Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class - NYTimes.com.

From the article:

'Without high-quality out-of-conference games, every major conference is in essence an island unto itself. We can identify the best team in the Pac 10, or the best team in the S.E.C. But we don’t have any good way of comparing the Pac 10 against the S.E.C., or against any other conference. It doesn’t matter how smart your computer rankings are, or how wizened the participants in your poll: there simply isn’t enough worthwhile data to work with.'

This is why the BCS rankings are essentially meaningless. We don't have a reliable way to measure quality across conferences. Which team is better, 11-2 Oregon who lost on the road to L.S.U. and to a good U.S.C. team, or 11-1 Alabama, who also lost to L.S.U. at home without scoring a touchdown? Does Alabama get credit for playing in the tough SEC? Why? How do you know the SEC is a tough conference? I suspect it probably is at the top, but I have no evidence that after Arkansas there is anything special there. Would Oregon put up big points against Alabama and Arkansas? Probably, but I don't know for sure.

Even schools that schedule tough non-conference opponents only play one or two tough teams a year outside their conference. It's not nearly enough data. We know which teams won their conference championships and that's about all we know for sure. The BCS bowl games are entertaining exhibitions, but nothing more than that.

Does anyone remember seeing them do this at some festival in Kelso around '93 maybe?

About halfway through the second time through the main figure that I thought 'they lifted this riff from "Into The Void"'. They were playing it so slowly I didn't recognize it. It wasn't until King Buzzo started singing the first verse that I realized they were performing 'Into The Void' itself. It was brilliant.

A Look At Employment: " . . . consider the following unemployment rates by educational level achieved. The first number is for January 2009 and the second is for January 2010:

Less the high school diploma: 12.4%/15.2%

High School Graduates, no college: 8.1%/10.1%

Some college or associate degree: 6.4%/8.5%

Bachelor's degree or higher: 3.9%/4.9%"

Kids, get as much education after high school that you can. We've lost entire categories of jobs that are not coming back any time soon.

(Via FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right.)

Buy Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle!

Buy Ricky Jay's Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women: Unique, Eccentric and Amazing Entertainers!

Kenji Johjima opts out of final two years.

One less problem to solve for the 2010 Mariners.

Buy Jerome Greene's Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The US Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis

This one will interest anyone who has lived in Southeast Washington and Eastern Oregon, especially the Wallowa region.

The settlers were able to seize much of the Nez Perce treaty land simply because the tribe wasn't physically there to defend it. They roamed over a large area of treaty land, often leaving an area for a year or more. A group of settlers would show up in Oregon, find some empty land, clear it and start farming it, establishing communities.

They either didn't know or didn't care that their settlement was illegal. They probably figured that after carving out a life there, htey were naturally entitled to be there. The Nez Perce would return after a year to their land and find illegal settlers who were in no mood to leave and who weren't eager to share. The tribe could either appeal to the U.S. government, move to some other piece of treaty land, or try to push the interlopers out on their own.

You know where this is headed, and we all know the book ends.

The Nez Perce were better riders, better marksmen, and had superior military leadership throughout the conflict, but it wasn't enough.

If you live near the intersection of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, you should take a long weekend to drive many of the historic sites of the conflict, including Wallowa, Fort Lapwai, Grangeville, Cottonwood, and Clarkston.

Buy John Hodgman's More Information Than You Require

Buy Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation

Buy Ron Hall's Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together

You can't win an argument with a fundamentalist, because they don't argue. They have a fixed position that can't be moved by new information. 'I know the earth is 10,000 years old, therefore all evidence that the earth is a sphere must be incorrect.' Try arguing with that. It's the same with political fundamentalists. 'The government is bad at some things, therefore the government is bad at everything.'

People don't see any penalty for holding static views. A highly trained surgeon can safely believe that Obama is not a U.S. citizen because he receives no intellectual penalty for believing it. That belief suits his needs, so he believes it. He's not stupid, he's just chosen to cling to a debunked belief because it's intellectually easier for him to do that than to not.

There is still a small but frighteningly significant number of Americans who believe the moon shot was somehow faked. Do they honestly believe that? Yes, they probably honestly believe it because it's fun to believe it, or it confirms their suspicions of the government, or they are just contrarians. It doesn't matter. What's important is that their crackpot belief is possible for them because it doesn't effect their daily life. They can still perform surgery, trim trees, write software. What's the harm?

The harm is that it does effect their daily life in the long term. The fact of the matter is that the earth is very old, life has been evolving for a very long time, with humans appearing relatively late in the cycle. I can believe that the earth is 10,000 years old and dinosaurs are a hoax and every living thing was plunked down at once, but that doesn't make it true. And the only reason my belief doesn't do permanent harm to society is because there are enough rational people who accept the facts and progress with their work.

We all take intellectual shortcuts. I do it and so do you. We must. One person can not and does not need to personally research every corner of human knowledge. Modern societies are specialized with professionals pursuing their areas of expertise so that I don't have to. You research blind mole rats, I'll write some software, your neighbor will fill put out fires, and we'll progress.

If 98% of the mole rat researchers find that mole rats mate once every six years, I'll take their word for it. If most economists are telling me that spending money to reform health care is worth the short term it to the deficit, then OK then. They're the ones with the Nobel Prizes, not me. I expect the President to explain to me how that will work, but I'm not going to reflexively blast the notion.

But I will try not to glibly pop off on topics that are important or that I don't know about. If you want to cling to irrational beliefs to support your chosen identification group, root for a sports team. There's an entire media industry just for you to shout, scream, berate your opponents, and generally act like an uninformed ass. You can drop all the verbal hand grenades you want and do no harm.

Here's are my requirements:

• Sneakers.

I already have running shoes. I'll likely play some tennis and soccer and such in my sneakers, but these are everyday shoes.

• Low tops.

I prefer high top sneakers, but I already have a pair. I need a set of low tops right now.

• Black or white.

The base color must be black or white. Trim and other colors are not important, but I can't wear red sneakers for the same reason I can't wear a red sport coat. It's just not me.

• Not hideous.

There is no accounting for taste, so I'll just say that I prefer classic models, but I'm not opposed to a squishy tongue or fat laces. If you've ever seen a set of Asics running shoes, those are exactly what I do not want to see. Great shoes, but u-g-l-y.

• Good quality.

I'm not looking for orthopedics here, but I do need my sneakers to treat my feet reasonably well. Yes, I know that soft, comfy, low top sneakers will never be the best thing for my feet, but let's do the best we can.

Potential mates

Here are some candidates for my feet:

• Adidas Samba Millenium

• PRO-Keds Royal Master Suede

• Puma Basket FS Clyde

Can anyone recommend a good sneaker?

Those screams you hear in the distance are a million Royals fans crying out in unison. If the Royals are paying Yuni's salary, those fans' voices will then be suddenly silenced.

Buy Henry Bettenson's The Early Christian Fathers: A Selection from the Writings of the Fathers from St. Clement of Rome to St. Athanasius!

Buy Max Brooks' World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War!

(Via Ronald Bog blog - all about Shoreline Washington.)

Buy John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise!

Buy The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics!