Banning of the straws

In English there is a wonderful expression - Clutching at Straws.

This phrase is used to describe a situation when the clutchee is at the end of their rope (another curious expression where no rope is actually involved) in terms of their options.

This is the case with the tree hugging crowd. These self absorbed clowns try to find some item to draw attention to themselves so that they could be in the spotlight outside of the usual suspects getting all the air time.

One might be familiar with my similar expose (pronounced Ex-Po-Zay) a few years ago when I ranted about the banning of plastic carry bags at my local grocer. Apparently the Oregon Salmon was choking on it and I proved mathematically that it was fake news.

This time the wrath of the anti plastic lobby is toward the last tube standing aka the plastic straws used by fast food establishments to let their consumers slurp their oversized sugary drinks. C'mon really?

I say if someone wants to suck in their poison why are we interfering? What better apparatus than a plastic cylinder to let them imbibe with the least bit of threat to spilling their otherwise sticky beverage?

Is this all we got left in the thinking department? Hollywood - do you like the title? Perhaps a movie is in the offing? M. Night Shyamalan could take this idea and prepare a blockbuster Daytime Soap Opera where people move their lips silently and make sucking sounds due to the muscle memory of having straws stuck to their face for decades before the ban went into effect.

Comments

A few good books

On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...

Costa Rica

Our first foray into Central America. That elongated isthmus that forms the geographic boundary between two vast continents of North and South America. Specifically landing for NYE 2026 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Capital city for this region that does not have its own army, instead relying on its big bro the Estados Unidos to the north is a metropolis of approx. 500K people. Largely wilderness and with both a Pacific and Carribean/Atlantic coast the country is rich in bio diversity. In Spanish it means the rich coast so named by Columbus landing in early 16th century and being mesmerized by the local tribes sporting gold jewelry. Our stay included visiting the foothills of a large strato volcano called Arenal and enjoying the naturally heated thermal baths for a while. Lunching amidst lush forest and watching indigenous species of avian noise makers fly overhead. Toucans, some sort of pea hens, multiple song bird species completed the spectacle. Iguanas and a lonel...

Brown Motion

Search This Blog