Some Updates

First, I want to share with y'all the Metrodome Roof Collapse. If you watch the video at 0:10 to 0:13, you'll notice a shadow racing along the far sideline. That's probably a stadium employee running to safety. To be honest, the Minnesota Vikings were already having a pretty terrible year before this.

Second, I want to mention vampire Nazis. Yes, you heard right. Vampire Nazis. The vampire Nazis (called the "Last Battalion" of the Third Reich) are a group of over 300 German soldiers and researchers who fled to South America near the end of World War II. They were doing research on creating an army of the undead, and 50 years later they attack London. And England's best hope of salvation is another vampire: Alucard. If you hadn't guessed yet, this is fiction, and the plot is from the Japanese anime Hellsing Ultimate. Just a warning: there's a lot of blood and gore. The trailer is very tame compared to the actual show.

Third, I had a good first day of Finals. The Cost Accounting was a little harder than I thought, but I know I got 85% of it right. The other 15% is probably right, and I'm just being tough on myself. I was able to finish my Intermediate Accounting exam with time to spare, which I did not expect going into it. It was pretty straight-forward from beginning to end. There was a lot of material (9 chapters worth), and the final covered all of it. But I knew everything. Now I'm looking forward to my Finance and Business Law finals.

Fourth, Carmelo Anthony has said in front of a crowd of New York Knicks fans that he will sign the 3-year extension with the Denver Nuggets, but only if he is traded to the Knicks. He has also killed a trade that would have sent him to the Nets for the same amount of money. This is making it pretty clear that he wants to play for the Knicks, and the Knicks fans definitely want him to play for them. That said, I don't think the Nuggets will be able to get anything back for Carmelo now. No one wants Carmelo Anthony without that extension to keep him long-term. Thus, Denver has only one possible trade partner, and they aren't in a hurry. New York can continue to win games right now and sign Carmelo in the off-season.

Finally, I want to bring attention to some opinion/news articles that caught my eye:
1. After Nobel, China snubs Norway, but not Norwegian Oil.
2. Wesley Snipes gets 3 years in Prison for Tax Evasion.
3. Virginia Judge declares part of the Obama Health Care plan as unconstitutional.

And that's all for now. Until next time!

What do....

Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Andre Iguodala, Josh Smith, and Rajon Rondo have in common?

Well, they're all young stars in the NBA. And they are all in the same commercial featuring a digital Michael Jordan.

Say hello to one of the greatest of all time. Watch it. Love it.

On second thought, I think I'll one up myself with digital David Lee.

Michael Jordan scores 100?

I don't know why I'm blogging so much about basketball, but maybe it's because I'm depressed about football. Go Niners! You have to win one eventually.

Anywho, my blog post today is about Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan's last video game appearance was in 2004 as a member of the Wizards, and the last time he wore a Bulls jersey in a video game was approximately 10 years earlier. The only NBA game I ever played for the N64 during my childhood wasn't even allowed to include Jordan. Adding Jordan to a video game was very expensive due to his personal brand. Now, though, Jordan is apparently comfortable with returning to the video game scene in a Bulls jersey. NBA 2K11 even has him on the cover, and they've made him the centerpiece of a new part of the game called the "Jordan Challenge" where players can relive Jordan's greatest moments.

While promoting the game, Michael Jordan made a comment about how he could score 100 points in a single game the modern NBA. In his prime, anyways. Jordan has always been an egomaniac, but he's also very careful not to tarnish his brand. So now there's a legitimate debate over whether he really could score 100 or not.

Most folks either believe him wholeheartedly or totally scoff at the idea. To be fair to those who scoff, Jordan really wasn't as good of a 3-point shooter as Kobe Bryant, nor did he shoot free throws as well as Kevin Durant, nor did he shoot from the post as well as Carmelo Anthony, nor was he as strong as LeBron James. Even in his prime, Michael Jordan was still human. He wasn't the best at everything, and he certainly wasn't unstoppable. So, for those who don't think he can score 100 in the modern NBA, you have some good arguments.

However, I believe him. And here's why:
Folks are used to seeing Michael Jordan cut to the basket, make fancy dunks, or pull up for beautiful jumpers that wow the crowd. He had flair, and everyone noticed it. What a lot of folks forget is that Jordan was also very physical and aggressive, and most of his opponents were too. The only way to stop Jordan was by touching him and preventing him from attacking the basket. In Jordan's day, defensive players could touch an offensive player with their hands and it was perfectly legitimate. In the modern NBA, the rules state that this is a personal foul, and if the opposing team is over the limit or the fouled player takes a shot attempt, this results in two free throws. THIS is the key to Jordan's 100 points.

In Jordan's prime, the only way to stop him was to touch him. Since he retired, though, the rules have changed. What was once considered the only way to stopping Jordan is now considered a foul every time. So every time Jordan cuts to the basket or drives the lane, he will get fouled. At his best, Jordan in the modern NBA would draw even more fouls than Kevin Durant, and Jordan would have a nearly limitless supply of free throws to augment is normal offensive numbers.

Free throws aren't flashy. They aren't difficult. They don't get on the highlight reels as readily as dunks or three-pointers, but they are worth points. And with enough of them, Jordan could reach the 100 point mark in a single game.

One of the only other arguments against him scoring 100 is that Jordan was not selfish. My counterpoint is that it depends on which Jordan you watch. Jordan at 30-something years old with Pippen as a teammate was unselfish (much like Kobe Bryant is now). Jordan at 20-something without Pippen was as selfish as they come (much like Kobe Bryant was back in the day). Go figure. Anywho, I'm inclined to believe that Jordan becomes selfish or unselfish depending on the circumstances. If he is truly determined to score as much as possible, he will do exactly that. So as for Jordan's selfishness, I think there's an on/off switch for that.

And that's that. In the modern NBA, with the no-touch rule in place, Jordan in his prime really could score 100 points in a single game.

Miami Heat Training Camp

The Miami Heat are holding training camp at Eglin Air Force Base. For reasons beyond my understanding, Miami Heat Training Camp is being televised in Los Angeles.

I decided to keep it on the TV while I work on problems. After doing some defensive drills, the Heat divided up into two teams of five: the white team and the red team. For the first half they divided equally, with LeBron James on the white team and D-Wade/Bosh on the red team. White team was leading by a lot. For the second half, the teams were restructured, with LeBron joining Wade and Bosh on the red team. You'd think the red team would catch up quickly, but right now both teams are playing well. Gotta give credit to Jason Williams, Mike Miller, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and the other guys on the white team.

Anywho, in one full-court play I got to see Dwyane Wade steal the ball and then lob it up to Chris Bosh, who redirected the ball in mid-air to LeBron James (who had already jumped), who then dunked it in on the way down. It was a spectacular show, and I wish I could find a video online to share. You can tell they have fun playing with each other.

Just thought I'd share.

Oh, I found a trio of fun videos:
Shaq Dancing
Kobe Bryant speaking Italian
Great Action Scene from Red vs Blue

Fantasy Counterpart Culture - Robert Jordan

First of all, I'll link to TV Tropes for an explanation of Fantasy Counterpart Culture.

Long story short, Fantasy Counterpart Culture is what you get when an author takes a real-life nation and makes a fantasy culture very similar. Classic examples follow:

J.R. Tolkien based the Shire on rural England, and gave the hobbits the attitudes and beliefs of rural Englishmen so that his target readers can better relate to them.

David Eddings, in the Belgariad, based Sendars on Englishmen from the High Middle Ages (by then, Englishmen were a mongrel combination of Celtic, Saxon, Scottish, Danish and Norman). He also based Mimbrate Arends on Norman French, Ulgos on Jews, Chereks on Vikings, Algars on Cossacks, and the Angaraks on Mongols and other East Asian peoples.

Avatar the Last Airbender had four distinct nations, plus several noteworthy subcultures. The Air Nomads are Tibetan/Chinese, the Water Tribes are Inuit, the Earth Kingdom is Qing Dynasty China, and the Fire Nation is Tang Dynasty China mixed with Imperial Japan. Kyoshi Island is based on isolationist Japan, the Sun Warriors are Incas, and the Foggy Swamp Tribe is based on natives of South America and the Mississippi river delta.

