Shouts From Down Under

Overhanging brows of concern for the trust we place in THEM!

In our on-call domestic and commercial cleaning activities, we are sometimes requested to resurrect homes that have been a battle ground of marriage breakups, people the victims of unexpected job losses, with the inevitable dreary bank foreclosure, accidents, death in the family, or worse. There is no way to ignore the owner or tenant's declining standards of living, including drug abuse, probably child neglect, other crimes, plus whatever else added to the sad saga.

Maybe I judge. But the condition of the properties- the squalor, the damage, the shattered windows and relationships, the heartbreak, the grinding poverty; it's all laid out in plain sight to us, the humble real estate cleaner.

We see it all.

Your lives, yes YOU, are naked before the very people society sometimes (often) places at or near the lowest status. They say if you ever want the gossip and darkest secrets to an organisation or group, ask the cleaner.
We are invisible. I'm sure I've said this before. I'm not complaining. It's just how it is. I'm probably the same. When your life is busy and you are with your friends, or family, and on an outing, you don't notice the janitor. The cleaner is just part of the machine, part of the process that feeds us, entertains us, sells us stuff, takes our money, services our car and internet, and shines lights down our throat and in our ear holes.



Who are the cleaners in this world, of progress, of change, of subtle compulsion, of influence, of peer pressure? Who scrubs our history away, replacing it with something that suits the next influx of money generating fads and supposedly correct theories? Who are the managers who keep tabs on these cleaners of our life's purpose?
Sometimes I'm prompted to wonder if all of us aren't being cleaned up by bulk false theories where we think we are doing the right thing, but in reality our efforts are not only far off the mark, but have the opposite, detrimental, effect. Perhaps I'm wrong, out of fashion, slow off the mark, stubbornly unchangeable. I'd like to think I was a strong person, but I fear I too am persuaded and prodded into following the leader / leaders just the same as everyone else.

And if I was to disagree, I'm weaker than a custard skin when it comes down to it. (Another cliché slipped in there)
If I found I was right about stuff, and it required a decent fight, some radicalism, some practical protesting or taking up arms, bricks or banners, I'd be the last to do it.
It takes a lot to rouse my anger. (Although when it is, look out; however I note the biblical verse: Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath)

Solar panels are one such issue where I wonder; are we being diddled? Are the most well meaning of us being fed balderdash?

Solar Panels. These are no longer an object, but part of an ideal. Save the Earth. Do the right thing by our planet. Renewable Energy. Sustainability. But is this really right? Are we doing the best for our planet and children buying solar systems made up of manufactured panels?

Solar panels don't last forever.

Generally speaking, a solar panel will last 30 years or more and lose some ½ percent (0.5%) conversion efficiency annually.

http://solarenergy.net/solar-power-resources/10-things-to-know-before-going-sola...

There is a bad side to Solar Panels. The carbon footprint may be different to what we think.
Solar Panels have to be manufactured- using a lot of energy to do this. They aren't squeezed from a gigantic big natural udder on a metal cow eating photosynthetic circuit board grass. They aren't natural. Sunlight is a big natural. Solar Panels are not big naturals. They are not a comfort zone. They are not necessarily green energy at all.

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/03/the-ugly-side-o.html

Looking at other emerging technologies, we could be forgiven for developing a deep furrow of worry on our foreheads at what the future holds, for humankind.
What happens when these nasty little fellows are manufactured in nanotech size, so small they can't even be seen with the naked eye? Nowhere will be private. Nowhere will be everywhere. Everywhere will be nowhere.

http://rt.com/news/186532-soft-rubber-robot-pneumatic/

And mind controlled Drones?

http://rt.com/usa/184881-us-mind-control-drone/

Oh man. Mr I Assimov would roll in his grave- the three laws of robotics ignored. And what happens when, not if, this stuff gets in the wrong hands? What if our own governments are already corrupt etc. Oh dear, fancy saying that!

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

Well, luckily us writers are here, with our literary Superman capes swirling in the keyboard warrior dust, our swords of dictionary and thesaurus like twin pistols on our cerebral hips. We have a shield of editing. We have the mockery of punctuation to defend us. Yes. Beware Trojan horse media, sneaky politicians, devious leaders of the land.

We are not afraid, because writing is the tool that separates all natural man from technological beast. Yes.

Ever use a grammar checker? Hopeless.
Ever shear a sheep with a machine? Hopeless.
Ever brush your teeth with a machine? Hopeless.
Ever wheel the rubbish bin out to the street with a machine? Hopeless.
Ever understand a woman? Hopeless.
Ever...no. That's enough Evers.

All these things depend on manual users of manual tools.

We wield WRITING as the power. And I am a tool.

Um. No. That's not...that's not right somehow.

Sparky