LifeHacker: Books that Changed Your Lives

Over at LifeHacker (a really cool site, btw, that promotes improving personal productivity and "getting things done"), they did a poll: Books that Changed Your Lives. The results are in, and first place not surprising goes to the Bible, with 25 votes. But also not surprisingly -- at least not to me -- is Ayn Rand novels coming in second with a total of 23 votes (The Fountainhead 11, Atlas Shrugged 8, and Anthem 4).

This is not surprising for a few reasons. For one, her works are very influential and are often discovered by people in the late teens or during college, when many people are looking for things to "change their life". Also, this kind of poll result is quite common in America: The Bible comes in first place, and Rand's works come in second or in the top five somewhere. This famously happened in the early 1990s for instance, in a Library of Congress survey.

Those that really know me know that Rand's works would get my vote for such a poll question, so I'm pleased whenever I see her books rank highly like this.

Half-way through the 2008 Season

Right about now is the half-way point for the 2008 MLB season. Most teams have played around 81 games, so to determine a player's statistical pace for the year it is a simple "times two" calculation.

Here are my thoughts on some players so far.

Disappointing first half:

• David Ortiz -- .252, 13 HR, 43 RBI
• Carlos Pena -- .223, 11 HR, 36 RBI
• Robinson Cano -- .244, 6 HR, 33 RBI
• Vernon Wells -- .286, 8 HR, 36 RBI
• Alex Rios -- .281, 4 HR, 29 RBI (does have 16 SB)
• Paul Konerko -- .215, 8 HR, 30 RBI
• Delmon Young -- .282, 1 HR, 26 RBI (does have 9 SB)
• Miguel Cabrera -- .279, 11 HR, 47 RBI
• Gary Sheffield -- .224 5 HR, 16 RBI in only 156 AB
• Travis Hafner -- .217, 4 HR, 22 RBI in only 157 AB
• Victor Martinez -- .278, 0 HR, 21 RBI
• Kenji Johjima -- .233, 3 HR, 20 RBI
• Richie Sexson -- .220, 9 HR, 26 RBI
• Jimmy Rollins -- .264, 6 HR, 28 RBI (does have 17 SB)
• Ryan Zimmerman -- .257, 8 HR, 27 RBI
• Rickie Weeks -- .217, 7 HR, 22 RBI (does have 11 SB, 47 runs)
• Adam LaRoche -- .220, 7 HR, 31 RBI
• Ken Griffey -- .234, 9 HR, 34 RBI
• Eric Byrnes -- .205, 6 HR, 23 RBI (and only 4 SB)
• Andruw Jones -- .165, 2 HR, 7 RBI in only 133 AB
• Todd Helton -- .267, 7 HR, 28 RBI
• Khalil Greene -- .229, 8 HR, 31 RBI
• Justin Verlander -- 4-9, 4.42 ERA (improving recently)
• Jason Isringhausen -- 11 saves, 5.74 ERA
• Ian Snell -- 3-7, 5.99 ERA
• Roy Oswalt -- 6-8, 4.77 ERA
• Aaron Harang -- 3-10, 4.51 ERA (pitching better than his record indicates)
• Brad Penny -- 5-9, 5.88 ERA
• Barry Zito -- 3-11, 5.91 ERA (the definition of disappointment, given his mammoth contract)

Working on breakout seasons:

• Carlos Quentin -- .289, 18 HR, 60 RBI. He had been a prospect for a few years, but it wasn't clear if he was going to come through.
• Evan Longoria -- .271, 15 HR, 47 RBI (rookie, started season in AAA)
• Joakim Soria -- 21 Saves, 1.29 ERA. He had a fine rookie season, pitching in 62 games and getting 17 saves with a 2.48 ERA. But this year he has picked it up a notch.
• Rich Harden -- although injured a bit (per usual), he is 5-0 with a 2.15 ERA, and 83 K in 67 IP. If he can stay healthy for all of the second half (a big if), then this could be his best season yet.
• Justin Duchscherer -- 8-5, 1.91 ERA. After many years in the pen, he seems to be blossoming at age 30.
• Ian Kinsler -- .318, 13 HR, 50 RBI, 70 Runs, 25 doubles, 20 SB. Multiply by two and this is a great season!
• Josh Hamilton -- .309, 19 HR, 78 RBI. What a story this guy is!
• Jair Jurrjens -- 8-3 with a 2.94 ERA. A nice pickup by Atlanta from Detroit.
• Geovany Soto -- .280, 13 HR, 47 RBI are great for a catcher. This is his first full season, and he's only 25.
• Ryan Ludwick -- .286, 16 HR, 56 RBI. He did hit 14 HR last year in 303 at-bats, but few would have predicted this first half for him at age 29.
• Ben Sheets -- 9-1 and a 2.59 ERA. Seems like every year people predict he'll breakout -- it is finally happening for him at age 29.
• Nate McLouth -- .283, 14 HR, 51 RBI, 59 runs, 26 doubles, 9 SB. With Nady having a good year, and Bay a comeback of the year candidate, this OF trio gives the Pirates something to be cheer for.
• Edinson Volquez -- 10-3, 2.08 ERA, with 110 K in 99.3 IP. He hadn't shown much in brief stints for three years in Texas, but at age 24 he is showing us something!
• Tim Lincecum -- 9-1, 2.38 ERA. At age 24 and in his second season, he has stud written all over him.

