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DaTechGuy’s (almost) Daily Dose of Pintastic NE 2023 The final Round up Stephanie Lesser, The EMP Team and Christopher Franci

Posted: September 24, 2023 by datechguy in fun, pinball, short films/interviews, special events
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Well it’s Sunday and time to post my final three Pintastic NE 2023 videos from my final three interviews at the end of the final day.

The first is with author Stephanie Lesser author of 1001 Pinball Puzzles

2nd we have the EMP Team packing up after a VERY successful Pintastic NE 2023

I don’t know if the EMP crowed takes the “Hardest working people at Pintastic” crown but they’re at the very least a close 2nd.

For the first time since I’ve been going to Pinstastic I wasn’t able to get Gabe D’Annunzio for the final interview simply because I couldn’t find him and had a bit of a time constraint, however I DID manage to grab pinball artist Christopher Franci one of the guests at Pinstastic NE 2023 to close things out and that’s a pretty good get:

Well that’s all the Pintastic NE I have for 2023. I’ll see you in April in the same place for Pintastic NE 2024

Pintastic 2023 The rest of the story:

If Then Else Again on AB 957

Posted: September 24, 2023 by datechguy in election 2024, elections, elections, politics
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Two weeks ago I proposed the following IF / THEN Else Statement:

Minister James Hacker: Will you answer a direct question?

Sir Humphrey Appleby: I strongly advise you not to ask a direct question.

Minister James Hacker: Why?

Sir Humphrey Appleby: It might provoke a direct answer.

Minister James Hacker: Never has yet.

Yes Minister: The Moral Dimension 1982

IF Newsom = “candidate for president” THEN AB 957= “veto” ELSE AB 957 = “Law”

By this I presumed that AB 957 was a sure thing because Newsom had just said the following:

“We need to move past this notion that he’s not going to run,” Newsom told NBC “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd in an interview clip released Friday. “President Biden is going to run and I’m looking forward to him getting reelected.”

One must remember that pols are masters of parsing words. What does he actually say:

  1. Joe Biden is going to Run.
  2. I’m looking forward to getting him re-elected.

What doesn’t he say is what happens if for some reason Joe Biden doesn’t run or has to pull out.

Let me remind you of what we wrote a week ago:

Democrats have now decided that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are no longer useful.

In fact they have actually reached the point where they believe that even with the FBI going after conservatives and the online services censoring the right at full swing and their friends in the courts sentencing those who spoke aloud about the steal to decades in prison that the country has reached the point where more people hate Joe Biden than Donald Trump.

This fear is reinforced by this map:

And the lastest pol number are even worse,

Head-to-head in a hypothetical November 2024 matchup, Trump has 51% support while Biden has 42% — numerically up 3 points for Trump and down 2 points for Biden from an ABC/Post poll in February, shifts that are not statistically significant.

Or as Drudge put it:

If Drudge is sounding the alarm for the left that means there is a real opening for another Democrat candidate for president, so we return to our original IF THEN ELSE statement:

IF Newsom = “candidate for president” THEN AB 957= “veto” ELSE AB 957 = “Law”

Well guess what happened this week:

and to our original article:

The one thing that might have inhibited that bill from becoming law is that signing such a bill might inhibit a potential presidential campaign by Gavin Newson as it would be such a killer in swing states that you couldn’t steal enough votes to save him.

There is of course always a chance that Joe Biden who has managed to survive so many disasters in his career might still survive this one, but if he doesn’t Gavin Newson has become that much more viable.

The Less than 1% solution

Posted: September 23, 2023 by datechguy in media
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A couple of days ago Stacy McCain put up a post about CNN’s demographic numbers that have reached historically small levels:

The cable news network logged its worst weekend ratings on record in the all important 25- to 54-year-old demo, according to the latest Nielsen data released Tuesday.
CNN — which launched in 1980 and bills itself as “the most trusted name in news” — totaled just 55,000 viewers for its weekend slate of shows that include Sunday political programs “State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash,” and “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”

But the real news is here:

CNN’s overall viewership wasn’t much better. The network logged 345,000 total viewers, trailing Fox News’ 683,000 and MSNBC’s 424,000.

That’s a tiny amount of viewers, Fox is pulling in nearly double and even MSNBC is doing 20% better than “The most trusted name in news”.

But let’s look at the real story here.

