What's the Matter with this Photo?

Even though most people would agree with the idea, there seems to be something fundamentally wrong with the thinking in the photo to the right.

To begin with it starts from the notion, that politicians should be reformed.  That, in itself, might not be a bad idea, but it's like saying that forks should be punished because you can't eat soup with them.  If forks were changed to be suitable for eating soup, and politicians were changed so that they never lied, both would lose some or all of their ability to perform the things which they do best.

Politicians work within a political system in which lies, deception, and duplicity is necessary in order for it to function as it does.  The fact that many people expect the political system to solve the problems which they see in society and in the world is similar to believing that you can butter your toast using a jack-hammer.  The tool isn't the right one for the job and using it with the belief that it is, only brings about consequences which are not wanted.

What I would say to the person who first uttered the thought in the photo is:  If you want to hire someone to do a job where honesty and openness is important to you, first make sure that they are going to work in a system where those traits will be successful, and then only put your trust into someone who has proven to be trustworthy before you hand them the keys to your future.

Money, Prices, Value, etc

Recently I've been reading and watching a variety of fascinating explanations of what is wrong with our world and ideas of how its problems might be fixed.

One case in point is The Secret of Oz, a 1 1/2 hour documentary from 1996 which has some unique views and probably would have a lot of people say that it makes a lot of sense.

The problem with making sense, though, is that it isn't enough to make it work and the reason it wouldn't work is that it is missing an essential element, or at least is confusing two things which seem to be the same but are not.

My take on this is that many writers about economic matters confuse money with prices.  You hear statements like: "If the supply of money in a country drops the economy will fall into a depression."

I'm ready to concede that sometimes a depression and a decrease of money supply happen at the same time, but former is not the result of the latter.  A decrease in prices isn't a depression, even though prices often do decrease when there is a depression.  And just because people might earn less money, isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Now with that statement, I'm sure many people are laughing or saying that I've just proven that I'm completely out of my senses.  But, wait a moment and you may see that I'm not.

Suppose, for example that you lived in a world where there was only $1.00 and you had a bowl of rice which you sold for $1.00.  Now you have all the money in the world, but you have no shoes.  You look around and find someone who has a pair of shoes to sell and they want $1.00, so you buy them.

At this point you have no money and think that if you could figure out that it would be great to sell two bowls of rice, except that there's only $1.00 in the whole world, so what's the use?  If you sell both bowls you'd still have only $1.00 and you would have cut your income in half, effectively reducing the price of rice to $0.50 a bowl.  How could that possibly be good?

Well, with the ability to feed twice the number of people, you now have twice as many other potential products or services which you might buy but, in order to sell them, they too would end up lowering their prices so that everything that was wanted could be sold with the amount of money available.

As more and more products and services became available, and as the quantity of each thing increased, the prices would continue to keep dropping … exactly the opposite of what we have become accustomed to with continuing inflation.  

There is no one price which fits everything from a grain of rice up to a train locomotive, or a cruise liner because there are many complex elements involved in all of the myriad of things we buy and sell, but if the supply of money … whether it be dollars, gold bars, sea shells or whatever it might be is fixed, then as more and more things become available, and more and more people are consuming them, prices can only fall lower and lower.   If you could imagine that everything that was for sale were of equal value, then the simple way of finding out the price of each thing would be to simply divide the amount of money available by the number of things for sale and voila its price would be the answer.

At some time in our past we somehow came up with the notion that it was undesirable to have prices go down … especially if that "price" was what we received for our labor or services, but when you stop and think about it what difference does it make to you how much money you get for what you do, if you can get an equal or increasing amount of something you value in return?

This is the thing that I find difficult to swallow from The Secret of Oz … that it is necessary to control the amount of money to keep the economy going.  As long as people are getting value for their time and energy it really doesn't matter how much money is in the system, or whether prices stay the same, go up or go down.  And while there may be some validity in the idea that having the quantity of money being manipulated by private interests produces unwanted abuses, what guarantees are there that putting this into the hands of politicians or bureaucrats would be any better?

