So we're down to the final four in the NCAA men's basketball tournament (lest anyone think I'm talking about the "frozen four" hockey tournament or the women)... Quite frankly, unless your team is still in it at this point, the final four just isn't as exciting as the opening rounds... there aren't four games going on at the same time, so you're less likely to see a bunch of close finishes... and there aren't any major upsets anymore... IUPUI has packed it in for the year...

But if you're in the hunt to win a tournament pool, it can be fairly exciting... especially if you win... so as I look at my brackets in the two pools where I'm entered, I think I'm in pretty good shape...

Scenario	pool one	pool two
Duke over Oklahoma State	lose	lose
Duke over Georgia Tech	lose	lose
Oklahoma State over Duke	lose	lose
Georgia Tech over Duke	win	lose
UConn over Oklahoma State	lose	win
UConn over Georgia Tech	win	win
Oklahoma State over UConn	lose	win
Georgia Tech over UConn	win	tie

Winning at least one pool in 5/8 outcomes isn't too shabby at all! Needless to say, I'll be distraught with a Duke-Oklahoma State championship game...

UPDATE: *sigh* no time to fix that gaping whitespace hole above the table right now... not that anyone really cares...

Ever take a look at the Nepalese flag and wonder who the hell came up with that shape for the flag? If you're like me, you probably have... more likely, you haven't... but I digress... My geography nerdiness extends to flags, so I was delighted to come across this site which gives each the flag of each nation a letter grade...

For the most part, the rankings are pretty good... Naturally there are some that are ranked way too high (rules about 4+ colors don't seem to apply to South Africa like they do to Mauritius and the Central African Republic) and some that are too low (Croatia and Slovenia aren't that much worse than Slovakia)... but it's really hard to argue with the bottom of the list... and that's where the commentary - and the flags - get to be laugh-out-loud funny... at least if you're me this afternoon... should flags ever be laugh-out-loud funny? Or am I just a little carried away with the nerd thing?

Contests erupting over the shotgun seat in a vehicle have produced lengthy and detailed rules and protocols. But as an alternative to the traditional call of "shotgun," which is somewhat uninteresting and rewarding only to the person contemplating the upcoming journey the farthest in advance (to a point), some folks I know have chosen to utilize a quick game of "word" to settle all shotgun disputes. Simply put, the driver asks each passenger to say a word. The passenger selecting the best word in the driver's opinion becomes entitled to the shotgun seat.

Typically, winning words are not those that represent something that the driver is fond of, but rather words that are artistic, melodious, unique or precise... words that impress you when heard used properly in the ordinary course of converstaion tend to work well. Personally, I also find certain types of words interesting... words with double hard "c" sounds (cacophony, concatenate, etc.), words with adjacent "m" and "n" sounds (omnipotent, somnambulent), words with odd silent letters (wednesday, salmon) and words with odd plurals (radii)...

Since I have neither a car nor a multitude of passengers, I have not had much opportunity to officiate a game of word lately... but if I did, here's a list of my top fifteen words... (at least the ones I thought of off the top of my head... offered without comment):

15. cornucopia
14. ambidexterous
13. effervescent
12. passport
11. eschew
10. quintessential
9. sarcophagus
8. ethos
7. foosball
6. hyperbole
5. mnemonic
4. radii
3. somnambulance
2. concatenate
1. bouillabaisse

Jeremy Blachman has identified 20 types of law school students whose law school experience parallels that of a major league baseball player... sadly, I don't think he quite found the right category for yours truly... thus, I submit category #21:

The Ken Griffey, Jr.

Came into law school with greatness in his forecast. Experienced plenty of success early on and built to a rather high peak... but in the end, he couldn't maintain his peak performance as injuries prevented him from getting on the field and led to a forgettable conclusion to his career.

on another note, I didn't order the fancy keyboard, but I did send out for a new ergonomic one... it should be here by the end of the week... hopefully, I'll be able to get back to a regular, more expanded posting schedule then...

I'm highly skeptical of the media, especially the mass media... Carl Bernstein shares my concerns...

Bernstein, the former Washington Post journalist who, along with fellow reporter Bob Woodward, unearthed the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, said much of today's news has deteriorated into gossip, sensationalism and manufactured controversy.

That type of news panders to the public and insults their intelligence, ignoring the context of real life, he said. Good journalism, Bernstein said, "should challenge people, not just mindlessly amuse them."

Still, he said people can change that trend by exploring the Internet and piecing together from reputable sources their own news about important world matters.

Amen to that... AGRWS, read the whole thing...

