Gab Away

There have been many posts on this blog regarding the evolution of 'social networking'. GeoCities, ICQ, YahooIM, AIM, Myspace, to name a few, have come and gone. Facebook, it's been opined, has outlived its usefulness... as have Twitter, et al.

The Twitter and YouTube on this page have gone unused for years. Facebook has been used only to keep up with close friends and family. There are no longer links to entries on this blog posted on social network pages.

At one time, this blog was all politics. Liberty and free thought started taking it over not long after it was started. However, there aren't many political posts on here, anymore, because it became tiresome.

This post will be a slight exception to the new trend. I signed up for Gab.ai. Gab has a LOT of controversial political and social views. Along with the typical normal folks, there are Antifa, Socialists, Communists, Nationalists, Nazis and any other controversial kinds of people you can imagine. Some have posited that it will become a breeding ground for violence, due to the lack of censorship. Some want it shut down.

Ask yourself this question, though: Isn't it better to have those who might act out of hate OUT IN THE OPEN instead of hiding in some secret meeting place plotting their violence? At Gab, you can try to talk some sense into them, or, at the least, get a better understanding of why they exist. If those who perpetrate violence based solely on the difference in appearance or belief were able to hear a counterpoint, it may not be enough to change their mind, but it might just be enough to keep them from acting out.

That's why we believe in free speech. It's much better to know what someone thinks who doesn't like you than to just have them unexpectedly start hurting people. Communication of any kind is imperative to peace.

Bitchute

Differential Equations: Mixing Problems: Example 1

Bitchute seems to be a decent alternative to YouTube for those who don't support arbitrary censorship. Here's hoping they do well. The free exchange of information is imperative to the future of the internet. More competition is always good and hopefully will inspire those who censor solely because the views expressed are in opposition to their own to reverse their course.

ASCII Reality

Can you imagine the world without text messaging or social media? Some of us don't have to imagine... we grew up without it. This isn't an ageist post, knocking young people or their proclivity for these things, it's more of a reflection on how the lack of instant communication may have made us appreciate human contact a little more, back then. Now, we're all just a few taps away from anyone and maybe we think that's real human contact.

Being just a click or tap away is deceiving. Body language is gone. You're not really in contact with that person... you're in contact with the preconception in your mind of who that person is. The few characters you see appearing on your screen don't give a full message, only a part. It's like that photoshop plugin filling in missing parts of an image. The mental picture you see is not really there; It's just auto-generated fill.

Maybe that's why, even with all this communication, you still find a lot of people are lonely. We fool ourselves with all the digital contact, trying to fill our social void that will never be filled with bits of data. Our bodies and minds know the difference.

Then again, this might be a complete misunderstanding and distortion of an instant communication marvel. Maybe it's better that people don't have to face the reality of the person on the other end. They can keep whatever image they want as real as they want, only rarely punctuating it with a few hours, here and there, of actual physical proximity.

Being Your Ally

Carl Sagan explaining, years ago, that the unseen isn't necessarily the nonexistent.

There may even be more than 4 dimensions. The current accepted scientific theories one can find suggest there may be around 10 dimensions in our universe. In the case of the theoretical multiverse, there may exist dimensions numbering in the 20s in some unstable universes.

In any case, we weren't born with the tools to observe more than 3 dimensions, although we can deduce by observing the indirect evidence, or 'shadows', of more. Is it important enough to spend precious time thinking about them, then? You be the judge.

Just know that the sum of those observations is something currently indescribable.

Drugs for Sale

Why are there prescription drug commercials on TV? Who goes to the doc and says, "Gimme summa dat stuff I seen on the TV bawks?" It gives me the heebie jeebies.

It also gives me hypochondria when they start describing side effects. Not only do I have to think about the potential for getting the disease the drug treats, but now they're talking about nausea, angina, and a host of things that are just subtle enough to make the mind play tricks. Just stop it!

Ursigram > Instagram

Dah dit dah dit dah dah dit dah. A lot of things in life are worth the hard work. Some just ain't.

Especially when you find out how easy it really was and feel ripped off. You can still have the pride in knowing you worked hard. Nah, all noise. Just noise.

Maybe in the remaining four years the 37% won't catch up. Let's hope not. There have been sacrifices made.

Missspelled?

No one is impressed by affect. It's best to be yourself. Too bad most of us don't know who we are.

Perhaps we should just say what's on our minds. If that were a real option, it would be cool. Cool.

Keep trying, though. Everyone has foibles. Remember that.