The Land of Opportunity

It appears that the globalist establishment in the West (Europe and the Anglosphere) are attempting to simultaneously merge with the Third World and disappear.  By disappear I mean erase their ethnicity, history and culture and become a melting pot something along the lines of Brazil.

And despite the best efforts of people like Donald Trump they seem to be succeeding.  The chaos that emerges from unlimited third world migration is a pretty frightening spectacle.  The recent series of brutal attacks, rapes and murders by migrants against law-abiding Americans and the unconcerned reaction of city and state officials to this onslaught is instructive.  The lesson to take away is clear.  There is no one out there to protect you from these invaders.

Your only course of action is to minimize your exposure to migrants.  First and foremost is to live in countries, states and cities that actively search out migrants and arrest them.  Currently the United States under Donald Trump is such a country.  But within the United States, the blue states and even the blue cities within some red states maintain pro-migrant policies that allow them to live here without fear of arrest or deportation.  So, the first order of business is leaving these “sanctuary” jurisdictions.  And that should be a major improvement in your ability to avoid being harmed by migrants.  And in general, staying out of large cities anywhere will be a good policy.  Large cities attract migrants because of the many opportunities to find employment and blend in.

Now as we’ve seen, the Democrats, when they come into power will suspend all activities by ICE and the border guards and just allow millions of illegals to steam in.  So, if we have a Democrat in the White House after Trump we may be in a situation where migrants are present throughout the country in large numbers.  At that point, the only way to decrease your odds of being harmed by migrants would be to live in a red state that allows you to take active steps to protect yourself.  You’ll need to live in a community that supports a robust police force that actively pursues criminals and prosecutes them to the fullest extent of the law.  Ideally a liberal use of the death penalty would be the optimal strategy.  Other things you can do include living in a gated community with private policing.  But this is very expensive and only practical for the very wealthy.  Alternatively, citizen patrol programs can have a beneficial effect.

As a last resort, you can look into other countries where law and order are a priority.  Recently even a place like El Salvador has had enough of crime and cracked down on their gang members in a remarkably effective way.  Now El Salvador is not a place you’d want to live in.  But I think if the United States continues to vacillate back and forth on important priorities like immigration there will be more Americans leaving for safer places.  Places that come to mind are in Eastern Europe (Hungary, Czechia, Poland) and South America (Chile, Argentina).  But who knows, maybe there are several other countries that are fed up with crime and dysfunction.  Someday soon someplace beside the United States may be considered the land of opportunity.

It Doesn’t Compute

Most of life is about paying the bills.  We work most of our days to pay for food, shelter and raising children.  And for the most part we don’t think too much about all this.  After all what we do is the human analog of what very living creature on Earth has to do to keep its species alive into the future.  And none of them question why exactly all this goes on.

But when you get to a certain point and the end of the race is in sight and maybe you have a little more time on your hands than you used to, you might start asking some questions about what all of this is.  This is called philosophy or religion or maybe just plain curiosity.  One day you look around and think, “How the hell did this whole thing get started and where the hell is it going to end up?”

And it’s a good question.  The pessimist’s answer is the whole thing is just a complete accident.  Life itself is just a random occurrence that probably will just peter out and end when the sun dies in several billion years or maybe even sooner than that if some things go sideways for us here.  Who knows?  Maybe we ourselves will be responsible for the end of life.  Some madman may decide it would be fun to figure out a way to kill off every last bacterium and virus and make it so that none could ever reappear on Earth again.  It seems like a stupid idea but there are lots of crazy people and who’s to say that a really smart crazy man might not take it into his head to do something like that.

But there is definitely a sizable chunk of humanity that believe that we are here for a reason.  They believe in some kind of God.  Not necessarily the personal God of the Bible.  Some think there is some sort of universal spirit that is associated with all life or maybe just human life.  And it’s safe to say they have no way of ever proving what they believe in is real.  I’ve heard lots of people trying to prove God’s existence.  And I don’t think anyone has ever come up with anything that would convince an atheist that he is wrong.

No, the belief is not based on proof.  But at the same time, I don’t think for the most part it’s wish fulfillment.  I think it’s a form of intuition.  Some people look around and say I just don’t believe that all of this is the result of random chance working out over the course of several billion years.  It’s like that old idea that if a billion monkeys typed on a billion typewriters (word processors) for a billion years that they would come up with the Complete Works of William Shakespeare.  I think it’s a case of not letting large numbers intimidate you.  I can understand that over the course of geologic time mountains can turn into valleys and stars can explode.  But how does that create Mozart or Shakespeare or even you?  It doesn’t compute.