Dangerous Democracy

It is very popular to equate Democracy with Peace, but this is a fallacy and, in practice, the exact opposite is true.

Before you write this off as seditious nonsense, take a moment to examine what a democracy is. In very simple terms, a democracy is a form of government in which the majority rules.

That, in itself, does not imply or even make any allusion that a government which is a democracy is peaceful, nor that living in a democratic country needs to be peaceful.

Part of the notion of equating a democracy with peace comes from the formation of people who live within that kind of a system who are taught, from their very earliest days that to solve a problem you vote about it and that everyone peacefully accepts the will of the majority.

To put this into perspective imagine the smallest possible country that could exist as a democracy. This would have to be a nation with 3 people in it, because with a population of only 2 you could never have a "majority" except in those cases where "everybody" agreed.

Now imagine some issue where there was a division of opinion. It could be anything that you can think of, but let's say that it is an issue over whether or not we allow alcohol to be used. Two people are against the use of it, and one person wants to use it.

They take a vote, and inspite of the majority deciding that they don't want it, the third person decides that he will not accept that decision for himself.

How are the other two going to stop this person from making or using alcohol? They may eventually have to resort to force as long as the majority does not reverse their position or change it to allow the minority to do as they wish.

Whenever anyone uses force, or even the threat of it, in order to get their way, we are no longer talking about peace. Peace does not mean accepting what someone else wants because, --if you don't-- you're going to get stompped on.

So to return to original premise, Democracy has nothing to do with Peace. We, who live in a democracy, may have been trained to accept the decision of the majority without complaining, but that acceptance will only last as long as we feel that what we want is less important than the consequences we would face for not accepting.

Don't subscribe to the illusion that just because a country is a democracy, that its government or its people are peaceful … all it means is that they chose the people who make their rules through a process of voting; nothing more, nothing less.

The Elephant in your Back Yard

Would you be surprised to discover an elephant in your back yard?  And what if, on discovering it, you learned it had been there for several years?

I imagine your reaction might be similar to what I felt after I finished reading a short publication I received a couple of days back entitled Hack Your Showerhead: Ten Ways to Get Big Government Out of Your Home.


What I found most amazing was the variety of ways in which government regulations affects us and our lives without our even being aware of it.  The unfortunate thing about this is that we often have a tendency to blame other the wrong people for the consequences of these regulations.

One of the ten ways that Jeffery Tucker, the author of this article, sees government regulations affecting us is in the shorter life that many --maybe most-- electric appliances have today, in comparison to the way they were a few years back.

I'm sure you've heard the complaint: "They just don't make [insert name of appliance] like they used to!" and then the complainant goes on to blame the greedy manufacturers for cutting down on the quality presumably in the interests of making more profit.

As Tucker sees it, these manufacturers are under the pressure of government pressures and regulations to implement a series of changes to their products, some of which actually make them perform worse than they did before without adding any material benefit to the end user.  So, in order to comply with the government presser so that they can stay in business, they are forced to substitute parts and materials that will meet the government requirements and yet will not increase the price beyond what their customers are prepared to pay.   All too often the consequence of this is to use cheaper parts which will wear out faster than the older ones.

Tucker explains what happened to air conditioners:

Manufacturers are permitted to make units that use only so much electrical power. They must choose among the features in which to allocate this energy ceiling. The lighter, “more efficient” parts tend to break more easily than they once did. This means that you have to replace the units more often than you did in the past. 

And that's just air conditioners.

Adding Tucker's article to my own observations over the years I have started to wonder how many of all the problems we face in the world today, ranging from wide spread diseases, to aberrant social psychopaths, to threats of depleted resources, to animals in danger of extinction, to hunger, to wars, etc. could be traced back to government interference, intervention or stimulation of some sort or the other, regardless of how well intentioned it may have been.

