"Advocacy groups in Black and Hispanic communities see advantages in joining forces with largely white and low-income communities in the Appalachian region, which includes West Virginia and about a dozen other states stretching from New York’s southern tier to Alabama."
"And an imagined split between lower-wealth white communities and communities of color is a narrative embraced by polluting industries including coal mining operations and coal-fired power plants, said Mustafa Ali, who headed the EPA’s environmental justice office. Ali and other advocates argue that such a split was an attempt to dilute the combined political power of both communities.
Ali, who now heads the National Wildlife Federation’s environmental justice efforts, said Appalachian communities need assurances amid increasing calls for moving the U.S. away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy."
The AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science--"triple A S") annual meeting is this week. I just watched Anthony Fauci give a talk (nothing too new; just recapping the various studies) followed by a Q&A with science journalist Jon Cohen. But first, Jon Cohen's 91-year-old mom Esther wanted to ask Fauci if she can play mahjong with her friends now that she's vaccinated.
At the end, she said, "I love you!" And Fauci responded, "I love you, too!"
Hmm I don't think it was me; I don't know *that* much about Chinese mahjong (or Taiwanese mahjong--not sure if there are varieties) and zero about Jewish mahjong! Perhaps Terence?
While not a direct dealing with Bismuth, but in the world of super sensitive particle physics detectors where ambient background radiations from radon gas (part of the Uranium and Plutonium decay chains) can only be minimized and not completely blocked, the detection of a Bismuth decay follow by another decay from Polonium within ~2 minutes turned out to be a very useful signature of how much radon background is present. This Bi-Po correlation from Bi-214 and Po-214 is, I believe, the greatest relevance of this element to my life.
is a brittle, crystalline, white metal with a slight pink tinge. It has a variety of uses, including cosmetics, alloys, fire extinguishers and ammunition. It is probably best known as the main ingredient in stomach ache remedies such as Pepto-Bismol.
what does @TheBuckeyBear has to say about element 83?
my only thoughts about it are that is has something to do w/ antimony because they are in the same column in the periodic table. but i couldnt tell you much about either one other than they are some of the cooler names ...
Yeah, it's that Geico ad. I thought it was quite funny for the first 100 or so times that I've seen it, but the fact that they are already scooping ice creams for deserts before the dinner has been made has bothered me in the 50 or so viewings since.
One can argue that I am possibly watching too much TV.
I'm glad there wasn't too much of a somber, "we're all in this together" tone or too many displays of "let's spend $6m on this ad to thank our essential workers (rather than paying them a more reasonable wage)." They largely seemed to avoid the pandemic, which was a good call.
I suspect that given the lead time needed for production and the rapid pace of change and new developments in current events, it wasn't feasible to wade into it any deeper. Which was fine.
I guess the John Travolta dancing commercials for Scotts' were the best, though I'm surprised the company forked over $6 million for a spot. I didn't like the Paramount streaming service commercials nor the idiotic Bud Light spot. I mean, who drinks Bud Light?
The DoorDash one was better than UberEats. The whole "large national company encouraging you to eat local so they can take a 30% cut" seemed like a weird cherry to put on top of Mike Myers makeup-cake.
My first reaction is why couldn't the Chiefs have played this horribly against the Niners? If they'd spotted us another TD on penalties I think we hold on to win that game.
It also helps the Bucs that the Chiefs offense is not 100% this year. Cal alum Mitchell Schwartz was out this year and he's a big part of that O-line. Mahomes also had some ankle issues.
But it really was some ill-timed defensive penalties that really doomed the Chiefs. I know that the stadium was not at capacity, but one has to wonder if that's due to some kind of home-field advantage.
Absolutely. With THIS OL, KC doesn't even make the Super Bowl. While Schwartz has been out awhile, and Duvernay opted out due to to COVID, losing former #1 overall pick Eric Fisher in the 2nd half of the AFC Championship game v Tatonka was devastating for the Chiefs. Reid didn't really do a lot to help his OL, either, tho not sure it really makes a difference. Rough time for KC to throw in their worst effort of the Mahomes era.
This also matches what I saw with my eyeballs. Mahomes was facing a lot of pressure, very quickly after the snap, especially on the crucial 3rd down plays. I'm not sure how much the scheme can make up for that.
Had it on while making a multi-course dinner from a pork belly: we made banh mi, ramen, and fried rice. It was all glorious and now we have leftovers for days. The missus was more focused on cooking than the game, but she could generally tell what was going on based on my audible groans every time Brady threw another TD pass.
Tom Brady looked listless and mask-less on the sidelines, even though they were walloping the Chiefs. Probably still upset about the results of the election.
