Math shows just how Mad this March’s final 4 is

This has been an amazing NCAA college basketball tournament. Our final four consists of Butler, VCU, Kentucky, and UConn, and they are seeded 8, 11, 4, and 3, respectively. Here’s a fun way to show just how rare this is. Using this website, below is the summation of the final 4 seeds for this year and the ten years before it:

2011 – 26

2010 – 13

2009 – 7

2008 – 4

2007 – 6

2006 – 20

2005 – 11

2004 – 8

2003 – 9

2002 – 9

2001 – 7

As you can see, it usually adds up to less than 10. 2008 was a unique year in which all #1 seeds made it. While that tends not to happen, you instead typically get something like 1, 2, 2, 3. 2006 is also a bit of an outlier, as George Mason (11 seed) made the final four. VCU is the third #11 seed to make it, with the other one being LSU in 1986. However, the other three teams in 1986 were seeded 1, 1, and 2. Plus, the Butler/VCU semifinals matchup guarantees that a mid-major team seeded 8 or 11 will make the final.

Any way you look at it, this is a very rare event in NCAA basketball.

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Reminder: they hate us for our freedoms

And not because we decide to slaughter 15 year old boys for fun, and then lie about it and cover it up.

Fuck this war. Fuck those soldiers. Fuck everything about it.

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Why are Americans getting fatter?

The above chart uses the same scale, and uses BMI as the means by which people are defined as obese. Now, lots of people like to shit on BMI. And it’s true, that if you are muscular and ripped, your muscle mass will cause you to be unfairly labeled as fat. And if you are one of those people, then go ahead and pat yourself on the back. But the number of people who have that issue is clearly not enough to throw off the scale for an entire population. We are getting fatter, and BMI is a rough but useful metric for looking at a large population, as illustrated above.

So, why are we getting fatter? I’ll throw out a few ideas. Many of these will be related or interdependent:

–  We exercise less now than we used to.

–  We eat more processed foods, which are higher in caloric density.

–  The median age of the population is shifting, and older people are always fatter.

–  Fewer Americans smoke, and nicotine is an appetite depressant.

–  We are subsidizing foods in such a way that worse foods now cost less and fresh produce costs more.

–  Because of technology, we are getting lazier. We will order something online instead of going out to buy it, for example.

–  Actually, we are working harder. We work more hours per week than Europeans, and for a lot of us that means sitting at a desk or computer for extended hours.

 

Anyone else have any ideas? Am I right? Wrong? Missing something? Is it all of the above? Or, is the above chart misleading and we aren’t actually getting fatter at all?

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PODCAST DEUX (#2): NFL lockout

Our second podcast. I hope the uploading is better.

Apologies for the echoiness of Linus’ sections. My mic picked up the feedback.

We cover:

• The background of the NFL lockout
• Reasons for public perceptions
• Consequences for players and owners
• Comparisons to Linus’ post about Albert Pujols
• The problems of bluffing in negotiations

Enjoy! And let us know if there are problems with the audio in the comments.

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Welcome to Contractopia

^NOTE: THIS IS NOT REALISTIC

The outsourcing of local (and national) government has been going on for some time. The current anti-union, anti-public employee winds, however, seem to be leading us ever closer to a government-by-contractor.

Costa Mesa, Calif. has laid off half its staff and will outsource essential services such as firefighting. Providence, R.I. has essentially changed its school system into an independent contractor system, by laying off all its teachers. On a federal level, independent contractors fight our wars and deal in our intelligence secrets.

Outsourcing to private contractors is all fine, so far as it goes. Yet, many of these cost-cutting measures end up being more expensive in the long run. Contractors are more subject to industry capture; no lobbying rules govern contractors. Similarly, contractors do not have the same kinds of accountability as public employees.

Outsourcing certain services often makes sense, particularly when specialized industries already do a better job. Unfortunately, outsourcing for the sake of outsourcing generally leads to massive blunders. Besides, the government is often employing the specialized people who are good at these jobs (private industry has not proven itself more efficient at educating children or operating highways than governments). And yet, this seems to be a general trend inside and outside of government, with consulting industries booming and traditional businesses trying to shrink their workforces.

