DLD 1/25/08 Science Update
by mikeA on Jan 25, 2008 10:20 AM PST
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PrintWhile we all peck away at our typewriters speculating about the Oakland A's, science marches forward.
Dude who looks like Bill Gates, Two Other Guys Develop Alzheimers Helmet
This story about creating artificial life describes someone as "controversial celebrity U.S. scientist Craig Venter." I would like to be thought of as a controversial celebrity linker.
Chimp beats Human Memory Champion:
Mr Pridmore, who spends his evenings memorising 400-digit numbers, ruefully acknowledged that he had met his match.
...
It is thought that young chimps are blessed with photographic memories, allowing them to remember patterns and sequences with amazing accuracy.
I have to believe that there is a place for a team of low-wage chimps in the A's front office. Along with memorizing stuff, they could taunt Scioscia. And remember how to spell his name.
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I'll see your science and raise you some math
Harvard mathematicians confirm: it's better to wait for the bus than to start walking.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Jan 25, 2008 10:40 AM PST reply actions
a study from the Knapp Institute says: take a cab
... and expense it to the Chron.
Not if you're going from the Seattle Westin...
to Safeco Field at 6:00 on a Friday evening.
It's also smarter to walk in the rain
than it is to run through it.
If you're walking in the rain, it'll fall on your head and shoulders. If you run through it, it gets your head, shoulders, legs, and chest.
Ergo, walk through the rain and you'll get less wet.
The straight dope:
You are a "crackbrain".
Ah, but you've fallen into the old trap.
Yes, walking will make your shoulders and upper chest get wet. But running shares the wet across your thighs, groin, stomach and arms, making you positively sopping, rather than just wet up top.
And it's Mr Crackbrain to you.
Escalating commitment to failing course of action
is what the policy wonks call it. Thank goodness the mathematicians proved them wrong.
Also: recreational mathematics? Is that like Percocet?
mathematicians don't recreate, they recruit
I think there are errors in that paper
In equation 2 they refer to the probability of a bus arriving at time t, but they should be looking at the probability that the first bus arrives at time t. Also in the second term, they neglect to add in the time spent waiting before giving up and walking.
But maybe I'm misunderstanding what they're doing. And, yes, I realize that no one else here cares.
I saw "math" and didn't even click the link.
I saw the writer of the previous post was Poppy
and retroactively unread it.
That's a good policy
by kaweahkaweah on Jan 25, 2008 1:42 PM PST up reply actions
I don't get how this is even a question
If you're facing a walk-vs-wait question it's never about reaching your final destination sooner. It's because you just feel like walking, or maybe the next stop up is a pleasanter one, because it has a bench or better scenery, or whatever.
The study reads like it's optimizing arriving at the destination sooner, but that's ridiculous. If you walk a few stops and catch the bus down the road, you're still on the exact same bus and you get there at the exact same time. The only possible upside, in terms of arrival time, is if you walk the entire distance and beat the bus entirely. In that case, all those variables like number of stops and distance between them are completely irrelevant. And if the distance is very long at all, you'll always lose.
But like I said, the walk-vs-wait question isn't about getting there sooner, it's about being at a different stop. One of the walk-vs-wait questions I used to face daily was actually a walk up-route, ie, walking it the opposite direction of the bus route.
(It wasn't the case for me, but if the bus is crowded, walking up-route a few stops could increase your chance of getting a seat, too. In that case it's like the 5:05 BART question: If you reach the platform and see a train going the wrong way, do you hop on and take it back to Civic Center so as to get a seat for the long ride home?)
exactly
I have 2 rules for riding the bus in SF:
- Never run to catch a bus. It's undignified. There's always another coming ... eventually.
- If you start walking along the route toward your destination, and you get halfway there on foot -- walk the whole way.
Of course, if walking isn't an option, or it's raining, I ... Gwen Knapp it.
Other benefits include ...
getting far enough that it is no longer worth the monetary cost of catching the bus ... or getting far enough that you can avoid a transfer ... and in some regions walking might get you into a different zone, saving money of fare.
At 4:07 AM you better start walking.
It's a long way to Oakland from Sac.
if devo isn't walking enough by now ...
... Beane'll never call him up.
Could infra-red batting helmets help...
...certain players to remember to lay off certain pitches?
I think an electroshock helmet is needed for that
Can we all have
...peril-sensitive sunglasses for when Crosby is batting?
