Author: RB

Home Opener

The A’s have their home opener tonight against some team from Chicago, so our long dark night of the soul is over. America’s team has played two valiant series on the road already, against a much improved Seattle Mariners team and the Anaheim chapter of the Axis of Steinbrenner. The Team split with the Halos and went 1-2 against the sailors. So we’re learned a lot already:

* The core pitching staff of Harden, Haren, and Blanton is outstanding, as good as any Big Three in baseball right now.

* The loss of Zito isn’t going to hurt the As. His ERA is now above 8 for the Giants, and he’s 0-2 after getting banged around in both of his starts on the wrong side of the Bay.

* The loss of Frank Thomas isn’t going to hurt the As. Piazza leads the league in hits, and he can hit anybody, anytime. And he runs like a turbo-charged beer truck, not a regular beer truck.

* Shannon Stewart, most likely, is an upgrade from Jay Payton.

* Chad Gaudin has the stuff to be a big-league starter, and pitching on a regular basis improves his control, the only weakness in his game in the past. When he’s got a full four-pitch repertoire, watch out AL.

* Alan Embree is more than a LOOGY, he’s a great 1-2 inning setup man.

* Base running is hard. Your coaches and your runners and your hitters all need to be on the same page, and when it goes wrong you look like a bunch of morons.

* Infield defense has taken a dive post-Wash and won’t fully recover.

* Bobby Crosby isn’t 100% and Geren needs to treat him accordingly. If you got runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs and Crosby coming up, pinch hit Mr. Clutch Scutaro for him, at least during April. Re-evaluate in May.

* Nick Swisher can hit with RISP.

* Jason Kendall can throw out stealing Angels and then rub their face in it by stealing bases himself. That’s because he’s the ultimate gamer.

* Travis Buck is going to be in the Big Leagues for many years, but probably not for all of this one.

* Lackey and K-Fraud are the King and Queen of Bush League behavior.

* The Angels in general are not all they’re cracked-up to be. They have one good hitter and only one, their defense is ragged, their running game is chaos, and their bullpen is weak.

* Felix Hernandez of the Sailors is the real deal, a dominating pitcher with Cy Young in his future.

Frankie Rodriguez’ Cheating Ways

For those defending Angel closer Francisco Rodriguez in the case against him for doctoring the baseball, here’s the relevant baseball rule:

Rule 8.02(a) Comment: If at any time the ball hits the rosin bag it is in play. In the case of rain or wet field, the umpire may instruct the pitcher to carry the rosin bag in his hip pocket. A pitcher may use the rosin bag for the purpose of applying rosin to his bare hand or hands. Neither the pitcher nor any other player shall dust the ball with the rosin bag; neither shall the pitcher nor any other player be permitted to apply rosin from the bag to his glove or dust any part of his uniform with the rosin bag.

Rodriguez admits to loading his cap with rosin, so the case is closed. He should get a ten-day suspension and close scrutiny when he returns, if for no other reason than for his ignorance of the rules:

I talked to Francisco Rodriguez about this white substance on the underside of his bill and he grabbed the hat from his locker, flipped it over and said “This?” On the black underside of his cap was a sizable white smudge. “It’s rosin,” Rodriguez said.

It’s interesting to note that since Rosingate became public, Rodriguez has been tagged pretty good: Piazza homered off him Thursday to win the game, and he’s given up a total of four hits in two innings of work, two of them for extra bases. Against the A’s, his ERA now stands at 4.50, and his BAA at .400 and his SAA at .800.

K-Rod with a doctored ball: dominating closer; K-Rod without a doctored ball: mediocre. Not to take anything away from the A’s, mind you, who are still the greatest team in baseball (when healthy.)

UPDATE: Major League Baseball joins the conspiracy, “clearing” the pitcher now known as K-Fraud of ball doctoring:

Major League Baseball informed the Angels on Friday that closer Francisco Rodriguez will not face disciplinary action for supposedly doctoring baseballs, an allegation that was first made on an Internet blog written by the author of the book, “The Cheaters Guide to Baseball.”

