IT’S ONLY THE ANT TROPHY OF LIFE

 

Do you know that defining moment in a movie when the floodgates are about to burst and the lead characters know that standing still means certain death and so they start to run and spend most of the remainder of the movie running from raging water and disaster?

So it seems that daily news headlines that show the slow demise of the old society into an as yet undefined future civilization, has made those of us who want to take a stand do so through blogs and other vocal outlets.   “Stop,” we scream. “Shouldn’t things be better than this?” And then we wonder why no one stands up to challenge the decay.

Perhaps there is nothing to challenge. Like a mass of water, standing in its way does nothing to change the flow or alter the direction of the current. And being inflexible is an almost certain death.

Entropy is the concept that nature tends to progress from order to disorder rather than the other way around. Coupled with inertia, changing from disorder to order is a major undertaking. And looking around one can see it at work. Nature – even human nature – works to a different beat.

As a writer I miss hearing literacy in speech patterns. I miss seeing substance in novels and movies. I feel sad that this generation does not know how to listen to a radio play and have their imaginations fill in the void. But that is really my loss and not theirs since they know no better.

Sir Isaac Newton postulated inertia as the resistance of a mass to a change in its state of motion. Change comes slowly, over decades, by breaking barriers one item at a time.

First you do not dress up for dinner. Then you do not dress up for work. Then you do not dress up to go out. Finally you do not need to dress for anything so clothing mutates into a general purpose wear. And you eat on the floor by the TV.  Who needs “please” and “thank you?'”

If you fight against that change you are fighting the inertia of change as a whole. Like a wall of water moving, a rock can do little but get crushed. And that is the point.

Take Yosemite Valley. Half Dome was once whole until the mass of the glacial ice moving through the valley sheared or eroded the face of that granite mass. Had you seen Whole Dome before the ice age you may well have considered the destruction tragic. But for those who only knew Half Dome that is the standard by which the beauty of the granite in the valley is measured.

I’ve often voiced my opinions about the nasty appearance of life today despite my wishes for something more wholesome. I guess those days have gone. We have endless complicated corruption and greed and pollution and too many people consuming like locusts.

And the sad fact is that is the way it is and will continue to be no matter what I say. The masses of people all wanting their quick fix pushes the momentum of life like that wall of water and there is no stopping it.

And after a few drinks and some careful thought it really doesn’t matter whether the change is good or not since what remains will ultimately be what effectively works for the next generation, my own children included, regardless their strengths or shortcomings. It is entropy for sure. It is my Ant Trophy!

MisterWriter

AN ASS WAR: Save money and still conquer with little loss of life

In reviewing all the cost cutting measures taken in this country as we support global wars, it occurred to me that we could save a “ton” of money if we switch from making bombs to just dropping bombs we already own – diaper bombs that is.

As any parent of diaper age children can tell you, they are expensive and it seems our children can go through an extremely large number each day. So why not just drop these on our enemy? After all the enemy will be spending all their time digging out of the doo they will have no time to devote to developing nuclear bombs.

Here’s the logic about what we could save…

According to Wikipedia “The U.S. defense budget accounted in fiscal year 2008 for about 21% of the United States federal budget.

For example, the Department of Defense budget is slated to rise to $574.5 billion in 2014… The recent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are largely funded through supplementary spending bills outside the Federal Budget, so they are not included in the military budget figures listed above. In addition, the United States has black budget military spending which is not listed as Federal spending and is not included in published military spending figures.

Any questions?

MisterWriter

 

Tragic news, yet the power of the blogger – why the print media lost out to the Mayor!

It is no longer fresh news, but I am happy to say that friend and fellow blogger once again showed up the mainstream media by reporting the news about the abductors of Jaycee before they did. Doing his own research, Claycord.com’s Mayor of Claycord demonstrated what media mogul Rubert Murdoch has not figured out (in his grand plan to charge for online news) that the power lies locally and not globally.

I’m not going to comment on this sad tale – the Mayor of Claycord has done so far more effectively than I could, and the details of the sicko pair involved leave no comment necessary other than “bring back the true death sentence” because there is no room for compassion in what this guy did to the girl, her family and her future.

