Facebook, String Theory and Zugzwang; Part One of Three

It is no secret that I dislike Facebook.  I used to have four accounts.  There was my real one where I had about 250 "friends," my dog had one and she had about 300 friends, my porch had one and it had about 500 friends (it posted a lot of pictures), then I had one named after a famous witch and she had 300 friends.   The reason I had the fake accounts was because I didn't want to share personal information on other websites and I didn't necessarily want everyone knowing where I was making comments or what I may have been liking.  I would often use my porch or dog to like things in order to get coupons or enter contests.  I would also use these accounts to fill out profile information.  For instance my dog made over $80,000 per year where as my porch made only $7,000.  The witch always declined to answer, as did I.  This way I could keep my real account pure and clean from the Facebook spy-bots looking to steal my data, profit off of and profile me.

People today are too sozzled by Facebook, Twitter and texting.  I recently sat down with a mother and daughter for an hour of chat.  The daughter rarely took her face and thumbs off her phone.  The only time she looked up was to take a selfie.

Forbes reports that nearly half a trillion dollars is lost in productivity each year due to employees reading their Facebook pages, texting and not working.  The average users spends a cumulative amount of about two hours each day taking occasional peeks at their pages and stalking others. 

In string theory, the impact of Facebook on our lives is mind boggling.  First, if a person was not spending so much time looking at what other people were doing, they could be outside actually doing something themselves.  And, not sharing it would be a plus, too.  Nobody really cares what that pizza you are about to destroy looks like.

Other alternative realities which could transpire because of Facebook is that you might post a comment on your homepage which your boss doesn't like and he fires you.  Maybe you call in sick but then post a picture of yourself at the beach, your boss then sees it on one of his friend's page and you're fired.  Maybe because of you "liking" certain things or commenting on other peoples' pages, a prospective employer takes a look at it and passes on you for employment because he doesn't like your likes or sees you spend a LOT of time on FB or doesn't like some of your friends.  Maybe an old high school friend makes contact with you through Facebook and you meet and have an affair.  Maybe an old high school friend contacts your spouse, they meet and have an affair.  What if someone ignores your friend request?  What if someone unfriends you?  The alternative realities of this one site and how they can change the direction of our lives are staggering. 

I prefer the zugzwang option and not to make a move.  In other words, not to have Facebook at all.  That eliminates a lot of string theory options which are not in my control.  An example of zugzwang would be two parents of a 16 year old child who are getting a divorce and the child is given the choice of living with either his mother or father.  Either choice will change his life drastically.  Instead, he chooses to run away and live on his own.  Not to decide is to decide.  Just look it up.  It is a chess term.

So the next move is in your hands: Read Facebook each day and watch the lives of your friends unfold or don't read it.  Another option is zugzwang and just close your account and go live life yourself.

-Malcolm (who realizes that he could be out on the lake skating but is inside blogging) Kogut.

Why Would The Police Lie?

Three Florida cops have been suspended for allegedly giving Justin Bieber a police escort from the airport to a strip club.  They were suspended because they did not have authorization to provide taxpayer paid services to Mr. Bieber.

A few days later, Justin was arrested for drag racing and drunk driving.  The rental place where Justin got the car had GPS tracking devices on the vehicle and it showed that he was doing 27 mph at the time of the alleged racing.  Furthermore, despite testimony and official police reports about Justin "reeking of alcohol," Justin's actual blood alcohol level was .014 -- next to nothing.  Legal intoxication is .08.  I can't imagine why the Florida police would be gunning for Justin.  He didn't force anyone to give him an escort to a strip club.

In Troy, NY, at the Kokopelli Bar, the police were called, apparently because someone smelled pot, and there was a melee resulting in several arrests.  Granted when 200 people are gathered in one place and several police officers come in wielding their authority there are going to be some smart mouthed jerks.  There were some scuffles and the media reported that several police officers were injured and had to go to the emergency room but were released.

C'mon media, isn't that standard protocol?  First of all, for simple health reasons, second because of workers comp - the officers are going to want to document their bruises if any, and third, in case they can use the line that officers had to go to the ER for community sympathy and additional charges against the defendants.  Leave it to the media to spindle and cherry pick the facts in order to sway the public.

I was once going 45 mph up a hill and a drunk driver operating a large Ryder rental truck was coming down the hill at about 45 mph.  Suddenly he swerved into my lane and we hit head on.  The impact stopped my car dead in its tracks and pushed me off the road, the truck coasted through a few front yards before coming to a stop.  If I didn't believe in guardian angels before, I did then.  I was somehow insulated from all force and impact.  I didn't feel a thing.  I've felt greater G-forces coming to a complete stop at a stop sign.  I got out of my car and ran to the nearest home, banging on the door yelling for them to call the police.  As I ran down to the truck, there was no one in it.  The police said whoever was in the truck practically smashed through the windshield (this was in 1989 before airbags were standard).  We found out later that the driver was drunk because where would a drunk go?  He walked three miles to a bar (undetected by police) where he ordered a beer.  The bartender called the police because the man was caked in blood.  Three police officers tried very hard to convince me to let them call me an ambulance so I could be taken to the hospital to be checked out.  I told them I felt fine but they continued to insist for insurance and liability reasons that I should go.  I resolutely refused.  Being only a mile from my house I walked home.   The point is, it is generally standard policy to get things checked out even if you don't think there is anything wrong.

