My personal glimpse into the first half of the 21st Century for some yet to be known future
Thursday, April 29, 2021
We, Terrorized (Part 1) ~ A re-imagined of Jack Nicholson's 1963 movie "The Terror" as a silent era film
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Why I don't fear a US Constitutional Convention and yet still do not want one
Also read Article 1 section 2 paragraph 3 of the U.S. Constitution and why you aren't being represented! |
“The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.” -Article V, The United States Constitution, 1787[1]
That is to say:
- 2/3rds approval from the House and Senate, followed-up by ratification by 3/4ths of all states' legislators. This process has been used for 26 successful amendments.
- 2/3rds approval from the House and Senate, followed-up by ratification by state ratifying conventions within 3/4ths of the states. This process has been used for 1 successful amendment.
- 2/3rds of state legislators applying to Congress (House and Senate) to create a Constitutional Convention, followed-up by ratification by 3/4ths of all states' legislators. This process has never been used.
- 2/3rds of state legislators applying to Congress to create a Constitutional Convention, followed up by ratification by state ratifying conventions within 3/4ths of the states. This process has never been used.
Guess what‽ It's actually harder to change the US Constitution via the Constitutional Convention method. Congress is still heavily involved in the process.
A Constitutional Convention doesn't get to magically change the Constitution at will. All the Constitutional Convention does is provide a forum separate from the US House and Senate to discuss a proposed Amendment, then vote to bring the proposal to individual states, with a 2/3rds super majority required to do so. The requirement for ratification of the Amendment is still the same. 3/4ths of all state legislatures or 3/4 of ratifying conventions from all states.
The Constitutional Convention is a very unstable route to take, as fundamental questions about the process are not addressed in the Constitution.[2] For example, there are no quorum rules for discussions once the convention is underway. Also, does each state get one representative at the convention, or is representation equal to the Electoral College with voting among the representatives of a state to decide their state's vote? Then, what happens if a state rescinds its application for the convention and the convention is no longer requested by the required 2/3rd of states? What happens if such an application is rescinded during or after the convention takes place? Since the convention is still organized by the US Congress, does Congress have the ability to limit the scope of the convention (i.e., "what's your hot take on this proposed amendment" as opposed to "go ahead and write a new amendment")? Do the state applications limit the scope themselves? If the scope is limited, could Congress or Federal Courts invalidate the convention approval if the scope is deemed to be exceeded? Etc.
Anyway, I foresee that we'd have nothing short of a political quagmire if a Constitution Convention is ever established. Most likely result is no changes will come of it, save for a bunch of lawsuits questioning every step along the way. Those lawsuits may answer some questions about the process by the courts, but that would only benefit future generations in their attempts to have their own Constitutional Conventions.
Also see: How to find your US representatives and tweet them
Friday, April 16, 2021
Doctor Sleep and all, without spoilers
Two Kubrick movies now have cinematic sequels (not including TV series). 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) continued the story of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Doctor Sleep continued the story of The Shining.
2010, briefly
2010 was a good movie. To its credit, it doesn't appear to even attempt to recreate 2001's style and feel. Much like 2001 was a movie of its time (1960's), 2010 was very much a 1980's movie. However, unlike 2001, 2010 hasn't aged well, though it is still enjoyable to rewatch (if you can overlook some of the inferior special effects and filming techniques). If you wish to see full reviews, please see 2010: The Forgotten Odyssey - A Video Essay and 2010: The Year We Make Contact Review.Doctor Sleep
Although Doctor Sleep (2019) borrows heavily from The Shining (1980) in terms of certain imagery and plot points, it is its own movie in other ways. Mainly, Doctor Sleep is very rewatchable. It pulls the curtain back on some of the supernatural elements of The Shining (trying to explain them), but does so in a way that works well for the story. Doctor Sleep actually does a much better job of character development and arc.
