Robot Music Singer: Pop Star is a Hologram... Hatsune Miku sings Crowd Sourced Lyrics. Like the book IDORU by William Gibson - CyberPunk

A Science Fiction Book becomes Reality. An IDORU (Computer Program Singer/Songwriter) written about by William Gibson is actually Created... and Goes on Tour with Lady GAGA...

Audiobook: Idoru by William Gibson... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scHOIce9uVo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsune_Miku

https://www.wmagazine.com/story/hatsune-miku-crypton-future

Hatsune Miku is a virtual character created by Crypton Future Media. Originally, she was sold as the face of computer software that allowed users to generate their own music, with her as a vessel. Imagine GarageBand mixed with Sims performing your songs.
Since Miku's creation, over 170,000 sounds have been created for her, garnering a grand total of over 100 million hits on YouTube. This spring, she embarked on a ten-city tour with a live band to showcase the most shared singles — almost all the shows were sold out. Below, Miku's creator, Crypton Future Media CEO Hiroyuki Itoh, tells the story of her creation.

https://www.amazon.com/Idoru-Bridge-Trilogy-William-Gibson/dp/0425158640
Synopsis of the Book Idoru...

21st century Tokyo, after the millennial quake. Neon rain. Light everywhere blowing under any door you might try to close. Where the New Buildings, the largest in the world, erect themselves unaided, their slow rippling movements like the contractions of a sea-creature...

Colin Laney is here looking for work. He is an intuitive fisher for patterns of information, the “signature” an individual creates simply by going about the business of living. But Laney knows how to sift for the dangerous bits. Which makes him useful—to certain people.

Chia McKenzie is here on a rescue mission. She’s fourteen. Her idol is the singer Rez, of the band Lo/Rez. When the Seattle chapter of the Lo/Rez fan club decided that he might be in trouble in Tokyo, they sent Chia to check it out.

Rei Toei is the idoru—the beautiful, entirely virtual media star adored by all Japan. Rez has declared that he will marry her. This is the rumor that has brought Chia to Tokyo. True or not, the idoru and the powerful interests surrounding her are enough to put all their lives in danger...

These Kings of Tech (Google, Facebook, Twitter) are More Powerful Than Presidents of Countries... Think About It... Do YOU Really Care about the Opinion of "Balls Are Narrow", the President of Brazil? A Country with MORE PEOPLE Than the USA...

 HEADLINE: Facebook, Twitter, Google CEOs Testify Before Congress: https://www.npr.org/2021/03/25/980510388/facebook-twitter-google-ceos-testify-before-congress-4-things-to-know

I Don't Have a Strong feeling of Patriotism towards the USA. However I DO Feel Loyalty to Google... I Entrust ALL MY DATA to Google. I Have Uploaded My Autobiography, All My Artwork, My Family Photographs, My Travel Photographs, My Absurdist Fiction Stories,  All My Songs and Every Opinion I've Ever Had...

I DO Feel Some Patriotism to the State of Jefferson. (Southern Oregon and Northern California) But The USA Has Too Many Crazy TrumpNik® Freaks for My Liking... 

 Think About It For a Second... Google is Not at War With Anyone... Has No Need to Buy Weapons... The USA is in a Constant State of War Against Imaginary Enemies... 

There Exists an Industry of People That Write Magazine and Newspaper Articles BASHING BIG TECH. It's Possible to Sell and Article that Shouts: DANGER DANGER Google Will Find Out Your Innermost Secrets! These Articles are Written by People That Need Work and Have Discovered a Niche... as a Matter of Fact, There are People That Will Say ANYTHING if they Get Paid. Often They Work for "Think Tanks" - Witness the Bizarre Falsehood Published by the Heritage Foundation... They Even Had a Guy That Said The Electoral College Was a GOOD IDEA! Madness! Other Freaks Publish Endless Articles and Youtube Videos Promoting Nuclear Power Plants as a "Green" Alternative Energy Source. They Conveniently Ignore the Fact That Nukes Create Radioactive Waste that Has to be Stored Safely for 10,000 Years... They Say: Look! No Air Pollution! No Disasters Since F*CK YOU Shima, Chernobyl, TMI and Santa Susanna Field Laboratory... Mostly Safe... Except for the Increase in Cancer Around thos FAILURES... 

