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Be mindful of Internet credibility gaps and traps

When you’re browsing to and fro throughout the Internet, you should always be mindful of some real “credibility gaps” inherent in what you find. Not everything on the Internet is actually true — some of it (to swipe Stephen Colbert’s term) isn’t even very “truthy.”

I know. Quite a shocking concept for many of you, isn’t it? If so, perhaps you need to shut down your computer and go to a public library; reacquaint yourself with those blockey-shaped, multi-page objects we call “books.”

Seriously, with all the review and information blogs and other websites out there, how can you trust what you’re reading, even when it’s called a “review” or “information”? How do you know whether or not someone just made it up?

You don’t know whether or not someone made the stuff up. At least, however, if you can confirm the information with more than one source — preferably with off-line sources — you stand a better chance of getting to the truth of what you’re reading or seeing online.

Then, too, there are the time honored maxims of believability. Things like, “If it sounds too good to be true it probably isn’t.” That advice alone would save many of us hours of time, emotional/mental anguish, and even money in many cases. But of course scam artists and sales people thrive on the human tendency to WANT to believe in those things that are in our best interest, that excite us, that appeal to our selfish desires, greed, whatever.

My best advice when you find something online would be this: Don’t be gullible; and take a day or two to think about it before you believe, repeat, or buy whatever is in question. Remember, EVERYTHING you find online, from nuphedragen reviews and reviews of other weight loss products to “business opportunities” to home decor to pet products for Fifi and Fido — EVERYTHING can be faked. Or not.

So take a pause, think about what you read or see online, and relax. Go read a book.

Or, as long as you can still find one, read a newspaper.

TV show prompts me to look more critcally at self-help industry

Given the fact that the so-called “self-help industry,” or “self-help movement” is a multibillion dollar industry, I wonder that I’ve lived so many years without paying it much attention.

I saw a television special on ABC a few days ago — “Mind Games” I think it was — which recounted the horrific death of some people devoted to one of the contemporary “self-help” gurus in a sweat lodge gone wrong a couple of years ago.

That started me thinking. I went to our local library and found a copy of a fascinating book by one of the men who was featured on the show. He’s somewhat controversial, I guess, although my ignorance about the whole self-help thing is showing here. The book is called “SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless.” The author is Steve Salerno.

Whether you agree or disagree with Mr. Salerno’s approach to the topic, various parts of his book, the whole concept, or whatever — that book will make you think. I’ve always thought of these popular self-help leaders as either 1) phonies on a par with the fabled snake-oil salesmen of Old West days, or, 2) well-meaning people who genuinely believed what they were teaching. If they were in the first category, obviously they should be stopped as with anyone who’s a fraud. If in the second category, well, unless they directly harmed someone, I guess I always viewed them as some sort of “multiple vitamins of the soul”: Maybe helpful, maybe not, but probably not harmful unless you overdo them.

It seems, however, that a lot of folks really are overdoing it with these people and these “teachings.”

Anyway, make of all that what you will. I recommend you pick up a copy of the book and give it a look. I’m just part way through and it’s a real eye opener for me.

Fitness may be overrated as predictor of long life

I know this may sound like something I’m writing to excuse my own laziness and poor health habits, but I’m serious (at least sort of serious) about this: Fitness may be somewhat overrated as a predictor of whether you’ll live a long life.

Scientists published a recent study that says they are beginning to identify specific genes and combinations of genes in our fundamental makeup that lead to generally longer lives. Now, they aren’t saying that fitness and healthy eating, sleeping, and eating habits aren’t important. But they are suggesting that all the healthy living we do may ultimately not give us longer lives if our genetic makeup isn’t set up for it.

Does this mean we should live with wild abandon, eating and partying our way through life, knowing the length of our days on this globe are already determined by our genes and we can’t do anything about it? Should we tell all those expectant moms out there that the best prenatal vitamins in the world won’t influence the health of their new baby — but that the important thing has already been decided when mom and dad mixed their gene pools together?

That’s all pretty absurd, of course. No matter whether you have the “long life” genes or gene combinations — you still are going to live, barring an accident, long enough to want the best quality of life you can have in the years you have. So obviously, since we cannot control our genetic makeup and we aren’t really certain about what “long life genes” are or exactly how they work, we have an obligation to ourselves (and our families) to live as healthy as we possibly can.

Guess that means I’ll stick to the daily exercise and healthy diet routine — for a few more years at least. I hope.

Heat spell makes me fantasize about travel plans from long ago

I’m sitting in the middle of a nasty stretch of hot, humid summer here in the Missouri Ozarks wishing I were someplace cooler. This early summer heat spell, I confess, is turning my fantasies back to some plans I had years ago. Actually, I’m on a “dual track” fantasy here, neither of which is likely to come true, but both of which look good today.

