Last week, my phone gratuitously sent me the above enhanced picture of a photo I took during the ice event. My phone has not done this before. However, it has offered me slide shows of pictures. Why? What program is running in the background or is this a cloud service? It feels intrusive.
Went to the grocery store for the first time since the ice event. Downed trees and branches dotted the roadside waiting for pickup. Yesterday, this is February, the temperature was in the seventies today the temperature is in the fifties. The trees that were most affected by the ice that I could easily identify were the pines, magnolias, and cedar trees. I think I saw downed catalpa tree branches, but I’m not sure about that. The oaks, walnuts, and fruit trees didn’t appear to be as affected by the ice. I’m glad I got rid of the Bradford Pear trees that were in the yard. Bradford Pears were not made for ice events or high winds.
Most trees will recover from Mother Nature’s wrath. And that’s a good thing. Do we ever think about how there would be no us without trees? Whenever I see a lot being clear cut, I wonder if any thought goes into the decision except greed. So many of us have lost connection with that which sustains us.
Monkey Grass–I know why we plant it. It really looks good as a border. However, it is invasive. I had a lily patch, native lilies so they had spread. Well, for two years I could not garden and the monkey grass which was some yards away jumped into that bed and took over. Today, I dug up the lilies that remained. The herbicide that I sprayed on the monkey grass last year…well, it turned some of the grass brown. So, I think I will have to dig it up. Not looking forward to that!
We live in a time where people are being destroyed, literally and figuratively, so a felon, who is evil, can remain in power and the sycophants that surround him and enable his horrors can feed off him.
And some melanated people have drank of his evil and found it delicious.
Another thing the dystopian novels have in common…no empathy…none. The two female authors did have a hint of empathy, but toxic individuality, one of the hallmarks of the patriarchy, was centered.
We live in a time that if air could be monetized, it would be. And these greedy capitalists would sell different grades of air, with the purest, costing more than the average person could pay. The few restrictions on polluting the air and water are being removed so the corporations can make more money. The people in power have no care or concern for the future. Extract now for their benefit and damn everyone else. Earth’ life/natural cycle is being disrupted and greed doesn’t care.
“WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) – The United States is planning to send about 200 troops to Nigeria to train the African nation’s military to fight Islamist militants, a U.S. official said on Tuesday…
The U.S. military said last week it sent a small team of troops to Nigeria without specifying a number, marking the first acknowledgment of U.S. forces on the ground since Washington struck by air on Christmas Day.”
Why? Why intervene in a “shithole country”? If one remembers Viet Nam…the U.S. first sent advisors and trainers. Then, things escalated when the oil companies thought there was oil in the Tonkin Gulf. There is oil in Nigeria. So, now we wait for one of those advisers/trainers to get killed so there can be the toddler response of “avenge American life” and more soldiers sent to subdue the enemy. Bloodbath waiting to happen!
Is the Nigerian government that stupid and dependent on foreign monies, etc. that it will tolerate a U.S. presence/occupation in Nigeria? Will the people acquiesce? Is this “cooperation” because of the proposed “Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026” being considered by Congress? Doesn’t the Nigerian government realize that the hypocrites in the United States do not care about the Christians in Nigeria? Nigerians need to run from any intervention by faith based U,S, organizations. Haven’t those organizations done enough harm to the people on the African continent? Fake doctors killing children, religious representatives raping and impregnating girls…Nigeria haven’t you heard?
Why voluntarily give evil a foothold in your country. Nigeria take your sovereignty seriously and reject interference from all Western and Eastern countries. Deal with the internal conflict yourself. Have you ever thought that the artificial borders created by the colonizers should be reconsidered? And you do know that the white mediocrity is jealous of Nigerians who come here and who are successful?
Merriam-Webster defines “happy” as enjoying or characterized by well-being and contentment. I think this is the definition used by the dystopian novels that I have recently read. However, the achievement of “happy” in those books is through drugs, mind-control, draconian laws, illiteracy, other people’s misery as entertainment, and/or artificial worlds created by machines to lull one. Not one of the books and others deal with working on oneself, knowing oneself, searching for inner meaning, caring for this Earth. Happy is always a state of being provided by or forced upon one by an outside agent. So are these people truly happy if they have no concept of well being or contentment or self?
Put another way, if one has no individual autonomy, how could one experience any emotion? How can one experience a positive emotion when there is no opposite to compare it to? Wouldn’t one be like a robot operating within the parameters of certain algorithms? One would not be a human being as we were meant to be.
Wikipedia–Asimov’s Laws of Robotics
Zeroth Law stating that a robot must not harm humanity.
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Hasn’t AI as currently configured violated these laws? I know these laws are fictional, but it was my understanding that ethical scientists would be incorporating laws like these into artificial intelligence. The AI that is currently available to the masses lies with impunity and provides false information that it creates. I would say that a human is being injured when provided with false information that could cause physical, monetary, career consequences detrimental to the human. Ethical scientist…the oligarchs in the companies creating AI have no ethics. And finding an ethical scientist is a problem in a time in which politicians, ministers, businesses, the average joe consider ethics a hindrance to greed.
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Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it. Malcolm X
Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. Malcolm X
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