I can go back to the mid-1970s and remember the original content of NPR. You actually got classic music, some jazz, literature readings, poetry, and some occasional bluegrass music. Then, in the early 80s....they started off to some other trend. For me, if I were driving around at lunch....I might turn NPR on and listen to it, but they've lost me for the most part.
What I'd like to see?
6:00 A full hour of legislative matters in the House and Senate. Explain what bills are coming up and what bills failed.
7:00 Farm news hour. Anything of a rural nature, relating to farms and rural business situations. Bring in some PhD guys to talk about livestock, and crops. Bring in a brewery guy to talk about garage beer creations. Interview some bio-fruit people.
8:00 Medical hour. Hire up four medical experts and have a morning round-table to discuss reports, health issues, and new innovations. Bring on a nurse to talk about weird school health issues. Talk about cancers and treatments.
9:00 Jazz for an entire hour.
10:00 Great literature readings from the 1700/1800 era.
11:00 Business hour. Have another round-table of four Wall Street guys to talk about what's hot in the news.
12:00 National news hour.
13:00 Classical music hour.
14:00 History hour (have four PhD history guys line up and tell some story over history).
15:00 Opera music hour.
16:00 Bluegrass Hour.
17:00 National news hour.
18:00 Four random folks interviewed hour. Just go and pick out four random people (barbers, truckers, diesel mechanics, NCAA football refs, zoo-keepers, muffler-guys, etc) and ask them random questions.
19:00 1920s/1930s Radio Mystery hour.
20:00 More bluegrass.
21:00 Great literature readings from the 1900s.
22:00 Science Fiction Readings
23:00 Sign off
Thursday, 14 December 2017
Wednesday, 13 December 2017
The Tick Story
It came out recently in the world of paleontology, that they've got a bit of amber, which has a 99-million year old tick....holdingonto a feather of a dinosaur.
So there is some minor belief that you might be able blood locked into the tick, and you might be able to do some fancy work with DNA.....thus bringing back dinosaurs. Well....an awful lot of fancy work.
One can sit and fantasize about this idea.
Would you even want to go and recreate this situation? Is it dangerous? Would some idiots go and try to sell these to the general public? Would the UN go and try to forbid something like this? There are a thousand things to ponder over an idea like this.
I would speculate that if they produced just one of these....it'd crank up an entire industry, and you'd have forty different DNA projects going on within a decade to reproduce various creatures. I just don't see this being positive.
So there is some minor belief that you might be able blood locked into the tick, and you might be able to do some fancy work with DNA.....thus bringing back dinosaurs. Well....an awful lot of fancy work.
One can sit and fantasize about this idea.
Would you even want to go and recreate this situation? Is it dangerous? Would some idiots go and try to sell these to the general public? Would the UN go and try to forbid something like this? There are a thousand things to ponder over an idea like this.
I would speculate that if they produced just one of these....it'd crank up an entire industry, and you'd have forty different DNA projects going on within a decade to reproduce various creatures. I just don't see this being positive.
Tuesday, 12 December 2017
The Ball Plan
It's one of those sports stories that you have to laugh about. A few weeks ago....three NCAA basketball players from the west coast....went to China for some games. They shop-lifted while there, and got arrested. They couldn't leave China until President Trump got involved. Then when they did get back to the college.....well....they were kinda suspended. The college doesn't appear to have any desire to give them much of a second chance.
One of the players....LiAngelo Ball (son of LaVar Ball)....finally added up the problems and left college (UCLA).
Dad sat there reviewing everything....knocking Trump several times for commentary that the kid should appreciate what Trump did.
Today, the Ball family announced what LiAngelo would do next. It's an odd deal. The other son....LaMelo (in high school) announced that he was quitting high school (odd decision too). Both kids are now signed up with a semi-pro league in....Lithuania. The team Prienai, Lithuania.
Prienai? Well....yeah, it's a town of roughly 9,800 residents.
The team? BC Prienai. They've been around for about twenty years, and play in the Baltic League. Their arena? Prienai Arena. It was built around six years ago, and holds 1,500 fans.
What this whole Ball-family move to Prienai adds up to?
Most basketball teams in Europe over the past decade have really grown their game, and they really don't care to be baby-sitters. You got a drug problem, an alcohol problem or attitude problem? Fine, go home....we don't need you. I would compare about one-third of the clubs in Europe today as being almost at the level of the better NCAA teams. In another decade, I expect the majority of clubs (maybe 75-percent) to be as good as the average NCAA team.
