tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66552214078428431222024-02-21T13:36:53.516-05:00Notes From An Old School HouseSome observations on the big issues of the world and the little things in life.Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.comBlogger296125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-86635819514925511002014-01-06T09:29:00.000-05:002014-01-06T09:29:12.462-05:00OK, I'm back.That's what our 2 2/3 year-old said over Christmas when he came back to the table. And he's one of the reasons I haven't blogged since July 15th. Him and his brother along with real-world obligations and exhaustion from the utter inanity and narcissistic paranoia of much of the internet.
But I figured with the new year I would give it another go, if for no reason other than practicing my writingEd Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-70296784704941731362013-07-15T12:35:00.003-04:002013-07-15T12:35:54.658-04:00Monday Movie Madness: LooperMonday Movie Madness, where I review a movie that I recently saw for the first time. This week's offering is Looper (2012).
One of my favorite time travel movies is The Final Countdown, where the modern (in 1980s terms) carrier USS Nimitz is somehow transported back in time. Well not just back to any old time, but serendipitously back to December 1941 just to prior to the attack on Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-47338860951547751302013-06-26T15:22:00.001-04:002013-06-26T15:22:49.483-04:00Media Outlets Shame Themselves With (lack of) Coverage of Obama Climate SpeechPredicting what our progeny will think is important about our current world may be a fool's game, that is until you consider climate change. The post-Industrial Revolution carbon dioxide in the atmosphere isn't in a hurry to go anywhere and we continue inject more at an accelerating rate. Greater amounts of heat will be retained by the atmosphere and later generations (emphasis on the Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-21444767969236234982013-06-19T09:55:00.002-04:002013-06-19T21:32:48.048-04:00Been AwayFrom the internet that is. First I was up in Massachusetts and had spotty service, then the hard drive developed the Blue Screen of Death.
But that's not the full story. For I've grown bored and irritated with the internet. It is still useful as an accelerated and interconnected communications device with great resources, but as a place to spend much time "socializing" it is a pathetic world of Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-90177665014763885932013-04-29T13:40:00.001-04:002013-04-29T13:40:27.520-04:00Monday Movie Madness: Conan O'Brien Can't StopMonday Movie Madness, where I review a movie that I recently saw for the first time. Yeah, I meant this to be a weekly feature months ago but got distracted. This week's offering is Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011).
Like many I felt Conan got a raw deal when he was canned from the Tonight Show and have been curious about his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television tour. I assumed that Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-82888598972547640932013-04-16T09:03:00.001-04:002013-04-16T09:06:05.849-04:00No, you don't know who bombed the Marathon.It's a sad ritual going back to the days before cable when after any sort of horrific crime or tragic event the news media answers the unknown with uninformed speculation posing as fact. 24-hour news and the internet have simply put this on steroids and we've all wearily grown accustomed to it.
But in the past decade this sort of useless and even harmful speculation-as-news has spread even more Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-45787466022937595632013-04-14T10:29:00.001-04:002013-04-14T10:29:17.918-04:00Strange, surreal and stupid Sunday, Apr. 14It's not a strange, stupid and surreal roundup without a Florida story: Florida battles slimy invasion by giant snails
You can't buy rights to name exoplanet, says astronomy group - whew! No planet Trump.
Graffiti force closure of Joshua Tree park sites - "They (park officials)blame vandals who posted pictures of their handiwork on social
media sites such as Facebook, which enticed Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-29568058809749727372013-03-25T08:48:00.003-04:002013-03-25T08:50:02.421-04:00Airport-Sponsored Sports Teams? "It could work!"My bracket in my March Madness pool shot to number one before my championship pick Georgetown went down to Florida Gulf Coast. Nate Silver put it best while the debacle was unfolding:
Georgetown down 17 to a team that sounds like a regional airport.
