EventHorizon1984 Log

Influenza Mortality versus COVID-19 Mortality

Influenza Mortality versus COVID-19 Mortality
EventHorizon1984
12 April 2020

“the 36,000 figure is a) an estimate, b) an average, and c) that these are "influenza-associated" deaths”
Beth P. Bell MD, MPH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008

You've probably run across this type of daily coronavirus post from a non-American:

• '62,000 flu deaths and the U.S. isn't shut down'

It's an 'apples and oranges' type of argument. There is a flu vaccine. There are multiple medical treatments, such as Tamiflu, for the influenza. While there is no COVID-19 vaccine nor fully tested Tamiflu drug equivalent.

Yet the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) does present the following:

Yet the CDC did say the number was an "estimate."

 

“Estimation: The fine art of guessing”
Jonathan Rasmusson

The CDC did have a methodology that produced the high end "62,000" mortality number.

• "Meanwhile, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), "influenza and pneumonia" took 62,034 lives in 2001—61,777 of which were attributed to pneumonia and 257 to flu, and in only 18 cases was flu virus positively identified."

The "61,777" pneumonia deaths are what the CDC described as "influenza associated deaths."

The CDC policy:

• "we do not agree that it is misleading to combine direct deaths associated with influenza with those likely associated with secondary pneumonia and estimates of those likely associated exacerbations of underlying chronic conditions by influenza into a single number"

To put some of these numbers into perspective:

• "Between 1979 and 2002, NCHS data show an average 1348 flu deaths per year (range 257 to 3006)."

These flu death statistics are from test results ("positively identified"). And not an "estimate."

To do an apples to apples comparison, you need to compare the positively identified deaths from influenza to positively identified deaths from COVID-19. Not add "associated" non-tested results.

Can that 2020 influenza number be obtained?

Yes, from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). On the CDC site.

 

“One civilian dead for every ten terrorists. That’s an acceptable ratio.” Fletcher
“Unless you’re one of the civilians” Frank Murphy
Blue Thunder (1983)

Week one of 2020, 416 influenza deaths.

Week:

1. 416
2. 450
3. 441
4. 468
5. 451
6. 481
7. 486
8. 501
9. 568
10. 552
11. 527
12. 435
13. 300

Week thirteen (ending March 28 2020) - 300 influenza deaths.

Total 2020 influenza deaths, 6076.

And 2019? From the start of the flu season; 1 October 2019, week 1.

1. 16
2. 16
3. 18
4. 30
5. 31
6. 31
7. 39
8. 50
9. 65
10. 99
11. 111
12. 125
13. 198

2019 influenza deaths, 829. Total influenza deaths for the 2019-2020 flu season so far, 6095.

The CDC characterizes 'flu season' as "influenza activity often begins to increase in October. Most of the time flu activity peaks between December and February, although activity can last as late as May."

With two more months of flu season to go, it is unlikely the death toll for influenza will be anywhere near 62,000. Or even 24,000.

And what of COVID-19?

 

CDC, Washington State Report First COVID-19 Death
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Let's do a mortality comparison.

COVID-19 Total Deaths United States

• COVID-19
  • 29 February 2020 - 28 March 2020 - 2,112
  • 29 February 2020 - 12 April 2020 - 20,486

Influenza Total Deaths United States

• Influenza
  • 1 March 2020 - 28 March 2020 - 1,814

Draw your own conclusions.

But do it from home.

/*

“the thing what worries most of us in the field of public health is a respiratory illness that can spread even before someone is so sick that you want to keep them in bed.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, 2019

//

Frederick Smith FedEx CEO - "we look at Amazon as a wonderful company"

Frederick Smith FedEx CEO - "we look at Amazon as a wonderful company"
EventHorizon1984
20 December 2018

 

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

The knowledgeable people at FedEx had this interesting exchange, at their November FedEx Corp Earnings Call.

• FedEx Corp (FDX) Q2 2019 Earnings Conference Call Transcript
  Motley Fool Transcribers, 18 December 2018

“Have you seen any impact from Amazon Air?”
Ken Hoexter of Merrill Lynch

“Again, the short answer to that question is no.”
Rajesh Subramaniam, FedEx Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

“From me a short and long-term perspective, what is FedEx's strategy to counter competition from Amazon?
David Campbell of Thompson Davis

“I’m not really sure how to answer this question. I mean, we look at Amazon as a wonderful company and service and they're a good customer of ours. We don't see them as a peer competitor at this point in time. For many reasons, we think it is doubtful that will be the case. … I think the prospects of this company is going to be well disrupted, which just occurs over and over again to quote a previous statement is fantastical. So, I'll leave it at that.”
Frederick Smith, FedEx Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

“What does FedEx have regarding the recent expansion of Amazon Air at Northern Kentucky, Rockford International and Alliance Airports?”
Dan Ronan of Transport Topics

“Well, Dan, as we've talked about before, we don't have any concerns. And so far, as you can see, our volumes in the domestic networks are continuing to increase and we value Amazon as a good customer of ours. Thank you.”
Rajesh Subramaniam, FedEx Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

“I think it's also important to recognize and, again, there is a significant misunderstanding, the Amazon Air network is set up to move inventory within the Amazon system, which is prodigious, it's big. It moves not-in-stock and low turn SKUs and forward stocked items for their third-party customers, who can't duplicate inventory. So it's scheduled differently”
Frederick Smith, FedEx Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Have we heard those words, "We don't see them as a peer competitor at this point in time. For many reasons, we think it is doubtful that will be the case," before?

 

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
George Santayana (1863-1952)

Anyone remember eBay INC? Let's go back nineteen years, to 1999.

“Amazon’s a very competitive company, and I think they are a very good competitor, and we take them very, very seriously. I think the proof will be in the pudding. You know, we are still looking for signs of momentum, and so far, they have not gotten traction.”
Margaret “Meg” Whitman, 30 May 1999

That was a fascinating bit of hubris, given the mood of the stock market.

• Stock Price 28 May 1999
  • $8.71 ($26.13) eBay
  • $59.40 Amazon

eBay INC stock split 3 for 1 on 2 March 1999.

Maybe not the complete 'mood' of Wall Street.

“Meg Whitman, CEO of pioneering online auctioneer eBay Inc. (EBAY), remains the czarina of Net auctions–and that’s saying a lot. Three tough competitors, Amazon.com (AMZN), Yahoo! (YHOO), and Lycos (LCOS) tried to knock eBay from its perch. It didn’t happen.”
Jim Kerstetter, Businessweek, 15 May 2000

Well. There are mood swings. And then there's mood whiplash.

This is the state of e-commerce, 2018.

• “% of total retail ecommerce sales”

1. 48.0% - Amazon
2. 7.2% - eBay
3. 4.0% - Walmart
4. 3.9% - Apple

This is U.S. retail, 2017. Amounts in billions.

1. $374.80 - Walmart
2. $115.89 - The Kroger Co.
3. $102.96 - Amazon
4. $93.08 - Costco

After over two decades, eBay INC is not much of a retailer.

This is the Bear Market of today.

• $1,458.37 - Amazon
• $28.02 ($1,597.81) - eBay

eBay INC stock has split five times.

• 1999 - 3 for 1 split
• 2000 - 2 for 1 split
• 2003 - 2 for 1 split
• 2005 - 2 for 1 split
• 2015 - 2376 for 1000 split

Leaving $1,597.81 as the 'not split' equivalent.

At least eBay's share price, on paper, caught up to Amazon's. Which may be small consolation to the corporation. As Walmart and Apple seek to claim the crown of 'we're number 2' from eBay.

Meanwhile, will the juggernaut FedEx steamroll Amazon?

Couriers and local delivery service providers' global market share in 2017

1. 38% - DHL
2. 24% - FedEx
3. 22% - UPS

United States market share 2018

1. 35.85% - UPS
2. 35.6% - USPS
3. 16.93% - FedEx
4. 10.87% - DHL

Let us know in eighteen years.