Fantasy 1 — My wife and I decided about 15-20 years ago that we wanted to get a sailboat, become qualified and skilled at sailing it, then take a sailing trip around the world. Setting aside recent news stories about the California teen who’s world circumnavigation trip got cut short, the reality is we can’t afford a boat and would have no place near us to keep it. (There are, however, a couple of lakes about two hours travel time from us where we could take sailing lessons.) In addition, my wife doesn’t swim and has a lifetime phobia about getting into water any deeper and wider than a bathtub or home whirlpool/hot tub.

Fantasy 2 — Before we developed the sailing idea, we always said it would be great fun to own a travel trailer (rv?) and become sort of nomadic, traveling all over the U.S. and coming home only for a couple of months at a time. This idea may someday be feasible for us, if I can generate a bit more income and we can pay off a few more debts. The two biggest problems preventing this from being our sort of “permanent getaway plan” would be — the high cost of fuel (gas or diesel) and my cowardice about learning to drive a large motor home.

But, I remain very attracted to the motor home idea. It could work. So if you should just happen to have used rvs for sale somewhere in my neck of the woods, keep an eye out for me. It could happen!

The good, the bad, the ugly concerning snail mail’s demise

Each day as I work from my home office, it has always been a nice break to get outside and check to see what’s in the daily “snail mail,” usually brought by our faithful mail carrier around 2 p.m.

It occurred to me, in light of current news about the near demise of snail mail, that it might be interesting to think of it in terms of “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” So in no particular order or sense, here’s how I see the probably soon-to-end future of snail mail.

The Good: Email and other forms of electronic/digital/online communication are way easier and faster than mailing a letter. It’s a rare day when we mail a bill payment, or even go to a merchant/business to make a payment in person. Most of our bill paying is done online, or occasionally via telephone. Great time savings and ease of use compared to snail mail. And have you tried to buy a stamp or even find a mailbox lately? In our neighborhood, the nearest mailbox is almost a mile away. Our city’s main post office is actually slightly closer. Oh, and did I mention that the lack of direct mail marketing brochures and packets, political propaganda, etc., will NOT be missed in our household. Cutting down on the snail mail throw-away pile will be great!

The Bad: Heck, no one wants to see a traditional institution like the USPS go under. And that would also put a lot of people out of work, which is one more blow to our very-slowly-recovering economy. Besides, for actual communication between people on a one-to-one basis, a handwritten letter or thoughtfully selected card beats email hands down. And, of course, not writing letters is one more opportunity for everyone’s nearly illegible handwriting to get even worse.

The Ugly: Although electronic/digital “sp*m” is much easier to delete quickly or filter out than is snail mail sp*am, it probably will increase about a million-fold when snail mail is gone. And, of course, the more business dealings and purchases we make online when snail mail is gone, the more we open ourselves up to the risks of identity theft, fraud, scams, etc. Then there’s the increased risk of social embarrassment, alienating friends and family, and all that when we fire off hasty emails and regret later how quickly we click the “send” button. At least in the days of snail mail letters, we are less likely to rush with something we’ll later regret.

That’s it. The good, bad, and ugly of snail mail’s demise as I see it. How do you feel about it?

I’m not ‘gadget-phobic,’ but I do have strong feelings about some

I’ve never considered my self anti-technology, nor in anyway opposed to high-tech progress. Indeed, I absolutely love to fiddle with new computers, smartphones, LCD/LED televisions, all the rest. (If I were a smoker, I’d probably even try some of those electric cigarettes to help me kick the habit.)

But I had to admit today’s “Zits” comic strip in our local newspaper really worked for me. If you know the main characters in that comic strip, they are a middle-aged mom and dad with their teenage son. Today’s strip had the son showing dad the latest “super phone” gadget. He described the multitude of things the phone could do all at once — Internet, phone, texting, mobile television, etc. His comment was something like, “with one of these, you wouldn’t be out of touch or unconnected for a single minute of your life.”

Final panel in the comic strip showed dad with his back turned, flinging the phone far into the sky.

I love all the goodies and gadgets. I confess, if I were a rich guy with too much time on my hands, I’d probably buy one of each and spend waaaaaaaayyyyy too many hours of my life playing with them.

But deep within my heart and soul, I confess that I’m glad I cannot afford a full course of such pointless time wasters. My phones (both the “land line” and the cell) I use simply to make phone calls. My television, I use to watch television. And I even listen to the radio and play occasional music (jazz, mostly) CDs.

The simple life. Toss most of the multi-tasking, multi-use gadgets and leave me be. Grump! Grump!

To some degree, ‘news’ is mostly in how you package it

There’s no getting around it, whether you’re talking about “hard” news, “soft” news, secret weapons technology, prototype 37c reviews, or the latest, greatest laundry detergents — people love intrigue and an air of mystery.

So a great deal of what we see or read as “news” is often just repackaged information stirred around and “freshened up” to gain readership or viewers.

