We alerted you to the wackiness that was going on in the White Sox-Mariners game last night, but we feel it's necessary to mention it again today, because it really was one of the craziest games history. How crazy was it? Let's count the ways:
    
|
Jeffchisholm
Shared posts
06 Jun 17:55
Yesterday's White Sox-Mariners Game Was Historically Crazy
by Tom Ley
Jeffchisholm likes this
05 Jun 19:45
Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, Barack Obama.
This despite the fact that only 10% of the people in the country are left-handed.
In the previous 200 years there were only two presidents known to be left-handed - James Garfield and Harry Truman.
A New York Sun article discusses this interesting anomaly and speculates about why there has been an apparent surge in lefties; there may be biological and behavioral components, but it's probably just a statistical oddity.
Reposted from 2008.
Five of the last seven U.S. presidents have been left-handed
by Minnesotastan
Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, Barack Obama.This despite the fact that only 10% of the people in the country are left-handed.
In the previous 200 years there were only two presidents known to be left-handed - James Garfield and Harry Truman.
A New York Sun article discusses this interesting anomaly and speculates about why there has been an apparent surge in lefties; there may be biological and behavioral components, but it's probably just a statistical oddity.
Reposted from 2008.
Jeffchisholm likes this
04 Jun 15:27
3 Reasons the 'Diet Soda vs. Meth' Dental Study is B.S.
By XJ Selman Published: June 04th, 2013
Over the past several days, the Internet has exploded with a study that "proves" diet soda is as bad for your teeth as methamphetamine and crack cocaine. And these headlines splattered all across the Internet are shockingly distressing. "Drinking a f
Liachan, Jeffchisholm likes this
04 Jun 15:20
The War on Pot Is Both Insanely Racist and Insanely Expensive, New Report Says
by Mike Riggs
Across the United
States--north, east, south, west--blacks are more likely than
whites to be arrested for marijuana possession. That's the
conclusion of a new ACLU report that compares arrest data from 945
counties across the country.
"In 2010, the Black arrest rate for marijuana possession was 716 per 100,000, while the white arrest rate was 192 per 100,000," the ACLU says. That national disparity is reflected (to varying degrees) at the local level, "regardless of whether Blacks make up 50% or 5% of a county’s overall population." Blacks were more likely than whites to be arrested for pot in 908 of the 945 counties for which the ACLU crunched data. And that disparity--as you can see in the chart at right--has actually gotten worse over the years.
It's no secret that in big cities like D.C. and New York blacks are arrested for pot far more often than whites, despite comparable usage rates. But the ACLU is the first group to extrapolate arrest numbers across the country. The picture it paints is depressing:
In Lycoming and Lawrence, PA, and in Kenton County, KY, Blacks make up less than 5% of the population, but are between 10 and 11 times more likely than whites to be arrested. In Hennepin County, MN (includes Minneapolis), and Champaign and Jackson Counties, IL, Blacks are 12%, 13%, and 15% of the population, respectively, but are 9 times more likely to be arrested than whites. In Brooklyn, NY, and St. Louis City, MO, Blacks comprise 37% and 50% of the residents, respectively, and are 12 and 18 times more likely to be arrested than whites. In Chambers, AL, and St. Landry, LA, Blacks account for more than twice as many marijuana arrests (90% and 89%, respectively) than they do of the overallpopulation (39% and 42%, respectively). In Morgan and Pike Counties, AL, Blacks make up just over 12% and 37% of the population, respectively, but account for 100% of the marijuana possession arrests.
Yes, there's a county in the U.S. in which blacks make up 12 percent of the population and 100 percent of the marijuana arrests. The drug war is racist as hell. Just look at these charts:
The war on pot is also an insane misuse of resources:
- The ACLU estimates the total national expenditure of enforcing marijuana possession laws at approximately $3.613 billion. In 2010, states spent an estimated $1,747,157,206 policing marijuana possession arrests, $1,371,200,815 adjudicating marijuana possession cases, and $495,611,826 incarcerating individuals for marijuana possession.
- New York and California combined spent over $1 billion to enforce their marijuana laws in 2010. Add the amount of money that Texas, Illinois, Florida, New Jersey, Georgia, and Ohio spent, and the total is over $2 billion.
- Over half of the states (27) each spent over $30 million in 2010 enforcing marijuana possession laws.
- Even when discounting entirely all state fiscal spending on prison facilities, corrections expenditures associated with marijuana possession enforcement are significant — California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas, for example, each spent more than an estimated $20 million of state taxpayer money in 2010 housing individuals in local jail and county correctional facilities for possession of marijuana, with New York and California spending more than $65 million apiece.
The report also singles out the number of arrests for marijuana possession in relation to other drugs and drug crimes, which nets us this insane graph:
The local focus on pot is being driven by federal Byrne Justice Assistance Grants (for which Pres. Obama has restored funding after a dip during the Bush years):
JAG does not restrict the categories of arrests in its performance measures to felonies or serious drug cases. Rather, all drug arrests, including misdemeanors (such as for marijuana possession), must be reported tothe BJA as a condition of receiving federal funds.140 Because JAG does not limit the categories of arrests in its performance measures to felony arrests, or arrests for more serious drug offenses — as one would expect given the program’s original purpose of fighting serious, violent drug crime — police agencies are able to increase their productivity numbers by including arrests for mere possession, including marijuana possession. When submitting annual reports to the BJA, law enforcement agencies may improve the likelihood of receiving federal grants by measuring performance through the enforcement of low-level offenses, and thus perhaps demonstrating the “effectiveness” of BJA-funded activity. Thus, although JAG funding was initially designed to address major drug crime, by linking police budgets to drug law enforcement and including the number of drug arrests in states’ and law enforcement agencies’ productivity assessments, the Byrne Grant system enables — and, indeed, likely incentivizes — police departments to increase arrests for low-level drug possession.
The ACLU pulled its data from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Data, the Census, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the Bureau of Justice Statistics's Criminal Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts, and the Census Bureau’s Annual Government Finance Survey and Annual Survey of Public Employment. In some instances, ACLU researchers had to file freedom of information requests with state-level agencies. You can read the full report below. It contains some pretty crushing case studies of the collateral consequences of marijuana arrests.
