Are you ready for the next freedom that may be on the chopping block? Just recently a bill in congress, the "We Are Watching You Act of 2013" has been introduced by Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) to circumvent Big Brother activities:
Verizon last year filed a patent for monitoring technology that would use infrared cameras and microphones to track and collect consumer behavior in the vicinity of a TV or mobile device. According to the patent application, the technology could detect ambient action, like people eating, exercising, reading, sleeping and more.
"This may sound preposterous but it's neither a joke nor an exaggeration," Capuano said in a statement. "These DVRs would essentially observe consumers as they watch television as a way to super-target ads. It is an incredible invasion of privacy."
The bill, We Are Watching You Act of 2013, would prohibit video service operators like Verizon and Comcast from collecting visual or audio data from the vicinity of the device without express permission from the consumer. For viewers that opt in, the monitoring company would have to display a "we are watching you" message on the screen and provide to the consumer what types of information is being collected and how it will be used.
Sounds very "1984" to me. Just think, by giving up this freedom in the bedroom, Big Brother will know when you are having sex and will start charging a sex tax.......
"1984" wasn't supposed to be an instruction manual.
Just recently I was at a friends party and as usual one of my conversations reverted to digital rights and the monitoring our our internet activities. The person, whom shall remain nameless, said "If you are doing nothing illegal you have nothing to worry about.". On the surface that concept seems logical. However if we dig deeper and think about it. As time goes on and we are monitored to the nth degree deeper there will be nothing you can avoid to stay out of trouble.
Take the law they are trying to pass in New Jersey. New Jersey wants to make it a law that when the police pull you over they can require that you hand over license, registration and cell phone. Can you say "Invasion of Privacy"? Is this an invasion of our privacy? After all isn't it in the interest of public safety that you not talk on your cellphone while driving?
Our freedom is like a bucket of water in the desert. The water represents our freedom. When the bucket develops a leak. Not a big one. We might say that its not big enough to worry about so we just don't stop the leak. After all its just a couple of drops a day. Then, next year another leak develops and another the year after.
After a bit of time we look in the bucket to discover that it is half empty. We surprisingly ask "What happened to our Freedom?"
Are we a "Nation of Wimps"? According to that article Americans have shielded their kids to the point of insanity. The article dives into how parents will go to just about any means to protect their kids from bad grades, even through College. Needless to say I have written numerous articles about the Entitlement Generation. I have also written about the bane of Cell Phones. An interesting section of the Wimps article was regarding Cellphone use and College students:
"Think of the cell phone as the eternal umbilicus. One of the ways we grow up is by internalizing an image of Mom and Dad and the values and advice they imparted over the early years. Then, whenever we find ourselves faced with uncertainty or difficulty, we call on that internalized image. We become, in a way, all the wise adults we've had the privilege to know. "But cell phones keep kids from figuring out what to do," says Anderegg. "They've never internalized any images; all they've internalized is 'call Mom or Dad.'""
Basically when a problem arises, "let me call mom and or dad." Never really taking on the responsibility of making a decision. This forces the Parents into defense mode for their kids. When they get a bad grade they call Mommy who thinks she should get involved by calling the University. Apparently it is so bad at Harvard that 95% of the students graduate with honors just so that there will be no Parent repercussions. Perhaps this can be the reason that teens tend to text while driving. I'm sure we have all seen the scary texting while driving commercials:
It is a real problem that seems to stem from the attitude that "We want it now" and "We want it fast." after all they are entitled to it.
We can even see the problem in the selection of the Rutgers Athletic director Julie Hermann. The root of the problem is that students in Tennessee claim that 16 years ago Ms Hermann ruled by intimidation and emotional distress. She was accused of name calling and basically verbally bulling the athletes. Funny how this is the only allegation over the past 16 years. Could it be that Ms Hermann did not cater to their spoiled lifestyles and actually expected them to practice and do well? She wanted to WIN! She wanted a 1st place trophy. Did those athletes call Mommy and Daddy?
