A little humor for this Sunday….this is those wacky guys at Bad Lip Reading…..and their dealing with a 2020 presidential debate….
Enjoy a little humor on this Autumn Sunday.
Be well…..be safe……
“lego ergo scribo”
Month: October 2020
Review: Trial Of The Chicago 7
I seldom do many reviews but in this case I will make an exception…..
You see I am an old fart and remember this trial well…..the Netflix handling of this historic trial was good and even sort of accurate……but they did state that it was “based on an actual incident”……but first…..who were the Chicago 7?
Initially there were eight defendants (and the group was known as the Chicago Eight), but one, Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers, denounced Hoffman as a racist and demanded a separate trial. The seven other defendants, including David Dellinger of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE); Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden of MOBE and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); and Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman of the Youth International Party (Yippies), were accused of conspiring to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-chicago-seven-go-on-trial
Here are the two trailers….
I followed the story in ’68 as best I could for I was ass deep in mud and rain in South Vietnam…..so if I had been stateside I might have been in Chicago…..so I will let someone who was there at the protests and at the trial…..Nancy Kurshan……this is her review of the Netflix film and her thoughts on the trial.
Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, streaming on Netflix, is entertaining, sometimes moving and often funny. But it played fast and loose with the facts. I ought to know. I was a yippie organizer for the ’68 protest and present every day at the trial, working on the defense side— in the beginning with Tom Hayden, tracking down witnesses. As the nature of the trial morphed, I became the “yippie props gal”. I acquired the robes that Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman wore to court in Sorkin’s movie.
Although the actors were great, Sorkin failed to reflect the essence of many of the characters. He showed Jerry as a violence-provoking buffoon, one who let a female FBI agent get close to him in the midst of what we had put our hearts and souls into for much of the year. The only woman that was next to him the whole time was me. And I knew Jerry’s faults as well as anyone which is finally why I left him. But I also knew his strengths. He had tremendous courage. Not Rambo courage. It was ridiculous to see him in the film talking about molotov cocktails. He couldn’t even make a smoothie. But he was brave. He stood up 3 times to the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC). All times in costume. First as a revolutionary war hero with tri-corner hat and all, then as an international guerrilla, and finally as Santa Claus. (It was Xmas time, and the headlines read HUAC BARS SANTA.) Many times bravery involves being able to put yourself out there, even if you are scared, to be outspoken and fight for what you think is right. Jerry had been a journalist and knew how to work the media to expand the movement. He developed theatrical politics and was a creative, brilliant tactician of protest. He helped lead the earlier protests against the war. It was largely his vision, as the Project Director, that guided the 1967 attempt to SHUT DOWN the Pentagon through both levitation and huge civil disobedience action against the war where 800 of us were arrested.
I Was in the Room Where It Happened: One Woman’s Perspective on “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
I liked the film…not so much for its accuracy but it reminded me of my youth and my days of protests and the injuries my protesting lead to in later years.
Keep in mind that the 7 were protesters and Bobby Seal was on trial at the same time for murder….that made it 8 defendants….a small fact but important nonetheless…..
Now spend some time an watch a documentary of the trial and the actual events….it is lengthy but well worth the view for those interested…..Chicago 7 +1
This is another look at the Netflix offering……
Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a historical drama streaming on Netflix. It deals with the court proceedings in 1969–70 in which organizers of protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago, faced charges of conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot. The charges brought by the Nixon administration’s Justice Department were aimed at intimidating and criminalizing political opposition.(does that at all sound familiar?)
Be Smart!
Learn Stuff!
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
Social Media Is The Mind Killer
For Paul Atreides of “Dune” fame, it was fear that was the mind killer….but we have gone further…..and in my opinion is far more dangerous than simple fear.
I have never been a fan of what is called “social media”……I think it is the most mind numbing activity a human can delve into….me I use Twitter as a news feed with very little interaction other than a few friends…..social media is being used to feed the wild thoughts and hopes of insane morons and lazy d/bags…..and then there is the so-called “influencers”…..A social media influencer is someone who wields that influence through social media. The form of influence can vary and no two influencers are the same. The right influencer can reach your target audience, build trust, and drive engagement. They create original, engaging content.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt suggested Wednesday that social networks are “amplifiers for idiots” and that the U.S. government’s new antitrust lawsuit targeting the search engine giant is baseless.
