A little slice of heaven…

Here I am, just a tiny bit tired from this morning’s 10 mile walk. I have a bruising defensive battle on TV (Steelers vs. Chargers; it is 8-7 Steelers going into the 4′th quarter and there is plenty of action!)

(Yahoo NFL gallery)

Update: the Charger-Steeler game had an interesting finish. The Steelers kicked a field goal to go up 11-10 with 15 seconds left. So on the last play of the game the Chargers tried a multi-lateral play; there was a forced fumble and the Steelers ran it in; but because there was an illegal forward pass the final touchdown doesn’t count and it ends 11-10.

I’ll share what is on the minds of others:

DemConWatch: talks about the Georgia Senate race. Neither candidate got over 50 percent, so by state law, there is a run-off. So how does Georgia go? Note that McCain won Georgia but there may be a “well, a Senator from Obama’s party might have more pull” factor. We’ll see; I think that the Republican incumbent has the advantage.

Edge of the American West: they show Paul Krugman (Nobel Laureate in economics) correcting conservative pundit George Will when it comes to FDR and the Great Depression.

O’Brien’s Briar Patch: a wonderful rant about the attitude of some hunters.

Anyone else out there read the back page of the sports section and come to realization that some hunters, rather than the animals discussed, are the true freaks of nature?

The article was written by Jeff Lampe and titled “Freaks of Nature” and started off this way,

What do black-bellied whistling ducks, a cinnamon-colored raccoon and a partial albino pheasant have in common?

I’ll tell you what they have in common: they are all dead. See, the report was about how hunters in Illinois have came across these rare animals and evidently felt they just had to kill them.

Go ahead and read the rest of the post.

Don’t get me wrong: I eat hamburgers and I understand the need for some animal research. Yes, we humans are hunters and it probably comes naturally.

Watch a baboon hunt a baby gazelle:

I suppose I understand killing for “necessity” (eating, research) but killing “for fun” just strikes me, as, well, immoral. But that is a personal opinion and I’d never vote to outlaw sport hunting, though I have no qualms about outlawing canned hunts and internet hunting.

Brotherpeacemaker writes about issues that affect African Americans. He has a couple of things in common with me: he was a math major and he frowns when he is deep in thought. In fact, I am so bad about this that I tell my students to ignore my “angry” face when they come to see me for office hours; all that face means is that I was thinking about something.

He also likes to dress down when off of work (as do I). But whereas I am a wimpy brown guy he is a large Black guy with dreadlocks so society sometimes reacts differently to him: (for some reason, I had assume that he was large; it must have been when I read about him using the gym; he tells me that he is 5′ 6″ whereas I am 6′ 0″ and 190 pounds)

It is really sad to see black people so quick to judge each other with nothing but each other’s momentary appearance as the determining factor. Speaking as a professional black man, on my days off or when I am home after work, I am quick to peel off the casual dress clothes and don some shorts and a sleeveless shirt. I know there are people who might see me in my not at work attire and dreadlocks and immediately jump to all kinds of conclusions thinking that I’m up to no good. I have to say that the normal expression on my face is one of seriousness or sternness. I frown and furl my eyebrows when I’m deep in thought which is most time. I I feel like I’m always pondering. I know I might look unapproachable or like I have a chip on my shoulder. But the reality could not be further from the truth. I actually enjoy talking to people and do my best to be sociable and friendly. [...]

The Packers May Help Me Attend the Lecture…

A friend is giving a lecture on “The First 100 days of the Roosevelt Administration” at 3 pm, and I was considering going to that. But I was also interested in the Bears-Packers football game.

Right now the Bears are getting spanked 24-3 (image: yahoo NFL gallery)

So I might make that lecture after all.

Update Ooops, the lecture is next week; good think I checked the paper. And oh yes, the Bears are now down 34-3; I guess there is time to go grocery shopping before the 3 pm game.

This is a big time butt-kicking!!!

Some other remarks

Politics-National Policy

General Wes Clark writes an op-ed which argues that federal assistance to the auto industry may well help in many ways (and impact national security)

Bad Science: argues that people (including otherwise smart people) can get fooled by large numbers.

Example: what if I told you that your taking pill X would reduce your risk for disease Y by 90%. Would you take that pill? Well, if the disease was one that you had, say, only a 1 in 10,000,000 chance of getting to begin with and the pill could potentially produce bad side effects, then, well, no.

Mathematics: Proof checking software is becoming available and practical to use. Of course, I am interested in this.

Psychology: how do con artists work and what makes for a good con? Believe it or not, one key is for the con artist to appear to trust YOU.

Hat tip for the latter two articles to 3-quarks daily.