Congratulations to Claycord. The site has experienced so much growth over the last few years that one must be impressed. Regardless of how you feel about the people who post comments (and you certainly do not need read the comments, especially if you RSS the content) the site has shown its journalistic strength for our local community. And I say that as a blogger and a publisher.

Click the pic to read the story at Claycord. Well done Mayor. And death to the whackos…

MisterWriter

PS: I am not really envious; I am proud to consider myself a supporter of the Mayor.

Swimming in the pan: Don't let the ‘experts’ touch my penis

Once again the "experts" at the CDC (the people who seem to know little about diseases in general) are now pushing for routine circumcision on the basis of it potentially reducing the incidence of HIV.  And it’s giving me  a pain in the scrotal area just considering the arrogance of that statement.

This is akin to requiring me to wear bubble wrap in my car in order to potentially reduce traffic fatalities rather than teach me to drive better.

HIV is a disease borne of higher-risk sex practices. The study used by the CDC focuses on cases of HIV in Africa where HIV is rampant both heterosexually and homosexually, where medical care is fragmented and where ignorance abounds.

While routine circumcision there has reduced the incidence, it seems like the focus is on the wrong aspect; shouldn't prevention be the topic – God knows we hate holding people accountable for their “winkies,” or safe sex, or getting tested, or a million other preventative things before making that leap that a surgery which the AMA has considered unnecessary, be mandated in the same "you have to do it" category as the Flu/Swine Flu vaccine and the HPV vaccines currently rammed down the throats of many "guilted" Americans.

“80 percent of the planet does not practice circumcision,” – read more HERE

"There is little to no evidence that circumcision protects men who have sex with men from infection," states the report in the New York Times (click HERE). "Circumcision rates have fallen in part because the American Academy of Pediatrics, which sets the guidelines for infant care, does not endorse routine circumcision. Its policy says that circumcision is “not essential to the child’s current well-being,” and as a result, many state Medicaid programs do not cover the operation," the article continues.  In addition there are many sources that claim the skin removed during the surgery holds millions of sensory nerve cells thus reducing sensation.

This knee-jerk reaction of those in government health programs sets a level where to question a policy is akin to ignorance. Nonetheless, I point out that this is a country of free will and free choice and to require that all infants are circumcised will certainly violate that, especially when the fundamental issues of HIV/AIDS are not even addressed.

What they are saying is that all things being equal, a guy will have a lower chance of getting HIV during unprotected sex with an unknown partner if he is clipped rather than intact. And the counter-argument is that those snipped can now not worry about getting the disease – right?  We the stupid led by the blind can always find our way in the dark.

Shouldn't the guy be better off finding out how NOT to get infected in the first place? 

"Based on the studies published in the scientific literature, it is incorrect to assert that circumcision prevents HIV infection," according to an article in the International Journal of STD & AIDS. Robert Van Howe of the Department of Pediatrics at Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin wrote: "Even if studies showing circumcision to be beneficial are accurate, the risk from circumcision outweighs any small benefit it may have. To depend on circumcision to protect against HIV infection in lieu of condoms, which have been shown to be efficacious, is dangerous." (click to read the whole article)

You can't regulate stupidity and if you really want to reduce HIV/AIDS the answer is even more simple - cut off the penis and solve the problem altogether.

Watch, now that I have said it, the CDC will be on top of that plan next week.  And why are these people allowed to spend large amounts of money to learn things that prove to be open ended questions?

There are many countries in the world where circumcision is not the norm. Even within the US there are many cultures who do not practice this form of plastic surgery.  During WW II there were countries where female circumcision was forced upon the female population at birth, also due to "authority" figures who were "experts" at social manipulation. That one ended disastrously. If you are asking how that works - go Google it.

The medically manipulative also added "that circumcision has health benefits even beyond H.I.V. prevention, like reducing urinary tract infections for baby boys," something that is so low a concern that throwing it in there is a sad grasp for justification.

I am not advocating non-circumcision anymore than I am advocating it. I am not telling you whether I, or my family male members are "helmet heads" or "anteaters."  But what I will tell you is that "experts" in this country are often the poorest form of intelligence, as demonstrated by all the things that ultimately get proved wrong, recalled or cause death, pain and misery.

