Championship Monday

If I haven't said it before, this is my favorite time of the sports year. With the NBA preparing for the playoffs, the NCAA Men's tourney about to crown a champion, MLB starting up, and the Masters--yes, I'm a golf fan--coming up soon...oh, what a wonderful world!

- Thank you, Sports Guy, for making a statement that I wasn't quite willing to make yet--that Corey Brewer is a top-10 pick. Of course, that's assuming he can expand his shooting range to the NBA 3 point line. Also, Bill, why would you want Joakim Noah, on a team that already has Al Jefferson? I'm convinced that Joakim Noah is a superstar only because he has Horford and Brewer in the front court alongside him. If I'm an NBA GM, picking third, and assuming the first two GMs aren't absolute idiots, I'm taking Al Horford. Then again, Boston would have no need for Horford, either...

BTW, I keep hearing the argument that it's too easy to foul out in a college basketball game. Some people--I believe Dukie V is one--have suggested that players should not be allowed to foul out; if a player should commit a personal foul after his fifth, it should be penalized as a flagrant foul (two shots + possession). I kinda like Simmons' idea of disqualifying the player after his sixth foul, and awarding two shots + possession on that violation, but I'm not sold on the bonus foul shots. If anything should be changed--and I argue that the system works fine the way it is--I think players should be given six fouls instead of five. Sure, UCLA's chances got nuked as soon as Arron Afflalo and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute picked up three and two fouls, respectively (though it could be argued that UCLA had no chance versus Florida even with them playing all forty minutes), but each one was guilty of a cheap foul that either could have avoided.

- According to Sportsbook.com, Florida is a five-point favorite against OSU. I'll take the favorite, thank you very much. It's pretty clear that they have hit the "switch." Then again, Greg Oden has a ton to play for (again, I agree with you, Mr. Simmons). A superb performance in the championship game, even if it ends with a loss, should solidify his #1 pick status. Yes, there is a possibility that Kevin Durant will be taken ahead of Oden, but a strong performance by OSU's center should knock Durant out of the conversation.

- A 33-year-old woman was arrested for allegedly offering an undercover investigator the chance to take pornographic pictures of her 7-year-old daughter, AND have sex with the girl. I wonder what it takes for a parent to convince him/herself that forcing your child to have sex with another person is a good way to earn extra money. The woman must be truly sick in the mind to put the girl in this position, much less even consider such a proposal!

- This is a fantastic article about global warming and whether the phenomenon actually exists, or if it is actually "global." In last week's version of SWIFT--James Randi's online newsletter--he declared that Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" caused him to abandon "any doubts that [he] may have had about the reality of our species’ contribution to global warming. Gore – a statesman if ever there was one – makes his point repeatedly and powerfully. If you haven't seen it, by all means do so..." Randi was immediately blasted for his stance, and vowed to re-examine his position on Gore's film. He immediately back-tracked from his previous position, and offered up some excellent evidence to the contrary.

There are two key points in the whole global warming debate that need to be closely examined:

1) How does one measure a "global" warming? Surely, it would be difficult to measure all climate changes in every corner of the world, especially when you consider that 70% of the Earth is covered in water. Is the phenomenon of global warming really nothing more than "local warming," measured in several areas from which data could actually be collected?

2) Statistical models of past-, present-, and perceived future changes in climate, as Randi points out, should not be mistaken for accurate predictors of global warming. Statistical models are exactly what they are; they are models that show a possible trend in changes to something. Here is an (admitted) oversimplification of this point: consider the flipping of a coin. If the first ten flips alternate heads and tails, and the next ten flips come out all heads, should we conclude that the next flip will be heads, because of the trend shown by the previous ten flips of the coin? Similarly, even though temperatures, according to data--for now, let's not question the methods in which the data were collected--had been oscillating up and down for years, and only recently showed an up-sloping (is that a word?) trend, can we conclude that the recent trend is an indicator of things to come in the next few years?

Now, I'm not totally dismissing the notion that global warming exists. Is it an issue to worry about in the future? Probably. Is it an issue that should demand research dollars to further understand? Yes. Is it as big of a problem as some people would make it appear to be? I'm not sold on that; not at the moment, at least.

Whew! I didn't expect this entry to be so long! Hopefully the "BCS Rematch" game will be as good as advertised!