While on this week-long trip to Croatia, I spent part of one morning at Medjugorje, Bosnia. It wasn't on the tour, and the tour-guide added it at the suggestion of one of the folks on the bus.
So, here's the jest of Medjugorje. It's a town of maybe two-thousand residents. It would mostly known for nothing except back in the summer of 1981....six teenagers came to view this apparition (a ghostly-like 'thing')....which they felt was Mary of 'Mary and Joseph' fame. They ran down the hill, and reported this......a number of the townsfolk came up and felt they saw the apparition as well. But to be honest, a significant number didn't really see anything.
A legend starts up. The Catholic Church gets involved, and there's tons of money poured into a church, and outdoor ceremony set-up (room for 5,000 folks to sit).
Today, it's figured that around a million people (from across Europe) come and pray for sick relatives, or drag bad-off friends over to the site.
Down the main drag of town, there's probably twenty-five gift shops set up, with Jesus shirts, Moses statues, crosses, and various memorabilia. I would take a guess that the shops in town rake in at least quarter-million dollars a week in 'gifts'.
So back to the apparition. The odds that at least one (maybe several of the six) have a bit of paranoid schizophrenia? I would suggest that at least one is a 99-percent chance. If you have a convincing level of it.....then you can probably talk the rest into believing some fantasy with minimum ease.
But here's the interesting thing. This one act, has led onto the Catholic Church being involved....pumping money into ceremony area, and having various Bishops supporting the whole story. The town today? It makes tons of money off the apparition and the story of the teenagers.
Why is it always Mary or Jesus that is seen, for apparitions? As you look around at the theme in Europe (mostly Italy, France, and Bosnia), you never have a Elisha figure to appear, or Noah, or Jeremiah, or Balaam. On some rare occasions.....someone will say they had an apparition of the angel Gabriel, but that's rare. The angel Raguel? Yeah.....he's a big zero on the apparition scale.
So I kinda looked at this stop (a mere 30 minutes) and I just shook my head. It's a tourist magnet, and a bit amusing. But it's part of the problem in getting onto tour bus operations, and having to stop where they desire.
Sunday, 18 August 2019
This Greenland Purchase 'Thing'
So, when you stand back to look at the idea of Trump thinking about buying Greenland, there's two basic things falling into play.
First, Trump often tests the junior people around him....challenging them with projects which lead nowhere. I think this was a research project like that. He probably sent five guys off with this idea, and four of them mostly laughed and did nothing....with one guy coming back and laying out the cost and benefits. That 'winner' will move on....the others will just stay as junior-players.
Second, Trump might have this idea of offering 150-billion dollars.....to which the Chinese would wake up and decide to offer $300-billion. Trump would then return to the table and offer $450 billion, and the Chinese would finally go and offer 900-billion dollars (to close the deal).
Denmark would have said 'no', period.
But here's the thing.....50,000 folks live on Greenland, and at 900-billion dollars.....I think they would have stood up and told Denmark.....the 'HELL' with you, we will sell it ourselves, and split the loot among the 50,000 residents, and each take a million or two....to walk away.
Minerals? Well, here's the jest of this.....you can only get to them.....if climate change continues and Greenland melts off the majority of the ice. If it doesn't occur, the offer is worthless.
So I think the offer was mostly a joke, or an enticement to get China to throw money at something.
Now, the odds that Greece or some economically suffering country might approach Trump and offer to sell something in the range of $150-billion? It wouldn't surprise me if Kim approached Trump and offered up North Korea.....for $300-billion in cash. That would be a shocker.
First, Trump often tests the junior people around him....challenging them with projects which lead nowhere. I think this was a research project like that. He probably sent five guys off with this idea, and four of them mostly laughed and did nothing....with one guy coming back and laying out the cost and benefits. That 'winner' will move on....the others will just stay as junior-players.
Second, Trump might have this idea of offering 150-billion dollars.....to which the Chinese would wake up and decide to offer $300-billion. Trump would then return to the table and offer $450 billion, and the Chinese would finally go and offer 900-billion dollars (to close the deal).
Denmark would have said 'no', period.
But here's the thing.....50,000 folks live on Greenland, and at 900-billion dollars.....I think they would have stood up and told Denmark.....the 'HELL' with you, we will sell it ourselves, and split the loot among the 50,000 residents, and each take a million or two....to walk away.
Minerals? Well, here's the jest of this.....you can only get to them.....if climate change continues and Greenland melts off the majority of the ice. If it doesn't occur, the offer is worthless.
