Tag: google

Little rant for the evening…

Good evening readers. (In this case “readers” is the term I casually use to act like I actually have “readers” when in fact…I am simply writing to myself a bit to vent.)

so.

It is absolutely amazing how loopy you can get when you’re tired, sick, and have taken a sizable shot of Nyquil to have an easier evening.

Well…when I say “you” I obviously mean “me”…unless…umm…nevermind.

So…in case you didn’t see my tweet, you should all google “askew” so you can see what its like for me every day.

Not the “askew” part per se, just the googling. I am asked to “google” things on a professional level so often that you might honestly wonder how I actually got into all this. Which was simple. A decade or so ago, I use to keep a journal. Shortly after a violent break up with the restaurant industry I started keeping my journals in electronic format. LiveJournal, then C2…at one time I was even using phpbb. Until finally after a gazillion hosts and many many blog platforms later…Wordpress won me over. Of course I am a great big dork. Mainly because every one in a while I have to say ‘Tony is a dork’ in my posts so that I come up on the search engines properly…that is…by searching for ‘Tony is a Dork’ you might still find me.

I did mention I am a little loopy. Mainly sleep deprivation of the “under-a-day” kind. We used to call that “wedging” – if you were awake for so long that you started feeling drunk…yeah thats wedging.

Luke the Cat - TonyTown.comAnyhow. I should probably introduce you to my assistant blogger, Luke.

Luke the cat is a little bundle of insane cat whoopass that you all know kittens to be.

He is lovable all the time. He plays with absolutely everything. His favorite toy is a straw, which you can use to make him climb up anything, including innocent roomies that dont realize that a spastic kitten is about to climb them like their life depended on it. He also feels my sandals are mice in disguise and attacks them regularly. And when he gets tired he gets absolutely adorable by climbing up my back without notice so he can curl up on my shoulder while I am typing. (Not joking…he really doesnt care what I am doing, when he wants to sleep he meows twice and if I havent picked him up he climbs on his own.

So yeah. I am really tired now, even the cat is passed out, and I just realized I wrote about nothing on my blog, so I’m fired and tired for the evening. You guys have a great one and hopefully my next post will have something remotely umm…relevant…in it eh?

Night!

-Tony (and his assistant Luke)




No. More. Stupid. – Wikileaks and Dead Animals

NOTE: Somehow this never got published and I found it while traipsing the jungle of unfinished entries in my journal. While it is dated I don’t liek the idea that I didn’t put this on the site. So enjoy! -Tony 8/16/2012

WikiLeaks isn’t the problem.

Assange isn’t the problem.

The government classifies far too much information, and the information that is actually extremely sensitive isn’t guarded well enough. But that doesn’t matter, because Assange is a scapegoat. Let me ask you something.

If your HOA was deliberately turning a blind eye to its largest contributor because of the money they contribute by constantly ignoring disturbingly illegal activities in the neighborhood, would you hang your next door neighbor, who is in the exact same situation you are, when that neighbor gives all the incriminating information about those activities to the media?

I don’t bloody think so…although you may want to spank them for the inconvenience.

It’s simply astounding. Julian Assange is being sensationalized by the media. The media has made the Wikileaks agenda so much more successful than any one man could have. I daresay he’s also being completely misrepresented by the governments he’s blowing the whistle on. Another point I’d like to make is that the Wikileaks organization is not being treated properly, due process is only being followed where there is direct public scrutiny.

Coming full circle, the media isn’t giving much info on the actual leaks…its just focusing on how evil Wikileaks is and hype. At first it really seemed like the news organizations were in it to go through the documents and out everyone who’d been playing dirty. This is entertainment at its best people…what are we doing about it? The governments…specifically big banking, stopped giving Wikileaks to accept payments via Visa, MasterCard, etc. Governments tried to actually freeze Wikileaks accounts, even though there was no government action ordering that it happen (and there still isn’t).

Let me throw you a curve ball. Wikileaks isn’t anywhere near as “rogue” as you think. Before releasing the information, they consulted with a large number of the worlds largest news organizations to recruit help in making sure the wrong information wasn’t released…you know…the stuff that will get people killed kind of stuff. NOW EVERYONE FORGET YOU JUST READ THAT, so you can go on about your wonderful day thinking that Wikileaks is criminally negligent in allowing this information to be released.

