Headstone Humor

This headstone epitaph is pretty funny. (Thanks to Radley Balko for this link.)

The Frothy Oceans

Check out this article and photos. Incredible.

Housing Bubble Explained

Economist George Reisman has written an excellent blog posting that explains in detail what led to the housing bubble, the subprime situation, the credit crunch, and so on. Long as far as blog postings go, but worth reading.

How about Foodcare?

In late June, George Reisman posted a great piece by Gen LaGreca about the proposals for so-called "universal healthcare". In it she paints a scary picture of what "Foodcare" would very likely be like. A very effective argument by analogy.

Curtis Granderson and Triples

Curtis Granderson of the Detroit Tigers is having an impressive season. He won't be the AL MVP, as he's not put up huge numbers like A-Rod or even as MVP-like as his Detroit teammate Magglio Ordonez. I think those two are the frontrunners for AL MVP, with I guess Vlad Guerrero of the Angels also getting some votes.

But nonetheless, Granderson is doing something quite historic. Last year was his first full season, and his numbers were solid: .260, 19 HR, 68 RBI, 31 D, 9 T, 90 Runs, and 8 SB. Some were likely disappointed with only 8 SB, and his 174 strikeouts were obviously a problem he needed to work on in 2007. Well, in 2007 through August 24, he is still striking out a lot (121 K), but the rest of his numbers are much improved: .289, 16 HR, 59 RBI, 95 R, 32 D, and 15 SB. Nice numbers, but nothing to write much about... until you see he has 21 triples already this year!

Some perspective on this is needed. In 2006 the league leaders in triples were Jose Reyes with 17 and Carl Crawford with 16. So Curtis is already well past those marks this year, with over a month to go. Going back further, Christian Guzman had 20 triples in 2000, and Lance Johnson had 21 in 1996. Willie Wilson had 21 in 1985, and George Brett had 20 in 1979. The great Willie Mays had 20 in 1957. But to top 21 you have to go back to Dale Mitchell of the Cleveland Indians who had 23 in 1949. He was a good hitter to be sure, playing seven full seasons, parts of four more, and ended up with a .312 career average. But that 1949 triples total was not typical of him, as he didn't top 10 triples in any other season. And 1949 wasn't some sort of freakish triples season, as no one else in either league had more than 13.

Going further back, we find that Snuffy Stirnweiss had 22 in 1945 for the Yankees. Stan Musial had 20 in 1943, Jeff Heath had 20 in 1941, and Joe Vosmick had 20 in 1935. Going back further than that, we find that triples were of course more prevalent. In fact, from 1920-1932, the league leader in both the AL and the NL had 18 or more, and the leaders often had over 20. However, other than Kiki Cuyler's 26 in 1925, no one had more than 23 in a season during that stretch. So that means that if Granderson can get to 24 triples this year, he'll have had the most since in a season since 82 years!

Of course, let's not get too excited. The all-time record for triples in a season seems quite safe. That would be the 36 that Chief Wilson had in 1912 for the Pirates. Like Mitchell described earlier, Wilson was a good hitter over his nine-year career. But that big triples outburst was out of character, as he never had more than 14 in any other season.

And just in time for this posting, I read on the SABR-L discussion list this evening the following from Cyril Morong about Curtis Granderson's season thus far:

He has 15 or more of 2Bs, 3Bs, HRs, SBs this year. Below is a list of all the players to ever do it. Crawford and Samuel each did it twice. Thanks to the Lee Sinins Complete Baseball Encyclopedia. I suppose he has a chance to get up to 20 in all 4. He has 16 HRs and 15 SBs right now. Schulte and Mays are the only ones to get 20 in all 4.

• Carl Crawford
• Juan Samuel
• Babe Herman
• Chuck Klein
• Harry Stovey
• Babe Ruth
• Hugh Duffy
• Jeff Heath
• Ryne Sandberg
• Kiki Cuyler
• Andy Van Slyke
• Ed Delahanty
• Willie Mays
• George Brett
• Sam Thompson
• Roger Connor
• Buck Freeman
• Carl Reynolds
• Lou Gehrig
• Wildfire Schulte
• Paul Waner
• Bob Meusel
• George Sisler
• Minnie Minoso
• Jose Reyes
• Lloyd Moseby
• Charlie Gehringer
• Goose Goslin

An impressive list. Lots of great names there, including many Hall-of-Famers and other stars. One thing that struck me was seeing Babe and Lou on this list, given the 15 SB aspect of it. But Ruth did it in his incredible 1921 season: .378, 44 D, 16 T, 59 HR, 17 SB, 177 R, 171 RBI. And Lou only topped 15 SB once, in 1931, when he hit .341 with 31 D, 15 T, 46 HR, 17 SB, 163 R, and 184 RBI.

And lastly, Granderson isn't the only hitter smashing triples this year, as Jimmy Rollins already has 15 in NL. Who is second to Curtis in the AL? Carl Crawford... with only 9, so Granderson has an impressive lead!

Revolutionary Guard Not the Real Problem

Here is an interesting posting, The Bush Administration's Latest Deadly Evasion, on the topic of labelling the Iranian Republican Guard as a terrorist organization. The author is critical of this, though not for reasons that others are. The analogy here to the Mafia hitmen and Navy of the Nazis, is one I hadn't heard elsewhere. And then here is a question from a reader and response from the author.

Problem with Windows Vista Networking with Windows XP

Like many folks, I recently bought a new laptop that has Windows Vista as the OS. I still have computers on my network that use Windows XP. I have a pretty standard SOHO network with a standard LinkSys router, so you'd think this wouldn't be all that tough to do. Well, it wasn't easy at all. I had all kinds of problems getting the Vista machine to even see the XP machines, even though I had done all the obvious stuff (e.g., in the same workgroup, same user id logins used, necessary protocols and so on installed and configured, firewalls tested to see if they were the problem, and more).

In the end, the solution was a buried setting in the registry that needed a tweak:

1. On your Vista machine: Start, Run, regedit
2. Navigate to the following folder: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
3. In the right, double-click "LmCompatibilityLevel"
4. Change the value to 1 (probably currently 3)
5. Restart your computer

That fixed it... as I was then able to share files between the computers, no problem. Hopefully this will help someone else out there with a similar problem!

Oh, and for info on what that setting is for, see here.

Outlook 2007 RSS Date Problem

I upgraded from Eudora to Outlook 2007 earlier this year, and for the most part I've been very happy with it. I use it for email of course, but also for tasks/to-do list information, contacts/address book, and also as my RSS reader for blogs and other feeds. It is this last area where I was having one problem with Outlook 2007, as any blog feeds that were from Blogger were listing all entries as having a date of 12/31/2006. The problem is that Outlook has problems supporting the Atom feed format, as opposed to say the RSS2 feed format.

Many other folks have the same problem of course, and it took a lot of research at discussion forums and so on to find a workaround that we can use -- until MSFT fixes this aspect of Outlook 2007.

Many people suggested appending ?alt=rss to the end of the URL of your atom feed, and that this would then produce an RSS2 feed that Outlook 2007 could work with properly. But that doesn't work. What you need to do is append that parameter to the end of the URL of the feed as it is stored at the Blogger.com site -- not at your blog's location. This is an address that looks something like this:

http://www.blogger.com/feeds/23832556/posts/default

That is the one for my blog, Philosopher Stone. Yours would be identical, except it would have a different number string there in the middle. How can you get this URL? One way is to look for it in the metadata at the beginning of your feed. If you are using IE7, you can do this by browsing your feed, right-clicking, and choosing View Source. Then look around for a URL just like above, except with different numbers. There you have it!

Use that in Outlook 2007, except append ?alt=rss to the end of it, like this:

http://www.blogger.com/feeds/23832556/posts/default?alt=rss

That should do it! Your date display problem will now be solved!

Medieval Church "Is Sex OK?" Chart

This is great stuff... check out this chart (click the image to see full chart) that answers the question "Is it ok to have sex now?" for those sad folks who lived in Christian Europe in the Medieval period. The chart is funny... but also... if ever there was a visual representation of the evil of such views on sex, this is it.

More Great Stuff From Stossel on Health Care

John Stossel has been on a roll lately in his writings on health care. He has been responding to Michael Moore's ridiculous "Sicko" movie, and in his latest column he explains several problems with some of the underlying rankings that Moore relies on. There are so many great bits here, I won't quote any of them... just go read his column!

The Death Star Conspiracy Theory

Along the lines of various other conspiracy theories out there, this one about the Death Star from the first Star Wars movie is hilarious. (Thanks to GeekPress for this.)

Impressive Sand Art

Here are some impressive examples of Sand Art. I wonder how long some of these took to build? (Thanks to GeekPress for this.)

Flowcharts for Science and Faith

Here are two good flowcharts showing a methodological difference between science and faith. Classic. (Thanks to GeekPress for this.)

Malaria as "population control"?

