Rick Reilly puts on his Holier-Than-Thou hat

Before I give my opinion, check out his article from ESPN here

I think Rick Reilly is sometimes entertaining. He plays the similar card as Bill Simmons from a different angle ('I'm just a normal guy who gets to live a life that revolves around sports') and most of the time it works fine, if forgettably. But, he can also be an annoying little bitch. I do have to allow for the fact that he has to crank out an article on regular intervals that fits within his normal-white-guy niche and this story had been floating around the interwebs.

He makes a valid point that the Northrups didn't mention any of the pseudo-sexual contact in their reasoning for having their son default to Cassy in the opening round. To me, that's a good thing. I would tend to think that it is them trying to rock the boat the least and give the most bland answer to a story-hungry media and move on. Boys and girls are different. That is an awkward fact, especially when you're in HS.

As you may know, I wrestled in Texas for a little over a decade. Fortunately, I never had to deal with wrestling a girl, but I had friends that did. There are various ways to deal with it (some guys even molested them, which is the worst outcome in my opinion), but for the guy, its a no-win situation: win and you beat up on a girl. Lose and you lost to a girl. That is a fate worse than death for an adolescent boy. I know that losing is something you have to learn to do, yadda yadda, but I can understand his desire to avoid it.

The biggest issue for me here, is not Reilly's difference of opinion or his logic. Its the fact that he (like many other sports writers) think there is something to be gained from taking this imagined moral high ground and that they can't fathom any other line of logic. His closing line is the kind of thing that would get your ass kicked in most any athletic environment:

Neither he, nor his coaches, nor his dad, had any comment. He was reportedly on his way back home to Marion, Iowa, where his mom was about to deliver her eighth child.

For the kid's sake, I hope it's a boy.

I hope he has some hint as to how big of a self-righteous douchebag he is. Maybe he can share his enlightenment with Easterbrook and King. 

Give them some room

I don't like road biking. It was a blast in Colorado where I could climb hills, but in Texas you have flat roads and not-so-helpful infrastructure. My biggest issue, however, are the drivers. When I ride MTB trails, I can fall and get a little banged up, my fault. On pavement, the more likely event is that I get clipped from behind by some fatty in a Suburban because they were reaching for a Diet Coke (zero calories!). The end result would not be good.

Outside Magazine has a good article this month exploring the relationship between bikers and drivers. I would love to be able to commute to work on a bike one day, but we would really have to change a great deal in order to facilitate that. Check out the full article here. Its an interesting examination of psychology as well.

Mid-week links

As if you didn't know, Gadhafi is completely insane (WSJ)

Kayak Vancouver to Alaska. No experience required (Backcountry.com)

Apparently I need to read the book 'Ridge Runner' (Adventure Journal)

Weekend Cabin: Stony Lake, Ontario (AJ)

Why is Fox News trashing Ron Paul? Check out the other links within the story too. (Big Picture)

Maybe its not such an awful thing when people are out of the gene pool. Family sues Forest Service after son is eaten by bear (AJ)

World record skiing cliff jump happened on accident. Holy crap (AJ)

Aussie cameraman gets in-water footage of shark eating marlin (Deadspin)

Weekend Update: Rugby Rugby Rugby

Last weekend, I went to the Six Nations match at Twickenham and got the itch to play some rugby again. With that in mind, I got in touch with Ealing squad about playing this weekend with their social side. Turns out they needed someone to play weak-side flanker which is my favorite position.

UPDATE: For rugby info, Ealing has posted a match report

Of course, it poured rain on Friday night so the pitch was soaked. Cold and wet is apparently the only way to play here. I must have been a bit optimistic by even packing my firm ground cleats. The match was fun and my knee held up surprisingly well for the full 80 minutes. I made a couple of great plays (and even scored once) and a couple of really dumb plays. All in all, they seemed happy to have me and even asked me to play with hem again if I could. The drink up was fun and much more civil than my Wake Forest daze days. I left from there and went to a Crossfit BBQ at CrossFit Central London.

Another tube trip across town and I met up with some friends for a drink in Notting Hill. Then, exhausted, I went home. Fin.

On the bright side, they have asked me to play again this weekend. And I don't have to practice!


On a fun note, try The Aggression Questionnaire

Random Stuff. All fun, no econ!

Woman on bike hit by cop car video (Deadspin)

My dream ride (Niner bikes RIP) just got better (Feed the Habit)

The EarlyUps have more fun skiing than you do (Adventure Journal)


Earlyups Takes Skiing. Seriously. from Earlyups on Vimeo.


