Hot Diggity Dream

I’m attending a hockey camp/amusement park. There are two nets side by side with Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby tending one each (wtf?). I start by ripping a shot into the net. Next, I skate up and poke a puck that’s laying by one of their legs past them into the net. Finally, I drop a puck from my glove to the ice (legal) and fire it home. Maybe I’ve been watching too much hockey.

News Roundup

So are geeks cool now?

With all the shoddy research going on, it’s no wonder something like this slipped through the cracks. Research on romance and attraction have been going on for some time, with wildly divergent but hilarious results. In the end, it seems that no one, not even women, know what they want.

The new Reich?

Germany’s new right front is shaping up to be a lot more appealing than the last, or maybe they’re just marketing it better. With classical liberal beliefs, new-found social tolerance, and multicultural booth babes, who can resist?

Roll over Da Vinci

The polymath has always been an aspiration of mine, in part because my childhood heroes were all men who aspired to at least mediocrity in multiple subjects.

A future I can get behind

NHS predicts that female docs will dominate the future landscape in the UK. I can’t wait for the next time I go in for a hernia exam. In all seriousness, this future might be distressing to some because females overwhelmingly prefer lifestyle specialties. Looks like there will be a shortage of surgeons in the future as well.

The trials women face every day

Deborah Tannen provides a fascinating perspective on women’s lives that most of us menfolk never have to experience. Get the inside scoop on the tough choices women have to make to avoid ridicule in society and see how men remain obliviously unaware of male privilege. It’s a humbling article to be sure, and one that remains relevant in spite of its publication date.

Players the San Jose Sharks like

There’s a consensus that the Sharks tend to draft Germans, goalies, and former Ottawa 67ers players. idunno723 takes the cake with the comment “when will the Sharks hit the jackpot with a German goaltender who plays on the Ottawa 67’s?” Even this summer’s blockbuster addition, Dany Heatley, was born in Germany.

Why the poor stay poor

Admittedly, this is a bit of a twist on the words of the group Innovations for Poverty Action. What the article suggests is that the rich have more of an incentive to save because they expect to be wealthy. I don’t buy it though, as I find the previous reasons for poverty rather convincing. In other words, I take issue with the author’s challenge of the premise that the poor are not naturally more impatient or inconsistent than the rich.

News Roundup

The best of the last week:

Sci-fi tearjerkers

My personal #1 would be Buffy’s “The Gift”, which makes the list at #5. Many of the other choices should be recognizable by avid sci-fi fans, and if not, should serve notice for you to start watching those. Revisiting this list at times brings back tragic memories of tears shed.

Reality district

On the same vein, District 9 is not just a successful indie sci-fi flick; it’s an allegory for the violence against immigrants in South Africa. It’s somewhat tragic as South Africa has had opportunities to reinvent itself as the Costa Rica of Africa, becoming a beacon of hope and example of successful governance in a continent of poverty and suffering. Corruption and tribal politics have ended Thabo Mbeki’s vision of an African Renaissance.

Dollhouse becomes reality

Sometimes, I don’t what is more strange, sci-fi or Japan. This post sheds light on what has been happening in Japan for some time, and it is not unexpected for what Wayne has termed a “repressed society”. Still, paying for companionship may soon become more popular throughout the world, starting with the US.

Karlovic outdoes himself

Moving on to sports now, Ivo Karlovic serves 78 aces in a 5 set match against Radek Stepanek in the Davis Cup, and loses. He served 55 against Lleyton Hewitt (my fav. tennis player) and lost. Sometimes, you just don’t get into a rhythm when you aren’t involved in sustained rallies. Regardless, serving 78 aces is an incredible accomplishment, almost ensuring that you never lose serve.

What’s in Intel’s closet?

I feel conflicted about this. On one hand, Intel is a leader in technology and is on the forefront of innovation in many areas (compilers, CPUs, GPUs, chipset, IEEE standards, and many others). The company is a heavy contributor to open-source initiatives and has one of the finest Linux graphics drivers excluding Poulsbo. However, I’ve always had this nagging suspicion in the back of my calvarium that they’ve been artificially excluding competition with AMD by paying off OEMs (Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc.) to not build AMD-based computers. Check out what the EU dug up on Intel and the phrases executives used when discussing their payoff.

RMS vs MDI

In the open-source world, Miguel de Icaza has often been castigated, but none more harshly than this remark by Richard Stallman, calling him a traitor to the movement. Most reactions have been critical of Stallman for his harsh language and attempts to purify the community with an absurd witch-hunt. I’ve met de Icaza in person in 2006 at Microsoft’s .NET conference when I worked as an intern there (the same summer that I met Bill Gates, Anders Heljsberg, and Jim Hugunin). He was amazingly focused, energetic, and passionate about certain technologies, not all of which I found to be technically sound. His actions and words were certainly colourful, and often talked trash about competing technologies (XGL vs AIGLX: “How do you pronounce AIGLX?”, .NET vs Java: “No one uses Java anymore.”). Some of that is certainly due to his involvement in a commercial company (Novell) that is carving out a niche marketplace by collaborating with and being friendly to proprietary companies. Despite those issues, I saw nothing disingenuous about his dedication to the open-source community. His brainchild, Mono, is an amazing technical piece of work that should be embraced by the community as bringing more languages and software to our existing pool.

Deficit doomsday prophet

Previously, I’ve expressed disappointment at Obama’s deficit-happy policies. I’m not alone in that worry. This article describes the activities of David Walker in educating the public about the dangers of high and sustained deficits. He wages a lonely crusade against politicians who kick problems down to future generations and against naive voters who demand more benefits and less taxes at the same time.

Banana republic watch

It’s quite the season for doom-and-gloom prophets to emerge from the woodworks. In terms of wealth, Europe has just surpassed North America in terms of assets under wealth management. Sure, it’s not a precise measurement, but it’s worrisome for some seeing that Europe already leads in other categories, such as leisure time, happiness, and HDI.

Speaking of measurements of development, Joseph Stiglitz takes issue with GDP as the preferred measurement of progress. This comes in the wake of (or maybe inspired) Sarkozy’s determined effort to find a new indicator of growth.

Health care addendum (and here)

Here are some articles following up on my earlier post on health care in the US. Greg Mankiw shares the economic basis behind rationing care with a realistic example of what might happen. He lays out rather clearly why we can’t have equal health care for everyone. The other article is by John Tierney and dispels myths of US health care being behind that of other nations in terms of outcomes.

The Danger of Competition

Competition is good, or so we’re taught. It has been the cause of low prices as companies compete for business, productivity improvements as workers vie for raises and promotions. However, there is an insidious side to this as well. I’m sure you can see that competition can drive companies out of business and stress out workers. There’s something more insidious though. Children competing in sports can suffer lifelong injuries as they ramp up the practice hours. Their developing bodies and fragile bones are not accustomed to the punishing physical play most sports require. It didn’t used to be like this, but recently every parent is pushing his/her kid to succeed in all areas, sports included. When everyone does this at the same time, the end result is the same but everyone has expended more effort.

Over time, businesses have evolved techniques for colluding to keep prices high and to avoid competing. Likewise, unions are the natural way workers have developed to keep wages high and work minimal. There’s nothing comparable for students. Wouldn’t it be great (from a health perspective) if all student athletes got together and set mandatory limits on practice time or students voluntarily deciding to limit study time. The problem is in enforcement. There will always be rogue elements that ignore the agreement to gain an upper hand. It’s the classical prisoner’s dilemma.

Hat tip to Charles Wheelan.

Reflections on China’s Quest for Olympic Gold

During the Olympic season last year, various magazines ran articles that revealed how desperate China was to top the gold medal count. The country viewed the goal as necessary to “save face” as a host and also to present its best to the world. From my experience in China, this is a common sentiment echoed not just by the leadership but more often by the masses, who are dying to return China to its days of glory as a world power. In other words, China is a teenage brat who’s looking to avenge wrongs and perceived slights wrought upon it years ago by bullies who have moved on to business suits and running the world. China’s main targets in this are the countrie who engaged in war, colonialism, and disrespect against it in the 20th century. Namely, this includes Japan, Europe, Taiwan, and the US. To right the wrongs, China will become dominant militarily and economically (but not culturally!) to avoid a repeat of the shameful conquests of yore.

Anyways, this resolve is seen in the way athletes are selected in their youth for training in Soviet-style camps. Academics and a social life are neglected to produce dominant individuals from a collective by culling the wheat from the chaft through rigourous competition. Well, the system, just like the Soviet space project, yielded impressive results, but also destroyed the lives of thousands of athletes. Is this acceptable to the leadership? Of course. For them, the good of the state trumps all. The masses are willing to go along as long as they hold the burning desire to repay past transgressions.

