Santa Claus and his rocket sleigh.
Robert Maddox builds engines with an astonishing 1000 pounds of thrust, making them the largest (and most insane) pulsejet engines in the world.
No reindeer required for this jet-powered beauty.pic.twitter.com/lDECKSTXUj
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 11, 2023
In, hopefully, before the rumors get out of hand — report from last night:
Wow. Just saw this on the late local news here in the tristate. An SUV in Biden's motorcade was hit as he was leaving his campaign HQs in DE. Biden freezes at the sound. Secret Service, guns out, surround the car, but it takes a long time. Not good.pic.twitter.com/v6gpddw49e
— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) December 18, 2023
Per CNN, “Biden safe after car crashes into motorcade vehicle at campaign headquarters”:
A car unintentionally struck an SUV in President Joe Biden’s motorcade Sunday night, causing damage to both vehicles and appearing to startle the president as he left his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.
The US Secret Service confirmed that a vehicle in the motorcade was hit by another car as Biden got into his car. There was “no protective interest associated with this event,” Secret Service spokesperson Steve Kopek told CNN in a statement, meaning that the crash was not intentional. It had been raining heavily in Wilmington…
The crash caused a loud bang on the street, and Biden looked over to see the commotion. US Secret Service surrounded the silver sedan that caused the crash, telling the male driver to put his hands up, according to pool reporters traveling with Biden.
The impacted SUV wasn’t the president’s. Secret Service personnel escorted the president to his vehicle, where first lady Jill Biden was already inside.
The Bidens had been visiting the president’s 2024 campaign headquarters, greeting staffers at a holiday happy hour. It marked the first time the president has visited since staffers began working out of the Wilmington office over the summer.
The MAGAts, of course, are already sharing ‘false flag’ phantasies.
NEW: Two weeks ago, the White House threw the first-ever holiday reception for digital creators.
The combined social media audience of those in attendance approached 100 million followers. ??https://t.co/nfPnajJgDF
— Kyle Tharp (@kylewilsontharp) December 15, 2023
interesting move from the WH team which has long focused on leveraging influencer accounts’ reach going back to the campaign
(Some of this strategy came about because Biden doesn’t always “trend” or “go viral”). https://t.co/uIfoQ3hGkK— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) December 15, 2023
That is actually a great question they answered in the interview – for many of these creators, most of whom are non-political, there is very little audience overlap. Whoever follows someone from Dance Moms on TikTok may not follow someone from the Lincoln Project on Twitter!
— Kyle Tharp (@kylewilsontharp) December 15, 2023
Props to the gamer dorks:
#Today in 1979, the LEGO character—known simply as a “toy figure”—was patented.
Complete with movable arms and legs, it suddenly introduced an entirely new dimension to the franchise.
Faceless and following a basic human form at first, the toy figures soon acquired identities… pic.twitter.com/yZBxSqUwrD
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 18, 2023
#Today in 1987, the first Final Fantasy adventure game in a long series was released.
The franchise has since branched into other video game genres, as well as branching into other media, including films, anime, manga, and novels.pic.twitter.com/q23ANVH6Yg
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 18, 2023
On The Road – Elma – Christmas Past in Wisconsin
Suzanne
Interesting piece about the decline of youth football.
No surprise: increasingly a red thing.
raven
Their guns were holstered.
raven
@Suzanne: Go Dawgs!
Baud
I wonder if the Secret Service has to exchange insurance information.
Suzanne
@Baud: Can you imagine getting in a fender-bender on a rainy night and then immediately having guns in your face?! Lord. What a freakout.
dmsilev
Wonder how many millions (billions?) of those Lego figurines are out there. Watching. Waiting.
Joey Maloney
https://twitter.com/jdpoc/status/1736416163318411550#
THIS DAY in 1964 singer Dusty Springfield was deported from South Africa for refusing to play to segregated audiences, after four days of Security Forces questioning over her political beliefs – without legal representation. She stuck to her ethics.
moops
Robert also has pulse jet powered go-karts that are just as crazy to see in operation. It is just nuts to see nothing between the driver and that red hot manifold driving huge pulses of thrust. one day that material is going to fail and fuel and red hot metal are going to go flying everywhere.
oldster
1000 lbs of thrust is very small potatoes for a jet engine.
Granted, it’s a lot for the back of a sleigh, and a lot for a home tinkerer.
Dunno about pulse-jets in particular. Is that what the V1 used?
p.a.
Slow SecServ response?!?!
Not really kidding when I say USG should de-archive the de-Nazification protocols and apply them to FBI, Secret Service, CIA…
Not that we completed the work the first time around, although I can see the need for a functioning, anti-Soviet West Germany at the time.
