Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Follow Up: Skeletons in the Closet
After seeing the Max Kellerman rap video I posted recently, my good friend Firefly steered me over to the SI online archives, and a long, wonderful piece about Max's brother Sam, the other half of the music act.
I had been vaguely aware that Sam was dead, but the article was a real eye-opener not just about the circumstances surrounding his death, but about the details of his life. It is absolutely worth reading for anyone that has a brother, and anyone who has ever lost anyone they care about.
I had been vaguely aware that Sam was dead, but the article was a real eye-opener not just about the circumstances surrounding his death, but about the details of his life. It is absolutely worth reading for anyone that has a brother, and anyone who has ever lost anyone they care about.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
A Little Off the Top 04/17/2008
I've been neglecting my link dump lately, so let's get right to it:
Slate has an interesting look at game theory as it applies to dinner party guests. It turns out, ladies, that I'm getting more desirable with age. Better get me while you still can...
UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law has declined to fire John Yoo, best known for authoring a Justice Department memo justifying the US military's use of torture in Iraq. Though this isn't the place I'dve chosen to make a stand, in some ways it's nice to see the alma mater standing up to the left for once. When I was on campus, events featuring even marginally conservative speakers were often shut down due to protest and general liberal outrage.
Apparently Charlie Hustle wasn't a very good gambler. The Sports Economist provides a link to a break down of Pete Rose's bets.
Last but not least, California Golden Blogs has a mini-breakdown of some of the differences in academic standards between Cal and UCLA.
That should keep y'all busy for a while. A quick shout out to the Golden Bears Men's Baseball team, currently 23-9, and ranked 8th in this weeks Baseball America poll.
Slate has an interesting look at game theory as it applies to dinner party guests. It turns out, ladies, that I'm getting more desirable with age. Better get me while you still can...
UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law has declined to fire John Yoo, best known for authoring a Justice Department memo justifying the US military's use of torture in Iraq. Though this isn't the place I'dve chosen to make a stand, in some ways it's nice to see the alma mater standing up to the left for once. When I was on campus, events featuring even marginally conservative speakers were often shut down due to protest and general liberal outrage.
Apparently Charlie Hustle wasn't a very good gambler. The Sports Economist provides a link to a break down of Pete Rose's bets.
Last but not least, California Golden Blogs has a mini-breakdown of some of the differences in academic standards between Cal and UCLA.
That should keep y'all busy for a while. A quick shout out to the Golden Bears Men's Baseball team, currently 23-9, and ranked 8th in this weeks Baseball America poll.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
2008 NFL Schedule Released
Replace every instance of 'Seahawks' with '49ers', and I pretty much agree with Ufford's intro to the 2008 season. San Francisco will be terrible, no doubt, but hopefully not as crippled by the weight of every one's expectations as last year. I look forward to another season of not being able to watch them because I don't have Direct TV.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Skeletons in the Closet
This popped up on the interwebs sometime last week, and I figured I'd re-post it, if for no other reason than I listen to the Max Kellerman show at work every day:
Kellerman mentioned the video on his show this morning, and actually handled it pretty gracefully, I thought. Lord knows there's pictures of me out there that I'd rather not be in mass circulation.
I believe I first saw this on FanIQ, via Deadspin.
Kellerman mentioned the video on his show this morning, and actually handled it pretty gracefully, I thought. Lord knows there's pictures of me out there that I'd rather not be in mass circulation.
I believe I first saw this on FanIQ, via Deadspin.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The Giants in the News
The Onion sort of nails it. An unlikely series of events, indeed.
On the plus side, the A's have won four in a row. Now if the Dodgers will just keep losing, I might survive another NYC summer...
On the plus side, the A's have won four in a row. Now if the Dodgers will just keep losing, I might survive another NYC summer...
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Oh, the agony
Anyone who's been reading this site (is anyone?) knows that the San Francisco Giants are terrible this year. Even Matt Cain got lit up yesterday. Four runs is a pretty decent offensive day for this crew, but it doesn't do any good when they give up thirteen.
One of my coworkers, a Yankee fan, accurately pointed out that no team with Benjie Molina batting cleanup can even pretend to be decent. Grant over at McCovey Chronicles went so far as to list all the players (believe me, there's a lot of them) on the other National League teams more qualified to fill the four spot at AT&T Park (that is what they're calling it these days, right?). Every other team has at least four players who could bat cleanup on this team.
