It must be true, I got an email about it

I get a lot of my news from the internet. Ok, most of my news. Mostly from Google News. I read a little of this, a little of that. It takes me to the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, the NY Times, L.A. Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and so many more. A lot comes through AP and Reuters. A lot. I also wander off to a few of the less well known news sites if I see a headline that piques my interest.

For balance, I watch a little Fox News...

The facts are the same regardless of the source of the news. The difference is one of perspective and emphasis. And the spin. I used to watch CNN back when it was the only game in town for cable network news. I long ago stopped watching CBS, ABC, NBC news on a regular basis. There was very little depth due to time constraints. The cable news networks can devote more time to a story, give you more background. But they still lack quite a bit of detail.

What I have noticed over the last few years is the partisanship surrounding all of them. Many times, news articles from Foxnews.com are the best source but are treated with something like disdain and disbelief. I don't understand that. Facts are facts. If you cannot separate the spin from the facts, you're in trouble. There is nowhere you can go to get unadulterated news. If you think there is no spin, no editorial perspective, in the news stories, you are somewhat deluded.

I can understand people not liking the commentary shows on Fox News. Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck certainly present stories with a definite personal perspective and if you disagree with that perspective, you will be foaming at the mouth during these shows. But these are not news shows. They are there to provide commentary and that commentary is solidly infused with their ideological perspective. They use the news. And you, the viewer, should be able to see through that perspective. Just as you should be able to see through the perspectives of Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, and (formerly) Keith Olbermann. Even the Daily Show. They are selling us their point of view... or trying to.

Are we stupid? Can we not figure out what are facts and what is spin? And, if we can, are we unique? Are there so very few of us that can think for ourselves? When I run across people who hate Fox News so much that if it's mentioned in any way as a source, the person citing them, and his argument, is considered to be without any credibility at all.

This, my friends, is extremely dangerous. When we start dismissing verifiable facts because we are opposed to the prevailing ideology that we associate with the source, we are in deep trouble.

I suppose there is a danger of absorbing an ideological perspective from over exposure to one side. But isn't that true regardless of the ideological perspective? And if you dismiss one side out of hand and refuse to listen to them, aren't you engaging in a bit of voluntary brainwashing? Only hearing/seeing what is said by one side and what it says about the other side's position?

One of the things that seems to be true is that you and I know what's real and what is spin. It's those "others" that can be sucked in and misled so easily by the ideologues who run [insert news show or news channel here]. This is a constant...

"I am smart and aware, I am not fooled. It's the masses who can be manipulated that I worry about."

I know people are gullible. Most of them. Maybe all of us about one thing or another. I can't do much about that.

I get emails almost everyday from friends revealing something or telling a heartwarming story or providing advice about health or exposing some secret that "they" have kept from you. Most of it is just internet myth. I know most of it is because I check out whatever was said whenever my "spidey sense" warns me. Which is often.

I used to think, back when it was fashionable not to trust anyone over thirty (and when I was younger than thirty), that only my close friends and I were smart enough to not be fooled. And there were times I wasn't sure of my closest friends. Now I am older... much older... and I no longer care how smart or stupid strangers are. And I know some of my closest friends are borderline blithering idiots about some things. I don't care about that either.

We are all gullible enough to believe what we are inclined toward believing. I put it this way:

We all see what we want to see.
We all hear what we want to hear.
We all believe what we want to believe.

Call them my immutable truths. Remembering them keeps me from being suckered by scams and politicians.

Next, and last, item... It has just come to light that Apple's iPhone and iPad are storing data on where you go using the embedded GPS. I am not paranoid but I really don't like this very much. I am safe because I have neither of these gadgets and what gadgets I do have do not include GPS except for my Nuvi (which better have that!). I question why that data needs to be kept by these devices. marketing data for Apple, perhaps? Marketing data that can be sold to other marketeers without your consent or knowledge, perhaps?

Acne of the sun

I am going to be lost today. It seems that a series of solar flares that went off on the 15th sent a bunch of charged solar particles toward earth. They were expected to arrive late last night or early this morning.



Per the BBC (and others),

Solar flare eruptions set to reach Earth


"The waves of charged solar particles are the result of three solar flares directed at Earth in recent days, including the most powerful since 2006."

These charged particles can wreak havoc with any number of technologies. Telecommunications, TV signals, and navigation systems.

Which means, dear readers, we are in for some big problems. Especially me. Let me digress a bit...

I play golf. It's a game of yards and inches. It's a game where the distance to one's target is crucial information. When I first learned to play The Game there was only two ways to measure the distance between where the ball laid (usually behind a tree) and the place you wanted the ball to go (that large but seemingly tiny oasis called a Green): you could walk it off with approximate one yard paces or you could guess at it based on where you were from some marker or landmark point provided by the golf course. Highly inaccurate. Much like my shot making ability.

Time and technology marched on and we now have little hand-held GPS devices to determine how far the green is from behind that tree. Accurately for a change. Well, within a couple of yards anyway which is much more accurate than I used to be able to guessestimate though I was fairly good at it once. Alas, over the course of two years (when I first bought one of these jewels), I have lost all ability to estimate distance.

Now I am informed that this technology may be wildly inaccurate today. Wonderful!

Forget all those people getting lost on the nation's highways and byways because they have become completely dependent on the NAV systems in their cars with the oh so pleasant female voice telling them when to turn and what to think. I am not concerned with them at all. I still use the old method (though I have a Tom Tom unit to avoid asking directions... it's a male thing) of blundering about in the general vicinity of where I wish to go.

But golf? Disrupt my golf? Bah! A plague on you, Sol, a plague!