The latest column by Walter Williams, Deadly Environmentalists, includes a couple of quotes that I'm sure have been widely commented on around the blogosphere. But they are so striking, I thought I'd quote them in case readers haven't heard them. After noting some of the proven benefits of DDT, Williams writes:

Environmental extremists see DDT in a different light. Alexander King, co-founder of the Club of Rome, said, "In Guyana, within almost two years, it had almost eliminated malaria, but at the same time, the birth rate had doubled. So my chief quarrel with DDT in hindsight is that it greatly added to the population problem." Jeff Hoffman, environmental attorney, wrote on grist.org, "Malaria was actually a natural population control, and DDT has caused a massive population explosion in some places where it has eradicated malaria. More fundamentally, why should humans get priority over other forms of life? . . . I don't see any respect for mosquitos in these posts." Berlau's book cites many other examples of contempt for human life by environmentalists and how they've made politicians their useful idiots.

Ouch. Malaria as human population control? Respect for mosquitos? DDT use is bad because it added to the population problem? I don't have the context for these quotes, but based on Williams' use of them, I don't think these guys were joking when they made these statements.

80% Unemployment and 100,000% Inflation

No surprise, but the news out of Zimbabwe just keeps getting worse. The August 11 issue of The Economist has an article about the increasing number of people fleeing Zimbabwe for South Africa. There the unemployment rate is "only" 25-40%, which sounds awfully high until you learn that the rate in Zimbabwe is 80%. It also notes that, according to the IMF, the inflation rate is "heading for 100,000%". No wonder there are "severe shortages of meat, sugar, and cooking oil". This situation almost sounds like someone is trying to set records in Guinness or something.

Classic Humor, Part 15: New Meanings, New Words

Here is another in my series of classic humor bits from the Internet (here is Part 14), which I'm posting as I clean out my old Humor email box. This item dates back to 2001.

"The Washington Post recently published a contest for readers (some of whom may have been bookdealers!) in which they were asked to supply alternate meanings for various words. The following were some of the winning entries:

• Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
• Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
• Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent
• Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
• Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absent-mindedly answer the door in your nightie.
• Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
• Gargoyle (n.), an olive-flavored mouthwash.
• Coffee (n.), a person who is coughed upon.
• Flatulence (n.) the emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
• Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
• Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
• Semantics (n.), pranks conducted by young men studying for the priesthood, including such things as gluing the pages of the priest's prayer book together just before vespers.
• Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a proctologist immediately before he examines you.
• Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddish expressions.
• Circumvent (n.), the opening in the front of boxer shorts.
• Frisbatarianism (n.), The belief that, when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck there.

The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, sub-tracting or changing one letter and supply a new definition. Here are some recent winners:

• Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the reader who doesn't get it.
• Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
• Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very high.
• Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of obtaining sex.
• Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously.
• Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.
• Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these, really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like a serious bummer.
• Glibido: All talk and no action.
• Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
• Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a refund from the Taxation Office, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

And, best of all... Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid AND an a**hole."

Baseball Lists, Part 12: Pitching, Fielding, Running

Here is Part 12 in my series of baseball entries that note what I am finding interesting as I go through the newly released SABR book The SABR Baseball List & Record Book (available at Amazon). (Here is a link to Part 11 in this series.) This is the last in this series -- I've had a lot of fun doing it!

List 510 is "Pitching Triple Crown Winners (Leading league in Wins, ERA, and Strikeouts)". What pitcher has accomplished this the most often? Grover Alexander. He is the only person to do it in three consecutive seasons, which he did in 1915-1917 for Philadelphia in the NL. Then he did it for Chicago in the NL in 1920 as well. Two pitching greats won the triple crown three times: Walter Johnson and Sandy Koufax. Then there are a few others who have managed the feat twice: Christy Mathewson, Lefty Grove, Lefty Gomez, and Roger Clemens. As Johan Santana led the AL in 2006 with 19 wins, a 2.77 ERA, and 245 Ks, he could one day join this elite crowd.

List 516 is "20 Wins with a Last-place Team" and List 517 is "Highest Percentage of Teams Wins, since 1893". What jumps out at me on these two lists is the 1972 season of Steve Carlton. He won 27 games for the last place Phillies, which is second all-time on the first list. Then in the second list his season is the only one to make it (40% of higher) since 1922. His season is fifth on this list, at 45.8%, as he won 27 of the team's 59 wins.

List 530 is "Most Seasons with 20 Wins, 200 Strikeouts, and an ERA below 3.00". Tops on this list with seven seasons is no big surprise: Walter Johnson. Mildly interesting is that these seasons were consecutive, from 1910 to 1916. But next on the list with six such seasons is Juan Marichal. A great pitcher to be sure, but not who I would have guessed here. After Marichal, there are three pitchers who have done this feat five times. One is old-timer Tim Keefe, the other two all-time greats Christy Mathewson and Roger Clemens.