Honestly, we might be better off with someone from this Giants team, in Brazil.
Update: The Giants have gone up 1-0 on the Padres while I've been hammering out this whine-fest. Prepare yourself for more live Giants-bashing in future games in a sort of elaborate reverse-jinx effort. God I hope they win more than 60 games this year.
One of my coworkers, a Yankee fan, accurately pointed out that no team with Benjie Molina batting cleanup can even pretend to be decent. Grant over at McCovey Chronicles went so far as to list all the players (believe me, there's a lot of them) on the other National League teams more qualified to fill the four spot at AT&T Park (that is what they're calling it these days, right?). Every other team has at least four players who could bat cleanup on this team.
Honestly, we might be better off with someone from this Giants team, in Brazil.
Update: The Giants have gone up 1-0 on the Padres while I've been hammering out this whine-fest. Prepare yourself for more live Giants-bashing in future games in a sort of elaborate reverse-jinx effort. God I hope they win more than 60 games this year.
Memphis has left the building
I hate to say I told ya so, Memphis, but I told ya so.
They got a whole lot farther than I thought, obviously, but when all the chips were on the table (pointless poker metaphor alert!), the Tigers simply couldn't shoot free throws. With Leather summed it up nicely, and, no, I didn't win the pool (I had Kansas overall, but way too many underdogs that got knocked out early - I'm looking at you, Drake). You can probably find in-depth game summaries over at Deadspin or Storming the Floor, if you didn't watch the game for some reason.
It's a shame, Tiger fans. Y'all could have been kings.
They got a whole lot farther than I thought, obviously, but when all the chips were on the table (pointless poker metaphor alert!), the Tigers simply couldn't shoot free throws. With Leather summed it up nicely, and, no, I didn't win the pool (I had Kansas overall, but way too many underdogs that got knocked out early - I'm looking at you, Drake). You can probably find in-depth game summaries over at Deadspin or Storming the Floor, if you didn't watch the game for some reason.
It's a shame, Tiger fans. Y'all could have been kings.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Pig Hunting Corn Haters
After about six months of off and on reading, I finally finished The Omnivore's Dilemma. In it, UC Berkeley professor Michael Pollan traces the origins and processes behind several different food chains: industrial, industrial/big organic, local, and self-obtained. It becomes obvious pretty early on that he has serious reservations about the ludicrous ways American industrial agriculture sets about dealing with the annual surplus of corn, but how practical is it really to expect us all to hunt pigs in the Northern California foothills or gather our own mushrooms in the streets of Berkeley?
Pollan raises more questions than he answers in this peek behind the curtain and, unintentionally or otherwise, it starts to feel like a ploy to get us to buy his latest book, an unofficial sequel titled In Defense of Food. I haven't gotten around to reading this one yet, at least in part because I think its tag line sums up his answer pretty well: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Are pesticides bad for you? Of course. Is fast food healthy? Certainly not in the quantities a lot of people eat it. A lot of it just comes down to common sense, though. If you eat a lot of fatty, processed foods, you're not going to be healthy. If all you eat is spinach, you're not going to be healthy. Moderation and logic will take you a long way...
So, did The Omnivore's Dilemma change my life? I suppose. I'm more cognizant of what goes into some of the processed foods I love (although it's nothing I didn't already know from reading Fast Food Nation or watching Super Size Me). I value local food more than I did before (although like the New Yorker article I linked to a while ago, if the local food isn't season it's probably just as bad if not worse than food that's been trucked across the country).
Oh, and apparently since I live east of Columbus, I'm environmentally better off drinking wine from France than from the Northern California vineyards I grew up near. So there you have it.
Pollan raises more questions than he answers in this peek behind the curtain and, unintentionally or otherwise, it starts to feel like a ploy to get us to buy his latest book, an unofficial sequel titled In Defense of Food. I haven't gotten around to reading this one yet, at least in part because I think its tag line sums up his answer pretty well: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Are pesticides bad for you? Of course. Is fast food healthy? Certainly not in the quantities a lot of people eat it. A lot of it just comes down to common sense, though. If you eat a lot of fatty, processed foods, you're not going to be healthy. If all you eat is spinach, you're not going to be healthy. Moderation and logic will take you a long way...