Some other surprises so far this year:

• Troy Percival's comeback at age 39. He has 18 saves and a 3.08 ERA, after 8 saves in 2005, not playing in 2006, and 0 saves in 40 IP in 2007.
• Mariano Rivera's return to dominance at age 38. He has 22 saves and a microscopic 0.74 ERA. At this rate, he is on pace to have his best statistical season ever -- and that is saying a lot!
• Mike Mussina having a solid season at age 39. He is 10-5 with a 3.93 ERA. He's never won 20 games, but is on pace to barely do so this year (likely won't).
• Cliff Lee going 11-1 with a 2.34 ERA, after going 5-8 with a 6.29 ERA last year. He was 18-5 in 2005, so no one would have said this was impossible, but I doubt many predicted it either.
• Ervin Santana is 9-3, 3.32 ERA. After going 16-8 in 2006, he went 7-14 with a 5.76 ERA last year.
• Joe Saunders is 11-4 with a 3.06 ERA. In his first two seasons he went 7-3 and 8-5.
• Milton Bradley -- .329, 16 HR, 49 RBI. If you can figure this guy out, you win a prize.
• Brad Lidge has 19 saves and a 0.84 ERA. He was a bit of question mark when the season began, given his inconsistencies the last two years.
• Chipper Jones is hitting an insane .394, and has 16 HR with 46 RBI. He did hit .337 with 29 HR and 102 RBI last year, and he usually hits over .300. But still... .394?

Some impressive paces:

• Francisco Rodriguez -- 31 saves and a 2.06 ERA. That is a pace for 62 saves, which would break Bobby Thigpen's record of 57.
• Chase Utley -- 23 HR and 65 RBI times two is 46 HR and 130 RBI -- quite a pace for a 2B.
• Dan Uggla -- 23 HR and 58 RBI times two is 46 HR and 116 RBI -- also not a bad pace for a 2B.
• Lance Berkman -- .366, 21 HR, 66 RBI, 27 doubles, 70 runs. A great pace, but he is a great hitter. What is surprising though is his 12 SB, which is already more than his previous career best of 9.
• Chipper Jones -- .394... can he stay close to .400? He has a chance if he takes days off now and then.
• Ryan Howard -- 113 strikeouts, on pace for 226, which would break the record that he set last year with 199.
• The following pitchers have 10 or more wins, and hence are on pace for 20-win seasons: Brandon Webb 12, Cliff Lee 11, Joe Saunders 11, Mike Mussina 10, Vincente Padilla 10, Aaron Cook 10, Edinson Volquez 10. Eight others have 9. We should end up with more 20-game winners than in some recent season.

It might be time to retire:

• Todd Jones -- 14 saves, 4.94. He is 40, and the Tigers desperately need to find a closer to replace him (injuries have slowed a few candidates).
• Tom Glavine -- 2-3 with a 4.85 ERA. 42 years old.
• Pedro Martinez -- 2-2 with a 7.12 ERA. At 36, he'll might give it another few seasons, but he is hurting his lifetime ERA at this rate!
• Randy Johnson -- 4-6, 4.94 ERA. Still strikes hitters out: 76 K in 82 IP. But at age 44, it looks like it will be tough to get 12 more wins to reach 300.
• Jeff Kent -- .251, 8 HR, 34 RBI. He is 40, and that .292 OBP isn't pretty.
• Omar Vizquel -- .161, 0 HR, 9 RBI, 2 SB, in only 118 at-bats. At age 41, I hope he calls it quits soon.

Bread and Butter? That will be 27 billion dollars, please

Each time I blog about Zimbabwe, I wonder how much it will get -- both the political crisis and the economic crisis. Check out the latest inflation numbers and prices in this article, Zimbabwe has shortage of food, abundance of zeros.

The price of a loaf of bread is $2 billion Zimbabwe dollars (or $15 billion on the black market) and 17.5 ounces of butter is $25 billion. A car battery, by the way, will run you 2.4 trillion dollars (which is about $240 US dollars). Other similar prices are listed in the article -- but amazing as these all sound, they all assume you can even find these goods available at all.

And yet... Brian Raftopolous, a South African-based economic researcher, notes "As bad as things are, it can get worse." I wonder what the next set of inflation and price numbers will look like?

Houses made of Bottles

My friend Basia has posted some impressive photos of a house in Canada made in part from glass bottles. I would not have imagined such a thing existed. Impressive enough from the outside, but then when you see that bottles still exist inside, protruding in from the walls... pretty strange!

Mashup of Star Trek and Monty Python

Here are two favorites of mine, Star Trek and Monty Python, in a series of mashups at YouTube. There might be more of these, but I found these three pretty good:

• Death of Spock
• Kirk vs. French Taunter
• Going to Camelot

Abbott and Costello do Computers

Here is a clever version of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?" routine in the context of a modern technology conversation (thanks to Diana for posting).