Purely objective good and evil!

According to the Gemantriculator, this lil site is 82% good.

Aren't you glad you know?

Of course, my task is clear... bring me some coffee whilst I plot how to drag Mike's soul down to my level:

Wimbledon Women: Show Us the (Men's) Money

The women playing Wimbledon this year are creating some noise over the inequality in championship money between the men's and women's champion. Says Chris Evert:

In the 21st century, it is morally indefensible that women competitors in a Grand Slam tournament should be receiving considerably less prize money than their male counterparts.

The article notes that Wimbledon is paying roughly $1.17 million to the men's champion while paying roughly $1.12 million to the women's champion. That's a difference of roughly 5 percent.

I agree it's morally indefensible for unequal pay for the equal "work." But is the work equal?

Men play a best of 5 series while women play a best of 3 series. If I take a middle of the road approach, let's say the men's champion wins each of his matches 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, and the women's champion wins each of her matches 6-3, 6-3. The tournament is 7 rounds long, and the men's champion will have played 189 games to the woman's to the woman's 126, or about 33% more games.

Or, let's look at last year's results. Roger Federer's road to the championship:

6-4, 6-2, 6-4 (Paul-Henri Mathieu)
6-4, 6-4, 6-1 (Ivo Minar)
6-2, 6-7, 6-1, 7-5 (Nicolas Kiefer)
6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (Juan Carlos Ferrero)
7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (Fernando Gonzalez)
6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (Lleyton Hewitt)
6-2, 7-6, 6-4 (Andy Roddick)

That's a total of 223 games by my count. Now, the women's champion, Venus Williams:

6-2, 6-4 (Eva Birnerova)
7-5, 6-3 (Nicole Pratt)
7-5, 6-3 (Daniela Hantuchova)
6-0, 6-2 (Jill Craybas)
6-0, 7-6 (Mary Pierce)
7-6, 6-1 (Mario Sharapova)
4-6, 7-6, 9-7 (Lindsay Davenport)

By my count that's 143 games. Or, about 36% less games than the men's champion.

The stats are all from Wimbledon.org, and the only unfortunate thing is that they didn't post the elapsed time of the matches.

So, let's see, about a third less work for 5 percent less pay. What is the complaint about again? The only way I can see this complaint being valid is if the women's game generates more revenue than the men's game. Given that the men's games are long I can't see how that's possible.

Juan Valdez Strikes Back

Maybe several cups a day isn't bad for you after all. I've been wondering lately, though, if caffeine accounts for the slight ringing in my ears. I've cut back to decaf during the day and evenings lately to see if it helped with cutting back the slight tightening in my chest I've felt recently (it has). God forbid if I have to give the iPod up.

The Gas Price Temperature Map

A cool way of seeing how screwed you are.

[via AutoBlog]

Online Photo Editing

PXN8. When you don't have several hundred dollars to blow on PhotoShop.

[via OhGizmo!]

Sick Futbol Skills

If you haven't seen this commercial on TV yet, give it a whirl.

Freedom From Being Offended Trumps First Ammendment

Eugene Volokh on the Harper v. Poway Unified School district ruling:

This is a very bad ruling, I think. It's a dangerous retreat from our tradition that the First Amendment is viewpoint-neutral. It's an opening to a First Amendment limited by rights to be free from offensive viewpoints. It's a tool for suppression of one side of public debates (about same-sex marriage, about Islam, quite likely about illegal immigration, and more) while the other side remains constitutionally protected and even encouraged by the government.

Another wonderful 9th court ruling from my former home state. Poway, incidentally, is just down the mountain from where I graduated from high school.

It's All Good

HappyNews.com, the site that reports nothing but good news.

The Weekly "Lacking Complete Common Sense Award"

...goes to Dave Givens of Mariposa, California, for driving 186 miles to work one way daily for the past 17 years. Coincidentally, Dave was also the winner of Midas' Americas Longest Commute award.

Free, As In Beer

Alright cheapskates. Hop on over to Freebie Finder and get to grabbin'

Watch It Think

A java-based chess game where you can see all the moves your computer is pondering before it actually moves.

My laptop isn't exactly Deep Blue, so it takes a while for it to make even it's first couple of moves.

All I Had Were Hot Wheels

This may be patently silly, but I wonder what kind of future is in store for us if toys like this ever reach the market.

Ah, Sweet Global Warming

Average temperature increase for the years 1998 - 2005: Less than zero.

This Guy Could Use Vonage

He may be able to save a few bucks off his 218 trillion dollar phone bill.

Roll Your Own MP3 Player

The curiously strong MP3 player.

[via lifehack.org]

The Judas "Gospel"

David Kopel of The Volokh Conspiracy takes a swing at the U.S. media over "The Gospel of Judas:"

This Friday's coverage of the so-called "Gospel of Judas" in much of the U.S. media was appallingly stupid. The Judas gospel is interesting in its own right, but the notion that it disproves, or casts into doubt, the traditional orthodox understanding of the betrayal of Jesus is preposterous.

David then goes into a full-on explanation of the roots of this and other gnostic gospels. Interesting that in the weeks leading up to the movie version of The DaVinci Code we hear about the Gospel of Judas while Dan Brown wins his plagiarism court case.

As always with The Volokh Conspiracy, the comments are just as thought provoking as the post.

New, With Secret Ingredients

Well, not that new. I thought that while adding Scott's name to the side I would spruce a couple of things up a bit. Let me know if you like it. Or not.

Today's Darwin Award Winner

Ventura teacher's hand severed when paperweight explodes:

Part of a teacher's hand was blown off when a 40 mm round the instructor used as a paperweight on his desk exploded in his classroom.

Robert Colla struck the round with an object Monday afternoon while teaching 20 to 25 students at the Ventura Adult Education Center on Valentine Road.

I'm trying to think of the word for this and I can't quite... oh yes, here it is. The word is DUH.

Polyphasic Sleep

Some claim success with it, while some doctors say it's a stupid idea. What this doctor doesn't list in his reasons for not doing it is that when you mention it to your wife, or even try to explain the concept of polyphasic sleep, you receive the "what in the sam hill are you thinking?" look.

Sweet Ecstasy

40,000 pills later:

Though the man, who is now 37, stopped taking the drug seven years ago, he still suffers from severe physical and mental health side-effects, including extreme memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression. He also suffers from painful muscle rigidity around his neck and jaw which often prevents him from opening his mouth. The doctors believe many of these symptoms may be permanent.

Having his mouth shut may have been the best thing that happened to him.

[via BoingBoing]

The iCrap

OK, that's really not the name of this yet-to-be-released product, but it does let you listen to your iPod while talking on the porcelain phone.

*scott adds*
Given today's quality of music, this reminds me of the coding addage, 'GIGO' - garbage in, garbage out. Insert usual jokes about upload/download, core dump, and human interface device here.

But consider this... are you ever going to borrow your friend's iPOS (sorry... iPod) again?

April Fool's, 2006 Summary

Check this out for some higlights of 2006 pranks...

10 wierd keyboards

Well, I can't let Mike get all the geek glory...

http://gadgets.fosfor.se/the-top-10-weirdest-keyboards-ever/

FWIW, I've actually considered #8 and #2, but went #1 when I saw the prices. Check out the datahand's chair options. Now imagine that in an immersive imaging set up like we have at LANL. Yes, I've been in it. Yes, I have a standing invite to come back and play Doom.