Who ya gonna call?
by The Dogfather on Jan 25, 2008 12:18 PM PST up reply actions
Bob Geren sez: New faces, same old job
Some bits from the Tribune’s report on Geren’s Thursday media session, and snarky commentary too, no extra charge.
Bob Geren hasn't downloaded a special ringtone so his cell phone will play "It's the End of the World as We Know It" every time Billy Beane calls.
This seems to be the popular song metaphor of the month. Like here, and here too. Is the Trib stealing AN’s bits? Is AN stealing everyone else’s? Will Michael Stipe ever receive the referential credit he’s due? These and other questions sure to be begged tomorrow on The End of the Days of Our Lives As We Know It.
Continuing:
OK, Geren is planning one change. He's going to switch uniform numbers, from 53 to 17.
"My wife brought it up," Geren said Thursday. "She hit me with about four things. She said, 'You were hired on the 17th. You're the 17th manager (in Oakland A's history). My birthday's on the 17th.'"
"Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our three weapons are fear, and surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our four...no..."
Onward, Bob!
"When you talk about rebuilding, that happens in the minor leagues," he said. "In the major leagues, the emphasis is on winning. I don't think it really changes my job. The job's the same — preparing for every series, trying to win every game." ..."We're trying to win every game," he said. "I don't feel like just because we traded a couple of our players that it's going to make that much of a difference."
Well, what do you expect him to say? This is FanFest weekend, a time to wax optimistic and push the product. Geren will be one of more than 20 A's coaches and players mingling with fans at the Coliseum on Saturday between 10 a.m.-3 p.m. How would it look if he greeted A's Nation waving a white flag tied to a stick?
Um, "A’s" Nation? Try to get the name right, Peterson.
Until the A's reinvention grows legs, Geren's undeterred nature may be the team's biggest asset. Though you're right, he didn't look very excited when he left Thursday's media obligation. That's because he was headed for the dentist for a root canal.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Jan 25, 2008 10:55 AM PST reply actions
Geren's job isn't to rebuild
it's to manage the major league club to do the best job of winning possible...so in a sense I don't see this as just his typical pollyanna-speak
Beane uses *science* to control Geren
- Electronic rosy, positive outlook-generation technology
- Top-secret Canadian head-coach-ventriloquism technology
Why? Lasik didn't go so well?
everywhere you look, 40-man permutations!
My eyes! My eyes!
Someone tell that Soviet-brain-lab photographer that minimal depth of field is not always artistic, sometimes it's just bad.
Everyone's an art critic, and considering the...
source, someone who can't even be photographed, well, perhaps you shouldn't be seen or heard.
Isn't this the guy you rescued?
Squirrels talk like Scotty Nguyen?
Interesting...
Who?
That isn't... a pop-culture reference, is it?!
This running joke
reminds me of the late, great, Salvatore who never failed to crack me up.
The last comment in that thread
is like a great nonsequitur punchline.
Salvatore:
Man, when Randy Bell and him showed up around here I thought Armageddon was in the workx for sure!
Dude was a laugh riot though.
I won a date with Jennifer in a contest he ran and then it turned out he actually didn't have the connections to hook me up.
The dude was pretty comical though, if you could tolerate his 50s America persona.
by BruceBochte on Jan 25, 2008 8:17 PM PST up reply actions
No, it's a pseudo-sport reference
Scotty Nguyen is a poker player. He has... a very distinctive dialect. Some might call it English.
In particular,
he calls everyone "Baby".
A's expect healthy Harden to start in Japan.
Geren's unique brand of optimism is still intact:
"If it started right now, it would be Blanton and Harden. There's no need to try to hide that. Those are our guys," Geren said Thursday, a day after returning from a trip to Tokyo to help promote the series. "We'll have two starters in Japan and they'll also be the same two who will open up here."
Asked about his expectations of Eric Chavez, Geren was similarly optimistic.
"Chavy will play, and is expected to homer in each of his at-bats against the Red Sox. He certainly has the ability to hit homers, so there's no reason to think it won't happen every time he faces Beckett and Matsuzaka," said Geren.
Chavez will discover the Theory of Everything...
according to Geren.
by franks a lot on Jan 25, 2008 11:49 AM PST up reply actions
More science: IT'S ALIVE!
Scientists create genome for bacteria.
