Random Thoughts – Page 17

Can You Hear Me Now?

The Verizon guy in the TV commercials is so friendly and down to earth, we know that his and the company’s mission is to provide their customers with the best plans at the most reasonable costs. Just ask firefighters battling the blazes in California. Wireless communications are vital to provide and update information, manpower deployment and battle strategies. Imagine their surprise when service suddenly slowed to 1/200th of the normal speed. “It essentially rendered those very routine communications almost useless or completely ineffective,” said the Santa Clara County Fire Department captain whose team had been deployed to Lake and Mendocino counties in northern California.

Verizon Wireless had a simple explanation. The department had purchased an “unlimited” data plan, but when a certain usage threshold is reached, transmission speed slows precipitously. Verizon also had a simple solution: upgrade the plan at twice the cost.

Verizon said their practice is to remove data speed limits for emergency responders in emergency situations and they are “reviewing the situation” and “will fix any issues going forward.” They also said the speed restrictions had nothing to do with the Federal Communications Commission’s termination of net neutrality regulations that, among other things, had prevented Internet service providers from charging more for speeding up delivery of certain content. The three-Republican two-Democrat FCC, led by Trump appointee Ajit Pai, voted 3-2 to abolish the regulations.

Making America Great Again.

Mark Twain #MeToo

Harry Kendall Thaw shot and killed Stanford White while the famed architect watched a play on the rooftop of Madison Square Garden. The year was 1906. The building was one designed by White, who was responsible for the Washington Square Arch, the Metropolitan Club and numerous other landmark buildings. The Astors and Vanderbilts lived in mansions designed by White. He also had a reputation as a seducer of young women.

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If you are the father – or mother…

… of daughters who are intelligent, independent, strong-willed – occasionally willful – successful and self-assured, you will appreciate this from Jenny Schweitzer via the New Yorker:

Boys- who needs ’em? Read the story here.

Slip Sliding Away

The current occupant of the White House says that the fires burning in the West are simply the result of bad environmental laws and water wasted by letting rivers flow into the ocean. (Scientists disagree; they say it’s the changing climate.) But maybe the folks in Malibu want to agree with him. They might want less water in the ocean. Melting icebergs have already covered beaches and sand, and now the water is working on coastal cliffs. The U.S. Geological Survey projects are that by the end of this century, cliffs will have eroded as much as 130 feet inland. Much of the California coastline is already protected by sea walls, which have the unintended consequence of speeding up the loss of sand on the beaches.

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ICYMI: John Oliver Debuts Facebook Ad

As we all know, Facebook has recently had some well-publicized problems: Russian bots, a precipitous one-day drop in shareholder value, privacy issues et cetera. In response, they’ve launched an advertising campaign to reassure us all that Facebook is a safe and comfortable place.
In case you missed it, HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” premiered Facebook’s latest advertisement.

In case you have any lingering delusions about privacy, read the Boston Globe’s summary of how your every movement is being tracked and sold. We’ve come a long way since Kramerbooks bookstore fought voyeur Kenneth Starr’s subpoena of Monica Lewinsky’s book purchases.

Field Report From Alaska

The state of Alaska, as residents and tour guides are eager to point out, encompasses eleventy-jillion square miles of pristine wilderness inhabited by moose and caribou and salmon and eagles. The centerpiece of this natural beauty is Denali National Park, featuring – when cloud cover allows it to be seen – the mountain peak formerly known as McKinley. (The original namesake was a former U.S. president. “Denali” is not to honor oversized, fuel-slurping S.U.V.s and pickup trucks. The name comes from the First-Nation word for the “High One.”)

The National Park Service has stringent rules for the contractor operating tours along the one road through the park, including specifications for buses and their emissions. At the end of the tour, before passengers exit the bus, the driver/guide passes several bags down the aisle and explains the “Zero Landfill” project. One bag is for “krinklies,” the wrappers from nuts and trail mix and cookies and other items in box lunches. (They have found a way to recycle and repurpose what would other wise be garbage.) Another bag collects beverage containers. There is a sack to deposit any food scraps before folding the box-lunch boxes and dropping them in their own bag.

Collection receptacles for recyclable materials are at the rest areas along the Denali highway and scattered throughout the Visitor Center. Everywhere else in the state, not so much. In fact, not at all. (In Canada’s Yukon Territory, one can hardly turn around without bumping into a recycle bin.) In a week of wandering around Alaska, the only recycle collection I saw was a single bin – for paper only – at the Anchorage airport.

With only seven-hundred thousand people scattered about the eleventy-jillion square miles, why recycle? It will be centuries before there is no more room to dump their trash.

Alaskans like to talk about hunting and fishing and how one must be hardy and self-sufficient to live with the cold and dark winters. They don’t volunteer that every one of them is on welfare. Each Alaska citizen receives an annual payment from the Alaska Permanent Fund. The fund began with the opening of the Alaska pipeline and distributes oil revenue among the population. The oil flow has declined significantly the past few years and so has the income. Each Alaskan received $1,600 this year, down from an estimated $2,700. If things get any worse in the oil business, Alaska may need to consider an income tax or a sales tax.