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Tech Bros want all the electricity and money

  Of course data centers take a lot of electricity. I saw an Amazon center someplace and it was huge, like big mall size. All the searches you do, all the shopping you do, all the email spam you get, your google maps directions, that all goes through a data center. So ok, we need those. But on top of these data centers, we have spam, bots, viruses, scams, etc. going on too, with their own systems, and in fact it was just announced that there are more bots than humans on the internet now. That uses up a lot of electricity and bandwidth. Then along comes krypto currency. Bitcoin, for example, is created by a huge amount of computation. So if you want to make money here, you need a lot of computers chugging away doing essentially useless calculating until you wind up with a new Bitcoin yourself. The Tech Bros built a way for themselves to make money by sucking up electricity into their computers. There are huge warehouses of Bitcoin mining all around the world. Th...
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Over-hyping and under-warning Artificial Intelligence (AI)

 One of the biggest problems with the rush to build out and grow AI is the extreme hyping by those who are promoting it.  Elon Musk, for instance, said "AI+Robots will be able to do everything, resulting in univeral high income.  Work will be optional."  AI will be smarter than humans soon, say others.  But all this over-hyping is just spin from the billionaire promoters who seek profit and power from the product. Another problem is that growth in computation needed for current AI is unsustainable. The electricity demands, chip production, and water for cooling are not there at this time unless we totally disrupt the rest of the economy and society to feed these new demands.  Alex Reisner wrote an excellent article on the stupidity of pushing AI so hard now, since it is not scalable - meaning that if you grow it too fast right now it's inefficiency will harm rather than help.  Just keep in mind that the promoters of AI are over-hyping their ...
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The US military activity toward Iran is staggering

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  These are 9 US jet fuel tankers flying around the Strait of Hormuz, captured July 10.  Of course, they are there to refuel other planes, which apparently do not have their transponders on.  Most jet fighters do not have transponders on, to make them harder to follow.  JUST this part of the war in Iran is amazingly expensive.  Imagine these 9 craft and their fuel, followed by others when they have to go land, and all the fighters running around bombing things.  This is just a small snapshot of the cost of the Iran war.  Remember the ground crews for all these planes, the bombs and supplies that need to be brought over, the Navy vessels nearby that also house fighters and maintain the off-and-on blockade, etc., etc.    At an estimated cost of $1 billion per day to maintain this war, the fact that Trump has found no way to end it means we are once again throwing our tax dollars down the drain for an unnecessary foreign entanglement. ...
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Don't be distracted from what a president SHOULD be doing

  “Look over there!” That’s the most popular distraction tool when you are doing something you don’t want someone to notice or observe. Give them something else interesting to look at somewhere else. Trump is a master at this. Consider the current media attention. Trump tears down a part of the White House, holds a UFC fight on the lawn, spends millions painting the reflecting pool, more millions to gild Washington DC statues, and starts building a huge arch. The deflection works, and the media take the bait every time. Trump also hires clowns to important governmental positions, again to distract from where he doesn’t want us to look. Look at the clowns! Look at my crazy construction projects! Over here! Did you ever stop to think what a president SHOULD be working on? How about affordable housing, health care, the national debt, switching away from fossil fuels, and faithfully executing the office of President? But no, he’s concentrating on his attacks on immigrants,...
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Baby Boomers and the Promise of the Future

 What were the promises of the future when you were growing up? I was born in 1950’s, so the 60’s were my guide star for what life would be like in my adult life. The main promise of adults then was that their children would be better off than them. The next generation would minimally have a home, a good job, and security. Hard work would be rewarded, but robots and computers would make work easier and more productive. Science would give us better health, faster transportation, more mechanical aids, and military weapons to keep us safe. We would explore the planets and space. There were things that were pushed off though. Pollution, waste, finite resources were left for the future as they weren’t seen as current problems needing attention. Foreign relations included the nuclear threat of annihilation. Wars and preparation for wars sucked enormous amounts of the nation’s treasure in money, manpower, and brain power. And now that I’m in my 70’s, what of these promise...
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Is President Trump trying to bankrupt the United States?

 In his business career, Donald J. Trump has filed for bankruptcy six times.  Is he now trying to bankrupt the United States?  Currently the US National debt is almost $39 trillion.  Just paying the interest on such a debt is a huge portion of our annual expenditure.  A wise leader would work on bringing that down and tightening our belts a bit. Instead, Trump's administration has started an unnecessary war with Iran that has so far cost at least $29 billion, and there is no end in sight.  The proposed annual budget for the Defense Department is $1.5 trillion, a 50% inscrease.  On top of that, Trump has proposed a "Golden Dome" missile defense program that will cost at least $1.2 trillion.   Even small things like the White House ballroom ($1 billion) add up quickly.  The $1.3 million no-bid reflecting pool paint job has now ballooned to nearly $15 million.Trump has sued the United States for $10 billion, and rather than fighting it in c...
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Trump is at war with the US Transportation system

  President Trump gets upset about many things. One of these things is transportation. He doesn’t seem to like it. Here is some evidence of that. The Border Road, which follows the border of Canada and the United States near the Sweetwater crossing, has been in use for dozens of years. Now suddenly the US decides it needs to close this road because of unspecified illegal entry into the US. Another border problem that Trump sees is the newly built $3.8 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge, connecting Detroit, Michigan with Windsor, Ontario. Trump is seeking to prevent its opening, perhaps because his friend owns a current bridge that will then have competition. California’s high-speed rail program would be the only high-speed rail in the US. The Trump administration has canceled several grants to the project, severely hindering its construction. The goal seems to be to kill the entire project. The Trump Administration halted funding for a new subway syst...
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