Because watching the games and checking the brackets isn't enough, there's ESPN's NCAA Tourney blog

As you've likely noticed, postings have been down lately... Typing has become painful, at least for my left wrist, from too many keyboard shortcuts... when you're alt-tabbing, control-x, c, and v-ing all lefty all the time, things like that happen... it's not carpal tunnel syndrome, but it's not comfortable either... The doctor suggested looking into an ergonomic keyboard, and since mine is old, dirty and lacking certain working keys (up arrow, F-11), I'm all in favor of it...

The only question now is which keyboard to get? I'd really like one of these, but as a poor college student, I don't know if I can spring for that... especially when I can get a standard ergo keyboard for $20 or less... so do I splurge or not? (and if so, should I order some milk and bread - not to mention cereal and cheese - while I'm at it?)

8:15 - A mixed challenge.... an exact duplicate of a Survivor Amazon challenge, with the twist of the raiding the other tribe concept from Pearl Islands... the question that raged here going into the challenge was whether or not you would want alcohol in your tribe... my perspective is that taking alcohol (or giving it to the other tribe, depending on your perspective) would be a brilliant idea... Alcohol may raise your spirits, but it's also going to make you dehydrated and if you have enough of it, you might just say something you'll regret - or at least cause unnecessary friction... I certainly wouldn't want it in my tribe...

8:30 - So Amber feels secure with Rob, eh? She certainly shouldn't... it just puts a bigger target on her back (and Rob's) for being so intertwined...

8:45 - Jeff: "Jerri, you stepped up into a make or break position... didn't work out..." Not quite a nonpartisan approach, is it?

8:50 - Does Ethan get it? He really doesn't seem to understand why someone would want to get rid of him instead of Jerri... But there is plenty of rhyme and reason to voting him off... he's won before, he's an individual threat... The individual threat has been the way Survivor has worked for awhile... Is it "right?" Well, maybe... It's a game, and there isn't much "right" or "wrong"... It's natural to find it repugnant to vote people off for succeeding... but that's part of the game, and if Ethan doesn't understand that, he doesn't understand the game... it's changed since Africa...

9:00 - Lex was absolutely right... if Ethan were to make it to the final two - even under the assumption that nobody would vote for him to win - that would be pretty strong evidence that he'd played the game well... Given the twists and turns this game takes, it seems foolish to expect a merge... and it doesn't look like it's going to happen... Mogo Mogo left themselves with a relatively weak tribe in the event of further challenges; a questionable choice...

By the way, what's up with Alicia's hat? I mean, Amber's hat is kinda goofy too, but it's really a rain hat... it serves some type of function... Alicia's just looks silly...

On the whole, not a particularly compelling episode... "Survivor Cuddling" isn't really interesting unless it comes to bear on strategic considerations, which didn't happen in this episode... oh, and my final four prediction is still possible... let's hope my NCAA tournament final four hangs in there this long too...

Will Baude recently posed the question,

If you had to meet somebody you'd never met before someplace in Chicago, but you hadn't agreed on a time or a place, and you couldn't talk to them in advance, where and when would you go, hoping that the other person would pick the same time and place?

Will's respondents chose a host of different locations, but there was some small degree of concurrence in the responses. Would the same question posed in Pittsburgh produce the same results? My initial guess is not... in fact, I wouldn't expect many people at all to pick the place I'd probably choose... any nominations, Pittsburghers?

it's the big dance... you know it, you love it and you won't be doing anything else between thursday and sunday... you're gonna be watching games and checking your brackets to see how you can catch up in the big pool... but first you've gotta join...

ID# 27327
password: helterskelter

do it now...

I like cheese... I like cheese a lot... but maybe not as much as Hanah Metchis, who has provided us with many cheese updates this past week...

For the record, my current cheese inventory includes 8 ounces of mozzarella, 6 ounces of muenster and 2 ounces of parmesan... (not counting the two cheese-filled coffee cakes that a friend is holding so I don't eat them both in one sitting)

8:30 - What kind of insanely huge challenge was that? Major food reward, immunity, protecting someone from the other tribe from immunity... wow! And to think that the two tribes were so close... it really shows how much of a coin toss a lot of things in this game are... and I really like thet way Kathy operates... she seems like she fits in well everywhere, she doesn't seem to tip off others about reservations she might have or what she's thinking, and she's always reevaluating where she stands and what she needs to do... I think she's going to last...

Chapera, meanwhile, does seem like one big happy family... I wonder how well Rupert and Jenna have actually fit in... It seems like if there were a tribal council, they wouldn't be the outsiders anymore...

