“With a single press of a button, stream live video of your interactions with police to our secure servers. Know what to do if you’re approached by police on the sidewalk, in the car, in your home, or at a protest. Know what to pay attention to if you experience or witness police misconduct. Fill in the information you need to file an official complaint, and send it automatically to the police department. Use your phone’s location services, camera, and time and date stamps to collect evidence.”
Author Archives: Steve Mays
Spark
This was a very satisfying read. The cold, professional killer story has been told so many times it must be difficult to find a fresh take. I liked this one. By John Twelve Hawks.
In reality, the universe is neutral about our existence. Only dogs care.
A Vast Machine watched and evaluated them, remembering their past actions and predicting their future behavior.
All language –everything we say– is just an approximation of reality.
Most conscious thought is simply an attempt to claim ‘authorship’ for a choice that has already been made. Our thoughts are just an ongoing attempt to explain what we’ve already decided.
Lying, not love, is the fundamental indication of humanity.
The laws of mathematics are stronger than the laws of man.
True ideology has vanished, replaced by fear and fantasy. The right wing wants corporate control and a return to a past that never existed. The left wing wants government control and a future that will never exist.
Our problem is not machines acting like humans — it’s humans acting like machines.
What happens in our future can change the meaning of what has happened in our past.
Senator McCaskill honors Bob Priddy
“He’s a journalist and I’m a politician and if you’re a journalist then you don’t make friends with politicians. You keep your distance because you have to be objective and you have to be willing to ask questions that you know is going to irritate them.”
Apart from the tribute video (and Bob), there was only one speaker at Bob Priddy’s retirement dinner this past Monday. U. S. Senator Claire McCaskill. She was very good.
For those who know Bob and couldn’t be at the event, you can watch it here.
Why Twitter and Facebook users don’t get Google+
In this Computerworld article, Mike Elgan explains why Twitter and Facebook users don’t get Google+.
In general, Twitter is dominated by news, celebrities, pundits, professionals and narcissists. Facebook is mostly about family and friends. And narcissists. And each social network draws people who are seeking the type of engagement a particular network specializes in. That’s why Twitter and Facebook people don’t get Google+.
They’ve tried it. The Twitter people come to Google+ looking for Twitter type engagement, but they don’t find it. Likewise, the Facebook people come looking for Facebook-like engagement (family and friends) and don’t find it.
It’s like a Chinese tourist going to France looking for Chinese food and concluding that the food in France is terrible. Or a Hawaiian surfer bringing her surfboard to New York City and, finding no waves, concluding that there’s nothing to do in Manhattan.
I’m an active Twitter user but I don’t expect (or need) any engagement there. It’s a source for news. Don’t do Facebook because I don’t have much in common with “friends and family” other than they are friends and family. Most of my online time is now spent on Google+. I post here mostly for archival reasons.
Jerry Seinfeld’s Clio Speech
Great Martian War
Great martian war from PLAZMA on Vimeo.
Still the Mind by Alan Watts
Excerpts from Alan Watts’ Still the Mind (An Introduction to Meditation)
We fail to distinguish between the way things are and the way they are described.
One’s actual organic being is inseparable from the universe.
I found out that unless one has something to give people, there is nothing one can do to help them. Just because I thought I ought to help, it didn’t mean that I had anything to give.
The whole energy of the universe is coming at you and through you, and you are that energy.
You can only know what you can compare with something else.
What we call the past is simply the traces, the fade-outs trailing away from the present. Continue reading
The Tao of Zen
“The Tao of Zen is a nonfiction book by Ray Grigg. The work argues that what we recognize as traditional Chinese Ch’an/Japanese Zen Buddhism is in fact almost entirely grounded in Chinese Taoist philosophy, though this fact is well shrouded by the persistence of Mahayana Buddhist institutional trappings. Utilizing an array of scholarly commentary on the two traditions and historical deduction from what can be considered to be the best primary source material available, the author traces the development of Taoism and Buddhism in China and Japan for two millennia.” (Wikipedia)
I’ve read this book twice and expect to read it again but I wouldn’t know where to begin to describe it. The Wikipedia link above is a good start. As is my habit with nonfiction, I highlighted as I read: The Tao of Zen (Ray Grigg)
Bob Priddy honored
Bob Priddy is the best journalist I ever met and one of the best people I’ve known. He was the guest of honor last night at an event in Columbia, MO. Bob is retiring in a month or so, after 40 years as the news director of The Missourinet.
The event was cooked up Senator Claire McCaskill and Clyde Lear, the guy that started the company Bob worked for and it was, as they say, a special night. There was a great tribute video that I hope makes it to YouTube so I can share it here.
I started working with Bob and Clyde in 1984 and was very proud to do so, as you can see from this photo. I had just come from a small town radio station and getting to work with Bob Priddy at “the network” was my idea of making it.
I (sort of) tried to recreate that photo last night but in the excitement of the evening, I got the order wrong. No matter. Still proud to call these two men my friends.
Is Earth a seeded planet?
“One possibility is that we will build 3D printers and create organic humans based on our software personalities just to experience reality through five senses. An organic creature can keep learning its entire life. So our future software selves might find a need to bring some of our minds back into organic form just to keep up the challenge and the learning. And you know where this is going. If the scenario I described might happen in the future, how can we know it didn’t already happen and we are the second-generation organic humans?”
Scott Adams thinks it is and makes his case here.