November 16: Progress Continues

I am enjoying my “ultra-free” season. But I did walk 10 miles in 2:00:34 this morning; 2:01:14 our and 1:59:19 back (downhill). This course is about 1 minute “long” so I can safely say that I averaged just under 12 minutes per mile; I am not sure about legality (knees).

One other topic: Science Avenger points us toward this nice article which is worth reading for the title alone:

Obama and the War on Brains [...]

Maybe, just maybe, the result will be a step away from the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life. Smart and educated leadership is no panacea, but we’ve seen recently that the converse — a White House that scorns expertise and shrugs at nuance — doesn’t get very far either.

We can’t solve our educational challenges when, according to polls, Americans are approximately as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution, and when one-fifth of Americans believe that the sun orbits the Earth.

Almost half of young Americans said in a 2006 poll that it was not necessary to know the locations of countries where important news was made. That must be a relief to Sarah Palin, who, according to Fox News, didn’t realize that Africa was a continent rather than a country.

Perhaps John Kennedy was the last president who was unapologetic about his intellect and about luring the best minds to his cabinet. More recently, we’ve had some smart and well-educated presidents who scrambled to hide it. Richard Nixon was a self-loathing intellectual, and Bill Clinton camouflaged a fulgent brain behind folksy Arkansas aphorisms about hogs.

As for President Bush, he adopted anti-intellectualism as administration policy [...]

More nonsense from Republicans. Are you sick of hearing about how the Democrats brought on this economic crisis? Of course, that is BS:

There are dozens of letters percolating through Republican chain mail, and a matching number of posts on right wing blogs, all trying to spread the same message: Democrats loaned money to black people!

Here’s an example plucked from my own mailbox.

We’re on the brink of an economic disaster and another Great Depression. This was not caused by Republicans. This was caused solely by Democrats.

In 1977 Democratic President Jimmy Carter passed the Community Reinvestment Act to provide housing to poor people. In the 1990s Bill Clinton had Attorney General Janet Reno threaten banks under red lining rules into giving loans to people who could not afford them. Then in the last 8 years, the leftist group ACORN, which has ties to Barack Obama, went to banks and threatened them to relax their rules again. Banks had to give loans to people who had no jobs or no identification.

You have to hand it to them. In terms of bringing together the maximum number of Republican demons — Carter, Clinton, Reno, Obama — with the smallest amount of connecting narrative, this is a keeper.

It’s a satisfying bedtime story for the right. They can snooze and dream of revenge, when the wonders of True Conservatism will pave the streets with a mixture of gold and liberal bones. Unfortunately for them, it’s not only simplistic, not only demonstrative of deep prejudice, it’s also dead wrong.

The Community Reinvestment Act and other red lining laws weren’t passed to force banks to make loans to African-Americans and other minorities. They were there to make the rules consistent. Previous to the passage of the CRA, minorities were often required to have better credit, and make larger down payments to get loans equivalent to those awarded whites. Nothing in these laws required that banks lower their lending standards, only that they be fair, consistent, and operate in a “safe and secure” way. There was no evidence then, and no evidence now, that minorities with the same initial credit rating as whites tend to default on their loans at any greater rate.

Want proof? Mortgage failure rate in 2000: 1%. 2001: 1%. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006? One (1) as in ONE percent. But wait! Everything that Carter, Reno, and Clinton could do was already in there. The nefarious community organizers of ACORN had already grown their little oak trees of pressure. Carter’s poor people had been sitting in their new homes so long, that many of those initial mortgages were paid off and gone.

What does legislation passed 31 years ago have to do with problems today? Nothing. Neither do tweaks Clinton made to that legislation in the mid 90s. The real culprits require a much shorter trip down memory lane.

Emphasis mine. Follow the link to read Devilstower’s excellent article.

College Football, some Politics and a Play

I am drinking my morning coffee and shall walk 10 miles outside in just a bit. I am enjoying my “season off” from ultras.

I want to return but I still have quite a bit of rebuilding to do. Yesterday’s workout was very encouraging.

Plays
We (Barbara and I) saw the play Doubt last night at the Peoria Cornstalk theater (winter version). It is one of those plays in which one can talk about what actually happened for hours. It is also relatively short (roughly 90 minutes) but punchy.

Though I am not a fan of theater, I can recommended it.

College Football There are some seasons and races that interest me:

Navy (6-4):
Navy’s last minute comeback against Notre Dame (punctuated by a fumble recovery and the recovery of two consecutive onside kicks) came up short (27-21 ND) but they sure made it exciting. The Midshipmen still have games against Northern Illinois (5-5) and Army. The Midshipmen have agreed to a bowl game (Eaglebank Bowl on December 20 in Washington DC, 20 miles from their campus)

We’ll probably get to see the Northern Illinois game as it is within long driving distance (DeKalb, IL). That should be a great game as the Huskies are 5-5 and are looking forward to possibly going to a Bowl. The Huskies lost 13-9 to Tennessee, 31-27 to Minnesota (no disgrace this year), and to undefeated Ball State.