Uh huh, right. So the big-market teams such as the overpaid Angels continue to get preferential treatment from MLB, extending to an extra-special strike zone.

Our democracy is in danger.

Any old cause will do

Check The Guardian today for Andrew Orlowski’s take on net neutrality as an Internet conspiracy theory:

In a much celebrated remark, a senior Bush administration aide told journalist Ron Suskind: “When we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality, we’ll act again, creating other new realities.” But with the democratisation of publishing, creating new realities is now a game that everyone can play. Conspiracy theorists have used the web to great effect, with a mini-industry insisting the 9/11 attacks were a US plot. Describing the popularity of such fantasy realities, Alexander Cockburn lamented that “outrage burns in many an American breast, but there’s scant outlet for it in the political arena”…

The UK’s most prominent internet engineer, Professor Jon Crowcroft of Cambridge University, thinks that activists had imagined a bogus demon. “Net Neutrality is a misdirection, a red herring,” he says.

Save The Internet took full advantage of rational fears, argues veteran internet engineer Richard Bennett, but in doing so, it created “an Intelligent Design for the Left”.

The gap between fear and reality is even more stark when the technical issues are examined. The Neutrality amendments rejected by Congress last year would have made many of today’s private contracts illegal, and outlawed the techniques such as “traffic shaping” that ISPs use to curb bandwidth hogs, says Bennett…

Even worse was the long-term chilling effect. Neutrality would have made designing a better internet much harder, says the man commonly described as the father of the internet.

Dr Robert Kahn says that Neutrality legislation poses a fundamental threat to internet research because it misunderstands what the internet really is; it’s a network of networks, and experimentation on private networks must be encouraged.”The internet has never been neutral,” explains Crowcroft. “Without traffic shaping, we won’t get the convergence that allows the innovation on TV and online games that we’ve seen in data and telephony.”

Last month the Neutrality bandwagon reached Westminster – where it was dismissed in short order. Summing up the consensus at the end of an eForum debate at Millbank, the former Trade Minister Alun Michael described Neutrality as “an answer to problems we don’t have, using a philosophy we don’t share.” And with an echo of Professors Van Alstyne and Brynjolfsson, Michael said the phenomenon reminded him of the Tower of Babel.

When the ink is dry on this issue, historians will see it more as a testament to the power of the Internet to win support for dubious causes than anything else. To think that neutralitarians have actually built a movement to pressure Congress to enact laws against unprecedented, speculative, hypothetical ills is actually mind-boggling.

Don’t they have enough real problems?

Baseball Predictions

Matt Welch is goading me to post my predictions, so here we go:

NL East

1. Phillies: A super-talented team with a good balance of pitching and hitting.
2. Mets*: Pitching staff is incredibly weak, especially in the bullpen and they’re so old they’re going to have a lot of injuries. Wild Card pick.
3. Marlins: Very talented young team that could surprise some people.
4. Braves: Not the Braves of yore.
5. Nationals: Sad.

NL Central

1. Brewers: Craftily-built team like the Tigers of last year.
2. Astros: If Clemens comes back without too much drama and injuries don’t strike.
3. Cardinals: Lost the entire pitching staff except for Carpenter and downgraded infield.
4. Cubs: All hype, no substance, plus they have the A’s old hitting coach.
5. Reds: Not enough depth.
6. Pirates: Hapless as usual.

NL West

1. Dodgers: Great rotation, lots of talent.
2. Giants: An excellent rotation, but a weak pen and too many geezers.
3. Padres: Not as good as last year, even.
4. Diamondbacks: Randy Johnson is past it, and they have no power.
5. Rockies: Why won’t they finish last?

Pennant Winner: Phillies

AL East

1. Red Sox: Dice K anchors a bitching rotation, and the rest are good enough for Fenway.
2. Yankees: Still no pitching and a weak bullpen.
3. Devil Rays: Not as bad as they look.
4. Blue Jays: I’d like to see them do better, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
5. Orioles: Ho-hum.

