Nun with Fumbers

I'm not a historian but what I'm really not is a mathematician, so let's have some fun with history and math!

I'm also not a statistician so we can mix that in as well.

Some facts.

On Dec 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. 2,403 people, including 68 civilians were killed.

This number constituted approximately 6 tenths of a percent of Hawaii's population in that time (423,300).

This number constituted about 2 ten thousandths of a percent of US population. Feel free to check my math and counting of decimal places.

On October 7th, the number of dead when Israel was subject to a surprise attack was about 1,200. Out of a population of 9.4 million, that's 1 thousandth of a percent, or ten times the relative number of dead.

Of course, the numbers are skewed because at Pearl Harbor, no one was kidnapped, and it is hard to compare a military base and a music festival, but we soldier on (as it were). Also, on October 7, a significantly higher percentage of the victims were civilians.

Faced with a threat which was clearly not existential, aimed at the military, not the civilian public, nor was it on the mainland of the US (heck, Hawaii wasn't even a state until 18 years later!) the US responded militarily (and in other non-humanitarian ways).

So why didn't the US pursue a ceasefire and negotiations with Japan?

A Note to the NFL!

 

I know your game. I'm on to you.

Your plan is to have Tony Romo question the officiating and everything else in the game so that I think "this all must be real and unscripted because otherwise, why would they have one of their major commentators questioning it all?"

Well I'm not biting.

Yes, I like Tony Romo. Yes, I know that sometimes he comes off as an arrogant know-it-all. I also know that he is confirming my theory by asking all those questions! He's just proving that he had different expectations and that he sees the officials as pushing things in the "wrong" direction.

The commentators pointed out that the Bills had been penalized 9 times to the Eagles' once (while they were discussing non-calls and errors in officiating) thereby showing the attempt in the officiating to limit the success of the Bills. The Bills, though, persevered and made it through all the suspect officiating.

Then they missed a field goal. Sigh. The officials win again.

A few plays later, there was a fumble. Chaos ensues on the field but the guy in the booth with Romo (is it Jim Nance?) announced that the Bills had possession even before there was any call on the field. How could he know?

I think we all know the answer to that.

A Space for Music

So I was sitting, grading papers and I put a classical concert on TV so I could have some background music. I noted the bows of the various strings -- the vibrations created by horsehair against the strings moves teh air and we hear glorious music. 

The reeds of the woodwinds...air blown causes the reed to vibrate through the body of the instrument. The lips of the players of the brass, in their tight-pulled smiles raise and lower the pitch, and even the voice is air drawn past vocal chords causing vibrations.

And I then think of airless space. The massive vacuum of infinity can hold no vibrations or emotions. Imagine if I were to transport the entire of the philharmonic and put them up into space. Would there be music if there can be no air borne vibrations?

Dunno, but the music guys would all be dead anyway.

A Small Idea

Microhouses on Microplots

Take a plot of land and subdivide it into quarters. People can then buy 3 out of every 4 subplots (the fourth will be paved as communal parking for the 3 homeowners -- each can house 1 car on this section.

Each of the 3 owners will build, or have built a micro-house (that's a thing...look it up). Assume a one bedroom, one bath, living room/kitchen kind of house (available pre-fab and modular also). Maybe like an RV type house but fixed on the ground and built with township amenities like a regular house. The zoning will limit the lot coverage on the 1/4 plot so the house will have to be small. There will be walkways/stairs from the parking area to each of the three mini-houses and will be installed once the plans for the home are confirmed. Other zoning laws (setback, height groundskeeping) will be innovated  specifically to apply only to this community/system (possibly by creating a new zone) and both the laws and the enforcement of the codes will be strict so buying/building will be very limiting, but relatively cheap.

The question is, what is the tax base differential between a fiscal tax intake on a comp-based cost estimate for a single lot vs. on 3 of 4 lots of approximately 1/4 lots size. Would the community benefit from more residents and a larger tax base, or larger houses and fewer people? Would it raise or lower housing values?

Strategy

"But coach," Mackey piped up, "what if they say something that hurts my feelings? Can I be mean back?"

The coach stopped and his face took on an odd cast. It cleared quickly and he smiled and said, "No. There is no excusing it from anyone. How's about this - when he says 'Hey punk' to try and make you feel small, say, 'Hey balloon!" and walk away.

