Bummer No one is watching my blog....
|
Posted:Mar 25, 2008 1:47 am
Last Updated:Mar 25, 2008 9:37 am 4555 Views
|
At least I am getting some views...when I first started blogging, no one was viewing...So I want to thank you for viewing this blog. It gives me motivation to write.
I will try to write about living in california, something I have much experience in.
jpollock
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
Holy Moley....UCLA to be upset by Western Kentucky?
|
Posted:Mar 25, 2008 1:39 am
Last Updated:May 13, 2024 12:16 am 4733 Views
|
Egad...Hubert, a basketball analyst on ESPN predicts WKy will upset UCLA in the basketball game this thursday. I am also documenting this so I can say I heard it first tuesday morning waiting for the Dice K baseball game...
jpollock
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
Trying to stay up to 3 AM (PST) to watch DiceK
|
Posted:Mar 25, 2008 1:31 am
Last Updated:May 13, 2024 12:16 am 4382 Views
|
It is midnight and I have just set my alarm for 300 am to watch Boston play Oakland in Tokyo. I like the Tokyo Dome. I went there in 2006 for the American Major League Baseball All-Stars versus the Japanese Professional All-Star series. The Tokyo Dome baseball stadium is in a complex that has a high rise hotel and an amusement park. I could down from my hotel window and see the stadium (a 30 second walk to the stadium). It is also just across the street from the local train station along the line that circles tokyo.
Random thoughts:
All American baseball games have the singing of the American National Anthem before the game. Usually, the words are displayed on the Big Screen or scoreboard. However in Tokyo, they did not have the words up on the scoreboard. Do you know the words to the National Anthem memorized? I do. I think I was the only person in my area of the stands (behind home plate about 5 rows up...love those game day available tickets) singing the anthem. There were even some New York Met fans 2 rows in front of me who did not sing (hats and jackets ...but they did not sing the Jose song when Jose Reyes came to bat like in Shea Stadium (New York's home stadium). I kind of felt proud that I could sing the words without the words on the scoreboard. I must have had some effect, because this middle aged japanese lady sang the Japanese National Anthem when they played it after the Star Spangled Banner.
They have with beer kegs strapped on their backs selling beer in the stands. Not old men like in the US.
I saw some ichiro and nomo jerseys in the stands (I wore a Jackie Robinson Brooklyn Dodger jersey).
They usually have these games every two years, so I hope they have them this year (200 . If they do, I'll be there.
jpollock
intense baseball fan
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
One reason it is more difficult for Asian Student to gain admission to Ivy league schools
|
Posted:Mar 25, 2008 1:08 am
Last Updated:May 13, 2024 12:16 am 4406 Views
|
Because Asian students may not be legacies or progeny of Ivy league alums it will be more difficult to gain admission. In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle ( “Free tuition is no substitute for dropping legacy admissions”, by Shikha Dalmia, Tuesday, March 18, 2008, page B-7),
“Brown Alumni Magazine reported that legacy applicants are twice as likely as regular applicants to gain admission to Brown University, an Ivy League school. An investigation by the U.S. Office of Civil Rights into Harvard University's admission practices in 1990 reported an identical finding. Nor is there any reason to believe that things have changed at these universities, given that neither has made any move to abandon legacy preferences - although both have announced more generous financial aid. Meanwhile, a 1999 study of the University of Virginia - widely regarded as a public "Ivy" - found that legacy students were 4.3 times more likely to get in over non-legacies with identical academic credentials.
But the most compelling research showing just how lucky born to elite-educated parents are was published in 2005 by Princeton University's Tom Espenshade and Chang Y. Chung. Their analysis of a dozen selected colleges (that they can't identify due to a confidentiality agreement) revealed that on a 1,600-point SAT scale, being the of an alumnus gives the equivalent of 160-point boost to an applicant. By contrast, having nonlegacy Asian American parents represents a 50 SAT-point disadvantage. In other words, these must score 210 points over rich, white legacy offspring to have a shot at admission.