/*

“I’ve got news for Mr. Santayana: we’re doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That’s what it is to be alive.”
Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

//

Daybreak Game Company Claims They Are Not Owned By Columbus Nova

Daybreak Game Company Claims They Are Not Owned By Columbus Nova
EventHorizon1984
26 April 2018

 

“we want to set the record straight”
Daybreak Game Company LLC

With the "edited by Roxxlyy" stamp of approval, Daybreak Game Company made this odd announcement.

In short, Daybreak Game Company claims they are not owned by Columbus Nova.

Multiple publications, such as Games Industry and Massively Overpowered, have speculated that the announcement has to do with the U.S. Department of the Treasury freezing Russian assets.

Whatever Daybreak's reasons are to "set the record straight," perhaps they can get Roxxlyy to edit this gem from the publication Forbes.

• Sony Online Entertainment Sold To Investment Firm (Erik Kain, February 2, 2015)
  • "Sony Online Entertainment, newly rebranded as Daybreak, is a great addition to our existing portfolio of technology, media and entertainment focused companies. We see tremendous opportunities for growth with the expansion of the company's game portfolio through multi-platform offerings as well as an exciting portfolio of new quality games," said Jason Epstein, Senior Partner of Columbus Nova"
  • "We are excited to join Columbus Nova's impressive roster of companies." John Smedley

Or this 'shiney' from Venture Beat.

• Columbus Nova has no plans to shut down any Sony Online Entertainment games (Jeff Grubb, February 2, 2015)
  • "The company (Columbus Nova) says it takes a "long-term view" on investing, and the company plans to apply that philosophy to its new game developer"
  • "I imagine Columbus Nova will look to expand revenues on consoles, PC, mobile, and tablet and then decide what to do with Daybreak," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter

Presuming she's not hit by the current round of Daybreak layoffs.

/*

Addendum 2018.04.26

The current Daybreak Games Privacy page makes this statement.

"Daybreak Games may share your Personal Information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy (except for direct marketing) with its affiliates, including any entity that directly or indirectly owns fifty percent (50%) or more of the outstanding equity in Daybreak."

That current section differs from past Privacy pages. Such as this 'sparkly' from September 03 2017. Courtesy of the Internet Archive WayBackMachine.

Emphasis ours.

"Daybreak Games may share your Personal Information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy (except for direct marketing) with its parent companies, which consist of Columbus Nova Private Equity Group (“CN”) and any company controlled by CN that directly or indirectly owns fifty percent (50%) or more of the outstanding equity in Daybreak."

Depending on your level of lawyer-ese, the sentence states Columbus Nova "directly or indirectly owns fifty percent" of Daybreak.

Interesting.

/*

"Oooooookay"
Bull Shannon (Richard Moll), Night Court (1984-1992)

//

Random Bytes - Skylake CPU Spectre Patch - 'Dislike' On Facebook? - Logan Paul YouTube'd Again

Random Bytes - Skylake CPU Spectre Patch - 'Dislike' On Facebook? - Logan Paul YouTube'd Again
EventHorizon1984
9 February 2018

"we released production microcode updates for several Skylake-based platforms to our OEM customers and industry partners, and we expect to do the same for more platforms in the coming days"
Navin Shenoy, 7 February 2018
Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Data Center Group at Intel Corporation

 

Richard Lawler's article "Intel releases new Spectre patch for its Skylake CPUs" noted:

"That includes those based on technology including (but not limited to) Broadwell and Haswell which had previously seen an update that the company withdrew after reports of random reboots."

Intel's extensive list of Skylake chips is located at:

https://ark.intel.com/products/codename/37572/Skylake

Expect more changes "Real Soon Now."

  

“We are not testing a dislike button.”
Facebook

The Daily Beast reported on the notion that Facebook was not “testing a dislike button.”

"A Facebook spokesperson denied that the company is “testing a dislike button” before giving information about why it is performing the test.

“We are not testing a dislike button. We are exploring a feature for people to give us feedback about comments on public page posts. This is running for a small set of people in the U.S. only.”

The feature appears to give users the ability to downrank certain comments."

For now, this is only a test.

Meanwhile, on a platform that does have a 'dislike' button; which does nothing.

 

"Logan Paul is an idiot. But your kids don't know that"
Hayley Kaufman, The Boston Globe, 5 January 2018
'never make the same mistake twice ... keep making new ones'
Ruff and Reddy (1957-1960)

Engaget's Associate Editor Steve Dent had this lovely tidbit for Paul's fans and anti-fans:

"YouTube star Logan Paul is in hot water again with YouTube, following his suspension from the service's Preferred Ad program for posting a video of a suicide victim in Japan. YouTube has temporarily suspended all ads on his channels, cutting off revenue estimated between $40,000 to $600,000 per month. On Twitter, YouTube Creators cited his "recent pattern of behavior," as reason for the suspension."

With YouTube's apparent slap on the wrist policy for big money makers, Mr. Dent ends with this warning to YouTube:

"with advertisers like Mars, HP and Smirnoff having dropped YouTube until it cleans up its act, the site might need to start wielding its banhammer."

Previously, Logan Paul suggested he'd take the Tide Pod Challenge.

"swallowing 1 tide pod per retweet"

In the article "Logan Paul's Tweet About Tide Pod Challenge Has Angered Everyone," Francesca Donovan had this to say:

"The ‘joke’ is supposedly that the pods look a little like sweets. But, funnily enough, liquids designed to clean dirt off clothes are not fit for human consumption, and some cases of kids partaking in the Tide Pod challenge have led to hospitalisations."

A significant portion of Mr. Paul's audience are "kids."

The mature video response to such feldercarb can be found here:

Rob Gronkowski  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DrC_PF_3Lg

Such a potentially fatal joke stunt by Logan Paul would definitely gain him permanent worldwide recognition.

As a Darwin Award winner.

/*

""Hold my beer and watch this!" a teen handed Snapchat to a friend and with a whoop of glee he leapt over a foot-bridge railing, intending to land dramatically on a parapet below." ...
"Snapchat phenomenon is extending the e-trend of paying inadequate attention to one's physical surroundings"
2017 Darwin Award Winner

 

//

Daybreak Games - "Problem with login servers?… Again?"

Daybreak Games - "Problem with login servers?… Again?"
EventHorizon1984
19 May 2017

“Have you experienced a crash or disconnect in the last 30 days”
Daybreak Game Company, 2017

 

According to Daybreak Games Company, they are the "ultimate online gaming destination, providing immersive entertainment for your PC and Console. An impressive statement from a company with approximately $100 million in yearly revenue. Owned by Columbus Nova, "an investment management firm with over $2.5 billion of assets," Daybreak Games should be 'no small operation.'

So why can't such a company, permanently fix their login problem? Since 2 January 2017, Daybreak Games Company LLC  has had login ‘issues’; customers unable to access their online software.

What are those login issues? Daybreak Games has never provided a technical explanation.

Well ... except they say the customer is to blame.

Well ... Daybreak Games does have a public relations and marketing problem. Via example, view their press page. The last press release is dated "Oct 03 2016" and has "6 Shares." And when did you last see a Daybreak Games advertisement.

But I digress {Ed}.

In lieu of a satisfactory technical “why,” we'll provide the “when.” While this article deals with the trials of Daybreak Games EverQuest II customers, a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), many of the login 'issues' impact other customers.

 

‘Pics or it didn’t happen’
2003

 

Sources:
facebook.com/DaybreakGames
twitter.com/DaybreakGames
twitter.com/EverQuestII
forums.DaybreakGames.com

 

Daybreak Games Login Reverse Chronology

19 May 2017

27-28 April 2017

19 April 2017

6 April 2017

4 March 2017

14 February 2017

9 February 2017

Unknown person's February 9 Facebook archive HERE.

EQ2Wire.com February 9 archive.

6 February 2017

5 February 2017

4 February 2017

2 February 2017

Oh the irony?

26 January 2017

25 January 2017

21 January 2017

17 January 2017

12 January 2017

2 January 2017

 

Are any missing?

