Smart(ish) Phone Bee Smart

 I just got a smart phone. Let the jokes begin...

 I have not been able to resist any number of wisecracks*.

 because none of us exactly believe the phone is smart. Too many people use them everyday with no evidence of increased smartness in the world for one thing. And then there are all the stupid things they do - and smart things they can't do. Still there is a sort of acceptance that these devices are smart. That there is mart technology.

 But there isn't - there are smart technicians, and smart programmers and smart engineers. They make some very clever devices. I just haven't seen a smart one yet. Nor have I seen an intelligent search engine even though some are remarkably well thought out (by people) and use gobs of data to return information with a high probability of being what I wanted - at least based on past internet searches and whatever personal data went into the algorithms. The things these devices do "on their own" are everybit as independent as what a marble does rolling down one of those tubes in that MarbleWorks game. Some one set up the pathway that marble will roll down once dropped.

 But we rarely gush about smart some ones. It is so much more comfortable to have a device I can't figure out because it's too smart not because the people who made it might be smarter than I am. On the other hand it is a dangerous and scary thing when people accept the smartness of the computers all around us in ways they would never accept of people. Come on... hasn't anyone seen Wizard of Oz? There is a man behind the curtain. He isn't omniscient and benevolent... and he may not be evil but he definitely wants us to buy stuff. And even he may not be smart - but he sure is clever.

*why are they never wise or a smart-aleck ever smart?

Thor lady

 Clearly I am practicing on opinions that are easy, like the packaging rant, before I work my way up to the big opinions. Ranting over a comic book - a comic book I've never even seen in my life is certainly a simple place to start. Still I did see the drawing or the new female Thor that went with the major headline -because it is major news that Thor is now going to be a woman.
 A big hulking Thor like female. Naturally the flowing hair doesn't distinguish her from the guy Thor at all. In fact from the picture just like Thor except for the really large Teutonic breasts -very worthy of any Wagnerian opera star. In comic book world -from my very limited experience - those are what makes a woman. Otherwise, while even your average male (of Northern European descent at least) could in certainly lights look like a member of the same genus as Thor, "she" looks nothing like any human female I've ever seen even on professional wrestling (again I can claim only limited experience).
The Thor lady drawing had a kind of freak show need to look until I realized it was the combination of breasts and gigantic steroidal muscles that was the freakish part. Does that make me a sexist? Because I am bothered by a woman Thor? Well I suppose it would if I was bothered by a woman Thor. Then again maybe I am but that's a topic for another day because right now I am simply bothered by calling that breasted thing a female.
  And I'm confused. How is this some sort of step forward for women's rights? Or the perception of women? Or even Valkyries for that matter, given that this Thor makes them look like Barney Fife by comparison?  Barbie is a positively realistic representation of the female form compared to the new Thor, whose hammer worthiness could have only come about by some large doses of steroids... and breast implants. I thought when I was growing up (long long ago) I knew what the feminist movement was about. Women - the female of the species, the same species I belonged to and the same gender. I was wrong. I have no idea what it is about, at least not if anyone can claim this as progress.
 So to sum up I am wasting time complaining that a new comic strip character is unrealistic. Also that when the doll comes out ("figure") it will probably be sold in clam shell packaging which is hard on manicures.

packaging

It's bad. I think we all agree on that. Also it's dangerous. More ER visits are due to lacerations from trying to remove packaging than any other cause (I completely made that up). It contributes to global warming (I only sorta made that up). It takes up hours of time that could be more productively used playing solitaire or reading lists on the internet - I'm not saying that if not for removing packaging one would spend the saved time doing these things -I 'm saying that doing these things would still be more productive than removing packaging. Also alot less stressful. It saves a little time in the store but takes more time at home. It fills our trash which then we have to dispose of or pay someone to dispose of or some combination of both. It is a grossly inefficient use of time and resources no matter how you consider it but obviously it works economically for the reatailers. There is a simple reason for this.

 People are dumb sheep. We take the convenience of grabbing the clam shell package (I hate these the most) or "set" of jars linked by those lethal plastic rings, off the shelf in one fell swoop over all the inconvenience that will follow when we get home because we don't think about it until we get home. BY then it is too late to complain.

 And the worst offenders are in the stores we actually pay to shop at; Costco,  BJs,  Sam's. (I did not fact check on the Sam's membership). The point is the sheep should get together and demand less packaging. I hear rumors of improvement but my last trip to one of the above still filled a trash can with plastic shopping detritus -and it doesn't even compact with anything less than a professional compacter.

It's crazy. It makes no real sense. It only makes marketing sense because they know they are marketing to dumb sheep. Baaa, baaa.