My favorite example, though, is Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. For the most part, I like it because it defies the traditional practice of making exact duplicates of individual cultures by mixing and matching bits and pieces of different cultures.

Here's a quote straight from TV Tropes:

# Robert Jordan's The Wheel Of Time does this a lot. Cairhien is a mix of France and Japan; Amadicia is modeled after Puritan America; the Seanchan have even more similarities to Japan than the Cairhienin do; Illian is a lot like Venice but its people have Greek-sounding names; Andor is similar to England and parts of the U.S.; the Aiel bear Indian and Native American similarities; Tairens have much in common with Spaniards... and the list goes on.

* Wheel Of Time is actually pretty good at this. While they have definite elements taken from different cultures they are very rarely actual Fantasy Counterpart Cultures. The Seanchan are as much Ottoman Empire as they are Japan, and with all sorts of other bits thrown in.
o Word Of God decided to muddle it even more, when Robert Jordan said that the Seanchan have a Texan accent, the Illianers a dutch accent, the Aiel a Slavic accent, among others.
o Furthermore, since the world of the Wheel Of Time is meant, in-universe, to be the distant future of our own world, it makes perfect sense that the cultures therein would retain traits recognizable to the reader.
o The Wheel Of Time is set more than 3,000 years in the future, probably even more than 6,000; the Age of Legends must have lasted thousands of years itself for people to forget the meanings of war and swords. Any similarities to modern cultures should be very thin indeed; how many people today fit the national stereotypes of Mesopotamians?
o All of us?

I laughed a ton at the last part. Oh, and now whenever I read a book from Wheel of Time, I have to try really hard to imagine the Seanchan speaking with a Texan accent. HILARIOUS!

Ernst & Young

So it begins: the long process of starting my career in accounting.

Last night was the first night of a month-long event called Meet the Firms. Two nights a week, up to thirty students from the accounting department at Chapman University get to meet with professionals from each of the accounting firms in the Los Angeles area. Among these firms are PriceWaterHouse Coopers, Grant Thornton, Moss Adams, Deloitte, Squar Milner and KPMG.

The firm that we meet last night was Ernst & Young. I got to speak with four professionals from the firm, including three who graduated from Chapman University. I have their business cards, and I remember who's who, so I'm in good shape to start developing relationships. Their website is www.ey.com.

E&Y seems like a nice firm for a budding accountant. They offer winter and summer internships for juniors, and full-time jobs for seniors. The application process is very competitive. According to one Chapman graduate who now works at PriceWaterHouse Coopers, 500 people competed for positions at his company and only 20 got them.

I'm looking forward to meeting all the other firms these next three weeks.

Worst History Movies

I decided to do a lighthearted post on history and film today.

For reference, here's The Medieval Sourcebook: Medieval History in the Movies page and the Ancient History Sourcebook: Ancient History in the Movies page to read and enjoy. I'm going to be borrowing liberally from their website in this post, so I figured I should link them now rather than later.

Now, to get straight to the point, there are tons of movies made each year based in history. For as long as both film and history have existed, there have been films taking place in history. And I'm not just talking about recent well-documented history like the Civil War or the World Wars either. I'm talking about classical Greece, ancient Rome, and the Middle Ages. There's less information available about those time periods, but there's still enough to create a reliable portrayal of an ancient or medieval place and time in film. Still, some films fail anyways. Usually out of choice, and sometimes out of ignorance.

Here are the ones that I have watched and have a strong opinion of:

Braveheart.

This is an easy one. Almost everything about the film was wrong. The Battle of Stirling Bridge took place on an actual bridge, not on a field. In fact, the bridge would have been more entertaining anyways, so the only explanation for why Mel Gibson fought on a field instead is likely due to budget problems.

The supposed right of a Lord to sleep with his subordinate's wife is also totally fake. The portrayal of William Wallace's life is wrong, and his image in the film is that of a barbarian wearing a kilt (which wasn't worn by the Scots until 300 years later). William Wallace, in real life, would have looked like this:

William Wallace was a knight in full armor on horseback. The Scottish have a proud history of Knighthood dating back to as long as the English had Knights themselves. The movie Braveheart pretty much ignored all that. None of the Scots in the 13th century wore kilts or face paint either.

Don't get me wrong; there were some entertaining moments. But the lack of effort to achieve any historical accuracy is too distracting. They might as well have changed the names and turned it into a fantasy fiction movie like Lord of the Rings.

Gladiator.

I loved this movie for entertainment purposes, and I'm glad it was made simply because it inspired more filmmakers to make their own historical epics. Troy, Alexander, King Arthur, Kingdom of Heaven and Lord of the Rings are all in one form or another a response to the Gladiator movie. Gladiator inspired a generation of kids to learn more about ancient history, and it keeps hope alive for all history buffs that their knowledge might actually be appreciated. Unfortunately, the movie itself is another epic failure in terms of historical accuracy.

First, Marcus Aurelius did not die after a final battle with the Germanic tribes. The last major battle of the sort occurred a year before his death (by the way, he died of chicken pox). The use of catapults and ballistas during that battle is also wrong, since such cumbersome weapons were only used in sieges. They had to be built on-site in most cases, which could take a long time. Such time was best found in long sieges of enemy fortifications. The battle at the start of Gladiator obviously does not qualify.


Emperor Commodus, the big bad of the movie, reigned for 13 years in real life, so either the movie encompasses a 13 year period or it was shortened for entertainment purposes. The arena fighting sequences are not as accurate as those in Ben Hur (Ben Hur is probably the best example of real arena fighting in film, believe it or not). Oddly enough, the bit about Commodus fighting in the arena against gladiators is actually true. The Emperor won over 600 gladiatorial fights before dying in his bath tub. However, in real life Commodus had a very strong physique (in the movie he is depicted as small, weak and whiny), and likely won many fights fair and square. Also, the movie depicts him as a single man, but in reality he was already married when he became Emperor at the age of 18.

The idea that any of the imperial family members or senators at that time wanted to restore the old Republic is absolutely false. The Republican concept was as dead to the Romans then as the concept of monarchy and nobility is dead to modern Americans. We might be fascinated by the idea, but we won't suddenly decide to make Obama our king. Still, for all of its faults, Gladiator was an important and popular movie.

300.

To be fair, the movie 300 isn't based on the actual Battle of Thermopylae, but is instead based on a comic book published in 1998. The comic book describes itself as a fictional retelling, so any historical inaccuracies in the movie are excused by the comic book's own liberal tendencies. It is, in the words of its author, a "theatrical portrayal" of the battle.


Now that I've gotten the disclaimer out of the way, here's why 300 is historically inaccurate. The Persian soldiers, and Emperor Xerxes, obviously did not look anything like what was depicted in the movie. The Immortals (a real Persian military order) were not Ninjas. They rode on horseback as often as not, and did not use Japanese-style swords. The beasts, such as the Rhino and Elephants, were also over-dramatized for entertainment purposes.

But even the depiction of the Spartan warriors is incorrect. In real life, Spartans went into battle with bronze armor. They weren't bare-chested. Also, Sparta was one of the most openly-homosexual societies in the world at that time. According to some sources, homosexual relations were made mandatory for all Spartan soldiers to promote bonding between comrades and introduce young men to free society. So, when one Spartan makes a negative comment about "boy-lovers," he's basically criticizing every real Spartan warrior that fought at Thermopylae.

Also, while it is tempting to speak of the story of just 300 Spartans holding off a million Persian soldiers, the reality of the battle is less thrilling. In fact, there were 300 Spartans PLUS hundreds of other non-Spartan Greeks at the battle. Furthermore, the Persian forces were likely no more than 250,000 (the million number was a form of propaganda widely circulated at the time). The part about the Spartans being betrayed to their doom is more or less true, though. In the end the Spartans were surrounded and killed to the last man.

The Last Samurai.