The synthetic genome contains all the instructions that an organism - in this case, a tiny bacterium called Mycoplasma genitalium - needs to live and reproduce.
<rethinks Mrs. Ice Cream's pillow talk>
NASA explains phenomena
A's pick up another warm body
Athletics claimed outfielder Jeff Fiorentino off waivers from the Reds.
Another left-handed hitting outfielder for the A's. The 24-year-old Fiorentino should be nice to have around as depth, though he belongs in Triple-A right now. He hit .282/.346/.445 for Double-A Bowie last season.
by drew24 on Jan 25, 2008 12:06 PM PST reply actions
Seems promising
although failing to dominate AA the second time around is a bit of a red flag. Still, he seems to be able to play center, and to have average-good power. He looks like a strict upgrade on Danny Putnam to me.
What I'm trying to figure out is: why do you take a guy who's had two cups of coffee in the majors, and who just had a decent-if-not-spectacular AA season, and then send him back to AA? He seems to have been really badly mishandled in the minors, first called up too early, then ignored. The A's have been making a habit of going after these sorts of guys lately-- Dee Brown, Emil Brown, Kevin Thompson, Joey Devine and now Fiorentino.
Sounds like he had a couple of...
golden years for Dub-A Bowie, but now it's time for some changes. If we get more young americans like him, we could be heroes.
Vancouver Canadians change logo.
Canadians change logo, A's change Lugo.
You're selling Dallas Braden to a pawnshop?
Harden had cortisone shot last month
http://www.rotoworld.com/content/pla...
I like how they put quotes around "biceps tendinitis", not like they're quoting someone, but more like, "his alleged biceps tendinitis is lingering." Heh. I'm starting to believe like Paul Thomas: he won't throw a single regular-season pitch in the US this season.
Began his training program in Phoenix earlier this week. The clock is ticking. Or is that a bomb?
Problem with oversleeping?
Try the alarm clock that will give your money to organizations you hate!
At AN, those alarm clocks would just...
...increase the budgets of the Yankees, Red Sox and Giants.
Well, people like me, who love snoozing...
would just program the clock to donate to good causes, and therefore have a moral justification for oversleeping. ("I can't get up on time... Habitat For Humanity needs me!")
If it was a really smart clock, it would track a user's actual voluntary donations, and then make oppositional "snooze donations" accordingly.
What's the opposite of Habitat for Humanity?
ACME Dynamite Co.?
Lew Wolff, aka Habitat for Nobility
< /FSU >
The fine print:
Really Fine Print: ThinkGeek reserves the right to take up to a 50% commision on all donations made through the SnūzNLūz. In fact the software supplied with the clock ensures such is the case. Yay!. However, we promise to only use the money for rockets and beach front property.
To be fair, those smartass chimps should've been
... fed a steady diet of the Performance Detracting Drugs typically consumed by the collegians they defeated.
THEN, we'd see how photographic their memories really are.
Well f*ck me in a pony suit
(as my old pal Buckets used to say when one of his teams did something stupid)
Al Davis to Lane Kiffin: Just Resign, Baby.
Davis drafts resignation letter, Kiffin won't sign it. Dennis Green waits in wings. Raiders continue to suck, break own record for most Cartoonish Franchise on Earth.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Jan 25, 2008 1:49 PM PST reply actions
Is Buckets a friend of Nico's?
Disarrayder Nation.
I hope Kiffin makes Al pay every penny of the $4M he's owed if he really wants to replace one of the best young coaches in the NFL.
Run far and fast, Denny. Al Davis IS who YOU THINK HE IS!
LOLcat for nerds
Or we're the only ones who think it's funny...
It's a Star Wars reference, right?
Yes, very good...
Have a nerdbiscuit!
He was probaby hoping for a pocket protector
by kaweahkaweah on Jan 25, 2008 3:53 PM PST up reply actions
it's funny, but structurally flawed
Should be a bunch of cats walking around the surface, with a pigeon in the channel.
Dun da da da dun
Dun da da da dun, dun da da da dun, dun da da daaaaaaa
Use the force Luke
<sob>
I'm not a geek!
I'm not! I'm not! I'm not!
by ChickenStanley on Jan 25, 2008 3:25 PM PST up reply actions
Finalist, dickhead of the year
and it's only January. Hell, I'll go ahead and nominate him for dickhead of the century.