So, did The Omnivore's Dilemma change my life? I suppose. I'm more cognizant of what goes into some of the processed foods I love (although it's nothing I didn't already know from reading Fast Food Nation or watching Super Size Me). I value local food more than I did before (although like the New Yorker article I linked to a while ago, if the local food isn't season it's probably just as bad if not worse than food that's been trucked across the country).
Oh, and apparently since I live east of Columbus, I'm environmentally better off drinking wine from France than from the Northern California vineyards I grew up near. So there you have it.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Welcome Mike Montgomery!
Word on the street is that Cal has an agreement in place to hire Mike Montgomery to revive their struggling basketball program. Goodbye, ninth place; hello, top of the league!
I first heard about this on ESPN 1050 this morning, but screw them. Here's a link to Ragnarok over at California Golden Blogs.
I first heard about this on ESPN 1050 this morning, but screw them. Here's a link to Ragnarok over at California Golden Blogs.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Just a Little Off the Top 04/03/2008
Don't have much to say today, so a few links for your entertainment:
The inimitable Big Daddy Drew made me laugh today, with his metaphorical take on Davidson's recent March Madness adventures.
Slate has an entertaining story about the all-consuming nature of fantasy baseball. I still haven't told the girlfriend I'm actually in two leagues this year instead of one. Shh!
Speaking of, Sam Walker's Fantasyland is a fun fantasy baseball read (talk about phrases you never thought you'd hear). I mean, it's no Moneyball, but Amazon is selling the hardcover for seven bucks for some reason, so you can't go wrong.
I think that just about catches us up. I'm trying to arrange another guest post, and might have lined up a full time contributor to the site, so there's a pretty decent chance y'all will get a break from my frequent complaining about the Giants misadventures in the N.L. West.
Until I have something interesting to say...
The inimitable Big Daddy Drew made me laugh today, with his metaphorical take on Davidson's recent March Madness adventures.
Slate has an entertaining story about the all-consuming nature of fantasy baseball. I still haven't told the girlfriend I'm actually in two leagues this year instead of one. Shh!
Speaking of, Sam Walker's Fantasyland is a fun fantasy baseball read (talk about phrases you never thought you'd hear). I mean, it's no Moneyball, but Amazon is selling the hardcover for seven bucks for some reason, so you can't go wrong.
I think that just about catches us up. I'm trying to arrange another guest post, and might have lined up a full time contributor to the site, so there's a pretty decent chance y'all will get a break from my frequent complaining about the Giants misadventures in the N.L. West.
Until I have something interesting to say...
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
A Litte Off the Top 04/02/2008
McCovey Chronicles nearly made me put my head through a wall. Then I noticed the date of the post.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
A Little Off the Top 03/14/2008
The Play in CA calls for Ben Braun's job. It's embarassing debacles like last night's game against UCLA that makes me glad I don't have cable. Although I'm sure I'll fold by football season.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
A Little Off the Top 02/26/2008
There's a good article in the New Yorker about the complexities of solving global warming. Turns out it's not just a matter of switching to CFL bulbs or joining the food co-op...
The New Yorker and the New York Times both have pieces on a new book by Dan Ariely, called Predictably Irrational. I've only read the articles and not the actual book, but it sounds like he's done some really interesting work on behavioral economics and our inability to choose what's best for us. Check it out if you're interested.
The New Yorker and the New York Times both have pieces on a new book by Dan Ariely, called Predictably Irrational. I've only read the articles and not the actual book, but it sounds like he's done some really interesting work on behavioral economics and our inability to choose what's best for us. Check it out if you're interested.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Just a Little off the Top 02/25/2008
I'm going to try and start adding a link dump feature around here on a fairly regular basis, so y'all can see what I'm looking at. It's a pretty lame month for sports, though, so for now I just want to point you to a piece on firejoemorgan.com:
Man I can't wait for my copy of Baseball Prospectus to arrive...
That's all for now. Real post coming soon, promise.
I Just Made A Man Invent The Derogatory Term "VORPies."
Man I can't wait for my copy of Baseball Prospectus to arrive...
That's all for now. Real post coming soon, promise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)