Hat Tippin

Today I read an interesting article from the New York Times about plagiarism. Basically the youth of our society (the new generation of college students) doesn't see anything wrong with plagiarism anymore. Most internet media is perceived to be fair game. The removal of books in our lives has convinced the youth of today that ideas don't really belong to anybody, but rather our a collective property of society.

One thing I often consider is the way I share information on Facebook. All the time I am posting articles or videos that interest me or make me laugh. And of course I notice plenty of my friends repost things I've posted. Can I always say with absolute certainty they got it from me? No, certainly not. But it's rare to see a "hat tip" given out even though there is a chain of information passing. I realize these hat tips are small gestures to somebody who doesn't even own the idea, but there's something in the discovery and giving credit for that discovery.

In the article they quote a Ms. Wilensky for her ideas on what is creativity. She states, “You’re not coming up with new ideas if you’re grabbing and mixing and matching... It may be increasingly accepted, but there are still plenty of creative people — authors and artists and scholars — who are doing original work. It’s kind of an insult that that ideal is gone, and now we’re left only to make collages of the work of previous generations."

I think Ms. Wilensky has a jaded definition of what new ideas are. Everything we draw upon to create is based upon previous experience. Even when we develop the new or original it is because of past lessons learned. Now, I don't think this is necessarily the same as what she describes as "grabbing and mixing and matching." I think mashups are a good example of that. Something mildly creative, but not really taking ideas to a new level. However, as a student of political science, I often wrote papers that I'm sure were not completely new or groundbreaking ideas. However, their was an originality to it because of my route of discovery that lead to it. My experiences helped to unfold these ideas in a different light than many who came before me. And in turn I presented it to the world anew.

This communal property idea of knowledge and ideas destroys a lot of individuality. It decreases the incentive to produce and create more. I think the real problem with this plagiarism and communal knowledge comes from the desire to simply use it for personal gain rather than help return it to something greater for society. The availability of knowledge is a wonderful gift, but if we simply steal it, claim it as our own, and return nothing for it we are simple thieves. However, if we grow from these tidbits of knowledge and find a way to return something greater to society we will see immense progression from society.

The Ever Classy Large Benjamin

To say that Ben Roethlisberger has been in the news a bit lately is a bit of an understatement. Frankly, I don't even want to get into all of the garbage he's been accused of lately. If you want to know anything about that, read his Wikipedia entry. But if you've heard anything about the guy I think it's quickly become apparent that he is not a classy guy.

Well, Roethlisberger decided to give the media another doozie recently. A couple of the Pittsburgh area TV stations interviewed him and he decided to make some statements to his fans about his recent behavior. When I saw the headline on ESPN, I figured that was a smart PR move and something long overdue. However, when I actually read what they had to say I was even more appalled.

The lede from ESPN:

A contrite Ben Roethlisberger said he got caught up in being a caricature called Big Ben, not the grounded player and person he once was, leading to his off-field problems and affecting his play as the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback.

Now referring to Ben as contrite is only appropriate. He took an opportunity to apologize, which in some cases can be laudable; in his case I would say it was necessary. However, when I think of contrition I think of deep sorrow and remorse for actions and I don't think that's what came from Mr. Roethlisberger. The whole idea of getting caught up in the "caricature" of "Big Ben" seems to be him looking for an opportunity to escape his guilt. This man is hardly at all removed from his terrible behaviors and it seems like more of his foolish "caricature" is popping up all the time. To simply write off these mistakes so simply does not seem like the heart of a changed man. To me, it seems like Ben isn't willing to own up to his mistakes.

As you read in the article further, you see more and more it was this awful "Big Ben" person that caused all the problems, but really Ben Roethlisberger is a good guy. I say that's a bunch of baloney. Big Ben and Ben Roethlisberger are one in the same. Own up to your actions and accept the stupid decisions you made and apologize for them. I don't want to see some straw man strung up that is an alter ego of yourself. Who do you think you are? Bruce Wayne?

Another sign that clearly he's still going about things wrong is his admission that he "wanted to apologize to them for so many things." With what he says of it, it's clear that his "desire to apologize" has been something that he chose to wait on. That doesn't sound like contrition to me. Why wait to make these statements until now? Ben, I'm glad you've decided to change but I really hope it's for real.

For how much Roethlisberger gets discussed in the sporting news, I'm surprised this one flew under the radar so much. Maybe others were more convinced of his turning a new leaf. I'm not so optimistic. I think he understands a lot of things need to change if he's going to keep playing football, but I don't feel like he's going to mystically become a good guy. He has a long way to go and I hope a lot of other sports figures learn from his dumb mistake so we see fewer people making these kinds of mistakes.

By the Power of Greyskull

So I went to my roommates' basketball game this evening and it was a blowout. I came back to go on a run. As I started to get ready, I went out in the front room to chat with my roommates Matty Cakes and Squints. I started putting on my socks and lacing up my sneakers as Nancy Drew opened the front door. He was standing there with his girlfriend and I said "Hi" to them both. Of course she sat there with an absolutely terrified look on her face because I hadn't put on my shirt quite yet.

She acted like she was about ready to run away and really did not want to come into the apartment. I just kept going, I wasn't going to let it phase me. It wasn't the end of the world. Besides I make a pretty good living on the weekend like this guy.

