Having spent the past thirty five years in the solid waste industry i have really seen the excess of our consumable society and it is sad. I have seen enough food thrown away that could feed thousands. I see memories discarded as if they meant nothing. Toys thrown away because some small part broke, therefore casting a death sentence to the life and enjoyment that toy should have brought the child.
So much of our refuse is packaging. Bottles, jars, boxes, plastic shrink wrap and many other ingenious ways to package an item so it can be sold regardless of it's quality. Glitz and visual sell not quality. Package it so there are less clerks in the store to help you. Expand the profits, sell inferior products, cheap prices, volume sales, drive the quality merchants out of business and deprive the consumer of true choices.
This past Saturday I went shopping to look for a new chair for my room. I was looking to replace a recliner that is virtually brand new but is an accident awaiting to happen. It's unbalanced and when it tipped over twice on my granddaughter I said it"s time to find something better. The sad thing about this is that this chair was bought at a top of the line furniture company, for big bucks and long time quality reputation.
So off to a local furniture retailer. What an education. He informed me that he buys American just for those quality issues and product life. As we talked I could see the quality in his product line but unfortunately there are too many "Discount Places" that sell furniture that is junk.
You know that heavy particle board stuff with the plastic look alike wood grain that is nothing more than contact paper. Furniture that once put together you can't move for fear of breaking. I know I've bought a piece or two over the years. It looks good but put anything other than air on it and it sinks like our economy. Yet we throw it away and go out and buy more of this crap. And within a year or two we do the cycle all over again.
While we are so fixated on buy the cheapest crap on the face of the earth good quality furniture makers are going out of business. There once was a time that furniture was handed down from generation to generation. My dresser belonged to my grandparents and is probably over 100 years old. It is as sound today as it was when it was made. If that was a particle board dresser it would have been replaced 25 or 40 times by now.
So while I was shopping for the chair I did a little comparison shopping. I looked for a five drawer high boy dresser made out of mahogany with dove tailed drawers made from solid wood. I found one for about $700.00. Seven Hundred dollars! You got to be insane. I can get a nice five drawer mahogany looking particle board for $275. About one third the cost. So now do the math. A dresser that costs $700 and lasts for 100 years costs about $7 a year. The particle board dresser, lasting 3 years if lucky costs $91.66 a year. If replaced every 3 years for the $275 price in 100 years it will have cost $9,350, without indexing for inflation and adding in disposal.
Now look at the disposal of that dresser. The particle board dresser probably weighs 75 pounds. Over the next 100 years it would be discarded 34 times at a weight equal to 2,500 pounds. No wonder we're filling up our landfills.
So with just this one item we can save $8,650 in 100 years. We can also save on fossil fuels because good quality furniture can still be made here in the good old USofA and we don't have to ship it halfway round the world on a freighter that burns dinosaurs at a unbelievable rate each day.
Let's get with it people. We got to start thinking smart. We'll save money, landfill space and resources if we buy quality not price.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Summer Idyl
Growing up as a kid on New York City's Staten Island I thought I had the world by the tail. Unlike many of my friends we had a small fenced in backyard. In this back yard I had all the different habitats one needed to explore and let imagination go wild. Each day this small crust of earth gave me a new stage to perform my flights of fancy. Not having much else, I had to use my mind to create images and story lines. Usually I played in my little domain by myself.
I had everything you could imagine, right there in my back yard. I had Sherwood Forest or the Jungle Primeval, all within a clutch of lilac bushes. I had the caves of the lost treasure of the sierra madre right under my back porch. The top deck of the porch doubled as the command deck of any ship of the line. Many a manned space mission was commanded from this platform. Flights of fancy included Captain Hook's Frigate and his battles with Peter Pan. I often tried to fly using the clothes line. Going down was OK, but coming up was impossible. So I would drop or fall to the ground and walk back to the porch.
Standing tall and erect on that back porch I could see straight up a neighborhood street to the New York State Armory on Manor Road. This Massive building was built to resemble an old castle. Turrets and narrow slit windows for the archers. Heavy knobed doors. Iron Bars on the windows. It was as real as it got, until a trip to Europe many years later and I saw the real thing.