This movie was well-received in Japan, as it put the spotlight on a part of history that their own people have very little memory of. Samurais are as mysterious and fascinating to the majority of Japanese as they are to the rest of the world. So, many fans of the movie appreciate the attention given to them through this movie. It wasn't totally inaccurate either. Some parts of this movie were actually true, such as the Japanese seeking the help of Western military experts to modernize the Japanese army. However, I still have some criticisms for it.

The idea that a white, alcoholic Civil War veteran played by Tom Cruise was the last Samurai of Japan is absurd, but hardly the only inaccuracy in the film. Ken Watanabi's character, in real life, was obsessed with the idea of starting a war with Korea, and that was his primary motivation for rebelling against the Meiji government. He was not as concerned about restoring old Samurai traditions as the movie depicted him to be. Besides, Samurai first started using guns several centuries earlier, when the Portuguese traders arrived. So, it's not like the Samurai were strangers to gunpowder weapons. Oda Nobunaga is famous for uniting Japan in the 16th century using guns. Also, when the Japanese turned to western military experts for help modernizing their army, they relied on French experts instead of American ones. And in the end, when Ken Watanabi's character is killed in battle by an imported Gatling Gun? Totally false. In real life, he committed ritual suicide.

Still, it was an entertaining movie. And if you are willing to forgive or ignore the historical inaccuracies, the story is very compelling and the action is very exciting.

------------------------------------------

In fact, now that I think on it, I've mostly been talking about relatively good movies that just lack historical accuracy. Maybe I should talk about a historical movie that is just plain terrible.

------------------------------------------

King Arthur.

It had its moments, but for the most part King Arthur was terrible. The historical inaccuracy was overwhelming. The worst part is that the producers of the film claim it is a historically accurate portrayal. They are the only ones to do that. Braveheart, Gladiator, 300 and the Last Samurai all admit to being fictional depictions. King Arthur is the only movie (besides Alexander, perhaps) to claim itself to be true. Let's kill that claim now, while I'm on the topic.

King Arthur is based on the Sarmatian hypothesis, which stipulates that the Arthurian legend is based on an older story about Sarmatian heavy cavalry stationed in Britain in the 2nd and 3rd centuries by the Romans. This hypthoesis has some strong arguments for it, but it is only one of many possible origins for the Arthurian legend. None are known to be fact.

In the movie, Arthur and his Sarmatian troops head north of Hadrian's Wall to rescue a Roman family. Such a mission was unlikely, since the wall represented Rome's northern-most boundary. Everything north belonged to the Picts, and the Picts would not have allowed a Roman family to live there. In the movie, the Picts are called "Woads," although there is no evidence of them being called as such.

Also, the movie has the Saxons invading Britain north of Hadrian's wall. But by the date given at the start of the movie (467 AD) the Saxons had already invaded Britain well south of Hadrian's Wall, and the Romans had abandoned the island over 50 years earlier. Furthermore, the movie shows the Saxon leader killing another Saxon for having sex with a native Briton. But genetic evidence proves that Saxons intermingled with many native peoples at that time, forming the Anglo-Saxon genetic makeup of modern Englishmen.

The movie also depicts the Saxons using crossbows, probably because there's a tendency in films to associate crossbows with evil and regular bows (or longbows) with good guys (or girls). Unfortunately, the opposite was more likely to be the case in real life. Saxons used bows, and the Romans were the only people at that time and place who had crossbows in their arsenal. Also, the Romans in the movie are depicted wearing Legionnaire uniforms. This might sound acceptable, until you learn that the Romans stopped issuing Legionnaire uniforms to their soldiers over a century earlier. In the 5th century, Roman soldiers wore whatever they could afford, a far cry from their glory days.

The movie also depicts the Pope as having real political power in the Western Roman Empire. The reality is that the Pope didn't have such power until centuries after the Roman Empire had fallen. In fact, one might argue that the Empire had to fall for the Pope and the Catholic Church to emerge as a true political body.

I could go on. There are a lot more historical inaccuracies to talk about. And there are many movies I want to talk about, such as Alexander or Prince of Persia. But I'm getting tired. So, I'll leave you with this. I hope you were able to endure it all, and that you enjoyed at least some of it. Until my next post...

Spiritual Laws

What is Christianity? Even as early as the founding of the first churches at Antioch and Jerusalem, this was a difficult question. The two decades after Christ's death on the cross, when all Christian teachings were oral, saw much debate between Christ's disciples and followers. Some of Christ's disciples went to Egypt and Ethiopia, others to Sumeria and Armenia, and some (such as Paul) went to Greece and Rome. The teachings varied from disciple to disciple, place to place, and of course from time to time. Christianity in the 4th century (Council of Nicaea) was a different beast than it was in the 1st century. But right now I want to look at early Christianity, when the witnesses of Christ's miracles were still alive.

20 years after the death of Christ, various individuals saw the necessity of putting Christ's teachings in writing. Peter, Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke and John are the most well-known, though many others also contributed to the writings of early Christianity. The Gospel according to Mark is the first canonical gospel ever written (although it is placed second in the bible). Matthew and Luke chose to expand on Mark's gospel in different ways, to better help specific subgroups of Christians. Matthew wrote for Hebrews and Luke wrote for Greek-speaking Gentiles. John wrote independently, drawing from his own experiences with Jesus and focusing a lot on God's love for us. These four books are further supplemented by the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of Saint Paul to form the New Testament.

Fast forward to the present. Christianity has many denominations, but there are still some common elements that unite all Christians. One modern Christian mentions these unifying principles as seven truths, that we can choose to believe in or not believe in. These seven truths exist regardless of our individual beliefs:

1. There is one God, eternally existent in three persons.
2. God created everything in this universe, including all the physical laws.
3. God gave humans free will, to choose Him over sin.
4. Humans rebelled, and sin was introduced.
5. All mankind is inherently sinful.
6. The penalty for sin is eternal separation from God.
7. God is not willing that any of us should have to pay that penalty, so he came to earth, assumed the form of man (in the person of Jesus Christ), and paid the penalty for us; The gift of salvation is free to all, but the choice to accept it is up to each person.

The seven truths above may or may not be an accurate summary of the basic beliefs of Christians around the world, but I think it is pretty darn close. And the basic concept behind them is that they are true whether we believe in them or not, whether we like them or not. As for myself, I'm more familiar with the four laws than I am with the seven truths.

When I was a baby Christian, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the New Testament, so I relied on a booklet titled the Four Spiritual Laws to summarize the foundation of my faith. It's basically a short, cutesy way of looking at the Gospel message. Over one and a half billion copies of the little booklets have been published so far (that I know of).

The Four Spiritual Laws are written as follows:

1. God LOVES you and offers a wonderful PLAN for your life.

"God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" - John 3:16.
"I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly" - John 10:10.

2. Man is SINFUL and SEPARATED from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life.

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" - Romans 3:23.
"The wages of sin is death" - Romans 6:23.

3. Jesus Christ is God's ONLY provision for man's sin. Through Him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life.

"God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" - Romans 5:8.
"Christ died for our sins...He was buried...He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures...He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred..." - 1 Corinthians 15:3-6.
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me'" - John 14:6.

4. We must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.

"As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name" - John 1:12.
"By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast" - Ephesians 2:8,9.

Receiving Christ involves turning to God from self (repentance) and trusting Christ to come into our lives to forgive our sins and to make us what He wants us to be. Just to agree intellectually that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for our sins is not enough. Nor is it enough to have an emotional experience. We receive Jesus Christ by faith, as an act of the will.

These two circles represent two kinds of lives:












Finally, we end with a prayer...
"Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be."

Triceratops is the next Brontosaurus

History Revised, courtesy of Rooster Teeth Comics. Story by Griffon Ramsey and Art by Luke McKay.

Indeed, I still remember seeing Brontosaurus in dinosaur books when I was a child. Turned out that it was just an Apatosaurus with the wrong head. Now scientists are saying that Triceratops and Torosaurus were actually the same species. A Triceratops was basically a juvenile Torosaurus. So, we can say sayonara to yet another popular dinosaur. Thanks for nothing, scientists.

