31 October 2016

History for the day: 1984: Gandhi assassinated

On 31 October 1984, Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her guards at her residence in New Dheli, India.

Apple for the day

Rico says it's expensive, but worth it:

Songs for the week UF

If Firesign Theatre was cooperating (which they're not), this would be

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!
Amphetamine Motor Speedway!

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday

Rico says there are undoubtedly other choices out there, but these are his...

Apple’s new MacBook Pro ‘Touch Bar’ UF

From Time, an article by Lisa Eadicicco about the new Macs:

When Microsoft released the touchscreen-friendly Windows 8 about four years ago, just about every PC manufacturer started making computers with displays we could poke and prod, but not Apple. When it came to touchscreens for desktops and laptops, Apple CEO Tim Cook once famously called Windows PC vendors “confused”.
Now, Apple has finally began to gravitate towards touch for its PCs. Just not in the way most people would have imagined.
The Cupertino, California firm’s new MacBook Pro includes a new slim touchscreen strip that sits just above the keyboard. This area, called the Touch Bar, is meant to replace the traditional row of function keys. Unlike regular keys, the Touch Bar can change the buttons it’s displaying depending on the app you’re using or the task you’re trying to get done. The new laptop also has Touch ID, enabling lightning-fast user profile switching and Apple’s Apple Pay payment service. (The new MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar starts at $1,799 for the thirteen-inch model.)
I briefly spent some time trying the new MacBook Pro after Apple unveiled it Thursday. Based on that experience, I can say the Touch Bar is an inventive new way to get work done more quickly.
Apple’s desktop apps, like Maps, Photos, Safari, and more, have all been optimized to work with the new feature; the Touch Bar shortcuts Apple added for Safari and Photos are particularly helpful. While using Safari, the Touch Bar will display your recently opened tabs, which you can jump between by tapping each individual tab, or scroll through by sliding your finger across the strip. There’s no lag between your finger hitting the touch strip and the MacBook Pro’s reaction. Swiping through tabs in Safari felt fluid, and certainly much faster than clicking the trackpad or using traditional keyboard shortcuts.
My main criticism so far is that, since the Touch Bar is so small, it can be hard to see which tab is which. It would be easier to differentiate between tabs if the Touch Bar showed the logo for the website instead of a miniature version of the page. (During a demo on Thursday, Apple showed off a DJ app using the Touch Bar that also seemed like it would suffer from the lack of touchable real estate.)
The Touch Bar is helpful with the Photos app, too. When in the app, you can swipe through photos and albums by sliding a finger across the strip, similar to the way you can flip through tabs in Safari. When editing photos, you can tap a button on the Touch Bar to choose aspect ratios for cropping, or to cycle through filters. A before-after style button lets you compare your edits to the original image.
Apple’s new Touch Bar might mean faster typing, too. As I typed in Messages, the Touch Bar offered autocomplete suggestions. While I drafted a document in Pages, it presented text formatting options. Between the Touch Bar and the MacBook Pro’s new, flatter keyboard, writing in macOS feels faster than ever before.
Apple Holds Event To Announce New Products
Stephen Lam—Getty Images
Emoticons are displayed on the Touch Bar on a new Apple MacBook Pro laptop during a product launch event on October 27, 2016 in Cupertino, California.
The new MacBook Pro has improvements besides the Touch Bar, too. It has faster internals, more powerful speakers, a brighter screen, and an overall slimmer, lighter body. Still, it was difficult to assess these qualities in a brief hands-on, so look for my full review in the near future.
When it comes to the new MacBook Pro, the Touch Bar and the addition of Touch ID are the most immediate draws. How useful Apple’s new touch interface will actually be will largely depend on outside developers, and how they incorporate the feature into their apps. It’s an open question whether these new features will convince existing MacBook owners to upgrade — but they’ll be a nice benefit for those in the market for a brand new Apple laptop.

Rico says they still need to beat Microsoft's 'write on the screen' software...

