Random Access Memories

222,570, that’s my first number to think about. Almost one quarter of a million.

Now compare that number to 6,400.

The first number is the UN total on how many people were killed in the 2010 Haitian earthquake. The second is the death toll so far from the recent Japanese quake. That’s thirty five dead in Haiti for every one person dead in Japan.

4,672 Haitians have died just from the cholera outbreak after the quake alone.

Haiti has no running water, no sanitation, no insurance, no stable government, no infrastructure.

So some may find this callous, but seriously, which place should donations be going to at this point?

Recently I read a piece that described there being 45% more dogs than children in Seattle.

Some say it’s more educated population is putting off having children, but I think that’s only part of the equation. Let’s look deeper at some other commonly cited numbers shall we?

According to the Puget Sound Business Journal 75% of single apartment renters in Seattle own dogs.

Recent census data shows that just one in five Seattle households includes children under the age of 18, only San Francisco came out lower.

Also According to the 2000 census projection on 2004 Seattle has the fifth highest proportion of single-person households nationwide among cities of 100,000 or more residents, at 40.8 percent.

Yes, yes, all plenty of figures saying that Satellites don’t like kids and like dogs.

However, is it just kids? Let’s move onto the things that I don’t have facts and figures for.

Since I moved here 4 years ago I’ve found the great majority of Seattle residents to be very neighborly, helpful and kind. They will stop for a jaywalker and wave him across with a smile for example.

However what they won’t do is get to know people. In my opinion Seattle has an issue with “people connections”, be it the weather, be it status of hipster circles, be it the phases of the moon Seattle is not a “friends” town.

One interesting thing I noticed was that SeaTac Airport near Seattle does NOT get horribly crowded around the holidays (I’ve seen this firsthand) It gets busy during the summer months instead, meaning the family connections that people travel for during the holidays are not present here in such abundance.

Right now you’re probably asking yourself “So what? What’s this have to do with me?”, well, if you’re young and liberal (Which is likely 90% of the people reading this), everything.

Let’s think about it. Seattle is one of the most liberal places in the USA, boarding on Socialistic. They like to increase taxes, they like public programs, they like taking care of the environment, but the numbers on households and their general attitudes towards others seem to show that they don’t like connecting with other people. How can those things interact together in a healthy way?

“Yes, let’s make sure everyone is taken care of.. but I really don’t want to know any of those people, I just want to take care of them.” Please, tell me how that doesn’t seem empty and heartless.

What worries me is that this attitude is a spreading thing. Will the next generation have fleeting internet connections into their old age instead of just their myspace and facebook “friends” of today? I guess time will tell.

Not too bad, both harder and easier than I expected in certain ways.

Only screwed up one component. 🙂

Likely news you have heard nothing about, but I found it very interesting.

In New Brunswick back in 2008 a young lady by the name of Erica Sparks was injured in a car accident. She attempted to sue the other driver for damages. The insurance company of the other driver fought the claim.

During the trial they decided they wanted to see Spark’s facebook photos to determine the level of her injuries.

The Judge (Fred Ferguson) decided she might try to delete her photos before being forced to hand them over, so he ordered her lawyer (James Crocco) to mislead her by hiring another lawyer to summon her to his office.

He was not allowed to tell her anything about the meeting at which she was under court order to login to facebook and provide the photos.

How exactly will things change if judges get an idea that they can hand down a court order to force a lawyer to do something against the client’s best interest?