Philosopher Stone

NYT article on Philosophy as a Major

2008-04-19T17:41:00.003-04:00

The New York Times had an article recently noting that many college students are opting for philosophy as a major: In a New Generation of College Students, Many Opt for the Life Examined. An interesting article... and thanks to my friend Shawn Klein for linking to this and also for giving his views on why students are opting for philosophy in increasing numbers.

The Singing Talents of Beaker

2008-04-06T22:12:00.002-04:00

This YouTube video is pretty funny... a better title of it would have been "The Singing Talents of Beaker". It is only hilarious of course if you remember the nature of the character Beaker from the old Muppets Show.

Overrated and Underrated Baseball Players

2008-04-06T16:00:00.003-04:00

I recently finished reading The Stark Truth, by Jayson Stark, a columnist and frequent commentator on ESPN. Overall, I found the book a worthwhile read: a great topic, though I do have one major criticism.

I like Mr. Stark when he appears on ESPN. But I do not like his writing style. Or at least, I don't like his style in this book (I'm not familiar with his writing style for the Philadelphia Inquirer). I found myself only being able to read this book in 10-page sections -- that is how annoying I found his approach! Practically every sentence -- certainly every paragraph -- tried to be cute and clever. I literally yelled out a few times "Stop! Just write like a normal, boring person for a few pages, please!" His style is just too over-the-top for me -- frankly, I've never read any other author quite like this.

But his topic certainly was an interesting one: selecting the five most underrated and the five most overrated baseball players at each position, and detailing why in each case. For someone like me, this is great fun.

I generally agreed with many of his selections, though I'm sure if I spent enough time my lists of five would have come out differently in many cases. A few random bits I'll note here, as teaser for any readers who might be inclined to get the book:

I definitely like the inclusion of Don Drysdale as second on the overrated RHP list after the consensus-#1 selection of Nolan Ryan. I'm actually not as down on Ryan as most other serious baseball fans are, but I agree with Drysdale here. And I like his top three for underrated RHP: Feller, Marichal, and Blyleven.
I don't know that Frank Tanana deserves to be 4th on the list of overrated LHP (who really thinks of his career that highly?), though I agree that Barry Zito deserves to be 5th given his current fat contract. For most underrated LHP, Babe Ruth is an interesting selection. And I like Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton, and Lefty Grove as next on this list.
I definitely agree with Lee Smith as top of the most overrated relief pitcher list, and also agree with Goose Gossage as top of the most underrated. Oh, and my personal favorite pitcher as a kid, and the one who I patterned my own pitching style after -- Dan Quisenberry -- makes it as 5th on the most underrated list too.
My dad would probably be glad to read the section on Yogi Berra as the most underrated catcher of all-time (as he and I used to argue over who was the all-time best at the position, Bench or Berra). And many would agree with including Ted Simmons and Gary Carter somewhere in the top-5 for most underrated too.
Steve Garvey is the top most-overrated 1B, and I agree he should at least be on the list somewhere. And ditto for Tony Perez who is listed 4th, and for Gil Hodges who is listed 5th (and will likely one day be one of the most marginal Hall-of-Famers ever, joining Perez in that respect). Choosing Hank Greenberg as the most underrated 1B of all time is a fine selection in my opinion.
I cracked a smile when I saw Steve Sax as the most overrated 2B -- definitely agree there. The most underrated 2B list includes Craig Biggio and Bobby Grich, two good choices. He then lists Rogers Hornsby third, which is very odd since he is generally regarded as the all-time best at the position. Stark's reason is his anger at the Cardinals for not having Hornsby as one of their five nominees for Greatest Cardinal in History -- a mistake with which I agree 100% (Umm... Lou Brock instead of Hornsby? Really?)
I would have probably listed Pie Traynor as #1 most overrated 3B over Craig Nettles. But for most underrated I gotta agree with Ron Santo: when will he get into the HOF? Eddie Mathews, Darrell Evans, and Ken Boyer are also good choices on this list.
At SS, clearly Phil Rizzuto had to be on the most overrated list somewhere and being first is fine with me. Stark lists Barry Larkin as the most underrated, and I'll agree with that if Barry should struggle to get into the HOF when his time comes.
I won't argue with Lou Brock as the most overrated LF of all-time, and I definitely agree that Stan Musial, Tim Raines, Ralph Kiner, and Minnie Minoso are underrated.
I don't know about listing Andruw Jones as the most overrated CF of all-time -- he is still surprisingly young, so I have a wait-and-see attitude on his career. Hack Wilson though... definitely... he'd be my #1 here. And speedsters Juan Pierre, Mickey Rivers and Omar Moreno are good choices here too. Stark makes a good point about Duke Snider being overshadowed by Mickey and Willie, and I like Jimmy Wynn's inclusion on the all-underrated CF list too. And Tris Speaker too... how often do you think of Tris Speaker when you think of Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner? Not often enough I bet.
I like listing Darryl Strawberry as an overrated RF, and Chuck Klein too: He had a few huge seasons, but during the everyone-hits-well 1930s and he played in the Baker Bowl and those two factors inflated his numbers. I like listing Frank Robinson as underrated here, because like Speaker in CF, how often do you think of Frank along with Mays, Mantle, and Aaron? And Dwight Evans was a consistently good player, but always overshadowed for me by Jim Rice's more explosive numbers.