As for the athletes, most of them enjoy success but hate the amount of pressure put on them (and some of them wilted under the pressure). The greatest contrast can probably be seen from the following quote:

The contrast couldn’t be greater than between the Chinese and U.S. athletes. In their post-match interviews, the Americans rambled on about their parents, their siblings, their pets, their hobbies. They repeatedly used the word fun. Shawn Johnson, the 16-year-old gymnast, waxed enthusiastic about the classes she’ll take when she returns to her public high school in West Des Moines, Iowa.

The Chinese athletes generally don’t have pets or hobbies. Or brothers or sisters (since most are products of China’s one-child policy).

Update: Economy and Hockey

Here are two good articles on the economy.

The first is a general summary of the tax rebates and how they won’t have the intended effect, and the second is a harsh critique of the politicizing of economic issues. The second articles strikes close to my heart because I have been a big believer in the negative effects of unbridled deficit spending and inflation that’s practiced by the US government today.

In other news, the Sharks flip Bernier and a 1st rounder for Brian Campbell and a 7th round pick. Holy cow! The Sharks just gave their D-corp a big upgrade with one of the top 10 defencemen in the league. Losing Bernier is tough (He showed his wow by scoring 3 pts so far for Buffalo today) Hopefully Campbell will live up to his billing and deliver at least a conference finals berth this year. Sharks really need to lock him up long-term (Dan Boyle type contract sounds good for 6 yrs 40 million). Historically, the Sharks have not really had a standout d-man. Anaheim showed last year how valuable their shutdown team of Pronger, Niedermayer, and Beauchemin were. Despite having only really two pure scorers (Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf), a strong d reduced opponent scoring, helped out on pplay and pkill, and augmented secondary players (Lupul, Penner, McDonald, and Perry).

Wit and Spit

Brother was pretty amusing today. Some highlights:

When a package arrived from Amazon.com, he exclaimed that it must have been a bomb inside and that the delivery man was a terrorist.

Later, when we were watching Serenity, he cried out in the last fight scene with phrases from our UT2004 days. Memorable ones such as “Jayne is on a killing spree!”, “Doctor is out!”, and “Rampage!” made me laugh incessantly, clearly loving him in that sliver of a moment.

The next day, he wasn’t done yet, as in the course of the Orange Bowl game, I told him that the Kansas team name was “Jayhawks” and asked him if he knew what the name of the VT football team was. In his impertinence, he said in the same tone, “massacre, guns, Koreans!”

Free Agent Frenzy!

Too bad the Sharks didn’t get in the action for Chris Drury. He’d have pushed them over the top. Instead, it looks like the Rangers, Ducks, Wings, and Penguins will duke it out for the championship next year. *sigh*

Funny thought by someone on a forum: “If Drury came to SJ, where would he play? On Marleau’s left? Centering Marleau? On Joe’s left? Centering Joe?” Lol. “Centering Joe” indeed. However, since they didn’t get Drury, why didn’t they pick up the puck-moving defenceman in Schneider, who went at a decent price? Jason Blake also went for reasonable dollars. Oh well. At this point, I guess Ladislav Nagy or resigning Guerin will be best for the club. Don’t they dare touch Souray.

Bad Sports Headlines

Reporters need some originality. I’ve seen the same permutations involving the winning team’s name far too often this playoff season. Examples include:

senate majority
senate resolution
suns rising
devils in disguise
first bite
traffic woes
net gain

What the

From Dr. Z’s post “Winning ugly” in Yahoo Sports:

“This isn’t a question as much as an observation. I have finally come to the conclusion that your explanations are simply a means of befuddling the reader to the point where he or she can neither understand nor contest your reasoning. Well done in a season filled with so much uncertainty. Mr. T”

Dear Mr. T: One thing upon which I have provided myself is the fact that if my reasoning can readably be contestable, then the uncertainty that surely must accompany such contesting would in itself be a subject of contestation. Explanations meant to befuddle do exist, it is true, but in order to encourage befuddlement, an explanation, in other words the noun form of the verb to explain, would have to deviate from its stated course of making a given subject intelligible, which taken to its extreme, or its converse, if you would, would further enforce the aspect of contestation. I think you are accurate in the breadth of your observation, but not in its length, as far as it goes.”

This reminded me of Disraeli’s appraisal of Gladstone as “a sophisticated rhetorician inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity.”