Yes! Ice skating permitted

It's been four years since the neighborhood pond froze over enough for skating. And some good old fashioned pond hockey too.

The Second Coming?

Yep, the mainstream media's messianism is back.

I thought Newsweek had the cover story right the last time.

Guns, Hollywood and the Second Amendment - Part 2

Henry Payne

Since our recent post about guns and media hypocrisy, a few things are getting clearer.

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that the National Rifle Association is more popular than the entertainment industry.

• Forty-one percent of adults see the NRA -- the nation's top gun lobby -- in a positive light, while 34 percent view it in a negative light.
• By comparison, just 24 percent have positive feelings about the entertainment industry, and 39 percent have negative ones.

The Journal News in Westchester County, New York, has taken down its controversial online map with the names and addresses of legal gun permit holders after the New York State Legislature passed a new law making such information confidential and protected from the Freedom of Information Act. Yet, publisher Janet Hasson delivered an unapologetic and sanctimonious defense of the paper's decision to publish the map. A quick scan of the readers' comments section makes clear no one's buying it.

And, Anthony Lane, the film critic at The New Yorker, wrote about Hollywood's complicity in gun violence. Lane explains that the film Gangster Squad deleted its scene of a shootout in a movie theater after the real carnage at the screening of The Black Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, and then the film Jack Reacher was delayed one month after the school shooting in Sandy Hook. Lane calls these decisions "respectable and responsible." Read more of his Hollywood apologia here:

"To claim that all due respect has been paid, however, or that all ethical responsibilities have been fulfilled, would be disingenuous. The issue of screen violence carries far less weight, in such fathomless horrors, than that of gun control; the connection between what a disturbed and resentful young man used to watch, or play on his computer, and what he then wreaks in public with an assault weapon wouldn't matter if he couldn't lay his hands on such a weapon in the first place. Yet the connection, however oblique, exists. You can argue that evil will seek a blueprint and find a way, but we are still obliged, I think, to pass beyond the pathology of a madman and pose a vaster and no less vexing question. What does it mean for the majority of us, the nonviolent millions, that year after year, we should observe such a rising flood of fictional savage acts that, after a while, we barely notice or mind? And is there anything that a filmmaker could or should do to stem the flow?"

20 years of patent leadership

As reported in The New York Times:

"I.B.M. collected 6,478 patents last year. I.B.M.'s patent asset generates an estimated $1 billion a year in license revenue. But it also a shield against patent litigation by competitors and patent-holding firms.

"Michael Karasick, a vice president and computer scientist at the I.B.M. Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., joined the company in 1988, just as the I.B.M. patent strategy was starting. One thing that has changed over the years, Dr. Karasick said, was the proliferation of 'mixed-skill teams' of researchers in fields like medicine, public health, and oil and gas exploration.

"Each such team, he said, will have computer scientists, mathematicians and statisticians. But in health care, the teams might also include biologists, geneticists and medical researchers, while the oil and gas teams would include geologists and geophysicists.

" 'You need the skills to engage with customers,' Dr. Karasick said. 'We want to play in their sandbox not ours. You advance the science by applying technology to real-world problems.'

"I.B.M. patents, Dr. Karasick said, typically cover 'reusable technologies that can be applied to various disciplines.'

"One invention - granted a patent last year - was for the question-answering technology used in the I.B.M. Watson computer that defeated human 'Jeopardy!' champions in 2011. The same technology is being tested as an automated assistant to doctors as they diagnose diseases, for example.

"In a study, published on Thursday, titled 'The Most Innovative Companies in 2012,' the Boston Consulting Group pointed to four steps that spell success in innovation: "generate breakthrough ideas,' 'involve customers throughout the innovation process,' 'boost speed to market" and 'proactively manage an intellectual property portfolio.'

" "I.B.M.,' the report said, 'excels at these practices, helping it earn the respect of executives at hundreds of other companies.'

"But in the Boston Consulting ranking, based mainly on an opinion survey of 1,500 executives, I.B.M. placed sixth among the most innovative companies in 2012. Apple came in first, followed by Google, in this measure of perception rather than patent counts."

Where are we now?

As long as there's sun . . . rain . . . fire

2013 Predictions

Alex Fine ~ The New York Observer

The staff at The New York Observer "simply squinted real hard and observed" some funny 2013 predictions.  Some faves:

• Mayor Bloomberg replaces all movie theater seats with Bowflex Tread Climbers.
• Unemployment drops when millions of working YouTube house cats are included in the jobs numbers.
• Tina Brown helms the reboot of Cat Fancy with controversial “Garfield at 50” cover.
• Mitt Romney is found wandering around a construction site in La Jolla, screaming, “But he says you didn’t build that!”
• Clint Eastwood’s chair is acquired by the Smithsonian, where it teams up with Archie Bunker’s chair to give Dick Van Dyke’s ottoman a beat-down with Ben Franklin’s walking stick. 
• In the Mad Men season premiere, set in 1986, an aging Don Draper grimly stares at a mango wine cooler and realizes he no longer has the words.
• Tim Cook leaves Apple and moves to an ashram, only to find all anyone wants to hear about is what Steve was really like.

Finally, some ice hockey action

With the 2012-2013 National Hockey League season and players still locked out due to the absence of a new collective bargaining agreement, about the only action you're likely to see is by playing Electronic Arts' NHL 13. Now that's a hip check.

Guns, Hollywood and the Second Amendment

The New Yorker - Threshold - Chris Ware

Since the tragic December 14 school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, battle lines are being been drawn on possible new gun laws restricting Second Amendment rights. It's an emotional and constitutional issue no matter which side one takes. Surely some changes should be made, especially better background checks, but more gun laws by themselves won't change America's violent culture.

And you have to question the role and responsibility the media and Hollywood play in informing and inflaming public opinion and behavior. Much has been written about how both, in their zeal for ratings and revenue, sensationalize mass killings and murderers, real and fictional.

A local newspaper here in Westchester County, New York, claiming Freedom of Information rights, has published an online map of pistol permits under the headline: Map: Where are the gun permits in your neighborhood? A click on each red dot reveals the name and address of the legal owner. These aren't sexual predators mind you, they're decent, honest citizens with gun permits. Some are neighbors and friends.

Not surprisingly, the Journal News, a Gannett publication, got strong criticism for their actions. But instead of taking the map down, they doubled down and are seeking similar FOI rights to publish a second map of permit holders north of Westchester in Putnam County. Putnam County officials have refused to share the information. One Katonah retailer is suing for defamation.

Meanwhile, the newspaper invoked its Second Amendment rights and hired armed guards to protect employees at its offices.

Even more irony abounds in Hollywood. Earnest celebrities implore us in a new PSA to Demand a Plan to restrict gun rights. The commercial opens with actor Jamie Foxx, the star of the latest Quentin Tarantino revenge fantasy bloodfest, Django Unchained.  Last Saturday Foxx yucked it up as host of Saturday Night live, explaining that in the movie he "kills all the white people" with a gun. The SNL crowd roared with laughter.

Watch it and the rebuttal clip that follows (and apologies for the unneeded text insults at the end). That's right, enough, you can't have it both ways.