Ok for those who have gone to public school and don’t handle math”

CNN’s 345,000 +

MSNBC’s 424,000 +

Fox’s 683,000

= 1,462,000 Human beings watching these three networks.

Just a reminder the total number of votes cast in the last election for president was 158,000,000.

Even assuming that a million or two of those ballots were created on the night of the election in key democrat districts that would leave 156,000,000 voters.

Simple math tells us that all three networks combined total viewership vs the actual number of voters (subtracting two million for fraud) is 0.9% of the electorate.

And that’s assuming of course that 100% of those viewing those networks are registered voters.

So YES CNN is the runt of the litter, but they’re the runt of a litter of mice.

So given these facts let’s ask a very basic question:

Can anyone tell me why we care one bit about a bunch of people on cable networks say when they aren’t even speaking to 1% of the voting population?

If My Dynasty 1971 Draft League’s Season Ended Today…

Posted: September 22, 2023 by datechguy in baseball, dynasty baseball, gaming, online gaming
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…then the playoffs would look like this:

AL Division Winners:

  • East: Kansas City Royals (2 1/2 games up)
  • West Oakland A’s (5 games up)

Wild Card Teams

  • 1st Wild card: Baltimore Orioles +6 G
  • 2nd Wild Card Washington Senators +5 G
  • 3rd Wild Card California Angels (1 game up)

Playoffs:

  • Wild Card game: Angels at Senators
  • Division games: Baltimore at Kansas City , Washington or California at Oakland (best of 5)
  • AL Pennant Series (Best of 7)

NL Division Winners

  • NY Daytraders (Mets) (up 8 games)
  • West Division Los Angeles Dodgers (up 13 1/2 games)

Wild Cards

  • 1st Wild card Chicago Cubs (+4)
  • 2nd Wild Card Atlanta Braves (+ 1 1/2)
  • 3rd Wild Card Philadelphia Phillies (11 games up)

Playoffs:

  • Wild Card Games Phillies at Braves
  • Division Games Chicago at New York, Philadelphia or Atlanta at Los Angeles (best of 5)
  • NL Pennant Series (best of 7)

World Series (Best of 7)

Top Draft picks

  • 1st Cincinnati Reds (-1)
  • 2nd Pittsburgh Pirates (- 1 1/2)
  • 3rd Montreal Nos Amours (-4)

There are however 69 games left to the season and anything is possible although the absolute collapse of the NL 2nd division (the highest winning percentage of a non-playoff team is St. Louis at .386) suggests that the NL playoff races are pretty much done and the only real question is can either Philly or Atlanta pass the cubs to get that 1st round bye?

In the AL it’s more complicated. All the division races are still races and 3 teams are within 5 games of the last wild card (2 teams within 3 games) and even the worst team in the league (NY Yankees) has a .402 winning percentage and is only 10 1/2 games out of the wild card.

My own team (Milwaukee) is out of it technically only 7 1/2 out but with 4 teams to pass thus I’ve already traded:

  1. My starting CF Tommie Agee (Mets)
  2. My starting LF Frank Howard (Orioles)
  3. My Starting SS Ron Theobold (Royals)
  4. My Starting 3B Phil Gagliano (Orioles)
  5. My #2 starter SP Ray Lamb (Orioles)
  6. My Closer Ken Sanders (Mets)

For these players I have acquired:

  • 2 1st round picks
  • 1 3rd round picks
  • 1 5th round pick
  • 1 sixth round pick
  • Ken Berry CF (Gold glove in 72 & good offensive year)

How will this end? I have no idea but given how the NL is doing and the fact that I play every game to win no matter what I might have a lot fewer keepers that I hoped for.

I still have available to trade:

  1. My starting 2B (Ron Hunt)
  2. My starting Catcher (Jack Haitt)
  3. My new Starting 3B (Jose Pagan)
  4. My #3 Starter George Stone
  5. My #4 starter Rookie Jim Slaton
  6. Middle Reliver Jim Ray
  7. Middle Reliver Bob Miller

Slaton will likely be expensive as he has a long MLB career ahead of him

I also have the following players who either have long MLB careers ahead of them or have good cards for next year available

  1. OF Mike Jorgenson (long career)
  2. P Bob Reynolds (good stats in 1972)

They will likely go cheap since I don’t expect to have room to protect them even if I crater.

My needs are draft picks or a solid power hitter for next year.

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