— Nate Silver (@fivethirtyeight) March 23, 2013
Pathetic. But his snark got me thinking, why not have an airport sponsor a team? You could have
Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-63711094712129938972013-03-24T09:46:00.001-04:002013-03-24T09:46:18.352-04:00Strange, Surreal and Stupid SundayHmmm, wonder what this says about the editors and readers: top newswatch stories on Natgeo.com include Giant Seacumber Eats With its Anus and Phallus Worm is Missing Evolutionary Link.
Yes this is a worm and not a sex toy.
Sooo...... Fox News is part of a left-wing conspiracy? Even includes the requisite Hitler reference!
From the "And you thought your life sucked" files.
I didn't know Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-78310646375531411142013-03-11T10:08:00.001-04:002013-03-11T10:08:39.070-04:00Our New ArrivalAlthough the old school house still has a lot of projects to be completed, I have spent the past month concentrating on getting as much done as possible before early March, to the detriment of this and the other blog (something has to give). The driving force and deadline for this redoubled effort on the house was the new kid's ETA of March 4th. Well just like his brother, Kevin arrived a few Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-41032209593750664512013-02-08T17:00:00.002-05:002013-02-08T17:00:54.202-05:00Lightroom!For various periods in the past 25 years of so I've dabbled in photography, but I really got going in '99 when I went to Oregon State. With a new Canon SLR and old Zeiss TLR I did quite a bit bit of B&W work in both 35 mm and 120 formats. One good thing about OSU was the Craft Center, which had a full darkroom where I was able to develop both film and prints. I also did shot color, but sent Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-56312188325479211072013-01-30T12:09:00.001-05:002013-01-30T12:09:57.221-05:00People refuse to learn...The recent nightclub fire tragedy in Brazil drew inevitable comparisons to similar tragedies, including the fire at "The Station" in Rhode Island a decade ago. That particular one hit home for me in a number of ways. I had spent four years in the state while going to URI and Warwick was not too far away (nothing really is in Rhode Island). Being an "older" student, i.e. in my Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-563197934106942042013-01-21T23:26:00.000-05:002013-01-21T23:26:00.723-05:00Monday Movie Madness: Mean StreetsMonday Movie Madness, where I review a movie that I recently saw for the first time. This week's inaugural offering (get it?) is Mean Streets (1973).
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<![endif]--><!Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-67917285438684688282013-01-21T21:33:00.002-05:002013-01-21T22:22:31.166-05:00The most important takeaway from the Inauguration......was Scalia's hat:
People were obsessed over it, with some saying it looked like something out of the Vatican. I disagree, it's obvious that the Justice imagines himself to be a doge like those that once ran places like Venice. It all makes sense. Scalia imagines a United States like medieval Italy, a land of corrupt, chaotic constantly scheming and warring city-states.
But hey, think Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-61151748367693208542013-01-20T12:14:00.001-05:002013-01-20T12:44:03.802-05:00So all I do is stupid, surreal Sunday now?Apparently.
That will change soon, nevertheless since it is indeed Sunday....
You can't make this stuff up: Gun Appreciation Day Celebrated With Accidental Shootings at Gun Shows in North Carolina and Ohio (complete with ignorant, ahistorical paranoid comments from weapons fetishists).
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Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-32595394558369377412013-01-13T22:04:00.002-05:002013-01-13T22:04:44.822-05:00Can't do stupid etc. Sunday this weekOur little guy was sick with a fever Friday and Saturday (much improved today), so I have been a bit distracted. Next Sunday will have a double dose!Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-86408054852668429592013-01-06T15:19:00.000-05:002013-01-06T15:19:54.133-05:00It's baaack: Absurb, Stupid and Surreal SundayHey tourists, the Vatican doesn't want your rubber checks anymore.
Tip to avoid a stabbling: If someone from Jersey is giving you a lift, make sure you tell them where you want to get dropped off.
But would it be OK if you insulted the Emir on Facebook instead?
Sure cattle dogs can drive, but they can't park for shit.
But a cattle dog would have been a better smuggler than a cat...
