Government, Technology & Mother Nature

Do you read the newspapers; I mean really read them front to back? If you do, then you may be like me in that I see at least one story every day that makes me sad. Of course there are encouraging and heart-warming stories every day too. I try never to miss those. But there are times when I see stories and I sense that there is no justice. Wrong will prevail. Now my theory is that most often the wrong that prevails has something to do with the government, technology or Mother Nature. Let's look at what I observe today.

The government caught my eye this morning, as I read that the agency of the Federal Government that controls international flight routes awarded a highly coveted China route to United Airlines, handing American Airlines quite a set-back in its bid to expand its Asian footprint. I'm sure we all have our opinions of which airline is best and who gives the best service, etc. That notwithstanding, it occurs to me that of the major U.S. airlines with international routes in place already, American Airlines is the only one that has never filed bankruptcy and stuck the U.S. tax payers with unfunded pension liabilities. They are the only one of the peers who has had the brains and the courage to struggle through the horrendous economic environment that has plagued their industry these past few years --- without forcing the U.S. government to bail them out (via bankruptcy). The U.S. government insures the pension plans of most major companies. When those companies have not funded their pension plans properly and file for bankruptcy, you and I --- the tax payers --- pick up the tab. Maybe if American took the easy way out, our government would then also reward them with the highly coveted new Asian route(s). It's just not right.

Another story that caught my eye and made me sigh was Microsoft rolling out another version of their dominant operating system. Everything you read says that it has massive whistles and bells, way more capacity, etc. But, everything you read also says that this is going to be a very expensive and time-consuming upgrade. The time to learn to work the new system(s) is said to be highly intensive. I just upgraded Internet Explorer on my laptop (err ... it updated itself without my permission or knowledge) and found the new version to be really unpleasant. The changes are annoying and the value of these changes is not apparent. I've had a similar experience with Yahoo! Map feature. They recently upgraded and the new maps are harder to use, with what appear to be less features. It's annoying and the benefits of the upgrade are not obvious. It sounds like this will also be the story from Microsoft. In addition to the cost of the upgrade, the changes will be annoying, at best. The benefits will be hard to realize by the common user.

Why do technology companies keep rolling out more and more and more? They aren't accountable for delivering more value to the end users. The only winner looks to be the technology companies themselves. And because we're stuck in this massive economy where everyone has to work collaboratively, we'll all have to upgrade or get left out. It used to be that competition just forced companies and governments to worry about such things. Now they had to be dealt with on a household basis. My kid won't be able to do his homework if I don't have him on the latest versions of this or that. How many people do we disenfranchise with this approach? It's just not right.

I read today that the U.S. has more Internet users than any country on earth. That's good. But the number of Internet users in the U.S. is still less than two thirds of its total population. That's not good. If we made it easier to enter --- and stay in this game, would more people participate?

The final story that made me sigh is the one about squirrels. That's right, squirrels. The story was about the plot of urban dwellers who are fighting off rural rodents like squirrels, raccoons, skunks, possums, armadillos and rats. It seems that the squirrels especially like to dwell in the attics of Texas homes. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the story is the statistic that there are as much as 10 times more squirrels, raccoons, possums, etc. in the cities as there are in the country! What's up with that? Is Mother Nature having her vengeance on us?

Actually I have a squirrel in my attic right now. We've fenced him off, beat on the ceilings and done everything we can think of to get him to move out. Nothing doing. Every morning we awake to his incessant chewing and scratching. Yesterday I was on-line searching for a solution, and found a company that recommends high-intensity strobe lights in your attic. They say it irritates their sensitive eyes and drives the squirrels away. The company in the news today is a local firm, and I've already called them. They don't say how they'll get rid of the squirrels or for what price. But they guarantee to get rid of them and guarantee that they won't be back for 10 years. That was enough to get me to call. I wonder how much this will cost.

Okay, it's not all that tragic. It's mostly just annoying. What with tsunamis, earthquakes, wild fires, flooding, land slides, sink holes, global warming, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, ice storms, mold, termites, rats & mice, roaches, and now squirrels in our attics --- one has to wonder where it all might end. I get tired of hearing about battles with Mother Nature and get even more tired of fighting with her myself.

I was plotting my revenge against the squirrel yesterday, and discussing my plans with my wife. My son, in the back seat of the car, said to me, "Dad, you'd have a better chance of raising Elvis from the dead than you do of getting rid of that squirrel!"

Has anyone seen Elvis lately?