Rusty
@Suzanne: I’ve had several battles with my teenage son about playing. His friends (whose parents are almost all conservatives) play and it’s also a sport that gets more attention. I’ve been an absolute no, and it helps we are in New England where participation is low. My daughter in med school called in a panic when she heard he was pushing to play again this year, almost pleading with us to keep saying no. Not a single doctor of her neurology rotation thinks anyone should play.
Nukular Biskits
Good morning, y’all.
I don’t understand the “Not good ” in the second tweet.
dmsilev
@oldster: Yes, the V-1 used a pulse-jet. Wiki says that the thrust was around 660 lb, so this contraption does substantially better.
Soprano2
@Nukular Biskits: She thinks the response time from the Secret Service agents was slow, and it would have been bad if this were an attack on the Bidens.
Ken
@dmsilev: This XKCD projection was correct. The LEGO people have outnumbered us since 2019, at which time the company had made 7.9 billion of them.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Interesting thing about the V-1 is that as a weapon, it was remarkably easy to counter. It was slow. It had a very distinct sound in the air because of the pulse jet. British aircraft didn’t bother to shoot it down. Instead, they’d fly alongside it, put their wingtip under the wing of the V-1 and flip it upside down. That would discombobulate the gyro and it would crash to the ground.
Trivia Man
@Rusty: I hope his sister can talk to him, maybe she’s cooler than a parent and more persuasive.
frosty
@Suzanne: Thanks for that link. Thinking about the Ravens game I saw last night, I think a lot of the best moments would still be there with flag football. The passing game wouldn’t change much; pass rushes and “sacks” would still be there; so would pass interference. Running and blocking would probably involve less contact but Lamar Jackson’s juking and scrambles would still be a factor.It might take a decade or two to get to the NFL but it wouldn’t ruin the game, at least for the fans who don’t watch just for the hits.
It would be great if they would get rid of the USAF flyovers and the jingoism associated with the NFL though.
ETA: Flame away!
suzanne
@Rusty: None of my Spawns’ friends play. Many of them play soccer and they idolize Messi, Mbappe, etc.
frosty
@suzanne: My kids played soccer. My older son played lacrosse, which is a contact sport with checking and helmets. but a much lower level than tackle football.
Another Scott
I’m glad nobody was hurt.
Meanwhile, … BoltsMag.org:
I don’t know the answer. I get that building trust is difficult, and people don’t like others telling them how to do their jobs, and all the rest. Here in NoVA it has taken decades to do relatively simple things like have a civilian [sic!!] review panel be another check on internal police investigations of notorious cases.
(Police are civilians, too. We need to fight back on the twisting of this language into them vs us and the lumping civilian police (and fire fighters!) in with the military.)
But nothing is going to change for the better unless police and sheriff departments are forced to actually change for the better.
Similarly with the rot at the Secret Service, FBI, ICE, etc., etc. Change needs to happen and it shouldn’t take decades to see progress.
This is another reason why local and state elections are so important, and why we need to keep the monsters out of office for many cycles. Progress is slow, and monsters can quickly damage that progress.
Grr…,
Scott.
Yarrow
@frosty:
When did all that start? Was it after 9/11? Was it always there? I don’t remember it but maybe it’s just me not paying attention.
Matt McIrvin
There were Lego figures before the modern minifig.
The first ones I remember were built to a larger scale, and were just heads and shoulders with jointed poseable arms–the idea was that you could build the body out of bricks. They had faces and hair/hat pieces. Lego had a series of dollhouse-like interior playsets built to that scale.
The first ones built to minifig scale didn’t have faces or jointed arms and legs. I had a generic brick set that included a couple of them.
Ohio Mom
Yes, the Secret Service agents are extremely slow and unresponsive in that video. Also bad, Biden looks like he is doddering, though he reacts more quickly than the agents do.
I get the doddering, he’s probably lost in thought because he has a gazillion things to think about — you can tell it took a moment for him to process the question about his polling, which he answered on-point with the proper amount of irritation,
And it’s dark and potentially slippery, as a newbie old lady, I walk slowly in those conditions as well. I just worry about every little thing that is going to be used against him. Each thing by itself, not much, it’s the culminative effect.
Princess
@Another Scott: police may be civilians but they don’t think of themselves that way — they think of themselves as a caste, as separate from the rest of us, the same way Catholic priests think of themselves as set apart from the laity. In Chicago, they all (at least the white ones) live in the same small neighbourhood past Midway airport, in the furthest distant corner they can, and still be employable as Chicago cops. I don’t know how to fix this but it’s their attitude that needs to change, not ours.
Yarrow
Here’s some good news! Link.
prostratedragon
@Yarrow: WWII, at least as far as the anthem playing is concerned.
catclub
CNN says Trump speech hits ‘spine-tingling new low’ when it should be “racist Nazi catchphrases’
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
Of course! They’ve got to protect their kids from any suggestion that it’s OK to be gay or trans, but brain damage? Sign the kids up!