So the yard on Staten Island served my imagination as a sort of internship at a small backwoods repertory theater group. Learning my craft of imaginary play. Fighting the wrongs of the universe. Until we moved to Jersey.
When we moved to New Jersey in 1961 I was bowled over by the enormity of the woods right out our back door. The woods was so thick and tall, it just about filtered the sunlight out. It was cool on a hot summer day. The entire experience was numbing. It was almost as if my imagination went bonkers on steroids! Think of the adventures, the comedy, the tragedy, and boy there was plenty of that. No longer would my imagination be confined to a postage stamped yard. Here we had acres to explore.
My Dad bought me a canvas army surplus wall tent. We constructed a camp site in the back yard. The camp was far enough from the house so that I knew the house and the protection it provided was close at hand, yet far enough away, that I felt in the wilds. Close enough on those rare nights you would get the ever living crap scared out of you, you could sneak off to safety.
We had a fire pit, a sitting log, a horse hitching post, just no horse. All the comforts of home.
Usually around Memorial Day we would put up the tent and clean up the campsite. We had two old second world war army cots to sleep on. Complete with army blankets and quilts. The tent was dark green and was like an oven in side during the day and a freezer at night. The smell of the water treatment was nauseating and it made everyone who stayed in it smell like the tent. But it was mine! It was my space and I had Divine intervention in my domain.
On summer days off from school I would run down to the tent with my magazines in hand. Mad Magazine, National Geographic, Saturday Evening Post (just loved Norman Rockwell), to name a few. Or I would bring my Hardy Boys books to share their the world. I would lay down on the cot with the blanket and quilt and fuss for a while while I got my pillow just right and then step into another dimension to be swept away with adventure.
As I laid there the entire world disappeared outside. A hypnotic drone of piston driven aircraft would slowly pas over head. The birds in the trees sang, the crows coughed and gagged, and occasionally you would hear the sound of a squirrel running through the underbrush. Harrison Brook, at the edge of the property gurgled and plopped as it flowed to the Atlantic Ocean. It was the quite of my world and I savored it. I would lay on the cot and close my eyes and be taken to worlds unknown by the shear solitude of the day.
During those nine great years that I took place in this summer ritual, I came to experience that what many call the silence of the woods is just as loud as traffic on a city street. Nature is singing their melodious aria to the glory of God its creator.
My roll off business takes me through some of, what I feel, is the most beautiful scenery in the world, the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. Many time's while I'm on the road during the warm weather I will pull over at favorite spots, turn off the motor, roll down the windows, and just listen. Soaking in all that nature has to offer. Reminding me of those Summer Days of my youth.
I had everything you could imagine, right there in my back yard. I had Sherwood Forest or the Jungle Primeval, all within a clutch of lilac bushes. I had the caves of the lost treasure of the sierra madre right under my back porch. The top deck of the porch doubled as the command deck of any ship of the line. Many a manned space mission was commanded from this platform. Flights of fancy included Captain Hook's Frigate and his battles with Peter Pan. I often tried to fly using the clothes line. Going down was OK, but coming up was impossible. So I would drop or fall to the ground and walk back to the porch.
Standing tall and erect on that back porch I could see straight up a neighborhood street to the New York State Armory on Manor Road. This Massive building was built to resemble an old castle. Turrets and narrow slit windows for the archers. Heavy knobed doors. Iron Bars on the windows. It was as real as it got, until a trip to Europe many years later and I saw the real thing.
So the yard on Staten Island served my imagination as a sort of internship at a small backwoods repertory theater group. Learning my craft of imaginary play. Fighting the wrongs of the universe. Until we moved to Jersey.
When we moved to New Jersey in 1961 I was bowled over by the enormity of the woods right out our back door. The woods was so thick and tall, it just about filtered the sunlight out. It was cool on a hot summer day. The entire experience was numbing. It was almost as if my imagination went bonkers on steroids! Think of the adventures, the comedy, the tragedy, and boy there was plenty of that. No longer would my imagination be confined to a postage stamped yard. Here we had acres to explore.
My Dad bought me a canvas army surplus wall tent. We constructed a camp site in the back yard. The camp was far enough from the house so that I knew the house and the protection it provided was close at hand, yet far enough away, that I felt in the wilds. Close enough on those rare nights you would get the ever living crap scared out of you, you could sneak off to safety.
