I sat over most of yesterday evening reading through the various bits and pieces of this 2016 election story involving Cambridge Analytica and
So ten observations:
1. While everyone is hyped up and talking about Cambridge Analytica being the ONLY company doing this.....that's mostly a laugh. There are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of companies....which use social media data to predict trends with customers and the public. This is simply one of many.
2. Was Trump the first to use their services? No. Ted Cruz laid down $3-million for a brief period of 'customer support'. Ben Carson briefly used the services.
3. Facebook acting all shocked? About the most fake 'shocked' that you can get. Their whole future profit situation is dependent upon having stupid people post things, chat about friends, and take stupid pictures.....which can be viewed and 'graded' in some way. Then Facebook sells that information to someone for a bit of money for profit. If they yank this data collection business out....their profits drop and they marginally can survive.
4. Lobbyists have used various data sets over the past two-hundred years to get an advantage for products, referendums, and candidates. It's just that now.....in 2018....it's so easy to slip info on 100 million people and in a month...come up with positions that might entice 10-percent of the group to vote on something differently.
5. Will some idiots from the UK or US political establishment go after Cambridge Analytica? More than likely....but they will simply shut down their UK office and move to some country like Czech or Switzerland.
6. If you were really furious and wanted to make an effect against them? Delete your Facebook, Twitter, social media accounts.....and just live a simple quiet life.
7. Oddly, among the millions of accounts on Facebook, there are dozens (maybe hundreds) of accounts that lead back to 'Hank' the dog, or 'Cindy' the cat. So as Cambridge Analytica does its magic....somewhere in the middle is dog and cat information.
8. What did Cambridge Analytica really tap into? Anger and frustration existing. Something that Hillary and the Democratic Party probably weren't willing to pay a company to tell them that bit of information.
9. Are CNN, Fox News, Washington Post, or MSNBC any different? They are relying upon a psychological profile of the viewers/readers, and they hope enough will be around to view their product. So far, MSNBC and Fox have been correct. The Post is marginally profitable and require cash infusion from their owner. CNN? It's on the line of starvation.
10. Is there anything illegal about what Cambridge Analytica did? No. There might be new laws made but they will be crafted carefully around what Facebook desires. Is there anything unethical about what they did? No....they took public information that people wanted to share. From my home state of Alabama....I would take a guess of the 4.87-million people in the state....probably around 2.5 million have an account. Most folks in the state under the age of thirty (probably 95-percent) have an account. You can walk around and find various people in your community who aren't part of the data collected by Cambridge Analytica.
While journalists want to hype this and make you worried....the question...worried over what? You put all this data in public forums to be read....what did you expect would happen with that data?
Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Sunday, 18 March 2018
How McCabe Royally Screwed Up
Over the past couple of months, I've been this Andrew McCabe story a good bit. My speculation was that he would be fired....it was just a matter of when.
So what did he royally screw up?
At some point in mid-September 2016, it came to his desk.....that another copy of the Hillary emails existed.
The odd thing now occurs.....for about five to six weeks....he keeps his mouth shut and refuses to brief his boss. Well....he says that now. I'm not exactly buying into this part of the story.
Yes, there on the laptop of former US Representative Anthony Weiner....were copies under a folder which connected back to Hillary's top aid....Human Abedin.
What happened in this period of five or six weeks? It's virtually unknown. He's never talked about keeping the secret and I seriously doubt that he kept the secret. My guess is that he told the boss (Comey), and probably Hillary Clinton.
All of this would have been fine, if Hillary had won. Yes, IF she had won. No one would be talking about this today and McCabe would have gotten a promotion somewhere in the middle of this mess.
But Trump won, and an IG investigation occurred. In the end....they asked for McCabe for a sworn testimony, and he basically lied.
At that point, I think he was finished with the position and just hopped that something would delay his being fired.
His expectation now? He might wait out the remaining Trump period (3 years or 7 years) and hope that someone will come in and offer him a job with a pardon.
So what did he royally screw up?
At some point in mid-September 2016, it came to his desk.....that another copy of the Hillary emails existed.
The odd thing now occurs.....for about five to six weeks....he keeps his mouth shut and refuses to brief his boss. Well....he says that now. I'm not exactly buying into this part of the story.
Yes, there on the laptop of former US Representative Anthony Weiner....were copies under a folder which connected back to Hillary's top aid....Human Abedin.