Tribalism is a dangerous drug.
One thing that startled me was the mention of the drop in participation rates of 6-12 year olds in tackle football. I didn’t even know that was a thing – when I was a kid back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, elementary schools in Fairfax County didn’t have sports teams, and tackle football wasn’t an intramural sport either. There were baseball Little League teams, but even they didn’t start until around age 10 or 11, and I don’t recall any analogous football program for kids. Besides, the junior highs had tackle football.
Anyway, IMHO, kids that young shouldn’t be playing tackle football, period. Let them wait ’til middle school to start developing brain damage. Thank goodness the kiddo never had any interest in team sports whatsoever.
Ken
And just like that, the complete storyboard for the “LEGO Frankenstein” movie popped into my head.
suzanne
@frosty: As bad as this sounds…. I get the impression. that football is increasingly a “low-class” thing.
I also wonder if there’s some “aspirational” body type differences at play.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
And your preferred term for “people who aren’t law enforcement officers” is?
ETA:
Indeed. And I’m glad to see you linking to BoltsMag.org, which has the purpose of focusing on local races. They’re good.
Omnes Omnibus
@lowtechcyclist: People?
Matt McIrvin
Based on what I saw of Biden’s motorcade and the associated street closings when I randomly encountered it in Seattle, you’d have to be really, really drunk or high to run into it by accident.
Steeplejack
“Biden freezes at the sound.” “Appearing to startle the president.”
C’mon, man. Judging by that one video, Biden seemed to react the same way anybody would—he stopped and looked over to see what was going on.
“The crash caused a loud bang on the street, and Biden looked over to see the commotion.”
Yeah, let’s go with that. Maybe put that at the top.
Can’t tell about the “takes a long time” thing. Is the Secret Service supposed to be like local cops and instantly start blazing away?
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: That was so obvious, I laughed out loud!
Matt McIrvin
@Yarrow: The big patriotic production with flyovers and such, I remember being a post-9/11 thing. Playing the national anthem at sports events seems to go back to the 1920s or so, which is when a lot of our kind of creepy patriotic performance art popped up as a nervous response to mass immigration.
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
And cops aren’t?
We give police a great deal of power and authority that the rest of us don’t have. They can use force in ways that would put the rest of us in jail. There is a distinct separation of function here. If ‘civilian’ is the only term we have to say ‘this person isn’t a LEO’ then that term is going to get used for that purpose.
My next-door neighbor is in the Air Force. But away from Andrews, or wherever else his service takes him, he’s more of a civilian than the local police. I’m perfectly comfortable with using ‘civilian’ as distinct from ‘police’ until someone comes up with better language.
ETA: Since this is where we started, tell me how we know what sort of people are on that “people review panel.”
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Redshift
@Yarrow: Some other good news – I saw on BlueSky yesterday that content is soon going to be accessible without a login, so we may have a usable alternative to Xitter for embedded content. (But ironically, since the announcement was on BlueSky, I don’t have a link…)
Betty Cracker
@Another Scott: I don’t know what the answer is either. Getting cops out of the traffic enforcement business might be a good first step. Maybe create a traffic control force that is a standalone agency. Lots of piddling shit like rolling stops that caused no accidents, expired tags, light out, etc., could be automated — traffic camera captures it and a citation goes out via mail.
Seems like a lot of police beat-downs start over traffic stops for minor infractions. With that off their plates, maybe cops could get better at solving crimes. The solve rates are horrendous in many places.
Omnes Omnibus
I didn’t say that. Nor did I imply that.
Paul in KY
@Yarrow: It really ramped up post-9/11 (IMO).
JML
@suzanne: I dunno if it’s really class thing, per se. Culturally, American football has an outsized importance in the South, where college football is gigantic. but one of the things that’s hurt it in other parts of the country is cost. You see families steering their kids away from football to some of the other sports simply because football is one of the more expensive to play. It costs more to put on the games, to equip the kids, etc than say soccer.
Youth sports in general are struggling in a lot of areas: participation numbers are down, it’s hard to find volunteer coaches, and it’s even harder to find officials. Officiating youth sports used to be a solid job for teenagers and nice side gig for adults, but increasingly no one wants to deal with it. I reffed for a decade (soccer) and it was one of my better summer jobs: paid pretty well and i was in fantastic shape from it. But it’s stressful and a grind, and eventually you get pretty exhausted from parents screeching at you about how you’re ruining their kid’s life by calling them for a foul in a U-14 rec league game.
Every time I’ve considered getting back into the game to pick up a little extra cash, get some exercise, have a little fun…I get a reminder that it’s not actually going to be any fun. Sigh.
Geminid
@rikyrah: Good morning! How’s the weather where you are looking for Christmas? I guess it will be warmer than last year.
