A Large Regular

Some stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- How US college degrees lost their value. Places like WalMart, IBM, and Accenture no longer require 4-year degrees.

- Tucker Carlson Episode 43 with Marjorie Taylor Greene.

- The Worcester Red Sox will be sold to Diamond Baseball Holdings

- Rep Jim Jordan and the YouTube Files.

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- When higher GDP's aren't always good news.

- Lions vs Chiefs: It just means more.

- Review of over 1,000 studies shows that exercise may be more effective than either therapy or medication in battling depression. All the more reason for companies to make gym memberships part of their healthcare packages.

- Breaking the YouTube algorithm. (HT Borepatch)

 Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share,

- America has reached peak therapy but our mental health keeps getting worse. Imagine how bad these most vulnerable will suffer if they try another lockdown.

- Jonathan Turley on how the charges against Chief of Staff Mark Meadows may lead to the dismissal of all charges against Trump. Good chance the move to a Federal Court is upheld and that court decides to drop all charges as spurious. DA Willis badly overplayed her hand.

- I support Taibbi and Orf against YouTube. If they can do this to them they can do it against anyone. Take a stand.

- Tucker Carlson with episode 20 on Hungary

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Cool nugget from the Football Outsiders Almanac 2021; "[Tom] Brady, we should note, has one more playoff win over NFC opponents than [Drew] Brees does despite only playing a single year in the actual NFC playoff bracket." Not a knock on Brees in any way but just another example of how historically great Brady has been. (Most of Brady's playoff wins over NFC opponents came in 6-Super Bowl victories with the Pats.)... Joe Rogan, confined to Spotify, is losing influence. Agree with the premise but not the metrics and some of the reasoning they use (who cares about Twitter follower gains - after so many appearances how many more followers is a guest expected to get). Yes not having full episodes on YouTube hurts Rogan's reach but doesn't effect download numbers (why download an episode if you've already watched it on YouTube?). Besides one of the reasons Spotify gave Rogan so much money is as the flagship draw for Spotify's own video platform. As an aside I just added the Spotify app to my phone specifically for Rogan's podcast... Very effective ad. I couldn't help but wonder how (or how long before) the Big Tech firms would censor its distribution... Matt Ridley: Playing the Wild Card. "'Rewilding' is fashionable but there is more to it than letting Nature run free." Hiking in New England it is not unusual to run into a stone wall in the middle of the forest because back in Colonial days that area used to be a farm - but is now uninhabited "rewilded" forest... 

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

If the Democrats wanted to dump Joe Biden in favor of Kamala Harris but didn't want to get their hands dirty trying to suggest the 25th Amendment themselves - the easiest way would be to have Biden sign a bunch of un-Constitutional gun control Executive Orders and see the Republicans get outraged. Just saying... It would be funny if a number of Atlanta Braves players sued MLB and Rob Manfred for creating a hostile work environment. What could Rob Manfred possibly say in response? Cha-ching! Cash in boys!... Why is it the media and the "experts" always seem to be so wrong... Wonder if it's possible for a State like Texas or Florida to tax YouTube - say at $.01 per video view in the state - and then use those funds for a favorite cause like fighting homelessness or providing broadband to low income families. What would be to stop a tax like that? They delete videos that go against the grain of their political aims and the Republican Governors tax their asses. Seems fair... John Kerry has always been a frigging idiot... 

 Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Remember wondering how the fact that FDR was crippled and for the most part confined to a wheelchair could be kept hidden from the American people by a willing and complicit US press? Well future generations will wonder the same thing about Joe Biden's cognitive decline... If I played in the NBA I would try to make my "social justice" message on my jersey "Flat Tax Now!" That certainly qualifies as social justice - right? Doubt the NBA would allow it though... Yesterday I posted the Thomas Jefferson quote, "Liberty is the parent of science and virtue, and a nation will be great in both in proportion as it is free." I mentioned that political correctness was stifling true science. Also yesterday Scientific American came out and endorsed Joe Biden. "We've never backed a presidential candidate in our 175-year history - until now." It would take Scientific American another 175-years to get their credibility back but my guess is the magazine now won't last another decade... Tim Ferriss mentioned that one of the underrated things about Joe Rogan's Spotify deal is that it is exclusive. That probably means for video too. Ferriss points out that this is a big deal as Rogan's videos of his podcasts pull in huge numbers on YouTube. All of those views would now be going to whatever Spotify's new video offering is. Just something to keep in mind... 

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Four members of Chinese military indicted over Equifax breach

- Heh Heh - awesome!

- Perhaps the most popular channel for kids is on YouTube and I'd never heard of it

- Laughed too hard at this

- Keep reading stories on NASA's experimental supersonic X-59 jet but never see it mentioned how many passengers it can carry. If it's not in the same range for carrying passengers as the retired Concorde then what's the point?

- Pretty much spot on

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Things were rather stabby back in Shakespeare's day

- What can we learn from people who succeeded later in life? People like Alan Rickman who had his first movie role at 46 or Julia Child who hosted her first TV show at 50.

- This is actually pretty astounding.

- I agree with VDH - Adam Schiff has greatly weakened the Democratic Party's chances in 2020. Schiff may be safe in his home district but he'd flop greatly if he ever tried to run nationally.

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Holy crap!

- The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer.

- Total badass!

- The danger of booze-making gut bacteria. Microbes can produce so much alcohol that people become drunk - and sustain liver damage - without touching any booze.

- Interesting look at the relationship between Disney under Bob Iger and Pixar under Steve Jobs. Written by Bob Iger.