So I think the offer was mostly a joke, or an enticement to get China to throw money at something.
Now, the odds that Greece or some economically suffering country might approach Trump and offer to sell something in the range of $150-billion? It wouldn't surprise me if Kim approached Trump and offered up North Korea.....for $300-billion in cash. That would be a shocker.
The Xanax/Cocaine Shooter
So around two weeks ago, this Dayton shooting occurred. One of the odd things is that cops reported now....that the dead shooter had cocaine and Xanax on him. So he was actively taking both. What happens when you mix the two?
Well, this gets interesting.
Normally, if you use a good bit of cocaine....you got through a extreme happiness period, with hyped-up energy, increased alertness, and could possibly display paranoia.
Normally, if you use a good bit of Xanax? Drowsiness (to the level that you might be sleep-walking and not realize it), irritability feelings, depression, and sleepiness.
The odds that a guy would be in some hyped-up dream-state, with paranoia going on.....disillusions perhaps? This guy shoot folks, while in some dream stage?
This guy not have even realized the stage that he was in or that this was rationally planned out? You might go and suggest this. Did he even know the consequences of mixing the two drugs? I doubt it. How did he get the prescription drug Xanax? That hasn't been told yet, and they might go and avoid that discussion entirely.
But this opens up a whole discussion....other past mass shootings....what's the odds that Xanax figured into two or three of those episodes over the past twenty years?
Well, this gets interesting.
Normally, if you use a good bit of cocaine....you got through a extreme happiness period, with hyped-up energy, increased alertness, and could possibly display paranoia.
Normally, if you use a good bit of Xanax? Drowsiness (to the level that you might be sleep-walking and not realize it), irritability feelings, depression, and sleepiness.
The odds that a guy would be in some hyped-up dream-state, with paranoia going on.....disillusions perhaps? This guy shoot folks, while in some dream stage?
This guy not have even realized the stage that he was in or that this was rationally planned out? You might go and suggest this. Did he even know the consequences of mixing the two drugs? I doubt it. How did he get the prescription drug Xanax? That hasn't been told yet, and they might go and avoid that discussion entirely.
But this opens up a whole discussion....other past mass shootings....what's the odds that Xanax figured into two or three of those episodes over the past twenty years?
Observations Over Dubrovnik
I spent the last week in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and will write a couple of essays over various things, but this is the travel and advice essay. My 10 thoughts:
1. Maybe it was cheap in Dubrovnik back in the 1980s or maybe the five years after the war.....but there's nothing really 'cheap' over the 'walled-city' today. Part of this is related to the cruise-ships docking there (they actually limited it to around four per day now) and the Game of Thrones folks.
2. Russians. There's simply a lot of Russians that mingle in the crowds. I would take a guess on any summer day, there has to be at least 2,000 Russians in the town.
3. Over-tourism problem? Well....yeah. Once you enter the boundary of the old city.....it's a mess from 9 AM to around 10 PM at night. Maybe it's less in October.....but it's madness in June, July and August.
4. Crime and homelessness? Mostly non-existent. One could actively see the cops on patrol. In the tourist season, there are tons of jobs.....of which I'd guess the unemployment rate in the region is less than 2-percent.
5. Just about every Croat I encountered in town....spoke English. I would suggest that they are exceptionally friendly, and helpful.
6. The heat? A typical summer day will run in the 90 to 95 degree level. With humidity added in, you will sweat through two to three t-shirts per-day. Oddly, if you travel inland 50 miles, it's not that hot.
7. Slut-level. I stayed at one of the top five hotels in Dubrovnik (5-star status). Morning breakfast would come each day, and in a normal hotel....there's attire rules. Well, at this place....with 350 rooms.....there was no attire rule for breakfast. So you had an awful lot of skin on display at 9 AM. I wouldn't mind if this were mostly all 18-to-30 year old women. But when you got some 50-year old gal displaying 92-percent of her body, and there's forty extra pounds somewhere in the mix....it's a bit much for morning breakfast. Oddly enough, this is a hotel that is frequented by Muslim guys from Iran, Kuwait, etc......with their traditional wives.
8. Game of Thrones. It's safe to say that most Americans who tour Dubrovnik.....are there to see scenes from the show. So you will be sitting at a cafe, and four young ladies are across from you and in deep conversation about such-and-such character, and this scene from this square. It's pretty weird that people are consumed this much by a tv series.