8:45 - Colby and Jerri... what a show... and three cheers for Lex seeing things for what they are and taking charge... if Kathy were around, I think she'd help Shii Ann see the light... I thought she wouldn't need the help, but maybe she does...

8:49 - Of course, now Rupert and Jenna were absent from the champagne toast... who knows what's going on?

8:52 - What... is Jerri suggesting she's not one of the physically weakest links on her team? Does she really bring anything to the tribe? An interesting discussion at tribal council in any case... lots of finger pointing, lots of volunteered information...

8:56 - So Colby's gone... and Ethan must really feel like an outsider... again... just that he's been able to stay in the game so long - and he'll probably last another week or two - has been impressive given his status as an outsider and a former winner... also, given all the twists and turns, banking on a merge in the near future may be foolish... Shii Ann should know this better than anyone... Also, note that this entire episode took place in one day of the game... it's still supposed to take just 39 days, so there should be another unexpected twist coming that eliminates someone else...

Don Fehr and Bud Selig went before a Senate panel yesterday, where baseball's drug testing policy was criticized and John McCain threatened Congressional action if these testing policies weren't changed. More than anything, the criticisms and posturing strike me as but another example of election year politics. There aren't many safer political moves than coming out and saying drugs are bad...

The changes are presumably being investigated for the good of the people... because baseball players are role models that kids look up to. But don't most kids list their parents as role models? Should we setup a regime of mandatory drug testing for parents? And aren't other people - like the Senators holding the hearing - in much more important positions than those who play a game? Why not give them public drug tests? Oh right, that pesky Constitutional amendment against unlawful searches and seizures...

McCain demanded yes/no answers from Selig and Fehr as to whether they would be willing to use the NFL's testing plan. I can't see much reasoning behind this... Why should baseball use football's system or vice versa? Why not use the Olympic standards? Baseball's drug testing policy should be what is right for baseball, not what's right for someone else...

It may be obvious, but baseball also isn't football. The skills required to succeed in the two sports are not identical. While being large and strong may help you tackle (or avoid tackles), it isn't conclusive that it helps you hit a baseball. While stars such as Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi have been named in the BALCO probe, so have lesser players such as Benito Santiago, Marvin Benard and Randy Velarde - not exactly sultans of swat. Others - notably Ruben Sierra - have seen their careers fall apart when they've bulked up and get resuscitated when they lose the added muscle.

More importantly, Congress just stepping in, upsetting a labor agreement and imposing new terms on the parties in private industry bothers me just a bit... The players and the owners reached a deal and one of the elements of that deal was drug testing. It was a provision that was bargained for, viewed as a material element of the deal, and agreed to by both sides. The players presumably gave up something in order to maintain a relatively lax testing regime. If we're going back to tweak one issue in the CBA, the whole agreement can be called into question and likely needs to be revisited.

During the hearings, Joe Biden said "I wish to hell baseball would get a real commissioner." While I share his sentiments, taking an anti-player position such as mandating a testing regime that is incompatible with what the players bargained for certainly suggests the government is taking sides in baseball's labor issues. Perhaps if the government were to impose equally strict financial disclosure requirements on the owners, any scuttling of the CBA would be a little more evenhanded... and just like we don't want to encourage kids to use steroids, we also don't want to encourage corporations to engage in accounting chicanery. If we're clearing the air, we might as well put all the issues on the table, huh?

For what it's worth, I think an expanded drug testing program would be good for the game. However, the method for implementation should not be legislation. The players are the ones giving up their Constitutional rights, and they should have a significant say in how, why and when they are doing so.

Dan has launched DanNation, a good blog with a great name... Yesterday, he highlighted a story about a consulting firm's rankings of the world's most livable cities... As a geography nerd, this is a subject of great interest to me... double so because I might be in the market for a new city in the near future, but that's a subject for a later post...

Because I'm nerdy and wanted more information than what the article provided, I went to the source and looked up the Mercer Human Resource Consulting Group. A free registration on their website allowed me to download the rankings for the top 50 cities. The article about the survey said that...

The only U.S. city to make the top 20 was San Francisco at No. 18. Other high-scoring U.S. cities were Honolulu, Seattle, Portland, and Boston.

Needless to say, I was surprised when I looked at the actual rankings and found San Francisco to actually be tied with Honolulu as the top American city, both ranked #24 with an indexed score of 102. The next highest ranking cities? The article would have you believe they would be Seattle, Portland and Boston, right? Not quite.

New York City ranked #38, Boston and Portland were tied at #41, Winston-Salem, NC came in at 43, while Pittsburgh, Seattle and Lexington, KY tied at 44. Chicago was 49th.

