To Be Clear, Velociraptors Would Make Terrible Weapons
Hell, this might be the headline of the year.
Category: Media
Day 104
I haz a sad.
I just watched the series finale of Phineas and Ferb, and I already miss the show.
Jeff “Swampy” Marsh and Dan Povenmire, the creators/show runners next project will be
Mikey Murphy’s Law,* and I, as well as the rest of my family, will wait for this with bated breath.
*The concept of this show is that it is the adventures of the great, great, great, great, great, great, grandchild of the creator of Murphy’s Law.†
†Technically, this is historically inaccurate, because the term Murphy’s Law has its origins in rocket sled tests at Edwards AFB in the early 1950s.
Diane Rehm Will Keep Her Job, but She Shouldn’t
As you may or not be aware, yesterday Diane Rehm asserted to Bernie Sanders that he had dual US/Israeli citizenship:
Diane Rehm: Senator, you have dual citizenship with Israel.
Bernie Sanders: Well, no I do not have dual citizenship with Israel. I’m an American. I don’t know where that question came from. I am an American citizen, and I have visited Israel on a couple of occasions. No, I’m an American citizen, period.
Rehm: I understand from a list we have gotten that you were on that list.
Sanders: No.
Rehm: Forgive me if that is—
Sanders: That’s some of the nonsense that goes on in the internet. But that is absolutely not true.
Rehm: Interesting. Are there members of Congress who do have dual citizenship or is that part of the fable?
Sanders: I honestly don’t know but I have read that on the internet. You know, my dad came to this country from Poland at the age of 17 without a nickel in his pocket. He loved this country. I am, you know, I got offended a little bit by that comment, and I know it’s been on the internet. I am obviously an American citizen and I do not have any dual citizenship.
Later Rehm kinda-sorta apologized by claiming that she had gotten this question from a comment on her Facebook page:
On today’s show I made a mistake. Rather than asking Senator and Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders whether he had dual U.S./Israeli citizenship, as I had read in a comment on Facebook, I stated it as fact.
At least she isn’t blaming an intern, but it still shows, at a minimum, a recklessness with truth that is appalling.
Then again, it could be malice, and I’m inclined to believe that this was malice, because, as Josh Marshall so ably observes, it is inconceivable that she does not know the subtext that even asking the question would raise:
I don’t expect much more to come of this Diane Rehm/Sanders brouhaha, mainly because Rehm has such profound buy-in and goodwill from media and political figures in Washington; because Sanders himself isn’t making a big deal out of it; and because the people who usually bang the pans loudest about anti-Semitism themselves aren’t fully invested because they don’t share Sanders’ politics (though they’re certainly not ignoring it). But if you’re asking me, Diane Rehm’s explanation is a complete crock.
If you read Rehm’s explanation from her show this morning, a reader on Facebook gave her a ‘list’ and suggested she ask Sanders about it. Her mistake was stating it as a fact and asking him to respond to that fact rather than asking it as a question. Now, even though she mishandled the question, she’s glad she could help put the rumor to rest.
That’s bullsh%$.
………
If someone were totally oblivious to history, contemporary politics or anything about public affairs, I could see where maybe you read that and think, “Wow, that’s amazing. I had no idea.”
But as someone who has been running a very sophisticated and literate public affairs program for decades, that does not remotely apply to Rehm. Not even remotely close. There is simply no way you read one of these and do not know that at the very, very best you are asking a highly incendiary question that has a long history in anti-Semitic diatribes. I guess you could speculate, well, maybe despite all that, Sanders really does hold Israeli nationality? Let’s ask him. But coming from one of these ‘lists’ on the web? Again, it does not remotely hold up.
I think the only way you find yourself saying this is if you are totally oblivious to what you are saying and relying entirely on a researcher to feed you lines (the theory Sanders puts forward) or you have a worldview that makes these kind of anti-Semitic canards plausible.
Let’s hit the other point. It’s not just a matter of stating as a fact vs asking a question. If you’re interviewing President Obama and you ask him whether Osama bin Laden is his brother or whether he’s conspiring with Iran to destroy America, that’s not just a question. Why not ask an African-American congressman if he’s held up any 7-Elevens recently? People are going to say, rightly, WTF is your problem? It’s not a question, at least not phrased anything like that. You’re dignifying, laundering hate speech. And when you get a flat denial you’re not helping put the rumor to rest. That’s CYA after the fact.
