A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
While I've been blogging about the Macy'sParade, Detroit held its own Thanksgiving parade. I've written about it and thefireworksshow as examples of how "People want their entertainment, especially if it comes in the form of an annual civic ritual to celebrate the seasons" and that "the fireworks and parade will continue" as "the entertainment people demand will go on." That's been true for as long as I've lived in Michigan. WXYZ has the story of the parade being rescued in 1990 in Looking back at saving the Thanksgiving parade.
We're looking back at how the owner of Art Van Furniture saved the Thanksgiving Parade.
After 25 years, I'd forgotten that story. It was worth hearing about it again.
Follow over the jump for WXYZ and WDIV on this year's parade.
Macy's Parade officials lead by Wesley Whatley, Creative Director of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade®and head of the Parade's Band selection committee made a special announcement inviting Michigan's Walled Lake Central High School Marching Band to the 2015 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Macy's Parade staff, worked secretly with school officials including band director David Rogers, to surprise members of the marching band with the news that they have been selected out of hundreds of nationwide applicants to be one of 10 marching bands in the 2015 Parade. The news was delivered at a special surprise gathering arranged by school staff.
*Plymouth-Canton's band has their own televised holiday event to look forward to; they're marching in the 2016 Rose Parade. This is a good year for Michigan's top high school marching bands.
The cowardice in the college executive suites is mirrored in our national politics, where no persons of real standing will dare step forward to oppose the juggernaut of Hillery-the-Grifter, or take on the clowning Donald Trump on the grounds of his sheer mental unfittedness to lead a government.
I disagreed with him about the Republicans being unwilling to take on Trump.*
There are plenty of people with stature in the Republican Party trying to dislodge Trump and Carson from the top two spots. Off the top of my head, I count four current senators, three current governors, a former senator, and four former governors, along with a former CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation, all trying to beat that "immigrant-bashing carnival barker" and his competitor Doctor Pyramid. They're just not succeeding at it.
Right now, the smart money is on Rubio, as PredictWise's aggregate of betting markets gives him a 47% chance of winning the nomination. Trump may be in second, but he's well behind at 19%. Then comes Cruz at 13% and Bush at 10%. The rest of the field, including Carson, is in single digits. Let's see if the people putting their money where their mouths are end up being right or losing their shirts.
Since last Monday, those odds have moved. Rubio is still at 47%, while Trump and Cruz have both gone up to 22% and 16% respectively. Bush is still at 10%, while Christie is hanging on at 4% and Carson has fallen to 2%. The "smart money" among gamblers may think that Rubio is the most likely to win the nomination, but they are taking both Trump and Cruz more seriously. That last is not good news.
October 2015 was another record-setting month. First, page views shattered the previous high of 14,981 page views during August 2015 by 7,500 with a new record of 22,491. Second, last month exceeded last month's 74 comments with 89, another new record. Finally, the blog reached a milestone with its 100th follower, Robin of Your Daily Dose and TV Function Junction. I'm celebrating the record month by sharing the entries with the most comments, most likes, and most page views, beginning with the post that also got the most comments last month, "Science fiction speaks to our current anxieties." Thanks to a battle with several persistent spammers, this post is now the most commented on entry in the history of the blog with 52 comments, half of them deleted. Fourteen more came in October, beating out the next entry by eight.
"Hurricane Joaquin as viewed from Michigan," posted October 2, 2015, came in second with six comments thanks to Paul W. and I having a conversation. It was the entry actually posted last month with the most comments. All those comments only gained it 112 page views according to the raw counter, not enough to earn it a place on the top ten lists otherwise. It also earned its page views by being shared at Kunstler's blog.
Follow over the jump for the most read and liked entries of October 2015.
"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2" dominated the weekend box office with the final film in the science-fiction franchise debuting to $101 million.
That ranks as the year's fifth biggest opening, but it wasn't as big a sendoff for Katniss Everdeen and her fellow revolutionaries as some had predicted.
The massive bow falls short of tracking that projected the picture would top $120 million in its initial weekend in theaters. It also represents a low for the series, falling far short of the $158.1 million high-water mark established by 2013's "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire." It's a sign, perhaps, that interest in the dystopian world of Panem has crested.
The cresting of the youth dystopia wave is a topic I'll explore over the jump, along with other aspects of the series' legacy. Those will come after the rest of the box office report.
The weakness of the new films allowed holdovers "Spectre" and "The Peanuts Movie" to pad their box office results. The latest Bond adventure added $14.6 million to its $153.7 million domestic haul, nabbing second place on the charts. "The Peanuts Movie" finished third, picking up $12.8 million to push its stated total to $98.9 million.
The "new films" mentioned were "The Night Before," which earned $10.1 million to come in fourth and "The Secret in Their Eyes," which grossed $6.6 million to eke out fifth place. That last film may do better at the awards shows than the theaters, along with other films geared to an older audience. Look for those to make their money on cable and streaming services.
Follow over the jump for reviews of the final installment of "The Hunger Games" from Vox and io9.
