DramatistDreamer

From what I read a couple years ago, the Saudis are planning for the end of “big oil” by investing in solar, wind and ‘green energy tech’. Their insertion into international sports markets is ‘sports washing’ and trying to acquire a level of high prestige. Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi is getting a lot of praise for turning down what was no doubt an obscene amount of money from the Saudis to play for Inter Miami in the MLS league. He said that his wife didn’t want to move so far and he didn’t want to play so far from home and also he has a house in Miami. Judging from the response from many of the PGA’s biggest players, they also understand the deal even if they still hate it. And yeah, I agree, those days when tennis had an abundance of big personalities with the games to match are over for the foreseeable future. Som many players now just want to put their heads down and “work”. You can’t really sell a whole lot of television time on major networks with that. I saw about a set of the match and it was fairly entertaining, from the portion I saw. One of the commentators observed that Muchova appeared to be limping towards the end of the match. For her sake, as well as the sakes of all those spectators who paid money for tickets to the women’s final, Muchova better be fit to compete well on Saturday or folks will be disappointed.

Cool. Thank you @DRW50! Since the character debuted in 1983, 98% of the problems that Craig got into were on account of his desire to hold on too tightly to family, whether it was his failing marriage (Betsy) or a child that turned out not to be his (Dani). It was completely out of character to twist the character into this snarky, selfish, power hungry guy who would toss his own son under the bus for a few moments of passion or a few measly dollars. And the way the relationships with Dani and Lily had corroded in the last decade of the show was truly vile.

I had a bit of a headache last night and really didn’t put 2+2 together until earlier today. Stay hydrated if you’re living in these areas. They claim yesterday was worse but it only looked worse. Today, I can see the smoke from my windows. I feel sorry for the people who must work outdoors (if it were me, I would be making a call to my union). I still carry at least one N95 mask with me for when I go into public spaces so, I wouldn’t be caught outside without donning a mask. According to weather forecasts, these hazy, smoky conditions are expected to persist until Saturday. Any and all outdoor plans will be postponed until at least Saturday then.

Seeing what has just happened with the PGA Tour and its merging with the Saudi owned LIV Golf Tour makes me concerned that tennis could definitely be vulnerable to a similar cash grab, as tennis always seems ready to align themselves with questionable figures.

Celebrating the life of Ama Ata Aidoo one of Africa’s foremost authors, who I was fortunate enough to have as a professor.

When SATC debuted, most of Manhattan was already unaffordable, particularly the areas the show was set in, and Times Square, UES, UWS down to Battery Park had already had the grittiness smoothed over. I agree though, I preferred the initial grittiness of the pilot but I understand why there was a retooling in favor of a fantasy NYC because it would appeal to other parts outside of NYC and the NYC metro area. I also think the criticisms of a whitewashed NYC scrubbed of ethnicity were valid.

It’s kind of weird to realize that tonight was the 25th anniversary of the debut of SATC. I am trying to remember what the initial reactions were, not the critics but on the street. I was living in Manhattan at that time but I don’t think that the pilot had generated that much buzz, it was more gradual from what I remember. Looking back now, the pilot felt more gritty though, a bit more NYC as it existed but the fantasy helped draw more people in imo.

Who was writing the show when Summer slept with Billy a few years ago? It feels like even back then someone may have been experimenting with writing Summer as though she were morphing into Phyllis-lite.

Admittedly, I have never seen the Sleepy Hollow television series, though I am a fan of Nicole Beharie (if that Doris Payne biopic ever comes to fruition, Beharie is the only actress that truly makes sense for the role, no offense to Tessa Thompson). From the little that I have read about the BTS machinations, it sounds like the word toxic is an understatement as a descriptor of the environment.

This has probably already been discussed but SAG-AFTRA has authorized a strike in case contract talks reach an impasse.

Yes, Sis!😘

Learning the lyrics to a few of the songs that she sang has helped my Brazilian Portuguese a lot, as well as being just a pleasure to listen to. R.I.P. Astrud Gilberto.

Yea, I know it’s in the NY Times but this Op-Ed, which speaks of the perils of ‘vocational awe’ and how industries can exploit workers who happen to love their jobs is especially relevant to this WGA strike. I have personally experienced this before on a number of occasions. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/opinion/employment-exploitation-unions.html?smid=tw-share

When it comes to the business of what goes up on the screen, directors and the DGA are in their own separate universe.

Hasn’t West been showing his ____ for the last 15 years now? I still remember how he and Tavis Smiley were clucking past the point of comprehension about Obama and sounding like some jealous and sour Sams using Smiley’s show as a platform. It was predictable what happened to Smiley and I always knew we’d get to this point with West, given some things I already knew about him, past behavior, even before the Smiley business. The greed is strong with him.

