It’s be a long time since I’ve blogged on this site, but I think maybe I should do it more often as a way to vent my frustrations and talk in long form about things that interest me. So let’s get started.

The US Presidential Race — I am having a hard time accepting the 2016 US Presidential race as reality. Hilary Clinton shouldn’t be running because of that leaky server of hers and Donald Trump is only running for President because he craves attention. Meanwhile bug-eyed Republicans are scared of their own shadows and reflections in mirrors as they realize they’re the party of evil. I keep waiting for someone to call a news conference to announce “Just kidding! Here are your real candidates!” But that’s not happening. I can’t help but think that the terrorists won.

El Nino — I’m worried that anti-science people will use the incorrect weather prediction for Southern California as ammunition to undermine climate science. I’m really upset at the scientists who should know better than to make reckless predictions. I’m even more upset at the clueless news outlets who took that reckless prediction and amplified it. Better to stick with the fact of El Nino as an equatorial ocean water warming phenomenon and that the various ocean temperature oscillations and their interactions with each other and the atmosphere are under investigation and not well understood yet. I don’t think it was made clear that El Nino forecasts are long-term and based on 50/50 chance of wetter or dryer each month, that the ocean water temperature visuals were relative to average and not absolute, and that the El Nino oscillation has a secondary influence on the US and a primary influence on the equatorial region. I’m waiting for the multiple finger-pointing “How they got El Nino so Wrong” news stories. Of course the news won’t examine their own role in the hype. Just like in 1997-8, the news was bungled resulting in unmet expectations, and people started taking El Nino lightly. I wonder if people will be so ready to prepare the next time the news cries “El Nino”.

VR— It feels like 3-D all over again, again. Yes, current VR is better than past incarnations, but it’s still a gimmick that I’m not interested in yet. This is mostly because my eyesight is unequal in both eyes, so when I’m forced to view a perspective, I get headaches and disoriented very easily. Reality is a multi-sensory experience, so without the other senses, the experience will be incomplete and ultimately something that people can’t endure for extended time periods. I think as an aspiration, VR is wonderful and I applaud those people who will be early adopters. But for me, I’m gonna bank more on augmented reality for now and jump into VR after it’s truly immersive — as in you plug it into your brain somehow.  I have a feeling that will happen long after I’m dead.  I do look forward to the multiple gimmicks that will come out of VR like 360 videos and theme park applications. VR will end up like 3-D is now — in movie theaters, theme park, and arcades (or whatever they are called now.)

That’s all for now!