Smartphone and tablet users just can't get enough of their mobile devices. Some do nearly everything with phone in hand.
U.S. consumers spend, on average, three hours and 40 minutes each day on their mobile devices, an increase of 35% from a year ago in the second quarter of 2014. And that time spent on mobile devices continues to increase, said Simon Khalaf, senior vice president of publishing products at Yahoo.
Globally there are 280 million "mobile addicts," who use apps more than 60 times daily. Effectively, "these folks are conducting their lives on mobile," Khalaf said.
People are conducting their entire life on a mobile device? If that continues, I predict that human interaction will eventually cease to exist, leading to the extinction of the concepts of "right and wrong" and causing bad anti-human things to become commonplace and acceptable in society. If you don't believe me just read the classic science fiction of the 1940's and 1950's. Then, get off your phone - and get a real life!
rider not using the bike lane
When it comes to bicycling, Los Angeles thinks it's Belgium. Or Beijing. It's not. Unlike Belgium or Beijing, L.A. is spread out, encompassing over 400 square miles.
The L.A. City Council, as a major priority, wants area residents to bicycle everywhere, even though in many cases that is 100% impractical. Many area residents commute dozens of miles to work everyday, each way, via freeway. Many people shop for food, filling an entire shopping cart, and simply cannot lug their food home via a bicycle.
Regardless of the common sense and the reality, L.A. is in the process of converting hundreds of miles of streets and roadways into "bicycle lanes". To do that, the government is taking away a lane of traffic from those streets, thus making the horrific traffic congestion in L.A. even worse. Does that make any sense at all???
Here is an event I personally witnessed at 6:45 PM on Tuesday, August 25, 2015:
I was driving my car north on a newly "bicycle-laned" major street near where I live. It was beautiful summer evening. As I was driving I noticed that there were no bicycle riders ahead of me using the bicycle lane. Not one bicyclist. I looked in my rear view mirror and finally saw one, a twenty-something guy pedaling his bike in the new bike lane. As I watched him, he rode in the bicycle lane for about a block then veered onto the sidewalk, where he rode for several more blocks. Why on earth did he leave the dedicated bicycle lane and continue riding his bike on the uneven, cracked and broken sidewalks of L.A., weaving around pedestrians? I don't know.
I DO know that it makes no sense to add hundreds of miles of bicycle lanes to the streets of L.A., at taxpayer expense, and make vehicular traffic congestion worse, if the bicycle riders are not even going to use the bicycle lanes!
People in Belgium and Beijing and in other places around the world do indeed ride their bikes everywhere. In many other places, bicycling makes sense. for work and play, where distances are short. Los Angeles, however, is spread out. In L.A., it is common to have to travel 10-20 miles or more to get to where you want, and need, to go. And the buses and subway often don't go anywhere close to where you want to go. Unfortunately, all too often, in Los Angeles, you do need a car.
Los Angeles is not Belgium. Or Beijing. And, regarding bicycling lanes, the Los Angeles city government, no matter what it thinks or what it does, will not and cannot make it so.
the 3-year-old Mayor
from Reuters.com
"A freckled-faced three-year-old boy has gotten a few valuable pieces of advice from his six-year-old bother since he succeeded his elder sibling as mayor of a small town in northern Minnesota.
"I told him to be nice when you talk to people and don't say any poopy talk," Robert Tufts said, relaying the conversation he had with his younger brother James after he became ceremonial mayor of Dorset, Minnesota, on Aug. 2.
James was named mayor of the town of 22 residents during the annual Taste of Dorset food festival. His name was drawn from a bucket during a $1 raffle to become mayor for a year,"
Maybe this should be the way we elect ALL politicians!
California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill that bans the use of the word "alien" in California as it relates to illegal immigrants.
Yes, really.
What with severe drought, severe poverty, severe wildfires, severe traffic congestion, severe unemployment and severe high housing costs in California, banning the word "alien" is what the elected state government officials in California think is important? THIS is how the California State Legislature and the Governor spend taxpayer time and money - banning the word "alien"? Insane and idiotic! So now the only "aliens" allowed in California will be aliens from outer space. And, to be politically correct, when/if extraterrestrials land here in California, will we have to refer to them as "undocumented immigrants" too? And shall we also give them free education, free medical care, and a free iPhone so they can phone home?
A message to federal, state and local elected officials: "Enough! Stop playing politics and start fixing the major problems facing law-abiding, tax-paying citizens!
OK, I am a baby boomer and am hereby officially declaring my "dinosaur status". Why? Because of the new Microsoft Windows 10 TV ad geared to millennials. The ad ends with: "Windows 10. A more human way to do."
