Rick Robinson correctly characterized the 2020 NFL Draft coverage on ESPN as “lame.” Social distancing and lack of crowds of fans clearly sapped most of the excitement from this annual event. And, who knows if the NFL season will even happen this year!
The Buffalo Bills traded away their First Round Pick for Viking’s wide receiver Stefon Diggs. So the Bills Second Round Pick loomed large. And, large is what Iowa Defensive End A. J. Epenesa is: 6’5″ 275 pounds.
In the Third Round, the Bills went for offense: Utah running back Zack Moss.
In the Fourth Round, the Bills added a 6′ 3″ wide receiver, Gabriel Davis, from UCF.
The most surprising pick for the Bills the was Fifth Round selection of QB Jake Fromm, Georgia. Hard to believe a player this good would still be available in the Fifth Round!
The Bills had two Sixth Round Picks and chose a kicker, Tyler Bass, from Georgia Southern and wide receiver, Isaiah Dodgins, from Oregon State.
The Bills closed out their 2020 Draft with a Seventh Round selection of cornerback, Dane Jackson, from Pittsburgh. All in all, I think the Buffalo Bills 2020 Draft was a success. How did your favorite NFL team do in the Draft?
Noah Isenberg’s We’ll Aways Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie (2017) traces how the movie came to be, how the cast was selected, how the movie was shot, and how Casablanca became an iconic film.
Surprisingly, Diane had never seen Casablanca in toto, only some of the famous scenes. So, in preparation for reading We’ll Always Have Casablanca, we sat down and watched it–the first time for Diane, about the dozenth for me. Diane, of course, loved it.
I learned a lot about Casablanca that I didn’t know. I didn’t know that the role of the character of “Sam” (the piano player) was almost given Lena Horne. Instead, it went to Dooley Wilson–who didn’t know how to play the piano! Wilson sings “As Time Goes By” but a staff musician called Elliot Carpenter was the “ghost pianist.”
I didn’t know Humphrey Bogart sulked during the production because “he didn’t get the girl.” I didn’t know Ingrid Bergman was chosen to play Ilsa Lund (Bogart’s love interest) but only after an exhaustive battle. Decision makers at Warner Brothers thought Bergman was “too young” for Bogart.
What do you think of Casablanca? GRADE: A (for the movie and the book)
Between Planets, The Rolling Stones, Starman Jones, The Star Beast by Robert A. Heinlein was a Science Fiction Book Club omnibus published in 2004. I had read all four Science Fiction juveniles in the late 1950s when I binged on every Heinlein book I could get my hands on.
These four novels illustrate the range of Heinlein’s interests. Between Planets is a political novel. The Rolling Stones (aka, Space Family Stone) features an unusual family touring the Solar System and getting involved in adventures that teenagers (the target audience for these books) would love.
Starman Jones is frequently considered the best of Heinlein’s juvenile novels (I mildly disagree because I love Citizen of the Galaxy). Heinlein’s themes of personal characteristics overcoming problems and motivation come to the fore in this novel. The Star Beast features a high school senior who discovers his extraterrestrial pet is way more than he thought it would be.
Some people mock Science Fiction Book Club editions as cheap knockoffs, but I find the SFBC omnibus editions well worth collecting and reading. Are you a Heinlein fan? GRADE: A
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel from 1989 is more about Love than it is about a plague. Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall in love early in they lives, but Fermina decides to marry a wealthy doctor. Florentino never gets over the loss of his True Love and waits patiently for Fermina. Meanwhile, he has 622 love affairs.
Marquez has to fill in the fifty-one years, nine months, and four days until Florentino can profess his love to Fermina again. The story swings from Florentino and his many women to Fermina and her husband.
I’m a big fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude with its magical realism. I confess I was underwhelmed by Love in the Time of Cholera. Do you read many books in translation? GRADE: C+
Nat, a 47 year-old veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, is nearing retirement. He’s assigned to The Haven, a minor substation in British Intelligence.
