Quote of the Week...from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Democracy...of the people, by the people, and for the people...is so fragile that you can vote it out of existence.  Just select candidates who will only accept the election results if they win.

                                                           ---Neil deGrasse Tyson

It's now coming up on three days since the midterm elections that were supposed to determine which parties control the Senate and House of Representatives...and it still is inconclusive, although in all likelihood the Republicans will regain control of the House after just four years of being in the minority.  Supposedly, the tedious time-consuming mail-in ballot counting is continuing across the country, with Nevada and Arizona standing out among the close Senate races and numerous House races still undetermined.  As for me, throughout my adult lifetime I've seen swings between the two major parties and easily accept how voters can run on emotion and ignorance when casting their ballots...I've been known to regret some of my own votes as well.  But implicit in all this cyclic give-and-take of partisan political power is the confidence we have that the losers of elections will accept the results and allow for the peaceful transfer of power.  Ever since the Bush-Gore election debacle in 2000 I've seen an increased amount of election denial on the part of both politicians and people at large, and this is unhealthful for a representative democratic republic as we have.  It reached a head in 2020 when an actual sitting president refused to accept his electoral defeat...and now within one of our parties a large number only accept elections if they win.  So, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the narrator of the great Cosmos series...and someone I follow on Twitter...is absolutely right in his assessment, which he made just before the election.  By the way, in fledgling democracies elsewhere in the world, the same thing has happened and is happening...the people elect someone as leader who uses the system once he is in power to change the laws to ensure that he will remain in power: not cool at all here in the good old U.S.A....

TikTok as Forum for Diverse Ideas & Opinions

I have had the short looping video app TikTok on my smartphone for a few months now, never putting out anything on my own but rather just scrolling through the randomly appearing posts of others.  My use of it reflects how I used Twitter: to get people's brief reactions to what is going on around us as well as their general philosophies of life.  Before, when I used Twitter...and social media in general...what I saw was pretty much set in advance by my choice of people I followed and was thereby inherently slanted. When I flick through video after TikTok video (I don't follow anyone or participate in their interactive options of reactions to posts), I'm getting more of a cross-section of viewpoints about most anything, but weighted heavily in favor of current events and issues.  And since the people putting out these videos are for the most part neither celebrities nor anyone I personally know, I am not having to deal with inner conflicts about those individuals whenever I happen to disagree with a posting (and that happens a lot)...I can focus on the message, not the messenger.  Some of the videos out there do stretch the standards of modesty and propriety a bit, but I suppose in a free speech environment it's better to err in that direction than in that of censorship.  Speaking of censorship, just about every mainstream social media platform practices some sort of content regulation and TikTok has its own issues as well...seems that criticism of some autocrats has been suppressed in the past and there was a recent scandal in which a site urged students to vandalize their schools.  I also know that Trump hated TikTok and wanted it banned in the United States...had it not been for him I probably wouldn't have even considered it: thanks, Donald, in a backhanded sort of way.  Is this app perfect? No way...not by far...but it is always interesting.  TikTok as I see it presented is a crazy, chaotic kind of digital bulletin board, a welcome, more grassroots kind of entertainment to check in on whenever I get tired of the contrived and narrative-driven mass media news programs I see on TV.  I'm not necessarily recommending it for you, but I've seen it as a good source for independent opinions and information...although as with everything else it's crucial to be discerning in filtering it all through and not automatically accept everything I read or hear...

This Blog to Leave Facebook Starting Tomorrow, 1/1/21

My blog URL is wmirwinsblog.blogspot.com.  I mention this because starting New Years Day 2021, tomorrow, I will no longer be posting links to it on Facebook or Twitter.  I am fed up with these social media platforms for a number of reasons and decided that I couldn't take them anymore...if you can, then the more power to you.  I don't know whether or not I'll eventually shut down my accounts, but for the time being I'm done with posting on them, and with no intention to return.  For those of you who like to read this blog, and for the smaller number who like to give me feedback, I'm still continuing with it as usual and can be accessed with the above URL.  I also welcome comments, which you can make by viewing the blog article in question in web format (not phone app format)...at the bottom is a window to write your reaction, which I'll receive and review before posting it.  And with this system, you can comment and request that I don't publish it, and I will comply!  When I began this blog project in 2007 I intended it to be a disciplined exercise in daily writing, and my goal is still the same.  For the first two or three years I received comments ranging the globe and felt I was a part of the burgeoning community of bloggers.  But then Facebook exploded onto the scene and the number of active blogs and bloggers drastically contracted...my solution was to post links to my articles on that social media site, with mixed results.  So now I'm off Facebook (and Twitter), but my blog's still out there in the great, wide blogosphere.   Wishing all of you a healthy and prosperous New Year!

Thanks to All for Birthday Wishes

Thank you to everyone wishing me a happy birthday this past weekend on Facebook.  I've been on this social media site going on for some ten years but it was only recently that Melissa checked my settings and made my birthday public...I'm a real klutz with computers in general and Facebook in particular.  Normally on Facebook I just focus on putting links to my daily blog articles for which I use Google's Blogger...and lately I've been putting links to them on Twitter as well.  While with Facebook I get familiar readers whom I know, Twitter expands the scope of readership to the more worldwide scene that I used to get before Facebook came along.  As for wishing others happy birthday on Facebook, I've been inconsistent about it but having such sweetness come my way about mine, I feel more a part of a caring community and think...in spite of some of my recently expressed reservations about social media...that others probably think the same way.  Again, thank you all for your wishes and may your lives be abundant, healthy and happy...

Just Watched The Social Dilemma Documentary Movie

Melissa, Will and I recently set down and watched on Netflix a very intriguing and disturbing documentary film, released just this year: The Social Dilemma, released for general public viewing just a couple of weeks ago after appearing at the Sundance Film Festival in January.  In it former Google designer Tristan Harris, along with several other former major Internet company employees, present their view that uses of social media like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter...along with simple Internet use of search engines like that of Google, present skewed outcomes because the companies providing these services use complex algorithms deliberately designed to give the user what he or she wants and pander to people's prejudices in order to increase their usage...not necessarily providing truthful or balanced information.  Each user has a separate profile that the company analyzes to increase their addiction to the application by feeding back material that supports their own preconceived notions. This is creating among adults a very politically divided, bubbled-off society with each "camp" armed with its own "facts" and perceived outrages perpetrated by the other "side" as they spend their time shouting past each other on the various issues and politicians.  But with teens...and preteens as well...social media can become very addictive and personally demeaning, possibly even contributing to suicide...

I just finished rereading A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin's first volume of his apparently never-ending A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series.  His fiction may be fantasy in that it involves a mythical world, dragons, monsters up north and the like, but with regard to how unseen forces manipulate the characters into acting against their own interests, it is very, very real and applicable to what is going on now with not only social media and the Internet in general, but also television and radio: the companies obey the bottom line of economic profit, which is provided by advertising, which in turn is driven by viewership...regardless of the truth value of what is being put out there.  As with Martin's book with his "puppet masters" stringing the characters along with their strategically-placed provocations eventually pitting the House of Lannister in open conflict against that of Stark, Harris and others reveal that these corporate AI algorithms have come to the conclusion that inciting people's passions about different subjects and themselves is the most cost-effective way to increase onsite activity and get those crucial profits for the company...and this is causing our children to become more withdrawn and insecure while our society as a whole is much more deeply divided and uncivil...

This past Sunday evening I was watching the end of an exciting, close football game between the (boo) New England Patriots and the (hooray) Seattle Seahawks.  My 'Hawks managed to squeak out a close victory on the last play of the game, but what if the broadcasters behaved the way of social media or search engines?  While not denying the final score in favor of Seattle, NBC, knowing my preferences, would have exalted everything Seattle did while casting New England in the role of dastardly, evil villains...and the officials were of course biased against the Seahawks.  But for my neighbor who likes the Patriots, the presentation by the same NBC on his TV would portray his chosen team as the heroes robbed of a victory by Seattle's cheating and poor officiating: New England really did win, even if the score says otherwise...must be some kind of hoax.  That sounds crazy, but if The Social Dilemma is right then in a way that's a lot of what we're getting on our smartphones and computers.  Users beware: they're taking us for a bunch of damned fools, and maybe they're right...I highly recommend this documentary and let the wise among us wake up to the danger...

Quote of the Week...from Katie Mack

I've been trying to wrap my head around what it means to live in a universe where space and time are not fundamental.                                                         Astrophysicist Katie Mack.

Yesterday I reviewed astrophysicist...and investigator of the origin and ultimate demise of the cosmos...Katie Mack's new book The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking).  In it she presented potential scenarios for the destruction of the universe while giving a brilliant introduction to cosmology and astrophysics in the process.  This is a very dynamic scientific field in which all sorts of interesting theories are arising about the nature of reality...her above quote from the book alludes to the work of one of her contemporaries.  This seems to be a popular quote on Twitter, and in another Tweet a fan wrote that she "is really good at messing with your mind"...to which Katie Mack replied, "It's not me, it's physics".  As someone untrained in the deep mathematics and scientific method necessary to more fully comprehend the material she is discussing I can only sit back in wonder at what is being undertaken in this area. Personally, I'm not all that concerned at how our universe will end...astrophysically speaking, of course...but I do very much appreciate Mack's well-written exposition on many different areas of current research and what we know at this point concerning the cosmos.  I'm looking forward to reading more from her in future books...

