NINE OR WAS TEN!???

September 27, 2016

We all get spam and more spam (thank you Monty Python!)..  This came this morning.. 

"Rth month. Fa-hien kept his retreat on board the ship. They took a course to the northeast, intending to fetch Kwang-c"  

Is the internet now writing its own book? Our brains are .. as I barely understand it.. just a series of synapses all flashing together.  What if  AI gets to the next step??  Self consciousness.. Like the Twilight Zone with Wally Cox?  or the guy who asked the computer, "Is there a God?" and the compter answered, "There is now!!" Hmmm?

Coming back from Santa Clarita yesterday I stopped to see nine or maybe ten LA County Sheriff's vehicles and twice as many officers at a service station digging into the back of a car that was stopped at one of the gas pumps.  There were lots of big guys and one tiny woman who seemed to be in the thick of the search.  All of the sheriffs seemed to be relaxed and casual.  There was a bottle or can sitting in between the aisles where cars pull in to get gas and the station seemed to be open for business: no crime scene tape.   The accountant in me wanted to know why nine or ten vehicles with red lights flashing and a dozen or so officers were casually rummaging around the trunk of this car. 

Doing the math.. hmm.. An LA Sheriff investigator makes about $1,600.00 a week, so to make the math easy, $40.00 an hour. The county was spending about $400.00 an hour for this bevy of officers, with only a few of them actually participating in the investigation. The sheriffs earn their salaries, of course.  I just wondered why would the business have to suffer the blocking of the gas pumps with all those vehicles?  No guns in sight.  Whomever the driver of the car was was not in sight.  Everyone was casual and inquisitive pulling a big pile of stuff out of the trunk of the car under investigation.  The other officers were sort of standing or sitting around.  Nine or ten vehicles. $$$?

Click on photo for a larger view. 

 This photo is as large as it will go. Click on it for a full view. 

///
The New Yorker has lost my subscription. maybe?  Dang!
 ///
TMobile has a trick for you!  When you call them to ask a question and  get put on hold to wait to ask a question from an actual person in another country, after being told by the robot that your wait is less than thirty seconds?? You are given choices of pop, jazz or classical music to bide your time with.  Lies!  No matter what you may choose, they put on techo crap with loud grating sounds, probably just drive you away.  I spent half an hour with a guy named Chris who promised he'd get my problem solved and I was shunted back into the "press one crap" that went on for a long time until I relented and dealt with the damned robot to pay my bill, being dinged an extra fifteen percent out of the blue for some extra fifteen percent cockamaymie tax!   It's still a deal and I can talk for hours until next September! Sheesh.. 
////

The New Yorker customer service lady, Janet, told me that my account address had been  changed! I need to find the address where my magazine may have been delivered!??  The assistance with the New Yorker was 180 degrees from my TMobile experience.  Life goes on...

///  and cryptically, the pinpoint of light in the tunnel is about the size of a dime.  If we treasure our friends, will they treasure us?  Which is worse? Hate or Indifference?

September 26, 2016
michaelsheehan