Steve Jobs Didn’t Create Many American Jobs

I know, Steve Jobs is still dead, and at 56, that’s pretty young to move on to your next life (he was a Buddhist).  However, I guess there’s a certain irony in the guy’s name because he decided to give most (920,000) of the jobs at Apple to his fellow Buddhists in China (Foxxconn).  Of course, he is no different than most of the corporations in America who are allowed to outsource, but I thought it was just a wee bit strange that the media was giving this fellow so much adulation as an “American hero” when he really wasn’t too interested in helping out his fellow Americans enough to give them a job.

Another interesting side note is the fact that Apple recently said it is outsourcing a new call center to Bangalore, India.  Ironically, many of the jobs require English language proficiency, so IT Americans are moving to India to get one of the jobs from Apple!  It looks like you need to be an ex-patriot to get an American job these days.

How Green is Your Leaf?

Yes, I am now an owner of a Leaf, blowing in the wind, hoping my condo board will approve the installation of solar panels so we can get off the electric coal grid.  However, since my government has gotten off the Green bandwagon (cronyism between the State Department and Big Oil in the XL Canada Tar Sands Pipeline and the ExxonMobil deal with Russia to drill in the Arctic), I feel like my Leaf is in the middle of a Bob Dylan nightmare.

While major cities in Europe, like Paris, have deals to use electric vehicles for the betterment of the planet, the United States car-buying public is actually buying fewer hybrids and electric vehicles!  Why the disconnect?  I can answer that easily.  Why doesn’t the American public realize why we’re occupying the Middle East:  big oil and big minerals and even big pharma!  Big oil because of the profit to be made on the steadily disappearing fossil fuels on the planet; big minerals because of the recently discovered caches of them in Afghanistan, and big pharma because of the “human laboratories” being used in these countries to test high-profit drugs before they get to market.

As the young people begin to revolt in New York City (and they’re being covered by the media as “a not focused band of rowdies and partiers”), I hope the attention will swing toward the election of representatives who understand the “Green swindle” being perpetrated on the American public.  One small example is the investment in a solar company that went belly-up (Solyndra), but I know there are many others.  We need to kick these pols who are on the take out of office and begin a Green Party in America that has a serious social conscience about what remains of our Good Earth.

Until then, I guess I’ll hang in the wind inside my little Leaf, blowing my blurbs on my little blog, hoping those kids on Wall Street get more attention for their specific identification of what’s wrong in America.  Make no mistake.  These demonstrators represent many detailed examples of issues we need to face right away for our collective survival.

Honorable Mention in Winter Contest at New Millennium Writings

My flash fiction, “How Goes the Battle?” received Honorable Mention in the fiction contest at New Millennium Writings.  It might be published in the print edition anthology.

Here’s the letter:

Congratulations on Your
Award in New Millennium
Writings…  

       July 18, 2011

Dear James,

    Congratulations on your Honorable Mention Award
for your fine piece, “How Goes the Battle,” in the New Millennium Writings competition that closed January 31, 2011. Your name will appear on a special Awards page in our next issue of New Millennium Writings, 2012, due out next winter, along with other finalists in our 31st Consecutive Awards. The winners and runners-up, including your entry, were selected from about 1,200 total submissions in four categories. The quality was high, and you should be proud of your accomplishment. We certainly are. Feel free to forward or copy this letter to anyone, to post to blogs, Facebook, or save to other applications in order to print and or keep in a suitable format.

    By August 31, we’ll contact any Honorable Mention winners we’d like to publish. You’ll receive your free copy of next year’s issue before the end of February, hopefully much sooner.

       In answer to other frequently asked questions, no,
your good showing does not disqualify you from entering this or any other contest as often as you like, with this or any other work of your choosing. We accept non-contest general submissions in the months of January through March only. If you’re interested in our next contest, which has a deadline of July 31, 2011, please visit our website at www.writingawards.com, or follow guidelines below.

        Mostly we just want to say we appreciate your interest in New Millennium Writings and the part you play in our success. Please tell others about us. Again, congratulations on your achievement. 

Sincerely yours,

Don S.
Williams

Don Williams, Editor and
Publisher,

donwilliams7@charter.net

Who Really Cares about Caylee Anthony?

Caylee Anthony, Victim

With the innocent verdict in the Casey Anthony trial, once again, America missed a golden opportunity to discuss an underlying cause of family dysfunction that goes without notice on the media stage.  Just as when the late icon Michael Jackson was hauled into court several times on charges of sexual molestation of minors, only to be let off, the “hot mom,” 25-year-old Casey Anthony, was also exonerated and awaits what some “experts” are saying “instant fame and fortune.”

Most of the media wants Casey’s head on a platter.  She and the family have received death threats, and yet the underlying issue is barely being mentioned, except in the trial itself, and then only as a strategy to get their client off.

Children are often the victims in cases where the parents are sexually permissive or permiscuous.  One example was in San Diego and the trial of David Westerfield, accused of killing Danielle van Dam.  The judge in the trial dismissed the issue of the parents of Danielle being swingers as being irrelevant, even though the child had often seen her parents in various acts of sex in their garage with other partners in their swinging groups.  David Westerfield was attracted to the parents because of their status as swingers.  In the mind of any molester, a child who witnesses such dysfunction is seen as “groomed” for unnatural sex acts.  In other words, if not for the parents’ sexually permissive lifestyle, their daughter may be alive today.  However, this underlying “societal cause” of the murder was dismissed by the court, just as the media has dismissed the underlying dysfunction of the Anthony family as being a direct cause of the death of the little girl.

My hope is that somebody gets to the heart of the Anthony case by doing the following:

1. Get psychiatric treatment/hypnosis for Casey to see what caused the multiple-personality disorder and pathological lying she exhibits.  Quite often, these are symptoms of traumatic and repeated sex abuse by one or more members of a family.
2. Get a DNA test of both the father and his son to determine possible parentage of Caylee Anthony.  If she was a product of incest, then a legal case can be made against the parents.  The fact that the parents showed visible “shock” when their daughter was acquitted is enough to make this kind of DNA check almost mandatory.  As horrible as this may sound, the mother could have also played a willing part in the sexual molestation of Casey.
3. Try to uncover in psychiatric analysis whether or not Casey feared for her daughter being the “next victim” in the family’s molestations.  Whoever killed Caylee becomes almost beside the point if it were the family’s sexual dysfunction that created the guilt and horror that ultimately caused her sacrificial death.

I come from a dysfunctional family, and I know that there are no boundaries, sexual or otherwise, to help the victims in the family.  The roles are frozen, and there is no democracy in such a family.  Intimacy becomes a perverted and ugly thing that causes psychological and physcial damage for years to come.

Let’s quit looking to scapegoat anybody and get to the heart of the underlying problem in this case.  Let’s have an open dialogue about sexual incest in families and the victims who must pay the toll required for such incest to continue.  Many states are keeping the toll gates open, so these kinds of cases can be prosecuted.  Don’t sweep this under the media rug.

Oh, I Wish I Were an Anthony Weiner

In the early 1960s, there was a commercial on TV that sold weiners by Oscar Meyer.  In this version, a little kid with glasses (intellectual symbol) tries to march in the opposite direction from his peers, singing that if he were an Oscar Meyer Weiner, there would be nothing left of him because (of course) he would be eaten.  Naturally, the intellectual kid is overcome by peer pressure, and he joins in the march to become “loved” and not “eaten.”

Anthony Weiner, congressman from New York, was like that little bespectacled kid in the commercial.  He knew that if he became the wiener as object of lust for meat eaters then he would be eaten.  However, since some part of him was arrested in adolescence, he stopped growing into maturity when it came to his sex organ, and this was his ultimate downfall.  The sad thing is that in other aspects of his life he was admirable and intelligent.  Since he succumbed to adolescent peer pressure on the Internet (all the sex out there waiting for you!), he was castigated (perhaps even some wanted him castrated) as a pervert.

Who is the pervert?  Congressman Weiner admitted to America that he was sorry for his actions and that he was getting help for his personal problem.  This is the first step in recovery.  On the other hand, the media did not ask the next question:  what role does the media play in this sickness of Weiner’s?  If they had done this, then perhaps an intelligent discussion could have opened up, similar to the one that opened up when Anita Hill accused now-Justice Clarence Thomas of showing lewd videos to her and making obscene remarks in front of her face.

Women (including my wife) began admitting that they had previously allowed men to make such sexist remarks without taking any action against them because they thought they would never be heard.  We were able, as a society, to intelligently discuss the problem of sexism, even though Mr. Thomas was judged “good to go” by the Judiciary Committee in Congress.

Flash-forward to the ironies of today.  During the midst of the railing by the media to get to the bottom of “Weinergate,” the congressman kept insisting he was trying to gain the attention of the media to discuss real problems such as Justice Thomas (there’s that man again) having a conflict of interest over the Obama Health Care Plan, which was coming up for review by the highest court.  Millions of Americans, after all, could lose their coverage under the plan if it was judged to be unconstitutional, and Clarence Thomas and his wife can gain a lot of money if it is.  The media promptly ignored Weiner and focused on his wiener.

In fact, there are even “rumors” abounding about other transgressions, such as the alleged lesbian love affair between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Weiner’s wife, Huma.  Where does it all end?  It doesn’t, does it?  There is no shame when it comes to the media.  Why?  Because talk about sexual perversion sells more copy than real issues that can affect millions of Americans’ real lives in the here and now.

The media today only cares about the bottom line.  They no longer care or even attempt to discuss the lack of justice or fairness that many stories like this one imply.  In fact, the only story I came accross that even minimally brought up the injustice of Congressman Weiner’s “trial by fire” or “weinie roast,” was the column in The Nation, “Weiner in a Box,” by JoAnn Wypijewski.  She even brings up examples of congressmen who actually mixed political acts with sexual perversion but received little or no attention from the press.

Whatever personal malady Congressman Weiner may have, it should be left up to him and his psychaitrist to sort out.  This is a family and personal matter and not a public inquest.  Perhaps Mister Weiner had a childhood or adolescent hazing because of his name (his picture used in his tweets would allude to that)?

The press and the public, I submit, should be discussing how the Internet may be the real breeding ground for such narcissistic problems.  As a teacher of argument in college, I discover that my students must put personal opinion above any other expression.  That is when they say, “In my personal opinion,” it is as if just the mere mention that it is “their” opinion makes what they say even more important.  I have to make an entire lesson on how one tells the difference between and the subsequent importance of separating fact from opinion.  If most of the press had learned that lesson, perhaps we would be listening to some intelligent discourse about the problems of “sexting” and “narcissism” in this media culture and saving our real arguments for factual issues that can affect millions of people, like the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and the legality of the Obama Health Care Plan.  These were issues that were very important to Congressman Weiner.

In fact, one of the most passionate tongue lashings I have ever heard came from this congressman, and he should be remembered for that.  What was he so passionate about?  He was angry over the fact that the GOP was holding back a bill that would give medical care to victims of 9/11 first-responders (policemen, firemen, and others) which was being procedurally blocked by GOP members who refused to vote.  I would assume there are some real patriots out there who could care less that Weiner tweeted pictures of his junk to people on the airwaves.  He was, after all, standing up for them when it really counted.

What the Best Dressed Geek Will Wear

Forget about those stereotyped geeks you see on that reality show, Beauty and the Geek.  You know, the ones with the beards, the head light on a sweat band (for night jogging), the band-aid repaired horn-rimmed glasses, and the multitude of cross-colored ensembles worn to impress the color television audience and not the chicks.

I am going to talk to you—nay show you—what the hip, slick and cool geeks will soon be wearing in the authentic reality of techno-gadgetry, where one can, literally, “dress for success.”  The wearable technology I will describe is now, or soon will be, available at your local techno-gear shop, and each product I show you is aimed at making you a cyberspace knock-out.