What happened in this period of five or six weeks? It's virtually unknown. He's never talked about keeping the secret and I seriously doubt that he kept the secret. My guess is that he told the boss (Comey), and probably Hillary Clinton.
All of this would have been fine, if Hillary had won. Yes, IF she had won. No one would be talking about this today and McCabe would have gotten a promotion somewhere in the middle of this mess.
But Trump won, and an IG investigation occurred. In the end....they asked for McCabe for a sworn testimony, and he basically lied.
At that point, I think he was finished with the position and just hopped that something would delay his being fired.
His expectation now? He might wait out the remaining Trump period (3 years or 7 years) and hope that someone will come in and offer him a job with a pardon.
Thursday, 15 March 2018
The DNA Story
It's an odd science story, which make people go and ponder upon things.
After Scott Kelly went off into space for roughly eleven months.....he returned. He has a twin brother. DNA-wise, the two should match up very closely. After the trip though....they took another DNA test of Scott, and came to this odd conclusion.....SEVEN percent of his DNA changed after this trip. The general things that changed? The immune system, DNA repair structure, bone formation networks, hypoxia and hypercapnia.
If Scott had made two or three trips over a decade period? There's probably a heck of a lot about the DNA structure of Scott that would be totally different.
So, we come to this topic of science conversation. Any serious space travel....means that your DNA changes....for better or worse. If you did go off on some seven-year adventure....you would return in a very different way, with probably more than a quarter of your DNA revamped, and it would lead to general expectations going to some far extremes.
But using this same logic....it means that some other folks (aliens, if you like) are stuck into this problem as well, and if they went off on some great fifteen year expedition....their DNA wold be modified and changed as well. In fact, if you hauled a dog aboard the space ship....you'd find their DNA swapped around and changed as well.
While the PhD guys avoided the topic....you'd sit and pause over the next issue....plants have DNA as well. If you blasted a dozen plants into space for a year....would all of them be altered as well? The odds are....yes.
The odds of vast space travel ahead for humans? Once you admit that your body is undergoing constant 'renovation' upon itself, and medical folks can't predict how they'd treat these things while on a voyage....the idea of vast space travel will likely go away.
After Scott Kelly went off into space for roughly eleven months.....he returned. He has a twin brother. DNA-wise, the two should match up very closely. After the trip though....they took another DNA test of Scott, and came to this odd conclusion.....SEVEN percent of his DNA changed after this trip. The general things that changed? The immune system, DNA repair structure, bone formation networks, hypoxia and hypercapnia.
If Scott had made two or three trips over a decade period? There's probably a heck of a lot about the DNA structure of Scott that would be totally different.
So, we come to this topic of science conversation. Any serious space travel....means that your DNA changes....for better or worse. If you did go off on some seven-year adventure....you would return in a very different way, with probably more than a quarter of your DNA revamped, and it would lead to general expectations going to some far extremes.
But using this same logic....it means that some other folks (aliens, if you like) are stuck into this problem as well, and if they went off on some great fifteen year expedition....their DNA wold be modified and changed as well. In fact, if you hauled a dog aboard the space ship....you'd find their DNA swapped around and changed as well.
While the PhD guys avoided the topic....you'd sit and pause over the next issue....plants have DNA as well. If you blasted a dozen plants into space for a year....would all of them be altered as well? The odds are....yes.
The odds of vast space travel ahead for humans? Once you admit that your body is undergoing constant 'renovation' upon itself, and medical folks can't predict how they'd treat these things while on a voyage....the idea of vast space travel will likely go away.
Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Caffeined Out
It was a poor night of sleep last night, and this morning....on my way to a German language class in town.....I stopped to have a double-espresso.
For those from Bama who've never had an espresso....it's a shot-like container with about 80 to 110 milligrams of caffeine in it, which you balance against a large cup of coffee which would normally have about 120 milligrams of caffeine in it. Some German coffee shops make 'low', and some go to the 110 level.
So I stood there and asked for the double....at a shop which goes for the max level....so I was set to get 220 milligrams of caffeine....in a fairly small cup.
Well....the lady accidentally punched the button twice. So I ended up with a larger sized espresso cup, with four shots of 110 milligrams each.
About 30 minutes into the class, I came to realize how wired up I was and focused to the max. It's not something I would suggest to folks to binge upon.
