Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get. -- Mark Twain I believe in climate change -- at minimum, the climate in Georgia where I live changes four times per year. I call the phenomena "seasons." However, I don't consider "climate change" as something humans understand anywhere near well enough to control. Neither do I believe the sky is imminently about to fall because of human consumption of fossil fuels. Oil and natural gas seem to exist for a reason. Why shouldn't we efficiently put our natural resources to good use? As someone with a couple of decades worth of experience and formerly considered as something of an expert in the field of software development, I can say with complete confidence that only sheer hubris allows climate science experts to insist with any degree of certainty that their computer models can predict the future. The problem is simply too complex. There are far too many unknowns. For example, the forecast in Atlanta today is calling for between 3 and 7 inches of snow...quite a margin of error, wouldn't you agree? Now if the weather experts can't even accurately forecast how much snow is going to fall later today, how can they possibly say with total confidence they know what the weather will be like several years into the future? The butterfly effect is part of the chaos theory of mathematics. The term was coined by Edward Lorenz to describe his discovery that very slight changes to the input data for his weather models could produce a significant variations in the outcome, as if the flapping of a butterfly's wings in a … [Read more...]
The very talented Chris Conley
Before my friend Kevin Weakley got me thinking about Georgia Bulldog wide receiver Chris Conley's performance at the NFL Combine, I probably would have said "Star Wars" if pressed for one word or phrase to describe this most impressive young man. Conley is bright, articulate, and extremely talented -- a young man as famous for his directorial skills and devotion to the Star Wars movie series as for his achievements on the football field. Another word that comes to mind when thinking about how best to describe Chris Conley is underappreciated. During his four years in Athens, the "worst" play I can remember Conley making was a pass he actually caught -- the last second, deflected pass from Aaron Murray in the 2012 a few yards short of the goal line. It was hardly Conley's fault -- a wide receiver's natural instinct is to catch any ball thrown in his direction. I know this, because I was once a slow, very short receiver. But I had good hands. Based on personal experience, I believe it's very safe to say in the same situation, I would have caught the ball, too. Only a human brain that could process information as fast as a computer would have been able to analyze that situation and determine the best option was to knock down the ball instead of catching it. Because I'm not ready to declare Chris Conley to be superhuman, I'm not ready to say he should have known better than to catch that pass. It would have been one of the few he dropped over his career that I can remember, because Chris Conley was known for being reliable. Our "speed burner" receivers … [Read more...]
Black racism
As a general rule of thumb, I've tried to avoid questioning the wisdom of my critics. I try to accept criticism as meant to be constructive feedback from engaged readers, and I appreciate it whenever anyone takes the time and goes to the trouble of expressing their thoughts about my work, both positive and negative. However, there are exceptions to every rule. When James L. "Jimmy B." Bradbury recently posted a rather inflammatory comment in response to my article on Brian Bell and the bizarre death of Kendrick Johnson, I decided the gravity of his very serious accusation warranted and even mandated a rebuttal. Mr. Bradbury strongly implied that I became an accessory after the fact in a murder when he wrote: Dear John, Either you haven’t done your homework or you have some personal interest in helping cover up this murder. Unless you’re just a complete moron you have to give some credence to the very suspicious happenings surrounding the videos, the two autopsy’s [SIC], the fact that the Bell brothers refuse to speak to investigators, the missing body parts, the police incompetence in gathering the physical evidence and all the other elements involved. This is a real mystery and that’s why the government is investigating. It took the Police 3 month to close the case, Why is it that the Federal Government has already taken 16 months, If nothing was wrong they would have closed their investigation long ago. Nice try, Jimmy B. That is a very powerful accusation, indeed. It is my intent to go well beyond merely responding to"Mr. B.'s" somewhat insidious accusations … [Read more...]
Education versus indoctrination
Recently Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was visiting London when a reporter tried to sandbag him, asking if he was "comfortable" with and accepted the theory of evolution. Walker apparently sensed the question was intended to be a trap. So he replied that he was going to punt the question, cleverly adding that it was a topic on which politicians shouldn't be asked to give an opinion. Uber liberal Democrat Howard Dean then tried his best to turn Walker's non-answer into an advantage for his political party on CNN's Morning Joe. Dean said that because Walker dropped out of college his senior year and refused to say that he believed in evolution theory, he should be considered "uneducated" and therefore unqualified to be elected President of the United States in 2016. Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough accused Dean of taking a cheap shot at Walker, who had dropped out of Marquette to take a lucrative job with the American Red Cross. Scarborough correctly pointed out that people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg were merely a few examples of extremely successful businessmen lacking college degrees. Dean tried defending his comments. He stammered, "Evolution is a widely accepted scientific construct. People who don't believe in evolution easily, easily either do it for hard right religious reasons or because they don't know anything." Really? Howard Dean has a medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University after receiving his undergraduate degree in political science from Yale University. So I won't … [Read more...]
The worst contract in American sports
[Hat tip to Kevin Weakley for sending me the link to the article that inspired this blog.] The worst contract in American sports -- that's what Sports Illustrated magazine's Andy Staples called the National Letter of Intent, a document that commits a high school athlete to a scholarship from a particular university. Upon signing the Letter of Intent, that athlete forfeits one year of college eligibility in the event he or she fails to enroll in that school. In contrast, the school doesn't really have to honor the scholarship offer to the athlete. As Staples points out, Sure, the NLI claims to guarantee a scholarship, but that simply isn't true. That is contingent on the player being admitted to the school and on the football program staying below the 85-scholarship limit. A school can dump the player at any point between Signing Day and preseason camp, and he would have no recourse. This guarantee is no different than the one on a conference-approved financial aid form, but it costs the player something the financial aid agreement does not. This situation drew national attention when highly sought linebacker Roquan Smith verbally committed to UCLA in a ceremony televised on ESPN, but news broke revealing the primary recruiter who gave Smith his very first scholarship offer and cultivated a relationship with the player over three years would be leaving to take a coaching job in the NFL, working for the Atlanta Falcons. Had Smith signed the letter of intent and faxed it, he would have forfeited a year of eligibility unless UCLA granted him an unconditional release. … [Read more...]