/*

//

PACER Class Action Lawsuit - National Veterans Legal Services Program et al v United States

PACER Class Action Lawsuit - National Veterans Legal Services Program, et al. v. United States
EventHorizon1984

17 May 2017

 

“Paying too much for PACER? You could get an email notice later this spring to join a class action”
Amanda Bronstad
In PACER Suit, a Class Action Even Defense Lawyers Can Love

 

Need quick online access to Federal Court records? Then you want PACER (pacer.gov).

What is PACER?

"Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information online from federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts, and the PACER Case Locator. PACER is provided by the Federal Judiciary in keeping with its commitment to providing public access to court information via a centralized service."

"The Federal Judiciary has developed a Next Generation (NextGen) Case Management/ Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system that will allow you to use the same account for both PACER and electronic filing access"

"The PACER Case Locator is a national index for U.S. district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts. A subset of information from each case is transferred to the PACER Case Locator server each night"

"PACER is available to anyone who registers for an account.

The more than one million PACER users include attorneys, pro se filers, government agencies, trustees, data collectors, researchers, educational and financial institutions, commercial enterprises, the media, and the general public."

PACER registration is free, but there is a fee for document access.

"All registered agencies or individuals are charged a user fee of $0.10 per page. This charge applies to the number of pages that results from any search, including a search that yields no matches (one page for no matches)."

"The schedule places a cap on the per-page charge, with a maximum $3, the equivalent of 30 pages, for electronic access to any single document. For example, a 50 page document that would cost $5 at $0.10 a page is capped at 30 pages and only costs $3. Users will receive the entire 50-page document but are only charged $3. Each attachment in CM/ECF sites is considered a separate document. Therefore, the cap will apply to each attachment over 30 pages separately."

"The PACER Service Center bills quarterly and sends a statement by mail or email. Fees are waived when usage is less than $15 for the quarter."

Why the fees for public documents?

In 1988, the Judiciary sought appropriations from the U.S. Congress in order to provide electronic public access to court records. However, Congress did not provide the funds and instead directed the Judiciary to fund the initiative through user fees. As a result, the program relies exclusively on fee revenue.

Are these fees reasonable? On 21 April 2016, the National Veterans Legal Services Program, National Consumer Law Center, and the Alliance For Justice presented the case "that PACER's fee schedule is higher than necessary to cover the costs of operating PACER."

A few months later, on 24 January 2017, "U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in the District of Columbia approved the" 'class action lawsuit.'

The nineteen (19) page document ends with:

CONCLUSION

Plaintiffs’ motion for class certification is granted, with minor modifications to the proposed class definition. A separate Order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.

/s/ Ellen Segal Huvelle
ELLEN SEGAL HUVELLE
United States District Judge

Date: January 24, 2017

 

Of course, notice of this event reached our email box on 16 May 2017.

 

 

 

Of course, settlement talks began in March. And according to a 11 March 2017 article, all parties were "to report back to the court no later than April 21."

Did we mention it's May?

/*

"One of those hobbies of mine, is studying laws. The laws you used to be paid to enforce."
Detective Robert Goren

//

Musing Bytes 4 - Science Fiction

Musing Bytes 4 - Science Fiction
EventHorizon1984
16 March 2014


“Is this Doctor the sort who needs flattery?  Or can I leave him to it?”  Jyoti Cutler
“I just let him talk.”  Flip Jackson
“I am still here you know.”  The Doctor
“You are so brilliant.  I don’t know what I’d have done without you.”  Jyoti Cutler
“Hmmm”  The Doctor
Doctor Who, "Scavenger"
Big Finish, 14 March 2014


On 14 March 2014 Big Finish released the Doctor Who audio adventure “Scavenger” featuring The 6th Doctor, Colin Baker.  The synopsis reads:

“Thursday 28 May 2071: the day the Anglo-Indian Salvage 2 rocket launches. Its mission: to clean up space; to remove from Earth’s orbit over a century’s worth of man-made junk…

From the viewing window of a nearby space station, the Doctor and Flip have a unique view of Salvage 2 as it sets about its essential task – and of the disaster that unfolds when Salvage 2 encounters something it’s not been programmed to deal with. Something not of human manufacture…

Back on Earth, the Doctor fights to save Flip from becoming part of a 500-year tragedy being played out in orbit, hundreds of miles above. And millions will die if he fails.”

    © 2014 Big Finish Productions

Big Finish is known for “producing high-quality audio drama” “based on popular TV series such as Doctor Who” and others.

Now that is the public relations view.  (Ed.) In my opinion, that view is rather understated.

If you’re a Doctor Who fan, “Scavenger” is an excellent ‘listen’.  As are other Big Finish products.

If you’re another type of fan, there is a nice Easter egg included in the audio drama.  Salvage 2???

“I’ve been wondering.  What happened to Salvage 1?”  The Doctor
“Some Moon project from a hundred years ago.  Nothing to do with us.”  Jyoti Cutler

Well.

“Jettison Control this is Salvage 1.  The Vulture has landed!”
Melanie “Mel” Slozar from the Lunar surface, Salvage (January 1979)

A very nice tribute to the 35th anniversary of the TV movie Salvage and the TV series that followed.

Thank you Big Finish.

        © 2014 Sony
"... Jettison Salvage ..."           "... Jettison Salvage ..."
Harry Broderick (Andy Griffith), Salvage (1979)

/*

“So are you seriously telling me.  All those blokes.  Old man white hair, Beetle’s haircut, frilly shirt, long scarf big eyes, cricket boy, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Lord Byron.  Are all of them?  They were you?”
“ah Yes.” The Doctor
“Wicked.”  Ace
Doctor Who, The Light At The End  
Big Finish, October 2013


And speaking of Big Finish. 

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary show, “The Day Of The Doctor” was not the only official multi-Doctor show.  In October 2013 Big Finish released their 50th Anniversary audio adventure “The Light At The End.”  Featuring the voice talents of Doctor Who original (20th Century) cast members:

Tom Baker  (The Fourth Doctor)
Peter Davison  (The Fifth Doctor)
Colin Baker  (The Sixth Doctor)
Sylvester McCoy  (The Seventh Doctor)
Paul McGann  (The Eighth Doctor)
Louise Jameson  (Leela)
Sarah Sutton  (Nyssa)
Nicola Bryant  (Perpugilliam “Peri” Brown)
Sophie Aldred  (Dorothy Gale “Ace” McShane)
Susan Foreman  (Carole Ann Ford)
Vicki  (Maureen O’Brien)
Steven Taylor  (Peter Purves)
Sara Kingdom  (Jean Marsh)
Polly Wright  (Anneke Wills)
Jamie McCrimmon  (Frazer Hines)
Zoe Heriot  (Wendy Padbury)
Jo Grant  (Katy Manning)
Tegan Jovanka  (Janet Fielding)
Vislor Turlough  (Mark Strickson)
Geoffrey Beevers  (The Master)

And many more.

Buy it.


Two Doctors observing The Sixth Doctor.
“Do I really end up with such a terrible sense of fashion?”  The Doctor  (Tom Baker)
“Says the man in the impractical scarf.  It’s all a question of taste I suppose.”  The Doctor  (Paul McGann)
“Well I suppose that would explain your Wild Bill Hickok costume?”
“Most people think it has something to do with Byron.”
Doctor Who: The Light At The End (2013)

/*

“… Code name Lovely Angel?!  Dirty Pair!”
The soon to be ex-object of Yuri’s affection.

“LOVELY ANGELS!”
Yuri and Kei, The Dirty Pair  (1979- )


Meanwhile in Japan, SF Magajin published a story by Haruka Takachiho.  It was titled “Daatipea no Diabouken”, or known in English as "The Dirty Pair's Great Adventures".  Featuring The Dirty Pair Lovely Angels, Trouble Consultants Yuri and Kei of the World Welfare Work Association (3WA)

From then to now, the 1979 serialized book would spawn anime, manga, and comics of their adventures.

