Bad Writing, Bad Research, Bad Results

The following headline in today's sports section of the Sun is misleading in every possible way:

"Race found to color umpires' vision when calling strikes."

When you read through the article, you discover that this so-called "research" yielded a shocking difference of ONE per cent.

I have news for you, kids.

One per cent is not statistically significant. One per cent is meaningless.

So-called professors at McGill, U, of Texas and Auburn U. all combined by analyzing 2 million pitches over 3 major league seasons.

For this, they were paid good public money??? This is what institutions of higher learning are concerned with? How did their wives and colleagues keep a straight face when told what they were doing with their time?

Can you say, "Corruption and waste of time?"

Finally, why would anyone write about it? Sloooowwwww Newzzzzzz Daaayyyyy...

The Hollies - Bus Stop

LOved these guys at the time...

Canada, the B-Movie, Reigns and Rains

We can be proud that Canada is firmly maintaining its grip on the titles Second Rate Country and B-Movie Society.

Item: We can't get rid of war criminals.

Nice.

No country is as forgiving and as welcoming to the scum of the earth. Even when they are found guilty of minor infractions like mass murder, we graciously allow them years upon years of legal appeals, while they continue to shop at groceries near you.

Item: Canada to skip World Water Expo in Spain next summer.

Nice.

We are surrounded on 3 sides by water. We have more rivers, lakes and streams that any 20 other countires combined, more and cheaper hydro-electric power than most sovereign states in the world and we are among the greatest per capita consumers of water.

Buy, hey! Why should we attend an international exposition on the the single greatest issue facing mankind today? 95 other countires, big and small, rich and poor, are managing to show.

But that would be too easy and and put us in danger of losing our title of World's Greatest Ditherers.

Novak is no Djoke

Tiger was magificant as always in winning his 13th major in Oklahoma yesterday.

And Novak Djokovic was wonderful in deafeating the numbers 3, 2, and 1 in the world at the Rogers Cup tennis tournet in Montreal.

Roddick is not really a factor these days; his game is brutish and limited.

But now add the Djoker to the names Federer and Nadal and we have entered an era of tennis similar to the days of Borg, Conners & McEnroe.

I love it.

NEWS FLASH! ROVE RESIGNS!

In a move that will be cheered by many and covered all day by CNN and others, the President's Creator, Karl Rove, has resigned from the Bush White House.

Does this mean that he will be freed from subpoenas or at least free to tell something resembling the truth.?

Rove has been up there on the Evil List for many of us for a long time time, compared to Haldeman and Erlichman, Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Without this scheming creep, there would be no George Bush.

Read the early dispatch now.

The Outright Lies of "Insite"

Guest Blogger, Steve, reports on the false claims of the safe injection site:

"There's a bit more data in on OD Deaths in Vancouver.

It looks like my initial evaluation that there was a significant increase in deaths caused by the opening of the SIS may have been premature. I had stated that the deaths in Vancouver went up by 29% in 2004, while they went down by 22% elsewhere. These numbers have since been revised to +22% and -8% respectively. http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/coroners/publications/docs/annualreport2005.pdf

Previous to 2003, the numbers for Vancouver tracked fairly closely with the numbers for the rest of BC. So I attributed this sudden divergence to the opening of the SIS.

If that were true, the trend would have continued. It didn't. OD deaths in Vancouver went down in 2005 (by 13%), while they went up in the rest of the province (by 22%). More data is required to make a proper evaluation.

I don't have complete numbers for 2006 or 2007 yet, but the Globe and Mail reported a comparison between the first six months of each of those years, and reported that, while OD deaths went up in Vancouver during that time (from 26 to 36), they went down in the rest of BC.**

However, if I extrapolate those numbers, it looks like OD deaths in Vancouver decreased in 2005 (as above) by about 13%, and again in 2006 by about 16%, only to shoot up again in 2007 (by about 38%). I don't know precisely what the rest of BC did during 2006 and 2007. I don't yet have those numbers.***

Early evaluation indicates that after the SIS opened, OD deaths went up slightly, but not significantly more than the rest of BC.

