CapitalistImperialistPig

I bought my copy at a public lecture by the author, Janna Levin.  She cuts a striking figure on stage,  trim and athletic looking in a black leather suit above dramatically high heels, pacing restlessly as she speaks.  Her story is dramatic: the first direct detection of gravitational waves.  Face to face, she is a tiny image of concentrated energy.  I find it easy to imagine that one career is a bit too small to contain this astrophysics professor, author and artist. Einstein's paper predicting gravitational waves was published in 1916, but their first direct detection needed to wait almost exactly 100 years.   Black Hole Blues, and Other Songs from Outer Space , is mostly the story of the building of the giant instruments that aimed to find Einstein's gravitational waves. Why did it take so long?  Because gravity is a very weak force - the electrical force between two protons is about a trillion-trillion-trillion times as strong as the elect...

I really hate the rope-a-dope defense the US spent much of the game in. Although they couldn't manage to finish, I thought the French played better overall. US defence was pretty good though, and the US goalie got lots of practice in.

OK, I only made it through the first 90 minutes of the debate so far - I'm old and need my sleep. Most annoying thing - candidates blabbing endlessly after their time is up.  My cure - either shut off candidates mike after their time is up or allot each candidate the same time at the beginning and shut off their mike after they used up their time.  Also, just shut off Chuck Todd's mike. Overall impression: see title.  Much is promised, details obscure. Kamala Harris and Bernie probably the most effective, but I don't trust Harris and hate the thought of Bernie being the candidate.  Joe wasn't terrible, but he and Bernie are too damn old. Williamson was actually interesting, and Mayor Pete was more concrete than most.  Yang had an interesting point about jobs and robots but was otherwise the invisible man.  He and the others can go home - don't call us, and don't expect us to call you.

The soccer hooligans. Or holliganettes, as they are more technically known. After England's devastating 3-0 win over Norway, drunken mobs of moms and preteen girls took to the streets of Le Havre, burning and looting wherever they went.  Some were armed with Nerf versions of baseball and cricket bats and plastic water bottles. The local gendarmerie were overwhelmed.  Some were seen bloody and weeping in the streets. A few old timers said that it was the worst thing they had seen since the war. Locals blamed the Brits.

I almost felt sorry for Eric Trump, who got spit on by a waitress.  I don't approve of spitting on people, public figures or no, though I do sympathize with the motivation.* But Eric, come on!  He's practically the most obscure Trump, and certainly the most picked on by the likes of Colbert.  There have to be more deserving Trumps. *Full disclosure:  I did once spit at a parked (and empty) car with an offensive bumper sticker.  No harm was done to car, bumper, bumper sticker or street, but I do feel some shame about the whole thing.

I've now looked at a few of the reactions by the media and am totally unimpressed.  In my opinion, nobody looked great and nobody looked very bad, except Tim Ryan, who got gutted by Tulsi Gabbard for his ill-considered blather about needing to "stay engaged" in Afghanistan.  His weak comeback that if we let the Taliban thrive, they would fly planes at our towers again was destroyed when Gabbard pointed out that the Taliban didn't attack us, it was al Qaeda, and they came from Saudi Arabia, not Afghanistan. Nobody in the media elite seemed to find this interesting in the least.  The questions the moderators asked were not as stupid as those we have seen in past debates, but they weren't very pointed either.  Washington Governor Inslee, running on climate change, was challenged by somebody who pointed out that carbon taxes had failed in his state as well as in France and Australia. Nobody talked about the cost of any of the extravagant programs proposed - probab...

It's World Cup time, so it's time for the next edition of CIP's ideas for fixing soccer.  (Actually the games I've seen have been very exciting). 1)Keep the damn time on the scoreboard clock.  I mean really. 2)Replace the ridiculous penalty shot shootouts with a seven on seven overtime. 3)Get rid of penalty shots altogether.  Replace with hockey style time in the penalty box. 4)Experiment with replacing the throw in with a kick in.  (Pele's suggestion). 5)Replace the stupid group and knockout system with a seven round Swiss System tournament. This could eliminate the need to play off ties.  Each team plays seven games and winner has highest score after seven rounds.