Minimax Thoughts

I'm in a weird place right now.

2012-01-15T02:10:00.001-05:00

It's pretty enjoyable.

A realization

2011-12-19T21:54:00.001-05:00

I kind of wish I could just make people laugh for money. That'd be pretty awesome.

Obscure shows on Hulu, part 1

2011-12-13T13:18:00.001-05:00

I could write my personal statement and complete graduate school applications, or I could in fact decide to find obscure television shows that have been cancelled on Hulu and write about them. Today's show: Century City.

Link: http://www.hulu.com/century-city

About: Imagine any show about lawyers, but now in the future! That's right: did you ever wonder what a poorly done Boston Legal but futuristic would look like? Well you don't have to wonder anymore. Century City is a show set in a legal firm that apparently only deals with the most important issues of its day, including whether AI's have rights as humans and whether baseball players can be cyborgs.

Is it worth watching? In all honesty only if you're either a fan of science fiction or law. There's really no great characters or personal drama, and sometimes even the scenarios designed to push the boundaries of human thought are kind of weak. Still, I watched it and recall enjoying most of the episodes. You should too.

Liveblogging the Glenbrooks, Part 2

2011-11-20T11:14:00.001-05:00

Part 2 of my liveblog.

7:12PM - No octafinals and one final silly adventure back with Leighton Huch later, Glenbrooks is over. As an additional note, I'd like to acknowledge Eric Thurm's fictional nation of Afsanderstan, where all the weapons are plagiarized.

4:56PM - So the kid I'm judging for isn't breaking. Now all I need is for me not to judge octafinals and I'm out of here.

4:42PM - "I'm excited by children. I sometimes get a little too excited and engage in horseplay." - Eric Thurm

4:41PM - This liveblog has kind of just degenerated into a series of quotes. Also, they've started running out of food in the judges' lounge.

3:47PM - "ERIC THURM IS NOT MY FRIEND" - Leighton Huch

12:08PM - Everyone keeps talking about Nazis.

10:54AM - I HAVE FINALLY PICKED UP A FULL ROUND'S WORTH OF BALLOTS. In also some probable irony, I am judging in the orchestra room. I'm pretty sure this is the viola section. My life is filled with repeating motifs.

10:28AM - Louis Balocca: There should be a UChicago hunting RSO.
Chris Catteron: That'd be a gang, dude.

10:13AM - Leighton Huch: "Am I happier than yesterday? Yes, but there's still time for things to turn out differently."

7:30AM - Ha ha. I have no round 5, so I can saunter in.

Liveblogging The Glenbrooks

2011-11-19T09:19:00.001-05:00

Day 1 is done. Day 2 will be a fucking adventure in and of itself. It's 8:57PM, and I need a beer.

Because I'm probably not going to get a whole lot of ballots, and because apparently I might have to judge for two days instead of one (it's going to be fun figuring out how to get here on day 2, let me tell you), I'll liveblog the Glenbrooks. That's right, you finally get an inside look into the nation's largest high school run debate tournament. It'll be fun for all ages.

8:52PM - If you wonder why there was such a gap, allow me to elaborate. After making the Metra train (on foot from GBN, no less), I went downtown to get a Chipotle burrito, walking past a place called Epic Burger that I regret passing. Then, I proceeded to get on a series of CTA trains, each more comical than the last. I intended to get to a Red Line stop, which actually entailed going to the nearest CTA loop stop, which ended up being a Green Line/Pink Line stop. I took a Pink Line train to a place where I could transfer to the Red Line, except that because of a fire, the Red Line trains were actually rerouted to the L, instead of being underground. This was bitterly ironic because I had gone underground to get to the Red Line and now had to go back up. And so, after getting on a Red Line train, I ignore the fact that because of too many trains going together this train was an "express" train (and so didn't stop at Garfield, mostly because I had my headphones on. I then proceeded to get off at 69th, take another train back to Garfield, only to be crowded onto a 55 bus with every student from UChicago. Though props to Woodward House for moving farther back to fit more people.

4:50PM - In a show of professionalism, Leighton Huch decides to try and play Angry Birds on my phone during the NR. She is obviously the most qualified of judges.

2:41PM - No judging means I get to nap. Oh thank God.

1:57PM - Karlyn Gorski is jealous of my lack of ballots.

12:44PM - Lunch is delicious.

12:11PM - The ability of Louis Balocca to hit on attractive women astounds me.

11:40AM - I can't spell.

11:34AM - They keep giving out free slices of cake.

11:12AM - This school's firewall is good. Too good. It not only blocks Facebook, it also blocks the little "like" buttons that Facebook has convinced all website owners to put on their pages. Wow.

10:50AM - And down goes the veil of ignorance.

10:29AM - This round is basically the aff saying "John Rawls has this veil of ignorance" and the neg saying "no." After GWI finals I'm inclined to drop both of them.

9:35AM - I think I'll be able to get through my entire Hulu queue today.

9:16AM - Ooh, the Warm Room is a great online system. it tells me like 45 minutes in advance whether I have a ballot or not. In this case, I do. Shit.

8:32AM - The only difference between this and any other day is that I'm on reddit earlier.

8:00AM - I don't have a ballot, as expected. Turns out I'm obligated for the entire tournament. God I hope my kid doesn't break.

How do you deal with death?

2011-10-21T23:56:00.001-04:00

At some point in everyone's life, people consider the possibility of death. They don't consider it well, however. While death as an abstract concept and a state of being is usually easily understood, and many people can often clearly identify when others or other living things die, their own death is never well dealt with. That is, nobody ever thinks that they will die.

Part of the reason for this is obvious: it's difficult to conceptualize yourself not being there. Indeed, even when you envision life after you're dead, you're still envisioning it as if you have a presence that allows you to observe what is happening. The idea that your consciousness will forever be gone is not something that you ever really can consider: you can't imagine your consciousness not existing, so imagining what it truly is like when you're dead is hard.

Another reason is simply because people are afraid of death. The idea that you will no longer be around is an inherently terrifying prospect. Death is something that is feared, and somewhat rightly so. It is something that is permanently irreversible, and nobody knows what happens to your conscious self afterwards. We literally only have best guesses, and many of these guess are outright silly or at best completely unverifiable.

As a result, most people just don't consider themselves dying, or when they do, it is such a fearful thought that they seek immortality. Either they do not realize the imminence of death until it is too late (always saying "I can put this off until later") or otherwise they obsess about ways to "immortalize" themselves. Both are somewhat destructive behaviors if done incorrectly. Sure, not worry too much about what might happen tomorrow is necessary to make it through today, and building lasting institutions and memories certainly are noble and beneficial pursuits for society, but these pursuits can go too far.

Take, for example, the creation of religious concepts of immortality and the afterlife. Some religions believe in reincarnation, an unverifiable but ultimately harmless belief that simply encourages individuals to be on their best behavior in this life in order to supposedly reach a better life in the future, eventually reincarnating so much as to reach some kind of blissful state. On the other hand, there are individuals who believe in a more permanent afterlife, one that can be reached by believing in the right people or doing the right things. This is more problematic.

Those beliefs, when personal and spread without overwhelming social pressure, are at worst harmless and at best have a slight (if infinitesimal) probability of being true. But oftentimes this is not the case. Most of the time, a belief in a permanent afterlife is used by individuals to prioritize the wrong things. Being saved is considered a tantamount priority, but alleviating suffering and making life on Earth better are not. For example, while some Christians and most non-religious people see the plight of the poor in the developing world as a cause for fixing their situation on Earth, other Christians are more concerned with saving their souls. This would not be a problem if the latter group considered it possible to convert individuals simply by example, as being the good people who bring relief and opportunity to those who do not have it might convince them that being a Christian can lead to those good things. However, oftentimes, these individuals ignore all of the other problems that those in the developing world face and only try to convert them.

This usually takes the form of sending bibles and sending missionaries who only try to teach them about Christ without any kind of accompanying physical assistance for the here and now. Such priorities show a people less concerned with human well being. It is a lazy way out, an admission of failure: in essence, such individuals are saying that the problems of the real world are too difficult to surmount, and that we might as well prepare these people for the next life. It is unconscionable, and to say that we should simply give up on this life for the sake of some possible afterlife shows that such ideas are meant simply to alleviate individuals of guilt over the fact that they aren't willing to change this world.

To believe in an afterlife is not a problem, but to believe in such an afterlife so adamantly as to ignore the present world is inhumane. Even if such an afterlife existed, your time on earth is such a unique and irreversible experience that you should try to enjoy it as much as possible. Even the best conceptions of the afterlife generally have you unable to affect the world as you now know it.

In the end, I guess what I'm saying is this: you won't live here again. You won't get a chance to do anything on this planet once you're gone, and any experience you'll have won't be the same. Even if you believe that you'll go somewhere, you aren't returning to here anytime soon, and definitely not in a way that you'd either remember or in a way that you're you. Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, you need to act like there isn't one. Otherwise, your life will be wasted.

Review: The King's Speech

2011-09-05T20:08:00.000-04:00

It took me almost a full year to get around to reviewing this movie. And while I see it as being a good movie worth watching, I do not believe that all of the praise lavished upon it when it first came out is worthwhile. Indeed, while the movie is good, and generally speaking people can agree upon it being good, it is not great. That is to say, everyone would agree that it is a good movie, but good in the sense that everyone would rate it 6 out of 10, rather than, say, 9 out of 10.

Certainly this isn't because of the acting. The acting is great. Colin Firth and company put in believable and compelling performances. Nor is the dialogue itself unrealistic given its setting. Indeed, it is not what they say nor how they say it, because both the acting and the dialogue in this movie is top notch.

And yet the plot, despite aspects of reality, is what dooms this film to being merely good. The story of King George VI's family and personal problems would be compelling without embellishment, and certainly some thematical elements could be found. Yet the filmmakers found it suitable to entirely cram in historically false situations and scenarios, most of them involving Sir Winston Churchill. That the filmmakers essentially shaped the facts to fit their own storytelling would be forgivable if they were merely cutting out or embellishing elements that could make the plot itself difficult to deal with. For example, the length or the specifics of King George's treatment could be altered without truly losing the point of the story. But to in essence change reality so that themes about fascism and World War 2 could be put into the movie is disingenuous not only because of the unrealistic view it gives to history but because it presents themes about the past that just weren't there.

The movie, nonetheless, is worth watching, but not repeatedly. If you've already seen it, then hopefully you didn't buy the DVD, as there is no point. If you haven't seen it yet, I would suggest renting it: it is not a movie that will stand the test of time.

Please for the love of god let me be promoted

2011-08-08T00:15:00.001-04:00

Dear Blizzard,

I have won something like 10 games in Bronze 4v4. I'm currently ranked 6th in my league. Please promote me to Silver already.

Summer schedule set

2011-08-05T12:34:00.002-04:00

So until the end of September my schedule has been set. I will be in New Jersey until August 15, Chicago until September 8, Baltimore for that weekend, Washington D.C. for the week after that, then New Jersey again until the end of the 3rd week of September, and finally back in time for school to start.

I need to get a good suitcase, is what I'm saying.

Beluga Whale Serenaded by Mariachi Music

2011-08-03T20:45:00.002-04:00

Thoroughly enjoyed, would watch again.

Five thoughts on MORPDA

2011-08-02T11:28:00.002-04:00

I went down to Maryland this weekend with some friends to attend a summer debate tournament. Here are my thoughts.

