Watching people on skis do stunts on the half-pipe made me think the very same thing, but not as cleverly as Eric. Why couldn't the people on skis leave the half-pipe to people on snowboards? Now the half-pipe is just another trick pony. Yawn. Click.
I quit watching the Olympics in the 70's. The whole conceptual basis for the games is both phony and anachronistic. In addition to the silly events, we have the corruption of the organizing bodies and site selection, scoring scandals, doping, the colossal waste of public money on venues, and domestic and international politics. No thanks.
Nuclear is not just the least bad way, it is the only way to eliminate fossil fuels without a dramatic decline in the standard of living. Wind and solar can supply some of the needs but cannot replace the total current fossil generation capacity. Some places can develop geothermal or wave power. But adding in the new power demands from autos, home heating, and gas appliances and the current generation capacity will need to quadruple. Industrial replacement energy generation requirements add another huge increment. There was an excellent Nova on PBS - The Nuclear Option. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/the-nuclear-option/
About Hupke. I always found him Dave Barry light. In fact, many times Chapman has very funny and biting one liners. But you have rightly pointed out perhaps Hupke's best column which I also remember. Incidentally Barry also had a wonderful column when his dad passed away many many years ago.
Thanks, Eric, for continuing the exposé, commentary and dialogue on the Kilborn and DeVoto situations. Will's and McWhorter's commentaries were articulate, incisive and spot on.
Re sanitizing Wordle, I agree, but it feels like a defeat to guess a word you know isn't the solution.
Re the Trib, I'm similarly torn -- I'm doing Sunday and digital now -- but I think we know there will never be a "strong" Tribune under Alden's despicable ownership. Its only hope is for someone/something else to buy it.
Re the Olympics, to quote Alexandra Trusova, the disappointed silver medalist in figure skating, "There is no happiness." The Chinese regime is truly awful; the clinical-sounding phrase "human rights abuses" doesn't really cover it. Shades of 1936. I'm not sure whether we should have boycotted entirely or what, but I increasingly like the idea of holding the games in Athens and some permanent Alpine location every time. Could we all just get together and pay the IOC to do that? I hear they're open to bribes.
Re Olympic events, you mention ballroom, but what about ballet? Figure skating strikes me as ballet on ice (with more hackneyed music). For that matter, I'd love to see competitive classical music -- very physical. Who can play the minute waltz in under a minute? Top it off with combination spelling bee/target shooting -- call it beeathlon -- and I'd definitely watch.
I was a little surprised that the Slate article on nuclear energy didn't mention Germany. In 2011 Germany produced 25% of its electricity from nuclear. But after Fukushima, Merkel announced the complete shutdown of nuclear by 2022. The nukes have been replaced by coal plants and natural gas from Russia. This year Germany will be 28% coal, 27% natural gas, 29% wind/solar, 16% hydro/biomass/other. Germany could have been entirely rid of coal now and much less vulnerable to Russia.
Also, here, we not only have the anti-nuke people, but we also have the utility price advocates that decry the KWH price of nuclear without regard for the source of the replacement power.
I agree with Zorn about Wordle, guesses shouldn't be censored.
I don't quite get the allure of this game. I've played a few times and it's really not that difficult; I quickly became bored. Perhaps the attraction is posting your results for all and sundry? I predict this fad will pass by soon.
I listened to you this morning. and I completely agree with your take on the Michigan basketball Coach Howard. I will be very pleasantly surprised if the league and Michigan take such an obvious and straight forward approach. However, I expect that they will get tangled up in some sort of racial equity, white-power-move, assessment that shifts more of the blame on the Wisconsin coach as instigator of the physical altercation and mitigates the reaction.
Good article in the Washington Post on the 'politics of evasion'. At least a few Democratic strategists have finally come to their senses and recognized the obvious.
“Democrats,” they write, “must consider the possibility that Hispanics will turn out to be the Italians of the 21st century — family oriented, religious, patriotic, striving to succeed in their adopted country and supportive of public policies that expand economic opportunity without dictating results.” They note that ultimately, “Italians became Republicans. Democrats must rethink their approach if they hope to retain majority support among Hispanics.”
They also use the case of Hispanic voters to make a larger point. “The phrase ‘people of color’ assembles highly diverse groups under a single banner. The belief that they will march together depends on assumptions that are questionable at best.”
I would also expand the last statement to the utterly meaningless 'Asians'. As if South Asians, East Asians, and Central Asians are a common and coherent group in spite of each containing dozens of ethnic/national/religious groups. These Americans also share many of the 'Italian' attributes, which many consider traditional American attributes. Further, the non-white racial unity categories and mythology of common interests has been swallowed whole and is relentlessly repeated by the media.
I would also be interested to read your take on the ward remap fight. I think it is headed to my hoped for and very desirable referendum. I am very happy to see that the Latino Caucus found it in their interest to develop a compromise map with the Peoples Map advocates. It is our best chance at a more independent map that is a better reflection of the neighborhoods and the census. Still disgustingly racially based in the thought process and discussion but a step forward and an interesting spin on the racial unity story.
Thank you for sharing Hupke information and his 2017 farewell to Dad. Very touching. Hupke will be missed.