The Zen of Cranium

My college students taught me a lesson one semester after I purchased my first iPod.  They informed me, rather blatantly, in an assignment I had them do that required them to create an ad parody.  They chose to parody the iPod commercials and how it was through clever advertising that Steve Jobs and crew had been able to “pull the MP3 wool over our ears and eyes.”   As a result of this techno-bashing from my students, my vote for music head gear for our successful (and smart) geek became Creative’s Zen MP3, radio and video player.  Do me a favor.  Just open up your web browser and pull up the specs on the iPod of your choice and then open a new window on the Zen player.  Go down the two lists and compare the features for yourself.  I am tired and embarrassed because my students showed me in their parody that I had made a very wrong decision.  It stands to reason why Creative could do the job better, and the resulting product does cost much less (a college student’s joy).  Creative’s been into digital sound a lot longer (they make sound cards, for heaven’s sake), and they also don’t spend a king’s ransom on marketing.   Ergo, the truly “enlightened” geek uses Zen to get his head high on his favorite “Z-tunes.”

While we’re on the head, instead of a light on a sweatband, why not wear the latest Bluetooth sunglasses?  As you scope out the babes or the boys, you can listen to sounds drifting from your 1 GB flash memory.  In addition, you can do the boss’s bidding with your cell phone’s listening and speaking devices hooked into your glasses via comfortable headphones built right inside these cool shades!  (Available at Modernjoys.com)  If this isn’t futuristic enough, try the “memory glasses” by MicroOptical, a company which is working in the MIT media lab to perfect a set of clear lens glasses that will tell you when your dentist’s appointment is and what to buy for your wife, husband or boss’s anniversary.   That’s right, a PDA will be displaying on a micro-screen right on your glass frames to jog your gray matter!  Talk about your Baby-Boomer dream glasses!

Okay, having just bashed the iPod, I’m now going to show you the iPhone.  What makes the iPhone cool is its integration of music and PDA technology.  But the really cool part is that you can access everything with a touch of the finger!  That’s right, grandma and grandpa, no more fumbling with a keypad or processing a multitude of maze-like directories.  The iPhone (4 or 8 GB versions) lets you access your calls and your wireless communications with your single digit on the screen.  In fact, it puts the “digit” back into digital.   However, since Mac has lined up with Cingular as its only provider, I issue a caveat.  Watch closely for those competitors with less braggadocio to come up with a less expensive and more flexible version of the iPhone.  You don’t want your students or (gasp!) children parodying you!   Another caveat:  as one can take pictures and record sounds, Big Brother may be watching you!   In fact, harmless sites like The Glogger Community (glogger.eyetap.org) could turn into “spy on your neighbor sites” if we should develop into a more paranoid society (God forbid).

The Mod Bod

All right, so you’re not a President or CEO.   However, even regular folks want to keep track of their vital signs (especially during these stressful days when wars escalate all around us).  Sensatex has created the “smart shirt,” which is a tee-shirt that registers all your body’s critical physiological information through the fiber-sensor system woven right into the fabric.   Your heart rate, respiration, and body temperature are all calibrated and relayed in real time for analysis.  Even if you’re not a hypochondriac, this tee-shirt would be great for mountain-climbing or other strenuous exercise.   Also, consider BodyMedia, a Pittsburgh company that makes a special “smart band.” It’s worn on the upper arm and collects data on the wearer’s physical state, such as the way the body releases heat, so you can stay healthy all year long.

Forget about the geek with the twelve-pocket safari vest.  You can now wear the Scott EVEST. Some EVESTS have room for 42 items, such as portable keyboards, digital cameras, GPS devices and small laptops. Levi Strauss can outfit you with their RedWire DLX jeans, with a built-in iPod docking cradle pocket and a retractable headphone. Thomas Pink is selling a Commuter Tie and dress shirt, which have pockets to hold an iPod and a loop to contain the headphone wires. Another piece of clothing incorporating the iPod is Brookstone’s technology-ready fleece jacket.  Still another iPod-enabled coat is produced by Kenpo, which has iPod controls on the sleeves.

Need a complete computer to wear?  No problem.  Xybernaut has the Mobile Assistant V, a wearable computer that can be used for remote jobs, including those missions involving military operations.  James Bond never had it so good!  In fact, Dick Tracy would even love the Zypad WL 1000, a wrist-wearable, fully functional Linux system computer coming soon from the Parvus Corporation.

Hey, buddy, wanna buy a watch?   This hi-tech Seiko watch is packed into a very stylish casing and is in fact an extension of your phone, and you’ll be able (at first) to play around with the volume of the ringtone of your phone. It can also alert you when you have an SMS or email, and it can display the number and the name of the person that is calling you.  Finally, it will also alert you when the Bluetooth connection between the watch and phone is broken, so you won’t forget your phone anymore.

However, if you just want to slip out of the house with a handy pocket communicator, then the Sony mylo is your portable item.  Enjoy your favorite online activities right under your thumbs. The mylo™ (My Life Online™) personal communicator lets you stay connected with your friends from just about anywhere with instant messaging, web browsing, music, pictures and videos—all concentrated in the palm of your hand. All you need to do is connect to an open WiFi hotspot (802.11b) and you can, browse the web with the built-in HTML web browser. With the built-in Skype software you can reach out to any Skype user on any Skype-enabled device and talk for free. Mylo is also a music player that allows you to share your playlists and stream songs between two mylo devices.

While we’re on the topic of hotspots, Wired Magazine’s Marty Graham recently wrote about all the summer vacation places that allow Wi-Fi connectivity.  Leatherman, as Dr. Beach, writes a top 10 list of U.S. beaches every year and offered these for top Wi-Fi beaches, in no particular order.  All have either 802.11b or 802.11g technology:

• La Jolla Shores, California, where Wi-Fi is available through the University of California at San Diego network
• Atlantic City, New Jersey — a classic among urban beaches
• South Beach Miami, where there’s plenty to e-mail home about
• San Elijo State Beach, California
• Clearwater Beach, Florida
• Caladesi  Beach, Florida
• Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
• Newport Beach, California
• Malibu Lagoon State Beach, California
• Waikikiand Waimea beaches,Hawaii

However, if you really want to instantly find a place from which you can connect to the Internet, then you have to see Jiwire.com.  Just type in the address where you want to
get a free connection and voila!  You’re ready to click-and-go.

Multi-colored, Oderless Footwear and Power Backpack

Don’t look for a radio in the shoe like Agent 99 and Maxwell Smart did on that ancient TV spy show Get Smart of the 60s and 70s.  The active geek of 2007 will, most likely, wear the Croc shoe.  This is probably the most “geek-looking” apparel, as these shoes resemble Dutch clogs, but they are certainly comfortable and economic, and they resist odors.

In addition, I like the way the company answers probing, technical inquiries given
to them by potential customers:

Question:
Can you boil and then eat the shoes?

Answer:  4 out of our 5 Crocs’ Customer Service Representatives in this study agreed that even though the shoes had a nice texture and looked tasty, they would not recommend eating the shoes.

Questions:
Can I microwave my Crocs shoes?

Answer:  100% of all Crocs Customer Service Representatives agreed, after thorough testing, that unless your Garden Gnome is in search of Lilliputian sized Crocs shoes, we do not recommend this action*

*Please note that no Crocs’ Customer Services Representatives or Garden Gnomes were harmed in these studies and that our products are latex free and contain no volatile organic compounds.

Most importantly, “geeks on the move” will not slip and slide away like their uncoordinated stereotypes do in movies and on TV.  Instead, they’ll have both feet planted firmly on the ground as they trudge the happy road into their high tech destinies.  Besides, what better way to insulate one from the electric shock of wearing all this high-tech gear than with rubber shoes? ☺

Finally, a professor from the University of Pennsylvania, Larry Rome, has developed a backpack that can give you the power you need for your electronic gadgets as you do your hiking.   Rome’s suspended-load backpack incorporates springs and a metal frame to convert a walker’s mechanical movements into enough electricity to replace the 20 pounds of batteries a soldier normally would carry, using a generator weighing just one pound. The same technology also could benefit hikers or emergency workers.

“Hearing how people couldn’t communicate (during January’s tsunami in Indonesia) because their satellite phones went dead, I realized this could give emergency responders electric independence,” Rome says. Useful “particularly on days when there’s no sun,” the backpack weighs 15 pounds, but Rome hopes to reduce it to 6 or 7.