Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, February 21, 2017

  • Every child is unique, has different maturity levels, and processes information differently. With that disclaimer, and the potential to be judged as bad parents, WifeGeeding and I talked to six-and-a-half-year-old DaughterGeeding about the bird and the bees. Well, maybe not exactly the birds and the bees, but how is a baby born. She’s been asking some well-reasoned questions as of late and we aren’t the type to hide the truth (John 8:32).  “It’s great to learn, knowledge is power.”
    • I started things off by asking her what she’s working on in math, and she stated multiplication and division. I then asked to first learn that, what did she first need to learn, and she responded with learning numbers and counting. I told her with that in mind, what we are about to talk about is just recognizing numbers and it gets a lot more complex than multiplication and division. That this is just a starting point, and she will continue to have questions and a lot of things aren’t going to make sense as of right now, and that’s okay. But she’ll need to understand there are some questions we choose not to fully answer as of yet because she’s just now in the number recognition phase.
    • We also started with a lot of disclaimers, like she’s not to talk to any of her friends or even her brother about any of this. We told her we knew she was mature enough to handle what we were about to tell her and informing her in a way that’s suitable for her, and parents have to have this talk with their own children and they know what’s best for and suitable for them. She’s been tested with other information in the past and she’s proven to use she’s capable of being informed now.
      • Sidenote: We’ve always used technical or medical terms for body parts and not the childish names. In short, for us, we think it’s important to set a precedent.
    • Nothing about what we discussed was graphic, but we used this book (PDF) as our guide. A reader emailed that book to me some time after DaughterGeeding was born and stated how well it worked for her and her children and it’s something I should stash away for later. It’s a bit dated and there are numerous misspellings, but I thought it was a great tool to help a parent guide such a discussion.
    • Overall, the talk went extremely well.
  • When I saw President Trump select Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as his new national security adviser, my first thought was of H.R. Pufnstuf.
  • One annoyance I have of local televised news is when they air a story about something expensive or luxurious and the anchors act as if they aren’t wealthy.
  • I’m surprised the classic Cadbury Easter egg commercial still airs, the one with all the animals auditioning. I saw it on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ last night.
  • Reminiscent of the Generra Hypercolor shirts – FIRE DyeThe world’s first colour changing hair dye.
  • C-SPAN – Presidential Historian Survey 2017
  • ABC News – Many universities are using private planes
    • The Associated Press requested documents from dozens of public universities and found that at least 20 own or share ownership of planes for school business, often employing a few full-time pilots to fly them. Many others charter private flights through outside companies. Flight logs show that, at times, the aircraft are used for purposes unrelated to university business.
  • The Guardian – ‘The wild west of wind’: Republicans push Texas as unlikely green energy leaderThe most oil-rich and fracking-friendly of states has found itself with the improbable status of being a national leader in a wind energy boom
  • Not really a surprise, but the Houston Chronicle states that every Texas representative in Congress has voted for each and every Trump position.
  • The Dallas Morning News – ‘Texans don’t care about politics’ Texas Monthly editor says, announcing plans to shift magazine’s focus
    • After telling the Columbia Journalism Review that “Texans don’t care about politics,” the editor in chief of Texas Monthly got an earful from Twitter users who say otherwise. In the story published online Monday about his vision for the magazine, which has a history of in-depth political coverage and longform journalism, Tim Taliaferro announced plans to boost the publication’s lifestyle coverage.
  • The ‘CBS Evening News’ had a disturbing story last night on how ISIS is using drones to drop bombs in Mosul. The drones actually film the bombings and have been used in propaganda videos.
  • ‘Huge misunderstanding’: Contractor guts wrong Fort Worth house
  • Trump has 3,643 websites that range from TrumpEmpire.com to TrumpFraud.org
    • The buying spree continued as he ran for president. Trump bought 93 of them after he launched his presidential campaign. One was TrumpEmpire.com. That domain had belonged to a Mexican cybersquatter. Luis Jorge O’Brien Covarrubias is a civil engineer in Guadalajara, Mexico. He bought TrumpEmpire for $10 in April 2015 hoping that someday he’d be able to cash in on the property. When no deal came around, he didn’t bother to renew it.
  • It’s been more than a century since a US president had facial hair
    • The last time facial hair graced the face of a US president was March 4, 1913. This was the day William Howard Taft and his voluminous mustache were replaced by the clean-shaven Woodrow Wilson in the nation’s highest office. The American Mustache Institute suggests March 4th be known as “Taft Day” in remembrance.
  • GIF – Hungry Hungry Humans – I’d like to play.
  • Something Andy might enjoy – A Day in North Korean Airspace
    • While looking for some North Korean flight data, I stumbled upon this visualization of the isolated country’s national airspace. It shows hundreds of flights in and around South Korea and Japan — but only a handful traveling to or through North Korea. Fascinating.
  • You gotta cry without weeping, talk without speaking
    Scream without raising your voice.
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11 Responses to Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, February 21, 2017

  1. Ben W. says:

    Having two kids myself, we've done a lot of reading and inquiry into just when to have "the talk." The vast majority of sources we trust say to provide simple, straightforward, medically accurate answers to questions raised by the child, and let them know that they should feel free to ask questions (of you, not their friends) anytime they arise. It's what we've done, and it sounds like that's exactly what you did. No judgment here, just a "Good job, Geedings" from me.

