Las Vegas "Champions" Commercial

You've probably seen this commercial. And upon first viewing it's pretty clever.



But after watching it a few times I can't help but notice at the end of the commercial all five guys return to their hotel alone. All those antics (not to mention all the cash they probably spent) and they all end up going back to their hotel rooms alone. Losers.

I also can't help but think of all the copycats this ad must have encouraged and how stupid they probably looked when trying. The real champion in the commercial is the guy they pass at the very beginning holding hands with the beautiful woman in the white dress (he's probably going back to his or her room for some what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas).

Just an observation I wanted to share.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- This should put a smile on your face.

- Very cool interview with the Chicago Bears Mama Bear 96-year old Virginia McCaskey

- My first thought was "what a waste of books" but my second was "I want one but with a fire-pole"

- USC's penny-sized robotic bee. I for one welcome our insect sized robot overlords

- If you don't at least get a little misty watching this then I really don't want to know you

- Really great news about Alex Trebek

- Patients with drug resistant malaria cured with plant based therapy developed at WPI. Go Worcester!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Interesting look behind the curtains that is the dysfunction that is the Los Angeles Lakers.

- Cool - surface tension

- Scott Adams formula for a happy life

- Today marks the 100th anniversary of the eclipse observations that confirmed Einstein's Theory of General Relativity

- Keanu Reeves training for John Wick 3

- What Timothy Olyphant learned from Deadwood. A little disappointed to learn the mustache in the movie is fake.

The Ancient Greeks and the Atom

"By convention sweet and by convention bitter, by convention hot, by convention cold, by convention color, but in reality atoms and void." - Democritis

The idea that everything is made up of matter too small to be seen comes from the Ancient Greeks from around 440 BC and is usually credited to Leucippus of Miletus. The Greeks called these tiny building-blocks "atoms" - from the Greek word "atomos" meaning "uncuttable".

The Ancient Greeks were able to theorize about atoms despite not having any of the technology available these past 500 years or so. Quite an astounding feat of logic when you think of it.

Only until the past 75-years has man been able to "split" the "uncuttable" atom. And less than 120-years since science first theorized about the atom itself being made up of smaller parts and then those parts being made up of even smaller parts.

But in a sense it is all still just atoms and void.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The Power of Avoiding Stupidity

- A bullet that literally can be programmed to have your name on it

- Interesting - 35-years of the world's economy as a living organism

- How can you not like Terry Francona? 

- The villain wants the McGuffin

- The Robert Kraft case exposes "serious violations of the law by law enforcement".

Bill Buckner

Bill Buckner has passed away. Here is the statement put out by the Red Sox. I'm disappointed that they ended the tribute with a note about the play in the 86 World Series.

The people who think that Red Sox fans booed or held anything against Bill Buckner are the same ones who think that hack Dan Shaughnessy speaks for the Boston fan (nothing could be further from the truth).

Boston fans never rooted against Buckner. They pulled for him. If you want to see how New England fans felt about Billy Buck - listen to the ovation he gets when he came out to throw the first pitch of the 2008 season.

Let's Go Bruins!

Ralph Houk - The Major

I first became aware of Ralph Houk when he became manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1981. I read somewhere that his nickname was "the Major" but I had no idea why.

Turns out that it wasn't so much a nickname as a nod of respect to Houk's military career. Houk had entered WWII as a private but by the end of the war because of his heroics and leadership he had been promoted all the way up to Major. "He was at the Battle of the Bulge and the Remagen crossing. He was awarded the Bronze Star, Silver Star and Purple Heart."

Right or wrong I now can't help but think of Ralph Houk in comparison to another American hero - Dick Winters from Band of Brothers fame. Read the details of Houk's WWII service and deeds and tell me his story wouldn't also make a fascinating mini-series.

Where do we find such men as Dick Winters and Ralph Houk?

Memorial Day

A reminder of what the day is supposed to be about.

