Guilt by silence?

This Sunday's Los Angeles Times contained a couple stories highlighting the NCAA investigations into possible infractions at USC; one is an investigative piece while the other is an opinion.

The implication from the pair of LA Times stories is that USC has been both silent and uncooperative with the NCAA, which indicates guilt or a lack of care for the rules. I find that to be both simplistic and misguided.

Given the way the NCAA has responded when Florida State, Oklahoma, Alabama have self-reported sometimes serious violations, or how it treated Jeremy Bloom and Mike Williams, one might be inclined to be less than forthcoming or less-obliged towards self-implication of wrongdoing. Even without serious infractions, silence may in fact be far more productive for an involved school.

After all, the NCAA hardly seems to be the arbiter of fairness in how their compliance committee doles out penalties.

There is no due process in a committee that sits in a room to discuss matters without affording adversarial intervention. If you don't like the penalty, you can appeal it...to the same people that handed you the penalty. How often do people all around you, openly and willingly admit a mistake? How often do we read with aghast, the NCAA's response to schools who self-reported, or athletes who asked for leniency? Leniency is not in the lexicon of the NCAA's compliance committee's language.

Of course, the reporters seem to have selective memory when it comes to USC's participation with the NCAA. After all, it was USC that voluntarily disqualified players for poor academic progress, then filed appeals (after summer classes) to get those athletes reinstated. USC also voluntarily gave the NCAA full details on the 'extra benefit' violation of Dwayne Jarrett, at the time that Matt Leinart's father had paid for the shared apartment between the two players. It is clearly not USC's policy to be silent on matters of infractions, but the LA Times is certainly piling on this guilt by silence!

Regardless of the motive for keeping silent, and to the contrary of the direction of the LA Times stories, I think USC may have a unique opportunity. If the NCAA comes down hard on USC, the school may be able to use this unfair process to go to Congress and press for changes in how the NCAA works. I suspect a lot of university presidents would sign on to testify against the NCAA, in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for change. Everyone understands that there is no accountability within the NCAA for making mistakes or for perpetuating ambiguity of policy ("lack of institutional control" rule). Now, if only the NCAA would see the light and change themselves to provide for greater involvement without risking unfair treatment.

Free and cheap(er)

A great website to find alternative software to the mainstream, AlternativeTo helps you find free software equivalents to paid, expensive ones.

Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on Microsoft Project or downloading an illegal copy, why not use OpenProj?

If you need a sound editor (cutting and splicing sounds together), there is no better software out there that is free, than Audacity. It takes some time to figure out, but it's a great piece of software that I love using, especially if blending sounds together for a video.

So, I'm a big fan of SketchUp, and just announced, they have a $100 coupon until June 19th. Of course, it's a bit convoluted in the hoops you have to jump through in order to find the discount code, but it's a 20% savings off the $495 regular price, and future updates are only $95.

Extremely high quality rendering software.

Coming out later this year, the next generation Thea Renderer. Originally a free renderer that had a plugin to export models from SketchUp into the Kerkythea renderer. This next generation renderer will be a enormous leap over the old renderer, incorporating a bunch of new features including motion blur. The price is expected to be cheap, and hopefully that means under $200.

You have to register to be able to enter the forum where the beta testers and developer have posted sample images produced so far. I thought I'd post at least one of the images from the forum, to show off how good this renderer really is.

From transgenic to chimera, or a facsimile thereof

Read this story a moment ago, and it got me thinking...

What happens if underground laboratories out there, with no care in the world for moral consequences, uses transgenic techniques to slowly create a derivative cross-genetic branch between monkeys and humans?


Might this lead to a competition of resources between two similar but clearly different species...homo-sapiens and homo-macaca? Or maybe there will be a family of apes...homo-pongo, homo-pan and homo-gorilla...aka Planet of the Apes?

Outside today.

This scene set itself up right in front of me as I was sitting outside, playing frisbee-fetch with the dog, today. It was a vision of the cross with the sun over it...ephemeral yet sacred.

Is it Valley Fever or is it H1N1?

My sister and one of her daughters were diagnosed with Valley Fever recently. But with the similarity of symptoms between Valley Fever and H1N1, you wouldn't necessarily know which one was the cause. At the urgent care facility that she has gone to, they have not swabbed her to test for the possibilities of antibodies left by H1N1.

Don't you think, given the proximity to border traffic, they would have tested them? Besides Texas, Arizona has the largest land border with Mexico, and they along with California and New Mexico have the largest geographic spread of the virus within their boundaries.

So I checked Google Trends, and in fact there is a fall off of Valley Fever searches, yet there was an enormous spike in the middle of April for H1N1/swine flu/swine influenza. Considering that it was 2 weeks ago that her earliest symptoms began, I think there is a stronger correlation between H1N1 than Valley Fever.

Seems to me that the doctors in Arizona may be unwittingly hiding the full scope of H1N1, and that should be troubling to everyone.

Rogue of the day.

"I'm a guy who doesn't see anything good having come from the Internet."

-Michael Lynton, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO.


Oh...I can think of a few GOOD things...including the ability to post disparaging mockery of certain people.

The best episode of the original Star Trek show.

The Trouble With Tribbles.

I read a great narrative in the LA Times about a young man who's been living the hobo's life on the rails. I have to say, there is a bit of romanticism in the thought of traveling without ties and burdens, across the country. It's a Jack Kerouac-esque feeling that I am sure many people often feel, when faced with all of the layers of existence that smothers your lazy-day dreams.

The car I couldn't buy.

I always thought the Mazda 323f was a nice car that was perfect for customization. Only problem was, it was never sold in the United States. I saw a post over at Autoblog on Top 10 Forgotten Hatchbacks, and thoughts about this 4-door hatchback came into my mind.

Spelling is optional.

This link may be dead at some point, but for the time being, the story's headline read verbatim, "Panama choses new president amid canal expansion"

The problem is, a spell checker wouldn't catch this mistake. Love it.

Friday, May 1

There now is a solid link between the American pig farms and the outbreak of this A-H1N1 strain to humans. But it really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that has been tracking the health of our foods.

Even salmon suffer (get sick) when farmed in tightly controlled pens.

All of these sick animals result in farmers using wide-spectrum antibiotics on a regular basis. As a result, we may see more viruses and bacteria that are resistant to common antibiotics, as we end up consuming the meat from these sick and over-prescribed animals.