Sunday, July 09, 2017

NET NEUTRALITY --- HEAT WAVE


FCC RECONSIDERS NET NEUTRALITY

Issues swirling around our government distract us from Internet concerns. 

On July 12th dozens of major websites and organizations are joining in an internet-wide day of action to prevent a possible FCC wrong decision in undoing the previous ruling to insure net neutrality.  Your comment to the FCC is a first step needed with this link at Demand Progress as one way to express your view.

If net neutrality protections are removed the previous rules of access will be violated to the detriment of smaller business users and ordinary people is the concern of many and one I have shared.     

SlateMagazine explains this complicated issue including:

"Most would generally agree that net neutrality is about preserving the internet as an open platform where newcomers play by the same basic rules of access as giants like Google and Netflix.  The internet is more than just a content channel.  It's also a platform for innovation that creates new jobs, new economic demands and benefits, new opportunities for democratic participation, and new applications.  The challenge here is to protect users from censorship, while also maintaining the internet as a vibrant and open platform for innovation."

Can we trust that net neutrality will be preserved if the rules insuring it are removed?


HEAT WAVE -- SO CAL CLIMATE CHANGE UP DATE 

Heat temperatures are breaking records in three digit figures here in Southern California, more typical of later in the summer than now in early July.  

Many residents are feeling a bit more miserable because our usual dry heat has high humidity with monsoon flow.  

Heading east from Los Angeles County to Palm Springs the temperatures have been even hotter into the teens. 

Firefighters are being kept busy putting out brush fires before they get out of hand threatening homes.

Power outages occurring in some of our valleys due to a variety of reasons serve as a reminder of how vulnerable we're told our power grid is putting us at risk when our power system is disrupted. 

Keeping cool, I move between my air conditioned house to similarly cooled auto and grocery stores or other businesses, so don't linger long in the heat.  Carrying a water bottle  in my car is routine for me year 'round but especially now.  We're susceptible to dehydration at any age, but I think more so as we get older.   

Here are a couple of grumpy old men noting a heat wave in their environment.


   





12 comments:

  1. Thanks for the heads up regarding net neutrality. I signed on to the list of those opposing change.

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    1. Whether or not the opposition views will receive serious consideration from the new FCC Chairman is of concern according to many accounts.

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  2. Thanks for the link on net neutrality. I added my name.

    I feel so badly for the people living and fighting those terrible fires out west. The heat hasn't been that bad here in MI this summer. I feel for those in our western states.

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    1. Our fires seem less seasonal as temperatures rise on our planet and our drought years. Fall was usually when fires became more prevalent, but they've started much earlier in recent years authorities have reported.

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  3. My youngest is out there (So Cal) and I worry about him a lot. I know you take care of yourself, but I often question the rationality of youth. :/

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    1. It isn't all disaster out here for large areas and most people, so don't let the stories that receive public distribution, or what I said about the heat and fires unduly alarm you. Common sense prevails for most people with coping information quite public for residents and visitors. I do appreciate your reference to judgment concerns and/or impulsiveness young people can exhibit. I tend to think of what we're experiencing as somewhat the reverse of living in cold snowy climates with all the problems that can create when temmps way below zero, for example, (have lived that) or flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, other weather-related issues elsewhere.

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  4. It's so disheartening that we have to keep fighting Old Battles all over again because of this criminal administration and his obsession with settling old scores and lining his and his cronies' pockets. How much longer?!?!

    Stay safe out there.

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    1. I understand your discouragement but hopefully there's light at the end of this tunnel as efforts continue to find the truth about threats, for whatever the reasons, to our constitutional democratic republic form of government.

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  5. I like the way the two grumpy old men keep insulting each other.

    I'm all in favour of net neutrality. To me though the biggest problem on the net is the epidemic of vicious, abusive, sadistic trolling inflicted on innocent victims who find it hard to fight back. That sort of destructive bullying needs to be stopped.

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    1. That was a funny movie with actors Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau -- the latter singing that Broadway show tune, Heat Wave --their competitive reaction to a much-younger-than-them new resident moving to neighborhood, played by attractive Ann Margaret. Bullying and trolls do present a serious problem on the net.

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  6. The heat is overwhelming this year and I can't imagine having to fight fires with it so hot. Those men and women are true heroes.

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    1. The humidity we've had added to the heat has made it more miserable, I think. I agree, I don't know how the fire fighters manage.

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