When I look at what is being written today, it is design to promote a particular point of view. It is meant to appeal to marketing demographics, it is designed to support and build a market share. It may or may not have new ideas, it may or may not recycle well-worn, well-used tropes. Those are inconsequential to me. Not because I don’t want to sell books. I do. What I believe is the essence of science fiction is to question the status quo. That is where books like Brave New World or Nineteen Eighty-four came from. When science fiction has fallen to being a tool of major media, it has fallen very low, when once upon a time, science fiction was one of the greatest forms of counter-culture out there.

So, what is the role of People of Color in science fiction? I have written on this idea before. We have to teach our children how to be storytellers and I still believe we can create a new group of writers, but we have to inspire them early. Our role is the same as anyone who is creating science fiction today. To tell moving, fascinating, mind-expanding, society-questioning, sometimes traumatizing tales of wonder. If you leave a story and it does not make you think, does not make you yearn for a visit to that world or repel you as a world you never ever want to wake up and find yourself in, it did not do its job. And if you should find yourself in a world of your nightmare, would you even recognize it? That is the role of science fiction and it doesn’t matter who is telling that story.

Unless it does.

Such a contrary statement deserves an explanation. Let me put on my other hat. Science and business have come to a conclusion about the nature of successful organisms and successful businesses. An idea that disturbed the very foundation of both science and society.

Diversity is good for nature and for business. In plants and animals, sexual reproduction came about as a way of diversifying genetic materials to allow for greater diversity. Such diversity was necessary to prevent a disease or pathogen from destroying a plant or animal whose genes were the same as their previous generations. Plants or animals that reproduce asexually by budding, for example, have the same genes as their parent organism. And their grandparent, etcetera. This means all it takes is one disease that focuses on the genetic material of that species and it is extinct. Sexually transmitted characteristics, derived by members of a species whose living conditions may have varied significantly offer a wider array of potential characteristics which may allow greater diversity of the species and resistance to a pathogen.

Big business has resisted diversity, promoting the idea of homo-social development being the best thing for organizations. The idea that an organization founded and maintained by people who share cultural characteristics has been a mainstay of big business for nearly one hundred years. Homo-social organizations were supposed to be more effective, more teamwork oriented, and more productive than any other kind of business model.

Until it was proven that it wasn’t.

It has now been shown that big businesses that use the homo-social model lack the ability to change their minds about a particular thing, lack the ability to promote useful and productive conflict, and lack a diversity of thought brought about by living and growing up in diverse cultural experiences. Organizations that harness diversity have been proven to be more agile, more adaptable, more innovative and ultimately more effective.

Science fiction is unfortunately a homo-social type of genre. It has been primarily promoted by, directed by, lead by, and consumed by mostly White men. As a result, the protagonist of such works have been White men. These Alpha males have strode across continents (Tarzan, Doc Savage), traveled though exotic realms, (Neutron Star, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea) mastered weapons (The Shadow, The Destroyer), conquered alien worlds (Man Plus, Star Wars), bedded exotic females of dozens of worlds (Star Trek), destroyed worlds, and crossed galaxies (The Lensmen), rewritten entire universes (Saga of the Well World) and mastered forces including Time  itself (The Time Machine). It so prevalent a meme, that it is almost impossible for anyone to believe in a thing a White man can’t do.

And that is the power of Myth. It is designed to make you believe in something larger than you. And this is where People of Color need to step up.

Our myths have been relegated to the back burners of history. Their shadows make an appearance in modern mythologies: Gilgamesh, Tiamat, Hercules, King Solomon, Babylon, Chichen Itza, the Dogon, Ra, Osirus, but the sources are always obscured, their gift to modern stories are always hidden away.

John of Salisbury wrote a treatise on logic called Metalogicon, written in Latin in 1159. He used a phrase that has been adapted and modified and because of its wisdom we use it today. It applies with our contributions to science fiction even before it existed. We helped to create the science and the fiction that has stood the test of time and those ideas contribute to the science fiction mythos even now.

He said: “We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.”

I do not believe that we have any particular need to prove ourselves in this genre of writing. We have an obligation, however to contribute to the creation of mythic ideas, both scientific and fictional, that our children can look at and say, I want to be a warrior of wisdom like Dillon, black mercenary soldier of fortune created by Derrick Ferguson. I want them to say, I want to be an explorer like Changa of Milton Davis’ Changa’s Safari. I want them to be able to say these things and have them impart the same meaning that it does when a kid says, I want to grow up and be Captain Kirk and you know what he means when he says it. No, not that part. The other part: the explorer, the traveler, the leader of men and women in an future we all hoped would come true, but at the moment doesn’t look promising.

We want to create myths, not just stories. We want to alter reality in a way that once done, no one can remember what went before. All they remember is, it was less than we have now.

Part of a series of essays on: The State of Black Science Fiction

Thaddeus Howze Atreides
@ebonstorm (twitter)
@ebonstorm@gmail.com
 

BYOD: We can't repel malware of that magnitude! -- Admiral Ackbar

As I have mentioned in other articles, [http://exm.nr/x8dv4p] malware is not going away. If anything it is going to explode in the coming years due to the continued erosion of IT standards in the workplace. Technologies such as cloud computing, social media and memes such as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device [to the workplace]) are prepared to compromise enterprise security by:

1. Allowing devices that cannot be managed or secured into the workplace environment and allowing users to store company data on those devices. Such devices can easily be lost, stolen and the information vulnerable due to a lack of viable security measures or even the ability to be wiped remotely.

2. Devices such as smartphones or other mobile technology often has limited wireless security or protection, making grabbing data from such technology the next logical step from the cracking community. Do you remember Firesheep? A tool that allowed a remote hacker to grab information from Mozilla browsers in unsecure environments such as coffee shops. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firesheep]

3. As the rise of BYOD continues and resistance to standardization grows, malware will continue to be a rising threat for Android and iDevices alike, [http://zd.net/w20FMG - Android users hit by scareware scam], for the simple reason that apps created for both devices, while monitored loosely, are not absolutely guaranteed of being without sinister purposes in addition to providing whatever resource information they APPEAR to be providing. So while it may be providing you a map to downtown Boston, it could also be monitoring your credit card or online bank information at different locations as well.

4. Social media has not stopped being both a productivity time sink, costing the nation billions in lost productivity (neither commenting for the good or the bad of this, noting it, nothing more) and a vector for virus transmission, personal information gathering, and credit information hacking. Facebook, Twitter, Sony, Google and Amazon have all experienced theft, leaks, loss or outright sale of personal data in 2010-2011 and this trend show no sign of slowing.

5. While the cloud offers the option of being a means of creating virtual environments that are claimed to be safer than your current environment, it means relying increasing on an internet whose services are either being turned into commodities (allowing their prices to be changed, usually higher, without warning or recourse) or those services will be subject to powerful new government interventions such as SOPA or Protect IP [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act], which may make working with materials and providers who will be forced to increase the costs of their service to offset their increases caused by having to improve monitoring of their technology for copyright infringement. This cost is always directed at the user of the technology.

6. Nor does SOPA actually ensure you are any safer from hacking, indeed it may simply be another way such activity is lost in the shuffle as hackers are far more agile in their ability to develop their responses to technology than mainstream users. During the transition to SOPA standards, systems will be more vulnerable than ever.

7. It appears IT is losing the battle for standardization as a means of protecting the enterprise. New technologies such as virtualization promise the ability to deliver the PC experience to any device but most of those are also dependent on the Internet as the deliverer of service. This only means one thing. The cost of protecting your enterprise will increase as the vectors — devices, browsers, clients, cloud, virtualization, continue to proliferate.

