Good morning! In case you came here looking for a long, cogent meander through important and well-presented news items, you are out of luck…because I am subbing for SplinterRIP today (but I will throw in the occasional ellipsis…so that you do not feel too bereft.)
News | Sports | History | Weather | Bot Plot | Music
News
I’m going to share links to common news providers…and wait for your conclusions. Just click to front page of each link and enjoy the differences. If we are what we perceive, then what is reality, what is propaganda, and what is truth? Let’s make it an existential dread day, today!
Sports
The US open is going on in New York for those of you who enjoy tennis. It appears to be sold out, or at least very well attended. The tournament requires fans age 12 and older to show proof of at least one vaccine shot for entrance to the grounds. Wait for it…no masks are required. Players are not required to be vaccinated. At least it won’t become another Sturgis, right?
History
On this day in 1666 the Great Fire of London began accidentally in the house of the king’s baker; it burned for four days and destroyed a large part of the city, including Old St. Paul’s Cathedral and about 13,000 houses.
Weather
The EPA states “Scientific studies indicate that extreme weather events such as heat waves and large storms are likely to become more frequent or more intense with human-induced climate change.” Here’s a link to fifteen bizarre weather phenomena…blood rain, anyone?
Midsomer Murder Bot Plot
Part of the joy of the Midsomer Murders television show is the convoluted plot. This fellow has created a plot bot, and it is good.
Music
Wishing you all a good Thursday, also known as The Day Before the Weekend.
Speaking of the news, look what’s back:
https://www.gawker.com/politics/cuomos-in-hiding
Has the Return of Gawker already been discussed? Perhaps by me even? As you’ll see the writing is much improved and is much superior to that found in the desiccated husks of the Get/Out “media properties.” Sadly, the new Gawker doesn’t allow comments, but for that matter neither does Get/Out media properties, either by design (the so-called “Deadspin”) or the others by practice, through banning, attrition, the failures of kinja, and the general IDGAF attitude that prevails over there.
Only for you, @Elliecoo would I look at the Fox News site. Now I need a shower. Nice DOT, you better be careful or you’re going to find yourself with even more Deadsplinter responsibilities! The murder bot seems particularly timely with its dewormer story line.
I hope our east coast friends are safe after Ida’s rampage.
Things got a little damp, especially in the subways:
https://gothamist.com/news/videos-mayor-de-blasio-calls-state-emergency-tropical-storm-ida-brings-historic-rain-nyc
One of Cuomo’s great propaganda victories was convincing the press that the collapse of the subways was the fault of everyone else but him.
His people held the balance of power and his budgets decided what got fixed and what went into the pockets of contractors.
But the press went along when he made the messes a DeBlasio problem, or a problem of bureaucrats, or low level employees instead if his leadership.
The collapse was a perfect story, full of great copy and visuals. But the press decided they would rather muddy it up, if not ignore it, tather than take a gift wrapped gold ring of a story if it meant getting a couple of mean phone calls.
This may be a little tinfoil-hattish of me, but as a former daily commuter I can almost pinpoint the rapid decline of the subways to the departure of Bloomberg and the arrival of de Blasio.
I strongly suspect that Bloomberg exerted considerable influence over the subways, and they used to run like clockwork. At my local station, I had the choice of two express lines, and each went directly to my office one stop away. During rush hour they came every five minutes, and they were staggered, so since I could take either one, for me a train came every 2 1/2 minutes.
Then, almost overnight, they didn’t. I thought, “Oh, that’s because Bloomberg held up several union contracts for years so they’re doing this to force the new Mayor’s hand…” De Blasio rolled over and gave everyone what they wanted, and then some, and the subways just got worse.
I’m convinced that was Cuomo’s doing, either passively or aggressively.
Bloomberg had an independent power base that Cuomo knew he had to respect. BDB didn’t control any press outlets and couldn’t call in favors from other billionaires who fund the electoral system.
