Issue 555 Three types of people March 25, 2015

So there are apparently three types of people in this world.  And frankly they are easily broken down by their spirit animals.  Here we go.  

Sheep:  People with this spirit animal are typically followers.  They simply go about the everyday thinking about nothing save their own lives and those they immediately care about.  However, as they are typically concerned with themselves, they ignore news and other events and so they are gullible, and are generally not able to protect themselves.

Wolves:  These individuals take advantage of others (typically of the sheep of our society).  They will use anybody and everybody to get their way and in the exact way they want it.  Their goals are selfish as they seek profit, power or simply act as parasites in our society.  They give real wolves a bad name.

Sheepdogs:  Here is the kind of person you want to be.  All sheepdogs are independent thinkers.  They don't give into group think and are willing to speak out when they know they are right or when it is most important.  These people are informative and will protect others when and wherever they can.

Conclusion:  Obviously everyone wants to be the sheepdog.  But, we are a little of each one of these.  So it comes down to how much of each you are.  I for one am typically a sheep, but I act like a sheepdog from time to time as the situation requires.  But, there are times I am a wolf so as to make sure that the right things are done in the way they should be if and when it becomes necessary.  But then there are people who are not a combination of these but are singular, and there are people who can transform themselves from sheep, to a sheep dog if the circumstances permit.  So the real question is what spirit animal are you?  What kind of person do you think you really are?

Issue 554 Should movies make you think? March 24, 2015

So, should movies make you think?  Not that senseless movies are bad (National Lampoons series was always fun for me as a kid), but we can do so much more.  Let us discuss.

What I think a really Good movie should do to us:  So what I would like, and I am sure others do as well, is to get more movies like "American Sniper", or "Patch Adams".  They made you think and made you try and figure out what you have learned.  So the smell test is, can the movie make us ask, who, what, when, where, why, and how.  These questions are asked in respect to the characters and their motivations, the story as to why is went the way it did, and even the plot.  It makes us try to understand and contemplate what we have learned.  If the story is dark, make sure it has a point, otherwise is simply a dark brooding movie that makes no sense.  Basically, give us a compelling story about real people with real problems.  I am not saying you cannot make it entertaining, but it can be an awesome learning experience.  "Argo" was a learning experience, even if not 100% historically accurate.  Even "How to Train Your Dragon" was something children can learn from with respect to friendship and trying hard to do what is right.  So yea these movies exist, and are fun to watch, but are they enough?

Conclusion:  Movies are a source of entertainment, but they do not have to exist in a vacuum.  They can make us look at torture from multiple facets.  We can see different kinds of friendships and how we can innocently harm each other or cause a friendship to become deeper by simply adding what we have obtained from psychology classes to the movie.  The sky really is the limit with films that can educate us and help us learn, so why not add real science, real sociology, psychology, history and power struggles to wherever and whenever they are applicable.  So, I say let us get compelling stories that make us think.

Issue 553 The Memory Chip March 23, 2015

In the future we may get something called a memory chip which will record everything that happens in our daily lives.  Sounds crazy, but it may actually come true.  So let us discuss.

The Chip:  Basically the chip is implanted in your body (brain) to record everything you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste.  Literally all that you are is recorded.  This concept was explored in a Robin Williams movie "The Final Cut" which literally was about a man looking at peoples past lives through their implanted microchips.  But in the movie, the other senses save sight and hearing were not included.  However, it gives you a general idea of what the chip can potentially do.  But those who don't want to watch what can only be considered a dystopian sci fi film, read the next section.

Its Impact:  So this chip can allow us to relive past moments of our lives.  The idea is that we can actually mentally access this chip to relieve moments of our own past.  So you will never forget where you placed your car keys.  But you can also relive the most special moments of your marriage. Though there is fear that people may just get stuck in this playback of the best moments of their lives (sex, a drug trip, a birthday etc.) and thus cease to function normally in an everyday life.  In short, it can become addicting.

