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Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria ($$)
Topic: Books
By: Beverly Tatum, Ph.D.

OSR: The bad - another book demanding I feel bad as a white person; the good - Dr. Tatum succeeds in creating sorely needed dialogue about race in America.

-Rick

Post Script - being black in America means you have to work a little bit harder to achieved the same results as whitey; if you seriously think otherwise, you are being naive.

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Best Interests of Baseball (part 2)
Topic: Sports
Part 2: Scheduling

18 games (3 home series, 3 away – 3 games per series) against teams in the division…18 x 6 = 108 games

8 games (4 games at home, 4 games away) against teams in the other division in the same league…7 x 8 = 56 games

At the end of each year, each team in his division will be ranked. 6 games (3 games at home, 3 away) will be played against the team with the same rank in the division in the opposite league…6 more games against the other division in the opposite league. 12 games total. This will hopefully create a few good extra series a year, and will hopefully deny any team an advantage they receive now by having a crappy geographic inter-league rival (See St. Louis v. Kansas City).

108 + 56 + 12 = 176 games. That is a cut of 8 games per team. Owners are going to howl at the lost revenue. How do we make them happy?

Part 3: Playoffs

The baseball season is too damn long, and the playoffs are the most exciting part of baseball. So? We cut the season down and add a playoff series.

At the end of the regular season, each division winner will receive a playoff berth and a bye past the first round. The top four non-division winning teams in a league receive a wildcard berth. They will play each other in a 5 game series: the “Wildcard Series”. The two winners of the wild-card series will play the division winners in a 7 game “Division Series”. Those two winners play each other in a 7 game “League Championship Series”. The two winners of the LCS will play each other in the 7 game “World Series”.

The addition of a wildcard series allows 4 more teams to get into the playoffs. This creates exciting baseball, and it kicks up interest in cities were it may be lagging. The loss of 8 games is offset by a greater potential for the gain of more exciting playoff games.

In part 3, I’ll provide some examples of what this set up would do based on the 2005 season.

-Rick

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Equilibrium ($)
Topic: Films
OSR: Christian Bale stars in this cheesy matrix rip-off.

-Rick

The Life of Pi ($$$)
Topic: Books
Since I read alot of books and watch alot of movies I've decided to keep track by rating them to offer suggestions to friends and readers (if any...ha!).

For ease and irony, my mark of choice is the dollar sign.

($$$) - the highest possible rating, you will enjoy this

($$) - good rating, it was enjoyable

($) - mediocre, I didn't enjoy it, but you may...I guess

(0) - the worst, don't read/watch this, it is BAD!

The thing rated will usually be the last thing I watched or read. The movies come from netflix or the theatre; I try to alternate between fiction and non-fiction books.

One sentence review ("OSR"): Pi, who is Hindu, Christian, and Muslim, is stuck at sea with a tiger for seven months; the book is very spiritual, but even an godless fiend like me could enjoy its deliberations over the questions of what it means to be alive.

-Rick

Best Interests of Baseball (Part 1)
Topic: Sports
So I've decided, in my infinite wisdom, to reorganize the game of baseball. The game itself will not change in any fundamental way, but the administration of the game will. I love baseball. I think my plan will highlite what is good about baseball and sweep under the bed waht is bad.

Part 1: Realignment

Realignment would be along geographic lines, creating local rivalries. This makes it easier for casual fans to take a trip to a division rival's home stadium to watch their team play. Geographic realignment will also cut down on travel costs for the owners and travel stress for the players.

There will be four divisions: American League East, American League West, National League North, and National League South.

To even things up a bit Tampa Bay and Washington are being eliminated. To satisfy the players union the DH will be added to the national league - elimination of a ridiculous disparity between the leagues - and a roster spot will be added to every team. So the union only loses 22 members instead of 50.