A final section is also a lot of fun, as Stark lists his choices for top-3 underrated and top-3 overrated by franchise. This involves some repeats from the lists-by-position, but some additional names are introduced too.

So my writing-style criticism aside, if you are a big baseball fan you will enjoy this book, so check it out at your local bookstore or order it from Amazon!

Should the US Follow Canada's Lead?

2008-04-06T15:45:00.003-04:00

I've been meaning to blog about this for a couple of months now, so here goes. Mark Steyn gave lecture at Hillsdale college in September, and the January issue of Imprimis provides an abridged version: Is Canada's Economy a Model for America?

This is a great essay. While admitting that these are differences of degree, Steyn details five important differences between the US and Canadian economic systems, and argues that in each case we should not be eager to move in Canada's direction. To summarize, the Canadian economy is more unionized, protected, subsidized, centrally planned, and heavily taxed. In each of these area Steyn makes great points, and goes on to make some additional great points about the dependence, in many ways, of the Canadian economy on the US economy in many ways. Rather than quote many passages from him here, I'll just encourage you to read Steyn in his own words.

Slacker Radio

2008-04-06T15:37:00.002-04:00

My friend Brandon recently recommended Slacker online radio as an alternative to Pandora. I find it a useful service, but I guess for now I still prefer Pandora. With Slacker, the service suggests similar artists based on your seed musicians. There is some good flexibility and options you can set, so I do like the service. But I think Pandora still has the advantage because it recommends and tailors the experience at the song-level, not the musician/group-level. At least, that is the way it seems to me based on my brief testing of Slacker. I'll probably stick with Pandora as my primary online radio service for now -- but I recommend to any readers that you give both a try!

Afghanistan and Market Reef

2008-04-06T15:34:00.002-04:00

I doubt those two locations have often been tied together in a blog post or other web page! My friend Don Parrish has recently posted his reports on his trips to Afghanistan and Market Reef. As with all of his trip reports, the writeups and photos are very interesting.

Iranian Censorship

2008-03-23T23:41:00.002-04:00

Yet another interesting series of photos from the Amazing Things site. This one is Iranian Censorship: How Famous Magazines Look in Iran. Assuming this is true... it really is amazing indeed.

Late again, but I'm now on Facebook

2008-03-19T21:12:00.003-04:00

As I've said before, I am often late to the latest popular things. I was late to switch from VHS to DVD, late to get an iPod, late to blogging, and I still don't use a cell phone much at all. Adding to this list... Facebook. I've been meaning to get myself included at Facebook for a long time now, and last week I finally did it. It will take me some time to fill out my profile to my satisfaction, and to explore the many wonderful apps and widgets one can add. I'm having fun with it so far.