9. Hilly. Well, virtually every single inch of Dubrovnik is built on hills and you find yourself climbing up and down. So just walking one single block, you might encounter 100 stone steps up, and then walk another hundred down.
10. The max you should spend in Dubrovnik? You can see the 'old-city' in eight hours flat. The tours in the local area are mostly worthless. And if you were there for sun and beach activity.....you could do it far cheaper 50 miles northwest of Dubrovnik. Locals will even tell you that better beaches exist, and cheaper rates can readily be found in NW Croatia.
1. Maybe it was cheap in Dubrovnik back in the 1980s or maybe the five years after the war.....but there's nothing really 'cheap' over the 'walled-city' today. Part of this is related to the cruise-ships docking there (they actually limited it to around four per day now) and the Game of Thrones folks.
2. Russians. There's simply a lot of Russians that mingle in the crowds. I would take a guess on any summer day, there has to be at least 2,000 Russians in the town.
3. Over-tourism problem? Well....yeah. Once you enter the boundary of the old city.....it's a mess from 9 AM to around 10 PM at night. Maybe it's less in October.....but it's madness in June, July and August.
4. Crime and homelessness? Mostly non-existent. One could actively see the cops on patrol. In the tourist season, there are tons of jobs.....of which I'd guess the unemployment rate in the region is less than 2-percent.
5. Just about every Croat I encountered in town....spoke English. I would suggest that they are exceptionally friendly, and helpful.
6. The heat? A typical summer day will run in the 90 to 95 degree level. With humidity added in, you will sweat through two to three t-shirts per-day. Oddly, if you travel inland 50 miles, it's not that hot.
7. Slut-level. I stayed at one of the top five hotels in Dubrovnik (5-star status). Morning breakfast would come each day, and in a normal hotel....there's attire rules. Well, at this place....with 350 rooms.....there was no attire rule for breakfast. So you had an awful lot of skin on display at 9 AM. I wouldn't mind if this were mostly all 18-to-30 year old women. But when you got some 50-year old gal displaying 92-percent of her body, and there's forty extra pounds somewhere in the mix....it's a bit much for morning breakfast. Oddly enough, this is a hotel that is frequented by Muslim guys from Iran, Kuwait, etc......with their traditional wives.
8. Game of Thrones. It's safe to say that most Americans who tour Dubrovnik.....are there to see scenes from the show. So you will be sitting at a cafe, and four young ladies are across from you and in deep conversation about such-and-such character, and this scene from this square. It's pretty weird that people are consumed this much by a tv series.
9. Hilly. Well, virtually every single inch of Dubrovnik is built on hills and you find yourself climbing up and down. So just walking one single block, you might encounter 100 stone steps up, and then walk another hundred down.
10. The max you should spend in Dubrovnik? You can see the 'old-city' in eight hours flat. The tours in the local area are mostly worthless. And if you were there for sun and beach activity.....you could do it far cheaper 50 miles northwest of Dubrovnik. Locals will even tell you that better beaches exist, and cheaper rates can readily be found in NW Croatia.
Thursday, 8 August 2019
Sensory Overload?
This past week, I sat and watched about 20 minutes of video-clips over the Democratic Socialist Convention held recently. In the midst of this....some guy got around to letting folks know that he was 'prone to sensory overload'.
I sat and stopped the clip and thought about what he was attempting to say, or maybe what he meant to say. It's bothered me a good bit over the week, and I come back to that topic for this essay.
There a fair number of folks who think they are exceptionally bright, but when a 1962 repair manual is given to them for some broken farm implement....this super intellectual guy falls apart. In simple terms, handling the knowledge and using common sense strategies wasn't something brought up in college.
So are we producing intellectual PhD idiots with value? Yes.
Go take a 1968 gumball machine and ask this sensory overload character to examine it for an hour and explain how it works. He'd have a problem.
But here's the positive....this guy will at least admit overload.
Should this guy even be attending a convention like this? Well, that has bothered me as well. Normally, hookers and booze matter more at political conventions. That would have taken your mind off stupid political talks.
Another Example of a Mass Shooting
Around 20 June 1994, on Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington-state....a mass shooting took place, involving Dean Mellberg (age 20).
Dean had shown at the base clinic, armed with a MK-90 (basically a AK-47).....around 3 pm in the afternoon. When the smoke had cleared, he'd killed five individuals, and wounded 22 others.
