Author Archives: laurn larson

Journalism–NBC News 2012

24 August 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , Leave a comment

NBC News creatively edited a police phone record to create a racist narrative where none existed in the George Zimmerman shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012.

George Zimmerman, performing on a neighborhood watch detail, called the local police to inform them there was ‘a real suspicious guy…’walking around, looking about.’  Shortly afterward Zimmerman claimed that the ‘suspicious guy’, who was black, violently confronted him and as a consequence Zimmerman fatally shot Martin. Zimmerman claimed it was self-defense and the police were unable to prove otherwise.

NBC News edited and broadcast Zimmerman’s call to the police making it sound like Zimmerman was a racist and had used a racial epithet. Zimmerman filed a lawsuit disputing NBC’s allegations.

NBC News initially ‘strongly disagree[d]’ with the accusations made in the complaint’ by Zimmerman but later NBCUniversal Media, owner of NBC News apologized for editing the phone call and let go three network and local NBC station employees.

Zimmerman lost his lawsuit against the network because he was unable to show that NBC acted with malice. Proving malice is the ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card routinely used by the media to absolve itself of the consequences of false reporting.

Source: Zimmerman Sues NBC by McDowall, 2012, NBC News. Graphic: Partial Quote from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address 1865.

Mann’s 2024 Hurricane Season Predictions Mostly Wrong

23 August 2024 By in Uncategorized, Weather Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Michael Mann predicted 33 named storms in the Atlantic Basin this year. 33 storms have never occurred in 173 years of recorded Atlantic Basin storm history but because of climate change 2024 was going break all the records.

With less than 20 days until peak hurricane season, 5 named storms have developed so far during the Atlantic Basin 2024 season.

It is possible that another 28 storms will occur between now and Thanksgiving but not bloody probable. Mann’s model’s error bar since 2009 has been hovering around plus or minus 27%.

From an historical perspective, the mean number of Atlantic Basin storms that develop every year is 9. The number of storms strengthening into hurricanes each year is about 5 with major hurricanes, Cat 3 and higher, at 2 per year.

Source: Stanley Goldenberg. NOAA. Graphic: NOAA/GOES-East.

Luckiest Man

22 August 2024 By in History Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

When Lou Gehrig delivered his retirement speech to his fans at Yankee Stadium in 1939, he proved, not that he was the greatest baseball player ever, that went without saying, but that he was one of most humble humans to ever walk on this planet. A characteristic sorely missing from our society in the 21st century.

Forced to retire from the game he loved because of ALS, which would take his life two short years later, he told the world that ‘I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.’

His full speech is listed below (will only take a minute to read).

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.

“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies – that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body – it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that’s the finest I know.

“So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”

Source: Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech, lougehrig.com. Graphic: Lou Gehrig with the New York Yankees, 1923. Pacific and Atlantic Photos. Public Domain.

Wolverine: The First X-Men Movie

21 August 2024 By in Movies Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In the beginning there was the 2000 cinematic introduction of all things mutant, some good and some excessively proactive. The good were the Xavier’s X-Men and the excessively proactive belonged to Magneto’s unsympathetic Brotherhood of Mutants.

Wolverine, not necessarily part of the good or proactive, is living in the Canadian wilderness as an outsider just trying to make a buck by winning a cage match here and there. With a body full of adamantium with rather remarkable healing powers he is a formidable opponent in the ring.

Wolverine quickly becomes entangled in Magneto’s plans for annihilation of humans, forcing him to team up with Xavier’s X-Men. He ultimately plays a crucial role in the epic battle against Magneto and the Brotherhood.

Genre:  Action—Adventure–Fantasy—Sci-Fi

Directed by: Bryan Singer

Screenplay by: Tom DeSanto, Bryan Singer, David Hayter

Music by:  Michael Kamen

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen

Film Locations:  Ontario, Canada

Els: 8.5/10

IMDb:  7.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes Critics:  82

Rotten Tomatoes Audience:  83

Metacritic Metascore: 64

Metacritic User Score:  7.5/10

Theaters: 12 July 2000

Runtime: 104 minutes

Budget:  $75 million

Worldwide Box Office:  $296.3 million

Source: IMDb. Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic. Graphic: Movie Poster, 20th Century Fox.

Thorn-Clarke James Goddard Shiraz 2018

20 August 2024 By in Red Wine, Uncategorized Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Shiraz/Syrah from Barossa Valley, Australia

Purchase Price: $13.95

Vivino 90, WE 86, ElsBob 89

ABV 14.5%

Deep purple, oaky, dark berry fruits, with a hint of spice aromas, medium-full body, dry, and smooth. A good pick to serve with beef or lamb.

A very good fine wine priced 2-3 times less than similarly rated red wines but one probably shouldn’t pay more than $10.

