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Two hours ago, I had no clue what today’s blog would talk about. Then, like a water fall hitting bottom with a refreshing splash, the subject appeared. Metaphorically, I’m not all wet, but this blog becomes one hell of a cascading stream of consciousness. One metaphor down, another to go; everything is swirling around. Images, glimpses and ideas slowly stray in front of my vision field as if they’re strange objects in a carnival shooting gallery; a buffalo, a small brontosaurus and a beat-up old typewriter. Sadly, one of the world’s last remaining typewriter factories in Mumbai, India, is closing down its typewriter production line, survived only by Moonachie, N.J.-based Swintec.
There must be a hidden message why the last typewriter factory is here in my home state. Could it go back to college days when I took a post graduate course and was writing a paper on psycho-pharmacology? Procrastination was a way of life back then as was the Vietnam War. Today, kids don’t procrastinate; they play video and drinking games and opt out of listening to or being told anything by anybody over thirty. My term paper was due but I waited until the last day. Feverishly, I one-finger pounded that ‘Smith-Corona’ machine (never had a Royal or Underwood so did it mean a life time of political oscillation back and forth as an independent thinker?) At 4 AM, I finished, angry for subjecting myself to all that jazzy stress. I threw the typewriter on the floor and kicked it then picked it up and threw it down again, resolving never to procrastinate and to finally finish seven years of higher education. Lamentations just surfaced: Now I wish I had that typewriter for Ebay.
Keeping company time: The other day, I read about CBS finding ways not to pay royalties to the cast of ‘Happy Days’ for using their images. So Potsie, Ralph, Joanie and Mrs. Cunningham have to sue CBS (The ‘Fonz’ and Richie Cunningham opted out of the law suit. I wonder why?) Shame on CBS. And GE, parent company of NBC earned around $14.2 billion worldwide and paid no Federal taxes. And to Exxon-Mobil, heartfelt congratulations on their 69% first quarter profit increase and Shell Oil’s 60% increase. Actually ‘our’ oil companies took in $39 billion in profits during first quarter and ‘our’ government still gives them $4 Billion/year subsidies to motivate exploration while ‘our’ gas is over $4/gallon.
Do you like how I use ‘our’ in this segment? I love the subliminal, when media announcers whisper that we’ll love these ‘old’ days of prices when gas goes to $200/barrel. And a remedy: Open up strategic oil reserves of 600 million barrels? So for a few weeks, gas prices might fall. Gas prices are cracking the toe nails of the economic recovery. It seems like old times or new thoughtful times; are we in a gas national emergency? Perhaps permanently nationalize the oil companies and “that’s all folks.” I always tried to ‘stutter’ that like my friend ‘Porky Pig’ did at the end of “Merrie Melodies” cartoons. More keeping company: I think you all should read an interesting article, “The ‘Other’ Sweetener That’s Made from Sugar, but is Closer to DDT” which talks about ‘Splenda.’ After reading this article, my morning bowl of oatmeal will, for perpetuity, be tasteless except for sprinkled cinnamon spice (to help sugar metabolism). Here’s the article link:
Time Warner, parent of DC comics has gone ahead with Action Comics edition #900 where Superman renounces his American citizenship. Superman has come a long way, from fighting the Germans in WWII and being there for truth, justice and the American way; so on this morning of renewed national pride and spirit, was it such a good idea for Superman to renounce precious citizenship? Who makes these editorial decisions? One more thought about the Man of Steel. With x-ray vision, why couldn’t he help us look for oil beneath the surfaces? Lament. Lament.
Watching news coverage from Ground Zero a few minutes ago, there was a commercial for a new paper plate that’s ten times stronger as well as having an organic super coating that can last 1000 years; so on the dawn of renewed national pride, is it necessary to do all that jazz to a paper plate that gets eternally discarded after 57 seconds of use (that’s all the time it takes me to eat potato salad and a slider veggie burger).
Last week, I found myself in a Jersey supermarket (a rare place for me). Here’s what struck me: All that jazzy colorful, geometric packaging; some re-designed to stick permanently in your hands. Perhaps there are 50,000 different items in an average supermarket; a lot of discarded resources. Supermarkets are an interesting science. They work on a 1 to 3 % margin so they have to get us good.
Did you ever notice how the shopping carts have increased in size; so has your average purchase proportionally. And do you ever pay attention to the price of eggs, milk and toilet paper; usually these are loss leaders creating the image the store is inexpensive or competitive. A recurring nightmare: to develop a new soft drink that I’ll try to bring to market and I have to convince supermarket executives to sell me shelf space. Then one morning, I’ve lost my soul, money, superfluous body parts and dignity.