Mackey looked confused.

"He'll be as confused as you are now." The coach explained. "That should keep him distracted for a play or two. Then he'll try to get your attention; that means you control him. Ignore him a little and eventually, if he tries to get your attention, say 'What, balloon?' Keep it up and when he is good and angry and asks 'Why do you keep calling me balloon? Why balloon?' you look at him all nice and say 'Because you are full of hot air and I'm gonna pop you every change I get.' Walk away."

"Now he'll be enraged and that's when he'll make a mistake. That's when you win the battle that gives you the better chance at winning the war."

Why I am Angry at my Television

 So I was watching a wonderfully mediocre Netflix movie which seemed to be designed for old, single guys. Not too much dialogue, some good explosions, poor editing, an illogical and hard to follow story-line which is essentially unnecessary because there are some good explosions. Suddenly and over a period of an hour and a half, I decided that I'd like to have some dinner. This meant standing up and going to the kitchen to make said dinner. A quest if you will, and a nice break from the movie. I made sure to his "pause" so that I didn't miss one godforsaken moment, and off I went, then I walked to the kitchen.

I made me a mess o' food so nice they named it food. When I cook up my special brand of bland I know I'm living right. Fried protein with other fried protein, served with a side of cheese. All the food groups properly represented. While I am finishing up with the cookerie in which I am so engrossed, I glanced over at the TV and see the screen go black. Off. Done. Kaput. Wait, what? EMERGENCY!

I washed my hands properly and ran over to the TV to check its vitals. Screen? Black. Patient is non-responsive. I picked up the remote and pushed a button (while whispering a solemn prayer to all that is good and right in the world) and the TV turned back on! Huzzah. But this is a resolution without a solution and that leads to revolution and madness. So I waddled back to my computer and googled the situation and here's what I learned:

New televisions are very advanced. They collect what are known as "environmental demographic data points" which go well beyond the show that I watch and how long I watched it for. These TV's hack into your very lifestyle and correlate variables like my age, gender, occupation and other readily available public data with my viewing habits and timings to create a comprehensive idea of who I am and what I do. They can interface with my other devices and figure out my daily schedule. So my TV assumes that, based on the use of lighting, the oven, the change in the thermostat and other events, I have a particular sleep/wake cycle so if I hit pause and don't return to the movie within a specific period of time, I have fallen asleep on the toilet again and it behooves my TV to do the equivalent of drinking itself into a black out.

I find this horribly insensitive and judgmental. Are "they" saying that I lack the ability to make a meal and return to a movie? Are they saying that I am so predictable that they can make decisions for me? And who made them the boss of me, demanding that I use a "toilet"?

A quick thought about Parshat Toldot

 

Our story so far -- During a famine, Isaac heads to G'rar. At this point, he has fathered his boys and they have been named. The second one (who came out holding the heel of his elder brother) was named Ya'akov. The root here (ayin-kuf-vet) can be used to make the word "heel," the root of the word "trickery" or "deception" and "because."

In Bereisheet 26:5, as God reassures Yitzchak that he will be OK and his descendants will be numerous  Hashem says "עֵ֕קֶב אֲשֶׁר־שָׁמַ֥ע אַבְרָהָ֖ם בְּקֹלִ֑י וַיִּשְׁמֹר֙ מִשְׁמַרְתִּ֔י מִצְוֺתַ֖י חֻקּוֹתַ֥י וְתוֹרֹתָֽי׃

because Avraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."

There is, of course, a simpler word for "because" or "since" -- ki which is used a huge number of times in the book of Bereisheet. But not here. Weird, right? In the book of Devarim (7:12) the word is used but it is explained as "reward". The Ibn Ezra writes (copied from the sefaria's translation) "Ekev (because) has the same meaning as ekev (reward) in For ever, reward (Ps. 119:112). It means the reward which will be given at the end." Clearly, it is used instead of the simpler word "ki" because it imports specific reference to the reward and isn't a simple causal indicator.

