from Bruce
Anecdotes
Umpires
• In the Pacific Coast League, San Diego catcher Del Ballinger protested a called strike by umpire Gordon Ford by pulling out a pistol, pointing it to the umpire’s chest, and firing three times. Mr. Ford’s face went white until he realized that the pistol was a harmless toy cap pistol. Of course, Mr. Ford threw Mr. Ballinger out of the game, but that didn’t mean he was without a sense of humor. When the next player came up to bat, Mr. Ford frisked him to see if he was carrying any hidden weapons.
• Umpire Clarence “Pants” Rowland once called out Babe Ruth on a close play at third base one day, but he also praised him, helping him up, brushing off his uniform, and saying, “Great slide, Babe, but he just had you.” The Yankee players wondered why Babe didn’t argue the call, but Babe explained, “What could I do? I thought I was safe, but the guy was dusting my clothes off and telling me what a great slide I made. What could I say to him?”
• Umpire Beans Reardon once made a mistake. Richie Ashburn slid into second base and Billy Cox attempted to tag him. Beans yelled “Safe,” but at the same time he flung his arm in the “Out” gesture. Mr. Ashburn asked, “What the hell does that mean?” Mr. Reardon replied, “Richie, you know you’re safe. Billy, you know he’s safe. But 30,000 fans see my arm. Richie, you’re out.”
• In 1939, Bob Dillinger was batting in the Western League when he thought the umpire made a bad call by calling a ball his second strike. Mr. Dillinger took off his glasses, then handed them to the umpire, who shocked him by putting them on and yelling “Play ball!” The next pitch came, and the umpire yelled “Strike three,” then handed the glasses back to Mr. Dillinger.
• Greg “the Bull” Luzinski was a big man and a major hitter in the major leagues. Umpire Eric Gregg once called a strike on him, and when the next pitch went across the plate at roughly the same spot, he called, “That’s two.” The Bull raised the bat above his head and asked, “Two what?” Mr. Gregg looked at the baseball bat and the Bull’s massive build and replied, “Too high.”
• Charlie Grimm, manager of the Chicago Cubs, once got angry with umpire Charlie Moran — so did several of his players. As his players stormed out to argue the call with umpire Moran, Mr. Grimm told them, “The first person to lay a finger on this blind old man will be fined 50 bucks.”
Uniforms
• When Elfi Schlegel was competing in gymnastics at the University of Florida, football running back Neal Anderson, who played for the Chicago Bears in the 1980s, was a frequent visitor to the gymnastics practices. He had a good reason for working on his tumbling: After scoring a touchdown, he would perform a back flip in the end zone while still dressed in his football uniform.
• Football player O.J. Simpson has a big head — literally. When he started playing for the Buffalo Bills, he couldn’t practice hard because no helmet would fit him. One of his old college helmets had to be brought in from his alma mater — the University of Southern California.
War
• During World War II, many major league baseball players such as Joe DiMaggio went into the Armed Forces, and people weren’t sure that major league baseball could continue during the war. To ensure inexpensive sports entertainment during the war, Philip K. Wrigley (owner of the Chicago Cubs and manufacturer of the chewing gum) started the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. When the teams lined up on the baseball field for the singing of the national anthem before a game, they always lined up in a V formation because “V is for Victory.”
• Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut won several medals at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and won the hearts of fans worldwide. Her father, Valentin, was only 15 when Nazi soldiers came into the village he lived in near Kalinkovich in Belorussia. Despite his age, he participated in some of the ambushes the Soviets laid against the Nazis, and he helped set up mines that destroyed Nazi trains and motor vehicles.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Horror Night"
Album: HORROR NIGHT, VOL. 1
Artist: Demonic
Artist Location: Germany
Record Company: Cthulhu Punk
Record Company Location: Essen, Germany
Info:
“The lesson I want you to learn is … It doesn`t matter what you look like, you can be tall, short or fat or thin or ugly or handsome like your Father, or you can be black or yellow or white, it doesn´t matter.” — Herman Munster
“In a world full of Trumps and other assholes, you have to be a Herman Munster! Long live the (horror) PUNK!”
“This compilation is an overview of the horror punk scene worldwide! Thanks to all bands who made this sampler possible. Long Live The Horror.”
The Jasons’ “American Slasher” is also included in the sampler.
Price: FREE Download for compilation of 38 tracks by various artists
Genre: Horror Punk
Links:
HORROR NIGHT, VOL. 1
Horror Night / Cthulhu Punk
Other Links:
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bit of a marine layer rolled in.
‘Fruitcakes’
Brian May
Brian May has just one word to describe people who are against the COVID vaccine: fruitcakes. And evidently, that includes his own “hero,” Eric Clapton.
Clapton has been loudly outspoken against the COVID vaccine and lockdowns since they began. May noted that while he definitely doesn’t share those beliefs — and a few other ideals Clapton champions — he still respects Clapton as a person.
