Cynicool, a link blog

Links and commentary by Ryan Jerz. See everything at mrjerz.org.
ELENA KAGAN AND THE GAY: In which I agree with Andrew Sullivan. “Nobody believes that we are namin… →

This has become so twisted and dumb that it’s almost entertaining to see it go down. 

— 2 months ago
Cranky old sportswriter vs. stat nerds, part MMMLVII →

“…worth 1.3 LOLs Above Replacement Joke.” Brilliant.

— 2 months ago
Is BP Using Fake Oil Rig Workers as a PR Scheme? →

I heard about this call yesterday on another radio show that I should really not have been listening to. When the caller on the show I listened to talked about it, he made it sound like this James character was referring to some sort of sabotage by North Korean subs or something like that. Of course, the host wouldn’t discount any theory like that. I mean, why would he, right?

— 2 months ago
Self-Proclaimed Police Of Twitter Fail To Hear The 911 Call From Inside The Precinct →

Heh. I might have to stop using “fail” even ironically. Except around my kids.

— 3 months ago
The Goldman Sachs SEC Investigation Is A Joke →

I’m not even sure where this stands at this point, as I’ve been sitting on this for a while, but I like the analysis. It sure seems right, and interesting, especially in the critique of the media coverage of said lawsuit.

The paragraph about political capital is so representative of just about all political coverage I’m exposed to—and I try to get all kinds of viewpoints! It’s about the game. And that sucks.

— 3 months ago
A New Kind of Starting Pitcher? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com →

I’m not sure this idea is the right idea, but I would love to see some innovation in the way pitchers are handled in baseball. I hate the idea of assigned roles in pitching. It seems so Conventional Wisdom™ and I think that should be broken down wherever possible. In my lifetime, we will see a shift in the role of a starter to something more closely resembling this than the current state of affairs, and I think it will benefit teams with a few strong pitchers.

— 3 months ago
Las Vegas Blog: Steve Friess' VEGAS HAPPENS HERE: Chickens For Checkups? Well, Maybe →
“It’s just much too easy to make fun in this case. Y’know what’s harder? Actually looking at whether bartering for health care is even possible.

Turns out, it is.”

Yeah, but snark is so much better in modern politics, right? And productive.

He goes on to state that he too thought it was ridiculous at first, but what Lowden did, inadvertently as it may have been, was set up any possible mocking for this: the root of your dissention from her quote logically becomes that doctors are unsympathetic to your needs. Would you like to be the one calling the people responsible for one of the most important jobs in society unsympathetic to the plight of the less fortunate? Not me.

— 3 months ago
April 23, 1516: Bavaria Cracks Down on Beer Brewers | This Day In Tech | Wired.com →
“Today the penalty for not abiding by the Reinheitsgebot may only be the upturned noses of some American craft brewers. But in the 16th century, the consequences of brewing an offending beer were far more dire: They lost the beer.”

Most of the beer I ever made complied with the Reinheitsgebot, and I had no idea it was a recent term and phenomenon. Most of the labels of beers that say they comply mention something about the “German Purity Law of 1516.”

Also, it should be noted that hefeweizen, that bastardized style made popular because of horridly bland American microbrew crap that people like Pyramid make, wouldn’t comply. Real German hefewiezen is robust (and wouldn’t comply, either). There’s my upturned nose for you.

— 3 months ago