It could be that my moderate hearing loss affects how well I can hear people
speaking on cell phones, but I doubt it. I have no problem hearing people
talking on land lines or people on cell phones if they're stsanding in one
place and calling from a location that doesn't have some kind of
interference with whatever the sound waves are that leave a cell phone.
Radio waves? But when people use cell phones, often there's distortion of
the sound or it cuts out for a second.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 3:44 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: do you agree or disagree
Most of the calls I get other than spam calls are made from cell phones and
I can't say that the sound quality is any less, perhaps even better.
If there is anything that may interfere with the sound quality it may be
environmental noise such as traffic or conversation from others. I still use
a land line myself though. The more I hear about iPhones the more I want
one, but every time I think about getting one I tell myself that I just
can't justify the expense. The only advantage it would have is being able to
make and receive calls when I am out and about and I am not out and about
that much anymore. All of its other functions can be accomplished with my
land line cordless phone, my desk top computer and my television and radio.
They are not that compact, but I can still do just about everything that I
could do with an iPhone.
On 10/10/2016 11:59 AM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
1. The Post Office: All they need to do is to stop funding the workers'refuses.
retirement fund for the next 75 years. No other government agency has
such a plan, and it is the reason for the Post Office's financial
problems. Plus, they could give back the banking function to the Post
Office so that working people won't be fleeced and the Post Office
would have more funds. The solution is tere. But Corporate America
rest of our lives.
2. The Check: One more way to take control of our lives, out of our hands.
This idea that computers should take over as many functions as
possible, is suicidal, given our climate problems. Big storms, no
electricity, no computers! And what about all of the hacking. Our
government makes enemies throughout the world, or sees them when they
don't exist, is worried about foreign countries interfereing with our
elections, but is ready to digitize our whole financial system and the
braille book.
3. Newspapers. No more real reporting. News on the internet will
become just like news on TV, no objective reporting, just
entertainment aimed at various sectors of the population.
4. The Book: I can't speak about print books anymore. But when there's
no electricity and your battery has run out, if you have no car or
can't get to it to recharge the battery, or there's no gas and the
storm makes it impossible for you to get more gas, you can read a print or
But your E reader, VR Stream, DTBM, or I Phone maybe useless.homes?
5. The Land Line Telephone: Not only won't I give it up, but I won't
switch to one that works through cable TV in order to pay less money.
During Hurricane Sandy, when I was isolated, homebound, and had no
electricity, that was the only way I could communicate with other
people. Not only that, but have you noticed how poor the sound is on
most cell phones, especially when people are calling from outside their
long term.
I can't even begin to deal with the rest of it. It's a world in which
we are owned and controlled by corporations. Never mentioned, are the
plans to substitute apps that diagnose your ailments for doctors or
the plans to watch old people who live alone through cameras and send
in a robot to intervene when there's a problem.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 10:37 AM
To: blind-democracy
Subject: [blind-democracy] do you agree or disagree
Ten Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime
block quote
This is USA oriented, but Canada & the rest will not be far behind.
Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt
to them. But, ready or not, here they come.
1. The Post Office
Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so
deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it
Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenuechecks.
needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is
junk mail and bills.
2. The Check
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with check by
2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process
Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demiseservices.
of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If
you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the
post office would absolutely go out of business.
3. The Newspaper
The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They
certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That
may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the
paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet
devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine
publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and
the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription
4. The Bookand you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.
You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your
hand and turn the literal pages I said the same thing about
downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I
quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for
half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The
same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online
and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less
than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once
you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you
find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next,
5. The Land Line TelephoneSelf-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the
Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you
don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've
always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra
service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers
using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.
6. Music
This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music
industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal
downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a
chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and
corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio
conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music
purchased today is "catalogue items," meaning traditional music that
the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also
true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and
disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for
finishing up their latest "cloud services."
7. TelevisionRevenues
To the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy.
People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And
they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the
time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have
degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable
rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and
30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the
cable companies to be put out of our misery.
Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.
8. The "Things" That You Own
Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our
lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may
simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive
and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your
software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need
be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all
That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will bebe saved to the cloud.
built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS
will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it
will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will
And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. Insomething else. Again and again.
this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your
whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news.
But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able
to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?"
Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It
makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album,
grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.
9. Joined Handwriting (Cursive Writing) Already gone in some schools
who no longer teach "joined handwriting"
because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of
some type (pun not intended)
10. Privacy
If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it
would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time
anyway.. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings,
and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure
that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to
the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy
something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads
will change to reflect those habits.. "They" will try to get you to buy
All we will have left that can't be changed are "Memories".