(%$ mine)
I believe that what Rehm can only be ascribed to malice. I am not suggesting that Rehm has an antisemitism problem, I am not a mind reader, but I am suggesting that this indicates a bias against Sanders.
One also has to remember that the VSPs inside the DC Beltway have a narrative in which Sanders is not electable, and sh%$ like this is the inevitable result.
This Is Unbelievably Full of Win
In a discussion at the Stellar Parthenon BBS about the FIFA prosecutions, the discussion digressed, as it often does, into a discussion of how much of what is on cable (Sports “Journalism”, Fox News, Reality TV, etc.) is not just useless, but it is like fingernails on the chalk board.
At this point, Greg Muir (his blog is here), notes:
I have taken to straight out unplugging televisions in waiting rooms.
There is so much win in doing this.
This Is the Best Parody of a Genre That I Have Seen in a Long Time
I just saw Kung Fury on YouTube.
Doing a parody of a genre, in this case 80s Kung Foo movies, particularly if you are going a high cheese, is dancing on the knife edge.
If you are not cheesy enough, it doesn’t work. If you are too cheesy, the audience loses the ability to suspend its disbelief.
The director and writer, David Sandberg gets the balance almost perfect. (Laser Raptors and David Hasselhoff)
O’Malley is In
Martin O’Malley has officially announced that he is running for President:
Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley blasted social injustice and Wall Street excesses as he launched a White House bid on Saturday, casting himself as a younger, more liberal alternative to Democratic Party frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
“Powerful, wealthy special interests here at home have used our government to create, in our own country, an economy that is leaving a majority of our people behind,” said O’Malley, opening his 2016 presidential campaign with a rally at a waterfront park in downtown Baltimore.
O’Malley, who has aggressively courted his party’s liberal wing, began his political career in Baltimore, first as a member of city council and then as mayor.
Decrying big banks as having been behind the financial crisis of 2008, O’Malley singled out Goldman Sachs for particular criticism. He said Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein recently told his employees that “he’d be just fine” with either Republican Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton as president after the November 2016 election.
“Well, I’ve got news for the bullies of Wall Street,” O’Malley said. “The presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families.”
Hillary Clinton is the wife of former President Bill Clinton while Jeb Bush, who has not yet formally announced his candidacy but is already considered a leading contender among Republican hopefuls, is son and brother of former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
Signs at O’Malley’s rally promised he would provide “new leadership,” but in fact he faces an uphill battle against former secretary of state Clinton, who consistently tops opinion polls to be the party’s nominee, and who enjoys national name recognition.
The nickel tour of Martin O’Malley:
- I met him once, and he is VERY charismatic.
- He has never really run on ideology, instead presenting himself as a pragmatist.
- As chief executive, both as Mayor of Baltimore and as Governor of Maryland, he got high marks as a manager.
- He abolished the death penalty, got gay marriage passed, and he has been strong on protecting the Chesapeake Bay.
- He’s the youngest Democrat in the race by at least 15 years
- He is less tightly tied to Wall Street than Clinton (not hard)
I think that the biggest impact on the Democratic nomination processes will be to give the press to further curtail their already meager (and dismissive) coverage of Bernie Sanders.
I prefer him to Clinton, but I prefer Sanders to O’Malley.
I Have Never Watched Mad Men
And I really do not give a sh%$ about the series finale.
Except for the whole DB Cooper theory.
I spent my high school years in the Pacific Northwest, and it imbued me with a fascination with all things DB Cooper.
BTW, I never watched Breaking Bad either.
I am so out of touch with the media habits of America’s glitterati.
What the F%$#ing F%$#?
I understand that HIV remains a major public health image, but this is nuts:
The newest battle against HIV/AIDS stigma is being waged in blood and ink.This month, the small Austrian magazine Vangardist will release a special-edition issue printed entirely in ink that has been infused with HIV-positive blood, in an effort to force readers to confront — and break — taboos that persist around the virus. The magazine, which is marketed toward “progressive” urban young men, plans to release 3,000 print copies of the spring “Heroes of HIV” issue, a theme inspired by the three donors who contributed their blood to the project, as well as people living publicly with HIV.
“We believe that as a lifestyle magazine it is our responsibility to address the issues shaping society today,” Vangardist publisher Julian Wiehl said. “With 80 percent more confirmed cases of HIV being recorded in 2013 than 10 years previously, and an estimated 50 percent of HIV cases being detected late due to lack of testing caused by social stigma associated with the virus [sic]. This felt like a very relevant issue for us to focus on not just editorially but also from a broader communications standpoint.”