AL Central

1. Indians: All around best team in the division.
2. Tigers*: Last year was a fluke, and they played to form in the World Series.
3. Twins: Liriano on the DL for at least half the season, and not enough behind Santana.
4. White Sox: Crazy ass manager, weak pitching staff.
5. Royals: Sad.

AL West

1. A’s: The perennial favorite, barring injuries to key players, will repeat, and Travis Buck will win Rookie of the Year.
2. Mariners: A much improved team, but pitching is still weak after King Felix.
3. Rangers: New manager Ron Washington feeling his way around the bigs, too many smallball delusions.
4. Angels: Loss of Bud Black will kill the pitching staff’s health, aging position players will melt down, and the most over-rated manager in baseball now what Dusty Baker’s on TV will botch the lineup day after day. By season’s end, Gary Matthews will be on the lam from the cops, Guerrero will get a hip replacement, Shields’ arm will come flying off in chase of Heather Mills’ leg, and Anderson will need a new liver.

Pennant Winner: A’s.

WS: A’s in 6.

New Policy

I’ve decided to be nice.

This is because the blogosphere is full of bang-up, hardcore, high-integrity people who read carefully, consider all sides of an argument before posting, and always check their facts. It would be a dishonor to this wonderful crew if I was to go on complaining and arguing all the time. As I want nothing more than universal brotherhood and understanding, I have to set a good example for the others by behaving in an exemplary fashion.

It’s the right thing to do, of course.

Buy this dress

Either you or someone you know needs to own the sophisticated yet whimsical slip mentioned in the final paragraph:

Leontine opened in November on a cobbled lane in the rapidly redeveloping wilds of the South Street Seaport. Down here, foot traffic is minimal, and last week the snow lay crisp along the sidewalks. Perhaps this accounts for the Sleeping Beauty aspect that struck me immediately on stepping into Leontine’s cavernous white chandelier-hung space.

“Yeah, the last couple of months have been pretty cold and lonely,” Virginia Loughnan, a sales assistant, confirmed, drawing her little knitted shrug around her slim shoulders. “But hopefully with the warmer weather. … We’re going to sell fresh-cut flowers.”

Leontine, like its West Village sister stores, Albertine and Claudine (the three are named for the maids in “Bonjour Tristesse”), sells a mix of vintage and contemporary jewelry, accessories and clothing by hard-to-find designers. Cécile, the heroine of “Bonjour Tristesse,” is an indulged and sexually precocious 17-year-old, on the cusp between child and woman, and this is a fitting description of the aesthetic informing most of the clothing on Leontine’s wrought-iron racks.

…Miranda Bennett worked in Ms. Lee’s shops before introducing her label, and her sleeveless black moiré slip with a ruffled Empire waist ($400) balanced sweetness with a knowing sophistication.

In New York, go to Leontine, and outside see Miranda Bennett Design. Buy now and nobody gets hurt.

Leading Economists Agree: Net Neutrality does more harm than good

This is good:

Network neutrality is a policy proposal that would regulate how network providers manage and price the use of their networks. Congress has introduced several bills on network neutrality. Proposed legislation generally would mandate that Internet service providers exercise no control over the content that flows over their lines and would bar providers from charging particular services more than others for preferentially faster access to the Internet. These proposals must be considered carefully in light of the underlying economics. Our basic concern is that most proposals aimed at implementing net neutrality are likely to do more harm than good.

Read the whole thing, it’s only three pages long.

The Kathy Sierra flap

I’m not getting this whole Kathy Sierra thing. Apparently, Frank Paynter set up a blog called Mean Kids where people were encouraged to be rude and childish toward various objects of derision, including Sierra, tech writer of some note. Somehow this derision escalated to death threats, and now we have this:

As I type this, I am supposed to be in San Diego, delivering a workshop at the ETech conference. But I’m not. I’m at home, with the doors locked, terrified.

The thing is, something must have happened to bring garden-variety derision to the level of death threats. Did Sierra provoke Paynter’s mob? Why did she become the object of all hatred instead of somebody else? And why is she sitting at home with the door locked?