Schmidt’s remarks came during an interview at a technology conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal just a day after the Justice Department announced the landmark case.
…
Social network platforms, said Schmidt, are deserving of regulatory scrutiny.
“The most obvious candidate for regulation are the excesses in the social-networking space,” said Schmidt.
“The concept of social networks, broadly speaking, as amplifiers for idiots and crazy people is not what we intended,” he said, adding, “Unless the industry gets its act together in a really clever way, there will be regulation.”
The former executive’s comments came amid growing questions about efforts social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter have made to promote or censor news stories and hate speech and to control misinformation.
(Common Dreams)
These so-called “influencers” are slowly destroying the system that took 200+ years of work….and they are NOT all that….some spread lies and conspiracies that have NO foot in reality.
I think that the rise of social media has plunged us into age of darkness……and propaganda…..as you might imagine I have given my thoughts of this as well….in essence social media is killing the mind and the processes needed for rational thought.
https://lobotero.com/2018/04/10/the-sins-of-social-media/
https://lobotero.com/2018/10/05/propaganda-and-social-media/
Yes I am an old fart….and this is basically my social networking scheme….
Be well….be safe……
“lego ergo scribo”
Walk Around In A Fog
Sunday and I am still working with massive drafts I was holding for a later date…..and that date is now…..
I am sure we all have heard the comment about someone that may seem that they are not all there (whatever that means)……but could there actually be something under the comment?
So how does consciousness actually work?
A team of scientists thinks they’ve finally arrived at a model of how consciousness works in the human mind — and in doing so, may have settled a 1,500-year-old debate.
The big issue is whether consciousness is continuous or discrete: Basically, scientists and philosophers have long argued over whether we’re conscious all the time or only during concise moments. In an opinion piece published Thursday in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, the scientists say it’s a little bit of both — and their verdict could free scientists of various disciplines up to do their work without butting heads.
The scientists, all psychophysicists at Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), said that there’s a two-step process going on. While our brains are continuously processing information behind the scenes in more of an “unconscious” manner, we’re only actively conscious of that information during discrete moments.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/psychophysicists-brain-conscious
Now you know that you are not as aware as you think you are…..and this explains the lack of clarity and the complete breakdown of information.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
The Saturday News Post
I have found a few subjects that seldom get covered by the MSM for it does not bleed or rant or appeal to the big spenders…..but there is me who does not answer to the master of the universe.
Did you ever see the Matrix trilogy? Of course you did!
Well there is a chance it is REAL!
In an influential 2003 paper, University of Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom laid out the possibility that our reality is a computer simulation dreamed up by a highly advanced civilization. In the paper, he argued that at least one of three propositions must be true:
- Civilizations usually go extinct before developing the capability of creating reality simulations.
- Advanced civilizations usually have no interest in creating reality simulations.
- We’re almost certainly living inside a computer simulation.
https://futurism.com/columbia-professor-50-percent-chance-simulation
I am a pain sufferer….at times it is massive and I have been following many of the techniques to the control of this problem. One of those treatments is the microdosing of Psychedelics…..
People who take microdoses of psychedelic drugs consistently report that it results in improved mood and creativity, while having few side effects, according to new research published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Study author Rotem Petranker, director of the Canadian Centre for Psychedelic Science, and his colleagues noticed a growing public interest in taking sub-threshold doses of LSD or psilocybin to enhance cognitive or emotional functioning. But scientific research on the issue is scant.
More news of the “acid” front…..
New research lends further credibility to anecdotes that microdosing lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), or taking too little of the psychedelic drug to trip but enough to feel effects, can help your focus.