On a positive company note, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced Friday that Amar Bose, the 81-year-old founder of the sound system company that bears his name, has donated the majority of Bose Corp.’s stock to the school. The school will not participate in the management or governance of the company, but it will receive annual cash dividends on its shares when Bose pays them out.
In last week’s blog I talked about Medicare, Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget and the movie ‘Logan’s Run;’ all by-products of a careful, cinnamon energized, introspective thought process. To remind/refresh: ‘Logan’s Run’ is a futuristic movie where no one over thirty is allowed to live. Then Paul Ryan proposes a budget that will help senior citizens leave our earth faster, free up resources, energy, food and water for people under thirty (they don’t care about Medicare; they’ll never get old). Forty-five thousand people die every year because they can’t/don’t get to a hospital in time. Ryan’s plan will grow that number. Do you get where I’m heading? I like looking down the roadside, at futuristic animals grazing in radioactive grass. Ryan’s budget is alarming; we won’t be wanted or valued as we age, because we’re using up rare, precious, valuable resources. 80 % of Americans do not want Medicare changed. What a depressing dystopian future world. I’m melting while I write this.
congressman paul ryan
Watch this stream. The 400 richest Americans paid a tax rate of 16%. A political party likes tax cuts for the rich and corporations (GE paid no tax). Another futuristic movie I recently blogged about was ‘Rollerball’ with James Caan; the future has several corporations left on Earth; presumably one company like Walmart controls all earthly retailing, one company like Exxon-Mobil controls all energy, and one company like Delta-United-Continental-Greyhound-Ford-Toyota controls all transportation and so forth. So Ryan’s extremely radical and futuristic (movie) proposal would replace the current Medicare system with a voucher designed to diminish in value over time. Ryan’s plan would significantly increase the cost of Medicare for the poor and middle class and would also force the frail and weak elderly to make difficult decisions in the muddy waters of health insurance coverage when they are older and cognitively not as sharp. What a vile, terrible plan but for decreasing surface population and moving senior citizens out of the way for the youthful living; Ryan did good for the futurists and the rich.
Time Magazine cover Feb. 11, 2011. Singularity in year 2045
In the world of singularity, thirty years down the road, man and machine will unify to create a new entity. Our knowledge and technology grow beyond imagination. Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. Perhaps in thirty years, we’ll have a humanoid with 6 implanted computers; one for regulating electrical energy for Parkinson’s patients, and a cochlear implant to hear, and a cardiac machine, and a silicon kidney and so forth. In the world of trans-humanism, we’ll be able to live (in thirty years) to 150 years or forever. Redundancy will grow us a new heart from our own cells when we go into congestive heart failure with the old one. New liver cells are being grown in a lab as we speak and some dude in South Carolina is growing red meat in a test tube(no eyes, legs or tails, just the facts and meat cells) In Colorado, they’re teaching plants to detect explosives, perhaps by bending like a photo-tropism, if someone walks to an airport gate with explosives.
My son says, “The point being?” A dystopian world of the future has people living to 150 but there is not enough food, clean water, energy, housing, coastline and beaches left. Climate change cuts away the coast lines. With singularity and trans-humanism, we can bring people to live to 150 years but the ‘Ryan-esque’ problem is we don’t have the resources for everyone; so remember the 400 richest Americans who hardly pay taxes(don’t tax the rich etc) and corporation executives and politicians; maybe only they’re allowed or can afford to live long. Ryan’s Medicare budget gets us in the mood.
Another futuristic movie gives me ‘morning sickness;’ ‘Soylent Green’ stars the guy who parted the Red Sea for Cecil B. DeMille and deals with future food. I won’t say much except watch it in the spirit of Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget and you’ll get the gist of what Ryan’s budget wants to begin to set us up for. His world is for the rich, powerful and untaxed. Far fetched? So was Gene Hackman’s comment in the movie ‘Hoosiers’ when he equates how far fetched something is in 1951 to landing a man on the moon. As my son also says, “Who cares?” Somebody who loves grandchildren, sunshine, Superman, sucking hard candy and the joys of getting a 10% senior citizen discount should care. I wanted to close now by saying ‘death and taxes’ are inevitable. Not for Ryan’s future rich people. Have a nice day.
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book trailer video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2ko9gcC_M
i am trying to read all your posts and i am enjoying them a lot. thanks a great deal for putting up a nice informative blog. Thank you.
Comment by Denton Aguilar — May 23, 2011 @ 3:02 pm