For example, last week nearly every television network showed a video clip of a bus driver at night who stopped just short of a toddler who was sitting in the middle of a dark street by herself. The driver got out of the bus and walked up to the little girl. As he was speaking to her, a man (later proven to be the tot’s father) came running into the street, picked her up, and took her back into the house.

Shocking story, right? Shocking video, too.

And the video, as well as the story, was OVER A YEAR OLD. There was absolutely no reason to show that video during any recent news cycle. And none of the television stations showing it mentioned it was a year old, until the second day it was being shown. By then, the facts had come out that there was an ongoing custody battle between the parents and the state over the future of that toddler (now beyond the toddler stage) and her sibling(s). A state judge was getting ready to make a ruling, and some enterprising news people ran onto the year-old footage online (I think) and wanted to get attention by showing it.

News is, indeed, often all in the packaging.

Millions of lawyers, yet not many are astronomers, too

You have to wonder, given the millions of lawyers in the civilized world (maybe millions just in the U.S.?), how many of them are recognized not only for their legal work — but for their accomplishments in astronomy, too?

I know a guy named Richard Hammar who has made his mark in the legal world, by authoring some groundbreaking, authoritative books on law and the Church, and has cast his name into the night sky for award-winning astronomical photography. (You can see one of his pictures of a comet at the Sky and Telescope website; he’s also had a galaxy photo honored as a NASA “Astronomy Picture of the Day.”)

So how many eager lawyer wannabes do you think expect to find a career as part-time astronomers when they do their lsat prep studies and look forward to law school??

Attorney/Astronomer Hammar spoke many years ago to a class I was teaching. He told the students that too many undergrads looking at law school focus their major studies on 1) political science, and, 2) history. At the time, he suggested the best undergrad prep work to handle law school and the legal profession would be an undergrad emphasis on 1) political science, and, 2) English or communications. He said his experience was that communicating effectively in writing, as well as experience in public speaking, was invaluable for any would-be attorney.

I wonder these days whether he includes advice to purchase a telescope and good camera and to start looking to the night skies? Good work, Rich!

Sometimes libraries face financial ‘holds,’ whether they like it or not

We had local elections in my neck of the woods last Tuesday, and many folks in a county adjacent to ours were stunned that voters rejected an increase in property taxes that would have modernized and increased a county library system for the first time in something like 50 years.

The need was certainly there, but the tax hike they were seeking — and this during a still-recessionary time in our region of the country — was a major thing. It would be like someone with $200 a month health insurance getting a new insurance quote and discovering he would now have to pay more than $700 a month.

Okay, my math in that analogy may be a bit faulty. But the way it actually would have worked for this library tax increase was this: The current tax was 8.7 percent per $100 of property evaluation; the voters were being asked to increase that to 25 percent per $100 of property evaluation.

Granted, the library was struggling to keep their facilities operational and their technology up to par. Granted, public libraries are a really important, really good resource for every community.

But the point was, they were asking for a huge increase to add new buildings as well as maintain and upgrade current buildings. And all that with a recession going on, unemployment high with some folks literally living on unemployment benefits.

Yet library officials were thunderstruck and trying to understand why voters rejected the increase by a 59-41 percent vote total.

Isn’t America a wonderful place to live? Isn’t it always fascinating to see that the “dumbing down” of our nation involves not just politicians and bureaucrats — but educators and librarians, too??

Changes in newspapers, gadgets reflect radical changes in today’s careers

When we see the way newspapers and other print media are changing radically, we see a reflection of the radical changes in all jobs and careers in our times.

What did you want to be when you grew up? What have you really done and what are you doing for your job or career right now? See what I mean?

Not only are newspapers disappearing — and print magazines and books declining in sales and readership — the very nature of what we do to be informed and entertained looks almost nothing like it did even 20 years ago. And the changes since my childhood 50-some years ago are even more radical.

When I was a lad of 8 or 10 years old, I would never have dreamed of such a thing as a career where I could earn my income (well, okay, only a small part of it right now) by writing on the Internet.

In simplest terms, I might describe my main job or career this way:

“I’m a blogger and affiliate marketer on the Internet.”

If I were to explain that to someone from the 1950s in terminology they might understand, I would need to say something like this:

“I type words on a typewriter that sort of magically stores those words electronically, while displaying them on something resembling a television screen. After those words are stored electronically, there is another nearly magical electronic network of such machines linked together, through which I can almost instantaneously broadcast those words in a way that hundreds of millions of people can choose to read the words.

“In addition, they can make purchases from merchants who are connected to that instantaneous-electronic-broadcast-network and, because of the way I am connected to that network, the merchants will know whether those purchases were made by people who came to them as a result of my words — and the merchants will pay me a small commission of real money for those purchases.”

Never in my wildest science fiction/fantasy besotted little mind in, say, 1957 (when I turned 10) would I have thought about a job or career doing anything like that.

So — what do you think your KIDS will want to be when they grow up??