Beyond Rivalry - sports_and_games

How To Really Be An Expert

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 07:20:00 -0400

Years of experience in your given field does not make you an expert performer. It can help -- if you have 10 years experience or more, that is -- and it can also hurt -- acting unconsciously and missing key information, being overconfident -- but what really helps is to spend most of your time practicing the hardest aspects of your job, profession, skill, talent, or field: "In other words, we like to practice what we know, stretching out in the warm bath of familiarity rather than stretching our skills. Those who overcome that tendency are the real high performers." Another factor that helps make experts expert is "regularly obtaining accurate feedback." This is true for a variety of fields, including nurses, doctors, athletes, crossword puzzle solvers, chess players, drivers, and, perhaps, politicans.

More at "The Science of Experience" in Time.

Who are the Victims? - II

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:30:00 -0400

Another ongoing series: News stories in which some group is labelled 'the victim' of a group, abstraction, or individual. I think it's educational and interesting to notice who or what are identified as victims and perpetrators in the media.

Recently,

People who tend not to know their rights are the victims: "'They're (collection agencies) very creative sometimes, and unfortunately, the consumers who tend not to know their rights under the Fair Credit Collections Act are the victims.'" [14 July]

Stamp vending machines are the victims: "'The stamp vending machines are the victims of technology, competition and aging parts,'" said Ray Daiutolo, a U.S. Postal Service spokesman. ... Consumers are buying postage on the Postal Service's Web site, and through its 'stamps by phone' and 'stamps by fax' services. People also can find stamps at most grocery stores, and some banks offer them at their ATMs." [18 July]

Students who borrow money to go to college, textile workers who lose their jobs to Chinese imports and kids who want to play baseball in fields near their homes are the victims of corporate welfare, according the to book Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with…

Powerless Day

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 21:00:00 -0400

Electrical power (and cable and landline phone) went out at 9:20 a.m. today in the middle of our Nor'easter, which was all heavy rain and high winds today after an inch of snow last night. The power just came back on at 8:15 p.m., almost 11 hours later.

In the meantime, I finished all the crossword puzzles I had printed over the last couple of weeks, read some Economist magazines (but not even close to being caught up on those), read all of the month of April in Anthony Frewin's The Book of Days: What To Celebrate Today (not as gala as it sounds -- lists saints' days, global national holidays, important historical events, and who was born and died on this day), snuggled with the dog, and was mighty glad for propane (and propane accessories) to heat the downstairs and to cook with -- mostly, to make tea with. Also for city water and sewer instead of our old well and septic with electric pump.

Spouse came home at 12:30 to ingeniously siphon water from the basement, and we grabbed pizza at a place on the other side of town that never lost power. We were playing a 5th or…

Cryptic Crosswords

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:45:00 -0400

I work on solving cryptic crosswords most days, either from the NYT (in the archives) or from The Herald, and occasionally in The Atlantic (Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon are two of the best cryptic creators). Cryptics are crosswords in which every clue "must offer two routes to the solution word, including at least one straight definition" and in which the clues can contain no extraneous words (sometimes they do, though, and then we shake our little fists).

The puzzles may seem ... puzzling ... and a bit over-challenging at first, especially the British ones with Brit references, spellings, and slang (don't start with those if you're not a Brit unless you are a masochist), but they're also really fun to figure out, and since the answer can be reached in at least two ways, intuition -- that flash of insight that bridges the two clues without the mind understanding why -- comes into play much more often than in a regular crossword; I sometimes know the right answer and have to work back to see how the clues lead to it -- and I always do work back because the mechanics of the clues is the art of the puzzle.…

Pop Maven Update

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:30:00 -0400

Love pop culture.

Here's what I'm grooving to lately:

Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars ... "Let's waste time Chasing cars Around our heads // I need your grace To remind me To find my own // If I lay here, If I just lay here, Would you lie with me and just forget the world?"

The Fray's Over My Head (Cable Car) ... "I wish you were a stranger I could disengage, say that we agree and then never change ... " Also: How To Save A Life -- powerful video

Green Day's Holiday

Daniel Powter's Bad Day ... Just this: "Where is the passion when you need it the most ... "

Kelly Clarkson's Because of You

Usher's Great live performance of 'Caught Up', along with James Brown's Sex Machine

The Gin Blossoms' Hey Jealousy: "The past is gone but something might be found, To take its place... If you don't expect too much from me, You might not be let down. Cause all I really want is to be with you." Also Allison Road. OK, and Found Out About You.

Rihanna's SOS ... My kind of dance music. [video starts with brief ad]. And Will Smith's Switch.

Pussycat Dolls' Don't…

RIP Barbaro, 29 April 2003 – 29 January 2007

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 13:10:00 -0500

"Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was euthanized Monday after complications from his breakdown at the Preakness last May. 'We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain,' co-owner Roy Jackson said."

More at USA Today. Eventually, Univ. of Penn's website will be back up with more details. Also at Philly.com, the AP, the Baltimore Sun.

Ah, the rivalry of sports

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 12:50:00 -0500

Anyone else see the Chargers-Patriots postgame interview yesterday, when the NFL's MVP, running back LaDainian Tomlinson (aka LT), spoke? His Chargers has just lost a hard-fought battle to the New England Patriots, with the Chargers looking like the better team for most of the game, and then some of the Pats players mocked and taunted the losers in a dismaying display of gloating. (Some of the postgame on-field action and some of LT's postgame interview is on YouTube for the moment.)

With stunning mimetic rhetoric in which he distanced himself from such behaviour, LT commented on his opponents' mimetic action, then blamed their action on their imitation of their coach, for an amazing Girardian trifecta.

First, the Patriots, when they had won, egregiously mocked their opponents, the Chargers, by doing a version of Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman's routine little dance on the field, the one he does whenever he gets a sack. That bit of imitation, along with other taunts and nose-rubbing by the Patriots, inflamed LT and led to his ~~striking out briefly at~~ moving towards one of the Pats players before being held back, then walking off the field highly offended (scandalised). Then LT got on the news and…