Michele Bachman has 28 kids (and only one L in her name)

I’ve been consumed with work and other matters but I suspect one of the major networks must have raised this issue…

Blogger and Commenter Intelligence

In a fit of annoyance I previously made a graph (and drank an iced coffee) showing the level of arrogance on extremely intelligent blogs–see below.  I never posted it because it is more like some of the smartest bloggers and I was just annoyed at the moment.

Modeled Behavior, who I generally agree with, makes a point which I think actually holds a lot more true than my knee jerk reaction.  The comment sections on blogs tend to go the other way.  The more arrogant a commenter, generally the less he or she understands the issue.

The strong inverse correlation between commenter cockiness and both grasp of the issue and reading comprehension is irritating.

Is Fred Wilpon Smarter Than We All Think?

Probably not.  Okay, definitely not.  But this quote from the Daily News did get me thinking about personal incentives and some behavioral thinking.

Daily News article…

Wilpon didn’t get off as easy. Gee, what a shock that he was getting pounded Monday inside the Valley of the Stupid. It went something like this: What good comes out of his comments about Reyes, David Wright (“not a superstar”) and Carlos Beltran (“he’s 65 to 70% of what he was”)? Or just when the focus returned to the field, Wilpon takes it off with his opinions.

What is the Hail Mary that could save the Mets and the Wilpons? Money and a World Championship.  How do you motivate your key players?  You tell them they are playing for their future contracts and their pride.  Which is what he basically did, in a very, very asinine way. It kind of reminds me of a movie I saw once…

Anyone know if this place still exists?

Perhaps I should have been making a different gesture…

They get you with the fees…

This seems to be a questionable business practice…also, where’s my sharpie?

Unsettling Medical Statistics of the Day

Imagine if 95% of people didn’t know they had…

Via Philly.com

Celiac is an autoimmune disease that afflicts about one in every 133 Americans. But an estimated 95 percent of people who have the disease are either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.

The disease is activated by the protein gluten, which is found in foods containing wheat, rye or barley, and its symptoms are wide-ranging – fatigue, bloating and gas, canker sores and joint pain. Because symptoms can vary from patient to patient, diagnosis can be difficult.

Canadian Elections and Twitter

Bin Laden and our own economic woes are overshadowing this — but no is talking about the trouncing the conservative party dished out in the recent Canadian election.

My [Canadian] friend Taryn:

Do you want to know how crazy this is??  Toronto did not even re-elect its NHL legend Ken Dryden.  Toronto!!  The most hockey-crazy city ever!!!

At the same time Elections Canada is facing a dilemma that no one everyone could have predicted after social media users on Monday night disregarded an old law that bans the transmission of election results before all polls close.

From the Toronto Star:

The agency, tasked with upholding an archaic provision in the Canada Elections Act dating back to 1938, now faces the bizarre conundrum of knowing about widespread online dissemination of election results through Twitter and Facebook, but being powerless to do anything about it.

Unless someone complains, Elections Canada can’t open an investigation into any alleged transgressions. So far the agency refuses to confirm or deny that any complaints have been lodged.

When did Canada turn into the United States circa 2002?

Is StubHub a lagging indicator?

I wrote about the potential utility for StubHub as prediction here.

At the time, the NY Mets were stinking up the field and certain tickets were as low as $3.

Then Terry Collins got ejected from a game. Those bottom level tickets immediately went up to $4 after the Collins ejection.  The incident seems to have fired up the Mets (Jason Bay’s return hasn’t hurt, either) and they have won 4 straight.  All the remaining $3 tickets have jumped to $4 and $5.

The immediate price increase was quick.  Since then, it has been more gradual —  up to $5 despite the 3 wins after the Collins ejection.

Is StubHub a lagging indicator or are Mets fans still overly skeptical of this team?

Curious to see how the team’s performance and ticket prices trend…

Smart Phones and Dog Doo

When handheld devices first came out people weren’t yet ‘trained’ to walk blindly down a city sidewalk and I would imagine a very small percent of those early adopters found themselves stepping in dog doo.  However, as smart phones usage has soared, people have gotten used to the technology and the ‘acceptability’ (not by me) of multitasking while walking down the street is also exponentially higher.  Coupled that with the fact that someone walking their while using a smart phone is less likely to clean up after the dog and I would imagine the smart phone to dog doo curve looks something like this:

When iPhones are not efficient

Am I losing my mind or shouldn’t my iPhone have sent me up 1st Street?

HT: Kyak