Nat is not only a spy, he’s a passionate badminton player. One day, a young man named Ed challenges Nat to a match. Nat wins, but the much younger Ed pushes him to the limit. The two men play every week or two. Ed hates Trump and lashes out at Brexit.
Then Ed commits an act that involves Nat’s agency. Nat has to decide how to juggle national security and friendship.
I listened to the audiobook version of Agent Running in the Field because I’ve listened to John Le Carre narrate some of his other novels. Le Carre brilliantly carries off the story telling and makes it easy to listen to 8 CDs. Are you a fan of John Le Carre and spy novels? GRADE: B+
Long ago in 1965, I saw Bob Dylan and The Band perform at Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo. It was my first rock concert and I loved it. I was a Dylan fan, but later I bought Music From Big Pink and became a fan of The Band, too.
Once Were Brothers is a documentary about The Band. Based on Robbie Robertson’s Testimony this film tells the story of how The Band got together, toured with Bob Dylan, recorded their first album, became successful…and completely fell apart.
In addition to telling the story of the rise and fall of The Band, Once We Were Brothers features a lot of music. If you’re a fan of the band, you’ll enjoy the insights provided in this documentary. If you enjoy The Band’s music, there’s plenty of it here, too. Are you a fan of The Band? GRADE: A-
Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton; Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Ronnie Hawkins, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Ronnie Wood, Pinetop Perkins
4:49
9.
“Jam #1*” (Danko, Helm, Hudson and Robertson from the Band)
Neil Young, Ronnie Wood, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Paul Butterfield, Ringo Starr
5:32
10.
“Jam #2*” (Helm and Hudson from the Band)
Neil Young, Ronnie Wood, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Paul Butterfield, Ringo Starr, Stephen Stills, Carl Radle
Do you believe any of the numbers given during the daily press briefing at the White House? I don’t. I’m skeptical of the reported number of cases of the coronavirus. I believe the Government is deliberately slowing the distribution of test kits (so the numbers stay low to please Trump). And I suspect America will go the way of Italy in terms of the number of cases…and deaths. In that vein, I thought I’d share a related book about the Fake Research in management studies.
Dennis Tourish shows that most research in management studies is crap. By extension, research in the Arts, Sciences, and Medicine fall prey to the same problems Tourish confronts in his enlightening book. In the early chapters, Tourish shows that “classic” studies are flawed and their results suspect. Yet decades of students and researchers cite these studies and use their results to build their own flawed cases and research results.
Tourish also confronts corruption in academic research. Just a week ago a Harvard professor was arrested for “sharing” his research into nanotechnology with Chinese universities (for tons of money, of course). Chinese universities will pay Big Bucks for articles that will appear in top research journals like Science and Nature in order to increase the prestige of their programs. And then there’s plagiarism, dodgy statistics, and cryptic writing.
After exposing the weaknesses of current academic research, Dennis Tourish proposes some possible solutions to get back to doing real research that yield valid results. Yes, just as there’s Fake News, there’s also a lot of Fake Research. It has to be rooted out. We see this Fake Research all the time. Remember when coffee was supposed to bad for you? Now, it’s a healthy drink. It’s the same with claims that foods prevent (or generate) cancer. This is an important book. How trusting are you of Government statistics? GRADE: A TABLE OF CONTENTS: List of Tables ix Acknowledgements x
Introduction: the crisis in management studies; 1
1. Flawed from the get go: the early misadventures of management research; 8
2. How audit damages research and academic freedom; 34
3. ‘When the levee breaks’: academic life on the brink; 60
4. The corruption of academic integrity; 80
5. Paradise lost but not yet regained: retractions and management studies; 106
6. The triumph of nonsense in management studies; 133
7. Flawed theorising, dodgy statistics and (in) authentic leadership theory; 161
8. The promises, problems and paradoxes of evidence based management; 189
9. Reclaiming meaningful research in management studies; 212
10. Putting zest and purpose back into academic life; 234 Notes 252 Index 299
While reading the Friday, April 17, 2020 issue of the WALL STREET JOURNAL I came up this article on Vitamin-D3 and the coronavirus. I’ve been taking Vitamin-D3 supplements (2000 IU) daily for 20 years or so. Some research suggests Vitamin-D3 promotes bone health and strengthens our immune systems. Here’s the article from the WSJ. You be the judge:
Vitamin D and Coronavirus Disparities
Supplements may promote immunity, especially in people with darker skin.
