The Jackalicious Files

There is never enough time in the day to get everything done you want to get done. I've been so busy with school and projects to end the semester; I've had no time to Blog about anything recent. Needless to say, there has been a LOT happening of late.

Last time I checked the news I see we're now bombing Libya to get Mr. Fancy Pants off of his throne along with his all female bodyguards wrestling team. The Democrats and Republicans finally settled on an absolutely useless budget for our debt that's tantamount to throwing a mousetrap at an Amazon Capybara. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan rage on. Japan is still cleaning up after that 9.0 mega quake of the millennia caused a Tsunami from hell. Then there is that little problem of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that has been pouring out radioactive water into the Pacific - but not to worry; the fish are completely safe, just ignore and cut off those annoying glowing green eyes that sometimes shoot out laser beams. It's so bad in Japan right now; even Godzilla was spotted helping with the clean up efforts.

Okay, in all seriousness, I always try to keep a positive outlook on life, laugh as much as I can and take everything as it comes. However, it's been pretty bad all around and after a while all the doom and gloom starts to wear you down. One new thing that’s going on today is that everybody (including yours truly) has his or her own soapbox that was not available 10 or so years ago, or at least not to the magnitude it is today. Even cellular phones now bring up the point they are Twitter and Facebook ready. It is really nice having all this ability to keep up with our friends and family and know where everybody is, all the time. You don’t hear things anymore like, “Hey, what’s Bob up to these days?” Oh no, now it’s “Let me check Facebook to see what old Bob’s up to these days.” It seems the same crowd that was screaming about Internet security and privacy are the same people bragging on Facebook about what they did the night before and in detail.

Long before the ruckus over radical Islam became all the rage, I came up with an analogy of how fast information can travel now. I told a friend, "Some crazy preacher can burn a Koran in Kansas, upload it to the Internet, and in 3 hours they'll be burning an effigy of his likeness in the streets of Iran.” And what's so frightening about that statement is that it’s happening (quite literally) and it's happening fast. The uprisings of the folks in Tunisia made it to YouTube and the kids over in King Tut land said, "Hey, we can do that too!" Before you know it, they're dancing to the Bangles hit song, “Walk like an Egyptian” in places like Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Palestine, Dubai, Kuwait, Yemen and so forth. So to recap, the actions of a handful of people using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube posted their feelings on their personal “soapbox” as I like to call it, the entire world took notice, and took notice it did. We could very well be looking at the early days of WWIII – hey, I’m no doomsayer but we’ve started World Wars for a lot less folks.

Enter Darth Vader on Mid East unrest: “Impressive. Most impressive. Obi-Wan YouTube and Twitter has taught you well. You have controlled your fear. Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can Only your cellphones and PCs can control your destiny!”

It really is mind blowing when you think about how fast our technology has come in the past few years, and especially news (including our own personal news). But what's really amazing is how very few political analysts saw this coming - well, I did, I really did (honest). A while back I told a lot of friends of mine how fast this thing would spread. Now, I'm not saying that I am particularly smarter than some over paid military strategist or political analyst, but you know, I am curious why nobody brought this up sooner? I just happened to be studying Internet technology and finished up a long paper in my journalism class on how YouTube and Twitter and other similar applications like Facebook are replacing the foreign correspondent. I believe it was about 3 weeks ago or so and I recall hearing a reporter on CNN make a statement about the unrest in North Africa. He said something that just made me stop and think about where we have come. He said, "So what are they saying on Twitter about the crisis there in Libya?" Think about that for a moment, would you?

Get ready for a wild ride folks; it's going to be one heck of a roller coaster you'll never forget.