Artificial? Yes. Intelligence? No.

I was listening to some radio the other day. It briefly mentioned weather control. Weather control exists and has existed since the Civil War, when the combatants realized all that gunpowder going up to the clouds caused it to rain. Weather control is certainly one reason why the weather is so unbelievably messed up. The east coast seems to have more clouds than sun. I'd study it scientifically, but I don't need that kind of depression. Other explanations include climate change, global warm showers with massage, and the hot air coming from the White House for the last 50 years.



Dear lefty:

• What's eating you today?
• You.

• I want to recommend this blog to a friend. How would you describe it?
• Hostile to democrats. And republicans. And Social Justice Workers. And the Stupid. And tv, the outdoors, mowing, Dear lefty questioners, and moving from the couch. Come to think of it, ThermionicEmissions is hostile to most things. This is all care of the CEO of Sarcasm.  How could you go wrong? 

Things are getting interesting-er in the UK.

One of the frontrunners, Boris Yeltsin Johnson, of the Very Silly Hair Party, keeps refusing to show up. He didn't show up for Trump and now he won't show up for debates. There was also some sort of fracas with his girlfriend, and the police were called. The press said his personal business is his, then gave his girlfriend's name, the police officers who came to her home, and what she was wearing.  America, let's get those Boris Balloons ready!

In other news, US news said Trump's personal life is his business, then the entire crew laughed so hard, they had to go to commercial. When they returned, they still had tears rolling down their faces and tried, unsuccessfully, to not laugh during other stories. 

• 68% of the people are worried about climate change. They vow to do something about it, some day, but only if it doesn't include the parts that affect flying, manufacturing, cars, and trucks. Other than that, they're quite motivated.
• Science is being done on this problem by looking into other things that are cleaner than coal, like burning politicians instead. This will fail miserably, as there's no substance there. They don't burn long. Or so I hear.

After walking around a mall with Mrs lefty, my legs started to hurt all over. It's obvious to me that I need to spend more time on the couch.

• Bernie Sanders says "It's not appropriate" to deport illegal aliens that don't follow the law in the US.
• Change is inevitable, but imagine your grandfather's reaction to a socialist running for president, who doesn't think it's appropriate to deport lawbreakers.

I pick on Dog the Bounty Hunter mercilessly, for obvious reasons.

His wife, Beth, has been admitted to the hospital and is in a medically induced coma. She has had multiple cancers but there is no information on the current admission.

ThermionicEmissions wishes her best of health and peace to her family.

• Wanna learn more about browsing and privacy? Wired has a very good, human language description of desktop and mobile browsers and their privacy features.
• Walmart and Amazon want to look inside your house and keep video notes.

A Las Vegas professor shot himself in the arm to protest Trump.

This would be the second person to shoot themself over Trump. There probably won't be any calls for gun control over this, as these are the people who are calling for it.

Meanwhile, the White House is bridging the divide by giving out free guns to its enemies.

• Thailand's Wild Boars soccer team marks its first anniversary of going missing in a cave and their subsequent rescue.
• Some removed the roof of their house, some won't leave the house, and most won't bathe. On the bright side, you never have to wait in line to go cave exploring.

The Mars Rover has discovered high levels of methane.

We now know that the Martians fart a lot - global warming is coming to Mars! 

• After the tv series Chernobyl, people are flocking there for tours and taking selfies.
• P.T. Barnum is in hysterics from his grave. You will never go hungry, overestimating the stupidity of people. Because you can't.
• Buoyed by opportunity, tours are planned for Fukushima, Three Mile Island, and the underwater caves in Thailand. There is light at the end of the tunnel: these people will die sooner.
• Just announced: (highly) discounted tours to the Dominican Republic, where you can take selfies with in-room microbars.

So, how about that climate change?

One immediate reaction is moving toward zero emission vehicles. In English, this means electric cars. Most sane carbon-based lifeforms agree that zero-emissions is a good idea. I'm not a scientist (or ballerina) but what about the electricity to run and charge these cars? I suspect it's not zero-emissions. What about the batteries - how long will they last? What do we do with them when they fail? How much will it cost to replace them? These are some valid questions we haven't seen addressed in the mad rush to sell and purchase electric cars.  

I drove a hybrid for a few days and liked it. I'd buy one, but I don't trust batteries, per the above questions. The adjusted miles per gallon figures aren't that impressive, though. Battery technology continues to improve but I have a feeling we're too early in the process and will get bitten at the back end (in the back end).