In The Shining, Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson never feel like a couple. Also, the viewer never really gets the sense that it's the hotel itself that drives Jack's character mad; characters being very one-dimensional. Despite the praise Kubrick often gets for his movies, and the fandom of The Shining, it's not a true masterpiece in my mind. In fact, if you compare Rotten Tomatoes (RT) scores of Kubrick's films, The Shining is actually near the bottom of the list. Even though Eyes Wide Shut has a lower RT score, I actually think it's a superior movie to The Shining.Year | Film | Rotten Tomatoes[62] | Metacritic[63] |
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1964 | Dr. Strangelove | 98% (91 reviews) | 97 (32 reviews) |
1956 | The Killing | 98% (41 reviews) | 91 (15 reviews) |
1957 | Paths of Glory | 95% (60 reviews) | 90 (18 reviews) |
1960 | Spartacus | 93% (61 reviews) | 87 (17 reviews) |
1968 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | 92% (113 reviews) | 84 (25 reviews) |
1987 | Full Metal Jacket | 92% (83 reviews) | 76 (19 reviews) |
1975 | Barry Lyndon | 91% (74 reviews) | 89 (21 reviews) |
1962 | Lolita | 91% (43 reviews) | 79 (14 reviews) |
1971 | A Clockwork Orange | 86% (71 reviews) | 77 (21 reviews) |
1955 | Killer's Kiss | 86% (21 reviews) | N/A |
1980 | The Shining | 84% (95 reviews) | 66 (26 reviews) |
1999 | Eyes Wide Shut | 75% (158 reviews) | 68 (34 reviews) |
1953 | Fear and Desire | 75% (16 reviews) | N/A |
The Shining has a few iconic scenes for which the movie is loved by many. There's no question that The Shining has influenced our culture far more than Doctor Sleep can. However, for me, I'd rather rewatch Doctor Sleep rather than The Shining. That said, due to some of the choices made by the writer and director of Doctor Sleep, the movie cannot stand on its own in other ways. It still needs The Shining as its foundation, due to all the callbacks and fan-service. Even still, I wouldn't watch The Shining and Doctor Sleep back-to-back since the movies are so stylistically different; there isn't a good flow between them (even though they share some imagery). Watch both, but watch them at different times.
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Fun and Important Words - Fussbudget
Fussbudget is a word with a strange composition, and no one is really sure as to why. A fussbudget is a hard-to-satisfy person who is excessively anxious, bothered or concerned about many little details; that is to say, a fussy person.[1][2](1) The word "fussbudget" is presumably a compound of the words "fuss" and "budget". The "fuss" portion of "fussbudget" is kinda obvious, if one takes it to mean "fussy" rather than just "fuss". "Fuss" is simply to show unnecessary excitement about something. Whereas "fussy" is being worried about details or not easy to satisfy. The "budget" part of "fussbudget" is much harder to identify. Many sources take it to mean a leather bag. So, it might be said that the term comes from the idea of someone having a bag full of concerns. This kinda makes sense, since we also have the word "fusspot" (fuss+pot) which carries similar meaning, but referencing a pot instead of a bag.[3][4](4) I use this word from time to time. I'm not going into details as to where and why since the word can carry negative connotations. However, it's a fun word to use. In American English, there seems to be a marginal preference for "fussbudget" over "fusspot" according the ngram. However, British English shows a strong preference for "fusspot".
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Monday, April 12, 2021
Fun and Important Words - Whopperjawed
Whopperjawed is a awesome word that really does roll of the tongue. It's not a common word (yet). You won't find it listed in any printed dictionaries. However, there are some great entries for whopperjawed on Urban Dictionary. Whopperjawed describes something that is disheveled, askew, crooked, stuck in an awkward position, or any combination thereof.[1][2][3](1)(3) One of the difficulties with establishing a common usage of the word is that it has many regional variations, such as lopper-jawed, wapper-jawed, whomper-jawed and others (with a hyphen or not). Of these, "wapper-jawed" seems to be the most historic, with a recording as early as 1825. "Whopperjawed" appears in a letter by Mark Twain in 1863.[4](4) Although I don't use this word everyday, I do use it regularly, as situations arise. It's is a fun word to say. It's also fun introducing "whopperjawed" to others who haven't heard it before. Sometimes, but not always, the word may appear with the intensifier "all", as in "all whopperjawed".[5](5) Based on an ngram chart, "whopper-jawed" variant seems to be the most common. "Whopperjawed" without the hyphen is the second most common. Arguably these are the same thing since compound words often start out with a hyphen that is eventually dropped. Whomperjawed/Whomper-jawed is the next most common variant. Photographic example: Whopperjawed house
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Sunday, April 11, 2021
Fun and Important Words - Gobbledygook
Gobbledygook is a great sounding word that almost rolls of the tongue (for English speakers). According to Oxford, it's a word used to describe words, phrases and speech that are "unintelligible by excessive use of abstruse technical terms". In simpler language, it's hard to understand or nonsensical jargon.[1][2][3] (backup links 1, 2, 3) It's ironic that the Oxford definition for gobbledegook sounds like gobbledygook itself. The word is derived from an onomatopoeia of a turkey sound, though the use of gobbledygook is technically not the turkey noise itself. Typically I do not have the need nor opportunity to use this word in every day language, but it does come up once in a while. As far as I remember, my first exposure to the word is from normal family conversations while growing up (1970s/80s). For me personally, that says a lot about the commonality of this young word. Despite it's recent entry into the English Language (1944), the word has found its way deep into our common lexicon, often in politics or government-related rants.[4](4)
Weirdly, there's a blip on the ngram usage graph for gobbledygook from 1921. Without any way to see the source referenced by Google, it's hard to tell if this is an earlier coining or if it's a false-positive.