As Wiehl explained to the Washington Post, the print edition will be packaged in a sealed wrapper, so the reader must “break the seal to break the stigma.” While it is well-known that HIV can only be transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids such as blood and semen, and there is no health or safety risk posed by handling the blood-infused ink, Vangardist hopes to make a statement that challenges the public. (The magazine did take extra measures to ensure the ink would be sterile, and autoclaved the donated blood before using it.)
I have no words.
The New New Republic is Much Better than the Old One.
This was an Actual TNR Cover
If just because the old one was run by a racist who would have directed the magazine write something about white anxiety in Baltimore, while the post Marty Peretz version actually calls out the Washington Post‘s Baltimore PD source as a liar:
………
Ever since we first saw citizen video evidence of his arrest shortly after it happened and learned of the fatal injuries he suffered, we’ve all been wondering exactly what happened to Gray. Up until last night, we only know that Gray suffered some kind of “forceful trauma” that nearly severed his spine and crushed his voice box; we also learned he received no medical treatment from the officers on hand. But on Wednesday night, the Washington Post published a report that stemmed from that police leak, containing the alleged account of a prisoner who had been placed in the same police van as Gray after his arrest. The unnamed prisoner, who is still in jail, could not see Gray in the van—yet according to the Post, he told investigators that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” and believed that he “was intentionally trying to injure himself.” The Post story hadn’t been published for more than an hour before local journalists like WBAL’s Jayne Miller began debunking it, saying that it didn’t match her earlier reporting: Police commissioner Anthony Batts told media last Thursday that the second prisoner in the van said that Gray was “mostly quiet” and that there was no evidence that Gray was causing himself any harm. “We disagree with any implication that Freddie Gray severed his own spinal cord,” said Jason Downs, a Gray family attorney. “We question the accuracy of the police reports we’ve seen thus far, including the police report that says Mr. Gray was arrested without force or incident.”
Let’s entertain this notion, for a moment, that Gray had decided to injure himself or end his life over an arrest that began with an errant look at an officer, or because he happened to be carrying a switchblade. Is it realistic to believe he would have succeeded to this tragic degree? Whoever at the Baltimore Police Department leaked this clearly relied upon us not understanding how much physical force is required to nearly sever one’s own spine and crush a voice box, all while handcuffed. One doctor told the Baltimore Sun that Gray’s injuries were more consistent with those seen from high-speed vehicle crashes. The van made several stops while he was in it, but did not crash even at a low speed.
Granted, this wasn’t the first time someone tried to explain away what common sense tells us was police brutality. Conservative outlets had circulated nonsense about Gray having a pre-existing spinal condition that required surgery days before his arrest. But now we have the Baltimore Police Department, using the Post as an uncritical conduit, trolling the public and the media. Yes, that seems unwise in light of the violent unrest we’ve seen this week. Far more disturbing than a question of their policing strategy, however, is what this leak indicates about this department and the answers it’s willing to offer.
No matter how many shouts are heard or windows smashed, the Baltimore police have asserted that they control the narrative, and that they alone determine what we get to know about why Gray died. They have no respect for Baltimore’s anger. That’s a lot more chilling to me than teenagers tossing bricks.
The language is a trifle florid, but this is also much better than what the “Old” New Republic would written, which would have at its focus comforting the comfortable.
Bad Day at the Office
This is one of the finest examples of a correction ever:
Correction: This post initially attributed the song “Barbara Ann” to The Beatles. It is, in fact, a Beach Boys song. The author of this post would blame his relative youth, but as a fan of the oldies, this would be dishonest. He would instead like to extend his sincerest apology for this egregious error and promise that it will not be repeated.
Clarification: As Ed Morrissey notes, the song was originally written and sung by The Regents and later covered by the Beach Boys. So the author of this post is clearly having one of those days.
He was writing how bombing Iran is incredibly unpopular, even among Republicans.
In the process, he writes about how McCain sang “Bomb Iran” to the tune of “Barbara Ann”, and completely screws up the provenance of the song.
Normally, I reserve the, “Bad Day at the Office,” hed for vehicular crashes, but I think that Aaron Blake’s correction rated this title as well.
H/t Jim Romenesko.
Way to Overshadow he 70th Anniversary of Hiroshima, Dude!
Jon Stewart’s last day on The Daily Show is August 6.
With all due respect, Mr. Stewart, I’ll not be hosting a goodbye party for you.
It just does not seem appropriate.
Good News Everyone!!!
Good news everyone!
