Five Things This Week: 2021, Week 18

The Mitchells vs. The MachinesNetflixI don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a long time. Just a really well-executed movie across the board. Seriously, drop what you’re doing and go watch it. I’ll wait… 
See! I was right!


Into the Mystical and Inexplicable World of Dowsing
Outside Magazine
In high school I worked on a maintenance crew out at Shoreline park in Mountain View. We planted trees, built retaining walls, installed fencing. One cold morning a contractor showed up with auger attached to the back of his Jeep to drill holes for fence posts along one of the overflow lots for Shoreline Amphitheater next door. Our supervisor got told him where we wanted to drill and the man took out two bent welding rods and proceeded to dowse the drilling spot to determine whether he’d hit anything. 17-year-old paranomal-obsessed Jordy was gobsmacked and pumped the guy for details about what dowsing. He said he does it before every dig just to be safe. He pointed out that back in 1985 when he was hired to drill for extra fencing around Stanford stadium in preparation for the Superbowl that year he told the foreman he couldn’t drill at the indicated site because there was an electrical run underground. The foreman insisted, saying the electrical run was safely a few feet away. The guy shrugged and drilled and hit a power line that blacked out the entire block.
This story reminded me of that guy. Science says dowsing isn’t real. I know what I saw – on that hillside he correctly located a gas line safely ten yards away from the proposed fence line. It wasn’t marked on the ground, but our supervisor verified it against a map later. Cool stuff.

How The Pentagon Started Taking UFOs Seriously
The New Yorker
Wow, first dowsing, now UFOs… Didn’t expect this to get all paranormal themed! A really well written article about, well, how the pentagon started taking UFOs seriously. It’s grounded in real people and no one is written off as crazy. UFOs may or may not be from across the galaxy, but it’s worth looking in to at least.

The Bad Batch
Disney+
Okay, I’ll be honest, this was the Star Wars series I didn’t think I needed. I mean, I’ve watched all of Clone Wars – even the continuation that came out last year (where the Bad Batch were introduced). I’ve watched all of Rebels. I even tried to get through Resistance – and maybe that was it. Maybe that was when I felt I’d reached Peak Animated Star Wars. 
Well, I was wrong. Beginning in the Star Wars timeline right about act 3 of Revenge of the Sith, it picks up at a dramatic time that hasn’t been explored too much (at least in film or cartoons). First two episodes have dropped as of this writing and I’m all in!

Sam Pilgrim
YouTube
“Sam Pilgrim (born 4 June 1990) is a professional freeride Mountain biker. Known for his missing tooth and his unique style of tricks, he gained international fame with his YouTube channel exposure under his name Sam Pilgrim in which he makes videos documenting his extreme stunts on various courses around the world. He is an FMB World Tour overall winner in 2013, becoming the first European athlete to win the competition since its establishment in 2010.”
That’s from his Wikipedia page. I went there after I watched too many videos on his YouTube page. 
Look, I know absolutely nothing about freeride mountain biking. But I know his videos are a lot of fun to watch. And he comes across as the nicest guy in the world. Seriously, this ridiculously talented guy has nothing but the kindest things to say about everyone else around him. It doesn’t matter it’s a mediocre trick — “That’s EPIC!” “Whoa, living the dream!” Go to his channel and watch a few of his videos. I think this was the first video I watched. Careful, it’s addictive.