World Cup

Hurray, hurray! It's Soccer World Cup time! Another one-trick sport dominates the airwaves.

And, the Stanley Cup lasts well into June, and Canadian football starts soon. Oh ... let's not forget poker; an FSN ad referred to a tournament with all the "Poker Royalty" in attendance!

Poker players, billionaires, celebrities, supermodels, chefs, soccer players, home renovators, bounty hunters ... the people of North America are so lucky that we will never run out of asses to kiss!

Gimme a Bee

Our sports networks are at it again! Poker, World's Biggest Cigar, Celebrity Dancing, and now ... televised Spelling Bee!!

Next? Celebrity Spelling Bee: "Cat? Could you use it in a sentence, please?"

Interleague Baseball

I hate Interleague Baseball! It's slanted against the American League teams.

If the game is played in a National League park, the AL team loses its Designated Hitter, and its Pitcher has to hit. Lose-lose for the AL team!

If the game is played in an AL park, the NL team gets to play an extra hitter, and its pitcher does not have to hit. Win-win for the NL team.

This is all profit-driven, of course; some team rivalries sell more tickets, like New York/New York, Chicago/Chicago, and the Angels/Dodgers, but what's in it for the fans who are offered Colorado/Toronto?

More interesting might be for Toronto to play Detroit or Oakland or Cleveland more often. In fact, teams in a strong division, playing against their divisional rivals 19 times means less movement within divisions than when they played more games against teams in other divisions. The Wild Card situation means that a team that gets clobbered in its own division can still be stronger [have a better record] than the leaders in the other divisions, but not make their way into the postseason.

Bob Rae

Former Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae has formally declared his intention to seek the federal Liberal leadership, but says he has no plans to shift the party to the left.

Rae, who governed Ontario from 1990 to 1995, says he would stake out the political centre if elected as Paul Martin's successor. "What happens to Canada and what happens to Canadians matters," Rae said. "I believe that Canada needs a party that embraces change."

Zatoichi

The character's name is actually Ichi. Zato is a title, the lowest of the four official ranks within the Todo-za, the traditional guild for the blind, which was abolished in 1871. The three other ranks, in ascending order, were koto, betto, and kengyo. Ichi is therefore properly called Zato-no-Ichi ("Low-Ranking Blind Person Ichi," approximately), or Zatoichi for short. Giving massages was a traditional occupation for the blind.

A recurring theme of both the films and television series episodes concerns Zatoichi protecting the innocent from oppressive warring clans and general injustice.

Hockey

I'm not a hockey fan - never was. When it was announced today that Toronto didn't make the playoffs, I shrugged, "Whatever!"

Then my wife said, "Hockey used to be a sport - now it's a brawl;" adding, "like wrestling on ice."

"Don't give them any ideas," I answered

Books II

I just finished The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell, and enjoyed it even more than I did her Assassination Vacation.

Bread and Circuses II

With all of the celebrities dancing, skating, and cooking, is there going to be a market for Celebrity Freecell? Stay tuned!

Blue Jays vs White Sox

Pitcher A. J. Burnett made his debut as a Blue Jay yesterday. The score was Chicago 4, Toronto 2.

Paul Konerko of Chicago hit two 2-run home runs, accounting for all 4 White Sox RBI's.

Some sportscasters reported, "He threw only 2 bad pitches." I'm thinking that, since he gave up two 2-run home runs, he threw only 4 bad pitches.

It's only his first start, and he's sure to pitch better as the season continues.

Jays Win Home Opener

The Blue Jays won Game 1 of the 2006 season, 6 - 3. Their ace, Roy Halladay, won tonight's game, allowing three runs, two earned, in 7 2-3 innings.

Troy Glaus doubled and scored, Lyle Overbay singled and scored, and Bengie Molina hammered a two-run homer to back a dominant Roy Halladay as old and new blended seamlessly for the Blue Jays in a 6-3 win over the Minnesota Twins in Tuesday night's season opener. Alex Rios also hit a two-run shot.

New closer B.J. Ryan got his first save as a Blue Jay, pitching a quick and easy ninth for the save while a sold-out Rogers Centre audience of 50,449 chanted his name. Ryan came on in the ninth to protect a 6-3 lead, and he didn't disappoint. Eighteen pitches, 13 strikes, a liner to third, and two strikeouts, and Toronto's first win of the season was in the books

Ryan got Rondell White to line out to third baseman Troy Glaus. He followed that up by striking out Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau to end the game.

With his start yesterday against the Minnesota Twins, Halladay joined Dave Stieb for most Opening Day starts as a Blue Jay (four). The Jays starter with the best Opening Day record is lefty Jimmy Key, who went 3-0 from 1987-89.

April Fools' Day

Members of Parliament elect a new Speaker today, and the new Conservative government formally opens Parliament tomorrow, only a few days too late for April Fools.

Movies

You must see these two Stephen Chow [Chow Sing Chi] movies:

• Shaolin Soccer


• Kung Fu Hustle

It appears that Kung Fu Hustle 2 will be produced this year.

Working

Working for a living in today's businessocracy has become an ugly and stupid game, upgraded from a merely unpleasant game.

Statics

Statics is the branch of physics concerned with physical systems in static equilibrium, that is, in a state where the relative positions of subsystems do not vary over time, or where components and structures are at rest under the action of external forces of equilibrium. When in static equilibrium, the system is either at rest, or moving at constant velocity through its center of mass.

By Newton's second law, this situation implies that the net force and net torque (also known as moment) on every body in the system is zero, meaning that for every force bearing upon a member, there must be an equal and opposite force. From this constraint, such quantities as stress or pressure can be derived. The net forces equalling zero is known as the first condition for equilibrium, and the net torque equalling zero is known as the second condition for equilibrium.

Three things to remember:

• At its most basic, Moment = Force * Distance


• Moments about a point net to zero, and


• You can't push a rope!

What is this all about? Statics is a part of Physics, but my high school included it in Grade 13 Trig. I never know what hit me - but my mark in Trig was well on its way to netting to zero.

Random Numbers

Robert R. Coveyou of Oak Ridge National Laboratory once titled an article, "The Generation of Random Numbers is Too Important to be Left to Chance."

Bread and Circuses

First, we suffered through a decade of who smokes the biggest cigar.

Now, everybody plays poker and , even better, watches televised poker or Celebrity poker. Personally, I'm looking forward to watching Celebrity Solitaire, which promises to be even more exciting.

Wait ... this just in: Celebrities smoking cigars while playing Celebrity Freecell.

A dream come true!!

Books

Reading some excellent books:

• Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell


• Body of Secrets by James Bamford


• Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz by Edward B. Burger & Michael Starbird

World Baseball Classic

Congratulations to winner Team Japan and runner-up Team Cuba.

The rules need tweaking, but the baseball was great.

Team Japan manager Sadaharu Oh:



So, if Team Japan are the World Champions, what is the status of the Chicago White Sox, and their 2006 counterparts?

Final Four

I thought it was a comic book. Who knew?