Category Society
A Relic of the Past
How are you at cleaning your car? Not the exterior, but the stuff you accumulate inside. Napkins, lip balm, plastic utensils and straws, wipes, tissues, sanitizer, cloth shopping bags, small ice scraper, a miniature umbrella, loose change for tolls, phone chargers, first aid items – all those things it is good to have on hand, […]
Were You Wondering Too?
I saw this T-shirt in a store in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. As tempting as it was, I didn’t buy it. But it did get me thinking. Does it seem to you that the level of general intelligence has gone down in recent years? Have people allowed themselves to sink to the lowest common denominator? […]
The Magic Word
I was arguing with an AI chatbot. And I was losing. Customer service has been delegated almost exclusively to machines these days. In theory that is more efficient. Certainly it is for the business, somewhat less for the customer. The AI chatbots are indeed artificial, but their intelligence seems to be sadly lacking. I wanted […]
The Deadline
I would be concerned if I didn’t know better. I received a “subscription termination notice” supposedly from my email provider. I had 48 hours to respond. What exactly I was about to lose was vague. What subscription? What account? And why did I receive the message three days in a row telling me my account […]
Under Pressure
Did they not get marks in high school? Given that they are now university students, they must have – you don’t get in without good grades. At the University of Michigan this fall, new students will no longer be told grades in many of the courses they take.. It is for their mental health. Apparently […]
Friday’s Question
Deal or no deal? The latest deadline for Canada and the USA to come to a trade agreement is tonight at midnight. What do you think will happen? I suspect that for most people trade talks are deadly boring, so I have not been spending much time here on the ongoing trade dispute. It mostly […]
Wagging The Dog
There will be fireworks beside the pier in Old Orchard Beach tonight. Despite the police chief’s objections. The Thursday night fireworks have been at 9:45 for decades. I seem to remember them being at 9:30 when I was younger, but my memory for such things isn’t guaranteed. Earlier this summer they were moved to 9. […]
Rock DNA
What’s in a name, Shakespeare asked. I’m pondering that in advance of a concert in Ottawa tonight. It was the names that attracted me. Three seventies powerhouses, two with sixties roots. Jefferson Starship, Kansas and Deep Purple are sharing the stage. I have seen these bands before. But not there versions. There is one original […]
Just a Reminder
It has been a log hot summer. People have been complaining about the heat and humidity. I’m one of them. It won’t last though. In the near future we will be complaining instead about the cold and snow. In the dog days of summer we forget how much we hate winter. When the snow is […]
Signs of our Times
Do they do any good? The rallies, the protests, the signs? Driving through North Conway, New Hampshire, I noted a demonstration against ICE (that’s US Immigration and Customs Enforcement), probably a protest over the recent shooting of an immigrant. Not the first time ICE has killed someone who had committed no crime. i thought about […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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