How is today's world compared to the 21st century you imagined as a child?

 As a child in Colorado, my view of the 21st century was shaped by what I saw in the movies and on television. I saw some of the old Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials and my favorite at the time- Jet Jackson, Flying Commando. Jet Jackson was actually Captain Midnight with a different title and sound dubbed. His sidekick, Ichabod Mudd (with 2ds) was the same in both incarnations. 

Then, of course there was Forbidden Planet, a big budget Hollywood movie that I remember seeing at the drive in.

Forbidden Planet introduced us to Robby the Robot and futuristic flying machines and space travel. Alas the special effects were in their infancy and it would be years until things got really interesting.

It wasn't until the TV show The Jetsons that real speculation about life in the future would be seriously imagined.

As you can see, we are light years away from the Jetsons' flying car and Orbit City. George worked a two hour workweek and complained about being overworked. Interplanetary travel? Tesla is working on it. Robotic maids? We are making great strides in robotics. Much of what the Jetsons predicted is on its way.

Flat-screen televisions  and tanning beds were predicted by the Jetsons. The show was canceled after 24 episodes because there were not enough color televisions in homes. Only 3% of homes had color televisions at the time. We did not get one until the first time the Oakland Raiders made the Super Bowl (1967).

Science fiction literature and Star Trek and Star Wars became prime predictors of future life. Not surprisingly, Star Wars and Star Trek focused on military technology. Our war machine is very efficient and we have kept it very busy. Lasers, satellites, and cloaking have all advanced.

Technology these days is about what I expected it to be. We are geeks at heart, I suspect. Rather than active  physical play, kids gravitate to the latest technology. Texting has largely replaced conversation as a means of communication. Interpersonal communication and conversational skills are severely lacking in my opinion. Nearly half of our population chose to support the verbal flatulence and belicose ramblings of an amoral, pathological liar. Our interpersonal discourse is at the lowest levels in recent memory. I most definitely expected better of us. I do not see the divisions in our society going away any time soon. Ayn Rand would be delighted at the degree of selfishness rampant in our selfish society. And yet, we see random acts of kindness regularly. So maybe there is hope for us yet. Only time will tell.

That is my quick take on Conrad's suggested topic. Be sure to check what my compatriots Conrad and Ramana have to say on their blogs.

I'll see ya next week, same bat time and same bat channel.

If it ain't broke don't fix it but if it is......

Interesting timing - to have the bogus BCS title game the day before the next step in the grand spectacle known as American politics. I suggest that both syustems are broken and need to be fixed.

The BCS is all about money - schools jockey for a BCS bowl game each year for the not insubstantial financial stipend that goes to each school for participating. The more prestigious the bowl the higher the payout.  BCS payouts according to Wikipedia are $18,000,000.00.  Non-BCS payouts range from 6.5M (Cotton bowl) down to .75M for several games that usually pit a pair of teams with as many losses as they have wins.

BCS teams come from the cryptic ranking system currently in place and coaches freely admit to being less than honest when bowl season comes around and BCS rankings and therefore bowl games and payouts are at stake.

That is of course the Cliff's Notes version of the BCS but it segues nicely into the election season currently just leaving the gate, Iowa already being in the books and New Hampshire voting today for the Republicans.
 Don't misunderestimate me.  Ahem - thanks for that one Dubya.  Our election system is the best one out there at the moment, we just keep screwing it up by electing the same clowns over and over.    We have made politics a profession.  We keep people in office often times until they can retire and become highly paid lobbyists or run corporations. They keep fat government pensions that we pay for, take advantage of the contacts they developed over time and then influence legislation to benefit those corporations. I mean WTF - isn't it the American way???  Improve yourself? get rich?

Clearly this is barely a sound-bite commentary on American politics and there is much more to come.  I just pondered the similarities between a flawed college football rating system and its payouts with a career in American politics and its big payouts. Where else but in America could a former politician run a company that requires signifiicant political ties internationally,  ascend to another even higher political office and then make that companies shareholders even wealthier when said company becomes an active participant - for profit - in international conflict.  Hells bells - one of the contestants in today's current New Hampshire contest spent recent years lobbying for substantial fees  but feels his calling as an idea man is to run the country instead.  Want to bet his lobbying fees go even higher when he inevitably loses??

So yes indeed I am saying that Americam politics are all about money. The Supreme Court says so.  They say Corporations have the constitutional right to influence politics. And Corporations exist for one reason - to make money.  There will be more on this subject later.