The owner of a luxury Audi is suing the family of the teenager he struck and killed for the costs incurred while his car was in the shop.
Quoth the evildoer: "I'm also a victim in all of this, you can't fix the lad's problems, but you can fix mine."
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Jan 25, 2008 3:17 PM PST reply actions
Isn't it Iriondo, doncha think?
< /Alanis >
A couple of questions?
If this kid was at fault for causing the accident then what's the issue here?
If the driver is at fault why isn't he in jail?
If the kid is at fault, then isn't he the real dickhead for making someone pick his teeth out of the car's grille.
by methodrampage on Jan 25, 2008 3:39 PM PST up reply actions
Well, the driver was doing 100 MPH in a 50 zone
The kid was riding a bike on the road, properly, but was found partially at fault due to a lack of reflective clothing.
IANAL anywhere (chortle), but since this happened in Spain I have even less of a guess about why the driver wasn't criminally charged. However, as one who could afford a top-of-the-line sportscar, whose insurance did in fact pay for the vehicle repair, to sue a bereaved family for the cost of renting a car for a few weeks besides...well, that equals a summary declaration of guilt in the court of dickhead law over which I preside.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Jan 25, 2008 3:51 PM PST up reply actions
Guilty as charged.
The link didn't have any of that info.
by methodrampage on Jan 25, 2008 5:56 PM PST up reply actions
I have a runner-up nominee.
If nominated I will not run, if elected
I will not serve.
Kidding...it's your 10 AM to 4 PM hard-working colleague, isn't it?
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Jan 25, 2008 3:58 PM PST up reply actions
2008 Promotions/Giveaways
Sorry if this has been posted already but here's a link to this year's giveaways...
http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/sch...
Excellent! Thanks!
But once again, no Wine Festival. Boooo!
W.B. Gray will be annoyed
over at the Drumbeat.
looks like you've started your own Whine Festival
Buck and Suzuki bobbleheads?
Wouldn't have picked that parlay. Two others TBD.
I hope we get to see the entries of the 9/21 "Fan-Designed Shirt" giveaway. No matter what it's gotta be easier on the eye than the Zito Father's Day tie.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Jan 25, 2008 4:01 PM PST up reply actions
I want a Duchscherer bobblehead!
I want a Joe Blanton Bobblehead!!
So not fair that he doesn't have one yet!!
by BobbyCrosbysGirl on Jan 25, 2008 5:14 PM PST up reply actions
who is the best player
(contribution to the a's) from the beane-era a's to not have a bobblehead?
blanton has to be in the top 5, duke may be up there also.
jaha, hatteberg, stairs, byrnes, isringhausen, maybe lidle or lilly...
That helmet looks like something Barry might ...
... wear at the plate.
/poster regrets lack of Photoshop skillz.
I have Photoshop skills
...don't have Photoshop, though.
Aaaaannnd...backatcha.
by The Dogfather on Jan 25, 2008 6:40 PM PST up reply actions
2008 A's All-Typo Team
Jack Hanoran
Chris Denofria
Chad Guadin
Ryan Sweeny
Todd Lindon
Carlos Gonzolez
Jeremey Belvins
Dan Meyers
Houston Street
Justin Duchserer
Derek Barton
Georgio Petit
Emile Brown
ESPN.com MLB front page
is reporting that Oakland signed Chad "Gauden" today.
billy bean should never have signed those guys
Joe Blayton.
Seriously, though, whose name is Gonzolez?
As a full blooded Hispanic, I should say I have never ever ever met anyone named Gonzolez.
Oh, add to that list: People who shorthand Fautino De Los Santos as, "DSL" instead of "DLS."
Airfone Denofria
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggggg
gggggh ... ly
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
The horror...the horror...
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Jan 25, 2008 7:42 PM PST up reply actions
At least the model looks like a nice guy!
by BruceBochte on Jan 25, 2008 8:15 PM PST up reply actions
actually ...
... and I speak as a longtime loather of black unis ... I kinda like it.
Ghostride The Volvo Part 2
The guys that brought you Ghostride the Volvo to keep the A's in Oakland are back again, with a new video making fun of San Francisco.
Check out the video:
Give Me Your Heart (In San Francisco)
underline test
Can i post underlined?
We'll see.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Jan 29, 2008 9:23 PM PST reply actions
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