The Midshipmen lost to Notre Dame, Pitt (42-21), undefeated Ball State 35-23 (a shoot out); the only “bad” loss was to Duke.

Notre Dame ND still has 6 wins and should be favored against Syracuse (at home). Then again there is the USC game which should be very ugly (from my point of view) if the Trojans are at all interested in the game. I’d pencil them in at 7-5 with perhaps a Sun Bowl birth.

The Pac Twelve Race Of course, USC is the best known team, but if it wins out, the Oregon State Beavers (who beat USC 27-21 earlier this year) go to the Rose Bowl.

Yes, the Beavers aren’t that bad; they have one conference loss to Stanford, and their two out of conference losses were to undefeated Utah (by a field goal) and a blow out loss to top 5 ranked Penn State. But they still have some ball to play: they face 6-4 Arizona on the road (and the Wildcats gave USC all they wanted) and then 8-3 Oregon at home.

The Big Twelve: This is probably the most interesting conference race of all. You have undefeated Texas Tech, one loss Texas and one loss Oklahoma vying for the spot in the conference championship game. Also, tough Oklahoma State (9-2) remains a factor.

Here is how it shakes out: Texas has only 4-7 Texas A & M left. But the Aggies have won the last two in a row, despite bringing in a weaker team each time.

Oklahoma has probably the toughest road left: they have Texas Tech at home, and then Oklahoma State on the road. Note that the Cowboys have a week off to prepare for the Sooners. Texas Tech has Oklahoma on the road, followed by a weak Baylor team.

Bottom line: whereas anything can happen: say, Tech loses to Oklahoma and beats Baylor, Texas beats A&M and the Sooners win out, then one has a 3 way tie with no team having a head to head advantage. So the higher rated team (via the BCS standings) advances to the championship game. But if, say, Oklahoma beats Tech but then loses to Oklahoma State whereas Tech and Texas win their last games, one has a two way tie with Tech having the tie breaker.

Now if OU beats Tech but loses to OSU, and Tech gets upset at Baylor and UT loses to A&M, you have a four way tie that gets very interesting as UT has head to head over OU, OU has head to head over Tech but Tech has head to head over UT, and OSU would have head to head over OU. What a mess!

Of course, Tech can settle it by winning out and, after being favored in the championship game, sailing into the BCS title game.

Big Ten: Penn State can settle matters by winning at home against Michigan State (9-2). The Spartans did get blown out by Ohio State but have otherwise played well and if they upset Penn State, will themselves be in the hunt for a Rose Bowl berth.

Ohio State needs to beat Michigan (a weak team, but this is a rivalry game) but a Michigan State win and a Michigan win will send Michigan State to the Rose Bowl (Ohio State would have 2 conference losses as would Penn State). My initial analysis forgot that the Spartans’ other loss was to California instead of a Big Ten opponent. Thanks to Damon for setting me straight.

Of course, my guess is that Penn State will take the suspense out of it with a win.

Souteastern Conference: even though they play the best football in the NCAA (on a year in, year out basis, though I’d give the nod to the Big Twelve this year), I really don’t follow them much. But if I am flipping through the channels and see one of their games, I usually watch the rest of the game because they are frequently exciting (last nights Florida-South Carolina game being an exception).

Of course the Crimson Tide deserve their number one ranking (IMHO) and their last challenge is with arch-rival (but mediocre) Auburn, prior to the championship game. Florida has two games left; one is an apparent mismatch with the Citadel and with Florida State. Both are non-conference games; Florida State is a good but non-elite team that Florida should be able to handle.

So the SEC championship game (Florida versus Alabama) is, in effect, a BCS championship play-off game should the Gators and Crimson Tide win out. But both teams need to take care of business for this game to be that playoff game.

Politics If you are enjoying the Republican Party melt-down, read this Frank Rich article (which has links). Here is a 14 part soul searching article by some conservative pundits.

The interesting part to me is this: will the alliance between the anti-intellectual wing (Sarah Palin) and the more intellectual wing (I’ll call this the David Brooks wing) hold, or will there be an open rupture that can’t be repaired? Frankly, though the Palin wing would be easier to beat, I hope that the R’s send their anti-intellectuals into the wilderness as this country really needs two viable parties. I’d hate to the the national Democrats go the way that the Illinois Democrats have gone (we are completely disfunctional and are due to get swept out of power soon)