Football fans reading this blog can enjoy this article instead of working today.

They rank the 32 NFL franchises based on their all-time records. An ambitious task indeed. You’ll never guess who’s #1.
(Hint: I might not have posted this if I hadn’t been in agreement with it.)

(Non-football fans, you can safely ignore this article.)

Now, back to work.

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Filed under Sports on June 27, 2008 at 12:53 pm

If only I lived in San Francisco, so I could vote for the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

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Filed under Amusing (if only to me), I Hate Politics on June 25, 2008 at 2:10 pm

I just heard about The Long Now Foundation (via this interview about innovation, which in itself is worth reading, via the interviewer).

From the Long Now website:

The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today’s “faster/cheaper” mind set and promote “slower/better” thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.

…

The point is to explore whatever may be helpful for thinking, understanding, and acting responsibly over long periods of time.

…

[Footnote:] * The Long Now Foundation uses five digit dates, [sic] the extra zero is to solve the deca-millennium bug which will come into effect in about 8,000 years.

The organization’s board members include the illustrious Brian Eno.

I like the idea. Despite everything, hope and an overdeveloped sense of duty to try to make things better are two things that the world probably isn’t going to destroy in me.

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Filed under Culture, Life on June 25, 2008 at 1:47 pm

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Filed under Amusing (if only to me) on June 20, 2008 at 2:49 pm

Best baseball clip ever: Pat Venditte, switch pitcher for the single A Staten Island Yankees, decides which hand to use against a switch hitter, who is simultaneously deciding which side of the plate to hit from.

(For the conclusion of the at-bat, see the ESPN video on the video page.)

That’s right, I said “switch pitcher.” More on Venditte from the Sporting News. This is seriously the best thing ever. I hope Venditte gets to the majors. Seeing him in action would be more than worth the price of admission.

There are so many more points of decision in this scenario than the standard one with a switch-hitter and a non-ambidextrous pitcher. Normally, it’s easy: The conventional wisdom is to bat lefty against a right-hander, and bat righty against a left-hander.

But if you don’t know which hand he’s going to pitch with before you approach the plate, when do you decide which batter’s box to go stand in? And if you’re the pitcher, when do you decide which hand to throw with?
Continue reading "Baseball becomes chess"

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Filed under Amusing (if only to me), Sports, Video on June 20, 2008 at 9:39 am

I had no idea: Pete Rose and Alex Rodriguez have been talking hitting for years. It’s a good article.

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Filed under Sports on June 17, 2008 at 2:32 pm

I just found this out today: Rory Root, owner and proprietor of the great comic bookstore Comic Relief in Berkeley, died in May at age 50.

I loved his store and spent more than a few bucks there over the last few years. I actually didn’t even realize he was the owner until I heard this news today. And now I kick myself for never giving myself the chance to get to know him as a person. But his legacy lives on in Berkeley. See the site linked above for memorial service information (June 21st).

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Filed under Culture, Life on June 13, 2008 at 8:35 pm