HEAVY SPOILER ALERT
George Clooney as Danny Ocean Buzz Lightyear? Sandra Bullock as Ripley without a bad-ass alien-killing gun but still in some nice booty-shorts? Round and round and round and round, tumbling spinning where is my barf bag weightless shots I remember from '2001 A Space Odyssey?' A conclusion where just about everyone and everything is lost (including Facebook) except for Sandra and her shorts?
At least in 'Apollo 13' the music was dramatic and the wives fought back tears as their boys plummeted back from space. But those were 1 g tears in Ron Howard's excellent film and I guess I'm supposed to be more than impressed by the effect of Sandra's weightless blubbering. An Academy Award nomination for her? Seriously? Is this still the 'we feel sorry for you over your choice of tattoo-boy Jesse James' effect?
What is all the fuss and hype about 'Gravity?' Great special effects. Really, amazing. But so is my iPad. There is simply nothing else there. I mean, you know she won't run out of oxygen thirty minutes into it, right? And - after months of training, then being launched into space together, how does Clooney's character wait until the space walk to ask his pretty space companion if she is married? I've heard of single guys playing it cool and detached, but that's gotta be a record.
Actually, now that I think about it, no one I know recommended this movie to me. I got suckered in by the commercials and so-called critical acclaim.
Want to see a good movie? American Hustle. Definitely.
Check out this youtube video for the best summary I've seen of 'Gravity' and yes, it too deserves extra SPOILER ALERTing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzzLngXfCcI
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Dumb Starbucks
Starting a business. Putting people to work. Giving them an opportunity to be better. There is so much of that going on these days. Right next door to where I am sitting, a small taproom is nearly ready for a grand opening. The background noise of tile being cut mixes with the sounds of another existing restaurant beginning the day. Wait staff tell jokes among themselves, setting up tables and greeting customers.
Scenes and stories like this are too boring and too many for the internet news. I get that. But do we really have to read about this silly concocted event of the moment from a few days ago: Dumb Starbucks?
It seems a local comedian in Los Angeles thought that people paying $4 for a fancy coffee drink was dumb. So he opened up a store (although it turned out later not to really be one) giving away free coffee. All this under the familiar green logo and the banner Dumb Starbucks.
Because some people stood in line for a long time and waited for their free "dumb coffee" the news vans rolled and set up for another internet news story. I suppose this might have gone on just as easily in the past when we only had the 5 and 11 o'clock TV news.
Probably a topic for another blog, but those people in line at Dumb Starbucks looked a lot like the customers waiting to buy pot in Colorado.
Anyway, the comedian got his few minutes of national fame. The real Starbucks threatened legal action for trademark infringement, and the news vans rolled away to the next story - like seven year olds on a soccer field enthusiastically chasing a ball. Dumb Starbucks is gone.
Yes there is dumb in all this. We are all getting very good at pointing it out. With about seven billion people to share the planet with, I'm sure that just about anything I do can be considered dumb by someone.
Write a weblog? Have an oatmeal breakfast? Walk my dog at three in the afternoon? Definitely someone is out there that doesn't like any of that.
What's different now from any other time is that the internet provides a lot more leverage to express that opinion, however dumb it may be.
I'll continue giving business to my local Starbucks, even though lately I have seen a few changes. They have remodeled. Taken away the comfy chairs and put in only one bathroom. Now that is dumb. But in the end, smart people with $4 for a fancy drink will decide.
Scenes and stories like this are too boring and too many for the internet news. I get that. But do we really have to read about this silly concocted event of the moment from a few days ago: Dumb Starbucks?
It seems a local comedian in Los Angeles thought that people paying $4 for a fancy coffee drink was dumb. So he opened up a store (although it turned out later not to really be one) giving away free coffee. All this under the familiar green logo and the banner Dumb Starbucks.
Because some people stood in line for a long time and waited for their free "dumb coffee" the news vans rolled and set up for another internet news story. I suppose this might have gone on just as easily in the past when we only had the 5 and 11 o'clock TV news.
Probably a topic for another blog, but those people in line at Dumb Starbucks looked a lot like the customers waiting to buy pot in Colorado.