I invented a device that makes you read this in your head using my voice!
It appears that the DoJ’s antitrust division will oppose the Comcast-Time Warner Merger:
Staff attorneys at the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division are nearing a recommendation to block Comcast Corp.’s bid to buy Time Warner Cable Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
Attorneys who are investigating Comcast’s $45.2 billion proposal to create a nationwide cable giant are leaning against the merger out of concern that consumers would be harmed and could submit their review as soon as next week, said the people. The division’s senior officials will then decide whether to file a federal lawsuit seeking to block the tie-up.
Even better, it appears that this opposition could have the effect of preventing other mergers in the industry:
………
A rejection would be a blow to Comcast, which would have to give up on valuable cable and broadband assets in major U.S. cities including New York and Los Angeles. The $45.2 billion merger proposal is also a way for Philadelphia-based Comcast to fend off competition from phone companies, satellite providers and Web services like Netflix Inc. that have taken hundreds of thousands of its TV subscribers in recent years.
Another company has a lot at stake: Charter Communications Inc., the No. 4 in the industry. Charter, which counts billionaire John Malone as its largest investor, has agreed to take control of 3.9 million Comcast cable-TV customers to ease approval for the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. If that fails, Charter won’t get those customers. Another Charter deal, the recent agreement to purchase of Bright House Networks, would also be in jeopardy.
The most amazing thing about this is that the push-back seems to come primarily from consumers, driven largely by both Comcast and TW Cable, and the belief that if they are allowed to merge, the suckitude will get only worse.
Remarkably, this is the second time that adverse regulation against cable companies has resulted in a consumer backlash.
The Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 was vociferously opposed by the cable companies, and they plastered their programming with advertising against it.
Once alerted, cable users bombarded Congress with calls and letters supporting the bill, because they figured that if their cable company was against the 1992 Cable Act, they were for it.
I Now Understand Why Jon Stewart is Leaving The Daily Show
After many years of commenting on cable TV wankitude, he can no longer handle watching Fox News anymore:
………
My biggest objection to Fox News, I say, is not the scaremongering, it’s the way it’s reshaped the Republican party. It will misrepresent social and economic issues, and promote the more extreme elements of the party, politicians such as Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, in a way that is hugely detrimental to American politics. (For the record, Rupert Murdoch disagrees, and last year claimed that Fox News “absolutely saved” the Republican party.) “Watching these channels all day is incredibly depressing,” says Stewart. “I live in a constant state of depression. I think of us as turd miners. I put on my helmet, I go and mine turds, hopefully I don’t get turd lung disease.”
Now that he is leaving The Daily Show, is there any circumstance in which he would watch Fox News again? He takes a few seconds to ponder the question. “Umm… All right, let’s say that it’s a nuclear winter, and I have been wandering, and there appears to be a flickering light through what appears to be a radioactive cloud and I think that light might be a food source that could help my family. I might glance at it for a moment until I realize, that’s Fox News, and then I shut it off. That’s the circumstance.”
OK, I get it now.
If I had to watch Fox News for a living, I’d be ……… I’d be ………
Hell, I need a full fifth of Jack and a bong full of Maui Wowie to even consider it.
Remember the Brief Kidnapping of Richard Engel by Assad’s Forces in Syria? Not so Much.
It turns out that he was kidnapped by the Syrian opposition, and then freed by the same militias as a part of a false flag operation: (See also here and here.)
NBC News on Wednesday revised its account of the 2012 kidnapping of its chief foreign correspondent, Richard Engel, saying it was likely that Mr. Engel and his reporting team had been abducted by a Sunni militant group, not forces affiliated with the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.
In a statement posted on the NBC News website Wednesday evening, Mr. Engel said that a review of the episode — prompted by reporting from The New York Times — had led him to conclude that “the group that kidnapped us was Sunni, not Shia.” He also wrote that the abductors had “put on an elaborate ruse to convince us they were Shiite shabiha militiamen.”
Mr. Engel and his team were kidnapped in December 2012 while reporting in Syria. They were held for five days. Just hours after emerging, they appeared on the “Today” show.
“This was a group known as the shabiha, this was the government militia, these are people who are loyal to President Bashar al-Assad,” Mr. Engel said on “Today,” citing information he had gathered from the group. In that and other appearances on NBC, and in a Vanity Fair magazine article, he said that he had been rescued by Sunni rebels. At least two people died during the course of the captivity, he said in some versions of the account.