In summary: Our enterprise networks have never truly been safe. The threats ranged from:

• Inadequate layered defenses against attacks: There are still numerous environments especially in small to medium size businesses that do not have firewalls of any kind, any sort of data protection, backup, or redeployment procedure in case of equipment failure, anti-malware, or anti-virus technology in place.
• Social engineering: manipulating users in an environment to release information about the systems they use to make hacking easier
• Poor Password Management: Not creating standards for the effective use, configuration or dissemination of difficult to crack passwords
• Poor standardization of environments: reducing the number of potential holes in the environment by reducing the number of different versions of operating systems, programs and infrastructure support systems
• Poor policy management: The inability of environments to create usable, enforceable policies designed to make repair, replication, storage, service agreements, backup and responsible use of the office technology to protect company assets from theft, loss, or accidental erasure.

There are many other threats, but our environments have been safer than before many of these ideas were enacted, but the truth of the matter has been our virus software is always at least one day behind the release of any new virus, malware or exploit. Indeed, the zero day release of a virus or exploit could allow thousands or even millions of devices to be infected before anyone is aware the problem has occurred.

In days to come, the already existing suite of issues will only be added to with the continued threat of cloud computing downtime, legitimate accessibility as well as unwanted attacks from outside sources, rising costs both in terms of energy use and costs from service providers and the increasing vulnerability BYOD will bring to the enterprise as hackers/crackers begin to exploit the weaknesses of said devices while under-staffed, overworked and under-appreciated IT departments attempt to stem the tide while providing these new and highly desired services and technologies users feel empower them, without understanding the consequences of that empowerment. It empowers the Dark Side as well. [http://www.csoonline.com/article/print/696325]

@ebonstorm – Thaddeus Howze Atreides

Have you ever experienced a moment of quiet rage? One of those things that sneaks up on you and suddenly you find yourself shaking and wondering how something like this could happen?

I was heading to a petrol station to fill up my wife’s car. She works, and I don’t and that is another story for another time. Tonight’s tale deals with what happened when I got there. I was pulling into the station, at night, late at night and against my better judgment. I don’t live in a particularly dangerous neighborhood, but as any city dweller can tell you, crime is mobile.

I take the proper precautions as I get out of my vehicle. Check around me, two people in station, filling their vehicles, trying to look bored and nonchalant; so not working. They want to leap into their cars and drive away as fast as they are able but they don’t want to LOOK like that.

No obvious foot traffic. Check. Sign on the window says “open 24 hours.” Check. Car in park. Lights off. Check. Clearance on driver’s side. Check. Pump active. Check. Get out of car. Look confident. Glance around. Take in the lay of the land, and project power. Check.

As I am going through this checklist, I notice a man sitting on a the hood of a small SUV or covered flatbed truck. He is a tall man, kind of lean, unshaven, looks to be about fifty or so. He is holding a bright red gas can. His head is dipped forward as if he is engaged in some inner dialog.

As I am moving toward the front door of the gas station storefront, he sees me and jumps up. “Hey brother, could you spare some gas, a couple, maybe three gallons?” His voice is clear, he does not mumble, he does not sound intoxicated. He sounds like a man who is not used to asking for anything.

Not seeking confrontation, I scurry inside. I try not to look at the man but my inner Observer, something from my days as military personnel, objectively, dispassionately, gathers all of this information. I notice there is a woman sitting in the car behind him. She too appears to be about fifty years old. But it was not just the woman that I noticed. Behind her, I see materials that might be house furnishings; things that looked as if they were moving. I continue inside.

Now, my inner Observer challenges me. You can’t unsee that. “Can I get twenty dollars on six, please.”

“Will that be credit or ATM?” says the Persian gentleman behind the counter, wearing a crisp and new shirt and a mild musky cologne. His smile seems genuine and his tone friendly.

Don’t ignore me. You saw the man, you saw the woman, you saw their car. They have food wrappers on their dash and furniture in the back of their car. Observe, report, analyse. ”Yes, that will be ATM.”

Did I mention I was an autistic? I have conversations with myself all the time. So don’t think I am crazy or become upset. This is normal for me. Anyway…

“What is the price of your gas here?” I asked the nice attendant. Yes, I drove past the sign coming in but unfortunately, that is something I have a mental block against, living in California. You just buy the gas, you don’t really want to know what it costs. It always costs a dollar more than anywhere else in the nation.

You have acknowledged his existence and have made a decision. Why prevaricate? You are going to spend enough to get three gallons of gasoline, enough to fill up that red container. Do it! How could you stand there, they are living out of their damn car…

Enough!

The Observer falls silent, his work done.

The attendant does not know what the price of the gas here is, which is not really surprising since he probably does not get paid enough for it to matter to him, either. At that point, I did not care what it cost. I walk to the door and wave to the man. Seeing me, he waves back and moves toward the pump next to my car.

I am self-conscious. I do not know why.

“Ten dollars on pump six, please.” The station agent looks at me quizzically since I just bought gasoline for pump five. He assumes I have made a mistake and looks out the window.

“Are you sure, sir?”

“Yes, I am buying it for that man right there.” I use the tone of command, to let him know I am aware of what I am doing and will only require his cooperation at this point. He complies.

When I walk out the store. The man is pumping his gas and as I approach him, he says to me “God Bless you, brother.” His voice is rich with emotional undertones and I am again unnerved. I am not a religious man, so his benedictions made me uncomfortable. I did not do it for God. I did it for… Who did I do it for? The Observer wisely stays silent.

“No problem. Will that get you where you need to be?” trying to sound casual.

He out-casuals me with “Hope so.”

As I get ready to pump my gas, he stops me. “My can is full. Let’s put the rest in yours. Don’t hang your pump up, I’m just going to finish what’s on this one. He smiles as he pumps the rest of the gas into my tank and then picks up his gas can and says “Thanks, again.”

I fill my tank. My thoughts are racing and the first thing that comes to me is, that could be me in a few months. I have no job and no income. For me unemployment ended this month. But this fellow looks like he has been living in his car for some time. I began to feel that burning, that anger, that frustration stirring in my chest, the feeling I spend my days suppressing and my nights sweating.

As I finish, I look over at their white flatbed, and the woman, possibly his wife, looks at me and waves. I wave back. I thought I would feel good doing this deed. No I didn’t. I thought I would absolve myself of any guilt I felt watching this man sit here at this station, waiting for some salvation, some humanity in an age where human kindness is in short supply, where no one but the rich or the lucky have money or a job. A man in a number of months who may be me. I wanted to do more for them.

But then I thought about it. I did not actually have any money with me, and I was doing something spending what I did not actually have. (My money was actually the stipend my wife gives me for doing housework during the week while I look for work.) I mostly don’t spend it. I found that as long as I don’t leave home, I don’t actually need money. And if I don’t carry cash, I absolutely won’t buy anything I don’t need. I had to settle myself with having done what I could do. I had been as much of a friend as I could afford to be.

As I was contemplating the feelings I was having, I realized what it was. I was in pain. I was uncomfortable. I was saddened and distressed by seeing these two people, forced by circumstances unknown to me, to be living in their vehicle. And for a moment, I was overwhelmed by that feeling. I normally pride myself on my dispassion. My ability to observe, with detachment.

The Observer, the part of my rational mind that sits outside of what I call me, remembers something I heard Jim Morrison say at an interview: “People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.”

