Attribution: maido155, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in lamenting the cultural trend that has many in the keeper’s age group disdained, ridiculed and ignored for not having kept up to speed in the tech world. There is the clear signal that those vintage citizens who …
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Category:Technology
Dialogues on the Price of Free Speech: Asocial Media
Geralt, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By the Fabulous Dadbots: Mark M., Mark O., Dave S., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter The 1996 Communication Decency Act has at its heart Section 230: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by …
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Dialogues on the Human Touch: I am not a Robot
Attribution: Prompt by JPxG, model by Boris Dayma, upscaler by Xintao Wang, Liangbin Xie et al. (Apache License 2.0 or BSD), via Wikimedia Commons By the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter Something appealing about that ‘60s imperative—Question Authority—in a proletariat way (to me)… I have a boatload of …
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Kickass and Computer Fail
Photo by Ilya Pavlov on Unsplash Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper is slowly recovering his emotional equilibrium–such as it was, after losing three days of computer work on a project he has been working on since the days of hand-cranked automobiles. Usually, Phyllis can repair his keyboard fumbling, but something mysterious occurred …
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Kickass and the iPhone
Photo by Kostiantyn Li on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper will no longer be dominated and humiliated by his “GD” iPhone; and if you want to talk to him, come to where he lives. He is fed up with calls from people selling things, and he is tired …
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The Bright Side
Artwork by Michael DiMilo Over the two years that I’ve been writing my weekly blog posts, it seems that there has very rarely been anything positive to write about. Between the January 6th insurrection, the continuing pandemic, the rising gun violence and reckless driving fatalities in our city, and various other sundry crises—including the rise of …
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A Few Good Things
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter I’ve been mentoring new teachers in our local public school system for the past few years now. One characteristic I’ve noticed both with them (and myself, during my own career as a teacher) is that every instructor, no matter how experienced, always has one of those classrooms that …
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Kickass and Elderly Scams
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that while the keeper and Phyllis spend too much time on the internet, they have yet to be part of the multibillion dollar scamming of senior citizens that is part of the scene. The fact that the net played an oblique part in the keeper …
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Stupid is as Stupid Does
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Last week, State Representative Jonathon Carroll introduced a bill in the Illinois State Legislature that would require residents who have refused the Covid-19 vaccination—and who subsequently contract the virus—to cover the expenses of treating the disease on their own, even if they have health insurance. Rep. Carroll has …
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Kickass and Seat Heater
Photo by Tim Samuel from Pexels By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s observation that there was once a time when it was possible, even beneficial, to establish a relationship with a personal mode of transportation simply by talking to a horse. In the early iteration of the automobile age—when under-the-hood mechanicals could be understood …
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Kickass and 90-year-olds
Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper as he and all of those in the 90-year-old age group celebrate William Shatner’s 10-minute space ride. While it is comforting to acknowledge accomplishments by 90-year-olds, the reality of Shatner’s experience costing him a …
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Kickass Gets Sunburned
Ashwin Kumar, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, having inherited from his Norwegian mother, light skin very vulnerable to sun damage; and having grown up when the only “sunblock” was to stay in the shade; and having suffered youthful sunburns so severe his skin peeled …
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