Archive for Life - page 13

Inside we are all the same.  It’s the circumstances around us that make us “different” from one another.

Here in The New Yorker is an interview with Penny Marshall in rememberance of Robin Williams.  Penny Marshall, who is Hollywood royalty in her own right shares anecdotes about her and other big name showbiz type’s interactions with Robin Williams.  They are referred to as “The Old Gang”.  It interested me because they all sound like regular people, like the old gang you were part of in high school or college or wherever.  And I think that is because somewhere inside they are all just regular people.  Certainly people with their own problems – that’s what make them regular.  They  just can’t hang out in public like Regular Joes because regular joes like us would fall all over them.  So I can see how their fame could be more of a curse than a blessing.

Robin Williams was arguably one of the best known and universally loved personalities in the world.  By all accounts he seemed a devoted family man who loved his kids.  Yet like any regular joe, he sometimes had to take on jobs he didn’t like just for the paycheck.  Like many regular joes he found happiness to be fleeting and elusive.  And ultimately like too many regular joes his problems became too much for him to face.  It wasn’t his fault that no matter how much money you make, you can still have money problems.  It wasn’t his fault that no matter how many people love you, you can still feel alone.  When millions love you and want you to love them back, you’re saddled with an obligation that is impossible to fulfill – it must be an enormous drain.  Perhaps we loved him to death?

I don’t like to think that he solved his problems with suicide.  Life’s messy, so we clean it up by…ending it?  No.  I think he made a mistake.  But that’s one man’s meaningless opinion.  I just pray for his family to find some peace.

Hat Tip:  Althouse

PS – Penny Marshall anecdote:  In the summer of 2001 I was in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Port Charlotte, Florida on my cell phone while my party had gone inside to be seated.  A big black limousine pulled into the parking lot.  A chauffeur got out, opened the door and a well dressed woman exited.  The woman and the driver walked into the restaurant and I recognized the woman as Penny Marshall.  When I finished my call and went inside, I looked around but didn’t see the woman or her driver anywhere.  I asked my party if they saw Penny Marshall come in, but no one had.  So I can only assume that all Cracker Barrel restaurants have secret VIP backrooms.  Ms. Marshall, can you confirm?  Though I am often suspected of being hallucinatory, so there is that possibility.

…when will the madness stop?

At the worlds most prestigious tournament for this sport in Norway, where the world’s top players compete alongside amateurs two players died suddenly within hours of each other, one in the middle of a match.

“We regard these as tragic but natural deaths,” said Jarle Heitmann, a spokesman for the Chess Olympiad. “When so many people are gathered for such a long time, these things can happen.”

Chess kills.  When will someone have the courage to stand up and do something about it?

Chess tournaments illegal in California in 3…2…1…

I have speculated that the future could get weird, and now the speculation is over – the future WILL get weird, no ifs ands or buts.  Here is the Prima Facie evidence: this article at ExtremeTech.com cites a report by The Pew Research Center that states “robotic sex partners will be commonplace” by 2025.  What’s weird about that you may ask?  Well, most of you will just say “Eeewww”, but some of you may ask.  Here’s a clue:

I can’t wait for all the political unrest over people demanding the right to marry their Dutch Wives.  And don’t think that the sexbots wouldn’t turn on us in a minute.  Turn ON us, not turn us on.  Get your mind out of the gutter.

A few weeks ago I did a Happy Birthday post featuring Paul McCartney, and have been listening to Beatles tunes since.  So I figured why not do a couple songs from the other half of the dynamic duo?  Not Batman and Robin – Lennon and McCartney.  That is, John Lennon.  Lennon’s solo work is not as ubiquitous as McCartney’s, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t  just as good.  In my mind, McCartney was much more prolific and his music had more of a pop quality, while Lennon’s seemed more deliberative, introspective and artlike.  No judgement, just an observation.  Anyhoo… I picked a couple of my favorites here:

First up: “Whatever Gets You Through The Night” (with Elton John):

Whatever gets you to the light indeed.  Next I give you “Watching the Wheels”

Finally, “Nobody Told Me”:

Most peculiar, Mama.  Which may sum up the whole story, sad ending and all.  Final fun fact:  Lennon’s middle name is Winston, after the other famous British Winston – Churchill.  RIP and THANKS!

It seems like the right time for this – this is fire season.  All over the west, but in California…Northern California in particular.  Since I live near an airfield with a long runway, the occasional large tanker flies over my house.  So why not do a little post with some video of the largest air tanker in operation in the U.S.?  That would be the DC-10 “Rainmaker”.  The McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 is a wide-body airliner that is no longer used for commercial passenger flight.  It’s three engine configuration, with two engines mounted on wing pylons and the third engine mounted at the base of the vertical stabilizer makes it easily identifiable whether on the ground or in flight.  The DC-10 ended production in 1989.