Anyway, the comedian got his few minutes of national fame. The real Starbucks threatened legal action for trademark infringement, and the news vans rolled away to the next story - like seven year olds on a soccer field enthusiastically chasing a ball. Dumb Starbucks is gone.
Yes there is dumb in all this. We are all getting very good at pointing it out. With about seven billion people to share the planet with, I'm sure that just about anything I do can be considered dumb by someone.
Write a weblog? Have an oatmeal breakfast? Walk my dog at three in the afternoon? Definitely someone is out there that doesn't like any of that.
What's different now from any other time is that the internet provides a lot more leverage to express that opinion, however dumb it may be.
I'll continue giving business to my local Starbucks, even though lately I have seen a few changes. They have remodeled. Taken away the comfy chairs and put in only one bathroom. Now that is dumb. But in the end, smart people with $4 for a fancy drink will decide.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
American Idle
These protest signs - I guess you call them - appear around the Phoenix area on occasion. Some sort of dispute between management and labor exists, I suppose. The "Sam Fox" on this sign is a successful restaurant entrepreneur ( Fox Restaurants Concepts) who hires good people and contributes to the local economy.
I've been to several of his eateries around Scottsdale. They are all very good, with excellent wait staff and competitive pricing. Some have gone out of business, but I saw a new one open up the other day.
The young woman with green hair in this photo does not work for Fox Restaurants, to my knowledge. She is either employed by or volunteers for a group that organizes Shame On protests outside of local businesses.
I haven't seen a picket line in years and as far as I can tell, this is some sort of community organizing that has replaced it.
Jay Leno's Curtain Call
Jay Leno has left The Tonight Show and I'm very sorry to see him go. One of the first times I ever saw his stand-up routine, he was a guest of Johnny Carson and delivered this classic description of a difference between men and women. A friend of mine saw it, too and we both had a good laugh over it at the time:
Had a chance to meet him a few years ago at the Rock Store in Malibu. It's a breakfast place and I was with my son on a motorcycle trip through California.
He is an extremely friendly guy - very down to earth and I was grateful to him for a photo. Hopefully Jimmy Fallon will continue that tradition of class and respect for many years to come.
Every woman thinks the Three Stooges are stupid. Seriously. They do not understand the humor. But you could take a guy with a Ph.D in Nuclear Physics from MIT, and he will always laugh when Moe hits Curly in the head with a shovel.
Had a chance to meet him a few years ago at the Rock Store in Malibu. It's a breakfast place and I was with my son on a motorcycle trip through California.
He is an extremely friendly guy - very down to earth and I was grateful to him for a photo. Hopefully Jimmy Fallon will continue that tradition of class and respect for many years to come.
Subway Sandwiches and Those Chemicals
The Subway fast-food chain has decided to remove one ingredient from their bread recipes because, for whatever reason, that same ingredient is used to make yoga-mats. The bubble-headed bleach blondes on the five o'cock news had a field day with their yuck-comments over this story.
A little perspective: The airplanes I have flow in the last twenty years have a fire-detection system that works extremely well. Many years ago there used to be a lot of false alarms indicating engine fires that were not really there. Protocol is for the engine to be shut down and and a fire suppressant to be released into the engine.
These false alarms rarely happen any more because modern sensors are made with materials called eutectic salts. Without going all periodic table (because I can't) these salts help measure both temperature and change in electrical resistance to detect a real fire.
So Subway uses salt in it's products like I do in my very safe airplane! Is there a yuck factor here? Not really. Whatever it was that was in yoga mats and helped bread rise is gone now. So are we better off now? I have no idea.
But it is funny how we run away from things when the news story sounds odd or the late-night comedians have a few laughs over the story of the day.
A little perspective: The airplanes I have flow in the last twenty years have a fire-detection system that works extremely well. Many years ago there used to be a lot of false alarms indicating engine fires that were not really there. Protocol is for the engine to be shut down and and a fire suppressant to be released into the engine.
These false alarms rarely happen any more because modern sensors are made with materials called eutectic salts. Without going all periodic table (because I can't) these salts help measure both temperature and change in electrical resistance to detect a real fire.
So Subway uses salt in it's products like I do in my very safe airplane! Is there a yuck factor here? Not really. Whatever it was that was in yoga mats and helped bread rise is gone now. So are we better off now? I have no idea.
