Survival of the fittest

With Shirley being laid up, I'm taking on a number of new responsibilities beyond responding to her beck and call (a duty she really likes to test, by the way.) They include groceries, laundry and feed the dogs to name a few. However, some new rules apply as these tasks fall under my purview. i.e. if I do it, it gets done my way. She was commenting last night that a couple of the plants had died and that I needed to take my watering responsibilities more seriously. I explained to her that it was the plants that needed to adjust. I water indoor plants once a week whether they need it or not. Plants that can't abide with those ground rules need to find a new home (or die). It is survival of the fittest around here.

"Yes", snickered the devil, "but I have all the umpires."

Why do we rely on officials, referees and umpires to make calls in those areas where technology can do a better, totally consistent job? Screw tradition. Wired Magazine showed the results of some studies on officiating:

• Close calls went in favor of the home team 15.5% more often
• Red uniforms got less fouls than blue uniforms
• The brain makes tiny fraction of a second mistakes when putting together visual information. The 2007 Wimbledon line call errors were studied. 87.5% of the bad called could be attributed to the way the brain processes images.

A few nights ago I was watching a Ranger baseball game. There were 2 outs on the Twins. The umpire called ball four on a pitch that the pitch tracker clearly showed should have been strike 3. The twins scored 4 runs that inning after it should have been over. Wouldn’t it better to let the pitch tracker call balls and strikes in baseball? Or technology to determine balls that are in or out in tennis? Home teams and star players will no longer have the advantage of bad calls in their favor. The best team that night will more likely win. Who cares that officials don’t like it? They shouldn’t count because all too often they don’t make the right call and all too often a game is in the balance. And who likes officials anyway?

Giving the bird

Jill and Tylir have a bird living in one of their hanging plants. If you water the plant, the bird flies out and scares the living daylights out of you. Jill and Tylir of course love it. They invite new people over and think of creative ways to get them to water the plant. I suspect they will be entertained for years. It will be an excuse for them to go out and find new friends. ... and of course, they will need to find new friends because the old ones are no longer after the bird thing. Eric is insanely jealous.

Death, it ought to be a right.

I’ve spent a lot of time lately in a rehab center (broken bones). Most of the patients are very old. I look at some of them bent over their food tray and just sitting there. Not eating, not moving. I wonder how long they have been there. I wonder if they appreciate life. Personally, I’d rather be dead. I think I should have that right. I think everyone should have the right to live and also the right to die. If you enjoy sitting there looking at food, more power to you and you have that right. If your religion says you have to hang in there, that’s fine too. But for those of us that would rather be dead, let us die in a respectable manner. Don’t burden me with whatever your beliefs are. Death, it ought to be a right.

Under Appreciated Moon

Perhaps a little appreciation for the moon is appropriate on this 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonshot. Created a few billion years ago when something hit the earth and knocked a chunk out(really a whole bunch of chunks that congealed)that became the moon. It is bigger proportionately than any of the moons of the other planets in our solar system.

Besides providing some light in most nights and something interesting to look at, it causes the tides that add many nutriants to our oceans. Most important, its gravity keeps earth from wobbling like Mars. Wobbling would cause radical temperature changes, far worse for the planet than whats projected as a result of global warming. And there are no down sides. Give the next full moon friendly salute for all it has done for us.

Latest NPR Tidbit

Listening to two English Profs on NPR, I learned that most of us were taught incorrectly that it is improper to end a sentence with a preposition. Apparently this was started by some of the intellectual elite that thought English was inferior to Latin, so they decided to try to make them the same. Unfortunately, English descended from ancestral German, not Latin. The same rules don't apply.

When Winston Churchill was criticized for ending a sentence with a preposition, he responded with "that is the sort of thing with which I will not put." Often the prepositions are really part of the verbs as is the case with "to put up" and "to put up with". Now that's news you can live with.

It's been a while

... but I'm not sure anyone noticed. Blame it on vacation, writer's block, whatever. Perhaps because I'm writing a large document for work espousing the many benefits of mobile banking. The tremendous growth of the technology, client demand, the future, etc., all reasons we must be a leader in this product. I have amassed huge piles of supporting documentation for all of my claims. There is simply no way to argue against the logic of it all. Then I realize that I don't have a mobile banking relationship, nor the desire to have one. Oops. Hopefully I'm the exception. It is probably because Judge Judy won't let me go near a bank account.