one red paperclip

Have you heard the one about the guy who started with one red paperclip and set out to make a series of trades, with the goal of one day trading for a house? He did it. It's a true story. The guy's name is Kyle MacDonald. The first trade netted him a fish-shaped pen, followed by a hand-sculpted doorknob. Future trades got him, among other things, a snowmobile, a recording contract, and, finally, on July 5, 2006, a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan (hi Rob and Andrea!). I used the word finally, but the first trade occured on July 14, 2005, so he went from one red paperclip to a house in less than a year. Mighty impressive. It's a cool story, with the trades happening all over North America.

Click here for more.

Bottled Water

I've never been much for buying and/or drinking bottled water, and thanks to

Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem

it'll stay that way for a lonnnnnng time. Maybe forever.

The link takes you to one of the Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007, and I thank Mr. Cumiskey for spreading "the news that didn't make the news". Attakid. Mr. Cumiskey currently has a very funny Daily Show video clip on his front page. I endorse the watching of said video clip.

G'night.

Game Winning Goals

GW is a stat in hockey. Over the course of the upcoming NHL season, as you're watching games, and I know you'll be watching games, you will undoubtedly be told that so-and-so has X number of game winning goals, either in that season alone, or in their career, or, if you're lucky, both! Wow, you'll think. That player is clutch. However, dig deeper and you'll realize that maybe that player isn't as clutch as you thought him to be. You see, the way game winners are decided makes the stat pretty meaningless. If a game ends 5-3, they just determine whoever scored the 4th goal for the winning side and give it to them. If 4-1, they look for who scored the 2nd goal for the winning side. Understand?

Now, imagine the Canucks and the Oilers are playing, and it's a 1-1 game. Linden scores (woo-hoo!) and it's now 2-1 Canucks. That goal opened the floodgates and the Canucks scores 4 more goals to make it 6-1. The Oilers have essentially stopped trying and Morrison adds another to make it 7-1 at the end of the second. During the second intermission the Oilers get an earful from their coach and start the third period with purposeful play. They score 5 goals to make it 7-6, but can't finish the comeback. Canucks win. Who gets the game winner? Morrison. The goal he scored was anything but clutch. It was a stat padder at the time.

I believe it was Dan Russell who I first heard propose the idea that the game winner should be given to the player who gives their team the lead that they don't relinquish. In this case, Linden. Once the 'Nucks had the 2-1 lead, they were always in the lead.

Another hypothetical example. Another tie game. This time, let's say it's 3-3. Canucks vs Flames. Two minutes to go in the game, Daniel Sedin scores on a clutch end-to-end rush (okay fine, it was off the cycle), and the Canucks are up 4-3. The Flames pull their tender, and Henrik Sedin scores an easy emptynetter. 5-3 Canucks. The Flames, still with the net empty, pour it on and score to make it 5-4. Game ends. Henrik, with his emptynetter is given the game winner.

So until the NHL changes the way the GW stat is recorded, I encourage you to ignore it like I do. Be like me, you know you wanna.

Whistlers in Whistler!

And now, Biscotti's sisters..



Whistlers in Whistler! at Google Video

Fifteen Years for DiPietro

After signing out of Hotmail I saw amongst the headlines, DiPietro inks 15-year deal. The article says that New York Islanders GM Garth Snow has signed goaltender Rick DiPietro for 15 years for $67.5 million. Holy shnikeys. That's unheard of, kind of. "The contract is believed to be the longest in NHL history and second only in major North American pro sports to the 25-year, $25-million contract Magic Johnson signed with the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers in 1981" (see link). In this day and age, when many players in all sports are signing contracts a year at a time in the hopes of having a sensational breakout career year so that they can sign for megabucks the next season, DiPietro's signing has shocked me. Good move by the Islanders? Good move by DiPietro? Good move by both of 'em? I don't know his game well enough to say, but even if I did it's a case of "time will tell". He could hit a major slump, he could get injured, he could win the next eight Stanley Cups. It could happen. The article says that "DiPietro is guaranteed the full $67.5 million if he suffers a career-ending injury. However, it's unclear what would happen if the five-foot-11 puckstopper were to retire before the deal expires". (He's 24 years young.)

