I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure--that is all that agnosticism means... ~Clarence Darrow
28 October 2005
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on October 28th, 2005 @ 01:06:30 am, using 288 words, 281 views
Well, it's that time of year again in which we all ignore obvious math and get caught up in the silly madness of crowds. I'm refering to that display of American arrogance that is the "World" Series. I won't go into my thoughts on how mind-numbingly boring the sport is in general, but simply want to point out a few things:
1. The entire baseball league is comprised of two (2) countries.
2. The "World" Series this year is being played by teams from one (1) country.
3. The world consists of over 260 countries.
Now for some simple math (requires a grade-school education):
2 / 260 = 0.7% (percentage of the world participating in the "World" Series)
Let's look at football for a moment... Not American football. I'm referring to the sport played all over the world where they actually use their feet. (hint: soccer) Here we have something approaching a "world" involvement and, hence, the World Cup. As an aside, it was estimated 10 years ago that soccer is played by over 100,000,000 people around the world. That's one hundred million! So, greater than 100,000,000 participants worldwide... greater than 200 countries participating... World Cup championship... Call me kooky, but that makes more than a little sense.
On the other hand, how is the championship series of a sport played by a maximum of 2 countries (again, 0.7% of the world) in any way accurately called the "World" Series? I just don't get it. Maybe the point is not to think? Maybe enjoyment of the sport is an inverse relationship to the amount of electricity in the braincase? Any thoughts?
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping...
DJ Krush - Strictly Turntablized
This post is the creative work of Yours Truly and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
10 October 2005
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on October 10th, 2005 @ 09:02:53 pm, using 311 words, 194 views
There's a news story that just showed up on Yahoo about an hour ago describing the discovery of a new species of tiny geckolike lizard. This new and apparently endangered species of lizard is about 1.5 inches in length, and was discovered in the Caribbean by Avila University professor Robert Powell.
The Yahoo article states that professor Powell discovered the lizard, "after being tipped off about its existence." The article goes on to say that "The Rev. Bob de Silva, an amateur naturalist from St. Vincent who had visited Union Island, had been the only person to ever report seeing the geckolike lizard, and told Powell about it."
Sooo... umm... didn't the Rev Bob de Silva actually discover it? After all, the university professor didn't seem to know anything about it until he was 'tipped off' by de Silva.
Continuing on, the article reads: "The wonderful thing about Bob Powell is what he does with his research, said Sister Marie Joan Harris, Avila provost." Yes, it sounds like he lets other people do the research for him, and then takes credit for it...
Anyway, read the article for yourself:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051010/ap_on_sc/nameless_lizard. The prof apparently needs the attention.
Oh, and in case there's any question about the official definition of the word "discover":
dis·cov·er - To be the first, or the first of one's group or kind, to find, learn of, or observe.
The key here is the guy who saw it 'first', not the guy who showed up late and was tipped off by the guy who saw it 'first'. Dig it?
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping...
Finn & Aphrodite - G.L.O.B.A.L. Takeover
This post is the creative work of Yours Truly and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
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