So I watched it again last night. Not bad. The cast is good looking and can act. Sets and costumes are right up to snuff. However, nobody ever called anyone by name in the whole one hour show. So I still don't know the stage names of any characters. I suppose I could look them up on IMDB but I'm thinking the script writers could do better. They have two decent warrior princesses, but I cannot tell them apart. They both have long dark hair, wear the same dark leather outfits, carry swords and ride horses.
And it is better than Galavant.
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Flint's water. How about some scalps?
Every one knows, at least any one who has done plumbing or taken high school chemistry, that acid eats metals, turning solid metal into invisible ions dissolved in the acid, like salt dissolving into water. All water pipes installed before the 1980's are metal. The plastic pipe now used didn't come on the market til the late 1970's. You cannot allow the city water to become acid, 'cause it will eat the pipes all over the city. Standard procedures for city water works is to add enough lye (sodium hydroxide) to acid water to neutralize it. This has been standard practice for a hundred years or more. This ain't rocket science.
According to the newsies, when Flint switched over to using acidic river water which, for some reason, most likely a screwup somewhere, this was not done, and acidic water flowed all thru the city's water pipes, eating out the metal. All copper plumbing is fastened together with tin-lead solder and older pipes are pure lead. Our word "plumber" comes from the old Latin word for lead (plumbum). So, the lead content of Flint water soared up and up.
Anyhow the newsies were on NHPR this morning wailing about the Flint water situation. What needs to be done is find the persons who failed to add the lye to neutralize the acid, and prosecute them. We ought to take at least three scalps, one from the Michigan environmental pollution agency, one from the federal environmental pollution agency, an one from the city of Flint water department.
According to the newsies, when Flint switched over to using acidic river water which, for some reason, most likely a screwup somewhere, this was not done, and acidic water flowed all thru the city's water pipes, eating out the metal. All copper plumbing is fastened together with tin-lead solder and older pipes are pure lead. Our word "plumber" comes from the old Latin word for lead (plumbum). So, the lead content of Flint water soared up and up.
Anyhow the newsies were on NHPR this morning wailing about the Flint water situation. What needs to be done is find the persons who failed to add the lye to neutralize the acid, and prosecute them. We ought to take at least three scalps, one from the Michigan environmental pollution agency, one from the federal environmental pollution agency, an one from the city of Flint water department.
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Coin Toss? Fair? 64:1 odds of winning 6 out of 6 coin tosses
TV reports that six close Iowa races between Hillary and The Bern were settled by coin tosses. Hillary won all six. Is she just lucky or was the fix in?
Odds of winning one coin toss is 1:2, we all know that. Odds of winning two out of two coin tosses is 1/2*1/2 or 1/4. Odds of winning 6 out of 6 coin tosses is 1:2**6 or 1:64. How lucky do you think Hillary is, really?
Odds of winning one coin toss is 1:2, we all know that. Odds of winning two out of two coin tosses is 1/2*1/2 or 1/4. Odds of winning 6 out of 6 coin tosses is 1:2**6 or 1:64. How lucky do you think Hillary is, really?
And then there were three
Iowa caucus has finally happened. Ted Cruz in first 28%, The Donald second 24%, and Marco Rubio only 1 percentage point behind the Donald. Hillary and the Bern split the vote 50-50.
Well, at least the Donald didn't win, if he had, and did he win in NH next week, he would have been unstoppable. He is still there, still formidable, but he is beatable.
And I think Iowa narrows the Republican field down to three. Which needed to be done, and sooner is better than later.
Well, at least the Donald didn't win, if he had, and did he win in NH next week, he would have been unstoppable. He is still there, still formidable, but he is beatable.
And I think Iowa narrows the Republican field down to three. Which needed to be done, and sooner is better than later.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Sentencing reform
Used to be, back in the dim past, say the 1960's, judges had broad discretion in sentencing. Some judges abused this discretion and let perps off with a slap on the wrist when the community thought the death penalty was warrented. So over the last 50 years, legislatures have tightened things up with mandatory sentencing guideline laws, which called for very tough sentencing indeed. The result, the US has more people in jail than every other place on earth. And more prisons, and more unionized prison guards.
We ought to do something about this. We could start with pot. We should not be incarcerating people for mere possession of pot. Although pot isn't good for you, it's no worse than tobacco which is legal in every state of the union. Up here most adults view pot as a charge of convenience which the cops use to hassle teenagers.
Then we ought to remove lying to the cops or the FBI as felonies. If they want to get you, all they have to do is keep on grilling you, and sooner or later you will say something that does not check out. Bingo, felony charge. Far as I am concerned, it's up to the cops to get evidence of a real crime, not to cross up the suspect with repeated trick questions.
And conspiracy. That's a vague lawyer's word for hanging out with criminals. Let's eliminate conspiracy as a crime. If the perp was doing a crime, fine bag 'em. But if all you have is that the perp hung out with bad guys, tough, it's a free country.
And I bet if a bunch of fair minded citizens reviewed all the felonies now on the books, they could recommend dropping half of them.
We ought to do something about this. We could start with pot. We should not be incarcerating people for mere possession of pot. Although pot isn't good for you, it's no worse than tobacco which is legal in every state of the union. Up here most adults view pot as a charge of convenience which the cops use to hassle teenagers.
Then we ought to remove lying to the cops or the FBI as felonies. If they want to get you, all they have to do is keep on grilling you, and sooner or later you will say something that does not check out. Bingo, felony charge. Far as I am concerned, it's up to the cops to get evidence of a real crime, not to cross up the suspect with repeated trick questions.
And conspiracy. That's a vague lawyer's word for hanging out with criminals. Let's eliminate conspiracy as a crime. If the perp was doing a crime, fine bag 'em. But if all you have is that the perp hung out with bad guys, tough, it's a free country.
And I bet if a bunch of fair minded citizens reviewed all the felonies now on the books, they could recommend dropping half of them.
Galavant: The TV Show
So I watched it. ABC Sunday night at 8 PM, a really good time slot. The ABC suits must think it will catch on. It's strange. It's a swords and sorcery spoof. It opens with the kinda ragged looking good guys army confronting the bigger and properly uniformed bad guys army. For openers a jester, clad in motley, does a song and dance routine in the no man's land between the two armies. Then we have the warrior princess leading the good guys give a rousing pre battle speech to her troops. Only the words aren't her's they are the words Aragorn used to inspire his troops before the final battle at the gates of Mordor. It goes on like this, one gag after another. Some of them are fairly funny, others fall flat.
I think I will watch Supergirl next Sunday.
I think I will watch Supergirl next Sunday.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
The Great Springfield Model Train Show
It's the biggest show except for maybe Timonium down in Maryland. The Amhearst model railroad club puts it on at the Eastern States Fairground in West Springfield MA. It's big, the train show filled all four of the very big exhibition halls at Eastern States. It pulls in the fans, they can charge $5 parking and $14 admission and get it. I saw license plates from as far away as Maryland and Ontario. Traffic trying to get into the fairgrounds at 9 AM Saturday was fierce. I'm guessing we had 10,000 people for Saturday, and the show runs thru today.
Took me three hours to drive down from Franconia. It was still dark when I got on I91 and I rolled right along. I did try and keep it below 80 mph.
The crowd looked older than it did last time I went to Springfield. Mostly guys, mostly old enough to be retired. Some small grandchildren who were fascinated by the moving model trains. Very few middle and high school kids who would be old enough to build their own model railroads. Not many working age folk. This is clearly an old guy's hobby.
They had dozens of operating layouts on the floor. Big ones. All modular, all take apart and load in a trailer deals. They were all put together and looking very good. They had all the vendors in the world. I bought some decals, some well used rolling stock to serve as projects, and some hard to find detail parts.
Took me three hours to drive down from Franconia. It was still dark when I got on I91 and I rolled right along. I did try and keep it below 80 mph.
The crowd looked older than it did last time I went to Springfield. Mostly guys, mostly old enough to be retired. Some small grandchildren who were fascinated by the moving model trains. Very few middle and high school kids who would be old enough to build their own model railroads. Not many working age folk. This is clearly an old guy's hobby.
They had dozens of operating layouts on the floor. Big ones. All modular, all take apart and load in a trailer deals. They were all put together and looking very good. They had all the vendors in the world. I bought some decals, some well used rolling stock to serve as projects, and some hard to find detail parts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)