If You Asked Me.....

If you asked me....to identify who really makes up the left 'folks' of America....I'd generally say it's formed in its majority by students who do not study, educators who do not educate, workers who do not work, people with one single form of news, and people expecting the government to 'save' them/society/democracy.

If you asked me....to define the true meaning of DEI....I'd say you've set up your office, company, church, organization....to hype-up the lesser crowd (in terms of abilities, performance, and background) for management or leadership.  You aren't asking to make things better, or at least the same....you are asking for a step back (or two, or three, or four steps back).  

If you asked me....the odds of a future civil war in the US, or the UK....it's no longer zero-chance.

If you asked me....the one key job in forty years that will be mostly all AI-run.....it's a therapist.  AI will simply learn to ask question after question....leading you to conclusions.  I think therapy will eventually be a 'free' deal....even forced upon people whether they want it or not.

If you asked me....do TDS-suffering folks have only 'yes-people' around them....I'd say they have no choice.  They need support 'groups', and fellow TDS-folks are the only option.  Yeah, they will always seek out new friends....but somewhere in the first three minutes....the question will come up.

If you asked me....rating roller-derby and WNBA basketball....I'd rather watch roller-derby.

The Fake Study

A couple of years ago....there was this Stanford University research project, and it came to some startling but not surprising conclusion.

For some reason....this sticks to my mind and  probably comes up at least three times a year.

They took roughly 7,000 students (high school and university)....across the whole US (urban and rural)....and they asked them to evaluate news items which came from social media.

What they came to realize is that the bulk of these kids would accept some caption on a photo that declared some disaster, or event, or terrible woes.....and that was the acceptance of the item....whether it was true or fake.

They were unable to identify real stories from fake stories.

Of course, I looked at the story and then wondered....why limit this to students?  Why not go ahead with a second study and just look at 21-year-olds to 60-year-olds.....and see if they have the same issue.

My humble guess?  Yeah, they'd fail as miserably as the punk kids.

The problem is that you have some many misleading and carefully crafted stories from literally hundreds of sources....the odds are that you only have thirty to sixty minutes a day to absorb and grasp what the story is about.  You don't have time to ask why CNN built some interview into a story which was worthless, or why the BBC showed you misleading images, or why the Washington Post wrote a fairly long story with only three simple facts taking up nine lines of a 140-line summary.

The amusing thing is that Stanford researchers will sit there and poke into things which will upset a number of journalists and news organizations because it's obvious....there is very little difference between real journalism and fake journalism.

More research?  It would be of interest if they'd go and study adults....thus proving this whole fake reality of life today.  But if you did prove that virtually everything has an element of false nature to it....then what?

PBR

I noted from about 10 days ago....some idiot stole around 40,000 pounds of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in California. Whole truck-load.

I paused over this....PBR.....most marginal-tasting beer in existence....wondering how you'd sell off or 'fence' the goods.

On top of the fencing problem....you don't want a nickname to be attached to you....as the PBR 'dealer'.