We had a fire pit, a sitting log, a horse hitching post, just no horse. All the comforts of home.
Usually around Memorial Day we would put up the tent and clean up the campsite. We had two old second world war army cots to sleep on. Complete with army blankets and quilts. The tent was dark green and was like an oven in side during the day and a freezer at night. The smell of the water treatment was nauseating and it made everyone who stayed in it smell like the tent. But it was mine! It was my space and I had Divine intervention in my domain.
On summer days off from school I would run down to the tent with my magazines in hand. Mad Magazine, National Geographic, Saturday Evening Post (just loved Norman Rockwell), to name a few. Or I would bring my Hardy Boys books to share their the world. I would lay down on the cot with the blanket and quilt and fuss for a while while I got my pillow just right and then step into another dimension to be swept away with adventure.
As I laid there the entire world disappeared outside. A hypnotic drone of piston driven aircraft would slowly pas over head. The birds in the trees sang, the crows coughed and gagged, and occasionally you would hear the sound of a squirrel running through the underbrush. Harrison Brook, at the edge of the property gurgled and plopped as it flowed to the Atlantic Ocean. It was the quite of my world and I savored it. I would lay on the cot and close my eyes and be taken to worlds unknown by the shear solitude of the day.
During those nine great years that I took place in this summer ritual, I came to experience that what many call the silence of the woods is just as loud as traffic on a city street. Nature is singing their melodious aria to the glory of God its creator.
My roll off business takes me through some of, what I feel, is the most beautiful scenery in the world, the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. Many time's while I'm on the road during the warm weather I will pull over at favorite spots, turn off the motor, roll down the windows, and just listen. Soaking in all that nature has to offer. Reminding me of those Summer Days of my youth.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Points to Ponder (Version 1.1)
Everyday we're faced with the absurd, unbelievable common place notices, warnings, and situations that really make one wonder about the world we live in. I've tried to put together a list of some of these things I notice on the computer, and this is what I've found:
Computer problems are a real drag. I'd love to meet the designers who come up with some of these tidbits. Ever look for something in one of those search boxes and the answer comes back "No Matches Found". But sure as the day is long you know that a "Match" does exist! Try as you might you'll never figure out the proper term to enter to get your answer!
How about when something goes wrong on the computer and that dam box comes up, and no matter what the message is, it ends with a little box that says "OK?" "OK" is your only choice? The world could be falling apart, your hard drive unraveling and turning everything into cyber dust, but your choice is "OK!" What sadistic son of a gun came up with that teaser? I can see some shrimpy geek with a face full of pimples, thick glasses, and bad teeth, sitting in his cubby in a windowless room designing this equivalent of an electronic wedgie. How many times have you sat in front of your computer screaming, "It's NOT OK!!!!!"
Ever have your computer just stop functioning? It's as if the computer has had a good dose of the "deer in the headlights syndrome." It just stares back at you and doesn't even blink. Nothing you do works. It's as if time has stood still in cyberland. Finally you turn off the computer and wait. You turn it back on and it is still staring at you. Unflinching, glaring almost as if it's silently smiling and laughing inside. Then the error box comes on and says, "the program is not responding!" No kidding! I didn't notice. Wow! How insightful! I paid how much for this program and this is the best it can do? Then you sit and wait, some more.
Finally everything disappears and the computer reboots itself and gives you another mind blowing message, "Sending report to Microsoft!" Where do these reports go? Who reads them? The same greasy haired geek with the pocket protector who plays "World of War Craft" as "Ramboman?" Like these guys are going to do something. They keep these little quirks in the programs so they can sell you the next upgrade at big bucks!
While we all toil at our daily endeavors we've got to hand it to those who are "Trying" to make our lives better through technology, they give us plenty to wonder about.
Computer problems are a real drag. I'd love to meet the designers who come up with some of these tidbits. Ever look for something in one of those search boxes and the answer comes back "No Matches Found". But sure as the day is long you know that a "Match" does exist! Try as you might you'll never figure out the proper term to enter to get your answer!