The police don't like to be talked back to and the law is on their side - as evident in this instance, the town supervisor and police chief are siding with the word of the officers at this point.  The community is up in arms and are demanding resignations and suspensions.  Surveillance video from the bar was posted to YouTube and shows a man being held against the bar by an officer in one instance and then falling to his knees while being hit in the back with a baton. Another police officer comes over to hold the man down as the first officer continues to hit the man.  Police opinion was he that the man was resisting arrest.  It has been tossed around that the only thing some of the patrons at the bar were guilty of was being in the wrong place at the wrong time - and being black.  Their crime was that their ancestors were abducted and sold as slaves from the port of Badagry in that N-word country.  I'm sure the cops are not racist but they should have shown a little restraint when busting into a crowded bar with with a cleintel who have good historical reason to be distrustful of the police.  Sometimes it is more wise to know what not to do.  Both parties are to blame but the police should be held to a higher standard of compassion, control, respect and restraint.  A police response doesn't always have to result in an arrest or beating.  Maybe they should be trained to be peace keepers instead of police officers.   I met a cop once who said when he pulled someone over for drunk driving, instead of destroying their life by arresting them, he would drive them home, impound their car and pay them a visit the next day and if he had to humiliate them in front of his family, he would.  He said that he rarely pulled over the same guy twice.  Abraham Lincoln once said mercy bears greater fruit than strict justice.  It is time for our law enforcement officers to learn this. 

A friend of mine used to room with a cop.  The cop would often steal and collect weapons from criminals and from raids he conducted.  Apparently his wall was littered with an impressive array of illegal weaponry.  What is a criminal going to do, file a report that his illegal weapon was stolen?  Another cop once told me that she used to pad her arrests with peripheral charges just to make the "perp" look bad in court and nail him for everything she could (she is not longer a cop for some reason).  She said that if she told you to stand still in one spot and you shifted your weight or scratched your nose, she would see that as either an attempt to escape or a threat to an officer.  She would then subdue you with any force necessary and if you moved to protect yourself from her nightstick, she could get you on resisting arrest, disobeying an officer and a host of other charges.  She also said that if she couldn't get a "perp" on something, she would at least plant drugs on the guy to get him in the system for "something."  I met her at a church I was working in.  Another confessed to me that when he was a teenager, he used to throw pumpkins off of a highway overpass onto cars.  Ironically, when he became a cop, on Halloween night he was assigned to patrol that same bridge watching for those kids who throw things off the overpass.

"Isn't it ironic, don'tcha think? 
A little too ironic. 
I really do think."
-Alanis Morrisette.

I worked in a Roman Catholic Church where the priest told me he witnessed a DWI accident and someone was killed.  The drunk was a police officer and he was quickly taken care of and removed by his police friends.  There were no charges posted against him.  It was this priest's mission to see this cop punished and he was going to go to the press with what he knew - until he got a call from his Bishop who said "You have three hours to pack up and move to a new parish and you are not permitted to return to that town."  The priest took the hint.  He told me that everything eventually worked out as the police officer completed suicide several months later - "Justice is served." he said.  This priest also gave the most wonderful homilies on grace, mercy, compassion and forgiveness. 

"Isn't it ironic, don'tcha think?"

Here is a fun website to peruse.  There are dozens like it:
Copwatch.org

Let us Pray

An organist friend of mine who plays for a Roman Catholic Church in CO told me that his pastor asked him to help in the planning for an emergency prayer service in case there is a terrorist attack in Sochi.  They even have the press releases all prepared to inform the public that there will be a service for peace, healing and comfort.  I'm wondering why they are not meeting now to pray for safety and that no disaster occurs.  As William James once said, "The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck."

I'm praying that Shaun White can land that triple cork he is planning to execute.  His first attempt didn't go so well.  Bring it home, Shaun.

Hero Worship

A friend of mine has a 12 year old daughter who is absolutely enamored with the recently arrested Justin Bieber.  I received the most daggerous look when I opined that he was a terrible singer.   Okay, maybe he isn't "terrible," but he doesn't sing from the soul.

Kids today have significantly less interaction with real people as they are too mired in the fake world of the internet and Facebook.  This was so painfully obvious during church last Sunday when my soloist must have texted a dozen times and took three selfies of herself. 

The youth of today idolize anyone who gets air time or who is idolized by others; they are very much lemmings to pop culture.  Anyone who can discern two pitches would not idolize Bieber as a musician but, kids do because he is who their peers idolize.