I’m not saying it’s all OK to post vicious personal attacks on people’s blogs, just that there seem to be a few dozen facts missing from the story, and now that the meankids.org blog has been taken down, it doesn’t look like we’ll ever get them.

One consequence of this is “Kathy Sierra” has replaced “Cathy Seipp” as the number one search on Technorati. The threat of death must be more compelling than the fact of it.

UPDATE: Kudos to Valleywag for calling “bullshit” on this Sierra mess. Sierra is playing the “misogyny” card against Chris Locke, when all he did was call her a dipshit. And it appears that he was right. Dave Winer is also standing up for Locke, and he’s to be congratulated for that.

See Chris Locke stand up for himself. As I initially suspected, there’s a Wellbert connection to this deal: meankids has the flavor of the Well’s flame conference, and Locke used to be a Wellbert moderator.

In any event, it appears that Sierra is seriously overplaying her hand, and as a result she comes across as a whiny little crybaby. Misogyny is a bad thing, of course, but that doesn’t mean that all women are exempt from all criticism. Locke said Sierra is “a dipshit”, which is neither misogynist nor inaccurate.

Who’s your daddy?

The illustrious Dr. Frank clued me in on the story about the sheep/human chimera, a man-made creature with 15% human genes and 85% sheeply ones. These critters are an experimental stage in the production of an organ-donor pool for sickly humans.

Now from the journal Nature we find that genetic mixing isn’t just for the laboratory, as Mother Nature does it herself with cute little marmosets:

As a general rule, a man who learns that his children are genetically his brother’s offspring would have good cause for distress. But for one group of primates, that wouldn’t necessarily mean that mum has been unfaithful, a new study finds.

The reason, says Corinna Ross of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, is that these primates are often genetic mosaics containing some cells that belonged to their siblings. And when those cells happen to be sperm, a male can sire offspring that are genetically nephews and nieces rather than sons and daughters.

This strange genetic mixing could be one of the reasons why these animals tend to raise their families in large collectives, with everyone lending a hand; animals are thought to generally give more parental attention to children with a strong genetic similarity to themselves.

Marmosets, you see, are typically born in pairs of non-identical twins who share a common blood supply in the womb. This leads to genetic migration and chimaerism. So any ideas you may have had about impenetrable walls between species and individuals in nature have to be set aside.

The coming bumper-crop of news

My old blogger buddy Jeff Jarvis is trying to figure out what’s happening to the news, and how to inject a little optimism into the business:

This Friday, I’m giving a keynote at the University of Texas International Symposium on Online Journalism. My topic: “The end of the mourning, mewling, and moaning about the future of journalism: Why I’m a cock-eyed optimist about news.” I’d like your help. Tell me why you’re optimistic about news: what we can do now that we couldn’t do before, where you see growth, where you see new opportunities. (I’ll put the spiel up as soon as I figure out how to export Keynote with my notes.)

Here’s what I’d tell the children:

The good news about the news is that there’s no shortage of news. The best experts forecast a nearly boundless supply of news clear into the next century, so the news conservation efforts of the past (recycling, echo-chambering, and other forms of plagiarism) are no longer necessary and will phase out as soon as we have the means to harvest the coming bumper-crop of news.

And things aren’t just rosy on the supply side, they’re looking real good on the demand side. Previous generations of news consumers had to get by on two newsfeeds a day, one before work in the morning and the other after work. Now we can graze and forage on news all day long without becoming over-educated.

The challenge to news harvesters is in the construction of the apparatus that harvests raw news, processes it, and takes it to market. In previous generations, this process was most efficient when centralized in local news factories, but today and tomorrow the process will become more decentralized, sometimes even taking place on consumer premises under the control of news robots which sift, sort, organize, and filter according to consumer preferences. The process of moving these functions from central offices to consumer equipment is just beginning, although we’ve had working prototypes of the news robot for 25 years.

The revenue picture has never been brighter, as each feed is easily supported by multiple sources of ad and subscriber fees.

The key elements are understanding that decentralization is in fact multiple centralization, and that each center of news processing is a potential revenue generator. That’s all I wish to say at the moment, but you can do the math.

And Hook ‘Em.