How about when something goes wrong on the computer and that dam box comes up, and no matter what the message is, it ends with a little box that says "OK?" "OK" is your only choice? The world could be falling apart, your hard drive unraveling and turning everything into cyber dust, but your choice is "OK!" What sadistic son of a gun came up with that teaser? I can see some shrimpy geek with a face full of pimples, thick glasses, and bad teeth, sitting in his cubby in a windowless room designing this equivalent of an electronic wedgie. How many times have you sat in front of your computer screaming, "It's NOT OK!!!!!"
Ever have your computer just stop functioning? It's as if the computer has had a good dose of the "deer in the headlights syndrome." It just stares back at you and doesn't even blink. Nothing you do works. It's as if time has stood still in cyberland. Finally you turn off the computer and wait. You turn it back on and it is still staring at you. Unflinching, glaring almost as if it's silently smiling and laughing inside. Then the error box comes on and says, "the program is not responding!" No kidding! I didn't notice. Wow! How insightful! I paid how much for this program and this is the best it can do? Then you sit and wait, some more.
Finally everything disappears and the computer reboots itself and gives you another mind blowing message, "Sending report to Microsoft!" Where do these reports go? Who reads them? The same greasy haired geek with the pocket protector who plays "World of War Craft" as "Ramboman?" Like these guys are going to do something. They keep these little quirks in the programs so they can sell you the next upgrade at big bucks!
While we all toil at our daily endeavors we've got to hand it to those who are "Trying" to make our lives better through technology, they give us plenty to wonder about.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Driving In A Winter Wonderland
For years I either shoveled sidewalks, crosswalks, or plowed the streets of my adopted hometown, Kingston, New York. When I retired from that job in 1989 I still had to plow and shovel each storm, but at my own transfer stations. Year after year, the same old, same old. Cold snow, fierce winds, biting cold and soaking wet clothing. This is the first winter in the past 35 years that I haven't had to be out the door before waking up to plow snow. It is so nice! The constant task of snow removal clouded my vision and I really began to hate winter. All I saw was the "dam white stuff" piling up and taunting me with who'll break down first, the snow storm or me. Most of the time it was the equipment. And it was expensive!
While I'm still not happy about shoveling my driveway or sidewalk, it's not as big a deal as before. I don't have to do it before anything else. When it snows, the bus doesn't run. I stay home, get paid, entertain my granddaughter and shovel at my leisure. The last couple of storms didn't amount to anything so there was nothing to shovel and life was good.
This past weekend I had the chance to take a bus charter up into the heart of the Catskill Mountains to a remote place called Frost Valley. The name itself speaks volumes. I left home on Sunday Morning and really felt a tinge of spring in the air. The sun was out, the sky was blue and it was a gorgeous day. But as I drove further and further up into the mountains the splendor of winter began to appear. Subtle at first but gaining strength in each foot of elevation I climbed. Snow and ice were everywhere. Huge ice water falls hanging like frozen fountains on the rock out crops. Snow hanging on the trees, clinging hard to keep from falling to earth. Snow strategically covering the ice patches on the streams almost like soft pillows amongst the cold running water. Further up the mountains the snow adorned the trees as if it had been magically sprayed on by a Divine hand. It was breathtaking!
On the way home, as I came out of the mountains, I began to see the slow metamorphosis of the white crystal empire turn into a earth toned, water stained like canvas, with sad dirty piles of the six sided fancies we refer to as snow. It wasn't pleasing to look at. It was as if winters beauty had been cast aside like an old rug that was worn out.
Winter can be a depressing time of year but when it displays itself in its full grandeur it ranks right up there with Gods other seasonal displays of nature. The fresh bloom and rebirth of life each spring, the warm, soft lushness to the summer greenery, and the hot blend of tapestry like colors that come each fall. Each of the four seasons speak volumes about the Divine hand of the ultimate artist at work. It's almost like God is showing how each season is not only a display, but a statement. A statement that we need to accept and take unconditionally about the world he has allowed us to rent space on. This is his domain and not ours. By his good grace he has allowed us to live hear and prosper.
Our native forefathers never had the concept of land ownership. They lived with the land. The land gave to them as they treated it. A simple extension of the golden rule. Take nothing more than you need and there will be plenty for all. Generations of mankind lived this way for thousands of years. And now man has to have possession of one of Gods greatest achievements, a living, breathing, and constantly evolving thing we call earth.