The Dirty Pair
Top Left, Clockwise

• 1979-    - (c) Haruka Takachico, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
• (L-R)  Yuri 1, Kei 1, Mughi/Mugi 1
• 1985-1994 - (c) Sunrise, Nozomi Entertainment, Toshifumi Yoshida
• (L-R)  Kei 2, Yuri 2
• 1988-2002 - (c) Adam Warren, Haruka Takachiho, Eclipse Comics, Dark Horse Comics
• (L-R)  Kei 3, Yuri 3
• (L-R)  Kei 3, Yuri 3.0, Yuri 3.1
• 2010-    - (c) Hisao Tamaki
• (L-R)  Kei 5, Mughi/Mugi 5, Yuri 5
• 1994-1996 - Dirty Pair Flash (c) Sunrise, Bandai, Nozomi Entertainment
• (L-R)  Kei 4, Yuri 4

 Happy Birthday Dirty P Lovely Angels.

“What happened?  Or should I ask, what disaster have you initiated?”
3WA Department Chief Soranaka to Kei and Yuri ... after devastating the WWWA home city.
The Dirty Pair Strike Again (2008)

/*

"It's no secret that Japanese science fiction was greatly influenced by the Western sci-fi authors of the '50s. That became the foundation of Japanese sci-fi. All science-fiction writers were influenced by the "Big Three": Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein. That started with my generation. You won't find an author who wasn't touched by Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein."
Haruka Takachiiho

/*

Technorati Profile

EventHorizon1984 Log

//

eBay Stock Is On Fire Meme

eBay Stock Is On Fire Meme
EventHorizon1984
10 October 2013


"well-biased samples can be employed to produce almost any result anyone may wish."
Darrell Huff, How To Lie With Statistics

A recent variation of the meme "eBay INC is a long term stock" was made by eBay INC seller FurryFriend702 on EcommerceBytes.

To quote:

• "Ebay stock has been on fire"

This FurryFriend702 continues cherry picking data with:

• 
• "The fact is, Ebay stock has done extremely well over the last several years.  This is a five year chart: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=EBAY+Basic+Chart&t=5y> All of you should wish you owned this stock during this period."

Here's the chart FurryFriend702 wants you to see:

Chart from Yahoo! Finance

Since John Donahoe became CEO of eBay INC on 31 March 2008, don't you wonder about what's missing?

"And you're in good, or at least respectable, company.  A news magazine has used this method to show the stock market hitting a new high, the graph being so truncated as to make the climb look far more dizzying than it was."
Darrell Huff, How To Lie With Statistics

Years ago disingenuous stock analysts hyping a favorite stock, would point to the massive increase in stock price over the years.  They would use as a base the price of a stock in 2009.

Well ... Wall Street "crashed" in September 2008, sending stock prices diving.

Chart from Money.CNN.com

Spoiler Alert, stock prices rose after the "crash."

Chart from Money.CNN.com

Any similarity between the above five year rise in the DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average) and the five year rise in eBay INC stock price is not coincidental.

Of course it would be equally disingenuous to show a stock price diving, with the end point being after September 29 2008.

To be fair, here's eBay INC's stock price over it's lifetime:

Chart from Yahoo! Finance

Included is the missing left side of the FurryFriend702's trough.

We find it amazing that people still attempt to fool others by using "crash" stock prices to make a point.

"Place little faith in an average or a graph or a trend when those important figures are missing."
Darrell Huff, How To Lie With Statistics

Our focus is on eBay INC stock price performance during CEO John Donahoe's entire tenure.  A stewardship that began on 31 March 2008.

Here's how our usual four stock group, plus Google, starting with share price on 31 March 2008.

	3/31/08	10/10/13	$ Increase	% Increase	Dividends
eBay	$29.87	$53.42	$23.55	78.84%	No
Amazon	$70.25	$305.17	$234.92	334.41%	No
Apple	$143.27	$489.64	$346.37	241.76%	Yes
Google	$435.64	$868.24	$432.60	99.30%	No
Starbucks	$17.06	$77.12	$60.06	352.05%	Yes

How do you think John Donahoe is performing stock wise?

If you sell high and buy low, there is money to be made keeping track of a stock's highs and lows.  If you held on to a particular stock as a 'long term investment', hope it was the right stock.

/*

"You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done."
Kenny Rogers, The Gambler

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Related articles:

eBay INC Stock Price During CEO John Donahoe's Tenure

eBay INC Stock Has Turned Around Under CEO John Donahoe; Really?

The eBay INC Is A Long Term Stock Meme

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How Old Are We? Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night?

How Old Are We? Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night?
EventHorizon1984
18 September 2013

 

"How old are you, Chiun. I mean really, you must be pretty old, right?"
"For an apricot, yes. For a head of lettuce, even more so. For a mountain, I have not even begun. For a man, just right." Chiun
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)

It's that irritating nagging feeling when real life mimics fiction; something forgotten was bothering me (Ed.)  This mental itch was the equivalent of Tommy Albright hearing singing towards the end of Brigadoon.  (Ed. no music, but you'll get the idea.)

The 'oh yea' light popped on after reading the story of a man claiming to be 160 years old.   (Ed. likely he's remembering WWII, not 1895).

Before that epiphany there was a late night viewing of The New Avengers part 1 and 2 of "K Is for Kill" episodes.  Briefly described as "1945 Russian soldier Stanislav stole the secret of longevity from a Tibetan monk."

Preceded by catching up on Red Dwarf season 10.  The trope being, "Lister can be safely released from stasis three million years later."  i.e. the character David Lister is chronologically over three million years old.

Before Red Dwarf there was the viewing of the films Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966).  The television series Doctor Who will be fifty years old in November 2013.  The Doctor, the show lead, is over eleven hundred years old.

And more before.

"I worry. I mean, little things bother me. I'm a worrier. I mean, little insignificant details - I lose my appetite. I can't eat. My wife, she says to me, "you know, you can really be a pain."  Lt. Columbo

Eventually the 'subconscious' got through to the 'conscious mind', hence this short article.

One question we frequently receive is 'what happened to the [fill in the blank] article?'.  The short answer is 'they've been archived.'  Years ago, with over fourteen hundred articles, maintenance was a PITA.  They were archived because there was too much work involved in article management.  Also articles were archived because the subject matter was obsolete, or had been overcome by events.

Back then the plan was prune the number of articles down to a manageable one hundred.  That didn't happen, but we got close.  Today the number of articles is over two hundred on the TypePad main site, and twenty-some-odd on the WordPress mirror.

At this point you're thinking 'What does this have to do with age!?'.  It's relevant in the context of another question we receive, 'how old is this blog?'.  With other sites, that question is answered with a link and a comment 'here's our first article.'  We can't do that as our very first article was, well, archived.

"In the beginning there was darkness. And the darkness was without form and void. And in addition to the darkness there was also me."  Bomb #20
Dark Star (1974)

That article was published 2 June 2006 and briefly noted eBay's "expansion of item ID numbers to 12 digits", and eBay's advice to developers "to support eBay item IDs of up to 19 digits".  That change is a historical footnote, but is not relevant today.  The article was designated non-relevant, and (in haste) was archived and removed from public view.

Shrug.

"One little mistake ..."

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"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Dylan Thomas

"Do not go gentle into .. into .. into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at .. at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Thornton Mellon (Rodney Dangerfield) quoting Dylan Thomas incorrectly, but giving a magnificent reading.
Back to School (1986)

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Musing Bytes 3

Musing Bytes 3
EventHorizon1984
2 September 2013

 

"This is the story of a time long ago. A time of myth and legend."
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - Hercules and the Circle of Fire (1994)

Mythbusters is an entertaining show. The leads, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, use somewhat reasonable scientific methodology to simulate real life conditions.  For example, the Surfboard Killer episode:  "In Lethal Weapon II, an SUV carrying a surfboard on its roof crashes into a car launching the surfboard into still another car"

After multiple trials the Mythbusters concluded a surfboard, "couldn't bust through the energy-absorbing windshield glass".  Essentially they stated a surfboard WILL NOT penetrate a modern car windshield no matter what.

