- Kyle has finally posted his Kid Nation running diary. Even if you didn't watch the show, or watched and didn't enjoy the show, I'd encourage you to read it. I think he's a great writer, and my only complaint is that he doesn't post enough...
- Malcolm Gladwell, (author of The Tipping Point and Blink) comments on the "intellectual sloppiness" of drug policy in professional sports. He makes an interesting point, which I agree with.
- By now, I'd imagine, a large number of people have seen the video that Chris Bosh and family produced over the holidays trying to get votes for the NBA All-Star Game. As I understand it, it was done without the knowledge/consent of the Raptors PR people, luckily Bosh has a good head on his shoulders. Former Raptor, Tracy McGrady, has got involved in a video, of let's say, lower, quality. (Look for T-Mac at around the 2 minute mark)
- With Federer being sick and the surface speeding up, I'm picking Djokovic over Roddick in the Aussie Open final. I'm also picking Serena Williams to lead the tournament in excuses after a semi-final loss to Justine Henin.
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1 comment:
Thanks for the kind words.
I dunno, I'm really starting to wonder about Gladwell. I loved The Tipping Point, but thought Blink was borderline pointless, or, at least, somewhat interesting but ultimately adding up to nothing. His New Yorker pieces are invariably thought provoking, but, lately, his blog posts seem to amount to the following:
a. take a hot-button issue.
b. go the other way on it.
c. resist the temptation to make any sort of conclusion, but ask the reader to explain precisely why things are the way they are.
The most obvious example I can think of was his piece asking readers to explain (in 50 words or less) why what Enron did was wrong, as if failing to explain it succinctly absolved them of their many (many, many) sins.
For the piece on drugs, he seems to be taking a daring position (how--or maybe even why--do we distinguish between Lasik eye surgery and steroid/HGH use in professional athletics?) but then ignores the most obvious point: one procedure results in profound health risks, one does not (I won't spoil it for you). Obviously, that's a gross over-simplification, but it's accuracy is fairly unassailable.
Anyway, thanks for sending along the link--I haven't checked his blog in months. (Also: did you read his article about "the formula"?--very cool.)
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