Sometimes I hate the Observer. It is the part of me that makes me participate in all things human, even when I do not want to. Mostly, I don’t want to. My pain is uncomfortable, but for the first time in weeks, I am outside of myself; outside of my selfish desire to wallow in my misery, feeling sorry for myself. I had a chance to find myself again. To renew my opportunities, to find work worthy of my ability. It was not too late. I still had my home, my family, I still had some time.

As I pull away from the station, I pass the man putting his gas into his car, his actions precise and careful. He sees me as I drive by. He and his wife wave at me again, and I wave back. There was something in my eye and I needed to wipe it away.

At 11:35, August 25, 2010, two strangers passed in the night. One in need of a friend; the other, a friend, in need. We worked it out.

God Bless.

Gasoline in E-Minor © 2010, All Rights Reserved

A meme that is making its way around the internet. And yes, that IS a Bank of America building.
As to its meaning, I will let you decide what it really means to YOU.

A study suggests that increased usage of portable music players and earbuds has led to significant hearing loss in today’s youth. Many contend that hearing loss is being exaggerated and people are not going deaf any faster than they have in the past. I will make a case for the idea that not only are we going deaf faster than we have in the past, but that our technology has a direct effect on that loss even if you are not a regular user of personal music devices. The simple answer is yes, Personal Music Devices such as the iPod or Zune do contribute to hearing loss and will continue to do so in the future until people understand the nature of hearing. Yes, we use them more than we did in the past, their sales are skyrocketing and there is no end in sight. This is a problem because the earbuds direct sound right into the ear canal effectively destroying hearing at the source. As to what I would do about it, I do not own one. My hearing is safe…

Lets get a bit deeper into the subject, shall we? 

• Is the use of Personal Music Devices such as the Zune or iPod a cultural trend that will pass or is it something that will continue growing greater with each year?
• Why the need to play music all the time–are such music listeners avoiding personal growth issues by simply drowning out the need to listen to internal dialogue that might be beneficial for personal development?
• Why are so many young people unaware of the damage they are doing to their hearing listening to music at 120 to 140 decibels directly into their ear canal?
• Whatever the actual reason the problem is only going to get worse and the results of that problem are able to be described in a few paragraph for all of you suffering from short attentions spans.

When you lose your hearing (notice when, not if), you will lose an entire world of abilities that you currently take for granted: 

You will lose your music, the thing you loved so well, you played your iPod or Zune or (insert brand name here) until it deafened you. You will never hear those sounds again. You may feel the vibrations if you get close enough to a loud speaker, but subtlety of sound is lost to you. Gone will be one of the greatest artistic expressions of the human species, second only to speaking; music. 

You will never hear a Gregorian chant, a symphony in D minor, the acappella sounds of African tribes who sing like angels, the sonorous majesty of a bagpipe on the moors, the roar of an African lion on a veldt that you won’t get to see for another two decades from now, long after your last hearing has vanished completely. 

You will never hear your child’s voice or your grandchildren asking you to pick them up or run with them. No sound so sweet will ever grace your ears. You will lose the ability to drive, because you cannot hear the sounds of emergency vehicles, or the sound of horns warning you of impending danger. 

You will never receive a phone call without the use of some form of teletype or close captioning technology. You may not consider that much of a burden with the advances of technology and the prevalence of texting, but your hands (and your thumbs) will not be young forever, repetitive stress WILL catch up to you… 

You will never hear the sounds of running water. If you haven’t stopped to appreciate it, get out to a water fountain in a park and sit and listen to it. I know you are busy, but slow down and just sit there for a half an hour. Feel the calm that washes over you. That will be gone as well. You will never hear the sound of your lover’s voice, or their breath in your ear. If you know what I am talking about, (and sooner or later you will) nothing will ever replace THAT sound. 

The sounds of your friends voices will be gone, the sounds of your television will be gone, the sounds of your movies will be gone. If you doubt those sounds are important, you can get a set of sound cancellation headphones and wear them for a week. Wear them everywhere. Notice how empty your world will appear. Everything is still there, but you simply won’t be participating at the same level. 

Don’t forget to learn to read lips (if you are a spy, you are already ahead of the curve), because most people will not know sign language; oh, I forgot to mention, you might want to learn to sign, since you are now considered disabled and might need an interpreter for legal documents, or medical procedures, or to even speak to anyone with any speed. 

And many of you will say, SO WHAT! I hate my life anyway, that is why I listen to ThrashPunkSoulDestroyer at 150 db (decibels) in the first place! It is to you I say, you may not always hate life. And what a terrible price it would be to discover that you love life only to realize that you will never hear it again. 

For those who have gotten this far, I wanted to say, thanks for reading on. I believe that such noise generating technology only adds to the overwhelming amount of noise pollution already being generated by our world at large. If you live in an industrial or urban area, just walking the street exposes you to approximately 80-90 decibels of sound before you do anything else. Most people will put on their ear-buds (which channel the music directly into the ear canal) and turn it up loud enough to drown out the external noises. This means you are getting a full dose of sound, powerful enough to damage the ear drum at 100 decibels. That is the equivalent of a railroad train passing you at 5 feet!

It is a proven fact, the longer you listen to high intensity sound, the more damage you do to your eardrum. Human ears were designed (use that word loosely, I don’t want arguments over WHO designed the human ear) to listen to the sound level of a human voice or human voices in limited numbers. Most of our technology exceeds the threshold of the human voice with almost no effort. This includes lawnmowers, motorcycles, airplanes, and my personal nemesis (for which I see almost no utility whatsoever,) the Sunday morning, I am trying to sleep in, god-dammit I am hung over, sleep destroying from 100 meters, leaf-blower!

Okay, lets get to some facts.

1. Once hearing is lost, it can never be recovered.
2. The human ear can hear a range of sounds.
3. As the ear takes damage, the range of sound is diminished.
4. A condition called tinnitus (also known as ringing in the ears) is the ear’s way of letting you know that you are losing access to a range of sounds.
5. When sufficient ranges are lost, hearing loss is said to be occurring.
6. Hearing loss is natural in humans, even those that live in rural settings due to the lessening of effectiveness of the ear’s sound generating mechanism, but this process should take many years and would normally not be an issue until the early 60′s.
7. With the preponderance of high intensity, steady-state noise most people are subjected to, we have seen a loss of hearing ability, earlier and earlier even in people who do not use personal music devices.Within the PMD crowd, we are expecting to see catastrophic numbers of people losing some range or possibly nearly all range of conversational hearing capabilities, due to their listening to music at catastrophic volumes equivalent to a high level rock concert for at least 4 hours a day (120-130 decibels, the equivalent of 12 to 14 times greater sound energy than the normally safest range of sound for the human ear!)

The science of sound:

A simple definition of noise is: Any unwanted sound. Yes, this means you with your iPod playing at 11 and I can hear you across the subway train that I am riding on. Yes the subway train at 110 db, and I can still hear your music more than 15 feet way from me. Yes, I hear your crappy rock band and wish I could be somewhere else but in nearly ever direction is someone else doing the same stupid thing. My only consolation is that in 15 years, I won’t have to put up with this because all of you will be deaf, and my stock in hearing aid companies will be skyrocketing!

Noise is measured in decibels and the scale often employed dB(A) is weighted to the range perceived by the human ear. The decibel system is frequently misinterpreted as it is based on a logarithmic scale. This means that a sound level of 100dB(A) contains twice the energy of a sound level of 97dB(A).

A rise of 10 dB in sound level corresponds roughly to a doubling of subjective loudness. Therefore a sound of 80 dB is twice as loud as a sound of 70 dB which is twice as loud as a sound of 60 dB. Correspondingly, the 80 dB sound is 4 times louder than the 60 dB sound.

