What Were They Thinking?

Do you often mentally ask questions about the screwy things we read in the various sources such as news stories, emails, etc.? Many of the items and events seemingly could have been avoided if a little more brain time and common sense were put into play. I keep wondering about many things that have unfortunate or even frightening consequences.

Most of these problems are very evident in retrospect. But a large share of the pitfalls are evident before the fact. I have a few zingers just for examples. These are painfully obvious mental glitches.

Why would anybody rant about their boss on Facebook? This seems to be a complete no-brainer. You would think that anyone contemplating a public critique to a venue available to the entire earth’s population might imagine that the future might consist of them living under viaducts and abandoned minivans. The rant is on the Internet for goodness’ sake. Bosses, these days, have Facebook accounts. Hello! This boo boo is going to follow them around their professional network for the rest of their lives.

Why do some people Twitter about every ache, pain and manifestation of rashes at the same time they’re trying to enhance their social/romantic lives? Does anyone besides a doctor or nurse care about these symptoms? I don’t think even health professionals want to know about them when they’re away from the clinic or hospital. Maybe the tweets are supposed to garner sympathy from the readers? All it will do is generate pity. A negative emotion like pity is not something that I want to associate with me. I’ve seen this sort of behavior on dating sites, too. You really have to wonder about that.

How is it that spyware and other malware is often attached to pictures of cute kittens and puppies? Well, I do understand why spyware and viruses are often found on email forwards of “adorable” or interesting photos and cartoons. It’s an easy trap to set. What I don’t get is that many web users don’t know to be careful of opening and forwarding these things around to their friends and family. This exposes their pals to the risk of a nasty virus.

Even without a virus you can tell when an acquaintance has just signed up for his or her first Internet account. A flood of email forwards of cute photos and amazing things comes your way. They aren’t aware that these pups and kittens have been appearing in people’s inboxes since 1994 multiple times.

People wanting to ride motorcycles without helmets. Same with motor vehicles and safety belts. You just can’t beat physics. I get that there are folks with a radical libertarian bent in that they simply hate any and all interference by “government” telling them what to do or not to do. The riding sans helmet certainly qualifies as cutting off your nose to spite your face. In fact, it is often literally the case, and worse. In case they didn’t notice it, the government builds and regulates highways. Safety rules exist to protect the public. If a tire blows out on a motorcycle and the rider careens into the tarmac, some nasty results happen. Lessening the risk to the cranium should be utmost.

Even if there are no laws regarding helmet use, you’d think that self- preservation instincts would kick in. Many riders are the breadwinners for families. Do they think about their children? Do they think of other people’s insurance premiums?

Some dentists used to hand out lollipops to children following a checkup or procedure. As a child, our family dentist was a kindly old fellow with his office in the second floor above the old Rexall Drug Store. If we needed our teeth cleaned or filled, the old dentist expertly performed his tasks. Right afterwards, he offered us a brightly colored, sugary sucker. The kind that had a rolled, cardboard handle. Sometimes we’d get two or three if the operation was especially painful. I guess I can chalk this one up to job security for the dentist and educating the kids that sugary treats are OK because the dentist hands them out. I’m glad that my current dentist hands out floss and a toothbrush.

In a related but much worse practice, some doctors smoked and even recommended certain brands of cigarettes as beneficial to the general public. What on earth happened to their senses of ethics? This one is so far off the charts as to seem absolutely insane. This doesn’t speak well for the profession of doctoring at all. This is such a black mark on the medical field as to be beyond comprehension. It makes you wonder if things have changed very much doesn’t it?

Early versions of American subcompact cars weren’t very well thought out. The influx of Volkswagen beetles and Japanese economy cars caught Detroit off guard. The few American subcompacts weren’t taken seriously by the public.

Then the fuel crisis of the mid 1970s hit. Ford and General Motors couldn’t keep up the demand for four- cylinder econoboxes because the emphasis had been on high powerered gas guzzling vehicles. Ford had PR problems with Pintos that burst into flames if hit from behind in a collision. Chevrolet had the Vega. A cute little car that became infamous as a lemon early on. I had one, I know. I find it amusing that the advertisement for the 1973 Vega showed the car painted lemon yellow. Was that a Fruedian slip?

“Natural” products that aren’t really natural. This flub appears to be due to the disdain that industry has for regulation. We can have everything from Natural Margarine to doggie shampoo with nothing at all natural in it. I once purchased some energy snack bars from the health foods store that didn’t contain any whole food ingredients. I opened the wrapper to find an unappetising monolith of chocolaty NASA space food experiment. Coming across products labeled “natural” is like being lied to by your mom.

I came across a story that Japan’s Parliament’s server was hit by a cyber attack from a server based in China. This seems somehow related to the no-brainer about not posting rants about the boss to the World Wide Web. I thought the idea of security and policy discussions being kept away from networked computers was a common sense practice. This sort of security breach isn’t limited to the Japanese Government. I’ve read about more than a few instances when the U.S. Pentagon’s computers have been compromised. Keeping any kind of highly sensitive data on computers that can be accessed, even indirectly, via the Internet seems just plain stupid. It’s like placing several thousand dollars in cash in plain view on the seat of your parked car at a shopping mall. Wow!

Speaking of Japan, Mitsubishi reported that it had been hacked. Their report was a month late. The attackers obtained data about aircraft. I doubt if the hackers wanted information about Zero fighter planes. The cyber-thieves also stole information about nuclear power plant details. Of all people who should be very worried about nuclear weapons, the Japanese industry should be extremely careful with the databases.

This is the sort of thing made easier when Japanese corporations began outsourcing construction of computers to their centuries old rival, China. Do those companies believe that the Chinese contractors will simply build the products then carefully shred the blueprints? Do they not think that the communist regime might harbor some curiosity about cutting edge Japanese technology? Hmm.

Again, the U.S. and Europe can’t be too critical of Japan. We are guilty of the same outsourcing. Is it any wonder that we have to worry about our own military and intelligence security issues?

You just have to wonder, what were they thinking?

Ciao

The Blue Jay of Happiness carefully plans his covert operations against those pesky rivals, the squirrels.