It is not the job of government, especially in a democratic nation, to dictate what I must do to my body, my child's body especially where the benefits of an intelligent education far outweigh the benefits of mandatory surgery.  

So keep your hands off my penis. I’m the only one who gets to play with it. Meantime, I'm still swimming in the pan and I am feeling the heat being turned up yet again from those who want to run my life their way.

NEXT WEEK: Mandatory hair replacement for bald men shown to increase intelligence and sex drive. Sign up HERE and dream on.

MisterWriter

Life’s a Beach and then you Fly…

An afternoon at Baker Beach in San Francisco, Saturday, before the Raiders/49’ers thrashing and traffic that would make Henry Ford reconsider the horse and carriage. The family went, shivering , yet happy to play with sand through their fingers and toes on a day too damn cold for nudists to dare show their wares.  And I thought, what a great day for a photograph of something relevant like philosophical birds pondering the lost feather of life imbedded in the sand, or an Asian family ducking in and out of the surf, taunting, teasing and running like hell as the water lapped up at them.

A lonely fisherman tried his hand time and again, wrist flicks to launch the bait into the churning water, a mist rising to engulf him as a partially obscured Golden Gate Bridge peeked through in the background. But you did not notice the young lovers running past, frisky after a grope at the base of old Golden and now well into a race for their evening delights. Or the woman with two dogs, one a lab struggling with a huge limb from a tree that had drifted beachward. 

A young woman, tossed golden bleached hair and pouty lips dropping her slippers and bundling herself against the cold, walking down to the water’s edge and staring for a long moment before retreating, certain that love was not on the beach today, but not willing to give up her dreams.

My wife and children played beside me, sand castles and carefree giggles between sandwich bites, huddled close to the walkway so that the biting wind was just a chilled breeze. The air was salt fresh, misted and wafting – how could the moment be more perfect?

It is too easy to forget that life can be the shits, the pain, the angst and the backstabbing that we see and hear of daily. Likewise, open your eyes – life can be a promise unrealized, a hope borne upon the wind on which the gull has just caught lift, a glimpse of golden light shafting through a bridge span, through the haze and the mist with a wish that many have felt throughout the decades of the life of the span and the beach and the fragrance of the essence of life you find at the beach when you look.

It was a good day. And I cared little about the football game spawning far too close by.  It was a good day to fly.

MisterWriter

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THE CONVICTED MAN GOES FREE

The Boeing 747 was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, claiming the lives of everyone on the aircraft and 11 people on the ground.

But now Abdelbaet Ali Mohmed al Megrahi is being set free because he is dying from pancreatic cancer. Is it just me or do we really not care about the true victims; the families of those who died?  I think Abdelbaet Ali Mohmed al Megrahi should rot in the jail cell and no one should report on his death.

MisterWriter

DUMMIES IN PARADISE

Need I say more?

MisterWriter

Earn CEO Income from home - have you seen the signs? BEWARE!

Across the city of Concord, tacked to sign poles, this little piece of junk advertising for a job. Earn CEO Income from home...

In case you are wondering this is the company, I did some digging and even called the 800 number... you can click any image for the original web page...

"This is a real business..." the phone message says, but of course, like all these "promises" businesses looking for suckers, it is part of a chain that links to http://www.incomesunlimited.com/

out of Arizona with no contact names.

If you could earn CEO income with this outfit do you think they would be advertising by adhering signs (illegally) to city property?   

Here is an ad they had in Auckland, New Zealand - touting "an illiterate mum " making a large amount of money.

SCAMBUSTERS in New Zealand were hot on their trail...

They could tell BS from across the planet...

BUT IT GETS BETTER...

 

Check out this video about the program - I have include the text from below the video to show the link.

 

The man above talks about a $1500 investment as well as a sales quote prior to earning any money... uh-huh!

CEO Income from home? I don't think so. Not unless you are manufacturing or selling illegal drugs! Of course, there is a sucker born every minute who thinks that an anonymous sign that tells you that you can get rich is true. That's why so many companies exist.

By the way, all the images are linked to their source files - just click them to get the originals.

I suggest ripping these signs down whenever you see them and saving the city a few bucks having to do it themselves.

Comments?

MisterWriter

Newton and the blogging audience

One of Newton's Laws states that to every force or action there is an equal and opposite force or reaction.