Brady on several occasions was as engaged and fired up as he has ever been. My take was beware of someone who knows what he is doing, especially when he's backed up by a really good defense.
Yeah, I didn't interpret that look as being listless, more that he was trying to stay focused on his job and not get complacent because of the big lead. Seems to me that's how he's wired.
Also, is Brady really that big a Trump fan? I know he had that hat in his locker, but otherwise he never talks about it. It seems almost equally likely that he met Trump a few times socially and got the souvenir hat and that's as deeply as he thought about it.
They're friends (or were). Tom, Bill, and Robert Kraft have a well documented history of being buddies with Trump (who famously once wanted to set Tom up with Ivanka, pre-Giselle). As someone who's lived in Boston for the last 15 years, the consensus in this area for what it's worth is that Tom has had to curb his open Trump support for his career and TB12 brand in this liberal region, but more importantly his wife, who by accounts is liberal and not at all a fan of Trump, really put the kibosh on it.
Didn't watch any of it. Based on the Chiefs performance I'm glad I didn't. Tried to fix why my driver's side door lock wasn't going up and down and went for a run.
I thought it was an entertaining game. The Buc's offensive and defensive schemes were so great. Romo totally called the Buc offensive gameplan ahead of time: nothing too cutesy but run up the gut, screen, and the occasional play-action. And their defensive game plan to sink the cover 2 deep, soften the LB coverage so that Mahomes had nowhere to pass at the 3-5 second window, and let JPP and Shaq Barrett feast on second string tackles and Mahomes' bad wheel to destroy their rhythm.
Interesting game. Brady was not just Brady, his 1st half (80% completions, 3 tds) was the most efficient half by any QB in any Super Bowl, but the real key to the tame was a tremendous defensive effort by the Bucs.
Before anyone thinks the Chiefs have been totally solved, I'd note the 2 very deep safety coverage base scheme TB used almost all the time put a lot of responsibility on their CBs and their LBs, something that a lot of teams even at the NFL level, never mind CFB, would have been able to pull off. But based on the several times I've watched KC the last couple years, their go-to solutions to break up coverages are mostly vertically-principled, or at least use mid-to-deep slants. Not much underneath crossing stuff in their arsenal that would have attacked the gaps in the TB secondary. So good use of a risky scheme that considered the opposition well. I doubt it would have worked against Brady, or Drew Breeze, for example. But it worked against KC, and is an area (one of the few) that Mahones still has work to do on his game.
Eh, I think the KC o-line (they don't deserve a capital "o") sucking was the most determinative aspect of the game. At least to my eyes, although I didn't watch much of the second half. Drops didn't help either.
O-line actually had some decent protections, in part because of use of TE/Slot receivers augmenting blocking (reasonable accommodation given KC had 2 starters playing out of position [Remmers was starting in his 4th different position this year, and a player making his first start of the year]), where Mahomes had time for an initial release in a reasonable amount of time, but didn't have his primary receiver OR a quick check down available. 1-2 seconds later, he was in a lot of trouble, and couldn't find a 3rd receiver.
MWPolo: Cal (#2 tied) had a great weekend, beating #1 Stanturd (16-11), #2T UCLA (11-8), and #2T USC (11-8). Cal should move up to #1 once the new rankings are out.
That was very encouraging. Jack Deely and Garrett Dunn had a big weekend to give the Bears additional offensive firepower to "Greek Freak" Nikolaos Papanikolaou who was the conference newcomer of the year last year. Sophomore keeper Adran Weinberg was phenomenal in the parts of the matches that I watched, and water polo is a sport where a hot keeper can carry a team to a tournament/championship win.
This is the 2nd of 3 regular season weekends of play before the conference tournament and (hopefully) the NCAA tournament. Stanford, last year's champ, is just playing their first weekend due to Santa Clara County regulations; they did lose their two-time player of the year though who gave up his final year of eligibility to be with the US National Team.
‘Big Tent’ Environmental Justice Plan Looks Past Racial Divides
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/big-tent-environmental-justice-plan-looks-past-racial-divides
"Advocacy groups in Black and Hispanic communities see advantages in joining forces with largely white and low-income communities in the Appalachian region, which includes West Virginia and about a dozen other states stretching from New York’s southern tier to Alabama."
"And an imagined split between lower-wealth white communities and communities of color is a narrative embraced by polluting industries including coal mining operations and coal-fired power plants, said Mustafa Ali, who headed the EPA’s environmental justice office. Ali and other advocates argue that such a split was an attempt to dilute the combined political power of both communities.
Ali, who now heads the National Wildlife Federation’s environmental justice efforts, said Appalachian communities need assurances amid increasing calls for moving the U.S. away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy."
The AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science--"triple A S") annual meeting is this week. I just watched Anthony Fauci give a talk (nothing too new; just recapping the various studies) followed by a Q&A with science journalist Jon Cohen. But first, Jon Cohen's 91-year-old mom Esther wanted to ask Fauci if she can play mahjong with her friends now that she's vaccinated.
At the end, she said, "I love you!" And Fauci responded, "I love you, too!"
Slightly off topic--TBB, were you the one explaining that Jewish mahjong is different from Chinese mahjong?
I posted a tweet (leading to a thread) about it some time ago IIRC
Hmm I don't think it was me; I don't know *that* much about Chinese mahjong (or Taiwanese mahjong--not sure if there are varieties) and zero about Jewish mahjong! Perhaps Terence?
Cute!
Elsewhere in college
247 Sports: 15% less recruiting offers as transfer portal more interesting option during Covid year
https://247sports.com/Article/College-football-recruiting-teams-signed-400-fewer-recruits-than-normal-in-2021-160649532/
Wazzu's starting QB suspended indefinitely from team activities pending investigation from DUI arrest
https://pullmanradio.com/wsu-qb-jayden-de-laura-suspended-following-dui-arrest-on-pullmans-college-hill/
EA is buying Glu Mobile to build out their mobile game business. I'm excited that I now get to keep the success of "Kim Kardassian: Hollywood" going
I remember playing a Glu Mobile Texas Holdem game at least 10 years ago. It was fun.
Great news for the founders of glu mobile...time to cash out
Scotland: This is what happens when you let the public name your road gritting vehicles (zoom in by zoom-scrolling)
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html
Snakes on a plane!
https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/news/the-latest/2021/01/28/pilot-saves-life-by-jumping-from-speeding-and-perfectly-good-plane-on-takeoff/
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
Sen. Shelby (R-AL) not running for re-election and his term will expire in 22. Then again, Alabama did just elect Tommy Tuberville
https://twitter.com/hillhulse/status/1358823806454931461
I guess it's Nick Saban's turn.
It would be really interesting if Saban ran as a Democrat. Would he get elected?
US Rep. Ron Wright (R-TX) has died of Covid. He battled cancer while trying to disenfranchise several US State's voters.
https://twitter.com/politico/status/1358814047349653511
as a lib, I feel owned by this
People who are jealous
me, for this absolute masterpiece of putting the boot in: https://twitter.com/hels/status/1358401173208903683?s=20
Oh man, what a dunce.
Goddamn Hels
for once, England rugby supporters after Scotland won the Calcutta Cup at Twickenham for the first time since 1983: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/feb/06/england-scotland-six-nations-rugby-union-match-report
Bismuth
I've done a little 3D printing with bismuth filament. https://www.toybuilderlabs.com/products/gmass-high-density-abs-175-2700
While not a direct dealing with Bismuth, but in the world of super sensitive particle physics detectors where ambient background radiations from radon gas (part of the Uranium and Plutonium decay chains) can only be minimized and not completely blocked, the detection of a Bismuth decay follow by another decay from Polonium within ~2 minutes turned out to be a very useful signature of how much radon background is present. This Bi-Po correlation from Bi-214 and Po-214 is, I believe, the greatest relevance of this element to my life.
214? Damn, that's a fat atom.
Bismuth. A sludge/doom band from Nottingham, England
https://open.spotify.com/track/1MYimJP3abaYucaOPAm1fx?si=OLc_XPaGS2q6eeSkYpp8bw
is a brittle, crystalline, white metal with a slight pink tinge. It has a variety of uses, including cosmetics, alloys, fire extinguishers and ammunition. It is probably best known as the main ingredient in stomach ache remedies such as Pepto-Bismol.
This is why I DBD
what does @TheBuckeyBear has to say about element 83?
my only thoughts about it are that is has something to do w/ antimony because they are in the same column in the periodic table. but i couldnt tell you much about either one other than they are some of the cooler names ...
Commercials
Even though I love sci fi, the one about being part of the first civilian space mission held no interest for me.
I read that some people got excited about the similarity to the origin of the Fantastic Four. Seems like a big stretch to me (pun intended).
I liked the Norway one, was silly fun. And the Edward Scissorhands one.
It's not a new commercial, but IMO "Scoop there it is" still beats everything else from last night.
Every time I see it, it makes me want to dance!
Is that the Tag Team commercial? I saw that one about a week ago and like it.
Yeah, it's that Geico ad. I thought it was quite funny for the first 100 or so times that I've seen it, but the fact that they are already scooping ice creams for deserts before the dinner has been made has bothered me in the 50 or so viewings since.
One can argue that I am possibly watching too much TV.
They're just demonstrating! It doesn't mean they're going to eat it right away.
Four Season Total Landscaping (and Press Venue)
https://youtu.be/n4q2oXXKs68
I'm glad there wasn't too much of a somber, "we're all in this together" tone or too many displays of "let's spend $6m on this ad to thank our essential workers (rather than paying them a more reasonable wage)." They largely seemed to avoid the pandemic, which was a good call.
I suspect that given the lead time needed for production and the rapid pace of change and new developments in current events, it wasn't feasible to wade into it any deeper. Which was fine.
No joke.
I guess the John Travolta dancing commercials for Scotts' were the best, though I'm surprised the company forked over $6 million for a spot. I didn't like the Paramount streaming service commercials nor the idiotic Bud Light spot. I mean, who drinks Bud Light?
i thought the Rocket Mortgage ones were the best
I enjoyed the Doordash delivers to Sesame Street spot. Also liked the Cheetos ad, with the "It wasn't me" line disproved by Cheetos fingers.
The DoorDash one was better than UberEats. The whole "large national company encouraging you to eat local so they can take a 30% cut" seemed like a weird cherry to put on top of Mike Myers makeup-cake.
Did enjoy seeing those faces from the past though,
Uh yeah, but I don't think most people know that.
PRO
Puppy Bowl
Did team ruff or team fuzz win? I was unexpectedly diverted for an hour and didn't see.
Superbowl
My first reaction is why couldn't the Chiefs have played this horribly against the Niners? If they'd spotted us another TD on penalties I think we hold on to win that game.
maybe they did but the Niners just sucked a little more
I mean, the game was really close deep into the 4th quarter and required some amazing Mahomes plays to pull it out, so I'm gonna say no.
It also helps the Bucs that the Chiefs offense is not 100% this year. Cal alum Mitchell Schwartz was out this year and he's a big part of that O-line. Mahomes also had some ankle issues.
But it really was some ill-timed defensive penalties that really doomed the Chiefs. I know that the stadium was not at capacity, but one has to wonder if that's due to some kind of home-field advantage.
Yeah, if last year's 49ers are playing this makeshift Chiefs OL then they probably win too.
Absolutely. With THIS OL, KC doesn't even make the Super Bowl. While Schwartz has been out awhile, and Duvernay opted out due to to COVID, losing former #1 overall pick Eric Fisher in the 2nd half of the AFC Championship game v Tatonka was devastating for the Chiefs. Reid didn't really do a lot to help his OL, either, tho not sure it really makes a difference. Rough time for KC to throw in their worst effort of the Mahomes era.
For one thing, the drastic difference between the defenses (and D-coaching) between the 49ers & the Bucs.
Was it really that drastic? Last year's Niners defense also had a dominant front.
Coverage scheme significant differences. Seriously changed what Mahomes' options in response to pressure from the d-rush were.
Okay, so after reading this I'm gonna say the pressure rate against Mahomes was actually really high.
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/02/super-bowl-patrick-mahomes-chart-pressure-buccaneers
This also matches what I saw with my eyeballs. Mahomes was facing a lot of pressure, very quickly after the snap, especially on the crucial 3rd down plays. I'm not sure how much the scheme can make up for that.
Hmm, perhaps. But that still doesn't account for the Chiefs committing so many bad penalties on defense.
Disappointed it wasn't a good game, and that the Bucs won. Switch over to the Cal game in the 2nd half so I could be disappointed at something else.
That switch certainly achieved that second objective.
Hey! No comments from the peanut gallery!
I watched it too. But my only disappointment was with how much and how long Stanford coasted in. Final score was misleading.
Had it on while making a multi-course dinner from a pork belly: we made banh mi, ramen, and fried rice. It was all glorious and now we have leftovers for days. The missus was more focused on cooking than the game, but she could generally tell what was going on based on my audible groans every time Brady threw another TD pass.
That's 3 groans....
Tom Brady looked listless and mask-less on the sidelines, even though they were walloping the Chiefs. Probably still upset about the results of the election.
?
??
Brady on several occasions was as engaged and fired up as he has ever been. My take was beware of someone who knows what he is doing, especially when he's backed up by a really good defense.
Yeah, I didn't interpret that look as being listless, more that he was trying to stay focused on his job and not get complacent because of the big lead. Seems to me that's how he's wired.
