Wendy93639
Wendy Hopkins aka Wendy93639.
Rebel. Writer. Photographer. Raconteur. Mostly Rebel.
To Pick My Brain: email me
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Dr. Suess has been teaching kids lessons for a very long time. Why have we not learned them yet?
INDIANAPOLISALOOZA Dylan Snee, 8, son of New York Giants player Chris Snee, plays in the confetti after the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. (Photo: Lucy Nicholson / Reuters via MSNBC.com)
“The average American loves his family. If he has any love left over for some other person, he generally selects Mark Twain.” — Thomas Edison
Superconducting disc locked in upside-down levitation.
From The New Scientist: Superstuff: When quantum goes big.
If you need more proof that playoffs don’t necessarily result in the better team coming home with the trophy, consider this. Brian MacDonald, Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the US Military Academy at Westpoint says since 2000 the team with the better regular season record in Major League Baseball and the NFL only won the playoff match-up 50-percent of the time. For the NHL, the statistic is even lower.
Billy Beane and Peter Brand reinvented the way the Oakland A’s evaluated players and Brad Pitt turned their story into the blockbuster movie, Moneyball. If an NHL team sees fit to hire Brian MacDonald, he won’t count wins…or even goals. He’ll start by counting shots, blocked shots, and missed shots.
“I don’t think there’s any coaches that go into the locker room saying, ‘We’re playing really well. We’re down 1-0. What we really need in this period is way more missed shots than we had in the previous two periods,” MacDonald told a full room at the Joint Mathematics Meetings.
MacDonald says shots, missed, blocked, or successful, are indicators of some very important things in hockey, like possession and territorial advantage. And, unlike goals, they’re not usually based on luck.
From Spence Cooper’s post at Friends Eat Blog:
For conventionally grown fruit, (grown with chemicals inputs), the PLU code on the sticker consists of four numbers. Organically grown fruit has a five-numeral PLU prefaced by the number 9. Genetically engineered (GM) fruit has a five-numeral PLU prefaced by the number 8.Isn’t that simple?
Excellent article from L.A. Magazine by Dave Gardetta about parking and how it affects our cities:
“Imagine what would happen at Dodger Stadium if every seat cost the same and went on sale game day,” says Dan Mitchell, an engineer at DOT. “Everyone would run for that seat behind home plate—it would be insanity. But that’s what we have now with parking—equal pricing.” This spring the DOT plans to introduce an $18.5 million smart wireless meter system based on Shoup’s theories. Called ExpressPark, the 6,000-meter array will be installed on downtown streets and lots, along with sensors buried in the pavement of every parking spot to detect the presence of cars and price accordingly, from as little as 50 cents an hour to $6. Street parking, like pork bellies, will be open to market forces. As blocks fill, prices will rise; when occupancy drops, so will rates. In an area like downtown, ideal for Shoup’s progressive pricing, people will park based on how much they’re willing to pay versus how far they are willing to walk to a destination. In a trendy area like Melrose Avenue’s shopping district, where parking on side streets is forbidden to visitors, Shoup would open those residential blocks to market-priced meters, wooing home owners by guaranteeing that meter profits would be turned over to them in the form of property tax deductions. (That benefit could add up to thousands of dollars a year per household.)”
In Defining Ideas, William Damon discusses the Death of Honesty
“In print, broadcast, and online news coverage, journalism has lost credibility with much of the public for its perceived biases in representing the facts. In civic affairs, political discourse is no longer considered to be a source of genuine information. Rather, it is assumed that leaders make statements merely to posture for effect, and not to engage in discussion or debate. In such an environment, facts may be manipulated or made up in service of a predetermined interest, not presented accurately and then examined in good faith. This is troubling, because civic leaders set the tone for communications throughout the public sphere.
Most troubling of all is that honesty is no longer a priority in many of the settings where young people are educated. The future of every society depends upon the character development of its young. It is in the early years of life—the first two decades especially—when basic virtues that shape character are acquired. Although people can learn, grow, and reform themselves at any age, this kind of learning becomes increasingly difficult as habits solidify over time. Honesty is a prime example of a virtue that becomes habitual over the years if practiced consistently—and the same can be said about dishonesty.”
Respite!
In a nod to years of griping from captive passengers, taxi officials agreed to let the owners of the new cabs decide whether to install the screens, which are required in the city’s 13,000 yellow taxis.
“With Taxi TV, there’s a diversity of opinion as to the value for passengers,” David S. Yassky, the taxi and limousine commissioner, said rather delicately. “So it makes more sense to leave it up to the taxi owners.”
Translation: no one liked them except for the media companies who drove their adoption. File Taxi TV with QR codes, Cuecat, mobile TV, TV check-in apps and other products spurred by marketing and media company desires rather than actual consumer demand or use cases.
I’d argue NFC payments (in their current form) fall under this umbrella as well. But that’s a longer post. (Via NYT)
Taxi TV can not disappear fast enough.
Rejoice! If we had a nickel for every time we fumbled to hit mute on Taxi TV, well, we’d sure have a lot of nickels, I’ll tell you.
So, which one are you?
(from: Futility Closet)
Look before you leap.
He who hesitates is lost.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Out of sight, out of mind.
You’re never too old to learn.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
A word to the wise is sufficient.
Talk is cheap.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Actions speak louder than words.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Many hands make light work.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Seek and ye shall find.
Curiosity killed the cat.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
The best things in life are free.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
People just get things wrong. They read them wrong, or remember them wrong or the way they want to, or the information they read right was wrong in the first place. You hear the same a fact a thousand times, but if you track down its origins, you find out all the repeaters are using the same source, and source zero was just guessing, or citing a highly questionable source or study. Or misciting a highly questionable source or study. Or confusing the details, so that by now, everybody’s under the erroneous impression that a shot of espresso contains more caffeine than a cup of coffee.
As a nonconformist prisoner in Cool Hand Luke, Newman bellows to God in the pouring rain: “Let me know you’re up there, c’mon! Love me, hate me, kill me, anything — just let me know it!”
(see more — Paul Newman: Renaissance Man)
My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.
Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She’s glad the birds are gone away,
She’s glad her simple worsted gray
Is silver now with clinging mist.
The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.
Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.
She had a good run.
[via The Grand Rapids Press]