I would suggest, though, that there is a deeper meaning. Hashem is telling Yitzchak not to think that his son Ya'akov is a deceiver. He is planting the seed in Yitzchak to help counter any later feeling that Ya'akov has tricked anyone by showing that his name is tied to the reward for following the mitzvot. Isaac is going to be confused -- which of his children deserves the blessings of leading Hashem's people? Hashem makes it clear that the answer is "ekev asher shama" that Ya'akov is the one who listened to God's words. Saying "ki" would not allude to Ya'akov and would not prime Isaac's subconscious to think a certain way about Ya'akov's actions.

When Ya'akov has been blessed and leaves and Eisav shows up, Yitzchak describes Ya'akov's actions as "mirmah" which commentators (based on Onkelos) see as "wit" or "subtlety" (or as is reported by the Netinah LaGer though I haven't looked in Bereisheet Rabbah for the source, "בחכמת התורה" which the intelligence borne of Torah learning). As the Siftei Chachamim writes, "With cleverness. Otherwise, [if it meant deceit], why should he be blessed?" So it seems that what comes out of Yitzchok's mouth by way of judgment is that Ya'akov did something smart and infused with Torah, not deceit. Eisav's response is that his brother tricked him (ya'akveini) saying he has lived up to the name Ya'akov. But Yitzchak does not agree. He reiterates that the blessing has been given and he doesn't criticize Ya'akov at all, maybe bacuse he now realizes that, as he had been told in G'rar, Ekev is the one who listens to Hashem and Ekev is the reward. This is why in Chapter 28, Yitzchak blesses Ya'akov with even more instead of excoriating him or at all holding back out of any resentment.

A burst of creativity, captured

 Last evening I decided to write down a bunch of thoughts in real time (as opposed to the fake time I usually buy because it is cheaper).

Some of these are lines I might use some day. Some are observations. Some, I'm not quite sure. Filter's off and I apologize in advance for any inappropriate language or themes. I just wrote things down on a pad of paper and now I'm typing them up. They are generally unrelated to each other.

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The memories easiest to remember are the ones that haven't happened yet.

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Remembering something as a thousand thoughts flit through my brain -- not forgetting it as the ripples in my brain disappear as each millisecond passes, is like catching a hummingbird midflight, that most elusive finch. And each time I successfully remember when by all rights, the most recent thought should go the way of the myriads which bounce in and out of my brain, it feels like the first and only time I have done so, an effervescence of excitement runs through me, refreshing and I put a pin in the caught memory, sticking into it and holding it down to remind me of that moment, killing it but reminding me that it once existed.

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Doing something "at speed" is a great construction, referring to something's happening at the maximum or optimal speed. I like that phrase.

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I was watching Baa Baa Black Sheep (Season 1, episode 10, "New Georgia on my Mind"). Who plays "TJ"? Did he ever do other stuff? I need to rewatch the episode because I didn't see exactly what happened to John Laroquette's plane. I thought this was a "part 1" episode because there was so much unresolved with 4 minutes left but WOW they wrapped everything up so quickly! Poorly paced show. Intense characters and acting until the very end when it gets cartoony.

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[The following was my reaction to an infomercial for cookware]:

"I'll show you a self-cleaning fry basket!"

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When you have a Wisconsin game on in the background and aren't really listening, Tucker Ashcraft's name sounds like ass-crack.

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I turned on Austin City Limits and might have developed an erroneous understanding of the explanation of the term "Austin City Limits" but it made me think of this --

4 hotels situated at the corners of a large swatch of land, and all connected by a wall or fence. The enclosed space becomes a "shopping village" of retail, entertainment and amusement, like a mall, accessible only to patrons of the hotels. The mini-city is like a Disney -- a self-sufficient neighborhood which allows entry to its elite shoppers only by virtue of their staying a hotel. In fact, we can have the 4 hotels exist at 4 price points. Each one awards a particular level of access or perk (the cheapest one might require that the people there work also), creating a social caste hierarchy among visitors.

I really need to see a set list of the ACL episode (Foo Fighters, season 49, episode 7). It was really good.

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I'm anticipating the excitement I'll feel when I, reviewing these, actually do not remember having committed these ramblings to the pad.

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I'm inventing and precipitating a simulated condition in which I lack control so I can enjoy the loss of control but know in the back of my awareness, that I still actually have control. Sort of like a holodeck scenario but I know that I set up the holodeck, so I'm safely in control but I can feel like I'm not. On a roller coaster, I'm truly not in control. When I read a horror novelization, I can put it down any time.