Well ...

Sunday 1 September 2013

"A surfboard smashed into the windshield of a car while on the freeway Sunday."

This was an oddball incident. The surfboard fell on a school bus and ricocheting horizontally to impact the 2011 Honda.

The surfboard slammed through the passenger side of the windshield, missing the driver's head by inches. Had the surfboard impacted on the driver's side, the tip would have been at or past the driver's side head rest.

Moral? There are limits to simulations.

Myth Busted, Busted.

"Failure of imagination." ... "We just didn't think of it."
Frank Borman (David Andrews) on Apollo 1, From the Earth To The Moon (1998)

Will keep the following relatively spoiler free.

 In 1954 Astounding Magazine published Tom Godwin's (1915-1980) short story "The Cold Equations".  The protagonist had a sole solution, based upon the fixed laws of physics.  It would be decades before an alternate solution to this life and death space science fiction tale would be written.  Don Sakers wrote "The Cold Solution", which Analog published 1991.

The complaints about the short story, naturally most appearing after Tom Godwin's passing, were basically 'wouldn't happen in real life.'

A surfboard crashing through a windshield 'wouldn't happen in real life' too, right?

The "The Cold Equations" universe describes space flight and spacecraft as relatively common place.  One old general complaint is 'no engineer would design the space systems' of that universe.

Almost sixty years after the story was written, space travel remains not widely available.  There is no simple comparison to space flight in that universe and "real life."  We'll have to settle for this statement from Test Pilot and Space Shuttle Astronaut Bryan D. O'Connor.

NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project
Oral History Transcript
Bryan D. O'Connor
Interviewed by Sandra Johnson
Washington, D.C. - 20 April 2006

"JOHNSON: I read on that flight, also—there was an article that talked about the fact that one of the hatches was padlocked. Do you want to just talk about that for a second? Was that something that was normally done?

O’CONNOR: Well, for me it was. We had done that on my first flight—Brewster [H.] Shaw [Jr.]
being the commander and me the pilot—padlock on the hatch, the rationale being that you’ve got a couple of people on this flight that you don’t know that well. They’re the “payload
specialists.” They’re not career aviators. They haven’t been through all the training we have.
We try to make sure they don’t hurt themselves or anybody else. It was a due diligence thing,
because, in theory, although it would be tough to do it inadvertently, there was a button and a
turn of a knob that could actually open up that hatch, and the hatch was very dangerous, because it was an out-opening hatch.

There were probably a lot of good reasons why they did that, one of which might be room
in the cabin or whatever, but one of the bad things about that is that the pressure in the cabin will blow that hatch off if the latches aren’t latched. You would like to have a system where the
pressure will keep the hatch closed, not open it. But that’s not the way that one was structured.
So that was a risk area. Some of the other commanders before had had concerns about that
hatch, and so when it came time for my second flight, I ordered up the lock"

Yes, engineers do create things that have a potential for disaster, for "probably a lot of good reasons."

Another story complaint revolves around fuel.  As in the fuel alloted would always be sufficient to get from point A to point B.

Can't use "real life" space transportation to make an equivalent comparison.  We'll use the next best thing, commercial air transport.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides this guideline for reserve fuel.

• Fly from that airport to the alternate airport [if one is required]; and
• Fly after that for 45 minutes at normal cruising speed
  

Meaning people who go 'by the book' will not have the problem of fuel exhaustion or having insufficient fuel reserves.  In theory, yes.  In real life, no.  A few examples:

• Eurocopter AS350 B2 Medical Helicopter, "pilot, flight nurse, flight paramedic and patient were killed", 26 August 2011
• British Airways Flight 38, 152 passengers and crew survived, 17 January 2008
• Tuninter Flight 1153, 39 passengers and crew, 16 died, 6 August 2005
• Avianca Flight 52, 158 passengers and crew, 73 died, 25 January 1990

The first crash is ironically relevant to "The Cold Equations"; the flight would have likely culminated in a safe landing with one less person onboard.

While the blame for the crashes vary, aircraft have failed to reach a destination due to insufficient fuel.  And circumstances.

Another cry goes, 'large organizations would not cut corners on fuel and safety'.

Well.

• Pilots claim airlines forced to fly with low fuel, 2008
• "concern among pilots that airlines are compelling them to fly with too little fuel."
• "airlines are emphasizing "economy to the detriment of safety""

• Ryanair is 'courting disaster' by flying planes with near-empty fuel tanks to cut costs, 2012
• "flying planes with near-empty fuel tanks to cut costs."
• "Ryanair denies any wrong-doing and insists its planes are safe with sufficient fuel reserves."

Finally there's the big complaint that 'people can't enter a secured craft without being noticed.'

Post 9/11 airport security, means it should be impossible to sneak aboard a heavily guarded and secure commercial airplane.

Well.

• Body Fell From Plane, Authorities Say, 2010
• ""It appears more likely than not that" ... "was able to breach airport security and hide in the wheel well of a commercial jet airliner with being detected by airport security," William R. Keating, Norfolk County district attorney"
• "It's a terrible tragedy what happened to this young man, but if that was someone with a different motive"
• "found handprints in the left wheel well of a Boeing 737 that was scheduled to leave Charlotte Douglas International Airport"

• How often do plane stowaways fall from the sky?, 2012
• "No-one saw the body fall from the sky" ... "It is not the first incident of this kind on the Heathrow flight path."
• "Dr. Stephen Veronneau, of the US Federal Aviation Administration, has identified 96 individuals around the world who have tried to travel in plane wheel wells since 1947. The incidents happened on 85 flights."

•  Plane flew seven flights with dead stowaway in wheel well, 2013
• "jet made seven flights carrying a dead man in its wheel well"
• "Authorities say the stowaway boarded the plane four days before he was found dead."

It is sadly amusing that the complaints about "The Cold Equations", 'not being true to real life' are visions of a perfect world.  A flawless world that does not exist, and has never existed.

In that world, Apollo 1 (204) would have been the first successful Apollo manned spaceflight.

Instead Apollo 1 has this reference: "NASA's Apollo program began with one of the worst disasters the organization has ever faced."

Frank Borman, Apollo 1 investigator, would say to Congress:

• "I don't believe that any of us recognized that the test conditions for this test were hazardous"
• "We did not think, and this is a failing on my part and on everyone associated with us"

Almost sixty years after publication of "The Cold Equations", humans remain fallible.  Systems and organizations have faults.  Despite the best intentions, despite the best by the book safeguards, unfavorable outcomes can happen and do happen.  With monstrous regularity. 

To say otherwise is Fantasy.

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"If we slide into one of those rare moments of military honesty, we realize that the technical demands of modern warfare are so complex a considerable percentage of our material is bound to malfunction even before it is deployed against a foe. We no longer waste manpower by carrying the flag into battle. Instead we need battalions of electronic engineers to keep the terrible machinery grinding."
Ernest K. Gann

"It is found that anything that can go wrong at sea generally does go wrong sooner or later, so it is not to be wondered that owners prefer the safe to the scientific. It is also found that it is almost as bad to have too many parts as too few; that arrangements which are for exceptional and occasional use are rarely available when wanted, and have the disadvantage of requiring additional care. Their very presence, too, seems in effect to indispose the engineer to attend to essentials. Sufficient stress can hardly be laid on the advantages of simplicity. The human factor cannot be safely neglected in planning machinery. If attention is to be obtained, the engine must be such that the engineer will be disposed to attend to it."
Alfred Holt, 1878

"If anything can go wrong, it will."
Murphy's Laws

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Neil Armstrong, First Moon Walker, Passes Away at 82

Neil Armstrong, First Moon Walker, Passes Away at 82
EventHorizon1984
25 August 2012

Neil A. Armstrong, Astronaut, the first man to step¹ upon the surface of the Moon, died today at the age of 82.