I've of course been on the more professionally-oriented social networking site LinkedIn, for quite a long time. But that is to be expected since I'm 34 years old, not 16 or 22.

On Complementary and Alternative Medicine

2008-03-19T21:04:00.003-04:00

I want to thank R. Barker Bausell (professor of research methodology in the School of Nursing at the University of Maryland at Baltimore) for his excellent essay "Placebo Effect" in March 14 issue of The Chronicle Review. He makes several outstanding criticisms of so-called complementary and alternative medicine, and the call for more testing and studies. He argues instead that there should be less such testing and research, primarily because most such things haven't even passed the basic threshold to warrant rigorous testing by scientific methods. Read his essay for some clarity on an issue that we are often mentally clouded with vague and tricky claims.

China as Savior of the Oppressed?

2008-03-19T20:49:00.003-04:00

Kudos to Gregory Clark, chairman of the Economics department at University of California at Davis. He wrote an interesting book review in The Chronicle Review entitled "China as the Antidote to Oppression and Exploitation?" The book being criticized is Johns Hopkins University sociologist professor Giovanni Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing. I admit I've not read the book myself (and don't plan to). But I found many of the points Clark makes to be strong ones and contrary to so much rubbish still being spouted by academic leftists (that seem to dominate so many fields, including sociology). Such writings are often as Clark describes this book... "little more than an extended anti-market, anti-capitalism, anti-Western harangue."

Remember the Yip Yips?

2008-03-19T20:43:00.001-04:00

Thanks goes to my friend Brandon for linking to a YouTube clip of the classic Yip Yips. Definitely brings back memories from childhood...

Earth at Night Photos

2008-03-19T20:37:00.004-04:00

Here is a view of our planet that I've not seen often. I've seen night images before, but always of smaller portions of the landscape, not the entire globe. These really make clear what parts of the world are both populated and developed.

Snow Tubing Reporter

2008-03-19T20:32:00.001-04:00

Ouch! Watch this Canadian reporter get run over by a speedy snow-tuber.

Birth of Rochester and the D&C

2008-03-16T17:07:00.002-04:00

The main newspaper in Rochester, NY is the Democrat and Chronicle. Today's paper had a section celebrating its 175th birthday. Included were several interesting items, but I found Mark Hare's writeup to be a quite nice history of the early days of both the city and its newspapers.

Upcoming Clone Wars

2008-03-15T23:20:00.002-04:00

Here is a brief news item on the upcoming Star Wars: Clone Wars movie and TV-series. At the official site you can also see a series of videos, including most notably the trailer and an brief introduction piece that explains the context for this material.

Spitzer Bombshell Apparently a Minor Story

2008-03-10T22:55:00.003-04:00

Today the huge story about NY Governor Elliot Spitzer and his involvement with a prostitution ring came to light. I was curious how some of the media would cover this. For some reason I was particularly curious to see what Keith Olbermann would do with it on his often-raving-loud one-hour show from 8-9 EST. Well... it was quite interesting... I missed the first two minutes of his show, so likely he did mention it briefly then. However, he then went on and on about relatively minor Hillary vs. Obama drama items... for about 30 minutes! He didn't really cover the Spitzer bomb until after the half-way point in the show. I think it was big-story #3 on his program, and he only spent about 5-7 minutes on it. Doesn't this strike anyone else as strange?

I'll also note that the Atlas Society was quick to send out a brief blurb on this news, noting correctly:

It is ironic that New York Democrat Governor Eliot Spitzer has had his undeserved reputation for high moral standards tarnished by his sexual escapades which, while perhaps sleazy, did not harm any of us. In fact he deserved our moral scorn for his assault on productive individuals and flaunting of the rule of law when he was New York attorney general, done arrogantly in the name of "morality."

I had the exact same thoughts while watching the coverage tonight.

Election 2024

2008-03-08T18:02:00.003-05:00

The March 2008 edition of Wired as a humorous look at the US Presidential Election come 2024.