Lists 545-586 give all-time games, assists, putouts, and so on for each position. I thought I'd summarize an all-time team composed of those players who is best in fielding percentage (minimum 1000 games) by position:

• 1B: Travis Lee .997
• 2B: Ryne Sandberg, Tom Herr, Mickey Morandini .989
• 3B: Mike Lowell .977
• SS: Omar Vizquel .984
• OF: Darryl Hamilton .995, Darren Lewis .994, Terry Puhl .993, Brett Butler .993
• C: Dan Wilson .995
• P: Don Mossi .990, Gary Nolan .990

Similiarly, lists 588-639 give the best single-season games, assists, putouts, and so on for each position. Here is the lineup for best fielding percentage seasons (min. 125 games, 275 IP for pitcher):

• 1B: Steve Garvey 1.000 in 1984
• 2B: Bret Boone .997 in 1997
• 3B: Don Money .989 in 1974
• SS: Cal Ripken .996 in 1990
• OF: Those who have had 1.000 more than once are: Mickey Stanley in 1968 and 1970, Brian Downing in 1982 and 1984, Brett Butler in 1991 and 1993, and Darryl Hamilton in 1996 and 1999.
• C: Mike Matheny 1.000 in 2003
• P: Walter Johnson had 1.000 four times: 1913, 1917, 1922, 1924

And then for the worst single-season fielding percentages (since 1946 only):

• 1B: Dick Stuart .979 in 1963
• 2B: Luis Alicea .957 in 1996
• 3B: Butch Hobson .899 in 1978
• SS: Jose Offerman .935 in 1992
• OF: Alex Johnson .927 in 1969, Lou Brock .936 in 1966, Lonnie Smith .941 in 1983
• C: Thurman Munson .972 in 1975
• P: no list given

List 640 is "Most Career Stolen Bases". I think Rickey Henderson's mark of 1406, way out of front of second place Lou Brock at 938, is one of the safer records in the game. The active leader is Kenny Lofton. Through 2006 he had 599, and so far this year he has stolen another 21, which ties him with Otis Nixon for 15th place all-time. But no active player under 40 has more than 375 steals, so I think Rickey's record is quite safe. Also worth noting from this list is Barry Bonds's appearance with 514 and in 32nd place. I hadn't realized that he is the lone member of the 500-500 club (HR/SB). And even without steroids he would surely have hit 500 HR, so that seems a legit accomplishment.

List 641 is "Highest Career Stolen Base Percentage (Min. 100 Steals)". When I was growing up some players that I new had very high stolen base percentages were Willie Wilson, Davey Lopes, and Julio Cruz. And sure enough, they appear on this list with 83.3%, 83.0%, and 81.5%, respectively. But currently the all-time best is Carlos Beltran at 87.6%.

List 649 is "Highest Stolen Base Percentage in a Season , since 1951 (min. 20 SB)". Only two have had perfect seasons in this regard. Kevin McReynolds with 21 SB in 1988 and Paul Molitor with 20 SB in 1994. I've always heard commentators say what smart baserunner Molitor was -- this kind of season is what they are talking about.

List 702 is "Players who Played in at least 10 Seasons for Two Different Teams". There are three such players, and this makes a great trivia question. I'll give you the answers at the end of this posting.

List 703 is "Most Years Spent with One Franchise". There are 24 players who spent 20 or more years with one team (not necessarily their entire careers). Of these 24, 21 are hall-of-famers. Can you name the three that are not? Again, I'll give the answers at the end of this posting.

Lists 708-715 are of the form "Most Years Together for X Teammates". For two teammates, the most is 19 by Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker from 1977-1995. Next at 18 seasons are Fred Clarke/Honus Wagner, Joe Judge/Sam Rice, and George Brett/Frank White. For three teammates, there is a three way tie at 15 seasons. First there is Ganter/Molitor/Yount of the Brewers from 1978-1992, then interestingly the other two groups are from the Royals: Brett/McRae/White from 1973-1987 and Brett/White/Wilson from 1976-1990. For four teammates there are two cases of 13 seasons: Fred Clarke/Tommy Leach/Deacon Phillippe/Honus Wagner from 1899-1911, and Gates Brown/Bill Freehan/Willie Horton/Mickey Lolich from 1963-1975. This core group of Tigers makes up the record-setting groups for most years together for five, six, seven, eight, and nine teammates as well.

So... for list 702, the answers are Eddie Collins with the Athletics and White Sox, Charlie Hough with the Dodgers and Rangers, and Carlton Fisk with the Red Sox and White Sox.

And for list 703 the answers are Alan Trammell with 20 seasons for the Tigers, Mel Harder with 20 seasons for the Indians, and Phil Cavarretta with 20 seasons for the Cubs.

