Howard Zinn - Rest in Peace

As a student of history (well sort of...I did take a year's worth of American History in High School as an AP course), I found this course to be one of the highlights of my educational experiences! The importance of the class was that it actually made me think...yes frightful to think that occurred in High School (Farewell to Arms and Calculus also served that role). The class also brought forth ideas that were foreign to most developing students and that was the crap that most textbooks spewed wasn't always the truth...there were differing opinions (shocking!). Obviously history is written by the winners. But Zinn was classic in that he often wrote from a different viewpoint (A People's History of the United States). Some people chided him for "revisionist" history (i.e. Columbus discovered America but he also was a mass murderer who brought European diseases to the New World and only sought to destroy the native cultures...). Columbus Day celebrations have kind of dwindled over the years. The value of Zinn at least to me was that there is always another side. That side might not add a lot to the story but it is important to realize the side exists. That is why Zinn was important to me...in High School he delighted us because of his scandalous views of history. It was such a different feel from the ra ra BS most students get when studying American history. He served as a good foil. This quote sums it up nicely,

"We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness-embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television. This would seem to lead to a simple conclusion: that we all have an enormous responsibility to bring to the attention of others information they do not have, which has the potential of causing them to rethink long-held ideas."
— Changing Minds, One at a Time by Howard Zinn, Published in the March 2005 issue of The Progressive.

Haiku Wednesday

Super Bowl

Best teams - Head to Head

Rarely lives up to the hype

All about the Ads!

Clive Cussler - Treasure of Khan

Interesting to note that this co-written book reverted back to having Dirk and Al as the main characters versus Dirk's children. Wonder if sales of the previous book, Black Wind, which if I remembered correctly was more about his kids, didn't sell all that well? And then with this most recent book they seemed thrown in at the last minute so that readers didn't completely forget about them? A later book has been published so will have to see how that book goes. I am interested to see if Dirk and Al ever just vanish (?), you know that finale when they go down with the ship to save the Earth but there were never any bodies found...it is going to happen...probably when Clive stops writing.

Anyway decent Dirk novel. Still a great character...too bad the movie translations haven't been better. As the title suggests this has to do with a madman trying to bring back the glory days of the Mongol Empire. Using money from the sale of items found in Khan's tomb, they try to corner the world's oil market (ominous music played here). Needless to say Pitt saves the day.

Did find one error in the novel though...during the talks about injecting water into ground and causing earthquakes he mentions that this occurred near Rocky Flats (near Boulder, CO) when injecting contaminated water into the earth...well this actually occurred at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which is closer to Denver. Talking about a small world I just discovered that Clive's car collection is practically in my backyard. When it reopens for the summer I will have to take a tour!

Rox Talk

Back in March 2009 I posted an article on runs scored per inning. In the post I simply graphed total runs scored per inning. In this post I have updated it to include 2009 and compared the 2009 season historically. While updating the data I realized that although plotting total runs score was OK it wasn't totally accurate because the 9th inning isn't equal. So this time around I simply divided the runs score by the total number of innings. This provided a rate of scoring which I then plotted. See below.

The solid line is scoring rate at home and the dotted line is the rate on the road. Amazing that the Rox score almost twice has many runs at home in the first inning as they do away from home. As noted in the earlier post there is a definite dip in scoring in the second inning. My only guess is that generally the second inning is usually the bottom of the line up and just isn't a productive inning. You see another uptick in the 4th and the 7th/8th. Interesting to see the road rate is flatter. There is a definite home field advantage. Next up I plotted the Home versus Away ratio. The purple line are the Rox and the black line is the opposition. If there wasn't a home advantage both of these lines should be around one but as you can see the Rox have traditionally played better at home. The individual dots show the ratio from the 2009 season. The Rox were monsters at home in the third inning and pretty ho hum in the later innings.

I love graphs! Baseball graphs especially.

