Good Old Eminent Domain

I admit I'm no expert on the subject, but this whole concept bugs me.  My understanding was that Eminent Domain could/should only be used as a last resort for public works projects.  I remember reading about people "losing" their property to help out corporations so that cities could get more taxes.  I know people are compensated at "fair market value" (as not determined by the fair market), but that doesn't do much.  I understand that cities/counties/states need tax revenue, but governments are not for profit organizations.  It is their job to set a reasonable tax rate and "compete" for residents with to some degree; they then must work within the tax revenue that they collect based on that rate.

I have no real problem for a local government to attract a business by making some adjustments to the tax rates.  I do oppose the use of eminent domain for the use to help out private business.  If a business wants a bunch of land, then I think they can work out a deal with the residents.  It might make things difficult for them, but the government is there to serve the people, not business.  Just my thoughts.  I thought this clip from CATO was pretty cool.  Enjoy.

Tropic of Hockey

Dave Bidini is a founding member of the canadian band the Rheostatics.  Up until reading this book, I'd never heard of the band.  Bidini has established himself as a bit of an author and now a sports commentator in Canada.  Tropic of Hockey is Bidini's second book and was published in 2000.  Though the events he describes took place 10 years ago, they seem fresh and current.

What is Tropic of Hockey?  It's a travelogue of a hockey fan.  It's not just any travelogue.  Bidini set out to see places not traditionally known for their hockey-ness.  Even though Bidini travelled with the Rheostatics, he hated it, because it meant he couldn't play hockey.  His wife had travelled around the world with out her man, so he wouldn't have to miss hockey.  When Bidini discovered that he could play hockey and travel, that's when he decided that he could visit places not known for their hockey and write about it.  Thus Tropic of Hockey was born.

The book takes place in three parts, each representing one leg of his search.  He begins is China, then to the United Arab Emerites, and finally to Romania.  Each area had something different to offer and each history was different, though the passion was equal in each area.  Bidini didn't just go to play pick-up hockey either.  He was able to hook up with some teams and play in tournaments, except in Romania.

China was the first stop, and it had the most interesting tournament.  Bidini took part in the HK Five, a yearly tournament that'd been active for more than a decade.  Teams came from al over the world, mostly asian areas.  Teams were of a healthy mix, one team from UAE others made up of Canadians and Europeans living in Hong Kong and surrounding areas.  Once the tournament was done, Bidini stayed in China but went north to Harbin, a city that had exposure from the Soviets and their hockey culture.  Here Bidini hooked up with a team traveling from the U.S., a group of well-to-do folks.  While he found playing with them fun, he was disappointed in the way the group looked down on the chinese.  They took some cheap-shots during games and would trade stuff with the chinese, deals that were usually strongly in favor of the Americans.

In UAE, Bidini was exposed to an area very new to hockey.  He met up with the same UAE team he'd met in Hong Kong and had the chance to actually play in a game with the team.  The rink is UAE was quite nice and resembled a Muslim temple in many respects.  Some Expatriates who'd gotten in good with some of the local rich folks and sold them on the game.  The entire trip took place in Dubai, know for it's efforts to adopt winter sports to the climate by building massive indoor facilities (Ski Dubai is possibly the most famous).  UAE provided the nicest facility by far of the trip.

The final stop was a small Romanian city called Miercurea Ciuc, Ciuc for short, located in Transylvania.  Bidini was in town for the start of the Romanian hockey season and a game between the local team from Ciuc and Bucharest.  One thing of note is the Cuic area is comprised of ethnic Hungarians who are not particularly popular with the rest of the country.  It's reflected in the fact that the Bucharest team was well staffed and equipped via the government, while the Cuic team was left to fend largely for itself.  They did not experience much success, but they had a deep hockey history in the town and a deep passion for the game.

Overall, I found Tropic of Hockey to quite engaging.  Bidini is a good storyteller and does a great job of understanding the people he's talking about.  Rarely to they come across as one-dimensional.  Bidini seems to capture multiple sides of their personalities.  That's quite good considering the short time he spent with most of them.  While this is a book dedicated to hockey, Bidini does justice to the places he visits.  He gives very vivid descriptions of each city and of the people.  Not only that, but even connects what's happening to his past and his personal history with hockey.  He even has some fun exchanges with people he meets where they name off players they know from the NHL.  It's like a little game or an international hockey language.

