Holograms on cell phones coming in five years, IBM predicts

From Computerworld.com (Dec. 27):

In five years, cell phones will be able to produce holograms of friends and colleagues talking and moving in real time, IBM researchers say.

"We see 3D [video] technology moving into the cell phone, which will have the ability to transmit information off the cell phone to create a 3D hologram, projecting the hologram on any surface in life size," said Paul Bloom, IBM's CTO for telecommunications research, in a recent interview. [read more]

Cool. The mock-up photo reminds of the hologram of Princess Lea projecting from R2D2 in the movie Star Wars.

Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir

From The New York Times.com (Dec. 25):

WASHINGTON — When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1.

Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.

“While we are very happy with the result, we won’t be shouting it from the rooftops because we aren’t out of the woods yet,” Mr. Blumenauer’s office said in an e-mail in early November to people working with him on the issue. “This regulation could be modified or reversed, especially if Republican leaders try to use this small provision to perpetuate the ‘death panel’ myth.”  [read more]

I also heard this on Fox News too. Will  doctors get a bonus if they are able to persuade a patient to forg0 aggressive life-sustaining treatment? Nah. Then again since the gov’t is paying for the treatment they can dictate what treatments they will cover—you know like health insurance companies do now. And if the gov’t runs out of money for the treatment guess what will happen next. That’s right—no treatment at all or the minimal amount of treatment. And you have no choice or option in the matter since the gov’t is all you have for health insurance.

Environmentalists Can Be Smug Jerks

I read this first in Popular Science August 2010:

According to a study, when people feel they have been morally virtuous by saving the planet through their purchases of organic baby food, for example, it leads to the "licensing [of] selfish and morally questionable behavior", otherwise known as "moral balancing" or "compensatory ethics".

“Do Green Products Make Us Better People” is published in the latest edition of the journal Psychological Science. Its authors, Canadian psychologists Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong, argue that people who wear what they call the "halo of green consumerism" are less likely to be kind to others, and more likely to cheat and steal. "Virtuous acts can license subsequent asocial and unethical behaviors," they write.

Well, people have been conned if they buy green products they are saving the world. So, of course environmentalists think they are better (read: do-gooders) who don’t buy green products. They develop a superiority complex.

There is nothing wrong with cleaning up pollution, recycling and even reusing certain products. That’s practical environmentalism. We are custodians of the planet. But thinking if you saving earth by using some green product is saving the earth—you are deluding yourself. You don’t have that much power over it. And if you worship the earth over God—you are a pagan.

The Mighty Casey

The following plot summary comes from a Twilight Zone episode called The Mighty Casey broadcasted first in 1960:

"Mouth" McGarry, the manager of a broken-down baseball team on its last legs, allows a robot named Casey to play on his team. Casey has the ability to throw super-fast balls that cannot be hit. Eventually, after Casey is beaned by a ball and given a physical examination, the National League finds out and rules that Casey must be taken off the team because he is not human. Casey's inventor, Dr. Stillman, gives him an "artificial" heart to have him classified as human. Now that Casey has human emotions, he refuses to throw his fast balls anymore. He says that he feels empathy with the batter and does not want to ruin the batter's career by striking him out.

Is it me or did Casey turn into a liberal after getting that “heart” (which was just a ticking clock)? He certainly became politically correct. I know this is just fiction but I don’t think striking out a batter would ruin his career. It seems he became completely emotional and lost all logical thought—real strange for a robot. Then again for liberal robot it might make some sort of weird sense.
I am not sure what Rod Serling’s political stance was but I think he may have been poking fun at the left.

