Mike Rowe highlights one Columbia resident who saved the weddings of 80 women

    Mike Rowe from the "Dirty Jobs" show has started a new Facebook show "Returning the Favor" that highlights people who have done a good act.

     Recently he highlighted a story about Columbia resident Denise Simmons who rescued the weddings of 80 brides after the story making their wedding dresses closed.

#hocoblogs

Should we still play football in schools?

   

      Someday I think we will look back at schools including football in their athletic programs the way we now look at how we once accepted smoking in our workplaces.  How do we accept things that we know have a negative impact on our children's health?  In the past football was seen as a positive way to get physical benefit and teamwork skills.  It was acknowledged as building toughness and character in boys.  Now we know that it can have severe impacts on the development of the brains of boys that play the sport.  In my brief career in JV football I clearly remember the drills where we were instructed to "lead with our helmet" and let the other player "know why they shouldn't run in our direction."  For someone like myself who was outweighed by players I was tackling by 30 pounds encouraging hard collisions was something that struck me as just plain stupid.   I also remember my coach's comment after I quit football after injuring my knee.  The coach also coached the baseball team and made this comment to me when I showed up to play baseball.  " I hope you are tougher playing baseball than you were playing football."

      I am not advocating stopping youth football outside of the school settings although it is a mystery why any parent would encourages their children to play football with today's information.  But with the information we now have why are were sanctioning the continued playing of this sport by our publicly funded schools?  Can't the teamwork and physical exercise benefits be accomplished without the potential damage to young brains?

P.S.

   Anyone watching the Ravens football game this past Thursday should think about the impact of the concussion to Joe Flacco.

This is what a concussed person looks like.

Missed that great performer before they died? Now you have another chance

     Bringing someone back from the dead now it possible using a hologram.  A hologram is a 3D laser image that when projected can give a likeness of any person taken from a picture or video.  For famous dead performers this can give a simulated concert using this technology.  While the image is not exactly like seeing a real performer the technology is getting closer to that reality.  The poster above is for a hologram tour with Roy Orbison in England.  Look for tours with an Elvis hologram or a Michael Jackson hologram down the road.  

P.S. 

     For one of the great performances of any entertainer click to watch the Orbison performance of  Uptown in the Black and White Night performance       How many other famous performers can you notice in this performance?  Here is the list.    

Pictures defining a presidential administration

     Sometimes a picture can define how a President plays their role in time of a natural disaster.  Remember the photo above of George W. only surveying the damage from Hurricane Katrina from the window of Air Force One?  His lack of connection was one of the reasons why Republicans lost control of Congress in 2006.



     George W. has nothing on our current pretender President when it comes to callousness.  When he launched paper towels into a crowd in Puerto Rico like he was throwing t shirts at a basketball game he showed a callousness to that disaster.  Whether the Republicans pay the same political cost remains to be seen next year.

Signs from Las Vegas

    Flying into Las Vegas only a few hours after the shooting at Mandalay Bay Hotel at couple of weeks ago was almost surreal.  The city was just beginning to come to terms with the reality that it has just become the latest in a long string of cities that had to deal with our insane gun policies.  Going by the hotel a few days later you could see the replacement windows in place that the shooter used to kill and injure so many people.

     Turning in the opposite direction you could clearly see the stage that the performers used that night.

    Down the road at the famous welcome to Las Vegas sign 50+ crosses had been set up to memorialize the people killed in the attack.

    Each cross had mementos and other objects from each of victims.

The impact of this tragedy became more real when you saw the pictures of each of the victims

As has been the custom lately with shootings the hashtag #VegasStrong was common throughout the city.

    Most of us gave up on any rational gun legislation coming from these episodes of carnage when it didn't happen with the slaughter of kindergarteners in Connecticut a few years ago.   Gun fetishes seem to be the most important thing in some pitiful persons lives.