Funny. But only once.
Month: March 2007
Even the Liberal New Republic…
… is blogging about basketball. Of course, this was inevitable, because college basketball is inherently a liberal sport. There’s no sports analogue for welfare and affirmative action better than the “atuomatic bid” system that allows small conference champions into the NCAA tournament, giving them the same chance at the title as teams from the power… Continue reading Even the Liberal New Republic…
Worst. Bracket. EVER.
As threatened in passing earlier, I went through the NCAA Tournament field, picking the games based on the ranking of Ph.D. programs in Physics (I set the “Scholarly quality of program faculty is high” weight to 5, and left everything else off). I entered it on Yahoo, which provides a spiffy PDF version for those… Continue reading Worst. Bracket. EVER.
What About Tomb Raider?
The New York Times offers an article profiling Terence Tao, mostly focussing on his child prodigy background: Dr. Tao has drawn attention and curiosity throughout his life for his prodigious abilities. By age 2, he had learned to read. At 9, he attended college math classes. At 20, he finished his Ph.D. Now 31, he… Continue reading What About Tomb Raider?
Office Pool Advice
With the annual Office Pool Season now open, lots of people are queueing up to offer advice on how to fill out the bracket sheets for our national foray into illegal gambling: Inside Higher Ed offers a bracket based on graduation rates, with a Final Four of Florida, Virginia, Michigan State, and, um, Holy Cross.… Continue reading Office Pool Advice
Galactic Religion
As part of one of my intermittent attempts to be a better person, I’ve given up atheist-baiting for Lent. And let me tell you, it isn’t easy. I would be remiss in my blogging duties, though, if I didn’t point out Rob Knop’s recent posts about religion and science. The first is about being a… Continue reading Galactic Religion
Other Countries Have All the Good Scandals
We’ve got unjustified judicial firings, secret prison networks, and unauthorized wiretaps– all good, solid scandals based on important ethical principles. Meanwhile, in Israel… Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked apart from bondage gear. Reports say he was able to identify himself to police only after a… Continue reading Other Countries Have All the Good Scandals
Science Showdown!
If you can’t figure out basketball, but are looking to get in on the excitement of filling out bracket sheets and arguing about seeds, well, the boys at the World’s Fair have got just the thing for you… The Science Spring Showdown 2007 That’s right, they’ve got brackets set up for the ultimate showdon of… Continue reading Science Showdown!
Let’s Stick It to the Little Guy
There’s been a lot of commentary already about how the NCAA selection committee short-changed the smaller conferences. Only six small conference teams got at-large bids this year, half the number from a few years back. This actually understates the problem, though. Not only dis the committee take too few small teams, in a few cases,… Continue reading Let’s Stick It to the Little Guy
Doom!
So, the NCAA brackets are out. Syracuse got left out of the field, which is what Jim Boeheim gets for sneering at the selection committee in public. And also for not playing a game outside the state of New York until late January… Maryland, at least, is in, seeded #4 in the St. Louis region,… Continue reading Doom!