In the placebo-controlled study, published in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology on Saturday, scientists from Switzerland’s University of Basel and the Netherlands’ Maastricht University gave volunteers either a small dose of LSD or a placebo, then measured their ability to pay attention and process information, as well as keeping an eye on their mood.
https://futurism.com/neoscope/study-microdosing-lsd-improves-mood-cognition
Good news for Mobile users….the Moon is getting cellular service…..yep that is correct a service for the Moon….
NASA wants any human presence on the Moon to have a great cell signal, so it’s investing in a lunar 4G network.
The Space Agency gave Nokia’s Bell Labs a $14.1 million in grant money to build out the Moon’s telecom infrastructure, Business Insider reports. With the goal of having a network up and running by 2030, the goal is to get a network in place that could help any sort of outpost on the Moon manage life off-world.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/moon-getting-4g
Speaking of space communications…..
It’s no secret that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wants to build a city on Mars.
But in a recent interview with TIME magazine, SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell laid out the company’s plans to bring its Starlink broadband satellite constellation technology to the Red Planet as well.
“Once we take people to Mars, they’re going to need a capability to communicate,” Shotwell said during a previously recorded interview with TIME. “In fact I think it will be even more critical to have a constellation like Starlink around Mars.”
https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-starlink-like-constellation-mars
Musk sees dollar signs every time he mentions space……
Ever heard of a “universal translator”?
MIT has come up with one for “dead” languages…..
A team of researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have created an AI that’s capable of automatically deciphering long lost languages, even without any other advanced knowledge of how it relates to other languages.
The goal is to uncover relationships between “lost” languages for which historians have found written records, but which nobody has actually spoken in a long time.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/mit-invents-ai-decipher-ancient-languages
Be Smart!
Learn Stuff!
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
Those Secret Societies
We all know about some of the secret societies….like Masons, Opus Die or Priory of Sion and even the Illuminati……but those are not the only secret societies that the world deals with…..and conspiracy theorists live and breathe….
Through history there have been many secret societies and conspiracy theories about those societies. This is a list of 10 of the most famous and popular secret societies or alleged secret societies.
1. Skull and Bones [Wikipedia]
The Order of Skull and Bones, a Yale University society, was originally known as the Brotherhood of Death. It is one of the oldest student secret societies in the United States. It was founded in 1832 and membership is open to an elite few. The society uses masonic inspired rituals to this day. Members meet every Thursday and Sunday of each week in a building they call the “Tomb”.
According to Judy Schiff, Chief Archivist at the Yale University Library, the names of the members were not kept secret until the 1970s, but the rituals always have been. Both of the Bush presidents were members of the society while studying at Yale, and a number of other members have gone on to great fame and fortune.
The society is surrounded by conspiracy theories; the most popular of which is probably the idea that the CIA was built on members from the group. The CIA released a statement in 2007 (coinciding with the popularity of the film The Good Shepherd) in which it denied that the group was an incubator for the CIA. You can read that document here.
Cool, huh?
Not to worry there is so much more…..
Top 10 Secret Societies
A historic look on this weekend…..but if you have an aversion to reading then tune in to the History Channel…..if it is not Hitler then it is some Forbidden History…..either way…..these societies are a permanent part of the viewing experience.
Learn Stuff!
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
That Bullet Had His Name On It
The weekend and I am being lazy…..I have 30 drafts and I will attempt to clean the folder out….a little history and a little FYI….
How many times have you heard that statement in TV and the movies?
Well DARPA may have just made that prediction a possibility.
One of the most challenging roles in ground units is that of a military sniper. Military snipers must take long distance shots with precision rifles, often doing a fair amount of math in their heads to make a bullet reach its target. A new guided-bullet technology, however, promises to make longer distance shots a little easier by installing guidance systems in bullets.
The mission of the sniper is to take out targets at ranges farther than your typical rifleman, from five hundred yards out to two thousand yards. Snipers rely on specialized training, accurized, high power rifles and quality optics to reliably hit targets that are often mere specks on the horizon. These targets typically include anything from specialized enemy troops (engineers, heavy weapon operators) to command, control, and communications targets (radio operators, officers.) Snipers may also engage material targets, such as antennas, aircraft and light vehicles.
