Test Graders Stink

A very good piece about the high subjectivity of open-ended test grading, how we need to better standardize the graders.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/opinion/28farley.html?_r=1

I can hardly express how much I disliked the state writing tests. Maybe if I had learned to write good, I could express it better.

Obama's Health Insurance Reform Speech

My gut reactions to the speech:

Overall, I thought it was pretty good. He touched on a lot of issues, cleared up some lies being spread, and made efforts to reach out to Republicans, like including McCain's campaign idea into the legislation and trying to bring tort reform into the legislation. I suppose the one thing that really turned me off was this:

"Ours is not the first generation to understand the dire need for health reform. And I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last."

This comment just sounds really arrogant and in particular aggravated me. Regardless of what happens this year, we'll still need health care reform in the future. It's inevitable. Whatever changes they may make now, our health care system will still be imperfect, and everyone knows it. It might be better, but there will still be plenty of room for improvement. I sure hope he's not the last president to take on health care reform. And then he repeated this exact comment in an email to supports just minutes after the speech. Ay ay ay.

That said, overall, I think he did a very good job of trying to address as many concerns as possible and citing examples of Republicans being involved in the reform process. I'll be reading more and more post-speech analysis as it becomes available and further digesting it in the coming days.

I followed the fivethirtyeight.com live blog of the speech and enjoyed it. I really agree with Nate Silver's point about the advantage of a congressional address:

The images of Republicans clapping alongside Democrats when Obama mentions something like pre-existing conditions is the upside to doing this from the floor of the Congress, rather than another venue like the Oval Office. Note, though, that many Republicans didn't stand up and clap when Obama said "no one should go broke because they get sick."

Anyway, my favorite solution so far to the health insurance crisis is from one of the professors at UNC, Jonathan Oberlander. He wrote about an "all-payer" system in a great article in the New England Journal of Medicine on September 2. By far, it seems the most effective at actually cutting costs, and seems more politically feasible than most other drastic measures.

Linky linky

Here is a Cleveland newcrew reacting to LeBron's crucial game winner in Game 2. You watch this and feel so bad for Cleveland fans. It's like they are expecting to be cursed forever and never win anything. They totally gave up and were looking to next year...already! via Bill Simmons

Check out the Study Ball and Chain:

http://trueslant.com/jeffhoard/2009/05/20/finally-now-your-kids-can-study-like-criminals/

Good reads

A couple of intersting piecse of writing:

Annals of Innovation: Malcolm Gladwell writes about how David defeats Goliath, in basketball and in life. Very fascinating. Maybe I need to rethink my approach to life.

Vauban, a car free suburb of Freiburg, makes the NY Times. I've been to Vauban when I was studying in Freiburg, though it wasn't finished yet at the time. This article is mostly of interest to me since I've been there, but I also like the bike-focused culture. Freiburg is notably for it's incredible bike-friendly community. 

I couldn't believe Detroit traded away Chauncey Billups for Iverson earlier this seaon. Now Denver is crushing teams. The more I learn about Chauncey Billups, the more I like him. Great piece on ESPN's Outside the Lines. 

Interesting note: Rick Pitino comes up in two of the above pieces. Completely unplanned.

Cool Ideas

Check out ideas of Stephen M Johnson.

Rep Price Introduces Legislation to Honor Heels

Somewhat hilarious, certainly amusing. I'm certainly proud of the Heels, but doesn't Congress have very pressing issues to tackle right now? Maybe this sort of thing happens every year.

Conan The Librarian

From Weird Al's movie UHF (1989).

via my Dad.

Extreme Sheepherding

Impressive:

NBA Team Scouting Report

Scouting out NBA teams for UNC's players:

Ty Lawson: Given Lawson's height and speed, I think he'd be best suited to a run-and-gun environment just like he had at UNC. I can see him wreaking havok in the open court with his usual coast-to-coast cruising, but plodding half-court set teams might not allow him to utilize his strengths. According to John Hollinger, the fastest NBA teams are Golden State (101.1 possessions/game), New York (99.2), Indiana (98.9), and Phoenix (98.3). The slowest NBA teams are Cleveland, San Antonio, New Orleans, Detroit, and Portland, and I think those would be the worst match for him. Of the good matches, I kinda like the idea of him on the Knicks because I hear Mike D'Antoni is supposed to be a great coach, and the other teams I'm not so sure about coaching-wise.

Wayne Ellington: I was pretty impressed with Wayne's performance in the second half of the season. I saw the Miami game where he found his shot, and since then, he's been fantastic. He hit 8 of 10 three pointers in the Final Four. And he was coming off of screens too, not just hitting open jumpers. As NBA shooting guards go, he's a little short at 6'4", so run-and-gun might be best, but if can he nail shots off of screens, then he'd probably be able to get enough separation to get his shot off in the half court set. I'd stick him on the Charlotte Bobcats for all of the Carolina connections, including coach Larry Brown.

