Sunday, August 31

"Everybody wants to know what is Michigan football"

Asked and answered by Coach Rodriguez:
"Michigan football is a bunch of guys in winged helmets going out of that tunnel and playing their ass off with pride, passion, and intensity on every snap. On [e]very snap! Every man, every play! That's what Michigan football is!"

And with those words a new era began.
Link to article. I'll interpret: what Coach Rod is saying is that Michigan is distinct from those other college football teams that do not have winged helmets and play there asses off with pride, passion, and intensity on alternating snaps. They lost yesterday to Utah, in a close game that (but for several Utah mistakes) could have been a blow out. Give them time.

MSNBC Hurricane Tracker

MSNBC has a neat application that follows the path of Hurricane Gustav. It is now at category 3 strength and bearing down on NOLA, with an ETA of around noon tomorrow (Monday). Link

(via Kottke)

That there is a LOT of offshore drilling!

This graphic is said to show the population of offshore oil rigs/platforms in the path of hurricane Gustav...

(via Oil Drum)

Irony?

A Focus on the Family video shot just prior to Obama's acceptance speech, encouraging people to pray for rain of biblical proportions to ruin the Democrat's big night...



(via Daily Kos)

Wednesday, August 27

Michigan's bleak economic picture

An AP article ("Incomes fall in Michigan, number in poverty rises") reports:
Detroit's poverty rate of 33.8 percent was highest among cities of 250,000 or more, while Kalamazoo and Flint tied for fifth among cities of 65,000 to 249,999 people. Both had rates of 35.5 percent.
One third of a city population living in poverty. I'd no idea.

Monday, August 25

Caribbean nations dominate the Olympics

Controlling for population, the Bahamas and Jamaica took home the most Olympic medals (medals per 1m inhabitants), ranking #1 and #2, respectively. Trinidad and Tobago was #11.

Controlling for GDP, the Bahamas and Jamaica also rank in the top 10 (medals per $1t GDP), ranking #8 and #1, respectively. Not bad!

(via Geary Behavior Center)

Saturday, August 23

Campaign Ad

This is a clever ad...

Friday, August 22

Suck it up!

Young Chinese gymnasts in training. Their expressions suggest letting go is not an appealing alternative.




(via Oddity Central)

Thursday, August 21

Just do it

Bevan Docherty took bronze in the triathlon at the Beijing Olympics (a mere 12 seconds behind the winner, Jan "Frodo" Frodeno of Germany). In this clip, footage from a prior triathlon, Docherty pulls off a victory in dramatic fashion. I've watched it more times than I'll admit and each time it motivates me to go out and run. When you watch it, keep in mind it is the final leg of a triathlon.



(via Jasper)

Now check out this clip - the finish to last year's Chicago marathon. Watch the lead runner as she high fives and waves at the crowd. It then all falls apart.

What its all about

Derek Redmond's hamstring popped midway thru the semi-final heat in the 400m at the 1992 Olympics. With sheer will and his father's assistance, he finished the race. It brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it.

Wednesday, August 20

Then vs Now

Because I felt like it, some pictures of Sam and Oliver. My two favorite boys!



From 2008 vs 2004

Tuesday, August 19

What is the most obscure Olympic event?

The summer Olympics is currently comprised of 28 sports, and will be reduced to 26 sports at the next summer games in London:
The IOC has voted to eliminate the sports [baseball and softball] starting in the 2012 London Olympics because it [sic] was deemed "too American for the International Stage." It becomes the first sport eliminated since polo was ousted in 1936. There were three sports on the table for elimination, and Modern Pentathlon was the only sport that maintained its place in the Games.
Here is the story. As the author notes, it is Cuba (not the U.S.) that is most harmed by the omission of baseball.

Slate's pick of the most obscure, bogus Olympic events, circa July 2000:
Everyone's favorite is synchronized swimming, which requires make-up and hair gel. New this year is 'trampoline' gymnastics, which joins 'rhythmic' gymnastics (featuring colored ribbons) as the two events most suited to the backyard lawn. Add to these traditional events such as equestrian, sailing, and shooting. On the border are newfangled 'extreme' sports such as mountain biking, the three different versions of kayaking, and (during the winter) snowboarding, moguls, and aerials. Too many of these events are subjective, with abstract ideals that make them resemble dog shows more than head-to-head competitions.
I agree. Rhythmic Gymnastics should be cut immediately. I've one exception though: I love watching trampoline!