For those from Bama who've never had an espresso....it's a shot-like container with about 80 to 110 milligrams of caffeine in it, which you balance against a large cup of coffee which would normally have about 120 milligrams of caffeine in it. Some German coffee shops make 'low', and some go to the 110 level.
So I stood there and asked for the double....at a shop which goes for the max level....so I was set to get 220 milligrams of caffeine....in a fairly small cup.
Well....the lady accidentally punched the button twice. So I ended up with a larger sized espresso cup, with four shots of 110 milligrams each.
About 30 minutes into the class, I came to realize how wired up I was and focused to the max. It's not something I would suggest to folks to binge upon.
Tuesday, 13 March 2018
Recognizing Fifth-Grade Behavior Among Adults
I've come to this stage in life where I sit and analyze things to the ninth degree. Lately, it's bothered me about childlike behavior that we see....particularly among teens, college-age folks, and even young adults. So I've come to my five factors over these people:
1. When something goes wrong....their first reaction is to go and find someone to blame. Rather than repairing the situation....analyzing the contributing factors of the problem....resolving to fix the mess, they are totally focused on one single agenda....blame.
Part of this is poor parenting....part of this is poor teachers through school, and part of this involves university professors who are themselves poor quality instructors.
2. Impulse-like behavior. This tends to involve people who can't handle stress or pressure. They react in a impulsive way to events that occur. During this stage, they skip over thinking about consequences and create a bigger mess than necessary. Maybe days later....maybe even months later, they will come back and revisit some event that they triggered and realized that they turned a one-star event into a five-star fiasco.
The problem here is that some folks may try to herd them toward a central point or a resolution situation, and the childlike adult will then push them back and intimidate them into sticking with the impulse that started. I call this a 'wave-effect'. Logic would dictate that thinking take place and some solution ought to be implemented, but this child-like 'creature' can't accept that as the right step.
3. Bullying. You see this over and over now in high schools and university situations. Divide and conquer. There are the insiders and the outsiders. It's acceptable as fifth-graders to act in this way....but you shouldn't be expecting 21-year old adults to behave like this.
Forcing some type of team approach? You now find companies looking at various coaching tactics to force younger employees to work as a team. This was a common thing to see in most people through the 1970s and 1980s. Today? You see a declining behavioral trend.
4. Defensive measures which are marginalized and ineffective. Generally, if some conversation starts with these people....they want to explain their position, which has a 'you-must-believe' scenario attached to it. You listen intently and reach a stage where you offer a counter-statement to the 5th-grade mentality 'kid'. You state the obvious....you will be open-minded and able to hear out a discussion....but you state your position with logical clarity. In the end, you suggest a divided position exists, and the fifth-grade 'kid' can't accept that. At this point, they go with defensive measures which involve yelling, screaming, or just plain bad behavior.
In a university hall where they've decided to stage one of their marginalized yelling/screaming episodes....they usually turn the event into a joke because they can't handle the topic, the discussion, or the alternate view.
5. Finally, this odd situation of not accepting any lessons learned. In this behavior trait....the 'kid' can't bare to discuss the idea that they were wrong, and they could learn a lesson from the mistake or the poor decision made.
This would be OK if we were talking about 11-year old kids. But in this case....we are talking about older teenagers, college kids, and young adults. Admitting they screwed up is bad enough, but then asking them to consider the future, some other walk of life, or some other understanding? Well....no, they can't handle that.
In their mind, there are no lessons learned because there are no mistakes.
The sad thing about all of this is that some kid's parents end up to a great degree...funneling $50,000 to $100,000 for some four-year period, and 'Junior' (or 'Wanda') end up being some product that can't think or comprehend. They believe they are out to change the world but can't resolve the fact that they know very little about the world, or the people in it. The cash that mom and dad throw down into the 'pit'? Well....it's gone and expecting any return on the money is just about impossible.
So as you sit in some mall, or in some staff meeting....coming to the realization that members in your group aren't behaving as adults, and maybe acting like 5th-graders.....you can understand their maturity issue. Don't expect much, but at least there's some logic to illogic.
1. When something goes wrong....their first reaction is to go and find someone to blame. Rather than repairing the situation....analyzing the contributing factors of the problem....resolving to fix the mess, they are totally focused on one single agenda....blame.
Part of this is poor parenting....part of this is poor teachers through school, and part of this involves university professors who are themselves poor quality instructors.