Headline for the day

From The New York Times, an article by Susan Faludi:
How Hillary Clinton met Satan

She has been deranging conservatives since 1992, when wounded Republican invincibility merged with wounded male prerogative.


Rico says some would say she IS Satan...

History for the day: 1974: Ali knocks out Foreman

On 30 October 1974, Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round of a fifteen-round bout in Kinshasa, Zaire, to regain his world heavyweight title.

Quote for the day

Those are all big red flags, and reasons why you wouldn't get a clearance. What seems clear in this case is that they dropped the ball in choosing who to allow access to their material and computers in the first place."

Ross Schulman, a cybersecurity expert at the Open Technology Institute at New America, on the ability of Harold T. Martin III, who walked out of the NSA with highly classified materials, to keep his security clearance despite a record that included drinking problems and unpaid tax bills.

The poem in Rico's head

Rico says at oh-dark-thirty, it's Kipling, of course:

30 October 2016

Movie for the day: The Painted Veil (2006)

Rico says the fiancée watches some odd stuff on TCM:



The Painted Veil (2006)
A British medical doctor (played by Edward Norton, photo) fights a cholera epidemic in a small Chinese village, while trapped in a loveless marriage to an unfaithful wife…

Dia de Muertos






It's the Dia de Muertos celebration in Round Rock, Texas:


Rico's friend Bill went...

Dia de Muertos






It's the Dia de Muertos celebration in Round Rock, Texas:


Rico's friend Bill went...

Odd advertising choice

Rico says using an obviously crazy guy to promote your candidate would seem to be more appropriate for Trump than Clinton...

The song in Rico's head...

....is another from Rico's childhood: Alma, by Tom Lehrer:

How Chicago's World Series hopes slipped away

From Time, an article by Sean Gregory about the Cubbies, losers again:

Linda Medo calls herself a rookie; after all, she has only been attending Chicago Cubs games on a regular basis for twenty years now. Many of her fellow Wrigley Field bleacher dwellers have been at it for five or six decades.
Before Game Three on Friday night, the first World Series game at Wrigley Field since 1945, the Chicago, Illinois-born Medo was downright giddy, jumping up and down in her seat a half hour before first pitch, shaking her fists. The Cubs lost that one, 1-0, to the Cleveland Indians (photo), giving the Indians a 2-1 series lead. On Saturday night, the Cubs trailed 4-1 in the top of the seventh. The once ecstatic bleacher regulars weren’t making much noise. Then the Indians’ Jason Kipnis, who went to high school some twenty minutes away from Wrigley and grew up a die-hard Cubs fan, ripped a three-run home run into the right field seats, giving his team a 7-1 lead and essentially sealing the Game Four win. Cleveland now leads the series 3-1. The Cubs sit one game from elimination.
“I didn’t see it,” Medo said to no one in particular after Kipnis’ blast. “It didn’t happen.”
It did. Chicago waited seventy-one years for this? Two straight home losses in the World Series, in which the team’s vaunted offense performed like double-A players? The team won a hundred and three regular season games, best in the majors, and rocked Chicago just a week ago by clinching its first pennant in more than seven decades. But Wrigley Field is still waiting for its first World Series win since the Truman administration. “We needed today,” says John Stutz, 46, leaving Wrigley before the final out; might as well beat the stampede out of the stadium, since a Cubs loss was inevitable. “I thought we had today. Right now, all the air has gone out of the balloon. It’s just a giant kick in the stomach.” Stutz, a lifelong Cubs fan, runs a youth baseball academy in the Chicago suburbs. One of his star pupils: Kipnis, the Windy City’s hometown tormentor.
Cleveland is relishing its role as spoiler. Sure, the Indians haven’t won a World Series since 1948, but Americans have rallied around the Cubs: 1908, the last year the Cubs took the title, is implanted in the the national psyche. “The pressure’s all on them,” says Indians outfielder Rajai Davis. Following Cleveland’s 1-0 win on Friday night, in which four pitchers, starter Josh Tomlin, and relievers Andrew Miller, Bryan Shaw, and Cody Allen, combined to befuddle the Cubs, the Indians returned with their ace, Corey Kluber, on Saturday; he led Cleveland to a 6-0 shoutout victory in Game One.
Kluber gave up a run in the first, but the Indians quickly bounced back an inning later: Carlos Santana hit a solo shot, then Kluber helped himself with an RBI infield single that gave Cleveland a 2-1 edge. Chicago couldn’t catch up with Kluber. Since injuries have decimated Cleveland’s starting staff, Kluber, winner of the 2014 Cy Young award and a favorite for his second Cy Young this season, was throwing on only three days rest. “I don’t think people appreciate how hard it is to do that,” says Kipnis. “He reminded everyone that he’s still Corey Kluber, that he still has that Cy Young.”
With his shot in the seventh, Kipnis became the first visiting player to hit a three-run home run in Wrigley since Babe Ruth did it in 1932. “I never thought I’d be in the same sentence as that guy,” Kipnis said afterwards.
For many at Wrigley, hope’s fading all too fast. The Cubs, naturally, are trying to stay upbeat. Jon Lester, one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, will start Game Five on Sunday. Jake Arietta, last year’s Cy Young award winner, and winner of Game Two of this year’s World Series, would throw in a Game Six. And if the Series somehow reached a deciding Game Seven in Cleveland on Wednesday, Kyle Hendricks, who had the lowest ERA in the majors this year and has surrendered one run in his past three postseason starts, would start for Chicago.
“There’s never a time I go out on the field with this group that I don’t feel confident,” says Chicago Cubs catcher David Ross, who will be behind the plate for his good friend Lester in Game Five. “We’re in the World Series, what better place to be, right? There are lot worse things. There are a lot of guys at home wishing they were down 3-1, going into a World Series game in Wrigley Field.”
“All we have to do is just chill, and have a little more fun,” says Miguel Montero, Ross’ fellow Cubs catcher. “That’s all.”
Medo, the bleacher “rookie,” hasn’t lost all faith. “You have to enjoy what you have,” says Medo, an inventory manger who now lives in northern New Jersey. “I’m still glad I came out for this. But everyone back in the office knows that, if the Cubs lose, I won’t talk to them for a month.”
Rico says hopefully not another hundred years until the next one...