So the next time you're out and about and cussing up a storm about the snow coming down on the roads while you're driving, stop look around and accept the beauty that is around you and the ever unfolding diorama that God is setting before us each and every day. It truly is like "Driving in a Winter Wonderland."
While I'm still not happy about shoveling my driveway or sidewalk, it's not as big a deal as before. I don't have to do it before anything else. When it snows, the bus doesn't run. I stay home, get paid, entertain my granddaughter and shovel at my leisure. The last couple of storms didn't amount to anything so there was nothing to shovel and life was good.
This past weekend I had the chance to take a bus charter up into the heart of the Catskill Mountains to a remote place called Frost Valley. The name itself speaks volumes. I left home on Sunday Morning and really felt a tinge of spring in the air. The sun was out, the sky was blue and it was a gorgeous day. But as I drove further and further up into the mountains the splendor of winter began to appear. Subtle at first but gaining strength in each foot of elevation I climbed. Snow and ice were everywhere. Huge ice water falls hanging like frozen fountains on the rock out crops. Snow hanging on the trees, clinging hard to keep from falling to earth. Snow strategically covering the ice patches on the streams almost like soft pillows amongst the cold running water. Further up the mountains the snow adorned the trees as if it had been magically sprayed on by a Divine hand. It was breathtaking!
On the way home, as I came out of the mountains, I began to see the slow metamorphosis of the white crystal empire turn into a earth toned, water stained like canvas, with sad dirty piles of the six sided fancies we refer to as snow. It wasn't pleasing to look at. It was as if winters beauty had been cast aside like an old rug that was worn out.
Winter can be a depressing time of year but when it displays itself in its full grandeur it ranks right up there with Gods other seasonal displays of nature. The fresh bloom and rebirth of life each spring, the warm, soft lushness to the summer greenery, and the hot blend of tapestry like colors that come each fall. Each of the four seasons speak volumes about the Divine hand of the ultimate artist at work. It's almost like God is showing how each season is not only a display, but a statement. A statement that we need to accept and take unconditionally about the world he has allowed us to rent space on. This is his domain and not ours. By his good grace he has allowed us to live hear and prosper.
Our native forefathers never had the concept of land ownership. They lived with the land. The land gave to them as they treated it. A simple extension of the golden rule. Take nothing more than you need and there will be plenty for all. Generations of mankind lived this way for thousands of years. And now man has to have possession of one of Gods greatest achievements, a living, breathing, and constantly evolving thing we call earth.
So the next time you're out and about and cussing up a storm about the snow coming down on the roads while you're driving, stop look around and accept the beauty that is around you and the ever unfolding diorama that God is setting before us each and every day. It truly is like "Driving in a Winter Wonderland."
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Good Morning Dave
Sometimes parallels can be drawn by how life imitates art. Unless you've lived under a rock for the past forty years there have been some amazing breakthroughs in science and technology. The jury is still out on the overall benefit of some but the main consensus is that these advancements are really for the betterment of mankind.
In 1969 man left this planet to explore the moon. The power of the "state of the art computer" they used on those flights today had less calculating capability than today's average cell phone. This is techno-mechanical evolution.
Around that same time period, 1969 - 1970, a movie titled "2001 A Space Odyssey" took the world by storm. Future technology showcased telephones that could transmit live television pictures, meals cooked almost to order immediately, and computers that could interact with man. Look at today's net books, cell phones, laptops etc. We link up and see each other in conversation in real time anywhere in the world.
A few years ago there was a movie titled "I Robot". Taking technology further with robots and computers that could interact with man and preform tasks at a simple request. Man harnessing machine for his own betterment.
Now look at today. We've got a major auto manufacturer who is having more problems with their product than a baker on wedding day with a cake that won't rise.
The manufacturer of these cars says's it's mechanical. Some say it's electronic. Being the skeptic I am I want to lean towards the electronic. The electronic world, while man has studied it and has harnessed it for our own advancement, still doesn't quite know it to the point of it being a fool proof technology?
We hear about it all the time. Technical failure. It's the buzz word that's used to describe all kinds of major screw ups that no one can understand or replicate. It's almost as if technology takes on a life of it's own. Teasing us. Humiliating us. Taunting us to look for an answer that we can't see or understand.
Now what does the movies have to do with any of this? In "2001" the computer has conflicting information fed to it and it just goes hay wire. For as advanced as this computer was supposed to be, it took on a mind of it's own and made judgement calls. A judgement call it arrived at on it's own using the conflicting information man fed to it. That call resulted in a really bad outcome for the crew of that space ship.
In "I Robot" there is an underlying theme about random bits of computer code joining together and forming new codes and actions. Again all of this was done by man not being able to control the technical situation and letting it slip out of his hands like a slimy eel covered in swamp slime.
Today we have vehicles, computers and the alike that have all these electronic gremlins. I know this first hand. One type of electronic gremlin I have come across is while flying in those new generation"fly by wire" European Airbus airliners. I can't recall how many times we were just about to push away from the loading gate when the pilot comes on the public address system and says's he has to shut everything down to reboot the computer! REBOOT the computer? We're not talking about a Windows style freeze up here are we? What do you mean REBOOT? If the hard drive crashed does that mean the plane is next? I really feel safe in a plane where they have to turn it off and kick start it and hope it flys to the next location. I can see in my mind the pilot on the phone calling Geek Squad for instructions. Only to be told they need to bring it in to the nearest location. And bring it in FAST! What if this dam thing stops dead at 35,000 feet? What if the "Blue Screen of Death" appears on landing in the fog over a crowded city? Computer crash takes on a whole new meaning.
So, you ask, what is the common thread in all of this? I believe it is nothing more than a distinct parallel to the choice handed down to man in the Garden of Eden. While the gift of knowledge has it's profound and unmistakable benefits to mankind it also can lead to mans own demise. In our quest for the expansion of our knowledge and technology are we some how lifting the lid on a Pandora"s box of fast held secrets of the universe? In mans quest to go where man has never gone before has he evolved to such a point that his capabilities are such that unlocking these secrets will be kept in check? Is man really capable of harnessing up the unknown and riding it off into the night sky? With the complexity of the advancements we make, how can we evaluate all the variables that exist and potentially coexist or could combine into another entity altogether with it's own mind? Do we really know where we're going? Is our quest for having it before the other guy at any price or to get the product on the shelf and fix it later with new updates really for our betterment? Is this technology driven society no longer being driven by innovation but by greed? How soon will we waking up hearing Hal say, "Good Morning Dave?"
In 1969 man left this planet to explore the moon. The power of the "state of the art computer" they used on those flights today had less calculating capability than today's average cell phone. This is techno-mechanical evolution.
Around that same time period, 1969 - 1970, a movie titled "2001 A Space Odyssey" took the world by storm. Future technology showcased telephones that could transmit live television pictures, meals cooked almost to order immediately, and computers that could interact with man. Look at today's net books, cell phones, laptops etc. We link up and see each other in conversation in real time anywhere in the world.
A few years ago there was a movie titled "I Robot". Taking technology further with robots and computers that could interact with man and preform tasks at a simple request. Man harnessing machine for his own betterment.
Now look at today. We've got a major auto manufacturer who is having more problems with their product than a baker on wedding day with a cake that won't rise.
The manufacturer of these cars says's it's mechanical. Some say it's electronic. Being the skeptic I am I want to lean towards the electronic. The electronic world, while man has studied it and has harnessed it for our own advancement, still doesn't quite know it to the point of it being a fool proof technology?
We hear about it all the time. Technical failure. It's the buzz word that's used to describe all kinds of major screw ups that no one can understand or replicate. It's almost as if technology takes on a life of it's own. Teasing us. Humiliating us. Taunting us to look for an answer that we can't see or understand.
Now what does the movies have to do with any of this? In "2001" the computer has conflicting information fed to it and it just goes hay wire. For as advanced as this computer was supposed to be, it took on a mind of it's own and made judgement calls. A judgement call it arrived at on it's own using the conflicting information man fed to it. That call resulted in a really bad outcome for the crew of that space ship.
In "I Robot" there is an underlying theme about random bits of computer code joining together and forming new codes and actions. Again all of this was done by man not being able to control the technical situation and letting it slip out of his hands like a slimy eel covered in swamp slime.