Here’s a Modern Marvels segment that give you the basic facts:

Here’s some footage taken by a news crew that was in the drop zone:

There are only two of these flying, Tanker 910 and Tanker 911.  Quite a machine.  Glad we have ’em.

One way to make yourself miserable is to stay angry and agitated all the time.  And one way to do that is to stay focused on politics all the time.  Personally, I think that’s a bad idea and I say that as someone who is very interested in politics.

So, here comes the latest bad idea – Buypartisan.  The app that helps “make every day election day”  through “spending choices”.  It lets you scan a product’s barcode to get information on which political party the company’s CEO, Board of Directors and employees donate to.  Reviews of the app can be found here and here or at many places via google.

So this app should do two things to create more angry people – first there will be more people clogging the aisles at your favorite grocery outlet on their smartphones.  That’s not gonna make anyone happy.  Then, those people using the app will be ticked when they realize the CEO of the company that makes their favorite cornflakes donates money to the “wrong” party.  I predict, chaos, mayhem and mass hysteria.

Politics is not unimportant, but we are all more than simply our political identity.  At some point you have to distance yourself from political considerations and just live your life.  Life is not a zero sum game.  Money flows where money flows.  Sometimes you just have to let it be.

Let the Liberal hand-wringing begin.  Reuters: “California Breakup Plan Would Create Rich and Poor States: Report”.  If there is one thing that cannot be tolerated in California – whether it is one California or Six – it is inequality.

In case you are wondering what I’m talking about, there is an initiative being considered for the California ballot called The Six Sates Initiative which would create six separate states out of California.

According to the Reuters story, the richest state would be Silicone Valley with a per Capita income of $63,288, and the poorest would be Central California with a per capita income of $46,477.  The story also states that the plan has raised “bipartisan hackles”, but quotes no one.  Near as I can tell, everyone outside of “Silicone Valley”, “West California” and “South California” thinks it’s a great idea because those areas are heavily populated and deeply liberal/Democratic while the rest of the state is more sparsely populated and leans Independent/Conservative/Republican and are tired of being force fed a liberal Democrat agenda.  As far as the fiscal disparity, they are sure they can handle their own affairs.

Of course, the stated “inequality” exists even now, regardless of the initiative, but I doubt the concern is great enough for the rich to “redistribute” any of their wealth to their “poorer” bretheren.  All that’s needed is to defeat the initiative, keep those people on the la-la liberal plantation and everything will be fine.

Cross posted at Men Out of Work Blog

A minor internet kerfuffle has erupted over the introduction of an app called “Sketch Factor”.  Sketch Factor is a crowd source app where users can upload information they find “sketchy” about their neighborhood or wherever they happen to be.  This is then added to map data and can be used to avoid, or if you’re looking for sketchiness, to find certain neighborhoods.  Some on the internet have declared the app “racist”.  Here’s the logic:

Step 1:  The app was created by two young white people,

Step 2:  All smartphone users are affluent white people,

Step 3:  All white people distrust black people and find them “sketchy”,

Step 4:  Therefore white people will use the app to flag black neighborhoods and black people as “sketchy”.

Step 5:  Racism!

I suppose that my labeling of some neighborhoods as “bad” is confirmation of my “racism”.  I am a firm believer in situational awareness and minimizing risk, and so I would find this app usefull especially if I was in a strange town.  I don’t see at all how that equates to racism.  A lot of the discussion of the app seems centered on Washington, D.C. maybe because the Gawker writer lives there (I think).  Anyway, a Washington D.C. news crew went out to do a story about one of the neighborhoods identified as “sketchy”, and while they were doing man on the street interviews with the residents there something happened:  “but as folks were telling us that it was a good neighborhood, and that not much activity happens around there — as that was being told to us, our van was being robbed.”    

So…Sketch Factor: 10 out of 10.  I wonder if they reported the incident.  Probably not, that would be racist.

I suppose I could make this a “real life irony” post.  When the ACLU requested information from the Justice Department regarding the Government’s monitoring of citizen’s text messages without a warrant, they received in response a document that was completely redacted:

Totally Redacted FOIA response

Related:  The Department of Education employs a FOIA Denial Officer.  Perfect.

Cross posted at Men Out of Work Blog

Via The Volohk Conspiracy and other sundry sources I have forgotten, we  have this story about a photographer, a macauqe monkey, a camera purloined by said monkey, a selfie taken by said monkey with the purloined camera and back to the photographer who wishes to assert copyright of the photo.

Since I have it on good authority that I can reproduce the photo without violation of any copyright:

Cowabunga, dude. Oh wait. That was a turtle. Never mind.

Seems like a pretty happy monkey.  Anyhoo…the photographer himself is the source of the story that the photo was not taken by him, but by the monkey.  Since the photo is not the photographer’s work, he cannot claim copyright over it.  Since the monkey is non-human, he (it?) cannot claim copyright either.  Therefore according to copyright law, the copyright belongs to no one.  So…..monkey selfies for everyone!