Valuable advice

Welcome to the weekend. Saturday, December 5, 2020 edition.

No more small horses, peacocks, platypuses, turkeys or bearded dragons on airplanes. And that’s fine by me.

The MBTA advisory board says, ‘not so fast‘ on the agency’s plan to cut service. The board thinks the T should reshuffle its priorities to maintain service levels by delaying expensive projects and cutting fat in other areas. I couldn’t agree more.

This study is being billed as a breakthrough in potentially reversing age-related cognitive decline.

Kara Swisher weighs in on Warner Brothers‘ plan to release films in theaters and streaming at the same time. This looks like the future.

And the state budget was finally passed. Not bad. Only five months late.

Return on investment

It’s Wednesday. Halfway there.

No-Shave November is over. You can shave your beard now and, as a bonus, you get a free McRib sandwich.

Some Massachusetts politicians win elections the old fashioned way, by spending lots of money. Bruce Mohl has the deets.

In what may be a sign of optimism, cities are investing in convention centers, hoping to woo organizers once the pandemic ends. In the meantime, they can always be used as field hospitals.

Apple’s best apps of the year list is out and it reflects the year we’ve been through. Zoom, meditation and home exercise, remote learning and games top the list.

And the first best movies of 2020 list is out. This one is from the New Yorker.

Can you hear me now?

Election day. God help us.

Screenwriter Brian (‘don’t send me any screenplays’) Koppleman remembers the great Sean Connery. Nice story (via DF).

Voyager was launched in 1977 and it’s been speeding away from earth ever since. After all that time it’s only about 17 light-hours away. That’s still quite a distance though; about twelve billion miles. Communication dropped a while ago but with a refurbished dish antenna in Australia, we’re back in touch. Amazing.

Numbers are up 300% in Mass so the governor had to make some changes. More masks and curfews. Not a good thing for restaurants but probably necessary at this point.

This guy just figured out his phone has a map app. File under: ‘thanks, but we knew all this already’.

And New Zealand has a peacock problem. They’re smart (“once they’ve learnt they’re being shot at, you won’t get within two or three hundred metres of them”) and they’re fast (“as soon as one starts to move, they all run, they’re like blimmin’ road runners”). Beep beep.

Lights, camera… action

It’s Monday. Columbus Day.

Michael O’Sullivan thinks Robert De Niro has gone from a raging bull to an aging tool. I guess he must need the money.

Danny McDonald reviews Marty Walsh’s ‘nonrhotic‘ performance in Frederick Wiseman’s four and a half hour documentary on City Hall. Sounds like it would have made a great Netflix series if it had been broken into shorter segments. But I can’t wait to see it.

Veena Dharmaraj and Staci Rubin make the case for more public investment in electric car charging stations in Massachusetts. And speaking of electric cars, a vehicle engineering revolution is underway. Think big skateboard.

75 year old Ian Gillan, lead singer for Deep Purple, is still touring. He estimates that he’s sung ‘Smoke on the Water,’ 2500 times. That sounds low to me. I’ve probably heard it on the radio more times than that.

And a sitcom character walked into a bar. Right away they knew her name.

An act of God

Sunday is here. Sputnik, the first satellite, was launched 63 years ago today.

St. Matthew‘s, in the heart of Dorchester, is closing its doors for good. The parish will be absorbed into St. Angela’s in Mattapan Square.

Virus? What virus? And on it goes. No one is to blame. Judd Gregg is quoted in the Post saying that voters will see the virus simply as “something that was like a horrible hurricane, where you can’t lay the blame and have little control over it.” Sure, I guess, if, as the hurricane approached, you ignored an evacuation order, left all your windows wide open and then stood on the edge of the seawall in howling winds as the waves crashed and sucked you into the sea. It happens.

No Pats today. Cam Newton had a positive pre-game test. More time now for game films before facing the Chiefs.

The latest Bond was delayed until 2021 and it looks like that will spell doom for Regal Cinemas, which are expected to shut down later this week as a result. Some say theaters may never come back.

And Anthony Fauci tells Science Magazine that he doesn’t mind being the skunk at the garden party. We don’t mind either.

Third person limited

Tuesday, August 8. Paul Dirac was born on this date, as was Roger Penrose.

John Clayton doesn’t think the Patriots will make the playoffs this year. It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future, but based on nothing but blind faith, I think they’ll go to the Super Bowl.