The National Weather Service predicted that six to ten inches of show could blanket the northern and western suburbs of Detroit on Saturday. NOAA/National Weather Service (public domain)
At 9:02 A.M. Saturday, the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the northern part of the Detroit metropolitan area, including the counties of Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, St. Clair, and Washtenaw until 10 P.M. Saturday. Also, Wayne and Monroe counties are under a winter weather advisory released Friday night and expiring Saturday night.
The storm, which the Weather Channel has dubbed Winter Storm Bella, is predicted to drop six to ten inches of snow in the counties under the winter storm warning. Three to six inches could fall in the counties covered by the winter weather advisory by Sunday morning.
“The biggest thing we want to hit home is that we’re going to have decent snowfall,” Deb Elliott, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the Detroit News. “People need to be prepared for that. Make allowance to leave early if you have to go somewhere. There might be some icy conditions, reduced visibility.”
More at the link, including driving hazards, the forecast for the rest of the week, and a video from the Weather Channel about Winter Storm Bella.
James Howard Kunstler may be the world's most outspoken critic of suburban sprawl. He believes the end of the fossil fuels era will soon force a return to smaller-scale, agrarian communities -- and an overhaul of the most destructive features of postwar society.
Right now, with oil relatively cheap and abundant and times in the U.S. being relatively good, it's harder to listen to Kunstler's ideas, but oil is still a finite resource and the climate is still warming, both of which will threaten economy and society, climate now, energy (again) later. As for banking imploding, that may happen (again) later rather than sooner. The financial and energy crisis that made Kunstler salient has receded. Just the same, the next crisis is coming, which will make him more relevant again. Keep paying attention.
I made that prediction again in Limbo Kitty returns as prices fall to new post-summer lows, when I also noted that all the stations in my old neighborhood were selling regular for $2.19. The price didn't fall over the next few weeks, as they inched up to $2.22 and then $2.25. On Tuesday, a co-worker informed me that the price had fallen below $2.00. Sure enough, regular was selling for $1.95 at all outlets. I promptly filled up Pearl.
Limbo Kitty continues to dance, as GasBuddy shows that at least one of the two stations down the street from the old corner station has dropped its price for regular again to $1.88. The station is merely tracking the Detroit average, which is currently $1.97. Sub-two-dollar gas has arrived in my area by both criteria I use, the average in my old neighborhood and the GasBuddy average for Detroit.
Gas is cheap not only here, but across the state line in Indiana. Yesterday, WSBT in South Bend posted Gas prices drop below two dollars to its YouTube channel. Prices are even lower there.
Oil-Price.Net shows futures prices for oil and wholesale prices for gasoline are all down from last month, when WTI was at $45.55, Brent was at $48.71, and RBOB is selling for $1.28. WTI closed yesterday at $40.75, Brent at $44.14, and RBOB at $1.27, all of which are actually slightly up from their closes on Tuesday. Even so, watch for more Limbo Kitty between now and Christmas, as I expect gas to fall to $1.75 by then. Stay tuned.
The cowardice in the college executive suites is mirrored in our national politics, where no persons of real standing will dare step forward to oppose the juggernaut of Hillery-the-Grifter (sic), or take on the clowning Donald Trump on the grounds of his sheer mental unfittedness to lead a government.
I disagreed with him about the Republicans being unwilling to take on Trump.*
There are plenty of people with stature in the Republican Party trying to dislodge Trump and Carson from the top two spots. Off the top of my head, I count four current senators, three current governors, a former senator, and four former governors, along with a former CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation, all trying to beat that "immigrant-bashing carnival barker" and his competitor Doctor Pyramid. They're just not succeeding at it.
This morning, there is one less "person of real standing" among the Republicans taking on Trump. Wochit News reports Bobby Jindal Ends Presidential Campaign.
Bobby Jindal ended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday. The Louisiana governor had been attempting to appeal to conservative voters who have embraced Donald Trump, and was gaining some ground in Iowa, polling in the top 10 in that crucial caucus state. But in the most recent national poll conducted by CNN, he was only supported by 1% of Republican primary voters. Jindal said in a interview with Fox News, "It has been a great honor for me to run for president of the United States. This is not my time. I’ve come here to announce that I’m suspending my campaign for the presidency.”
Don't just take Wochit's word for it. Jindal himself explained his reasoning as well as what he'll do next to CNN.
Bobby Jindal announces he is ending his presidential campaign. "Sometimes it's better to live to fight another day," he told reporters.
On the one hand, the exasperation I expressed in A farewell drink for Larry Lessig over three Democratic candidates dropping out while none of the GOP candidates did has decreased. On the other hand, I'm surprised it was Jindal. His campaign has met all the filing deadlines so far including those for South Carolina, Alabama, and Arkansas.
Meanwhile, Pataki and Gilmore have missed the filing deadlines for Alabama and Arkansas, so they won't be on the ballots there. That happened four years ago to Perry and Gingrich, while Bachmann, Santorum, and Huntsman didn't even submit petitions, leaving only Romney and Paul on the ballot there. That's when I found out who was serious about continuing their campaigns, who had the organization, and who had already given up. On those criteria, I expected either Pataki or Gilmore to be next. Surprise!
