Alkaline Earth

Baseball Trash Talk thread

jerryschirmer@hotmail.com (Valatan) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:27 CST

Now that the Brew Crew has Sabathia'd itself up a notch, perhaps it is time that natedogg got in on the game... The Cardinals need Carpenter and Wainwright back as soon as possible.

You Foundation

flip@infochimps.org (mrflip) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:16 CST

Heifer -- following on the discussion of Bill Gates' philanthropy, it's worth noting that the long tail of piggy bank philanthropy well outweighs what the plutocrats plump in. I highly recommend Nick Kristof's article last week recounting the remarkable cascade effect direct giving to a well-chosen charity can have. Even if you aren't in a position to donate money, though, you're probably in a position to loan it (see inside).

The most appalling thing I saw while I was in Africa was the rice distribution center in Ethiopia [pic after the jump]. About a hundred people wait around for hours until the trucks come by to unload food; the cycle repeats. We're doing it all wrong -- these infantilizing handouts deter local food production, feed corruption and bureaucracy as much as they feed the indigent, incentivize (as you see) standing around for food rather than earning it, and gift food at a sustenance level but skills at a starvation level. It's the development equivalent of feeding tubes for a persistent vegetative state.

Continued...

What I Did Last Month

feziegler@gmail.com (zieglerfe) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:34 CST

- Last month I asked people on twitter whether they would allow me to take over their Facebook accounts for a week. Within a half hour I had to remove the request due to the volume of incoming username and passwords. I selected two people that were in the medium friend range and appeared to use Facebook in an active way, and asked for a one page "how-to" guide on how to be them before I started. Here is a description of that week in the words of one of the people I took over :: Lessons Learned from Ze Frank (Being Me) (shorter version) :: and x... gets the square - Ze Frank Wuzz Inside My Internetzz...! (same person, in more detail)

Chess Boxing

hkrishnan@uh.edu (KarmicBlasphemy) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:41 CST

A Russian man has just been crowned world champion in the sport of chess boxing. Apparently the idea originated in a French comic strip from the early '90s. In 2003 a Dutch artist decided to bring the 'sport' to life. The 'sport' is played by starting a chess match in the middle of a boxing ring. After four minutes, the chess board is cleared and the opponents box for three minutes. A match consists of six rounds of chess and five rounds of boxing. A match is decided by knockout, checkmate, or points