Nancy Drew made the comment it was just like I was going swimming so it wasn't that big of a deal, but she wasn't biting. She came inside with incredible hesitancy and continued to ignore me even after I put a shirt on.

I'm kind of surprised about it, she went hot tubbing the other night with Nancy Drew and so she clearly saw him with his shirt off. Nancy Drew kind of looks like this without a shirt on:

And I, without a shirt on, look a lot like this:

Domino's Finally Decides to Make Pizza

I really wish I had a lot to say about this, but I'll let Mr. Colbert speak for me instead:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Alpha Dog of the Week - Domino's Pizza
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

I remember seeing the ad for the new pizza and being like "Huh, maybe I should check that out." It didn't even cross my mind that they basically were suggesting that they've been giving people the most worthless garbage possible for who knows how long. Good for the Domino's CEO to admit, "The weakness in our value chain with the customer was really in our core product." Interesting that he made that quote on the same day he bailed to be the new AD for Michigan.

This whole thing is crazy enough to make you say Ay Caramba!

Hawaii Bowl

I love June Jones. I was always really impressed with his Run and Shoot style offense at Hawaii. The offense wasn't predicated on the players, but rather the style of play. He was able to take just regular QB's and turn them into passing monsters and most teams had a very difficult time stopping them. Unfortunately for him, Hawaii left him kind of high and dry and so he went to SMU. This will be a big, emotional return for him. The Mustangs had a rather remarkable season. Ever since receving NCAA sanctions back in the 80's, they've struggled to say the least. Now with Jones comes new hope.

Of course getting by Nevada is going to be difficult. The Wolfpack boast a fantastic rushing game in their Pistol offense. This season they had three 1,000 yard rushers, but that's all meaningless now. The only rusher they can count on is QB Colin Kaepernick because their other two are out, one due to academic ineligibility and the other due to a toe injury. Of course I would say Kaepernick is the most dangerous one, plus he's the QB so the most vital to have. This should be a fun game to watch because of the explosive offenses. Both teams also struggle with defence so they should really run up the score. I'm predicting a 10 point victory for Nevada. I don't think the lack of their rushers will be enough to slow them down against a mediocre SMU team.

I predict the Wolfpack to win 44-34.

ESPN has this as a rather lopsided contest, but I'm not sure their computer simulations were run without the Nevada RB's.

Day 4: 1-0 Overall: 3-2

So I didn't see the game last night, but I know the Utes were down 14-0 pretty early so I'm reasonably surprised to see they came back. Definitely not happy about that, but there's always a silver lining to everything. The best part was the fact that somebody hired an airplane to fly over the stadium and taunt the Utes with a banner that read "We won. You lost. You are classless." Pretty awesome. I'm probably going to watch the game sometime today and see what I missed, sounds like it was probably a pretty decent game to watch. And as I said leading up to the game, Coach Whit really knows how to get his guys going for the bowl games. Still a pretty tame schedule for the bowl games today, only one. Then we get a day off for Christmas and I get the Christmas gift I want, 3 bowl games the next day. I love being able to watch bowl games all the time.

Poinsettia Bowl

Before the Las Vegas Bowl, I felt like I had this game pegged as well. We had seen pretty strong play from the Pac-10 this season for the most part, so it seemed only logical that they would have a good bowl season. As was mentioned about 50 times during the Las Vegas Bowl, the Pac-10 went undefeated in bowl play last season. They're off to a rough 0-1 start this season and may be in position for an 0-2. Jahvid Best is not playing for Cal and Utah proved a formidable opponent for the Pac-10 Champion Oregon Ducks.

Maybe Best being gone isn't that serious. His replacement, Shane Vereen, has been rather respectable himself. Of course the Cal season was a rather serious disappointment. Also, they were run over by the same Oregon Ducks that barely beat Utah the week before. The Golden Bears ended their season with a disappointing loss to the University of Washington. Cal coach, Jeff Tedford, has always impressed me and I've enjoyed what he's done up there for the Golden Bears. The question is, will it be enough?

Seeing BYU's drubbing of Oregon State last night gave me some serious pause about how good the Pac-10 really is. The Beavers barely lost the Civil War, yet were completely run over by the Cougars. Now maybe there are some pretty reasonable explanations to this. The wind obviously just did not work out at all for the Beavers, versus the Cougars learned to work around it. But that is part of the game and at the end of the day, the Cougars adapted better so they got the W. As I've stated, Utah really gave the Ducks a run for their money. Utah coach, Kyle Whittingham, does a really good job of getting his guys fired up for big games. There always seems to be a better intensity out of the Utes than I see out of the Cougars and I hate Whit for it. (Random side note: that's a pretty lousy picture of Coach Whit on his Wikipedia entry, but of course it's still not quite as embarrassing as this) Also, Whittingham seems to develop great game plans for situations like this and takes exactly the right risks to make everything work out for his team in these kinds of situations. Undeniably Utah has some pretty gifted athletes on offense and they still play a very intense brand of defence even after losing so many starters from last year.

Yet again, before yesterday I was all set. I was determined to pick Cal. But after reconsidering this game a bit more heavily from talking to some friends and seeing just how unimpressive the Pac-10 can be, I have to go with Utah. I think the Utes will win by a touchdown, but I hope their game looks more like the BYU game and they play the part of OSU.

I predict Utah to win 24-17.

ESPN expects this to be a close one as well, but gives a slight edge to Cal.