Tag: Sunday Sampler

Sunday Sampler

I’m surprised that this is only the second post with this title.

 

I want to begin with an uplifting story from the world of sports, which is written at length here. Here is the beginning of this piece:

 

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“You saved his life.”

Those were not the words Mike Pereira expected to hear as he strode out onto the playing field of the Rochester (New York) Redwings minor league ballpark during the summer of 2019. The man who once officiated an NFL postseason game and has spent the last decade-plus on national television as a rules analyst, he was unexpectedly nervous, worried about doinking the ceremonial first pitch he was about to throw in front of 10,000 fans.

But en route to the mound, a woman had tugged on his shirttail and pointed to the man walking up ahead of them, speaking as tears pooled in her eyes.

Pereira was stunned. “I saved his life?”

“You saved his life,” she repeated. Her name was about to become Lisa Pilgreen, engaged to be married to the man she was referring to, Jamaison Pilgreen. He was recently retired after 18 years of service in the United States Army, during which he did six tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, added to the action he saw in Bosnia before the ink was barely dry on his enlistment paperwork.

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The piece is about a program started by Pereira called Battlefields to Ballfields where veterans who are interested in doing so learn about the mechanics of being a referee. Through sports officiating, veterans find purpose and camaraderie missing after they leave military service.

To me, the outcomes of sporting events don’t really matter that much in the grand scheme of things. HOWEVER, lessons learned being involved in sports, such as the power of teamwork, are often learned better there than anywhere else. That’s why I have no interest in the individual sports like golf, tennis and boxing.

The ESPN piece is long, but I think it’s well worth reading. What I miss most about not being in professional sports anymore is the sense of belonging to a team–in my case I belonged to more than one team as a consultant–and striving for a goal. Let me quickly add that I think such associations should be voluntary and not mandated by any entity including government. No one has the right to tell me with whom I should associate or where I have to work.

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Cryptocurrency is the new tulip bulb market, in my opinion. This CNBC piece is titled, “Between $1 billion and $2 billion of FTX customer funds have disappeared, SBF had a secret ‘black door’ to transfer billions.” FTX is a crypto “exchange” that has gone bankrupt. SBF is Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX.

I have written that I wouldn’t buy Bitcoin–or any other crypto “currency”–at $1 and I still feel that way. I think temporal arrogance, manifested here by the blind belief in crypto, is like all excessive paradigms; it’s a road to ruin.

 

This CNBC piece is about the results of a survey and reports on the top 10 most-regretted college majors. Here is the list along with the percentage of graduates who regretted that choice:

 

Journalism
Sociology
Liberal arts/general studies
Communications
Education
Marketing management + research
Medical/clinical assisting
Political science + government
Biology
English language + literature

 

As I have written more than once, WAY TOO MANY kids are going to college. Yes, a college degree will, on average, lead to higher career earnings. HOWEVER, this is not true of all majors. Kids with STEM degrees report much less regret about their choices AND have much higher earnings than someone with a Sociology or Liberal Arts/General Studies degree. Here is a remark by Sinem Buber, ZipRecruiter’s lead economist: “When we graduate, reality hits. When you are barely managing to pay your bills, your paycheck might become more important.”

 

I had more topics about which I wanted to write today, but I’ll stop here.

 

#SundaySampler

#BattlefieldsToBallfields

#CryptoIsAScam

#CollegeIsNOTForEveryone

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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1960 Ferrari 250 GT Coupé by Pinin Farina | Ferrari, Coupe, Sports cars

 

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Sunday Sampler

I am surprised this is the first post with this specific title.

 

Yesterday I wrote, “Now, watch them [Nebraska] be upset in their season debut; they are 10-12 point favorites.” Despite relieving head coach Scott Frost of the offensive playcalling, bringing in renowned offensive “mind” Mark Whipple from Pitt to install a new offense and call the plays, despite bringing in a total of four new coaches and bringing in a myriad of highly regarded players as transfers from other major college programs and junior colleges, it was the same old Huskers yesterday, blowing two 11-point leads and losing to Northwestern 31-28 in Dublin, Ireland.

