Bernie Sanders Just Released His Single-Payer Health Care Plan

From Patrick Caldwell's article for Mother Jones:

On Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Bernie Saders (I-Vt.) introduced an ambitious proposal to transition the country away from a system of private health insurance, with the government instead offering a beefed up version of Medicare to every person in the country. “Health care in American must be a right, not a privilege,” Sanders said. ‘Today, we begin the long and difficult struggle to end the international disgrace of the United States, our great nation, being the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all of our people. As proud Americans, our job is to lead the world on health care, not to be woefully behind every other major country.

The healthcare fight is far from over, but I'm glad we have someone like Sanders fighting that fight.

Cord Cutting Is Accelerating Faster Than Expected, Research Firm Says

Anyone suprised by this news has been in denial for awhile.

Notes on the Apple TV 4K HDR UHD with Super DolbyVision

Lots to digest in Apple's latest update to the Apple TV. But, first, we need to come up with something less tech nerdy than 4K. And HDR. And Ultra High Definition. I know what they all mean, and I still feel like I'm about to go cross-eyed. Just think, these are phenomenally worse than Super Retina Display, and Super Retina Display is bad. But, I digress.

As I noted on Twitter, if Apple truly needed to use a Dolby Vision theater projection system to show off the device's full capabilites, an Apple TV coupled with the right display would rival the screen at your average theater. Having seen a film projected in Dolby Vision, I can assure you that the image quality is immaculate. If the Apple TV is even close to delivering that same quality, the dream of a high-end home theater is becoming even more obtainable.

Where the Apple TV might falter compared to the theater is a question of compression. Compare the 1080 HD iTunes version of film to it's Bluray counterpart, and the Blu-ray looks better. So the question now is how do the iTunes 4K HDR films compare to the 4K HDR Blu-rays that have started to hit the market. If the quality is close, Blu-ray might be the format for cinephiles, and digital the format for the masses.

But two other things to note:

1. Apple got (some) studios to agree to the $19.99 pricing. Disney being the notable holdout.

2. Films previously purchased in HD will be upgraded to 4K for free.

Personally, I think the biggest problem Blu-ray faced—and the problem 4K content will face soon—was people didn't necessarily want to shell out and buy a new copy of a movie they already own. For many, a DVD is good enough. Hell, I still have a bunch of DVDs that I have no intention on shelling out the money to replace them with a Blu-ray. Good on Apple and the studios for putting this update into place. This alone makes purchasing movies through iTunes more compelling. 

Now, if the same thing applies to Digital Copy, it'll be even better. Buy once, 4K everywhere.

It's pronounced 'iPhone Ten'

You'd think they'd finally learned their lesson when they dropped the "X" from macOS. But, no! They just had to bring it back for the new flagship iPhone Ex. 🤦🏼‍♂️

J.J. Abrams to Write and Direct Star Wars: Episode IX

It was going to be him or Rian Johnson. Johnson is finishing up The Last Jedi, so Abrams was the only choice if they still want to hit the May 2019 deadline.

EDIT: The release date has been pushed back to December 20, 2019.

A Pain in the Head

I don't normally wake up with a headache, but when I do, it's as if my day gets sucked away. My eyes have trouble focusing, the world seems to spin, and I am overcome with the desire to sleep. The energy and will to do anything is almost non-existant, yet somehow I always seem to power through it. Anything that needs to get done, will get done, and only a full-blown migraine will knock me fully out of commission. But I still feel like a sluggish bore, ranked only slightly higher in mental abilities than a potato.

Today was an unfortunate day where I did wake up with a headache. I've had a nap, laid about, and still somehow managed to finish an episode of Lights. Camera. Reaction! that should be live later tonight. But all I want to do is lie on the couch and do nothing. I hate feeling like I'm just there, waiting for the annoying throb to dissapate. Hell, this entire post is essentially me trying to avoid the alluring call of my couch's siren song. I have no idea how the hell my mother—whose genetics I blame for 78% of my headaches—put up with an ADD-riddled terror and a half-hobbit sized brat when she had headaches that would often send her to bed soon after she got home from work dealing with twenty-five to thirty snot-covered, screaming kindergarteners. That would give me a headache; my mom would handle it with one.