SJW News

Article:

"How can our future Mars colonies be free of sexism and racism?"

CNN:

A black, transgender and disabled model just landed her first major magazine cover.  

Saw this on Twitter:

1919: “Work is tough: I had to be recruited to work a job in the munitions factory handling TNT and other poisonous substances without appropriate protective clothing, because the job was vacated by so many men who had to leave to fight in a world war”

2019: Vice Magazine: Work Sucks, Especially When People Get Your Pronouns Wrong.

Pronouns for multiple personality disorder:

You (plural but NOT singular), they, them, all youse

Congress, ISPs, and Your Privacy

I'll be honest.. I haven't really studied the terms of the legislation allowing Internet Service Providers to collect your browsing data and sell it. I suspect the main thrust of the law is not data collection but I have other stuff to do, like type shit for this blog.

IF your ISP is allowed to keep and sell your data, rest assured it will. First suggested step is to call and ask them. Also tell them you don't want it done - perhaps there's an opt-out. At least you've registered your view. Call Congress and tell them no, this is not acceptable.

The fun part comes right after the above. If your response to data collection is "I've got nothing to hide - let them steal my data," you should probably read a different blog. Privacy aside, your provider is making money selling YOUR history. Then there's privacy.. no one really needs to know where you go and what you do, regardless of whether it's private, embarrassing, or not. If you don't do something, data collection will become the norm (almost like it is now, except it's not the providers collecting it).

There are three things we'll discuss to help keep your privacy: HTTPS, Tor, and VPN.

HTTPS is a secure internet connection. It shows up as a lock or something similar in the browser, by the address (URL) up top. Banks and credit card and retail sites use this by default. You should also use this by default. There are many browser add-ons/extensions that will make HTTPS your default. HTTPS Everywhere is very popular and available for most, if not all browsers. Best of all, it's completely free. Some browsers also default to HTTPS.

TOR is a network through which you can travel anonymously. It is also the gateway to The Dark Net, where you can buy stuff that is illegal and/or immoral, which I strongly recommend against. You can go through TOR to get to somewhere else, anonymizing your traffic. The TOR browser runs on all operating systems, including phones. It is based upon Firefox, so it will look familiar. Nothing appears different, although there will be a speed penalty. I would not watch video through it.

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It can be a free or paid service, generally paid. You install the software or settings, which magically allows you to browse through a machine that isn't yours, keeping your data free from prying eyes.


HOW DOES IT WORK?

Glad you asked.
We're not going to get too technical, as a service to you and to me, so I can type less.

With HTTP, your ISP (or pretty much anyone) can see where you're going and what you're doing. This is because the data is unencrypted.

HTTPS encrypts the connection, so your ISP can see where you're going but not what you're doing.

With TOR, your ISP will see you're going to an IP address called a TOR entrance node. The connection is encrypted so it can't see the data. Once in TOR, it cannot be traced. **When I say it cannot be traced, I mean nothing is perfect and it is fine to use it for general anonymity. The FBI has already developed attacks for TOR and has arrested Dark Web marketeers. There is also a fair probability the government owns some TOR entrance and exit nodes. Stay paranoid - it's your best weapon.

For privacy, the best thing going would be a VPN. All your traffic goes to the VPN site, through which you browse. The only thing the ISP can see is that you're going to the VPN site. They cannot see what you're doing and that's the last thing they can see. All browsing runs on the VPN server, so it's encrypted and cannot be traced (by your ISP).  **When I say cannot be traced, there are a few ways it can be traced, by law enforcement, after the fact. All VPNs will tell you they're 100% anonymous, including allowing you to pay by Bitcoin to protect anonymity. If you pay by credit card, you're already outed. Some VPNs maintain logs of all traffic. These logs can be subpoenaed and you're outed. Some VPNs don't keep logs - look for these. Also use a VPN that has a presence in a different country, especially if you're in the US. US VPNs are subject to US laws and you're outed. To your destination, you'll appear to be coming from a different country.

The decision is up to you.
Avoid HTTP - always use HTTPS.
TOR will let you surf anonymously at no cost.
A VPN is the least leaky solution and the preferred solution. There are articles with comparisons of VPNs, privacy-wise. Look them up. There are also browser extensions or add-ins that will make you appear to be coming from another country. These are fine for casual browsing but do drop hints as to where you are. They're better than nothing.

I hope this clarifies things. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. It is imperative that we maintain our privacy, regardless of content.