2. Impulse-like behavior. This tends to involve people who can't handle stress or pressure. They react in a impulsive way to events that occur. During this stage, they skip over thinking about consequences and create a bigger mess than necessary. Maybe days later....maybe even months later, they will come back and revisit some event that they triggered and realized that they turned a one-star event into a five-star fiasco.
The problem here is that some folks may try to herd them toward a central point or a resolution situation, and the childlike adult will then push them back and intimidate them into sticking with the impulse that started. I call this a 'wave-effect'. Logic would dictate that thinking take place and some solution ought to be implemented, but this child-like 'creature' can't accept that as the right step.
3. Bullying. You see this over and over now in high schools and university situations. Divide and conquer. There are the insiders and the outsiders. It's acceptable as fifth-graders to act in this way....but you shouldn't be expecting 21-year old adults to behave like this.
Forcing some type of team approach? You now find companies looking at various coaching tactics to force younger employees to work as a team. This was a common thing to see in most people through the 1970s and 1980s. Today? You see a declining behavioral trend.
4. Defensive measures which are marginalized and ineffective. Generally, if some conversation starts with these people....they want to explain their position, which has a 'you-must-believe' scenario attached to it. You listen intently and reach a stage where you offer a counter-statement to the 5th-grade mentality 'kid'. You state the obvious....you will be open-minded and able to hear out a discussion....but you state your position with logical clarity. In the end, you suggest a divided position exists, and the fifth-grade 'kid' can't accept that. At this point, they go with defensive measures which involve yelling, screaming, or just plain bad behavior.
In a university hall where they've decided to stage one of their marginalized yelling/screaming episodes....they usually turn the event into a joke because they can't handle the topic, the discussion, or the alternate view.
5. Finally, this odd situation of not accepting any lessons learned. In this behavior trait....the 'kid' can't bare to discuss the idea that they were wrong, and they could learn a lesson from the mistake or the poor decision made.
This would be OK if we were talking about 11-year old kids. But in this case....we are talking about older teenagers, college kids, and young adults. Admitting they screwed up is bad enough, but then asking them to consider the future, some other walk of life, or some other understanding? Well....no, they can't handle that.
In their mind, there are no lessons learned because there are no mistakes.
The sad thing about all of this is that some kid's parents end up to a great degree...funneling $50,000 to $100,000 for some four-year period, and 'Junior' (or 'Wanda') end up being some product that can't think or comprehend. They believe they are out to change the world but can't resolve the fact that they know very little about the world, or the people in it. The cash that mom and dad throw down into the 'pit'? Well....it's gone and expecting any return on the money is just about impossible.
So as you sit in some mall, or in some staff meeting....coming to the realization that members in your group aren't behaving as adults, and maybe acting like 5th-graders.....you can understand their maturity issue. Don't expect much, but at least there's some logic to illogic.
Sunday, 11 March 2018
A DNA Footnote
Last year when I did the DNA test deal....one of the odd pieces that came out of the test....was this .1-percent (yeah, awful low) of a connection that leads DNA-wise to India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. You can search over both sides of the family tree, for five or six generations....and find nothing that really explains the eastern Asian DNA significance.
So I've spent a couple of hours over the last month looking at a likely scenario.
You see, there is this odd factor in the DNA test results..... a .4-percent Ashkenazi Jew.
One of the branches in the family had this dramatic move in the mid-1600s from southern France to central Germany, and stayed there (around the Rheinland Pfalz region) for about two to three generations....then packed up and left for America in the 1760s era.
My best guess is that one of those members ended up marrying some local German, who had this family connection back to the 300 AD to 700 AD period and some Jewish trader who came into central Germany.
That Jewish trader? Well....only because of the Roman Empire passion for trade....does he end up making his way from Rome to central Germany. Prior to that, this guy probably lived in Judah and his family....for generations...had gone to using the 'Silk Road' which led from the Mediterranean through India and Afghanistan....onto China.
My scenario would suggest that one of these relatives of this guy had some long period of trade going on in perhaps Afghanistan....married up with some local gal, and had Jewish-Ashkenazi-Afghan kids from that situation, who eventually moved off to the Med and one of them ended up in central Germany.
The Silk Road deal? Most folks agree that it began as early as 220 BC. This road connected Rome through Persia, the Med, India, Afghanistan, Greece, and onto eastern China.