By Vatsal G. ThakkarApril 16, 2020 7:02 pm ET
Black Americans are dying of Covid-19 at a higher rate than whites. Socioeconomic factors such as gaps in access to health care no doubt play a role. But another possible factor has been largely overlooked: vitamin D deficiency that weakens the immune system.
Researchers last week released the first data supporting this link. They found that the nations with the highest mortality rates—Italy, Spain and France—also had the lowest average vitamin D levels among countries affected by the pandemic.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
Vitamin D is produced by a reaction in the skin to the ultraviolet rays in sunlight. Many Americans are low in vitamin D, but those with darker skin are at a particular disadvantage because melanin inhibits the vitamin’s production. As an Indian-American, my skin type is Fitzpatrick IV, or “moderate brown.” Compared with my white friends, I need double or triple the sun exposure to synthesize the same amount of vitamin D, so I supplement with 5,000 international units of vitamin D3 daily, which maintains my level in the normal range. Most African-Americans are Fitzpatrick type V or VI, so they would need even more.
This requires further study, but earlier research is suggestive. In 2018 a longitudinal studyby researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital looked at whether vitamin D supplementation had any health benefits, specifically in regard to heart disease and cancer. The overall conclusion was that it didn’t, for most people. Yet buried in the results was one that should have made headlines: Vitamin D supplementation in African-Americans reduced cancer risk 23%. How? Cancer cells develop regularly in most animals, including humans, as the result of toxic injuries or glitches in DNA replication, but a healthy immune system destroys them. There is evidence that low vitamin D levels make the immune system go blind.
Dozens of studies confirm that deficiency is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which disproportionately afflicts African-Americans. A major contributor to heart disease is inflammation that targets blood vessels, forming the plaques that block blood flow. (Raising vitamin D levels with supplements hasn’t been shown to reverse this effect.)
Black Americans are also twice as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes as whites. Here, too, we find an immune connection. Insulin resistance, the harbinger of Type 2 diabetes, appears linked to high levels of circulating cytokines, the same pro-inflammatory proteins implicated in Covid-19 mortality. Many scientists are coming to view Type 2 diabetes as an autoimmune disorder, like Type 1.
History can also be a guide. A 2009 study examined sun exposure and fatality rates during the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million world-wide. Disparities in access to health care were minimal then, since treatment consisted mostly in supportive measures and convalescence. Antivirals, vaccines, intensive-care units and ventilators didn’t exist.
The U.S. erected emergency hospitals—one of which, the Camp Brooks Open Air Hospital in Massachusetts, had the unique distinction of being an outdoor recovery unit. The mortality rate for patients there fell from 40% to 13% when they were moved outside. Sunlight might have proved to be literally the best disinfectant.
Dr. Thakkar, a psychiatrist, is founder of Reimbursify.
I found this massive collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald at a Library Book Sale. I think I paid a quarter for it. Fitzgerald is a brilliant writer who sometimes goes off into mediocrity. Whether it was Fitzgerald’s drinking, or his need to write quickly to pay some bills, or maybe he was being tormented by Zelda, the results are sometimes sub-par.
Of course there are some terrific stories in this collection. My favorite is “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz.” Probably the most famous story is “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
As far as the novels go, I’ve always been a fan of This Side of Paradise although The Great Gatsby garners most of the critical praise. This volume contains two novels and 19 short stories. F. Scott Fitzgerald: Classic Works is available at most Libraries and affordable copies can be had on the Internet. If you’re a Fitzgerald fan, you’ll enjoy this collection. GRADE: B+