WaPo: Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-72602967083548089152013-01-04T00:12:00.000-05:002013-01-04T00:30:57.096-05:00Returning for the New YearNow that the hectic fall and another (final?) failure of the Delaware Ivory Tower to come through for me are past, I am ready to make a triumphant return to the Old School House. I mean that literally as we are on a New Year's trip to Mass. right now. Yes, I haven't yet reviewed my forecasts for 2012, but I will and will provide new ones for 2013. I can give you one right now though - thereEd Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-1758090019926689742012-12-04T23:38:00.002-05:002012-12-04T23:38:55.411-05:00I will be back, I promiseMy hopes were to get back to regular postings here and more frequent
updates on twitter. Alas my extra class that I took on at the last
minute, coupled with the class schedule disruption Sandy caused, threw
those plans into disarray.
I have two finals to give and grade next week, then I'm done (with academia for good???). By the New year I plan to be back up and running....I promise....Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-85914287885018652182012-10-30T15:33:00.000-04:002012-10-30T15:33:01.433-04:00Quick Note on SandyWe weathered the storm well here in the old school house, for once we didn't lose power. Of course that was after storing a ton of water segregated for drinking/cooking, cleaning and toilet flushing. Better safe than sorry. I'll have more thoughts on this latest extreme weather event and climate change later, but I have to agree with NY guv Andrew Cuomo:
"There has been a series of Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-50199119463994905512012-09-09T12:38:00.001-04:002012-09-09T12:38:37.775-04:00Sep 9th, A Sunday, time for strange, surreal and stupid news.I didn't reckon that we had some real-life rootin' tootin' cattle rustlers here in Pennsylvania. Sure dem cows were rustled up there in Massachusetts but they wound up here.
I hate it when the dog gets into something.
You don't want 'em to drive drunk in their own cars do ya? Think about how that would affect their insurance.
The pigs will be the end of us, at least those who go to state fairsEd Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-69215787220963007612012-08-14T11:01:00.000-04:002012-08-14T11:01:47.745-04:00Disturbing Arctic Sea Ice NewsBefore my concentration on Penn. Marcellus news and the summer blogging doldrums, I was frequently posting on climate change and suggesting is it should be a big issue in the election - "It's the climate stupid." During my slowdown, weather and climate have become big news with the record heat and drought. Jeff Master's Weather Underground blog has become a drumbeat of a destabilized Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-12421585891794590362012-07-28T11:52:00.000-04:002012-07-28T11:52:47.807-04:00Saturday Santorum: Penn State Edition!It is the perfect confluence of assholery, Rick Santorum has come out as a Paterno/PSU apologist:
In an interview with Dallas-Ft. Worth’s KSKY 660 AM on Friday,
Santorum, a Penn State alum, called the evidence “pretty darn thin” and
said, “I’m sort of sitting back and waiting for the facts to come out as
opposed to, at least as I’m being told, a version of the facts.”
He criticized the Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-78316278553183493832012-07-25T13:15:00.000-04:002012-07-25T13:17:27.105-04:00Penn. State PrioritiesThe Penn. State scandal grabs my attention not only because I am a PA taxpayer, but also because of my disgust at the widespread corruption and incompetence in American higher education. As I've said before I am very much in favor of the mission of academia and against the attacks from the outside, but that does not excuse it's culture and behavior.
Anyway two unrelated items caught my eyeEd Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6655221407842843122.post-88695326311440496202012-07-18T00:30:00.000-04:002012-07-18T00:30:10.874-04:00Old School ProjectMaking progress on the house, but doing that at night, yard-work on weekends and trying to focus on the What the Frack blog has kept me away from here.
Our contractors finished their work. Moldy drywall on the walls was replaced by tounge and groove paneling. The drywall ceilings were removed and a rough-sawn pine was put between the joists in the new dining room (my old office). In my new Ed Kohuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11299978448810486514noreply@blogger.com0