Sharks: Not If, It's Where, and Other Matters of Varying Importance

Anna Karina joined us on this day in 1940.

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Of all the stupid things to have to think about, one of the stupidest is that the electoral college could be tied in November. 

Based on current polling, Real Clear Politics has Kamala winning 276 to 262. That's based in part on her being up .2% in Nevada, but if all else stays the same and she loses Nevada, it would be 270 to 268. 

Nebraska has their electoral votes split between districts, like Maine, but Trump is pushing a last minute sneak move to get the state to vote as a block. Republicans often get four Nebraska votes and Democrats get one, but if these shenanigans cause Republicans to get all five, hello nightmare scenario- 269-269. 

Do you know what happens when the electoral vote is tied? The House of Representative delegations vote, and more are controlled by Republicans, so Trump would win.

There are no reasonable battleground scenarios where the Republicans win by getting this extra electoral vote. It's only setting up a possible tie. Let's face it though, a tie is a win for Trump.

Does that seem like a good move for the country, a month before the election? I'd say no, but although it's sneaky, it's a totally legitimate move. There's nothing wrong with Nebraska changing their own rules, and they have up to election day to do it. (There would also be nothing wrong with a small handful of Republicans in those delegations to vote for Harris, but that's another story.)

Apparently there's one Republican Nebraska state senator withholding his support. He used to be a Democrat but switched to Republican. Can you imagine having that on your shoulders? Maybe 160 million will vote this time around, but his one vote could actually tip it. Why is he withholding his vote? He wouldn't say it publicly, but my guess is that he recognizes that Trump is a danger.

(According to Trump, Harris as vice president also has the power to nullify the election with her one vote if she didn't like the outcome, haha. Or perhaps... hear me out... PERHAPS he only believes a vice president has that power, when it's HIS vice president. I guess we'll just have to wonder about that supreme mystery.)

538 currently has a tie .5% of the time in their election simulations, but if this rule goes through, that percentage will skyrocket. I'm going to guess it'll be something like 10%. A 10% chance of a tie, is way too high.

Couldn't we figure out before now that we should just have an ODD number of electoral votes??? So what's the answer? I don't know. How about if the closest state this time gets an extra electoral vote for next time.

All right, I have more electoral vote rants (like the fact that the states' electoral votes are not proportional to their population, which means that voters in more populous states count as a lower percentage of one electoral vote, which I think undermines the tenet of "one person, one vote"), but my electoral tie rant over. I needed to get that out of my system.

September 22, 2024

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My kids got up to see the sunrise with me. I told them that not many people are aware of it, but the sun is not actually rising at all, if you can believe it, the Earth is actually rotating which creates the illusion. 

Now I'm as big a fan of the heliocentric theory as anybody (quote me on it), but heliocentric theory, schmeliocentric theory, it sure does LOOK as if the sun were rising! 

It's probably why we call it the "sunrise" instead of the "earthrotate." It's why Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises instead of the The Earth Also Rotates. It's why the Beatles wrote Here Comes the Sun instead of Here Rotates the Earth. Get the idea? Maybe it's why Roger Sterling told Don Draper that he saw the sunrise that morning, and that it was "average." It's definitely why Richard Dawkins wrote this in The God Delusion:

"‘Tell me,’ the great twentieth-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once asked a friend, ‘why do people always say it was natural for man to assume that the sun went round the Earth rather than that the Earth was rotating?’ His friend replied, ‘Well, obviously because it just looks as though the Sun is going round the Earth.’ Wittgenstein responded, ‘Well, what would it have looked like if it had looked as though the Earth was rotating?’ I sometimes quote this remark of Wittgenstein in lectures, expecting the audience to laugh. Instead, they seem stunned into silence."

Count me among those who would have been stunned into silence. Does the Earth rotating create the illusion that the sun rises? Intellectually, yes. In every other way, no way... obviously The Sun Rises.

Yes, the sun rises, and this morning's sunrise was witnessed by my kids and I, while Zuzu posed with a banana squishy held up to her ear, as if it were a phone, a banana squishy that she won playing Skee-Ball the night before.