This suspicion is not because I believe that everybody in government has some evil intention to make the world into a living hell for us, but rather that people, both those who are in the government and those to look to the government to solve problems have too much faith in the ability of these people to find solutions.

The people in government are not superhuman before they go to work for the government, nor do they become endowed with any special abilities once they enter the government.  Why then, do we, and they believe that they can solve problems which supposedly couldn't be solved before the government became involved?

So if you discover you have an elephant which you don't want in your garden, do you then look around for another elephant to deal with it, or is it better to consider other alternatives such as finding a new place to plant your garden, start planting things which elephants don't like, or some more imaginative option?

Google vs China

Many people might recall reports of conflict between Google and the Chinese government.

During the summer of 2011, I happened to be using Google Maps and entered instructions to get driving directions from "China" to "Taiwan."  GM produced some surprising results, which I was sure would disappear at sometime in the future, so I took a screen-shot to preserve the moment.

Below is the screen-shot which I have preserved for posterity. Point A is the start which is Bejing, the capital of China and point B is the destination "Taiwan."

I've annotated the surprise in this version … as you read it keep in mind that these are supposedly driving directions.  Click on the image to see the whole thing.

If you try this today you'll get a note that says:

"We could not calculate directions between China and Taiwan."  

Some reports of this in the summer of 2011, called the original result shown in the screen-shot an "Easter Egg," however, the fact that there isn't even a route now calculated might suggest that it was something else.

Saying what you mean

We often are told that being effective in what we do is, in part, dependent on how well we can differentiate between what is important and what is urgent.  This is an example of the former which got displaced by the latter.

I started writing this in January 2010 after watching Glenn Beck attempt to show how Progressivists have misrepresented or disconnected history from people today.  That particular issue has nothing to do with my topic, nor is this supporting or disputing Beck’s arguments, but I mention it because it provided me with the jumping off point for my thinking.

On at least two occasions in his program Beck said, “Back in a second” before a break.  For some reason I counted those seconds and, the first time counted 210, the next one I didn’t count accurately, but estimate that it was at least 150 seconds.

The point here is that we use many words and expressions which do not mean what they say, and when we use them we often don’t even consider what it is that we intend to say … rather we just utter something that expresses an approximate idea that we haven’t even clarified for ourselves.

One of the most frequent terms that comes to mind which is used by younger people is “whatever,” as a response to somehow indicate that no further discussion is wanted.  I’m not intending to be critical of young people when I say this, but wouldn’t it be much better to simply say something like, “Let’s talk about something else”? Or, “This topic bores me,” or whatever really expresses the mood of the moment.

If we, ourselves do not take the responsibility of choosing and using terms which express clearly what it is that we want to communicate, why should we be the least bit surprised if politicians, journalists, teachers, children, or anyone are misunderstood or ambiguous.

Like anything else, if we wish to see change in things around us, we must initiate a change in ourselves and if we want others to start meaning what they say, we, too, must do the same and the start to that is to choose words that allow us to say what we mean and to insist that others who are trying to communicate with us do the same.

Technorati Tags: Glenn Beck,Progressivism,communication,language,journalists,meaning

You’re Wrong Fred!

Fred Reed is an interesting blogger and he doesn’t shy away from taking on controversial topics, but in his blog which he calls A Polity of Castrati he argues that women are purely consumers of what men produce.

Actually, on the surface, the arguments he presents are quite convincing, but I believe he is missing an essential point:  That women’s role in most of the world today is a cultural distinction, not one which is determined by the essential nature of women.

He spends considerable time developing the idea that women do not produce the things which make our lives and civilization as a whole what it is to day, the implication being that they are not capable of doing so.

I’m wondering, however, if in many areas, if there aren’t achievements or discoveries which women have made that he has overlooked and that perhaps our whole society doesn’t easily recognize.