“I love Eric Clapton, he’s my hero, but he has very different views from me in many ways,” May said in an interview with The Independent. “He’s a person who thinks it’s OK to shoot animals for fun, so we have our disagreements, but I would never stop respecting the man.”
“Anti-vax people, I’m sorry, I think they’re fruitcakes,” he said. “There’s plenty of evidence to show that vaccination helps. On the whole they’ve been very safe. There’s always going to be some side effect in any drug you take, but to go around saying vaccines are a plot to kill you, I’m sorry, that goes in the fruitcake jar for me.”
Brian May
Tops Box Office
'Suicide Squad'
With Covid-19 fears again depressing North American moviegoing, new Warner Bros./DC superhero film "The Suicide Squad" led the weekend box office but took in only an estimated $26.6 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.
Last week's box office leader, Disney's family-friendly adventure film "Jungle Cruise," slipped to second spot, taking in $15.7 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, less than half its week-earlier total. The film, which puts a modern twist on a 1950s theme park ride, stars Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson.
In third was Universal's psychological thriller "Old," at $4.1 million. Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krieps and Rufus Sewell star in the M. Night Shyamalan tale of a group of people who begin to age precipitously while trapped on a secluded beach.
In fourth place, for the second straight week, was Disney Marvel superhero flick "Black Widow" starring Scarlett Johansson, which took in $4.0 million. It now has domestic earnings of $174 million, pushing it past Universal's "F9: The Fast Saga" as the top-grossing film in North America so far this year.
And in fifth was Matt Damon film "Stillwater" from Focus Features, at $2.9 million. Damon plays a burly American oil worker who travels to France to help his estranged daughter (Abigail Breslin) when she is jailed for a killing she says she did not commit.
Rounding out the top 10 were:
"The Green Knight" ($2.6 million)
"Space Jam: A New Legacy" ($2.5 million)
"Snake Eyes" ($1.6 million)
"Escape Room: Tournament of Champions" ($1.3 million)
"F9: The Fast Saga" ($1.2 million)
'Suicide Squad'
Thoughts & Prayers
Facebook
Facebook already asks for your thoughts. Now it wants your prayers.
The social media giant has rolled out a new prayer request feature, a tool embraced by some religious leaders as a cutting-edge way to engage the faithful online. Others are eyeing it warily as they weigh its usefulness against the privacy and security concerns they have with Facebook.
In Facebook Groups employing the feature, members can use it to rally prayer power for upcoming job interviews, illnesses and other personal challenges big and small. After they create a post, other users can tap an “I prayed” button, respond with a “like” or other reaction, leave a comment or send a direct message.
Facebook began testing it in the U.S. in December as part of an ongoing effort to support faith communities, according to a statement attributed to a company spokesperson.
The Rev. Robert Jeffress (R-Religiously Insane) of First Baptist Church in Dallas, a Southern Baptist megachurch, was among the pastors enthusiastically welcoming of the prayer feature.
Facebook
Draws Skepticism
Video
A dramatic video posted by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department that shows a trainee collapsing while investigating a substance he believed to be fentanyl has been met with skepticism from medical and addiction experts.
The video, which the department released Thursday to demonstrate the dangers of fentanyl, shows body camera footage of Deputy David Faiivae, 32, collapsing in a parking lot July 3 shortly after handling a white powder suspected to be cocaine or fentanyl, the Sheriff’s Department said.
After Faiivae fell backward, his field training officer, Cpl. Scott Crane, gave him doses of Narcan, a nasal spray containing naloxone, a drug used to combat the effects of an opioid overdose. Faiivae showed no reaction to the Narcan and was taken to a hospital by emergency medical workers and later recovered.
The video was part of an effort by the San Diego sheriff to raise awareness about the increasing rates of fentanyl overdoses not only in the county but across the country, and the importance of carrying naloxone to save those who might overdose. But medical experts have said that it is impossible to overdose on fentanyl simply through exposure, and suggested that misinformation about contact highs does little to help curb the opioid crisis.
“The only way to overdose is from injecting, snorting or some other way of ingesting it,” said Dr. Ryan Marino, medical director of toxicology and addiction medicine at University Hospitals in Cleveland. “You cannot overdose from secondhand contact.”
Video
Efforts To Aid
Testifies
Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen was on Capitol Hill over the weekend, where during a six-hour-plus meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee he reportedly detailed his former deputy’s efforts to help former President Donald Trump attempt to reverse his 2020 election defeat.
Mr Rosen also spoke to the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General on Friday, according to The New York Times. During both conversations, the Times reported, Mr Rosen discussed efforts by Jeffrey Clark, former head of the DOJ’s civil division, to convince top officials to release statements claiming that investigations of voter fraud cast doubt on the veracity of the 2020 election results.