Here are a couple articles about the Triceratops debacle:
Triceratops May Not Have Existed.
Has Triceratops Really Been Torosaurus All These Years?

Edit: I thought Triceratops, being the juvenile, would be replaced by Torosaurus in science. I was all ready to give Cera from the Land Before Time a sweet goodbye. But apparently scientists are killing off Torosaurus and relabeling all related fossils as Triceratops instead. The reason, as far as I can tell, is that the name Triceratops was coined three years before Torosaurus. Since Triceratops was discovered first, its name stays.

Bye bye, Torosaurus. We didn't know you well enough to realize all your babies were actually Triceratops. Ya, we didn't pay much attention to you. Sorry 'bout that.

The Alphabet

I know I posted less than 7 hours ago, and it's weird to post again, but I just felt like sharing. It reminds me of the time when I was posting on forums instead of blogs, and instead of one topic every other week, I would make a dozen threads in a day and check on them over the next month to read and reply. Ah, the good old days.

Anywho, I wanted to share the origin of the alphabet. Wikipedia also has a nice article on the history of the alphabet. To be honest, I can't verify any of that, since archaeology was never my strength (I prefer written history instead). You would think some ancient writers would write about the history of writing, but no... archaeologists have to do the hard work to get answers.

Which reminds me of the subject of historiography, the study of history. Or more accurately, the study of how people record and study history. The first historiographer that I know of was Herodotus of ancient Greece. Herodotus wrote "the histories," the oldest surviving history book. I believe Herodotus was one of the first Greeks to conclude that the Caspian Sea is a lake, and not a true sea at all. He also believed it was possible to sail directly between India and Greece, simply by going around Lybia. As it turns out, he was mostly correct, except that the African continent is much larger than he ever imagined.

He made a number of big claims in the histories that took a long time to verify. He described a Scythian city near modern-day Ukraine that was a hundred times larger than Troy (it wasn't until the 1970s that someone was able to prove he was telling the truth). He mentions giant ants in India (he was probably referring to marmots). He also boldly claimed that Etruscans (who lived in Italy at the time) were descended from Turkish nomads. Most ancient Romans scoffed at this claim, but DNA evidence has proven Herodotus to be correct.

Of course, some things are still believed to be false. Herodotus mentioned Phoenixes living in Egypt, which has never been proven. However, given how many of his other amazing claims turned out to be true, it may turn out that at some later date an archaeologist will uncover phoenix fossils in Egypt.

Here's a recreation of a map Herodotus made of the world as he knew it:

The Wheel of Time

The Wheel of Time is an epic fantasy series by Robert Jordan, currently consisting of eleven books in the original series (Plus the twelfth written by Brandon Sanderson), and a prequel (New Spring). Jordan died in the middle of writing the twelfth, A Memory of Light, which he had promised would wrap up the series once and for all, even if the publisher had to invent a new book format. His wife and editor selected Brandon Sanderson to complete the series based on notes left behind by Jordan.

Sanderson has decided to write three books to complete the series, and so far he has done an excellent job of resolving various plot threads in his first book, the Gathering Storm. The next two, Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light, may actually provide a good ending to the series. It is unfortunate that Jordan was unable to complete the series himself, but at least we know with Sanderson that it will end. I'm looking forward to reading more.

That said, I wanted to talk a little bit about the backstory of Wheel of Time. The Wheel of Time series is a rare gem exploring technological regression and redevelopment. Thousands of years before the time of the first book, during the Age of Legends, humanity had the Aes Sedai (magic) equivalents for airplanes, elevators, trains, cars, artificial fibers, air conditioning, and various other goodies that we modern Earthlings have in bunches. Then, in an effort to find a power source to fuel their increasing technology, the Aes Sedai scientists discovered a limitless power source underground. They bore a hole into it to tap the energy, but discovered that the energy had a will of its own (this is the Dark One, the big bad for the entire series). Released from its underground prison, the Dark One sowed chaos in the world, and the Age of Legends was lost.

I am very curious to learn more about that world, because it sounds incredible. We also get strong hints that Aes Sedai from the Age of Legends were not as adept as modern Aes Sedai at all the magic that modern Aes Sedai perform. Instead, the Aes Sedai from the Age of Legends (including the Dark One's chosen servants) relied on technology. Many of the Chosen, reputed to be the strongest Aes Sedai in the world, have proven that they aren't all that strong individually at all. Much of their power is borrowed from the Dark One or based on knowledge and experience. Several modern Aes Sedai are still able to beat them despite that.

Furthermore, modern Aes Sedai are rediscovering many of the tricks lost during the Age of Legends. And Rand's academies of science have produced interesting items such as telescopes, the combustion engine (trains, cars), and electricity. For all we know, after Rand breaks the world, we will have another Age of Legends. It makes me really curious about what the original Age of Legends was like, and what the world will be like afterwards.

Rest in Peace, OneManga

It is no secret that I enjoy reading Manga (Japanese comic books). My interest in the latest available comics is so intense that I read translated copies over the internet. I get to read a huge number of comics less than a week after they are first published, and I get to read comics that aren't even for sale in the United States (yet). Due to licensing laws and consumer demand, some manga will never be in bookstores. But I don't mind, since I can read most of it online for free. My favorite website for reading these free "scanlations" was OneManga, due in large part to its superior layout and ease-of-use.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. OneManga has announced that they are being shut down. Here is the detailed message from their wonderful staff:

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"There is an end to everything, to good things as well."

It pains me to announce that this is the last week of manga reading on One Manga (!!). Manga publishers have recently changed their stance on manga scanlations and made it clear that they no longer approve of it. We have decided to abide by their wishes, and remove all manga content (regardless of licensing status) from the site. The removal of content will happen gradually (so you can at least finish some of the outstanding reading you have), but we expect all content to be gone by early next week (RIP OM July '10).

So what next? We're not really sure at this point, but we have some ideas we would like to try out. Until then, the One Manga forums will remain active and we encourage all of you to continue using them. OMF has developed into a great community and it would be a shame to see that disappear.

You can also show us some love in this moment of sadness by 'liking' our brand new Facebook page. It would be nice to see just how many of you came to enjoy our 'better than peanut butter and jelly' invention.

Regardless of whether you stay with us or not, on behalf of the One Manga team, I would like to thank you all for your unwavering support over the years. Through the ups and downs you have stuck with us, and that is what kept us going.

As a certain Porky was fond of saying... That's all folks!

Time for me to go lay down and let this all sink in.

- Zabi"
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As it so happens, I'm not going to stick with them, since I came for the manga, not the forum talk. For now, I'm switching to another online manga provider (MangaFox), but if they get shut down too I'll just have to locate the individual scanlation groups. Evil-Genius, Hox, TDX, SBCrew and Keishou are just a small handful of the teams that work on scanning, translating and editing the manga for online viewing.

Edit: I just put together a short list of manga that I was reading on OneManga that I now need to find elsewhere. Enjoy the evidence of my obsession:

Akumetsu
Living Game
Zetman
Detective Conan
Cesare
Parasyte
Historie
Liar Game
Skip Beat
GE - Good Ending
Usagi Drop
Shut Hell
Hapi Mari
Nononono
Lock On!
Nanaco Robin
Slam Dunk
Beelzebub

My collections of Fruits Basket, His and Her Circumstances, and Fullmetal Alchemist are also incomplete. And unfortunately, Fruits Basket has already been purged quite thoroughly from the sites I visit due to a very active licensing company, and His and Her Circumstances has vanished from bookstores.

This may take a while...

Basketball Tandems and Trios

The biggest buzz in sports this week has got to be LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh (the three best players on the market this year) all signing with the Miami Heat. Half of the credit probably belongs to Pat Riley for recruiting them, but the other half goes to the three superstars agreeing to put aside their egos to work together.