Blogging allows this effect to be prominent. A blogger will make a statement only to be countered by every possible variation of that statement. The end result is a mass of opinion that can completely negate any point into a jumble that cannot adequately be proved one way of another in any reasonable timeframe.

An example: a policeman makes an arrest after a long chase, pinning the suspect to the ground with his knees as he slaps on the handcuffs.

The comments will state all possibilities from the police officer acting in a heroic manner, to the police officer being a racist pig persecuting the suspect and inflicting extreme physical pain in the process of arresting him. There will be arguments that the suspect was the real victim having lost his job the week before, to comments that the suspect should be taken outside and shot rather than having to waste the court's time.

Each comment will garner more comments, at times dipping into the realm of name calling, all while firmly protected by the cloak of anonymity.  Some commenters will claim to be relatives of the suspect, of the officer, or pose as other officers to try and ram home their own point of view.

In the end the original posting that may have had some merit of interest has been polluted by the posting of all possible permutations of opinions leaving the reader drained of concern or interest.

Some call this objective. Others call it ridiculousness that panders to the needs of the many for a measure of self-importance by voicing their opinion.

So why do we enjoy our blogs? And why do we scan the comments, looking for that place to add our input, even though that input will surely be trashed by another anonymous  comment effectively negating any effect of value?

MisterWriter

Last days for the AUGUST CONCORDIAN $100 CASH DRAWING - enter if you have not done so

The deadline for the drawing for The Concordian $100 for August is the 15th. Hurry and enter to win. Click the image to get there quickly...

MisterWriter

It's time to play "WHO WANTS TO BE A SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT?" starring...YOU!!!

Leadership Associates Executive Search Advisors, Jim Brown and Rene Town, have been selected by the MDUSD Board of Education to conduct the recruitment and search process for a new district leader.  Scheduled for Sept. 1 and 2 in the evening at Willow Creek, the search begins with input from the public.

Well, we know what we don't want! And we know how difficult it is to get rid of superintendents that are not working for the district - or you. So may I suggest that EVERYONE with a kid attending an MDUSD school, rise to the occasion and  get involved? It is a fresh start, a brand new day, the start of a new generation, a chance to clear the old cobwebs away....

According to board president, Gary Eberhart, "The consultants will be asking two primary questions: What are the desirable qualities, characteristics, background and experiences (professional and personal) for the next superintendent of the Mt. Diablo Unified School District? What do you see as the strengths of the district and the major challenges facing the district in the years ahead?"

As a former teacher I recall those questions being asked by the then superintendent of public education (he's gone, too) about the search for a new school principal. The problem arose that after all the input he announced that he was looking for Jesus Christ based on the answers given. And Jesus certainly was not the end result as teachers will attest.

I hope this search fares better. With the new board majority and the push for a greater accountability and transparency, I will give the board the benefit of the doubt. A lot of their direction will come from the stakeholders in this district. And that means YOU!

You may add your input by email if you cannot, or will not, attend. Just email: leadershipassociates@cox.net.   I also invite you to post your comments here and I will be sure to send them on to the board.

MisterWriter

Who is looking for a job? Who is looking for a teaching job?

I'm curious to see how many people are out job hunting?  What have been your experiences? Are there jobs out there? Has the pay dropped? Are you having to lower your sights to jobs that you would not otherwise have taken?

What about teachers? MDUSD let loose a whole bunch of teachers and many have filtered their way through to other districts. So where does that leave teachers who are returning to larger class sizes, less funding, no sports, no music, library and so on?  How do you feel?

Share your job hunting experiences? IS it a brave new world or a dead old world out there? And what would make it better for you?

I'm curious as to your responses.

MisterWriter

I'M BETTER NOW - ON A MEDICATION THAT WORKS FOR ME

Well you could tell with all the angst in recent postings that something was up with me - not my usual fun loving self. After many tests, blood work, trips to the MD, PhD, MSRP, GGPD, and RSVP I was given a diagnosis and a treatment option that I had not known about before. Thank goodness there is a medication for my condition that will, with some luck, few side effects and a low out of pocket at the dispensary when I fill the prescription, allow me to resume a normal way of life.

