magic is no blowhard

The usual "analysis" on sports shows includes a lot of yelling and opinions, almost all of it negative. All heat and little light, analogous to blue flame of flatulence ignition.

I watched this ESPN post-game "analysis" of the Mavs winning the NBA championship. It has the usual blowhards looking for someone to blame and put down (as if that takes any analysis). However, Magic Johnson is not the usual ESPN, loud-mouthed blowhard. He actually analyzes what went wrong and offers constructive advice as to how the Heat and James can move forward.

BTW, the Dallas head coach is a North Country boy! Rick Carlisle hails from from Lisbon, New York.

driving while female

Just just coincidence? From Wronging Rights:

Re-ignition of protests against the female driving ban in Saudia Arabia occurs right around the same time as the re-ignition of a certain Summer blockbuster series. Will the history books cite the Arab Spring or Diesel Summer as inspiration?

When viewing note the gender inclusiveness of vehicle operation:

The 20% female participation rate is radically high by Saudi standards!

wanna see my great nephew?

My sister's grandson is graduating from Shiloh Christian and he played Saints football for three years there and they won three state championships. Troy is #58 (6'3" 270#) and his best friends are Sam Harvill #53 and Kiehl Frazier #15. They are all great kids from good families. All three and one more received Division 1 football scholarships. Not bad for a school of 300 with 40 boys on the football team. This is Troy's highlight video:



An hour-long FRONTLINE show about H.S. football and head injuries aired earlier this week. Sure it had its slant, but I got to see my nephew. A shorter segment on QB Kiehl Frazier is below:

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

Here is the complete hour-long show is HERE.

the magic washing machine

This explains in an interesting manner what economic development is about:



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killing bunnies

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testing communist cars

In this morning's introductory economics class we discussed the practical, inherent problems with centrally planned socialist economies -- like the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the bad old days before the Berlin Wall fell.

A colleague told me about the following video and now I'm having my students watch it. It is from the British TV show Top Gear. I do find it a bit ironic that these two smart-alecks make fun of Communist cars, given that the Brits during the 1960's made some of the free world's worst cars. You probably have never heard of most of the British car models mentioned. They were all bad, very bad, and these guys know it; their viewers know it. However, that is part of the humor. So this clip could be titled "Best of Communism v. the Free World's Worst."

(Vocab lesson: biro is a British term for a ball-point pen.) BTW, my favorite part is the drag race.

model un participants view of history

SNL clip on Model UN participants view of history [HT: wronging rights]

currency wars

This pretty much explains it. Enjoy!


[HT: Wronging Rights]

dead aid discussion

Here is a presentation by Zambian author Dambisa Moyo and followed by comments by Todd Moss. Next semester I am teaching African Economies (Economics/African Studies 228). Among the books I am using are Moyo's Dead Aid and Moss's African Development. [Warning: Moss's comments may seem a bit more academic.]


[RB's textbooks for Spring '11]

the stethoscope

>

this covers all the basics - one minute sermon

Try to keep up with her:



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dad life & swagger wagon

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homeland security blissfully unaware of the threat to the citizens of louisville.

I received my belated Father's Day gift today from sons #1 and #2: A half-hour flying lesson at Bowman Field in Louisville, Kentucky. (The airport is about 100 yards from #2 son's home.) My co-pilot Adam actually has a license. I even had two passengers, Mrs. B. and #2 son.

We thought that I would get maybe five minutes controlling the stick toward the end of the plane ride. Adam got us airborne and leveled off at 1,200 feet. Then without any explanation or instruction, I was told to take the controls and keep heading in the same direction. At the time I was heading toward the middle of Louisville International Airport (SDF). I didn't know who had the right-of-way, a four-seat Cessna or a 180-seat jet airliner. Fortunately, the issue never came up.

Photos:

1) RB's only instruction, he's self-taught.

2) RB and his co-pilot.

3) Getting in was not easy for someone RB's size.

4) Baptist Hospital East on the approach to Bowman Field.

5) We didn't lose a single passenger, however both our passengers were married.

Flying was initially a bit scary for me, and even more so for the two in the back seats. It was a breezy day and we were bouncing around a bit. Also, the plane did not respond very quickly to the controls. After awhile it got better and I relaxed a bit. We flew by or over Churchill Downs, U of L, downtown Louisville, then up the Ohio River and over to Indiana. On the approach back to Bowman Field we flew over Baptist Hospital East, where grandson William was born last week.

Adam asked me if I wanted to take her in for the landing. He did mention he needed some practice because he wanted to get the hang of landing a bit better, so I said he could take over.

How else is he going to learn?

I was probably at the controls for twenty to twenty-five minutes.

It was cool. Very cool. A real adrenaline rush.



Below is a 5 1/2 minute video Capt. Kenny took from the back seat of the Cessna. It is actually kind of boring to watch, deadly to listen to, but here are some highlights:

• 1:29 Louisville International Airport.
• 2:22 Churchill Downs, site of the Kentucky Derby.
• 4:45 Mrs. B. during one of her calmer moments.
• 5:13 University of Louisville.
• 5:21 Downtown Louisville.

why i didn't get much work done yesterday

Has this ever happened to you?



This is especially cool if you've been there. Otherwise watch it and save a trip:



An obnoxious, but honest, commercial....




LINK: If God Had Texted the 10 commandments.

A pictorial critical review of the book Twilight:

old guy's rant

Louis C.K. talks on Conan O'brien about technology from Nathan Lunde-Berry on Vimeo.

ipad v. opad

a very honest commercial

Brutally Honest Mobile Home Commercial - Watch more Funny Videos

u.s. unemployment by county

Not the most exciting of blog titles, is it? However there is a cool, animated map of changing unemployment rates if you click HERE to go to the flash version. If you are lazy then there is the smaller, and not nearly as cool, You-Tube version embedded below:

rb likes chuck

[ht to her]

this pretty much reflects my christmas