Jeffchisholm likes this
03 Jun 20:27
Reflections on the Red Wedding
by Ilya Somin
(Ilya Somin)
This is a post about the Red Wedding, portrayed in the most recent episode of the HBO show Game of Thrones, and first described in George R.R. Martin’s book A Storm of Swords. If you want to avoid plot spoilers, don’t read below the fold. If you ignore this warning, don’t complain about spoilers.
Last night’s episode of Game of Thrones has already caused great deal of anguish among fans, because portrayed perhaps the most painful and controversial scene in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series: the Red Wedding, where heroic protagonist Robb Stark and his mother Catelyn Stark are treacherously slain at his uncle’s wedding feast. Having read the books, I knew exactly what was coming. But the episode was powerful enough that it was still painful to watch.
When I first read this scene in the book, I was so shocked and annoyed I didn’t want to read further. But, over time, I was persuaded that Martin made the right decision. This is perhaps the most crucial point in the book series, where it really became clear that George R.R. Martin was not going to follow fantasy convention and ensure a “happy ending.” The result also works because it was a logical consequence of Robb Stark’s and Catelyn’s various errors up to that point. Robb was forced to attend the Red Wedding in the first place because he had made a long series of foolish political decisions that isolated him from potential allies. Letting him off the hook would have undermined the believability of this fictional universe.
The episode also leads us to wonder whether Robb was really a better contender for the crown of Westeros than his enemies. Before I read the Red Wedding scene, I was – like most readers – inclined to sympathize with Robb and hoping that he prevails. His shocking demise led me to reflect on Robb’s shortcomings and the underlying message of the series much more seriously than I otherwise would have. Superficially, Robb seems more admirable than the Lannisters; he has a sense of honor, and is not personally sadistic like King Joffrey. But his ultimate objective is actually very similar to theirs: to serve the interests of his House. He does not go to war to give the people of Westeros a better government, but to avenge his father’s death and protect his family’s position of power. It seems unlikely that Stark rule would be much better for the average Westerosi than Lannister rule. By removing Robb and emphasizing the narrowness of his political vision, Martin highlights the futility of his war for the vast majority of the people. Eliminating Robb also focuses more of our attention on Daenerys Targaryen. With her determination to abolish slavery and promote freedom, she is the one contender for the crown who actually does have an agenda that might benefit more than a tiny clique of elites.
UPDATE: George R.R. Martin explains why he wrote the Red Wedding scene in this interesting interview.
Jeffchisholm likes this
03 Jun 20:24
This Is The Face Of A Baseball Player Who Just Felt His Career End
by Barry Petchesky
Ramon Ortiz, 40, spent all of 2012 in the minors working toward one more shot at the big leagues. He got it this year with Toronto, but he's been ineffective. Last night, after delivering a pitch, he felt his elbow go. Then, tears.
|
|
Jeffchisholm likes this
03 Jun 17:43
Farm Subsidies: The Temporary Program That Just. Won’t. Die.
by Peter Suderman
If you want an idea of how hard
it is to kill a government program, take a look at farm subsidies.
In theory, the $5 billion in direct payments made to farmers each
year are supposed to ease the burden on small farmers. In practice,
the program ends up paying a chunk of that money to wealthy
urbanites and others who are not exactly hard working small
farmers.
This weekend The Washington Post told the story of Lisa Sippel, who lives in a grand apartment building on Central Park West in Manhattan—and still got more than $9,000 in farm subsidies last year. The program doesn’t just pay rich New Yorkers. It also pays congressional representatives, including folks like Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.), who got more than 70 grand last year. (To his credit, he’s called for the program to be shut down.)
This is a program that doesn’t meet basic tests of public worthiness: The Government Accountability Office last year concluded that the program failed to align with the good-government principles of relevance, targeting, affordability, effectiveness, or oversight. The GAO report frames its conclusion politely: Continuing to make payments that don’t “align with principles significant to integrity, effectiveness, and efficiency in farm bill programs raises questions about the purpose and need for direct payments.” The question I think it raises the most is: Why the hell are we still spending this money?
I say “still,” because here’s the story’s kicker: This was a program that supposed to be temporary. Indeed, it was a program that was supposed to save the government money by ending farm subsidies a decade ago. Instead, it’s cost taxpayers some $46 billion more than it was supposed to.
And, at least for now, it’s still going. The Post tells the tale:
It has become a case study in how a temporary giveaway turns permanent, but it began in 1996 as an idea to save the government money.
A penny-pinching Republican Congress wanted to eliminate the complex system of subsidy payments that had begun in the New Deal, but it didn’t want to make farmers quit cold turkey.
So Congress devised a kind of nicotine patch for farm subsidies. The new program would pay out smaller and smaller amounts over seven years. Then it would end.
To make the changes more palatable to farmers, Congress loosened the requirements for getting the payments. They would be calculated based on a farmer’s past harvests. In the future, farmers could grow the same crops. Or different ones.
Or no crops at all. The money would still come.
“These are not welfare payments. These are declining market transition payments,” said then-Rep. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), the architect of the plan. When those payments finally ended, Roberts promised, Congress would have finally gotten “the dead hand of government out of the business of farming.”
Roberts’ seven-year plan held up. For about two years.
Then, in 1998, farm income fell. A drought crippled harvests. The farm lobby howled for help. Congress complied by adding $2.9 billion in extra payments. The declining transition payments would no longer decline before their end date.
In 2002, Congress got rid of the end date, too.
The obvious lesson here is that it’s really hard to truly kill any government program—even the kind that’s not effective, and even the kind that’s designed to die. And because of that, we ought to be extremely cautious before starting up any new programs, especially the kind that, like farm subsidies, create entrenched constituencies through payouts and other benefits. Even supposedly temporary programs can end up staying with us for a very long time.
Jeffchisholm likes this
03 Jun 13:49
5 Overused Twist Endings It's Time For Movies to Retire
By S Peter Davis,Michael Greenbrier Published: June 03rd, 2013
The twist ending is Hollywood shorthand for when you need to give people a reason to tell their friends about this incredible movie or episode of a TV show they have to see because the ending is just mind-blowing ("Dude, you'll never see it coming!"
