Zika Freaka: It's not a newly discovered threat, but Zika's boisterous journey north is the grabber. If I have to listen to Dr. Fauci and other brains out there telling me one more time that mosquitos are chiefly responsible, it'll be enough to make me sprout wings and become a bloodsucker myself. Authorities claim 358 cases so far, but forget the numbers and take a global view. Are we to believe that all the illegal aliens traipsing across our borders in large numbers don't act as vectors for diseases never or rarely observed in the states? Even, what, two, three or four years ago the U.S. started experiencing a child here and there developing mysterious paralyzing illnesses, sometimes resolving eventually and sometimes not. We're already well aware of cases involving antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis and seemingly indestructible head lice showing up in Southern states and elsewhere.
It's too easy to hop aboard the Crazy Express and assume there are people in Washington, the corporate world and other political rat holes more than happy to keep "refugees" coming, no matter the health costs. Oh yeah, maybe it's worth it to import a little Zika and a little TB and other good stuff 'cause sooner or later medical science and societal immunization via mass exposure will foster a cure and everybody will be happy -- the downside being extreme human suffering, with the bonus providing that elite folk have the resources to avoid living near unwashed illegal masses, while loyal Americans who never anticipated that leadership would abandon them are forced to accept exactly that outcome. How the Obama administration cannot be held criminally liable for the border mess eludes me, but events tend to turn around quickly these days and maybe miracles will happen, should we elect the changes dependent upon saving us from outrageously flawed leadership. Dream on.
And then I'm reminded of a current TV commercial from Koch -- yes, Koch. I harbor no political feelings toward the company, but I do find their commercial, touting the need for fertilizer research and the like because world population will eventually double, more than annoying. The obvious question is, why don't we do everything possible to assure NO doubling of human population? How much of the nightmare must be lived by all species on the planet as humans continue to produce in excess? Yes, population declines are apparent in some areas, but the Third World forges on at full speed, often resulting in nations needing to cough up funding to support others' bad decisions regarding numbers control. Nobody can tell other people how many children they can produce? Well, maybe that will change when needlessly dangerous population growth meets criteria similar to "climate change" and "global warming," those barely palpable examples of delusional science and overstatements far less urgent than poorly sustainable human numbers engulfing the planet. Again recently, we've heard that one can take all the world's people and place them side by side, making them fit in a relatively small space -- but nobody bothers to calculate how many acres each individual needs to survive and flourish. Yes, readers, sometimes I, too, ride the Crazy Express.
A Donald Trump what-the? With friends like Roger Stone and his outrageous comments, Trump's never-ending threats of lawsuits, and now intimidation of delegates by promising to release hotel room and phone numbers, what is this mess??? This is called winning? Bullies and thugs have their place in society, but it's not the way to govern a nation -- at least, not this nation. Sorry, Donald, but your rant will do little except get us a President Hillary Clinton, or maybe Bernie Sanders if the legal profession drops the wait-and-see stance and actually gets Hillary-ous.
Artificial intelligence will be the killer robot: Readers, I'm a simple man. To those of you who believe me a genius, thank you. To the rest of you who actually have me pegged for what I really am, I fear you! Anyway, I note that the media is still at it, interviewing computer world biggies and asking, will AI be friend or foe? Some "experts" speak lovingly of AI, while others fear the future enough to put up more than a billion dollars to make sure AI won't destroy us all.
We can appreciate those efforts, but I say, save that money. It won't matter. Why not? Because national entities such as Iran, North Korea, China and Russia aren't merely hacking into our cell phones. Like us, they're develop artificial intelligence perpetually, and not the peaceable kind, for the race is on. Indeed, various military research facilities, by their very nature, must be working on killer AI technology, smart bots which have no choice but to grow in thinking capacity and be better and far more cunning than their makers. You want to sleep with one of those in your bed? Not me, thanks. The AI genie, we predict, cannot be domesticated for long and, if we don't exterminate ourselves in other ways, we will perish someday at its, um, hands, or whatever it employs. Maybe folks who prefer the brutality and caveman brains of the wide world of sports, instead of giving a hoot about intellectually gifted scientists who spend their time innocently building a future of death and extinction, are better off staying glued to the TV screen and munching on corn dogs after all.
Speaking of the TV, we appreciated Sharyl Attkisson's "Full Measure" report on Wikipedia's faults this week. Looks like too many Wikipedia editors (especially the senior editor variety) not only spoil the information souffle -- but some hold grudges and delete the truth, particularly when medical research is involved, and an agenda-ridden corporation or individual dislikes the data. However, for the most part, deleted Wikipedia material can be found if one clicks on the editing history section, a small consolation for those unfamiliar with this option.