Distance plays an important role in the perceived sound level. Sound levels decrease by approximately 6 dB every time the distance from the source is doubled. Sound levels inside a property will be approximately 10dB less than those outside, even when a window is open.

Noise not only affects hearing. It affects other parts of the body and body systems. It is now known that noise:

1. Increases blood pressure
2. Has negative cardiovascular effects such as changing the way the heart beats
3. Increases breathing rate
4. Disturbs digestion
5. Can cause an upset stomach or ulcer
6. Can negatively impact a developing foetus and possibly contribute to premature birth
7. Makes it difficult to sleep, even after the noise stops
8. Intensifies the effects of factors such as drugs, alcohol, carbon monoxide and ageing
9. In fact research now suggests that noise may be causing 2000-4000 deaths annually as a result of an increase in cardiovascular disease

Example Sound Levels

With all of this new science around how sound affects us, it is not a surprise that the term “noise pollution” is gaining traction as a viable source of potential problem for most urban dwellers.

It is difficult to say whether this trend can be stopped. Most people simply do not know enough about hearing to be worried about its potential loss. They believe hearing aids will restore their ability to hear (they won’t, they cannot give you back ranges of sound you have lost, they simply move the sound into a range you may still be able to hear, but there is quality lost) or that science will find a cure for this inconvenience. It may, but no time soon, definitely not in time for our Generation Y and Millenials to have hearing after the age of 40 or so. Likely no scientific research on the restoration of hearing at this point will be helping the deliberate loss of hearing that will be occurring in epic proportions in the next twenty to thirty years. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. Buy stock in hearing aid companies, I see big business soon!

In closing, I say to you this: You do not have to value your hearing. You can dispose of it just like you would any other natural resource that you started life with — your liver, your kidneys, your heart, your brain; you are free to do with those things what you like, they belong to you. But remember, once you lose the natural bounty that is yours; your senses, your means of interacting with the world and all of the inherent things that make life worth living will seem a little less bright.

And yes there are people who live without those senses right now, but not by choice and most would gladly trade places with you for an hour of what you have thrown away, simply because you were too unaware of its value to consider it important. Like most things human, you won’t miss it until its gone. Me, I am going to the library to listen to the silence…

Saturday 24 September 2011

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks at the Florida P5 Faith and Freedom Coalition Kick-Off event at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida, September 22, 2011. (Chip Litherland / The New York Times)

In order of sadness:

The Marvel Family, Captain Marvel, Billy Batson as the Wizard and Mary Marvel

1. No Marvel Family. I know in the last few years, their stories were convoluted and difficult but since we were rebooting the universe, I thought they could have found a new seat at the table. I know why they did not, though. They wanted the Superman Family to regain its seat as the mightiest family in the DCnU without question. There were too many similarities between the two groups to make their existence worthwhile to the writers and editors of the current DCnU. They caught a bad deal. Making Billy Batson take over the role of the Wizard was strange, but logical. Making Freddy, Captain Marvel was a stroke of brilliance. Letting Black Adam become a good guy for even a little while made his return to evil, even more tragic. The DCnU is less for their absence.

The Justice Society, the greatest heroes that never were...

2. No Justice Society. Though they were old heroes, they deserved better than to be shuffled off to non-existence as if their legacy did not matter at all. The funny part is their final adventures were some of the finest writing of their entire careers as characters. Yes, they had silly names, from a less serious time, but I thought they could have been renewed and given a new lease on life. There was certainly room enough for some color to have been added to the DCnU. But that is another story.

3. Does the Batman need to show up in at least five books? Batman is the hardest working mortal in the DCnU. He shows up in the Justice League, Justice League International, Batman, Detective Comics, Batman: The Dark Knight and Batman and Robin. Adding insult to injury, his Batman family includes Batgirl, Batwoman, Nightwing, Catwoman, Batwing and the Birds of Prey. So the Batman Family takes up a full fifth of the DCnU. So much potential in these characters but I am afraid they will burn up and run out of steam quickly down the line. I think a smarter step would have been to have a collective series with rotating lineups or story arcs because I just don’t see all of these books maintaining their momentum down the line. No, I did not include any Batman related titles. I wouldn’t have any room for the rest of the article!

The latest iteration of the fashion-impaired Teen Titans

Black Aqualad caused a stir, looked great in video and now has disappeared

4. No new Aqualad in the Teen Titans. Young Justice, the television show was my absolute most favorite incarnation of both the Teen Titans and to a lesser extent the Justice League. Cocky, young Robin, annoying but cute Bart, grim overstretched Superboy, the annoying Martian Girl, Megan (who I will not miss), but my favorite member of Young Justice was Aqualad. Yes, he was black but it was more than that. The new Aqualad was such a refreshing twist from I have come to expect from black heroes in the DCU. I wept with joy each time he hit the screen. He had class, dignity, grace, charisma, and leadership ability in excess of his years. He was one of the best representations of what I have complained about for over thirty years. Make a powerful, well-developed, non-stereotypical black character and he could command the same respect as the Classics did. And of course, in the new DCU, he is nowhere to be found, his amazing powers, his class, his leadership and the dignity he could bring to black readers is gone. No, don’t tell me I have Static as a replacement. Because while I adore Static, he is not Aqualad. And this group of Teen Titans is fashion-impaired in a big way. Please tell me they will change their look because if they are the future, the future is going to be ugly.

Static, last survivor of the Milestone Universe? Another of the many electrically-charged black superheroes.

5. Static is the only survivor of the Milestone Universe. Sadness overwhelms me at the loss of the great characters who could have experienced a renaissance with the reboot of the DCnU. Here was a chance to bring color, culture, new ideas to a universe stuck on itself with white heroes. Yes, they pay the bills, but you might want to check out another article that says DC better get with the times or fall flat on its White superheroic face in less than twenty years time. We have Mr. Terrific, John Stewart, Static, Vixen, Cyborg, Batwing, one part of Firestorm and I think that is Invisible Kid I see in the Legion lineup, but I can’t be sure. Of Hispanic or Latino descent, I see the Blue Beetle. Of Asian descent I see one possible candidate whose name I do not know but might hazard a guess as Katana. Wow, is that really it? I understand that DC is run mostly by White men for almost all of its existence but you figure it might be time to consider hiring some more WOMEN, you know somewhere near the density of the population of the nation would be nice. 1% is a bloody embarrassment. While you are at it, maybe you can populate the rest of the world with some superheroes as well, otherwise your elitism is showing. “Nuff, said.” Okay maybe not, see the afterword for the rest of my sentiment in this regard.

The brilliant broker of Gotham, leader of the Birds of Prey, the wheelchair bound, Oracle

6. Taking Barbara Gordon out of her chair and returning her to the role of Batgirl. A completely stupid thing to do. Yes, I said it and deep in your hearts you will agree even if you do the politically correct thing and say we wanted her back for <insert reason here>. Oracle was an identity that had evolved from tragedy and had grown into a role of personal affirmation and power. The Birds of Prey series and line of books was one of the jewels in the crown of the DCU even if they were not aware of it. A book whose focus was on the talented and metahuman women of the DCU was both brilliant and inspired. Having them lead by Oracle was a trifecta, of mind, might, and magic. Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown were not only doing the job of Batgirl, they were doing it in their own completely different styles. Both would be headed for completely different futures and I was completely okay with that.