Betty Cracker
@suzanne:
I sure hope this doesn’t become a common trope associated with liberals. Dems have enough bullshit elitism stereotypes to overcome.
Matt McIrvin
If police consider themselves a branch of the military they should at least be subject to military rules of engagement–I’ve seen soldiers observe more than once that police don’t seem to observe nearly as many rules as they have to when interacting with civilians.
Steeplejack
@Ohio Mom:
“You can tell it took a moment for him to process the question about his polling.” Even this sounds like a symptom of the “doddering Biden” meme. Maybe he was thinking something like “Should I bother answering this idiotic question?”
Alison Rose
I hesitate to even share this because I know it might put up the bat(shit)signal for a certain someone, but hey hey, what’s up, Pope?
I mean…yeah, that’s not the most enlightened way to discuss it, but still. Pretty interesting.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist:
“People who aren’t cops.”
It really depends on the context, doesn’t it?
What’s wrong with calling the independent police review panel the “independent police review panel”?
We don’t call people who aren’t jailors “inmates”. We would be outraged if they tried to use that language with us.
Othering is a big problem. We need to recognize that the language used affects how problems are addressed (or not).
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
coin operated
@frosty:
I agree with every word of this. I think it was Barry Sanders that said he started playing flag football with the philosophy “if they can’t grab your flag, they can’t tackle you”
Geo Wilcox
@Another Scott: My daughter was a police cadet at her college. She did it for two years and quit saying she could not stand the Us vs. Them attitude of almost every cadet and police officer.
When I was a kid my parents were friends with a police officer’s wife. He rarely said anything at any of the parties they attended and always looked at everyone like thy were going to attack him. He was always ON.
The Us vs. Them comes from THEM not us.
Suzanne
@JML: Both in PGH and PHX, I see my kids and their friends involved a great deal in youth sports, and there was definitely a class divide. Club sports were pretty common for the kids from wealthier families, to the point that a lot of kids whose parents couldn’t afford to get them into club sports wouldn’t make the public school teams. My cousin has his kids in club soccer, the eldest is on a competitive traveling team…. and he says that it basically takes all of their disposable income. But the sports are, like, soccer, volleyball, hockey, gymnastics. Seems like no one has their kids in football, softball, etc.
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes you did. I asked for a term that meant “people who aren’t law enforcement officers,” and you answered, “people.” OK, then LEOs are not people.
Look, there’s a difference between the (a) set of people who aren’t law enforcement officers, and (b) some larger set that includes both the set of people who aren’t law enforcement officers, and some or all of the set of people who are law enforcement officers. Even you know that.
You thought I was angling for (b) rather than (a)? No, you didn’t. Stop pretending you did.
Geminid
@Alison Rose: Someone said, “Lighten up Francis.” So he did.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
That would be fine with me. I’d just say that law enforcement officers are non-civilian but in a very different way than persons in the military are. If the police pull over my next-door neighbor for speeding, he’s the civilian in that encounter, even though he’s in the USAF.
Again, different nomenclature is welcome.
Yarrow
@Suzanne:
When did traveling teams become a thing? I don’t remember them when I was a kid but maybe I didn’t know about them. Seemed like everyone just did sports at school and sometimes through other places like the YMCA.
A friend’s nieces are on traveling teams for softball. They’re enough different in age that they play on different teams. Every single weekend the parents split up – dad takes one daughter one place, mom takes the other daughter another place. They have to pay for lodging, plus other travel expenses (meals, gas) and then team-related expenses. It’s so expensive. And they aren’t even that good! My friend goes to some of the games and all I hear is they lost by a lot.
The eldest is nearing high school and loves softball. My friend says if she doesn’t play on the traveling team she won’t have enough experience to make the high school team. That seems like a big expense just to get your kid a chance to make a team. Seems unfair to poorer families.
Another Scott
Speaking of sportsball, the owner of the DC Wizards and Capitols has been wanting $600M from the city to renovate their arena in Chinatown. The city is offering $500M and talks are continuing.
There was just an announcement by Gov. Fuzzy Vest in the last few days that he has an agreement to move them to Alexandria instead.
You’ll be shocked, shocked to learn that the “no cost to taxpayers” deal will probably cost more than $1.3B to taxpayers instead.
(Emphasis added.)
All kinds of public money would be needed because the Metro station there is far too small, traffic on US-1 is already a nightmare there, etc., etc.
Here’s hoping they stay in DC. They should make Ted pay for the bulk of it – he can afford it.
Grr…,
Scott.
Suburban Mom
@lowtechcyclist: New Jersey has both Pop Warner and PAL youth leagues that play tackle football. My son played, thankfully not for long. Parents do seem to be more aware of the risks now, but football is still very important and visible in many school districts.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
We do in the context of a prison.