Now at 500

Here is a non-entry to mark my 500th blog posting. According to my blogger dashboard count, this is posting #500 to Philosopher Stone. As I started on March 13th, 2006, that is almost exactly 18 months that I've been blogging now. I continue to enjoy it very much, so hopefully I'll reach my 1,000th blog posting in another 18 months, if not sooner.

Archaeologist Takes on Bible-History Pseudo-Scientists

I don't know anything about archaeologist Eric Cline, but I heard this 10-minute CHE audio clip tonight about his book From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible. While I'm not particularly interested in the subject of biblical history, I did find this audio clip interesting and I am intrigued by his book. He is taking on what he considers to be a wave of "junk science" that is taking over Bible Studies programs.

The Saga of Pecker McNugget

This is almost too funny to believe. If I didn't know it were true, I wouldn't believe it -- or I'd think it was something from The Onion or a similar site. But my friend and work colleague Tim Fressie has had a bit of an issue with some town officials regarding a rooster on his property. Hearing Tim tell the tale is far funnier than this local newspaper story, but this story is still a worthwhile read. I particularly like how the reporter finds ample opportunity to mention the name of the rooster, Pecker McNugget.

Hillsdale Says No Thanks to State Aid

A few weeks ago I wrote about Hillsdale College, the school that refuses federal aid on principle. Now, as the CHE reports (see also the news item from Hillsdale itself), they are going to cease taking state aid as well. It doesn't seem like their students were using a lot of it anyway, nor was the state of Michigan interfering with the college. But the important point here is one of principle, so again I congratulate Hillsdale for taking this stand.

120-Man Row Boats

My friend and colleague Basia, who continues her superb blogging from Chennai, India, has reported on an incredible boat race. Would you believe row boats with 120 men? Take a look at her amazing photos!

Teaching Company Plugged at CHE

I was mostly pleased to read "What I've Learned From Recorded Lectures" by Thomas H. Benton in the August 10 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. While he notes that there are many providers of recorded lectures, he notes that the biggest such company is The Teaching Company. I really like this company's products (we have over a dozen of their courses on CD), though some are better than others of course.

It seems that Benton generally has benefited from Teaching Company courses as well, so I was pleased to see this mostly positive plug for them. He mentions a few "gripes", but I really find these to be either minor or not well-informed. First, he complains about the introductory music for each -- but that goes by so fast, is it really an annoyance worth mentioning? He complains that he has heard "canned applause", but I've never heard any of this, so I wonder about that: I think some of the lectures are taped in front of an actual class, so perhaps that is what he is hearing? Or perhaps there is some canned applause for some lectures, and I just haven't heard those ones -- there are hundreds of courses to choose from, one of the great things about their catalog!

He also complains about their pricing, where courses are highly priced for most of the year, but then go on sale a few times a year at greatly discounted prices. But The Teaching Company is quite clear about why this is -- they mass produce each course a few times a year, and when they do they get a significant volume discount on production. They don't hide this fact, but rather are quite upfront about it and encourage customers to watch for sales on anything they are interested in but don't have to have immediately. I've never bought any of their products at full price, as I always wait for the sales -- and every product in their catalog goes on sale at least once a year. And, as Benton notes, you can always try the secondary market, like eBay, where I've gotten some recorded courses as well (not Teaching Company ones, though many of these are constantly available on eBay).

But my biggest complaint about Benton's piece is that while he asks some good questions, and encourages the reader to think of these lectures in a positive way, he also at some points seems apologetic for having used recorded lectures to help him learn, prepare courses, and so on. For instance, he rightly asks why recording lectures for commercial sale isn't something that is well-respected in academia. But then he also writes "There is something a little shameful, perhaps, about a professor using a commercial product to develop course material." But there is nothing shameful in this at all! You don't need to apologize for using such materials! If they are valuable materials -- accurate, well-done, scholarly, and so on -- then why not? Those who should be ashamed are any academics who persist in having anti-commercial attitudes to the use of such products, whether for learning, to aid in course prep, or whatever.

Baseball Lists, Part 11: More Pitching, Including Roger Nelson

Here is Part 11 in my series of baseball entries that note what I am finding interesting as I go through the newly released SABR book The SABR Baseball List & Record Book (available at Amazon). (Here is a link to Part 10 in this series.)

