16 November 09 (am)

Workout notes
2200 yard swim; stomach trouble prior, but still 500 easy (9:03), 5 x 200 on the 3:30 (3:17, 14, 13, 13, 12), 500 drill/swim, 500 paddle.

This was a fun swim.

Posts

Humor
From here.

Do sports build character? It isn’t completely clear.

In fact, the study by an American ethics centre says children involved in sports are more likely to cheat in school, are learning from their coaches how to best cut corners and are more open to forms of bullying as a way to motivate people.

The findings, by the Los Angeles-based Josephson Institute, fly in the face of the most widely held view of athletics: that it builds strong character, honesty and team-building skills. Those who make their living from such activities say those beliefs still hold true.

“Participation in sports will encourage positive behaviours,” says Jean Côté, acting director of the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University.

But in an era of star athletes glorified over team effort, performance-enhancing drugs being used in sports such as professional baseball and bike racing (and even auto racing in the form of fuel additives) and bench-clearing brawls, the Josephson Institute thought the matter was worth further investigation.

The two-year survey of 5,275 high school athletes from across the U.S. yielded some surprising results – at least for anyone who loves sports.

Two-thirds of the athletes admitted to cheating on an exam at least once in the previous year, compared with 60 per cent in the rest of the student population.

Football players were the worst, at 72 per cent.

“For most kids, sport promotes rather than discourages cheating,” the report says.

It would be interesting to see how, say, runners would respond.

Politics: 10 ways Fox is different than MSNBC. Ok, 9.

I’ll add another: the MSNBC audience is smarter and better informed than the Fox audience.

Paul Krugman: proposes extending Godwin’s law.