Marty Walsh has announced that Michelle Wu called him to tell him that she’s running against him for mayor next year. Wu hasn’t confirmed or denied. Strange. There doesn’t seem to be any love lost between them so this announcement is a head scratcher. My bet is that Walsh moves to a position with the Biden administration sometime before the next mayoral election. The council president would then assume the position of acting Mayor, like Menino did when Ray Flynn went to the Vatican. That would be Kim Janey, not Wu. So how does Wu’s call, Walsh’s preemptive announcement, and her non-confirmation figure into all this? I have no idea, but city politics is starting to get interesting again.

In New York, three members of Bill de Blasio’s administration have expressed an interest in his job. The latest is his head of sanitation.

There may be an Apple press release this morning announcing new watches and iPads. Something to hold us over until the iPhone 12 is unveiled later in the fall.

And The Guardian went to look for old science fiction movies that predicted our present. Strangely, they missed the one that hit the bullseye.

Law and order

It’s a Saturday. Can you dig it? Yes I can.

Over 190 law enforcement leaders just endorsed Joe Biden.

Did David Brooks, who’s usually the voice of calm, conservative reason, just suggest we take to the streets in something more than a peaceful protest to protect our democracy? Not a great sign for election season.

Ty Burr reviewed Charlie Kaufman’s ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things.’ He liked it. I did too. It’s worth watching and analyzing. But don’t read this until you take the time to do so. Too many spoilers. But then when you’re ready, you can read it to see what the movie is really, possibly, maybe about.

Most people won’t care about this stuff, but if you want to nerd out on all of the possible new features on the coming iPhones, MacRumors has the details. There’s a lot.

And it’s was nice for students to be put up off campus up in luxury hotels. But some Northeastern students didn’t play by the rules and social distance and they’re out. Tuition forfeited. Parents PO’d. Not a happy ending.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

It’s Thursday, August 27th, and the Internet has gone mad.

Coleman Herman asked T employees why they weren’t wearing their masks. Judging by the answers it doesn’t appear that a culture of customer service has been instilled in the workforce.

The most popular Republican governor in the country wasn’t even invited to the Republican National Convention. In normal times that would seem strange. At the convention, the Vice President bemoaned the violence now going on in Kenosha but warned that you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America. The fact is, the federal government has very little to do with protests and violence in the streets, except for creating the larger conditions that could lead to them. And that is clearly what’s happening today in Donald Trump’s America.

Tom Cruise went to the movies to see Tenet. Thumbs up, apparently.

We’re getting a peek at what the new normal will look like. Boston area businesses were surveyed and the consensus is that remote work is here to stay, even after coronavirus concerns have passed. Gartner found the same thing on a larger scale.

And remember those mysterious seeds that people were receiving? Turns out it was probably just brushing, in which online sellers send random people free things to boost their own presence in the marketplace by then writing glowing reviews for themselves that appear to come from verified buyers. Seeds are lightweight and cheap, and perfect for this scam.

Reckless abandon

Sunday. A quiet foggy morning on a quiet news day.

A 50 person fight and then a seven car crash. Boston is doing things big these days.

Last week, Joe Biden had a great speech at the end of the DNC. This coming week, during the RNC, Trump is going to speak every single night. And… “We’re going to have more of it live than what they did,” Mr. Trump told Fox News on Thursday. “I think it’s pretty boring when you do tapes.” This should be good.

Jessica Kiang reviewed Tenet for the New York Times. She found it entertaining.

The Cannonball Run record for driving from New York City to Los Angles has been broken again, this time with a coast-to-coast average speed of 112 MPH. That’s pretty fast.

And NASA is reporting that an astroid is heading towards the earth. It’s expected to arrive the day before the presidential election.

Do your jobs

The Wednesday hump. Birthdays, today, for Bobby Sherman and George Clinton.

We’re all struggling to interpret the constantly shifting data on Covid-19 spread. Journalist are too. ProPublica has some tips. Meanwhile, the WSJ runs through the numbers to try to nail down fatality rates.

Everyone’s talking about the police reform bill but there’s also the small matter of passing a budget for the fiscal year that has already started. Come on, Legislature. You know what Belichick would say.

The Australian version of The Onion is called The Shovel and they take a well-aimed shot at the NRA.

Steve McQueen’s Mustang, from the movie Bullitt, sold for $3.7 million dollars earlier this year, setting a record. That record has been left in the dust by another recent auction of a Mustang, the one once driven by Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby of Ford vs. Ferrari fame.

Elon Musk wants to get into your brain.

And if you’ve ever wondered how Apple became such a hugely successful company, this example of long-term thinking may enlighten you.