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – South of Here

19 August 2024 By in Music, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Rateliff’s soulful story telling lyrics just get better and better with the release of his 4th studio album in June of this year by the Memphis soul machine label: Stax.

His songs take on a more personal note, encouraged by the album’s producer, Brad Cook, but manage to keep what Jim Shahen of ‘The Journal of Roots Music’ calls a ‘gritty rock ‘n’ soul’ sound that is the backbone of Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats’.

Mojo comments that the 11 album tracks are ‘Deep, rewarding songs, rich in authorly detail, which, not for the first time, position Rateliff, still only 45, as a new Springsteen.’

Source: South of Here Review by Mojo, 2024.  Album Review: Nathaniel Rateliff…by Jim Shahen, 2024, Journal of Roots Music. Graphic: Album Cover STAX copyright.

King Arthur’s World

18 August 2024 By in Books Nonfiction, Mythology Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Chivalry ‘framed an ideal of the heroic character, combining…strength and valor, justice, modesty, loyalty to superiors, courtesy to equals, compassion to weakness, and devotedness to [God],’ as defined by Bulfinch in his 1858 ‘The Age of Chivalry, or Legends of King Arthur’.

Chivalry in the Middle Ages was a lifestyle and a philosophy. A lifestyle that guided a knight’s actions and decisions backed-up by a philosophy that defined chivalrous principles and virtues.

Every year the Knights of the Round Table renew their oaths of chivalry as proclaimed by the King Arthur during the Christian holiday of Pentecost.

The time of Pentecost was likely chosen because it was a time of renewal and commitment for Christians.

Source: Bulfinch’s Mythology, 1991. Graphic: Knight Rescuing a Maiden, AI generated.

Journalism — Jonah Lehrer 2012

17 August 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Up until 2012, Jonah Lehrer was a wunderkind of everything he touched; Rhodes Scholar, degree in neuroscience, contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired, etc, and author of three books.

Then people started noticing alarming similarities in his writings. At first it was just self-plagiarism, borrowing text from his books to write newer articles. Some still argue that plagiarizing yourself is no crime but when you are getting paid for original work it probably should be, well, original.

Next up was grabbing material from press releases and pasting them into his articles without attribution. Then onto very slightly modified posts written by others without any attribution. Made up quotes followed.

After in-depth investigations into his work Jonah Lehrer was fired from The New Yorker and Wired plus two of his books were recalled.

Source: The Fall of Johah Lehrer by Jonathan Bailey, 2012, Plagiarism Today. Johnah Lehrer’s Journalistic Misdeeds at Wired.com by Charles Seife, 2012, Slate. Graphic: AI generated, 2024.

Nixon’s Price Controls

16 August 2024 By in History, Politics Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Nixon announced wage and price controls this week in 1971 to combat an inflationary problem caused by Johnson’s and Nixon’s excessive war and domestic government spending.

In a nationally televised address to the nation in August of 71, he ordered a 90-day freeze on all prices and wages. After the 90 day freeze any increases in wages or prices would have to be approved by the federal government.

By the summer of 1972 it was obvious that the controls weren’t providing any positive benefits and lots of negative ones, including empty store shelves.  Treasury Secretary George Shultz in 1973 told Nixon that at least we learned ‘that wage-price controls are not the answer’ for fighting inflation.

Milton Friedman predicted the program’s ‘utter failure’ and the re-ignition of inflation in the near future. After all the controls were removed in the spring of 1974 inflation shot up to 11 percent and stayed high until Paul Volcker created two recessions in 1980 and 1981-1982 to finally end the inflationary pressures from the late 60s through the early 80s.

Theodor Reik said in 1965, ‘history may not repeat itself, it merely rhymes’. In this case it will likely repeat itself.

Source: Nixon’s Price Controls by Gene Healy, 2011, Cato.org. Graphic: Orissapost.com, 2021.

Homelessness

15 August 2024 By in Mental Health Tags: Leave a comment

HUD estimated that there were 650,000 homeless in the U.S. as of Jan 2023. A 12% increase from 2022. By the end of 2023 homelessness has likely has hit the highest number ever recorded in the U.S.

Since the beginning of 2020 homelessness has been increasing by about 10% per year. If 2024 holds to the same increase, there will be an estimated 715,000 homeless living and sleeping in the parks, streets, and abandoned buildings of this country’s cities.

Kevin Adler suggests in his new book on homelessness that poverty is not the main reason for people living on the streets but rather it is due to the loss of family and friends willing to help. The loss of family support falls into the all too familiar buckets of substance abuse and mental health conflicts.

Source: GAO Report to Congress: Homelessness 2024. HUD-AHAR – 2023. People Become Homeless by Courtney Martin, 2024. Graphic: HUD 2023.