The main issue I had with the book is rather minor.  At times, Bidini over described things.  Sometimes it seemed like I was reading the opening to A Tale of Two Cities.  I can take a nice vivid description, but there comes a point when it's too much, and that happened on occasion.  It didn't ruin the book by any means, but it was distracting at times.

Tropic of Hockey is a hockey book, but it's not just for hockey fans.  I think anybody that has a passion about anything, whether a sport, traveling, or art could enjoy the book rather well.  I think the approach Bidini takes makes it easy for a non-hockey person pick up the book and understand what Bidini is trying to say.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to take my own Tropic of Hockey trip, maybe just get to watch hockey in different places.  We'll see how my employer accommodates that desire with a healthy raise sometime.

66: Lemieux Over Time

I'm still in the midst of the sports books.  I've been into hockey since high school, but I haven't read a lot of hockey books.  The only other one I'd read prior to this one was the Wayne Gretzky autobiogrphy.  66 is almost a coffee table book.  It was just about 200 pages, but in the large format with a lot of pictures.  I just picked up the book, because I thought it would be fun to read.  And it was.  It was actually much better than I expected, not that it's spectacular.  It just did a decent job of telling the Lemieux story without being cheesy.

The book is mainly an attempt to chronicle the Lemieux's return the NHL.  I was forced in to early retirement due to some back problems.  When he retired, he left hockey entirely with no intent of getting back into the game.  About three years after he retired Lemieux's team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, were in serious financial trouble.  There was a strong possibility the team would fold or move to another city.  Ticket sales were way down.  Something very different from Lemieux's days with the team when they won two Stanley Cups.  Lemieux decided to get involved, but this time as an owner.  He was able to pull together a team of business folks and lawyers to make a purchase of the team to keep it in the city.  This began Lemieux's return to hockey.

At this point there was no inkling that the big man would return to the ice as a player.  It certainly was not on his mind.  He just wanted the team to stay in Pittsburgh.  After some time off from hockey and with some new exercises, Lemieux noticed his back felt much better.  He also knew his team needed some life injected into it.  He finally realized he could return to hockey as a player and finally go out on his own terms.  It was one of the biggest stories in hockey.

The book goes through Lemieux's career from a kid through his return.  The return itself is covered throughout the entire book.  Each chapter begins with a description of a game from his return to the ice and some of the important plays.

The book is fun, though I found the layout a bit distracting.  That's not a big deal, because it's not really written to be a book you just pick up and read.  The story telling is pretty good and I think it touches on the human side of Lemieux.  Even though he is certainly one of the best players to play the game, the book gives the sense that's he's still a pretty regular guy.  I think the only people who would enjoy it are avid hockey fans.

Here are some highlights just for fun:

Why the Curveball Curves

This is a special book for all the sports fans out there.  Why the Curveball Curves was produced by Popular Mechanics and it draws from articles from the magazine as well as articles written especially for the book.  Don' be fooled though, because it's not just about baseball pitches.  Baseball is by far the most represented sport, probably because so many aspects of the game lend themselves to differing principles of physics.  Sports range from baseball soccer and hockey to bicycling, running and golf.

I won't go too much into the principles of the books, largely because it's been so long since I finished it.  The book is for the sports fan, any sports fan.  It's not worth buying, unless you are into every sport, or at least really into baseball.  I think it's a worthy check-out from the library (that's the only reason I bothered to get it).

The most interesting article was in the cycling section.  There's a race called The Hour, where you ride for an hour on a track.  The test is to see how far you can ride in that hour.  Lance Armstrong has never attempted the task, at least not at the time the book was released.  What was striking was a particular rider who took up the challenge.  There's a weight limit, so the bike cannot weight less than 30 lbs (or something like that).  Well, this fella noticed there was not maximum weight limit, so he opted for a heavier bike.  That may seem counter-intuitive, but it works.  The bike takes longer to get up to speed.  Once up to speed it's actually easier to maintain the desired speed and keep control of the bike.  I don't recall if this guy actually broke the record, but the theory was very interesting.

Since the title references the infamous curveball, I should at least touch on that.  I remember from a physics book about how a curveball works, so that that part wasn't new to me.  There's been a debate as to whether the action of the curveball is the result of an actual curve, or an illusion.  It's a mix of both.  The ball curves, due to the rotation of the ball.  The curveball drops more than a normal pitch would.  The illusion comes in the fact that it doesn't drop as fast as it appears to, if you're looking at it from the batter's perspective.  The ball appears to drop two feet within the last five feet of the pitch.  It actually takes a greater distance for the drop to happen, but because of the speed of the pitch it appears to happen much faster in a much shorter distance.

One interesting fact I learned about pitches what that a curveball will fly farther when hit by the bat than say a fastball.  The reason is simple.  The curveball and fastball come into the plate with opposite spins.  The curveball happens to be spinning the say way it will be spinning when it makes contact.  Whereas a fastball must reverse it's spin, thus reducing the distance it will travel.  I can't remember the whole principle, but that's the basic idea.

Anyway, it's a worthwhile book, but not a must read.

The Obama-nation

It's official.  To all the nay-sayers that said that Jesus could never be elected, I say take that that.

Honestly, the messiah-esque mantle that has been bestowed upon Mr. Obama is not really his fault.  I've I've discussed in the past, the media fell in love with the man.  It's a love affair that goes back to the 2004 Democratic National Convention.  I certainly give the man credit for trying to be real with the american people about the struggles we face as a nation.  He's truly stated that the road ahead will be long and rough.  The problem is, I don't think too many people are listening.

Bush enjoyed immense popularity right after 9/11.  Within a year it was gone.  Some say he squandered it.  I can't honestly place blame on anything in particular; I don't have the expertise.  I think Obama may be set up for that kind of response (I hesitate to use the word failure).  He could do great things, but if it's not enough he will lose support.  When things don't happen as quickly as I believe some people hope, I believe Obama will suffer.  It may be to the detriment of the nation.  I disagree with Obama on may policy/philosophical areas, but I don't want the man to fail.  I just want him to end up making the right decisions.  Only time will tell.

I only saw part of the inauguration.  Two things stuck out that bugged me.  First were the people who booed Bush.  I'm no Bush fan.  I disagree with the decision to go to Iraq, from the start.  Then there's the PATRIOT Act.  I don't think he's Hitler, I it troubles me that we live in a nation that people think it's appropriate to boo an out-going president.  I don't know Bush personally and I think most politicians have questionable morals in general.  That being said, I do believe, right or wrong, that Bush was acting in the way he felt best.  I don't see this as just oil greed and such (maybe that's the non-cynical voice in my head).  We all act on mixed motives in everything we do (see Joe Badaracco's book).  Few things have one reason; it all depends on the mix of good vs. bad motives.  I think Bush's were mostly good, but in the wrong direction.  I don't know that he was incompetent.

The other thing that bothered me was the swearing in.  Obama stumbled, but I don't think it was his fault.  I just got the impression that Justice Roberts gave Obama too many words to remember at one time.  The first line he paused, which made it seem like he wanted Obama to repeat.  Then as soon as Obama started, Roberts continued the line.  Maybe Roberts was nervous, but my cynical voice wants to think he did it on purpose just to mess with the guy.  Maybe we'll never know, but I think that it could have been done better and maybe they should have practiced.

Those are my few thoughts.

Outliers: Audiobook

Outliers is the third offering from Malcolm Gladwell.  His book Blink was reviewed previously on this blog.  Outliers can be called a pop-economics book like Freakonomics and The Undercover Economist, because it looks at the hidden causes of situations.  It's not an economics book per-say, but it's core is the price/cost of achieving and succeeding and the hidden factors.  It really follows the trend of the other books.  I found this book to be more interesting and more helpful than Blink.  I think the basis for the book has more real support and application.

Malcolm Gladwell chose an interesting topic to start the book, one that made me very angry at my parents.  Apparently 40% of NHL players were born in in the months from January-March.  Thirty percent in the following three months and so on.  Being both a January baby and a Hockey fan, my parents should have known to move to Canada when I was two so I could have my chance.  I could have been the next Wayne Gretzky.

In all seriousness, Gladwell addresses topics that I would say fall into the common-sense category.  Not literally, more that what he says is the unspoken wisdom about certain things.  The book is about those who succeed and why.  Not just succeed, but the outliers who surpass everybody else.  Why are they so super-successful?  According to Gladwell it boils down to two main things, hard work and luck.  He's states that it takes about 10,000 hours to become truly expert and proficient at a task.  That works out to about 10 years.  The earlier you get the 10,000 hours in, the better.  You'll be ahead of the curve.

Gladwell tackles his topic by looking at various fields, starting with the Hockey example.  He moves on to the Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Bill Joys of the world and then to the corporate take-over lawyers in NY City.  There are other outliers interspersed as well, including The Beatles, Asians and math, and Korean Air.  I will talk mainly about the first three examples and let you read the book (or listen to the audiobook) for yourself.

Why is the NHL comprised of so many people from the first three months of the year?  The answer lies in the fact that the cut off to sign up for hockey is on January 1.  All the kids that missed the cut-off have to wait a whole year to sign up.  By that time they are bigger and more mature than some of the other kids signing up born later in the year.  Early in life this constitutes a significant difference.  When these JFM (Jan/Feb/Mar) kids play, they are seen as being better, because they are better, but not because they necessarily possess more natural skill.  They just happen to have mature enough to stand out a little bit more than their peers.  As a result, they have more opportunities at the All-Star teams and upper leagues.  They end up with better coaching and more difficult challenges that make them much better.

This phenomenon is not just with Hockey, it's found in Soccer (Football), and Baseball.  The largest populations of players come from the group born just after the cut-off date.  It even happens in school where the kids born just after the cut-off a greater advantage over the kids born just before it.  The reason for the success of these kids is due to chance, when they were born.

How do the Bill Gates and the other computer billionaires fit the bill.  Well, they were all born in the years of 1954 and 1955.  In fact Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Bill Joy were born withing 6 months of each other.  Why is this significant?  When the personal computer was coming into being, these folks were at the perfect age at which jump into the field.  The other thing they had in common was the opportunity to learn computers.  Bill Gates had the opportunity to program one of the few on-line computers in the world during his Jr. High and High School years.  By the time computers were making there way to the mainstream, Gates had years of experience beyond his peers.  His birth year was key, because it put him at the age when he could take advantage of the opportunity.  A couple years older and he'd probably have a steady job at IBM and not willing to take a chance.  A couple years younger and he'd have missed the window.  The same goes for Steve Jobs and Bill Joy, as well as a number of the other computer pioneers.

Another group are the Jewish lawyers who specialized in corporate take-overs.  The birth year was important, but their ethnicity was more important.  When they graduated law school, they went to the big NY firms, but were generally rejected, because they were Jewish.  As a result, many signed up with small firms and often took whatever business came in the door.  At the time, corporate take-overs were considered beneath the big law firms, thus these Jewish lawyers ended up with much of the business.  Over the years, this kind of law became more important and the Jewish lawyers reaped the rewards.  The other law firms were far behind the curve and had trouble catching up.  The Jewish lawyers had years, 10-20 years of experience and expertise in this field of law.

From this book I take home the message that hard work is essential to success, but so is luck and opportunity.  None of the people mentioned would be where they are without the hard work.  The opportunities and luck were just as important.  As Gladwell states, there is no such thing as a self-made man.  It's a myth.  We are a composition of out genetics, family history, and opportunities.  I think that in general Gladwell is right.  I do think there some areas that could be improved on the book.

I think that Gladwell does well in emphasizing the hard work and luck that plays a role in the lives of the successful.  Even Bill Gates has stated that he could not be where he is without the opportunities he's been given in life.  Gladwell I think puts too much emphasis on these two areas.  Other factors are also involved that he doesn't address.  He doesn't touch on genetics enough.  Some of us are just wired to be successful at certain kinds of tasks, whereas others may not be wired to be as successful.  That's as important as any other factor.  We are nor born blank slates.

He also misses the fact that interest plays an important role.  Why do the kids play hockey and stay with it? Why did Bill Gates spend so much time programming?  Why did these Jewish folks go to law school in the first place?  I think that drive and ambition are central for success.  The people who are successful would likely be successful no matter what, at least in most cases.  It's the luck and the interest factors that I think shot them into the stratosphere.  If not these folks, we'd be talking about somebody else.