Also, is Brady really that big a Trump fan? I know he had that hat in his locker, but otherwise he never talks about it. It seems almost equally likely that he met Trump a few times socially and got the souvenir hat and that's as deeply as he thought about it.
They're friends (or were). Tom, Bill, and Robert Kraft have a well documented history of being buddies with Trump (who famously once wanted to set Tom up with Ivanka, pre-Giselle). As someone who's lived in Boston for the last 15 years, the consensus in this area for what it's worth is that Tom has had to curb his open Trump support for his career and TB12 brand in this liberal region, but more importantly his wife, who by accounts is liberal and not at all a fan of Trump, really put the kibosh on it.
Didn't watch it. My wife and daughters tuned in to watch the halftime show and the commercials in the second half.
2nd Super Bowl in a row for Tom Brady where the opposing team didnt score a TD.
we had a micro gathering of people that are already in the bubble (ie daughter's boyfriend and best friend).
chili cheese dogs were made for 25+ yrs in a row. vegan bean chili this time.
Don't know that defense can actually win championships, but it certainly can give the team a fighting chance.
defense wins championships: see Super Bowl XXXV Baltimore Ravens 2001because it sure as shit wasn't Trent fucking Dilfer
Ancient history in today's football, and pretty much an outlier.
Is it an outlier?
Giants-Bills 1991
Pats-Rams 2002
Bucs-Raiders 2003
Giants-Pats 2008
Seahawks-Broncos 2014
Broncos-Panthers 2016
Didn't watch any of it. Based on the Chiefs performance I'm glad I didn't. Tried to fix why my driver's side door lock wasn't going up and down and went for a run.
I thought it was an entertaining game. The Buc's offensive and defensive schemes were so great. Romo totally called the Buc offensive gameplan ahead of time: nothing too cutesy but run up the gut, screen, and the occasional play-action. And their defensive game plan to sink the cover 2 deep, soften the LB coverage so that Mahomes had nowhere to pass at the 3-5 second window, and let JPP and Shaq Barrett feast on second string tackles and Mahomes' bad wheel to destroy their rhythm.
Interesting game. Brady was not just Brady, his 1st half (80% completions, 3 tds) was the most efficient half by any QB in any Super Bowl, but the real key to the tame was a tremendous defensive effort by the Bucs.
Before anyone thinks the Chiefs have been totally solved, I'd note the 2 very deep safety coverage base scheme TB used almost all the time put a lot of responsibility on their CBs and their LBs, something that a lot of teams even at the NFL level, never mind CFB, would have been able to pull off. But based on the several times I've watched KC the last couple years, their go-to solutions to break up coverages are mostly vertically-principled, or at least use mid-to-deep slants. Not much underneath crossing stuff in their arsenal that would have attacked the gaps in the TB secondary. So good use of a risky scheme that considered the opposition well. I doubt it would have worked against Brady, or Drew Breeze, for example. But it worked against KC, and is an area (one of the few) that Mahones still has work to do on his game.
Eh, I think the KC o-line (they don't deserve a capital "o") sucking was the most determinative aspect of the game. At least to my eyes, although I didn't watch much of the second half. Drops didn't help either.
O-line actually had some decent protections, in part because of use of TE/Slot receivers augmenting blocking (reasonable accommodation given KC had 2 starters playing out of position [Remmers was starting in his 4th different position this year, and a player making his first start of the year]), where Mahomes had time for an initial release in a reasonable amount of time, but didn't have his primary receiver OR a quick check down available. 1-2 seconds later, he was in a lot of trouble, and couldn't find a 3rd receiver.
edit: would NOT have been able to pull off.
CAL
GO Bears! Or more accurately these days, no-go Bears...
MWPolo: Cal (#2 tied) had a great weekend, beating #1 Stanturd (16-11), #2T UCLA (11-8), and #2T USC (11-8). Cal should move up to #1 once the new rankings are out.
https://twitter.com/CalWaterPolo/status/1358578422759317504
That was very encouraging. Jack Deely and Garrett Dunn had a big weekend to give the Bears additional offensive firepower to "Greek Freak" Nikolaos Papanikolaou who was the conference newcomer of the year last year. Sophomore keeper Adran Weinberg was phenomenal in the parts of the matches that I watched, and water polo is a sport where a hot keeper can carry a team to a tournament/championship win.
This is the 2nd of 3 regular season weekends of play before the conference tournament and (hopefully) the NCAA tournament. Stanford, last year's champ, is just playing their first weekend due to Santa Clara County regulations; they did lose their two-time player of the year though who gave up his final year of eligibility to be with the US National Team.