Coronavirus Distancing Prompts Me to Increase Social Media Presence

As this coronavirus pandemic begins to make itself felt more acutely with the numbers of those testing positive for it continuing to double nationally every two or three days, eventually its pervasiveness among the general population is making social distancing much more of a reasonable proposition, even among my extroverted friends who seem to have the notion deeply embedded within themselves that only through regular, close contact with groups of people can they enjoy any meaning in life.  I'm the opposite, pretty much on the extreme-introvert end of the scale, but still try to maintain some interaction with others...this blog's a major example.  I post links to its articles daily on Facebook and Twitter and maintain Facebook friendships with some 200+ people.  In light of the increasing physical isolation in our country, mandated either by the government, businesses or the disease itself, I've decided to send out many more friend requests in the next day or two...focusing on those people I know, although sometimes admittedly not very well with the possibility that some of them may not know me at all.  Also, I intend to be more active on both Facebook and Twitter about interacting on these sites in an appropriate and respectful way with friends and those I follow by commenting on their posts.  I think it's important for folks to keep connected and social media can serve well to alleviate some of the social disorientation which this season of mandated isolation could bring about...

Happy Birthday, Everybody

To me birthdays have traditionally been more of a celebration within my own immediate family than a general social event, which kind of sets me at odds with Facebook, which tends to overpromote them, in my opinion...but I understand that for most they tend to like it and that's okay, too.  For some reason, however, although I had indicated my own birthday to Facebook, they never do acknowledge it...that's fine, because although I'll occasionally wish somebody on it a happy birthday I don't do it regularly and...like I said, I'm more into celebrating the event among family.  After all, since we're all alive that means we all have birthdays...I like the traditional Eastern notion of everybody celebrating their birthdays together at the start of the New Year.  Still, I don't mean to snub or shun anyone by not writing on their timeline on their birthdays...I just don't spend a lot of time on Facebook, my primary use of which is to provide a link to my daily blog article...

And since my active involvement with Facebook pertains to this blog, it disturbs me that this site deliberately restricts...according to some algorithm of theirs...which of my Facebook friends see it appear on their newsfeed: apparently most do not.  I'm thinking of trying and seeing whether I can also use Twitter to increase readership...I have a couple of strategies I'm thinking of implementing there.  In any event, I'd just like to go ahead for the next 366 days and wish each and every one of you a Happy Birthday...whenever it comes...and while I'm here, go ahead and wish Gene a happy one for today, assuming that Facebook puts this link on your newsfeed, that is...

Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse Tonight

Evan McMullin, one of the people I follow on Twitter, retweeted a posting by Space.com about tonight's lunar eclipse, visible from the Western Hemisphere...here's that website link. The moon will be at one of its closest points to Earth, which explains the "super" adjective, as it passes through our planet's shadow on the opposite side of the Sun...that's what a lunar eclipse is.  And lunar eclipses always occur during the moon's full phase...in January full moons are called "wolf moons".  During this eclipse the shaded part of the moon will still be visible, but a dim, dark "blood" red...hence the quirky title that the writer of this Space.com article, Elizabeth Howell, came up with.  She also gave a timetable for this eclipse, in Eastern Standard Time:

10:34 pm: Partial eclipse begins
11:41 pm: Total eclipse begins
12:12 am: Mid-eclipse
12:44 am: Total eclipse ends
1:51 pm: Partial eclipse ends

Tonight the skies here in northern Florida are expected to be clear...and cold.  I'm looking forward to checking it out...why don't you, too?

My Favorite Songs for 2018

I follow former president Barack Obama on my Twitter account...he's a refreshing example of someone whose messages embrace the constructive and positive and I always appreciate his input.  A couple of days ago he tweeted a link to his "favorites" lists for 2018, including the books he's read and his favorite songs from the year.  These lists are long...I've read a few books, too, but as for the music, I found myself turning away from the current radio playlists and album releases in favor of looking at music from the past.  Only one recent song, Arcade Fire's Creature Comfort from 2017, made my top ten favorite songs list for 2018...this sort of thing has happened with me in past years, my belated discovery in 1991 of Led Zeppelin's greatness after the release of their first box set leading me to focus on them for a couple of years back then. Likewise, this year's favorites also delve into music from years gone by...but they do represent the music I enjoyed listening to the most over the course of 2018.  And now here's my list, with the songs' original years of release following the artists' names...I wonder if Barack's heard any of them...