And so I would like to share: My doctor called it hyper-cognitive disassociative proclivity toward internalized mesmerdemia resulting in latent delusions of being able to initiate change through external dialogs.

Quite a mouthful, I know. The medication is relatively new, and I have to take it three times a day at a very high dose. It is OBLIVIA - Extended Release and my doctor promises that after a few weeks on it I just wont give a crap about much at all. I can't wait. So far this is the best solution I have found.

MisterWriter

There is no such thing as a bad mood – only cognitive moodulation

I’ve been in a foul mood all
week. I am often asked
whether this is a bad thing and
my answer surprises many
people. In fact, my bad mood
is a good thing, as is yours.

The assumption that a
mood creates or destroys the
ambient phase of life is a mistaken
assumption. Certainly it
is no fun to look at someone’s
dour expression. A bad mood,
however, is really a problem solving
challenge since it usually
has a cause and effect
component. And as such, my
bad moods are merely gateways
to finding solutions to
problems that have soured my
mood.

I say this quite lightly, I
readily admit. I am not a malicious
person prone to self indulgent
whims of negative
melodrama; quite the contrary,
I try to live my life in peace,
enjoying those things that I
can before my time to live and
breathe expires. Quite honestly,
I do my very best to remain
positive. These days, that can
be quite a challenge.

The reason why my bad
mood is not a bad thing lies in
the fact that by nature I am a
problem-solver. I like puzzles;
I like to find solutions, especially
solutions that benefit
those around me as much as
me. Again, a bit of a challenge
these days, I know.

Have you ever had a troubling
day at work, then gone to
sleep only to relive your problem
in your dreams where, by
some amazing illogic, the solution
presents itself to you?
The next morning, your problem
is solved.

In fact, the expression
“Sleep on it” refers to this very
phenomenon that has been
studied extensively and reported
on in a variety of scientific
journals. What it lacks is a
name. Let’s call it “moodulation,”
the art of reversing
problem-induced moods
through dream therapy.

I am one who partakes in
moodulation whenever possible,
although totally subconsciously.
Problems that arise
during the day, whether personal
or work-related, transform
through figurative imagination
into macabre dreamplays
that manage to spill out a
practical, real-world solution
that I not only recall upon
waking up but can safely
employ. It doesn’t get better
than that.

Right now, my mood is
reflective – seeking answers to
daily issues that need to be
resolved. While moody, my
mind is processing the two
dozen or so scenarios that
could exist based on choices
that I could make. I can pass
through the options available,
analyze them and incorporate
or dispel them as appropriate.

So far there has been a lot
of dispelling, but that is OK;
the processing of a solution
leaves me feeling warm, enjoying
the inner solitude.

And I have no doubt that it will be
short-lived; it almost always is.
I expect to dream one night
soon and my mood will pass as
the solution presents itself in
blinding simplicity. I think I
can deal with it at that point.

MisterWriter

first published in the Clayton Pioneer
 Photo credit - HERE

Pondering the fall of modern society while swimming in the pan

There is an old saying that says if you throw a fish into a pot of boiling water it will attempt to jump out, but if you put a fish into a pot of room temperature water which is over a flame, the fish will continue to swim until the temperature kills it.

In our society we have many signs of an impending disaster. Like the astronauts, there are clear signs of things going wrong systematically. The freedoms we hold so dear, blind us to the recognition that everything is out of control. The very structure of society is breaking and instead of facing that fact, in denial, we attempt to scotch tape it back together again. In that regard we are very much like the fish in the pan slowly swimming to their deaths. 

If I point a gun at your child's head you will fear what I might do. If I get arrested because of it, you will want me locked up where I can do no further harm. Will you argue for my right to live in a country club prison? Will you suggest that the state employ a $400,000 year dentist or psychiatrist to work on me?  Will you allow me the luxury of filing endless lawsuits against the state for wrongful imprisonment?  Will you humor the possibility that I was not in my right mind at the time and that subsequently I have returned to a normal state where I would never point a gun at a child's head, let alone your child? Will you revel in my getting sentenced to twenty years only to be eligible for parole in ten years? Will you delight that when they let me out they assign me an overworked and underpaid social worker who, unlike the $400,000 year prison dentist, can barely make ends meet himself?