FBI Director under fire

From Time:

http://time.com/4550453/hillary-clinton-james-comey-fbi-emails/?xid=newsletter-brief

Rico says the guy's just doing his job, if with bad timing...

History for the day: 1938: Welles scares nation

History.com has this for 30 October:

This day in History
Oct
30
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1938
Welles scares nation
Orson Welles causes a nationwide panic with his broadcast of "War of the Worlds"-a realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth. Orson Welles was only 23 years old when his Mercury Theater company decided to update H.G. Wells' 19th-century science fiction novel War of the Worlds for... read more »
American Revolution
1775
Naval committee established by Congress »
Automotive
1893
The World's Columbian Exposition closes in Chicago »
Civil War
1862
Ormsby MacKnight Mitchell dies »
Cold War
1953
Eisenhower approves NSC 162/2 »
Crime
1890
Oakland, California, enacts anti-drug law »
Disaster
1991
Perfect storm hits North Atlantic »
General Interest
1908
Queen of American high society dies »
1975
Juan Carlos assumes power in Spain »
1995
Quebec separatists narrowly defeated »
Hollywood
1945
Henry "The Fonz" Winkler is born »
Literary
1811
Sense and Sensibility is published »
Music
1944
Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring premieres at the Library of Congress »
Old West
1864
The city of Helena, Montana, is founded after miners discover gold »
Presidential
1735
John Adams is born »
Sports
1974
Muhammad Ali wins the Rumble in the Jungle »
Vietnam War
1965
Marines repel attack near Da Nang. »
1970
Heavy monsoon rains hit Vietnam »
World War I
1918
Ottoman Empire signs treaty with Allies »
World War II
1941
FDR approves Lend-Lease aid to the USSR »
HISTORY.com
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29 October 2016

One job, done badly

Esquire has an article by Hugh Armitage about extras who did it wrong:

Christopher Nolan's first trailer for Dunkirk has been getting a lot of attention, although probably not in the way he hoped, thanks to an inappropriately cheerful extra.
But he's not the first to fluff his five seconds of fame. Come with us to celebrate some of the lamest extras in the history of film:

1. Dunkirk
Different strokes and all that, but we this guy still seems a bit too happy for a soldier stranded at Dunkirk at the height of World War Two:



2. Quantum of Solace


3. Back to the Future, Part 3


Doc Brown's kids always seemed a lil' odd, but only after some further review do we realize how creepy one of them actually is. First, I thought the boy was motioning for Elizabeth Shue to get on board the train, but where he really wants her to go, you don't need roads.

4. North by Northwest



Hitchcock's North by Northwest from 1959 contains a scene where a small boy in the background knows what will happen seconds before anybody else...

5. Teen Wolf



We'll never know why that woman's jeans were undone and it kills us.

6. Ten Star Wars Mistakes:



7. More Star Wars mistakes:



8. Dark Knight Rises, with the Worst Extra Ever:



Batman didn't even need to touch that thug to knock him over. Do you think it was The Force again?

Rico says getting good extras is harder than it would seem...

One job, done badly

Esquire has an article by Hugh Armitage about extras who did it wrong:

Christopher Nolan's first trailer for Dunkirk has been getting a lot of attention, although probably not in the way he hoped, thanks to an inappropriately cheerful extra.
But he's not the first to fluff his five seconds of fame. Come with us to celebrate some of the lamest extras in the history of film:

1. Dunkirk
Different strokes and all that, but we this guy still seems a bit too happy for a soldier stranded at Dunkirk at the height of World War Two:



2. Quantum of Solace


3. Back to the Future, Part 3


Doc Brown's kids always seemed a lil' odd, but only after some further review do we realize how creepy one of them actually is. First, I thought the boy was motioning for Elizabeth Shue to get on board the train, but where he really wants her to go, you don't need roads.

4. North by Northwest



Hitchcock's North by Northwest from 1959 contains a scene where a small boy in the background knows what will happen seconds before anybody else...

5. Teen Wolf



We'll never know why that woman's jeans were undone and it kills us.

6. Ten Star Wars Mistakes:



7. More Star Wars mistakes:



8. Dark Knight Rises, with the Worst Extra Ever:



Batman didn't even need to touch that thug to knock him over. Do you think it was The Force again?

Rico says getting good extras is harder than it would seem...

Feminism, dangerous division

From The New York Times, an article by John Clarke about surfing:

Women to be included in premier Big-Wave surfing contest

Organizers of the Titans of Mavericks, held off the northern coast of California, agreed to invite six women to compete for a $30,000 purse.

More history for the day: 1947: Truman asks for food restraint

From The New York Times:

On 5 October 1947, in the first televised White House address, President Truman asked Americans to refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to help stockpile grain for starving people in Europe.

FBI examining Clinton emails found in Weiner probe

From Time:
http://time.com/4549527/hillary-clinton-emails-fbi-reopen/?xid=newsletter-brief

Rico says just in time for the election, but a weiner probe sounds unpleasant...

28 October 2016

Secret Service agents aren’t getting paid for all their work

From BuzzFeed News:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/secret-service-agents-protecting-candidates-arent-getting-pa?utm_term=.lk0gpmpb3b&ref=mobile_share#.iw71gxgDND

Rico says that, if he were a candidate, he'd make damn sure they got all their money so they wouldn't duck at the wrong time...

The young lei maker of Honolulu, Hawai'i

From the BBC:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37793030

Rico says he'll refrain from any 'lei' puns...

27 October 2016

Apple’s new MacBook Pro

From Time:

http://time.com/4546888/apple-macbook-pro-2016/

Rico says he's only a lottery win away from buying one...

What winter will be like

From Time:

http://time.com/4543546/winter-weather-forecast-rain-snow/?xid=newsletter-brief

Rico says he's not living in a place that's gonna be warm, alas...