Miscellaneous Thoughts Part 19

• Why not have self-serve pat downs at airports?
• If the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany had completely different ideologies then why did the Soviet Union make a treaty with Germany? You don’t make a treaty with someone you don’t have affinity with.
• If you are an introvert or an individualist in a collectivist state then you might be diagnosed as mentally ill by that same state.
• I think Glenn Beck should interview George Soros in a neutral meeting place like France.
• When going ghost hunting it might be a good idea not to eat any gaseous food before hunting. The food might cause contamination during the hunting.
• Oatmeal and oat bran are Drano for the intestines.
• An euphuism for flatulence:  Bending air.
• The phrase “climate change” makes as much sense as asking someone how they feel and the reply is “I’m emotional.”
• Pot heads of the world unite! And do nothing or you know you might go and get some munchies and laugh uncontrollably….
• Helen Keller must have had it bad. She could not hear someone yelling “Watch out for that…!”

Strange Thinking…Or Maybe Not

There are those in Congress who think that you cannot give income tax relief if it is not paid for.  Now, taxpayers like me would say that doesn’t make any sense. Not paid for? The gov’t is not giving any money to taxpayers. Income belongs to the taxpayer. And the taxpayer gives money to the gov’t via taxes.
But you are not thinking with the correct mindset. Those with this mindset thinks any income the gov’t doesn’t receive via taxes is a cost to the gov’t. A Congressman actually said this. Therefore if tax relief is a cost then the gov’t has to get the money from somewhere else other than taxes. Got it?
If you don’t get it then think of it this way: You are an employee and your boss has announced there will be no more raises until business improves. Until you get paid your paycheck or bonus is the property of the company you work for. It controls your pay. Certain Congressmen think they are your boss. That the money you give to the gov’t via taxes is their money or the government’s. Not yours. Tax relief in their eyes is a raise for you. Understand now? Kind of confusing huh.
If this a strange mindset for the everyday person it is not for those in power who have this mindset. It completely makes sense for them. And there’s the rub. This mindset is not strange for them.

The Inside-Out Strategy

The former White House green jobs czar Van Jones said this:

The opportunity is to recognize that a governing movement is three things: It's top-down — you handled that, you got the White House, the Senate and the House. You handled the top-down. But it's also bottom-up and inside-out. Top-down, bottom-up and inside-out. So now your challenge, as you leave here — our challenge — is to take care of that bottom-up part and that inside-out part: the heart part. That's where we're weak now. And we have the chance as we move forward to take the old admonition from the South African movement and govern from below.

Visualize this: You, the citizen, are the inside-out part inside a clamp where the radicalized gov’t is the top-down part of the clamp and the rioters like the labor unions are the bottom-up part of the clamp. The far-Left wants you squeezed. This is what happened during the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. You get people scared, confused, and frustrated and then they want someone to save them ie the gov’t.  Could this be happening in America today?

Well, the tax code is confusing that is for sure. Frustrating is right up there.

Then there is Obamacare. That is definitely confusing. Scary? A real possibility since it takes some of your rights away.

Could airport security scans and searches be part of this plan?

Or how about increasing prices on food and oil or other staples of life. That would make people scared or at least worried.

And how about that smart grid technology that gives the gov’t the power to control your heating and air conditioning and other things as well?

The radicals want people dependent on the gov’t and panicking.  They don’t want people thinking about what’s happening around them. The radicals need people’s mind and hearts inside-out. Otherwise this plan fails.

The Magic Square Analogy

If you add the rows, columns, the longest diagonals, and even the four corners of the inner and outer squares you get the sum of  34.  If you notice every number is unique. Because of this you cannot swap one number with another without breaking the balance. The “magic” would then disappear.  This I believe is the essence of individualism. Each member contributes his own uniqueness.

Contrast the magic square with the square above. Most of the columns, and diagonals add up to 34. But the four corners don’t and one diagonal does not add up to 34. This square has no “magic”. And it is very boring to look at I think. You can make a magic square out of this square though by removing 10’s. But then it would be really uninteresting. This is the essence of collectivism. Everybody is the same. No individuality. And if you don’t fit in the collective group like the 10’s you might be called an outsider and even exiled from the group to create some artificial balance.  Also, the above square is what wealth-redistributionists have in mind unlike the magic square where everyone is free to earn their own income level.

Magic squares have been around for a long time. Even Benjamin Franklin was fascinated by them. That’s where I first learned of them by reading a book about him.