Remember the Endless War in Afghanistan? Can We Even Pretend That There is a MISSION? A GOAL? Can Anyone State Why We Are At War There? No... It's Just Another BogusWar® Designed to Sell Stuff For Defense Contractors... Sell Boots to The Military? Well, You Sell More Boots if We Have Boots on th Ground in DirkaDirkaStan... Sell Bandages? You'll Sell More Bandages if there Are Americans Bleeding in Some Far Off Land... 

Abandoned Military Airplanes Rusting in the Desert...
a Total Waste of Taxpayer Dollars... 

Medicare for All would Cost A GREAT DEAL LESS than Paying for Insurance Company Profits...

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/30/17631240/medicare-for-all-bernie-sanders-32-trillion-cost-voxcare 

Bernie Sanders’s $32 trillion Medicare-for-all plan is actually kind of a bargain. The federal government would spend a lot more money on health care, but overall US health spending would be about the same as otherwise projected.

http://www.connectthedotsusa.com/

Let's Cut Defense Spending in Half and Use The Money Currently Wasted to Pay for Medicare for All and Free College... Since the Military Has NOT ACTUALLY DEFENDED The USA since 1945, Why Spend Billions on Something we Do NOT USE? Since August 15th, 1945 [Victory in Japan Day] ALL WARS HAVE BEEN BOGUS... We have Invaded Foreign Countries and Taken Sides in THEIR Civil Wars. Remember Vietnam, Nicaragua, Iraq and Afghanistan? Why Did We Spend Taxpayer Dollars to Blow Those Countries UP? Corporate Profit! That's Why... 

https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2019/04/lets-cut-defense-spending-and-use-money.html

What IF We Simply Taxed Marijuana and used THAT Money to Heal America? GEE, That Was Easy... 

When I am wrong, I simply Change my Mind. Sometimes I Change it Back and Forth as I LEARN MORE!

I used to be in favor of "Medicare For All" but...  

I saw an advertisement that stated we would have to WAIT LONGER for treatment with a single payer system. 

NOW, My Facebook Friend Changed My Mind Back!

I asked Google and It's True. In Canada they wait Longer... Well, I don't want to wait longer! I'm 65 years old and I already HAVE Medicare. The Medicare For All plan would ADD YOUNG PEOPLE... and I don't CARE about them... Really... CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHY MEDICARE FOR ALL WOULD BE BETTER THAN WHAT WE HAVE NOW? 

Maybe Medicare For All would be better for People under 65 but... 

I Emailed Bernie Sanders but have not gotten a response... Maybe You Know the Answer... 

"The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few.... Or the One." - Star Trek Quote.

FREE COLORING BOOK ART! -
Find more at Google Image Search
using the Keywords:
gvan42 free coloring book or click on this link!
https://tinyurl.com/gvan42

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On a Different Subject... 

a Post of Mine Was Deleted from This Blog

because I Dared to Ask the FORBIDDEN QUESTION:

"Why do we allow fresh water from the 

Sacramento River to flow into the Ocean?"

after all... 

We Pump the Colorado River Dry before it Gets to the Ocean in Mexico... and No One Complains About THAT!

all the water from the Colorado River is used to Drink, Water Crops, Fill Swimming Pools, Shower, Water Animals and Make Ice Cubes for a Scotch on the Rocks Beverage... 

SO... Someone Reported My Question to Google

and That Post was Deleted... 

WE MUST ALLOW NO QUESTIONS!

OBEY THE ECOLOGY NUTS!

NO THINKING!

Sacramento River Satellite Photo Google Maps - Delta - 2021 Here is a Post on that same subject that was NOT Deleted on Facebook... "I Wonder Why Fresh Water from The Sacramento River Flows into the Ocean? After All, The Colorado River is Pumped Dry.