The best tweet is in last place; all is right with the world.
Watching people on skis do stunts on the half-pipe made me think the very same thing, but not as cleverly as Eric. Why couldn't the people on skis leave the half-pipe to people on snowboards? Now the half-pipe is just another trick pony. Yawn. Click.
I quit watching the Olympics in the 70's. The whole conceptual basis for the games is both phony and anachronistic. In addition to the silly events, we have the corruption of the organizing bodies and site selection, scoring scandals, doping, the colossal waste of public money on venues, and domestic and international politics. No thanks.
Nuclear is not just the least bad way, it is the only way to eliminate fossil fuels without a dramatic decline in the standard of living. Wind and solar can supply some of the needs but cannot replace the total current fossil generation capacity. Some places can develop geothermal or wave power. But adding in the new power demands from autos, home heating, and gas appliances and the current generation capacity will need to quadruple. Industrial replacement energy generation requirements add another huge increment. There was an excellent Nova on PBS - The Nuclear Option. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/the-nuclear-option/
About Hupke. I always found him Dave Barry light. In fact, many times Chapman has very funny and biting one liners. But you have rightly pointed out perhaps Hupke's best column which I also remember. Incidentally Barry also had a wonderful column when his dad passed away many many years ago.
Thanks, Eric, for continuing the exposé, commentary and dialogue on the Kilborn and DeVoto situations. Will's and McWhorter's commentaries were articulate, incisive and spot on.
Re sanitizing Wordle, I agree, but it feels like a defeat to guess a word you know isn't the solution.
Re the Trib, I'm similarly torn -- I'm doing Sunday and digital now -- but I think we know there will never be a "strong" Tribune under Alden's despicable ownership. Its only hope is for someone/something else to buy it.
Re the Olympics, to quote Alexandra Trusova, the disappointed silver medalist in figure skating, "There is no happiness." The Chinese regime is truly awful; the clinical-sounding phrase "human rights abuses" doesn't really cover it. Shades of 1936. I'm not sure whether we should have boycotted entirely or what, but I increasingly like the idea of holding the games in Athens and some permanent Alpine location every time. Could we all just get together and pay the IOC to do that? I hear they're open to bribes.
Re Olympic events, you mention ballroom, but what about ballet? Figure skating strikes me as ballet on ice (with more hackneyed music). For that matter, I'd love to see competitive classical music -- very physical. Who can play the minute waltz in under a minute? Top it off with combination spelling bee/target shooting -- call it beeathlon -- and I'd definitely watch.
I was a little surprised that the Slate article on nuclear energy didn't mention Germany. In 2011 Germany produced 25% of its electricity from nuclear. But after Fukushima, Merkel announced the complete shutdown of nuclear by 2022. The nukes have been replaced by coal plants and natural gas from Russia. This year Germany will be 28% coal, 27% natural gas, 29% wind/solar, 16% hydro/biomass/other. Germany could have been entirely rid of coal now and much less vulnerable to Russia.
Also, here, we not only have the anti-nuke people, but we also have the utility price advocates that decry the KWH price of nuclear without regard for the source of the replacement power.
I agree with Zorn about Wordle, guesses shouldn't be censored.
I don't quite get the allure of this game. I've played a few times and it's really not that difficult; I quickly became bored. Perhaps the attraction is posting your results for all and sundry? I predict this fad will pass by soon.
I listened to you this morning. and I completely agree with your take on the Michigan basketball Coach Howard. I will be very pleasantly surprised if the league and Michigan take such an obvious and straight forward approach. However, I expect that they will get tangled up in some sort of racial equity, white-power-move, assessment that shifts more of the blame on the Wisconsin coach as instigator of the physical altercation and mitigates the reaction.
Good article in the Washington Post on the 'politics of evasion'. At least a few Democratic strategists have finally come to their senses and recognized the obvious.
“Democrats,” they write, “must consider the possibility that Hispanics will turn out to be the Italians of the 21st century — family oriented, religious, patriotic, striving to succeed in their adopted country and supportive of public policies that expand economic opportunity without dictating results.” They note that ultimately, “Italians became Republicans. Democrats must rethink their approach if they hope to retain majority support among Hispanics.”
They also use the case of Hispanic voters to make a larger point. “The phrase ‘people of color’ assembles highly diverse groups under a single banner. The belief that they will march together depends on assumptions that are questionable at best.”
I would also expand the last statement to the utterly meaningless 'Asians'. As if South Asians, East Asians, and Central Asians are a common and coherent group in spite of each containing dozens of ethnic/national/religious groups. These Americans also share many of the 'Italian' attributes, which many consider traditional American attributes. Further, the non-white racial unity categories and mythology of common interests has been swallowed whole and is relentlessly repeated by the media.
I would also be interested to read your take on the ward remap fight. I think it is headed to my hoped for and very desirable referendum. I am very happy to see that the Latino Caucus found it in their interest to develop a compromise map with the Peoples Map advocates. It is our best chance at a more independent map that is a better reflection of the neighborhoods and the census. Still disgustingly racially based in the thought process and discussion but a step forward and an interesting spin on the racial unity story.