King James just killed the city of Cleveland and his hometown of Akron to increase his chances of winning, and most of Ohio and New York will regard him as a villain from now on. On the flip side, the Akron Hammer is taking a pay-cut and agreeing to share the spotlight with an equally skilled superstar in D-Wade and a guaranteed all-star in CB4. Though James is clearly narcissistic and selfish, he has also shown that money and popularity are lower priorities in his life. He'll play the villain for the rest of his career, have trouble living in Ohio, lose some of his sponsorships, and earn a little less money, but at least no one can claim he doesn't want to win.

All three members of this new superstar trio have played in the league for 7 years, but the oldest of them is D-Wade at just 28 years old. He still has at least 8 more years of fight left in him, so long as he can stay healthy. If they can get the rest of the supporting cast together by the summer of 2011, Miami will have a basketball dynasty to last the entire decade.

Notice that there are a lot of "ifs" in the Heat's future. Although they have two of the three best players in the NBA (the other being Kobe Bryant in LA), plus a great third man in Chris Bosh, the Heat only have 9 active players (4 of them are rookies), they lack cap room, and they don't have the mid-level exception this summer. So, it appears their fourth and fifth best players are the decent defensive point guard Mario Chalmers and the recently-signed 3-pt specialist Mike Miller. The remaining three or more players on their roster are likely going to be signed to minimum-value contracts (which means they'll probably be terrible). They need to find more pieces next year (a true center to free up Bosh to play power forward would be nice), and they will need to build chemistry between their existing group.

King James, D-Wade, and Chris Bosh are all good friends, and LeBron at the very least is fine with sharing the ball (as long as he can trust his teammates to play well). But it will not be an easy transition for these three guys. Each of them was the best player on his respective team for his entire career up to this point. Now none of them is a clear number one, and each of them will have to re-imagine his role on the court.

Three interesting pieces of news in the NBA this week that have fallen under the radar because of LeBron's decision are:

1) Carlos Boozer signing with the Chicago Bulls to make them a serious playoff-contender. They failed to grab LeBron or D-Wade, but I wouldn't count them out just yet. Derrick Rose is still developing into a superstar point guard and there are plenty of role players on the Bulls franchise that most teams would love to have.

2) Kevin Durant signing a 5-year extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder (good for him, good for the city, good for the team, and probably good for the NBA's public image too).

3) And a trade between the New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors sending Kelenna Azubuike, Ronny Turiaf and Anthony Randolph to the big apple in exchange for up-and-coming big man David Lee.

I like Lee. He's big and puts up good numbers. And with the drafting of Ekpe Udoh, Anthony Randolph's future with the Warriors was definitely in question. The two are too similar in size and style, and I groaned when the Warriors drafted Udoh with the 6th pick. He's still not worth it, but now I feel better because we have Lee. We also lost Azubuike and Turiaf. Turiaf isn't a great player, but he brings such energy and enthusiasm that it infects his teammates. Lee is infinitely better though. As for Azubuike, we needed him for two things: defense and shooting. Anthony Morrow and Charlie Bell can collectively make up for the shooting, but not the defense. Monta Ellis doesn't work well enough at 2-Guard, and I prefer Stephen Curry to be our Point Guard. That leaves Ellis without a real role on the team. He still has amazing talent and skill, so he could earn the Warriors a lot in a trade. But we would need a new 2-Guard or Swingman to replace him. Preferably someone with better defense than the guys we have now. The roster still looks like a mess, but at least there are several bright spots to build the franchise around.

All this talk of free agency, the NBA Draft, and the excitement of 2010's NBA Finals has had me thinking about the great tandems and trios in the history of basketball. Mostly the history after 1979 when the 3-point line was introduced and Magic Johnson was drafted. I don't know much about basketball before that year, and I wouldn't trust the statistics to help me either since the game was so different back then.

Here is a list of my favorite tandems and trios in the NBA since 1980:

10) Golden State Warriors: Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin.
Run-TMC. For the sake of making the list less arbitrary, I used metric stats for all the players in their years together, and surprisingly Run-TMC ranked very highly on the list. Several championship tandems and trios fared worse than them statistically. Stats don't reflect actual success, though. Regardless, my love for this trio lands them a spot on my top 10 list.

9) Seattle Supersonics: Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp.
A classic for those who grew up watching basketball in the 1990s. I've always been a big fan of great defense over flashy offense, regardless of what sport I'm watching, and these two were regular candidates for the all-defensive team. They could also generate solid offensive numbers, and they had flare too. Their signature alley-oop connection was more fan-pleasing than game-winning. Unfortunately, Shawn Kemp's drug problems and Gary Payton's score-first mentality killed the tandem, and they never won a championship.

8) Los Angeles Lakers: Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.
It is difficult for me to like this tandem, especially because another one of my favorites (Anfernee Hardaway with Shaq in Orlando) had to be broken up to make this partnership possible. Still, I can't deny results. 3 championship rings together, plus 3 more apart, speak volumes about their individual abilities and their collective dominance. Although the two had trouble getting along towards the end, I actually think both of them are better team players than folks give them credit for. Kobe Bryant has evolved into a great captain and playmaker over the course of his career, and Shaquille O'Neal, for all his shenanigans and big talk, was never a troublemaker like the drug-abusing Shawn Kemp or gun-toating Gilbert Arenas. As individuals, I actually like Kobe and Shaq. I just don't like them as a couple. 8th on my Top 10 list is the best they can hope for.

7) Detriot Pistons: Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars.
The bad-boy Pistons of the late 1980s and early 1990s won two consecutive championships, and are historically the most successful team against Michael Jordan's Bulls. However, unlike the Bulls, the Pistons had no real superstars. The closest they had was the backcourt tandem of Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars. They have a relatively low efficiency rating, but they made up for it in their defense. Against Isiah's tenacity and Joe's lock-down defense, many great players like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson fell flat on their face. Most remarkable of all, neither of them is taller than 6'3".

6) San Antonio Spurs: Tim Duncan and David Robinson.
Tim Duncan could be paired up with either David Robinson or Tony Parker and still make this list, but I decided to go with the frontcourt tandem out of respect for David Robinson's great career and the pure dominance those two had as the "Twin Towers" around the basket. They only won two championships together, and one of those was during the strike-shortened season of 1998-99. Still, I can't think of any other pair of two big men (approximately 7' tall) that performed as well as they did.

5) Philadelphia 76ers: Julius Erving and Moses Malone.
This dynamic duo lasted only a few years, but they were the best in the league together. In an era controlled by Larry Bird's Celtics and Magic Johnson's Lakers, the 76ers put together the second best regular season performance of the decade (65 wins, 17 losses) and capped it with one of the best postseason records of all time (only one loss). Doctor J was someone the Sixers had inherited from the merging of the ABA and the NBA in the 1970s, and Moses Malone was the last piece in a championship-winning puzzle. Unfortunately for sixers fans, the front office made the mistake of trading Moses Malone for future prospects that never met expectations. Thus, the tandem was short-lived, and earned only one ring to prove their worth.

4) Boston Celtics: Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish.
I could probably name all five starting members of the 1980s Celtics, but I'm just going to stick with the three most statistically impressive members (Sorry, Danny Ainge, but you didn't make the cut). The Boston Celtics probably would have been the definitive dynasty of the 1980s if not for the Los Angeles Lakers winning more championships than them (five versus three). Still, there is no doubt of their greatness. Larry Bird was the first true three-point shooter in the NBA, and he has been the gold-standard for shooting ever since.

3) Utah Jazz: John Stockton and Karl Malone.
An incredible tandem that spent a whopping 18 years playing together. They developed an unparalleled chemistry and went to the playoffs every year. Their signature pick&roll was nearly unstoppable, and today no one runs the maneuver as well as they did. In my estimation, Stockton is one of the two best point guards of all time (the other being Magic Johnson). He's also very humble, yet polite and gentlemanly. He has the personality of a much older basketball player, from an era when basketball wasn't shown on live TV networks and players had to have a second job to earn a living. By comparison, Karl Malone has a lot more swagger and flare, and his individual ability may have been over-estimated somewhat, but he fit in just fine with Jerry Sloan's system and John Stockton's play-style. Unfortunately, they never won a championship together, having lost to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in their only two Finals appearances.

2) Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy.
The other half of the legendary Celtics-Lakers rivalry in the 1980s. You could pair up Magic Johnson with either of the other two, and their combined efficiency rating would still be better than almost every other pair of players in NBA history. Even Abdul-Jabber and Worthy together can rank high on this top 10 list without Magic Johnson. So, you can imagine how amazing all three are together. The future success of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh may end up dwarfing this trio, but until then, I'm naming these three the best trio in NBA history. All three of them could score a lot of points, grab a ton of rebounds, and play excellent defense. On top of that, Magic Johnson's accurate no-look pass and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's unblockable skyhook rounded out "The Show" in LA. Flashy, fun, strong, fundamentally sound, and successful. I can't say enough about them.

1) Chicago Bulls: Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
No surprises here. At least for me. I grew up a 90s kid and I know full well how dominant these two were on the basketball court. In terms of collective efficiency rating (the metric stat which determines an individual player's contribution to his team), these two have the highest in NBA history. They weren't just strong on the offensive side of the court, though. They were also the best at defense in their prime, earning spots on the all-defensive 1st team many times during the 90s. The Chicago Bulls, led by this Batman-and-Robin duo, won six championships in eight years. They probably would have won eight straight if Jordan had not retired for one and a half years in the middle. My favorite aspect of the tandem, though, was the fact that Jordan wasn't the primary ball-handler. Pippen had the honors of bringing the ball up the court and getting the most touches in a game. Jordan could put his complete trust in Pippen to handle the ball, and Pippen could trust Jordan to move well without the ball. That's something guys like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have been lacking in their careers up to this point, and perhaps they'll be able to find it in each other.

That's all on basketball from me until the next season starts. I'm getting pretty excited about football instead, and I'm already piling on the expectations for another year with Mike Singletary and his tough-and-talented 49ers team.

Wild Alamo

It's official. 80 Los Balcones, Alamo, California is home to three foxes (one mother and her two cubs), six deer (a mother and her two fawns, a pair of young males, and an injured male if it hasn't died yet), and tons of turkeys (a dominant male, his harem of females, and several dozen chicks). Deer are not unheard of in this area, and the turkeys have been around for a year at least, so those won't come as a surprise. The foxes, on the other hand, are remarkable new additions.

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I first saw the mother fox over a month ago hunting a mouse. It moved very quickly, but I was able to catch it on camera after the kill. The cubs were sighted more recently, twice. On one occasion, the mother fox was hunting the turkey chicks, and it caught one in a tree. Now I know turkey chicks jump into trees for safety. Just a few hours ago, I saw the mother fox patrolling our house again. My suspicion is that the foxes are following the turkeys, and the turkeys have made our home part of their normal grazing routine. So, as long as the turkeys are still around, the foxes will call our home their home too.

Speaking of the Turkeys...
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And because deer are cute...
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Slovenians Aren't Friends?

It's been a long time since I made a blog post, and in the spirit of the upcoming NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers I have been researching basketball history for a relevant mega-post. However, I couldn't help but notice some interesting chemistry between the Phoenix Suns' Slovenian Point Guard Goran Dragic and the Los Angeles Lakers' Slovenian Shooting Guard Sasha Vujacic. Apparently, these two countrymen don't like each other.

Some amusing online articles about the Slovenian rivals:
Goran Dragic and Sasha Vujacic Star in the NBA's Most Hilarious Rivalry.
Surprisingly, Sasha Vujacic and Goran Dragic are not best friends.
The Slovenian rivalry between Goran Dragic and Sasha Vujacic.

By the way, I got those three articles using Google. And as for the seriousness of the rivalry, I suspect it's hyped up. But it's still totally amusing.

Slovenia is going to start World War III via the NBA Western Conference Finals. Calling it now.

May 9 - День Победы

For many people, May 9 is a very important day. In the United States, it is important because it is Mother's Day. However, for many others, May 9 is significant for a different reason. May 9 marks Victory Day: the day that Nazi Germany surrendered to the Soviet Union in the Second World War (Second Great War to Russians). For those of us born and raised in America, this may come as a surprise. The Germans surrendered to the Allied nations on May 7, not May 9. May 7 is what we commonly refer to as VE Day, or Victory in Europe. The reason the Germans did not surrender to the Soviet Union at the same time was because when the Germans surrendered on May 7, Joseph Stalin was frustrated with the lack of a Soviet envoy at the treaty-signing. Believing that the Soviet Union deserved more attention for bearing the brunt of Germany's attacks during World War II, Stalin insisted on having a Soviet-run ceremony for Germany's surrender a day and a half later. Thus, the former member states of the Soviet Union celebrate Victory Day on May 9.

Some related facts:

* The Soviet Union mobilized 20 million soldiers during the course of the war. In comparison, the United States and Germany each mobilized approximately 11 million soldiers, and Japan mobilized less than 8 million.

* Over 14 million of the Soviet Union's soldiers lost their lives during the conflict. Germany had the second highest military death toll at under 3 million.

* Although the data is inconclusive, rough estimates put Soviet civilian casualties from 7 to 14 million people. Only China can claim a comparable number, ranging from 7 to 16 million civilian lives lost during the war.

* Scholars from all over the world commonly consider the Soviet counteroffensive at the Battle of Stalingrad in November 1942 (corresponding to the Allied offensive in North Africa) to be the major turning point of World War II. Both the Soviets and the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Romania, and Hungary) lost approximately 1.1 million soldiers in that battle alone.

Sources:
1. World History Atlas, edited by Jeremy Black.
2. Encyclopedia Britannica, Battle of Stalingrad.
3. My Calculus teacher, born and raised in Soviet Russia.

This is the Story of a Yurt

In response to an innocent question in a game of online scrabble, I am now prepared to post about the mysterious Yurt. A Yurt is portable, like a tent, but much more durable than typical tents. It is a favorite form of housing for nomads and the Turks of Central Asia. To illustrate what a Yurt is, here are two excerpts from the manga Otoyomegatari (read right to left):




The dwellings in the above pages are Yurts. However, I did not learn of Yurts from a manga. I learned about them when I was in middle school, playing a computer game called Age of Empires. In the game, you can create maps and scenarios using various items and units. Among the items were dwellings, some of which were named Yurts. From there, I learned that Yurts were for nomads, but it would not be until I started studying history for fun that I became familiar with them.

So, now you know.

2010 NFL Draft: San Francisco 49ers

I know I'm a little late, but I really want to post about the 49ers' selections in the draft this year. I can hardly contain my excitement. Last year we had a good defense anchored by superstar linebacker Patrick Willis and a lot of weapons on offense, including Pro-Bowlers Frank Gore and Vernon Davis, and the rookie standout Michael Crabtree. With Singletary in his first full year as head coach, the 49ers fought hard for their first non-losing season since 2002. However, there were some obvious weaknesses. Luckily, we went into the 2010 NFL draft with two first round picks and several other good picks.

Before the draft, the team's biggest position needs were clearly spelled out: offensive linemen and defensive backs. Because the 49ers' old general manager has been removed from the organization, and a new one hasn't been hired yet, a former subordinate of the old GM stepped in to take the lead. I have a strong suspicion that Coach Singletary had a lot more influence over the draft as a result of this internal shakeup. Regardless of who was ultimately calling the shots, the 49ers definitely struck gold this time.

For the two first round picks San Francisco selected two offensive linemen: Anthony Davis from Rutgers and Mike Iupati from Idaho. Mike Iupati in particular is a happy site for me: he's 6'6", 330 lbs., and he's an American Samoan. So far, American Samoans in the NFL have proven to be both physically gifted and full of work ethic. I expect great things from him. If all goes according to plan, you will be seeing Davis and Iupati wearing jerseys #76 and #77 on the starting offensive line in game 1 against the Seattle Seahawks.

However, the 49ers didn't just get it right in the first round. They continued to make strong picks during the rest of the draft. Safety Taylor Mays is a huge steal, considering how physically gifted he is compared to many other defensive backs in this draft. He should fit right in with Coach Singletary's defensive style, and Taylor Mays is really happy about the situation too. When both the coach and the player are excited about working together, you can expect some great results on the field.