September 22, 2024

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Zuzu was just asking Emma where they should walk to, and I told her that the destination was not as important as the journey. 

She said, "Well what if it was a 2682 mile journey and you only got water at the end?"

She has a point. In that case the destination would be much more important than they journey.

September 22, 2022

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Majority of voters want to abolish the electoral college. We should find a really convoluted way to vote it out... like it has to pass both houses by a two thirds vote, and then two thirds of the states have to ratify it. Yeah, something dumb like that.

September 22, 2020

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In case you haven't heard... Native Americans are in fact people. I kind of expected it, but it's nice to have confirmation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/20/civil-rights-leader-almost-nobody-knows-about-gets-statue-us-capitol/

"At a dedication ceremony Wednesday, Nebraska leaders remembered the Ponca chief [Standing Bear] whose landmark court case established that Native Americans were, in fact, people."

September 22, 2019

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Goofballs.

September 22, 2019

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At the beach I never wonder IF there are sharks... I always wonder HOW CLOSE the nearest sharks are. A shark could easily kill me in the water, and I could easily kill a shark on land... that means there's a certain depth of water where we're evenly matched, maybe around 3 feet. I don't venture in much further than that...

September 22, 2018

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Something from Sam Harris's recent podcast with Yuval Noah Harari: "Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution built us to live in groups of a hundred or so. We knew every individual. Quite extraordinary that in the last few thousand years our "tribe" grew to 100 million or so, and we couldn't remotely know the individuals. We've already made the hard step, now we just need to extend our tribe to 8 billion."

September 22, 2018

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I used to not care what happened to me after I died- cremate me, bury me, put me in some hilarious poses, whatever. But that was before I considered the possibility of a general Artificial Intelligence being able to reconnect all of our synapses, and perhaps somehow breathe that spark of life back into us. I mean, it's possible right? Maybe. Then when that AI turns evil, I get to spend eternity in torment wishing I was just cremated.

September 22, 2018

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If you're the type of person who doesn't believe some woman about a sexual assault on the basis that it happened years ago, but you're also the type of person who believes some man who comes forward about a sexual assault that happened years ago (perpetrated by his priest, for instance)... please go dig a hole, jump in, come out when you have things figured out. 

And when you do hop out, if you think that a good economy is worth dealing with all this crap, you simply need to jump back in. Realize it's possible to have a good economy, and also take all accusations of sexual assault seriously. 

I just don't get it. Wait, sure I do- tribalism. But here's the thing with tribalism, we ALL need to be members of the taking-accusations-of-sexual-assault-seriously tribe. Until recently, I thought we all were.

September 22, 2018

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I let Gretel put on her underpants by herself this morning. Later in the day I realized they were inside-out and backwards, one leg was in a leghole but the other was in a waisthole and somehow her waist fit in the other leghole. It was an abomination.

September 22, 2017

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I hope this doesn't put a damper on anybody's Pope Fever, but it's important to remember that the Popes are fallible. Here's proof from Michael Shermer, in The Moral Arc:

"Some religions, such as Catholicism, fully endorsed slavery, as Pope Nicholas V made clear when, in 1452, he issued the radically proslavery document Dum Diversas. This was a papal bull granting Catholic countries such as Spain and Portugal "full and free permission to invade, search out, capture and subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be, as well as their kingdoms, duchies, counties, principalities, and other property... and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery." These last few words- to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery- sound not just sinister to us but also psychotic. They make perfect sense however, in a Christian context, given that the Bible itself is a heedlessly proslavery tome. It's hardly surprising then that it took almost two thousand years for Christians to twig to the fact that slavery is wrong. The spectacularly unreflective authors of the Bible had absolutely no problem with slavery whatsoever, as long as the slave owner didn't actually beat his slaves blind and toothless (Exodus 21:26, 27). That was going just too far, although beating a slave to death was perfectly fine as long as the slave survived for a day or two following the beating. Then, when the slave died, it was perfectly appropriate to feel sorry for the unfortunate slave owner because it was he who had suffered a loss (Exodus 21:21).