Liachan, Jeffchisholm and -1 others like this
01 Jun 19:51
Former Pot Smoker Mayor Bloomberg Calls Medical Marijuana a "Hoax," Opposes Recreational Legalization
by Mike Riggs
New York
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has added another item to his list of
substances he would like no one to enjoy, ever: marijuana.
Bloomberg made his case against medical and recreational pot
this morning on the John Gambling radio show:
"Yeah, right, medical, come on," said Bloomberg. "There's no medical. This is one of the great hoaxes of all times."
The mayor has admitted to smoking weed in the past, and enjoying it, but that was a long time ago.
"The bottom line is, I'm told marijuana is much stronger today than it was 20 or 30 years ago," [Bloomberg said].
Bloomberg's opposition to medical and recreational marijuana is two-fold: first, his belief that the drug is stronger now.
"And number two, drug dealers have families to feed," he said. "If they can't sell marijuana, they'll sell something else. And the something else is gonna be worse. And, the push to legalize this is just wrongheaded."
"If you think about it, they say, 'Oh well it's not gonna hurt anybody, it doesn't lead to dependency,'" he continued. "Of course it does. You can argue about recreational things, but it's a very slippery path."
Last year, in Bloomberg's New York, the NYPD stopped 26,000 people for marijuana, and arrested 5,000 of them. It's fair to say that Mayor Bloomberg's "personal army" negatively affected far more lives in far more serious ways than are affected by consuming even today's strong marijuana.
Hell, even "third way" (read: prohibition lite) advocates are concerned with arresting people. Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg is arguing that drug dealers (read: the mostly black and hispanic people who are arrested by the NYPD under stop and frisk) have families to feed, so let's lock them up for selling pot rather lock them up for selling something stronger.
That kind of cynicism--whether staged or honest--is terrifying.
Jeffchisholm likes this
30 May 15:19
Austrian Econ Geek (and Wrestler!) Glenn "Kane" Jacobs Speaks Out on Possible Senate Bid
by Brian Doherty
As reported for the very first time here by me on May 16, Glenn Jacobs, the wrestler who performs under the name Kane, had the possibility of a GOP Senate primary challenge to Lamar Alexander in Tennessee in the back of his mind.
Kane himself had not yet spoken publicly about it, but he now has, and in this Daily Caller article (mentioned earlier on Reason 24/7 and our Hit and Run A.M. links) reveals why libertarian movement types might find him the best senator ever:
Jacobs says he’s always been interested in politics, but it wasn’t until around 2004 that he began reading economists of the libertarian “Austrian school
” such as Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard. He calls Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson “one of the best books anyone can read,” and also cites von Mises’ Human Actionand Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State as personal favorites. And after listening to Jacobs talk for a while, it becomes apparent that, somewhere along the way, this leather mask-wearing pro-wrestler, who is famous for performing something called a “chokeslam” on his opponents, became a full-blown libertarian nerd.
“My interest in economics
“The problem with Keynesianism is that we are not, human beings, are not numbers,” he continues. “We’re not atoms that bounce around without free will. Human beings have individual choice, we have free will, and we make decisions, and that’s what Austrian economics takes into account.”
Jeffchisholm likes this
30 May 15:12
Garin Cecchini: Sweet Swing & Stock Rising
by Al Skorupa
Garin Cecchini is the owner of one of the prettiest swings in the minor leagues. Over the last year and a half the Red Sox third base prospect has begun to turn his considerable natural talents into production. Recently Keith Law of ESPN.com even ranked Cecchini among his updated top 25 prospects (subscription required). He’s long been a favorite of mine and he may soon be a favorite for your fantasy team.
The Breakdown
Cecchini was no stranger to scouts entering his senior year of high school. He was the coach’s son at Barbe High School in Lake Charles, Lousiana. Barbe is a well known power program and Cecchini had done the showcase and tournament circuit as an underclassman. He was considered one of the best prep bats in the country entering the Spring of 2010, but saw his stock drop after he tore the ACL in his right knee that March. Boston always seems eager to scoop up players dropping late and they gladly nabbed Cecchini in the 4th round. Hard slot rules for draft picks didn’t exist at this point and the Red Sox anted up $1.3 million (READ: 1st round money) to buy him out of an LSU commitment.
Due to the knee injury Cecchini didn’t make his pro debut until midway through 2011 with short season Lowell in the New York Penn League. He got off to a scorching hot start (.298/.398/.500) and was generating a lot of buzz around the league before a stray pitch broke his forearm. Boston sent him to Low-A Greenville in the Sally League to begin 2012 and he picked up right where he left off, hitting .305/.394/.433. He also turned heads by stealing 51 bases that year. Cecchini progressed to High-A Salem in the Carolina League this year and is now batting an absurd .355/.465/.594. He’s already set a new season high for home runs with 5 and has swiped 12 bags. Almost as impressive is the BB/K ratio. Cecchini has more walks this year than strikeouts (28:25) and for his career he has 106 walks and 134 strikeouts.
Cecchini has that smooth, pretty swing that many ballplayers spend their lives trying to achieve. It’s a simple load that generates great bat speed. The bat head takes a short path to the ball and he repeats his hitting mechanics well generally. He’s good at working pitchers into a favorable count and will usually take a free pass if you give it to him. Despite the fantastic BB:K ratio and a 12.5% BB rate as a pro, Cecchini’s approach does still need fine tuning. He has problems recognizing breaking and offspeed pitches and will sometimes expand his zone and chase – especially low. I didn’t see it, but I’ve been told he has particular trouble against left-handed pitching. Ultimately I still think Cecchini has a future plus hit tool. This is a very intelligent batter who makes adjustments and should continue to adapt and improve. Power is perhaps a bigger question mark, but it should come eventually. Cecchini has some leverage in his swing but isn’t a natural power hitter. His swing plane is a nice line drive gap stroke. With his bat speed and ability to square the ball up he does hit the ball hard but he’s not looking to drive it with authority. This hitting skillset can result in fringe average power anyway, but once he learns to identify and look for pitches he can drive he could top out at 20 or more home runs a season. It might not show up for a few seasons in the majors, but he’s such a good hitter that I expect the over the fence power to eventually blossom.