In any case, the differences are small enough to be of limited statistical significance. So the SIS doesn't seem to be having a large effect in either direction.

This sounds like a non-result, until you remember that the SIS proponents have been publishing glowing positive results, and overtly and categorically stating that the SIS is an amazing success, "according to the science". THIS AGAIN PROVES THEY ARE LYING, and have been lying all along.

As scientists, they should know that their own science never proved anything of the kind. As Colin Mangham pointed out in his report, far better than I ever could.

So far, the only thing we can say for sure is that the SIS is definitely not saving lives. The lowest number of OD deaths in Vancouver was in 2002, the last full year before the SIS opened. No matter what math you do, you can't make a case for any improvement in OD deaths in Vancouver. The situation is slightly worse. But that amount is probably not statistically significant.

Merv Griffin July 6,1925-August 9,2007

Merv Griffin has died.

He may not have been the very best TV talk show host, but he was certainly the most clever.

He invented "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" and invested big time in real estate. He became a hotelier late in life and was often listed as one of America's richest men.

Here's the story from today's Globe & Mail.

Bonnie and Clyde's 40th!

It's the 40th anniversary of the release of "Bonny and Clyde."

I was in London for 2 weeks. The day before I had gone to see George Segal and Jason Robards Jr. In "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre." It was a disaster of a movie. A big zero.

Then I went to see "Bonnie and Clyde," which had no press build-up. I had no idea what it was about. I just wanted to sit in a dark movie house and be swept away by images on a screen.

Swept away, I was. Along with the movie-going world.

Read this article in today's New York Times and click on the various trailers and clips. And if you've never seen this flick, rent the DVD tonight. It's a stunner. Warren Beatty, Fay Dunaway, Gene Hackman and Gene Wilder, among others.

Victor adds Up the Carnage

And while the gushing enablers sing the praises of all the great work in the DTES, the deaths are mounting:

"Hi David:

Our local rag neglected to report on a story that appeared in Friday's Globe. Overdose deaths in Vancouver increased to 36 so far this year from 26 the year before. That's a 40 percent increase. The story also reported that everywhere else in BC, overdose deaths went down. Now can one of the bloated, aging, gasbag columnists at the Sun explain again how the Safe Injection Site is reducing ODs? Or maybe Senator Larry Cirrhosis can explain it to Harper. Just wondering."

Wilful Blindness is Dangerous & Irresponsible

Seeing ugliness in beauty is the curse of the tormented soul.

What then are we to call seeing beauty in ugliness? A blessing? Sainthood?

Perhaps.

More often than not it is the projection of a kind of "loveliness delirium" that refuses to witness the truth before it.

People who do this are nuts and they put all of us in peril. If this kind of deluded soul were in the trenches with you, you'd have to kill him to survive the enemy.

Read the following letter to the editor in today's paper. All the Poverty Pimps and Gushing Enablers managed to impress this owner of the Rosy Colored Glasses Franchise.

Save us from the Happy People, Puleeeeze...

"Open your heart to the beauty on Hastings Street

Letter Published: Saturday, August 11, 2007

I recently participated in the Vancouver Street Retreat sponsored by the Shambala Centre of Vancouver, one of two Americans on the retreat.

It is my understanding that the Hastings Street homeless people will be dispersed during the 2010 Olympics. I have no voting voice in Canada, but I invite you, citizens of Greater Vancouver, to rethink this plan.

As I went through the days and nights on the street, I looked at the notion of living versus surviving. Through my own experience, I have seen that, although there is indeed base survival on Hastings, there is a heck of a lot more living going on there.

We found a vibrant network of helping, concern and, yes, love. In compassion for all citizens of your community, please do not deprive these people of their network.

I would like to thank the many organizations, businesses and individuals who went out of their way to guide and teach us during the retreat. My hope is that Vancouverites will see their underbelly as their greatest teacher.

Beauty exists there on Hastings Street; you only have to open your heart to it.

Judith F. Hurcomb
Granger, Wash."

YIKES!

Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue pt.2/2

THis is part 2...so...you've got to start with the next video...which is...right...part 1...

Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue pt.1/2

Gershwin plays Gershwin!!!

cowboys herding cats

A Crying Shame and a Waste

My old friend, Michael Berry, has been charged with 23 more sex offenses.

Regardless of how this may resolve, of how guilty or innocent he may be, let me put something on the record.

I feel sad for anyone who may have been victimized by Michael, and I also feel sad for Michael.

He is described in the press as a man who taught acting and who directed.

Well, he was a great teacher and a great director.

Anyone who knew him, knew that he was fatally hot-wired for young women. What we didn't know was that he may have also been a pedophile and pornographer, and that's a disaster for all.

He was a friend and colleague and wonderful director.

Rip-Off Films May Leave - Boo Effing Hoo

Kirk Shaw is full of it.

And Yvonne Zacharias tells only half the story.

Mr. Shaw, the President of the hysterically Over-Named Insight Films, has threatened to close down his movie making Maple Ridge shop and move it to Hungary or somewhere if the IATSE union keeps trying to sign up members who work on his dreadful movies.

Bye, Kirk.

Ms. Zacharias has written a wonderfully slanted piece in today's paper.

What she has forgotten to tell the uninformed reader is that a) Mr. Shaw's movies are unwatchable (I've been in several lately and tried to watch...yikes! Kill the DVD and go back to Deal or No Deal), and b) that he has been making a personal fortune for years by getting away with paying starving and desperate actors minus 25% of scale wages to drive out to badly made sets and freezing trailers in Maple Ridge at 6 in the morning, and c) even his casting people are incompetent amateurs. (Last week, a girl hired to read with me in an audition started in the middle of the scene. Last month, the camera operator started fixing her pony tale in the middle of a scene.)

The movie business is all smoke and mirrors. That a reporter for a major newspaper would not see through the obvious bull is a crying shame and an indicator of somethingorother.

Kirk, baby...have a nice trip and watch out for the potatoes and cole slaw...they'll mess with your digestion.

Marching to a Different Drummer

Yesterday, I drove up the Granville Street hill and passed the public protest against China and in support of Tibet.

Maybe one day I will be proven wrong and all these protests will turn the tide.

Maybe if people had marched with placards in 1943, fewer Jews would have been murdered in camps in Europe.

Maybe the marching is the important thing and the result is secondary.

But in my heart, I don't believe any of this.

I think it is easy to yell and scream and wear a cardboard sign around your neck about conditions many thousands of miles away. I think it is stupid to go to a foreign sovereign state and hang banners from beloved monuments.

I think it is far braver and more to the point to work diligently at small, local problems in our own back yard.

Police Investigating Police - Not a Good Idea

Maybe the Drunk Mountie who hung with crooks has truly rehabilitated himself and is now a truly Worthy fellow.

But how are we to know?

His case was heard by 3 senior officers.

As a result, in spite of the fact that he has been banned from driving for a year, he is still on the Force, albeit at an obscure desk job.

The day the police stop investigating themselves will be the day the rest of us feel that justice is being served.

Dope Pushers Have Your Best Interests at Heart

Oh how amazing! I am truly in shock. Where's my defibrillator?

Big Pharma opposes cheap-drug policy.

Well, duh!

Big Pharma hauls out scare tactic number 32-11B slash 46 subsection "a" - FEAR!!!!

If you buy cheaper drugs, the Law of Unintended Consequences will rush in the back door, they holler, and more people will get sick and eat up more hospital dollars.

Right.

And banks care about you.

The Sultan of S----What?

Barry Bonds is a grotesque. (THE FOTO IS HANK AARON.)

But no more than the fools who have celebrated his latest home run hit.

A man goes from size 10 shoe to size - what? - 13 ovenight? His hat doesn't fit?

This guy is a Chem Monster, an 'Oid machine, plain and simple.

The No-Lifers, who write in to papers and call in to radio shows say, "He's never been charged with anything, never been convicted."

To them and all the other daytime dreamers, I say, "Sure. And Al Capone never killed anyone."