The Ball boys? There's some advantages to being in a small town like Prienai. No stress. No major journalists following them. A chance to work out daily. As for making a name for themselves? Maybe. But if neither kid expands their game or does much to attract more attention by the end of 2018....then their careers are finished. They might stay around three or four years and be back-up players in the NBA eventually, but the chance to be starters in the NBA will diminish by the end of 2018 if they don't show improvement.
I'm not going to suggest 'dad' is stupid here, but the odds of all three Ball kids making it into the NBA are statistically very low. There's obviously no plan 'B', and I feel sorry for both of these kids thrown into the middle of Lithuania and trying figure into some plan without good odds.
One of the players....LiAngelo Ball (son of LaVar Ball)....finally added up the problems and left college (UCLA).
Dad sat there reviewing everything....knocking Trump several times for commentary that the kid should appreciate what Trump did.
Today, the Ball family announced what LiAngelo would do next. It's an odd deal. The other son....LaMelo (in high school) announced that he was quitting high school (odd decision too). Both kids are now signed up with a semi-pro league in....Lithuania. The team Prienai, Lithuania.
Prienai? Well....yeah, it's a town of roughly 9,800 residents.
The team? BC Prienai. They've been around for about twenty years, and play in the Baltic League. Their arena? Prienai Arena. It was built around six years ago, and holds 1,500 fans.
What this whole Ball-family move to Prienai adds up to?
Most basketball teams in Europe over the past decade have really grown their game, and they really don't care to be baby-sitters. You got a drug problem, an alcohol problem or attitude problem? Fine, go home....we don't need you. I would compare about one-third of the clubs in Europe today as being almost at the level of the better NCAA teams. In another decade, I expect the majority of clubs (maybe 75-percent) to be as good as the average NCAA team.
The Ball boys? There's some advantages to being in a small town like Prienai. No stress. No major journalists following them. A chance to work out daily. As for making a name for themselves? Maybe. But if neither kid expands their game or does much to attract more attention by the end of 2018....then their careers are finished. They might stay around three or four years and be back-up players in the NBA eventually, but the chance to be starters in the NBA will diminish by the end of 2018 if they don't show improvement.
I'm not going to suggest 'dad' is stupid here, but the odds of all three Ball kids making it into the NBA are statistically very low. There's obviously no plan 'B', and I feel sorry for both of these kids thrown into the middle of Lithuania and trying figure into some plan without good odds.
A Suggestion of Patterns
I sat and looked over this graphic today. It does make sit and ponder 'patterns'.
Saturday, 9 December 2017
That New Mexico Shooting
“Work sucks, school sucks, life sucks, I just want out of this s--t.”
-- William Atchison
This week....the twenty-one year old William Atchison wandered into his old high school....Aztec HS, New Mexico, and shot two students before killing himself in the bathroom of the building.
From all reporting done, it doesn't appear that he knew either kid that he shot. They were just random picks.
News analysts spent a fair amount of time on the shooting, but the truth of the matter is that it was at best a eight-line story. He had a legal weapon, and he had no real police record. Nut-case? No one suggests that...he probably was maxing out on depression at a ten, but that won't get mentioned much.
Classified as a mass shooting? No....by FBI standards, you need four folks dead, and in this case...while he did shoot himself as well in the end, that only adds up to three folks.
I have this theory that a fair number of shooters are nut-cases....maybe in the forty-percent range. Some are people who are drugged up and unable to account for their actions, and then there's this last group who are plain tired of life (suicidal).
In the old days, you'd reach some desperation stage and just go off to handle the suicide by yourself....not involving other people. There is some trend going on where people think that they need others involved for some odd reason. Maybe it's the thought that people should have helped you or that some folks prevented you from reaching success in life.
Making a law to halt this behavior? Go for it. People in this stage of thinking don't readily react to laws.
Wednesday, 6 December 2017
The UN Dude
Once in a while, I'll notice a Alabama story which draws me to ponder.
So it came out in the news today....that some UN (United Nations) dude is planning a trip to Alabama this week to investigate.....poverty, inequality and "barriers to political participation".
I looked at the item....roughly 12 lines.
This guy....Philip Alston....says he will visit a couple of places (Puerto Rico, West Virginia, and California are mentioned) on this 'road-trip'.