Stephanie Brown, daughter of Cluemaster as Batgirl

Cassandra Cain as Batgirl, in the DCnU now called Blackbat

I counted one hundred and sixteen faces from the book covers I was able to find. I counted ten faces of African or African-American descent. Close to the statistical average in America. For the first time in the DCU history I can say that without rancor. Okay a little rancor because half of the characters I don’t actually care about or care for, and I suspect others do not either. Of the ten, only two are A-listers, John Stewart and Cyborg. Mister Terrific is a B-list hero and the rest are relegated to the C-list as either little known, or poorly written or completely unknown and cannot be expected to do much at the moment. I hope I am wrong. As far as the other minority groups, which should have a higher percentage than I can see, all I can say is I hope DC is looking ahead. This would have been the perfect time to have spread the color around. And I won’t mention gay at all because I am certain they will not be addressing Apollo and Midnighter’s previously established gay relationship. If they do, I will be shocked. I suspect it will be relegated to an off-screen relationship with as little mention as possible.

Now on to the WTF pile. Okay because I try to keep my language relatively civilized in my blog, I try to avoid colorful language, but I am going to break my own rule somewhat by including the text language expression WTF. It was the only way I could express some of the dumbest ideas coming out of the comic industry in a long time. And that is really saying something. Let the WTFs begin.

Captain Atom masquerading as Dr. Manhattan

What the F*ck?

Batman is everywhere. I mentioned the one-fifth of the DCnU is Batman related books. WTF?

Dr. Manhattan masquerading as Dr. Manhattan

Theme Redux, Again? Why is Captain Atom suddenly suffering from Doctor Manhattan-itis? Do we really need to open the old chestnut of what happens when a man gets so much power, he eclipses the human experience? Was it not explored enough in the Watchmen? Or in other books like Miracleman/Marvelman where not only was it done, it is unlikely to be done better. Tell me why?  WTF?

The Ballad of Hawkman

One Hawkman to lead them all, one Hawkman to find them,
one Hawkman to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

The Savage Hawkman. I have to say, if this guy were flying toward me, I would run!

So we take a hero who has more origin stories that the Playboy mansion has bunny slippers and try it one more time. For the love of Christ (and I say this with love, because Hawkman has been a favorite of mine for decades) can we pick an origin and stick with it! Is he a hero who finds the mysterious Nth metal and is reincarnated again and again seeking his lost love? Is he a space police officer who uses super-science, and a mixture of primitive and modern weapons in a war on crime? Is he a savage barbarian who enjoys the crushing blows of his chosen weapons of war and has some as yet undisclosed means of flight and somehow manages to NOT get shot by people with guns whenever he shows up with his thirty-foot wingspan of flapping targets. (No, you X-folk don’t get a pass with Angel either.) He better have a force field, some armor, or some damn tough wings or some other reason he does not become a bullet laden-pinata when he shows up in the day, flashing his mace, or axe or claws and no ranged weaponry. WTF?

The New Guardians, led by Kyle Rayner (formerly a Green Lantern of Earth, aka Ion). All these colored rings, I hope the book shines, too

The Guardians of the Galaxy, the Marvel Comics space super-team to beat!

The Rainbow Lanterns er…New Guardians. Are we experiencing Guardian of the Galaxy envy? Yes, do not pretend you are not reading those awesome epic space battles with what were considered heroes relegated to the dustbins of history and instead in the hands of skilled writers are now kicking ass across the galaxy as Guardians of the Galaxy. Yes, including the dusty veterans including Starlord, Rocket Racoon, Groot (I mean Groot? Who remembers that issue of Tales to Astonish #13, anyway?), Gamora, the deadliest woman in the Galaxy, the slimmed down and highly tatted, but no less deadly Destroyer and everyone’s favorite pod-transforming, multi-timeline dwelling, soul-gem-using, magic-commanding golden hero from the 1970′s Adam (Magus, Warlock, Paragon, you figure it out), Quasar, yes that guy who used to work for SHIELD and was a spastic hero for the first fifteen years of his existence, and my personal favorite, the Human Rocket, the Man called NOVA. Epic space battles against awesome enemies, where entire solar systems get reduced to dust and entire species die, sometimes by the hand of the people trying to save them? If you are, GOOD. Then maybe you will get off your asses and write some space adventures worth reading. For the record, despite the preponderance of Caucasian aliens populating the DCU, DC’s space adventures were better written and far more creative than much of the work at Marvel for many a year. With the exceptions of the Adam Warlock, Thanos and Captain Marvel, love-hate relationships, Marvel’s space adventures were an abomination with only the slight glittering of hope when Norrin Radd or the Nova Corps might flash by on their way to an emergency.

The Kree and Skrulls spent far too much time masturbating over which of them was the best and I got bored before I found out. The best thing to come out of Marvel in decades were the recent storylines of the Guardians of the Galaxy and now DC has another chance to eclipse that, IF and only IF they write stories like they mean it. To take a line from Star Trek: “Captain, if we go any faster, it’ll fly apart.”

The Red Lantern Corps, no seriously, a corps comprised of anger-management-challenged ring wielders. Wow.

To his credit Captain Sulu says “Fly it apart!” DCnU you better fly the Rainbow Green Lantern Corp like it is the SR-71 chasing a nuclear bearing Tomahawk missile bearing down on Manhattan. None of that warm fuzzy crap the Green Lantern Corp was known for. I want to see alien space, with alien ideas and adventure so awesome I want to forget how to breath until the very end. We are in space, so make me believe it! Otherwise you will get your WTF after the first issue.

Angry Lanterns…er…Red Lanterns. Really? WTF? Did we need to see a comic just like the Green Lantern Corp except they are angry all the time? Inclined to shoot first and ask questions later? Green Lanterns without Restraint? An entire collection of Sinestros, powerful, barely moral, and equipped with the ultimate weapon. Who exactly is this book for anyway? People who love the Green Lantern Corp but wish they were a bit more…um…what’s the word…bloodthirsty, yes, that’s it. The Bloodthirsty Lantern Corp. I think I will pass. At $4.00 a head, I think the Anger-Management-Challenged Lantern Corp will be a flashy, colorful, ultimately unsatisfying failure in the long run. How many angry ways can you beat up a planet anyway?

Justice League Dark. Not with almonds, not the milk chocolate variety

Justice League Dark? Was that the best you could do? Why not Justice League, Milk Chocolate? or Justice League with Almonds? And listen to this line-up:

Shade the Changing Man? Is he their heavy hitter because last time I checked his suit/vest gave him incredible powers he could barely control. And I think the last time I liked him, he was being drawn by Steve Ditko. If you know who that is, you are too damn old to still be reading comics, just like me. Madame Xanadu? You gotta be kidding me? She better be getting some bad-ass super-upgrades because her powers of precognition are nifty but won’t be stopping a menace that Justice League Classic couldn’t.

Deadman, with the power to possess the living, a one trick pony but a good trick

Deadman, a perenial favorite. His scathing wit, his devil may care attitude about his undead state has endeared him to me, even as I suspend my belief that he will be able to sustain his own book let alone work in this one. His cool but singular power of possessing the bodies of the living is well…cool, but second rate. And lest I forget, the annoying, the chain-smoking, the one-shot artifact using, knows his way around the supernatural realm, using up favors the way my cat unravels a roll of toilet paper, but never runs out of them, favorite heroes, John Constantine. Now unless he has some canned Phantom Stranger under his unwashed and likely odiferous trench coat, I cannot see how this lineup of motley, single powered, almost has-beens is going to stop ANY threat unless it is a lunch counter in danger of being over-run by septuagenarians. I will leave it to the vunderkind at DC to explain why they should not get a WTF explosion salad for this piece of feldacarb.