Factually, the article citing the rankings was incorrect. From an editorial angle, I can't help but wonder if the writer didn't want to put the spin on it that would lead people to draw conclusions about progressivism like those that Dan has drawn. It could just as easily been written that "Other high-scoring U.S. cities were New York City, Winston-Salem, Pittsburgh and Lexington", but that wouldn't sound the same, would it?

Also not highlighted by the article were the raw scores for these cities, which ranged from Chicago's low of 98 to San Francisco/Honolulu's high of 102. Ranking 25 spots lower in survey sounds pretty bad, but when the underlying difference is such a small number of rankings points, is the gap in rank really reflective of the gap in quality?

As a final ironic twist, Mercer's website has the results of the survey as one of its news items. The source of this news? Not the company producing the the report (i.e.: itself, its own press releases), but rather the news article reporting the inaccurate data! Also makes you wonder...

If you've got a little time to kill and are wondering what people are looking for on the Internet right now, head on over to MetaCrawler's unfiltered metaspy... You'll learn all about the "purpose of infinity in mathematics", "easy methamphetamine recipes", and what city is full of folks looking for breast augmentations...

I watched Magnolia last night... and was very unimpressed. In fact, I didn't even bother to finish watching the movie - 45 minutes saved! The characters were all fairly miserable, despicable types of folks... Even though lots of them were in some unfortunate situations, it was hard to feel terribly sympathetic for them... they didn't seem to want much more than they had. Even when I could muster up a little sympathy for someone - like the policeman who obviously had problems with the ladies - he'd do something so painfully hard-to-watch that it was just that: painful... I guess you feel for him a little, but it isn't something you want to watch, and something you don't want to watch is pretty much a definition of a bad movie.

Actually, it reminded me a little bit of a bad Saturday Night Live skit in that sense. So often, SNL would depict characters as being patently annoying in an attempt at humor only to have it backfire when annoyed viewers turn off the television. Magnolia wasn't aiming for humor, but the characters - even if they were well-developed - weren't ones I could muster up any understanding/sympathy for...

It's yet another movie in the IMDB top 250 that I don't like. C'mon people, get with it!

Monday night's college basketball games underscore why March is a wonderful time of the year... Four conference championships, seven teams with one (and only one) chance at making it to the "Big Dance"... they're all playing for everything (well, except Gonzaga, who has its eyes on a bigger prize this season)... and do ALL the games come down to the last shot? Manhattan 62 - Niagara 61, VCU 55 - George Mason 54, UIC 65 - Milwaukee-Wisconsin 62... and Northern Iowa 79 - Southwestern Missouri State 74... in double overtime! Each and every game coming down to the last shot, at least once...

And weren't we all glad to see NIU back in the tournament? It's only their second trip ever, with the first being way back in 1990... you remember that, don't you? Like me, you probably picked Missouri to go all the way that year... Like me, NIU is on your shit list now for knocking off your tournament champion in the first round... and they're the Panthers? Are there really panthers in Northern Iowa? Aside from the ones representing the school?

The NCAA doesn't seem to be too good at marketing its athletics... College football is a joke, but at least they've always done well with basketball... At least until now... for the most part... Going forward, the NCAA is apparently referring to the various brackets of the basketball tournament not by a geographic region (ie: east, west, south, midwest), but rather by the city in which the games are played (East Rutherford, Phoenix, Atlanta, etc.)....... why? Is this necessary? It just seems to me that regions are so much easier to remember, especially on a year-to-year basis... why confuse the matter?

I really don't know why they're making this change. Maybe they're planning on shifting all the games to New York, Boston, Durham and Lexington? If any of my loyal readers (or even my disloyal ones who haven't been reloading for the last three days waiting for me to post something) could educate me on this fine point of NCAA tournament minutia, I'd be most interested...

This is great... the folks at Oyez and FindLaw are teaming up to teach us about Supreme Court justices via baseball! I suppose it makes a lot of sense... I mean, a baseball team fields nine players at a time (not counting designated hitters) and since 1865, there have been nine Supreme Court justices. 1865 also marked the first time a baseball team was received at the White House...

As for the game itself, it isn't bad, although some of the connections between the justices and the ballplayers are pretty tenuous... but it makes me wonder, what kind of team would the Supremes make on the diamond?

If you were to assign them baseball positions based on their seat assignments, Rehnquist would be on top of the hill... somehow seems appropriate, even if his bum knee might hurt his follow-through... Since seat 8 was abandoned in the move from ten to nine seats, Scalia's seat 10 doesn't fit in... so we'll throw him in center field... Thomas is at shortstop, which puts the conservative bunch all in "up the middle" positions... I don't quite know what to make of that... maybe I'm thinking a little too much about this...

