The Curmudgeon Speaks

I came across this article from Reuters describing the drought in Southern Africa focusing on the little water now flowing over Victoria Falls. Take a look at the photos from this article and contrast it with the photo I took just a few months ago.

The falls is typically spectacular and is known for generating so much mist you can locate the site in the distance by just spotting the water cloud.

We visited in what is the dry season (winter) and realized just how serious the drought was at that time. Since leaving, we have read stories on the hardships endured by the wild life and now found the images from Victoria Falls. This should now be the rainy season and to see the Falls at this date does make you realize just how serious our present situation is becoming.

This image has a story. The story begins a week or so ago when we purchased a frozen 19-pound turkey in anticipation of a family Thanksgiving gathering at our lake place. Because the turkey was frozen and we had to be at our other home for a few days, we left the turkey to thaw in the refrigerator. A blizzard canceled our return to the lake and the family gathering and by the time we returned to the lake we had an unfrozen turkey that would have been a danger to eat.

So, what to do with this giant decaying bird. I had this idea that also related to our experiences up north. While riding on the trails through the woods about this time of year, we have come across deer carcasses dumped along the trail. So hunters had killed a deer, harvested the meat, and then dump the remains back in the wood. Yes, it is not a pretty sight. I was concerned with the reason for this behavior and being naive to the ways of the people of the woods I had asked Natural Resource people about this behavior. No, it was not a sign of illegal activity. It was a great way to return what had to be discarded in some way back to nature. The scavengers would take care of the remains and benefit from the food source. Everything including most of the bones would eventually be consumed.

What we often found around such remains were eagles. Often, there would be multiple eagles that would be around at the same time. Some on the carcass and some in the trees. These birds are quite large when you get a chance to see them close up and I have collected quite a few images by coming across this type of setting and focusing on the eagles and not what they are eating.

So, what to with a decaying turkey? I could have discarded it in the garbage and taken it to the dump. Nope. We decided to take it out onto the ice near our cabin and see what happens. We have plenty of eagles, crows, vultures, coyotes, foxes, etc. around and why not offer them a late Thanksgiving feast.

I did take the roasting pan back to the house.

It has become obvious that online services offer benefits, but also liabilities. Many of these services have generated huge profits without charging those who use the services anything. For the most part, what these services have done is to create a model that provides services to users in exchange for the personal information of the users. This information is valuable to ad services that pay the online services money to microtarget ads. The online services also sell this information to other services that find value in what they can learn about those who are active online.

This is capitalism at work, but a form of capitalism that has been accurately described as surveillance capitalism. Perhaps those who use online services find this exchange acceptable. Perhaps they do not. 

Because of the combination of benefits and liabilities available in the online world, each of us must make personal decisions about the present model. Those who want something different need suggestions for how they might proceed. My personal approach is to diversify my use of online services in multiple ways. I use different services for need purposes. What I am proposing here is that users make use of multiple services for the same purposes. The goal in this form of diversification is to reduce the information shared with the most popular services and to encourage competition. I would argue that competition is valuable without even considering the personable privacy issue. Without competition, what incentive is there for the dominant players to invest in improved services for users?

Here are my suggestions for diversification. I offer an alternative to some of the most dominant players. If you are unwilling to simply switch, consider either cross-posting to bolster the amount of content on these alternatives or using comparable services for different activities again as a way to increase the popularity of alternatives.

Brave – I am a fan of Brave as an alternative to other browsers and as a way to reduce the ad dollars benefitting other social media sites. I would encourage users still to view the ads shared through Brave and to spend the reward to you to compensate the content creators and service providers you utilize. At the core of this entire situation is the use of user content to provide the incentive for others to use a given social media site. In my opinion, it is not the ads that are the problem, but the funding of the ads via the collection of personal information.

WT:social is a social sharing site that offers an alternative to both Facebook and Twitter. Encourage your friends to move with you. 

DuckDuckGo – is a reasonable alternative to Google search

Pixelfed – an image sharing site that works as well as Instagram

Thanksgiving should be a time for reflection. The parade is on so the kids at our house are occupied and I can spend a few minutes at the computer. I certainly have plenty to be thankful for. Yesterday, I turned 71. My age and health is certainly something I appreciate and no longer take for granted. My extended family is also doing well and we live close enough in our retirement to see everyone frequently. Life is good for us. I certainly appreciate my life and my lifestyle.

