According to The Daily Caller, Eric Prum, one of the founders of Ultimate Tak Ball, said, “It’s not technically a police grade Taser. That being said, the first thing the (players) will tell you is that they hate getting tased. Those things really do hurt.” Apparently, players aren’t concerned about the danger associated with being shocked since the Tasers used in Ultimate Tak Ball only produce a 300,000-volt stun, which is significantly less than what would be required to kill. The shocking apparatus used in Ultimate Tak Ball do not fire probes like the Taser models popular with law enforcement and the self-defense community.
Sometimes politics seems to be full of vitriol and anger. And sometimes politicians speak calmly and bare their soul.
This is a quietly moving speech by Maureen Walsh, one of the two Republicans who voted for marriage equality in the Washington House of Representatives this week.
Today I found three musical bits on Youtube that I liked. They've really made my day...
The first is a brief snatch of President Obama singing a few bars of Al Green:
Then on Radio 2 this morning I heard this song by Gotye, featuring Kimbra. I must admit they are two names I hadn't heard before and although the song isn't very cheerful, I'm still cheered to hear some talent like this in the 2010s....
And then I discovered this Canadian indie outfit Walk Off the Earth. They seem to specialise in really special cover versions - such as the one of the song above. Except they have 5 people playing 1 guitar....
I happened to hear this song by Johnny Cash on Radio 2's "Sounds of The Sixties" yesterday, and I'm afraid I couldn't help thinking what a gift it could be for some satirists...
There once was a musical troupe
A pickin' singin' folk group
They sang the mountain ballads
And the folk songs of our land
They were long on musical ability
Folks thought they would go far
But political incompatibility led to their downfall
Well, the one on the right was on the left
And the one in the middle was on the right
And the one on the left was in the middle
And the guy in the rear was a Methodist
This musical aggregation toured the entire nation
Singing the traditional ballads
And the folk songs of our land
They performed with great virtuosity
And soon they were the rage
But political animosity prevailed upon the stage...
Well gosh , it's months since I posted something. Not exactly writers block, but ... life has been kinda busy.
So to get back into posting , here's a video clip of something I just about remember watching back in the 80s.
The BBC had a short season of plays then entitled "Play for Tomorrow", all set in the near future. This is how one of them opens. The actress, Sylvestra Le Touzel, was given some great dialogue, and she certainly makes chilling use of it......
After seeing a fascinating little TV clip of "I've Got A Secret" on Liberal England, I stumbled across this segment of the US series of "What's My Line", circa 1956.....
Colonel Sanders lives in Kentucky. He has a neat white beard, a string tie and a white suit. What on earth does he do for a living?
Early last year, the then-freshman Oregon House member from Portland was getting ready for bed when he and his wife, Katy, began bantering back and forth about what might be the ultimate political prank, something that could lighten the increasingly divisive political mood among his colleagues.
As Smith recalls, the idea came almost instantly. "What if we were to Rick Roll the legislature without anybody noticing?" he wondered.
The lines had to be delivered on the House floor during a lawmaker's regular floor speech--which is, under Oregon law, videotaped for public records purposes. And the lines of the lyrics had to be spread out, so as not to tip off the state House clerk or other observers to what lawmakers were up to.
"It was way harder taking words and spreading them out than simply manipulating them (on video)," Smith says. "There are some easy lines in there to say without getting noticed. 'You're never gonna' is easy. 'I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling' is easy. But an 'ooh?' That's tricky." ..
One of my favourite videos on the net is this cute one of a Mum showing her very young daughter how to dance - the music is Nouvelle Vague's version of "Ever Fallen In Love With Someone You Shouldn't Have Fallen In Love With". Apart from being fun to watch, it's a scene of a parent enjoying life with their child (two children, actually) in the security of their own home.
And there's a painting that's a puzzle. It's called "The Black Swan Problem and Ms Collier describes it as follows:
The Black Swan Problem references a theory put forth by 18th Century Scottish philosopher David Hume. In asking "how many swans does one need observe before inferring that all swans are white..." he points to our tendency to create general rules based purely upon what is factually observed, since we cannot easily or immediately see what is happening elsewhere.
At first glance, this painting depicts an imagined, seemingly inviting and safe refuge of a father and daughter watching the box in opulent and comfortable surroundings. But this is misleading: upon closer inspection there is a less predictable view to be teased out.
Here's a small image of it - for a bigger version click here.
So this is a scene that's superficially similar to that video - parent and daughter in the security of their own home - except we are told there are other things , perhaps more weird , to be found.
I'm trying to work it out - I've spotted a couple of things so far. Can anyone else see anything?
I just thought I'd mention that one of the very bits of British SF ever is now uploaded onto YouTube.
It's the play "The Flip Side of Dominic Hyde" and part one has had only 2,523 hits - which is absurdly low.
Whether you are a fan of SF and watched ever minute of this season's Dr Who and "Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel", or think you loathe science fiction and prefer Jane Austen, do yourself a favour and watch this.
Dominic lives in a clean, quiet minimalist hit-tech future that's perhaps a little too quiet. The word 'happy' seems to have disappeared from people's vocabularies and been replaced by the word 'complacent'....
This thought-provoking and rather eerie animation shows every nuclear explosion from 1945 up to 1998.
It begins slowly, but there's a sort of flash flood of detonations in the 1950s.....
Before you watch it, see if you can answer this question - where did the first nuclear explosion take place in Africa? (that's not including the natural nuclear reactions that took place in what is now Gabon, 2 billion years ago).
I don't know if Cameron and Obama got on as well as this - but here's an entertaining game between High Lawrie and Ellen Degeneres as they try to guess the meaning of English and American slang.....
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