What’s wrong is, I’d have to go ask what ‘independent’ means here. Maybe the police in Fauquier County have gone off the rails in some manner, and an independent review panel composed of police from other counties and independent cities, and maybe or maybe not some non-LEO persons, has been put together to review what’s going on there.
I agree that there’s an ‘othering’ problem with the police. But it’s not language, it’s the separation. Are there ‘beat cops’ anymore? Here and there, I guess, but they seem to be mostly a thing of the past, something out of novels by Steinbeck or Raymond Chandler. Instead, they’re in their cruisers, largely interacting with each other rather than the rest of us. I don’t know if fixing that would completely fix the ‘othering,’ but it would have to help, and it’s hard to see how you’d fix it without drastically reducing that separation.
Suzanne
@Yarrow:
It totally is. I remember when Spawn the Elder went out for volleyball in middle school. (He had been playing on a YMCA recreational team outside of school for, like, a year or so, one practice a week plus one game.) Over 100 kids tried out for each team, and the kids that made the team had been involved in competitive club teams with practice almost every day for years. And again, this is public school, albeit in an upper-middle-class area.
Youth sports are absolutely an axis of the culture of extreme parenting and kids whose families don’t have the cash or the time or the willingness to engage in that kind of lifestyle do not have the same kinds of opportunities. It’s bonkers…. I heard some of their friends’ parents talking about it like it was a financial investment, and that they expected their kids (in some cases, first graders) to get athletic scholarships to college. (Remember that the “Varsity Blues” scandal involved a lot of fake athletics.)
stinger
@lowtechcyclist: But couldn’t it be something as simple as “non-police”? We don’t speak of non-tap dancers or, to take another topic of this thread, non-football players, as civilians by contrast. We don’t even speak of “teachers” vs. “civilians” even though a lot of people would like to see armed teachers.
Maybe as an Army veteran I’m biased!
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
Fuck this blackmail. If sportsball teams can sign mid-to-upper nine figure contracts with players (one was mentioned here a few days ago), then they can afford to pay that much to renovate their facilities.
If they’re gonna pull the “if your taxpayers won’t pay to fix our stadium, we’ll move to a different city,” it’s time for the cities to say “have a nice time in [name of largest city that doesn’t have a franchise in that sport].”
Especially when it’s a top market like DC, the pickings just aren’t going to be that much better somewhere else. The city shouldn’t offer them anything. Hell, make them pay the city for the privilege of staying.
Geminid
One of Virginia’s up and coming Democrats, State Senator Aaron Rouse, is an ex-NFL player. Rouse was elected last year to the seat that Republican Jen Kiggans vacated after she beat Rep. Luria in the midterms. Then he won reelection last month.
I think Rouse is around 36 year’s old. With so much turnover in the Democratic caucus this year, Rouse’s half term earned him the seniority to be Chairman of the Privileges and Elections Committee next year.
Rouse was a local high school star who made it to the NFL, so he was already somewhat of a Virginia Beach hero when he first won office as a City Councilor. Rouse is also very bright and a good communicator, which helped him flip Jen Kiggans’ Senate seat. Being a Virginia Tech grad probably helped too; they seems to be a tight-knit bunch of alumni.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist:
I was going to say I encountered one when I was waiting for my wife outside of a Brazilian restaurant in Woburn, buuuut… judging from what later happened to that place, I suspect he was not just a beat cop but was actually investigating the place for human trafficking.
Jackie
No surprise:
Bet he sobered up in a quick hurry!
Yarrow
@Suzanne:
I wonder if going to college wasn’t so expensive if these kinds of sports teams would fade a bit too.
narya
@Suzanne: I’ve seen this from afar, and it makes me sad. On one hand, because I’m old, Title IX was barely in effect when I was in high school, so there weren’t many options (and I’m not a gifted athlete); on the other hand, over the years I’ve tried a half dozen different sports, just for the hell of it and the joy and challenge of trying something new. My younger nephew was recruited to a D1 school (that also has an excellent engineering program in his desired area), but was then cut; he’s better off for it. He still plays and enjoys sports, but this past summer he found an adult baseball league that limits how fast the pitches can be, and he’s gotten into disc golf. Much healthier than the previous experiences he’s had. It should be challenging and hard sometimes, but also FUN, damn it, especially for kids!
Matt McIrvin
@stinger: “Members of the general public” is a useful phrase.
lowtechcyclist
@stinger:
We speak of teachers v. students, teachers v. parents, teachers v. principals.
No, we speak of them as ‘spectators.’
Chief Oshkosh
@Betty Cracker: Yep. Get cops entirely out of the business of traffic control. They do a shitty job at it anyway. Of course, they do a shitty job at almost everything else, too, so…
It really is amazing how much money they soak up in relation to the extremely low performance level most often provided.
And they’re getting worse.