A more human way to do WHAT? A more human way to do? Where's the rest of it? Can't Microsoft complete the thought? Can't people complete a sentence anymore? "A more human way to do"? A more human way to do WHAT? "I can't even". I can't even WHAT? Is THIS the new accepted way of speaking and writing? I can't even. I am an author. I communicate with readers, using the written word. I can't even. I can't even understand how millennials communicate. What are they trying to say? What are they trying to communicate? Why don't they complete their thoughts? Or their sentences. Suddenly, as an author, and a human being, I can no longer communicate with younger people. I'm a dinosaur. Younger people no longer speak or write proper English. They no longer complete a thought, or a sentence. Why is that? Oh, wait a minute. According to scientific studies, humans today have the attention span of a goldfish; less than eight seconds. That could mean people run out of concentration, have a brain lapse, BEFORE they can complete a sentence or a thought. Maybe that's why they leave off the end of a sentence, because their attention wanders - because they have the attention span of a goldfish. This must be especially true for millennials. NOW it makes sense.
What's the solution?
We dinosaurs have to start thinking and acting like a goldfish! I can't even.
I loyally drank Caffeine Free Sugar Free Diet Pepsi for decades. I liked the taste and the carbonation. I drink 2-3 cans a day. Every day. 365 days a year. I do not like Coke, it's too "bitter" for my taste. Now, suddenly, Pepsi has removed the sugar taste (via aspartame) and replaced it with less tasty, less sugary sucralose. Why? As far as I can figure, it is because millennials have decided that they don't want aspartame in their soft drinks. Why? They think aspartame is unhealthy. They think aspartame is unhealthy the same way they think that all processed food is "bad". The same way they think gluten-free is a must-have, even though only 1% of the population is actually allergic to gluten - and, according to the medical profession, the other 99% get NO health benefits from gluten-free food. Yes, millennials would rather pay twice as much for tasteless "organic" food. Now, millennials have done the same thing to soft drinks - and ruined my Pepsi. And the Pepsi company caved in, and changed a perfectly good tasting soft drink to a perfectly good, less tasty soft drink.
Now, after loyally drinking it for decades, I will have to give up the new caffeine free sugar free aspartame free Diet Pepsi and go and find another soft drink. Do you think it's easy to find a caffeine free, sugar free diet cola (that isn't Coca Cola) that still contains aspartame? It isn't. I don't know if there even is one that is carried by my major local supermarket. What about drinking bottled water? I tried it, I hated it, it is completely without any taste at all.
I hate change. Especially if the change makes things taste worse.
"Consumers around the world admit it: they sleep with their smartphone, take it in the shower, and would rescue the device from a fire before saving the family cat.
Those are among the findings of a seven-country survey of more than 7,000 people about smartphone habits released Tuesday by Motorola, the newly acquired division of Chinese electronics giant Lenovo.
Sixty percent of those surveyed said they slept holding their handsets -- with the highest percentages in India (74 percent) and China (70 percent). And 57 percent said they took the device into the toilet, with the highest totals from China and Brazil.
One in six smartphone users said they used their phones while showering, and more than half -- 54 percent -- said they would reach for the smartphone before saving their cat in the event of a fire.
How close are people to their devices? 22 percent said they would give up sex for a weekend before parting with their smartphone. And 40 percent tell secrets to their phones they would not reveal even to their best friend. "
There it is, the dominance of the cell phone over people's lives. Texting while sleeping? Texting while showering? Texting while having sex? Really???
From the DailyBruin
"The University of California increased its payroll by 7.5 percent to $12.6 billion in 2014, according to UC payroll data released Wednesday.
According to the data released, the increase in salaries was due to heightened competitiveness in the wage market for employees and an increase in facilities offered by the UC associated with higher student enrollment.
Jim Mora, UCLA’s head football coach, was the highest-paid UC employee. Mora’s total compensation was about $3.5 million, a 44 percent increase from 2013.
Highest-paid employees at the UC were athletic coaches and health sciences faculty. Under the UC’s compensation model, an employee can get additional compensation apart from base pay due to performance, which is more common in the field of sports and health care.
The highest-paid employees at UCLA included athletic coaches Mora and Steve Alford, head coach of the UCLA men’s basketball team."
Athletic coaches are the highest paid employees in the university system? What does THAT say about uber-liberal California higher education? And how many of those millionaire coaches are black or Hispanic? Or women? Don't the teachers of Women's Studies, Black Studies and Islamic Studies deserve to earn millions too? Hey, all you uber-liberal California educators and supporters, you're f-ing hypocrites.
Final score: coaches 1, students 0