Where he intends to stop in Alabama? Lowndes County....down in the south central region of the state.
Based on comments, he's got some folks lining up his schedule and prepared to hype up their poor situation in life, while living in Alabama.
How exactly he will help to change the poverty and inequality? Well....that's the thing. He's basically a nobody. He'll write some report which will bring tears to your eyes, but he's basically going out to stay in some nice Holiday Inn situations....eat some high quality food....travel business-class....and spend a fair amount of travel funds.
You can imagine these folks trying to line him up and their hype? Well....we are so poor, and bad-off. He will have sit there for hours while these folks hype up their negative status in life. When he asks about the barrier to their political situation...he'll do his best to ask how evil the Republicans are in the state and is there any way we can get more folks signed up to vote....because the more that vote....the more likely they would go and fix all the problems that exist in the world.
It would be interesting if some Alabama folks would take him over for a catfish dinner, some Friday night football, a sip of whiskey, and offer up some advice on car mechanics....but that just won't happen.
So it came out in the news today....that some UN (United Nations) dude is planning a trip to Alabama this week to investigate.....poverty, inequality and "barriers to political participation".
I looked at the item....roughly 12 lines.
This guy....Philip Alston....says he will visit a couple of places (Puerto Rico, West Virginia, and California are mentioned) on this 'road-trip'.
Where he intends to stop in Alabama? Lowndes County....down in the south central region of the state.
Based on comments, he's got some folks lining up his schedule and prepared to hype up their poor situation in life, while living in Alabama.
How exactly he will help to change the poverty and inequality? Well....that's the thing. He's basically a nobody. He'll write some report which will bring tears to your eyes, but he's basically going out to stay in some nice Holiday Inn situations....eat some high quality food....travel business-class....and spend a fair amount of travel funds.
You can imagine these folks trying to line him up and their hype? Well....we are so poor, and bad-off. He will have sit there for hours while these folks hype up their negative status in life. When he asks about the barrier to their political situation...he'll do his best to ask how evil the Republicans are in the state and is there any way we can get more folks signed up to vote....because the more that vote....the more likely they would go and fix all the problems that exist in the world.
It would be interesting if some Alabama folks would take him over for a catfish dinner, some Friday night football, a sip of whiskey, and offer up some advice on car mechanics....but that just won't happen.
Taxes
It's one of those statistics that news folks tend to skip.....roughly 45-percent of Americans don't pay anything on federal taxes. It adds up to around 77-million households.
They might have made enough in some cases to require the form submission, but when you add up credits....they zero out.
Oddly, I can go back all the way to 1978 and remember submitting my tax form in the spring of that period for five months of pay with the Air Force....feeling silly to waste time on filling out the form and to admit a total pay situation of roughly $5,000. That was the only time in my life where I paid nothing. I looked at the refund check as simply a 'gift'.
I sat there in 1979....a year later, and figured I'd just repeat the whole episode, and that $400 of pre-paid tax-money would ALL come back to me. I was wrong....I still ended up paying roughly $180 that year in taxes. It was an amazingly low amount of money but it just made no sense.
Are these 77-million households avoiding all taxes? No. They still meet up with property, car and sales taxes. For a lot of them, they are still throwing a thousand dollars a year toward their state government in various ways.
If you think about this....no one in America is truly living a tax-free lifestyle. Either through the federal folks, the state folks, or sales-taxes...you are paying into some pot. It's virtually impossible to skip out entirely.
They might have made enough in some cases to require the form submission, but when you add up credits....they zero out.
Oddly, I can go back all the way to 1978 and remember submitting my tax form in the spring of that period for five months of pay with the Air Force....feeling silly to waste time on filling out the form and to admit a total pay situation of roughly $5,000. That was the only time in my life where I paid nothing. I looked at the refund check as simply a 'gift'.
I sat there in 1979....a year later, and figured I'd just repeat the whole episode, and that $400 of pre-paid tax-money would ALL come back to me. I was wrong....I still ended up paying roughly $180 that year in taxes. It was an amazingly low amount of money but it just made no sense.
Are these 77-million households avoiding all taxes? No. They still meet up with property, car and sales taxes. For a lot of them, they are still throwing a thousand dollars a year toward their state government in various ways.
If you think about this....no one in America is truly living a tax-free lifestyle. Either through the federal folks, the state folks, or sales-taxes...you are paying into some pot. It's virtually impossible to skip out entirely.
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