Huffington Post - Weird Al's 'Lame Claim To Fame' Stop Motion Video Name-Drops Celebrities He Almost Knows. Fortunately for us, Weird Al is still around and giving us a reason to smile. This linked post shows most of his new releases that he has made in the last month. Al himself posted them onto the internet. The first time I heard him was on Dr Demento before most people had heard of either. Al was in college up in Santa Barbara I believe and the good Dr was teaching and going out on college radio, CSUN.
Yahoo - Reuters - Iraq Catholic leader says Islamic State worse than Genghis Khan. Saying that ISIS is Muslim is the same as saying the the Westboro Baptist Church represents Christians. Both use the names; but, act and say things that are not in either's bible.
Wired - In 20 Years, Most New Cars Won’t Have Steering Wheels or Pedals. I know, my regulars readers will know that I already wrote about this a couple of times and even posted a video of one of the cars that Google made and is legal in California. The context is diferent here and I believe the article is important to read, it will not take you long and might help you to understand my conclusion at the end of the blog later.
Yahoo - Business Insider - China's Total Debt Surges To 251% Of GDP. More financial lies and meanignless articles by "experts". The difference between China and the US is simple, they manufacture things and we don not; therefore, they can pay back their debts with real assets. The article also points out that our debt to GDP is even higher.
Huffington Post - We're Heading Into a Jobless Future, No Matter What the Government Does. Vivek Wadhwa, the author of the article talks about many of the same things that I have discussed over the years regarding automation, self-driving cars and the reduced need for real people to do the actual work. The author is confused by what is going on because he does not understand the intent behind it all. He understand that we won't need any people to work at all; but, cannot understand why the economists and futurists don't see this, he is wrong, the best of them do. The article also points out that because of technology we could easily feed, clothe and improve the lives of everyone, he is surprised that we don't take of this utopia and does not understand that those who run this place have a different agenda and belief, they want a utopia; but, see no need for more people than it would take to achieve such a goal. Start putting all the articles in this post together and you will begin to see what has been discussed for years in certain circles.
Wikipedia - Georgia Guidestones. This stone monolith was placed on a farm in Georgia and states the wishes of someone for the future. Both Yoko Ono and Ted Turner, amongst others, have praised the words on them. Amongst those words it says that the earth's population should stay at 500 million, there is currently 14 times that with roughly 7 billion people on earth.
I wish I could write better fiction; but, all I prefer to write is the truth, reality and let others take it where they will. Let me put it another way. People used to use woodburning stoves to heat their homes and cook their food, they worked fine and we could still use them today; but, there is not need to. We have easier ways with gas and electric stoves. It does not mean the old technology ceased to work, it is merely no longer needed, we don't require it. The same goes for people. There are many things we can do today that are done by computers or automation, it does not mean that we could not make or do the same things using people; but, the cost does not justify it in the eyes of financial people. Efficiency means achieving your goals with the least amount of effort and energy (or capital) expended. If we can automate 90% of all the labor then how many people do we need?
The funniest part of all this is that one of my hero's foresaw the end of society and predicted what would come first. The people who believe the non-sense of efficiency also consider him a hero. They never really understood what he was saying. The first "written historian" was a Greek named Thucydides. He recorded the Pelopenisian Wars. My favorite historian/social student of all time was Arnold Toynbee. He was a professor and wrote a ten volume series entitled "A Study of History". It is Mr. Toynbee of whom I referred. He said that society failed and fell apart when it was the most efficient. It means that a society has no wiggle room, no room for error and there is always an error.