Named after me?

This place practically has my name on it:

radegasthall.com/

Random Word Stuff

Ever notice that "meteoric" and "mediocre" sound way to similar. Imagine if someone were to give a speech about your career and they chose one of these words but accidently said the other. You really couldn't blame it on a Freudian slip, so you couldn't really accuse the speaker of hiding their true feelings - but it would still be on the record, then there would be retractions and corrections & clarifications. It would end up being very complicated (and inconvenient)...

Why is it that "speech" has 'ee', but "speaker" has 'ea' when they share a common root. Or do they......

New Helm

Thanks to Einar I have some pics of my new helm in my photo section. The metalwork is awesome (www.knotwolf.com) and I'm really happy with the final fit. The chin strap mount worked out better that I could have guessed, and the ventilation is a huge improvement over my old helm. The weight is pretty comparable to my old helm and it was hard to improve on visibility, but I'm much happier with the look of this one.

News that's not news:

On Easter Sunday, 2006, The Plain Dealer (Ohio's largest newspaper) placed the linked article on the front page:
www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf

What's most interesting is not that this non-news story was published, but that is was on the front page. Why do I call it non-news? Simple - the story doesn't tell you what happened - it tells you what the media MADE happen. A story that told you what happened would tell you who pays how much in taxes are paid by which income levels. Instead the article relates the opinions of those who were polled. These opinions aren't based on any facts - the polls either didn't ask why the respondents believed what they do or the results tended to discredit the polsters' intended result so they left these responses out.
If The Plain Dealer actually wanted to publish something resembling news, they would have gone to the IRS to compare what people think vs. what are the facts. Even better, they could have just published the facts, and left the opinions to the Op-Ed page. This factual data is available here:
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/03in05tr.xls

For your convenience, the data is compiled here:
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/me...est.html

Whether you like Rush or not (or whether you have even heard his radio show), he is providing a service by keeping this information available on his website permanently.

So the next time someone tells you that the wealthy aren't paying their fair share of taxes - you'll know that they are just wrong. Like it or not.

Free Throws

Its hard to find a sport where one thing always happens the same way every time, no matter what. Football doesn't have one & baseball doesn't have one. Neither golf, soccer or hockey have one. Only Basketball has one thing that is always the same, everytime, no matter what. There is no defense to get past, no wind, no sun, no one else handles the ball, and the one person involved doesn't even have to move. The basket is always in the same location, horizontally & vertically, from the foul line. No other play in any sport has an equivalent elimination of variables as the Free Throw in basketball.
Professional basketball players are paid to move the ball down the court, in opposition to any level of defensive intensity and by passing and maneuvering, cause a ball to pass through a hoop. The free throw eliminates all of this except the final desired result.

With all of this in mind, someone needs to explain to me why any professional basketball player can possibly be less that 100% in shooting free throws. After all is said & done, making baskets is what the pro's are paid to do. Why should we not expect them to hit the one shot that never changes, against no defense, from a fixed distance, directly in front of the goal, without having to 'approach' the shooting line & without having to receive the ball via a pass; EVERY SINGLE TIME? To my knowledge, some games are won & lost by a margin less that the amount of kissed free throws. So why is the (arguably) only sure thing in sports, glossed over with such regularity?

Is it any wonder why I never watch basketball?

Why is no one watching the Olympics...

So far as I can see, the basic line-up of the Olympics broadcasts have emphasized the following, with whole prime time segents dedicated to these events:
-Ice Dancing (a 'judged' 'sport')
-Figure Skating (a 'judged' 'sport')
-Mogles (sp?) (a 'judged' 'sport')
-Half Pipe (a 'judged' 'sport')
[BTW, since I have to wtch these anyway (Married!) when will someone finally explain the differences between flips, toe-loops, axles & lutzes...)

There has been some extended coverage of these non-judged events:
-Speed Skating (mainly the races that are 36 laps long)
-Speed Skating, Short Track (see above)
-Skeleton/Luge/Bobsled
-Down Hill Skiiing (including trial runs, as if they actually counted)
-Snowboard Cross
-Ladies Curling (on CNBC, anyway)

Finally, there has been some fill-in coverage of the following:
-The drama of a speed skater who decided, at the last minute, to not participate in a team event so he could concentrate on personal goals, must to the frustration of his now former teammates.
-Apollo Anton Ohno.
-The drama of a former in-line skater who speed skates now.
-A Snowboarding Woman who showboated near the finish line and ended up with Silver.
-A carrot-topped Snowboarding Man who, God forbid, had to make a second attempt on the half-pipe, something he's not had to do since he was much younger.
-Some guy named Bode (or something), for whom NBC planned a lot of coverage, but who has been a complete washout.
-Italians winning Gold in the Cross Country relay (one guy has fuscia hair).
-Women's Hockey losing a shoot-out to Sweden, eliminating them from the Gold Metal game.

