Paula Labrot

Decentralization…! Here We Come! On to Web 3.0! Decentralization…! Here We Come! On to Web 3.0! By Paula LaBrot English philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote in the mid-1800s, “The fraud is the pretense that the welfare of ordinary people matters to the el...Read more Space for All! Space for All! I will never, ever forget being in the desert at Edwards Air Force Base to welcome the Columbia Space Shuttle home in 1981. G and I took Mom, Dad, my ...Read more Spiritual Topanga Spiritual Topanga Joseph Campbell said, “The seat of the soul is where the inner world and the outer world meet.” Here in Topanga Canyon there is an eclectic varie...Read more   Elusive Truths Elusive Truths Last November I told G that I dreaded 2020. “Why?” he asked. Because this election year is going to be so ugly, so divisive, so intellectually be...Read more Sneaky Sidewalk Sneaky Sidewalk Don’t worry. Amazon has opted you in. It’s up to you to opt out. On June 9, Amazon quietly activated technology embedded, as far back as...Read more Honey—2007-2021 Honey—2007-2021 This week, Mike Cheney helped me dig a grave for my mom’s 14-year-old dog, Honey, her most loving dog who slept on her bed every night for 14 years...Read more   Ransomware Ransomware We are not under threat of war. We are in a war already. It’s a different kind of war, fought with ones and zeros, not guns. It is a cyberspace inva...Read more A Time of Elves A Time of Elves We may like to think that the world’s elves are busy at the North Pole making lots of toys for children to enjoy during holiday season. But there is...Read more Amazon Oligarchy Amazon Oligarchy Convenience is the temptress of Big Tech. Amazon can get you anything you want to buy and deliver it the next day. By providing such convenience, ...Read more   High-Tech Firefighting High-Tech Firefighting Fire spotting and firefighting have gone high tech in keeping with the cyber-times we live in. Given our latest episode with Santa Monica Mountain wil...Read more The Hammer, Sickle, and the Heart The Hammer, Sickle, and the Heart Reviewed by Paula LaBrot Topanga is a community that, historically, includes a plethora of creative, productive artists, musicians, and writers in residence. Among our present...Read more Human Barcode Human Barcode “IBM and the Holocaust” by Edwin Black is a stunning, shattering warning to the modern world of the dangers involved in data collection and a bitt...Read more   EMR—Electronic Medical Records EMR—Electronic Medical Records Remember when the wall behind the doctor’s office receptionist was lined with paper charts? Yours was filed there with everyone else’s medical rec...Read more A Distributed Web A Distributed Web By Paula LaBrot There is so much craziness going on in the oligarchic tech world right now…so many politically entwined, power hungry, greedy scary, dark behaviors ...Read more Outliers Versus the Bigs Outliers Versus the Bigs By Paula LaBrot I have always had a soft spot for outliers. I have lived my life closely with people who think and act outside of the Bell Curve. As challenging as th...Read more   The Dawning The Dawning By Paula LaBrot On Dec. 21, the time of the winter solstice and the shortest daylight hours of the year when the hours of daylight and darkness are equal, you will ha...Read more The Devil’s Food Triangle The Devil’s Food Triangle By Paula LaBrot We have now sailed into the Bermuda Triangle for dieters: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Here, in the Devil’s Food Triangle, thousan...Read more The Computer Electronic Show 2021 The Computer Electronic Show 2021 With all the craziness going on in politics, life still goes on. Politics is always decades behind the cutting edge of life anyway, and life is really...Read more   Beware the Threat of Attention Engineering Beware the Threat of Attention Engineering Columnist LaBrot is hot on the trail of a design renaissance to replace, or at least compete with today’s social media dominance that hacks us wh...Read more Charter Pods to Enrich Learning Charter Pods to Enrich Learning We are going somewhere new and we are not going back to “normal.” The Covid19 pandemic of 2020 has created a sea change. It’s like we are in...Read more Modern Monsters Modern Monsters I knew this year was going to be tough because of the election. But it is a horror show to actually see communities, friendships and families ripped a...Read more   The Dragon Flies The Dragon Flies All Things Connected I have had a love affair with the Columbia Space Shuttle and the whole NASA space program, but I was beyond pissed tod...Read more Contract for the Web Contract for the Web I have been thinking about the internet a lot lately. The early inventors and users had such high ideals about its use. Tim Berners-Lee, Sir Tim Ber...Read more Man, Machine and Musk Man, Machine and Musk If you think implants are just about teeth, ask Elon Musk about curing neurological disorders from memory and hearing loss to paralysis and...Read more   Media Literacy and Civility Media Literacy and Civility On September 11, 2001, I woke up. I groped for the remote to ignite the television. I saw a plane crash into a building and heard lots of screaming. I...Read more Sniffing Dogs and Covid Sniffing Dogs and Covid I love dogs, so, it is a great pleasure to bring this information to you, dear readers. Roger Caras, American wildlife photographer, wildlife pres...Read more