Dave
@lowtechcyclist: Citizen review board might be a better choice then civilian; it’s small thing in the larger picture but we really probably should address the us/them sheep/sheepdog/wolf attitude that is fairly ubiquitous in law enforcement. Mind you the use of civilian doesn’t cause me to lose any sleep but it can be better.
Wapiti
About the police/civilian thing:
In the US military, the various services have their law enforcement branches. In the Army, the police are called “Military Police”. They and the rest of the Army are called, variously, “soldiers” “military” and sometimes “troopers”. When I was in the service, I didn’t see a lot of us vs. them, except when the Enlisted Club (bar for junior soldiers, drinking age was 18) shut down at 1 am and the Air Force MPs had to get everyone out.
One of the differences between the civilian and military culture is (a) the military police are definitely subordinate to the chain of command and (b) the chain of command provides a lot of the coercive/corrective power that the police wield in civilian life.
Maybe we should just start calling the civilian police “Civilian Police”.
suzanne
@Yarrow:
Absolutely.
But we’ve managed to make everything more difficult, more competitive, and just more of a goddamn drag in this country. More people competing for the same amount of stuff. And looking for any advantage for themselves or their kids to get it.
I read somewhere that the quantity of college acceptances would be higher by some ludicrous percentage if they’d maintained the same admissions standards that they had in 1960. Same thing with houses…. more people as the population grew, quantity of houses didn’t go up fast enough to meet it. Etc etc etc.
Soprano2
@Geo Wilcox: My husband is kind of like this due to his military service. I don’t think he looks at everyone like they could attack him, but he’s hyperaware of his surroundings and has told me that almost anything can be used as a weapon if you’re creative enough. He’s thought about these things.
snoey
@Chief Oshkosh: Traffic control is crime control. Before I quit needing haircuts and started driving better cars I got pulled over regularly here in the Mass burbs. No ticket, just a checking out.
Tony Jay
@Steeplejack:
Did he sense the oncoming collision and throw himself in front of a nearby female aide?
Did he fling himself gracefully out of the car window and Gymkhana the face off driver of the other car?
Did he pull out a Presidential Uzi and blast away from the hip at potential snipers?
No? Then, sadly, this was not the day Joe Biden became President. /
Gvg
@frosty: soccer has “heading”. I do not think it is going to turn out to be any safer than football. No helmets so even though it may be less frequent, it is still dangerous. They can change the rules though.
The NFL and all the other levels could also change their rules.in fact I think they may eventually. Since it is pretty much a one country sport, I think the chances they could reach a consensus and change are higher than an international sport like soccer. But who knows. We haven’t really been here before.
lowtechcyclist
@Dave:
Yeah, that would be better.
Suzanne
@narya: Agreed. I absolutely support my kids playing sports, because I want them to burn off their energy and have a good time with their friends and learn some healthy habits. But I also am not willing to give up all of my weekends and my evenings after work and my money in this pursuit.
stinger
@lowtechcyclist: I like words, I like precision in language, but there’s not always a single nonhyphenated word to describe those who are not members of a given profession. I’m neither a student, a parent, nor an administrator, and I wish to compare “teachers” to the rest of us. Can’t I just say “non-teachers”?
Others here have suggested “people” and “members of the general public”. Yes, individuals employed in law enforcement may fall into those categories in other contexts, but when speaking of police and non-police, what’s wrong with “non-police” or “the general public”?
eclare
@lowtechcyclist:
I understand the brain injury risk. But a coworker who grew up low income in Houston said football kept him on a good path. He said without that who knew where he would be. So he balanced that with the CTE risk and said youth football was worth it.
Suzanne
@Gvg: From what I have seen from the Spawns’ teams, heading is not allowed on kids’ teams until they’re something like 15-16. I agree that it likely isn’t much safer than football, if at all. My niece got a pretty nasty concussion playing soccer in high school.
MisterForkbeard
A fantastic series I’ve been playing since 1991, and which (so far) reached its peak in 1994 with Final Fantasy VI. I don’t think anyone else has made a game like this since, with magic steampunk, a huge cast of characters, and a story emphasis on failure and continuing onward regardless.
Also, the soundtrack is just bangin’, even 30 years later. They made an orchestral version of part of the ending, and I love it: https://youtu.be/mshwZAiIjmM
Alison Rose
@Gvg: Also, there is very little padding in soccer, and so while it is intended to have less physical contact than American football, when there are collisions, sometimes it can be…….ick. Lemme just tell you, you never forget seeing someone’s leg get broken. YIKES.
snoey
@Suzanne: Delusional as well. You can’t fight the bell curve. SIL’s sister was a ranked D1 discus thrower. No amount of extra coaching and travel teams would get Maddie to that level.
frosty
@Suzanne: Athletic scholarships: big thing in Baltimore. The parental competition was lacrosse not baseball – the baseball parents were much more laid back. Lacrosse? Gotta get him into Boys Latin, then the scholarship to Hopkins!