In terms of speed, Cecchini’s stolen base totals are somewhat deceiving on their face. His foot speed is good but not great. He’s not at all a burner or some kind of poor man’s Billy Hamilton. This is another area where Cecchini’s baseball smarts make an impact as he picks good spot and gets great jumps. He’s a well coached player; a gamer who knows the game and does the little things well. These skills will equate to stolen bases in the big leagues too, but it will be more of a challenge and I doubt they’ll be coming anywhere near as frequently against more polished pitchers. I could see him stealing 15 stolen bases yearly perhaps. It’s difficult to project though, and he could surprise us. Stolen bases aren’t all about speed and Cecchini is a great reminder of that fact. In high school he was a shortstop, but one with fringy tools for the position who was widely expected to end up at the hot corner. The adjustment to third base as a pro has not been all that smooth, but I feel a lot of that is due to the time lost to injuries. He’s more stiff with his actions in the field than you’d expect and I have to chalk that up to inexperience playing that position. Cecchini has all the tools to be at least a solid average third baseman. He’s got decent range for third and good hands. The arm is strong and accurate enough, but isn’t a standout arm for a third baseman. I expect him to continue to improve as he further acclimates to the position. As a backup plan I think he’d be ok in a corner outfield but lacks the footspeed and straight ahead speed to stand out there. His tools and his temperament seem better suited to the infield.
The Path to Playing Time
Cecchini isn’t ready to help now, but he’s dominating A-Ball to such an extent that he’s likely accelerated his timeline. The adjustment to Double-A pitching is one of the most challenging jumps in the minors and it wouldn’t be shocking for it to be prove to be a speed bump. The two big external issues here are Will Middlebrooks and Xander Bogaerts. The Red Sox love Middlebrooks – and understandably so. He’s a quality hitter, person and teammate with a lot of raw power. His approach has always worried me and I wonder if it will continue to mitigate his tools. Middlebrooks is on pace to be getting pretty expensive right around the time Cecchini should be hitting the majors so it’s not necessarily the conundrum you would think anyway. Personally, I see Bogaerts as a shortstop. He’s not a great shortstop but there are plenty of worse defenders around. There’s no reason he can’t play there for Boston for a number of years. If Cecchini continues to perform he’s going to force his way into the organization’s plans one way or another. As for an ETA, if Cecchini went a full season at Salem (High-A), Double-A and Triple-A that would put him on pace for 2016. I could see him beating that time table and perhaps arriving midseason 2015 with a couple appearances before that. Middlebrooks projects to be entering his 2nd arb. year in 2016.
- On 40 Man Roster: No
- Options Remaining: 3
What to Expect
Cecchini could be a .300 hitter with 15+ home run power early in his career, with a crescendo to 20+ homers. 15 stolen bases is possible and perhaps more, but he won’t be a big stolen base threat.
- Mixed League Value: Solid. A high AVG and good all around counting numbers is ever a welcome addition to your fantasy starting nine (or ten or 14 or whatever!).
- AL Only League Value: Strong. Cecchini can fill up the statline though he won’t dominate any categories. He’s not going to be an elite option in any format, but his consistency and well rounded skill set could make him that guy you wait on and are happy to get a few rounds later.
- Ottoneu Value: Strong. Profile for consistent Ottoneu production thanks to his well balanced skill set.
- OBP League Value: Cecchini is a tough out who is going to hit for a high AVG and walk a lot. His value gets a nice boost in OBP leagues.
Marc Hulet ranked Cecchini the 5th best prospect in the Red Sox system this offseason
Mike Newman looked at Cecchini in this article last November
My buddy Chris Blessing of Bullpen Banter profiled Cecchini in this piece.
Thanks for reading -AS
Jeffchisholm likes this
30 May 15:09
Kids Asleep In Awkward Places
by awkward
Embed slideshow in your own website
Paste the below code into your site to show this slideshow in your page.
|
|
Jeffchisholm likes this
29 May 19:22
Kenyan high jumpers
by Jason Kottke
This is a video of a pair of Kenyan high schoolers competing in a high jump contest, skillfully using a throwback technique rarely seen these days.
Cool, right? They're using a scissors-jump technique that was popular in international competitions prior to the early 1900s, when landing areas were sand pits rather than the huge foam pads you typically see today. Various techniques followed the scissors-jump, with each making higher jumps possible until Dick Fosbury invented his Flop in 1968. All international competitors use the Flop today.
Interestingly though, the Fosbury Flop is not the instantly disruptive innovation I'd always thought it was. Fosbury started sailing over the bar backwards as a senior in high school in the mid-1960s. He refined his invention for years until his gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics attracted the attention of other jumpers, who recognized the potential of the technique. But if you look at the progression of high jump world records, there was no huge jump (sorry) in record heights because of the Flop. Ten years after the Flop's big-stage debut at the Mexico City Games, the world record holder Vladimir Yashchenko still used the straddle technique. And in the 1980 Olympics, three high jump finalists didn't use the Flop. Like most new promising technologies, the Flop took time to catch on, even though 45 years on, it's the clearly superior technique. (via @dunstan)
Tags: Dick Fosbury sports track and field video
Jeffchisholm likes this
29 May 16:53
School Board Reprimands Teacher for Telling Students About Their Right to Remain Silent
by Jacob Sullum
Yesterday John Dryden, the Illinois teacher who
warned his students that they did not have to answer questions
about alcohol and drug use on a survey distributed by their high
school, got a warning of his own. The Kane County
Chronicle
reports that the Batavia School Board voted to issue "a written
warning of improper conduct" to Dryden, who also was docked a day's
pay. Batavia School Superintendent Jack Barshinger explained
Dryden's offense this way:
In this case, district teachers, social workers, guidance counselors, psychologists and others worked together for over a year to select a data-gathering instrument that could be used to determine what social or emotional issues our high school students are experiencing, and whether individual students could benefit from new or increased supportive intervention by our staff. These purposes were shared with our parents and our teachers.
