Headline of the Week

From a Slate article following the Supreme Court's decision on violent video games.

Bush v. Gore
Is it worse for a child to see pornography or graphic violence?

You Can't Measure A-Hole

An important article for sports fans over at Grantland today. Jonah Lehrer explains why, although sabermetrics can be great in a sport like baseball, in most other sports the fact that teammates actually play together makes things far more complex. He sums up his point pretty nicely in this passage:

But sabermetrics comes with an important drawback. Because it translates sports into a list of statistics, the tool can also lead coaches and executives to neglect those variables that can't be quantified. They become so obsessed with the power of base runs that they undervalue the importance of not being an asshole, or having playoff experience, or listening to the coach. Such variables are the sporting equivalent of a nice dashboard. They can't be quantified, but they still count.

Thus a Dallas Mavericks team who was woefully undermatched on paper knocks of at least 3 teams with an obvious talent advantage. It is why sports are great.

Back to Work

Hey everyone who might still be out there. I'm officially hitched, back from some relaxation time, and ready to be a moderately active blogger once again. The break was kind of nice actually. The blog will henceforth continue with my usual links to other things I thought were interesting, and occasional original thoughts. I also hope to add a few more creative things in, but we'll see how that goes.

Making Life Complete

Thanks to Kansas City blogger Ekey, I believe I may now have seen everything.

Independence Police!

The Independence police and I have a strenuous relationship due to their insistence at clocking people at the bottom of hills on 35 mph roads. It is good to see that despite this consistent nonsense, they still have time to keep the public safe.

By the way, you have to get past the monkey part...