A great life comes with responsibilities. As folks who read my posts understand, I often use this platform to recognize serious issues I feel an obligation to recognize. Lately, I have been so frustrated with our leaders and their self-absorption that I seldom get beyond complaining about them to addressing the issues not holding our attention. Here are the topics we all should spend some time today using our free time to consider.

Inequities abound – a holiday dedicated to giving thanks is a great time to recognize the multiple inequities we allow. Allow is the word I intend. This seems a time of growing self-focus. Our leadership makes the argument we need to block those in great need from entering our land of plenty. Our focus on a winner take all economics has resulted in growing income inequity. The disparities are at such a ridiculous level that those with great wealth have so much the only real benefit of their wealth is to exert power and manipulate. To argue against this widening disparity now labels you as a socialist. What does that descriptor even mean to those who apply it to others? To me, it seems to translate as “we have ours, too bad for you”.

Climate change – folks my age can ignore what the scientists tell us about our deteriorating climate. We will not live to see the decline that faces our children. At least, our leaders should be willing to acknowledge that this is real and they are just willing to be indifferent. Who knows, perhaps being realistic about the future offers the opportunity for innovation, new occupations, and no industries.

Health care – old folks do think a lot about health. Our nation offers the potential for elite health care, but the belief that health care is a business limits the opportunity for many to purchase adequate insurance and adequate care. Of all the areas of life, why is staying alive and healthy not an opportunity that is equally provided? This is something other countries have figured out and it appears a nation that aspires to be great cannot.

Be happy. Be thankful. Don’t be selfish.

We have grandkids varying in age from 3 to 13. We are lucky that all live nearby and we get together as a group quite often. I was a firstborn, but from observing our grandkids I have come to appreciate the frustration of being a younger child. If you are an older child, you are unaware of the options life presents. If you have older siblings, you watch the fun things your older brothers and sisters get to do and it must seem that life is unfair.

We have spent much of our personal lives promoting the educational potential of technology. Following through on our own values, we have given technology devices to our kids and we also invest in apps they can use. Mom and dad have to deal with screen time issues. Grandparents are like that. I am not certain when this investment starts. I let my wife make this decision. However, even without the gifts from grandma the kids find a way to get started. The touch interface just seems intuitive and we watch as our youngest scrolls through pictures, but also navigates to locate the videos she likes to watch and the games she likes to play.

Phones are a different deal. You can get into too much trouble with a phone. When to have a phone is definitely a mom and dad decision. When an older brother or sister has a phone, it can be tough on the younger ones. Some seem to be bothered more than others. Last year we let one of the more frustrated ones have an iPod. Many folks probably don’t even remember the iPod. It looks like a phone with apps, music, and a camera, but it isn’t a phone. Think a phone-sized iPad. This at least worked for family gatherings as it was possible to take photos just like the older ones.

Eventually, the opportunity to communicate must be the one thing you really want to do. It turns out that you can send messages on an iPad and the 7-year old who thinks she is 13 now has the opportunity to really participate in the online world. The problem is mom and dad have put extreme limits on the number of individuals she can contact. The immediate family is OK and so are grandparents. My wife and I have our phones at the ready, are retired, and bear some responsibility for the tech plague we have spread, so we end up being on the end of many of these conversations. We reasoned it could be a great way to develop reading skills. We now get messages early in the morning. I also now know when she gets home from school and when it is time for dinner.

The “this would be a great way to develop reading skills” isn’t going as well as we had hoped. Kids are impatient and smart enough to find ways around the obstacles they face. They know how to do speech to text so they don’t have to actually write. If they can’t understand something rather than attempting to sound out a novel word, they understand that messaging allows the person sending a sound clip so they just ask you to record the word they don’t recognize. Smart, but struggling a little more would probably be the ideal way to approach the task. When she asks you to read the last word (below), this is what she wants.

Our chats don’t have a lot of substance by my standards, but I have to keep telling myself that I have very little experience chatting with anyone so this may be the way all chats go. I am certain that the number of IM’s I have sent this year to a seven-year old will surpass the number I have sent all of my other contacts.

I have learned that emojis and creative spellings are cool. She signs off now by adding a lot of extra e’s to the end of bye. I think this is something she came up with herself.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

The position of social content services have taken different positions on political ads. Facebook is in even when the ads contain verifiable falsehoods. Interpreted charitably, Facebook does not want to be in the position of assessing factual accuracy. Google and particular YouTube have been pretty vague on their position. Twitter has said they will refuse to accept any political ads.

On the surface, the Twitter position would seem a reasonable position even giving up considerable income in taking a stand. Conservatives argue that they are uniquely damaged by this policy. I can’t say I understand the logic of this position, but it somehow fits with the argued media bias conservatives see everywhere.