September 22, 2015

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The mama is resting up and I'm watching the three girls. We're watching Howl's Moving Castle, with different levels of interest.

September 22, 2015

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Watching the In Memoriam segment on the Emmy's, Emma said "All these people will be forgotten." Haha, true! And all of us too! All of us too.

September 22, 2013

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When I touch the surgery scar on my knee it feels like I'm touching a spot several inches down on my shin. Explanations would be appreciated.

September 22, 2012

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Clarke Kant via Twitter: 

"Save yourselves." - Republican Jesus

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After Mr. Reynolds cornered the aluminum foil market you'd think he would have branched out into wax paper and cling wrap. I'll bet the explanation also answers why Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman haven't made a good movie in 20 years.

September 22, 2012

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Discussing last night's Phillies game with Nate.

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On this day in 1692, the final hanging in Salem, Massachusetts for someone convicted of witchcraft. The rest were eventually released.

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Nathan Hale gave his one life for his country on this day in 1776, for spying during the American Revolution.

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From Plodding Through the Presidents:

On this day September 22 in 1814, Andrew Jackson wrote to his wife Rachel: “My Love — I have the pleasure to inform you, that since the bone came out of my arm which I sent you, it is healing and strengthening very fast. I hope all the loose pieces of bone is out, and I will no longer be pained with it.”

Jackson had been shot twice in a gunfight a year earlier, and a bullet remained lodged against the bone in his left arm. For months, small pieces of bone had been coming out of that arm.

He sent them to Rachel as souvenirs.

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On this day in 1823, Joseph Smith claimed to have found the golden plates after being directed by God through the Angel Moroni to the place where they were buried. Yeah, seems reasonable.

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Lindal Railway Incident happened on this day in 1892. A hole opened up at the railway and swallowed a locomotive. One guy jumped for his life. Passengers had to walk to another stop. 

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Pier Paolo Pasolini punched a fascist outside the premiere of his film Mamma Roma, outside the theater Quattro Fontane in Rome, on this day in 1972.

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Sara Jane Moore's attempt to assassinate Gerald Ford on this day in 1975 was foiled by the Secret Service. What was it with people trying to assassinate Gerald Ford? Oh yeah, maybe the pardon.

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The Dead Sea Scrolls were made available to the public for the first time on this day in 1991.

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Physicist and chemist, Michael Faraday, joined us on this day in 1791.

"Nothing is too wonderful to be true if it be consistent with the laws of nature."

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Paul Muni was born on this day in 1895. He was fantastic in I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, so ahead of his time. In an episode of MASH, referring to his childhood during the Great Depression, Hawkeye Pierce said, "You knew where you stood in those days. Franklin Roosevelt was always president, Joe Louis was always the champ, and Paul Muni played everybody."

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Joan Jett was born on this day in 1958, when Volare, by Domenico Mudugno, was at the top of the charts. Here she is in 1976 with no black eyeliner. The Runaways went to England and hung out with the Sex Pistols in 1977, and she brought the style back to Los Angeles. She's into all kinds of causes and this help put out all kinds of obscure music. What an icon. Who doesn't love Joan Jett?

Who covers Lungfish?

https://youtu.be/vznoFvayqwg

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Other notable birthdays- Erich von Stroheim (1885), Tommy Lasorda (1927), Toni Basil (1943)

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Peter Mills left us on this day in 1972 at the age of 110. He is thought to be the last living slave. He died in a pedestrian accident.

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George C. Scott left us on this day in 1999. I think about his performance in Dr. Strangelove all the time. And he was my favorite Scrooge.

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Yogi Berra left us on this day in 2015. About a St. Louis restaurant: "No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

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Slate- Could the Internet Ever “Wake Up”?

Hmm... the number of computers in the world multiplied by the number of transistors in each machine is 100 times the number of synapses in a human brain. If it could think, I suppose this article is one of the things it would think about, and then maybe it would think about that, and that, and that, and that...