A bigger (unrelated) gripe of mine is with NBC's prime time coverage. First, NBC seems only to follow the biggies--swimming and track. I'd much rather watch the finals of an obscure sport, than some qualifying round in a track event. Second, NBC seems only to follow the swimming and track events where an American is likely to place. Third, the commentators are overtly biased in favor of the U.S. athletes. I've nothing against U.S. pride, but it seems whenever there is close call that doesn't go our way, they suggest judge misconduct or ineptitude.

Monday, August 18

Why are most of the world's top sprinters from Jamaica?

The 100m finals were held this weekend. Get this:
-- 6 of 8 in the men's final and 4 of 8 in the women's final were from a Caribbean nation.
-- Bolt, a Jamaican, took the gold in the men's final, in world-record time.
-- Fraser, Simpson, and Stewart, all Jamaicans, took gold, silver and bronze, respectively, in the women's final.
That is amazing! Keep in mind, Jamaica, one of the largest Caribbean countries, has a pop. of just 2.8m. By comparison, the U.S. pop exceeds 300m.

And check this out. According to The Guardian,
Bolt's medal took Jamaica's [all time] Olympic total to 43, 42 of which have come on the track and all but one at distances of 400m or under.
What explains this phenomena? One explanation is certainly structural. It doesn't take much to get started as a runner. A pair of shoes? But culture must play a huge role as well. How did this running culture take hold in Jamaica and why has it persisted and [I believe] grown in recent years? And what other explanations are there for the geographic concentration of sprinting talent to such a small portion of the world?

Here is one attempt at an explanation, from the CS Monitor:
How does a poor Caribbean country of less than 3 million people produce such athletic riches? Improved coaching and a new system to develop raw talent at home have combined with a tradition of seeing sprinting as an inexpensive ticket out of poverty, observers say.
This explanation, I suppose, will have to suffice for now.

Kremer and Levy on peer influence

From The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2008. No wonder my roommates had such poor grades!
We exploit a natural experiment in which students at a large state university were randomly assigned roommates through a lottery system. We find that on average, males assigned to roommates who reported drinking in the year prior to entering college had a Grade Point Average (GPA) one quarter-point lower than those assigned to nondrinking roommates. The effect of initial assignment to a drinking roommate persists into the second year of college and possibly grows. The effect is especially large for students who drank alcohol themselves in the year prior to college.
While these conclusions are fairly obvious, the secondary findings are quite interesting:
In contrast to the males, females' GPAs do not appear affected by roommates' drinking prior to college. Furthermore, students' college GPA is not significantly affected by roommates' high school grades, admission test scores, or family background...Surprisingly, the policy of segregating drinkers by having substance-free housing could potentially lower average GPA in the university.
Link to abstract: JEP, Vol. 22, No. 3
Link to (non-gated, older version of) paper: June 2005

Running can slow ageing

The work tracked 500 older runners for more than 20 years, comparing them to a similar group of non-runners. All were in their 50s at the start of the study.
What I find interesting and surprising is the magnitude of the benefits from running:
Nineteen years into the study, 34% of the non-runners had died compared to only 15% of the runners.

Both groups became more disabled with age, but for the runners the onset of disability started later - an average of 16 years later.

The health gap between the runners and non-runners continued to widen even as the subjects entered their ninth decade of life.
Note, however, that the runners were pretty hard core, running "for about four hours a week on average." Link: BBC News

Fiscal Conservative?

Thursday, August 14

Burnsteins visit Ann Arbor

From Aug 2008

Tuesday, August 5

Doctors say it is "the dipstick of the [male] body's health"

This and four other symptoms men should not ignore. Most are fairly obvious, but it never hurts to be reminded. Link: CNN.com

Friday, August 1

You are kidding, right?


From yesterday's "Fashion & Style" section in the NY Times:
Now it appears that, after some stops and starts in recent seasons, the men of the white collar work force are marching into the office in shorts.