In any case, I don't think I'd want to pick any of them tomorrow, when I have my first fantasy baseball draft of the season...

Heidi Bond is offering some advice for zero-L's (law students to be, for those not in our little law school club) and challenging the rest of us to disagree with the two main points she makes. She suggests that incoming students not let anyone else define law school success for them and also that they not depend on anyone else to tell them how to achieve that success.

On the whole, she's absolutely right. In fact, it would be counterintuitive to have someone else tell you how to succeed at anything if their definition of "success" was different from your own. But if you can find someone who has come into law school with the same objectives as yours, by all means, take their advice! In fact, just about any new law student can learn something about how how to play the law school game and make it work for them by talking to people at their school... the people who've travelled the road they're about to travel...

That said, here's a grizzled 3L's words of wisdom to soon-to-be law students...

• Think before you speak - As a 1L, you may be tempted to inject your opinion into lots of class discussions... but before you go raising your hand, tune out the discussion for a second or two and think about what it is you are about to say... is it ridiculous? You'd be surprised by how often some people will say things that are memorable for all the wrong reasons... Most of them seem to know better by second year, but at that point the damage has been done...
  
  
• Professors make a difference - The one time you should definitely listen to other peoples' advice is when it comes to class selections... When you're scheduling, make sure to ask about the class and the professor beforehand... A good professor can make even the most mundane topic interesting and even the most interesting of topics can be ruined by a bad professor... You won't learn anything from a bad professor that you can't get from reading the book on your own... Professors are more important than class subject matter, day or time...
  
  
• Schedule conservatively - More on the scheduling... Maybe you know what type of law you want to practice from the day you send in your application... and once second year rolls around and you get that control over your schedule you've been craving ever since hearing the words "battle of the forms" or "rule against perpetuities"... and now you're ready to take all the intellectual property classes or all the international law classes or all the environmental law classes your school has to offer... before you do that, take a deep breath... and then don't take more than half of your second year classes in your field of choice... whatever program it is you're interested in, it probably isn't going anywhere... it'll still be there third year... and if you're still jazzed about it, you can go crazy and take the rest of the classes then... but if you take a bunch of IP classes, and they're not all you thought they would be, you're not stuck with a bunch of classes you don't like... sometimes people change their minds, and you're a people too...

For all the talk that's out there, law school really isn't that hard... it's a lot of work, but the work isn't too difficult... the hard part is developing the discipline to actually do the work on a regular basis... so don't get too worried, if you've gotten into law school, you're doing OK... now you just have to do a whole lot more of whatever it is you do and everything will be just dandy...

8:10 - Colby says it's easy to fly under the radar... He doesn't think that waiting 'til tribal council and letting someone else make the decisions makes you a worthy player... "It takes more than showing up and writing a name on a piece of paper to win this game"... but doesn't it take something to not be the person that everyone else wants to vote for? I don't think any prominent leader-type has won Survivor since Richard Hatch did it in the initial season. If you can win with the target on your back the whole game, that's impressive... but it also makes you less likely to win, and the million dollars doesn't care how you got it, it's still a million dollars...

8:20 - Now wait a second here... didn't Sue wait for Richard... and just about call him out at the challenge last week?... and now she's totally freaking out? OK, Survivor may mess with your head a bit, but she's totally gone off the deep end... can't wait to see what she rants about at the challenge...

8:25 - "I don't think it's a bad idea holding your cards a little bit closer to you in Survivor" says Lex... He's absolutely right... before the show, I had him marked as one of my favorites to win this... If he can keep from blowing his top while not looking too threatening, I think he's got a shot...

8:30 - Parental discretion on Survivor? whoa...

8:45 - I guess this answers half of the question of how they'd get rid of two extra people in the same number of days... What a bizzare game this has been... a second person walks away from the game! It only happened once in the first seven seasons, and now it's happened twice in six weeks... with all-stars playing! Of course, that makes me wonder if having been there before dulls any of their willingness to do what it takes to win. For some, it certainly has... for others, it clearly hasn't... "this time, it's business" - Lex

8:55 - Or maybe that's not how they shave people down to fit in the 39 days... huh... by the way, Jenna totally looks like an ultimate player when she's got the visor going on... scores points with me...

9:00 - Huh... no statement... this really was bizarre... I'm surprised Sue is going to be doing any of the typical Survivor appearances (Early Show, Late Night, Reunion)... I can't imagine they'd really want her back if she did file a lawsuit. Richard might have some cash, but Mark Burnett/CBS are the ones with the really deep pockets... CBS probably also doesn't want any more of her ranting... of course, I can't really figure out why they invited her back for All-Stars in the first place... it must have been because of her first one... so maybe going nuts and blowing up is a good thing? or at least good television?