What have we not seen?
-Men's Hockey (I'm talking complete games).
-Ski Jumping (admittedly a a 'judged' 'sport', but distance is important)
-Lots of two-man & four-man Bobsledding (men's & Womens")
-Speed Skating involving something less than 20 laps.
-Down Hill Skiing
-Slallom & Giant Slallom Skiing (what is Super G, anyway?)

If you notice, what NBC is mainly showing us are events that require some sort of subjective analysis by some unknown expert (now they don't even show us the individual judges' scores, talk about no accountability) where there is some established "perfect score" against which the participants are compared. The emphasis in these events is tracking mistakes, missteps & errors (sometimes errors in the judgement of those who plan the routines, not the actual participants); and subtracting points from the "established perfection" accordingly. Don't get me wrong, these events are beautiful to watch, and the paricipants are graceful and highly skilled. But I hesitate to describe them as atheletes any more than I'd describe a ballerina or a ball room dancer an athelete. An event that requires make-up & a hair-dresser is hard for me to describe as a sport. Its art, certainly, and required incredible talent, strength, endurance, dexterity, and knowledge - but so does opera, ballet, and even marching band.

What NBC is not showing are the true SPORTS that are timed (an objective measure) or scored against an opponent (another objective measure).

And they wonder why the ratings are down.

NFL Divisional Playoffs

This is what I have learned this weekend:
1. Tom Brady is human. Now, can every announcer & sportscaster stop blowing sunshine up this guy's backside?
2. Peyton Manning is human. Now, can every announcer & sportscaster finally understand that starting 13-0 means absolutely nothing? Moreover, can the media finally understand that the Colts are incapable of winning a playoff game? Was it the week off, or Tony Dungy's tragedy? Unfortunately, when the Colts win, Peyton is god-incarnate; therefore when they lose, Peyton must be responsible - yet another choke.
3. Bill Cower is such a genius that it took "Turnover" Tommy Maddox getting injured for Rothlesburg (sp?) to play a down. (OK, this was last year, but I had no place to post 'til now.)
4. Troy Aikman should never be a coach. The FOX-casters spent half the time talking about how the Bears defense was invincible, and the other half about Rex Grossman, an arguably brand new QB with no discernable record but who "the whole team was behind". Admittedly, later in the game, Aikman did acknowledge that the Panthers were making the Bears defense "look very average".
5. Parity in 2005-06 means "home field advantage means nothing". The Seahawks & Broncos should, by all rights, get nothing from the oddsmakers for playing at home.
6. Winning in 2005-06 means team-play. None of the four remaining starting QB's are Hall of Fame bound, at least not yet (Plummer is the leading candidate, but he hasn't yet convinced enough people that he's a consistant winner at the pro level). Carolina won with half of a second string RB and their third string RB. Passing made the Bears respect the run, and it didn't matter who carried the ball. The Seahawks are the nearest thing to Miami's "No Name Defense", except they include the offense, too.
7. Jerome Bettis is the single luckiest man on the planet. Stand next to him if there's a natural disaster - the man would have survived Pompeii.
8. I still wouldn't want to be hit by John Lynch.
9. Mike Vanderjagt (sp?) is human. Either that or he really hates Peyton Manning. Maybe God hates Peyton. Nah! Peyton just chokes.

Turn Signals #1

Ideally, the turn signal is a warning - a warning to the driver behind you that "Watch Out! I'm about to hit the brakes, slow to an appropriate speed and turn a corner." The turn signal is not designed to answer the unheard question of driver behind you, "Why did this idiot suddenly stop on a dime? - Oh, (s)he's turning! I wish that I had some kind of warning that he was going to do that!"

You see, the only way to tell others, especially the driver behind you, that you are going to stop, apart from illuminating your brake lights (an we all know what needs to happen for that to occur), is to use your turn signal. This way, the alert is given, but no actual stopping begins, and the driver behind you is prepared for that eventuality.

Now let's not "cry wolf" here. If you use your turn signal too early, and it seem resonable that you have forgotten about it, then the driver behind you will have no reasonable warning, and you might as well have not used your turn signal. And then let the expletives fly!