Interviews by The Times with several dozen people — including many of those involved in the search for NBC’s team, rebel fighters and activists in Syria and current and former NBC News employees — suggested that Mr. Engel’s team was almost certainly taken by a Sunni criminal element affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, the loose alliance of rebels opposed to Mr. Assad.
The group, known as the North Idlib Falcons Brigade, was led by two men, Azzo Qassab and Shukri Ajouj, who had a history of smuggling and other crimes. The kidnapping ended, the people involved in the search said, when the team was freed by another rebel group, Ahrar al-Sham, which had a relationship with Mr. Qassab and Mr. Ajouj.
Mr. Engel and his team underwent a harrowing ordeal, and it is a common tactic for kidnappers in war zones to intentionally mislead hostages as to their identity.
NBC executives were informed of Mr. Ajouj and Mr. Qassab’s possible involvement during and after Mr. Engels’s captivity, according to current and former NBC employees and others who helped search for Mr. Engel, including political activists and security professionals. Still, the network moved quickly to put Mr. Engel on the air with an account blaming Shiite captors and did not present the other possible version of events.
Of course they, “Did not present the other possible version of events,” they couldn’t present other possible versions, because Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia..
Great Headline
Stuffed bunnies were hopped up on meth, federal agents say
By Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com on March 24, 2015 at 1:15 PM, updated March 24, 2015 at 4:51 PM
Federal drug agents at JFK airport found a pair of plush toy bunnies stuffed with an unusual and illegal substance: a kilo of meth.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents at JFK recognized Lucas Dasilva, a suspected drug methamphetamine dealer wanted on drug charges in Florida, after he stepped off a flight to JFK from California on Friday, the New York Post reported.
Investigators said the 35-year-old was carrying a Brazilian passport with a fake name, plus luggage containing the two bunnies, according to the Post.
“A search revealed two stuffed rabbits which were unusually heavy and made a crunching noise when squeezed,” stated court papers quoted by the Post.
One of the bunnies was big and brown, while the other was small and white, the Daily News reported.
This is epic.
H/t Jim Romenesko.
Clearly, We Need to Have a Full Congressional Investigation Over This………
It appears that the White House and its head florist have parted ways, and some reporter who really needs to get a life demands to know why:
When White House chief pastry chef Bill Yosses left the executive mansion last summer, the president publicly mourned the loss of “the crust master’s” mysteriously addictive pies. And when the first family’s personal chef and pal, Sam Kass, left in December, Michelle Obama heaped praise on Kass’s “extraordinary legacy of progress” in an official White House statement.
But the recent exit of head florist Laura Dowling, who’d been in the job since 2009, has been a much quieter affair. So hush hush, in fact, that most outside of 1600 Penn knew nothing about it. There’s still no official comment on why Dowling is no longer at the White House, but according to a source with close ties to current residence staffers, she was escorted from the building on Friday, Feb. 13.
The East Wing initially confirmed via a very brief e-mail that “Laura left her position earlier this year” but provided no further details. Later, the first lady’s office (not quoting the first lady specifically, mind you) sent this enhanced statement:“As Chief Florist, Laura Dowling and her team treated guests of the White House to their beautiful floral arrangements. Ms. Dowling’s creations were always lively and colorful, reflecting not only the season but the unique and historic rooms which they graced. No two arrangements were ever the same and each one left guests with a lasting impression of the elegance and history of the People’s House. We are grateful for her contribution over the years and wish her well”
………
Hours after we put in a call to Dowling’s Alexandria floral design shop, Intérieurs et Fleurs, she issued a statement via the law firm Sidley Austin.“After almost 6 years as Chief Floral Designer at the White House, I have resigned in order to pursue exciting new opportunities and explore my passion for floral artistry and design. Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be launching a new platform for my work as an author, speaker, instructor and design consultant that builds on the creative ideas and partnerships I’ve formed during my tenure there. It’s been such an honor to work at the White House and I will always be grateful for this incredible opportunity.”
There is then a followup article, which seems to indicate that it was that Michelle Obama wanted to move the White House aesthetics in a new direction, with an equally breathless tone:
………
In this town, matters of taste — much like positions on marriage equality — can “evolve” over time. Just ask Dowling, who left because her “fussy style” was not in line with the first lady’s emerging modern and clean aesthetics, several sources said.
Laura’s work “is just different. I’m not sure if it was right for the White House,” said one top floral designer in the area who has done freelance florist work for splashy big events at 1600 Penn. This designer, like many we talked to, spoke on the condition of anonymity because “the floral community is very small, and nobody wants to put down anybody’s work.”