Maryland bagels, I am sad to report, are not delicious.
At these kinds of things, nobody should ever get below a 25 (ie, averaage APDA speaks) out of politeness.
At the same time, nobody should ever run boring, stock, tight cases. Winning isn't supposed to be the goal, preparing for the season or just having fun is.
Bouncers at Georgetown bars are pretty douchey.
Overall, I had a fun weekend. I would care to repeat this experience again.

The worst episode of America's Got Talent I've ever seen

2011-07-28T23:23:00.000-04:00

Holy crap. From the start with the god-awful cross promotion with the Smurfs movie, to the great idea to surprise the audience with three contestants that don't move on (which, while a nice change for the television audience, created the most awkward silence possible), to the continued promotion of the Smurfs, to the awkward segway into the "Orville Redenbacher green room," this episode was terrible even by the standards of a results show for a reality competition. If you want to see a terrible show, just look below.

Trolling a spambot

2011-07-26T00:48:00.001-04:00

This spambot was trying to get me to sign up for an adult webcam. I almost believed him/her for a brief second, and then I didn't. Below is the chat transcript:

(12:18:17 AM) cameramankiller: hey
(12:18:24 AM) YesIAmYourGod: hey
(12:18:33 AM) cameramankiller: HeIIo there.. My name is jamie.. Got ur ID through Messenger Directory
(12:18:47 AM) YesIAmYourGod: oh ok cool
(12:18:50 AM) YesIAmYourGod: do i know you?
(12:19:01 AM) YesIAmYourGod: from somewhere?
(12:19:20 AM) cameramankiller: I Iove chatting with new peopIe.. WouId u Iike to chat today? Where are u from?
(12:19:42 AM) YesIAmYourGod: i'm from nj
(12:19:44 AM) YesIAmYourGod: and you?
(12:20:12 AM) cameramankiller: Nice Im 19 years oId i'm going to schooI in FIorida.. Can i ask u a question?
(12:21:01 AM) YesIAmYourGod: sure
(12:21:21 AM) cameramankiller: Do u Iike big booty girIs with big tits? IoI seriousIy cuz thats what ppI teII me i have..Is that too much for u to handIe?
(12:21:29 AM) YesIAmYourGod: yeah probably
(12:21:51 AM) cameramankiller: so yea i'm IoneIy wouId u Iike to have some kinky fun? WouId u Iike to see me?
(12:22:08 AM) YesIAmYourGod: i dunno
(12:22:12 AM) YesIAmYourGod: you're probably too much to handle
(12:22:29 AM) cameramankiller: ok but i have no pictures on my Iaptop.. but i have a video camea that came with it
(12:23:01 AM) YesIAmYourGod: sure
(12:23:05 AM) YesIAmYourGod: though i don't know why this is important
(12:23:08 AM) YesIAmYourGod: i don't have a vidcam
(12:23:26 AM) cameramankiller: IoI ok goto http://privatelittlepeepshow.com/privatecam?=3124 and we can go 1 on 1 chat. Just accept the invite on the page baby
(12:24:04 AM) YesIAmYourGod: uh
(12:24:05 AM) YesIAmYourGod: sure
(12:24:05 AM) Unable to send message: Client rate limit exceeded
(12:24:28 AM) cameramankiller: Don't worry baby its free to join this site, read teh page, they just need to verify ur age
(12:24:34 AM) YesIAmYourGod: ok
(12:24:36 AM) YesIAmYourGod: maybe in 20 years
(12:24:40 AM) YesIAmYourGod: when i'm desperate enough
(12:25:02 AM) cameramankiller: I'II do anything u want me to do.. Do u see me? I can't chat with u on the site tiII u register
(12:25:40 AM) YesIAmYourGod: i am not register
(12:25:41 AM) YesIAmYourGod: ing(12:25:41 AM) Unable to send message: Client rate limit exceeded
(12:26:23 AM) YesIAmYourGod: this is sad

Laddering in Starcraft 2

2011-07-20T16:50:00.003-04:00

So by the time most people really started playing Starcraft 1, that is about 3-4 years in (when broadband became more widely available), the ranking and ladder system within the game had become basically obsolete. Alternate systems for rankings like iccup and other leagues developed, but Blizzard has ensured that the ladder rankings will retain their relevance in Starcraft 2, unlike its predecessor.

Of course, in order to keep interest and prevent inactive players from clogging up divisions/rankings, Blizzard has implemented different seasons for SC2. To do this, though, they also have season locks, periods when it's impossible to move up and down in rank right before each season resets. This is the ideal time for people to try new strategies or switch races. This is what I've been trying to do on the 4v4 ladder.

I've switched races from Protoss to Terran. My feeling was that warp gate usage (the primary way of utilizing gateways) was not playing to my strengths, as I had to constantly remember to go back and make units. At the same time, I wasn't getting enough units fast enough to justify the investment.

However, it would appear that my Terran strategy is very much unlikely to succeed. My standard 3 barracks build is usually ineffective against opponents who can make large numbers of units that are mechanical. In short, i think I might be going back to Protoss after all.

I'm going to give it a few more tries before I write it off entirely, and it might be that the unique nature of 4v4 means that this isn't applicable once 1v1 reopens (I've not played that as I didn't do the placement match for season 2, and thus would be stuck in placement forever during this lock). It could be, however, that my playing style is better suited to Protoss.

Back in NJ for a bit

2011-07-19T11:11:00.003-04:00

Now that I'm back in NJ after taking the GRE's (and working a stint as a research assistant), I'm getting ready both to fulfill some summer goals as well as to prepare for the fall. What does that entail? Well for starters, my task list including books to read (and updating my other website, Derive Politics) will be completed, or at least progress will be made within a month. Additionally, it's time to start looking into the 15 or so grad schools I'd be applying to for next year. Staying active otherwise would help too, including getting ready for season 3 of the Starcraft 2 ladder.

Will I accomplish my goals? Will I still have my RA position when I get back to Chicago? Will anything unforeseen happen? Stay tuned to find out.

Tyrannosaurus Prep

2011-07-10T00:12:00.000-04:00

GRE Vocab Game

A final redux for third year

2011-06-27T21:42:00.000-04:00

So it took me a while to get around to writing this post, and most of that was because of the usual rough transition between the end of the school year and the beginning of summer.

The push towards the end of third year, to put it mildly, was chaotic. Having secured summer work (a prerequisite for any year to be considered a success), I proceeded to face finals with the problematic fact that half of my final papers/projects were due on the Wednesday before reading period began. This, combined with classes that generally were more subjective and had less measurable metrics (one only had a single final paper, another had very subjective categories) meant that it was hard to establish a good read on where I stood in most of my classes. I think my estimates might have been too optimistic: that was likely my downfall.

For the first half of my real finals week (which started basically a week earlier than actual scheduled finals week) I had no difficulty focusing. However, my approach created a great deal of strain: writing both a final project and paper on the same day took a toll both mentally and physically. Furthermore, it was incredibly difficult to focus on the last two finals I had for very simple reasons: I knew that my statistics final had a very limited reach in terms of what I could actually do to prepare (generally more than writing up the 2 pages of notes is not only overkill but counterproductive, as those two pages of notes accommodate everything that you learn in that class) and because for the experimental economics final our group couldn't really agree on a final project idea until finals week had rolled around.

The results were thus less than stellar. This was only my second quarter without a single A, and my overall GPA was reduced. Such a result is obviously less than optimal. My takeaway from this quarter is a pretty simple two part lesson:

1. I need to keep busy, and thus taking only 3 classes was a mistake.
2. I need to take classes that have more frequent weekly evaluations (homework, problem sets, and readings) but that also encourage limited collaboration (ie, not working by myself, but also not in groups larger than 3-4).

With these in mind, fall quarter (the last one I plan on taking classes in) should be a feasible target for a rebound. It will by no means be a cakewalk, but it will definitely be better (by at least 50%, I hope) than spring quarter.

A apt quote about legacy admissions

2011-06-27T21:03:00.000-04:00

I'm late in reading a lot of my Google Reader subscriptions, but this article on legacy admissions by Richard Posner makes some compelling points, and has a very compelling quote:

Admitting an applicant to an elite college because one or both of his parents went there is offensive in a nation whose constitution forbids the granting of titles of nobility. It confers an arbitrary advantage, based on ancestry rather than on merit or promise. The advantage is not primarily that the preferentially admitted student receives a better education; he may not, because the fact that he would not have been admitted without a preference suggests that he may not be a motivated or talented student; and you cannot make silk purses out of sow’s ears. But his degree from an elite college will open doors; prospective employers, even if they discover that an applicant is the child of an alumnus of the college he attended, will not know whether he was one of the alumni children who wouldn’t have been admitted had it not been for the connection. The student will also derive social benefits (prestige, maybe some extra refinement) and valuable contacts from hobnobbing with the other students; elite colleges have a disproportionate number of elite students.

Legacy admissions might be in the best interest of the universities for the sake of fundraising, but it is not in the best interests of society, nor is it particularly salient given that most of the private universities where legacy admissions are of great advantage generally already have multi-billion dollar endowments.

Updates will resume

2011-06-16T00:48:00.002-04:00

Finals have ended, and I'll be posting again soon.

Northwestern students need to get out more

2011-05-18T12:45:00.001-04:00

As a student at the University of Chicago, I live in Hyde Park. People from the city of Chicago, however, tend to criticize Hyde Park as not "really" being Chicago, or at least, not representative of the South Side of Chicago. That is, we are seen to be a neighborhood that's really wealthy while being surrounded by poorer neighborhoods. Claiming to be from the South Side while living in Hyde Park, therefore, can sometimes be seen as being disingenuous.

Not, however, as Northwestern students claiming to be going to school "in Chicago," or even "near Chicago." For you see, while Hyde Park is still an actual Chicago neighborhood, and us UChicago students vote for aldermen and other elected city officials, Northwestern students attend school in Evanston, a suburb half an hour outside of the city by train. Now, some would say that such a distance qualifies them as being "close enough" to the city: after all, it can take half an hour to get to downtown from Hyde Park as well. And until yesterday, I would have been inclined to agree. That is, until this article from the Daily Northwestern's weekly supplement, The Current, showed up on my Facebook news feed.

Living in a city is as much about the arbitrary geographic distinctions as it is about the attitude takes towards the city. Treating the South Side as a collection of neighborhoods that are fine to wander unless it's late at night, for example, means that you have a realistic view of the city and are somewhat properly attuned to living here. Treating all parts of the South Side as crime ridden areas, where people get arrested constantly on the Red Line, and every street corner has crack dealers and drive by shootings, without even realizing that if you go south enough you'll start hitting the other Chicago suburbs, is indicative of an individual that has never really gone to the city.

So let's dissect this article piece by piece, and see what goes wrong. It starts out fine, with the author expressing an interest in trekking down to the South Side. Why she treats it as a mythical place to go, I don't know: I've gone to parts of the South Side near CTA stops of the sort that she is looking for, but they're really not that exciting or interesting. Maybe she's hoping to see a live reenactment of The Wire. It doesn't happen.

After a perfunctory trip down from the Purple line, the author takes the Red line before noticing anything cool, and of course, like all people from the north side, the first thing she notices are Cubs fans:

At Addison, intoxicated Cubs fans swarmed the train in souvenir rain ponchos. The inebriated man nearest to me attempted to hit on an equally drunk girl across the car for several stops but then became preoccupied by a verbal dispute with the man he kept falling on.
When the majority of the Cubbers had left, around Grand, a visual path was cleared to a man sitting kitty-corner to myself, clutching a bottle of corn syrup and meditating in his seat.