I especially liked the reference to the Pakghaniran War as being "once a simple seven-sided fight between Pakistani, Afghani, and Iranian peopls of historical and irreconcilable mutual hatreds -- was becoming complicated."

Also funny -- but sadly could be prophetic -- is this: "Rodriguez vs. Chen: The nominees seemed to have opposing positions on nearly every issue. Rodriguez wanted to expanded AutoCare, the federal car-insurance entitlement for baby-boomer seniors, to include golf carts; Chen argued that mandatory car insurance was unconstitutional." If people have a right to health-care, then why not cars and car-insurance as well? (Not to mention food, housing, entertainment systems, computers with internet access, and everything else deemed necessary to live in 21st century America.)

Germs, good and bad

2008-03-08T17:53:00.002-05:00

The March 2008 issue of Wired provided an interesting one page look at the microbes typically found in the human body. Yikes... these numbers are large!

Best Sidekicks

2008-03-08T17:49:00.001-05:00

The March issue of Wired had a brief writeup of the Best Sidekicks of all time. Pretty good list!

Against Complicating Matters

2008-03-08T17:32:00.002-05:00

I enjoyed this opinion piece in the Feb. 29 issue of The Chronicle Review: "Not to Complicate Matters, but...". Here UCLA history professor Russell Jacoby takes some fashionable nonsense to task, namely the postmodernist (or otherwise trendy) "devotion to complexity". Or put otherwise, unnecessarily complicating matters with the result being a conceptual fog of uncertainty and confusion. Yet another silly trend rightfully criticized... thanks Professor Jacoby.

That's a Lot of Penguins

2008-03-05T20:25:00.001-05:00

I've certainly never seen photos of this many penguins before!

Importing Cars in Mexico

2008-03-04T22:55:00.002-05:00

The writers at the Onion couldn't invent a story this odd... well, maybe they could, since they are quite good at what they do. See the AP story "Mexico Abruptly Restricts Car Imports". Basically, Mexico is now only allowing car imports from a single year, 1998. All market interference by governments distort the market, but this is serious arbitrariness and micromanagement. If you live in a border state and have been sitting on a lot of 1998 model cars, you are in luck.

Which Revolves Around the Earth?

2008-03-04T22:49:00.003-05:00

This video on YouTube is sad. And I thought education was poor in this country!

Look Who's Singing Sweet Home Alabama

2008-03-03T22:23:00.002-05:00

Check out this YouTube video of a Finnish rock group, with Russian backing choir, singing Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic rock hit Sweet Home Alabama. The outfits on the rockers -- shoes, hair, clothes -- is also, um, impressive. I'm not sure what is going on with the women dancing either. Here is the background info posted about this video:

The Leningrad Cowboys is a Finnish rock and roll band famous for its humorous songs and concerts featuring the Soviet Red Army Choir. Currently, the band has eleven Cowboys and two Leningrad Ladies. The songs, all somewhat influenced by polka and progressive rock, and performed in English, have themes such as 'vodka', 'tractors', 'rockets', and 'Genghis Khan', as well as folkloric Russian songs, rock and roll ballads and covers from bands as diverse as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, all with lots of humour.
The Red Army Choir (Choir Aleksandrov) is a performing ensemble that served as the official army choir of the former Soviet Union's Red Army. The choir consists of a male choir, an orchestra, and a dance ensemble. The songs they perform range from Russian folk tunes to Church hymns, operatic arias and popular music.In 1991, The Red Army Choir participated in Roger Waters' The Wall concert celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. They performed an anti-war song "Bring the Boys Back Home".Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Red Army Choir has continued performing, entertaining audiences both inside and outside Russia.

Well, I guess this is one way to know who won the cold war.

Don't Talk Back to Darth Vader

2008-03-02T14:03:00.003-05:00

YouTube provides Star Wars According to a Three Year Old. Pretty cute and funny. At the end we learn that we shouldn't talk back to Darth Vader, because he'll get you!