Shake Weight is looking for a new model. Could be you (Outside blog)

The Art of Flight Will Blow Your Mind (Adventure Journal)

Links

David Brooks: The Experience Economy (NYT)

Madoff's prison interview (NYT)

Perfect man-made wave from wave-garden.com (Adventure Journal)

Swinglining Moab (Backcountry.com)

Norwegian Ice skating and pond-dipping (Outside)

Weekend Update: Six Nations Rugby

Fun weekend around London. I got together with a big group of friends for some tacos and beer on Friday night at Taqueria and then some drinks in and around Notting Hill. It went a bit later than we planned as we had a big day ahead of us.

Saturday was awesome. Stew, JJ, Burgess and I got tickets to the England-Italy match for the Six Nations rugby tournament. This was my first live international rugby match and it was a sight to behold. Twickenham is the English national team's rugby stadium and it is beautiful. Here is a stock photo. I'll try to upload one from my camera later.

Burgess and I talked rugby while JJ and Stew just took in the sights. I ended up betting a kid in front of me that the US will make a World Cup final in 12 years. I really do think its a better sport than American football. Two forty minute halves are completed with only a short halftime break. No TV timeouts, no stoppage of play. Way more spectator friendly. We just need to get the athletes to buy into it.

The only down side is that it really made me miss playing, which is not a good idea given the state of affairs with me knee.

It was a long day with lots of fun and plenty of beer. Sunday was largely recovery.

TGIF Links

Happy Friday. Mubarak being asinine and refusing to step down is pushing up the price of gold, which is costing me a bit of cash right now so I have my work cut out for me today. With that in mind, here are some quick links to cool stuff that I've had starred in Google Reader for awhile:

Picture via (Adventure Journal)

Michael Jordan suits up for practice (ESPN)

Mystery solved: Pat Burrell is Brian Wilson's 'The Machine' (Deadspin)

Mob mentality explored. Careful, its a long one (You Are Not So Smart)

Skiing with Mom (Adventure Journal)

I see your hammock and raise you one Nestrest Portable Shelter (Adventure Journal)

Eddie Bauer is moving into the ski industry hard. Here is their somewhat promo (Outside Mag Blog)

Community Supported Agriculture (Robb Wolf)

Candide Thovex goes off (Adventure Journal)

If Reagan were a GOP candidate today. Awesome. (TBP)

Last week's Weekend Cabin (Adventure Journal)

Speedflying Cable Grind. Ridiculous (AJ)

Norway Pictures

Apologies for the delay. Here are the pictures (click link to go to flickr) from the weekend sojourn to Norway. Here are a few of them (more after the jump): 

The World is Actually Getting Safer

The Amateur Thinker has post about the world getting better despite all the forthcoming-apocolypse hyperbole. I tend to fall into the camp that things are getting worse more so than better, but perhaps I'm just eating what is being spoon-fed to me by a sensationalist media? I'd be interested to really peel back the statistics and see how everything is thought through, but not so interested to actually do it. There are ample footnotes for anyone who might be intrigued.

My biggest red flag is that he mentions Stalinist Russia and WWII. I'm not concerned with large-scale events so much as the day-to-day life. If that is truly being included in the calculations, then I think we have an entirely different story. Abortion rates and teenage pregnancy decreasing are certainly good news though.

Read the full article here (via Ritholtz)

The Rise and Fall of America

Read the story here. Here is the intro:

Alexander Tytler (1747-1813) was a Scottish-born English lawyer and historian. Reportedly, Tytler was critical of democracies, pointing to the history of democracies such as Athens and its flaws, cycles, and ultimate failures. Although the authenticity of his following quote is often disputed, the words have eerie relevance today:

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.

A democracy will continue to exist up until the time voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by dictatorship

Wake Coach Donates Kidney to Recruit

There's a really amazing story out today in many publications about second year baseball coach Tom Walter and a freshman recruit,  Kevin Jordan. Kevin was a highly recruited outfielder out of high school and was drafted in the 19th round by the Yankees, but decided he wanted to play ball at Wake first. Early in 2010, Jordan was diagnosed with the flu, but couldn't really recover. It turned out his kidneys were functioning at about 8% capacity and he would need a transplant.

None of his family were a suitable match to be donors, so it appeared that Kevin would have to join the long list of people waiting for a kidney and that he would have to undergo about 18 hours of dialysis treatment EVERY DAY. He decided to attend Wake anyway, which is an impressive display of dedication. Meanwhile, Coach Walter decided to see if he is a suitable match to be a donor. He is. My favorite quote from WFU AD Ron Wellman:

"I asked Tom if he was sure he wanted to do this and his response was that when he recruits young men, he tells them they are coming into his family and will be treated like a family member," Wellman said. "He had everything so well planned for Kevin, for his family and for his team. He is a unique individual."

Both player and coach are apparently out of surgery at Emory University Hospital and doing well. There is always some risk of complication in both donor and recipient, but we'll hope and pray for the best.