A odd factor in the DNA? Yes, and it lays out an awful long route for that sequence to exist today.
So I've spent a couple of hours over the last month looking at a likely scenario.
You see, there is this odd factor in the DNA test results..... a .4-percent Ashkenazi Jew.
One of the branches in the family had this dramatic move in the mid-1600s from southern France to central Germany, and stayed there (around the Rheinland Pfalz region) for about two to three generations....then packed up and left for America in the 1760s era.
My best guess is that one of those members ended up marrying some local German, who had this family connection back to the 300 AD to 700 AD period and some Jewish trader who came into central Germany.
That Jewish trader? Well....only because of the Roman Empire passion for trade....does he end up making his way from Rome to central Germany. Prior to that, this guy probably lived in Judah and his family....for generations...had gone to using the 'Silk Road' which led from the Mediterranean through India and Afghanistan....onto China.
My scenario would suggest that one of these relatives of this guy had some long period of trade going on in perhaps Afghanistan....married up with some local gal, and had Jewish-Ashkenazi-Afghan kids from that situation, who eventually moved off to the Med and one of them ended up in central Germany.
The Silk Road deal? Most folks agree that it began as early as 220 BC. This road connected Rome through Persia, the Med, India, Afghanistan, Greece, and onto eastern China.
A odd factor in the DNA? Yes, and it lays out an awful long route for that sequence to exist today.
"Maybe That Tracker Can't Count That High"
Someone last week was observing CNN on one of their anti-Trump chats, and viewed what had been a regular feature (almost daily in early 2017)....the jobs-created-tracker.
It's a simple graphics chart that they'd get routine updates from the government and it would show jobs created since day one of the Trump administration.
Up until 5 January, it was kept up to date (monthly updates). So sixty days have passed, and.....nothing. The chart still says on 5 January 2018....1,839,000 newly created jobs.
It's a puzzling thing....you'd think that one single guy has three-hundred-odd facts to update for CNN on a monthly basis, and it's like he just went off on a vacation or just refuses to update the number. I noticed someone even suggesting that the counter (tracker) maybe was built to only handle the number going up to 1,839,000 and there's no more that you can add to the number.
The Daily Caller, I noticed, even discussed the idea that CNN laid off the individual who was handling the jobs tracker. Oddly, if true, this is one of the individuals who've actually lost their job at CNN because of lower viewer count (shocking, you know). Daily Caller says fifty folks were lost in this recent period at CNN.
The odds that the graphic will continue to be used? Since they pointed this out....my guess is that CNN is desperately trying to find the method to update the slide and by April....will correct this. But this brings me to this odd conclusion.
CNN's whole view of constructed news since the summer of 2016 and the election period.....was to pump and hype political news a great deal...being the anti-Trump network. At this point, almost two years into this....it's actually harming their bottom line and creating a profit-problem. By the end of 2018? Another fifty to a hundred folks likely to be dismissed. If Trump were around to 2024....what would be left at CNN?
It's a simple graphics chart that they'd get routine updates from the government and it would show jobs created since day one of the Trump administration.
Up until 5 January, it was kept up to date (monthly updates). So sixty days have passed, and.....nothing. The chart still says on 5 January 2018....1,839,000 newly created jobs.
It's a puzzling thing....you'd think that one single guy has three-hundred-odd facts to update for CNN on a monthly basis, and it's like he just went off on a vacation or just refuses to update the number. I noticed someone even suggesting that the counter (tracker) maybe was built to only handle the number going up to 1,839,000 and there's no more that you can add to the number.
The Daily Caller, I noticed, even discussed the idea that CNN laid off the individual who was handling the jobs tracker. Oddly, if true, this is one of the individuals who've actually lost their job at CNN because of lower viewer count (shocking, you know). Daily Caller says fifty folks were lost in this recent period at CNN.
The odds that the graphic will continue to be used? Since they pointed this out....my guess is that CNN is desperately trying to find the method to update the slide and by April....will correct this. But this brings me to this odd conclusion.
CNN's whole view of constructed news since the summer of 2016 and the election period.....was to pump and hype political news a great deal...being the anti-Trump network. At this point, almost two years into this....it's actually harming their bottom line and creating a profit-problem. By the end of 2018? Another fifty to a hundred folks likely to be dismissed. If Trump were around to 2024....what would be left at CNN?
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