Except for those taking the view "history is myth" or the 6% 'fooled twice' type or Internet Trolls, the planetary population knows about Neil Armstrong and the history making Apollo 11 flight.  And over the next few news cycles, people will know much more.

Such as occasional brushes with death.

"If we die, do not mourn for us.  This is a risky business we're in, and we accept those risks."  Virgil "Gus" Grissom

20 April 1962 - X-15

• "The only other alternative at that point would have been Palmdale and I didn't want to get into their traffic pattern."  Neil Armstrong
  

Perhaps not so much as a brush, but more of a 'here's my card' event.

Test pilot Neil Armstrong was flying the X-15 when on the return segment, "the X-15 pulled up and essentially skipped off the top of the atmosphere, returning to space."  In short, instead of final approach to a near-deserted landing area, the X-15 was "gliding" somewhat near or over Los Angeles.

Piloting skill turned a possible disaster into a safe flight home.

"I began to turn back home"
Neil Armstrong

16 March 1966 - Gemini 8

• "We have serious problems here" David Scott

After the first successful docking in space, Gemini 8 Astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott experienced a serious thruster problem.

"After backing away from the Agena, the spacecraft had started to whirl at a dizzying rate of one revolution per second. Armstrong suspected that the maneuvering thrusters were about finished. He and Scott were also having trouble seeing the overhead panel dials; their physiological limits seemed near. They were dizzy, and their vision was blurred."

You can view the government style documentary of Gemini 8:

• Gemini 8, This is Houston Flight

Or the dramatized version:

• From The Earth To The Moon

Suffice to say, both men returned safely to the Earth.

6 May 1968 - LLRV

When Landing on the Moon, Practice Makes Perfect

The above photo from NASA, shows what a Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) looks like after it crashes.  With the parachutist being Neil Armstrong.

As described:

• "Armstrong made his 21st flight in the vehicle. It was a disaster." ... "about 230 feet above the desert floor the LLRV started pitching forward and picking up speed." ...  "Within seconds Armstrong was flying on his side and realized ejecting was his only recourse.  A little less than 200 feet from the ground he separated from the LLRV." ... "the crash wasn’t related to the design of the LLRV but a problem with the propellant."

20 July 1969 [GMT] - Apollo 11

• "I thought we had a 90% chance of getting back safely to Earth on that flight but only a 50-50 chance of making a landing on that first attempt."  Neil Armstrong

If you're thinking, there was all the time in the world for Neil Armstrong to land the Lunar Module Eagle:

• Mission time 102:45:31  Duke:  "30 seconds."

The "30 seconds" was time remaining until "Bingo"; which meant 'land in 20 seconds or abort.'

• Mission time 102:45:40  Aldrin:  "Contact Light."

Now suppose you're a pilot that manages to land their craft with 21 seconds² of fuel.  Was that all the time in the world?

For video of the landing, from the view of "Buzz" Aldrin's window:

• http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/A11Landing.mov

When asked about the reason for closing the Lunar Module hatch:

• "To avoid having somebody say 'Were you born in a barn?'" Neil Armstrong

"Pretty sure the law of the land states that everyone has the right to be an idiot."  Gregory House, M.D., House (2004-2012)

Apparently as Fate would have it, his death was not career related, but more a pernicious ala George S. Patton, Jr.-type event"

• "His family announced the death in a statement and attributed it to “complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.”"

Routine surgery mind you.

• Neil Armstrong recovers after heart bypass surgery
• BBC News, 8 August 2012
• "Mr Armstrong, who turned 82 on Sunday, had surgery to relieve four blocked coronary arteries."

Much as we would love to comment on this ... and then promptly get sued ... we close with a collection of first words from Neil Armstrong's peers.

First thing said from the surface of the Moon is "Contact ..."

• "Lunar Surface Sensing Probes extended from three landing legs. A sensor on the tip indicated when the lunar surface was touched."

What Apollo Astronauts said when they first set foot upon the Moon:

Apollo 11 - 21 July 1969 [GMT]
Neil Armstrong (1930-2012)
"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant step for mankind."
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr.  (1930- )
"Beautiful view!  Magnificent desolation."
"Looks like the secondary strut had a little thermal effects on it right here, Neil."

Apollo 12- 19 November 1969 [GMT]
Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. (1930-1999)
"Whoopie!  Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me."
"Off the ... Oooh, is that soft and queasy."  or "(s)quishy"
Alan Bean  (1932- )
"Okay?  Okay.  My, that Sun is bright."

Apollo 14 - 5 February 1971 [GMT]
Alan Shepard  (1923-1998)
"Okay, you're right. Al is on the surface. And it's been a long way, but we're here."
Edgar Mitchell  (1930- )
"That last one is a long one."

Apollo 15 - 31 July 1971 [GMT]
David Scott  (1932-  )
[long awed silence]
"Ok.  Ah.  Ok Houston as I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley, I sort of realize there's a fundamental truth to our nature.  Man must explore.  And this is exploration at its greatest."
James Irwin  (1930-1991)
"Boy, that front pad is really loose, isn't it?"

Apollo 16 - 21 April 1972 [GMT]
John Young  (1930-  )
"Okay.  There you are: Mysterious and Unknown Descartes. Highland plains. Apollo 16 is gonna change your image. I'm sure glad they got ol' Brer Rabbit, here, back in the briar patch where he belongs."
Charles Duke  (1935-  )
"Fantastic! Oh, that first foot on the lunar surface is super, Tony!"

Apollo 17, 11 December 1972 [GMT]
Eugene Cernan  (1934-  )
"I'm on the footpad. And, Houston, as I step off at the surface at Taurus-Littrow, we'd like to dedicate the first step of Apollo 17 to all those who made it possible."
"Jack, I'm out here. Oh, my golly! Unbelievable! Unbelievable; but is it bright in the Sun."
Harrison "Jack" Schmitt  (1935-  )
[Harrison Schmitt - "At some point, and maybe it's here, I stepped down off the ladder onto the sloping side of a boulder which had little balls of glass and debris that made it very slick. And I slipped and my left leg went out from under me. Fortunately, I was still hanging onto the ladder."]
"You landed in a crater!"
"Why don't you come over here and let me deploy your antenna."

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"People love conspiracy theories ... but they were never a concern to me -- because I know that one day somebody's going to fly back up there and pick up that camera I left there."
Neil Armstrong

/*

1  One will see erroneous articles of Neil Armstrong being the first man to "land" on the Moon.  An error because both Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were in the Apollo Lunar Module, Eagle, when she landed on the lunar surface.

2  "Post-flight analysis indicated that Neil landed with about 770 pounds of fuel remaining." ... "the remainder would have been enough for about 45 seconds, including about 20 seconds for an abort"

See also:
The 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. Why Bother With Columbus Day??

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Twelve Days In July - IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times

Twelve Days In July - IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times
Friday The Thirteenth July 2012 Edition
EventHorizon1984

The eclectic news of the first part of July was eye opening and sad.

5.  Do you know what is one of PayPal's (owned by eBay INC) largest expenses?

Visa, MasterCard reportedly close to settling retailers' lawsuit
6 July 2012

• "swipe fees, mostly for credit cards, constituted about 38% of PayPal's expenses in 2011"
• "In mid-morning trading, Visa lost 0.91% to $125.86, Mastercard fell 0.24% to $442.97, and eBay retreated 0.83% to $40.59."

4.  Keep telling yourself that "Foundation" ¹ and "Person of Interest" are fiction.  For now.

Sci-fi policing: predicting crime before it occurs
Associated Press - Greg Risling - 1 July 2012

• "Los Angeles police are aiming to beat suspects to the scene of a crime by using computers to predict where trouble might occur."

¹ Psychohistory - Isaac Asimov's Foundation series and short stories are where the predictive science of Psychohistory originates.  Psychohistory being, "combined history, psychology and mathematical statistics to create a (nearly) exact science of the behavior of very large populations of people".
Incidentally Isaac Asimov's short story "Foundation" was published in May 1942.