I agree wholeheartedly with the observation that women are essentially different from men.  They are physically different and I’ve little doubt that these physical differences don’t lead to some differences in the way that they think and act.

In his conclusion Fred seems to imply that his country is being feminized right up to the governing level and seems to be dubious over the future prospect over that happening.

I do agree with some of his observation that many affirmative action laws and similar actions have produced some strange and undesirable results, but I think he is missing the point when he fears for the future because of women’s role in government.

I would agree with the assertion that gender equality, just for equality’s sake is not a good policy.  Women should be allowed to do what they do best, and men what they do best and people must be given the freedom to choose the best person for whatever they want done based on who can perform best … not on some arbitrary formula dreamed up by someone who believes that everything should be homogenous.

It is not so much women’s role in government which is producing the problems that loom in the world today, it is the nature of government itself – regardless of who (or what sex) it is comprised of.

Technorati Tags: women,government,laws,fred reed

How to get 2 Site Build It! businesses for the price of 1

Have you been thinking about starting an internet business?

If so, you need to consider Site Build It! (SBI! 2.0)?

An NOW is the prime time to do it.

SBI has had a tradition of offering 2 SBI! subscriptions for the price of one every year at Christmas, but right now there is a 72 hour exception to this practice.

The reason is that Sitesell.com has been quickly rising on Facebook and at 9PM EST on March 25th, crossed over a  10,000 “Like” target.

To celebrate, they are offering this same 2-for-1 special offer for only 72 hours.

How can you best benefit from this offer?

1. Get 2 SBI! Sites for $299.  Start right away on your first business and you have up to 9 months to activate the other one.

2. Split the cost with someone in your family or a friend – each of you gets an SBI! 2.0 site for less than $150.00. This is an incredible bargain when you count up all the training and collection of tools which are included in the price.

In both cases, follow this link and you’ll not only get Site Build It! 2.0 for half the price, I’ll guide you with personal coaching, if you want it.

 

Technorati Tags: SBI,site build it,2 for 1

A luxurious trip

This image is an ad promoting a casino in Chile which was giving away a luxurious trip to Dubai. 

I saw  a billboard with this ad on a highway when I visited Chile and started thinking:  What's so special about a trip to Dubai?

Of course the opulent luxury in Dubai hotels and things which have been built in that country but apart from seeing what people with virtually unlimited funds can buy, I wonder anyone would get out of a trip there.

Certainly there is a lot of appeal to winning such a trip, but if a person isn’t in any position to be able to afford such opulence to begin with what would they get out of being exposed to it and being given a taste of it first hand?

Would this experience be satisfying to that person or would it create a feeling of resentment or longing for something which is so far out of their reach? 

Or perhaps, it might stimulate them to return to their normal surroundings and begin to splurge on luxuries which they couldn’t afford in the first place to try to prolong the illusion that they experienced in winning such a trip.

If, out of the blue, someone came up to me and offered me such a trip, I don’t think I’d hesitate in accepting it, but I know that I’m not likely to visit a casino (which I seldom do anyway) in the hopes that I might be the lucky winner.

From a purely marketing point of view, I would be curious to know how this promotion worked out in comparison to other campaigns which they’ve run to attract donations to their purse.

Technorati Tags: gambling,Dubai,luxury,travel,marketing

Life’s Challenges

Today a posting by Steve Pavlina in Facebook where he stated:

The point of weight training is to get stronger, not to move hunks of metal up and down. Many of life's challenges are similar in nature.

brought to my mind an experiment I undertook in my own life to deal with challenges.

I was about to depart on an international flight from Canada to Chile which, in the past had always been a challenge.  I recalled that every time I had taken that journey, there had always been un-expected problems which seemed to turn the trip into an unpleasant experience.

What I decided to do was to expect problems and see how capable I was at getting through them.  In other words, rather than hope that everything would just go perfectly –or at least without any difficulties- I was actually looking forward to them as a challenge to my own capabilities.