Another impact is security.  At the airport, the security staff would simply have to download everything you did in the last 48 hours.  You will never have to have your bags checked again as they can literally watch you put all your stuff into your bags.  But this also leads to the possibility of hacking someone’s chip to see everything they see.  Espionage becomes easy as you hack a chip in say a foreign embassy to see every paper run across a secretary's desk.  Heck, it can potentially record your thoughts and feelings too, not just sensations allowing for spies to find potential collaborators.  There is even a possibility, that with all the information our bodies take in, they can use people as mobile listening devices to listen in on conversations happening nearby.  Very scary, and cool at the same time.

Conclusion:  I would never want a chip in my head if I can help it, but others may see the advantages of it.  So it is up to you to choose to get this tech, assuming it is ever fully developed and placed into mass production.

Issue 552 No services to non-citizens March 20, 2015

Non-citizens are people.  They in fact perform jobs and work like the rest of us.  The issue though is that some of them are here not to benefit our society, but to leech off of it.  Let me make this clear, those who want to support themselves and not be a leech, will in fact get out of poverty, but there are those non-citizens who steal from our country.  So what are we to do to solve this?

Cut off the Federal and State aid:  The only real solution is to make all welfare of non-citizens a local issue, save deportation if that becomes necessary (if a non-citizen is trapped they should be allowed to go to local authorities and deported in an expedited manner so they can go home).  By cutting all welfare off from these people at the Federal and State levels, who have no intention of becoming citizens, we will see the true worth of these people.  The reason why local government does not cut them off is because they will be the determiners if an individual gets aid or is considered a freeloader and thus deported immediately. Obviously standards will need to be put in place, but this eliminates much of the issue as localities can deport the freeloaders, or illegals in general if they are overwhelmed in their aid for these people. It should even be allowed for illegals to be swapped between localities (if situation permits) so that the other locality can reduce its economic burdens.  In short all welfare is expensive and we have to sort out helping our own citizens and those who want to be citizens first and kick the rest out (as unfortunate as it may or may not be).

Conclusion:  We cannot afford to accept those who are unwilling to care for themselves (not those who can't as they will be the exception).  America is a compassionate nation, but compassion must be balanced with a firm hand and a gentle nudge (or harder nudge when needed).  By denying all other forms of welfare save what localities want to give/willing to give, we can possibly solve our issue with free loaders coming into the country and focus on those who wish to be full citizens.

Issue 551 Viewing thyself and others March 19, 2015

How do you view yourself?  Is it as a buff character with all the world bowing to you?  Do you feel that you are insecure?  Are you sad? But what if I told you that someone might see you in a completely different way?  That is right, we each see and understand each other in such a way that there will always be a difference of opinion on one level or another.  So let us discuss.

I see you and you see me:  So despite the characteristics we see ourselves as, someone will see you differently than how you see yourself.  We have all experienced this before.  I am a college graduate, and obviously an adult, and yet when someone looks at my hobby of model building, they think me immature or unique and cool, depending on who they are.  Likewise I am book smart and thus when I recite facts or figures some will reject it as me being naive, or they will accept it and say I am well read.  So people have actually told me that they are intimidated by me.  I don't come off as a know it all to a majority of people, but there are instances where some people think I am.  But this is surface level.  What about people who can look deeper into your soul.  Again, people may see you as courageous, bull headed, intriguing, etc.  But these opinions are based on careful observation and thus people who get to know each other well enough and thus learn to deal with them.  For instance I have a friend where once they get into a funk, they cannot be broken out of it for any length of time.  The only way to handle that was to just leave them alone.  However, if you asked them what their opinion of themselves was, they would say that they were in excellent shape.  This is all because we cannot view ourselves properly without an external lens.

Reasoning:  We look at each other differently and ourselves differently due to a few things.  The primary reason is experience.  As we collect information and mature in our daily lives we acquire information on how to deal with each other.  This shapes our perspectives which determines how we view one another.  This combined allows us to compare ourselves to others which in turn helps us identify and figure out who and what we are inside.  In other words, we springboard off each other to identify who we are on the inside, but then our interactions with others, with them sharing their thoughts on us, helps us to finally begin to see the actual us on the inside.  

