The Best Place To Work - Google

Several weeks ago Fortune magazine named Google the best company to work for. The article online is here. The video below (a Today Show segment) summarizes the environment pretty well. Perks include: 11 gourmet cafeterias, Wi-Fi-enabled coaches from five Bay Area locations to assist employees commuting to work, onsite barber and masseuse, laundry rooms and dry cleaning, ability to bring pets to work, foreign language tutoring. The list goes on and on

arriviste \a-ree-VEEST\, noun:

A person who has recently attained success, wealth, or high status but not general acceptance or respect; an upstart.

Sherman, in his $1,800 imported suit and British hand-lasted shoes is . . . an arriviste and a poseur.
-- Frank Conroy, "Urban Rats in Fashion's Maze", New York Times, November 1, 1987

March Madness

In case you have not already seen, this is Barton's incredible comeback to defeat Winona State for the Division II National Championship, on Saturday. Winona State was the heavy favorite, riding a 57 game win streak. Anthony Atkinson scored 10 points in the final 39 seconds, including a layup at the buzzer for the win. This is as good of a comeback as I have ever seen, and most certainly the best comeback in a TITLE game. Watch and enjoy.

ESPN's article, here.

Quote of the Day

“When I refer to myself as Southern, I am talking about the part of myself that is most deeply human and deeply feeling. It is the part of me that connects most intimately and cordially with the family of man. There are qualities of grace and friendship and courtesy that will always seem essentially Southern to me no matter where I encounter them on the road.”

- Pat Conroy

The Baseball Economist

Last night I drove down to Altanta for for a book signing of The Baseball Economist, by J.C. Bradbury. This is J.C.'s first book. J.C runs Sabernomics and is a leader in the field of Baseball Economics. I have not yet had time to read any of his book, but the buzz on the street is that it is filled with good stuff, and some suprising findings.

A snippet of a review:

Freakonomics meets Moneyball in this provocative exposé of baseball's mostfiercely debated controversies and some of its oldest, most dearly held myths—explained through the language of numbers and cool cash.

appurtenance \uh-PUR-tn-un(t)s\, noun:

1. An adjunct; an accessory; something added to another, more important thing.
2. [Plural]. Accessory objects; gear; apparatus.
3. [Law]. An incidental right attached to a principal property right for purposes such as passage of title, conveyance, or inheritance.

The inauguration of presidents, the coronation of monarchs, the celebration of national holidays--these events require everywhere the presence of the soldier as a "ceremonial appurtenance."
-- Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood Rites

March Madness

This is the requisite NCAA Tourney post. The match-ups have been set and game times determined. Everyone now has to make their picks. This is something I always love doing, yet historically, am very poor at.

This year I have been reading a handfulof different blogs and websites which talk about the various odds involved in the tournament. A professor at St. Joseph's has a terrific website where he ran a Monte Carlo simulation to determine the most statistically likely bracket. Monte Carlo is a type of statistical simulation where you take small random events and simulate these events over long periods of time within the context of a larger system. For the purposes of this tournament, the game outcomes are the small events and the overall bracket is the larger system.

Gene Wojciechowski from ESPN.com shadowed odds makers at Las Vegas Sports Consultants. The guys at LVSC are the ones who set the initial spreads on all the tournament games, which are then dispersed to all the casinos. His behind the scenes account is particularly interesting.

Additionally, Doug Drinen who runs Pro-Football-Reference, has a good article on how to fill out your office pool, from a mathematical perspective. His results will surprise you.

I will be traveling to Lexington, KY tomorrow to catch the 1st and 2nd rounds which will be held in Rupp Arena. Highlights will include Greg Oden and Mike Conley from Ohio St, Acie Law from Texas A&M, and Rick Pitino leading Louisville against Stanford.

PlayStation Home

Several months ago I posted about Second Life - a virtual reality on the internet where users create characters of themselves, called avatars, and can interact with other users. This was becoming such a phenomenon that companies such as Nike and General Electric were buying online "real estate" and holding virtual conferences.

In much the same vein, PlayStation is coming out with "Home," a virtual world accessible via the PlayStation 3. Like with Second Life, users will have their own avatars and can interact with other users in the virtual community.