Not So Forbidden Planet

Dr. Morbius – Young man, my daughter is going to be terribly punished for what she just said.

J J Adams – Dr Morbius, don’t you understand it’s your subconscious that is responsible for all this death and destruction?

Dr. Morbius – What, me harm my own daughter.

J J Adams – Well, look at those gages.  Your subconscious monster will use whatever amount of unlimited power it takes to break through that door.

Dr. Morbius – I’m helpless to stop this terrible power.

Altaira – John please do something.

J J Adams – Alright I will.  (draws his sidearm and fatally wounds Dr Morbius who falls to the ground)

(The gages of the Krell machine quickly settle down to minimal levels and the door that was white hot cools visibly.)

Dr. Morbius – Son, throw that switch.

J J Adams – What will it do?

Dr. Morbius – It will initiate a chain reaction inside the Krell thermonuclear power plants that will unstoppably consume the planet in a miniature nova.  The Krell technology is too dangerous for humanity.  It must be destroyed.

J J Adams – Sorry Dr Morbius, I disagree.  The technology they possessed was too dangerous for them and for you.  But we’ll harvest the Krell knowledge without unleashing any subconscious monsters and I predict we’ll do just fine.

(Morbius expires)

Altaira – John, what do we do now?

J J Adams – Our first problem is how to get out of here.  That door will be cool soon but it’s probably permanently welded shut.  I’ll contact my crew and we’ll provide a funeral ceremony for your father and Doc.  Afterwards we’ll get back in touch with Earth and begin the start of the project to decipher the Krell technology.  That will be the largest step change in human knowledge since the discovery of the faster than light drive.  It will take tens of thousands of scientists and engineers centuries to mine all of the knowledge here.

Altaira – But what will become of me?

J J Adams – That depends on what you want to do.  If you want to stay on Altair IV, you will have many opportunities to press your legal right to some kind of remuneration for the government’s seizure of the Krell technology.  I’d say you may end up as one of the wealthiest humans in the galaxy.

Altaira – But what about us?

J J Adams – Well Alta, a starship captain doesn’t make enough of a salary to impress an heiress but if you can wait a year for a wedding I can most probably wangle a desk job on Altair IV and we can see whether your interest in biology is strictly academic or not.

Altaira – I’ll wait for you John.  I don’t want to leave my home.  But with my father gone I need someone to help me figure out my future.

J J Adams – Well, as I said I’ll be stuck here indefinitely while the military secures the Krell infrastructure.  So, you’ll get a chance to get to know me when I’m not killing your relatives or fighting invisible monsters.

(They embrace, kiss and then begin the search for a way out.)

Tom’s World – 13DEC2025 – Sony Trouble

Tom | Flickr

TomD

 

My A7IV is glitching badly on me. The nature of the glitch seems to change but the camera has approached unusability and times and exceeded it at times. Right now, I’m using my backup A6600..

The glitches started by ID’ing my Sony battery incorrectly as an aftermarket battery. Then the warning wouldn’t turn off and the camera was unusable. Right now, it starts taking pictures continuously on startup and won’t stop.

I talked to the shop where I bought it and they recommended a firmware update. I checked and found that since I downloaded 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0 have been issued. But then noticed that 6.0 was bricking cameras left and right and Sony had pulled it a couple of days after the intro. I figured that I could still update to 5.0 only to find that Sony has pulled ALL firmware updates until further notice which could be at least several weeks.

I wonder how long I can go without a main camera? And I especially wonder whether a firmware update will fix it. Logic tells me probably so.

I’ve noticed that the A7V has been issued at “only” $3,000 but I’ve also noticed that my photography level hasn’t increased apace with new and more sophisticated (and expensive) bodies. One big caveat to that, eye autofocus is now a MUST HAVE to me.

I’ve had Sony Alpha cameras since the A100 I bought 21-22 years ago and this is the 1st problem of any description from any of them. With my lenses, I’m irrevocably married to Sony now. If my IV model is screwed, it’s not a given that I’ll buy a V. A large percentage of my best shots were with the A850 but I couldn’t go back to that horrible high ISO performance and the autofocus performance would probably feel antediluvian.