My eldest played both one year and I thought college scholarship vs major league salary?? Play baseball!!!
(He went for lacrosse and was on his public HS team. No travel team nonsense for us either)
Gvg
@Yarrow: at least in the 80’s. Recruiting. I think it varied. A base near a big college football stadium that was popular in the community. Also bases like to try to make nice with the communities they are based in, not be in conflict. But it always seemed to me to be connected to recruiting so it probably went back to the end of the draft. Honestly, they have to do that. It’s sell patriotism and it’s great to join or have a draft. Which do you prefer.
Fair Economist
@suzanne:
Well, if you’re hoping to get your kid into an Ivy, you don’t want them to get CTE. This will feed forward into adult watching preferences because people are much more likely to be interested in sports they played as kids.
My local high school tried to address this with accelerometers in player’s helmets and if they got a hit that was “too hard” they had to sit out for a while. As a biologist and scientist, I immediately thought “how would they know what settings are needed or if this scheme even works?” (one hypothesis is that the problem is lot of low-impact collisions). Realistically, it will take thirty years to know if and how much this helps.
Suzanne
@snoey: Agreed. Like, my kids are normal people in this regard. They do fine at sports, but are never going to be superstars.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, ICYMI, there’s a recall (possible salmonella contamination) of various Quaker cereals and granola bars. I filled out the automated claim web form and got a confirmation that I’ll get the replacement coupons in 8 weeks.
Good thing we’re not living paycheck to paycheck and aren’t food insecure. Yet another example that it’s expensive to be poor in the USA… :-/
Grr…,
Scott.
eclare
@Yarrow:
It is very unfair.
Fair Economist
@frosty:
Supposedly, here in Orange County Southern California, it’s the youth baseball which is insanely competitive. When I was trying to find a group sport for my son I had two different parents warn me off baseball. (He ended up in flag football for 2 seasons.)
Gvg
@suzanne: Money and escape poverty have always been a part of sports especially the revenue sports. The wealthy that play are usually the sons or daughters of the previous successful athletes who were poor and made it. But it is somewhat middle class too. Wanting money and fame are really big factors. College scholarships are also almost the same thing.
I have met a few whose whole family were athletic football and the girls did track. Then it becomes just a habit.
Rusty
@Suzanne: This. And it’s been around for a while. A dozen years ago I got into a conversation at a party with s guy who turned out to be the tennis coach at the local public school in our relative upscale town outside of Rochester NY. He said the first day of tryouts he could almost guarantee who would make the team by just walking down the line of students and asking who was their private coach. It wasn’t just if you had a private coach, it was if you had one of the better private coaches that only took the better players. He thought it was nuts even though he had a great team. He thought there should be a place on the team for the kids who went down and banged the ball around at the public court when the weather is nice, but he didn’t have space on the team. You need wealthy parents to afford private coaches and year round court time, plus travel and tournament fees. College sports have become another place for the wealthy to get advantages for admissions.
Ksmiami
@Chief Oshkosh: by its nature, we’d all be better off if policing had either truly extensive training – including soft skills etc, or if it required a degree. Those requirements would root out a lot of bad candidates/ bullies hiding under the cover of law.
Suzanne
@Fair Economist: This is depressing: Wealthy Parents Are Shying Away From Football, But Not From Low-Concussion Sports
oldgold
As a boy and young man I participated in a lot of sports. I enjoyed them all.
Football was one of them. It was different than the others. The violent physical contact sets it apart. It tests you. It is not for everyone, but I gained a lot from the experience.
NotMax
Final has been a misnomer since day one.
Fair Economist
@Suzanne: I don’t find that depressing. American football is one of worst for concussions, behind only rugby and hockey, and CTE issues indicate there are additional problems with playing American Football beyond just concussions. Soccer and lacrosse are better, and soccer would be way better if they cut out heading, which would be pretty simple. So we need a little more education about rugby and hockey, but I think we’re making progress on saving young people’s brains.
I don’t care what helicopter parents fantasize about while picking their kids’ sports as long as their choices improve.
Suzanne
@Fair Economist: I find it depressing if parents aren’t genuinely concerned about the risk of head injuries, but are being more craven about it.
Subsole
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
But…but…my Superior German Engineering!
Subsole
@frosty:
Additional bonus: it would give performative masculinity panderers like Andrew Tate several dozen aneurysms.
Another Scott
@Princess: @Geo Wilcox:
Agreed that the “us vs them” is the police culture, not the rest of us othering them.
But the rest of us – the governments of the towns and cities and counties and all the rest – hire the cops and set the terms of employment. They control and set the culture. And if they can’t do that with the existing people in the police forces, then they need to change the people.
We’re the ones that have to force the change, because the cops aren’t going to do it by themselves.