Somewhat related: Many years ago, when the Grizzlies were still in Vancouver, I was at a game and saw Snow walking the concourse alone (he was the Canucks back-up tender at the time). I looked - nay, stared - at him, to be sure it was him. His head turned my way and he noticed me staring before I could look away. He gave me a slight head nod to tell me that it was indeed him. My heart went all aflutter.

If Jack Helped You Off A Horse...

Larry & Willy were giving away Barenaked Ladies tickets; I called in; I won; I told Willy my name; I heard the next-on-shift radio host announce my win to the world; Biscotti got home soon thereafter; I played it cool for 10-15 minutes before telling her the good news; now we wait until February.

Sidebar

Just wanted to say a few things about the sidebar. The somewhat new feature, bookmark holder, shows you what I'm currently reading. The newer feature, videos, has few entries for now, but will grow over time. It will mostly be home-video type videos, with a few exceptions, such as The Haka. Lastly, I wanted to point out an addition to cool sites. News site The Onion has been on my radar for many months and I finally got around to browsing its contents. It's chock-full of good stories, including this one.

The Monty Hall Problem

As you may have noticed on the rapidly evolving sidebar to your right, I've been reading, and recently finished, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. In the very creative novel, there were many cool asides, one of which was The Monty Hall Problem.

I was not familiar with said problem. How many of you are familiar with said problem? Raise your hands. Keep 'em up.. I count one. Cool. For the other two readers, here's the dealio:

You are on a game show on television. On this game show the idea is to win a car as a prize. The game show host shows you three doors. He says that there is a car behind one of the doors and there are goats behind the other two doors. He asks you to pick a door. You pick a door but the door is not opened. Then the game show host opens one of the doors you didn't pick to show a goat (because he knows what is behind the doors). Then he says that you have one final chance to change your mind before the doors are opened and you get a car or a goat. So he asks you if you want to change your mind and pick the other unopened door instead. What should you do?

(Curious Incident... pp 78-9.)

Well, it doesn't matter right? At that point it's a 50/50 shot that you'll get the car........... right? That's what intuition will tell you.

Marilyn vos Savant, "an American magazine columnist, author, lecturer, and playwright who rose to fame through her listing in the Guinness Book of World Records under 'Highest IQ'" (wikipedia), in response to that question, answered differently. She wrote that you should always change your pick because there is a 2 in 3 chance that the car is behind the other door. Say? She received thousands of letters scolding her, including some harsh words from mathematicians and scientists.

But she was right, and explained it in a follow-up column. There are three doors to choose from, so there are three possibilities:

1. You choose a door with a goat behind it.
2. You choose a door with a goat behind it.
3. You choose a door with a car behind it.

For 1:

• You stay, you get a goat.
• You change, you get a car.

For 2:

• You stay, you get a goat.
• You change, you get a car.

For 3:

• You stay, you get a car.
• You change, you get a goat.

So, changing will get you a car 2 times out of 3. And staying will get you a car 1 time out of 3.

Cool, eh?

In the novel, the narrator concludes this aside by saying, "And this shows that intuition can sometimes get things wrong. And intuition is what people use in life to make decisions. But logic can help you work out the right answer".

For more on The Monty Hall Problem, click here.