The issue before the board was whether one employee has the right to mischaracterize the efforts of our teachers, counselors, social workers and others; and tell our students, in effect, that the adults are not here to help, but that they are trying to get you to "incriminate" yourselves.
Barshinger seems to think it is inconceivable that there could be anything wrong with the survey, since people with good intentions worked on it for "over a year." Yet the survey forms that Dryden picked up from his mailbox 10 minutes before his first class on April 18 not only asked about illegal behavior; they had students' names on them, thereby destroying any assurance of confidentiality. Even if the people who selected the survey were not trying to get students to incriminate themselves, that was the inevitable result if students who had broken the law by drinking or using illegal drugs answered the questions candidly. What guarantee did they have that their answers would not be used against them, if only to pressure them into accepting the "supportive intervention" deemed appropriate by the school? As Ronald Reagan was fond of saying, much damage can be caused by people from the government who are "here to help."
"These kids need to know that the U.S. Constitution is there for them," Batavia Alderman Alan Wolff told the school board yesterday, referring to the Fifth Amendment's ban on compelled self-incrimination, which Dryden mentioned as he distributed the survey forms. Another Batavia High School teacher, Scott Bayer, said Dryden was not alone in thinking it was important to let students know they were not obligated to answer the questions if doing so involved admitting crimes. "Every teacher I talked to addressed students in the same way," he said. Perhaps we can expect more written warnings of improper conduct.
Jeffchisholm likes this
28 May 18:27
Miguel Cabrera's fantastic plate coverage
by Jason Kottke
Earlier this spring, Drew Sheppard created a layered animated GIF of Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish's pitching delivery. This type of GIF has become something of a meme on baseball sites. The latest to get the layered GIF treatment is Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera hit for the Triple Crown last year (led the league in batting average, RBIs, and home runs) and is trying to do it again this year. Sheppard put together this GIF to show "Cabrera's impressive all fields hitting and ability to cover the full strike zone with power":
As the image plainly shows, Cabrera can launch home runs from anywhere...even a pitch that's almost a foot off the plate. Are they showing this stuff on SportsCenter yet? Can only be a matter of time. (thx, david)
Tags: baseball Drew Sheppard Miguel Cabrera sports
Jeffchisholm likes this
22 May 18:17
50 Common Misquotations
by Jason English
"Mental Floss has the best channel on YouTube" —Betty White
...is an example of a misquotation.
This week John Green discusses 50 others and what was really said.
|
|
Jeffchisholm likes this
22 May 01:48
With Government Abuses, The Problem is the Power, Not the Person
by J.D. Tuccille
As delicious as it is to watch White House
minion
Jay Carney squirm under questioning about the targeting of
journalists, and to hear that tax agency apparatchik Lois Lerner
will
take the Fifth when called before a congressional committee
investigating improper scrutiny of conservative groups by the IRS,
it's important to remember that the problem lies in the existence
of the power that's being abused, not just in the individuals doing
the abusing. To punish Justice Department officials, IRS agents, or
even the Obama administration might bring an end to the current
round of scandals, but it will inevitably leave us repeating some
version of this exercise in a few years, at best. The end goal
should be to strip politicians and government officials of the
power to punish journalists and political opponents — not to make
sure that Republicans get their (next) turn.
Last week, the most excellent journalist and scrutinizer of creatures governmental, James Bovard, had a piece in the Wall Street Journal outlining the Internal Revenue Service's long history of dirty tricks on behalf of whoever is in power. Wrote he:
Many Republicans are enraged over revelations in recent days that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative nonprofit groups with a campaign of audits and harassment. But of all the troubles now dogging the Obama administration—including the Benghazi fiasco and the Justice Department's snooping on the Associated Press—the IRS episode, however alarming, is also the least surprising. As David Burnham noted in "A Law Unto Itself: The IRS and the Abuse of Power" (1990), "In almost every administration since the IRS's inception the information and power of the tax agency have been mobilized for explicitly political purposes."
Bovard sketches how "President Franklin Roosevelt used the IRS to harass newspaper publishers who were opposed to the New Deal" and "Kennedy ... used the IRS to strong-arm companies into complying with "voluntary" price controls. Steel executives who defied the administration were singled out for audits." He points out that the "IRS was ... given Nixon's enemies list to, in the words of White House counsel John Dean, 'use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.'"
We discovered in the 1990s, Bovard points out, that not just presidents, but members of Congress, had used the IRS to target political enemies for audits.
Likewise, the Justice Department's surveillance of Associated Press reporters and Fox News correspondent James Rosen was no isolated incident. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation points out, media screams may have been raised when professional journalists found themselves on the receiving end of security-state tactics, but the government has been wielding such secretive and intrusive power against the general public for years. Write Cindy Cohn and Trevor Timm for EFF:
The AP detailed in its letter to the Justice Department how its privacy was grossly invaded even though the government accessed only the call records of its reporters and not the content of their conversations. We completely agree. Unfortunately, this isn’t just a problem in the AP investigation. Law enforcement agencies routinely demand and receive this information about ordinary Americans over long periods of time without any court involvement whatsoever, much less a full warrant.
The magic phrase "national security" is often invoked to justify these transgressions — often in transparently convenient ways (Attorney General Holder claimed the AP had put "lives at risk" with the story that sparked the scrutiny, even though John Brennan had said there was no such risk.) But intrusive surveillance is increasingly wielded in routine criminal investigations with no appeal to a supposedly higher purpose that trumps constitutional protections.
It's a joy watching government officials dodge questions, insist on blissful ignorance of the world's evils and invoke their right against self-incrimination. Such great theater. But, at the end of the day, disposing of those officials without doing anything else just clears the way for a new crop of power-abusers and useful drones effectively identical to the last batch, though with a slightly different list of targets for mistreatment.
We should get rid of the abusers sure, if only to remind the next batch that there can be consequences. But it's much more important to get rid of the agencies and powers that are inevitably abused, year after year, so that we don't have to act surprised, yet again, that we can't trust government officials to use power with restraint.