Here is the policy as explained by Twitter:

Twitter said ads that discuss elections, candidates, parties and other overtly political content would be prohibited. For ads that reference causes generally and that are placed by organizations and not politicians or political candidates, Twitter said it would place restrictions on them but not ban them outright.

The restrictions included removing advertisers’ ability to target specific audiences, a practice known as “micro targeting.” 

So, you and I are completely free to use Twitter to express our political opinions and to link to sources. Individuals or organizations can take out ads advocating for policies that may be endorsed or rejected by a given party (e.g., climate change). This seems about as reasonable a policy as would be possible.

The major social media services have recently offered their plans for political ads. Twitter is out. Facebook is in.

As I understand the Facebook position, Zuck is arguing that he is pro free speech and suggests that his platform offers the opportunity for those who find fault with an ad to voice their objection. He also has created a database of political ads so that anyone who is interested can investigate just what different candidates claim.

I see the Facebook argument as an attempt to justify the ad revenue generated. It is based on an inaccurate representation of how people use Facebook. My perspective follows:

1. The most serious practical fallacy concerns the suggestion that public discussion of ads will identify false claims. This might be true if all posts were shown to all individuals. This is not what happens on Facebook. People tend to follow individuals who think like they think and Facebook puts items in the feeds Facebook users see based on the priorities Facebook has determined motivate readers. Simply put, Facebook has created a filter bubble that shows people what they want to see.
2. Responses to flawed ads would have to be offered as comments. First, the comments added to an ad would come mostly from those who see the ad (see #1) and most readers don’t bother to review comments anyway.
3. The Facebook ad library is not likely to draw much attention. In case you care interested, here is the link. Even if those concerned take the opportunity to investigate this library and use Facebook to complain would those reading the complaint be likely to be those individuals who were positively influenced by the ad in the first place? Again, not likely.

Tensions are running high as Democrats and Republicans argue about the Trump impeachment inquiry. The most salient accusation at present concerns the alleged efforts of Trump to extort the cooperation of the Ukrainian government in generating evidence of inappropriate use of connections by Mr. Biden’s son. By association, the goal was to reduce the effectiveness of Biden senior as a credible opponent to Trump in the 2020 election. Politicians do investigate their opponents for ways to accuse them of different things, what is different about this situation is the accusation that the President took advantage of his office to use aid promised to the Ukrainians to ward of Russian military action as a trade for evidence that could be used against Biden senior.

Key evidence in this controversy is a transcript released by the White House describing most of a conversation between Trump and Zelinsky (Ukrainian leader). Trump argues this transcript documents a “perfect call” and Democrats in the House argue it is an important part of the evidence showing the use of U.S. funds in an inappropriate way benefiting Trump as politician rather than Trump as leader of the U.S.. Lots of folks have weighed in on this controversy with the intent of influencing public opinion. It can be argued that it would just be better if the public just read the document for themselves rather than relying on folks who might be described as having ulterior motives.

Reading the document should be easy enough to do as nearly every news outlet has provided links to the document. I wonder how many folks have bothered. This situation is different from expecting citizens to review the Mueller report which was long and complex. This is a short read of a transcript of folks talking in simple language.

This situation reminds me of a potential use of technology I think I has great potential. What if folks made the effort to review and comment on something concrete offering a conversation starting point? This is the suggestion made in support of an open source service called hypothes.is. Hypothes.is is what I would describe as a “layering” tool. I have spent most of my time promoting the potential of various layering services for educational purposes. Hypothes.is originated as a tool for public conversation and morphed into a tool with potential for more specific applications. By layering, what I mean is that a freely available online document can be highlighted and annotated without actually changing the original document as provided on a server. The annotations and the original content are separate layers, but individuals who take advantage of a layering service can view the composite. This composite offers an opportunity for discussion and commenting to be shared.

I wondered about comments on the Ukrainian call transcript. For this to work, you need access to text within a web page and not a pdf. You can comment on a pdf, but layering works best if the public view is a static page. I finally found such a presentation of the call USA Today. You get some idea from the following image what my comments would look like on this document.

I offered these comments as “public” so anyone opening this page with Hypothes.is can see my comments, offer their own, etc. Hypothesis also offers a way for private annotation and annotations shared with a designated group. This group option is what I recommend for educational applications.

Hypothes.is is a free service supported by a wide variety of educational and news sources. It is an extension that can be added to most browsers, but I would suggest it is easiest to install as and use with Chrome.