This has been a really hard year to support Wake Forest athletics with both football and basketball struggling mightily to live up to even paltry expectations, but this makes me extremely proud of our Deacon family. I hope Coach Walter gets the recognition he deserves and that Kevin is able to live a normal, healthy life whether or not he ever gets to play ball for the gold and black.

Read the USA Today article here (Thanks Tom!)

Weekend Update: Norway!

I hope everyone had a great Super Bowl weekend stateside. Mine was a little different than years past as I was running around Norway with some friends of mine from London.

Dan and I flew into Oslo Friday night. Chris and Ana had beaten us there by a few hours. Nothing exciting Friday night as Saturday was going to be a long day. On Saturday morning, we hopped on the metro rail to Voksenkollen. This is what is amazing about Oslo. We were on a commuter train for 20 minutes and were walking distance to a ski resort. Many of the locals we talked to said they go there multiple times each week. Pretty cool lifestyle. A map is worth a thousand words:


View Larger Map

I'll post some pictures later, but the views were amazing. I had only cross-country skied once before, but this was on an entirely different level. When I had tried XC in Utah, it was on a snow covered golf course; not alot of elevation to gain. Skiing here involved going up some fairly extended pitches for 1km at times and then kind of steep downhill segments. On those little classic XC skis, hilarity ensued. Chris and I had each been on these types of skis once before, whereas Ana and Dan were entirely new to the concept. Dan had actually never been on skis before at all. Pretty impressive really.

Our best guess is that we covered about 12-15km the first day with almost none of those being flat. There were moments where we felt entirely alone in the woods and then moments where we were reminded that we were 20 minutes from a major city. Lots of people out skiing with their kids, dogs, spouses, etc. Just a great environment: beautiful scenery and really friendly, fit people everywhere.

We also stopped by to check out the somewhat famous ski jump in Holmenkollen. I had never really gotten a sense for how massive/steep these structures are when you watch on TV, but it is somewhat awe-inspiring. Very slim chance I would go anywhere near that thing on skis.

On Saturday night, we went to the waterfront area of the harbor in downtown Oslo and had some of the local fare. I had 'Roast Beef of Whale' and 'Fersk Torsk' with a local pilsner. The whale was fantastic. The cod? Not so much. We also tried a local variety of chowder that was good. The whale was like a really tender beef and was not as fatty as you might imagine. I'd highly recommend it.

Sunday was more of the same: wandering around a wilderness area with a vague notion of what we were doing. By the end of the day, we were all fairly proficient at cross-country skiing as well as pretending we knew which way we were going.

We negotiated our way into a lukewarm soap-less, towel-less shower at a hostel and then headed to the airport to catch our 9pm flights, but not before grabbing some nachos and pizza to celebrate Super Bowl Sunday on the way. Flight landed a little after 10pm in London and I was asleep well before midnight. Stew stayed up and watched the game (which was apparently great), but an 11pm kickoff is a bit much for me.

In summary, it was a fairly cheap, impromptu trip to a beautiful city. I spent almost every hour of daylight outside and my soul is much better off for the effort. I'll post some pictures later in the week. If they are half as good as I think, there should be some memorable ones worthy of a desktop wallpaper.

skål!  ("skoal")

Best thinking on Egypt

I got burned a little overnight on the rally in gold on overheated Egypt fears. I read this piece today from The Big Picture. It is the best thinking I have read so far on the situation in Egypt that both the WSJ and the NYT have missed.

Read the article here

Tough Guy Pics

A little busy to type up a full debrief, but here are the official photos from the Tough Guy (more after the jump)

Former CEO of IBM's Op-Ed in the WSJ

Don't miss Louis Gerstner's piece in the WSJ and Barry Ritholtz's follow-up. To me the ideas aren't inherently ground-breaking, they are just summarized and explored more eloquently than I could hope to.

Chelsea Clinton's Husband Ditches Hedge Fund for Jackson Hole

I'd like to buy this guy a beer: http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/chelsea_hubby_hits_the_slopes_opjesOkLF8RS1rILbNoS6O

(Thanks Backcountry.com blog)

BBC: Human Planet

Planet Earth was one of my favorite series of all time. It looks like they took the same approach to capturing the human side. Not alot of doubt that I'm going to watch this at some point. Preview video after the jump (watch in beautiful 1080p!)

(Hat/tip Ritholtz)

Non-Car Guy reviews the new Chevy Volt (and begrudgingly likes it)

I am skeptical of the Chevy Volt. First, its made by Chevy. Second it is the first of its kind (electric drive, can be charged by the combustion engine). Neither of those bode well for it. However, car-neophyte and import-biased Washington Post write Gene Weingarten was given one to test drive.

He loves it. Mildly amusing, and with some really interesting insight. Check the full story out here

(Hat/tip Big Picture)