The shocking effort by Mr Clark, who, according to the Times, was in contact with Mr Trump in the final days of his presidency, shows just how far some of Mr Trump’s allies went in their efforts to weaponize the US government on the former president’s behalf.
A source familiar with Mr Rosen’s discussions told the Times that Mr Rosen described multiple instances in which Mr Clark pressed colleagues such as himself to make statements they believed to be false concerning the 2020 election. One example described by the newspaper involved plans to send a letter to Georgia lawmakers falsely claiming that the DOJ was investigating voter fraud in the state and that the state’s election results should be voided in the meantime.
Other allies of the former president, most notably ex-Attorney General William Barr, did not go along with Mr Trump’s attempts to overturn his defeat, thereby preventing the Justice Department from effectively being used as Mr Trump’s cudgel as he attempted to strong-arm local officials in battleground states where he lost to President Joe Biden.
Testifies
Supporters Increasingly Demand Violence
DHS
The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning on Friday: believers in the false conspiracy theory that Trump will be reinstated have increased their calls for violence if the former president isn’t back in the White House soon.
“Some conspiracy theories associated with reinstating former President Trump have included calls for violence if desired outcomes are not realized,” the DHS bulletin, obtained by ABC News, said.
The bulletin went on to say that the recent increase in “public visibility” of liars like the My Pillow guy, Mike Lindell, is the reason for the uptick in violent online chatter.
Lindell continues to relentlessly push the Big Lie that the election was stolen, going so far as to say that he expects the Supreme Court to unanimously rule in favor of reinstating Trump as president in August.
“Over the last few days what has occurred is there’s been much more public visibility, meaning the discussions and these theories have migrated away from being contained within the conspiracy and extremist online communities, to where they’re being the topic of discussion on web forums, or more public web forums, and even within the sort of media ecosystem,” a senior DHS official told ABC News.
DHS
Tank In The Basement
Germany
An 84-year-old man from Germany has been convicted of illegal weapons possession and has been fined €250,000 ($293,972) along with a suspended prison sentence of 14 months.
An investigation into the man's home in Heikendorf, Northern Germany, in 2015 revealed a World War II-era Panther tank, as well as a plethora of ammunition.
There was also a horde of Nazi memorabilia, including a bust of Hitler, mannequins in Nazi uniforms, swastika pendants, SS rune-shaped lamps, and a statue of a naked warrior holding a sword in his extended hand that once stood outside Hitler's Chancellery in Berlin, by the dictator's favorite sculptor, Arno Breker, reported War History Online.
At the time of the raid, the mayor of Heikendorf, Alexander Orth, told Suddeutsche Zeitung that the man once drove the tank as a snow plow in 1978.
When asked his thoughts on the ownership of the tank, the mayor replied, "One loves steam trains, the other old tanks."
Germany
Beekeepers See Grim Future
Turkey
Turkey’s wildfires have left little behind, turning green forests into ashen, barren hills. The destruction is being intensely felt by Turkey’s beekeepers, who have lost thousands of hives as well as the pine trees and the insects their bees depend on.
Twelve days of deadly wildfires have dealt a major blow to Turkey’s honey industry and even its longer term prospects appear bleak.
Nearly all of the residents of Osmaniye, a neighborhood in Turkey’s southwestern Mediterranean resort of Marmaris, are beekeepers. Their beehives once looked out to the green hills of Mugla province where Marmaris is located and provided the main income for many families.
The red pine trees endemic to Anatolia span the Taurus mountain system. They can be seen along Turkey’s coast from the eastern Mediterranean all the way to the northern Aegean Sea, including a great number around Mugla. The pines provide a welcoming habitat for scores of shrubs and make an ideal environment for bees.
Bees in Mugla produce a special pine-based honey. Unlike most of the honey in the world, which is created from the nectars of flowers, bees in Mugla collect the secretions of Marchalina hellenica, a scale insect that lives on pine trees and feeds on their sap. What they leave behind, the bees take to make a nutritious honey.
Turkey
Classical Computing Hardware
Simulated Quantum Technology
Lurking in the background of the quest for true quantum supremacy hangs an awkward possibility – hyper-fast number crunching tasks based on quantum trickery might just be a load of hype.
Now, a pair of physicists from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and Columbia University in the US have come up with a better way to judge the potential of near-term quantum devices – by simulating the quantum mechanics they rely upon on more traditional hardware.
Their study made use of a neural network developed by EPFL's Giuseppe Carleo and his colleague Matthias Troyer back in 2016, using machine learning to come up with an approximation of a quantum system tasked with running a specific process.
Known as the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), the process identifies optimal solutions to a problem on energy states from a list of possibilities, solutions that should produce the fewest errors when applied.
The QAOA simulation developed by Carleo and Matija Medvidovic, a graduate student from Columbia University, mimicked a 54 qubit device – sizeable, but well in line with the latest achievements in quantum tech.
Simulated Quantum Technology
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