WEIBS
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This website was recently unveiled by genius British mathematician Stephen Wolfram, who came up with an algorithm to give answers to factual questions harnessing all the knowledge of the Internet. For instance, ask WolframAlpha “Who was president of Brazil in 1923?” or “What is the GDP of France?” and instead of providing websites with examples of the words used in your search like Google, WolframAlpha is able to give you a definitive answer—often with graphs, charts, and other useful information.

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I’m in Boston town, in some restaurant
I got no idea what I want
Well, maybe I do but I’m just really not sure
Waitress comes over
Nobody in the place but me and her

It must be a holiday, there’s nobody around
She studies me closely as I sit down
She got a pretty face and long white shiny legs
She says, “What’ll it be?”
I say, “I don’t know, you got any soft boiled eggs?”

She looks at me, Says “I’d bring you some
but we’re out of ‘m, you picked the wrong time to come”
Then she says, “I know you’re an artist, draw a picture of me!”
I say, “I would if I could, but,
I don’t do sketches from memory.”

“Well”, she says, “I’m right here in front of you, or haven’t you looked?”
I say,” all right, I know, but I don’t have my drawing book!”
She gives me a napkin, she says, “you can do it on that”
I say, “yes I could but,
I don’t know where my pencil is at!”

She pulls one out from behind her ear
She says “all right now, go ahead, draw me, I’m standing right here”
I make a few lines, and I show it for her to see
Well she takes a napkin and throws it back
And says “that don’t look a thing like me!”

I said, “Oh, kind miss, it most certainly does”
She says, “you must be jokin.’” I say, “I wish I was!”
Then she says, “you don’t read women authors, do you?”
Least that’s what I think I hear her say,
“Well”, I say, “how would you know and what would it matter anyway?”

“Well”, she says, “you just don’t seem like you do!”
I said, “you’re way wrong.”
She says, “which ones have you read then?” I say, “I read Erica Jong!”
She goes away for a minute and I slide up out of my chair
I step outside back to the busy street, but nobody’s going anywhere

Bob Dylan, “Highlands” from Time Out of Mind
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Game One Upsets

This is why I love basketball. Not the blowouts or generally slow games, but the unexpected outcomes, the rallies, the single point victories.

I was not able to watch either of the games this week, as I’m at my parents house without access to cable TV. But I’ve watched highlights and game recaps and wished I had seen them.

Game one in the L.A.-Denver series: Denver comes out with a strong lead, the Lakers win by two points, 105-103.

Game one in the Cleveland-Orlando series: Lebron’s hot in the first half, the Magic come back and win by a single point, 107-106. Whew. This one is a serious upset. Up to that point, the Cavaliers had swept all their playoff series—can you imagine the momentum they felt going into that game, only to lose by a single point? In game two, either they get the wake up call and play twice as hard or this is the beginning of the end of some inevitable slip.

The Magic winning this serious would be huge. Still, I think it’s unlikely and I still stand by my belief that the Cavs will get into the Finals.

Gotta love hoops.

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NBA Playoffs Update

Well, now that I’m done with school for the semester I’m temporarily back at my parent’s house, where there’s no cable (I had assumed wrongly that all of last week’s games had been on TNT or ESPN) so I haven’t watched any full games in over a week. I had missed game 6 of the L.A.-Houston series because I’d been studying for final exams, so I was set on watching game 7 yesterday.

I went to Buffalo Wild Wings, figuring that was the establishment with the most TVs in Eau Claire. To my utmost shock, they had every sports game televised EXCEPT the NBA playoffs—they even had a Seattle Mariners game on, for Christ’s sake.

Anyway, it didn’t matter in the end, because the Lakers kicked the shit out of the Rockets and will go on to play the Nuggs in the Western Conference Championship. In the East, I was surprised—but somewhat pleased—to hear that Orlando beat Boston. It doesn’t follow my original playoff prediction, but it’ll be interesting nonetheless to see how the Magic do against the Cavs.

I’m heartily looking forward to seeing the result of these two series. True to my original prediction, I think we’re going to see a Lakers/Cavaliers NBA Finals with the Lakers coming out on top.

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Had my last final today. In about an hour here, I’ll be moved out of the dorms on the road back home. Feels good.

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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
21 plays • download

postmoves:

Beautiful.

One of my favorite pieces of audio of all time.

Brandon Roy hitting the 3 at the buzzer vs. Ron Artest & the Rockets.

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What The Lakers Need to Do

Everyone in the sports world was surprised when the Houston Rockets, despite Yao Ming being out with a broken foot, beat the Lakers yesterday. Okay, so up until the 4th quarter it was more of an ass kicking. The series is now tied 2-2. Should Laker’s fans be worried? Yes and no.

On the one hand, I think if they start making their shots the Lakers should come out of the series okay, especially tomorrow night’s game at the Staples Center. I think the Rockets explosive performance was a mixture of emotion due to the loss of Yao Ming and being able to consistently hit three pointers. I think in the next two games their luck will diminish.

The problem arises in round three when the Laker’s play the Nuggets (and in the Finals against probably the Cavs, if they make it). The Nuggets have had quite a successful playoffs thus far and I don’t expect them to take defeat sitting down. They’ve proven to be quite an explosive team, and the Laker’s have been extremely lackluster defensively. In yesterday’s game against the Rockets, I noticed how in the zone defense L.A. would double team players like Ron Artest, leaving Shane Battier wide open in the corner to knock down an easy three pointer. That’s lazy D.

If the Lakers want to finish the current series and have any chance of beating the Nuggets, let alone the Eastern Conference Champions in the Finals, they need to seriously reassess their tactics. The team has recenly put all their eggs in one basket—the Kobe basket. The performances of Andrew Bynum and Derek Fisher have been especially disappointing. If they hope to be a championship team, they need to start playing like a team and utilize everyone, not just Kobe and Gasol. And they need to be more smart and decisive on the defensive end.

Hopefully Phil Jackson understands all of this. If they can’t turn things around, you’re going to see the Denver Nuggets playing the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.

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Summer here comes on like a zaftig hippie chick, jazzed on chlorophyll and flinging fistfuls of butterflies to the sun. The swamps grow spongy and pungent. Standing water goes warm and soupy, clotted with frog eggs and twitching with larvae. Along the ditches, heron-legged stalks of canary grass shoot six feet high and unfurl seed plumes. In the fields, the clover pops its blooms and corn trembles for the sky.
Michael Perry, Fahrenheit 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time
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Wow, the Cavs are giving the Hawks a real ass kicking tonight.