Iron Superman and his big boy pants

Is there any light at the end of this tunnel? Like Lemmiwinks I am desperately seeking to find the light. As a lover of the Superman line, I can assuredly say to you when I heard Superman was losing the “registration line trunks” he has worn for over thirty years for no good reason, (yes, he wore them longer, but for some of his career they did serve a purpose of helping to align printing presses as a registration marker) I cheered and eagerly awaited his new look. It turned out they did not move too far from his old look, I think the belt would have looked better gold rather than red but other than that, BRAVO. Although why the formerly invulnerable Superman is flying around in armor makes me wonder is the DCnU experiencing a bit of Iron Envy as well.

The new Birds of Prey. Katana sprung for armored pants, Black Canary still wearing stockings. Pants Please?

Now Supergirl on the other hand, is there someone there who forgot to make her legs BLUE? I heard the girls were going to get PANTS. And whatever idiot still has Black Canary running around in stockings when she might have to take a bullet in the leg, I would like you to remember Kevlar does not come in stockings. Say it with me class: Adventurers who might catch bullets want body armor and Kevlar. Not so much they can’t move, not so little, it doesn’t stop bullets. If the hero does not possess damage resistance or damage avoidance powers, THEY NEED ARMOR.

There were so many other books coming out that I was just wondering what the hell was going on at DC. Yes, I love Mr. Terrific, but plucking him out of space-time and giving him an origin bereft of the Justice Society seems wrong. I will eagerly await his appearance just the same since it has been a long time since a Black superhero got top billing and didn’t have the word Black in his name.

The Green Lantern Corps, now with considerably less anger than the Red Lantern Corps, even with Guy Gardner and the angry Black man, John Stewart. Let's not forget perpetually-in-a-bad-mood, Kilowog

Afterword: And since we are talking about diversity and have been doing so for the last few weeks since the new Ultimate Spiderman was revived as a half black and half Latino character and since DC was revealed to have hired about 1% of their staff as females.

If we were to be judging any industry on its diversity, ethnic makeup and male to female ratios, almost none would pass muster, especially in America, where hiring is almost always done by those with the most money or influence in an industry. Almost without exception this will be White males.

So, if the comic industry has a preponderance of White males, this should be no surprise to anyone. If its hiring practices, especially those firms with longevity of thirty years or more tends to resemble organizations from those less enlightened eras, I would not be surprised.

Adding insult to injury, the very nature of the material lends itself to idolization by men and condemnation by women for the depiction of women in those works, is it any surprise, women would want less, in theory, to do with comics than men? That said, there are likely as many women who would WANT to make comics, if for no other reason, to show better depictions of women (and the same could be said for minorities, since they have exactly the same issues as women, under-representation and unequal treatment both in the industry and in the media depictions.)

Firestorm, fusion of magic and science or is it one origin over another? Who knows, he might even be Black.

What surprises me is that those firms STAY that way even now, when it has been proven that diversity is the number one factor companies who are successful today recognize as a fairly inexpensive way of gaining an advantage in our highly competitive society. A more diverse group, one reflecting society as a whole is likely to be more in touch with the needs, ideas, characterizations, lifestyles and belief systems.

This potentially allows for development of storylines in hereforto unseen ways which might engage audiences who current consider comics little more than testosterone-laden slugfests with homo-erotic, misogynistic overtones with the rampant objectification of women and the blatant disregard for minorities.

So why hasn’t the industry made a greater effort to include women and minorities in somewhere near to the proportions relevant in our society, both in producing quality depictions of characters, as well as the hiring of women and minorities on their staff to help develop effective means of storytelling, craftsmanship and quality control of those minority groups, making the work resonate better, potentially widening their readership, improving the quality of the work, and allowing for greater creativity overall in the workplace.

This would imply, 50% of most workplaces would be women, with the racial breakdowns proportionate to the society we live in. 50% White 26% Hispanic, 12% African American, 6% Other 4% Asian and 1.1% Native American/Pacific Islander. Okay, the industry’s statement is, the skills are not evenly distributed, or are not there, the connection to finding those people are not there, and the interest in hiring is not there, it is too expensive to make the effort to find these ratios, when our fan base is mostly White men, who are only too happy to join up to perpetuate what is already making us money.

Justice League - Forty years later and the lineup has almost not changed a bit. Hey, whose that black guy? Oh a Titan Graduate. Cyborg? I guess the rest got sent back to school.

It’s logical but lazy, and ultimately is slowly choking the life out of the industry. Each reboot, each reshuffle, each continuity redistribution, muddles the water, and confuses new readers. Link this to the emotional attachments readers have to characters and the fanboy lack of desire for change and each time a universe is reset, any new readers who were interested in your work, such as it was, is at risk.

Stormwatch. Either you have heard of them or you haven't. Not necessarily heroes, they get the job done. Don't ask what the job is. The Manhunter is their conscience. They'll need him.

At the same time, this industry has been claiming its numbers have been less successful over the years and they cannot understand why any efforts to diversify their character base has failed to take root. The answer is two-fold: A lack of authenticity in the character base and a lack of diversity in the staff.

Writers will immediately take affront saying they can tell stories, no matter who the characters are, and as I writer I understand the idea. But I also know, that a female’s view of things will be different and having a woman to work with might improve my ability to tell that story. A woman may even tell the same story in a completely different manner, resonating with women in a way a man may not. White writers may believe they know the minds of minority heroes, but not having the minority experience, it will likely ring falsely to minority readers, hence alienating the very people they are trying to attract.

Mr. Terrific, one of the newest of the DC lineup. Fix that mask, why does the bottom look like its red? Mr. T planning on kissing someone?

The lack of diversity in their staff has ensured the stories they tell best are the ones they have always told, hence the lack of development in the industry, no matter who the writers were, who the company is, or which part of the industry the company works in, whether it be horror, relationships, science fiction, or the general superhero industry.

The real problem is not the number of women or minorities hired into the comic industry or the reasons they are not hired. We know why that is. The real question is how long before the comic industry collapses under the weight of its inability to grow, evolve, change, adapt and bring real diversity both to their product and their workforce? Will they make the transition in time or one by one, fall into obscurity as their fan-boys age out, lose interest, or experience greater competition from other media.

I think, if the industry isn’t careful, this will be known as the Final Age of Comics. Now I am going to dismantle my soapbox and go buy the few comics of the DCnU that I AM interested in (and it won’t be Batwing, a refreshed, rewritten version of Marvel’s Falcon, same technology, same skills and no superpowers. Who does a brother have to screw to get some superpowers in comic book universes?) WTF.

Thaddeus [@ebonstorm]

OPINION – COMMENTARY

On July 6 2011, President Obama will communicate via Twitter at the hashtag #AskObama and respond at @townhall. Okay not quite true.

As reported by CNN, “President Barack Obama will answer questions about the economy and jobs Wednesday during his first Twitter town hall meeting. But the president, known for his oft-lengthy responses to the shortest of questions, will not be confined to Twitter’s 140-character limit. He is verbally answering questions from Twitter users, who were urged to use the hashtag #AskObama.”

Interesting. No, really. It is interesting to see him trying to reach the people again. But I wonder if anyone will be concerned with the real questions or issues? From the questions I saw in the twitter-stream tonight, I would say, not a chance.

But what is far more interesting to me, is the range of responses of the people who range from being thrilled the President has opened up again to the community and willing to hear their responses, to the bitter rhetoric of people who ask why he has not made a direct effort to communicate with the black community which has suffered terribly during his administration. The levels of unemployment in the black community which has always been an issue are now at Great Depression-era highs of 14-40% depending on age brackets and locations nationwide. What bothers me is how polarized the nation is today. President Obama is being blamed for things he simply has not had time to cause while in his time in office. Our nation is poorly educated in the ways of finance and that lack of education shows when people are convinced you can cut spending and cut taxes and believe ultimately you will have more money by doing that.