Linebacker Navorro Bowman doesn't quite fit the position need I had in mind at this point in the draft (I would've liked a defensive tackle or another defensive back),. He's a pass rushing linebacker, but it's still uncertain whether he'll fit into the 3-4 defense as an outside or inside linebacker. Furthermore, he has a lot of talented teammates playing the same/similar positions: Parys Haralson, Manny Lawson, Takeo Spikes, and of course, Patrick Willis. He brings depth at least, and his presence may inspire Manny Lawson to play harder. In terms of pure physical talent, Lawson should be better, but talent alone isn't enough. Maybe Bowman will spark a fire in Lawson?

The last pick I want to talk about is running back Anthony Dixon, drafted in the sixth round. With a draft lasting seven rounds, you typically don't expect to get much out of the sixth round. However, I really like San Francisco's selection here. Anthony Dixon is a great power back who was projected to go in the third or fourth round of the draft before draft day. Now, to be clear, Frank Gore is definitely our starting running back. But he can't be on the field all the time. Most running backs in the modern NFL destroy their legs (and their careers) if they are forced to be the every-down starting running back for eight or more years. So, Gore needs help. Last year we got Glen Coffee to provide it, but I wasn't impressed. I'm hoping Anthony Dixon can compete with Coffee to share the carries with Gore. In doing so, we extend the useful life of our best running back for several more years.

All in all, I think this was a very successful draft for the San Francisco 49ers. I'm looking forward to Coach Singletary's second full year leading this talented team. Given how weak the NFC West Division is, I expect the Red and Gold to go to the playoffs at least.

Liar Game

I read a lot of Japanese manga, and most of it is pretty terrible. But sometimes I come across a real gem, and those rare stories are what drive me to continue reading manga. One of those gems is Liar Game.

The main characters of Liar Game couldn't be more different. One is a "foolishly honest" college student who is easily tricked, and the other is a genius ex-convict who drove a multi-level marketing group to bankruptcy. This unlikely pair gets dragged into a tournament-style contest run by the mysterious Liar Game corporation. As the name implies, the point of the game is to lie, and the winner stands to win huge amounts of money. The losers, on the other hand, go into debt.

The Liar Game consists of multiple rounds, and each round is a different type of game. One round is called "Minority Rule," where everyone is given a yes-or-no question, and in order to win, you have to always vote with the minority. Another round is a harmless version of "Russian Roulette," which requires more strategy than luck. How the participants use psychology to achieve victory is absolutely fascinating. It's a great story.

Furthermore, there are a wide variety of supporting characters. Many people with different backgrounds, ages, genders, personalities, and motivations help show how different people react to intense situations.

Unfortunately, the art is below average. It's enough to get the job done, which is to make you pay more attention to the story and the characters. There's nothing to distract you from the dialogue.

Liar Game chapters are available here until it is licensed for American release, at which point it may or may not be removed.

The Cheetah

I have loved watching and reading about animals since I was a little kid. I especially enjoy the big cats of Asia and Africa: Tigers, Lions, Leopards, and Cheetahs. Even their canine counterparts (Wolves, Hyenas, African Hunting Dogs), whom I also enjoy watching, can not command as much of my attention as the big cats.

That said, it is pretty clear that the big cats are not created equal. The Leopard lives on more continents than any other big cat, making it the king/queen of adaptation. Lions are the second most successful big cat in Africa, with their pack behavior, large size, and the tourist industry giving them a definite edge against other predators. Leopards and Lions are thriving, or at least surviving, in the modern world.

Tigers are struggling in Asia, but only because of human encroachment. The small efforts made towards preserving Tiger populations show signs of success, but it is ultimately up to the people of India and China to adopt the African attitude. The sooner they start to see Tigers as a rich tourist attraction instead of as an annoyance or a threat, the better it will be for the Tiger population. In a way, one can think of "looking cool" as the Tiger's most valuable survival trait in the modern world. They also need to be able to tolerate human presence. Most Lions in Africa do not mind resting a short distance away from a bunch of humans in a vehicle. If Tigers can behave similarly, they will survive.

This just leaves us with the Cheetah. The smallest of the four big cats I mentioned, the Cheetah is also struggling to survive. 100 years ago there were an estimated 100,000 Cheetahs, while today the number is closer to approximately 10,000. Cheetahs used to range across the wild plains of Europe and India, but now you would be hard-pressed to find any living in either region outside of zoos. Due to their physical attributes and hunting behavior, they can only survive in wide open plains (such as the African savanna), and humans absolutely love to build in flat, open terrain.

Yet, the declining Cheetah population is not just due to humans encroaching on their habitats or hunting them. The Cheetah itself has many traits which make it difficult to adapt. Most noticeably, it is a beast specializing in speed. It can accelerate from 0 to 40 miles per hour in just three strides, and it can sprint up to a top speed of 70 miles per hour. It travels faster than the speed limit of a California highway. This makes it an extremely effective hunter of fast prey in the open savanna.

However, the physical characteristics that help it reach such high speeds are also what contribute to its lack of adaptability in the modern world. Because of its small head, it has weak jaws, so it has to kill its prey using suffocation. Its legs are too slim to use for brawling like a Lion or Leopard. As for its claws, because the Cheetah can not retract them, it can not keep them sharp. The blunt claws can only provide traction while running and perhaps help trip up prey. The Cheetah's greatest weapon is speed, and it can easily lose that speed if it is injured. This is an animal that simply isn't designed to fight. That's a shame, in part because almost all of the prey animals in Africa are great fighters. The only prey a Cheetah can safely hunt without risk of fatal injury are Antelopes such as Gazelle and Impala.

The Cheetah also has another unfortunate physical trait designed to help its speed: a lack of body fat. Unlike most predators, the Cheetah has no stored fat to help it survive in lean times. Even after it is full from a successful kill, the Cheetah would only have enough energy for perhaps three more hunts. In other words, if it fails to catch any prey in three hunts, it would begin to starve to death. Imagine all the basketball players who miss three shots in a row, or football quarterbacks who throw three consecutive incomplete passes. Those are the odds the Cheetah faces when it hunts.

Furthermore, it is not enough for the Cheetah to catch and kill its prey. Even after expending all that energy to catch a Gazelle or Impala, it still has to keep some in reserve to run away when a bigger predator (such as a Lion or Hyena) arrives to steal the prized meat. Cheetahs can not afford to get injured in a fight, especially against a larger foe, so they always prefer to flee at the sign of trouble. Unfortunately, they can not do that with their meal in tow, so the Cheetah could still end up starving after a successful hunt.

As difficult as hunting is for Cheetahs, the biggest threat to the Cheetah population is in reproduction. Genetic studies have revealed that Cheetahs lack genetic variety due to inbreeding. This has led to a lot of problems with Cheetah cubs and a high infant mortality rate. Even breeding Cheetahs in captivity has failed to produce better results.

On top of the genetic uniformity and weaknesses associated with inbreeding, Cheetah cubs are also very susceptible to being killed by other predators. Lions, Leopards, Hyenas, and even Eagles will take a bite out of a small Cheetah cub if given the chance. If, through a combination of effort and luck, a Cheetah cub survives to adulthood, it is still not an adept hunter by the time its mother abandons it. A young adult Cheetah still has a lot to learn through trial and error, and just one injury from a bad hunt or a fight with another predator will kill the Cheetah's chances for survival.

The most successful litter of cubs I have ever seen is one that hunted as a group after their mother abandoned them. They were four brothers who were raised by an experienced mom. Usually, young Cheetah mothers fail to keep all but one or none of their cubs alive. Experienced mothers are more successful on average, but keeping four cubs alive to adulthood is still quite an accomplishment. Rather than go their separate ways, the four cubs stuck together, forming an impromptu same-sex pack.

Another animal that likes to do this is the extremely successful African Hunting Dog. African Hunting Dogs love to form a same-sex pack that eventually merges with an opposite-sex pack when they find each other. These packs are very tightly-knit groups and have no internal disorder. They cooperate very well, and succeed in approximately 80% of their hunts.