Speaking of baseball, I've started up a fantasy league over at Yahoo!... I'm opening it up to anyone who wants to join... draft Saturday at 9:45 AM eastern time... it's baseball, it's drafting... it's good news... join the league! you might come in second!
league ID# 13568
league password: frisbee

I got an eggplant recently... not for any reason in particular... I didn't have any recipe in mind when I got it... but I'm an eggplant fan, and I'd like to have it more often... As I was looking for something fun to do with the eggplant, I came across this unbelieveable collection of eggplant recipes... what ever did eggplant fans do before the Internet?!? It's time to get cookin'!

Spring Training games started today, which can mean only one thing: baseball season has arrived! As fun as the hot stove league can be, it can't compare to the green grass and blue skies, the crack of the bat and pop of a catcher's mitt, and the hot dog and beverage of the baseball season. Before we jump into the season, however, let's take some time to look back at the offseason that was... the top ten moves teams made between the Marlins dancing in Yankee Stadium and today's first pitch.

10. Cubs signing Greg Maddux - Better late than never for the Cubbies... Now they've got a rotation 1-5 as good as any in baseball... With the bonus games against weak division foes and other NL divisions weakened, the Cubs, Astros and Cardinals could very well be competing for two playoff spots this year. Maddux might not regain his peak form, but as long as he's above average, he'll be worth it.

9. Royals signing Matt Stairs - Matt Stairs? OK, maybe this one is a stretch, but the AL Central is there for the taking. The Twins have seen their bullpen decimated and the White Sox have lost their ace... and neither of those teams were particularly great last year. With the division being weak, Carlos Beltran in a walk year, and some good young pitching, this might be a good year for the Royals to go for it. Matt Stairs is an underrated hitter. Sure, you can't really rely on him to be healthy all season, but when he is out there, he can mash. The same is true of Juan Gonzalez, but he cost the Royals $3.5 million more. Stairs is the type of player that low-revenue teams need to be looking at to provide production that's above and beyond the dollars they get.

8. Mets signing pitching coach Rick Peterson away from the A's - He may have had some good raw material to work with in Oakland, but he certainly hasn't messed it up. Whether the Mets can afford to hang on to their pitching prospects instead of dealing them in the pressure of keeping up with their Bronx neighbors is an open question, but if they can, guys like Aaron Heilman and Scott Kazmir could turn out quite nicely. New York revenues plus quality, inexpensive homegrown pitching equals lots of money spent on big hitters (numbers-wise... not size-wise, Mo Vaughn) and perhaps a Mets renaissance.

7. A's loading up on lefty relievers: Ricardo Rincon, Arthur Rhodes, Chris Hammond - The A's are right up there with the Cubs and Astros for the best staff in baseball. Not only did these moves strengthen their bullpen, but I think they did something else for Oakland: they kept a few good lefties away from other teams. The A's have notorious problems hitting lefties. If you can't beat 'em, sign 'em!

6. Yankees signing Gary Sheffield - He, not Vlad Guerrero, was the right guy for the Yanks. With so much money to spend, the Yankees neither need nor should want to make long-term commitments, like the six guaranteed years that Vlad got from Anaheim. The Yankees will have plenty of money to spend each year... they don't need to worry about wrapping up guys who'll be great for the next six years... if they want a hitter during that six years, they'll go get him. A long-term deal will only chain the Yanks down and commit them to (paying) someone who may or may not be useful to them over the life of the deal. Besides, Sheffield isn't the injury risk that Vlad is. If you're going to be signing a superstar right fielder, why not go with the one with the lower downside, if you only need him for a year or three?

5. Orioles signing Miguel Tejada - The easiest way to improve your team is to take a complete black hole and fill it with an all-star. After all, it's a lot easier to replace a pitiful producer than an average one. The production the Orioles got from their shortstops last year - mostly in the form of 548 Deivi Cruz AB was the definition of pitiful. And Tejada is much more than average. It's not an upgrade that'll help the O's compete this year, at least not in the "nuclear division," but with a great player in a key position, they can start building something this year.

4. Blue Jays signing Miguel Batista - See the reasoning above. Toronto's pitching was awful last year... especially the starters not named "Halladay"... upgrading to a guy who's had three consecutive average or better seasons (and adding Ted Lilly, in exchange for Bobby Kielty) should give the Jays' rotation a shot in the arm... If the offense can producee like they did last year (#2 in the AL, more than half a run per game better than everyone except Boston, New York, Kansas City and Texas), the Jays could be in position to compete for a playoff berth should either of the Yanks or Sox stumble. And wouldn't that be something?