The part that disturbs me the most is the complete blindness of a wide swath of the country to his astounding accomplishments especially in the light of the difficulties he has had with the Republican Party. His opening efforts were clearly directed toward being as bipartisan as possible and as far as I can see, his efforts have been honest and heartfelt. Mitch McConnell and to a now lessened extent House Speaker, Boehner vowed that President Obama would be a one term president and the Republican Party would spare no effort to see his removal from the office with speed and alacrity. I could not believe I was hearing that. You just can’t make this stuff up. This was decided before he had been able to attempt to do anything in his office yet.

If you were to apply for a job, interview against dozens of other apparently qualified candidates, travel nationwide to secure both the funding and the votes for the job and after soundly defeating all opposition within 45 minutes of the final tallies, would you, could you be expected to do a good job when everyone you defeated turned back to you and in a hostile fashion indicated they would do as little to help you as humanly possible? And then they did exactly that.

They provided no support for any bills he established, no support for any legislation, no support for any plans, spending or developments that might help with the terrible state of the nation he was given after twenty years of poorly managed Republican government with a brief period of democratic sanity. Ronald Reagan heralded as the Great Savior, was the primary cause of the failure of the current economy as he began the first reductions in taxes for the wealthy. Following this Bush Senior and later W. Bush also enhanced those very same cuts, while increasing our wartime footing in foreign lands requiring the most expensive support possible. Naval, Air Force and Army units and services with a monstrous civilian staffing and administrative support services along with the consulting of companies such as Blackwater and Haliburton have made for a four trillion dollar war effort to supposedly capture and kill the leader of Al Queda, Osama Bin Ladin.

What a strange way to spend four trillion dollars. Go to nations barely out of the Industrial Age (Iraq, Afghanistan) who are armed with weapons from previously failed wars with large sovereign nations, similar to our own. We truck out our most impressive technologies while they bring out weapons thirty years old and improvised explosives. We fought a war of mass casualties and they fought one of attrition. Looking at the efforts ten years later, I would say theirs was the more successful strategy. Our nation is on the brink of economic collapse because our national pride will not allow us to walk away from an area, not unfamiliar with the rhythms of war. Indeed, this area has been at war for two thousand years or more. It will be safe to say, when the last Americans leave that country, it will continue to have the same kind of religious strife and secular bloodshed common to the region now for millennia.

Top 21 corporations of the US Fortune 500

This war was a loss because it caused the nation to lose site of what was important. It was important because we felt affronted that terrorism had come to our shores. But it was a mistake to wake a war machine ill-equipped for this type of non-uniformed warfare where human shields were not only the norm but an expected tactical advantage. Rather than realize we should consider what the consequences of this war might be, we allowed George W. Bush to decide (since he was the “decider“) for us as a nation and as such, we now pay the terrible price of a war machine out of financial control sucking the very lifeblood from the nation while duplicitous politicians collaborate with their corporate sponsors to continue to enjoy all the benefits of a wealthy nation without having to contribute to the continued well-being of said nation.

Such corporatism is akin to parasitism in nature. A parasite feeds from a host to its benefit without giving anything to the host animal in return. Big corporations, pharmacology, defense contractors, big auto corporations, telecom corporations, oil companies, agribusiness, and financial services organizations have made it clear they only have one agenda. The financial capitulation of anyone not a member of their elite class. Meanwhile wages diminish, people lose jobs by the millions every year, homes go into default, when they are not directly foreclosed on, they lose half their value, leaving people owning money to banks for homes they no longer live in but are forced to pay for due to machinations beyond their control, a market of traded commodities whose value was touted as more than was true. Who benefits when big banks become land owners? A question for another time…

The cost of living always rises. So whether people can handle the truth or not, taxation in one form or another must rise to meet that continually rising cost of living. Whether they be direct taxes or indirect local fees, these pay for much of the nation’s infrastructure, which also does not get cheaper to maintain, repair or replace. The idea you can tax people less and end up with more money is not only ridiculous, it borders on criminal to try and make people believe it is possible. It should be common sense. But the Republican Party has managed to convince people if the rich pay less taxes, get government subsidies and the larger the corporation, the less taxes it should pay in the name of job creation. Even when there is no evidence supporting the idea of lower taxes creating jobs, none.

If you draw money from a community without putting that money back in one form or another, you are a parasite and you will be killing your host. A large host like the US can support a wide array of different parasites from any number of economic engines. The pharmacological industries, the agribusiness, the coal, oil and gas industries, the medical technology, and the ever-present finance industry represent some of the largest and most profitable corporations in the nation. They are also some of the smallest per capita, tax paying agencies. They derive the most benefit from their government, the land, the people who work there, the infrastructure necessary for them to promote and maintain their wealth. And do the very least they can to help to maintain the very nation which enriches them.

The two faced greek diety, Janus, would find the United States a place very much to his liking. We have told the people, the government will protect them, but only when its convenient. We will ensure their defense against foreign invaders as long as they have an army. When they come in nice black suits and corporate jets, we will welcome them with open arms while they put our people on the street in the name of commerce. We will allow our people to be experimented on by Big Pharma, allow them to be poisoned by declawing the EPA and the FDA, allow diseases which should be easy to kill instead to run around growing even stronger and more drug resistant. There is a discontinutity in the most powerful nation in the world having to spend ten years hunting for a man whose most powerful weapon was a video camera and the threat he might one day appear somewhere with a bomb and blow something up. Meanwhile he sat in a compound aging quietly enjoying the benefits of the internet and watching his porn collection. Strangely enough, a very American past time. Perhaps we had more in common that anyone wanted to admit.

What, President Obama will you be doing now that we know all of what has happened in the last ten years was little more than misdirection and corporate malfeasance? Will you take up the challenge and force big corporations to pay into the coffers of a nation which has made them fantastically rich and they now improverish by sending work, money, resources and the very lifeblood of the nation to foreign investors who grow even richer while we wallow in the remnants of a fascist corporate mess wondering when we will see the light of opportunity shining for millions upon millions of our nations poorest. If the best you have to offer is weak platitudes and no actions that matter, perhaps the change we were looking for were best sought in another candidate who will do what the people need him to.

Do not be confused President Obama, I am one of your biggest supporters. I believe in the things you set out to do. I also know your message and your opportunity to make changes were derailed by the Republican Party, the Tea Party and the powerful media engines which program the nation’s idiots to spew hateful rhetoric which solves no problems and derails any meaningful conversation and progress toward solving problems. But sir, you need to understand, allowing corporations to be treated as people, and allowing money to double as speech as was made possible by the Chief Justices was wrong. (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission) It is things like this which need to be looked at for their long-term consequences. I know there is a lot on your plate and you mean well. But sir, you are the leader of the nation that leads the free world. But our nation won’t stay the leader and it has already been proven the cost of running this nation is anything but free. Cutting costs on the backs of little old ladies, the sick, the poor, schoolteachers and lowest paid workers of this nation is reprehensible at best.

To President Obama: Stop the wars, find a way to invalidated them and bring our men and women home. Use that money of the corporate war machine to find a way to build a Civilian Development Force, designed to build our nation instead of destroying others. Find a way to create an infrastructure development project which will put people back to work and give hope to a nation in desperate need of it. People don’t expect you do do everything, just the important things that only you can do. This is something you can do. There are plenty of things in this nation in need of skilled workers to repair.