Universities defend legacy preferences on grounds that they help them raise funds from alumni, which they then use to subsidize poor . If this were true, universities most flush with alumni money would also be the most economically diverse. The reverse, actually, is the case. Indeed, according to a 2006 survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Harvard, whose $36 billion endowment is the biggest in the country, ranks a dismal 55th out of the top 59 wealthiest private schools on economic diversity. Yale, which at $22 billion sits on the second-biggest endowment, ranks 46th. And Stanford is 24th even though its $17 billion endowment is the third largest.
The reason why economic aid does not equal economic diversity on campus is not hard to understand: Admissions are a zero-sum game in which students vie for a finite number of seats. So every seat that a less-talented legacy gets is one less spot at Stanford available to a talented poor . The crucial determinant of economic diversity on campus is not how much largesse legacies expend on poor - but how many seats they take away from them.
If there is any doubt about this, consider Caltech in Southern California. Its admission standards are the toughest among elite colleges. Its endowment is a "mere" $2.38 billion - yet it ranks an impressive 13th on economic diversity. Its financial aid package is no more generous than that of Stanford or other elite schools. So what's the difference? It applies the same standards to everyone, refusing to give legacies a leg up.”
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
Man's Biological Clock
|
Posted:Mar 22, 2008 12:59 am
Last Updated:May 13, 2024 12:16 am 4367 Views
|
I have heard many people refer to a woman's biological clock, meaning that as a woman ages, her fertility decreases and the chances of birth defects, such as down's syndrome, increases. So, for example, for woman trying to have conception (without artificial insemination or fertility drugs) ..."at age 30, 75% will get pregnant within one year. At age 35, 66% will get pregnant. At age 40, 44% will get pregnant. Within four years after trying to conceive naturally: 91% of 30-year-olds will be successful.
84% of 35-year-olds will. 64% of 40-year-olds will. "(Fertility Treatment less successfull after 35, Jeanie L. Davis, June 18, 2004).
While a man's sperm has decreasing viability and increased occurences of autism in the resulting progeny, man can still biologically contribute to a viable conception. Tony Randall, the actor, is one such example, having married when he was 75 (she was 25), and having had healthy when he was 77 and 79.
So while biologically it is possible, for all intents and purposes, a man's biological clock is more of a societal one. I am in my 50's. Most women that would consider dating me are in their 40's, if not 50's. Even if they would be biologically able, they may not wish to have at that age, even thorough adoption.
I had a happy family life, and I am sad that I will never experience it with a biological or adoptive family of my own. While marrying into a step family is an option, the personality, ethics, characteristics of the step are already imprinted with the parents or parent that raised them...
So I have accepted the reality that I will not have of my own as my societal clock has expired. Just remember that some men wish they had families of their own too.
jpollock
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
Fantasy Sports
|
Posted:Mar 20, 2008 11:31 am
Last Updated:Mar 22, 2008 12:11 am 4491 Views
|
I have not posted much lately. This is due in part to my annual March Madness entries and preparation for fantasy baseball.
The basic premise of fantasy sports is a person (you) select a list of real life sports figures, for example baseball players, and you score points for how the statistics that sports figure generates in real life. For example, if I have Alex Rodriguez (third basemen for the New York Yankees) on my team, for each home run, base hit, etc. that Alex achieves, my team gets a point. Then at the end of the season, the person who “owns” team with the most points, wins a percentage of the entry fees. Since baseball is my passion, I have been involved in fantasy baseball for years. My friends know this and recently mentioned that a recent movie scene (in Knocked Up?) where some guys are holding a fantasy baseball draft reminded them of me. I guess that is better than saying I remind them of the “Forty-year-old Virgin” (wink). A whole series of cottage industries have sprouted, for example web-sites generating statistics, books for researching players, web-sites for running leagues. What is so funny is the proliferation of this basic concept into other applications besides baseball, including NASCAR (pick a driver, get points), golf, and, believe it or not, bass fishing...
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
|
|
