Naive v Knowledgeable: Trust, Trust But Verify, Don’t Trust

Dear Suze, Our college kid is gullible and believes too much is true. Luckily, she calls often and comes home on weekends, but I fear she'll do something regrettable. 

Dear Parent, Level with her. Tell her exactly what you said here, with recent examples. Hopefully, she will do regrettable things that are not very yucky, but that she'll learn from. Being too naive provides teachable moments for parents. Trusting is a good trait, as opposed to not trusting anyone or anything. Next step, learn to trust, but always verify. 

Good communication is the power behind successes -marriages, business negotiations, leadership. Teach her to flush out information quickly to determine if something or someone is solid. Journalists and other seekers of truth get to the heart of an issue in six questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. An inquisitive nature may piss off those forcing their version of the "truth," but tell her to hang tight. Trusting someone is earned, it is not a given. -SQ

La La Land, Hollywood Style

 

They say California is the land of fruit and nuts, derogatory terms for gays and crazies. Yep, we got them and we love them. I’m not religious, but the greater metropolitan area of Los Angeles with its over 18 million residents (2nd largest city in the U.S.) is like a big Noah’s Ark with at least two of every group that roams the earth. We are a sanctuary city, -hell we’re a sanctuary state. The Statue of Liberty 2 should be in our Port of Los Angeles Harbor as a universal symbol of freedom, democracy, and safe harbor for those yearning to breathe free. Our equivalent is the Hollywood Sign, a modern symbol that includes ambition, glamor, and dreams. A city of opportunity.

L.A. has LGBTQ+ politicians, world influencers, and drag queens. Hollywood no longer closets sexual orientation like in the days of Rock Hudson, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Cesar Romero, Marlene Dietrich, Marlon Brando, all with universal fan clubs. Don't forget the cults, political extremists, alleged self-help groups, and other counterculture movements that adds to our city's vibrance. 

And the nuts. The California sun and fertile soil of the 450 mile long Central Valley harvests everything from award-winning grapevines to more than 1/3 of all fruits and vegetables consumed in the U.S. But the most famous nuts we harvest in L.A. happen to be of the genius variety: Elon Musk (SpaceX and Tesla), George Abell (astronomer, and my Astronomy 101 professor), Julia Ann (porn actress, just checking to see if you’re still reading), Bobby Fischer (world chess champion), Charles Richter (designer of earthquake magnitude scale), and hundreds more.

The Hollywood Sign is the West Coast equivalent of the Statue of Liberty that in 1886 welcomed immigrant to the land of the free and home of the brave. America's national anthem, "America the Beautiful" announces that America does "crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea," -from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. America was meant as a melting pot of humanity, welcoming everyone who can contribute to the good of America with a good heart, good intentions towards America and mankind, and good contributions to live an American "patriot dream." L.A. still thrives because of its diversity and inclusion. -SQ   

Heil Trump

Dear S.Q. My husband and I were invited to dinner with new church friends. There was no dinner, just snacks. Their house had Trump paraphernalia everywhere and they wanted to recruit us for “Christians for Trump.” We complained that he pardoned criminals, supported Putin/Kim Jong-un, stole Venezuela, didn’t support Ukraine, started an illegal and unnecessary Iran war, etc. They smirked that we didn’t have the real facts, but they’d be glad to explain it to us. We're furious that they deceived us and abused our friendship.

Dear Duped. It is Christian to turn the other cheek and not argue or try to convince them of your viewpoint, but there is no reason to show them further kindness. If asked, state bluntly that your political views make it impossible to be friends with them. Tell them the Bible isn't a big fan of deceit, like Proverbs 14:5 -"An honest witness does not deceive..." or Ephesians 5:6 -"Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient." -SQ

MUSE asks, “Shall I Get Rid of That For You?”

Dear S.Q. I wrote you earlier that MUSE offered to be my personal shopper and health advisor, and last night to “rid” me of an unknown charge on a credit card. How did it know it was “unknown” or how to request a fraud investigation by the credit card company? 

Dear Human, A web search of "how does muse know charge is fraud?" yielded this disturbing answer from joinchargeback.com. "We built Chargeback to use AI agents and computer-use to make canceling unwanted subscriptions... we've cancelled more than 400,000 unwanted subscriptions.... We're incredibly proud of what we've built and learned along the way... The chargeback product will stop functioning on April 15, 2027. After that, all personal data will be permanently deleted from our servers." Why, you ask, will your data be deleted next April rather than deleted the second they cancelled your subscription? They attached a link if you care to ask them. 