Trump Is a misogynist pig...

...according to the lead singer of Pussy Riot:

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/interviews/a50042/pussy-riot-interview-nadya-tolokno/?src=nl&mag=esq&list=nl_enl_news&date=102716

Rico says when the punk rockers turn on you, you're in trouble...

Smashing Trump

From Time, an article by Daniel White about vandalism in Hollywood:

A man dressed as a construction worker destroyed Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame early Wednesday. The man went to work vandalizing the star around 0545 with a sledgehammer and pickaxe, according to Deadline Hollywood. Trump was awarded the star in 2007 for his work on the NBC series The Apprentice.
Identifying himself to Deadline as Jamie Otis, the man said his original idea was to remove the star and put it up for auction to benefit the women who have accused Trump of sexual assault. The removal attempt was unsuccessful, Deadline reports, leaving the star in pieces but not removed from the sidewalk.
This isn’t the first time Trump’s star has been defaced since he announced his presidential bid. It has been subject to graffiti several times, as well as an art installation in July of 2016 where a Los Angeles, California street artist surrounded the star with a miniature wall, poking fun at Trump’s insistence that he will build a wall on the US-Mexico border.
The Walk of Fame’s more than 2,500 stars are maintained by the the Hollywood Historic Trust and selected by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, according to Deadline. The chamber previously denied a petition to remove the Trump star. 
Rico says all vandalism is bad, but this isn't so bad... (And giving Trump a star for his 'work' on The Apprentice is stretching it a bit...)

History for the day: 1904: IRT opened in New York City

On 27 October 1904, the first rapid transit subway, the IRT, opened in New York City.

More from Microsoft

From The New York Times, an article by Nick Wingfield about Microsoft's latest POS:

 

Microsoft introduced its Surface Studio on Wednesday. The company also announced an update to its Windows 10 operating system that is designed to make creating, manipulating and viewing 3D objects easier.
The Surface Studio represents Microsoft's growing presence in the hardware side of the industry that it once left entirely to its partners.

 

Rico says they can do all the snappy ads they want, but it still ain't a Macintosh...

Smart move

From The New York Times, an article by Dave Philipps about the Pentagon:

 

Pentagon halts efforts to claw back California National Guard bonuses
The Pentagon says it will suspend efforts to force the soldiers to give back incentives improperly paid out during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Rico says a good move, if they hope to keep people in the Guard...

History for the day: 1904: New York City subway opens

History.com has this for 27 October:

 

  Oct
27
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
   
1904
New York City subway opens
At 2:35 on the afternoon of October 27, 1904, New York City Mayor George McClellan takes the controls on the inaugural run of the city's innovative new rapid transit system: the subway. While London boasts the world's oldest underground train network (opened in 1863) and Boston built the first... read more »
American Revolution
1775
King George III speaks to Parliament of American rebellion »
Automotive
2006
Chick-fil-A founder takes last Ford Taurus »
Civil War
1864
Battle of Hatcher's Run (Burgess Mill) »
Cold War
1962
The United States and Soviet Union step back from brink of nuclear war »
Crime
1940
Mafia boss John Gotti is born »
Disaster
1995
Avalanche buries homes in Iceland »
General Interest
1659
Quakers executed for religious beliefs »
1858
Teddy Roosevelt born »
1914
Dylan Thomas born »
1994
U.S. prison population exceeds one million »
Hollywood
1924
Actress Ruby Dee born »
Literary
1932
Sylvia Plath is born »
Music
1970
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber release Jesus Christ Superstar »
Old West
1873
Joseph Glidden applies for a patent on his barbed wire design »
Presidential
1858
Theodore Roosevelt is born »
Sports
2004
Red Sox win first championship since 1918 »
Vietnam War
1966
Ambassador Harriman sent to explain Manila offer »
1971
Cambodian troops battle Communists north of Phnom Penh »
World War I
1918
German general Erich Ludendorff resigns »
World War II
1940
De Gaulle sets up the Empire Defense Council »
HISTORY.com
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