#MEwx hot again with some humidity and an open letter to social media companies everywhere.

Good morning Augusta

Note: All readings shown below are taken as of 7:25  AM today.

This morning we have mostly cloudy skies, then clearing. Areas of fog this morning with highs around 80. Winds are light and variable, becoming south around 10 mph gusting to 20 mph this afternoon.

Tonight we’ll have mostly clear conditions this evening, becoming partly cloudy. Lows in the mid 50s with light and variable winds.

The Outdoor temperature is 64.4°F, the Dew Point is 64.1°F and the heat index is 64.4°F with 99% humidity.

Sunrise is 5:53 AM, Sunset is 7:32 PM and we’ll have 13 hours 38 minutes of daylight today.

Moonrise is 5:52 PM, Moonset is 1:44 AM. The moon phase is waxing Gibbous being 84% illuminated.

The next Full Moon is August 28 and the next New Moon is on September 10.

There were no detectible lightening strikes here over the past 24 hours.

We didn’t receive any rain here over the past 24 hours.

The wind is 1.8 MPH from the East Northeast gusting to 4.3 MPH.

The relative barometric pressure is 29.67, the absolute barometric pressure is 29.47 and rising with a weather graphic indicating rain and clouds.

The UV index is 0 placing the average person at low risk and the solar radiation reading is 45.7W/M2.

Visibility is 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers with mostly cloudy skies.

 

Today is my open letter to all social media companies.

Dear Social Media companies:

This open letter is directed to all of you. I’m not calling anyone in particular out for political reasons even though this is an election year.

All of you, no exceptions, need to make up your mind just how much of a “guardian” you claim to be for all of us, not just kids and the politically hyper-sensitive.

Sure, you strive to police bad language, violent and porn content and anything the latest influencer has convinced everyone is “everyone’s problem” when it’s really the agenda they’re pushing.

 Usually this stuff boils up when there’s a federal election cycle so that candidates can look like they’re doing something to “protect” us from the bad guys out there in cyber space.

I have two things for all of you to think about and then act upon.

First, stop the “We’ve locked your account because we’ve detected unusual activity” crap you pull in various incarnations. Really? What’s that mean? In the past three weeks I’ve had one of my accounts “locked” for that very reason. Want to know what I exclusively post there? Weather reports and daily quotes from famous historic figures.

If you insist on sounding like you’re being vigilant and guarding the social media airways for the innocent and young, say what you’re talking about. And for Pete’s sake don’t say something like “you’ve violated one of our rules and conditions for the use of our platform as well as FCC regulations…” If your people can find something they don’t like, say what it is in plain English and knock off the holier-than-thou technospeak.

And second, your entire industry isn’t doing anything other than protecting yourselves from FCC inspired lawsuits for regulatory violations that only Harvard Law school graduates can understand.

We’re not impressed. The only two things that happen are that you protect your profit margin and keep regulatory defense law firms in the upper earnings brackets.

And another thing – stop telling us to be more protective of all of our passwords, pins and crypto-protections skills. Most of the stuff you want us to use that is in any way effective is something you have developed to “sell” us. It makes us question your dedication to web safety. Yes, your credibility gap is pretty wide.  

If you’re as good as you want all of us to think you are do something truly helpful and protective for ALL of us out here.

Use all of your protective energies and skills to catch the hackers who steal social security benefits, tax refunds, crack into our bank accounts and hack our credit cards.

I don’t mean “find” them. I mean find them and hammer the Feds into going out there to not only get them, but get all of “our” money back from them. That would be a great start!

If all you wan to do is talk about what needs to be done instead of doing it go into politics with the rest of the talking head do-nothings.

Yes, I’m telling you to get off your high horse and get to work doing something useful beyond cashing in on “us.”

I mean, if you monitor us closely enough to know that some of my weather forecast posts has violated a rule somewhere, you sure as hell can detect when a bad guy has suddenly begun buying luxury items  using my bank account or credit card.

By the way, If you lock my account again without explanation after I’ve posted this, you’ll simply prove me right.

  I mean it. You have the power, the skills and international reach to do this. You can do it, just build a fire under yourself and get it done.

Anybody want to bet if the foregoing has any impact on anything anywhere?