Gobbledygook is sometimes mentioned along with gibberish when discussing lexicon. However, gibberish is a more general term used to describe nonsense speech, regardless to reason. Gobbledygook is more specific, referring to technical language that is nonsensical.
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Fussbudget Gobbledygook Highfalutin Malarkey Newfangled Roust Twitterpated Whatchamacallit Whopperjawed |
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Trail 3 - Hike, Hiking and then something else
I recently purchased a book called 60 Hikes within 60 Miles for Denver and Boulder. The book includes 60 parks and paths for hiking, including various skill levels from Easy to Moderately Hard. It's not a comprehensive book of every hiking or walking trail in the Denver region. What I like about the book, though, is that many of the trails are full loops, with little to no backtracking. I prefer loops.
Sixty is an achievable number. I could conceivably hike every trail in the book with a reasonable effort. I'm not going to try to hike 60 trails in 60 days. Instead, the attempt will be to hike all 60 trails over the next few years. I've already hiked some of the trails before. For those, I'll only count them if I hike them again. All hikes will be journalled here, on my blog (at least the first attempt for each), with the assigned label of 6060Denver.
Today was the first day of this journey. Allie and I hiked the trail at Bluff Lake Nature Center. It's a very easy trail, listed as trail #3 (not a ranking), within the Denver (Including Foothills and Plains) section. Though we are in Spring, the area is still a bit bare. There are no leaves on the trees; and the grass and shrubbery are still brown. The day was partly cloudy, with plenty of sun.
We did see a few prairie dogs, including one critter that vocalized very clearly that we should leave him alone. We obliged, though we did take a couple of photos from a distance.
There were also some geese, including this watchman on the side of the trail.
Afterwards, we explored Stanley Marketplace, about a mile West in Aurora, CO. For lunch, we tried the restaurant Annette for brunch. Though the food was good, there were some distracting quirks, such as very small portions for beverages (like, smaller than what one might expect for "child size"), and no refills for iced tea. Main course prices were about right for the quantity and quality of each dish.
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Exploration of the Milky Way Galaxy - Elite Dangerous
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Avoided disaster - active shooter in Boulder
This isn't how we found out about the unfolding crisis. At first, we didn't think too much of it. Active shooter alerts happened before. Sometimes, it's a mistaken report, or just someone wielding a weapon in public, or targeting a specific person, such as a love quarrel gone bad.
We quickly found out that this was so much worse. There's really nothing I can say to sum things up or even make the story more personal. The worse we had was a rescheduling of an appointment, avoiding the situation ourselves by a couple of hours. Allie and I are OK and unaffected by the crisis.
Of course, Allie had a couple of family members contact her within minutes of the incident making international news. Several coworkers also checked with me the next day during meetings that I attended.
Thankfully, we avoid the whole situation. Others were not lucky. Their families are suffering, such as one Erika Mononey, who gave a tribute to her father on Twitter (backup link).
Here's the link to the Wikipedia article for sourced information about the horrific event.
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Elite Dangerous: Rescuing inhabitants of Lave Station after the Nine Martyr's Attack
Full walkthrough of one mission to rescue inhabitants Lave Station after the Nine Martyr's Attack. Runs from launch at the rescue ship all the way through collection of rewards for successful mission completion. Includes some pointers a long the way for an easier journey.
Sunday, March 07, 2021
Up and up building, or that's no murder!