In case no one has made you a list: roads in every major city are in disrepair, between cities is not much better, water management systems, pipelines, sewers, gas mains, recycling systems, forestry and environmental reclamation, solar power, wind power farms, power infrastructure from said alternative power structures, covering our cities in modular solar technologies allowing the nation to get from under the boot of Big Oil, water-way clearing, water capture systems in drought-stricken parts of the nation, organic farming systems reducing the stresses of industrial farming and its delivery of pathogens into our food supplies, biological alternatives to hydraulic fracturing and natural gas production, social programs to reduce gang violence, prison reform systems reducing our need to make prisons little more than human warehouses, health and welfare programs designed to retrain and re-educate our nation, giving people new opportunities to create and participate in a brand new world, a world more competitive and yet more open to opportunity than any time in the history of the world.

These are just a few things you could create, sir, if you were willing to take a risk and bet on the good will and the industriousness of the greatest free nation on Earth. And you need to stand strong on this one core principle: anyone who benefits from the power of our nation’s position in the world, anyone who gains advantage from living under the freedom our laws and Constitution enable should be able to, nay, willing to, no I say, should eagerly stand up and pay whatever taxes, and services and blood we force the poorest members of our nation to support their wealth, privilege and power. 

To the rich and mega-wealthy: I get it. You are wealthy, elite and powerful. You got your money the way the rich and powerful have for millennia, the old fashioned way, you found a way to steal it and call it work or progress, or slavery or whatever euphemism you used to justify your wealth. You are now above working hard for a living, sweating is not for you. And you are wealthy enough that tears are simply not a lifestyle choice. And War, the spilling of blood is done best by the proletariat you have nothing but contempt for. Your blood is best kept inside of your body. War is your most profitable enterprise for which you will never stop unless forced. I say to you this: Since you cannot be bothered to pay in blood, nor sweat nor tears to keep our nation safe, secure, and a place for which you can say you have respect for how powerful it has made you, then do this; pay your damn share of the taxes to the people and the nation that keeps you wealthy because when you decide you can no longer be bothered, you should sleep much less soundly.

Not to worry. Angry villagers (and modern city dwellers) will make enough noise to wake you before they reclaim your wealth for their own. It was theirs to begin with. You have simply forgotten how you got rich; off the backs of common men and women. When they lose their wealth, you should expect yours to disappear soon after. After all, nature abhors a vacuum.

A spectrum of social media tools (click to enlarge)

The above graphic offers you a chance, if you can read the tiny logos in the expanded version, to see just how many tools are currently in existence that revolve around the explosions in social media technology.

I have been reading articles regarding social media for the last week and I have become very disturbed by the variety of points of view on the subject. The articles on Klout and Peer Index and other tools used to measure social influence left me wondering about the attempts of the industry to monitize, gamify or in some fashion quantify the value of social media. I am certain I am in violation of a number or rules regarding social media, the primary one being that the meaning is the message, and that it is important to use social media to advertise your product or brand. I spent an entire hour listening to brand mavens pointing out the importance of branding in the future of advertising.

But there were things said that did not sit well for me. Just a couple to show you want I mean.

I am not a detergent. I am not a cow. I do not need nor require a brand to identify myself. The very nature of branding reduces not enhances the human experience, in my opinion. Why has society tried to force branding off on to the computer-using human populace as if it was something that was to be desired? What is this issue with trying to determine Trust Metrics? As if trust were something you could get off the shelf at the market. And since when did Integrity become something that could be detected over the Internet?

All that follows is my opinion. Mouth-breathers who want to rant and rave over what I say next, I say to thee, get thee to a nunnery or to wherever you need to go to get yourself together. I will likely speak heresy and perhaps it is best that someone say it.

Social media has no meaning beyond what we give it. There is this need to expound on social media as if it were the best thing that has ever happened to anyone anywhere. Get over it. Much of what is being sold today as social media has existed for over twenty years in various and better developed forms.

They are only important now because they have suddenly become mainstream and now relatively normal folks are suddenly able to post things to the internet with a minimum of muss and fuss. All that was old is new again. The chat potential that is currently Twitter used to be know as IRC and for anyone who still uses IRC, they laugh at Twitter as a less intelligent but better dressed cousin. Blogging used to have a slightly different configurations called Forums which allowed you to post information sequentially in discrete chunks blocked off by time. Millions of people and services still use forums today. Email, well that has just stayed email. It has slightly more advanced capabilities but if you were sending email twenty years ago, you could send it today with less than five minutes of explanation.

All of the fuss that is made over social media, regarding its marketing potential, whether trust was important and if so, how important, how does social media penetrate our lives, etc. Yes, I know Twitter has software that allows its feeds to be used in other programs, allowing for visualization of twitter information in wild and wonderful ways. But most of those visualizations are not beneficial to the people using Twitter. They are beneficial to corporations who want to monitize Twitter with advertising models. All of that is nonsense, if the basic premise is still untrue. If you are a dastardly person, who does not honor your contracts, who lacks human decency and cannot string a comprehensive paragraph together, social media will not help you get new clients, it will not help your business, it will not help you keep friends, (though it may allow you to expose yourself and your dastardly ways to more people), it will not make you a better person and it certainly won’t help you be a better writer.

Bad people are found out. It may take a moment, if they are suave or clever (or in some cases, sociopathic) and can put on an act to make others believe they are genuine and trustworthy. But they did not need social media for that. They could have (and have almost always) duped their prey in person. Now social media gives them one more forum to ply their trade.

Social media is not new. It is a new way of doing old things. The first and best of those old things is called communication. Talking to people, being friendly, being a person of repute, having manners, displaying class and grace. These things are the social part. If you lack these, technology will not help you.

Stop ranting over social media currency or the ROI (return on investment) of your social media time and how it will augment your business marketing making you even richer than you are now. You become rich by having something worthwhile to say. You become rich by doing things that are meaningful. You become rich by creating content people are able to put to work in their lives and in doing so perhaps also become rich. Do that right enough times and everyone you are social with will benefit.

Content is King.  The ability to say the right thing, at the right time, to the right people over the right communication standard is what matters. If you don’t mean what you say, say what you mean, do what you say and accomplish it in a timely fashion, you will not succeed in business, you will not succeed in life and you certainly won’t succeed in social media, which is a distillation of all of the things, skills, behaviors, ideas and efforts you put forward in life. Social media will not make you rich if you are a slackard. It will not enrich those who cannot be bothered to actually have anything useful to say. It is the USE of your content that makes it worthy.

Influence, the power of social media matters when you are able to help others find their way to the things they are seeking in life. Things that help them fulfill what is important to them, for them, for their families and their way of living. Otherwise, you are just another person claiming to be a social media expert and not clear on the subject of what social media is really supposed to do. Yes, you can have amazing Klout numbers or Peer Index numbers and still not be doing anything that helps anyone. Social media suffers from a high ratio of noise to signal. Lots of sound, hard to distinguish what is worth listening to. This diminishes its usefulness. That was the point of the very first graphic I gave you. Look closely at it, zoom in on it (click it first for the highest resolution) you will see there are at least one hundred different ways of relaying information using social media. With so much diversity, it is hard to know where it would be best for your message to be placed for a chance at getting heard.

Social media’s real goal is to help us communicate. Meaningfully, with content that can change lives. All that other talk about the benefits of social media is just to get us to buy something we don’t need to complete a task well within our power, without ever turning on a computer in the first place.

Yes, I said it. The social media emperor has no clothes.

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