The team continued to self-destruct with turnovers and penalties (the ill-advised and unsuccessful onside kick while ahead 28-17 in the third quarter didn’t help, either), but the big constant through the Scott Frost era has been the inability of the defense to make stops in crunch time. That can be laid at the feet of Frost’s personal defensive coordinator, Erik Chinander, who has been Nebraska’s DC as long as Frost has been the head coach. He is in over his head in the Big Ten.

Don’t be surprised if they’re both fired sometime after October 1 as it is my understanding that the buyout in Frost’s contract drops from $15 million to $7.5 million after that date. The sad thing about Nebraska’s many years of mediocrity is that the program still has a huge nationwide following.

 

 

Note that Nebraska is #12 with an average 2.29 million weekly viewers, ahead of storied programs like Texas (which, I grant, has also fallen on difficult times that are self-inflicted), Florida and LSU, which won the national championship just three years ago. In terms of revenue from football, Nebraska still ranks among the top 20 nationally. If Iowa and Wisconsin can have consistently successful teams, Nebraska should be able to do so as well. (This ESPN article is particularly informative, if written from a slightly different perspective.)

In case you’re wondering how/why the Big Ten just agreed to a national TV deal with multiple networks for many billions of dollars, take a look at the top of this chart. Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State are 1-2-4 in terms of average viewers.

OK, that’s probably too much football talk for most of my readers. Sometimes the axiom that the more things change, the more they stay the same is appropriate. Fire Scott Frost!

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Here are links to many posts from Why Evolution Is True; the world continues to go more off the rails every day.

 

Nature: Manuscripts that are ideologically impure and “harmful” will be rejected

Why Rushdie was stabbed: an absorbing video by the Ex-Muslims of North America

Heterodox essay claims that overpolicing for sexual harassment reduces scientific collaboration for women

Another dismissal of biological facts that go against ideology: The NYT claims that “maternal instinct” is a misogynistic myth

 

I believe in science OVER ideology, but they have become intertwined to a frightening degree. Here is something written by Matt Yglesias:

 

“Why spend your day in nasty fights on Twitter when you could be doing science? Then if you secure your impression of what “the scientists” think about something from scanning Twitter, you will perceive a consensus that is not really there. If something is a 70-30 issue but the 30 are keeping their heads down, it can look like a 98-2 issue.”

 

Science is an endeavor of human beings. All human beings are flawed and all endeavors of human beings are flawed. Sometimes, the view held by what seems to be a small minority proves to be right in the long run.

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Apropos of the Alaska cruise that my wonderful wife and her father are currently enjoying, I will note that on this day in 1942 the Alaska Highway was completed. It was originally built by the US Army Corps of Engineers as a supply route during World War II.

Officially, construction began in March of 1942. No project of this magnitude (1,700 miles in length at completion) could be completed today anywhere near that quickly.

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Speaking of 1942 and automobiles, as most people reading this know all civilian automobile production in the US was shut down by early February. As some of you may know, I have an affinity for one car manufactured in model year 1942.

 

See the source image

 

With the hidden headlights and distinctive, but not excessive (in my opinion), front grill the ’42 DeSoto has one of the greatest faces of any automobile ever, again, in my opinion. If I ever have the resources, and that includes a place to store 4-6 cars, I would try to acquire one of these as the basis for a restomod project. (Right now, I’d settle for a swift resolution to the Z06 situation.)

 

Once again, I want to thank those readers who are either new to Disaffected Musings or who have returned to read as the number of daily views and visitors remains much stronger in recent days than it was for the period from February 1 through August 15. Yes, I remain grateful to those of you who have read the blog regularly through thick and thin. Please tell your friends, please feel free to post thoughtful comments and please feel free to click on any ad in which you have genuine interest. Many thanks.

 

#SundaySampler

#AnotherHuskerFail

#ScienceIsNotDogma

#1942DeSoto

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

If you like this blog please tell your friends and share the blog URL (https://disaffectedmusings.com). Thanks.