Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Missed It by That Much
At Astronomy Picture of the Day, we find that a project to take pictures of the Milky Way also caught a meteor blazing its way down to Earth. It makes for a cool picture and a reminder to be very glad that someone else took a picture of a flying rock buzzing past an airplane.
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Enough Cowardice to Go Around
Plenty of people have taken the National Basketball Association to task for its craven groveling after the Houston Rockets' general manager tweeted support of pro-freedom protestors in Hong Kong. The league has shown that as necessary as a spine may be to playing the actual game of basketball, it is not necessary for managing the professional league of teams which do so.
Some NBA figures, such as Steve Kerr, have been singled out for special criticism. Kerr is quick to blast President Trump for his many failures but considers a regime currently imprisoning nearly an entire ethnic group a real head-scratcher to understand.
Disney-owned ESPN, in an effort to help out one of our nation's great sports, is being pretty quiet about the whole thing also. Or it could be that Disney doesn't want the dictatorship ruling China to close its movie market to Disney productions and turn off that sweet international box office cash flow.
Mitt Romney was mocked during the 2012 presidential campaign when he said that corporations were people, too. He meant that corporations were made up of the people they employed, but in this instance we find some that really are people. Gutless, greedy people.
Some NBA figures, such as Steve Kerr, have been singled out for special criticism. Kerr is quick to blast President Trump for his many failures but considers a regime currently imprisoning nearly an entire ethnic group a real head-scratcher to understand.
Disney-owned ESPN, in an effort to help out one of our nation's great sports, is being pretty quiet about the whole thing also. Or it could be that Disney doesn't want the dictatorship ruling China to close its movie market to Disney productions and turn off that sweet international box office cash flow.
Mitt Romney was mocked during the 2012 presidential campaign when he said that corporations were people, too. He meant that corporations were made up of the people they employed, but in this instance we find some that really are people. Gutless, greedy people.
Monday, October 7, 2019
The Kids May Yet Be Alright
Those crazy millennials! When given the opportunity to have all of the keenest tech at their fingertips in settings that wow every visiting dad who can picture himself watching the game on them, they seem to want...books!
Alia Wong, writing at The Atlantic, recounts how students seem to lean towards libraries that do things libraries have always done: Provide access to information and the curation of that information so as to be able to find what they need to learn things and finish assignments. In fact, some of the surveys and an increasing pile of research suggest that paper books help those tasks better than do e-books and journals. Actually I think you could make an end run around the electronic journal thing if you looked something up and then wrote it down in a notebook, giving yourself the benefit of physical text and note-taking.
As a licensed middle-aged grump, I of course prefer libraries with books in them and think wholesale commitment to whizbangery is very likely an expensive and trendy boondoggle. At the college where I used to work, I recall that when the new business school building opened, the university president touted it as one of the most technologically advanced facilities in the state, if not nation. When I've been in that building since then the cutting edge tech of 2004 is either painfully outdated or flat-out gone. The whetstone necessary to keep that edge cost a lot more than he thought it would.
Turns out that while college textbooks and academic journals are ridiculously expensive, they're ridiculously expensive only once -- rather than every other year. Good job, meddling kids.
Alia Wong, writing at The Atlantic, recounts how students seem to lean towards libraries that do things libraries have always done: Provide access to information and the curation of that information so as to be able to find what they need to learn things and finish assignments. In fact, some of the surveys and an increasing pile of research suggest that paper books help those tasks better than do e-books and journals. Actually I think you could make an end run around the electronic journal thing if you looked something up and then wrote it down in a notebook, giving yourself the benefit of physical text and note-taking.
As a licensed middle-aged grump, I of course prefer libraries with books in them and think wholesale commitment to whizbangery is very likely an expensive and trendy boondoggle. At the college where I used to work, I recall that when the new business school building opened, the university president touted it as one of the most technologically advanced facilities in the state, if not nation. When I've been in that building since then the cutting edge tech of 2004 is either painfully outdated or flat-out gone. The whetstone necessary to keep that edge cost a lot more than he thought it would.
Turns out that while college textbooks and academic journals are ridiculously expensive, they're ridiculously expensive only once -- rather than every other year. Good job, meddling kids.
Friday, October 4, 2019
Conflicted
I'm of two minds about the latest issue of National Review, which has several stories highlighting the flaws of Democratic presidential candidate and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and of her ideas.
On the one hand, highlighting how wrong-headed Sen. Warren's much lauded plans are is a good idea. Demonstrating how clearly her ideas clash with reality is needed.
On the other hand, the last time the staff at NR decided to devote most of an issue towards explaining the flaws of a particular presidential candidate was in January of 2016. And it didn't work out so well.
On the one hand, highlighting how wrong-headed Sen. Warren's much lauded plans are is a good idea. Demonstrating how clearly her ideas clash with reality is needed.
On the other hand, the last time the staff at NR decided to devote most of an issue towards explaining the flaws of a particular presidential candidate was in January of 2016. And it didn't work out so well.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Breaking the Deal
One of the only things that kept many people sane during the horrors of the 2016 presidential campaign was the knowledge that though both of the major party candidates were awful, one of them was going to lose and go away, leaving us afflicted by just half of the awfulness of the campaign season itself. Even if you voted for a third party candidate (raises hand) you knew that only one of the pair of rough beasts slouching toward Pennsylvania Avenue could win and you would be relieved of the other.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has not lived up to her part of that agreement, insofar as she has not only not gone away, she has continued to tell the country that she really won in 2016. Or she would have except for factors beyond her control, such as that Wisconsin-shaped blind spot on her campaign map. Although she claims it was because she was too serious or something. While I have some sympathy -- I also would find it hard to believe that people would rather put up with Donald Trump than put up with me -- it's time she took her medicine and went away.