Camping @ The Gorge

G'day,

Back in early April I ordered the tickets to Dave Matthews Band using ticketmaster online. I bought two tickets to the show taking place on Saturday September 2nd, the second of three shows. I knew I wouldn't want to drive back home, or anywhere, after the show, so Biscotti and I decided to camp there, and drive back on Sunday. For camping tickets on ticketmaster, there were three options:

1. Three nights ($120)
2. Two nights ($80)
3. One night ($40)

Which would you have selected? I selected the one night option. I selected wrong. The tickets got mailed to us a few weeks later. Two tickets to Saturday's show (yes!), and one ticket for camping on Sunday night (wha??). I went back online and discovered my error. Either the instructions weren't present while I was ordering or they weren't obvious enough (or I'm an idiot, but let's skip that part), but if we wanted to camp for just Saturday night, I was supposed to buy two nights of camping, and then get a rebate as we left the campground on Sunday. Interesting.

I called ticketmaster, waited on hold for a while, clumsily attempted to explain the situation, gave the order number, and was told I would have to call the Seattle ticketmaster as the event was happening in the States. I was given two different numbers, and over the next week neither number resulted in talking to a person. I told Biscotti that I wasn't too worried. We would try to work it out when we arrived there, and if worst came to worst, bye-bye $40 and hello back of our Tracker. Hopefully there weren't a limited number of sites, à la Alice Lake or other BC Provincial Campgrounds.

Upon arrival, we were told that we just had to buy another night. Simple as that. I went over to their credit card swiper, and the girl punched in $80. No, I said, I just need one night; I already have one night. She quickly canceled the transaction and punched in $40. She took the ticket I already had then gave me my receipt and a purple doohickey to hang on the rearview mirror.

Back in the car, we followed two cars who were heading into the camping area. It wasn't immediately clear that it was a free-for-all. Driving on a "road" that was feet away from parked cars and pitched tents on both sides, there was a staff person about every 50 meters who pointed us in a direction. We had thought that eventually a staff person would point to what would be our "campsite". Instead, the staff persons eventually stopped existing.

The two cars went on ahead, and we saw a spot between two cars that was wide enough for our car, so we pulled in. Turned off the car and sat there, wondering if we had just done something wrong. Got out, looked around, and figured that we'd start setting up the tent and one of the many people in close proximity could come and set us straight. Sure enough, a girl in shorts and a bikini top came over. She had the words "birthday girl" written on her chest, and "need ticket" on her back. You two just getting here? Welcome! I guess we were fine.

The show that night was phenomenal. More than phenomenal. A DMB @ The Gorge show is pretty much indescribable. I recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Walking back to our tent, we were a little worried. We hadn't even had to find it in the light, how could we find it in the dark? It was surprisingly easy. Retraced our steps, took an unintentional shortcut, and voilà!

Sunday morning we packed up and drove towards the entrance/exit, curious as to how this whole "rebate" thing would work. Behind a couple of cars, I saw the drivers hand over the mirror doohickey, and a staff person hand them a couple of slips. Can't be forty bucks cash can it? Sure enough, pulled up, handed him the doohickey, and he gave me two twenties. Is this really the best system for camping at the Gorge? Let's say someone is camping for just Friday night. They pay $120. They leave Saturday morning and get handed $80 cash? Strange.

All in all, it was a very fun experience.

DMB @ The Gorge!

Biscotti and I are leaving tomorrow morning to head on down to the Gorge in George, WA to see Dave Matthews Band. In preparation for hitting the road, I do what many of you probably do first or close-to-first: I think of what CDs to bring. Now, in the past on road-trips-to-concerts, the practice has been to listen to CDs of the band that you are about to see. So, the live DMB CDs that I have would be perfect. Red Rocks is great, Listener Supported is very good, and Central Park is phenomenal. However, I'm putting a new practice into play tomorrow. I'll take those CDs, or at least one of them, but only to listen to on the drive back home, to re-live the concert, in a way. On the way there, we'll listen to some of our other favorite bands, then the concert will seem that much more... that much more... I need a good word here.. that much more sensational? Yeah, that's a good word.

We're hoping to be camping at the Gorge tomorrow night, but due to a ticketmaster system snafu, that may not be happening. Details on that, and a brief-or-detailed concert review, with-or-without pictures, on our return. Maybe.

Have a good long weekend everyone..