If the right-wing dream of Contractopia arrives, will people be any better off? If current trends are any indication, I doubt it.

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Next: Stripaerobics for Islam

Poledancing for Jesus:

I hear He loves that.

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Quick! Name a freedom Obama has taken away from you.

On the one-year anniversary of the ACA health care law, Sen. Ron Johnson wrote an Op-Ed in the WSJ. There’s a lot of nonsense in there, as Steven Benen points out (there are no death panels, etc.)

But there’s one thing in the first paragraph I see repeated all the time without any pushback. He begins the piece with:

“Today is the first anniversary of the greatest single assault on our freedom in my lifetime: the signing of ObamaCare.”

Whoa. Single greatest assault on Freedom. That sounds serious. But for all the talk about the ACA being an assault on freedom, or of Obama attacking and taking away our freedoms generally, I always have one question for these assholes: name something you used to be able to do when Bush was President, but you can’t do right now because Obama took yer freedoms. Anyone? Anything? Bueller?

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“Controversial” post

I hate the word “controversial.” It is a typical weasel word. It has its uses, to be sure, but its most common purpose is simply to highlight some issue that the writer is unwilling to make a stand on.

For example, see this LA Times article about a “controversial video” from a UCLA student. Let’s watch this “controversial video,” shall we?

The racially-charged rant against Asians — complete with “Ching Chong Ling Long Ting Tong” — isn’t called “racially charged” or “anti-Asian” in the headline. It’s called “controversial.” “Controversial” makes it sound as if there are, well, two sides (thus “Contr-“/against, “vers-“/side). On the one hand, a student made a ridiculous anti-Asian video complaining about their cell phone use in the library and manners. On the other hand,… what exactly? If even the maker of the video won’t defend it, there’s not much controversy, is there?

The overuse of “controversial,” particularly in the media, shows two of journalism’s worst characteristics — an unwillingness to state facts, and a continued allegiance to “he said, she said” balancing. Thus, global warming becomes “controversial,” despite overwhelming scientific evidence. The teaching of evolution becomes “controversial,” so we should teach both sides of the debate in classrooms.

(Note: I have a similar dispute with the word “row,” but this is mostly reserved to British publications)

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Why would any country *not* want to acquire nukes?

One of the earlier so-called triumphs of the Bush Doctrine and the GWOT was when, after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Gaddafi* announced that he had a weapons of mass destruction program, but was willing to allow inspectors into Libya and dismantle it. And oh, how the neoconservatives crooned and crowed: this was validation that the Bush Doctrine works. If you try to develop WMDs, we will invade you. And if you abandon those plans, we will play nice with you. Indeed, the US State Dept restored diplomatic relations with Libya, and Tony Blair even visited Libya and publicly met with Gaddafi, becoming the first Western leader to do so in decades.

Flash forward eight years and now we’re dropping bombs on Libya. So, if you were the leader of a nation with hostile or less-than-friendly relations with the U.S., what would you think when you consider all the facts? Iraq had no such weapons and we invaded them. Libya is now being attacked by an international coalition. North Korea, meanwhile, remains as oppressive to its people as ever, but they have nukes and we don’t mess with them. Pakistan also has nukes, and although our relationship with them is more complicated, we generally don’t mess with them, either.

So if you’re the leader of, say, Iran, how could you rationally not try to get nuclear weapons ASAP?

*fun fact: you’re apparently allowed to spell his name however you want

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Further evidence of cats sucking

Cats are killing migratory birds. A lot of them.

The American Bird Conservancy estimates that up to 500 million birds are killed each year by cats — about half by pets and half by feral felines. “I hope we can now stop minimizing and trivializing the impacts that outdoor cats have on the environment and start addressing the serious problem of cat predation,” said Darin Schroeder, the group’s vice president for conservation advocacy.

OK, OK, so building collisions still cause the bulk of migratory bird deaths. But that doesn’t mean cats are off the hook. They may also be making cat people crazy. Careful with that litter box, folks!

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