These days it seems like everything produced by mass media is designed to inflame an emotion, facts be danged. People make decisions based on emotion, not on facts, so if you want to sway people's opinion on an issue, you need to make an emotional appeal, not a cold, calculating one, although that is exactly what the people behind the scenes are doing: coldly calculating what should go into their emotional appeal that will make it most effective.
Seems like everyone has an agenda these days, and every story that comes out is given a slanted emotional appeal designed to serve that agenda. Marc, one of our most vocal supporters of right wing politics (although I think a lot of it is just to irritate anyone who voices a liberal opinion), listens to NPR, who have some interesting stories. However, after you have listened to them for a bit it becomes pretty clear that the stories are designed to make you feel bad or guilty about whatever issue is under discussion. Never mind the facts.
CO2 and global warming popped up at Thursday lunch and things like CO2 from cow farts and rice paddies (and some other source that I have forgotten) are suspected of being bigger contributors to global warming than the burning of fossil fuels by the industrialized West. I discouraged any further exploration of the topic because it's an endless rathole. There is no bottom to it, mostly because every single story you will find has been painted with a big fat brush dripping with colored paint, red or blue.
We finished watching season one of Goliath last night and while I enjoyed the show, it was kind of low on logic. It was basically a sequence of emotional scenes tied together with some pretty thin thread. For instance, there is a bad guy running around loose, wreaking havoc on our heroes, but he gets taken out. By who? No clue is ever given. A death bed confession is not convincing. And then there is the case of police brutality, or at least it seemed like it could have been a case, and should have been pursued, but there wasn't even a failed attempt to collect the video from police car camera. And what's with the hooker? Nothing she does makes much sense, but then if I was making $10,000 for a weekend of snorting coke and screwing my brains out, maybe I wouldn't be making any sense either.
Saturday, June 30, 2018
Friday, June 29, 2018
Privacy?
I sent a note to my kids yesterday:
So I figured out something I could use: headphones preloaded with an endless supply of music so I don't have to listen to the sports announcer's yammering while I am watching a game.This morning I'm surfing the net, reading about the nuclear power industry in the Northwest, and ads for headphones start popping up. Google, you're reading my mail now? Dog-tards. Well, I guess I shouldn't really expect any privacy on a FREE service.
Pic of the Day
 |
| Airbus A380-800 'Year of Zayed' Taking off from Sydney Australia - Fletcher Moar |
Seems to be absolutely dwarfing the QantasLink Dash 8-300 taxiing in the background, but of course it's somewhat further away, despite the A380's shadow effectively covering it a moment after this shot was taken. - Alan Hume
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Goliath
GOLIATH Season 1 TRAILER (2016) New Amazon Series
Started watching this the other night and it's pretty good. It's got all your standard legal-drama elements including a the drunk lawyer (Billy Bob) who used to be pretty good, the combative ex-wife (Maria Bello), guys in suits who think they are above it all (William Hurt mostly), the really good-looking hooker / legal secretary (Tania Raymonde), but mostly it's the conversations that keep it entertaining. Sometimes we have people being nice to each, but mostly we have people being rude. It's very entertaining.
 |
| Tania Raymonde |
Tania Raymonde is a real eye catcher. I know I have seen her in other shows, but looking over her credits on IMDB I don't see much that stands out. She was on Lost, but I wasn't a devote follower. I did watch Cold Case, but I don't really remember her there. Anyway, I suspect it's just her, her body, face and hair than captivated me. Plus the padded bras. That's always a way to get a guys attention.
What I don't quite understand is why Tania's character (Brittany) is so intent on being a hooker as opposed to working as a legal secretary. I suppose sex and money are more attractive than typing boring legal documents, and the way she looks I imagine she could make a decent living screwing for money.
There are some obvious clues, obvious to the audience anyway, that Billy Bob is going up against some ruthless, evil, corporate scumbags, but so far he seems oblivious. He will need to catch on pretty soon though or we're going to have a problem with credibility.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Baseball
I like baseball. In theory anyway. We, that is some townies and I, used to have coed softball games on Saturday night at Denison University. I don't know if anyone kept score, but we all had a good time. There weren't any lights which made it a little difficult to see the ball when it got late. Good thing we had beer.
We've been watching the college world series recently. I was a little surprised because my wife has never shown any interest in baseball. I suspect she is watching it because nothing is going on with the Ducks or Blazers, the OSU Beavers are playing and several people we know are OSU alumni, and it is kind of a big deal, at least as far as collegiate athletics go. I am watching because I am idle enough that I can enjoy a couple of drinks while watching a baseball game with my wife.
This week the Oregon State Beavers are playing the Arkansas Razorbacks in the college world series. We watched the second game this evening. The Beavers won so they are tied at one each. Tomorrow's game will decide the championship.
I noticed a few things during the game, some of which I hadn't seen before. For any kind of real fan, they are probably old hat, but they were new to me.
Catchers Signaling Language
Catchers signal the pitcher using hand signals. That has been part of baseball since the beginning of time. I never really understood why it was done. I mean does the catcher have some mystic way of knowing what pitch would be best? Is he better able to read the mind of the batter because he right there next to him? I think it's silly, I think the pitcher is quite capable of making up his own mind. But maybe there is more to it, and that's okay. It's part of baseball and if that's the way they want to play it, it's fine by me.