Dean's basic story? This is rather interesting. Around age 18, he'd enlisted in the Air Force and gone to basic training. Dean had trouble with virtually everyone that he came in contact with, and at some point.....they sent Dean for a mental eval, and the doctor wrote in strong language that Dean needed to be removed from the service. In simple words, a personality disorder existed.
Maybe if they'd held the guy for a week or two.....they might even have reached the point where he'd be noted as paranoid schizophrenic or bi-polar. But no....the paperwork got shuffled around, and they kept Dean in basic training. He would actually graduate and be sent off to aircraft mechanic's school.
When he graduated from mechanic's school....he was sent to Fairchild AFB, Washington. There....he moved into the barracks. Now the second episode comes up....the room-mate sends a note to the commander and strongly suggests that Dean is not sane. The commander actually does send Dean over to the clinic for a mandatory eval. Remember, this isn't the first eval.....it's really the second.
So here in clinic....two doctors exam Dean and come to this remarkable conclusion.....Dean is not just a little bit crazy.....he is dangerous-crazy. They write the recommendation to get Dean out. But here's the funny thing.....somehow, the hospital is convinced to send Dean for another eval (down to Texas, to the main Air Force hospital). They host Dean there for roughly sixteen weeks (yes, an incredible four months of time), and they reach this conclusion....Dean is unfit for service and mentally unstable. In simple terms....he's a threat to just about anyone who knows him.
Whathen it's apparent that Dean will be thrown out....his parents get involved. So they use their Congressman to push the Air Force along with this diagnosis that they'd had for a number of years....that Dean was suffering from some minor form of autism. So a Air Force board met, and the three folks decided that autism was good enough for them, and dumped the recommendations from Fairchild, and the Texas hospital.
But rather than part with Dean there at the Texas Air Force hospital....they make the decision to send Dean back onto duty (just not at Fairchild)....so he's ordered to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. But here is this twist to the story.....they've heard about Dean, and conversed with folks who know the background on the guy. They refuse to accept him. Yes, this is the part of the story.....they weren't going to allow him on Mountain Home.
So Dean gets shifted....to Canon AFB, NM. Dean arrives there and lasts around five weeks. Then....shockingly enough, the new commander asks for another mental eval (number four).
This time, the eval sticks, and Dean is removed from duty....with just a plain discharge. What happens over the next month? Dean travels around the west, and even gets up into Alaska. Then he decides to come back to Fairchild....for revenge.
Dean would die that afternoon....shot by a Senior Airman on duty.
A nutcase from day one? Just based on the comments at basic training....he wasn't sane enough to be in the general public. As far as I can tell....no one has gone back to his years in high school or talked with people who knew him in that period. That might reveal more of the story.
What the Air Force did after this? They changed forms for psychological review, and you had to check certain boxes.....which would indicate treatment only, or dismissal only. That was it.
Dean being unbalanced? I would go and suggest after reading two differing accounts of the story....that Dean was prone to violent encounters, and probably lived in some type of imaginary world.
Here's the thing though.....four different groups of doctors came to the same position....Dean wasn't safe or balanced.
Dean had shown at the base clinic, armed with a MK-90 (basically a AK-47).....around 3 pm in the afternoon. When the smoke had cleared, he'd killed five individuals, and wounded 22 others.
Dean's basic story? This is rather interesting. Around age 18, he'd enlisted in the Air Force and gone to basic training. Dean had trouble with virtually everyone that he came in contact with, and at some point.....they sent Dean for a mental eval, and the doctor wrote in strong language that Dean needed to be removed from the service. In simple words, a personality disorder existed.
Maybe if they'd held the guy for a week or two.....they might even have reached the point where he'd be noted as paranoid schizophrenic or bi-polar. But no....the paperwork got shuffled around, and they kept Dean in basic training. He would actually graduate and be sent off to aircraft mechanic's school.
When he graduated from mechanic's school....he was sent to Fairchild AFB, Washington. There....he moved into the barracks. Now the second episode comes up....the room-mate sends a note to the commander and strongly suggests that Dean is not sane. The commander actually does send Dean over to the clinic for a mandatory eval. Remember, this isn't the first eval.....it's really the second.
So here in clinic....two doctors exam Dean and come to this remarkable conclusion.....Dean is not just a little bit crazy.....he is dangerous-crazy. They write the recommendation to get Dean out. But here's the funny thing.....somehow, the hospital is convinced to send Dean for another eval (down to Texas, to the main Air Force hospital). They host Dean there for roughly sixteen weeks (yes, an incredible four months of time), and they reach this conclusion....Dean is unfit for service and mentally unstable. In simple terms....he's a threat to just about anyone who knows him.