Jeffchisholm likes this
21 May 22:02
Be Civil, You Lynch Mob Supporters
by Eugene Volokh
(Eugene Volokh)
From James Taranto (thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer):
In a CNN.com column Donna Brazile [writes] with a sinister twist:
A government of, by, and for the people requires that people talk to people, that we can agree to disagree but do so in civility. If we let the politicians and those who report dictate our discourse, then our course will be dictated.
Why am I alarmed? Because two “scandals”–the IRS tax-exempt inquiries and the Department of Justice’s tapping of reporters’ phones–have become lynch parties. And the congressional investigation of Benghazi may become a scandal in itself.
In one breath Brazile urges everyone to be civil and respectful. In the next she labels her opponents with one of the most racially incendiary metaphors in the American lexicon. And note that she is casting government officials who abused their power as lynching victims.
I tend to be skeptical that there is much scandal in the Justice Department investigations of reporters in leak cases, see Orin’s post about the AP matter and mine about the Fox News matter. (Conversely, Brazile seems skeptical that the IRS “scandal” deserves scare quotes, since she writes, “The IRS scandal has sparked bipartisan outrage that should require a bipartisan solution.”) But Taranto’s criticism of the faux call for “civility” strikes me as quite apt. Let me also point to this passage from Brazile’s column:
But in our partisan self-righteousness, we’re destroying our foundations of government more effectively than al Qaeda ever could. Whether it’s the media or the politicians, the churning of partisan passion into anger, indeed hate, has an ulterior purpose: If Obama’s administration is constantly engaged in fighting for its existence, the governing comes to a halt, and his agenda will go nowhere.
I’m sure Brazile sincerely believes that partisan self-righteousness and the churning of partisan passion into anger, indeed hate, ought to be removed from American politics. But I find it hard to take such calls from party officials seriously given the common mainstream Democratic reactions to the Bush Administration (prefigured, of course, by many mainstream Republican reactions — which I think were often over-the-top — during the Clinton Administration, Democratic reactions during the Reagan Administration, and likely more before then). I like civility, and when there are particular demonstrably uncivil statements, they should be condemned (as I’ve tried to do on occasion). But generic calls for civility against self-righteousness and “anger, indeed hate” of the government, in my experience, tend not to be very helpful to the public debate that they are supposed to be trying to elevate.
Jeffchisholm likes this
21 May 04:38
The myth of crack babies
by Jason Kottke
In the 1980s, crack babies were all over the news. They were supposed to have severe mental and physical problems, overwhelm our schools and health care institutions, and cost us billions of dollars. None of this happened because the media latched onto some limited preliminary research and blew it all out of proportion.
Retro Report has gone back to look at the story of these children from the perspective of those in the eye of the storm -- tracing the trajectory from the small 1985 study by Dr. Ira Chasnoff that first raised the alarm, through the drumbeat of media coverage that kept the story alive, to the present where a cocaine-exposed research subject tells her own surprising life story. Looking back, Crack Babies: A Tale from the Drug Wars shows the danger of prediction and the unexpected outcomes that result when closely-held convictions turn out to be wrong.
This video was produced by a new news organization called Retro Report, which revisits old news stories with a sober eye..."a smart, engaging and forward-looking review of these high-profile events". In addition to the crack babies story, they've also explored the New York garbage barge and the Tailhook scandal.
Tags: drugs journalism video
Jeffchisholm likes this
20 May 14:50
5 Other Sites Yahoo Bought
by Chris Higgins
Today Yahoo! announced that it's buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Let's look back at some other sites taken over by Yahooligans...and see how it turned out for them.
1. GeoCities ($3.6 billion)
Status: dead (except in Japan)
Way back in January 1999, Yahoo! bought GeoCities, the poster child of '90s web communities. Divided into goofy topic-driven "neighborhoods," GeoCities was the place to go to build your first website, cram it full of "under construction" animated GIFs, and then forget about it for a decade.
The purchase was a stock swap valued at $3.57 billion at the time (both Yahoo! and GeoCities were public companies...though GeoCities had "only" a $2.3 billion market cap). When the deal was announced, CNN reported in the acquisition story:
In a separate announcement, GeoCities posted a net loss of $8.4 million, or 27 cents a share, for the fourth quarter ended, compared with losses of $3 million, or 14 cents a share in the year-ago period.
Um. Yeah. Anyhoo, in October 2009 Yahoo! shut down GeoCities, prompting Wired to remember the site and its estimated 38 million user-generated pages with a walk down memory lane, including popups and auto-playing music. A partial archive of GeoCities is available from Archive.org -- maybe your high school website is in there!
2. Flickr (estimated $40 million)
Status: still ticking!
In 2004, Canadian gaming company Ludicorp launched Flickr as a photo-sharing site. It was an outgrowth of tech the company had developed for its planned massively multiplayer online game Game Neverending, which, ironically, ended before it launched -- Flickr proved far more popular.
Ludicorp was headed by Stewart Butterfield and his then-wife Caterina Fake, and the company's sale to Yahoo! was estimated at around $40 million. Butterfield went on to create another massively multiplayer game in 2011, called Glitch, which closed due to lack of player interest. On the bright side, Flickr is still flicking away, was an estimated 6 billion images as of 2011.
3. del.icio.us ($15-30 million...ish)
Status: alive; sold to AVOS Systems
Delicious launched in 2003 as a social bookmarking site, using the amusingly awesome domain name "del.icio.us" (that .us on the end is the top-level domain for United States websites). In its heyday, Delicious was an exceedingly popular way to save and share bookmarks, and it boasted millions of users (and millions of dollars of investment, including some from Amazon.com).
Yahoo! picked up Delicious for an undisclosed sum, estimated to be somewhere from $15-30 million, in December 2005. In 2010, a leaked Yahoo! document revealed that the service was slated to be "sunsetted" (corporate speak for "shut down"), leading users to flee to competing sites. In a surprise move, Yahoo! instead sold the service to AVOS Systems in 2011, which promptly removed a bunch of features and re-launched the service.