Cheers,
Scott.
Marc
In the past 4 years Oakland lost the Warriors, Raiders, and now the Athletics mostly due to the city’s failure to offer up sufficient money to the owners for fancy new facilities. The sky hasn’t fallen, real estate prices remain high, we’re still stuck paying off the Coliseum, but the city has no new sports facility debt. We do have a new soccer club and a minor league baseball team is on the way. I’d say this is win-win for all except certain tribal sports fanatics.
Subsole
@MisterForkbeard:
Ah, a man of culture.
6 was my first FF. And lord what an intro to the series. So many interesting twists and turns. So many funny characters. Probably the best translation work I have seen in a game. I don’t think they ever quite recaptured that magic.
And yes, the music is unadulterated fire
PS: Did you save Cid? Did you find Shadow?
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: I walk on a trail frequently that used to be part of a railroad spur. Lots of broken rocks everywhere. Otherwise known as Thag’s favourite weapon circa 1 million BC.
dirge
In theory, sure. In practice, well…
I vaguely recall a mayor in some Long Island town suggested a smaller budget increase than the cops requested, then shortly after resigned and fled the state. See also, basically everything about how the LAPD and NYPD relate to their respective governments. There’s no shortage of examples all over the country of police effectively holding their communities hostage and dictating terms.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: The uzi with presidential seal monograms/inscribing would be pretty badass.
MisterForkbeard
@Subsole: The first time I played I didn’t save Cid or Shadow, didn’t think it was possible. After I found out (on a BBS, that’s how old I am) I went back and redid it again afterwards with play#2, and I now I do every time.
Did you play the new remaster? They did the music a real solid in it. The 25-minute ending theme is pure awesome.
Tony Jay
@Paul in KY:
Spoiled by the knowledge that there’s almost certainly an official “Warmest Greetings from The White House and Heartfelt Thanks For Your Kind Gift’ card out there that Trump sent to the NRA with a photo of him doing a Chuck Norris stance with monogrammed Uzis in front of the Resolute Desk.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: God forbid he ever gets back in, but if he does, you know he’ll have him a couple made up like that & will then stiff whomever did the work. Secret Service will ensure blanks always loaded in them, or no magazines in them.
Subsole
@MisterForkbeard:
Same here.
I was stunned when Cid lived on my replay. Learned about Shadow from a friend, who read it in a gaming mag (as long as we’re talking about old school…)
I didn’t play the remaster, just because I was a little afraid they wouldn’t do it justice. May have to give it a try.
Subsole
@Tony Jay:
Yet somewhat rescued by the certain knowledge that the incomparable ignoramus is holding them upside down…
Subsole
@Paul in KY:
I am beginning to doubt that the SecServ will be able to muster that level of competence after a couple years under Captain Calamitous and his entourage.
satby
So this happened a bit north of me:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/winter-weather/breaking-pileup-reported-on-i-94-in-michigan-amid-snow/1604814
Edit: they’re saying unclear if there’s injuries or fatalities, but one car is completely crushed, so hard to imagine those occupants survived.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
Probably a dead thread, but I work at my store’s cash office/customer service desk and we give people a refund for recalled products purchased at our chain. Maybe you could get a refund sooner rather than later? Might be worth asking your supermarket
Roberto el oso
@Steeplejack: yes, I was thinking he looked relatively calm rather than ‘startled’. What should have been his reaction? To throw himself into a fetal position on the sidewalk? Which would have set off an entirely different but equally negative comments.
Another Scott
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Thanks.
I bought the 2 boxes at Target a couple of months ago and no longer have the receipt. It’s not a big deal for me to wait, and really don’t want to bother the harried staff and try to make a return under these circumstances.
(Rather than throwing the boxes in the trash, I sprinkled them outside to feed the critters. I figure they’re used to determining if stuff on the ground is good to eat or not.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
Gotcha. I get that, especially this time of year. I know that from personal experience lol
I’m sure the critters appreciated the food
artem1s
@suzanne:
Up until the early 90’s the only undergraduate admission standards at Ohio state universities was that you had to have a high school diploma or GED. The state actively encouraged kids to get at least some undergrad classes before entering the workforce full time. After federal support and Pell grants were slashed by Ronnie Raygun everything changed.
MisterForkbeard
@Subsole: You’re probably long-gone by now, but the remaster is pretty great. Most of the sprites and music stayed the same, but they did a great job with the music. Heck, even the opera got fully voiced and orchestrated. Most of the rest just has vastly improved midi and slightly improved orchestration.
For example, the boss music sounds much more like violin and guitar than it used to, and as a result it just rocks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBxBvtQIUE
EDIT: They also updated the translation in ways that are almost entirely better.
Paul in KY
@Subsole: They generally don’t want to get accidentally shot. Only reason, IMO.