Bronie

1. A hundred free throws in a row

Blake Ahearn of the NBA development league has hit 100 consecutive free throws, and running. In this worthy video he breaks the all-time NBA record.

Blake Ahearn sets new consecutive free-throw record

QOTD

He [Blake Ahearn] told us in the pregame show that he makes 102 free throws every day. I asked him why 102, he said, well, the first hundred are my practice. The other two I think of as the last two of the game.
- Announcer

2.  Bronie

Speaking of basketball, driveway basketball at The Castle means smack talk. I think I compared Ty's low post game to Carlos Boozer's when Ty raised the taunting to a new level, calling me a "bronie".

What's a bronie?

bronie - A male fan of the series, "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic." (link)

He he. Good one!
It's tough to fashion a comeback when your kid says that you're an avid fan of My Little Pony.

3. Freaks lite
This is a cool blog. Fun stats. Nerdy but a a little lighter than the Freaks:

www.bakadesuyo.com

Of course, the best posts are about sex:

• Ten things you need to know about sex - I'm now on the lookout for "greater pelvic and vertebral rotation and stride length". Snort.

• Things you don't know about sex - Money! Weird money. But money!

• What's the chance you will have sex or have a relationship with someone from a speed-dating event? - Search on his "Books on sex" that he recommends at the bottom of a few of the sex posts. I haven't gotten them yet, but...

And so on...

4. Greatest books

At a glance, this list looks a little stodgy, but I'm tucking it away for future amazoning.

The greatest books of all time, as voted by 125 famous authors

Google is a verb. Example: I googled it, and found that you were wrong wrong wrong. (he) 
Amazon should be a verb too.

amazon
verb

1. the process of easily purchasing an item and then having it quickly delivered directly to your home.
2. an enjoyable, satisfying experience.

Like this:

- Hey Bill, did you ever get that book we talked about?
- Yeah, I amazoned it last week.

5. Happily Excellent

The WSJ (happily) details governor Bobby Jindal's (excellent) school choice plans in Louisiana.

Jindal's education moon shot

Jindal would make vouchers available to about half of Louisiana's students, those who attend a school that gets a C, D or F grade.

The cynical, self-serving response from the teacher's union is a caricature.

QOTD

If I'm a parent in poverty I have no clue because I'm trying to struggle and live day to day
- Teacher's union nabob

So, for poor parents, this nabob knows better how to raise their children and get paid really well to do it.
No he doesn't.
I think Mr. Teacher's Union Man is a bronie, actually. He he.

Good luck to Jindal and the parents in Louisiana!
yow, bill

(No) Crime in NYNY

"Camo frog"

1. Limitless

Movie: Limitless
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... barely OK

The notion of a pill that makes you a lot, lot smarter is pretty cool, and that's the premise of Limitless. Alas, the movie is pretty dumb. It's funny. During the movie, I sometimes got confused between the dumb plot and the dumb character. "That's so dumb. Nobody would do that. Oh wait, this guy is supposed to be really dumb."

It was just a light, very average, mildly entertaining 90 minutes. Barely worthy.

2. (No) Crime in NYNY

Here's the bogey: How to stop urban crime without jail time

The reduction in crime in NYNY is simply remarkable. Since 1990:

• The homicide rate in the city dropped 80%.
• The robbery rate fell 83%, and the burglary rate was down by 86%.
• Auto theft has a current rate of about 6% of the 1990 level. 
• While the rest of the nation increased its rate of incarceration by 65%, New York City decreased its prison and jail rates by 28%

Another fun stat. What's changed in the last 40 years?

Since 1971, the U.S. prison population has grown from just over 200,000 to 1.5 million. When adjusted for population growth, the rate of imprisonment has increased 400%.

How did NYNY do it? The author of the story cites three tactics:

• They use computers and crime stats to target crime "hot spots".
• Police hours were shifted so that more officers were working at night.
• Open-air drug markets were shut down.

Excellent!
yow, bill

Bored blobs and cui bono

"Jet Trail"

Jesu Cristo. The WSJ hit the ball a long, long way this morning.
See zee ball. Hit zee ball. - Freddie Sanchez

1. Bored blobs

I heart Lenore Skenazy and her Free Range Kids blog.

QOTD

Researchers found that kids spend an average of only 2% to 3% of their day in "vigorous activities."
- Lenore, wsj - The importance of child's play

Even better. He he.

QOTD2

In striving to make our kids super safe and super smart we have turned them into bored blobs.
- Lenore

2. Cui bono

Who are these fucking losers? Idiots all.

1. Claude Allegre, former director of the Institute for the Study of the Earth, University of Paris
2. J. Scott Armstrong, cofounder of the Journal of Forecasting and the International Journal of Forecasting
3. Jan Breslow, head of the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism, Rockefeller University
4. Roger Cohen, fellow, American Physical Society
5. Edward David, member, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences
6. William Happer, professor of physics, Princeton
7. Michael Kelly, professor of technology, University of Cambridge, U.K.
8. William Kininmonth, former head of climate research at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology
9. Richard Lindzen, professor of atmospheric sciences, MIT
10. James McGrath, professor of chemistry, Virginia Technical University
11. Rodney Nichols, former president and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences
12. Burt Rutan, aerospace engineer, designer of Voyager and SpaceShipOne
13. Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and former U.S. senator
14. Nir Shaviv, professor of astrophysics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
15. Henk Tennekes, former director, Royal Dutch Meteorological Service
16. Antonio Zichichi, president of the World Federation of Scientists, Geneva

These 16 asswipes are climate deniers. Fools. Partisan hacks. They're all thoughtless, uncaring idiots who are a threat our planet and putting out children (the children!) at risk.

In today's WSJ, 16 scientists wrote a direct rebuke of global warming. Every word of this is spot on:

16 concerned scientists:

No need to panic about global warming

OK. Go:

• "CO2 is not a pollutant"
• "Perhaps the most inconvenient fact is the lack of global warming for well over 10 years now."
• "Alarmism over climate is of great benefit to many, providing government funding for academic research and a reason for government bureaucracies to grow."
• "The highest benefit-to-cost ratio is achieved for a policy that allows 50 more years of economic growth unimpeded by greenhouse gas controls"
• "Much of the huge private and government investment in climate is badly in need of critical review"

More important than 16 hotshot scientists is a simple point: what they are saying makes common sense. Simple common sense.

Finally, why has all this global warming nonsense been stirred up in the first place? 
Cui bono.
Follow the money.
yow, bill