"Now any dogma, based primarily on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user."
Ankor Jael, Foundation (1951), Isaac Asimov

3.  Change your Yahoo! passwords lately?

Yahoo investigating reported mass password breach
Associated Press - 12 July 2012

• "Yahoo Inc. said Thursday it is investigating reports of a security breach that may have exposed nearly half a million users' email addresses and passwords."
• "Technology news websites including CNET, Ars Technica, and Mashable cited hackers calling themselves the D33D Company as claiming responsibility for the attack, adding that data posted to the group's website carried more than 453,000 login credentials"

2.  Higgs Boson Discovered.  Or not.

Higgs boson-like particle discovery claimed at LHC
BBC News - Paul Rincon - 4 July 2012

"Prof Peter Higgs, after whom the particle is named, wiped a tear from his eye as the teams finished their presentations in the Cern auditorium.
"I would like to add my congratulations to everyone involved in this achievement," he added later.
"It's really an incredible thing that it's happened in my lifetime.""

Higgs Boson Imposters?  It's Possible, Say Scientists
PCWorld - James Mulroy - 12 July 2012

• "some scientists have suggested that CERN's experimental results may be the result of impostor particles, albeit Higgs-like impostors."
• "The preprint explains that the particle discovery at CERN could be either a generic Higgs doublet, a Higgs triplet, a mixture of particles including the Higgs and another particle, or of course, the Higgs boson as the Standard Model predicts."

And what is the exact mass of the Higgs Boson?

131.313 GeV?

1.  Ernest Borgnine passes away at age 95.

Ernest Borgnine, Oscar-Winning Actor, Dies at 95
The New York Times - Anita Gates - 8 July 2012

"Ermes Effron Borgnino was born on Jan. 24, 1917, in Hamden, Conn., near New Haven. His father was a railroad brakeman. His mother was said to be the daughter of a count, Paolo Boselli, an adviser to King Victor Emmanuel of Italy.

The boy spent several years of his childhood in Italy, where his mother returned during a long separation from her husband. But they returned to Connecticut, and he graduated from high school there.

He joined the Navy at 18 and served for 10 years. During World War II he was a gunner’s mate. After the war he considered factory jobs, but his mother suggested that he try acting. Her reasoning, he reported, was, “You’ve always liked making a damned fool of yourself.”"

Not enough can be said about the classic and classy actor Ernest Borgnine.

We'll let Mr. Borgnine do it.

On The Road with Ernest Borgnine

Ernest Borgnine Remembers

Ernest Borgnine on working with Tim Conway

• McHale's Navy
• McHale's Navy Sing along

Ernest Borgnine discusses "Airwolf"

• Airwolf

Ernest Borgnine on voicing "Mermaid Man" on SpongeBob SquarePants

• Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy

Ernest Borgnine Lifetime Achievement Award

/*

"I've been driving a cab here for 30 years and I'm telling you: you don't walk around here at night! Yes, sir! Those Crazies'll kill you and strip you in ten seconds flat!"
Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine), Escape From New York (1981)

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Harry Broderick Of Jettison Salvage Passed Away At Age 86

Harry Broderick Of Jettison Scrap & Salvage Passed Away At Age 86
3 July 2012
EventHorizon1984

 

We're not fond of obituaries.  Especially the passing of Andy Griffith, who portrayed many iconic characters. 

Our first Andy Griffith character memory was Will Stockdale of the movie No Time For Sergeants.  Followed by Onionhead. 

Much later he would make memorable television marks in his career with The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock.

Yet with the death of Andrew Samuel Griffith, and the mention of a few famous characters, we've created a Harry Broderick tiny pseudo-obituary.  If you're asking 'Harry who?', this short piece isn't for you.

"I want to build a spaceship, go to the moon, salvage all the junk that's up there, bring it back and sell it."
Harry Broderick (Andy Griffith), Jettison Scrap & Salvage Company, Salvage (1979)

For the few science fiction fans, of course Harry Broderick was the character portrayed by Andy Griffith in the television movie Salvage and the television series Salvage 1.

Not to be confused with Charles Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton) of the movie The Astronaut Farmer.  Charles Farmer built a rocket (2006), put himself into low Earth orbit and returned safely. 

Harry Broderick built a spaceship (1979), sent two people to the Moon and back.

"He's not really dead. As long as we remember him."
Leonard McCoy, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

And it is in science fiction that Andy Griffith's legacy lives on. 

On the television show Eureka (2006-2012), Sheriff Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) was given the nickname "Mayberry".  Initially meant as an insult from Nathan Stark (Ed Quinn), it became less so over time. 

There's the character of Sheriff Andy, now Deputy Andy.  Ostensively "Andy" for "Android", but Sheriff Andy, Sheriff Andy Taylor, but we know better don't we?

Here's to Andy Griffith who gave us decades of fun.

Here's to Harry Broderick (Andy Griffith).  You didn't make it to the Moon, but you took us there. 

And part of you is there now in spirit.

/*

"We are heroes, Ben!"
"But we ain't dead!"  Benjamin B. Whitledge
"Well, that makes it even better don't it?"
Will Stockdale (Andy Griffith), No Time For Sergeants (1958)

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See Also Jettison Salvage Was Here.

/*

Update 2013.09.11

We goofed.  Although a newscaster at the beginning of the first episode "Dark Island" describes his location as the "Jettison Salvage yard", and Harry Broderick in the pilot answer's the phone as "Jettison Salvage", that's not the full name of fictional company.  Harry Broderick's company is not the "Jettison Salvage", but "Jettison Scrap & Salvage Company."  Apologies to all fans of the show.

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eBay Discussion Topic - "When did "gooder" become a word?"

eBay Discussion Topic - "When did "gooder" become a word?"
2 February 2011
EventHorizon1984

Trawling through eBay, one can find serious topics of discussion on eBay's Liveworld controlled forums.

But for the purposes of this article, sometimes not.

A major eBay shirt seller, honeville1, asked "When did "gooder" become a word?".

This brought out a few collective chuckles, and remembering the quote by Edmund Burke (1729-1797) "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." (1)

1. Winston Churchill (1874-1965), "Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." (2)
2. George Santayana (1863-1952), "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Or as we included in a previous article on forgetting the past: 

Pablo Picasso, "If there is something to steal, I steal it."

But to partially answer Honeville's question.

The year was 1984, and a scene from a television mini-series left a memorable impression on millions of viewers.  The conversation from V: The Final Battle (1984) basically started with:

"How you doin' gooder?"  Ham Tyler (Michael Ironside)
"That's short for do-gooder.  It's a little nickname he's got for me." Mike Donavon (Marc Singer)

The word "gooder" has been around the science fiction community for almost 27 years.

Speaking of 1984, it was a fairly good year for science fiction, fantasy, and horror feature films.

(Not an all inclusive list.)

• 2010
• A Nightmare On Elm Street
• Children of the Corn
• Cloak & Dagger
• Conan The Destroyer
• Dreamscape
• Dune
• Electric Dreams
• Firestarter
• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
• Ghostbusters
• Gremlins
• Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
• Iceman
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• Night of the Comet
• Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Oh, God! You Devil
• Repo Man  - watch the ending, ED.
• Romancing the Stone
• Runaway
• Sheena: Queen of the Jungle
• Splash
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
• Starman
• Supergirl
• The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension
• The Brother from Another Planet
• The Ice Pirates
• The Last Starfighter
• The Muppets Take Manhattan
• The Neverending Story
• The Philadelphia Experiment
• The Terminator
• The Toxic Avenger

And for starting a company.

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"Return the money!?  Are you delirious?"
Centauri (Robert Preston), The Last Starfighter (1984)

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eBay Myth Conceptions About Alibaba and the Forty Thieves

eBay Myth Conceptions About Alibaba and the Forty Thieves
29 August 2010
EventHorizon1984

When eCommerce company Alibaba.com purchased Vendio Services (June 2010) and eBay third party provider Auctiva (August 2010), there was the usual buzz.  But it was less about Alibaba's CEO David Wei stating "The U.S. is the top priority in our investment list" and more about the "Alibaba and the Forty Thieves" meme.