Of course, this part of the Red Line is nothing like the South Side, but I'm sure she'll be able to recount her other destinations before reaching what's really the...

It took me three stops of staring at the corn syrup man to pry my attention away, wherein I realized the car had cleared out just as we began to leave downtown, headed for the South Side. I gripped my seat in anticipation.

Um, what? No mention of Chinatown, or even passing U.S. Cellular Field? You know, that other, giant baseball field where the White Sox play? Did those just vanish?

When we finally reached 95th/Dan Ryan, I stepped out of the train with excitement: This was where I had been waiting to be my entire life — my destiny, if you will. But as I stood on the platform, I inhaled and looked around for a hint of anything exciting and different — almost like Dorothy when she lands in Oz. However, to my horror, all I saw was a Burlington Coat Factory seemingly connected to a Best Buy in the distance. This was certainly not the place I had dreamed about.

I mean, people also buy coats and electronics on the South Side too. Shocking, I know.

As another train rolled up to take me back to Evanston, I walked on somberly at the lack of adventure and amazement. A man boarded my car surrounded by three police officers. I held out a little hope they were arresting him on some sort of charge, but soon it was shattered when they patted him on the back and exchanged stories about their children.

Ah, this one was actually "our bad." You see, arbitrary police arrests only happen on Tuesdays between 4-6PM.

I rode in the otherwise empty car listening to the four men, whose conversation had transgressed into a debate of Chicago politics, for a little while.
The first looked up, noticing my less-than-shrewd eavesdropping, and said, "Man, this is Chicago: can't expect anything more than it is. And it can't be anything more than you make of it."

Despite the very likely possibility of this quote being made up, I doubt that the imaginary magic black man could have summarized it any better. Cities are not just divided into gentrified neighborhoods surrounded by places with constantly roving bands of crime, they're real places too. But perhaps the author of this article is on to something, if only it's the simple act of actually going into the city. Maybe Northwestern students should visit sometime: after all, they do live so close to Chicago.

Last reactions from Scav

2011-05-13T18:09:00.000-04:00

1. I think our team actually did pretty well this year. Yeah, we finished 5th, but given the inevitability of a sophomore slump (and a ridiculously strong performance from MacPierce and even Blint at the Scav Olympics), we did pretty well. We learned a bunch of things that we did wrong and should improve on next year.
2. That said, the two things we should definitely change are how the forum registration worked and the blood drive. We need to advertise the blood drive much more prevalently next year, with ads around South Campus the week beforehand. I need to start setting up the forum much earlier, and change it from an opt-in system to an opt-out one.
3. We did pretty well at Scav Olympics this year, considering the variation. We had no idea that Blint would win three events in a row. Otherwise, random variance accounted for our third (as opposed to first) place finish.
4. Lastly, this year was a lot of fun. We might have concerns next year because we're running out of people to do showcase items, but the new crop of kids who were really involved this year give me hope. Our showcase items will be pretty awesome next year. We'll do better than this year.

Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact.

2011-05-07T02:54:00.000-04:00

Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact.
http://www.kevmo314.com/scampi

Scav Day 1

2011-05-06T02:36:00.000-04:00

As the first day of Scav has concluded, I can look back on it saying that the event so far has been a success for South Campus. Perhaps we will not get certain things, like lions (cough cough Max P), but we're making progress on all of the important showcase items, and we're hitting all of the time-sensitive items.

Case in point, the Scav Sheriff items. There was a debate held at 7PM in the BSLC. Not only did I arrive on time to be the Scav Captain, but we had a lively and humorous debate about irrelevant issues. I now need to go to the mudslinging competition at Scav Olympics, as well as make a campaign ad for myself. All in the spirit of fun, of course.

And as usual, I will end with yet another plug for our search result, Mama Shaq.

http://kevmo314.com/scampi
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact.

Mama Shaq

2011-05-06T00:43:00.002-04:00

Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact.

Visit us

2011-05-05T01:46:00.003-04:00

Post this as your status to help SCRH Scav win points!: kevmo314.com/scampi

Blogging Scav Hunt, Day 0

2011-05-04T22:32:00.000-04:00

So uh, I'm going to be blogging about Scav hunt while it happens.

Today's list release, which means that at midnight, the judges will make us do some convoluted task in order to get a copy of the list before they post it online in the morning. That's incredibly important, because the road trip needs to leave by then, and there are going to be a couple of items that will need to be done before day break on Thursday. Otherwise, it's just a hectic setup for our headquarters. Unlike other teams, we don't have a dedicated room to Scav in our dorm, so we're forced to basically rebuild everything from scratch.

Here's hoping this goes well.

Review: Due Date

2011-04-29T01:50:00.000-04:00

Zach Galifianakis is a good actor. I say good, because he mostly plays one type of character, but he plays that type fantastically. In "The Hangover" Galifianakis plays a funny outsider who acts weirdly. In "Due Date" he plays a very similar character. Fortunately, this kind of character is in fact very much enjoyable, making "Due Date" a movie worth watching.

The plot of this movie is straightforward. Robert Downey Jr.'s character needs to get back home to attend the birth of his son. He gets kicked off an airplane and is put on a no fly list, necessitating him traveling by car. This, of course, leads him to travel with Galifianakis' character, and hijinks ensue. The plot does not feel contrived, and the problems introduced by the road trip feel both organic and are hilarious.

Alll of the actors give convincing performances, with special recognition for both Downey Jr. and Galifianakis. Of all of the characters encountered in the movie, these two are not only the most important, but also the most realistic. In shorter, the producers of this movie needed to make these characters as realistic as possible, and they succeeded.

The movie might not seem like the most original, but that's not a big problem. The film is well crafted, and the important details feel fresh. If you haven't seen this movie, you should definitely do so. It is well worth your time.

MLS Top and Bottom 5, Week 6

2011-04-28T23:27:00.000-04:00

Here are the top 5 and bottom 5 teams in the MLS based on this week's performance.

Top 5

Real Salt Lake - Sadly, they are not going on to the FIFA Club World Cup, but getting this far was something I don't think anyone else could have done.
New York Red Bulls - Nothing better than a rivalry win like that.
LA Galaxy - With Landon Donovan returning to form, the Galaxy of last year are back.
Philadelphia Union - This team is still hanging in there, but their fast start is slowing down.
Seattle Sounders -The Sounders, on the other hand, are building on their slow start.

Bottom 5

Chicago Fire - They're falling, and falling fast. A quick turnaround is necessary to not slip into obscurity this season.
Sporting KC - The road trip is not working out for them.
Chivas USA - How did they win a game? Regardless, they are no longer on the bottom of this ranking.
Vancouver - And the expansion teams switch places in terms of momentum at this stage of the season.
San Jose - They've faced a tough schedule, but being at the bottom of the Western Conference is still bad.

MLS Top and Bottom 5, Week 5

2011-04-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

Here are the top and bottom 5 teams in the MLS based on this weekend.

Top 5

Real Salt Lake - Indisputably the best team in this league, period.
New York Red Bulls - Their victory this weekend is more of the form that we expect from one of the richest teams in the league.
Philadelphia Union - They're dropping down because of a disappointing draw against the upward Sounders.
Colorado Rapids - Let's assume they're still just as good as before, because everyone is losing to Real Salt Lake.
L.A. Galaxy - Only because they have a great record, but they also have the most games played.

Bottom 5 (with the worst being at #5)

Vancouver Whitecaps - Well, they played to the level of Chivas USA. That's not a good sign.
Toronto FC - They were so close to being relevant this year. So very, very close.
FC Dallas - They got shellacked by Portland, never the best sign. However, they get some slack just for the fact that Portland's been playing amazing at home.
New England Revolution - Does the Kraft family really care about this team? Does the team care?
Chivas USA - If we asked the same questions about Chivas that we ask about the Revolution, the answers are definitively "no" and "no."

Review: The Other Guys

2011-04-14T15:52:00.035-04:00

I came into this movie with relatively high expectations. Everyone who had seen the movie and I had asked about it told me positive things about this movie. As such, despite the fact that the movie turned out to be quite good, I feel like my expectations were not met. "The Other Guys" was a good movie, but it was not as good as I was hoping it to be.

The plot of the movie is pretty self explanatory. Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell play two cops, both of which are the "other guys" in a police department. They are not the top police officers, the ones that action movies are made about. In fact, they're two people who basically are stuck in the office all day. All of the actors perform exactly as you'd expect, though special props go to Dwayne Johnson, Ferrell and Rob Riggle. The other characters played their parts well: however, I feel like at times they went over the top in a bad way.

My major problem with the plot and dialogue is not that it's not humorous, but rather that elements of the plot are shoehorned together. Major revelatory motivations for the characters seem like they were thought out by different writer and then mashed together. The motivations for Walhberg's character, especially, seem absolutely ridiculous in that he is too much of a stereotype of an angry cop.

What also made me uneasy was the ending. The credits showing the stats on the 2008 financial crisis felt too preachy. It ruined what was otherwise an enjoyable comedy movie by trying to teach a lesson with the wrong kind of approach. If the producers of this movie wanted to include this kind of preachy message, they should have left it how they did just at the ending. I felt that conveyed the right mix of comedy and seriousness that didn't feel out of place in this movie.

Ultimately, "The Other Guys" is an enjoyable but flawed movie. Don't expect too much of it, and don't think too much about it, and you'll find it adequate. However, if were expecting a comedy that requires some thought or with deeper layers, or if you don't want to be preached to, this movie is not for you.

MLS Top and Bottom 5, Week 4

2011-04-12T23:51:00.001-04:00

Here are the top and bottom 5 teams from the MLS based on their performance this week.

Top 5

Real Salt Lake - No reason to change yet.
Philadelphia Union - A very strong start to the season now has Philadelphia in charge of the East.
LA Galaxy - A draw against DC United wasn't the best result they could have hoped for, but not the worst either.
Colorado Rapids - The result against Dallas was unexpected, but Colorado is still in a good position.
DC United - Their draw against Los Angeles shows that this team is on the rise.

Bottom 5 (with the worst at #5)

FC Dallas - Oh, look who joined the MLS this weekend.
Columbus Crew - Their performance against Chivas USA was only justified by the fact Columbus has an excuse of rebuilding this year.
New England Revolution - Losing to Real Salt Lake's B side is a disappointment beyond belief. This team looks like they're checked out.
Portland Timbers - Expansion teams suck their first year, and Portland is no exception.
Chivas USA - Why is this team in the league again?

MLS Top and Bottom 5, Week 3

2011-04-06T15:42:00.000-04:00

Here are the top 5 and worst 5 teams in the MLS, based on their performance this week.

Top 5

Real Salt Lake - Not just undefeated, but completely victorious throughout. A clear number 1.
Colorado Rapids - Also undefeated, but doesn't look as strong as Real Salt Lake because of the latter's CONCACAF Champions League performance.
Los Angeles Galaxy - They get this spot only because they have the third most wins, but their long term prospects are not as strong as they should be for a team of LA's caliber.
Philadelphia Union - This team continues their strong start, despite a loss to LA.
New York Red Bulls - They would be fourth, but tying twice is not good for New York, especially when they spend so much money.

