A Time for Mercy by John Grisham

On January 4, 2021December 30, 2020 By Rick McIn books, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

A Time for Mercy is a 2020 legal drama by John Grisham, the sequel to A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row, which features Jake Brigance.

42nd published novel from one of our best story tellers.

Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy.
Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye.
Jake’s fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career, his financial security, and the safety of his family on the line.
jgrisham.com

Legal, ethical and moral issues. It makes you think.

Click PLAY or watch an excerpt on YouTube.

3 minute video – 64 days to edit

On January 3, 2021December 27, 2020 By Rick McIn video1 Comment

5.3 Terabytes of data.

Some new and highly experimental post production techniques.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Fix by David Baldacci

On January 2, 2021December 28, 2020 By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

3rd book in the Amos Decker series.

Again, very entertaining.

Our hero is 6′ 5″ and an obese 350 lbs.

Amos Decker witnesses a murder just outside FBI headquarters.
A man shoots a woman execution-style on a crowded sidewalk, then turns the gun on himself.
Even with Decker’s extraordinary powers of observation and deduction, the killing is baffling. Decker and his team can find absolutely no connection between the shooter — a family man with a successful consulting business — and his victim, a schoolteacher.
davidbaldacci.com

New Year’s Eve 2020

On January 1, 2021 By Rick McIn food, McCharles familyLeave a comment

Shockingly, I made it to midnight. 😀

Good riddance 2020.

Excellent Video on Climate Change

On January 1, 2021December 28, 2021 By Rick McIn bad news, clean water, climate change, economics, ethics, government, health & fitness, things getting worseLeave a comment

The best resource I’ve seen so far on the very alarming and complicated topic.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

‘ Just a YouTuber ‘

On January 1, 2021December 28, 2020 By Rick McIn Art and beauty, video1 Comment

6 months ago I still had a low opinion of those trying to make a living on YouTube.

It seemed a juvenile race to the bottom. I did not watch any of the top YouTubers. Not even my friend’s son, Cody Ko, who has 5 million + subscribers.

BUT — even then — I did follow a few favourite vloggers on HIKING and TECH.

Fact is, young people on YouTube and now TikTok are in the midst of a video editing revolution. Most future great film and TV directors are currently doing their own thing on social media.

Peter McKinnon, for example. In this fantastic 7 minute edit he pays tribute to the art form.

McKinnon is as skilled at video editing as anyone.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Drop Shot by Harlan Coben

On December 30, 2020December 23, 2020 By Rick McIn books, humourLeave a comment

Book #2 in the Myron Bolitar series of novels.

Light reading. Funny.

Myron is a formerly renowned basketball player and is the owner of MB SportsReps (or simply MB Reps in later books), an agency representing sports stars and celebrities.

For reasons inexplicable, in each book he turns into some kind of murder mystery detective.

His best friend, Windsor Horne Lockwood III (better known as “Win”), is a billionaire psychopath — but, for some reason, joins Myron for the chase.

A former tennis protege is murdered at the US OPEN — and Myron’s client, who was playing at the time, is the main suspect…
HarlonCoben.com

Like the author, Myron is Jewish. In fact, Myron, in his early 30s, still lives in his parent’s basement.

We have to break-up BIG TECH

On December 29, 2020December 23, 2020 By Rick McIn Facebook, Google, governmentLeave a comment

Professor Galloway recommends the American government mandates a break-up of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook shareholders would actually make MORE money after the split. And those companies would have a better chance to compete with one another.

Galloway recommends Amazon be split from Amazon Web Services (VIDEO).

He recommends YouTube be split from Google.

MORE COMPETITION is good for the consumer. Good for the economy.

MORE COMPETITION

Elizabeth Warren, for one, is keen to push that legislation. And I agree.

YES. I know governments will do a lousy job. Politicians don’t understand Tech.

But the alternative is even worse. Bezos and Amazon — at this rate — will have too much share of the world’s wealth.

Aggregation Theory postulates that it’s nearly impossible to compete with a company that is able to aggregate a majority of consumers.

How do you launch a company to compete against Amazon, for example.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller

On December 28, 2020December 23, 2020 By Rick McIn books, ethics, government, science1 Comment

A Story of Loss, Love and the Hidden Order of Life

Great book.

One thread is the astonishing story of David Starr Jordan, Stanford University’s first president, a leading scientist of his day.

Did he murder Jane Stanford, wife of the University founder?

More interesting to me was the life story of the author, intertwined with her research into this obscure topic. Lulu Miller is hilarious.

One awful thread is the fact that the USA was the first nation to legislate eugenics. Forced sterilization was the law in 32 U.S. states, and actually inspired Hitler.

AND there’s the fact new to me that … Fish Don’t Exist.