Instead of addressing the very large number of examples of poor candor and decidedly unprofessional monologues…our tax dollars are going into focusing on the owner of WikiLeaks…like he wrote all these things about all these countries.

Please don’t get me wrong. I understand the need for national security…but Mr. Assange didn’t steal the documents, and he’s not bound by US law. He’s just the front-man for Wiki-Leaks.

Assange didn’t leak the information. The US military did. Wikileaks is just another media outlet, the only difference is that people pay more attention to Wikileaks than the hundreds of thousands of blogging and conspiracy theory sites that publish the same ideas and data.

And by the way, the sensationalism has caused some of the WikiLeaks crew to start OpenLeaks. Another venue for people to submit leaks to the media anonymously. Don’t be mad at them, the media allowed them to get the backing for it. The same media putting Assange on the boxtop instead of all that juicy material that was leaked.

Wikileaks Til Ya Puke via Google News Feed

The Sky Is Not Falling!

I just have to get this out there.
I know there were tons of mass animal deaths. I don’t even buy into the whole “fireworks” theory that the birds were frightened by fireworks and flew off head first into the ground.
Maybe in an instance or two, but not all of those instances in three different areas.
But I cant stress this enough. The sky isn’t falling.

Our awareness of world events and is getting more and more…well…acute. As with any experience, as we become accustomed to those experiences I am sure we’ll remain a tidbit more calm about them even though the severity of the situation may be critical. If you truly feel the sky is falling, do something about it. I am not talking about any radical action that would endanger anything, but look for a viable answer, and run with it. There are some REALLY smart people out the that need your help in solving these crises.

That said, I’ve been watching the news, and been reading a FEKTON of documentation on this stuff. Mass animal deaths have been occurring for a long time, with documented events going back more than a hundred years. The USGS has actually been tracking mass animal death for decades, and so does the CDC. Between the two, they apply a body of knowledge incredibly more suited to sift fact from fiction in these matters, and thankfully, unlike the media, they aren’t in the habit of scaring the shit out of us civilians without some credence.

What I think we should all do is what we’ve already been doing. Be more aware. Know where to report news when you see it, and be more responsible when discussing these things so that you don’t start a scare. There is NOTHING wrong about feeling something is important or and there certainly isn’t anything wrong in helping resolve these events, but causing panic and unrest is the media’s forte, not yours. As individuals please try to exhibit some sense when you decide to talk about this.

If you look at the really cool Google Map of animal deaths (linked below), you will notice that there have been a bunch, and if you research them you’ll see a number of them have already been explained. As a species, we ourselves are doing so many things to contribute to this that the numbers are just heartbreaking. For every new method we find to live without destroying our planet, there are a hundred poor choices made for us that hurt the environment. Awareness in a huge factor. As in being aware we can expect at least some people will change their course.

Here is the Google News link for the animal deaths in the news.




Kudos for Google…

Just a homespun graphic of googleGoogle sent me this link a little while ago, and it meant a lot to see it.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/givesback/2011/

If you didn’t know about this. A couple years back I competed in Google’s Project 10 to the 100. My foundation project was to build an education system that allowed an open forum for educators and subject matter authorities to discuss and dictate curriculum (not politicians/civil leaders), utilizing up to date education methodologies(our public education system is old and non-competitive globally), and most importantly…free.

Well…obviously, I didn’t win the grant, but the Khan Academy did win, and allowed their curriculum to be translatable in a number of global languages, allowing for an education system that is FREE. It’s almost exactly what I was hoping for.

I just wanted to say that while there is a LOT of banter on what Google’s mission is…they are one of the few big players that are in it to make the world a better place, not just fill their wallet. It was cool to see that they’d granted not just the money from Project 10 to the 100, but also about 100 million more to other initiatives.

Google (and Microsoft) taught me a long time ago that employers can choose to be a part of the solution, rather than being just another part of the system. I wish everyone shared the same business model.

/end kudos-ranty-type-post

-Tony

PS – I swear I’ll post more. Really. This is just a phase I swear 😉