The new divisions are:

A.L. East
New York Yankees
New York Mets
Boston Red Sox
Philadelphia Phillies
Baltimore Orioles
Pittsburgh Pirates
Toronto Blue Jays

A.L. West
Seattle
Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Angels
San Diego Padres
Arizona Diamondbacks
San Franciso Giants
Oakland Athletics

N.L. North
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Milwaukee Brewers
Detroit Tigers
Minnesota Twins
Cleveland Indians
Colorado Rockies

N.L. South
Texas Rangers
Houston Astros
Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins
Cincinnati Reds
Kansas City Royals
St. Louis Cardinals

I love organization and these divisions are organized. There is more to this I promise, just wait for Part 2: Scheduling and Playoffs

-Rick

Hate You Big Ten
Topic: Sports
So here's this years Final Four:

Florida
George Mason
LSU
UCLA

Here's what Rick picked in the 'ole bracket:

Duke
Gonzaga
Illinois
Ohio State

Whoops! I don't feel all that bad though. Four people got it right...out of 3 million entries. I never had a chance.

In the interest of full disclosure I'm not wearing any pants. Uh...and I went to Illinois. So I'm a big Illini fan. It worked out for me last year, but...not so much this time. The Big Ten screwed me over pretty bad this year; six damn teams and not a one took more than one game. The RPI sucks. I don't even know what the RPI is, but I know it's worthless (the Big Ten had the nation's best RPI as a conference...*humpf*).

I also blame coach K and the boo-yaa network for my shitty four. I bought into the J.J. Reddick and Adam Morrison hype. I think I cried more than Morrison when Gonzaga lost. I didn't even have any money on this damn thing.

Seeing as how my odds really can't be any better whether I pick next years final four now or next March, I'm going to pick them today. Duke, Gonzaga, Ohio State, and Illinois: your 2007 Final Four.

-Rick

The Old (Young) Boys Club
Topic: Education
The Trouble With Boys

"Separate but equal" as a doctrine has a dubious history in America. To ever apply it requires a great deal of serious contemplation; it is a tool to always be used with great care. However, I think when it comes to the schooling of children K-8, and maybe even high school, "Separate but equal" maybe an effective way of ordering schools and teaching children.

I think, as evidence from the study in this article, that teaching boys and girls in Separate classes may be an effective way of reaching them. Separating the sexes, especially when they are at a young, tender, very immature age, may be a way to increase scores and create a more productive learning environment.

The "equal" concern of "Separate but equal" may be alleviated by maintaining single-sex classrooms without segregating the entire building. This would also limit costs (money) to the state and (hassle) to the parents.

The necessity of acclimating children to social interaction with the opposite sex may be an important enough interest to maintain this system only K-8 and not continue Separating them in high school, and college is definitely out. I think single-sex colleges are lacking the ability to provide certain important social lessons. Diversity in education becomes a persuasive goal which trumps minor benefits gained by segregating adults in college.

If it helps our kids learn, it's worth trying no?

-Rick

Arguments Pro Capital Punishment
Topic: People
2005's 50 Most Loathsome People in America

I didn't think this piece would be as dead on, for me, as it was. They might as well have called it "The 50 People Rick (and America) Could Do Without." My favorites?

#12 Barbara Bush
#4 You
#39 "Dr." David Hager
#48 Larry the Cable Guy
#31 Rita Crosby

-Rick

*Shudder*
Topic: Wierd Pics
Holy crap that is a big ass snake! I literally shuddered when I saw these pics.

That's an electric fence by the way. A farmer set it up when his sheep kept disappearing for no apparent reason at night. Imagine his surprise.

-Rick

Stupid Human Tricks
Stupid human tricks? No dave, useful, stupid human tricks.

-Rick

Cuba in the WBC? No way!
Cuba killed Kennedy?

Hmmm, slowly this thing is coming together. I saw a TV show on the history channel a few days again in which they used forensic evidence and scientific experiments to pretty much explain how the "magic bullet" was just one.

-Rick

How to do what you love
Something interesting to read.

-Rick

Fresh start
Fresh start. New blog, same look, same name. More to come.