Mechanical Trolls

Spam The Comments

One of Dottie’s Zinnias

I enjoy the comment section below articles, videos, and news stories. Sometimes, I will reply to a comment that I think is particularly well stated. Sometimes, I will reply to a comment that is infuriatingly misrepresenting the facts, or simply repeating what was said on talk radio that day.

Moon and star, (blue dot), July 15

There are computers that are programed to search the internet for topics, such as “climate change”, and they send a comment disguised as if it came from a human. The comment could be a cleverly written denial of science and fact, (paid for by the fossil fuel industry). I have seen the same argumentative comment on several different comment threads, (usually the computer will change a word or two), using names of nonexistent people supposedly submitting  the comment.

This will become a white rose

There are many computers that are programmed to spam comment threads based on trigger word targets, such as, “healthcare reform”, (paid for by pharmaceutical, and insurance companies), that attack the subject with false cost estimates, etc.

Most of the ideological, anti-science, anti-democracy, comment thread spam is bankrolled by businesses that would lose money if there were things like alternate energy, free healthcare, or government programs designed to help the elderly, disabled, children, and needy people of all ages.

Yours truly

Every once in awhile I have to put my two cents in the comment section. Thinking that if I submit the real facts and figures, the discussion will rise to civil discourse between educated and literate participants, leading us to solutions and discoveries. I laugh, ha ha, at my naivety and unrealistic expectations. But, what the heck, there’s no harm in trying.

Exceptionally beautiful rose

In another part of my brain;

When I was a kid, I would unconsciously sing songs in the keys that I first listened to them played. They always came out like I heard on the radio, record, or someone singing. This was a process that didn’t require logic, reason, or literacy. It took place in the rudimentary part of the brain. Like many singers, I could sing like a bird without really knowing what I was doing.

"Did you say, 'bird' ?"

It wasn’t until my voice changed that I had to learn music. I was a beginner on the guitar, and discovered that I could no longer sing to the chords I had learned to play, unless I used falsetto. One of the things my mother drilled into my head was that falsetto wasn’t real singing, so that wasn’t an option.

Center that lives on after the petals are gone

I had to learn how to transpose. I had to train myself to sing in other keys. Which meant I had to listen and sing in tune with the notes on the guitar, or piano. I had to know something about the structure of music if I wanted to progress.

Glad

What makes this relevant, now, is the realization that when I sing and play an instrument, I am using the primitive brain functions, (emotion, breathing, vocalizing), and the intellectual functions of the frontal lobes, (mathematics, language, reason, logic, and musical knowledge), harmoniously.

No wonder I can become one with the music when I perform. Most of my processing power is being used for simultaneously singing and playing the song. When that happens in perfect balance, I experience another plane of existence, sometimes called, “bliss”.

This gift of life is filled with wonders that I have learned to savor and appreciate.

Today’s Citified Video;

Evolving In Many Ways