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I sense that in my "love of music" category, there is a sound that I prefer. I have written in the past about specific songs that haunt me. For a while, I searched for that single defining thing assuming that it was a singular moment -- a chord magically speaking. I was in search of that lost chord, but no longer! The elusive sound is a progression, a series of moments that in combination affect me deeply. They have a specific relationship to each other which triggers a reaction in me (I need to look up a Foo Fighters' song with the line "Banging on the Ceiling").

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I need to hire a home health aide/secretary who can constantly monitor my health and also type up all my handwritten, half mad, half ramblings so I can decide how quickly I want to forget them.

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Here's a note about the Foo Fighters: even their songs that aren't remarkable are pretty damn good.

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I'm so intellectually out of shape that my heart races when I try to catch my own train of thought.

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Note to self -- type all this up as a stream of consciousness. It ensures the authenticity of its source material. [I have no idea where I was going with that]

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And so now I, haunted by the fact that I DID prefer the light brown M+M's to the dark brown ones, feel like a confirmed racist thank you very much.

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If you aren't interested in college football, while most of the year there is nothing on television on Saturday night, during the college football season there is really, really NOTHING on television on Saturday night.

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I did enjoy hearing the phrase "rapid unscheduled disassembly" used when the rocket blew up. Doublespeak FTW.

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Magee Hickey (I was watching the channel 11 news) almost called Kaity Tong "cutie". Hickey continued to report about the Young People's Concert and showed a clip of the musicians playing. She explained that they were playing "the theme from the Lone Ranger, also known as the William Tell Overture." I was under the impression, that the piece had a proper name and the use on television would be the "also known as". What does it say, sociologically, that the actual name is demoted to a position behind the TV usage?

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At first I thought she was an idiot but then it got worse and I realized that she was a social justice warrior.

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Three media presentations of reality:

Figment of the imagination (St. Elsewhere)

Simulation (Matrix, Free Guy)

Manufactured scenario (Truman Show)

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A short scene -- I am being questioned by an evil person.

Him -- Well, what do you say, MR. Rosen? Or should I say, rabbi! It is rabbi is it not. 

[Silence]

Him -- So you are a rabbi! 

Me -- as you are a man

Him -- In what sense? 

Me -- It depends on one's definition of the word. Some would say no. 

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A comedy skit I wrote

 

[Note -- with each "but" Joe's voice should creep higher in pitch]

Mike and Joe are sharing a beer and chatting in Mike's house.

Mike: and then the UN guy said that the Hamas attack on the music festival had to be considered in a context of how the Arabs have been treated. Can you believe it?

Joe: Well, it is important to consider the historical-

Mike: No. Stop right there. Hundreds were murdered. Any attempt to find a justification is wrongheaded and hateful.

Joe: But it is-

Mike: Nope. You can't try to find a way for the behavior of the invading terrorists to make any sort of sense.

Joe: OK, I get it. Hamas invaded and killed civilians and that's bad.

Mike: Exactly.

Joe: But you can't forget --

Mike: Again, stop. Are you going to bring up the "open air prison" thing? Ignoring the inaccuracy of the characterization, are you saying that if you live confined to place 1 then you are justified in going to place 2 and killing babies?

Joe: No, I'm just saying that...um...ok, I see your point. Killing babies can't be defended.

Mike: Good.

Joe: Buuut there-

Mike: Nothing! Are you going to talk about that phantom apartheid? Does that legal subtlety of non-citizens not being allowed the same rights as actual citizens rationalize murdering senior citizens?

Joe: Well, no. I see what you mean.

Mike: OK then.

Joe: Buuuuuuuut you -

Mike: Argh! What, are you going to do the whole "occupation" thing? Gaza isn't occupied. It hasn't been since 2005. There is a border between it and 2 other countries. Does the existence of a border explain why it is OK to throw grenades into shelters where civilians are hiding?

Joe: No, no. You're right. That's bad. Ca't support that.

Mike: Agreed.

[Pause]

Joe: Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut there --

Mike: No, No, No! There is nothing that can give a context where kidnapping people and torturing them is allowable. If you bring up the words "war crimes" (which can't be applied to the IDF, let alone to the individuals who were kidnapped) you end up giving prophylactic excuses to the next batch of murderers!