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/09/christof_koch_robert_sawyer_could_the_internet_ever_become_conscious_.html

September 22, 2012

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Wired- Romantic or Reckless? The Plan to Message Aliens with Twitter

"People like Benford, along with sci-fi author David Brin, UCLA professor and best-selling author Jared Diamond, and Stephen Hawking, have argued for years that we should be sitting silently in our cosmic corner, biding our time and weighing risk factors before we go flamboyantly yoo-hooing to the entire universe." 

Hmmm.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/09/tweetsinspace-messaging-aliens/

September 22, 2012

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Happiness is among my favorite films, but I could never re-watch it, mostly because I'm not a psychopath. The same unfortunately can not be said about one Mr. Sedaris, as the NY Times refers to him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/movies/david-sedaris-on-films-hes-watched-and-rewatched.html

September 22, 2013

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The Hill- Ben Carson appears to tie allegation against Kavanaugh to socialist plot

Oh the irony... the gifted brain surgeon whose own brain is so messed up that he's the only one who would be able to surgically repair it.

http://hill.cm/fCoVX0O

September 22, 2018

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The Hill- Ex-Trump adviser says US seen as ‘object of pity’ by other countries

There's simply no question that this is true. It's reflected in poll after poll. No... it's not reflected in the confabulations that come out of the president's mouth, but his hot air is worth more than his words, as most of us know, and the rest of the world knows. I have a feeling that the rest of the world is giving us a mulligan, but if we screw up again it actually defines who we are. A lot of people voted for Trump because they wanted to shake things up. Now they have a chance again... do they want us to be an object of pity? Do they really want to risk our country losing it's status in the world? Does anybody know what that would mean? I don't, but instincts tell me that we don't want somebody else filling the vacuum that we create. If you know any 90-year old people, maybe ask them what the country was like before World War II. Every time somebody mentions how bad 2020 is, I think- 2021 could very easily be worse, and let's not even think about 2022!

http://hill.cm/drGEhq3

September 22, 2020

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Is there a way that I can get my voice to text to properly recognize s*** piss f*** c*** c********* m*********** and tits?

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Miley Cyrus- Heart of Glass

https://fb.watch/fI4vUp6IcN/

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Alfred Hitchcock- "Luck is everything. My good luck in life was to be a really frightened person. I'm fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn't make a good suspense film."

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Detective Somerset, from David Fincher's Se7en which was released on this day in 1995:

‘Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.” I agree with the second part.’

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Chief Joseph- "I hear my voice in the depths of the forest but no answering voice comes back to me. All is silent around me. My words must therefore be few. I can now say no more. He is silent for he has nothing to answer when the sun goes down."

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Joan Didion- "Evil is the absence of seriousness."

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Stephen Jay Gould (Dinosaur in a Haystack)- "I would not choose to live in any age but my own; advances in medicine alone, and the consequent survival of children with access to these benefits, should preclude any temptation to trade for the past. But we cannot understand history if we saddle the past with pejorative categories based on our bad habits for dividing continua into compartments of increasing worth towards the present. These errors apply to the vast paleontological history of life, as much as to the temporally trivial chronicle of human beings. I cringe every time I read that this failed business, or that defeated team, has become a dinosaur is succumbing to progress. Dinosaur should be a term of praise, not opprobrium. Dinosaurs reigned for more than 100 million years and died through no fault of their own; Homo sapiens is nowhere near a million years old, and has limited prospects, entirely self-imposed, for extended geological longevity."

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Michel de Montaigne- "I want us to be doing things, prolonging life's duties as much as we can. I want death to find me planting my cabbages, neither worrying about it nor the unfinished gardening."

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Louis C.K.- "You know the only thing happier than a three-legged dog? A four-legged dog."

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Stephen King, 'Salem's Lot- "God grant me to SERENITY to accept what I cannot change the TENACITY to change what I may and the GOOD LUCK not to fuck up too often."