Tyler Hansbrough: What stands out to me is that Tyler was 9 of 23 from 3-point range this year, a 39% hit rate. This is pretty impressive for a guy who isn't known for his perimeter play. I'm really happy he has built up this skill while at UNC. He also hit 84% of his free throws, so I think his three point percentage can continue to improve. I see Hansbrough working out well on a veteran team that needs some younger high energy players who will do all the little things and be selfless. I pick San Antonio for the team-first attitude and the great coaching.

Danny Green: He's a solid 3-point shooter, and he collects a lot of steals and blocks, which is an unusual combination. As far as I can tell, one of his weaknesses is ball handling, so maybe if he's on a team with great ballhandlers, he won't be required to dribble too much and he can spot up for open shots. I'm having a tough time finding the perfect situation, but for some reason I keep coming back to Toronto. They've got a good point guard in Jose Calderon (8.8 assists per game, leads point guards in assist/turnover ratio at 4.16), they're a low turnover team, and they play at a medium pace. I'm not really confident about this choice, but hey, I don't get to choose anyway so what does it matter. He'd probably be good on a variety of veteran teams, like Boston, San Antonio, etc.

I hardly know anything about the NBA, so maybe I'm way wrong. Good luck to all the Tar Heels!

UNC: National Champions

This UNC team reminded me of 2007 Florida team - they simply dominated and were never seriously challenged. If anything, I think UNC was much more overpowering. There was no way any other team was going to win.

UNC looked like an NBA team in the first half (well, a short NBA team). We were just making every shot. These were difficult shots too, but not out of control circus shots. We had balance. Lawson had 7 first half steals. The whole team played wonderfully. Between last year's player of the year (Hansbrough), this year's ACC player of the year (Lawson) and the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four (Ellington), our team is pretty much stacked. Any of those 3 are capable of putting up 20 points on any given night, and Green is known to do it from time to time as well.

I felt sorry for Michigan State. The television showed them all teary eyed at the end. We really crushed them. They had come so far against strong odds and the media played up their chances so much to hype the game. I mean, we beat them by 35 earlier in the season, yet the media pretended it was a fair fight, emphasizing the crowd impact, MSU's improvement during the NCAA tournament, etc. Their hopes were raised, and then they were clobbered. Seriously, this entire UNC team has never lost in Cameron Indoor and you think they're going to get scared in a semi-away game because of the crowd impact? I kinda wish it had been a little closer so MSU might not feel so bad. I hope they do well next year.

As Pat Forde pointed out, UNC didn't blow Michigan State out to the point of displacing Duke in the record book for worse loss ever in the NCAA championship. Duke lost to UNLV by 30 points in 1990. This was brilliant strategy by UNC, maintaining Duke's embarrassing record and not embarrassing Michigan State excessively. Long last that Duke record.

Speaking of which, I even almost feel a little sorry for Duke fans. They've been in a drought for quite a while. They haven't even made it to the Elite 8 in ages. They've been suffering while UNC has eclipsed them, dominating the regular season series and NCAA tournament since Roy returned. I think the struggle is good for them though. Surely, when they win their next title, which will probably happen sometime in the next 10-50 years or so, they'll be very appreciative.

And, lastly, I just want a little senior spotlight for Mike Copeland. He's on my all-time underrated team. What a hilarious guy. I love his personalized handshakes for each player on the team. I think it's good for team spirit and it's good for him because he gets on television. Loved how his handshake for Tyler Hansbrough was Tyler ramming into him and Mike collapsing backwards. He seems to be such a good-natured fun loving guy, though sadly this image was somewhat tainted by the fracas at NC State. Before his knee surgery, he was a one-man wrecking crew. He would always come in at the end of games, play 4 minutes and finish with 4 points and a rebound (or so my memory idealistically recalls). Anyhow, I'll miss him. There was one part of the championship game that I really didn't like. At the end of the game, Copeland was in and there was a fast break. He was wide open closing in on the basket, but the scrubby UNC guard selfishly dribbled it all the way up and tried to score for himself. He took a contested shot and missed. Copeland would have been open and likely dunked the ball. Instead, no one got anything.

MJ and Dean

"There's no way you guys would have got a chance to see Michael Jordan play without Dean Smith" - Michael Jordon, upon his election to the Basketball Hall of Fame today

I'm just always amazed at the reverence that former players have for Dean Smith. At one game this year, I think it was the Virginia game, they had all of the UNC players who had been elected to the Hall of Fame present (MJ was not yet elected) for a ceremony of recognition. And during the ceremony, everyone deferred to Smith. The players all pointed to him, and I think it was Billy Cunningham who even started bowing to him. Dean, of course, was embarrassed and in "aww shucks" mode. It's impressive how much his players admire him.

