Gadfly

Dog bowls made of silver and instant diamonds

July 6th, 2016

When robots do most of the work...

We have reached the point with artificial intelligence and robotic machines that thousands of products are purchased each day that have never been touched by human hands until placed in a shopping cart.

So who is getting most of the wealth produced by computers and electronically-controlled machines? Those who have made the computers and the machines--and those who have invested in the factors of production.

According to an article in Alternet, seven…

Guns, drugs, and car crashes shorten American life spans

June 29th, 2016

A homicidal suicide bomber-shooter

Because of deaths by firearms, drugs, and car crashes, Americans live two years less than our fellow humans in Western Europe or Japan, the two areas that lead the world in lifespan.

There are several factors, but the main one is early death by firearms. Each year 11,000 Americans are murdered by firearms, 20,000 commit suicide with firearms, and 80,000 have their lives shattered and shortened by wounds caused by bullets.

And guns and bullets are very…

Homeless and sleepless in Seattle—and everywhere else

June 22nd, 2016

A $3,456,789 lunch for the homeless

In a country when on any given night we have over 600,000 people homeless, including 64,000 families with about 123,000 children, we have basketball fans paying $49,500 for courtside seats at the 2016 final game of the National Basketball Association playoffs. Lesser seats on the floor are a billionaire’s bargain at $8,500. In the richest city in the world one can see “Hamilton,” the leading musical of the year so far, for $849 a seat.

Some of…

Building Brains

June 15th, 2016

Smarts, sex, and sensibilities

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton wants the state to spend $175 million to make public school pre-school programs available to all four-year-olds. The purpose is to close the large educational gap between poor and minority students and their more fortunate Minnesota classmates.

He’s starting out small, requesting $25 million out of the present $900 million state surplus to help only 3,700 very needy kids. He would like to spend $100 million on pre-school for…

Building walls of ignorance

June 8th, 2016

American culture: contradictory, bizarre, hypocritical, and narcissistic

Remember that infamous pair of ne’er-do-well TV kids named Beavis and Butthead? Their creator, Mike Judge, produced a 2006 cult comedy called “Idiocracy.” The film hardly made a dime because many considered it to be too over the top about the future. As Paula Young Lee writes, it was probably too much like Beavis and Butthead.

But in these days of Donald Trump, it accurately predicts what has happened to the…

Can machines dominate mankind?

June 1st, 2016

Are robots becoming the scabs of the labor market?

The signs are getting more ominous that the human may lose his dominion over the earth to machines utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI), manufactured by humans.

Perhaps the first sign was when a computer program called BKG 98 beat the world’s best backgammon player 7-1 in 1979. Humans don’t play championship backgammon anymore. A program called Chinook won the world championship of checkers in 1994 when the human had to withdraw…

Happiness versus power and stuff

May 25th, 2016

Have we reached a brave new world where ignorance might count?

I was shocked to read that 64 people in Bangladesh died from lightning strikes in two days of tropical monsoon storms, most of them farmers harvesting crops in rural areas. Experts said that exposure to metal equipment, and particularly cell phones, contributed to the large number. They added that deforestation practices had removed tall trees which normally take a large number of lightning strikes. I wonder if the farmers…

A Pandemic of Toxoplasma Gondi Parasite

May 18th, 2016

Avoid Cat Poo—It’s The Black Plague Of Politics

I think I may have discovered why so many people voted for Donald Trump this spring. They probably have been attacked by Toxoplasma gondi spores, a protozoan parasite which is found in large numbers in cat poo. The spores are often transferred from vegetable gardens to food we eat, particularly in herbs, vegetables, and lettuce. Both tame and feral cats like to bury their poo in soft soils. Humans are very susceptible to these spores and…

Science, Religion, And Peeing In The Right (Wing) Bathroom

May 11th, 2016

Is Sex between the ears or between the legs?

So now we are battling over which humans will use which bathrooms. At least a majority of us have accepted same-sex marriage, gays in the military, and that we have a number of distinctive sexes beyond just male and female. The scientific and anecdotal evidence is becoming overwhelming that humans have quite a wide range of “sexuality.”

The religious forces in the world who believe that God created only straight males and females and that…

Of Cruise Ships and Homemade Rowboats

May 6th, 2016

From havens to havens

I take the New Yorker for the cartoons and the occasional informative article. I thought two cartoons in the latest issue explored the conditions in the world and the United States as well as several thousand words could.

Through the portals of animal cages by the floor of the Roman Colosseum one can see five cowering prisoners waiting in line. In the lion cage four lions are lounging on the floor while the leader of the pride was hectoring them from the open gate:…

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