Thursday, February 06, 2025

Friday Links!

Ken P. has more links later on, but let's lead off with this: 'She believed you have to take sides': How Audrey Hepburn became a secret spy during World War Two.

Also from Ken: An oral history of Twin Peaks by its unforgettable stars: ‘I put my waitress uniform on and began bawling’

From Chris M., and it's both an interesting analysis and concerning when it comes to ultrasonic humidifiers: Better air quality is the easiest way not to die.

More from Ken P., and this checks out (McSweeney's): How to Become a Professional Writer. The jackets will be here soon: Beat the Heat: UCLA’s New Cooling Device Drops Temperatures by 16 Degrees Continuously. This is ugly: Subaru Security Flaws Exposed Its System For Tracking Millions of Cars. This was inevitable and will only get worse: The Pentagon says AI is speeding up its ‘kill chain’. I like this very much: Developer Creates Infinite Maze That Traps AI Training Bots. Don Quixote would appreciate this: Building a Medieval Castle From Scratch

From Wally, and the predatory scams trying to ensnare writers never ends: USA Pen Press: The Ghostwriting Scam of a Thousand Websites. This is quite thoughtful: Culture, Digested: Neil Gaiman is an Industry Problem. It's what we've all been wondering, of course: Are Popovers Yorkshire Pudding? Very true: I loved Pokémon Trading Card Pocket – until I didn’t

From C. Lee, and it's one of the positive uses of AI: Stanford Medicine's AI Model Accurately Predicts Cancer Prognoses, Treatment Efficacy. No surprise: ‘It’s a death sentence’: US health insurance system is failing, say doctors. This could be game changing (if anyone would get it): New vaccine from MIT and Caltech could prevent future coronavirus outbreaks. This is amazing! Smart Glasses Mimic Insect Eyes to Assist the Visually Impaired With Macular Degeneration. This is discouraging: Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway operates the dirtiest set of coal-fired power plants in the US. This is welcome news and also somewhat obvious: California just debunked a big myth about renewable energy. A fascinating video: Why is Japan So Weak in Software? Fascinating: How Did the Chess Pieces Get Their Names? A terrific read: Masters of the Knight: The Art of Chess Carving in India. A classic from The Digital Antiquarian: The CRPG Renaissance, Part 1: Fallout

Rabbit Hole

When I saw today that only one NFL player (Ken Norton, Jr.) had won three consecutive Super Bowls, it sent me down a deep rabbit hole.

What started the journey was knowing that his father was Ken Norton, who most famously broke Muhammad Ali's jaw in a fight in San Diego in 1973 and won a shocking split decision.

I remember this fight quite vividly because I watched it live on ABC's Wide World of Sports one Saturday afternoon (4 p.m. Central, always). At 12 I was still a huge Ali fan and couldn't believe what I was seeing as Ken Norton controlled most of the fight. In the 11th round, he broke Ali's jaw in four places, and Ali fought the last round that way.

Howard Cosell was a much better boxing announcer than I remembered, by the way.

Ali was sluggish in the fight and barely danced, a far cry from his younger days, but when he did, his footwork was mesmerizing. 

This led me back to what was considered his most dominant fight in his prime, against Cleveland Williams in 1966. I found the full three-round fight here and spent the entire time watching Ali's feet. He was incomprehensibly quick, with probably the great footwork of any heavyweight fighter in history.

The other fighter who I always thought had incredible footwork was Mike Tyson, although his technique was cut to cut off the ring instead of dance. Tyson never reached his peak because his personal life was an abandoned mine train (later to include a rape conviction and prison sentence when he was 26), but I always wondered who would win a fight between the two at their best.

I can't watch boxing anymore. We know too much about CTE now and what a terrible toll it takes on fighters. Like today, though, I can watch the old fights, ones long in the past, and not feel like I should be ashamed for supporting the sport.

Wednesday, February 05, 2025

As It Happens

The gym is playing a dance mix of Mr. Brightside and I'm not in favor of capital punishment but something has to be done. It's a sonic war crime. 

Tuesday, February 04, 2025

A Bit of a Letdown

C said the hardest part about being a physician was receiving excellent medical training and studying for  years in order to say "You don't need antibiotics for that" over and over again.

Monday, February 03, 2025

Sports, Mostly

After watching NBA highlights over the weekend, I have a conviction about the future: when the aliens come, they'll wipe out humanity, then see Victor Wembanyama and say, "Okay, buddy. You can come with us."

I don't know of any NBA trade in my lifetime where a superstar approaching his prime was traded for a lesser superstar past his prime without a slew of additional compensation involved. Eli 23.6 messaged me over night with "LUKA" and a bunch of shocked face emojis. I assumed he scored 70 points in a game, went out and checked the news, and my jaw hit the floor.

"Devout Christian" Justin Tucker is now being accused of a similar masseuse roulette scandal as Deshaun Watson. I think eight women have come forward at this point with credible accusations of sexual assault. 

