Day: October 17, 2021

Who Won the Week — 10/17/2021

Fandango12 Comments

Sorry, I’m a little late today, sometimes life gets in the way. Anyway…

The idea behind Who Won the Week is to give you the opportunity to select who (or what) you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.

I will be posting this prompt on Sunday mornings (my time). If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.

My Who Won the Week winner this week is Frances Haugen.

Frances, a former Facebook product manager who was hired to help protect against election interference on Facebook, turned whistleblower and has testified before Congress as well sitting for a 60 Minutes interview.

In her testimony, Haugen told that the tech behemoth knows that outrage, anger, and conspiracy theories — what it internally calls “bad for the world” content — generate more emotion, engagement, and dopamine hits. “If they change the algorithm to be safer,” Haugen said, “people will spend less time on the site, they’ll click on less ads, and Facebook will make less money.”

Haugen said that Facebook consistently chose to maximize its growth rather than implement safeguards on its platforms, just as it hid from the public and government officials internal research that illuminated the harms of Facebook products.

“During my time at Facebook, I came to realize a devastating truth: Almost no one outside of Facebook knows what happens inside Facebook,” Haugen told Congress. “The company intentionally hides vital information from the public, from the U.S. government, and from governments around the world. The result has been more division, more harm, more lies, more threats and more combat. In some cases, this dangerous online talk has led to actual violence that harms and even kills people,” she testified.

So thank you, Frances Haugen, for your courage to speak truth to power. Will it do any good? As Rachel Maddow says, “Watch this space.”

What about you? Who (or what) do you think won the week?

Sunday Poser — Spring Up/Fall Back

Fandango18 Comments

For her Sunday Poser this week, Sadje asks…

How do you feel about the bi-annual time change?

I think this whole bi-annual ritual is a vestige from the past when America was primarily a rural, agrarian nation. I don’t see that there is a need for it in the 21st century. And apparently neither do most Americans, who think it’s just an unnecessary hassle. According to a 2020 survey by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 63% of Americans are in favor of a national, fixed, year-round time.

In California, where I live, in 2018 there was a statewide ballot question, Proposition 7. 62% of California voters voted to change daylight saving time to make it full-time. Unfortunately, even though the people of California voted decisively to stop this ridiculous ritual three years ago, nothing has changed.

Why not? Well, for one thing, the California State Senate needs to pass this by a two-thirds vote and they haven’t yet. It’s stalled. And even if it did get passed in California, the federal government then needs to approve it because the federal Uniform Time Act doesn’t allow for year-round Daylight Saving Time.

So what’s the sense of voters passing it by 62% and the state senate not approving it? I feel like we’ve been bamboozled into thinking that our votes matter.

For what it’s worth, I don’t care if we go with Standard Time or with Daylight Saving Time year round. Let’s just stop having to play this crazy spring up/fall back game twice each year. Please!

Also includes these daily prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (vestige) and Word of the Day Challenge (bamboozle).

Song Lyric Sunday — Operator

Fandango17 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams’ theme was suggested by Di of Pensitivity101 with the words Communication, Information, News, and Telephone. I decided to go with a song that encompasses all of those words: Jim Croce’s classic “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels).”

“Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” was written and recorded by Jim Croce. The record was released on August 23, 1972 and was the second single released from Croce’s album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim. The song reached number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1972, spending twelve weeks on the chart.

The song relates one side of a conversation with a telephone operator. The speaker is trying to find the phone number of his former lover, who has moved to Los Angeles with his former best friend. He wants to demonstrate to both of them that he is well and over their betrayal, but admits to the operator that he is not. After the operator has given him the number, he is unable to read it, apparently due to the tears in his eyes. He then changes his mind and tells the operator not to place the call, appreciatively adding “you can keep the dime.”

The story in the song was inspired during Jim Croce’s military service in the days well before cell phones were ubiquitous. Croce would be standing in line waiting to use a an outdoor payphone and he would overhear one side of a dialogue of guys who were calling their wives or girlfriends after having received a “Dear John” letter.

Ingrid Croce, who was married to Jim from 1966 until his death in 1973, said in an interview that “Operator” is one of her favorite songs. “I can just picture it, all of them in line waiting for their 3-minute phone call,” she said. “Most of them were getting on the phone and they were okay, but some of them were getting these ‘Dear John’ letters or phone calls. That had to be heartbreaking for them.”

Here are the lyrics to “Operator.”

Operator, well could you help me place this call?
See, the number on the matchbook is old and faded
She’s living in L.A. with my best old ex-friend Ray
A guy she said she knew well and sometimes hated

Isn’t that the way they say it goes? Well, let’s forget all that
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell ’em I’m fine and to show
I’ve overcome the blow, I’ve learned to take it well
I only wish my words could just convince myself
That it just wasn’t real, but that’s not the way it feels

Operator, well could you help me place this call?
Well, I can’t read the number that you just gave me
There’s something in my eyes, you know it happens every time
I think about a love that I thought would save me

Isn’t that the way they say it goes? Well, let’s forget all that
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell ’em I’m fine and to show
I’ve overcome the blow, I’ve learned to take it well
I only wish my words could just convince myself
That it just wasn’t real, but that’s not the way it feels
No, no, no, no that’s not the way it feels

Operator, well let’s forget about this call
There’s no one there I really wanted to talk to
Thank you for your time, ah, you’ve been so much more than kind
And you can keep the dime

Isn’t that the way they say it goes? Well, let’s forget all that
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell ’em I’m fine and to show
I’ve overcome the blow, I’ve learned to take it well
I only wish my words could just convince myself
That it just wasn’t real, but that’s not the way it feels

FOWC with Fandango — Repugnant

Fandango16 Comments
FOWC

Welcome to October 17, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “repugnant.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.