Well, as it turned out there were unexpected things which would have been horrible under other circumstances, but when the first one came along (and there were several), my first reaction was to think: “Hey, this is my first problem of this trip … how am I going to handle it?”

I’m not sure if I had previously decided to expect more than one problem, but by dealing with each and then taking the attitude of “well that’s dealt with … now, what’s next” I wasn’t setting myself up to be suddenly smitten by another problem coming out of the blue when I “thought” I’d dealt with them all.

If we can establish this kind of thinking about everything in our lives, then life’s challenges will be no more onerous than adding another few pounds to the weight we’re trying to lift in a weight-training program.

Technorati Tags: steve pavlina,life,challenges,difficulty

What is policing?

Today I made a stop at a Starbucks near to my residence to warm up on a cold day.

When I arrived I noticed 3 uniformed police officers at a table near the window.

I took my time, warming up and passing a few long minutes reading an interesting article on my Kindle and noticed that these officers didn’t seem in any hurry to leave and continue doing their duty.

Then I started thinking:  What do police officers do when they are policing?  In the end, I’m sure that these three officers were in this particular Starbucks well over an hour and while I wasn’t able to hear or observe anything about what they were up to, it didn’t seem to me to have much of a “policing” nature to it.

I’m not writing this to point fingers because I can’t say that these individuals were acting like typical police officers in this area, nor can I even conclude that what I saw was the way they acted on a regular basis.

All it did was get me to start thinking what it is that police officer do when they are policing and asking if what they do might be done well in a group of three sitting in a Starbucks cafe.

Technorati Tags: police officer,starbucks,kindle

Image South Australian police officer via Wikipedia

Calling spades spades

To anyone who knows me it would not come as a surprise that I believe in the precepts of free-market capitalism (FMC).

T hat being said, it is also vital to recognize that I do not condone any and all actions that are taken or promoted under the banner of FMC. I also feel it is important to take into account the fact that there has never—ever—been a country which has been a 100% pure FMC economy.

To my recollection the USA, even at it’s very inception, was a mixture and it has moved more and more away from FMC every year even though it is popularly held up to be the exemplary model of FMC.  Perhaps, it is still the most free of all the countries today—although there may be much reason to doubt that—it is still far from a pure FMC and should, in reality, be called something else.

With this background I wish to express some doubts that I’ve had in recent times which grow out of the increasing concerns—both in number and loudness—that I’ve been hearing about the movement of the US towards a socialistic or communistic economy.

The crux of my concern is the connection which is always shown between the horrible actions of major communistic movements in the past in terms of genocide and suffering.

The questions which I am asking is what is there in socialism or communism that is inherently violent, or that makes a nation which adopts these systems to start killing off people on a large scale.

Yes, we can look at a large sampling of nations and name leaders like Mao Zedong, Stalin, Hitler, Castro, etc and show that under them millions of people perished.  I’m not arguing about these facts … but the thing that I am asking is whether it is the system that is at fault, or the person or people who were flawed.

From the evidence I’ve seen I have little doubt that the most efficient way for an economy to operate is the FMC model, but that, in itself, doesn’t make the other systems inherently evil, just as travelling in an ox cart is slower than a bicycle, comparing the two needs to be done on the basis of what you wish to achieve and not on the personalities of the famous people who have used ox carts or bicycles.

What this point of view raises is another issue which is possibly more vital to our future than the exact mixture of economic systems which we use:  the issue is that some individuals are possibly much more inclined to abuse power than others.

With this in mind, then we need to concern ourselves with two points:  1) Identifying who are most likely to abuse power and 2) Limiting the power which they can have so as to limit the damage which they can do.

Technorati Tags: economics,USA,communism,socialism,free market

Coming back to haunt you

I think that one of the greatest challenges we face in life is being honest with ourselves. 