Portland, Oregon

A nice relaxing long weekend in Portland. It was the first time it actually rained while we were there...not that it was unexpected as it always rains there but the last few times we were there it never rained! Flew in on Thursday, stopped by Excalibur Comics (on Hawthorne...have to spread the comic book money around the globe!), then on to Hotel Lucia. A boutique hotel that has tiny but spacious red painted wall rooms. They have a good bed with a feather comfortable. It is a relaxing place to spend your nights. Jaunted off immediately to Powell's, the world's greatest bookstore, and spent about an hour exploring the stacks. I have found it best to do Powell's in small doses otherwise it just become overwhelming. If you are looking for a book this place is it. After being amazed and wishing I was a speed reader we journeyed to Deschutes Brewery. A new place with a great atmosphere and some awesome brews. Living in Denver you are certainly spoiled by the great beer here but had to admit Portland has a whole lot better beer. Fell in love with the Arctic Blastonator Weizen Bock. Went back two separate times to enjoy that beer. And in a rare instance the brewery's food was on par with its beer!

In an effort to follow Adam and the Man vs Food crowd we hit the Stepping Stone Cafe where we shared a "mancake" HUGE. Next morning we did Voodoo Doughnuts. We had to wait! After the mancake we did a wine tour visiting Aramenta, Erath, and Argyle. Nothing against the good people of the Willamette Valley but honestly the almighty grape truly just fell into their lap. I mean 20 years ago this same land was just harvesting fruit and nuts barely squeaking by and now even the most basic winery is able to charge $20 for just ho-hum wine. To be at the right place and time...Just so you know the 2006 pinot noir was a whole lot better than the 2007 version. After tasting wines all day we definitely needed some more beer so off to the Bridgeport Brewery. Their IPA was my favorite until Dogfish 90 minute came along. Even so having it fresh is well worth it.

On Saturday, as mentioned, we had Voodoo Doughnuts then did some walking around the City. Stopped at the PDX Contemporary Art museum. There were two small exhibits featuring:

John Mann (maps and stuff)

Megan Murphy (glass, mirror photos?)

Later that evening saw Up in the Air. A real depressing movie. Last year in Portland we saw Slumdog Millionaire which was depressing except it ended with hope...Up in the Air...not so much. Really no redeeming factor other than be thankful you have a job. Clooney did a wonderful job...I bet he will win Best Actor this year. On our last day it rained most of the day. We relaxed did some window shopping and relaxed. Also did some soul searching and came home ready to hit it again. One can never say too much about the importance of a good Vacation!

Comic Splat (4)

Joe the Barbarian #1 - A new Grant Morrison written mini-series on the Vertigo label. Only a buck for the first issue. Looks like a good story...

Captain America #602 - How many Captain America's are there? Looks like it is time to clean house.

Dark Avengers #13 - I hate the Sentry as a character. Why has this character taken on such a large role. Is he simply around to be the McGuffin for Bendis' seven year run. I mean come on a superhero named Bob, the Void, and a superhero who's power is to make everyone forget that he existed? Ughhh..

Uncanny X-men #520 - The X-men just seem to be old...why is Magneto back? Does anyone care anymore...why do you continue to reincarnate these characters?

Haiku Wednesday

Snow Sports

Enjoy the snow and ice

Let us ski, board, sled, or skate
Stop global warming

Risky Business

You know every so often you should say what the f@%k, it brings you opportunity, it brings you success...but I digress (but at least I don't have an algebra mid term tomorrow and I am definitely not being chased by Guido the Killer Pimp).

Every so often you should just watch those old movies...could a movie like this even hope to be made today? Probably not but the 80s had a lot of those "good" movies. This one was made in 1983 and featured:

Tom Cruise - before he was a whack job...

Tangerine Dream - great sound track

Kind of Risky "Ferris" movie

Comic Splat (4)

Psylocke #3 - Great art...now just need to close up some distance plot point which no one really remembers.

Black Widow #3 - She gets her own series starting this Spring...movie tie in!

Invincible Iron Man #22 - Dr Strange "The World needs it Iron Man!" Great line...

Daytrippers #2 - Kind of creepy, what happened in Issue #1...

39 Circles

Today marks my 14,245th day on this traveling spaceship we call Earth, at least in this iteration. That is about 2% of recorded history since 0 AD. Makes you seem kind of small but on the other hand your bits of atoms that form molecules that form proteins that form nerve cells that form electrical impulses and that eventually form the conscienceness and thus the ability to comprehend and write down the fact you've been around for 14,000 plus days shows that you might be considered small but in reality you're pretty spectacular collecting of star stuff in this big universe!

Live everyday to its fullest!