A few years ago, there was a certain number of the banking and business sectors that tried to promote the idea of a “cashless” society and at first, I was willing to hear them out but upon hearing more information, I decided that it would eventually become another facet of a divide along socioeconomic lines, with the ‘haves’ benefiting and the ‘have nots’ being at a marked disadvantage. We’re already getting a taste of the repercussions of this with some establishments that have tried to deny cash payments, for example an upscale fast-casual eatery called Sweetgreen (very popular here in the Northeast U.S.) which was forced to reverse their anti-cash policy after a severe backlash once the policy became public. Well, they do say that necessity is the mother of invention and necessity, and I guess necessity can also provide the incentive to transform and refigure.

Stanley Nelson has made a really good documentary on Harriet Tubman, which I just came across by happenstance. Has anyone seen it?

The U.S. is already doing in this vein with some foreign companies from Taiwan and South Korea having built fabrication plants in some U.S. states, mostly in the South but at least one major fabrication plant in upstate New York.

Wow, @Catwhat happened to your parents with the Eurostar was unacceptable! That makes me incensed just to read it. The use of tech in customer service has now become infused with a deliberate lack of humanity—soulless, devoid of regard. I have often felt as if these systems have become a barrier so that companies can minimize their contact with human beings. IKR? If AI can’t at least save us from these damn robocalls and scams, what the hell use is it?! To get around the protectionist accusations, I think the Biden administration is trying to carve out some collaborative trade agreements with allied countries, particularly European Union nations where the concerns and grumbling has been the strongest (and loudest). I think that neither the United States nor the EU wants to close off any potential pathways to sell their products to the other’s consumers. As long as no nation becomes dependent upon any one nation outside of its own borders, the cross trade agreements could be a sound idea.

Yikes, and a bad one at that.

NBC seems to generally be the type of network where the majority of their hosts tend to leave by being carried out feet first.

Todd must have done a lot of damage to the network to get the heave-ho at this stage.

Not to disparage or discourage posts but I tend to tune out these cable news shows until there is actual news rather than speculation about what could happen. Trump has evaded and elided so many charges already, I just don’t have the patience to read or listen to a breath by breath recounting off the latest thing. When all the evidence is in, the investigations are finally concluded and we move past the indictment stages the court proceedings are underway, I will be more keen on tuning in but for now, it feels like a lot of filler for ratings maintenance. I hope that’s not coming off as rude to anyone. It may just be answering a question on why there might not be much engagement on certain topics.

There will always be the aspect of unintended consequences. In the mid 1990s as a student, I started using the Internet, when it was still referred to as the “World Wide Web”. By the late 1990s, I took a college computer science course in html, where we “practiced” how to build a website from html code. There were no templates back then, you had to create one. Inside humor but if you couldn’t make the little dog fetch, you couldn’t make the links work, essentially rendering your website unusable. Back then, the intention of the internet was as an information tool, to share information, which is probably why it is often referred to as Information Technology (IT), right? Also the reason why educational institutions like colleges and universities were among the first places outside of NASA to open up use of this technology. It was meant to be am educational and information sharing tool. There was never any thought to commerce or porn or harassing people online. But it happened, and it happened very quickly. I remember the first AOL online disks going out into households (I used Netzero myself, as it was still free back then). I didn’t visit chat rooms but at the prodding of someone, ventured into one and noticed the harassment almost immediately. Strangers (most likely men) asking for my measurements, what I looked like…I handled it by giving ridiculous responses. But, after batting away relentless impertinent questions, I exited the chat room, and have never entered one since. I mentioned this because the Internet has consistently evolved this way. The big corporations entered the chat, so to speak and gulped down all the smaller, locally run ISPs started by entrepreneurs and ramped up the price and gradually stalled innovation. In the early ‘00s, I was the first person to complain to my local bank about a phishing email that I had received from a scammer spoofing their website. They had no idea what “phishing” even was back then, but promised they would investigate it. They soon sent emails and letters to their customers warner of scams using websites that are designed to be nearly identical to their website and notified customers that they would never e-mail their customers request account information or personal details via email. At the risk of sounding negative, I bear no illusions of AI being used as a tool for any kind of altruistic purpose. If the “Godfather of AI” is warning of dangers, after he abruptly quit Google, hey I’m more in favor of giving more regard to what he is saying. JMO. In terms of tech sovereignty, I am in favor of it, and I rate it as somewhat in line with food security, every nation should look to have a degree of sustainability for national and economic security. I do think that when a nation like Chile does it, it is regarded as being for reasons of sovereignty and no one questions it, but when a nation like the U.S. does the same, it tends to be regarded with immediate suspicion. I am not saying that, based on the U.S.’ history, suspicion isn’t warranted, I am just saying that people will not regard Chile or Tanzania in the same way, they will regard the U.S. doing the same thing. One final thought about why I am skeptical about AI, I read an article in a tech blog which stated that AI will not help decrease or mitigate the effects of scams (including deep fakes, phishing and spam call, emails etc and identity theft). If nothing else, I had hoped AI would at the very least, help prevent these things from occurring. Well, maybe the law of unintended consequences might work here and someone will program some safeguards?