Monthly Archives: February 2016
As I watch nearly everyone in the country simultaneously succumb to the seasonal short bout of red carpet fever, I’m trying to remember the last time I actually watched “The Oscars” — the Academy Awards, Hollywood’s incestuous night of indulgent and opulent self-congratulation.
I’m pretty sure the last time I watched was back in the 1990s. It’s possible it’s even back in the 1980s. For sure, I can’t recall watching them this century. But I can say for sure when is the last time I cared about the Oscars. Because that one is easy. Because that one is: never!
For the record, here’s why…
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2 Comments | tags: Academy Awards, actors, For The Record, FTR, George Burns, Harrison Ford, Johnny Carson, Leon Wieseltier, Michael Jackson, The Oscars, tyranny of the majority, wisdom of the crowd | posted in Movies
Watching the antics at the GOP debate this past week, I realized something: the Comment Section has won; it’s taken over public discourse. I wrote recently about how the interweb, especially Twitter, has embedded into modern life. Now I realize just how true that is!
Think about this: Republican candidates for one of the highest and most important public offices in the world — the so-called Leader of the Free World — are exchanging third-grade insults about sweating and pant wetting.
Surely fart jokes are just a drop in the polls away.
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4 Comments | tags: Anyone But Trump, bat-poop bonkers, bat-shit crazy, Bernie Sanders, democracy, Democratic Party, democratic society, dialectic, Donald Trump, election 2016, Facebook, funny, GOP, Hillary Clinton, HRC, humor, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, politicians, Republican Party, social change, social issues, social media, Ted Cruz, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster, Twitter, YouTube | posted in Politics, Rant
New rule! From now on, if any political pollsters contact you in any way, make up a bunch of crazy stuff to tell them. Give them anything but your genuine opinions. In fact, go for the craziest options they offer!
Maybe if we make their polls so completely worthless they’ll stop and we can stop being subjected to an endless barrage of them every time there’s an election. I mean, have you ever really thought about what value polls have? Does how others vote matter to you?
Whadda ya think? Change Approved?
6 Comments | tags: Anyone But Trump, Bernie Sanders, democracy, Democratic Party, democratic society, Donald Trump, election 2016, funny, GOP, Hillary Clinton, HRC, humor, Marco Rubio, new rule, polls, pollsters, Republican Party, social media, Ted Cruz, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster | posted in Politics
At this point it’s hard to see how Donald Trump doesn’t get the Republican nomination. He did well in Iowa (24.3%) and won handily in New Hampshire (35.3%), South Carolina (32.5%), and Nevada (45.9%).
According to the Wiki GOP 2016 Primary page, as I write this, Trump has 32.72% of the votes cast so far, which gives him 82 delegates. The second-place pair, Rubio and Cruz, have about 20% of the votes each, which gives them 16 and 17 delegates, respectively.
The math is looking pretty good for Trump. It’s hard to see what slows down that train!
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7 Comments | tags: Anyone But Trump, Bernie Sanders, democracy, Democratic Party, democratic society, Donald Trump, election 2016, GOP, Hillary Clinton, HRC, Marco Rubio, Republican Party, social change, social issues, social media, Square Root Day, Ted Cruz, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster | posted in Politics
Do you know the story about the frog in hot water? A frog in a pot of cold water sits happy and content while the water is slowly brought to a boil. This happens so slowly that the frog doesn’t notice… until it’s too late and frog legs are on the appetizer menu.
As with most such tales it may not bear close scrutiny, but as a metaphor for the human condition it fits a certain behavior rather well. We can sometimes remain blissfully unaware of small — but dangerous — changes around us… until it’s too late.
I’m reminded of that frog as I watch this election cycle.
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2 Comments | tags: Anyone But Trump, Batman, Bernie Sanders, Citizen Kane, democracy, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, election 2016, GOP, Hillary Clinton, IMDB, interweb, Marco Rubio, Marshall McLuhan, media, politicians, Republican Party, social change, social issues, social media, Ted Cruz, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster, Twitter | posted in Opinion, Politics
Governments and corporations will choose Friday as the day to release news that makes them uncomfortable. The logic is that people don’t pay attention to the news on Friday because they’re getting ready for the weekend.
Even if people do notice an uncomfortable news item, the hope is the weekend erases it from the 24-hour news cycle. Given our increasingly short memories these days, the logic works.
So I’ve decided to join in with my own info dump!
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2 Comments | tags: commercials, exiting an airplane, exiting an event, Feminism, miscellany, Racisim, re-runs, rectangular, SF Movies, walk it off, wearing a watch | posted in Brain Bubble, TV
You know that great action movie where the bad guys suddenly storm in and take over the place where all the people are, and the bad guys’ evil (but well-planned) operation goes off without a hitch… except they didn’t count on that on that one guy, that unexpected hero who saves the day against terrible odds?
Or how about that awesome disaster movie where that really bad thing happened to that place where all the people are, and only a handful of plucky (or purely lucky) people survive against terrible odds?
Remember those? I sure do. And that may be a problem.
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6 Comments | tags: Age of Ultron, Die Hard, James Spader, Joss Whedon, Lethal Weapon, Marvel movies, Mavel comics, Roger Ebert, The Avengers, The Poseidon Adventure, The Terminator, The Towering Inferno, Under Siege | posted in Movies
Credit where credit is due, both the major ideas in this post come from Fareed Zakaria on his CNN Sunday program, GPS. If you follow TV news at all, you know Sunday mornings have such long-running standards as Meet the Press (on NBC since 1947!) and Face the Nation (on CBS since 1954). (Or was it Meet the Nation and Face the Press?)
Zakaria is one of the good ones: very intelligent, highly educated, calm and measured. He’s well worth listening to. (I’ve realized one attraction to TV news is the chance to — at least sometimes — hear educated, intelligent talk. It’s a nice respite from most TV entertainment.)
Two things on Zakaria’s last episode really rang a bell with me.
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23 Comments | tags: AI, algorithm, Antonin Scalia, cable news, CNN, computer code, DNA, electrons, Face the Nation, Fareed Zarkaria, fire, genetic code, genetics, internet, interweb, language, mechanical physics, Meet the Press, printing press, quantum physics, robotics | posted in Science, The Interweb, TV
Last fall I kicked off a series of math-y posts with On the Count of Three, some thoughts about the groupings of three that occur around us, both naturally and in things we create. The idea of triplets is an obvious progression from the idea of binary opposition — quintessentially expressed in the metaphor of Yin and Yang.
Ever since that post, I’ve been noticing (and then noting) various instances of triplets. It really is a fundamental way reality expresses itself. (And more than just metaphorically — matter literally has three-ness!)
Here are some of the other triples I’ve noted…
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34 Comments | tags: musical chord, musical key, Night Court, rule of three, storytelling, three, transistor, trinary, triple, witches, Yin and Yang | posted in Basics, Philosophy
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