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Inspiring quotes at the Dali Museum’s Innovation Labs

I spent today — and will be spending tomorrow — at one of my favorite places in St. Pete: The Dali Museum. I’m participating in a workshop to help a local business come up with new ideas. It’s a wonderful opportunity to:

There were posters featuring inspiring quotes about imagination and creativity at the workshop, and they were too good to not share. Enjoy — I hope they inspire you!

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The news these days may be evidence that we’re all living in a computer simulation

This was actually broadcast earlier today in response to White House Press Secretary / village idiot Sean Spicer’s statement that Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons.

There are physics and philosophical arguments pointing to why we might be living in some kind of simulation, but let me present the gamer’s argument.

Have you ever hit that point in a game when you’re not getting anywhere, and in a fit of boredom, do something that causes all sorts of mayhem and destruction in that game’s world? I’ve done this in Grand Theft Auto, by unleashing hell in the busiest part of the city with a grenade launcher or starting a firefight inside a police station or military base. There are enough people who do this with The Sims that there are online guides and articles for this sort of thing.

Looking at the news, you could argue that the people running our simulation got bored and said “Hey, let’s turn some of the controls for crazy up to maximum and see what happens.”

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Right on schedule, someone writes a “They’re no angel” story about the United Airlines victim [Updated]

Update (April 11, 2017, 6:20 p.m. EDT): That beeping sound you’re hearing? That’s the sound of the Courier-Journal backing up and changing their story to be less of a hit piece. Read this post to the end for the update.

A screenshot of the Courier-Journal’s homepage, taken around 1:00 p.m. EDT today. They’ve since changed the headline.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the news story arc that takes place when people of color are hurt or killed by police or security forces, here’s a quick refresher:

  1. The story breaks,
  2. public outcry ensues, and…
  3. after a little dirt-digging, an often unrelated “victim was no angel” story arises.

We just hit part 3 of the arc thanks to the Louisville, Kentucky newspaper, the Courier-Journal, who published a hit piece titled David Dao, passenger removed from United flight, a doctor with a troubled past [They’ve since updated the story; I’m linking to a PDF of the original version]:

A screenshot of the Courier-Journal’s hit piece, taken around 1:00 p.m. EDT today. They’ve since changed it.

The first third of the article covers the original story: the unnecessary, cruel, and brutal “re-accommodation” of Dr. Dao, who refused to volunteer to leave his seat and take a flight the following afternoon in order to allow airline employees to deadhead to their scheduled work flight at the destination airport.

However, the following two thirds of the article is devoted to drug-related offenses for which the victim was convicted in 2004.

He lost his license to practice medicine in 2005 for being “involved in fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substances and was sexually involved with a patient who used to work for his practice and assisted police in building a case against him”. He was placed on 5 years of supervised probation in 2005, and in 2015, was allowed to resume practicing medicine under certain conditions.

His debt to society has been paid, and for those of you not doing the math, those debts are for a conviction dating back 13 years. Or if you prefer, during Dubya’s first term as president. Or three years before the iPhone was announced, when the Motorola RAZR v3 was the hottest phone on the market. Or the year that Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his dorm room. Or when the series finale for Friends aired. That long ago.

His past has nothing to do with the beating, nor does it justify it, nor does it add any useful information to the story about the incident. But since Dao isn’t a Default Human Being, it was inevitable that someone would eventually bring up the “they’re no angel” defense.

The Courier-Journal changes its tune

They’ve revised the headline on their front page…

…and the story has a new title, and a less hit piece-like tone:

…but the Courier-Journal’s editor defended the decision to bring up Dao’s “troubled past”. To quote my friend Becca, “When people plant their flag on Asshole Hill, they seem really intent to die on it too.”

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Coming soon to United Airlines’ safety cards

Click the image to see it at full size.

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Coming soon to United Airlines’ website

 Click the image to see it at full size.

Click the image to see it at full size.

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Need some motivation? Batman’s here to help.

Panels from a Batman comic book, showing a bloodied Batman getting up from the floor: You know how many times I've heard that? 'Rest in peace, Batman!' 'There's no escape, Batman!' 'Time to die, Batman!' Every night. Over and over and over. For so many years. 'This is the end, Batman!' Every damn night. And yet... I'm still here.
Tap to see the bad-assery at full size.

If you’re running into setbacks and need a little inspiration, here’s one from comic book writer Tom King, who says this about the panels above: “Wanted to write this page since I was 9. Hope it inspires a picked-on kid, as the comics of my nerdy youth inspired me.”

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The new “Tampa Together” video needs some love!

The city of Tampa’s new Tampa Together video does feature a lot of Mayor Bob Buckhorn tooting his own horn*, but it also sings the praises of a city with a lot going for it, and a lot of potential. As I write this, it has a mere 796 views, and I think we can give it a lot more love.

* When a shameless self-promoter like me says someone’s tooting their own horn, that really means something. But hey, he’s a damn sight better than my last mayor!

The video also presents a lot of factoids about Tampa. I’m going to fact-check them and link to the sources, but in the meantime, here’s the list: