Hanging with Rich

Not In Our House..... Game 7 . It has sort of a doomsday feeling to it. In the NBA playoffs, game 7 means win or go home. But today seemed to have a little more on the line. Game 7 My team, the Cleveland Cavaliers have had a very strange season. They started the season with what on paper looked like a very formidable team. It had All-Stars, future Hall of Famers, former NBA MVP's, and Lebron James. The problem is - games aren't played on paper. They are played by human beings built with flesh, blood, and muscle. Things just didn't mesh at all. Some personalities just don't fit. There were team meetings that caused more harm than good. Then there were the injuries. Not standard injuries. Kevin Love had anxiety. Head Coach Lue couldn't even finish some games and had to take a month off. JR thew soup at an assistant coach. Strange stuff. So at the trade deadline General Manager Koby Altman totally remade the team. Bodies were traded everywhere. But there...

You and the Singularity..... So I'm killing time in a restaurant by checking my smartphone when I come across an interesting headline. "Kurzweil predicts the Singularity is near". I had no idea what the Singularity was. I thought maybe it was some religious warning. But no. It is however about a time when human life on this planet will be changed by technology, forever. Maybe for the better. Maybe not. Is Alexa the Eve for Artificial Intelligence? It tuns out that the technological Singularity is about a time when technology, and particularly Artificial Intelligence, will advance to the point where technology will surpass human ability. That sounds crazy. That means a computer writing a best-selling book. That means if you need an operation, you would prefer it done by a robotic doctor. That sounds like just another science fiction movie. In fact, it sounds just like that Will Smith movie, "I Robot." Well, hold on to your pants, Alexa. There's mor...

Jackie Robinson: American Hero Sometimes I think American history is just a collection of bad news. Wars and slavery dominate the story of America. I'm a big fan of the founding fathers, but even that led to the Revolutionary War. But today is the anniversary of something very good that happened in America. Something revolutionary and ahead of it's time. My giant Robinson baseball card. Very cool. 71 years ago today, Jackie Robinson played his first Major League Baseball game. Integrating what had been an all-white sport until then. The baseball historian in me wants to tell you Robinson wasn't the first African American in the major leagues. That was Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884. But it was a long wait for Robinson to be the next. All history should be looked at in the context of its time. African Americans fought and died for America in World War II. But even the American military was segregated. This was the prime of Jim Crow laws in the south. Separate rest...

Baseball and the Winter That Won't End..... It is now Baseball season. It's the annual Rite of Spring. That time when baseball signals the daffodils are blooming, the grass turns green, and the time to put away your winter clothes. But not this year. Baseball is being played. But winter won't go away. It's not unusual to have a game or two played in harsh conditions at the start of the season. But usually there is a period of extended mild weather, sometimes even before the season starts. But not this year. Let me be clear. Baseball is a summer game. It's made to be played, and watched, outside on a bright summer day. Many of the players come from Latin America where the tropical breezes last all year. All players have just spent 2 months in Florida or Arizona in spring training games. But then the teams travel north to the harsh weather. Yesterdays high temperature was 36 degrees. My team lost 1-0. Indians Michael Brantley? You can blame climate chan...