We may be conscious of using some deception or attempts to influence the thoughts of other, but somehow we even go to great lengths to avoid the fact that we may be doing

the same to ourselves.

When my children were small, I always attempted to teach them what I believed would be helpful to them in their lives, although I may not have always realized that there was some variance between what I said and what I did.  You may remember the old saw: “Do as I say, not as I do.”

One of the things I frequently would say to my girls whenever they complained that some rule or outcome or event “wasn’t fair”, was “Who ever told you that life was fair?”, or as an alternative I’d say “Fare is what you pay to the bus driver.”

Recently I’ve moved from being an active worker into the realm of the retired, and as such, have felt that my life should be much more relaxed and free from obligations imposed by the needs and desires of others.

My wife, however, decided to take up employment where she was on call, and could be called at a pre-dawn hour to work.  On a couple of occasions I was awakened and asked to drive her to her place of employment, arising several hours before I would have otherwise.

On one of these times I found myself thinking: “This isn’t fair! Now that I’m retired, why should I have to ‘work’ too, just so my wife could work”?

Then, as I was searching for the answer to that question, I recalled what I had attempted to instil into my children … now I have to decide:  Do I live by my own teachings, or do I decide that I’d been wrong all that time?

Technorati Tags: teachings,honesty,values

Dynomighty Designs

Dynomighty Design : Products - Mighty Wallets
I stumbled upon this while pursuing some links on a wholly unrelated topic.  Oddly enough, I had been searching for a simple replacement wallet for a few weeks and had just, the day before I discovered this page, purchased something which met my needs.  When I saw this product, I was intrigued and totally dissatisfied with my just-completed purchase.  How I wish I'd delayed my purchase a couple of days.
Of course, this is not a major disaster or setback for me, but because I dislike unnecessary back tracking, frivolous waste, and duplicated effort, the issue is an annoyance for me.

What I find so interesting is the simplicity and inventiveness of the products which this company produces.  The line of wallets which the company produces suggests that this is its biggest selling line but in addition they have several other ingenious products such as a bottle-top tripod, magenetic jewelery, desk pops, and sky vases.

Simplicity is, in my opinion, one of the things that makes many classic designs, products, and ideas so special.

Technorati Tags: products,wallets,simplicity,companies

You can say whatever you want

A package of soymilk reads:

 IT’S FREE! Silk Vanilla is free of lactose, dairy, cholesterol, eggs, casein, MSG and worries. You still have to pay for it though.

Before I get to my point, I’d like to say I love this product and find it an excellent replacement for regular milk.

The thought that struck me, when I read that statement on the package is that it seems so typical of what we hear everywhere in the media from politicians and about most everything.  Statements are made which are the complete opposite of what they say …. and as long as the person somewhere, somehow, clarifies what they are saying, it is considered totally acceptable.

A defendant of this kind of action would likely state: “Why should a person be criticized just because a reader didn’t read on a bit further to learn the real, full meaning of what was said.”

I would tend to agree with that kind of defence, and yet I also see that there is a lack of trustworthiness demonstrated by the person who makes a statement of this nature, because he is relying on his own cleverness and his listeners’ lack of acuity to actually create a false impression which is serving his own ends and not those of his listeners.

It is tragic that this kind of thinking is too prevalent today.

Technorati Tags: advertising,politicians,language,honor,trust

Global Warming, Population growth, and Petroleum Reserves

YouTube - The Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See (part 1 of 8)

This professor has some impeccable math, and a very clear explanation of how it can be applied. I highly recommend it, however I do not agree with his logic. He doesn't take into account the fact that innumerable situations in which this kind of exponential growth have never occurred, that something -- usually completely unexpected -- have happened to prevent the disaster from culminating.

This does not excuse us from acting sensibly in dealing with issues which face us either now or in the future. Using the issue of global warming, as an example, whether or not you agree that it is a real problem, it does not make sense to continue to pollute our environment with abandon.