Joe: That's true. I don't want to give anyone an out which might allow future massacres.

Mike: Exactly.

[Longer Pause]

Joe: Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut if you --

Mike: WRONG. You can't start bringing up things like the war in 1948 and the supposed "nakba" (Arabs left for many reasons and an equal number of Jews were expelled from their countries) because that sets an arbitrary start date and ignores the rest of history.

Joe: Oh, I see that now. You can't claim that one moment in history is significant as a causal factor and discount the rest.

Mike: That's what I'm saying. Anyway, I have to go. Thanks for the beer.

Joe: No problem, and you're right -- an armed incursion, overrunning a humanitarian crossing, in which over a thousand people, including the elderly and infants, Muslims and Jews and Christians, civilians at a festival, people in their beds, children hiding are massacred and mutilated and in which over 200 people are kidnapped and deprived of all rights and humane treatment can't be given any "context" which might try to explain it as the result of rational behavior.

Mike: I'm glad we agree! Have a great day.

[Mike gets up, collects his things and leaves. The two shake hands at the door and Mike goes. Joe waits at the door for 5 seconds and closes and locks it. He goes to the window and peeks out. We hear a car start and drive off. A pause.]

Joe: Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut-

[BLACKOUT]

More NFL observations

 

I have fallen and hurt myself. Even as a late teen and twenty something, I knew the pain of falling down and having to get up. There is simply no way that football players can heal as quickly as they do (during the game, between plays, and after major bodily traumas). They aren't Wolverine or anything -- their bodies, after they crash into others, fall, bounce etc. can't simply "be OK" no matter what kind of condition they are in. The human body isn't made to bend or get thrown down that way. Either they are robots, the whole thing is highly choreographed (like wrestling) or it is all just AI.

I was watching a game and there was a call for "unnecessary roughness" on a punt return. The call was announced and the announcers immediately segued to a completely different topic with no explanation and NO replay of what happened. Why do you think that is? It isn't that the game was back underway, and they always seem to have a replay for every player all the time. Why didn't they discuss and show this play? Because it probably didn't happen -- that's my conclusion.

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New info:

The Washington Commanders' helmets seem to have a slight lip or bill on them that, along with their color makes them look like WWI German helmets. Coincidence? I think not.

Ideas for television scheduling

 So I was watching some cable channel that ran old shows (reruns of The Rockford Files and Baa Baa Black Sheep calm me in my dotage) and I had an idea for one of those "theme" blocks of episodes. You play an episode of a series which introduced a character or story arc that was the prelude to a spinoff (or the last episode of that arc if there is more than one), and then play the first episode of the spin off.

So you play the episode of Happy Days which introduced Laverne and Shirley, and then the first episode of Laverne and Shirley. Sure, you will need the rights to more shows, just to get to isolated episodes, but seeing George Jefferson on All in the Family and then the first episode of The Jeffersons would be interesting. You can probably make a whole list of pairs of episodes like this.

Next programming idea is movies and TV shows that have actors who are known for playing opposite each other in X context, in this new context. You saw Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson in Thor: Ragnarok? Well, also watch MIB:International. I'm sure that this has also happened a lot of times (especially with so many TV shows out there that had stars before they were famous) so there have to be a lot of examples of this. George Clooney -- on ER, did he ever have an interaction with someone who had been on Facts of Life? There doesn't need to be an explicit callback by the actors -- the audience should just know that when it sees Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman on screen together in the MCU, it has already seen them together in Sherlock (though I don't know if they share screen time in the MCU).

Making the right call

I have been accumulating more info and have worked on a complex conspiracy theory regarding the NFL. You can look back to my previous posts about the charge that the league is more footbal-esque entertainment, with some sort of either scripting or pre-recording going on than it is a real league of honest to goodness sports competitiousness and in this post I'm going to lay more details out for you.