The four-pack of Cheetahs is much smaller than a pack of African Hunting Dogs, and they are not likely to find multiple female Cheetahs willing to live with them for more than a few days, but their success at hunting was very real. They made up for their lack of experience with coordination born from growing up together. I never did find out how they did in the long run, but it would be pretty cool if they remained a successful pack into old age (17 years for captive Cheetahs and about 10 years for wild Cheetahs).

But as I mentioned earlier, finding a large group of Cheetah cubs that live to adulthood is very rare, and there's no guarantee that they will survive even after they are abandoned by their mother. Cheetahs are too ultra-specialized in speed, and their lack of adaptability is not only making it hard on them in the wild, but it is proving a problem in captivity too. Many scientists and conservationists have tried and failed to make the captive Cheetah population stable. Right now, both the captive and wild populations are in decline.

It would be a shame if the fastest land animal in the world went extinct, and at least one Conservationist has devoted her life to preventing the Cheetah's extinction. Her name is Dr. Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. Dr. Laurie Marker works with the local government and local farmers to understand their needs and balance them with the needs of the endangered Cheetahs. One of the goals is to inspire locals to become Conservationists, and to provide education so that locals have a new understanding of the wildlife around them.

If Dr. Laurie Marker succeeds, the wild Cheetah might become an even greater success story than the Tigers in captivity and the Lions in the wildlife preserves.

Sources and Further Information:
African Wildlife Foundation: Cheetah
Wilflife Conservation Network: Cheetah
Cheetah.Org Fact Sheet
ABC News Blog: Cheetahs in the Wild
How Stuff Works: Cheetah Speed
Pictures of Cats: Cheetah Facts

A Slice of Japan's Economic Life

I'm going to start into a short monologue about Japan's economy in a few moments, but I want to direct you to a Japanese manga called Usagi Drop for now.

Usagi Drop, or Bunny Drop as it is known in English-speaking bookstores, is a slice of life manga about a 30-year-old bachelor, Daikichi, struggling to raise a 6-year-old orphan girl, Rin. That's the whole story in a nut-shell, but for some reason I found it to be a very interesting read. It doesn't have much to say on Japan's economy, but it is something worth looking into if you get the chance.

Another slice of life manga I read a while back is a really long one called Living Game. The art is a bit old-fashioned, and the story is dragged on for a while. I'm also not a big fan of the main characters, which tends to spoil a slice of life manga for me. Nonetheless, I found it interesting, because the fall of Japan's bubble economy (1986 to 1991) plays a huge role in Living Game's story.

Japan's bubble economy was one of overinflated real estate and stock prices, due in no small part to easily obtainable credit. That should sound familiar to a lot of folks, but unlike America, Japan's bubble economy collapsed as early as 1991. Japan has been in a deflationary spiral ever since. Since 1991, Japan's stock value has continued to plummet, and it reached an all-time low in 2008.

Here's a link to a Yahoo financial graph of the Nikkei 225, an index for Japan's stock market: Yahoo Graph of Nikkei 225. By default, the graph is on a logarithmic scale and only shows a few days. I changed it to start in 1984 and have a linear scale, which makes the rise and fall of Japan's bubble economy look more dramatic.

However, what is most disturbing to me regarding Japan's economic disruption is what it did to its government: almost nothing. Since 1955 to 2009 the Liberal Democratic Party has been the majority party in Japan's government. The LDP's stance on their economy is that it is a unique blend of socialism and capitalism, such that it can not be compared to any other economy, and that if a measurement seems to indicate something is wrong with Japan's economy, it means that there is something wrong with the measurement.

Still, even in rigid Japan, change is happening. The new Democratic Party of Japan, formed from merging four opponents of the Liberal Democratic Party, has taken control of the government. Time will tell if the DPJ takes the country in the right direction.

On a side-note, though, Japan's unemployment rate is fairly stable at under 4% right now. Although the stock values are still low and Japan is still in a deflationary spiral, one could argue that Japan's economy really is just fine. I'm not making that argument, though. :P

Good Friday

As a Catholic, Good Friday is huge. It is the one day of the year when we really focus on Christ on the cross (and it also happens to be the one day of the year when the crucifix is hidden behind a cloth in the Church).

As a born-again Christian, though, it seems like every day is Good Friday. I prefer to pray in private, and my average prayer is pretty short, but one theme that always stays in my heart is Christ redeeming me for my sins. Christ accepted my guilt on his own shoulders, and took my punishment for me. When I see Christ on the cross, it is a reminder that Christ loves me, regardless of my sinful nature. Every day is a reminder that Christ loves me. Good Friday is all about that love.

It is a given that the most popular chapters to read on Good Friday are about the Crucifixion: Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19. However, the reading that really gets to me on Good Friday is Psalm 22. On the cross, Jesus begins to recite Psalm 22 by saying "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" Many, including myself, read this passage in the gospels before we read it in Psalms, so we have trouble understanding the context. Why would God ask Himself such a question? But then I read Psalm 22, and then my question changes: why would God recite this psalm at this time?

If Psalms could be associated with psychological disorders, Psalm 22 might be called bipolar. At first, David (the Psalmist in this case) is complaining that God is hidden and silent. "Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief" (Psalm 22: 2). I think a lot of us can sympathize with David here. Time and time again I have found myself praying to God, asking for direction, without hearing a response. There is no booming voice, no burning bush, no whisper from heaven. The clouds do not part for me, the sun does not shine a light on the answer to my problems.

But just because I do not see or hear a response to my prayer does not mean God is not listening. David says in the exact same psalm, "For he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy. He has not turned his back on them, but has listened to their cries for help [...] All who seek the Lord will praise him. Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy" (Psalm 22: 24-26). Although you may not hear God, God hears you. He is there for you, and those who trust in him will rejoice in His presence. David, despite starting his psalm on such a negative tone, actually ends by saying "His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born. They will hear about everything he has done" (Psalm 22: 31). For someone saying God had abandoned him only 30 verses earlier, David is sounding pretty positive.

David had faith that God was present in his life, even in the troubled times. This, I believe, is the message Jesus was communicating to us from the cross. He did not want us to look at His Crucifixion and think about how He got there or how He died. He wanted us to have confidence that even in the hard times, He is with us. Even in our darkest hour and the thickest fog, God is with us.

God is always with us.

March Madness

So, March Madness has started and as usual I haven't followed college basketball at all. But I had a one hour crash course on all the teams and I've made my spur-of-the-moment bracket. Unfortunately, after just 1 and a half days of play, we've already seen the craziest tournament in 20 years. Nearly a dozen close games, several major upsets, and my bracket is about 50% wrong.

Here's the link for curious readers:
Sohan's Bracket

On the flip side, with how the tournament has gone so far, no one can claim to be a genius in predicting who would win. There have been too many toss-ups where either team could have won.

And So It Begins

For those that know me, welcome.

For those that do not know me, I'm not sure how you got here. You're welcome to read on, or leave to enjoy a different part of the internet. You're just one click away from never seeing this page again.

I'm not particularly active on the internet. I have a facebook account because my friends at college bugged me about it. I have never created an account for myspace or twitter. Usually I just log on as a passive observer, reading my e-mail, reading webcomics, playing a game of lexulous, and using google or wikipedia for tidbits of information that may or may not be totally false.

Maybe that will change, though. I have a blog now (why is it called a blog, anyways? Guess I'll have to google that too). And I also have a lot of thoughts rolling around in my head. Most of it is irrelevant to my day-to-day life so I don't bother putting my thoughts into speech. Why speak or write of something that has absolutely nothing to do with anything in your life? I don't know the answer, but I still want to do it anyways. Thus, we arrive at this point.

I will give you a few moments to adjust to the new reality before I dive in to what I really want to say. I have this neat rant about terrorism in Japanese anime and the bursting of various economic bubbles that I'm saving for later.

Oh, and I'll probably write a little bit about something that's actually happening in my own life, but who wants to hear that? I sure don't.

Until then, talk to you later.