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Some photos from running around town
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Pay it to Payphones or don't
So, I went down a short rabbit hole when I saw a payphone in a movie review for Secret Obsession. Of course, payphones aren't common any more, so seeing one featured in a new movie was a bit of a surprize.
So, first, Secret Obsession is a really bad, in my opinion. I tried to watch, but had to stop. This movie review does a good job at explaining why:
If, by some weird series of events, you end up needing to call 911 but your #cellphone isn't available AND you happen to be near an archaic #payphone (in the US), you can still use that payphone to call 911 without the need for money nor a phone card. #psa #themoreyouknow
— fcsuper (@fcsuper) February 23, 2021
That wasn't the end of it, though. I remembered that there's still some payphones in service, so I looked it up. That's when I ran into the fact that there's still over 100K payphones in the US, and that each payphone can still earn a profit with as few as three 50¢ calls per day.
Was that the end? No. I remembered that I somehow ended up at the movie theater to see Phone Booth back in 2003. It's about this guy of questionable morals who is trapped in a phone booth by a sniper out to prove a point. The guy is played by Colin Farrell. The movie was made near the end of the payphone era. Had this movie come out just a few years later, it would've already been too dated for people to relate to it.
So, that brings me back to start. Secret Obsession was released in 2019. The entire plot is built upon the conflict that starts with the main character who gets out of her car while being chased to run to a payphone in a phone booth to call 911 (emergency services in the US). She doesn't have change, so the phone doesn't work. It's 2019. Why doesn't she have a cellphone? Even if that option was somehow not available, all payphones in the US allow 911 calls without payment, as noted in my tweet (and the movie review shown above). For who was this movie made? ...in 2019?
Friday, February 12, 2021
Recent news tour of our Solar System from Mercury to FarFarOut
Some recent news tour of our Solar System:
- Mercury: Study Reveals MESSENGER Watched a Meteoroid Strike Mercury - Combing through data from NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission to Mercury reveals it likely watched a meteor slamming into the planet.
- Venus: Life on Venus? The Picture Gets Cloudier, doubtful - After a sensational announcement about the possibility of life on Venus, new doubts arise.
- Earth: Astronomers Think They've Found Another Trojan Asteroid Lurking in Earth's Orbit - A recently discovered object sharing Earth's orbital path around the Sun could actually be a trojan (shares a planet's orbit) asteroid, astronomers have found.
- Mars: Mars Mission From the U.A.E. Begins Orbit of Red Planet - U.A.E.'s probe arrives to Mars soon.
- Asteroid Belt: The Asteroid Belt: Wreckage of a Destroyed Planet or Something Else? - Samples of asteroids that have fallen to Earth reveals that the Asteroid Belt likely wasn't formed from planet that was smashed a part.
- Ceres and other Dwarf Planets:Top 10 Giant Facts About the Dwarf Planets - "Despite being the smallest of the five dwarf planets, Ceres was the first one discovered."
- Jupiter: Jupiter Is Bigger Than Some Stars, So Why Didn't We Get a Second Sun? - Jupiter and Sun have a lot in common, so how did Jupiter end up not being a planet?
- Saturn: Saturn's moon Titan: Largest sea is 1,000-feet deep - "Far below the gaseous atmospheric shroud on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, lies Kraken Mare, a sea of liquid methane. Cornell University astronomers have estimated that sea to be at least 1,000-feet deep near its center -- enough room for a potential robotic submarine to explore."
- Uranus: 35 Years Ago: Voyager 2 Explores Uranus - 35 years ago, Uranus was examined by Voyager's 11 instruments.
- Neptune: Next-generation planetary missions could hunt for gravitational waves, say astronomers - "Spacecraft heading to Uranus and Neptune in the next decade could be used to investigate gravitational waves as they venture into the outer Solar System."
- Pluto: Pluto's atmosphere gets its blue haze from icy organic compounds, study suggests - "The haze shrouding Pluto might be made up of ice crystals possessing cyanide hearts, a new study finds."
- Quaoar: How 50000 Quaoar changed the way we look at our solar system - "The ball-shaped planetoid, approximately half the size of Pluto, is the largest object found in the solar system since Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930."
- "FarFarOut": Astronomers Just Confirmed The Most Distant Known Object in The Solar System - "The most distant known object in the Solar System is now confirmed. FarFarOut, a large chunk of rock found in 2018 at a whopping distance of around 132 astronomical units from the Sun, has been studied and characterised, and we now know a lot more about it, and its orbit."