New Rules for the New Economy

New Rules for the New Economy

A fascinating new viewpoint at how the world is changing...

Google Sidewiki entry by Jack

International comments about tremors as new Chilean president is sworn in.

in reference to:

"Chile hit by powerful aftershocks"
- CBC News - World - Chile hit by powerful aftershocks (view on Google Sidewiki)

It’s Not What It Seems

After having been woken every morning for the past week by having my bed shake, I’ve been led to re-think what we’ve all been told about the earthquake in Chile.

One conclusion that has come to me is that this was not a natural event. It is a man-made phenomena that comes from the testing of a secret government project to develop a national alarm clock!

To explain the various discrepancies which opponents of this theory might raise I offer the following explanations:

1. The massive quake on February 27th was an accidental result of the simultaneous activation of several separate shaker apparatuses.
2. The several hundred aftershocks were due to a malfunction of the control mechanism provoked by event Number 1.
3. The varied times are a combination of the damaged control mechanism and deliberate testing to determine the optimum shaker intensity required to awaken the maximum number of citizens at different times of the day and night.

If they can be located, sources close to the newly elected president of Chile, Sebastian Piñera, who is a well established entrepreneur, may indicate that the president-elect has been quick to recognize the potential commercial value of this program. Once the timing and intensity controls are perfected, it is said he has plans to licence the use of this technology to other countries whose economies need to be awakened.

Among the various benefits the new technology offers are:

• The quick demolition of old and dilapidated buildings and neighbourhoods.
• A final testing procedure of new buildings before they are occupied to ensure that they meet all anti-seismic standards.
• Demolition of inadequate roads, bridges and transportation infrastructure.
• A quick method of testing the moral character of large groups of people and identifying those with delinquent tendencies who participate in looting during simulated emergency conditions.
• A process to stimulate and reactivate the construction industry.
• A justification to use the manpower and machinery of a country’s armed forces in peace time without provoking any external conflicts.
• A focal point to unite the citizens of a country toward a common national goal which supersedes political agendas.

It all makes sense now, doesn’t it?

Technorati Tags: chile,communication,emergency,earthquake,government,humor

My Wonderful, Useless Kindle

I mentioned in my first post about the earthquake in Chile that I had just purchased a Kindle book reader from Amazon.

This marvellous piece of equipment has functioned perfectly from the day it arrived in early February and of all the communication possibilities I’ve had at my disposal since the earthquake on in the wee hours of February 27th, this is the only one that has not failed to work.

This device is lightweight and easy to transport, it consumes little power, once charged it runs for a long period and can be recharged relatively quickly.  I have never, to date, attempted to connect to their network and not been able to make a connection to either the Kindle store or to Wikipedia.

There is the nub of the marvel and the worthlessness of this piece of equipment.  While I’ve been able to connect when the regular internet, cell phones, fixed phones, television and power systems failed, the device has not permitted me to send or receive any personal or specific information.

For example, as I sit here at using my laptop computer to compose this blog, I have to save it for some future moment when I might connect to the internet, but my Kindle, sitting at my side, is connected to Wikipedia telling me the latest news which has been posted about the Chile disaster. (The web browser is “not available” in Chile.)

It occurred to me that possibly if I searched for a book title such as “Help! Earthquake in Chile” that it might be noticed by someone.  I did so, and maybe it was noticed … however, not in any way which I can verify.

The fact is that the technology is there now.  It is in place and working now.  All that is necessary is for Amazon, or other companies to implement some sort of emergency trigger that would allow a person in a critical situation to enter in some kind of key phrase or even use a certain special button to be immediately connected to an operator who could attend to the request and assist.

Whether this service would be free, an optional extra which would be charged for if used, or completely without cost is not important.  What is important is to recognize the tremendous service and and potential which this marvellous machine now has, and to set up some way to put it into practice.

Technorati Tags: chile,earthquake,emergency,Amazon,Kindle,communication