I understand that this needs to be covered, and I understand that the author, Helena Andrews, is, “The co-author of The Reliable Source,” the Washington Post‘s Society/Gossip column, but the breathless tone is a bit over the top.
Truth be told, I do not blame her. I blame her editors.
The editors should have told her to walk back the tone a bit.
When did Evan Bayh Piss in Ezra Klein’s Cheerios?
I’m not sure when Ezra Klein decided that Evan Bayh done him wrong, but his latest in the Washington Post, titled, “The sad, hypocritical retirement of Evan Bayh, which details the former Senator going deep into the K-Street lobbying scene:
………
But Bayh did not return to Indiana to teach. He did not, as he said he was thinking of doing, join a foundation. Rather, he went to the massive law firm McGuire Woods. And who does McGuire Woods work for? “Principal clients served from our Washington office include national energy companies, foreign countries, international manufacturing companies, trade associations and local and national businesses,” reads the company’s Web site. He followed that up by signing on as a senior adviser to Apollo Management Group, a giant public-equity firm. And, finally, this week, he joined Fox News as a contributor. It’s as if he’s systematically ticking off every poison he identified in the body politic and rushing to dump more of it into the water supply.
………
In our last interview, Bayh complained of the poor opinion the public had of him and his colleagues. “They look at us like we’re worse than used-car salesmen.” Yes. They do. And this is why.
It’s taken Mr. Klein at least 4 years to recognize Bayh as a self absorbed snake oil salesman peddling himself.
I had this figured out well before his abortive 2008 Presidential run.
Still, I wonder why Klein finally notices.
I Haz a Sad
Jon Stewart is leaving The Daily Show later this year:
Jon Stewart, who turned Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” into a sharp-edged commentary on current events, delivering the news in layers of silliness and mockery, said on Tuesday that he would step down after more than 16 years as its anchor.
Mr. Stewart disclosed his plans during a taping of the program on Tuesday. Comedy Central said he would “remain at the helm of ‘The Daily Show’ until later this year” but did not elaborate on Mr. Stewart’s next steps or the future of the show.
In becoming the nation’s satirist in chief, Mr. Stewart imbued the program with a personal sense of justice, even indignation. For a segment of the audience that had lost its faith in broadcast and print news outlets or never regarded them as sacrosanct in the first place, Mr. Stewart emerged a figure as trusted as Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow.
Bummer.
I understand where he is coming from, he’s been doing this for nearly 17 years, and his directorial debut, Rosewater, was very well received, and I really don’t think that he can take his role as the “Most trusted man on cable news” any further.
Being a comedian is like being a shark: If you don’t stop moving, you die, and Jon Stewart has no where to go as presenter on his show.
I Made a Jive Ass Newbie Mistake on “Ball-Gate”
Last week, I looked at deflate-gate (the Patriots ball inflation “scandal”), and ran some numbers.
I used °F, and figured that if the balls were filled up to 12.7 psi at 70°F, and they cooled to 20°F, you would get a pressure drop of 1.38°F.
Boyle’s law is PV=nRT, where P=pressure, V=Volume, n=the amount of the gas in moles, R=the ideal gas constant, at T=temperature.
Since in the football, volume, amount of gas, and the ideal gas constant remains the same, so we can reduce this to:
P1/T1=P2/T2
Then we can solve for P2: P2=(P1/T1)T2
So, the math looks good, where is the “Jive Ass Newbie Mistake?
Because the pressure in the football isn’t 12.5 psi it’s 27.2 (12.5+14.7) psi.
Boyle’s law is based on absolute pressure, not gauge pressure. Gauge pressure is the difference between the absolute pressure of what you are measuring and the atmospheric pressure.
I am a complete tool for screwing this up.
It turns out that using absolute pressure, a 31 degree ball will be 2.076 psi under-inflated.
So, “Ball-Gate” is largely just an effort by Roger Goodell to make people forget that he is an incompetent and corrupt liar. (Ray Rice and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, two name just 2)
Full disclosure: My wife is a Patriots fan, though I’m not.
I’ll be watching the Superbowl for the ads.
(On edit)
There also might be water vapor in the air used to inflate the ball that would further exacerbate the pressure drop as it condenses.
(2nd edit)
I just realized that I had not posted this on my blog before, the screw up was on a comment I made on Facebook.
Still, I will apologize here.
Hopefully My Last Comment on the Oscars………
The front page of the Oakland Tribune in response to the essential whiteness of the nominees is epic:
H/t TPM.