Our Changing World #269
By Hank Silverberg
I still have a hardline telephone in my house. It's there for security, a backup because cell phone towers and the internet can be knocked out by storms or easily attacked by people up to no good. And cell phones can die in long power outages.
Until just a few weeks ago, one of the extensions on that line was actually a rotary phone, an old blue princess phone I had bought 40 years ago in our first house. It still worked well as an extension, though I rarely used the dial.
But the little jack on the back finally gave out and it kept getting disconnected, so it was time for a replacement, and that in some ways is what this week's non-news comments are about.
A hardline phone used to be an easy buy. Most box stores had them in the small appliance or electronic section for maybe 40 bucks. I found out that's not the case anymore.
The one I did see on an electronics store shelf was not very good. It was a small, cheap phone with tiny buttons on the handset that would probably break if you dropped it. They wanted $80 for it. No thanks.
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| (My new "old" phone) |
Don't get me wrong. I am not adverse to new technology. I love my smartphone and I use it a lot for more than just phone calls. (I still prefer to write my appointments on a paper calendar, even after they are programed into my phone.)
But old technology is sometimes simpler and more comforting in a rapidly changing world. That old phone ring is still more comforting than the best electronic ringtone.
I still can't understand how some of my students never read a real book or a newspaper, and don't even watch the TV news. They do everything online, including their consumption of information. As I have written before, that can be a very troubling habit in our world of quickly disseminated disinformation. But that's just one thing.
I find it annoying when that competent waitress or waiter at my favor eateries direct me to the tiny screen at my table to pay the bill instead of just taking the credit card to a cash register. That kind of destroys the illusion of real people-oriented, friendly service.
I suspect as the growing labor shortage gets worse, it will soon be a robot with A-I which serves the food, bypassing people altogether.
Will I be asked to tip that robot? I mean they ask me to tip the people at the sandwich shop who do nothing for me but what they are paid to do, make a sandwich and ring it up. Is that worth 15%, 18% or 20%? Uh, I don't think so. Pay them better and forget tipping.
Is life better --watching politicians lying, people dancing and cats playing, all on my smartphone? Or even worse, those obnoxious Tic-Tok videos that some of my students think are real news and information? Some of them say that man has never stepped foot on the Moon. They know this because a Youtuber told them it was fake.
I do remember my own 78-year-old grandmother sitting in front of the TV in disbelief when Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon in July of 1969. She didn't believe it.
Maybe age has something to do with a yearning for something simple like a hard-covered book.
I don't know, maybe this is just the ramblings of an aging Baby Boomer looking back to simpler, though not necessarily better, times.
But the phone works!
Speaking of Books!
Things have gotten pretty darn ridiculous in Florida where a new law has already forced the Bible off some school shelves. The law bans books for school districts that have any descriptions of "sexual content". So, in Escambia County on Florida's Panhandle, 1,600 titles were removed until they can be reviewed. According to PEN America which monitors such things, that included the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.
Actually, a total of five dictionaries and eight encyclopedias were taken off the shelves along with 10 books on race and LGBTQ issues. Among the more notable books removed, Kurt Vonnegut's best seller, "Slaughterhouse Five," which has an anti-war theme, "The 1619 Project," which lays out slavery and its impact in America since the first days of the colonies, "The Handmaid's Tale," and yes--"The Holy Bible." Here's a bigger list: ECPS 22-23 Reconsiderations (website) - Google Sheets
But here's the basic fact. Most dictionaries, including Merriam-Webster, have online sites so any student who really needs a definition of anything, can find it. Example from Webster's online, which I retrieved in about one minute:
homosexuality
noun
Usage of HomosexualityNeutral use of the term homosexuality is still somewhat common, especially in technical and formal contexts. Outside of those contexts, however, the word can be seen as evoking negative stereotypes and outdated clinical understandings of homosexuality as a psychiatric condition.
The whole concept of banning books is un-American. But there's a solution for any parent concerned about what their children are reading or looking up about sex or anything else. Talk to them about it!
Killer Plastics!
You have probably already read about plastic remnants being found in seafood. But now comes new research indicating microscopic plastics have been found floating inside bottled drinking water.
Scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty laboratory aren't revealing which brands of
The research was published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and it raises big concerns about harmful health effects. Microplastics have been found in bottled and tap water for years, but the amount in this study has raised alarm. The particles are 10 to 100 times greater than previously estimated.
In laboratory studies on fish and rodents, the microplastics were shown to interfere with development, reproductive ability, gut health, hormone levels, immune response, the heart and more.
The irony here is that water in plastic bottles became popular because many people were worried about the pollution or fluoride in tap water.
Food packaging is also a source of plastic contamination. This month, Consumer Reports released results of its investigation into plastic chemicals found in commonly processed foods.
Of the 85 food products tested, 84 had traces of phthalates, the most common type of chemical used to make plastic more durable.
Researchers discover thousands of nanoplastic bits in bottles of drinking water (msn.com)
The Constitution Trumps Politics
There is apparently a bit more emphasis being placed on the U.S. Constitution these days at the U.S. Military Academies. Second-year students at West Point are hearing more detailed lectures about the role of the military and the trust between the armed forces and the public, and not being used as a partisan political tool.
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| (West Point Faculty cadets, 2018 Public Domain) |
What's prompted the increased attention to this for cadets?
Dozens of former and active-duty military personnel have been charged in the January 6th attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election results. And stories that have leaked out about an apparently aggressive agenda being drawn up by the Trump campaign if and when he wins a second term in office. That agenda includes potentially using the military in ways other presidents have not. Among the things in that plan, invoking the Insurrection Act to send units to the border or patrol the streets in predominantly Democratic cities. When Trump was in office, he referred to military leaders as "my generals," and he suggested that the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley who objected to some of his approaches, be put to death for treason.
The cadets at all of the military academies are being reminded that their military oath is to the Constitution, and not any individual.
In their American Politics class, West Point cadets are reminded they are going to be thrust into some of the current political conflicts, and their sworn loyalty to the Constitution should be their guide.
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
With the New Hampshire primary approaching in a week or so it's fitting that this week's dumb quote comes from that state's Republican Governor Chris Sununu. He has been highly critical of Donald Trump during the campaign and he has endorsed Nikki Haley for President in the upcoming primary. But when he was asked by reporters if he would support Trump if he were the GOP nominee even if Trump was a convicted felon Sununu said:
“Yeah, I’m gonna support the Republican nominee. Absolutely. Yeah, like that shouldn’t shock anybody. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody that the Republican governor and most, actually, of America is going to end up going against Biden, because they need to see a change in this country,”
And herein lies the problem with the upcoming national election. Trump is facing four criminal indictments over the next few months and many main stream republicans care more about the party label than they do about the man himself.
The polls do agree with Sununu somewhat for now, but Americans may radically change their minds with a "guilty" verdict for Trump in anyone of the four cases. If not, we are REALLY in trouble.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4402666-sununu-backs-republican-nominee-trump/
(Your comments and suggestions are welcome)
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796
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