However, the way I originally heard it was that catcher would make hand signs to tell the pitcher what kind of pitch to throw. For example a closed fist might mean a fastball and two fingers might mean a slider, whatever a slider is. Anyway, it was one sign per pitch and that was it. But tonight we are lined up with second base sitting 300 feet away from home plate, behind the outfield fence with god's own telephoto lens and we can see the catcher tweeting away. He's not just giving one sign, he's spelling out entire flipping paragraphs. The Beaver's catcher was just holding his free hand between his legs and making a sequence of hand signals. The Arkansas catcher was waving all over, slapping his knees, shoulders, chest, etc. What the flip are they talking about?
Baseball Royalty
Bunt Technique
When I was a kid playing baseball the bunt was a valid technique but we never used it because first you had to know how to hit the ball and until you've got that mastered, learning to bunt is pointless. But! If you were to use it, is was supposed to be a surprise, you didn't give any indication that you were going to bunt until the pitcher had thrown the ball. These days, in college ball at least, it appears that you declare your intention to bunt before the pitcher has even thought about throwing the ball. Not sure what the rationale is here, but I imagine they've got a good reason for it, or at least an argument.
Fly balls
If you are attending a game, it behooves you to pay attention because sometimes a fly ball will land in the stands and if it smacks into you it's going to hurt. So whenever the pitcher releases that ball every pair of eyes in the stadium is going to watching to see where that balls goes. Can you imagine the amount of computerized processing power you would need in order to replicate that action by all those people? Watson would have his hands full, metaphorically speaking.
Broken finger
There was one guy playing with a broken finger. It was splinted and sticking straight out from his hand. It kind of looked like he was giving the pitcher the finger, except it was his index finger. You would have to be darn good at your job to be able to play like that.
The game
Arkansas made an error in the 8th (9th?) inning when three fielders converged on a fly ball and none of them made the catch. If they had caught it, Arkansas would have won and series would be over. Oregon managed to score a double play in the 9th to end the game.
We've been watching the college world series recently. I was a little surprised because my wife has never shown any interest in baseball. I suspect she is watching it because nothing is going on with the Ducks or Blazers, the OSU Beavers are playing and several people we know are OSU alumni, and it is kind of a big deal, at least as far as collegiate athletics go. I am watching because I am idle enough that I can enjoy a couple of drinks while watching a baseball game with my wife.
This week the Oregon State Beavers are playing the Arkansas Razorbacks in the college world series. We watched the second game this evening. The Beavers won so they are tied at one each. Tomorrow's game will decide the championship.
I noticed a few things during the game, some of which I hadn't seen before. For any kind of real fan, they are probably old hat, but they were new to me.
Catchers Signaling Language
Catchers signal the pitcher using hand signals. That has been part of baseball since the beginning of time. I never really understood why it was done. I mean does the catcher have some mystic way of knowing what pitch would be best? Is he better able to read the mind of the batter because he right there next to him? I think it's silly, I think the pitcher is quite capable of making up his own mind. But maybe there is more to it, and that's okay. It's part of baseball and if that's the way they want to play it, it's fine by me.
However, the way I originally heard it was that catcher would make hand signs to tell the pitcher what kind of pitch to throw. For example a closed fist might mean a fastball and two fingers might mean a slider, whatever a slider is. Anyway, it was one sign per pitch and that was it. But tonight we are lined up with second base sitting 300 feet away from home plate, behind the outfield fence with god's own telephoto lens and we can see the catcher tweeting away. He's not just giving one sign, he's spelling out entire flipping paragraphs. The Beaver's catcher was just holding his free hand between his legs and making a sequence of hand signals. The Arkansas catcher was waving all over, slapping his knees, shoulders, chest, etc. What the flip are they talking about?
Baseball Royalty
 |
| Notice the blond woman wearing an evening gown in the upper left corner |
Bunt Technique
When I was a kid playing baseball the bunt was a valid technique but we never used it because first you had to know how to hit the ball and until you've got that mastered, learning to bunt is pointless. But! If you were to use it, is was supposed to be a surprise, you didn't give any indication that you were going to bunt until the pitcher had thrown the ball. These days, in college ball at least, it appears that you declare your intention to bunt before the pitcher has even thought about throwing the ball. Not sure what the rationale is here, but I imagine they've got a good reason for it, or at least an argument.
Fly balls
If you are attending a game, it behooves you to pay attention because sometimes a fly ball will land in the stands and if it smacks into you it's going to hurt. So whenever the pitcher releases that ball every pair of eyes in the stadium is going to watching to see where that balls goes. Can you imagine the amount of computerized processing power you would need in order to replicate that action by all those people? Watson would have his hands full, metaphorically speaking.
Broken finger
There was one guy playing with a broken finger. It was splinted and sticking straight out from his hand. It kind of looked like he was giving the pitcher the finger, except it was his index finger. You would have to be darn good at your job to be able to play like that.
The game
Arkansas made an error in the 8th (9th?) inning when three fielders converged on a fly ball and none of them made the catch. If they had caught it, Arkansas would have won and series would be over. Oregon managed to score a double play in the 9th to end the game.
Crate & Barrel
GREGORY SCOTT CUMMINS: "BOSCH" (Demo Clip 1) 2017 Edited
Thinking about LA detective shows, I remembered a couple of detectives who were pretty entertaining in a Click & Clack kind of way. At first I thought they were from Cold Case, but that was wrong, so I consulted with my wife and moved on to The Closer, but that was wrong too, and then I finally realized they were Crate & Barrel from Bosch. They were pretty funny. Maybe they will be back in the next season.
Snort
 |
| Breaking Cat News |
Update 13 hours later: if this doesn't make any sense, you might want to read the nursery rhyme.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