Here's an opening point -- I find that it is impossible for the guys in the booth to have spotted, analyzed, annotated, researched and prepped the in-depth analysis which they present so quickly after each and every play. Any viewer would have to watch a play repeatedly and possibly in slow-motion to see the movement of multiple players, and crucial block or the critical slip but these guys have already called out the player and instantly had the playback at the ready so that they can confidently draw up exactly what happened because a camera happened to be focused on the correct player (out of 40+ on the field) who does something noteworthy. That point of view is already spliced and cued up, ready for replay. No one has to ask for a specific angle or shot, player or move. Somehow the guy in the booth and the guys in the editing truck are in complete simpatico and can read each other's thoughts. Not buying it. Go, watch a game and see if you can see, come to conclusions about, and have the exact angle ready in a matter of 3-5 seconds after the play's completion. Not gonna happen. Just saying.

Next, I'll relay a recent incident. In addition to the gaffes which I have catalogued and presented, there's this -- I was watching Thursday Night Football last week and the play-by-play guy who might have been Al Michaels said that there was a flag on a particular play. On the screen, the little "Flag" yellow marker went up. His co-host (or the color commentator...I don't know the PC term for it anymore) started anticipating a penalty call on a specific player which would negate a 78 yard run back for a touchdown. He started to explain who committed the foul and on and on. Then the game went to commercial. When it returned to "live" coverage, the extra point was being kicked. Al Michaels said, "Well, apparently we had no penalty." Clearly, someone was off the page in terms of what was supposed to be happening. The experts were already dissecting a penalty, the graphic indicated a penalty but there was none on the field. Hmmm. Something problematic about that.

[side funny thought: I envision a cartoon which shows a football player severely bloody and cut up, looking at the ref and yelling "You're flagging ME? For HOLDING?" and opposite him, in the uniform of his competitor is Edward Scissorhands.]

So here's what I have decided: the NFL is an expression of a coup d'état orchestrated by the industrial-military complex in cahoots with the league.

**Sinister and melodramatic interlude

they're outside right now. A dog is barking in the empty hallway as footsteps die. The silence which is somehow not silence echoing, holding the memory of noise and the promise of the unknown. The NFL has found me.

** end sinister and melodramatic interlude

I noticed while watching a game on Monday Night Football that all the coaches on both sides (!) were wearing identical brown coats and camouflage hats. Now, sure, you'll probably say something about how that makes sense because of Veterans' Day recently and you'll reassure me that the outfit will be gone by this coming Sunday but that misses the point! The league is testing out the outfit to see if America responds to it. The goal is to drive us into a state of war with anyone and everyone. We have to accept the military as essential and wish to adopt their clothing style as a show of mass acceding. And I think that Vegas knows all this and works it into the calculation of odds for any game. This is all why reviewing a call has been such a big deal and why some plays and calls are non-reviewable. 

The problem is that, recently, the calls have become more and more obviously at odds with reality. More and more booth guys are questioning calls which undermines the authority which the officials need in order to skew a game in one direction or another. I expect that in the upcoming weeks, refs will take a small step back and "let them play" and guys in the booth will second guess less often, so that the league can ensure its continuing storylines.

And if anythig happens to me, it was the NFL. They're everywhere.

That led to an important realization on my part: on every play, ten out of the eleven players on each side do something which can be construed as guilty in terms of penalty-liable offenses. On any given play, you can probably find SOMETHIG in the actions of almost every player that COULD be flagged. On practically every play, every lineman on either side of the ball holds his counterpart in some way. There is always contact between member of the secondary and a receiver. Somebody on the line always moves before the snap even if the movement is small. The bottom line is that the fix in the game isn't absolute and isn't the clear control leading to a predetermined victor. Instead, the point is to steer the game in a general direction but not with such complete control. This steering happens through the selective work of the officials. The specific script isn't written but there are cues and prompts and a general story arc, shaped by the choices of officials to call or not call a particular offense.

Thoughts on Football

 Position -- The Offended Line

The largest of the players were called in, primed for a final push towards a first down. In the huddle, tense seconds ticking, one man raised his head and said, "Hey Rob," for the quarter back's name was, indeed, Rob, "me and some of the guys on the line think it is offensive that you bring us in for these brute force and short yardage plays -- it perpetuates the stereotype of us that we are nothing more than troglodytic cyclopses, capable of some grunting and pushing, but not of finesse and beauty. That's hurtful, Rob. It isn't fair and it isn't cool to judge us and say that we 'have to know our plays.' We demand equal right and left tackles. We can contribute in our own way and help make what can become OUR way."