First Blog

Lessons learned...  Just perhaps the entire country is possessed by winning at any cost. It is not unlike sports but in slow-motion. The loser, as in sports, asks for a recount (i.e. replay) or to extend the clock.  The winner maintains steadfast in victory, claiming it was a good game, fairly played. Both sports and politics cite racism, phobias and maladies of all sorts; both demand immense sums expended. When winning is the exclusive goal, the sport is gone and all fans lose. Intensity escalates. The owners in both venues are all billionaires.

S ports   come in many kinds with venues, equipment and scoring; surnames come in many more. Common ground is our goal – if only in name.   Namely, are there sports terms with surnames the same.   Easy example: “Ball” is a common name and an article of sports. Another example, the sport of “Curling” sees the player send a “Stone” down an ice “Sheet” toward “House” (the target) where team mates can use a “Broom” to curve the path. Remarkably, all these terms are surnames.   Similarly, a “Sailor” may “Row” a boat on the “Lake.”   Each is a surname. Rowing is of course a sport. Lots of sports, venues, equipment, and outcomes are also surnames.   We made a list. Verification can be found on the WordNet.com dictionary.   Many of the surnames will surprise you, but some are unusually rare such as one in 100,000 names. A score or outcome in many sports is called a “point,” which as the surname “Point” ranks 39,599 th   in popularity. Among the sports there are duplicate terms in o

Post-modern Sports. In the beginning, like when I was a kid, sports was completely devoted to sports. I read about who’s doing well, whose not.  I read about trades and how they might affect the team.  I read about the draft and the talents of the draftees.  Rarely did I read about money, except for the superstars.  But now, we see less of this as sports has evolved.  The evolution?  Here's a sketch. Sports teams, talent, prospects, achievements, hopes, potentials, front-runners. Sports money, who’s making the most, minimal salary scales, how much this player can demand, owner’s net worth, league’s rulings on player behavior. Sports personal issues such as domestic abuses, arrests, dress style, diverse opinions, executing contract options. Sports and politics, athlete’s opinions, athlete’s political expressions, athlete’s standing on personal principles, league rulings on politically oriented dress. Only tangential these days is a discussion of the issues

Winning.  Have you ever wondered about just how many games must your team win to know, guaranteed, it has won a certain number of consecutive games?  This is, not likely to have won a certain number of consecutive games.  But actual consecutive wins .  Thinking a bit combinatorially we can determine this with a simple formula.  Notation: n = number of games in a season r = number of consecutive wins desired Let n/r = m R k .  That is m is the integer divisor of n by r , which is 0, 1, 2,…, and k is the remainder, 0 ,1,…,  r -1.  For example 53/5 = 10 R 3, or 21/6 = 3 R 3. Then we have the minimum number of games that must be won to guarantee r consecutive wins W sometime during a season is given by W = m ( r -1) + k + 1 In the table below, we give some examples for various sports.Of course, when r  = 2, that value is the next highest number greater than half the number of games when n  is even.   Number of games played Run of consecutive w

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." --- Shakespeare The legal profession has about the broadest range of intellectual ability as any of the prominent professions.  Known to most as an important profession, necessary in a complex society, but for which billed fees are perceived as disproportionate to the services rendered.  This we know.  However, it is the range of skill of lawyers, from supreme intellect to barely literate that we come upon.  It's all in the licensing. Many folks could handle simple wills, property closing, contract execution and enforcement, and numerous lawyerly skills. For most of these tasks there are strict procedures of practice. Very little actual legal knowledge is required. There is a difference between understanding the nature of the law and preparing a will or trust for some needful client.  To be sure, without licensing the doors would open to completely unscrupulous, incompetent, and immoral practitioners.  Licensin

The time has come for an open Olympics.  This means any athlete can use any physical assists available for his/her event.  The limit must be at using machines to make the assist.  For example, bicycles cannot be used in a foot race.  However flippers can be used for swimming, and spring steel shoe extensions can be used for running - as currently used by amputees.  To some extent this is already in place.  For running and swimming, special suits are allowed to diminish friction.  For all sports the shoe is critical and used to the highest technological level available. For bobsledding, skiing, skating, and other such sport, the level of technology of equipment is important, to the point that competitors of decades earlier could not compete.   For pole vaulters, the use of fiberglass and maybe even carbon-fiber poles seems OK; they give a further spring-shot effect to gain height.  This is technology at work! You may suggest that volley-ball players might mount springs on their shoe