3. Red Sox trading a passel of B-prospects for Curt Schilling - The Sox pulled off a nice little consolidation of talent here. For a team that isn't close to contention that has a lot of holes, this would be a bad move... but the Sox are right in the thick of things, and they need top-level talent to push them over the top. It's a classic example of knowing where you are in the success cycle and making moves accordingly. The time is now for Boston, so they had best fire all of their guns to go for the ring.

Schilling will give a boost to the Sox staff that last year was Pedro and Lowe and go offense go! With frontline starters like these guys, the Sox look awfully dangerous in a short series. In addition to being good, they all have different styles... Pedro can get you out with just about anything, but his changeup is totally money, Schilling is all gas, Lowe makes you beat the ball into the ground... then there's flutterballing Tim Wakefield and B.H. Kim and his frisbeeball. Never the same pitch twice for Sox opponents this year.

2. Astros signing Andy Pettite - Buy one very good pitcher, get a second half-off! Pettite may be a little overpaid, but he brings with him a discounted Roger Clemens... Not only are these guys good pitchers, but they're also local boys, and bringing in that combination in marketing gold. (Note to Devil Rays: yes, it's not simply enough to bring in locally-grown talent... the players have to be good too!) Much like Ichiro's deal with the Mariners, this one has to be measured by more than the value that Pettite (and Clemens) bring to the 'Stros on the field - simply having these guys on the team will sell extra tickets and merchandise... the boost will be at least enough to cover part of the deals. (And no, this does not hold true in Pittsburgh, since nobody really cares about Randall Simon, Chris Stynes or Raul Mondesi... and rightfully so)

On the field, the Astros' rotation is as deep as the Cubs', and they will have an absurd amount of pitching this year. Although they moved Billy Wagner, they managed to pick up three useful arms in that deal. Along with some of the young starters they have laying around (Tim Redding, Jeriome Robertson, Brandon Duckworth) and a still-stocked bullpen, they should have the pitching to move for any offensive help they might need (behind the plate). Well set up for a last run at glory for Clemens and the Killer B's these Astros are.

1. Dodgers hiring Paul DePodesta - I could have outraced Ferraris in my old '91 Nissan Sentra, if the guy driving the Ferrari couldn't find the gas pedal. The guy driving the car needs to know how to make it work. In the last few years, the Dodgers have had the Ferrari, but no driver. Along with the Orioles, Mets and Rangers, they have been been a prime example of how spending money does not necessarily lead to baseball success. Bringing in a guy who knows how to drive a winning team to success is what they have sorely needed.

Enter Paul DePodesta. Here's a guy who knows how to put together a baseball team. His track record as Billy Beane's right-hand-man with the A's more or less speaks for itself. Match his wits up with the revenues from playing in a market as large as Los Angeles, and the Dodgers look like they could have a pretty bright future... and not a moment too soon, as freewheelin' Arte Moreno is looking to steal their SoCal thunder with his radical spending spree.

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So that's it... and no, I didn't forget Vlad Guerrero, Billy Wagner or A-Rod... I'm not convinced Vlad will stay healthy and he might not have been the best fit for the Angels (who still have a void up the middle)... Relievers, although pitching more high-leverage innings, just don't have the same value as starters... the A's moves intrigued me as much for what they might do for their hitters late in games as what they'll do to help their own pitching... and A-Rod? The jury's still out on that one... The situation with him and Jeter looks like it could develop into a circus pretty easily and the Yankees DID lose Soriano... replacing him will be easier than replacing a third baseman... especially with the glove... especially now that Soriano is 28... but I don't think it's as cut-and-dried as it might seem to some...

My DVD collection has grown by 400% in the last two weeks... which is to say that I went from having one to five. Last night, I sat down and watched one of my new movies: WarGames. It's apparently the kind of movie that you want to watch every time you run across it flipping channels, because it wasn't until I hit play that I realized that for all the times I had seen WarGames, I didn't remember ever seeing the beginning. The first 20 minutes or so were new to me.

I've never been a big movie buff or good at the whole identifying actors thing, but one of the first scenes of the movie caught my attention. The characters were extremely minor, but I thought I recognized one of the actors... Sure enough, the end credits confirmed that it was, in fact, John Spencer playing one of the airmen in the missile silo. The other airman in that scene? Michael Madsen. It was the third role in each of their professional careers. For that matter, it was also Matthew Broderick's third role ever. Who'd have thunk it?

