a number of services involving transportation. Safer? Maybe, if the tech actually catches up. This economic driver is behind AI in general, despite all the gee-whizz stuff that catches our attention. 

 One last thing. I'm not buying the notion that AVs are OK and safe enough, since it is required a human drivers sit behind the wheel, at the ready, in case he or she needs to step in and take over. This is such BS. I don't need to see reaction time test results to already know this is not a good strategy. Not to mention, if one was to actually monitor the computer's driving and actually be ready to take over, every moment, that would undoubtedly be much more fatiguing than just driving the damn thing yourself.

Pre-caffeine Thoughts

I know some people who are "religious," who go to church, and who actually do believe in the existence of God and of the Devil, but I think they are outliers. In my own life, the vast majority of people do not believe in God as defined by the Bible, whether they go to church or not. It's hard to be educated and (supposedly) well-informed and still believe in a magic friend, as Bill Maher would describe God. So, I think it all makes some sense, at least among those of us in the 1st world, and with Internet and media access. At the same time, we are still humans with brains that have evolved to kind of like the existence of the spiritual, so our religions keep on, but only to become more evolved and "technical." Look at Panpsychism. The whole universe might be conscious --- sounds like God.

Greetings

Going out for breakfast in a few minutes, and I have yet to shave. Stay tuned for stunning photography and pithy, insightful observations on the modern world and the human conditon in general. Then, when that doesn't work, read my blog some time. Later...