Bureaucrats around the around – they pretty much look the same

From a fantastic new book called Bureaucratics come these photos of bureaucrats around the world. For the full story check out brain pickings review.

Bolivia

 

LIberia

 

Texas

 

China

 

France

"All my friends know the low rider" – but do you know the culture of the classic ride?

On the premiere episode of The Downshift, Joe Ray, custom car legend and editor in chief of Lowrider magazine, guides you through the culture, history and trends of the world of Lowrider.

Riding shotgun is technical editor Saul Vargas, who reveals the true global reach of the Lowrider movement.

“All my friends know the low rider” – but do you know the culture of the classic ride?

On the premiere episode of The Downshift, Joe Ray, custom car legend and editor in chief of Lowrider magazine, guides you through the culture, history and trends of the world of Lowrider.

Riding shotgun is technical editor Saul Vargas, who reveals the true global reach of the Lowrider movement.

iPads for every kindergartener – early results show a positive trend

This is the nation’s first public school district to give every kindergartener an iPad. And the implementation was done very carefully, with the research component built in from the start, not added as an after-thought.

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This fall, the district randomly selected 8 of its 16 kindergarten classes to receive iPads. There’s been ongoing professional development to help the teachers incorporate the devices into literacy instruction.

In December, iPads were rolled out to the rest of the classes. Assessments of all students’ literacy were made at the beginning of the year and again in December. The initial assessments and research has focused on literacy skills, but the researchers are also looking at how iPads might affect numeracy skills as well.

Of the assessments that were made, the results all trended positive, with students in the group that received iPads at the beginning of the school year performing better on average than students in the comparison group. However, the differences between these two groups were not statistically significant, except in one area. That is, students with the iPads exhibited a substantial increase in their scores on the Hearing and Recording Sounds in Words (HWSIW) test, a test of a student’s phonetical awareness, assessing their ability to make the sound and letter connection.

via Hack Education

A real Moneyball story – the reinvention of pitcher Brandon McCarthy

SEVEN PITCHES. That’s how long it took for the verdict to come in. On April 5, in the first inning of his first start in an A’s uniform, Brandon McCarthy went groundout, groundout, groundout. It was a one-inning sabermetric masterpiece. For the game, he lasted eight innings — the second-longest start of his career — and threw just 89 pitches.

McCarthy’s filthy stuff was no laughing matter. “He’s not trying to strike you out,” says Hunter, who had long dominated the lanky pitcher — until last season. “He’s trying to get a ground ball. He’s keeping guys off balance, and he’s hitting his spots. He’s learned how to pitch.” (“The first time I got him out last year,” says McCarthy, “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I really did something!’ That just wasn’t possible before.”) A’s manager Bob Melvin says McCarthy’s new pitching approach reminds him of Greg Maddux, the 300-game winner and surefire Hall of Famer. Says Melvin: “He takes great pride in being able to throw the ball where he wants.” And when he wants.

He learned about FIP, or fielding independent pitching, a statistical aggregate that combines what a pitcher can control (homers, walks, strikeouts), ignores what he can’t (luck, defense) and is a truer barometer than ERA. He also learned about BABIP, or batting average on balls in play, a stat that indicates whether a pitcher has been especially lucky (under .300) or unlucky (over .300). He learned about WAR, or wins above replacement, the all-inclusive, apples-to-apples metric that tells how valuable a player is to his team. He learned about ground ball rates, strikeout-to-walk ratios and more.

via Saviormetrics – ESPN The Magazine

Facts and statistics on the coming plastic bag ban in California

Plastic bags contribute to the pollution of California’s ocean and beaches.

  • Californians use approximately 16 billion plastic bags per year – more than 400 annually per person.
  • Less than 5 percent of plastic bags are recycled. Instead, they end up sitting in landfills, littering streets, clogging streams, fouling beaches, or floating out to sea.
  • Plastic trash threatens ocean ecosystems.
  • The city of San Francisco estimated that the taxpayer cost to subsidize the recycling, collection, and disposal of plastic and paper bags amounts to as much as 17 cents per bag. Applied to California as a whole, that adds up to more than $1 billion per year.

 

More than 80 national and local governments around the world have taken action to protect the ocean by reducing the use of plastic bags.

  • At least 20 nations and 47 local governments have passed bans on distributing specific kinds of throw-away plastic bags, including the nations of Italy, Kenya, Mongolia, Macedonia, and Bangladesh; the states of Maharashtra, India and Buenos Aires, Argentina; and the cities of Karachi, Pakistan and Telluride, Colorado.
  • Approximately 26 nations and local communities have established fee programs to reduce plastic bag use and/or increase the use of reusable alternatives, including Botswana, China, Hong Kong, Wales, Ireland, Israel, Canada’s Northwest Territories, Toronto, Mexico City, and Washington, D.C.

 

Bans and meaningful fee programs effectively reduce plastic bag pollution.

  • Bans and fee programs quickly reduce plastic bag distribution.
    • Fee – In 2002, Ireland established a 28 U.S. cents per bag fee, and saw plastic bag use drop by 90 percent within the first year.
    • Fee – Washington, D.C., implemented a much smaller 5 cent tax on plastic bags, the number of bags distributed by food retailers fell from 22.5 million per month to 3.3 million per month.
    • Ban – San Francisco, the year after banning plastic bags at pharmacies and supermarkets in 2007, businesses distributed 127 million fewer plastic bags, and cut overall bag waste reaching the city landfill by up to 10 percent.

 

Fourteen city and county governments in California have taken successful action to reduce plastic bag pollution.

  • Fourteen California cities and counties have bans on plastic bags in effect, including Long Beach, Santa Monica, San Jose, San Francisco, and Pasadena.
  • Five of these communities, including Marin County and San Jose, have also authorized mandatory charges on paper bags to encourage citizens to use reusable bags.

 

Much more progress can be made to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean and transform our throw-away culture.

  • Education and recycling cannot keep pace with the generation of plastic bag pollution. Despite a 2006 law requiring retailers to place bag recycling bins in front of their stores, less than 5 percent of bags are recycled.
  • To make a real impact, all California cities and counties should restrict the use of plastic bags, and advocate for similar action at the state level.

 

From the Frontier Group.

MLB to test out new 'Live In-Game Audio during Spring Training

“We’ve pretty much pushed the limits of video, but audio is untapped,” said Tony Petitti, the president of MLB Network.

On March 7, the network will try to take a leap in audio, televising a spring training game between the Indians and Diamondbacks in which up to six players a team will wear microphones. What they say, what they sound like while running the bases and what a batted ball sounds like will be broadcast almost live, after a short delay.

Coaches will also be wired. When they and the players step on the field, their microphones will be on.

Generally, the first, second and third basemen, the shortstop, the catcher and the center fielder will be wired.

The players’ and coaches’ microphones will be augmented by those at each base, down the base lines and along the outfield walls to a greater degree than is currently the standard.

via NY Times

 

Big League Stew has a 3-minute clip from test-run of this technology ran last year during Spring Training 2011.

Check it out.

It turns out that ambient sounds, rather than player conversation, are the most intriguing elements of this audio-everywhere approach. Things like the crack of the bat, a player running the bases, and the ball hitting the catcher’s mitt, stand out.

As MLB’s Advanced Media division continues to evolve, I expect we will someday have a televised broadcast pumping out surround sound that replicates the “feel” of sitting in the stadium. Then, maybe going beyond that in some way.

 

If you get the MLB Network catch it live on March 7 at noon (PST).