We are Having a Drought Here in California... This Water COULD be used to Grow Crops, Water Livestock, Take Showers or Make Ice Cubes for a Scotch on the Rocks... But NO... It Flows Out into The Ocean at San Francisco... "

What IF? Would Pumping all that water out of the River and Into Fields that are Growing Crops Change the Climate of California's Central Valley... In the Summer, all that water would evaporate and then fall as rain when those clouds meet the Sierra Nevada Mountains... In General, the Wind Flows from West to East... WE NEED RAIN...

The Objection to Pumping the Sacramento River Dry is That Salmon Need the Water to Survive... and They Would Go Extinct... In That One River... Other Rivers, Like The Klamath and The Columbia and Rivers in Canada and Alaska would NOT Be Changed... and The Salmon Would Continue to Survive There... and... What IF Salmon Became Extinct? The Drought is The Western USA Is Putting Salmon in the Klamath River in Danger Right Now... Even With The Dams being Removed...

Protest Sign Says:
Kapow! Un Dam the Klamath River
in the All Species Parade: Arcata CA

Golden Bear Sculpture on The Klamath River Bridge.
Highway 101 - Northern California

The San Francisco Bay would Become Salt Water flowing In under the Golden Gate Bridge... Currently it has a Mixture of Salt Water and Fresh Water...

That's Surprising because there are Salt Harvesting Businesses Near San Jose... They Just Let the Bay water Evaporate and Collect the Remaining Salt...

You may read MORE Blog Posts 

by Clicking on the LABELS Below... 

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FUN Things to do in Eureka and Arcata, California. Photographs of Tourist Highlights. Madaket Ferry Boat Ride, Kinetic Sculpture Race and Music Students at Humboldt State University...

The Madaket is a ferry boat that retired when they built the bridge to Samoa... Now it has narrated cruises looking at Humboldt Bay... Mostly the North end and central part of the bay. We live at the South end. The captain tells us the history... 

Scenes photographed from the boat...

My Brother and I at Woodley Island Marina in front of

The Maritime Memorial for Sailors Lost at Sea.

We discovered a "secret" beach in Fairhaven that no one ever goes to on a boatride. As we passed Fairhaven on the North Jetty, I saw the beach and a road... later I looked it up on Google Maps and figured out how to get there. We were all alone except for a man in a kayak cruising by.

Other places to visit:

The North Jetty itself. Bring sensible shoes so we can walk to the end where the dolos are... be aware that sometimes the waves are so large that it would be dangerous to walk on the jetty... but you can watch from the top of the sand dunes.

Giles by the Bay restaurant in King Salmon. It is at the end of the small peninsula that is right next to our house. The restaurant is not spectacular but I often park there to walk around and look at the house, bay, boats... There is a good swimming/wading beach there. In the afternoons in the summer the water is warm enough to swim in... It's a bay... The Ocean is simply too cold.

Trinidad: Pier, Beach and the fabulous restaurant. There is a marine life museum and classrooms from Humboldt State. A great trip as they have working example of the Hydrogen Fuel Cells invented at Schatz Laboratory HSU. They are participating in radioactivity monitoring from Fukushima. In co-operation with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. http://www.humboldt.edu/marinelab/

(Take the Trinidad exit off of Hwy 101, head west on Main St., turn left on Trinity St., right on Edwards St., and right on Ewing St. as the road veers left.)

I looked at both active tree-sit ecology actions. Too long of a hike to get to where they are... and in my humble opinion... How can I really get excited about protesting logging way off in the woods? It is delicate balance between providing boards for construction and saving the trees... This ecology action does not motivate me.

Mattole: There is a great drive to the end of the road... but... it's trespassing for a mile or so... and that's too far. The drive goes from the Avenue of the Giants towards the Mattole river and The Lost Coast... Ending in Victorian Ferndale. This is a road that is NOT visible on Google Streetview.  Bull Creek Flats Road... in Humboldt Redwoods State Park... to Mattole road and the town of Honeydew... Out there is a Sobriety Retreat on top of a mountain with a giant cross made from two large trees... I took a picture there and captured the spirit of that moment... close to the clouds in a big wind...