Via Old AF Sarge

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The offseason addition of backup goalie Jaroslav Halak may have been the key move in getting the Boston Bruins to the Stanley Cup finals. Without Halak playing all those regular season games Tuukka Rask wouldn't be so rested and sharp plus without Halak winning so many of those regular season games the Bruins wouldn't have home ice during the playoffs...  Heh heh... Stunt Custard would be a good name for a band (or a fantasy football team name)... When you watch hockey fights from the 70's and 80's you realize that today's NHL has basically gotten rid of fighting... Underwater Yodeling would also be a good name for a band... Interesting statistic - with 13.6 million live viewers watching the finale of Game of Thrones that would have made that broadcast equivalent to the 71st highest rating NFL game this past season. Not sure if that 13.6 million included all the people who started streaming on HBO Go five minutes after 9:00 EST last Sunday.  One observation - it seems like every person who watched the Game of Thrones is on social media whereas of the fans watching that 71st rated NFL game very few would have been Tweeting about it after...

Life Advice

Happy Towel Day

Today is Towel Day. - an annual tribute to author Douglas Adams.

In his honor - here are 25 Douglas Adams quotes to live by.

Game of Thrones Season 8 (Spoilers)

The Pitch Meeting does a humorous job of explaining some most of the failings of Season 8. (If you're not familiar with the Screen Rants Pitch Meeting videos - do yourself a favor and dive in.)

As for me the whole progression of Season 8 and the waiting for the sixth and seventh books from George RR Martin has been a bit exhausting. I own copies of all five of the current books on my Kindle and also a box set of the books. I've read each book at least twice but after Season 8 of the HBO show and years of waiting for the next book to come out I'm pretty much done with Game of Thrones. I can see myself maybe picking up the new books in a decade or so (if they ever come out) but definitely not anytime soon.

I have to think David Benioff and DB Weiss the TV producers and showrunners have to be privately pissed off at George RR Martin. When they started this project 9 or 10 years ago they had to have thought Martin would have at least the next book in the series done by now. But nope! Benioff and Weiss had to basically just wing the past two seasons and most of the show's fan's displeasure has been focused on them when I think George RR Martin is where the blame should really rest.

Think of it - if George RR Martin died tomorrow the first line of his obituary wouldn't say he was the author of the Game of Thrones series but that he failed to write the final books!

One minor detail that I'm curious about was if casinos and betting sites had a prop bet for who would sit on the Iron Throne at the end of the season - did they pay off for Bran or for no one? Technically Dany touched the Iron Throne but didn't sit on it before Drogon melted the damn thing. The Iron Throne ceased to be before Bran became king.

I'll just add that to the long list of things that were never resolved or explained.

The Meaning of Life for Men

Explained by Dr. Jordan Peterson.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Interesting - thieves have stolen sunken warships right down to the last bolts. Whodunit and how they did it remain a mystery.

- And just like that John Cusak was dead to me

- Alan Sepinwall's interview of Timothy Olyphant on the set of Deadwood: The Movie

- Sometimes I have the sense of humor of a 12-year old boy. This is one of those times. I laughed so hard at this.

- The Huawei ban is worth the pain. "The national security issues raised by the company's technology transcend any trade dispute." 100% agree.

The Anti-Howard Zinn American History

I've seen a number of sites (like Cultural Offering) mention a new book by historian Wilfred McClay Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story. The book is positioned as a counterpoint to Howard Zinn's awful A People's History of the United States.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I think the a great counterpoint to Zinn's crap has already been written - A Patriot's History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen. The scholarship, facts and writing of this book are all topnotch and I'd heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the true history of the founding and growth of our nation.

Schweikart also collaborated with Dave Dougherty on A Patriot's History of the Modern World - a book I also recommend.

Meanwhile I'm going to put Land of Hope on my Wish List.

Woke Up This Morning - Alabama 3

Jake Black, who co-founded the band Alabama 3 and who co-wrote the song Woke Up This Morning which was made famous as the theme song of The Sopranos has passed away.

Alabama 3 wasn't a one hit wonder. Another of their songs I really liked was Hello, I'm Johnny Cash. You should give it a listen.

RIP Mr. Black. Thanks for the music.

This Week in Musk World

Busy week in Musk World.

SpaceX has rescheduled the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink satellites for Thursday at 10:30 PM EST. This is the third launch attempt with the payload with the other two times being pushed back due to weather concerns. I'm on record being skeptical of the Starlink program not just because of adoption concerns but also because of logistical ones (like launch delays).