Whathen it's apparent that Dean will be thrown out....his parents get involved. So they use their Congressman to push the Air Force along with this diagnosis that they'd had for a number of years....that Dean was suffering from some minor form of autism. So a Air Force board met, and the three folks decided that autism was good enough for them, and dumped the recommendations from Fairchild, and the Texas hospital.
But rather than part with Dean there at the Texas Air Force hospital....they make the decision to send Dean back onto duty (just not at Fairchild)....so he's ordered to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. But here is this twist to the story.....they've heard about Dean, and conversed with folks who know the background on the guy. They refuse to accept him. Yes, this is the part of the story.....they weren't going to allow him on Mountain Home.
So Dean gets shifted....to Canon AFB, NM. Dean arrives there and lasts around five weeks. Then....shockingly enough, the new commander asks for another mental eval (number four).
This time, the eval sticks, and Dean is removed from duty....with just a plain discharge. What happens over the next month? Dean travels around the west, and even gets up into Alaska. Then he decides to come back to Fairchild....for revenge.
Dean would die that afternoon....shot by a Senior Airman on duty.
A nutcase from day one? Just based on the comments at basic training....he wasn't sane enough to be in the general public. As far as I can tell....no one has gone back to his years in high school or talked with people who knew him in that period. That might reveal more of the story.
What the Air Force did after this? They changed forms for psychological review, and you had to check certain boxes.....which would indicate treatment only, or dismissal only. That was it.
Dean being unbalanced? I would go and suggest after reading two differing accounts of the story....that Dean was prone to violent encounters, and probably lived in some type of imaginary world.
Here's the thing though.....four different groups of doctors came to the same position....Dean wasn't safe or balanced.
When Social Media Becomes a Public Utility
I'm one of those people who think eventually (probably before the November 2020 election) that all social media 'giants' will be put into a public utility situation, with oversight by Trump-appointed audit people.
It'll be argued by the Democrats and fought, but I think most Americans agree....it has reached the point of a utility operation.
So here's the curious thing....do you know of any utility that runs freely or untaxed? There are none. So somewhere in the midst of this transformation, either by government directive (to pay for the oversight) or by the media companies themselves....there's going to be some fee situation.
The odds that a Facebook account or Twitter account will cost you $4.99 per month? You might be lucky in the beginning, and this only amounts to a yearly cost of $15. Even government taxation might amount to $1 a month from each user. And if the federal guys could get that.....state folks ought to be able to drag 25-cents into their revenue pot as well.
But this brings up this curious idea....would a cost situation start to eliminate or limit users? What's the point where you say....'enough' and quit? $4.99 a month, $7.99 a month, or $9.99 a month?
Would you have juvenile ratings where kids under the age of sixteen can't see or hear anything unless it's stamped approved-for-juveniles? That's very possible.
Regulation that would eventually kill the industry? I could see over the next ten years....tons of regulation occurring, with fines being dumped on Facebook and Twitter....and eventually making the monthly fee upwards to $30.
So settle back and wait for this landscape to really morph overnight.
It'll be argued by the Democrats and fought, but I think most Americans agree....it has reached the point of a utility operation.
So here's the curious thing....do you know of any utility that runs freely or untaxed? There are none. So somewhere in the midst of this transformation, either by government directive (to pay for the oversight) or by the media companies themselves....there's going to be some fee situation.
The odds that a Facebook account or Twitter account will cost you $4.99 per month? You might be lucky in the beginning, and this only amounts to a yearly cost of $15. Even government taxation might amount to $1 a month from each user. And if the federal guys could get that.....state folks ought to be able to drag 25-cents into their revenue pot as well.
But this brings up this curious idea....would a cost situation start to eliminate or limit users? What's the point where you say....'enough' and quit? $4.99 a month, $7.99 a month, or $9.99 a month?
Would you have juvenile ratings where kids under the age of sixteen can't see or hear anything unless it's stamped approved-for-juveniles? That's very possible.
Regulation that would eventually kill the industry? I could see over the next ten years....tons of regulation occurring, with fines being dumped on Facebook and Twitter....and eventually making the monthly fee upwards to $30.
So settle back and wait for this landscape to really morph overnight.
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