UNC and Pace

Ken Pomeroy has a very interesting piece on UNC and pace, identifying a few specific areas at which UNC uniquely dominates (scoring points after opponent scores or some stoppage).

Comment on UNC-Oklahoma

I don't think I've ever seen so many missed dunks in one game. Any by only one team. Roy is going to have them practice their dunking skills. At least UNC played great defense.

FoxNews Headlines

Here are the FoxNews headlines on their website following Obama's speech tonight (all of the headlines pertaining to his speech):

Obama Hits Hope Theme

President walks fine line between honesty about economic crisis, optimism for future | 1ST 100 DAYS

• Obama Errs in Saying U.S. Invented Automobiles

• AP FACT CHECK: Obama Glosses Over Complexities

• Jindal: Obama's Economic Plan Irresponsible

• Obama's Reputation as Good Speaker Debatable

Though I was listening while working, I thought it was a pretty good speech.

Burke and Obama

David Brooks has a warning of caution to the Obama administration about taking on too much at once. I think he makes some good points. The current economic situation certainly requires bold action, but proceding with caution and trying to build off of existing systems is a good way to good.

Jungle Primaries

Fivethirtyeight.com has an interesting article about jungles primaries. And it also has gotten "Welcome to the Jungle" from Guns and Roses stuck in my head. It seems to me like jungle primaries would be generally a good thing, probably allowing for more cooperation between parties and less extremism. I had never really considered before how much our current primary system feeds into our partisanship.

Shaq Tweet

An interesting, though unverified, post about finding Shaq through Twitter.

Low-Tech Fixes For High-Tech Problems

The NY Times has a cool little article about using low-tech stuff to fix high-tech devices when they break. No guarantees, but amusing and some may be worth a try. I've heard of kids successfuly using the cellphone in rice technique before.

If your home Wi-Fi router doesn’t reach the other end of the house, don’t rush out to buy more wireless gear to stretch your network. Instead, build a six-inch-high passive radio wave reflector from kitchen items, like an aluminum cookie sheet.

Obama Sushi

Check it out!

clipped from feature.jp.msn.com

via Meredith!

Julius Peppers

Julius Peppers gives $100,000 to scholarship fund. Wahoo! Nice job, Mr. Peppers.

Fortune Cookie

First learn to "give" and then the universe will reward you.

- My fortune cookie from neurology lunch. Not quite sure why "give" is written in quotation marks.

Lucky numbers: 14, 5, 18, 37, 9, 7

School is in Session

Jordan and Perkins in class at UNC. Gotta love that smile on Perkins. I'd never seen this picture before, which is a shame. From a Tar Heel gallery at SI.

Tyler Zeller Update

For those of you not at the game extremely early, Tyler Zeller came out in athletic clothes shortly after the JV game to shoot around with the team. He no longer has a cast on, and his shot was looking really good. He nailed 3-pointer after 3-pointer. He didn't seem to jump very high, but as far as I could tell, his wrist was looking pretty good. (Afterwards, he came back out before game time with a suit on to sit on the bench).

I take this to be a very good sign. There is talk that he might medical redshirt this year so that he can play four more years. But really, no one knows what the next four years will bring. The team might not be this close to a title again. If he redshirted, Zeller would essentially be trading this year for his 5th-year senior season, which is a complete unknown. If his goal is to win an NCAA title, this year may very well be his best shot. And the team could really use another scoring threat since the bench's output stinks. He also might be able to replace Deon Thompson in the starting lineup, who hasn't done anything since ACC play started. It's only early February. Zeller could work his way back into the line up in the coming weeks. Then we could tinker with lineups to get things right. If we lose a couple games, it's all right. Then by NCAA-time, he's meshed with the team and we're ready to go the distance.

I Lego NY

Christoph Niemann has another humorous piece in the NYT.

clipped from niemann.blogs.nytimes.com

Blago

"I did a lot of things that were mostly right."

- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, defending himself during his impeachment trial

Now that's the sound of desperation if I ever heard it. But aside from that, what amazes me is that he is still out there proclaiming his complete innoncence. Other parts of his closing statement include, "You haven’t proved a crime and you can’t because it hasn’t happened. How can you throw a governor out of office with incomplete or insufficient evidence?" He seems so completely certain of his innocence that I almost start to wonder if this has been some big misunderstanding. He is a pretty good liar and an evil genius.

I think he demonstrated his evil genius best after the Democrats vowed to barr entrance to anyone he nominated to the senate. So he chose Roland Burris. Matt Taibbi described him as "a 71-year-old, half-batty egomaniac named Roland Burris, the first black man elected to statewide office in Illinois...an over-the-top eccentric who refers to himself in the third person ("If there hadn't been a Roland Burris, there would not have been a Barack Obama") and who has already built for himself a mausoleum inscribed with the words TRAIL BLAZER." 