In addition to mere distance, snipers must contend with the technical limitations of their weapons and physics to make long range shots. Once they exit the barrel, bullets immediately start slowing down as gravity begins to exert an influence. This causes bullets to travel in a gradual downward arc. Bullets are also vulnerable to weather conditions, particularly wind, and are increasingly vulnerable to environmental conditions as they lose velocity.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/military-snipers-could-soon-be-using-guided-bullets-169616
I believe back years ago Tom Sellack did a movie where the bad guy had a DNA bullet…..program it to kill only the person intended to die.
But this is not new…DARPA had a bullet in 2015……
You know the phrase “dodging a bullet”? Forget about it. Probably not going to happen anymore.
The U.S. military said this week it has made great progress in its effort to develop a self-steering bullet.In February, the “smart bullets” — .50-caliber projectiles equipped with optical sensors — passed their most successful round of live-fire tests to date, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.In the tests, an experienced marksman “repeatedly hit moving and evading targets,” a DARPA statement said.“Additionally,” the statement said, “a novice shooter using the system for the first time hit a moving target.” In other words, now you don’t even have to be a good shot to hit the mark.
Making killing easier……better death through science.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
Closing Thought–23Oct20
Talk about a waste of time!
I am always going on about the waste of taxpayer’s money and I have found yet more evidence of just how silly this system has become.
The Supreme Court will rule on the use of Pentagon funds for that silly wall on the Southern border.
The $2.5 billion on the table in an upcoming Supreme Court hearing on use of Pentagon funds to build the border wall has already been paid out, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed to Military Times on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court announced Monday that it would take up a challenge to one of the Trump administration’s U.S-Mexico border fencing funding workarounds, specifically $2.5 billion in military counterdrug money re-allocated in 2019 to be paid out to contractors by the Army Corps of Engineers.
“Those funds cover 129 miles across six projects,” Mitchell said, contract awards for fencing in New Mexico, Arizona and California, according to USACE data. The Pentagon could not provide details on how many of those miles have actually been completed.
The original lawsuit, first filed in Texas last year, challenged the legality of using those funds to build fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. But as it wound its way through the courts, Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Christian Mitchell confirmed to Military Times on Tuesday, all of that money has been paid out.
A Texas judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs late last year, putting an injunction on any further border construction. But a Justice Department appeal lifted that injunction, and last summer, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote decided not to hear a challenge that would have reinstated it.
“The Court’s decision to let construction continue nevertheless I fear, may operate, in effect, as a final judgment,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his dissent, on behalf of the four justices who voted to hear the case.
It’s unclear, however, what would happen if SCOTUS rules against the administration. The original lower-court ruling stopped construction, but did not cancel contracts or force refunds, which could be the case again this time around.
In total, the Pentagon diverted $6.1 billion in 2019 to fund the border wall, including $3.6 billion in military construction funds.
(Military News)
Once again the courts are a day late and we are dollars short.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
The Lesser Of Two Evils
I have had many debates and discussions in my 70 years on the act of voting.
We all know the ones that say it is a duty to vote or those that say if you vote for anyone other than the 2 major candidates then you are doing a disservice to the country.
This is all so much noise or to my thinking…..babble.
Every year here on IST I get someone that will come on and tell me why I am helping elect the “other” side when I talk about voting beyond Dem/Repub….I do not mind for they have their opinion and I have mine….and in the end it is my vote and I shall place it where I feel it deserves.
I do not like “Lesser of evils” elections and it seem in the last 30 years that is all we have been offered and in those years our lives have been stagnant….but we can feel better that we voted for the “lesser of evils” (that is sarcasm)……
A good summation……
There are two major parties in the US and they both represent “capital.” But since defining capital is very controversial among economists, let us simply say that both parties represent money, the kind of money that begets more money. This kind of money is sacrosanct. It is a deity. It is worshiped by almost everyone. Having this kind of money, or being backed by it, is essential for getting elected, especially since most voters rely on advertising before voting for a candidate. Many voters, even if poor, admire and highly respect those who have a lot of money.