This is a very pervasive meme.  For example:

• AuctionBytes - "Let's give them all to Alibaba and the forty million thieves and let them sell on Alibaba's new site."
• TameBay - "Alibaba and the Forty Thieves ?"
• eBay Forum - "Would that be the story of AliBaba and the Forty THIEVES ?.."

Users of the "Alibaba and the Forty Thieves" meme have the popular conception that it's Alibaba AND HIS Forty Thieves.  As it turns out it's a misconception*.

* Since we're dealing with myths, the popular phrase "Myth Conceptions" is a steal homage to the copyrighted work of the late Robert Asprin.  A book published in 1980 titled, "Myth Conceptions."

The meme of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" might be from the 1944 movie of the same name.  Which is described as "A boy prince, raised by forty thieves."  It might be the cartoon Arabian Knights (1968-1969).

Or simply it's a straight name association used by people who know the name of the story, but have never read the original work.

Speaking of which "The Story of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" from "Stories from the Thousand and One Nights" (1909) is available at Bartleby.com.

We know in this tale:

• "'Ali Baba married a woman as poor as himself, and lived by cutting wood"
• "‘Ali Baba expected a dark, dismal cavern, but was surprised to see a well-lighted and spacious chamber, lighted from an opening at the top of the rock, and filled with all sorts of provisions, rich bales of silk, embroideries, and valuable tissues, piled upon one another, gold and silver ingots in great heaps, and money in bags. The sight of all these riches made him suppose that this cave must have been occupied for ages by robbers, who had succeeded one another."
• "‘Ali Baba went boldly into the cave, and collected as much of the gold coin"

We meet Marjaneh:

• "Marjaneh, a clever slave-girl, who was fruitful in inventions to meet the most difficult circumstances"
• said 'Ali Baba to Marjaneh, "I leave the matter to your wit and skilful devices."

Who gives The Bride a run for the body count.

The tale ends with:

• "Some years later he carried his son to the cave and taught him the secret, which he handed down to his posterity, who, using their good fortune with moderation, lived in great honour and splendour till they were visited by the terminator of delights and the separator of companions."

The story is not 'Ali Baba and his forty thieves, but 'Ali Baba and the encounter with forty thieves.

However from a 21st century legal perspective, 'Ali Baba taking property from thieves is theft.  Paradoxically such an act is considered justice.  More so considering the "Forty Thieves" were dealt with by 'Ali Baba's proxy (Marjaneh) in a way appropriate to the legal code of the time.

Still the 'Ali Baba meme is rather powerful.  Although as the title of the article Alibaba and the eBay Thieves demonstrates, it may not mean what you think it means.

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"Sometimes bad guys are the only good guys you get."
Parker, Leverage

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eBay and Johnny Sain

eBay and Johnny Sain
12 August 2010
EventHorizon1984

Decided to pick up some words to relax before a weekend (group  Ed.) three day systems contract, and AuctionBytes won the coin toss over TameBay.  The site didn't disappoint.

The day's guest lecturer was one eBay Addict, a self professed eBay shopper.  He has skill of a professional writer, with the hardball delivery of a stereotypical east coast resident. 

eBay Addict is reminiscent of the fictional sports writer Oscar Madison. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.  Let's rewind a bit.

Despite eBay Addict saying, "I'm not trying to bait you," he managed to hook quite a few live ones. 

The lively taunt and rant session piqued my curiosity.  Curiosity and Google went no where, but the {cough} {cough} baseball addict seated nearby had this to say:

"[expletive deleted] Braves."

I went 'huh?', but apparently there are baseball fans that recognize where eBay Addict appropriated the "We really don't want to hear about the labor pains, we just wanna see the baby." catch phrase. 

Johnny Sain (1917-2006)
Boston Braves 1946-1951
"The world doesn't want to hear about labor pains; it just wants to see the baby."

Ah sports writer.

His comments are sprinkled with sporting allusions.  Reading like other sports articles, such as one from east coaster Mike Bovenzi, who like dozens of others wrote a similar "fans don't want to hear about labor pains. The fans just want to see the baby."  Sadly he too didn't attribute Johnny Sain.

Who is eBay Addict and is he a sport writer? 

"We don't care..."
eBay Addict

Hope you enjoyed today's sports trivia.

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"You and other sellers like you just don't get it. Buyers (and eBay) are sick of the excuses and the rants. We really don't want to hear about the labor pains, we just wanna see the baby. And in this instance, your baby can't be delivered on time! ROFTL!!"
eBay Addict

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The 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. Why Bother With Columbus Day??

The 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. Why Bother With Columbus Day??
20 July 2009
EventHorizon1984

Today the United States and the world remembers the historic 20 July 1969 landing of the lunar module Eagle (Apollo 11) on the moon, and human's first step upon the moon. 

Why forty years later is this uniquely American endeavor not a U.S. national holiday? 

Because the United States continues to have the inane 'America Discovered' holiday of Columbus Day.  A national holiday celebrating the 'accomplishment' of an Italian national, sailing for the Spanish government to find a route to China, but landing in what is now the British Bahamas instead.  Not quite the site of the future U.S.

Columbus Day is also celebrated in Spain.  And as we understand it no where else.  Of course.

Incidentally Leif Ericson was the first historically recorded European to land on North America. He did so and started a settlement about 5 centuries earlier (1003 AD).  Of course his party was greeted by the local indigenous population.

So much for Columbus being "first."

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"That's one small step for (a) man.  One giant leap for mankind."
Neil Armstrong, United States, 20 July 1969

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"Say it ain't so, Joe." - Isn't that the odd American sport of Baseball?

"Say it ain't so, Joe." - Isn't that the odd American sport of Baseball?
4 October 2008
Event Horizon 1984

"This is like deja vu all over again."
Yogi Berra

We're loathe to putting day to day politics on this blog.  There's enough aggravation in daily reading.  But with Major League Baseball into the playoff season, the injection of politics has us crossing the line.

"If you build it ... HE will come."
Shoeless Joe Jackson, Field of Dreams (1989)

If you're a fan of Baseball, or happen to be be the average American glued to the television or radio, you do know this piece of baseball history and mythology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoeless_Joe_Jackson

In testimony before the grand jury, Jackson admitted under oath that he agreed to participate in the fix. He also admitted to complaining to other conspirators that he had not received his full $20,000 share. Legend has it that as Jackson was leaving the courthouse during the trial, a young boy begged of him, "Say it ain't so, Joe," and that Joe did not respond. In his 1949 interview in Sport Magazine, Jackson debunked this story as a myth.

In 1921, a Chicago jury acquitted him and his seven White Sox teammates of wrongdoing. Nevertheless, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the newly appointed Commissioner of Baseball, banned all eight accused players, claiming baseball's need to clean up its image took precedence over legal judgments. As a result, Jackson never played major league baseball after the 1920 season.

If you didn't know baseball, you probably wouldn't know this has been floating around the last 80 or so years.

"Say it ain't so, Joe"
Governor Palin, October 2008

"If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."
Yogi Berra

Or not?

"I grew up watching the summer baseball on these fields."
"In fact started out as a sports reporter. Sports have been a passion of mine of mine all my life, so I feel not at home here but I feel very ah comfortable in like this is a fun booth to be in."
Governor Sarah Palin, 29 August 2008
Donny Baarns interview during the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks and Mat-Su Miners game.
http://ballhype.com/video/alaska_governor_sarah_palin_interview/

Every four years American President's and Presidential contenders attend or watch the playoffs.  Mostly leaving the politics out of Baseball.  But this Presidential cycle just had to mix politics with American's most beloved pastime.

Politicians do us a favor. Leave Baseball out of it.

You should know better.

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"And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again."
Terence Mann, Field of Dreams (1989)

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