If a crime is done to you, or if the lives of your spouse or children is involved, you have no doubt about the consequences that should be implemented. You are the victim and have a right to feel safe in society. The criminal has no such right - they violated the law and lost that right. At least they should have lost that right. Unless you are the victim of a crime, the abundance of compassion that blinds us in this country will instead decide what choices you make.

In our society, the prison walls do little to protect us. Go down the wrong street and you will find there are many cities where a law abiding citizen is a fool with a short life span. Laws protect the criminals. If you doubt that, examine the state of the country where the crooked business practices that rewarded corporate executives that should have put them out of business were instead financed by us - saved to lie, cheat and steal yet another day. But you - the fool - the one who follows the rules, you get to enjoy your credit card interest rates going up, and run the risk of a job loss, or a loss of home because you followed the rules, because you were a decent person who only wanted to do the right thing.

In our society, a man who had millions of dollars from singing, who had a troubled life and death that continues to get more bizarre, is celebrated, while troops who died in another country are silently mourned by their families alone because their country was too interested in a celebrity behaving badly rather than celebrating the value of a life lost..

There are days when I wonder when we will ask when the insanity will stop, when will it get better? We keep putting scotch tape on the holes in the fabric of our society. We do not hold citizens accountable for their bad behavior, do not hold parents accountable for allowing their children to become thugs, make excuses for why we can no longer demand that children learn something of value in school. 

Instead we buy more scotch tape to hold it together, so we can claim that we have tried everything; it is just not our fault that the tape is weak and the problems so big.

We spend far too much time celebrating worthless people whose only claim to fame is that they have money in the bank - our money, money that would have been better spent teaching our children to stand up for what is right, no matter the price.

It is our fault. We keep swimming no matter how hot it gets.

MisterWriter

The picture of the glass building is a new prison in Austria - part of an email hoax claiming it to be a US prison. Nonetheless it is disturbing that the luxury prison is an option anywhere. Click HERE to read about it.

BECAUSE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL YOU HAVE BREASTS BEFORE YOU START BREASTFEEDING YOUR BABY

That famous line from the movie Forrest Gump goes "Stupid is what stupid does," and apparently some Spaniard with a nipple fetish and some brain damage has decided to make it fun for little girls to breast feed! The tagline for the toy reads, "Because you shouldn't have to wait until you have breasts before you start breastfeeding your baby."

Watch the video. As one viewer commented - what's next? A home circumcision toy for boys? Does anyone else see a trend here?

MisterWriter

[Note:I deleted the reference to "seeing more funny videos at..." which came with the video because I didn't think it was funny.]

No Foresight for Newspapers: Is Claycord the local version of the Associated Press?

News magnate Rupert Murdoch wants to charge for online news content but added the proviso "If we ever have any." I had to laugh. Apparently Murdoch knows that the traditional means of delivering the news is in its death throes and regardless of their online presence, the Web versions suffer from the same lack of timely content as their paper versions.

Enter Claycord.com and other blog sites with "connections" to local people and local people of influence who get the news FIRST; local news and in far greater detail than newspapers like the CCTimes can get given how thinly spread they are these days. How can the  urban daily newspapers compete? Only by subscribing to  Claycord.com for the right to use stories he gets first (not unlike the Associated Press service.)

The application of citizen journalists, people reporting the events they witness, along with no shortage of digital imagery allows for the local blogger with connections to offer the news immediately, as it unfolds, long before the other media outlets can get the story.

This only happens locally, however, which raises the point that the local blogger "owns" a territory which by the nature of the content offered gives it a tangible cash value.

What is even more amusing is the fact that the old giant, Murdoch, even knowing that most of the content is not original source material - most subscribe to the AP - still believes that charging for whatever content he has is a potentially valid model.

So I ask Mr. Murdoch, why would I pay for his content when there is no shortage of the same content for free? Even if he were to publish original content, I can find the story somewhere in the world wide web at no charge. Such is the nature of the Internet.

To give me a reason to pay there needs to be something that directly affects ME. And that means local content, timely, in-depth; things that I want to know about. Would I pay if Claycord was a subscription service? Given that he has proved the power of his sources in the myriad of timely news pieces about our local community, the answer would be yes. There is a value there.