Once in office the office holder must make sure that conditions for self-expanding money are kept intact. This means preserving and reproducing existing social relations, particularly by maintaining “law and order.” Among many other things, the class structure must be kept intact. But it is hard to define “class,” and, moreover, the word is tabooed in the US. So, let me illustrate this with a simple, personal example.
Voting for the Lesser of Two Evils: a Vicious Circle
So, what is it that prevents me from voting for a president? Is voting for Donald Trump or Joe Biden worse than having a colonoscopy?
I have told anyone who will listen….I have a set of political principles that I have never veered from in my voting history….I will not veer this election either.
You may disagree with my choices…but keep in mind they are MY choices.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
The Debate Take Aways
First let me apologize this should have been part of the previous post….but it was late when the babbling stopped and I needed to nap.
These are what the pundits saw as the major take aways from the battling candidates last night.
President Trump and Joe Biden shared a debate stage for the second and final time Thursday night—and it was a far more restrained affair than their first meeting, helped by the introduction of a mute button and widely praised moderating from NBC’s Kristen Welker. With far fewer interruptions and a lot less crosstalk, the candidates made their opposing cases on issues including the pandemic, health care, and corruption. Analysts say that while both candidates landed some clear hits, the debate didn’t deliver the game-changing moment Trump needed. Some takeaways:
- Sharp contrasts. While the tone of the Nashville debate “was more sedate, the conflict in matters of substance and vision could not have been more dramatic,” Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin write at the New York Times. The contrast was most evident in the candidate’s remarks on the pandemic they write, with Trump “promising, in defiance of evidence, that the disease was ‘going away,'” while Biden “called for much more aggressive federal action for the ‘dark winter’ ahead.”
- A changed tone from Trump. Trump cleared a low bar by improving his tone. The president was on his “best behavior” Thursday night and while his strategy seemed to be allowing Biden lots of speaking time in the hope the Democrat would slip up, “that didn’t really happen,” Niall Stanage and Jonathan Easley write at the Hill. “While there were moments where Biden appeared shaky, there were also instances in which he met the moment, such as with his emotional response to the Trump administration’s policy of separating parents from their children at the border,” they write. “But overall, the president’s calmer demeanor likely helped him to a degree.”
- Not a disaster for Biden. The former vice president also cleared a low bar by not making any gaffes likely to jeopardize his lead in the polls, according to Mark Barabak and Melanie Mason at the Los Angeles Times. The Democrat “didn’t suffer a brain freeze or open his mouth and spray buckshot into his feet. Indeed, he more than acquitted himself,” they write. “Crisp speaking, cogent argument, and linear presentation have never been the former vice president’s strong suit,” they note, but despite “garble and a verbal stumble now and then,” there was “nothing remotely close to a death blow to Biden’s candidacy.”
- “Facts took a hit.” The AP‘s fact-checking of the debate notes that the “facts took a hit right out of the gate”, when Trump “misrepresented the reality of the pandemic in myriad and familiar ways,” while “Biden, at times, was selective on the coronavirus and other matters, at one point stating that no one under Obamacare lost private health coverage. Millions did.”
- Medicare-for-all among the losers. In a list of debate winners and losers at Vox, Medicare-for-all ranks among the losers. Biden rejected Trump’s claim that he was pushing for “socialized medicine,” telling the Republican that he had beaten numerous rivals who supported a single-payer system. “The reason why I had such a fight with 20 candidates for the nomination was I support private insurance,” Biden said. “Not one single person with private insurance would lose their insurance under my plan, nor did they under ObamaCare.”
- “Better for the country.” This was the kind of debate people were hoping for the first time around, with “a clear contrast on policies and almost no incomprehensible crosstalk,” writes Jim Geraghty at National Review. “Compared to the first debate, this was Lincoln and Douglas. Okay, maybe more like Statler and Waldorf,” he writes. “But it was much better for everyone: better for Trump, better for Biden, and better for the country.” He says it’s “unfortunate for the Trump campaign” that there will not be a third debate.
Just a little refresher on the evening……
Be Smart!
Learn Stuff!
VOTE!
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”