But it is funny how we run away from things when the news story sounds odd or the late-night comedians have a few laughs over the story of the day.
A Beautiful San Diego Sunset
Captured a few weeks ago with our beautiful friend, Annelene. She's got a little fight going on with cancer right now and we wish her and Bill the best moving forward.
Thermapen
I am a guy that loves the gadgets. Last week one arrived on my doorstep and is now one of the most useful things I have ever bought on the internet:
It is called a Thermapen and is manufactured in Utah by a company called Thermaworks.
There are plenty of web reviews already out there on the product. My favorite TV Chef, Alton Brown, mentioned it during a published interview, so I decided to try one. It is a basic probe type thermometer that uses more precise and quicker-reading technology to measure food temperature.
It comes with both a signed calibration certificate and an amazingly readable user's manual - in one language! No California chemical or death may occur warnings in any of the literature can be found. Just how to use the thing and how much you will love it in the kitchen or on the backyard grill - which I do.
I can't remember the last time I ever read an entire owner's manual. One funny part was a gentle suggestion to not take the Thermapen to your local steak restaurant and test the grilled porterhouse that just landed on your table. The food has most-likely already cooled below it's peak temperature back in the kitchen.
Don't get food poisoned or eat a dried out steak! Check this thing out.
It is called a Thermapen and is manufactured in Utah by a company called Thermaworks.
There are plenty of web reviews already out there on the product. My favorite TV Chef, Alton Brown, mentioned it during a published interview, so I decided to try one. It is a basic probe type thermometer that uses more precise and quicker-reading technology to measure food temperature.
It comes with both a signed calibration certificate and an amazingly readable user's manual - in one language! No California chemical or death may occur warnings in any of the literature can be found. Just how to use the thing and how much you will love it in the kitchen or on the backyard grill - which I do.
I can't remember the last time I ever read an entire owner's manual. One funny part was a gentle suggestion to not take the Thermapen to your local steak restaurant and test the grilled porterhouse that just landed on your table. The food has most-likely already cooled below it's peak temperature back in the kitchen.
Don't get food poisoned or eat a dried out steak! Check this thing out.
"Children" and Guns
This story appeared on Fox News' website a couple of weeks ago:
I looked a little more into the story. That is, I went to the Yale School of Medicine website and found this further explanation:
So the vast majority of these 'children' are actually 15-19 year olds. Not really children by any contemporary definition.
I suppose Leventhal is correct when he says that his findings reveal the need for more gun safety education. When will his team get on the road to Chicago and set up classes for the Gangster Disciples, or the Latin Kings, or the Aryan Nation?
Here is a link to the entire published study:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/01/22/peds.2013-1809.full.pdf
20 CHILDREN A DAY ADMITTED TO HOSPITAL FOR GUN INJURIES
Every day, gun injuries send 20 children and teenagers to the hospital in the United States.
A new study from Yale University, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that 7,391 younger patients are hospitalized each year as a result of a firearm injury – and 453 of these patients (around 6 percent) ultimately die from their injuries.
Assault accounted for the majority of the injuries, but other injuries were caused by gun accidents. The most common types of injuries included open wounds, fractures and internal injuries of the thorax, abdomen or pelvis.
According to the study’s authors, their findings reveal the need for more education about gun safety in the U.S.
"These data highlight the toll of gun-related injuries that extends beyond high-profile cases, and those children and adolescents who die before being hospitalized. Pediatricians and other health care providers can play an important role in preventing these injuries through counseling about firearm safety, including safe storage," said Dr. John Leventhal, a professor at Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study.
I looked a little more into the story. That is, I went to the Yale School of Medicine website and found this further explanation:
About 84 percent of these shootings involved teens aged 15 to 19, and two-thirds of those were related to assaults. While the study's database does not provide specifics, Leventhal said it's natural to assume that gang violence explains some of these gunshot injuries.
So the vast majority of these 'children' are actually 15-19 year olds. Not really children by any contemporary definition.
I suppose Leventhal is correct when he says that his findings reveal the need for more gun safety education. When will his team get on the road to Chicago and set up classes for the Gangster Disciples, or the Latin Kings, or the Aryan Nation?
Here is a link to the entire published study:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/01/22/peds.2013-1809.full.pdf
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