Bottom 5 (with the worst being at #5)

Toronto FC - That wide open miss is at least putting Toronto on the highlight reel somehow.
Seattle Sounders - Still winless. How is this possible?
Portland Timbers - One point, an expansion MLS team does make.
Chivas USA - One point, a real MLS team does not make.
FC Dallas - No wins, one goal. That's bad.

MLS Top and Bottom 5, Week 2

2011-03-29T02:32:00.000-04:00

Another week of play, another set of top and bottom 5 rankings. Here they are:

Top 5

Real Salt Lake - Yeah, dismantling the Galaxy will put you here.
Colorado Rapids - They would have the first place here but for Real Salt Lake's performance against the LA Galaxy. Still, being undefeated is pretty good.
Philadelphia Union - This team has been the surprise of the early season.
New York Red Bulls - Somehow, even without any starters, this team gets a draw against Columbus.
Chicago Fire - A win against Sporting KC reaffirms that Chicago's going somewhere this season.

Bottom 5

Chivas USA - No wins.
Portland Timbers - Still no wins, but signs of progress.
FC Dallas - A loss shows that this team is going downhill.
DC United - And they were off to such a promising start too.
Houston Dynamo - They're kind of stagnant.

Some other Derive Politics postings

2011-03-25T10:31:00.000-04:00

Other stuff I've written for Derive Politics, including a piece on the civil service and taxation. Excerpts:

"By comparison with most of the world, America' bureaucracy seems to be doing a very good job. It is not overtly corrupt, unlike those of most of the world's countries. Most of America's civil servants are well educated, with a large proportion holding college degrees. America's laws and government institutions function relatively smoothly."

Full article here.

And of course, an excerpt from the taxation article:

"It's hard to underestimate the importance of taxation policy. A good policy of taxation is the key to a thriving nation, both in terms of government finances and economic vitality. A bad policy is almost as crippling as a thousand restrictive regulations, both because of the intrinsic money that would be wasted on taxes and the costs associated with trying to avoid paying them. In general, tax policy ought to be simple to understand and minimally imposing, as well as being as distorting economic incentives as little as possible. By these standards, the American tax system is a joke."

Full story here.

MLS Top and Bottom 5, Week 1

2011-03-24T18:46:00.000-04:00

Power rankings are something that are nearly impossible to do well unless you're just using objective information. Instead, this hopefully weekly feature will be about the 10 Major League Soccer teams (5 good, 5 bad), that have captured the attention of the league with their performances.

Top 5:

New York Red Bulls - With Juan Agudelo showing himself to be more than an adequate replacement for the other Juan (Pablo Angel), who can stop the Red Bulls this year?
D.C. United - It looks like Charlie Davies is back, and so is this D.C. United franchise.
Colorado Rapids - The defending MLS Champs look like they're picking up right where they left off.
Vancouver Whitecaps - Yes, the team they did beat was only Toronto F.C., but winning your first MLS match in such a convincing fashion still counts for something.
Los Angeles Galaxy - The solid win featuring brilliance from Juninho in the season opener was tempered somewhat with a home draw against the New England Revolution, not the league's strongest of teams.

Bottom 5 (with #1 being the "best" of the worst and #5 being the truly worst team in the league):

Seattle Sounders - Two losses against two of the league's highest paid teams isn't something that is unexpected, but Seattle is supposed to be one of the league's powerhouses. That, combined with no visible scoring leader poses a big problem for the foreseeable future.
Portland Timbers - This team played more like how I would expect an expansion franchise to play.
Chivas USA - Is there a year where this team won't be disappointing?
Columbus Crew - Rebuilding years suck.
Toronto FC - Five years in, this club shows no signs of even coming close to being playoff contenders. In some leagues, that might be okay, but especially given that Major League Soccer has had expansion teams come up and be very much successful at least a few years in, this complete lack of success is just disappointing.

Spring break

2011-03-23T19:38:00.000-04:00

A lull between quarters means that I can catch up on everything that I want to, but nothing that I need to. Which is to say, these are the things I want to accomplish during spring break.

Finish updating Derive Politics through to March
Write up reviews of Due Date and The Other Guys
Write about the MLS season that's now underway
Finish watching my entire Hulu queue
Finish reading Nudge
Read The Economics of Justice by Richard Posner
Write 3 debate cases
Do well at BU this weekend

Originally on that list was "run every day" but that was kind of cut short by the weather. Obviously, it's very unlikely that everything on this list will be accomplished, but why not try?

Doing a bit of writing

2011-03-23T00:10:00.000-04:00

Over at Derive Politics, I've written a new piece on Libya. An excerpt:

"The implementation of a no-flight zone as well as military strikes against the forces of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi has been the dominant headline of the past weekend and likely the dominating focus of the upcoming week. This act is an anomaly: among all of the uprisings that have occurred in the Middle East, the only one that the West and in fact any members of the outside world have decided to intervene in is this one. Despite misgivings to the contrary, the course of action being taken by international forces seems to be the right one. However, several key conditions have to be met by those establishing the no flight zone in order to ensure long term efficacy without also creating a quagmire."

Full article here.

The calm before the storm

2011-03-16T14:28:00.000-04:00

So this is the Wednesday of finals week. I've already put three finals behind me (in fact, my three hardest finals) and ahead of me is the final in the easy class I've taken this quarter. Given that I have today and most of tomorrow to prepare, I'm not too worried, but then again I said the same thing for this sequence class' prequel, and only ended up with an A- after having beaten the curve twice on the midterms.

And then after that, there's a debate tournament involving 15 hours worth of driving. So uh, there's that.

Stanford Tomorrow

2011-03-03T22:49:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow, I'm going to Stanford for a debate tournament. Maybe there'll be updates here? I have a lot of work to do though, so I doubt it. Keep posted.

This week sucks.

2011-02-15T23:00:00.000-05:00

That is all.

Cool new piece of software

2011-01-25T01:01:00.000-05:00

So I discovered a nice piece of software that helps with the brightness problems on most laptops. That is to say, most laptop screens are way too bright most of the time, because they're designed for bright sunny noontime lighting outside, or something similar. This tends to make the screen too bright at night or other times of the day. Fortunately, the solution to this problem has been made by a software company, and that software is called F.lux.

Download it here.

Even America's lowly bureaucrats are fit to run most countries better than they are

2010-12-23T21:19:00.000-05:00

An article in The Economist details the AU led peacekeeping force in Somalia's efforts to push Islamist insurgents out of the city of Mogadishu. Of particular note:

The effort to provide better services is led by Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a former employee of the New York state transportation department who was recently appointed prime minister. He spends most of his time in a rudimentary office trying to avoid assassination. “I don’t want to sound Republican, but we have the smallest government,” he says.

Imagine what they could do if they had, say, the mayor of Cleveland.

Lack of updates

2010-12-16T16:21:00.000-05:00

Partly as a result of finals, partly as a result of apathy, partly as a result of the recognition that there actually are people who read this, I've been remiss with updates.

We'll see how the break turns out for updating this site. Right now, it looks marginally promising.

The latest in anticompetitive behavior

2010-11-29T12:11:00.006-05:00

Lol.

College Football's Undefeated: 2 for the Championship, 1 on Standby

2010-11-29T00:20:00.000-05:00

The Boise State loss was a shocker, but it simplifies the championship picture a great deal.

Auburn [SEC] (1st BCS, 12-0 overall, 8-0 conference)
Oregon [Pac 10] (2nd BCS, 11-0 overall, 8-0 conference)
TCU [MWC] (3rd BCS, 12-0 overall, 8-0 conference)

Game of the Week: Boise State vs. Nevada. This was not supposed to happen.
Most Likely to Stay Undefeated: TCU. They have nobody left whose any good.
Least Likely to Stay Undefeated: Oregon. A grudge match against their in state rival? It's going to be one of their hardest test of the year.

College Football's Undefeated: Likelihood of 4 Undefeated Teams is Too High

2010-11-14T11:19:00.000-05:00

No real changes from before. Utah lost as expected.

Oregon [Pac 10] (1st BCS, 10-0 overall, 7-0 conference)
Auburn [SEC] (2nd BCS, 11-0 overall, 7-0 conference)
TCU [MWC] (3rd BCS, 11-0 overall, 7-0 conference)
Boise State [WAC] (4th BCS, 9-0 overall, 5-0 conference)

Game of the Week: Oregon vs. Cal. The game was much closer than expected.
Most Likely to Stay Undefeated: TCU. They have a weaker opponent than Boise State this week.
Least Likely to Stay Undefeated: Auburn. Good luck against Alabama.

College Football's Undefeated: And then there were 5.

2010-11-01T20:29:00.000-04:00

As of right now, the season is going to end with at most 4 undefeated teams and realistically probably 3 undefeated teams (assuming that Auburn has a serious chance of losing in the SEC Championship). So basically, no matter what happens, the BCS will once again make for yet another unfair year.

Oregon [Pac 10] (1st BCS, 8-0 overall, 5-0 conference)
Auburn [SEC] (2nd BCS, 9-0 overall, 6-0 conference)
TCU [MWC] (3rd BCS, 9-0 overall, 5-0 conference)
Boise State [WAC] (4th BCS, 7-0 overall, 3-0 conference)
Utah [MWC] (5th BCS, 8-0 overall, 5-0 conference)

All undefeated teams currently occupy the top 5 BCS slots.

Game of the Week: Michigan State vs. Iowa. It was quite a manhandling.
Most Likely to Stay Undefeated: Boise State. Same as last week.
Least Likely to Stay Undefeated: Utah. They are probably not going to win against TCU.

First day of midterm week

2010-10-26T01:29:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of the second week of my midterms: last week I had one midterm for Math 19520 (also known as mathematics for the social sciences, also known as math for the econ majors who couldn't do analysis, also known as my cowardice for dropping out of the math major). This week I have midterms for Econ 28000 and Stat 22400, which are Intro to Industrial Organization and Applied Regression and Analysis, respectively. In theory, the classes shouldn't be too difficult. However, Sebastian Gay, the instructor in Econ 280, tends to make problems harder than he realizes. There have been 2 or 3 problem set problems this year that turned out to involve economic analysis that wasn't even taught in the main economics sequence. On the positive side, this elective gives me hope that economics isn't just easy math exercises all the time. In theory, both midterms are equally important, and actually Econ 280 is the harder class. In practice, however, since the stat 224 midterm counts for more (and since Sebastian's willing to count the final for the same amount as the midterm + the final if the final's grade is higher), I will probably spend more time studying for statistic 224. Like all stat tests, I'm allowed a page of notes. Let's see how that works out.

This is in addition to the 4 problem sets I'm supposed to submit every week. Problem set 1 for econ 280 is done, as is one of the 4 memos I'm supposed to actually submit. Though I should have probably spent more time studying today, I ended up spending more time relaxing. It's okay: I'll take off from work tomorrow in order to get more time to do the statistics problem set, and then also do a little bit of studying. After this week, however, things get easier.

Check back in tomorrow to see how the problem set and studying fared.

College Football's Undefeated: Random Teams Vanish

2010-10-24T23:03:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, there were almost twice as many undefeated teams. The season's pretty brutal.

Auburn [SEC] (1st BCS, 8-0 overall, 5-0 conference)
Oregon [Pac 10] (2nd BCS, 7-0 overall, 4-0 conference)
Boise State [WAC] (3rd BCS, 6-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
TCU [MWC] (4th BCS, 8-0 overall, 4-0 conference)
Michigan State [Big Ten] (5th BCS, 8-0 overall, 4-0 conference)
Missouri [Big 12] (6th BCS, 7-0 overall, 3-0 conference)
Utah [MWC] (8th BCS, 7-0 overall, 4-0 conference)

You've got to feel bad for Oregon: they keep winning, but they keep getting

Game of the Week: Oklahoma vs. Missouri. Kind of unexpected.
Most Likely to Stay Undefeated: Boise State. Same as last week.
Least Likely to Stay Undefeated: Missouri. They have to face Nebraska, probably the toughest test for an undefeated this week.

College Football's Undefeated: BCS Time

2010-10-19T15:32:00.000-04:00

BCS rankings are out, rankings have been adjusted accordingly.

Oklahoma [Big 12] (1st BCS, 6-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
Oregon [Pac 10] (2nd BCS, 6-0 overall, 3-0 conference)
Boise State [WAC] (3rd BCS, 6-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
Auburn [SEC] (4th BCS, 7-0 overall, 4-0 conference)
TCU [MWC] (5th BCS, 7-0 overall, 3-0 conference)
LSU [SEC] (6th BCS, 7-0 overall, 4-0 conference)
Michigan State [Big Ten] (7th BCS, 7-0 overall, 3-0 conference)
Utah [MWC] (9th BCS, 6-0 overall, 3-0 conference)
Missouri [Big 12] (11th BCS, 6-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
Oklahoma State [Big 12] (14th BCS, 6-0 overall, 2-0 conference)

This was yet another exciting week for college football, even if Boise State got screwed over by the computers.

Game of the Week: Ohio State vs. Wisconsin. Another one bit the dust.
Most Likely to Stay Undefeated: Boise State. There's really no one left on their schedule that can beat them. Too bad they'll have to settle for just a BCS game and not a championship.
Least Likely to Stay Undefeated: LSU. They have to play Auburn. One of those two teams, by the logic of football, will not be undefeated after this week.

I promise I'll have non-college football posts soon.

College Football's Undefeated: After Week 6

2010-10-10T02:00:00.001-04:00

A few upsets have changed the picture. Goodbye Alabama. The list is organized first by the top 25 in the AP poll, then by wins, then by conference wins, then alphabetically. It'll be updated again after the new AP/BCS rankings come out.

Ohio State [Big Ten] (1st AP, 6-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
Oregon [Pac 10] (2nd AP, 6-0 overall, 3-0 conference)
Boise State [WAC] (3rd AP, 5-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
TCU [MWC] (4th AP, 6-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
Nebraska [Big 12] (5th AP, 5-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Oklahoma [Big 12] (6th AP, 5-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Auburn [SEC] (7th AP, 6-0 overall, 3-0 conference)
LSU [SEC] (9th AP, 6-0 overall, 4-0 conference)
Utah [MWC] (11th AP, 5-0 overall, 2-0 conference))
Michigan State [Big Ten] (13th AP, 6-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
Nevada [WAC] (19th AP, 5-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Oklahoma State [Big 12] (20th AP, 5-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Missouri [Big 12] (21st AP, 5-0 overall, 1-0 conference)

I've abandoned trying to rank all of the teams. Instead, there will just be an awarding of a game of the week.

Game of the Week: South Carolina vs. Alabama. No explanation needed.

College Football's Undefeated: After Week 4

2010-09-27T01:35:00.000-04:00

Week two in college football has ended. The list is organized first by the top 25 in the AP poll, then by wins, then by conference wins, then alphabetically.

Alabama [SEC] (1st AP, 4-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Ohio State [Big Ten] (2nd AP, 4-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Boise State [WAC] (3rd AP, 3-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Oregon [Pac 10] (4th AP, 4-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
TCU [MWC] (5th AP, 4-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Nebraska [Big 12] (6th AP, 4-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Florida [SEC] (7th AP, 4-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
Oklahoma [Big 12] (8th AP, 4-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Stanford [Pac 10] (9th AP, 4-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Auburn [SEC] (10th AP, 4-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
Wisconsin [Big Ten] (11th AP, 4-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
LSU [SEC] (12th AP, 4-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
Utah [MWC] (13th AP, 4-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
Arizona [Pac 10] (14th AP, 4-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
USC [Pac 10] (18th AP, 4-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Michigan [Big Ten] (20th AP, 4-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
North Carolina State [ACC] (23rd AP, 4-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Michigan State [Big Ten] (24th AP, 4-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Nevada [WAC] (25th AP, 4-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Kansas State [Big 12] (4-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Missouri [Big 12] (4-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Northwestern [Big Ten] (4-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Oklahoma State [Big 12] (3-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Texas A&M [Big 12] (3-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Indiana [Big Ten] (3-0 overall, 0-0 conference)

Keep up with future updates to see who dropped out and for a future rankings system.

A series of Derive Politics links

2010-09-18T03:09:00.000-04:00

So in the absence of new postings here, I thought I should share the new postings that have appeared on Derive Politics over the past month or so:

The Next Great American Conflict, Part 1

Expanation of Nation Building

True Worth of the De Fact Democracy, Taiwan

The Next Great American Conflict, Part 2

College Football Undefeated list

2010-09-12T22:06:00.000-04:00

Week two in college football has ended. The list is organized first by the top 25 in the AP poll, then by wins, then by conference wins, then alphabetically.

Alabama (1st AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Ohio State (2nd AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Boise State (3rd AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
TCU (4th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Oregon (5th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Texas (6th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Oklahoma (7th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Nebraska (8th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Iowa (9th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Florida (10th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Wisconsin (11th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Arkansas (12th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
South Carolina (13th AP, 2-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Utah (14th AP, 2-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
LSU (15th AP, 2-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Auburn (16th AP, 2-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
USC (18th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Stanford (19th AP, 2-0 overall, 1-0 conference
Michigan (20th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
West Virginia (21st AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Houston (23rd AP, 2-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Arizona (24th AP, 2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
East Carolina (2-0 overall, 2-0 conference)
Air Force (2-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Temple (2-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Wake Forest (2-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Arizona State (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Baylor (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Boston College (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
California (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Clemson (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Kansas State (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Kentucky (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Maryland (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Michigan State (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Missouri (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Nevada (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Northwestern (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
North Carolina State (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Oklahoma State (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Rutgers (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
San Diego State (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Texas A&M (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Texas Tech (2-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Fresno State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Indiana (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)

Keep up with future updates to see who dropped out and for a future rankings system. By week 4 there should be few enough schools left that I can identify all of the conferences that each undefeated team belongs to.

College Football's Undefeated: After Week 1

2010-09-08T17:20:00.000-04:00

This is simply a list of college football's currently undefeated teams, organized first by the top 25 in the AP poll, then by wins, then by conference wins, then alphabetically.

Alabama (1st AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Ohio State (2nd AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Boise State (3rd AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
TCU (4th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Texas (5th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Nebraska (6th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Oregon (7th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Florida (8th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Iowa (9th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Oklahoma (10th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Wisconsin (11th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Miami [FL] (12th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Arkansas (14th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Georgia Tech (15th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
USC (16th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Florida State (17th AP, 1-0, overall, 0-0 conference)
Penn State (18th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
LSU (19th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Utah (20th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Auburn (21st AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Georgia (22nd AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
West Virginia (23rd AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
South Carolina (24th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Stanford (25th AP, 1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
East Carolina (1-0 overall, 1-0 conference)
Air Force (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Arizona (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Arizona State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Army (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Ball State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Baylor (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Boston College (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Brigham Young (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Buffalo (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
California (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Central Michigan (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Clemson (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Colorado (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Duke (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Florida Atlantic (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Fresno State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Houston (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Idaho (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Indiana (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Iowa State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Kansas State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Kentucky (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Kent State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Louisiana Tech (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Maryland (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Michigan (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Michigan State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Minnesota (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Mississippi State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Missouri (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Nevada (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Northwestern (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
North Carolina State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Notre Dame (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Oklahoma State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Rutgers (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
San Diego State (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
South Florida (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Syracuse (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Temple (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Tennessee (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Texas A&M (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Texas Tech (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Troy (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Tulane (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
UCF (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
UTEP (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Virginia (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Wake Forest (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)
Wyoming (1-0 overall, 0-0 conference)

Keep up with future updates to see who dropped out, and for a future rankings system.

The first upset rolls in from college football

2010-09-03T02:17:00.000-04:00

Yes folks, it's that time of year again. College football returns to bless the world, and already in the first games of the season we have an upset of a ranked team. That team is No. 15 Pittsburgh, who lost in overtime to Utah of the Mountain West Conference. Here's a recap. Obviously this isn't that big of an upset: Utah is the original BCS buster school, and not two years ago they destroyed Alabama in embarrassing fashion. The Mountain West is also the strongest non-BCS autoqualifier conference, so it's not entirely unexpected that a team like Utah would win, especially since after this season they'll be a Pac-10 (12?) school.

Check in after the first weekend concludes with Boise State versus Virginia Tech (I might analyze the game, for what it's worth), for the first list of college football's undefeated FBS teams. Yes it's early, but it's probably the best way of keeping track of who really deserves a national championship. By the end of the month, I'll also hope to roll out my highly inaccurate ranking of teams (the process which I will also document), just because I feel like a practical application for statistics probably would help me learn it better.

Sports will become kind of a big deal in the fall, as will school. Expect more posting to come soon enough.

Filler Derive Politics post: Explanation of Nation Building

2010-09-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

So this is not a filler post in the sense that it was just filler on the Derive Politics website, rather it is filler here until I get more free time. An excerpt:

"When you look at the U.S. Military, nothing is more telling than the nuclear arms race of the cold war. While America refrained from increasing it's land area by invading neighboring countries such as Mexico and Canada, it was Russia who vastly increased the soviet union. At one point or another, it wasn't too far fetched to think that Russia would eventually swallow up all of Europe and the Middle East due to their rather weak state after the war. And in part, part of the reason why Russia had ended up using diplomatic pressure rather than military pressure was because the United States had nuclear weapons at its disposal, giving all U.S. allies a free sovereignty card. So if the Russians were big on invading and conquering, how come the Americans didn't? "

More here.

Sorry for the lack of posts, again

2010-09-02T01:36:00.000-04:00

I've been busy trying to power through a textbook as fast as I can, and thus posting will be very limited.

Nonetheless, here's hoping I'll be able to succeed with the textbook adventures and return to posting. As soon as I get around to watching the last two movies on my list I'll post a review, as well as some other interesting things as college football season rolls around.

Review: Lord of War

2010-08-28T16:14:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, it's easy to forget that Nicolas Cage has been in good movies in the past. Given that he usually produces one good movie every five or so, that's not hard to do. This is definitely one of his better movies, and it deserves to be watched.

And let's be honest: this movie is basically just Cage. He plays the fictional arms dealer Yuri Orlov, based on a real person (as well as other similar people) who worked smuggling weapons out of the former Soviet Union. The general plot's pretty easy to follow: Cage smuggles weapons everywhere and then the travails of such a job are highlighted. Along the way, he tries to hide what he does from his loved ones as well as the police. The only real knock against the plot would be the fact that it ramps up too quickly, and in early moments you find it difficult to connect all of the globetrotting and some of the characters together. Nonetheless, it's not a bad plot, and it does its job admirably.

I've already covered the acting. All I really have to add is that the supporting cast does its job reasonably well.

Overall, this movie is worth watching. It does offer an entertaining story as well as some revealing looks into the past. Don't expect too much from it, and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Review: The Hangover

2010-08-21T23:26:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to watching this movie, and I think I might have waited too long. Which is to say, some of the surprises in this movie (the funny ones) might have been slightly ruined for me because of what eventually leaked out over the course of promoting this movie and reading some reviews. Nonetheless, The Hangover was still a good movie, and definitely worth the time it took to watch.

The acting's pretty top notch. Ed Helms especially stood out, as did Zach Galifianakis. It's hard to fault any of the rest of the cast, but I think that over the course of the entire movie, both of these actors pretty much stole the show. In short, the acting was good, and both Helms and Galifianakis were great.

The plot's pretty basic, but it had enough good turns to make it really interesting (especially the entire part with Mike Tyson). Some bits were a little bit predictable, but overall the plot was serviceable. The dialogue was witty, of course, and the one-liners were decent.

Honestly, based on how the movie was somewhat spoiled for me, I would only say that it was a good movie. Of course, if it hasn't been spoiled for you, the movie's going to be great. Even if some of it has been ruined, it's still a movie worth watching. Find this one on DVD somewhere and watch it.

Sometimes I'm really bad with words...

2010-08-18T16:09:00.000-04:00

Compared to our professional speech givers. That being said, I think this Bloomberg speech is pretty good. It's from a few days ago, and it's discussing the ground zero mosque controversy.

Review: The Expendables

2010-08-16T17:57:00.000-04:00

Well, consider this the start of my attempt to finish my list of things to do this summer. This is the first of the five movies I've wanted to watch this summer, and holy shit was it worth it. If you don't feel like reading any further, then let me just tell you this: despite some disappointing moments, this is the best action movie of this year, and possibly of the last ten years. It has everything that you could possibly want. Go watch this film.

Any mention of this movie would require a mention of the cast, and The Expendables does not disappoint. Though Stallone and Jason Statham take up most of the screen time, every member of the main cast gets a significant role in some way or another. Without an exception, Stallone's casting and ability to utilize the actors in this film is great. The only disappointing aspect of this was when Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger were on screen at the same time. The scene was too short, and I would have preferred that all three of them would have been involved in an action sequence. Nonetheless, the appearance of the big three was pretty sweet.

The plot is standard 80's action fare: there's a fictional foreign country with a brutal dictator being backed by some other evil interest. All that really matters is that there are a lot of people to kill, and a lot of things to make explode, and of course the requisite girl that needs saving. Listen: if you came for plot, then you clearly don't have the right idea of what kind of movie The Expendables is. Coming to this movie for plot is like going to a kids' movie for nudity: it's not going to happen. If you want serious acting, there is a moment with Mickey Rourke, but in reality, the entire plot is basically a set up to kill and hit people as violently as possible. I'm okay with that, considering that this is what the movie was intended to be.

By now, it's pretty clear that you should watch this movie. If you were ever a fan of action movies or the 80's, this is already a no brainer. If you only watch deep, serious independent flicks, then this is probably not for you (except maybe to watch ironically). But if you want to see a true summer blockbuster, possibly the best action movie that ever has been (and maybe ever will be) made, then this is your movie. Seriously, go see The Expendables today.

Derive Politics post: A Defense of Religious Freedom

2010-08-14T20:48:00.000-04:00

Here's another post from Derive Politics that I wrote, this one dealing specifically with the ground zero mosque controversy. An excerpt:

"There has been a recent and disturbing uptick in Islamophobia in the United States. Specifically, mosques around the country have been targeted with protests and complaints about the encroachment of Islam in the United States. These fears are fundamentally unfounded, and are merely a result of either xenophobic prejudices or political grandstanding. Though usually such sentiments can be ignored, in this case action must be taken to avoid a situation that could become much worse."

Keep reading here.

Five belated things to take away from the US-Brazil friendly

2010-08-12T00:19:00.000-04:00

1. You know, I'm going to be really, really, really afraid of Brazil in 2014, especially since the stars that were on show (Neymar et. al) will be in their prime come the next World Cup. Seriously, can anyone stop them? I don't think so.

2. This game was a waste, mostly as a result of the USSF's mistakes. Sunil Gulati should have decided immediately after the World Cup if he wanted to keep Bob Bradley or let him go. Granted, you would end up with the same problem as after 2006 (re: with Jurgen Klinsmann), but to let a game against Brazil go to waste, and not use it to develop new talent, well that is just a bad decision on everybody's part.

3. If this was Bradley's last game, then I would like to say bravo. Certainly after 2006, the past 4 years have been a massive improvement.

4. There are serious unaddressed issues at defense that if the US doesn't take care of, will set us back in 2014. This is not a joke: we have no real defense as of now.

5. Only time will tell, but this performance doesn't inspire confidence ahead of the 2011 Gold Cup, which is important for the sake of Confederations Cup qualifying.

Summer List

2010-08-10T20:27:00.000-04:00

So my internship at RCF Econ has evaporated, and nobody's at fault except the federal government!

That is to say, the project we were working on for the Department of Energy was cancelled. Yes, 7 weeks into the project, after a late start, the Department of Energy decided that we weren't going to get done on time (or they had difficulty getting the information they needed from industry vendors, either or) and decided to cancel our contract. Working there wasn't bad, and it paid well, so I'm a bit unhappy. Instead, now I'm working only part time (2 days a week, $90/week on average) and I have a lot of free time. As such, here is the list of things I plan on doing. Some of them will start immediately, some next week:

1. Watch 5 movies that I've wanted to watch for a while.

Right now, those movies are The Hangover, The A-Team, The Expendables, Get Him to the Greek, and Lord of War. I'll add more as I go along.

2. Finish Thomas Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree and Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish.

One of those is going to be easier than the other, but I haven't read either of them. Don't tell my SOSC teacher about the latter, though, because that was assigned reading for his class.

3. Get my 5 cases in order for the fall season of tournaments.

For full disclosure (by which I mean no disclosure), the cases are about:
A bomb-omb meeting Mario.
School funding for the arts and athletics
The Kobayashi Maru test
Santa's elves want a union
Communism or capitalism: Africa edition!

4. Read through all 3 of my textbooks for my fall quarter classes

Technically I have four (having just ordered the fourth one), but I don't think I'll need to review for Econ 203.

5. Run 4 out of 7 days of the week

Not a lot. Still, running might help me with this lethargy.

Today's graph: The overal effects on the deficit based on economic and government policy.

2010-08-08T15:04:00.002-04:00

Courtesy of the cbpp.org.

Review: Starcraft II (Part 2: Multiplayer)

2010-08-07T22:42:00.000-04:00

So last week I reviewed the single player portion of Starcraft II. I praised it for the storyline and gameplay. This week I'm going to focus on the multiplayer aspect of the game. Unfortunately, while Starcraft II's single player campaign stood out, its multiplayer leaves a lot to be desired.

Let's start with the first and most obvious missing feature: LAN play. Without LAN, the only way to play the game against others is through Battle.net. And while Battle.net has some great features, the intrinsic increase in latency (and the fact that you need internet access, meaning that play with friends in the same room is out based on most people's internet connections) leads to an inherently worse experience. In fact, it is likely to interfere with the ability of the Korean professional league to switch to Starcraft II. Blizzard thus should be developing LAN play. If they don't release it to the public, however, expect hell to pay.

More problematic, however, is the inability to do anything except through Battle.net's system. Though you can join custom games, it's impossible to meet new people to play against, or to play against people whose skills are not at your level. This is because of a lack of chat channels, something Blizzard promises to remedy in the future.

Custom games, those that were so popular in the original Starcraft, have also been crippled. A mandatory 30 second countdown is ridiculous. The arbitrary limit on the space you have for maps (why can't it just be like SC1's system where the maps are downloaded straight from your computer?) leads to less custom maps. In short, custom games are just not much fun in Starcraft II.

Overall, Starcraft II's multiplayer is disappointing. Blizzard could simply have copied Warcraft III's online multiplayer system and they would have been fine. In fact, such a move would be an improvement over what they've already done. If Blizzard doesn't make drastic changes to Battle.net, Starcraft II will not last as long as its predecessor. By itself, Starcraft II multiplayer is not worth it. If it was its own game, I would not recommend buying it.

Quick shoutout to my friend Lisa Kapp

2010-08-01T22:18:00.000-04:00

I recently discovered a food blog being written by one of my debate friends, Lisa Kapp. Go visit it. It's actually pretty legit.

The review of the multiplayer aspect of Starcraft II is forthcoming.

Review: Starcraft II (Part 1: Single Player)

2010-07-31T16:22:00.000-04:00

I'm going to split this review of Starcraft II up into two parts, mainly because the game deserves to be treated that way. That is to say, Starcraft II feels like it's actually two separate games designed by two separate companies (or to put it in less ambiguous terms, the single player portion was probably made by Blizzard, while the multiplayer portion was made by some guys at Activision). As such, the game's full review requires that the single and multiplayer modes be split up and evaluated separately. If they were two separate games, one would be worth buying and the other wouldn't be. I'll let you guess which is which.

That being said, the single player campaign thus far is fantastic. The plot, pacing, and level of interaction is unparalleled. The cutscenes are fantastic, and the actual unfolding of the plot in the campaign mode is well paced. There are some very good surprises, and without giving any spoilers, let's just say that the campaign is not quite as Terran-centric as critics are making it out to be.

As you can probably guess, I actually really like the single player aspect of Starcraft II. There are very few complaints. Contrary to popular belief, you only have to sign onto Battle.net once to verify your account and CD key. The single player campaign can be played without an Internet connection (though for somebody who loves achievements, being disconnected is not preferable). If Starcraft II could only be judged by the single player aspect, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. In fact, when it comes to the single player aspect, I think that Starcraft II is almost unparallelled.

Review: Toy Story 3

2010-07-25T18:32:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to seeing this movie, and it was worth the wait. Without question, this is one of the best movies of the year. I can't say it's as good as Up, which was better mostly because it didn't have two previous films to fall back on. But regardless, the film was very good, and very much worth the wait.

The film's plot basically centers around Andy, the owner of the toys, going off to college. Like most people, he can't bring his toys to college, and so he has to decide what to do with the toys. Though originally intended to be put away in the attic, the toys end up being donated to a daycare center. The rest of the plot deals with the result of this donation.

The voice acting and dialogue are enjoyable. It is hard to really fault the animation. The only flaw that I could find involved a deus ex machina towards the end of the film, but that part of the plot didn't really detract away from the overall story.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I enjoyed watching it, though I didn't see it in 3D, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it. This is, of course, assuming that you haven't already seen it.

5 Ways for Soccer to (Continue) Growing in the United States

2010-07-23T22:15:00.000-04:00

It's been almost 2 weeks since the end of the World Cup, and even longer since the United States was knocked out of the tournament. For Americans and American soccer fans, this year's World Cup was relatively speaking a success. The national team improved on its dismal 2006 showing, reaching the round of 16 after crashing out without a win in Germany. Even more importantly, soccer has found a foothold with American fans in a much more tangible way than before. Whereas in the past soccer could be said to be growing, this year we can definitively say that soccer, at least in the form of the World Cup, is a genuine American pastime. Television ratings back this up: when World Cup viewers, during the middle of the day, rival NBA playoff games and eclipse the NHL Stanley Cup finals, your sport is part of the mainstream.

Yet just because soccer is finally stable and safe in America doesn't mean it doesn't have room for growth. The MLS still has room to grow. Local teams can improve in quality. Here are some tips and advice that could propel soccer, if not into the front of America's minds, at least past the NHL into the 4th most popular sport in the U.S.

1. Switch to Versus. Yes, it would seem like the natural fit for Major League Soccer would be to stay on Fox Soccer Channel. However, the production quality on MLS matches on that channel are terrible: the graphics look like they came straight out of the 80s, and in general the ability of FSC to adequately cover the league is lacking. Versus, on the other hand, showed with its coverage of the NHL that it can more than deal with professional sports coverage. It would be a good move for Versus, expanding its potential reach. More importantly, it would be a good move for the MLS, by making it look more professional.

2. Take up the vuvuzela. One of the major problems with American soccer right now is crowd enthusiasm. Good teams average somewhere around 20,000-25,000 people per game, with one team, the Seattle Sounders, coming closest to European levels of enthusiasm with about 35,000-40,000 per game. However, no matter how many people are at the game, the audience just isn't very loud: it wouldn't matter that most teams can only get about 15,000 people to show up for a game, especially since their stadiums seem full. What seems to be problematic is the fact that many of the fans don't seem to be excited about the game. But the vuvuzela changes that. Despite all of the hatred that people put in for it, one advantage of the vuvuzela is that it makes crowds seem louder than they actually are. 15,000 people with vuvuzelas sounds like 30,000-50,000 regular fans. Games that are loud are more fun to watch, which leads to more people coming to games, and so on.

3. Win the CONCACAF Champions League. If the MLS wants to be seen as a best league in the world, good luck with that. But being seen as the best league in North America should not be nearly as hard: the only real competition that the MLS has is Mexico. Other leagues just can't match their money, as salary capped as it is. By being the best league on the continent, the MLS would be able to attract the best talent. With talent comes viewers, and with viewers come money.

4. On a similar note, make the U.S. Open Cup and the SuperLiga more important. 4,512. That is the number of people who attended a match between the Seattle Sounders and the LA Galaxy in the U.S. Open Cup. To be fair, the game wasn't held at Qwest Field. But that might just be indicative of the larger problem. The U.S. Open Cup predates the Superbowl and the NBA. Any team affiliated with U.S. Soccer can qualify and compete. It should be, and in fact is, the United States' FA Cup. Yet the very fact that two of the most popular teams in the league competed in what amounted to a secondary facility in front of less people than go to some high schools in the U.S. indicates how little respect the Cup gets from MLS. It shouldn't be this way. 15 years into the league's existence, there should be no reason why Maccabi Los Angeles and Bethlehem Steel should still hold the record for the most Cup wins. Clubs should treat these matches as seriously as they treat regular season games, including tickets for the Cup in season ticket packages and holding all of the matches they host at their primary stadium. There's no excuse at this point. The SuperLiga is relatively new, but is still exciting, and is another way for the league to gain respectability among soccer fans in North America.

5. Build soccer stadiums for every team. There's no reason that any MLS team should still be playing in large stadiums that make it impossible for the fans to really be able to get a good soccer experience. These large stadiums make the attendance figures of the MLS look really sparse, and turns off television viewers. There is really no reason to still be in football stadiums, 15 years into the league.

And with my preorder, I fill my free time

2010-07-20T15:32:00.000-04:00

Apologies for the lack of updates, for while I've had things I've wanted to write about, lethargy has prevented me from doing so. However, I can tell you that I recently preordered Starcraft 2 (as well as ordering another copy of the Starcraft Battle Chest, primarily because someone else claimed my original CD key online so I have no online backup), which means that in exactly a week I will be so occupied with my free time that I will not be doing anything else at all. That's probably not a good thing, especially since I planned on reading a book or two and possibly at least skimming some of the textbooks for my classes in the fall.

I've also taken up playing through Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun, something I never got around to doing in middle or high school. So yeah, considering that it took me about 5-8 years to get around to doing that, the 4 day delay doesn't seem that bad.

Actual posts to follow soon, I promise.

The Civil Prerequisites for Democracy

2010-07-15T13:51:00.000-04:00

The Economist has a really good article about likely upcoming changes in leadership in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Good analysis, but what I found to be really interesting was a part at the end detailing things both countries needed before they could even become well-functioning democracies. I think that it's actually a good idea in general, and the article's list can be used as a kind of functional guideline to what democracy needs. Below is the paragraph reproduced in list form.

Prerequisites for Democracy

Rule of law
Independent courts
Free media
Women's rights
Worker's rights
Free market
Professional civil service
Educational system not bound to the central government

I'd add to that list probably some form of fair regulations, though since both countries would be coming from state control of the economy, it wouldn't be bad to go light on the regulations for a while.

Derive Politics post: Private Sector Leadership

2010-07-13T23:40:00.000-04:00

Yet another post on my other site about politics, entitled Private Leadership. An excerpt:

"An election year that also happens to be a recession year tends to depress the amount of money in politics. People who normally would donate money to campaigns goes towards necessities as incomes shrink. This can pose a problem: campaigns still require the same amount of money, but there is just less money available. As we've seen, the market's solution to this problem has been to let the rich run. Thanks to recent Supreme Court decisions that have allowed individuals to spend as much of their personal money as they want, rich candidates find themselves at a distinct advantage in this election cycle. In California, Connecticut, and Florida, rich candidates are in a much better position to win both the nominations of their parties and the elections in general."

Read more here.

What is the point of posting?

2010-07-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

As is pretty obvious, posting has dropped off as of late. Though I am on pace to set a new record for number of posts in a year (and in fact I have most likely already beaten it with ease), many of those posts were made in the first four months of this year, when I set out an informal goal to post at least once a day. Of course, I abandoned that stance after four months, primarily because schoolwork was hurting my ability to post, and because I figured that more posts didn't translate into more readers. Basically, a lot of what I wrote was worthless, or reposts, or worthless reposts. So I decided to space myself out, but write actual quality posts. We all saw how that turned out.

I think the major problem with writing any kind of blog is the lack of quality. In this case, however, it's not so much my inability to produce quality posts (don't judge my overconfidence: one thing I do know is that I can write) so much as my inability to know what kind of posts to write. I don't feel like really writing political posts, mostly because I do that on another blog and don't feel like wasting ideas. I could write about the news, but then I'd be pretty unoriginal. I could write about being a student, but then I'm not really motivated by that. I could just write about sports events and maybe technology and gaming. That's what I've arrived at now.

I think quality will come soon enough. I figure that I should accept that this blog will fulfill two primary roles: first, I will write about things that I particularly care about, including politics, because writing once a week about it isn't that fulfilling. The second purpose will be to highlight writings of mine elsewhere. And of course, this is not a role of the blog, but sometimes I'll just write about my personal life sometimes. Just sometimes.

Hopefully next week, I'll be writing reviews of some stuff, probably some of the movies and television shows I've seen. Additionally I hope to have something wrapping up the World Cup, as well as some other miscellaneous filler.

And who will win the World Cup final?

2010-07-11T01:14:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that it's come to an end. However, like all good sporting events, the World Cup will crown a champion tomorrow. As for my pick? Well...

Between Spain and the Netherlands, I prefer Spain. I think that their attacking style, along with the fact that they've faced the harder bracket, better prepares them for the final. Moreover, I don't think that the Dutch will be able to keep up with the Spanish. Also, Paul the Octopus agrees with me, so I'm right.

I'm going with Paul the Octopus

2010-07-10T02:37:00.001-04:00

And I'll say that Germany will win the third place game. Yes, they were frustrated by Spain, but given their overall level of talent, and the inefficacy of Uruguay against the Netherlands, I think they're the safe pick.

Semifinals predictions for the World Cup

2010-07-06T11:46:00.000-04:00

Last round I was only 50-50. It gets harder from here on out.

The Netherlands vs. Uruguay

I'm going to go with talent once again, and pick The Netherlands. Though Uruguay has a few good players, the Dutch are just better in every way.

Spain vs. Germany

Really, if Spain attacks the same way that Germany did, this game might be over quickly. Germany will win it, though not by as much as they did against Argentina.

Quarterfinals predictions, World Cup

2010-07-02T10:07:00.000-04:00

Quickly, before Brazil and Netherlands are able to actually do anything.

Brazil vs. Netherlands

Talent versus more talent? It's hard to really say, since both teams are good, but I'll go with Brazil.

Uruguay vs. Ghana

Uruguay. Ghana looked weak at times against the United States. Uruguay? Not so much against South Korea.

Argentina vs. Germany

Honestly, I just don't see how Germany can win. I'll root for them, but Argentina is the better side in this contest.

Paraguay vs. Spain

This one's the easiest one of the four. Sorry Paraguay, but even though you have the hottest fan at the World Cup doesn't mean you'll win against Spain. It'll be sad to see you guys go.

Round of 16 Predictions

2010-06-25T23:04:00.000-04:00

At least this time I'm right 75% of the time, as compared with last time with the NCAA March Madness tournament, where I was exactly 50/50.

Uruguay vs. South Korea

Uruguay has been playing spectacularly as of late. They're hitting well above their weight, and South Korea is the type of team they'll be able to beat relatively easily with their style. This is not to say that the South Koreans are bad, but rather merely that Uruguay is just that good.

United States vs. Ghana

United States. Oh come on. Would I pick any different even if I knew I was wrong?

Netherlands vs. Slovakia

Who is really going to beat the Dutch? Not Slovakia. The Netherlands will win, probably in a rout.

Brazil vs. Chile

Not only are Brazil the favorites, but their style of capitalizing on the counterattack is perfect against a very attack happy Chile. I would have called it an even match, but Chile's performance today changed that.

Germany vs. England

Germany's just been the more consistent side. Nothing against England, but consistency does count for something.

Argentina vs. Mexico

Poor Mexico. This is just an unfair draw. Argentina wins thanks to the efforts of Lionel Messi.

Paraguay vs. Japan

Paraguay hasn't been seriously challenged, but they did well in their group. Still, I think that with the way Japan has been playing, they'll pull off the upset.

Spain vs. Portugal

Oh wow. This one is actually a toss up. I'll give it to Spain because I think the combined might of the Spanish stars is greater than Cristiano Ronaldo. Plus, Portugal was pretty lackluster in its draw today. But hey, last time they followed up lackluster with stellar, so we'll see.

First wrong predictions of the World Cup

2010-06-24T22:14:00.000-04:00

Yeah, so I probably should have realized that Cameroon literally was unable to qualify for the round of 16. And I, like most everyone else, was taken aback by Italy's failure to qualify. We all knew they were old, but we believed they'd last at least one more round, especially against this group. Still, an 83.33% correct rate is pretty good. It's not as good as Paul the Octopus, but I can't beat something with 8 arms.

As soon as the round of 16 is set, look for a new set of predictions.

T-minus 5 days until cable service...

2010-06-23T23:02:00.000-04:00

And then internet service will follow that week. Which means I'll be able to have permanent internet access at home, which means I can end my treks through to the library, especially on days like today when it was raining.

Also, work is getting actually serious and difficult, I'm amazed, impressed and excited that the U.S. won today. We'll beat Ghana, or at least give them the game of their life. Oh, and props to Isner and Malut for their marathon Wimbledon match, which is slowing making tennis into a game of cricket. Maybe it is time for tiebreakers at Wimbledon after all?

That is all.