List #439 is "Lowest Career Batting Average By Opponents (min. 1,500 IP)". Some of the top names on this list would be obvious guesses: Nolan Ryan (.204), Sandy Koufax (.205), and Pedro Martinez (.209). But then tied with Pedro at .209 is Sid Fernandez -- I forgot how good he was. Next is another surprise to me: Andy Messersmith with .212. J.R. Richard is tied with him and is no surprise to me, as he was dominating. Sam McDowell was dominating too, and comes in seventh on this list at .215. Hoyt Wilhelm is next at .216, and then the overpowering Randy Johnson at .217. Rounding out the top-10 is old-timer Ed Walsh at .218. What about Walter Johnson? He comes in 22nd with a .227 mark. Between Walsh and Johnson are such surprises as Mario Soto .220, Bob Turley .220, Orval Overall .223, Jeff Tesreau .223, and incredibly, Jose DeLeon .224. These guys all rate higher in this regard than not only Johnson, but also the likes of dominating hurlers like Seaver .226, Gibson .228, Gossage .228, Clemens .228, and Feller .231.

List #440 is the similar "Lowest Career On-base Percentage by Opponents (min. 1,500 IP)". This one shows the great numbers of Pedro Martinez, as he is the only recent pitcher in the top 15. His .270 mark compares favorably to Sandy Koufax with .275 and Juan Marichal at .277.

List #499 is "Fewest Walks per 9 Innings in a Season, since 1893 (min. 1.0 IP per scheduled game)". Did you know a record was set in 2005? That's right, Carlos Silva allowed only 0.43 walks per nine innings that year, shattering the old mark of 0.62 held by Christ Mathewson in 1913 and Babe Adams in 1920. Granted not as big of a story as Bonds breaking Aaron's lifetime HR record, but a record nonetheless.

List #500 is the similar "Most Strikeouts per 9 Innings in a Season, since 1893 (min. 1.0 IP per scheduled game)". As you'd expect, certain names dominate this list. But what I found striking was just how much Randy Johnson dominates the list. He has 6 of the top 8 seasons on this list. He is tops with 13.41 in 2001, and then has spots 4-8 as well. Second place is Pedro Martinez's 13.20 in 1999, and third is Kerry Wood's 12.58 in 1998. But that isn't all: this list shows the top 37 seasons, and Johnson has 11 of them. Nolan Ryan has seven seasons in the list, and Pedro and Curt Schilling are next with 4 seasons each.

List #504 is "Fewest Base Runners Allowed per 9 Innings in a Season, since 1893 (min. 1.0 IP per scheduled game)". Pedro Martinez's 2000 season tops the list with a 7.22 mark. Next is Walter Johnson's 1913 season at 7.26, and then Addie Joss' 1908 season at 7.31. In fact, in the top 30 there are only two seasons from the past 30 years: Pedro's 2000 season adn Greg Maddux's 1995 season which ranks 6th at 7.47. The entire list shown has the top 42, and all the pitchers are guys I'd heard of (and most are big-name stars and hall-of-famers). But one stood out as odd: Roger Nelson who in 1972 posted a 7.89 mark for Kansas City. So I looked him up: He pitched for several teams from 1967-1976, but only twice pitched 100+ innings. One of those seasons was 1972, when he started 19 games, pitched in another 15 in relief, pitched 173.3 innings, had 10 complete games including 6 shutouts, posted an 11-6 record with a 2.08 ERA, and allowed only 120 hits and 31 walks. An impressive season, in a less-than impressive career.

A Possible Future: Prescription Drug Disaster

I recently blogged about how generic drug prices are soaring in Canada.

The flip-side of this is that brand-name drugs are of course cheaper in other countries like Canada. Here is a great ARI item that explains why that is. The crucial question is "Why?" and the answer is price controls in such countries. But the only reason this doesn't cripple the R&D efforts of drug companies -- and hence their ability to create new, life-improving and life-saving drugs -- is that people in countries like Canada free-ride on the prices paid by Americans. Creating drugs is extremely expensive: not only is the R&D rightly expensive and time-consuming, but it is made much worse because of the onerous regulation of the FDA and other government bodies. Other major costs include advertising/marketing to get the word out about new or improved drugs to doctors and patients.

This ARI item gives voice to a pro-consumer argument that you will hear almost nowhere else, as it ends as follows:

It is only because the American market is free from price controls that drug companies are able to recoup their enormous R&D costs, and thus find it profitable to sell additional units of the drugs at a lower cost in other, price-controlled countries. Should America impose price controls either directly or by proxy, the house of cards will collapse. We should protect the rights of pharmaceutical companies--and the welfare of consumers--and demand an end to price controls, direct and indirect.

The FDA Ranges from Annoying to Deadly

My local Rochester paper yesterday ran a brief AP story titled "FDA Checks 2 Popular Heartburn Drugs". Here is a link to a slightly longer version of the same article at the LA Times, and here is the item on this from the FDA website. The story is that some new data might indicate a connection between using two AstraZeneca heartburn drugs (Nexium and Prilosec) might increase serious heart-related problems. The new data doesn't seem to add up to much, as the FDA's position is "At this time, FDA's preliminary conclusion is that collectively these data do not suggest an increased risk of heart problems," and also "Therefore, FDA does not believe that healthcare providers or patients should change either their prescribing practices or their use of these products at this time."

