Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Compounding Wisdom. (HT The Happy Curmudgeon)
- Amazing! Burn up to 6,000 calories a day playing chess? Yes - interesting look at the physical toll that effects the bodies of top level Grandmasters.
- Solar panels are starting to die. What will we do with the megatons of toxic trash?
- Squirrels doing super hero landings
- Jacksonville Jaguars' Tyler Eifert to honor David Dorn on his helmet
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
If I owned an MLB team I'd hire a streaker (male or female) to run around the field at random times during random games just to keep the players and the fans watching at home amused... "You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending." - C.S.Lewis (on of my favorite quotes)... The Tampa Bay Lightning were just the better team and I'll be rooting for them in the playoffs. Bruins fans are left to wonder how much of a difference could Tuukka Rask have made in the series... "He is a second [Paul] Dirac, only this time human." - Eugene Wigner describing a young Richard Feynman in 1943. Perhaps one of the greatest compliments one physicists could give another... Diane Feinstein is absolutely compromised when it comes to the Chinese Communist Party. This should be getting more attention and Feinstein more scrutiny...
Things I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- This is the guy who the NBA and NFL is honoring
- Damn it! Handjobs are still sold out!
- Not to long ago The Fours in Boston was rated as the top sports bar in the country. Now they've gone out of business after 44-years.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
There's no election for the Governor in Massachusetts this November (next election in 2022) but if there were I think President Trump would receive more votes than Governor Charlie Baker. Many are unhappy with Baker's handling of the shutdown... Learned a new word yesterday "Akrasia." It is a Greek word that translates to "weakness of will" but in practice means to know what should be done but still not doing it. I like that... "Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, or makes you happy." - Robert Tew... Cool - an epithelial cell as seen through a powerful microscope... Part of me wonders if Mark Cuban has been so out front in the "Black Lives Matter" and social justice push in part as a way to clean away all those #MeToo complaints that the Dallas Mavericks operated a toxic environment. Is it cynical to think this is a bit like Harvey Weinstein saying he would double his efforts against the NRA?... Interesting look at Tesla's unique business model and why it is so key to the success of the company...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- More information and details on Neuralink and the road ahead.
- Heh Heh
- How the HawkEye 360 is busting Iranian oil smuggling
- Blows my mind that the NBA is willing to burn down their credibility over Jacob Blake. If Blake did what he's accused of to a sister or daughter of an NBA player they'd want to kill him with their bare hands.
- Wow
Here are some random quotes that I hope resonate with you.
"...if we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future." - Winston Churchill
"All middle-class citizens of education have a common belief that the tendencies towards centralization and paternalism must be halted and reversed." - Dwight Eisenhower July 1949
"Never confuse education with intelligence, you can have a PhD and still be an idiot." - Richard Feynman
"A heuristic on whether you have control of your life: can you take naps?" - Nassim Taleb
"If someone despises me. That's their problem." - Marcus Aurelius
"Little man whip a big man every time if the little man's in the right and keeps a' comin'." - Motto of the Texas Rangers
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Not for nothing but under Dana White the UFC has become the most inclusive sport on the planet. Athletes of all colors from various nations are on almost every fight card. There's openly gay fighters and its treated as no big deal. And it is not unusual for women fighters to be the main event. Name another sport that's more inclusive... This is me on an average Sunday morning... Reportedly only 20% of NBA players are registered voters. Even if you bump that number up to account for foreign players who cannot vote in US elections, less than 50% of NBA players are registered to vote. That makes all of their "get out the vote" efforts ring a little hollow - doesn't it?... 5 ways to help independent bookstores during the lockdown... The word "gullet" doesn't get used enough. "Shut your gullet." "He keeps shoveling food down his gullet." Etc... If Mark Cuban really was supportive of racial equality in this country he'd forego his white privilege and sell the Dallas Mavericks to a black owner. Sorry but if Cuban really wants to go by the woke playbook those are the rules...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- The India-China Rivalry: Towards a Two-Front War in the Himalayas?
- Holy Shit! Chadwick Boseman has passed away aged just 43-years old. This was a shock. He died after a long battle with colon cancer. And he died on Jack Kirby's birthday.
- I'm surprised this scenario hasn't happened already.
- Richard Grenell on how to remake the US foreign service and embassies for the modern world. Agree 100%.
- This is why we should just re-open the entire country. And make a combo of hydroxychloroquine and zinc available over the counter.
- Elon Musk unveils Neuralink in live demo. Game changer!
Is the NBA and other pro sports leagues:
A: A competitive sport
B: Big business
C: Entertainment
I would fall into the category of A - the NBA and the other pro sports leagues should be first and foremost competitive sports. You play to win the game. The goal of the season is to make the playoffs and for successful franchises the real goal is to win championships. Many want to be naive and believe this is still true but for many sports is also a refuge from the stress and troubles of the real world. That's what makes it so appealing. Rich or poor, black or white, Republican or Democrat, we could all agree on at least pulling for our hometown team. Now that appeal is being flushed down the toilet for politics.