Well, it's Super Tuesday, and I never quite got around to profiling either John Kerry or John Edwards. Since I have to run to class now (OK, I don't have to, but I'm going to anyway) and may not get a chance to fully elaborate later on, I'm endorsing John Edwards in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Edwards isn't a particularly good choice... he wasn't a soldier, and rightly or not, that will resonate with voters looking for someone strong on national security... but he's not as bad of a nominee as Kerry. I think Kerry's message has gotten out much more, since he's been the frontrunner all along. People haven't listened to Edwards quite as much, since Kerry was all but crowned king after New Hampshire. Given the chance to talk to more voters, I think Edwards could be more successful in a general election than Kerry, simply because he's more persuasive. Mickey Kaus touches on this and a few other points in Edwards' favor (or more accurately, against Kerry's favor) in this article. AGRWS, read the whole thing.

I'm just about two months away from being done with law school and I really don't care anymore... I've been resisting the temptation to skip classes, but I just couldn't quite make it to two of 'em yesterday... when I have shown up (most of the semester before yesterday), I haven't been prepared for class more often than not... I'm more interested in getting ready for the bar exam, doing some immigration work, applying for jobs, and attempting to hone my writing skills via blogging than I am in taking care of my homework for any given class...

It's not something I feel particularly good about, in fact I feel a little bit guilty... After all, I do think that professors are entitled to some respect in their classrooms... Students should be on time and be prepared... But the more I realize that what I'm doing now isn't going to be terribly relevant to my career, the less guilt I have... So to any professors who might call on me for the rest of the year and get a stupid answer... or if I come wandering in a few minutes late... It's not you, it's me...

When I was a kid, I had a record called "How to think." It was all about the brain, and there were a bunch of songs about how the parts of the brain worked ("The thalamus does the most wonderful things... it sees dogs move, it hears bells ring..."). Steve Allen narrated the album. What it did not tell me, however, was that if I were a part of the brain, I would be the Cingulate Gyrus!!!

Snugly encircling the superior thalamus, and sitting atop the corpus callosum,
you are an integral part of the limbic system.
You remain a mystery, but common thought is that your reciprocal connections
to the frontal cortex and limbic system link decision-making and emotion!
Although you are mushy in consistency, you are a great friend to those around you
and your word is as solid as oak. You detest it when
people prod you, so you do need to lighten up a bit.
All in all, though, you are a solid citizen.
(And without you, people often find themselves unable to talk or move!)

This much I learned from the Personality Quiz, hosted by Mr. Poon.

Social sciences completely get the short shrift in American education. With the importance we place on preparation for standardized testing and the prestige associated with studying the natural sciences, lots of important stuff like history, civics and geography gets pushed to the back burner... and it's a damned shame.

A typical response might be, "but why on earth would I ever need to know the capital of Uzbekistan?" My retort: Why on earth would you ever need to know how to factor a quadratic equation? Now it might be on standardized tests or something - I don't really remember... but beyond that, your average high school graduate will never need to know most of the math learned beyond sixth grade.

On the other hand, knowing your civics will help you understand how our society is organized and how our government works. It'll also keep you from looking stupid when you're in law school and you're asked how many members there are in the US House of Representatives (no, the answer isn't "umm.... 100 or 200 or so").

A little geography will help you see beyond your own backyard, unlike this fantastic assessment of Californians' worldliness. Ironically enough, I came across this post the day after buying a puzzle of the US for my (much) younger brothers.

On top of all the face you can save is the conclusion from this Irish Examiner article (referenced in the post I linked to in the paragraph above... if you haven't read that post, GO READ IT!... at least when you're done here)...

"If young people can't find places on a map and lack awareness of current events, how can they understand the world's cultural, economic and natural resource issues?"

Have I mentioned before that I'm a map nerd? Ah yes, I have. And Uzbekistan's capital? Tashkent. You're smarter for having read my blog today.

Jeremy Blachman - who just reached 100,000 hits on his blog - has posted a Democratic debate parody that's really good... an excerpt:

DAN RATHER: Senator Edwards, you've gotten rich off of being a trial lawyer. Do you think the people of America realize that there's a whole set of lawyers in this country who make a lot of money?

SEN. EDWARDS: I think they do, Dan. I think they do in one America. But in the other America, people don't have a chance to become lawyers, because the other America doesn't have any vowels, and so there are no lawyers, doctors, or teachers. Just a lot of rhythm. Sometimes. When "Y" isn't a vowel.

As Glenn Reynolds would say (AGRWS, for future reference), go read the whole thing.