So such downplaying makes me wonder a bit why this is a story worthy of being in the newspaper. But then you have to wait till the end of the article for this:

A higher number of patients taking either one of the drugs suffered heart attacks, heart failure or sudden heart-related death, the FDA said. But the studies involved only a few hundred patients, a relatively small number, and larger research studies showed no indication of heart problems.

So why is this news? Sounds like at best it is some counter-evidence to larger studies that indicate no such cause-and-effect problems for heart-attack, etc. for these drugs.

While that was the last paragraph in the article in my Rochester paper, the LA times version adds this final paragraph:

In the study involving Prilosec, 17 patients taking the medication had serious heart problems, compared with eight in the group that had surgery, AstraZeneca said. However, the Prilosec patients appeared to have been in poorer health to begin with. Six of the Prilosec patients had had previous heart attacks, compared with none in the group that had surgery.

Well, that makes it even worse! So the studies in question are not only smaller than the others, but they seem to have rather important problems with how they were conducted, factors that weren't ruled out, and so on.

All of that is bad enough -- a seeming waste of our taxpayer money chasing down unlikely side-effects based on small, poorly conducted studies. But that is merely annoying compared with the truly deadly effects of the FDA's and other federal regulations on drugs and health care. First, see my recent post about two articles from the Economist that explains the often hidden costs of such regulation. Then see the recent ARI press release, The Deadly FDA, which really puts a sting into the FDA. It begins:

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently ruled that terminally ill patients do not have a right to take medicines that have not been approved by the FDA.

"Barring individuals from choosing what medicines to take is immoral and destructive," said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute.

"The decision about what drugs to put in one's body rightfully belongs to each individual, not to FDA bureaucrats. To deny individuals this right is to impose a death sentence on those who, in the face of certain death, would rationally choose to accept the risks of an experimental treatment, but are barred from doing so until the urgently needed drug completes the FDA's onerous, years-long approval process. Indeed, this case was initiated by a group founded by the father of a girl who died after she was denied access to an experimental anti-cancer drug the FDA later approved.

"Individuals, in consultation with their doctors, should be free to assess the evidence of a drug's effectiveness and safety, taking into account their own personal context (such as their unique risk factors, or the fact that they are certain to die without the treatment). Some people may take ineffective or harmful drugs, but FDA approval does not eliminate such risks. The individual always assumes some level of risk when deciding on a course of treatment, and it is capricious--and too often deadly--for the FDA to usurp the individual's right to decide which risks it is in his interest to accept.

The rest of the press release is just as damning of the FDA as the above, and also gives brief responses to objections to this kind of view of drug regulation.

Social Bookmarking Explained

I've never started up with del.icio.us or any of the other popular "social bookmarking" sites that have become so popular in recent years. I've always thought that could be useful for me, but I've never taken the plunge. If you aren't clear on what this is about, I found this YouTube video to be quite good at explaining the basics.

My Top 10 Work and Learning Tools

I recently blogged about the top-100 tools listing that has resulted from a poll conducted by the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies. The results are still growing, as the Centre approaches its goal of gathering results from 100 "learning professionals - consultants, analysts, developers, practitioners, academics".

After posting that blog entry, Jane Hart -- head of the Centre -- posted a comment and invited me to submit my own top-10 for inclusion in this list. Since I was already thinking about what my top-10 would be, it was easy for me to type up my annotated list and send it along, and she has kindly now included it in the results. You can see me in the list of folks included here (I'm #95). And then my Top-10 list, with my reasons for each, is given here. As I noted in my earlier post, the question is quite broad and includes tools important to me for "personal work" and for "learning". The current top-100 list is here, and you can also see the results grouped by type here.

George Bush Takes on the Zombies

This YouTube video is well done and quite funny. It looks like all the Bush clips were from the same press conference, making it all the more effective.

From Relative Bread Basket to Basket Case

Each time I read about the declining situation in Zimbabwe, I post a blog entry about it. And each time I think that it can't get much worse. And then I read how it has gotten worse a few weeks later. I need to stop being amazed at this.

The latest I've read is from the July 14th issue of The Economist, "How to stay alive when it all runs out" (which I only got around to reading tonight). There are some amazing items in this brief article. Oops, there I go again, being amazed by the economic numbers and dismal reports.

If anyone ever creates a Hall of Government Shame, Dictator Robert Mugabe could easily be a unanimous selection in the first round of inductees! The sad thing is, unless someone with near perfect economic policies becomes the next leader of Zimbabwe, it will take quite a long time to recover -- even after a radical shakeup in leadership occurs. And to think that at one time Zimbabwe was referred to as the "breadbasket of Africa". As I've said before, it is now the "basket case of Africa."

Sowell on Neglected Infrastructure

Thomas Sowell has written a good column, A Bridge Too Far Gone, on some of the neglected infrastructure in the US. This is of course written in the wake of the bridge collapse in Minnesota, and the inevitable questions about similar bridges and other infrastructure issues around the country.

Some people claim that the problem is how much money it would take to properly maintain bridges, highways, dams and other infrastructure. But money is found for other things, including things far less urgent and some things that are even counterproductive.

The real problem is that the political incentives are to spend the taxpayers' money on things that will enhance politicians' chances of getting re-elected.

There may be enough money available to maintain bridges and other infrastructure but that same money can have a bigger political pay-off if spent building something new instead of maintaining and repairing existing structures.

When money is spent building a new community center, a golf course, or anything that will be newsworthy, there will be ribbon-cutting ceremonies and the politicians who cut the ribbons can expect to see their pictures in the newspapers and on TV.

All that keeps their name before the public in a positive role and therefore enhances their prospects of being re-elected.

But there are no ribbon-cutting ceremonies when bridges are being repaired or pot-holes are being filled in. These latter activities may be more valuable than a community center or a golf course, but they are not nearly a photogenic.

He then goes on to note that this incentive problem has existed for centuries, and that the situation will not improve until incentives are changed. He then makes a brief case for doing exactly that -- by privatizing bridges and other aspects of our infrastructure.

A company that has to get the money to build and maintain bridges or other infrastructure through the voluntary actions of people in the financial markets, instead of being able to extract money from the taxpayers, is going to find financiers a lot more finicky about what is being done with their money.

People who are putting their own money on the line are going to want to have their own experts taking a look under the bridges they finance, to see where there are rust, cracks or crumbling supports.

When people know that the lawsuits that are sure to follow after a bridge collapses are going to drain millions of dollars of their own money — not the taxpayers' money — that keeps the mind focussed.

Government as a Cause of Subprime Follies

Thomas Sowell has written a column, Sub-Prime Politicians, that describes the mutliple ways that bad government policies are causes of the subprime mortgage mess. Government restrictions on building in certain times and places have been shown to be a major factor, as has the more obvious and direct government interference of pressuring lenders to give loans to people with risky credit to encourage more home ownership. He concludes his column as follows:

Yet with all the finger-pointing in the media and in government, seldom is a finger pointed at the politicians at local, state and national levels who have played a key role in setting up the conditions that led to financial disasters for individual home buyers and for those who lent to them.

While financial markets are painfully adjusting and both lenders and borrowers are becoming less likely to take on so much risky "creative" financing in the future, politicians show no sign of changing.

Why should they, when they have largely escaped blame for the disasters that their policies fostered?

Wikipedia Nears Two Million English Entries

Here is a brief blurb from CHE, with an interesting quote from Jimbo Wales, about Wikipedia nearing the two-million mark for English-language entries.

Kittens and Puppies Fighting Spam

Computerworld had an interesting article about Microsoft's use of photos of kittens and puppies to fight email spam: "Kittens could sink their wee teeth into spam deluge." This use of technology is evolutionary not revolutionary, but I liked the added benefit of their use of PetFinder.com, thereby promoting pet adoptions as a side benefit.

Top 100 "Learning Tools"

I recently learned from a few different sources of an interesting poll being conducted by the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies. This is what they did recently: "In July we asked e-learning professionals - consultants, analysts, developers, practitioners, academics, etc - to let us know what their 10 favourite tools were for their own personal working and learning or for creating and delivering learning solutions."

So given that very broad poll question... first see the current top-100 results.

Then here is the list of folks whose votes are in so far -- which would be important to consider since this is both a small population of respondents and also a broad question to be asked, so there could easily be institution-bias, e.g., if many are from academia or government or business, or a greater number who do a particular type of work (word-heavy, graphic-heavy, etc.).

Then to see the same results organized by type -- which is also useful and interesting -- see the so-called "Learning Toolbox".

As they note: "This collection is proving to be a popular resource to find out about the wide range of tools that can be used in a learning context, and is demonstrating that e-learning is much much more than online courses."

A few comments of my own (about the top-100):

1. The top 15 are not what I would consider "learning specific" tools. They are all broader than that ("personal work" tools, and so on). Some are Web 2.0 tools, some are standards like Word and PPT.
2. At #16 we have Moodle, which is a Course Management System -- an open source solution. So that is the highest ranking purely "lear