When *I* was a kid, I had a lot of idols; The vegetable man who came twice a week in his truck selling his own farm grown vegetables and fruits.  He always gave us kids free samples as dozens of neighbors descended upon his truck when he parked on our street.  The butcher at the slaughterhouse would also give us free samples of his honey, cheese and hot dogs.  The garbage man who drove his own truck and picked up the trash by hand was an inspiration as he looked like He-Man from all the real life manual labor her relentlessly performed on his daily route. There was no need for him to have a gym membership.   Ed the cop who was always walking the streets and talking to people was a person of awe, also. Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing him and he got everything for free as he entered the stores and coffee shops.

I grew up on a lake and we kids always swam at an open area near the dam because that is where most of the land locked people swam (until the public pay beach owner convinced the town to blockade that section - as it attracted undesirable people from the city - but it was okay if they paid to swim at her beach).  One frequent visitor was Earl who was the town historian and he would tell us stories of the town and its people.  He riveted us with tales of who died in which house, which houses had tunnels or hidden chambers and which denizens became famous or infamous.  There was also old man Wilson who used to travel with the circus and at the age of 80 could still perform magic tricks to amaze and amuse.

All these people had two things in common; they were hard workers who provided a good example of dedication and love for what they did; and they were real. They interacted with the community.  They provided services and loved to share those services with everyone.  Kids don't experience that today because their faces are glued to things like the fictional world of Facebook - a breeding ground for stalking and pretending you have a life. 

So, those were my heroes not because they rescued anyone from burning buildings or died fighting in a war or stood on a stage, but they were real.  Bieber is real but he probably could care less about his individual fans and although you may be entertained by his music and antics, he has significantly less impact on our lives than the people who live in our neighborhoods and provide food, heat, shelter, stories, inspiration and care.  It seems that only when a community experiences widespread disaster do they recognize what is important and real.

A public hero of mine is Oscar Peterson.  Not only was he one of the world's greatest jazz musicians, but he suffered persecution, hate, ostrasization and unfair treatment because of the color of his skin.  Rarely did he recoil from prejudice.  He faced it, stood against it and demanded equality.  He didn't always get it but he didn't quit, either.  Although he had every right to be an angry black man, he wasn't.  He knew that the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.  He was very much "color blind," too.  As a teenager, I didn't even know he was black until someone pointed that out to me.  I didn't look at Oscar differently, I did view that other person differently, though.  As they say in the constructed language of the fictional Na'vi, "Oel ngati kameie."

If only the young could realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the elastic state.  Not a single one of them will turn fifty wishing they spent more time idolizing Justin Bieber.

Safe on a ledge . . .

. . . of a very scalable crevice in the Shawangunks, yet tentative all the way up.

-malcolm kogut.

Why the Pedestrian Right of Way Law is Dangerous

On January 19, at nine p.m., four girls were crossing a busy four lane intersection in the city of Troy, NY.  They were between the ages of ten and thirteen.   Since state law and parents teach their children that they have the right of way, children often exercise their right to step into of traffic and expect it to stop.  It's the law. 

In this case, the traffic light turned green, the crossing sign blinked "Don't Walk," and still, the girls stepped into the crosswalk.  There were three cars in the right lane and the first driver who had the green light stopped for the girls to cross the street, again, despite the crossing sign blinking "Don't Walk." 

The third car in line saw that the light was green and his lane wasn't moving so he turned into the left lane and continued.  Just as he approached the crosswalk the first girl emerged from in front of the stopped car and the she was hit.  She is fine, a little banged up, but not seriously injured.  The driver was ticketed for failing to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk.

I was raised in an age where we were taught to stop, look and listen, then look again and continue to look both ways while crossing.  I don't quite understand the logic of a slow moving flesh and blood pedestrian having the right of way over two tons of steel and velocity.  Even today I have no desire to take up the practice of challenging a 4,000 pound vehicle against my unprotected body.   Even if a driver of a vehicle slows down, I wave them by because that driver may recognize my authority over him but that doesn't guarantee other drivers, as in this case, are cognizant of my ability to part a sea of vehicles in my path. 

When I was a teen on a bike, I witnessed a pedestrian stepping onto a street forcing a car to come to a stop.  As she approached the other lane, a car across the street was pulling out of a side street and he was looking to his left for oncoming traffic.  There was none coming and no need to look to the right since it was his lane he was turning onto.  As he pulled onto the street and looked to the right, it was too late.  Compound leg fractures ensued.   The car was fine. 

I walk at about 2.5 miles per hour and a car can be going about 30 miles per hour on the average city street (c'mon, who are we kidding - 40).   At my pace I can stop in about a foot.  A car may take several feet to stop.  If someone steps in front of a car, several feet may not be enough.  The law may be on the side of the pedestrian but the laws of physics is not. 

Residents of the community are very upset about this recent hit and are demanding that the city do something to make this busy vehicular intersection more safe, at taxpayer expense.  Good parenting is free.

No pedestrian should suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk in the path of a moving vehicle which constitutes an immediate hazard.  You may disagree but I think that that is just insane regardless what the law says. So parents, decide what you teach your children:  Stop, look and listen or, stop traffic.   BTW, where is your ten year old at nine p.m.? 

Fondly remembering the warm days of summer.

Malcolm and Trudy below the scree fall of Mohonk.