Some folks have suggested that this latest book tour is a way of dipping that toe in the 2020 waters to see if she could maybe give it a third try. I think even Hillary Clinton has enough political savvy to know that's not possible. Although by pretending she really won, she is positioning herself as an ideal running mate to the surging Elizabeth Warrren. We would have a presidential candidate who used to pretend she was Native American accompanied by a woman who still pretends she won the 2016 election.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has not lived up to her part of that agreement, insofar as she has not only not gone away, she has continued to tell the country that she really won in 2016. Or she would have except for factors beyond her control, such as that Wisconsin-shaped blind spot on her campaign map. Although she claims it was because she was too serious or something. While I have some sympathy -- I also would find it hard to believe that people would rather put up with Donald Trump than put up with me -- it's time she took her medicine and went away.
Some folks have suggested that this latest book tour is a way of dipping that toe in the 2020 waters to see if she could maybe give it a third try. I think even Hillary Clinton has enough political savvy to know that's not possible. Although by pretending she really won, she is positioning herself as an ideal running mate to the surging Elizabeth Warrren. We would have a presidential candidate who used to pretend she was Native American accompanied by a woman who still pretends she won the 2016 election.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
How We Focus
In this article at Quanta, Jordana Cepelewicz describes research done into the brain that suggests a different idea about how we concentrate on something when we are trying to pay attention to it.
One model for the processes by which the brain pays attention to something has been the idea that it sort of shines a spotlight on whatever matter is under consideration. But, Cepelewicz says, researchers have discovered that a more accurate description of brain activity during this time might be more along the lines of screening out distractions rather than illuminating the target subject or idea. That sounds pretty plausible, since almost all of us have had the experience in which we turn the car radio down when we search for a new street or particular house number. We don't really see any better when the audio input is reduced, but we do have fewer distractions and we are more likely to see the sought-after locator.
This could also explain more than 95 percent of the air that comes out of the mouths of politicians, government workers and bureaucrats. Since they often very much wish that we would not know what they're doing -- or that they're not really doing anything -- they will say many things, often forcefully, which our brain has to sort through in order to find the one that matters. When they throw enough verbiage into the air, we don't figure out how badly they screwed up or failed until long after it's too late to take any reasonable action about it.
One model for the processes by which the brain pays attention to something has been the idea that it sort of shines a spotlight on whatever matter is under consideration. But, Cepelewicz says, researchers have discovered that a more accurate description of brain activity during this time might be more along the lines of screening out distractions rather than illuminating the target subject or idea. That sounds pretty plausible, since almost all of us have had the experience in which we turn the car radio down when we search for a new street or particular house number. We don't really see any better when the audio input is reduced, but we do have fewer distractions and we are more likely to see the sought-after locator.
This could also explain more than 95 percent of the air that comes out of the mouths of politicians, government workers and bureaucrats. Since they often very much wish that we would not know what they're doing -- or that they're not really doing anything -- they will say many things, often forcefully, which our brain has to sort through in order to find the one that matters. When they throw enough verbiage into the air, we don't figure out how badly they screwed up or failed until long after it's too late to take any reasonable action about it.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Funny Stuff?
The end result of that path was Sticks and Stones, his 2019 special in which he doubles down on some of the same kinds of jokes that got him in trouble before as well as some commentary on what that kind of mindset can do to stand-up comedy. Chappelle weaves his usual observations about race and class in and around the, but in many cases is clearly targeting "wokeness" and some of its weirder ramifications.
Sticks and Stones is a hit and miss outing compared to some of Chappelle's earlier material, although the hits are some of the funnier bits he's ever done. His take on the Jussie Smollett matter from earlier this year and recounting some of the "discussions" he had with the Standards and Practices department while doing his early Aughts Chappelle's Show stand out. One of the things that has helped him since his earliest days are the times when he gets tickled enough at his own jokes that he has to stop and crack up. It doesn't really rise to the level of "breaking character," since at this point Chappelle does his routines pretty much as is, but it helps him show that he can laugh at himself just as much as he can anyone else. That willingness to stand in front of the target, so to speak, helps push most of his material over the finish line to get what a comic most wants: A room of people laughing together at the weird stuff that makes us all pretty funny when you think about it.
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She opens with a funny take on how recent discussions and highlighting of sexual harassment may not have fully gotten through to men -- who seem to better understand how to not bother a working service dog than a co-worker -- and continues through some of the more interesting minefields that lie in the land of relationships between the sexes. Now in her late '30s, Cummings has developed a maturity that lets her take aim at the immaturity she sometimes finds among men in the same age range -- she's a grown woman and has little patience for ungrown men who ought to be, well, grown.
Cummings devotes a major chunk of the show to a routine about the development of "sex robots," or animatronic characters that can include a large number of randomized responses in conversation and other activity. The highlight is her debut of a robot modeled on her as she describes the process by which it was created -- and made into an exact likeness. The segment is funny but not quite as funny as she might have wanted it to be and could probably do with about five fewer minutes in order to weed out some of the more "meh" material. Overall, though, the show is a better than average outing and a nice return for a comedienne who may have felt more than a little blindsided by the hurricane of crazy called "Roseanne Barr."
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Appearing for the "pro" side of that argument is Nikki Glaser. Glaser has hosted a number of podcasts and cable shows and thanks to the folks in Los Gatos now has her first comedy special, Bangin'. Glaser's appearances on the late night shows have been moderately amusing but they're light-years ahead of the four-smiles-per-hour barrage of unfunny crassness of Bangin'. Skip it.
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