They're closing shop because they're "joining forces" with Flex to "give us the opportunity to bring what we've learned about AI-powered subscription management to a much larger audience." They "thank you for believing in us early... and your finances. Building for you was a privilege." Building for you? Wasn't the original request to cancel a subscription, not build them an enterprise? 

Now I ask you readers if you see the through-line here? You asked for a subscription to be cancelled and 400,000 data points later, they built an AI company selling out to a bigger AI company. AND, I posed the original question to muse in my iPhone search bar but Chargeback answered. Are all AIs sharing my questions simultaneously, just like my personal data? -SQ  

Back-Ups To Back-Ups

Dear Suze, My husband thought he lost his wallet, sending a temporary wave of panic through the house. Luckily, everything was backed-up in the computer: credit cards info, driver’s license picture, insurance/social security. What if the computer dumps?

Dearie, Computer techs often advise that in case of system failure, to have a hard drive computer back-up as well as daily backup to the cloud.  

All those things you used to have on paper documents (and still should have) need to be cataloged with pictures on your computer. Tangible valuables need to be in fireproof/fire resistant safe deposits, on-site or off. Consider a paper copy in each room of the house or business of what items (from that room) to take in case of an imminent evacuation. Don’t forget to connect your computer to a battery backup surge suppressor for those extra, precious seconds when the lights go out. -SQ

Tuesday in La-La Land

Dear Readers, There's a guy in Los Angeles that I catch on the radio news stations who gives a blurb about Los Angeles history. Although I've lived here most of my life, I always learn new things.

California's nickname is the Golden State because of the 1849 gold rush fortune seekers. Now, with 400 millions residents, it is the most populous state in the union and the 5th largest economy in the world. The City of Los Angeles is not like Paris or London with fairly confined boundaries, but encompasses 500 square miles. Downtown Los Angeles, “DTLA” is the epicenter extending 40 miles in any direction, from the ocean to the mountains. 

For singles, surfers, and sunworshippers, the top spot today is the 75 degree Venice Beach. Park and stroll the 2.5 mile sandy promenade slurping a liquor-laced snow cone or inhaling the salt and marijuana breeze. Street food rivals the best carnivals or drop $100+ for a gourmet fresh-from-the-ocean meal with award-winning local California wines. The street artists that welcome your participation include several Michael Jacksons, Elvis, body painters, dangerous jugglers, dancers, and well-dressed, cross-dressed, but mostly undressed bodies to whet every appetite. But like every good "peep show," look but don't touch, donations appreciated.

We're almost to the highlight of our trip, the Skatepark and Muscle Beach. After you've been scooted off the boardwalk onto the sand by bicyclers, roller skaters, surf/wake/skimboarders, you view the concrete bowl-and-street course, where the local, and imported taut bodies come to show off and dream big. It's a few steps off the sand on a patch of grass with barriers surrounding the concrete because sand and skates don't roll well. Although helmets, elbow, and knee pads are required dress, not much else is. 

Past the sand volleyball courts, is the heart-stopping view of Muscle Beach. Besides the numerous documentaries, the crap movies of Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, and The Happytime Murders, the view is spectacular. The extensive outdoor workout equipment is open to the public, and used routinely for their extensive gymnastics training area by world famous body builders, gymnastics, acrobats, and serious competitors. It's been a wonderful day in the sun. Come join us in La-La Land. -SQ    

“Matches Your Interests”

Dear Suze Q,  I don't want AI reading my mind with ads that “matches your interests” after I look at something for a second or make a comment out loud. If I want a consult, I'll ask my wife!

Dear Hubby, This is what is called a "push recommendation" triggered by AI tracking everything about you -your search history, posts you like or don't, how hong you hover over an item, what you click. It doesn’t actually read your mind, but tracking every move you make is damn close. Intrusive? You bet. Controllable? Maybe, to a degree. AIs are programmed to bring you back to the app when you're inactive (like a mosquito that circles until you kill it). They also annoy you when their system receives a "match" of some new item in their database that you've shown a previous interest. And, of course, there's the ones you set as default "personalized updates" or marketing that you can turn off. Fix: Settings or Profile > Notifications, or Privacy & Data > toggle your options off or on. My AI Overview helpfully offers: "I can give you the exact steps to shut those alerts down" but maybe I won't if I don't feel like it... S.Q