In the communication industries we are 3rd rate.  I’m looking at you Canada and for that matter the U.S. too.

I almost said 3rd world country but that would be a disservice to poor countries that have better telecommunications.  Unbelievable this telecommunications industry.  There is so much wrong with it that I’d need my own server to list them all but this is just one story.  Wait, I do have my own server, but that would be whistling in the wind and we all know how useful that is.

Today I tried to buy a smartphone (sic).  Sounds simple doesn’t it?  I skip past the large font price and go for the “hardware only / no contract” price.  Great, “do you have these in stock?”  “Yes sir”  “I want one, no contract”  “We can’t do that sir”  “but it says so right here..”  “sorry but policy says …..” signal lost, I’m already walking out the door.

Repeat this at 3 other retail stores.  Nobody will sell me a freakin phone.  So I go over to the official (insert carrier name here) store and I see the same phone for the same price.  I even waited in a line that never seemed to move.  “I’d like to buy a phone, no contract” “What’s your phone number sir?”  “No, I just want the phone and not tie it to my account”  “We can’t do that sir”  “Why not, the sign clearly says the same thing on every phone in the store, $x no contract.  That’s what I want, I’ll swap the SIM card all by myself”  “We can’t do that sir because …….”  signal lost, I’m already gone

They keep saying we need competition to fix the broken system.  Bullshit, we need a lot more to change than that.  Each “competitor” that appears is either bought out by the big boyz or does exactly the same as the other guys.  Most of the companies are just market branded systems of the big 3.   We do have one carrier that sells primarily as no contract but because of the broken system their coverage isn’t good enough to work at my house or where I need it and their frequencies are too limited so their phone selection isn’t nearly good enough.  They don’t have what I want.  We don’t have a phone store.  We do however have “The Beer Store” (for those that don’t know that one, that’s the actual name).  I can buy beer but I can’t buy a phone.  pathetic.

First up is an artsy look at the ash fall effects.  Don’t worry about the Icelandic language, the pictures speak for themselves.  This is Iceland’s oldest current public pool.  Built by a youth group back in the ’20s on top of an older pool. Check out these beautiful shots .

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. Next is an enigmatic video This is worth going full screen, high def, with sound on.

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. And finally a video to satisfy the rest of you.  Turn the sound up so you can hear the noise that these events make:

It is more likely that extreme weather including relentless snowfall is an effect of climate change rather than any kind of proof that all is well with mother nature. But nobody can proclaim that huge snowfalls are caused by climate change or that it is proof otherwise. Are the deniers so ignorant to think that cold days and snowflakes will never happen again or are they simply perpetuating a myth and hoping to keep everyone else ignorant? Are there opportunists on all sides of public debate? Surely there are greedy loud mouths and false prophets anywhere there is a chance to make money with face time in the arena of media and common conciseness. It isn’t about the long term path of human progress but instead is the short term goals of our own ego. A potentially hazardous game of diversion.

The Earth and nature is the only expert, we’re only trying to unlock the formula and understand how it works. Regulating a planet’s temperature range is like a giant heat pump. Weather is there to move heat. That is what a hurricane does, what a nor’easter is there for, why the weather changes and why we look to weather forecasters for what is happening. All that change and seemingly unpredictable weather is there to keep things within a range where life can survive in all its diversity. We can only push those natural capabilities just so far before that heat pump must create ever more extreme events to maintain the natural balance. When an extreme event passes over your head you might have to batten down the hatches and pick up a shovel. Complaining won’t help. Snow happens.

However I’m also of the mind that no matter how advanced we become or how enlightened we think we are we have to stop pretending that war is anything but a brutal and barbaric way to settle arguments.  So while you’re doing it, do it right and go all in.  Stop talking about nation building, stop saying it isn’t about the oil, stop all the talking.  Shoot to kill and finish it quickly.  And when you’re done making a mess, take the gold.  Or the oil, or whatever it is that is that country’s resource.  We don’t fight in places that have nothing of great value.  It just happens to be how it works.  Take the gold and stop pretending you are compassionate.  People are dead and you’ll never convince the survivors of anything else.  One man’s collateral damage is another man’s son. You can fool the people that are safely back home but not anyone else.  So take the money, how much worse can that be?

There isn’t any way to have a nice war so go all the way and finish the job by stealing the resources.  You’ve already destroyed everything else.  Now go home with the booty.  And then fix your economy or whatever it is that you keep talking about instead.

Sunrise today in Reykjavík is at 11:23 and sunset at 15:30 (3:30 pm).  In the northern West Fjords the sunrise is at 12:09 with sunset at 14:53 (2:53 pm).  You can bet that they will be happy to finally see more sunlight in the coming days.

So, at 17:47 coordinated universal time give a thought to the thousands of generations that came before and marked this moment as the rebirth of mankind; the new year.  To the folks in Iceland that is at 17:47/5:47PM and to those on the east coast of N.A. that moment is at 12:47.

farsælt komandi ár

Not that tough economic times aren’t serious issues but for most people it is at worst a crisis of luxury.  Nothing that requires a panic mode.  And if your country is involved in a war then shouldn’t that be the most important issue at hand?  Your children are being killed in far off lands and the most important topic is the apparent devaluation of your house?  Or worse, the state of affairs going on with this week’s celebrity gossip?

We let politicians argue over whether to pull out or stay and the million other arguments over ideology and other stalling tactics.  Shouldn’t the common goal be to finish and go home?  We can disagree over how, where, and what for but the common good is to not have your children in uniform die no matter what your politics happen to be.

Bring the boys and girls home from the horror of war before spending more time arguing about it.  Bring them home now.  Unfortunately for that goal it is the very people with the power to achieve this that do not have their children in the line of fire.  For the rest of us, we are not the “Fortunate Son“.

So forget about how I personally feel and in turn I won’t give a crap about your opposing view.  But can’t we agree that ending it one way or the other is a common feeling?  There is no nice way to run a war so why spend months arguing over the fine line between war crimes and honor?  If you are going in then go all in and be done with it.  Time to bring them home.  And then talk to me about your economy.  But I’ll still not care about your celeb gossip.  (FYI, Elvis and MJ are still dead)