The book is about why certain folks are outliers, so maybe that's why he didn't touch on the two areas I mentioned.  I still think they should have been discussed more.  Overall I thought this was a very interesting book and well worth the time.

Sarah: A "Definitive" Biography

I remember seeing the "Biography" of Sarah Palin at Costco.  Even with the Costco bargain pricing, it was way to steep for my blood.  The regular price is $15.95, in paperback.  That's quite a price for a book that's a mere 146 pages, I think removing the photos and making the text more standard would have reduced the book to about 100.  Maybe the publishing costs are high, like putting lipstick on a dog (I'm just glad the Sunnyvale library forked out the dough for it).  I never had high expectations for the book.  It's not hard hitting in anyway, it's almost a propaganda piece.  I didn't realize Sarah Palin was the inspiration for Wonder-Woman.  Now I think that the country is crazy for not voting in this person without a single personal flaw.

On to the actual book.  As I stated above, my expectations were not high for the book.  The author Kaylene Johnson seemed to have one job, make Sarah Palin look good.  One great thing about the book is that Johnson provides a log of all the interviews and emails she used in writing the book.  I do appreciate that transparency.  I think it proves the book was not meant to compete with the likes of Team of Rivals.  It's right between Tom Cruise extolling the virtues of LRH (L. Ron Hubbard for the uninitiated) and Oprah gushing over Barack Obama.  From reading this book, I think an Obama-Palin ticket would have been unstoppable and they could be the rulers of the Multi-verse.

Seriously, onto the actual book.  The book is really a rough overview of the life of Sarah Palin finding virtue in just about everything she ever did, or least that was recorded in the book.  We start with the Heath's (Palin's family) moving to Wasilla.  We learn of Sarah's tenacity growing up and her driver to get more playing time while playing basketball, which culminated in winning the state championship her senior year.  It was this tenacity and drive that finally led Sarah into politics and she ran for mayor of Wasilla, against some odds.  She followed that up with a run for the Lieutenant Governer, which she lost.  She took the loss in stride and the next election took on the race for the Governorship.  This time she won, despite running a barebones campaign against the well established good 'ole boys network.  According to the book, it was Sarah honesty and willingness to challenge the establishment.  She came into office and followed up on her promises and cut the budget.  She even went as far as selling the state jet on Ebay.  A lot of the qualities she seemed to show as governor were actually quite impressive.  I was a little surprised the book did not dwell on her faith a whole lot, especially considering the publisher is a Christian publisher.

Despite my cynical remarks, I have more appreciation for Sarah Palin having read the book.  I take the book at its face, meaning I didn't expect it to be too in depth.  It was certainly a book rushed to capitalize on the moment.  Though the author did not touch on the weaknesses of Palin, I still thought the book made an honest effort to touch on meaningful aspects of Palin's character.  Though a lot of Liberals don't like her, mainly due to he conservatism and religious convictions, she seems to have a strong side to her that I think a lot of Liberals would appreciate.  In spite of the $150,000 wardrobe for the Presidential campaign, she does seem to be a bit of a minimalist.  She doesn't necessarily fit the Republican political stereotype and I think she might even be more of an actual maverick than John McCain.

Since the campaign, Palin has received a great deal of criticism from the McCain insiders.  Knowing what is real and what is BS is not an easy chore.  I don't believe the statements about Palin's apparent confusion regarding Africa.  That sounds like a cheap shot.  I don't doubt that she rubbed some folks the wrong way.  I don't think she was the right choice for McCain.  I think all in all she has the same level of experience as Obama.  She lacked the polish and that's what did her in.  I think she has the potential to at least make some waves next time.  I think being governor for a few more years will be more helpful too.  A short stint as a mayor and one year as a governor doesn't provide enough to measure her executive skills.  Obama's experience lacks as well, but I already addressed some of those issues previously.

In short the book wasn't that great, but it's not horrible.  It's the kind of book you want to pick up if you're really bored and weird, like me.  I would recommend this over other books like The Secret.  It might actually be a good book to have a young girl read to encourage her to take on opportunities that are normally perceived as male only.