The future of the news media will require a radical shift in thinking. My understanding from sources within the CCTimes is that regular staff brainstorming takes place about how to turn the paper around, how to survive the impact caused by the shift away from print news as well as how to compete with bloggers like Claycord.  Of course no one asked me. The answer is clear to me. The old axiom that if you can't beat them; join them, holds true.  Claycord offers a resource the Times does not have; a ton of citizen reporters sending in information and leads. Surely someone at the Times can figure out the next step?

My prediction about print media is as follows: Unless someone devises a material that feels like paper but allows digital conductivity, thus allowing papers and magazines to leave paper behind and rely simply on a tactile digital version, most print publications, and the printing industry itself will go the way of the horse and carriage, gas street lamps, and carving messages on stone tablets.

MisterWriter

MATING IN THE FIELDS WITH WILD ABANDON...

Made you look!

They say life begins at forty; but they are full of crap when they say that because life is not better than it was at thirty. It is, however not necessarily worse so long as you have parts that work and get to work the parts that you want to work. By that reckoning any age is a good age so long as you are breathing.  The bloody optimists of society who must find something positive to say about everything have created those Hallmark sentiments about "the best is yet to be," and "today's 50 was yesterday's 30? Or is it the other way around?

I liked my thirties -old enough to have some power, young enough to still be idealistic and hopeful that the human race won't resort to nuclear annihilation back to that bone throwing chimp from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. But then we are still chimps; suit wearing monkeys who like to ape roles, grab our bananas and mate in the field with wild abandon.  And that's just the politicians and the actors; the rest of us are too damned tired to try sometimes. Between mortgage payments and college fees, the demise of society in the death throes of a depression-less recession, not to mention the absolute arrogance of youth who really don't give a crap about the standards of decent behavior, any idealism is a short-lived whiff of pheromones that you enjoy from 30-40 before realizing that your ass is in serious trouble if you are not producing some decent income.

I liked my forties even though those days of reckless drinking and stuffing whatever food into my then skinny frame suddenly shifted into the male equivalent of a sixth month pregnancy front end. Then came exercise, sweating, sit ups, crunches, protein shakes, and the countdown from mister MD that the days of the yearly internal finger probe would be replaced at 50 by the full-in assault of the colon by a team of trainees and some sedatives. "Was it good for you, too?" Yeah, life begins at fifty!

I miss the thirties and the forties. I miss my hair that decided to go skinny dipping into the sea of DHT. The face in the mirror changed, so I stopped shaving. But my mind is sharper now than it ever was. I am just saddened that everywhere I look there are few people who appreciate the acerbic wit, let along understand the definition of the word "acerbic."  Fess up if you just looked it up!!!

Recently, I started looking up aging on the Web with the idea of writing an article. That was a depressing exercise. Here are some of the links that are related to aging:

National Council on Aging,

Department of Aging,

Administration on Aging,

United States Senate Special Committee on Aging,

National Institute on Aging,

The Aging Research Center,

Commission on Aging,

Aging Research Center (ARC),

Welcome to Careers in Aging,

American Society on Aging,

The Aging Journal,

The Alliance for Aging Research,

The Aging Initiative,

Aging Network Services,

Commission on Law and Aging,

American Federation of Aging Research,

American Aging Association,

Aging Cell - Journal Information,

National Academy on an Aging Society.

I could go on. But here is what I really want to say to address this glut-run on learning about what the body is doing for free and on its own. What I want to say is "f*$%k it all!" What a waste of money!

There is no secret here. You get older. The trick is to last longer, live better, have fewer health issues and get to see a few more days of those you love. There is no secret to that. You just have to want to. And that is all.  

I want to. And I have a decade to contemplate what I will say about sixty. I know it will be filled with acerbic wit!

MisterWriter

The Apple I-Pop! First it hisses then it explodes. Is that stewed apples?

All you I-pod users take note; it may not just be the illegal music downloading that's hot; some of the devices actually explode into flames, truly an interactive media format. Worse is the fact that Apple reportedly wanted to silence that fact by having the family of one such device sign a non-disclosure agreement. Hmmmm - that sounds like a Microsoft tactic! Read on for more HERE or click the picture above.

MisterWriter