    I'd be willing to guess that news anchors, even the primetime anchors in a large market like DFW, aren't making much more than the median household income. I'm sure there are exceptions, though.

    Hypercolor t-shirts. Thanks for the blast from the past this morning.

    Texas Monthly has a long-standing tradition of being a good outlet for long-form, in-depth articles. It also has a long-standing tradition of being about 70% ads for high-tone products and real estate. I used to subscribe, and I'll still read an article from it that interests me online occasionally, but haven't picked up a physical copy in years. If they published a magazine–instead of a Neiman Marcus catalog with articles occasionally interspersed throughout–I might actually subscribe again.

    • Geeding says:

      Thanks for your comments, as always, Ben. Regarding local television news anchors and their salaries, I got the idea they are comfortably well off from reading local media critic Uncle Barky's blog over the years. Long ago he wrote this about Mike Snyder, "A 50 percent salary cut would still leave Snyder with a sizable six-figure salary, sources say." And then I found another entry that Dale Hansen makes at least $500,000 a year, though I hear he had to take a pay cut since the market for these folks have changed, stations like getting younger and cheaper faces. So with all that in mind, I'd think the news anchors, not the reporters on the field, probably pull in over $175,000 in a top five media market. Maybe somebody out there has better and more current info than I. Also worth noting from Uncle Barky, the highest paid talent would be the meteorologists since they pull in the most viewers.

      • Geeding says:

        From a 2006 (yeah, that’s a really dated reference) DMagazine article:
        TV traffic reporter
        $85,000

        TV morning weekday anchor
        Entry level
        $125,000

        TV evening weekday anchor
        Top earner in market
        $1 million

        TV evening news line producer
        Entry level
        $45,000

        TV news reporter
        Entry level
        $50,000
        http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/

      • Ben W. says:

        Interesting – thanks for the info. Uncle Barky is a much better source than I am. 🙂

        • Bryan says:

          I was friends with a local reporter/weekend anchor several years ago and, while he wasn't wealthy, he did very well. He made enough to live very comfortably and his wife didn't have to work.

  2. AndreaJN says:

    Hungry Hungry Humans looks like fun! See also when Jimmy Fallon played it <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjthrPKuaHSAhXhQJoKHcTDDT8QtwIIHDAA&url=http%3A%2F%2 Fwww.nbc.com%2Fthe-tonight-show%2Fvideo%2Fhungry-hungry-humans-with-the-final-five-and-donald-glover%2F3088567&usg=AFQjCNHfzXDE7jed8WTOIsiVFPXF2AyinQ&sig2=bsYoh5aRnS1Y43kSP1T6Lg” target=”_blank”>https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&amp;…” target=”_blank”>Fwww.nbc.com%2Fthe-tonight-show%2Fvideo%2Fhungry-hungry-humans-with-the-final-five-and-donald-glover%2F3088567&usg=AFQjCNHfzXDE7jed8WTOIsiVFPXF2AyinQ&sig2=bsYoh5aRnS1Y43kSP1T6Lg

  3. John Mackovic says:

    I think most Texans just don't care for Texas Monthly's politics.

  4. Dude says:

    Texas Monthly is fine, they still crank out an occasional expose or two worth. D Magazine is my kryptonite. Written by and for the bubble. And Tim Rogers is an insufferable douche of a human being.

  5. Andy says:

    Thanks for the North Korean airspace video. Very interesting. My buddy used to dispatch internationally for American. He said the flights to/from Seoul have to make a hard turn just a few miles from the airport to avoid North Korea. Sounds pretty nerve-wracking to me.

  6. DF of LL says:

    RE: Snakes and Lizards

    First, I never had the talk with the parents, ever. So what I know, I learned on the mean streets of Bridgeport.

    And what I learned, is you prevent pregnancy by placing a pumpkin between your cowboy boots in the passenger floor board of your car, and if you want to get pregnant with a boy, you carry your Skoal can in your right back pocket of your Wranglers and if you want to get pregnant with a girl, you take a hammer and slam your left thumb three times.

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