Today we have vehicles, computers and the alike that have all these electronic gremlins. I know this first hand. One type of electronic gremlin I have come across is while flying in those new generation"fly by wire" European Airbus airliners. I can't recall how many times we were just about to push away from the loading gate when the pilot comes on the public address system and says's he has to shut everything down to reboot the computer! REBOOT the computer? We're not talking about a Windows style freeze up here are we? What do you mean REBOOT? If the hard drive crashed does that mean the plane is next? I really feel safe in a plane where they have to turn it off and kick start it and hope it flys to the next location. I can see in my mind the pilot on the phone calling Geek Squad for instructions. Only to be told they need to bring it in to the nearest location. And bring it in FAST! What if this dam thing stops dead at 35,000 feet? What if the "Blue Screen of Death" appears on landing in the fog over a crowded city? Computer crash takes on a whole new meaning.
So, you ask, what is the common thread in all of this? I believe it is nothing more than a distinct parallel to the choice handed down to man in the Garden of Eden. While the gift of knowledge has it's profound and unmistakable benefits to mankind it also can lead to mans own demise. In our quest for the expansion of our knowledge and technology are we some how lifting the lid on a Pandora"s box of fast held secrets of the universe? In mans quest to go where man has never gone before has he evolved to such a point that his capabilities are such that unlocking these secrets will be kept in check? Is man really capable of harnessing up the unknown and riding it off into the night sky? With the complexity of the advancements we make, how can we evaluate all the variables that exist and potentially coexist or could combine into another entity altogether with it's own mind? Do we really know where we're going? Is our quest for having it before the other guy at any price or to get the product on the shelf and fix it later with new updates really for our betterment? Is this technology driven society no longer being driven by innovation but by greed? How soon will we waking up hearing Hal say, "Good Morning Dave?"
Friday, February 19, 2010
Southern Politeness!
I wish I could take credit for this one but I can't. But I really feel it sums up a lot of feelings. Imagine this conversation taking place at Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport.
You gotta love this one even if you've never lived in the South. Some of you will enjoy this more than others.... Southerners can be so polite!
Atlanta Tower: "Saudi Air 511 -- You are cleared to land on runway 9R.
" Saudi Air: "Thank you Atlanta. Acknowledge cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R - Allah be Praised."
Atlanta Tower: "Iran Air 711 --You are cleared to land westbound on runway 9L.
"Iran Air: "Thank you Atlanta ATC. We are cleared to land on infidel's runway 9L. -Allah is Great."
Pause...
Saudi Air: ATLANTA TOWER- ATLANTA TOWER !"
Atlanta Tower: "Go ahead Saudi Air 511."
Saudi Air: "YOU HAVE CLEARED BOTH OUR AIRCRAFTS FOR THE SAME RUNWAY GOING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. WE ARE ON A COLLISION COURSE. INSTRUCTIONS, PLEASE!"
Atlanta Tower: "Well bless your hearts. And praise Jesus. Y'all go on ahead now and tell Allah "hi" for us."
You got to hand it to the Southerners, they sure are polite!
You gotta love this one even if you've never lived in the South. Some of you will enjoy this more than others.... Southerners can be so polite!
Atlanta Tower: "Saudi Air 511 -- You are cleared to land on runway 9R.
" Saudi Air: "Thank you Atlanta. Acknowledge cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R - Allah be Praised."
Atlanta Tower: "Iran Air 711 --You are cleared to land westbound on runway 9L.
"Iran Air: "Thank you Atlanta ATC. We are cleared to land on infidel's runway 9L. -Allah is Great."
Pause...
Saudi Air: ATLANTA TOWER- ATLANTA TOWER !"
Atlanta Tower: "Go ahead Saudi Air 511."
Saudi Air: "YOU HAVE CLEARED BOTH OUR AIRCRAFTS FOR THE SAME RUNWAY GOING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. WE ARE ON A COLLISION COURSE. INSTRUCTIONS, PLEASE!"
Atlanta Tower: "Well bless your hearts. And praise Jesus. Y'all go on ahead now and tell Allah "hi" for us."
You got to hand it to the Southerners, they sure are polite!
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