Conclusion:  Humanity cannot exist without it being able to interact with the environment or itself.  If a person lives in seclusion, they will eventually loose sense of self, and thus what it means to be human.  They will mentally break down.  So we must interact with one another to better get to know who and what we are on the inside.

Issue 550 Politics and Words March 18, 2015

 As I am sure you have noticed, politicians use certain lingo to get their point across.  What's more is that lingo is used to manipulate (for good or for bad) into making people think in a certain way.  So let us discuss.

Lingo of politics:  First and foremost, the lingo revolves around gaining power.  In this case it is moving the people who listen emotionally and sometimes physically into action.  President Obama is masterful at making people move as he being a former community organizer knows just the right messages and words to make people follow his lead.  So when he had the campaign slogan "hope and change" or when he said during his campaign for Obama care (the affordable care act) that you can keep your doctor and your insurance, it moved people.  People believed it because it was repeated a number of times, and used almost like a chant on occasion.  The news media ate it up which further enhanced the Presidents message.  As to whether what a politician says is one hundred percent truthful or not doesn't really matter, for power is all about making people move willingly or unwillingly. As such when you want to turn people away from something like the estate tax, the tax on inheritance over a certain value, you call it the death tax.  Why this subtle manipulation of words?  Simple, its word play as normally you would not care about a tax that only affects a group of people outside of yourself.  But when you say death tax it invokes a totally different mindset for those who do not know how the tax works.  Key point though is that if the wordplay is bad, then people ignore it.  Hence why inheritance tax is not used over death tax.  

Conclusion:  Words are tools to politicians.   I will say that all politicians use wordplay and thus manipulate their message to accommodate their audience.  So it is up to us to do two things, educate ourselves on what goes on, and to find out if the politician is sincere.  If we can do those two things then we will be safe from politics and politicians efforts to manipulate us.

Issue 549 3D printers and drugs March 17, 2015

Drugs are about to get even cheaper.  And it is all thanks to 3D printers.

How it works:  Just like before, 3D printers will lay materials on top of each other to produce an object.  In this case, the material will be chemicals for medicines.  We already have mass production, but it has to be done at a factory far away and then shipped to the pharmacy/stores.  Thus we have extensive labor, and transportation costs. But 3D printers simply require raw materials.  So labor costs can be completely eliminated.  Transportation costs can be mitigated as now you only have to refine the chemicals (if needed) and then a warehouse holds them until they are transported to their destinations (pharmacies/ and even hospitals).  From there the materials are loaded into hoppers for them to be dispensed by the printers.  What is cool about this is that multiple medications can be put together in the same pill.  So you can take your blood pressure pill, your cholesterol pill, and your heartburn pill all at the same time as a single pill. 

What this also does is make drugs cheaper for insurance to cover.  No longer will insurance companies have to cover expensive pre-manufactured drugs, but simply the chemical components and the cost to buy and put them together at the pharmacy level.  Drug companies essentially lose control on drugs and thus become chemical collectors and distributors.  As such, chemicals themselves will be patented, and of course researched, with the costs of that research factored into the costs.  It will thus mean that chemicals without patents anymore become dirt cheap, but newer chemicals remain somewhat expensive.  But, this also means that some drugs can simply be made at home.  You yourself can cut out even more costs by buying the packets of chemicals and using your home 3D printer to print the drugs. Of course you can bypass drug distributors by actively looking for chemicals yourself and printing them yourself.  So you're being able to self-medicate is also a possibility.  But potentially doctors can also hire pharmacists to work in their offices too, to reap the rewards of a 3D printers cheap manufacturing and having a single pharmacist on staff to maintain it and answer questions (essentially cutting out pharmacies completely).

Conclusion:  3D printers are shaking up the world of medicine.  As time goes on it will supplant traditional methods of drug manufacturing and thus bring forth many of the benefits and abilities I presented here to you all today.  And this may only be the tip of a very large iceberg with respect to the potential of 3D printers on medical manufacturing and drugs.  So, feel free to get excited about what may come.