And I still just want a nap.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi director addresses Episode IX rumors

From Julia Alexander at Polygon:

“It was never in the plan for me to direct Episode IX,” Johnson said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with it. I’m not sure what’s going to happen with it. I was entirely focused on Episode VIII and having this experience and now I’m just thinking about putting the movie out there and seeing how the audience responds to it. So now I’m not really thinking about that right now."

It's not a no, but it's also not a yes.

You Are the Product

John Lanchester in the London Review of Books:

...Facebook is in the surveillance business. Facebook, in fact, is the biggest surveillance-based enterprise in the history of mankind. It knows far, far more about you than the most intrusive government has ever known about its citizens. It’s amazing that people haven’t really understood this about the company. I’ve spent time thinking about Facebook, and the thing I keep coming back to is that its users don’t realise what it is the company does. What Facebook does is watch you, and then use what it knows about you and your behaviour to sell ads.

If you have the time, this is definitely worth the read.

Blizzard opening its own esports arena in LA

Esports are becoming harder and harder to ignore. It's big—bigger than many realize—and it is still growing.

Side note: Chris Okamura and I recently had a conversation around the AP styling for 'esports'. We're totally fine if it's all lower case, but doesn't "Esports" with only the 'e' capitalized just look weird?

Sony now sells a true 4K projector for $5,000

All you need is a Dolby Atmos surround sound system, and you'll have a better theater experience in your home than you would get at the average movie theater.

Marvel and Star Wars movies will be exclusive to Disney’s upcoming streaming service

It's the way of the future. Just watch as each major media conglomorate launches and maintains their own seperate streaming services. This is why Netflix and Amazon (and now Apple) are throwing so much money into content. Hollywood won't want to share, so they'll need their own.

Apple, Amazon Join Race for James Bond Film Rights

As much as MoviePass wants to be the industry disruptor, the big disrupter right now is all the tech money pouring into content.

As a Bond fan, I'm also interested (and, to be honest, a little worried) by these lines in Tatiana Siegel and Borys Kit's pice for The Hollywood Reporter:

“In the world of Lucasfilm and Marvel, Bond feels really underdeveloped,” says someone familiar with the bidding process.

And:

Some observers feel that the franchise, by only limiting itself to theatrical movies, remains vastly under-utilized by 21st century standards...

The bidding war for Bond just got more interesting.

Game of Thrones Season 7 Pirated Over a Billion Times

The headline is a bit hyperbolic—the billion number comes from adding all the downloads of all the episodes together—but it is still astounding that each episode has been illegally streamed or downloaded over 100 million times apiece.

Batman: The Animated Series owes half its charm to one unsung composer

For the 25th Anniversary of Batman: The Animated Series, Susana Polo has a wonderful write up at Polygon on Shirley Walker, the woman who composed the music for the series. In my opinion, Walker composed the best Batman theme ever.

A Statement Regarding Star Wars: Episode IX

"Lucasfilm and Colin Trevorrow have mutually chosen to part ways on Star Wars: Episode IX."

Your Movie Tickets Aren't Too Expensive

In the August episode of The Blue Post Podcast, we discussed if it's still worth going to the movie theater. Inevitably, we spent some time talking about how much it costs to go see a movie today. I have studied ticket pricing in the past, and think I should have actually made this point in the episode, so consider this blog post an addendum. Your movie tickets aren't too expensive. Let's look at the data.

While I was researching movie theater attendance data for my piece on MoviePass, I happened upon NATO's (that's the National Association of Theatre Owners, not the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) tracking of the average movie ticket price in the United States. I decided to do a little test. Take the average price for a ticket in, say, 1948, and then use inflation to adjust that price over time. We get this handy little chart that shows us the difference between inflation, and the actual ticket price.

