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Aide-Memoire

The Legend of the Geysers

January 24, 2018 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Reading the Healdsburg Enterprise of Feb. 21, 1878, I came across a feature article titled “The Legend of the Geysers”. It is a story about how the geyser area east of Healdsburg between there and Calistoga was discovered by the local Indians. You can read the article here and, for another take on the same … [Read more…]

Posted in: California History, California Newspaper Archive, Faits Divers, Thinking about Tagged: 28 February 1878, Ashochimi Indian tribe, Grizzly Bear, Healdsburg Enterprise, Independent Calistogian, Legend, Russian River, San Francisco, the Geysers

Trump’s Debt to Ron Paul’s Paranoid Style

January 21, 2018 by sergneri Leave a Comment

A post in the New York Review of Books by James Kirchick sums up Trump’s penchant for the weird (conspiracy theories) and his far-right beliefs. We can read it here.

Posted in: Politics, Racism, Thinking about, Trump Tagged: Alex Jones, conspiracy theories, gad-fly, libertarian, Paranoid, Ron Paul, Trump

NSA – ‘sincerely regrets its failure.’

January 21, 2018 by sergneri Leave a Comment

I love stories about IT screw-ups and this is another that boggles the mind. Imagine a group that has access to every email, phone call, and text message sent today, “accidentally” deleting data. Credibility? Trust? Expertise? None in my eyes, read about it here in Politico. “It’s really disappointing,” said David Greene, an attorney with … [Read more…]

Posted in: IT Failures, Politics, Thinking about Tagged: National Security Agency, NSA, Presidential Surveillance Program, PSP, surveillance

The Day After

January 17, 2018 by sergneri Leave a Comment
Posted in: Politics, Thinking about, Trump Tagged: nuclear war, Television

Trashy Day at Salmon Creek

January 12, 2018 by sergneri 1 Comment

Today was a lovely day between rain storms. A quick call to my friend Jeff and we decided to meet up at Salmon Creek Beach South to pick trash for a couple of hours. When we arrived at 13:30 it was calm with a misty sun, high tide was at 14:00, about 4 feet, which … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, Sea Stories, Thinking about

Dangerous

December 1, 2017 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In the December 1st New York Times, this opinion piece on Trump’s mental health: To the Editor: I am the editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.” We represent a much larger number of concerned mental health professionals who have come forward to warn against … [Read more…]

Posted in: Politics, Thinking about, This Day in History, Trump Tagged: mental health, mental health professionals, President, Psychiatrists, Trump

Disruption games

November 19, 2017 by sergneri Leave a Comment

An analysis from the Guardian (11/19/17) on “Why are libertarians lining up with autocrats to undermine democracy?” is found here. However, the long-term corrosive effect of Russia’s use of disinformation to break down trust in western institutions is hard to measure and may be unmeasurable. What is clear is that it is continuing with the … [Read more…]

Posted in: Politics, Thinking about, Trump Tagged: Assange, Brexit, Edward Snowden, Fake News, fake Twitter accounts, libertarian, Putin, radical libertarians, Russia, Russian, Snowden, Sputnik, Trump, Twitter, Wikileaks

Tech Leaders Dismayed by Weaponization of Social Media

November 16, 2017 by sergneri Leave a Comment

View From the Valley Telecom Internet Tech Leaders Dismayed by Weaponization of Social MediaBy Tekla S. Perry Posted 14 Nov 2017 | 15:00 GMT IEEE SPECTRUM The tech industry can’t hide from the information war, particularly when its own creations are being weaponized. That was the consensus of a panel at the Techonomy17 conference in … [Read more…]

Posted in: Politics, Science, Trump Tagged: AdSense, Advertising, Autodesk, clickbait, Facebook, GOOGLE, misinformation, Net Neutrality, Propaganda, social networks, Techonomy, Twitter, Verizon

Tim Berners-Lee on the future of the web: ‘The system is failing’

November 15, 2017 by sergneri Leave a Comment

From the Guardian – Wednesday 15 November 2017 The inventor of the world wide web remains an optimist but sees a ‘nasty wind’ blowing amid concerns over advertising, net neutrality and fake news Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s optimism about the future of the web is starting to wane in the face of a “nasty storm” of … [Read more…]

Posted in: Politics, Science, Thinking about, Trump Tagged: AdSense, Advertising, Ajit Pai, AT&T, Cambridge Analytica, clickbait, Comcast, Facebook, GOOGLE, misinformation, Net Neutrality, Propaganda, social networks, Twitter, Verizon, Vint Cerf

The Trumps are a special problem

November 15, 2017 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In the New York Review’s Daily blog, Marilynne Robinson’s essay “Year One: Rhetoric & Responsibility” reminds me that we had a President in Obama who could appreciate her gifts and actually carry on a conversation at this level. I specially like this paragraph: The Trumps are a special problem, unembarrassed money-grubbers in whom other motives … [Read more…]

Posted in: Politics, This Day in History, Trump Tagged: billionaire, Marilynne Robinson, money, President Trump, Russia, unembarrassed money-grubbers
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