1 LAZY EYE by Silversun Pickups [2006]
2 OPTIMISTIC by Radiohead [2000]
3 MORNING BELL by Radiohead [2000]
4 DARKNESS by The Police [1982]
5 DETROIT, LIFT UP YOUR WEARY HEAD by Sufjan Stevens [2003]
6 JACKSONVILLE by Sufjan Stevens [2005]
7 HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY by Radiohead [2000]
8 BLACKSTAR by David Bowie [2016]
9 THE LIGHT by Regina Spektor [2016]
10 CREATURE COMFORT by Arcade Fire [2017]

Quote of the Week...from Joe Scarborough

Vladimir Putin did nothing to elect Donald Trump...James Comey did.      ---Joe Scarborough

Joe Scarborough cohosts the MSNBC show Morning Joe along with his wife Mika Brzezinski.  By political philosophy a conservative, he has been for many years a Republican...including a stint as a Congressman...until just recently, when his many objections to Donald Trump led him to switch his status to Independent.  He made the above quote on his Twitter account, and I have to hand it to him: he's right on target...

During the last weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign there had been allegations of Russian interference on behalf of the Trump campaign and against Hillary Clinton's.  The WikiLeaks release of illegally hacked emails pertaining to the Democratic National Committee carried with it much openly discussed suspicion that Putin's Russia was behind the hacking...the released material may have reaffirmed to Trump's already established voting base negative thoughts about the "other" side, but it wasn't likely to switch undecided voters or those leaning to Clinton.  James Comey, on the other hand...

The Department of Justice Inspector General's report on the Hillary Clinton email investigation...some 900 pages long...just came out, accusing then-FBI Director Comey of acting out of line with the organization's policies when he publicly came out in July of 2016 and berated Clinton for her emails...the FBI had always carefully avoided that kind of grandstanding.  He then compounded the effect of his interference into the campaign by revealing to Congress that the Weiner emails...related to Clinton...were being investigated...just ten days before the election and immediately following the presidential debate after which Hillary surged to a big lead over Trump...12 points in one poll.  Americans may have been suspicious of WikiLeaks or a lot of the crap circulating on Facebook, but Comey was considered by millions to be beyond reproach, a man of high integrity...hence, many took his renewed investigation to heart as they reconsidered Clinton's fitness for the high office.  And it didn't help one bit that, in that last week and a half, the campaign, instead of being able to clearly state its own vision for the future under a Clinton presidency, instead had to answer question after relentless question related to that Weiner email investigation.  The campaign stalled and Trump's surged...and you know the rest of the story...

After Trump fired Comey last year, I was glad he was gone...but the president may well have been trying to impede the developing investigations about possible collusion between him and the Russians in the election.  I personally don't believe that Putin got Trump elected, but I do strongly suspect that he has something very damaging on our president, and many things that Trump says or does relating to Russia seem to confirm this.  Whether this will ever be conclusively proven or refuted...I don't know.  What I do know is that pious, sanctimonious, self-righteous James Comey grossly interfered in the 2016 presidential election against one candidate, only one candidate: Hillary Clinton...

My Weariness With Social Media

It was a bit unnerving this morning...but sadly not unexpected...to see that our president has once again set off a barrage of angry Tweets, this time about being investigated for obstruction of justice.  It does him no good to do this, especially when his own lawyer almost certainly advised him to be silent about any investigations regarding his campaign or administration.  But Donald Trump cannot help himself as he is obviously addicted to social media.  Most of us aren't hooked on Twitter, but a few are strongly dependent on Facebook, checking on it often during their day and even in inappropriate situations such as while driving or conversing with another.  Although I haven't let it go that far, it is tempting for me to just click on it and see what's going on.  Usually, though, I am disappointed in my Facebook experience after scrolling a little and turn it off...

At the start I was just a nominal member of Facebook for a year or two, hardly ever visiting it or trying to accumulate "friends".  But I decided back in 2013 to put links to my daily blog articles on it in order to increase readership.  I had realized that the explosion in personal blogs that had begun a few years earlier had dissipated with the advent and spread of Facebook...folks were just not visiting my blog as they used to with this new, easy social media site to use.  Now, four years later, although I do appreciate the "likes" and comments from some readers I've reached through Facebook, I have grown weary of it and wish that the good old days of personal blogs had remained a growing presence on the Internet.  The blogs are still there...well, at least some of them...but who's reading them?  For me, I just deactivated my Facebook account but will continue writing and publishing this blog through Google on the open Web.  After all, the main thing is for me to keep on writing...

Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Profound Twitter Post

I was looking at Twitter today and, following the announcement of the death of Gene Cernan, the last human being to stand on the moon, noticed that famous astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson had posted something pretty profound:

In 1927 Lindbergh flew from NY to Paris. 45 yrs later, in 1972 we last walked on the Moon. 45 yrs later, in 2017 we… we… we...

Truth be told, we have done nothing to push back the frontiers of human space exploration since President Nixon had curtailed the Apollo moon program to only six landings...other than low Earth-orbit projects like the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station  or by the use of unmanned, remotely controlled probes.  The irony of all this is that Spiro Agnew, Nixon's vice-president, at the time seemed to be very excited about the space program, once predicting that we would reach Mars by 1989.  But it wasn't until several presidents later, with the administration of George W. Bush, that serious efforts were undertaken to plan and build a return mission to the moon, as an intermediary step to go to Mars and beyond.  Yet soon after Barack Obama became president, he scrapped Bush's moon plans...sarcastically (and foolishly) stating that "we've already been there"...and laid out a different personal vision of where HE wanted the country to go...asteroids and eventually Mars, using private companies and leaning on Russia to help us with space launches for several years.  And I think you're seeing where the main problem regarding NASA and our manned space program lies.  NASA is a government agency in the executive branch, and the president has direct control over its priorities and projects.  So with each new president comes a different emphasis and very little continuity of vision and mission...

Tyson's tweet accurately puts it all out there: from 1927 to 1972 our frontiers went from the first transatlantic plane flight to the last of six moon landings...and in the 45 years since then we haven't even kept what we had accomplished, instead now barely able to even get out of our own atmosphere.  And now here we go again with a new incoming president who, I'm confident, will once again "reset" the agenda for NASA in a different direction from his predecessor's.  I don't see much hope of getting out of this rut as long as our space program remains the private football of the sitting president, to kick around however he or she sees fit.  In the meantime, we can always count on our good, dependable friends the Russians to help us out, right?

Neighborhood Social Media

When I first set out to publish my blog on the worldwide web in 2007, I had in mind a reading audience that itself was worldwide.  This did happen, but to only a small extent: I didn't promote my blog as others do, but rather wrote my (usually) daily articles as a personal exercise in writing.  Still, readers would sometimes respond from other parts of the U.S.A. and other countries.  But back then, blogging was considered the primary means of social media on the Internet...MySpace was in itself a blogging site and many enjoyed its user-friendliness.  But when Facebook started, much of the blogging community switched over to that format and it become more socially networked around people's personal friends, family, acquaintances, and associates...and the more cosmopolitan nature of the blog dwindled as the web drew in on itself.  I resisted Facebook for a few years...although I had nominally been a member...until I realized that my blog readership had diminished along with that social media site's rise.  So in early 2013 I began to link my blog articles on Facebook and work to increase my readership by that means.  But it took away the more random sort of reader just the same...that's a shame, in my opinion...

Although Facebook does the service of bringing people one already knows closer together in a communication network, it is still lacking in a geographical sense.  How well, for example, do you know the other residents in your own neighborhood, and how well are you keeping up with events that are going on there?  I'm not talking about gossip, but rather things like crimes such as burglaries or vandalism, social events, helping people in various states of crisis or emergency, lost and found pets, advertisements for services like lawn care or handiwork, things wanted to buy or sell, unrestrained dogs, and so on.  A few weeks ago a friend pointed me to a site called NextDoor.com that specifically works to establish communication networks within residential neighborhoods.  Free to join, NextDoor members can choose to become actively engaged in interaction through posts with neighbors on the site or can, like me, sit back and read others' postings to see what's going on in my subdivision.  Because people tend to emphasize their privacy within neighborhoods and many assert their right to rule their own "castles" aloof from others living around them, the general sense of community in a geographical zone between residents is tenuous and the communication is usually much more formal on NextDoor.com than it is on Facebook, which typically features folks being more themselves and relaxed...even silly...after all, the "Facers" are among those they are familiar with.  Besides, we're not quite sure exactly who some of these neighbors of ours really are, are we...

So with NextDoor and its current serious, down-to-business, minimalist tone, I'm not inclined to be posting links to any blog articles of mine in the near future as I do on Facebook.  I also have a Twitter account, though, and think that this may be a way to go in the other direction and promote my blog more nationally...and internationally among people at-large, not just among my own circle of family, friends, and associates.  Do you have a Twitter account...if you do, do you post on it or, like me, just follow others?