The plan is to have 12,000 LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites providing broadband service. Starlink has FCC approval to launch 4,409 satellites but that approval is contingent on SpaceX launching at least half of those satellites in the next six years. Then the company will have just 3-years to launch the other half. But even if they are successful in meeting those combined 9-year timetables - that still leaves them short about 7,500 satellites from the 12,000 final goal. And a lot can happen with terrestrial broadband in 9+ years.

The launch of the Starlink satellites may be the sexy thing today but I think when history looks back at this week in Musk World it will be the acquisition of Maxwell Technologies that will be considered the big deal. Here's an interesting video outlining 5 reasons why Tesla bought Maxwell. Could lead to a big jump forward for the company.

In other news:

Tesla's dashboard cams save a Model 3 owner from an apparent insurance scam. Meanwhile the Sentry Mode records vandals who unaware they were being recorded who did about $2,000 in damage to another Model 3. Also as a Rick & Morty fan I love the idea of a "Keep Summer Safe" mode.

Tesla is lapping its competitors in battery capacity and in charging time. And this is before the acquisition of Maxwell Technologies!

This Consumer Reports article says, "Tesla Driver in Fatal March Crash Was Using Autopilot, NTSB Says: Car hits side of tractor-trailer at 68 MPH with no sign of stopping." The report also says that autopilot was engaged just 10 seconds prior to the crash and that the accident was caused by the truck changing lanes into the lane occupied by the Tesla. Why is Consumer Reports slanting their coverage in such a negative light? The truck caused the accident. Has Consumer Reports been reduced to click-bait tactics? Sadly the misinformation or negative reporting in the MSM seems to be across the board (I think much of this is due to the fact that Tesla doesn't buy ads like the rest of the major car manufacturers).  But when you hear all that doom and gloom keep this in mind.

Tesla has also dropped the base price of the Model S by $3,000 and the Model X SUV by $2,000 while raising the base price of the Model 3 by $400 to $35,400.

Despite my skepticism I wish SpaceX all the luck in the world with their Thursday launch.

Joe Biden and China

With so many Democrats running for President it is inevitable that some of the candidates at the bottom of the polling will be taking shots at those at the top. And currently the one at the very top is Joe Biden.

You will see references to handsy, creepy Uncle Joe. Many will also be holding their breath waiting for the Biden gaffe machine to kick into high gear. But one issue that might be a better road to taking Biden down is his stance on China.

Senator Mark Warner (D-Va) the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has no problem saying China is a threat. Joe Biden? Not so much.

China is posturing that they are prepared for a long trade war. But if Joe Biden is forced to change his tune on China because of pressure coming from the Left (Bernie Sanders also sees China as a threat) then that may change the equation. China may be thinking that they may be able to out-wait President Trump but if it looks like Trump will win re-election while the Democrats also agree that China is a threat then it would be in China's best interest to do a trade agreement sooner than later.

The anti-tariff folks say that it is the US consumer that is paying the tariffs not China. And they are right. What they don't include in their argument is the fact that instead of paying higher prices the consumers will soon look for alternatives. We are not talking about life essential products. We are talking about products that could easily be manufactured in Vietnam or some other nation with low labor rates. And once that manufacturing moves from China to another country - it's not coming back.

That's permanent damage to the Chinese economy. Instead of risking that China could instead acknowledge they need to have a fair trade policy with the US including promises to stop stealing IP (Intellectual Property). I think that's the most likely outcome.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- 50 things no man over 40 should own. Good list but do have some minor disagreements like #8, #10 (my wardrobe is at the point where every day is casual Friday and I like it that way), #14 (I have a pair of leather LL Bean sandals that I wear constantly during the summer) and maybe #16 (thinking of getting an American flag one to wear at the beach to make others uncomfortable as a joke). Via Cultural Offering

- Of the 70,083 abortions in Florida in 2018 less than .05% were for incest, rape or the life of the mother being in danger.

- Amelia Earhart on motivation, education and human nature in letters to her mother.

- Heh Heh

- NASA's full Artemis plan revealed: 37 launches and a lunar outpost. The big question is going to be "How are we going to pay for this?" Legitimate question - keep in mind that the Democrats wanted to kill the space shuttle program in 1968 because of the costs. The election of Richard Nixon is what saved it.

- Heh Heh - these are pretty good.