Is Favre Retired, And Are you Tired Of Hearing This?

Brad Childress: Vikings will likely discuss Favre - NFL - SI.com

I have to admit that while professional sports are perhaps different than other jobs, they are still jobs. If some fool wanted to pay high-market rates for my services ($6-10 million plus) then why on earth wouldn't I take it? Who ever heard anyone ask if a nurse was worried about spoiling their legacy if they accepted a promotion, or questioned the wisdom of a trucker whose old company laid him off accepting a job with another trucking outfit? If Brett Favre wants to play football and the Vikings (or another team) wants him, then by all means, Brett: tear it up.
If Favre does go to the Vikings, and they beat Green Bay then Ted Thompson (the GBPs general manager) will look like an enormous douchebag for running him out of town. If he plays poorly then Thompson will be vindicated. However, anyone who questions the wisdom of a 39 year-old man accepting a highly-paid job offer for work which he is well-qualified, well that's just nuts. If my employer puts me out to pasture then why the hell wouldn't I take great offer from someone else if I still wanted to work?
I've been playing rugby for over 20 years now and I know I'm not the player I was ten years ago. I'm willing to be a backup and occasional starter now because as much as I love playing rugby I like the people I play with just as much. A generic rugby team is a pretty good bunch of guys and so is, I'd guess a generic professional football team.
So Brett, go ahead and play for whomever you like. Just don't expect Green Bay to cut you any slack.

What is Genius?

Op-Ed Columnist - Genius - The Modern View - NYTimes.com

Genius is not about being, rather becoming. That at least is what some researchers believe. The idea is that a certain flair or talent is only enough to ante into the game whose payoff is genius. To achieve the prize requires countless hours of metaphorically backbreaking labor with guidance along the way to stay focused and on track. The old perspiration/inspiration ratio I suppose.
The point is, keep working at what you love, learn as much as you can about it, and find a expert to watch over and guide you. Once one masters an art/craft/skill then and only then can the present boundaries of the possible be stretched and expanded.
So, get to work.

Souter to Retire

Supreme Court Justice Souter To Retire : NPR

Souter is going to retire, Ginsburg's health is tenuous, and Stevens is 89 years old. I'm not sure who is going to be nominated for the seat opening up and those which might soon be vacant, but it sure helps that Obama now has 60 democrats in the senate and control of the house. Hopefully when the confirmation process starts the republicans won't make themselves look like the fools that the democrats did with the last go-around.

Visit to a Wind Farm

On a recent day trip to Manitowoc, Wisconsin I decided to take a closer look at something I had noticed before. Near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin I had seen a wind farm from afar and I had been wanting a closer look. I just drove my car down an access road and parked directly under the spinning blades, mostly to irritate my long-suffering wife who had to look up at the spinning blades of kinetic death through the moon roof. The Blue Sky Green Field Wind Energy Center is an 88-tower complex rated at about 145 MW in generation capacity and covers a very large area.
It was a somewhat windy day and the blades were energetically spinning away, silent as could be. Truthfully I liked their looks; gleaming white towers topped by impressively-large rotors and a generator each. While others, Ted Kennedy et al, don't care for wind farms messing up their yachting and concurrent scenery I don't think I'd mind living near a wind farm. At almost 400 feet from the ground to the tip of the highest blade the turbines are definitely a noticeable element of the man made terrain yet oddly not so obnoxious. Perhaps I just have an unusual aesthetic.
My daughter had a wonderful time running around the base of the tower, pulling on the (locked) door hoping to climb up, and posing for pictures looking for all the world like someone who had the world's largest beanie cap.

Never Waste A Crisis

Or so says Rahm Emanuel. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste" is the actual quote. I'm glad that the politics of fear have been replaced by those of hope. I wonder what other kind of Hopey-Changey crap is about to be shoved down my throat now.

Minneapolis/St. Paul - City Pages - The Blotter - Bachmann: 'Interesting coincidence' that Dems in power during swine flu outbreak

Yeah, because god hates us when too many vote for the democrat currently in vogue. Perhaps its part of a nefarious plot hatched by the joooos or Trilaterals or even the Skull and Bones crowd.
I despair for conservatism.

White House Apologizes for Air Force Flyover - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Its great, having a president who believes in a green and sustainable future. Nothing says conservation like taking a 747 from its hangar (wherever that might be) and flying it to NYC to take some pictures. I'm told by WikiAnswers that a 747 consumes about 11 tons of fuel per hour. What a great way to wrap up Earth Day weekend. I'm sure that jet fuel is cheap, too. What was the date, Sept 10th, 2000?

Birthday Coming

My birthday is coming in a few months, so this should serve as adequate notice to save up some pennies and get me one of these. I'll even let you ride along. That is of course, an MD520N if you must know. Think of it as part of a broader stimulus package it that helps.
http://www.mdhelicopters.com/v2/images/product_md_520n_main.jpg

Two killed in Michigan college shooting - CNN.com

Two killed in Michigan college shooting - CNN.com

Allow me to correct this reporter: "One killed in Michigan college shooting." This sad individual killed his (presumed) girlfriend/wife or ex-version of the same then committed suicide. He was not "...killed," rather he killed himself.
Oddly enough, 1/2 of all deaths attributed to guns in this nation are suicides. Research has shown that while the suicidal seem to like using guns they will use what they must to kill themselves. That is, removing guns from the metaphorical reach of the suicidal won't prevent their death just the proximal cause. Put another way, 1/2 of all gun deaths are essentially unavoidable deaths in the sense that the determined suicidal person is somewhat locked into their doom.
Without arguing the merits of various gun-grabbing philosophies, dishonesty doesn't help the cause. Reporters should also learn to be a bit more precise in their language lest they appear both incompetent or ideologically-driven in their work.

Chinese Bias for Baby Boys Creates a Gap of 32 Million - NYTimes.com

Chinese Bias for Baby Boys Creates a Gap of 32 Million - NYTimes.com

I wonder what sociological issues this imbalance will exacerbate in China. While 32 million more boys than girls doesn't seem like much in a population of more than one billion, when those boys and girls all reach puberty together the imbalance will be magnified and the results will be manifest. At the very least it will mean Chinese women coming of marriageable age can be much more choosy. I'm not sure, based on the article, but I'd imagine that the problem is worse in China's rural provinces and the results will be less visible outside their borders. Regardless, too many young men in a population never seems to work out well.