Think, Ghost Hunter. Think.

Paranormal investigators need to change tactics.

Imagine you’re a 19^th century female ghost and you’re sitting looking out the window sipping a nice cup of tea from pretty china and in walks a guy in a tattoo art shirt with a giant baseball cap on sporting a demon skull necklace randomly shouting into the air “What’s your name?”

You’d be confused. You’d think he was a nutter. You might not answer this callous rake that hasn’t the decency to address you in a polite manner. You might fear that the images on his shirt and pendant on his necklace mean that he is an agent of the devil whom you’ve been trying to avoid as you figure out what heaven is and why you can’t get there.

What if you’re the ghost of a male train yard worker from the 20’s and a female investigator in pants comes through with digital recorder and K2 meter asking why you haven’t crossed over? You might be cursing her under your breath thinking about how they should have never given these broads the vote, now they’re hanging around where they shouldn’t be, messing in your business.

Paranormal investigators might need to consider the language, knowledge of technology, and societal considerations of the subjects they are trying to interview through EVP.

The Greatest Princely Dynasty You’ve Never Heard Of

Imagine an imposing square castle, the biggest you’ve ever seen, rising up on a shining red column of rock from a valley hidden deep in a green mountain gorge.  From its parapets you can see rivers and mountains and the villages below. The land holdings of the estate are so much that it has been deemed a state unto itself, rivaling Monaco. This is only the main family castle, the headquarters of a family run by three Counts, and formerly by their prince fathers. The castle was born in 898 A.D. when its only admirers were abbots on pilgrimage and the peasants of the valley. In the 12^th century it becomes a fortress, a home for true power lords.

Castello Dei Landi, also known as Bardi Castle, is the crown of the village of Bardi in the valley of Ceno in Northern Italy.  Everything that has ever happened in a good medieval tale has also happened at this castle.

Knights, Counts, Princes, Princesses, Dynasties, dungeons, moats, romance, and religion have played, fought, died, and haunted here. The Maltese Falcon may be hiding within its walls. Buried treasure is for certain hidden here.

More than a century before Shakespeare penned Romeo and Juliet, a similar, but real story of that vein took place at the castle. The daughter of the count of the castle fell madly in love with the captain of the guard, but she had already been promised to one of her father’s friends. The maiden and the captain kept their love a secret, meeting in hidden places. When the knight was called away to battle, the maiden pined for him, watching the valley for his return. One day, she saw an approaching band of knights flying the enemy banner, and thinking this meant her lover had died, threw herself off the parapets to her death. But the knight was not dead, he was flying the enemy flag as a sign of victory. When he discovered her death, he too, killed himself.

The story of this castle, village, state, and the Landi family of Piacenza could fill volumes.

Are robots taking our jobs?

When I was a kid, my grandfather, a lifelong employee of Ford Motor Company, bemoaned the coming age of the robot. On many a before daybreak morning, as he was feeding us bran flakes, he would tell us how robots were going to change the world, pushing the working man into severe poverty and making the rich richer at the poor man’s expense.

I used to think he was exaggerating or that he was overly sensitive to the plight of the working man, but that day has come.

Wired magazine posted an article yesterday about a robot that does the job of hospital orderlies. It takes out the trash, picks up the linens, and delivers drugs and foods.

The Boston Consulting Group released a report that the use of automation and robots in manufacturing will rise from their current share of 10% to 25% in the next decade. They estimate that about 1.2 million robots will be deployed in domestic factories in that time.

Even off the factory floor, robots are rising. A hotel in Japan is now fully staffed by androids and robots, with jobs ranging from concierge to bellhop.

They may even be capable of collective thought, albeit on a primitive level. But any level of collective thought by androids is just short of creepy.

Are current race related events being exploited for marketing gains?

I’m a touch of a conspiracy theorist. As such, being recently reintroduced to television and twitter after a long stint as an out of touch workaholic in an insular sector, I am making connections between things that are hopefully not related at all.

I’m concerned.

Returning to the B2C marketing world post social media, I have found that it is more false than it ever was and is employing the use of seemingly real news articles and fake magazine-ish posts that are merely built to get you to buy something on that website or click to another*. Truth in Advertising was always taken as a bit of a loose ideal, but it seems to have fallen off almost completely.

I have also been intrigued that right smack in the middle of the racial controversies plaguing our nation, one of our most beloved black role models is taken down by scandal. Is this meant to incite more division? Is there a correlation to these events and the timing of the release of the film Selma?

Additionally, mere days before the release of the movie Black or White, about a white man’s custody battle for his black granddaughter, the news world is abuzz about a white father defending his black daughter’s honor on YouTube.

This is not to say that I’m not excited about these important and moving films or shy about these conversations. I am saddened by the negative, real life current events, and I am overjoyed that we are talking about things that have been swept under the rug for years.

I’m just very curious about the synchronous unfolding taking place and I’m very much hoping that what makes the news is not about what will sell media and products. These issues are worth more honor and respect than that.

Hopefully it’s all just advantageous coincidence and not exploitation; or worse, planned manipulation of the masses.

I am vacillating between paranoia that I’m right and paranoia that I’m terribly naive.

*The hyperlinks I include are for your convenience – I’m not concerned with your purchasing habits.