Friday, October 23, 2009

The internet, bad umping, and countering claims that ISU's schedule is commendable

Have you noticed how many internet issues are arising...mainly on two fronts.
First, the government wants to step in and gain control and regulate the internet.
Consider, that the internet is, as we know it, more than 20 years old and has flourished fine without the governments of any nation intervening and regulating.
In fact, when the few cases do exist of a govenment butting in, the press has almost always jumped in to defend the internet and oppose government intervention, such as censorship...like what the Chinese do censoring certain internet sites, and also censorship even where objectionable stuff is all over the internet.
http://digg.com/tech_news/China_s_Internet_Censorship_Graphic

But now, suddenly government control issues are in the news again...
The government wants to pass legislation requiring all bloggers (and others who they determine so that even message board posters would be next) to state their biases, their connections, and what they might be getting in return for what they are saying.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/media/06adco.html

One opinion on this said...
"For the FTC to go after bloggers and social media—as they explicitly do—is the same as sending
a government goon into Denny's to listen to the conversations in the corner booth and demand
that you disclose that your Uncle Vinnie owns the pizzeria whose product you endorsed."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704500604574480942272744448.html
http://www.standard.net/topics/opinion/2009/10/22/our-view-dont-tread-bloggers-ftc#

Now the FCC wants to step in and start further on the slippery slope of regulating everything on the internet...even to the point of trying to eliminate opinions they don't like.
As long as bloggers say things favorable to certain people in the government, then they're OK. But the government via the FCC ultimately wants more control...
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/10/exclusive-us-spies-buy-stake-in-twitter-blog-monitoring-firm/

John McCain thinks the internet can regulate itself, and hardly needs the government to step in and start their boundless rules and regulations ultimately squelching freedom of speech and choices.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354636,00.asp

I wonder what would be the outcome of this poll..

Question: do we need the government to get MORE involved in our lives, or LESS?
I know which one I'd choose.
In the end the government involvement generally leads to the opposite results as they intend. BTW their attacks on FoxNews have increased Fox's viewership making it more popular than all the cable news stations!
Even the generally pro-government commentators and pro-Obama people agree that his attacks are stupid....and Fox' ratings are UP.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/fox-news-ratings-undamage_n_329299.html
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5grud80bBYuHc-qzMAXIu6dJiR4fw
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/10/the_white_houses_war_with_fox.html
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/10/23/the-fox-news-war-whats-the-upside-for-obama/
-
-
-
-
Did anyone see that strike (or according to the home plate ump - that ball) on the 3-2 count to Jorge Posada last night. Time and again the replay showed the pitch was fully inside the strike zone...not even close to being a ball, but that call led to a 6 run inning for the Yanks and almost cost the Phillies the whole series.
it's just another example of the really bad umpiring..and why is that?
I really don't know, but you'd have a hard time convincing me that some umps don't have an agenda and appear to want a certain team to advance!
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/playoffs/2009-10-21-blown-call-weighs-on-ump_N.htm

Even the official Major League Baseball web site kinda rips the home plate ump for that bad call last night...
"The 3-2 pitch to Posada appeared to be a strike at the knees, a terrific pitch from Halos ace John Lackey. But the pitch was not good enough for home-plate umpire Fieldin Culbreth. Replays indicated that this pitch was definitely not a ball. In fact, a pitch in this location has been a strike since the 1800s; this is no time to change that. Lackey protested vehemently, to no avail. Had the Yankees won this game, this call could have been a centerpiece of another round of the truly unfortunate push for a wider use of instant replays. But the umps are bringing some of this on themselves."
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091022&content_id=7526882&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

You'd think at the very time we have the best players left competing that we might also have the best umpiring, but I don't know a whole lot of people who actually think that to be the case.
-
-
-
-
-
Don't forget...check out the Bradley Media Guide...it's great
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=19336&SPID=1498&DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=1599428
http://www.bradleybraves.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&KEY=&SPID=1498&SPSID=19336
-
-
-
-
Hey- here's a few more facts...the kind that get some people all in a tizzy and cause them to lose their senses and start spewing jibberish...

Here are the BCS teams played by BU vs. ISU the past several years.
(Some seem to think that ISU's scheduling or Strength of Schedule is worth defending and is on par with BU's....if you haven't seen those claims, let me know I can show you the silliness)
...but here are the actual facts instead of the jibberish....

BU:
2009-2010: Oklahoma State, Illinois (or it could be Utah), Iowa State
2008-2009: Florida, Michigan State
2007-2008: Iowa State, Iowa, Vanderbilt, Michigan State, Cincinnati, Virginia
2006-2007: DePaul, Rutgers, Illinois, Michigan State, Iowa State, Providence, Mississippi State
2005-2006: DePaul, Kansas, Pittsburgh, Memphis
BU has also played Butler, WKU, So. Miss and other tough opponents.

ISU:
2009-2010: NONE
2008-2009: Kansas State
2007-2008: Indiana, Cincinnati (both were really down at the time played but they are BCS)
2006-2007: Florida State, St. John's (ditto)
2005-2006: Cincinnati
(their closest misses are of the Norfolk State and Grambling-ilk?)

so I hope I didn't miss any as even the BCS schools ISU has played over the past 5 season are almost a hand-picked group of the weakest ones you could have found...but overall BU wins the race...
BU- 22 to ISU - 5....pretty overwhelming difference!

No comments:

Post a Comment