- The Rusney Castillo deal (largest contract ever given to a Cuban defector) remains a strange side-note for the Red Sox. Highest paid AAA player ever?

- Business and life success lessons from Jeff Bezos

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I heard about this and checked it for myself. My conclusion is that either critics suck or they were watching the 1987 version with Scott Glenn while the audience rating is for the 2004 Denzel version... "How much has [Tom] Brady earned relative to his peers? It's a trick question. Brady has no peers, as any Patriots fan will tell you." - Mike Sando in The Athletic on Brady's new contract extension. The line just made me chuckle... Cool video. But the video I really want to see is of any attempted copycats... New Coke and Billy Beer (from Jimmy Carter's brother) were famous flops as products but I wonder what a couple cases of either would be worth on ebay right about now... YouTube is the world's top grossing video app with $138 mil in revenue in Q1. Trying to wrap my head around this. I watch YouTube all the time (via my Roku box) but I don't spend a dime on YouTube. Where is all the revenue coming from? Surely not the YouTube TV subscription service... This is cool and for the record I want one. The next step is to have competitive hoverboard cross channel races. I'd watch that in a heartbeat...

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- YouTube now has globally 2 billion monthly users, who watch 250 million hours of content daily.

- This is some football royalty - what a great picture

- The Munger operating system: how to live a life that really works. Great life advice.

- Couple of years old but always makes me chuckle.

- Excellent points - the errors I don't see. (Via A Layman's Blog)

- Steven Pressfield - write what you DON'T know

- Heh Heh

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- How an office job can effect your metabolism

- The weird world of vegan YouTube stars is imploding. Story is funny (to a meateater like me), sad and disturbing all at the same time.

- 5 lies you've been told about "following your passion"

- The NFL is looking to have a streaming version of DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket. My guess is Amazon Prime or ESPN+ would pay big money for the rights and people like me who've cut the cord would definitely make sure I get the service.

- A good night's sleep is one of the most important things for your body (and brain) at any age

- The successful man's path to Lasting Satisfaction

- Niccolo Machiavelli on reading

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- If credit card commercials were real life

- Also Grief Bacon would be a good name for a Depeche Mode cover band.

- Classic Internet - The crazy nastyass Honey Badger. Still funny 7-years later.

- Me on the morning of St. Patrick's Day vs. me on the morning after St. Patrick's Day

- Very cool potential health testing tool

- The last 50 final round broadcasts of the Masters are now available on YouTube. This is going to kill the productivity of many people in the next few weeks.

- 50 million Facebook user profiles harvested by Cambridge Analytica in major "data breach" (is it still a data breach if Facebook just sold the data?)

YouTube announced a new ~40 channel TV package and unlimited DVR storage. The package is priced at $35 and comes with up to six accounts. My first two initial thoughts upon reading the announcement:

1. Being in New England it would have to include both NESN (Red Sox and Bruins) and CCSNE (Celtics) for it to be worthwhile for me. YouTube does say it includes ESPN, Fox Sports and Comcast SportsNet but for me specifically it would have to include NESN and specifically CCSNE.

2. Welcome to the sharing economy! The package includes six accounts. That would work for a family with 4 kids or.... I could use 3 accounts (TV, iPhone, iPad) and give the other 3 accounts to friends who in return might give me their pass-code info for say Netflix or HBO Go. It's a win-win! If one account covered all three of my devices - even better!

By sharing if for $35 you could get YouTube TV, Netflix and HBO Go - why would anyone keep their existing cable or satellite package? This could be the death knell for smaller cable channels who aren't being included in the various packages like SlingTV, DirecTV Now, Playstation Vue or the upcoming offering from Hulu.

Goodbye MSNBC - it's been nice knowing you.

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

So Hitler may or may not have had a deformed micro penis. If he did have one it would go a long way to explain the intense hatred of a group of people who require cutting off a piece of a male's member to join the club... Heh heh... Generally fat shaming is wrong - but not when it comes to millionaire athletes like Pablo Sandoval... US Navy aircraft carriers are the greatest guarantors of the peace but are they now a liability in war?... I've become addicted to The Great War channel on YouTube...  Heh heh... Hard to believe but video game Legend of Zelda just turned 30 over the weekend... In the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - I always thought the lyric was "the girl with Colitis goes by" but it actually is "girl with kaleidoscope eyes". My bad... I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THIS HAPPEN!... Just saying but I'd support a law that required male porn actors to wear those fake Groucho nose and glasses. Nobody wants to see their faces... THIS MIGHT BE EVEN MORE FUN TO WATCH! ... There should be a documentary about racism in Hollywood. It could be called Brown and Out in Beverly Hills...

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The number 1 overriding reason Boston should not get the Olympics is Logan Airport - the worst major airport in the United States... The Daytona 500 is one of the last major sporting events to use trough urinals. The Masters is the only other one I can think of... Have you seen the "octopus jumps out of the water to eat a crab" video? I know octopus are badass. What I'm curious about is that video has close to 6 million views on YouTube - did the woman who took the video make any money from posting it?... 20 things you might not know about the Miracle on Ice... If President Obama says ISIS is not Islamic shouldn't we just call them SIS?... Heh heh - I would prefer my cause of death be motorboated by Wonder Woman... Non-roster invitee Dana Eveland was given Jon Lester's old number 31...

Happy Birthday YouTube

YouTube was launched 2-years ago on February 15th. Just think if it wasn't for YouTube - we might not get to see stuff like this: