Category Archives: General

Sports and Technology…

Absolutely fascinating article by Kevin Maney for Newsweek concerning SportsVU, a motion capture technology that will apparently be available to all viewers of NBA games starting with the next season, and what all this data means in terms of your viewing and -at least to me- what it might mean for the future of sports itself:

http://www.newsweek.com/nbas-tech-revolution-will-change-way-we-watch-sports-563

I’ve noticed on talk radio (I tend to listen to it while driving) how the conversation has shifted from generalities to data specifics.  We went from talking about how great a certain player was/is (generality) to where we now can find and look at their speed, their scoring percentages, their completion percentages, their success by quarter, etc. etc. etc.

The statistics are fascinating but, of course, can be messed up by player’s “off days”, where their performance may dramatically shift from their “norm.”

Then again, maybe we’ll get to the point where we can predict such dramatic shifts in performance.  How?  Perhaps by getting information regarding a player’s sleeping habits or how much they travel between games or how their diet, personal life, etc. etc. etc. affect their performances.

So much information to gather…so much information to sort.

Could it be possible that one day we take all this data and can effectively compute which team/player will win their given sporting event on a given day?

And if we do get to that point will sports, whose main draw is the fact that almost anything can happen and the outcome is often difficult to predict, no longer hold their luster to fans?

3 Illusions That Will Melt Your Brain…

Take a look at one of them:

Curious to see a little more?  Check out this article by Phil Plait at Salon.com:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/10/21/three_illusions_that_will-destroy_your_brain.html

The pressure was getting to them…

…all of them apparently.  An apparently well known and liked Stenographer on the House floor snaps and rants on the floor following the vote to finally fund the government and raise the debt ceiling:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/17/stenographer-snaps-rants-on-house-floor/

Nothing much to add here but say that there obviously was plenty of pressure on everyone up there.

Vintage mugshots…

There’s a certain nostalgic fascination -at least to me- in seeing things like this, mugshots from the 1930’s and early 1940’s:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/vintage-mugshots_n_4044666.html

The very first presented image was especially fascinating:

2013-10-04-Lot59A.jpg

This young lady was 17 years old when the mugshot was taken in 1942, meaning that if she’s still alive today, she would be 88 or so years old.

Which makes one wonder:  What was her life like?  Did she continue to engage in these petty crimes (she was arrested, as noted in the mugshot description, for Shoplifting) or was this one of those silly teenage activities she did only this one time and learned her lesson?  Conversely, was this just one example of her criminal activities and spent the rest of her life in and out of correction facilities?  Could she have “moved up” to more serious crimes?

I’d like to think the rest of her life was far more pleasant than that particular moment in October of 1942…

Giant Asian Hornets Killing People in China…

The stuff of nightmares!

I first read about his at The Huffington Post here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/giant-asian-hornets-killing-people-china_n_4023249.html

But what really drew my attention to the article was this photograph of the Giant Asian Hornets’ queens:

 As I said before…the stuff of nightmares…Reminds me of something I saw many a moon ago…

Ancient hyena dung containes human hair…

Fascinating video from Slate.com about the above, some ancient hyena dung found in South Africa that, it turns out, had human hair in it.  Perhaps people weren’t always on top of the food chain…either that or the hyena fed off a corpse a very long time ago…

Some grim lists…

…for those in the United States (like me) about to suffer the shutdown blues:

First, a list of 36 last words spoken by people condemned to be executed:

http://www.ranker.com/list/last-words-spoken-by-criminals-before-execution/notable-quotables

The 1st and 12th ones are pretty bad puns…the 19th one verges on the poetic.

Next up in our grim trifecta, the last words spoken by famous people:

http://www.ranker.com/list/dying-words-last-words-spoken-by-famous-people-at-death/notable-quotables

My favorite is the eminently quotable Oscar Wilde’s last words: “Either the wallpaper goes or I do.”  Even in the face of death, he delivers a great line!

The best unexpected last words spoken has to go to #56, to Union General John Sedgewick: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist…”

Finally, a list of 14 people in ancient times…and the very strange ways they died:

http://www.ranker.com/list/unusual-deaths-prehistoric-people-who-died-in-strange-ways/notable-famous-deaths

Check out in particular the way both Heraclitus and Milo of Croton went out…brrr.

13 Mind-Blowing tricks advertisers use to manipulate images…

Absolutely loved this list, found on Cracked.com:

http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_664_13-mind-blowing-tricks-advertisers-use-to-manipulate-photos/

In particular, I loved item #7, which is presented below…

Man…I’ll never look at cereal ads in the same way!

Now, give the rest of the list a look, it is quite fascinating!

13 quirky, game-changing innovations for 2013

Fascinating list by Kevin Joseph for Slate magazine featuring the above.  Perhaps my favorite is the first, involving Staples and 3D printing, though I suspect it won’t be terribly long before we all have 3D printers of some type in our homes…

Still, a great list and some very interesting ideas to be found within.  Give it a look!

http://roadshow.slate.com/13-quirky-game-changing-innovations-for-2013/

New Abraham Lincoln photograph…?

Heard about this a couple of days ago.  Christopher Oakley, a scholar and former Disney animator, was looking at this panoramic photograph of the Gettysburg visit by Abraham Lincoln and various dignitaries:

lincoln

When he zoomed in on the crowds and looked around, he found spotted the “distinctive hawk-like profile of William H. Steward, Lincoln’s secretary of state”.  Knowing President Lincoln was known to be close by his secretary of state during this visit, he found this:

lincoln

Blurry?  Certainly.  Barely visible?  Yes.  But at the same time, clearly distinguishable.  Congratulations, Mr. Oakley!

For the full article (including a video!), you can click here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/25/new-abraham-lincoln-photo_n_3988659.html