Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

IMDB

Blade Runner 2049 (2017): Long and oppressive. Gratuitous nudity. A touch of woo woo. Rain, snow and smog in LA create great atmosphere. C+

POTD: Catch of the Day

From 2017 01 29 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the sea shore in Georgetown, Grand Cayman. It's next door to a restaurant on the shore that features the catch on display here.

Not to get all philosophical here, but this POTD follows the previous POTD from Dolphin Discovery. I didn't feel at all uncomfortable seeing a table full of dead fish, unlike my guilty conscience seeing a pond (lagoon? pool? tank?) full of captive seemingly healthy, active dolphins. Why is that?

Bonus photo after the jump.

Journey to Greenland (2016)

IMDB

Journey to Greenland (2016): French. Two Frenchmen visit an Inuit village. Great setting. Would work better as documentary than drama. C-

POTD: Dolphin Discovery

From 2017 01 29 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Dolphin Discovery in Cayman Islands. I don't know what to call it — an outdoor aquarium, an amusement park, a prison for animals? The park itself tries hard to emphasize its ecological bona fides ("The only one that loves dolphins more than you is Dolphin Discovery"). On the other hand, not everyone agrees that things are so good.

The Red Turtle (2016)

IMDB

The Red Turtle (2016): Shipwrecked on tropical island, just a man and a red turtle. Animation. No dialog. Simple, lovely, elegant fable. B+

OTBR: Rock Lake, Minnesota

Latitude: N 46° 10.482
Longitude: W 093° 53.832

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously (not actually) last month that are "off the blue roads".

Restaurant Ratings - The Good and the Bad

I've long urged the City of Richardson to improve the usability of the work done by its Health Department in inspecting restaurants. They can get back in the kitchen. The public usually can't.

Things I'd like to see:

• The health department rating displayed in each restaurant's front window. To its credit, the city has worked with Yelp to display a city health department rating for each restaurant along with other info such as address, map, and contact info. Kudos for this, but I'd like to see the rating when I walk in the door.
• Inspection ratings incorporated in all promotional material the city provides for restaurants (e.g., its "Dine Smart, Dine Local" advertising)
• A better presentation of the health inspection ratings on the city's own website

Recently, the city made some efforts on the third item. I took a look.

Battle of the Sexes (2017)

IMDB

Battle of the Sexes (2017): Feminist icon for more than a tennis match. My admiration grows seeing the back story. #EqualPay #Equality A-

Repeat Tweets: San Francisco Hits 104°

Repeat tweets from September, 2017:

• Sep 1 2017: "San Francisco hits 104°, breaking the city's all-time heat record, NWS says."
  Just throwing this out there, but maybe we ought to again consider the possibility that burning fossil fuels is changing the climate.
• Sep 1 2017: RT @WalkableDFW: "car dependence makes our regional economy incredibly fragile."
  So does corn, the power grid, and our supply chains for just about everything. We are one disaster away from, well, disaster.
• Sep 1 2017: RT @WalkableDFW: "which is why localized food and power production is mission critical."
  Choices. Localized food brings its own costs. 200 years of reducing cost thru comparative advantage and the globe is in precarious balance.
• Sep 1 2017: Infinite Jest: 20-yr-old classic that takes 20 years to read. Great book...for literature majors. I'm too hard; there are hidden gems. C-

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

POTD: An Angel in Hell

From 2017 01 29 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Devils Hangout Gift Shop in Hell, Cayman Islands. The name comes from cooled lava flows visible from the parking lot of the gift shop that must have reminded some early tourism promoter of burnt-out hellfire. That's an angel posing in front of the gift shop. Awww.

Bonus photo after the jump.