Here is a preview:


And here is a good article discussing Home.

'Some pig!' muttered Lurvy in a low voice.
'Some pig!' whispered Mr. Zuckerman.
They stared and stared for a long time at Wilbur.
Then they stared at Charlotte.

-E.B. White

Happy March Madness, Everyone

With UK kicking off the post-season by playing Alabama in the SEC Tournament tomorrow, I've gotta post this video, which is a sweet introduction that is played in Rupp Arena before all home games.

indefatigable \in-dih-FAT-ih-guh-bul\, adjective:

Incapable of being fatigued; not readily exhausted; untiring; unwearying; not yielding to fatigue.

She was always seeking to add to her collection and was an indefatigable first-nighter at Broadway shows.
-- Meryle Secrest, Stephen Sondheim: A Life

Democratizing Education

Here's an article from the WSJ last week discussing how many major universities are now putting many of their course online, for free. These course are commonly referred to as OpenCourseWare.

Per the WSJ:
Following the lead of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other highly competitive schools, more institutions are posting online everything from lecture notes to sample tests, and even making audio and video files of actual lectures publicly available. The sites attract anywhere from thousands to more than one million unique visitors each month.
MIT's pioneering "OpenCourseWare" program, which was launched in 2003, posts the syllabus and class notes for more than 1,500 courses online for anyone who wants them. By this November, it aims to publish materials from virtually all 1,800 of its courses across all its schools.

I think this is absolutely fantastic. I have always thought, and often remarked that one can get just as good of an education at a local public library as at any renowned institution - just with a little more will and determination. Now with OpenCourseWare, there is no need even to go to the library. You can take classes on line, for free. In fact, I know many people that are enrolled in schools where they don't usually go to class, but rather read the PowerPoint and web lectures which are e-mailed to them by their professors. The only difference between them and what you can do with this OpenCourseWare is that they are paying a small fortune, and you don't have to. Obviously taking an OpenCourseWare class is not exactly like attending the school, and you get no recognized credit for your work, but you are able to absorb the exact same knowledge and information as the privileged students at these renowned institutions. I say, terrific.

I have been to several of the websites, cited in the article, and below are links to the two which I find most user-friendly:

This is pretty neat...

turbid \TUR-bid\, adjective:

1. Muddy; thick with or as if with roiled sediment; not clear; -- used of liquids of any kind.
2. Thick; dense; dark; -- used of clouds, air, fog, smoke, etc.
3. Disturbed; confused; disordered.

Although both are found in the same waters, black crappies usually prefer clearer, quieter water, while white crappies flourish in warmer, siltier and more turbid water.
-- Tim Eisele, "Crappie Facts", Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), May 8, 1998

Happy Valentine's Day

Read about this history of Valentine's Day, here.

Also, here is a nice Wikipedia article covering Valentine's Day.

Google World Domination?

Mr. Orwell, you may be Correct

This article brings to mind ideas eerily similar to the Thought Police in George Orwell's epic dystopian novel, 1984. Per the article:

A team of world-leading neuroscientists has developed a powerful technique that allows them to look deep inside a person's brain and read their intentions before they act.

The research breaks controversial new ground in scientists' ability to probe people's minds and eavesdrop on their thoughts, and raises serious ethical issues over how brain-reading technology may be used in the future.

Read the full article, here.

Pyrrhic victory \PIR-ik\, noun:

A victory achieved at great or excessive cost; a ruinous victory.

Technically it was a victory for the British, who attacked the patriot fortifications -- but a Pyrrhic victory if ever there was: out of 2,200 British soldiers 1,034 were killed or wounded, including one in nine of all the officers the British lost in the whole war.
-- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "A Revolutionary Itinerary", The Atlantic, April 2001

The Amen Break

This is a rather long (about 18 minutes) video explaining the Amen break. The Amen Break is an influential and oft-heard drum loop. It is 5.20 seconds long and consists of 4 bars of the drum-solo sampled from the song "Amen, Brother" as performed by the 1960s funk and soul group, The Winstons.



You can read more about it here.