One more paragraph to borrow from Taibbi:

Americans were thus treated to the spectacle of two white Democrats physically refusing to open the Senate doors for what would have been the body's only black senator. To make matters worse, the Democratic leadership hung its entire case for barring Burris from office on a technicality: His appointment, they insisted, had not been certified by the Illinois secretary of state. When the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the Burris appointment was, in fact, legal, [Harry]Reid and [Dick] Durbin were left with a face full of omelet just weeks before Obama's inauguration.

The Democrats of course caved and seated Burris, saying, "oh no, we didn't expect Blago to nominate a respectable candidate." By choosing Burris, it made Blagojevich look like a reasonable guy since he was replacing Obama with another African American, and it made Reid and Durbin look like fools (but that was their own fault) since they seated him anyway, thereby giving credibility to Blagojevich. A stroke of evil genius.

NYC v Salt

Dr. Tom Frieden is taking it to the purveyors of salt. Seems like a difficult task, but one with potentially big public health benefits.

Bono

"This kind of spirit blows through every now and then. It's a very strange feeling. We're waiting for God to walk into the room - and God, it turns out, is very unreliable. So you don't have the right to imagine you can make a great album. But what you can do is create the conditions where it might happen."

- Bono, from U2, on making their new album No Line On The Horizon

This quotation pretty much captures what inspiration is all about, as far as I can tell anyway...."create the conditions where it might happen." Those are some words to live by.

Coffee Linked to Lower Dementia Risk

The story is at the NY Times. It's all observational though; no guarantees.

Fortune Cookies

"You will have many friends when you need them"

"You have an important new business development shaping up"

(yeah, I opened two cookies)

Beetlejuice

From Bradsucks:

Compare to original over here.

History

I noticed that the Daily Tar Heel has a thumbs up or thumbs down feature called Quick Hits. They gave the symbolic Obama train ride from Philadelphia to DC a sideways thumb, saying it was a bit "too theatrical and corny" for their taste. As a matter of fact, I agree; it's my understanding that it cost a ton of money to set up given the security concerns, but I can't find any figures for that off hand. The idea was to recreate Lincoln's journey to DC, which sounds symbolic, but also brings up hubris and opulence. Had it zero to little cost associated with it, I think it'd be fine, like how the mayor of New York, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, rides the subway to work (occasionally at least). I think the train ride was unnecessary. The fact that the country elected Obama is in itself very significant and symbolic. The fact that a couple million people attended the inauguration was significant and symbolic. Maybe everyone on the National Mall could have joined in song together. That would have been awesome, memorable, and free (or at least cheap). But adding in an expensive, phony train ride to DC is probably taking away from the history being made.

Presidents

Every time I hear something like, "the President took the oath of office," I just smile and feel happy. He's now "the President." Finally. The Iowa Caucuses were over a year ago. I feel quite proud to be an American. Over the last eigth years, I found my president to be an embarassment, and I was often quick to explain that he didn't speak for me whenever I traveled or met people from other countries. A part of me now feels a little sorry for Bush since he has finally shown some remorse and admitted some errors. Too bad he didn't admit errors earlier or have the foresight to know how wrong his direction was. A least, in admitting errors, he seems more sympathetic, like he was in over his head. Dick Cheney, on the other hand, remains defiant.

Different topic:

Interestingly enough, Obama, who has shown quick wit and skilled oration over the years, totally stumbled through the oath of office, with the help of stumbling Chief Justice John Roberts. I guess they both were a little nervous.

I also noticed that most news outlets were optimistic and excited about the election. So I went over to FoxNews to see what they were reporting. Some of the headlines conveyed this optimism, like "Historic Moment Cast as Victory of Hope Over Fear." Some commentators, however, like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck were skeptical. Hannity could be right that it is the most expensive inauguration ever, but he doesn't cite any numbers.

What was quite interesting to me was a piece about the unhealthiest presidents. Turns out JFK was a health disaster. Eisenhower was also in bad shape, and even developed Crohn's Disease while in office.

Atheists and Agnostics Put Message on Buses

The NY Times had an article about how 800 buses in Great Britain are now carrying atheist and agnostic messages. It's an interesting piece. Perhaps what struck me most were these quotes:

“I think it’s dreadful,” said Sandra Lafaire, 76, a tourist from Los Angeles, who said she believed in God and still enjoyed her life, thank you very much. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I don’t like it in my face.”

And from Richard Dawkins:

“Across Britain, we are used to being bombarded by religious interests,” he said, “not just Christians, but other religions as well, who seem to think that they have got a God-given right to propagandize.”