The leadership of the tangle of authories and government agencies which have the large majority of say over mass transit in NYC answer to the governor, not the mayor, and as soin as a governor decides they want a mess, they’ll get it.
Cuomo had a great opportunity to step back in and take credit for fixing the mess, but his loathing for the toothless BDB was more important than actually winning something. Just an awful man.
@Hannibal, the hatred, fear, and rage of any day on the homepage of FOX explains why the “other folks” are afraid, fearful, and angry. I find it to be deeply sad and scary, but not for their intended reasons. As these folks are often the same people who believe that Facebook provides real news…
Collectively, we humans play catch-up when pervasive societal change happens, simply because it takes a bit to hit us on the head. In addition to supporting actual, non-sanitized history it might be nice add an “internet and social media” section to social studies class in middle school, to reinforce the “this is not necessarily real or correct” side of things.
@KeitelBlacksmith! You read the weather click through!
I love lists like this. But they forgot the Kentucky Meat Rain.
https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/kzkmgw/the-mystery-of-the-kentucky-meat-shower
@Hannibal “the only horrifying thing is that a bunch of people most likely ate chunks of vulture vomit, trying to figure out what it was.” No, no, no, no, no!
This is kind of how the seminal movie classic “The Blob” starts out. A rural–farmer, I think he’s meant to be?–pokes at this strange thing that falls from the sky, his hand is sucked into it (The Blob), and then the guy is transported into town to see the kindly doctor after hours, and all hell breaks loose.
What most people don’t realize or notice about The Blob is besides being a meditation on the Existentialist belief that life is meaningless but we are doomed in a fruitless search for some kind of meaning to it all, it is also a little “Rebel Without a Cause”-y, because it is the teens, scorned and mistrusted by their elders, who possess insight and wisdom. Plus I believe it was “Steven” (as he was then known) McQueen’s first major motion picture.
In reading the words “vulture vomit” I was transported back about 20 years when a friend of mine and I were attending a little nature presentation on vultures (we were attending a convention at a state park which also had a hotel on site and this was a little diversion). She used to drink like I did, so when the park ranger noted that a couple of the ways that vultures will defend themselves are to vomit and to defecate on themselves, she turned to me and said, “I used to do that, too.” It was all I could do not to interrupt the presentation by laughing my lungs out.
I did, too. And somebody needs to either 1. adjust their auto-correct or 2. learn the difference between “lighting” and “lightning.”
OMG @bryanlsplinter, I just doubled checked this post to make sure I had not done so – yikes! On my PC, all errors are my own. On my mobile, who knows what evil lurks in the auto-correct…
Oh, I know it’s not you. It’s the linked post. And it jumps out at me because I see it all the time in Florida, lightning capital of the world. It’s one of my pet grammar peeves: lighting, lightning, lightening. They’re all real words, but people don’t understand the difference, and computers can’t detect them.
I bash the press a lot, but I’m a little bit encouraged by this development.
The new head of the AP is taking the astonishing position that the truth should take priority over stenography for liars.
The AP has enormous reach on the local level, and the big outlets won’t admit it but they all depend heavily on the AP for what they say, reworked enough to avoid plagiarism.
The degree to which her views filter down remain to be seen. The AP is huge and old habits die hard. But it’s a refreshing change from what you get at the top of places like the NY Times, NPR, CNN and ABC, which believe that qualifications and hedging matter far more than foundational truths.
What really remains to be seen is whether she gets kneecapped for the temerity to prioritize facts over bullshit.
My guess is the policy gets largely ignored, but at least it ups the pressure a bit on the NPR types who care mostly about self censoring to appease the right.
The Murders Bot gets me.
huh feels like 10 years ago i heard abba was about to release new music….then nothing happened
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/abba-releases-new-music_n_61310aa4e4b04778c0021128
course…with time being the way it is lately….feels like 10 years might have just been months….
welp..at least gogol bordello is staying positive
i should probably go see them when they are in the area again…(assuming the gubment ever decides to allow large gigs again)
Good job on the Dot!