The other Tree-Sit is at Strawberry Rock near Trinidad. Take the Trinidad exit and instead of turning left and going to Trinidad, go straight  ahead at the end of the off ramp and follow the Frontage road that parallels Highway 101 all the way to the end... That's where the trail starts... Link to a map.

http://goo.gl/maps/bIkAO

Mount Saint Mercy Retreat

click on the images to see them bigger

Here in Eureka, CA there is a zoo in the middle of a redwood forest. There are wild bears that live in the forest and there are bears in the cages at the zoo... If someone would just let the caged bears go they could live in the woods with the other bears... unless they have been so institutionalized by convict life that they can't survive outside of prison. Sequoia Park Zoo.

Where are the really great parties? 

Free and Wonderful Events? 

Please add your favorites to Comments section...

I would like to promote events that are free and wonderful. For Example: The Rainbow Gathering, Kinetic Sculpture Race, North Country Fair and Humboldt Folklife Festival. All we need to know is a date and a location. Please share info and I'll blog the fun things to do. If you know of an event, please comment or email me... gregvan@yahoo.com Thanks....

http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/where-are-really-great-parties-free-and.html

click on the link above to find out Where the Happening is!

My College Painting Class on a Field Trip to 
Woodley Island Marina.
We took our easels and paints and created ART.

Free Concerts On HSU Campus at Noon by the Clock Tower.

"Jammers League" every performance had different players

This is a historic train in Scotia, California. A beautiful town completely owned by MAXXAM. [until they went bankrupt] Sort of like a stage set, it is entirely built of redwood lumber with columns made from entire trees with the bark intact. Come visit sometime and be sure to go on the factory tour. It is the largest building in California. MAXXAM did a corporate raider takeover using Michael Milken junk bonds and is proceeding to cut down old growth redwood as fast as possible and take all the profit and move it to Texas. After all the profitable trees are gone then it's time for bankruptcy... Just like they did with Kaiser Aluminum. and that's exactly what they did... now it's all owned by the Fisher Family [most famous for The Gap clothing stores]

Kinetic Sculpture Race. June Moxon's Cat

more pictures of Eureka and Arcata at:
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/search?q=Arcata
or 
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/search?q=Eureka

My Truck and the Magic Bus

near Lolita, CA

These pictures were taken behind the Bayshore Shopping Mall. Where there is a huge abandoned building that has been decorated by grafitti artists... It made me think of the CyberPunk science fiction novels by William Gibson where all the action takes place in San Francisco after the collapse of western civilization due to lack of oil. These machines would fit perfectly because they are entirely bicycle powered...

photo of graffiti in The Shipwreck an abandoned roadside attraction just South of Eureka in King Salmon

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Bear Tales: Our family loved to go camping in the woods... and so, we met bears. Walk away backwards slowly and let them eat your Lunch.

We lived in Eureka on the edge of a forest that was about 5 miles to the next house. Many animals lived in those woods including bears, a fox, deer, raccoons and skunks. The only time I saw a bear was when I was standing in my kitchen looking out the window at the parking lot. The bear just walked slowly past and I was really glad to be indoors. That bear killed the neighbor's dog. I assume that the dog was annoying and barking at the bear... that's a mistake you don't do twice.

We enjoyed the deer so much that we bought a salt lick at the feed store. The deer really loved it as not only did it have salt but it also had seeds to eat. We put it in the meadow next door to the house and that's how we got to see the fox... In general, animals are afraid of humans but if you buy them Lunch... that's a different story.

Once a skunk came into the house thru the cat door and hid behind the record player cabinet. I took a roll of Christmas Wrapping paper and poked the skunk and it left without spraying. LUCKY!

We had three cats and they were free to go outdoors at will. I became especially fond of Shasta the cat. He was a disobedient large male cat. I am a disobedient large male human so we got along great. When it came time to go to the VET he and I would wrestle and when I won I put him in the cat carrier. It was not obvious that I would win the fight.

