Why I Love What I Don't Know

So . . . it's been a year since I started this blog, and about 150 posts later I thought I'd return to the core of the blog.  There is so much more that we don't know than we do, yet we insist on certainty in many cases.  Most of what I write here is based on my opinion rather than any hard fact or known perspective.  I don't know if I'm right about whether effort matters in sports, or if people generally misperceive pricing information, or what the ending of Lost meant (as I said, I started the blog a year ago this week). And in my opinion, the world would be a much better place if we all would admit that there is a lot we don't know.

Unproductive Foreigners

So . . . one thing that seems to consistently catch my attention is when they report the number of hours, and the commensurate amount of productivity, that is lost when people turn their attention away from work.  For example, the royal wedding last month apparently cost the U.K. 1, 5, 10 or 50 billion dollars in lost productivity, because people were not working.  Whichever estimate you believe, that's a lot of money.  Seems like a huge waste for a meaningless ceremony.

Righting Writing

So . . . one topic of conversation that frequently comes up amongst university faculty members (and pretty much any educator) is the poor writing skills that students seem to have.  Everyone bemoans the fact that the kids can't write correctly, interestingly, or coherently.  Now I do not hold myself up as a paragon of literary quality; I'm sure you could find more than one fault with each of my blog posts.  But I do put some effort into communicating my ideas clearly (if not quite as concisely as some of you might want) and am familiar with the accepted conventions of spelling, grammar, and punctuation.  Which is more than can be said about many students.

Drinking the Apple-Flavoured Kool-Aid

So . . . we have been having problems with our desktop computer at home.  Usual types of complaints - it's slow, it freezes up, wireless stuff doesn't work well, it totally erased my blueprints for that talking hippo robot that's going to be the hot toy this December.  As a result, we're looking for a new computer and are thinking of getting a Mac.  Not just because I want to be more like the laid-back hip guy in the commercials (of course, doing so would mean that I have to stop using the term "hip"), but because people seem to like them and once they switch to Apple they never look back.

Is Gay OK in the NBA?

So . . . it was recently announced that Rick Welts, President and CEO of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, is gay.  For most of the world, big deal/who cares/so what.  For the world of sports, big news.  Despite the probability that there have been dozens if not hundreds of gay athletes in the history of professional sports, it remains one of the last bastions (along with the military) where you'd better keep your sexual orientation to yourself if that orientation is not hetero.  I'm going to mostly avoid the typical pontificating on the topic (i.e. let people live their own lives because it doesn't affect you), though I may stray into that, and try to keep to the topic of how this announcement is being dealt with.

Poppin' the Clutch

So . . . the NBA playoffs are in full swing, with round two set to wrap up soon, and I haven't written word one about them yet.  I'm sure that most of my loyal readers are remarking to themselves "gee, I didn't really notice" or "thank god, I hate that sports stuff."  Sorry, but there is a much-discussed issue in sports that gets a lot of airtime and, in my opinion, not much thought.  This is the notion of the clutch player.

Past Perfect, Present Tense, Future Irregular

So . . . I was at a one-day regional conference on Friday and one of the presenters opened with a Chinese proverb: If you want to know your past, examine your present situation; if you want to know your future, examine your present actions.  The quote made sense for the research, which had to do with how people of different cultures use contextual information to make decisions.  But it also really stuck with me, and not in a good way, kind of like the way you feel like you have fillings after eating caramel corn.  I think its because this proverb is yet another example of how we believe that our past, present, and future are of our own making.

On My "Outcomes" Radar This Morning

So . . . spring has sprung, it seems, the birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and we're all ready to emerge from hibernation.  And like the changing of the seasons, I'm ready to come back around to some topics that initially drove the creation of this blog (less so its evolution, and I'll leave it up to you as to whether it is intelligently designed).  One, the Zamboni issue, sounds like it has to do with the hockey playoffs but actually is a medical issue.  The other, about Dale Crover, comes from a morning interview with the drummer from an relatively obscure grunge band.

Why Does My Blog Have To Be So Darn Popular?

So . . . I have noticed a strange thing going on with my blog over the past couple of weeks.  My hit count has been going through the roof.  My previous daily maximum has been almost doubled (on a regular basis!) and now serves as my daily minimum.  I exceeded my high for number of hits in a month by about 25% in April simply due to the traffic in the last week of the month.  And I wish it was because I was actually, really, developing a following, but I can't convince myself that this is the case.

Osama, Obama, and Chance

So . . . the bogeyman has been killed.  The name that made a generation uneasy and made us feel unsafe for the past decade was wiped out by a Navy SEAL's bullet (once he managed to get a bullet into the female human shield first).  What Bush, that beacon of "security" could not accomplish, the supposedly soft and supposedly foreign Obama managed to do.  But how much credit can be taken by the principal players involved?  It has been seen as a universal good that Bin Laden been leaden, and that remains the same no matter what the analysis (despite what Jesse Ventura and other conspiracy theorists say).  I just question the laurels that are being given out.

Oh, What an Election Night

So . . . throw the rulebook out the window, Canadian politics is forever changed (well, forever for now).  The silly party got squeezed between the love for the sensible party and the very silly party, and was reduced to a handful of seats.  The separatists found that their support had separated from them.  The Green party finally won a seat, so now Elizabeth May gets to be irrelevant inside the House of Commons instead of being irrelevant outside of it.  But the big story, of course, is Jack Layton moving into Stornaway as the leader the loyal opposition.  Congratulations and condolences are due to Jack and his New Democratics.

Campaign Report Cards

So . . . the results are minutes away from coming in (and will be in by the time you read this) but I thought I'd take this last opportunity to comment on the campaign and how it was run.  I feel both happy and sad that my prediction that this would be a boring election was wrong (made here; my prediction about Bieber still stands).  It certainly signalled a change in the political landscape here in Canada.  Smilin' Jack had the biggest impact, of course, but all four leaders made their presence felt.