I said this about DeShaun Watson and I'll say it again: professional athletes do not go to an endless stream  of different massage therapists. Athletes use massage to fine-tune their bodies for an extraordinarily high level of performance. It's their livelihood. They will have a favorite and not go to anyone else.

It's a gigantic red flag when any athlete goes to therapist after therapist. That alone is a strong indication that something untoward (and dark) is happening. 

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Friday Links!

Leading off this week, an excellent read: ‘Secret Lowry’: the ex-gravedigger who painted northern life, from factory to fuggy pub

From C. Lee, and boy, how things have changed: Can you read cursive? It's a superpower the National Archives is looking for. What a joke: Walgreens Regrets Replacing Fridge Doors With Smart Screens, Creating Techno-Dystopia Vibes. Incredible: MasterCard DNS Error Went Unnoticed for Years. This is horrifying: Girl strangled by her own wheelchair as bus monitor texted, checked Instagram. Is anyone even surprised? Revealed: US hazardous waste is sent to Mexico – where a ‘toxic cocktail’ of pollution emerges. That would explain it: Biofilms, unwashed hands: FDA found violations at McDonald’s ex-onion supplier. And it's going to get worse: Threats of SpaceX Rocket Debris Forcing Flight Delays Over Indian Ocean Routes. An incredible story: Japan’s elderly are lonely and struggling. Some women choose to go to jail instead. Now we know: The Invention that Accidentally Made McMansions

From Wally, and my initial reaction is "ugh," but if it gets people reading, so much the better: Thousands of romantasy fans make midnight dates with new Rebecca Yarros novel. This is in an annoying format, but it's also extremely clever and fun to read: The Cube Rule of Food Identification. An excellent read: Restoring the Museum’s V-1 Missile. Tom the Dancing Bug is predictably amusing: Copyright Combat. I had one of these: An Imagined Conversation Between the People Who Designed Urban Apartment Balconies. He designed some absolutely fantastic games: Obituary: Alan Emrich, game designer and writer, has died.

From Meg McReynolds, and it's an interesting read: How Early ‘Law & Order’ Lets Us Relive New York’s Gritty Past — And Explains America’s Future. This is fascinating also counter-intuitive: The Comfort of Dogs. C and I watched this last night and it was fantastic! Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music | Official Preview. Most of these are stunning: The 2024 Dog Photography Awards Showcases Ace Pet Photographers

Just a Normal Thursday

Eli 23.5 had a conversation today with Theresa May after attending a forum where they'd both been invited.

I refuse to be surprised anymore.

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

I Do That to People

I often play gin rummy with C around dinnertime. 

My strategy could best be described as "nonsensical." I'll try to have a hand with only one color, or nothing above a certain card value. All straights. All three of a kinds. My favorite is picking up every card C discards, regardless of value.

In case you haven't picked up on it, C has a very dry wit.

We started playing earlier and after a few turns she said, "I don't know what kind of nefarious strategy you're using, but it already bothers me."




Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Astonishing

C is a medical Wikipedia and occasionally mentions an oddity that blows my mind.

This morning, she told me about the relationship between latitude and the incidence of multiple sclerosis. Wait, what? 

That's right. The further you live from the equator, the more likely you are to develop multiple sclerosis.

This was originally discovered in 1923, and a meta-analysis published in 2019 confirmed the risk:
This new meta-analysis confirms that MS prevalence is still strongly positively associated with increasing latitude and that the gradient is increasing, suggesting that potentially modifiable environmental factors, such as sun exposure, are still strongly associated with MS risk. 

I don't know if anyone has ever focused on the cloudiest cities (Grand Rapids is one of the cloudiest cities in the country) to see if the incidence of MS is higher compared to other cities in the U.S., but it seems reasonable to try.

No one has proven what causes this relationship. The strongest theory involves Vitamin D levels. Here's a study offering a possible explanation:
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), another illness for which latitude is a risk factor, appears to be related to the decrease in ambient light during the winter months, and offers some relevant insights into the geographical distribution of risk for developing MS. Researchers have found a relationship between degree of reported seasonal difficulties in a population sample and altered immunological function. Furthermore, the effects of bright light on mood have been shown to be regulated through the eye. We hypothesize that the risk of developing MS is related to impairment of the immune system caused by light deprivation prior to adulthood.

There's your bizarre but true medical fact for the day.

Monday, January 27, 2025

A Social Butterfly, of Sorts

I swam today and saw someone I talk to on a semi-regular basis in the locker room afterwards. He's a bit older than me, probably in his early seventies, and both he and his wife have had significant health issues in the last year. He may have to have surgery soon (and it's worse if he doesn't), and we chatted for a few minutes about how difficult it can be when you do everything you can to stay healthy and something hits you out of the blue.

I stopped at Jimmy John's on the way home for a soda pop. I do this whenever I swim as a treat to look forward to, and sometimes it's all I think about for the last 10-15 minutes. I usually get comped for my drink because the people there all know me and I always ask how they're doing. One woman moved in with her grandmother after her grandfather died. Her grandmother has early-stage dementia and it wasn't safe to live on her own.

On the way home I realized that, in my own weird way, I'm very social. It's the way an introvert would be social, because it consists of many five-minute interactions, but they're all genuine. I find out all kinds of things about people because I'm willing to listen. 

I always thought I was a huge liability socially, due to my introversion, but I'm realizing that I just had to be social in my own way. It's not the way other people do it, but that's okay. 

Thursday, January 23, 2025

Friday Links!

From the frosty north, enjoy this selection.

Leading off, a terrific read: Sleeping pills stop the brain’s system for cleaning out waste

This is funny, chilling, and true: This Is How You Normalize Performing a Fascist Gesture.

From Wally, and it's an interesting approach: UK Ministry of Defence enlists sci-fi writers to prepare for dystopian futures. From McSweeny's and inevitably funny: Oh, Look at Mr. Fancy Pants Over Here Eating His Eggs. A long and fantastic read: It’s been an idea for over three decades. How did the clock that will run for 10,000 years become a reality?

From C. Lee, and it's concerning: Study on medical data finds AI models can easily spread misinformation, even with minimal false input. It never ends: “Can you try a game I made?” Fake game sites lead to information stealers. Ahem: Polish general fired after missing anti-tank mines were found in IKEA. Toxic, toxic masculinity: 'I got death threats when men thought I put feminist gesture in video game'. And here's more (damn it, Neil Gaiman): There Is No Safe Word How the best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman hid the darkest parts of himself for decades.. This is encouraging and thoughtful: Equitable marriages could save lives (and love). This has been a problem for almost eighty years now: U.S. bases in Okinawa keep producing sexual predators. And probably just as loud: Harleys in Tochigi riding into ‘zero emissions’ future. Well, of course they're going to screw everything up: Tariffs could cause tech prices to skyrocket, CTA warns again

Locally

The roads were hilariously bad this morning. 

We've had about a foot of snow in the last four days, combined with sub-zero low temperatures for two of the nights. The result was a road of packed snow over the pavement, and yesterday and last night it started melting. 

This produced slush that is comically deep in intersections, both because of the packed snow depth and how snow plows push the snow when they turn. You could just sit near an intersection and watch the carnage as every single vehicle did a power slide. It's forced, because the slush is so deep you can't stop or you'll get stuck.

Everything you do has so much more friction in winter, even walking. I tried to use running shoes as long as possible this year, but it had gotten to the point where I was slipping on the snow constantly. I dove into the rabbit hole of hiking shoes (that could also be used in winter as well) and found a pair of mid-top Hokas that have been discontinued but consistently ranked as the most comfortable. Plus the sole is Vibram and has fantastic traction.

When it's been snowing for four days, the little things are game changers for your mood.

Also, for Garret in Winnipeg, it must have been -20F those two nights, at least. As bad as it feels here, he has it much, much worse.

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Memorial Coliseum, January 28, 1974

When C told me her story about the Monkees concert yesterday, I remembered that Mom 93.10 had done a similar thing for me in 1974.

In the leadup to the second Ali-Frazier fight, I pestered my mom about going to the closed circuit broadcast of the fight. The fight wasn't on regular TV, and it wasn't being shown in my town. Instead, it was being shown in Corpus Christi, the "big" town twenty minutes away, at Memorial Coliseum (capacity 3,000). 

I'd been there before with Mom, to see the Harlem Globetrotters. It seemed huge to me.

To say that boxing wasn't Mom's thing was a huge understatement, and I didn't really expect to go. Plus, tickets were $10, which was not an insignificant sum in 1974. So I was stunned when Mom told me she'd talked to my seventh grade history teacher, Mr. Matula, and he'd agreed to take me.

Mr. Matula was a hardass, but he liked me. He was also a coach, and was the only coach who ever showed a genuine interest in me. He was also a boxing fan.

I had an enormous amount of respect for Mr. Matula, so talking to him casually on our way to Corpus Christi was both fantastic and bizarre. We were just two guys going to a fight, and he was as excited as I was.

What I remember first when we got into the Coliseum was the size of the screen. I expected a movie theatre-size screen, not understanding how impossible it was to bring one of those in. Instead, it was a screen that seemed so tiny comparison. We had good seats, so we could still see clearly, but people in the back couldn't have seen much, and there were easily over a thousand people there. 

I also remember that there were hardly any other kids there. I'm not sure I saw a single one. It was just me and a bunch of grown-ups. 

I wanted Ali to win, while Mr. Matula was rooting for Joe Frazier. It was a close fight, and I thought when it ended that Ali had lost, but he won a unanimous decision on the scorecards and I cheered my lungs out. 

I didn't understand it at the time, but one of the ways people show love is in acts of service, and my mom did that repeatedly. It took me a long time to understand what it meant.


 

Site Meter