When he got really old he became blind and during the last week of his life he would walk forward until he hit a wall then turn right or left and walk forward until he hit another wall. He repeated this blind walk for hours... I had to clean my room so that there were not any corners because in a corner he became stuck... turning right or left did no good in a corner. So I walked around the house throwing away trash and straightening us the clothes on the floor etc FOR HOURS! It was as if Shasta the Cat was doing his "Forever walk" and I too was on the same wavelength... Sometimes he would lie down and not move and so I sat down and looked at him and I did not move. I was retired from work at this time so I had all the time in the world to meditate with my friend.

Eventually he walked into a storage room and hid under a pile of clothes and did not move. I assumed that he was dead but I wasn't so rude as to POKE him to find out for sure. A couple of days later he walked out of that room and continued his blind "Forever walk"... I figured that he had regained his health and so I went on a driving vacation to Chico. He died a couple of days later.

BUT, we had a very meaningful week together.

Shasta had a sister named Meadow that we got at work in Chico. Miss Vicki was working at United Healthcare as a Data Entry Operator and another employee had a litter. I was assigned the task of Naming the cats and I wanted to name them after the Native American Sacred Spring on Mount Shasta at Panther Meadow... Miss Vicki overruled the name Panther because one simply does not name a housecat - lion, panther, lynx, tiger - so they became Shasta and Meadow... Meadow is still alive.

I made a Youtube film of Shasta... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQUHWAVDTv0

A family of raccoons lived under our house. Evidently the bathtub leaked and it was a good source of drinking water. They really freaked out Miss Vicki as they made a scary scratching sound whenever someone would go into the bathroom.

Read more of my autobiography at: http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html

Great Movie: "CHAPPiE" Science Fiction about a Law Enforcement Robot abducted by a Punk Gang and Taught to Love, Think and Kill.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappie_(film)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6bmTNadhJE
In the near future, a mechanized police force patrols the streets and deals with lawbreakers -- but now, the people are fighting back. When one police droid is stolen and given new programming, he acquires the ability to feel and think for himself. While the robot, dubbed "Chappie (Sharlto Copley)," puzzles out human behavior, the authorities begin to see him as a danger to mankind and order; they will stop at nothing to ensure that Chappie is the last of his kind.

Robots in Love

Great Books: "You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto" by Jaron Lanier... "You are Not the Target" by Laura Huxley

https://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Not-Gadget-Manifesto/dp/0307269647/

Lanier discusses the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poorly considered digital design and warns that our financial markets and sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter are elevating the “wisdom” of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and judgment of individuals. 

Lanier also shows:
How 1960s antigovernment paranoia influenced the design of the online world and enabled trolling and trivialization in online discourse
How file sharing is killing the artistic middle class;
How a belief in a technological “rapture” motivates some of the most influential technologists
Why a new humanistic technology is necessary.

Controversial and fascinating, You Are Not a Gadget is a deeply felt defense of the individual from an author uniquely qualified to comment on the way technology interacts with our culture.

https://www.amazon.com/You-Target-Laura-Archera-Huxley/dp/0374293805/

 You Are Not the Target by Laura Huxley 

In this book, the life partner of the famed Aldous Huxley offers practical wisdom on how a human being in a chaotic world can cope with stress, anxiety, competition, and the uncertainty of the times without going to pieces mentally or physically. it offers 33 "recipes" for living, which show you how to change, hoe to influence the elements around you, how to cope successfully with the problems of the inner and outer world.

Colin Powell gave a Press Briefing at the United Nations where he explained the Reasons for going to War in Iraq.
Traditionally, press briefings are held in front of Picasso's Painting "Guernica" that depicts death from the sky...
Powell was proposing starting a war that had a lot of Death from the Sky...
SO HE HAD JANITORS COVER THE PAINTING AND HE SPOKE IN FRONT OF A WHITE SHEET.
This Image shows what the press conference would have looked like.