It's time for a new post

2010-06-22T22:19:00.001-04:00

So today was day two of my internship at RCF Economic and Financial Consulting downtown. Today was much better than the previous day. For starter's I actually got there on time. Two mental notes to take away from that:

1. The Green line is actually safe in the mornings.
2. Never, ever, ever take a bus in the morning, especially not in summertime Chicago, and especially not since there's always stuff going on that causes traffic and detours.

Aside from that it's been great fun following the World Cup. Also as of right now my predictions for the round of 16 are 100% accurate. We'll see if that rate holds up over the course of the next few days.

World Cup predictions?

2010-06-17T00:58:00.000-04:00

So as a bad sports fan and amateur prediction artist, I'm going to make the following predictions about who will make it out of the first round of the World Cup finals. This is, of course, after everyone has played at least 1 game, and the second set of games are beginning.

Group A:
Uruguay
Mexico

Of note, South Africa will likely become the first host nation to ever not advance out of the first round. Also, France gets sent home early on account of its team being old and not that good anymore.

Group B:
South Korea
Argentina

No surprises here: the two strongest sides have performed up to expectations and should make it out of the group stage without too much trouble.

Group C:
England
United States

Nothing by either team in the England vs. USA match indicated that they would lose to either Algeria or Slovenia, and clearly they are the two best teams in this pool. Slovenia's win might add some uncertainty, but in all likelihood these two will qualify.

Group D:
Germany
Ghana

Germany's a shoo-in. Ghana is more likely to qualify than Serbia based on the fact that they beat them. Australia's prospect don't look good, especially after the Socceroos lost their star player Tim Cahill.

Group E:
Netherlands
Cameroon

This group is hard to predict. Well, it's actually only half difficult: we all know the Netherlands will advance, we just don't know the second team. Right now, it's still more likely to be Cameroon than anyone else, but the upset by Japan has really thrown everything into a loop.

Group F:
Italy
Paraguay

I really have no idea. I'm basically just hoping that Italy stays healthy enough, and that the South American team will do best. Seriously, aside from New Zealand coming off of its current high from its draw, all bets are off.

Group G:
Brazil
Ivory Coast

Brazil's a no brainer. Ivory Coast over Portugal? Also a no brainer, after the lackluster performance by Cristiano Ronaldo. If Portugal can't step up its game, it's screwed, especially in this group of death.

Group H:
Spain
Switzerland

Spain's going to recover. Switzerland's got the motivation now. I just feel sorry for Chile and Honduras. Chile will likely lose to the defensive style of Switzerland, and Honduras just can't match up to Spain, so both should pick up crucial wins that'll send them to the next round.

We'll see how my predictions fair once the group of 16 begins.

A slight template change

2010-06-11T02:00:00.000-04:00

I'll start blogging soon, I promise. It's just that having to move everything around is quite difficult.

In the meantime there has been a slight change in the template. Rather than using a custom one, I'm using one provided by blogger that looks similar (and less web 2.0-ish). This way changes to the actual site are easier to maintain and don't require tinkering with the actual HTML.

This shouldn't affect your viewing experience at all.

Seriously, new content coming soon.

In case you were wondering where I was

2010-06-08T18:34:00.002-04:00

I'm currently embroiled in finals week. Soon enough, you'll be seeing new posts and things and whatnot. Hopefully (and by hopefully I mean definitely) I'll be more active after I've taken care of classes for the year.

Sorry for the lack of posts

2010-05-25T02:57:00.000-04:00

I've been sick and tired. Here's a Derive Politics post instead, with excerpt:

"It has long been popular to accuse leaders in America of elitism. Being a highly influential government or corporate official tends to carry a perception of being detached. People in high places, it is said, are nothing like us, having attended their fancy schools with their fancy educations and privileged lifestyles. They live only on the coasts, call the rest of America flyover country, eat arugula and share no interests with what are considered the common folk. In short, elites are bad because they aren't like us, they think they're better than us, and they don't know what we really want."

Full article here.

Derive Politics post: Conservatism and its critics

2010-05-20T00:00:00.000-04:00

This was another post on Derive Politics, entitled Conservatism and its critics. An excerpt:

"There used to be a time when conservatism was seen as the strongest force in American politics. Americans, after almost 50 years of liberal rule, elected Ronald Reagan in 1980, kicking off a wave of conservative politics that is only recently seeing its end. Only after the end of the Bush administration can we truly consider the previous conservative era gone, despite what some people might say. And while the movement did have its problems, including serious problems with its stance against human rights, it did have something that its replacement, the Tea Party and the more crazy Republican did not, and that was some kind of intellectual basis."

Read more here.

And now we enter the second half of the week

2010-05-19T23:01:00.000-04:00

As expected I did not do too well on my math midterm. I now need a 50 on the final just to get a C. That is unlikely to happen. I might just withdraw from this class. Ah well. Everyone's dreams have to die sometime right? I'll be studying my ass off for the final, but the option to drop is always there.

This week's problem set was really easy. I have a lot of free time now. I also have a beta account in Starcraft 2, which coincides perfectly with my free time. I am, however, going to try and study much more during the course of these next few weeks, but I also plan on playing at least an hour of Starcraft 2 a day. We'll see how that works out. I might need a new computer when the actual game comes out too.

Also for some reason now internship offers keep coming back to me. I have one solid unpaid offer down (which is a really good research one) as well as another research offer that might (probably 50-75%) materialize. I also had a phone call today that told me Sanofi-Aventis in New Jersey was looking to see if they could give me something. That last one's mostly nepotism though.

I do believe that UChicago might finally be slowing down, but if it is it's clearly the calm before the finals storm.

Derive Politics post: Freedom of Speech

2010-05-18T21:50:00.001-04:00

Here's another post I wrote a while back for Derive Politics entitled Freedom of Speech. An excerpt:

"The recent controversy over the American television show South Park's 200th and 201st episodes (which satirized previous controversies over depictions of the prophet Muhammad among other things) touched off a nerve among some people. Among the two groups that reacted the most were the people in charge at Viacom, who out of fear of possible anger and outrage heavily censored both episodes (including censoring the word Muhammad and censoring an unrelated speech about not being intimidated at the end of the 201st episode), and extremist Muslim groups, one of which posted death threats against Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the two creators of South Park."

Read more here.

New Derive Politics Post: On the Effects of the Oil Crisis

2010-05-17T03:13:00.000-04:00

My friend Roger's put up this interesting post on Derive Politics. I'll have my postings linked up here later this week. An excerpt:

"If the oil crisis doesn't destroy the entire gulf's ecosystem, which it might, it does bring a certain level of opportunity for the Obama administration, and for green technology in general. "

Summer Breeze and the weekend

2010-05-16T18:45:00.000-04:00

So yesterday was our Summer Breeze concert, which if you couldn't tell by its name was our annual music concert featuring popular outside artists. The year before they didn't have anyone particularly popular: the most famous acts, Broken Social Scene and Santigold, didn't really attract that diverse of a crowd. This year, however, they had the Dirty Projectors, a relatively indie group, as well as the more mainstream Nas and Damien Marley. So at least they got a better lineup this year.

I ended up waking up at around 11AM and wasting away a few hours, after which I decided to go study for a about 3 hours. This, of course, meant that I missed most of the festivities for the Carnival before the concert. That wasn't too bad: I mean, I needed to study anyway.

The concert itself was very good. The Dirty Projectors were decent, but obviously Nas and Damien blew everyone away. Nas performed a good mix of old and new hits, and their new collaboration album (which they were promoting) had some good songs on it. Really though, everyone was there to see Nas. There were also a few classic reggae songs that were played by Damien, but even with the rest of the songs not being well known the concert was a blast.

With that, I should have just stayed home and slept. I didn't, and that was a bad decision. Now I have to study my ass off for a midterm tomorrow even more. Boo.

The sudden drop in posts

2010-05-14T11:15:00.000-04:00

So apologies for not having posted in over a week. After Scav Hunt was over (and that took up basically all of my free time from Thursday to Sunday, whenever I wasn't in class or "working" on a problem set (I basically copied someone's verbatim) I was Scavving.

For those who don't know, the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt (also known as Scav, or Scav Hunt) is (arguably) the world's biggest scavenger hunt, which happens every year during Mother's Day weekend. Scav was started in the 1980s, and the nature has changed a lot since the 1990s. In the beginning it was mostly independent houses and registered student organizations that had teams. By the late 90s, teams had basically centered around entire dorms, rendering most independent teams kind of moot (which is why they unified into one big team). This year was the first year without the Shoreland dorm team (mostly because the dorm was shut down) and in its place we formed a South Campus team.

Basically, the teams are divided into two categories, dorm teams (Snell-Hitchcock, Max Palevsky minus Flint House, South Campus, Burton Judson plus Blackstone, Broadview plus Flint House) and unaffiliated teams (Federation of Independent Scav Teams (FIST), Graduate and Alumni Scav Hunt (GASH), and various other independent teams that Scav for fun, this year one being a bunch of 4th years under the name of Team Lanie).

South Campus did alright. We got 5th this year (a step down from being in a tie for 4th), being edged out by 200 points by MacPierce, the team we tied with last year as the Shoreland. Given that our team was relatively inexperienced as most of us hadn't really been that involved with Scav before, this was a decent finish. I was hoping for an outright 4th place, but it didn't happen. All this means is that we have to try harder next year.

Of course, I might simply go Scav with Max P, because my friend who is one of their captains will graduate after next year. I don't know if our team wants to be more competitive at all, or if South will just be happy lounging around at 5th or 4th. I'd rather gun for 3rd with South or for 1st with Max P.

We'll see. I have a whole year to figure this out.

Scav coming up

2010-05-05T00:28:00.001-04:00

Same blah blah blah status.

This week blows

2010-05-03T15:42:00.000-04:00

Ugh.

Summer plans

2010-05-02T03:48:00.000-04:00

Currently trying to apply to internships and also figure out housing. It's not easy at all (obviously). Add to that the fact that scav starts this week and I am literally unable to find enough hours in the day. Of course this blog is going to suffer (more so than usual). Sorry about that.

A week of Scav and catching up

2010-05-01T18:29:00.000-04:00

Why am I always catching up?

This week is Scav Hunt, and I've signed up to be a page captain. This was probably a bad idea. In any case it'll be a busy week of setting plans for next year into motion. We'll see how it turns out.

An experiment with vegetarianism, conclusion

2010-04-30T20:44:00.000-04:00

Vegetarianism sucks. I think I'll instead stick with my current meat eating diet.

However, after today, I'll refrain from red meat, and try to stick to chicken, turkey, and fish. Seems healthier.

Post on Derive Politics: African Development

2010-04-29T00:01:00.000-04:00

Another post on Derive Politics, this one about African development. An excerpt:

"For a while now, American aid to the continent of Africa has generally been focused on poverty alleviation. Foreign aid from the United States and the Western world, a lot of it private, has been funneled into projects designed to address the pressing needs of the poor, from famine relief to clean sanitation and education. And yet, despite the vast amounts of money that has been poured into the region, progress is frustratingly hard. African countries have had the slowest rate of growth in the world. Despite a range of external factors like sectional conflict, there seems to be little to no tangible benefit from Western aid."

Full post here.

An experiment with vegetarianism, part 3

2010-04-28T16:01:00.001-04:00

Still no real change in what I can eat, or the taste, or the satisfaction, although I think that now at the very least I'm getting used to it. Being a vegetarian sucks. That is all. Tomorrow there'll be a filler post.