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Average Price per Movie Ticket (United States)

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Date from National Association of Theater Owners. Inflation calculated with http://www.usinflationcalculator.com

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According to this, I'm wrong. Tickets are overpriced! Theaters have been gouging us since 1958! But, before we commit to that assertion, let's add in another variable: minimum wage.

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Average Price per Movie Ticket & Minimum Wage (United States)

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Minimum Wage data from the United States Department of Labor
Minimum Wage listed in italics.

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As we can see in this chart, the average price of a movie ticket has been playing statistical tango with the minimum wage from 1948 to now. So, historically, we can see that 1 movie ticket is roughly valued at 1 hour of work at minimum wage. But even this chart isn't telling us the full story. If the average movie ticket price is still relatively close the the minimum wage, why does it feel like the theater is more expensive now than in the past?

There are two things working against the movie theater. The first is other forms of entertainment. Netflix has three streaming options–$7.99, $9.99 and $11.99–and it gives you the ability to stream more content than you ever could consume in a lifetime. Same with YouTube, and YouTube is (mostly) free! And as movie ticket prices have doubled, the suggested retail price of a major new video game from 2000 to present has consistently been between $49.99 and $59.99, effectively becoming less expensive over time when you factor in inflation (this is a good read if you're interested in video game pricing). And let's not forget the bargain $7 Blu-ray bin at Big Box Mart. Here, the competition has undercut the value of the ticket.

But to truly tell how much more (or less) expensive the movie ticket prices have been over time, we need to also consider what MeasuringWorth.com calls income value, which they define as the "relative average income that would be used to buy a commodity." Basically, income value doesn't tell you the inflation rate of money, but gives us a better idea of how much shit you could buy with it over time. This is the second thing that makes ticket prices seem too expensive.

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Minimum Wage Purchasing Power in 2016 Dollars

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Income Value calculated by MeasuringWorth.com.

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As the chart shows us, as time has passed, the purchasing power of one hour at minimum wage has decreased dramatically over time. At it's peak, that $1.00 minimum wage in 1958 would enable you to buy roughly $20.70 worth of goods or services in 2016 dollars. So a job paying minimum wage today doesn't get you half as far as a job at minimum wage at its peak in 1958.

The reason why the movie theater feels more expensive now than in the past is simply the fact that Americans’ purchasing power has decreased over time. By extension, their disposable income—which includes the money spent to buy that movie ticket—has decreased as well. In essence, something as inexpensive as a movie ticket has become more costly. 

And if you think that this is just liberal drivel about the minimum wage, here's a more depressing data figure:

In 1990 the Median Household Income in the United States was $52,684. Its income value in 2015 dollars would be $124,000. The Median Household Income in 2015 was only $56,516. 

In short:
It's not that tickets are too expensive. You're paid too little.

Tolkien's Plant Passion Moves Botanist To Create Guide To Middle Earth

NPR interviewed Walter Judd, a retired botanist, about his book Flora of Middle-Earth. From their article:

"I started underlining every name of a plant as I was reading The Lord of the Rings,” he tells NPR's Morning Edition.
Moved by Tolkien's passion for plants, the retired botany professor spent years cataloging every plant that appeared in his writing, eventually compiling a list of 141 different species. He teamed up with his son, Graham, a professional illustrator. And together, they embarked on quest to transform that list into a botanical guide to Middle Earth.

Someday, a copy will inevitably end up on one of my bookshelves. You can get it on Amazon and iBooks.

A surprise update restores "Star Wars: Empire at War" multiplayer

Empire at War is right up there with Civilization IV for hours I've spent playing a game. It's not uncommon for me to load it up and play a few skirmish matches against the AI at the end of a long day. I've never had the opportunity to play online multiplayer, so I can't wait to dive in and get my ass kicked.

Classic D&D Cache: Brother-in-law gets house, I get “Junk”

The previous owner left boxes of "junk" in the house. It turned out that the one of the boxes had a well-maintained copy of the 1st edition rulebook for Dungeons & Dragons, along other assorted RPG paraphernalia.

Force Friday II: First Look at Select New Star Wars Products

All I ever wanted was a Sphero R2-D2.