And yes it is politics - not social justice. When the NBA explicitly allows you to have "Black Lives Matter" and other approved social justice messages but not "All Lives Matter" or "Blue Lives Matter" to be printed on official NBA jerseys and gear. And if the argument is that "All Lives Matter" or "Blue Lives Matter" means you're missing the point of young black men and women being killed at the hands of the police then why is "Free Hong Kong" also banned by the NBA? Do yellow lives not matter? Because if that's what you're saying - guess what - you've just become the racist in this argument. It is also not lost on most that the majority of these deaths at the hands of the police seem to be happening in cities that have been run by Democrats for decades yet the outrage is being focused at a Republican President.
If you answered option B that the NBA and other pro sports are big business it would be tough for me to argue with you. I've both accepted and approve of players going to where they get the best deals in free agency. I also understand that the demand for tickets means higher prices. I don't like it but I understand. But I wonder if the NBA understands that attending their games is now beyond the financial reach of most middle class families and especially of black families. Now owners like Mark Cuban seem bent on driving away a large section of the population that can afford to attend games because of politics. I'm lucky in that I can afford to attend games and usually attend a few Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox and Patriots games a year but outside of my annual trip to Miami for the Patriots away game - I'm probably now staying away from the other venues for the foreseeable future.
I truly believe "Go Woke Go Broke" is a real thing in the business world. Just ask the CEO of Goodyear. The NBA is also now going to have to fully embrace all that being woke entails which includes zero tolerance for any domestic violence and completely cutting ties to the Chinese Communists. To do anything less will open the NBA up to claims of being hypocrites (which they are). It will be a ever downward spiral. They will learn that you can never be woke enough.
If you answered option C that the NBA and other pro sports are entertainment then there's a long standing saying in show business that "the show must go on!" How would you feel if you bought tickets for Hamilton but instead of doing the show the cast lectured the audience on identity politics? Now that the NBA players have set a precedent of cancelling games due to the death of a black man at the hands of the police - will they also cancel future games any time this happens again (and it will happen again). To not do so would be hypocritical. And if this threat that other future games might be also be cancelled then the appeal of buying tickets to NBA games just becomes even less attractive. Again it's a downward spiral.
And finally if Donald Trump wins re-election will all pro games be cancelled in protest on November 4th? Because this is all about politics.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
"If you want to be a clear thinker, you cannot pay attention to politics. It will destroy your ability to think." - Naval Ravikant... Will be curious to see if mounting financial losses to the NBA from no fans in the stands, rapidly dropping TV ratings, and the curtailing of Chinese blood money force the owners to abandon the money losing WNBA. I can easily see the TV broadcast partners at the least to start refusing to waste airtime on any more WNBA games... Don't care what your politics are - this is funny!... Is there a more cool and heroic verb than the word "Thwart"? Think about it - the context around that word is almost always cool and heroic... ESPN could easily triple the time slot ratings of WNBA games by replacing it with almost any programming - repeats of the last SportsCenter, professional darts, Australian rules football - literally anything...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- An interesting look at the Wuhan Virus data.
- One of my favorite Venn Diagrams
- Jason Whitlock makes a very good argument
- Nebraska football players sue the Big 10. If at the least this lawsuit gets the Big 10 to publicly release how each of the university President's voted on cancelling football - this will be a win.
- Tesla employee forgoes $1 million payment, works with FBI to thwart cybersecurity attack. This story easily could be made into a movie.
It's now been almost 3-weeks since the start of the Sturgis bike rally. If there had been a massive "super-spreader" Covid-19 outbreak don't you think that would have been major news by now? Is this a dog that doesn't bark?
The best CNN can do is: Experts feared the Sturgus Motorcycle Rally could be a superspreading event. More than 70 coronavirus cases are already linked to it. OMG! More than 70 cases out of more than 500,000 people who attended the rally? Why that's an infection rate of 0.00014 - quick shut down the country!
I've had enough of the fear-mongering.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
NBA players and team officials echo "Enough is enough" as they cancel playoff games in protest. Many NBA fans agree but they aren't referring to the same thing. Many fans have had enough and could now care less if the NBA just went ahead and cancelled the rest of the playoffs. Let them eat cake... Not generally a fan of movie remakes but I think I'd enjoy a modern version of The Thin Man with Craig Kilborn playing Nick Charles but really playing a thinly veiled version of himself. He could play a character who marries a mystery writer who finds himself involved in a real-life murder-mystery. A welcome return to snappy dialog and on screen martini drinking... Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?... Also not a fan of police civil asset forfeitures but I would be in cases of any ships or planes found to be smuggling fentanyl. Seize the entire ship/plane and all cargo onboard including any non-related products. Make it a clear shot across the bow of any company doing business with China (the largest producer of fentanyl)... The argument could be made that Canada is trying to interfere with our Presidential election by scheduling NHL playoffs during our political conventions...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- The Google Career Certificate program looks like a viable alternative to college for many.
- Heh Heh
- Victor Davis Hanson describes the sad and scary State of California
- James Altucher with his response to Jerry Seinfeld - Altucher is right! NYC is in very serious danger. But here's the thing - to most outsiders (like me) many of the issues plaguing NYC are self-inflicted so sympathy is almost non-existent.
- Company claims it can use nuclear waste to make batteries that can go 28,000 years without charging.
- Speaking of California - Governor Newsom assures Californians that wildfires are "mostly peaceful"