The future of our society seems to be destined for failure. A society where politically correctness, watered down leadership, and participation awards to all that play will be the norm. Where adults no longer can make decisions for themselves and after Mommy and Daddy die they will rely on the Government. We will eventually all be treated the same and just because you are a star does not warrant you to have special privileges. Even the lowest level employee or athlete will be treated the same as the highest producers and performers. Resulting in finally discouraging any superstar performances creating a mediocre America. Need I remind you of the New America?
Its not too late for change. Its not too late to fix the problem. Parents need to take responsibility for their children creating an environment of discipline and responsibility. Control any an all external devices your kids use or your destined to be controlled by those devices.
"Music is a universal phenomenon that has genetic and brain-localized features. As such, it warrants
adaptive evolutionary explanations. While some scholars believe that music arose as a by-product of other adaptations, others argue that music is likely to have served some adaptive function, for example in coalition signaling or mother-child bonding. The sexual selection theory of music suggests that music serves as a signal in mate selection. While this claim is prevalent, it lacks empirical evidence. A facebook experiment revealed that women replied more positively to friendship requests from a man shown in a photo holding a guitar. These results offer initial support for the sexual selection theory of music."
The article went on to give the results of their experiment:
"While only five of the fifty women (10%) responded positively to the friendship request that was sent by the profile without a guitar, 14 of the 50 women (28%) responded positively to the friendship request that was sent by the profile with a guitar (p = .03, Fisher’s exact test)."
If you read the article they dive into the theory that the reason this occurs is that women perceive that the male had better motor skills and therefore would be a quality mate. Or perhaps the fact that there was something else in the photo it offered more information than the other photo. They do go on to discuss variations and other studies that need to be done in order to really get to the answer. I would like to suggest the following:
It is my opinion that women find men with guitars more attractive because the represent the tortured soul, bad boy that they find a need to nurture and 'change'. This is why nice guys finish last. This would go hand in hand with the motorcycle bad boy image and tattoos. Lets face it. A guy that is holding a guitar with tattoos (even fake ones) while on a Harley has no problem with women. He doesn't need to know how to play the guitar or ride the bike.
Now to be fair they did the same experiment with an attractive woman holding the guitar. There was no difference. All the guys befriended the woman with or without the guitar. Lets face it women if you read my post about how women can be more attractive to their man you just need to follow rules #61 and #62 - Show up naked with beer.
I read a tweet the other day which stated that 67% of people with cellphones or smartphones will compulsively check for messages even when the device does not inform them that a message has come in. I did some research and found that there was a study about cell and smart phone usage. The Pew Research Center came out with an article about the subject of Mobile phone usage.
That article and statistic brought to mind Pavlov's dog. Doing a simple search I found this article about Pavlov's experiments. In that article it states:
"... when Pavlov discovered that any object or event which the dogs learnt to associate with food (such as the lab assistant) would trigger the same response, he realized that he had made an important scientific discovery, and he devoted the rest of his career to studying this type of learning."
Can we take this research and plug in what we know about mobile device usage?
Lets just take the dog out of the equation and add a human. Instead of food we will use cellphones.
.. when Pavlov discovered that any object or event which the humans learnt to associate with Cellphones (such as the lab assistant) would trigger the same response, he realized that he had made an important scientific discovery, and he devoted the rest of his career to studying this type of learning."
Makes sense in the fact that when a message is received a cell or smart phone will ping. The ping will instantly generate a response from the human since they have learnt that the ping means message. Eventually just the sight of the phone will illicit the same response, ping or no ping.
In order to test this theory, we would need to have a gathering of people who are carrying phones. Perhaps a restaurant or seminar. Then just have a pinger in your pocket. Generate a false ping and watch to see who checks their phones. I hypothesis that we would get a 67% rate of people checking their phone.
In conclusion, we can equate mobile device carriers to regular dogs being no smarter and simply motivated by unconditional stimulus. Hence the reason people will drive and text.