4. Broadcast.com ($5 billion)
Status: functionally dead; parts folded into Yahoo! Music
Getty Images
In April of 1999, Yahoo! announced a deal to acquire Broadcast.com; the sale closed in July, just months before the dot-com crash in early 2000. The sale made many Broadcast.com employees "paper millionaires" (including a few billionaires) by granting them massive Yahoo! stock options -- the only bummer was that most of those employees couldn't exercise the stock options until after Yahoo! stock tanked, along with virtually the entire dot-com stock sector.
Broadcast.com was an early streaming radio site, and its sale succeeded in making Mark Cuban a billionaire -- he now owns the Dallas Mavericks, Magnolia Pictures, and Landmark Theatres. Cuban used some of his Yahoo! loot to buy a Gulfstream V jet online in October 1999 for $40 million, a feat that earned him a Guinness World Record for the largest single e-commerce transaction.
Broadcast.com holds the distinction of being Yahoo!'s largest dollar-value acquisition.
5. Upcoming.org (terms undisclosed)
Status: dead
In an attempt to cash in on the "local-content market" (yeah, this was a hot new thing eight years ago), Yahoo! bought Upcoming.org, a social events site, in 2005. I actually used Upcoming.org at that time, and it was a great way to find local events, add them to your calendar, and even see what your friends were going to do after work.
Upcoming.org founder Andy Baio wrote that Yahoo! let the site stagnate after Baio and his compatriots left the company. Earlier this year, Yahoo! announced that it would close Upcoming.org with just 11 days notice, leading Baio to ask for help in archiving the site. The Archive Team sprang into action and used a distributed network of volunteers to scrape the site, saving its catalogue of events. Baio wrote: "It's hard to believe now, but there was a time when Yahoo was actually pretty cool, in its own dorky Silicon Valley way."
Good Luck, Tumblr!
Although Yahoo!'s track record with acquisitions is spotty, a Yahoo! buyout can be a good thing. Looking through Wikipedia's long list of Yahoo! mergers and acquisitions, some stick out as extremely good choices -- for instance, the $92 million acquisition of Four11 (aka RocketMail), which formed the foundation of the still-popular Yahoo! Mail. Plus, let's face it, Mental Floss is on Tumblr, so they've got that going for 'em.
|
|
Jeffchisholm likes this
16 May 16:01
Home Sweet Home Key Holder
by HolyCool
A lovely puzzle-like wooden key holder that will ensure you don’t lose your keys around the house again.
Christian, Jeffchisholm likes this
16 May 16:00
Media Matters v. Media Matters
by Jonathan H. Adler
(Jonathan H. Adler)
Media Matters raised some eyebrows when it issued talking points defending the Justice Department’s seizure of AP phone records. After all, it seemed odd that an ostensibly liberal media watchdog would side with the government over the press. So the Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple asked Media Matters for comment, prompting this reply from Media Matters David Brock:
Media Matters for America monitors, analyzes, and corrects conservative misinformation in the media and was not involved with the production of the document focusing on the DOJs investigation. That document was issued by “Message Matters,” a project of the Media Matters Action Network, which posts, through a different editorial process and to a different website, a wide range of potential messaging products for progressive talkers to win public debates with conservatives.
As a media watchdog organization, Media Matters for America recognizes that a free press is necessary for quality journalism and essential to our democracy. A healthy news media is what we fight for every day. Yesterday, 52 news organizations signed a letter to the Department of Justice expressing concerns that the DOJ’s broad subpoena of Associated Press reporters’ phone records runs counter to First Amendment principles and injures the practice of journalism. We stand with those news organizations and share their concerns.
Got that? Media Matters for America, the media watchdog organization, “stand[s] with those news organizations” criticizing the Justice Department’s actions and “share[s] their concerns.” But Media Matters Action Network, which describes itself as a “partner project” of Media Matters for America, is issuing talking points defending the Justice department against criticism from “those news organizations” in order to help “progressive talkers to win public debates with conservatives.” Got it? And, for what it’s worth, David Brock is the Chair of both organizations.
Jeffchisholm likes this
13 May 16:16
LINK: Bryce Harper’s Swing
by Dave Cameron
On Saturday, the Washington Post published, well, I’m not sure what to call it exactly. It’s not an article. It’s part-interview, part-analysis, part-video, part-comparison. Whatever it is, it’s amazing. This is the kind of stuff that happens when you combine quality journalism with the advantages of technology. You owe it to yourself to check out this production by Adam Kilgore and friends. Even if you’re tired of the amount of coverage Bryce Harper gets, you should read this just for what it shows about what baseball journalism can be. And I, for one, am not at all tired of Bryce Harper.
The realization came to Rick Schu this spring as he sat in front of a screen, collecting baseball swings. All winter, Schu, the Washington Nationals’ hitting coordinator, had been watching “Baseball” by Ken Burns, a Christmas gift from his wife. He burned clips from the DVD and compiled classic swings — Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Babe Ruth. As he watched Ruth, Schu paused the video and asked himself a question: Didn’t Bryce Harper have a swing just like that?
Schu scanned through video and found film of Harper hitting. He arranged clips of Harper and Ruth side-by-side on the monitor and stopped at the moment each hitter’s bat connected with a pitch. In each still picture, he saw a stiff front leg, an uncoiling torso and a back foot lifting off the ground. “Wow,” he thought. “That’s identical.”
“They’ve got that exact same swing at contact point,” Schu said later.
Read the rest at The Washington Post.
Jeffchisholm likes this
09 May 18:47
Infographic: Is Your State's Highest-Paid Employee A Coach? (Probably)
by Reuben Fischer-Baum
You may have heard that the highest-paid employee in each state is usually the football coach at the largest state school. This is actually a gross mischaracterization: Sometimes it is the basketball coach.
|
|
Jeffchisholm likes this
09 May 17:12
Alexander Ovechkin Would Prefer Not To Play Defense
by Tom Ley
Jeffchisholm likes this
09 May 17:12
E-Verify Makes Working for a Living a Privilege Granted by the Government
by J.D. Tuccille
What could be more American
than going to the feds, hat in hand, for permission to take a job?
The E-Verify system,
run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is intended to
check the legal eligibility of job applicants to work in the United
States. It compares I-9 forms that applicants fill out with records
maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the
Social Security Administration, and then delivers a thumbs-up or
thumbs-down to their aspirations to earn an above-board paycheck.
Mandatory for hires by the federal government, federal contractors
and by all employers in several states, E-Verify is well on its way
to becoming a national requirement. It's also, as the American
Civil Liberties Union
points out, a big step toward creating a "permission society"
in which the fundamental business of putting food on the table is a
privilege to be granted or revoked by the government.
In a white paper detailing ten important objections (PDF)to E-Verify, the ACLU states:
E-Verify turns the relationship between the government and the people upside-down. In order to stop the tiny percentage of those starting jobs in the United States each year who are unauthorized workers, E-Verify would force everyone in the nation to obtain affirmative permission from the government before performing work and earning money.
The other objections are also troubling, but they all follow-on from this one. The ACLU outlines the privacy and security dangers inherent in compiling sensitive information, including identifying data and employment history, in one database. Those risks already exist with existig government databases, but further centralization "would be a goldmine for intelligence agencies, law enforcement, licensing boards, and anyone who wanted to use this vast trove of detailed information for other purposes."
Note that IRS agents and police officers have already been caught abusing databases for personal reasons as well as criminal purposes. There's no reason to think the E-Verify system will be immune.
One potential official abuse pointed out by the ACLU is the expansion of E-Verify "into a comprehensive national identity system that would be used to track and control Americans in ways that have never been done before." We're already well on the way there with Social Security numbers. The E-Verify system could well formalize the requirementf for a national ID — especially now that drivers licenses are included in the database, paving the way for their de facto status as national ID cards.
The ACLU also cautions that employers' commonly violate E-Verify rules by restricting new hires' training and work assignments until final confirmation of their employability comes through. But that makes unfortunate sense, considering the costs involved in committing to new workers — investments that could be lost if the system ultimately kicks back a thumbs-down.
And let's not forget that we're talking about a vast database maintained by the government, an institution motivated more by inertia and incompetence than malevolence (although there's plenty of that, too). How many people will be rendered unemployable because the database is rife with shitty information that is difficult or impossible to correct. Says the ACLU:
Citizenship and Immigration Services report s that in fiscal year 2012, about 1 of every 400 cases submitted to E-Verify resulted in a TNC determination that was subsequently reversed after appeal by the worker. We have seen what many of those people likely go through to get those errors corrected. And while 1 in 400 may not sound high at first blush, in a nation of more than 300 million people and 154 million workers, that would be about 400,000 people improperly deprived of the right to make a living.
There's a lot to dislike about the E-Verify system. And it all starts with a requirement that you get the government's permission to work.
Jeffchisholm likes this
09 May 17:11
Guantanamo detention facility = $900,000 per year. Per inmate.
by Minnesotastan
As reported by Reuters, via MSN:
The Pentagon estimates it spends about $150 million each year to operate the prison and military court system at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, which was set up 11 years ago to house foreign terrorism suspects. With 166 inmates currently in custody, that amounts to an annual cost of $903,614 per prisoner.Your tax money at work.
By comparison, super-maximum security prisons in the United States spend about $60,000 to $70,000 at most to house their inmates, analysts say. And the average cost across all federal prisons is about $30,000, they say...
The huge cost of running the prison and judicial complex stem from its offshore location at a 45-square-mile U.S. Naval Base on the southeastern coast of Cuba. Because ties between the two countries are almost nonexistent, almost everything for the facilities has to be ferried in from outside.
When the military tribunals are in session, everyone from judges and lawyers to observers and media have to fly into Guantanamo on military aircraft. Food, construction materials and other goods are shipped in from outside, experts say.
But despite the high cost of the camp, and despite the fact that Republicans traditionally demand belt-tightening by the federal government, a Republican aide with the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee said there was little point in asking if the price was worth it because "there isn't an alternative at the moment."..
Among current inmates, nine have been charged with crimes or convicted, 24 are considered eligible for possible prosecution, 86 have been cleared for transfer or release and 47 are considered too dangerous for release but are not facing prosecution. ..
General John Kelly, the head of Southern Command, which is responsible for Guantanamo, told a House of Representatives panel in March that he needed some $170 million to improve the facilities for troops stationed at the base as part of detention operations. Kelly said the living conditions were "pretty questionable" and told the panel, "We need to take care of our troops."
Jeffchisholm likes this
09 May 17:11
LINK: Angel Hernandez, Lousy Minor League Umpire in 1991
by Dave Cameron
You’ve probably heard that MLB umpire Angel Hernandez is in the news again, because he’s awful at his job and does embarrassing things to the sport on a too regular basis. You may also know that Hernandez has something of a reputation for drawing attention to himself, and is annually rated as one of the worst umpires by Major League players.
What you might not know, and what I didn’t know until I saw Joe Posnanski retweet something from Buffalo News writer Mike Harrington, is that Hernandez’s reputation for brutal calls and a total lack of professionalism goes back over 20 years. Harrington linked to this article written in 1991 by Bob DiCesare, covering Hernandez’s performance in a Triple-A game between the Buffalo Bisons and Iowa Cubs. The piece is brutal in its honesty, and rings true even today.
Hernandez is reputed around the league to be an umpire who yearns for the spotlight. He attracted notice in Saturday’s series opener by calling a phantom balk on 13-year big-league veteran Rick Sutcliffe. Hernandez attracted more attention Sunday with a call at home plate that replays proved blatantly incorrect…
“I thought we got cheated on that play at home plate,” Kelleher said. “It showed on the replay that he was out. We had a legitimate beef, and he’s got to know about it.”
Read the whole piece. That a guy could develop that kind of reputation in the minor leagues, then go on to have a long career as a Major League umpire, is embarrassing to the sport.
Jeffchisholm likes this
17 Apr 20:51
Insane wingsuit flight through a hole in a mountain
by Jason Kottke
Watch as wingsuit pilot Alexander Polli flies through a hole in a mountain. And it's not that big of a hole either.
Watching this, I kept seeing an image of Wile E. Coyote wearing an Acme-brand wingsuit smacking into the side of the mountain. (via stellar)
Tags: Alexander Polli sports video
Strider_short, Aleispani likes this