This hit me right in the face. Brian started out this season writing "They run like they have nothing in their pockets". They have stuff in their pockets now. I hate that this happened.
Well, I wasn't going to classify someone as a "good person" based solely on their religious tolerance or lack thereof. But aside from that, yeah, that's pretty much what I'm saying.
I've been in the Austin, TX area for 12 years now, and it seems like a mixed bag to me. I've had one lady who saw me in my Michigan shirt complain to me about the Muslims implementing Sharia law in Detroit, and seen dozens of folks greeting their Muslim neighbors with joy and respect. I've seen mosques defaced with graffiti, and neighbors rallying to help clean up and show support. It seems like in these times we can't just let our neighbors be without having to have some sort of opinion about it, but on the whole more of the things I see are positive than negative.
This is a great writeup, but for me the thing that will always stand out about Hassan Haskins is how he rose to the challenge when Corum went down with an injury. For a couple of months there, Haskins was pretty much the whole offense, and that was fine, because he kept getting the yards. If it hadn't been for him, Michigan would never have had a shot at the B1G championship. Amazing effort.
I've been through some of what you're going through. I've had my marriage fall apart and had to rebuild my life. But I've never had the thing that I created from nothing, the thing that I was basically better at than anybody, become the thing that wrecked everything else that mattered to me. I can't imagine what that's like.
So I'll just join the chorus in saying thank you, Brian, and I wish you well in putting things back together in a way that will work.
It's my understanding that Seth gets paid for his work here. That would make him a professional moralizer.
Also, it seems to me that the thing we need even less than a bunch of white people talking about the legacy of racism at Michigan, is nobody talking about it.
That's my point. You talk about identifying students and recruiting them, or developing them. My point is, it's not about having recruits, it's about selecting from them in a way that is effective and also stands up to legal and public scrutiny. Your plan doesn't address that.
One problem with your plan is, you don't identify the solution to the fundamental problem. The issue is not that the University doesn't have candidates. There are always many more applicants than there are openings. The issue is, how do you select from the applicants in a way that prioritizes increasing diversity, without pissing off the white people who think they should have been selected?
It's been a while since my Industrial Engineering classes, but shouldn't the goal of any system design be to produce the desired results with the least amount of work possible?
My freshman year was the year Good Time Charley's opened. Not coincidentally, that was the first place I ever bought a drink. Snuck in with some friends and a borrowed ID. Going to bars wasn't a big feature of my time in Ann Arbor, but I'll always remember that one. Good times indeed.
Sorry, I am not the strawman you're setting up for me. I never said he had to be terrified. I said his attitude and expressed position were inconsiderate for a man who has other people depending on him. There's more to protecting yourself from contagion than performatively wearing a mask.
Yeah, but in his chosen profession, he wears protective equipment, and trains himself in practices that reduce the risk of injury. Doesn't sound like he's doing that with regard to the coronavirus. Wearing a mask "out of respect for others" is kind of like "wearing a helmet because NFL rules require it".
According to the NCAA (https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/NCAA_Football_Injury_WEB.pdf), there were 34 catastrophic injuries in a five year period across all of college football (64,879 players). That's a rate of 0.01%. Even by highly conservative estimates, you're talking about increasing that rate by 10 times.
I have to say, I don't find posts like this helpful. Nobody is a "fan" of the shutdown. Everybody agrees that being shut down sucks. Nobody is getting "bitten in the ass" by test results, because, so far, there aren't enough test results to be meaningful.
What we have going on is a debate with insufficient information on all sides. There is a significant amount of evidence that more people have been infected than we have been counting officially. There's also, if you look at the unexpected death statistics, a fair amount of evidence that more people have died from Covid-19 than we have been counting officially. What's the real fatality rate? We don't know yet. What's the real level of exposure? We don't know yet. What's the real level of immunity provided by recovering from the disease? We don't know yet. How long does immunity last? We don't know yet. What's the long term damage to the economy? How long will it take to recover? We don't know that either.
At this point, we're all picking sides based on our priors. "WE HAVE TO GET BACK TO WORK!!!" is just as knee-jerk as "WE HAVE TO STOP THE VIRUS!!!". Hopefully we can try to stay rational, and learn from the information as it comes in, and not just select from it to confirm our positions.
I think this is going to improve college basketball in a couple of ways. If the G League takes some, or most, of the one-and-done kids, that means the one-and-done factories have fewer open spots each year, meaning the top college kids will get spread out to more schools. And with kids staying around longer, team basketball can make a resurgence.
Also, I think it should improve parity. The talent curve is asymptotic. If the few physical marvels like Zion and LeBron are removed from the college game, the focus shifts to larger number of merely excellent players remaining.
The problem is, it's a false analogy. Redistributing the wealth of millionaires isn't the point. Today a millionaire barely ranks in the top 20%.
There's about $100 trillion of wealth in this country, and the top 20% of people own 70% of it. If we were to take, say, 50% of that, or $35 trillion, and distribute it over the remaining 240 million people, it would be something like $140,000 each. That would double the wealth of almost half the people. It would make a huge difference.
Are people really still arguing this? The best science we have available says that somewhere near 100,000 people in the US will die from this. That's WITH strong social distancing. Without social distancing, it could be 2,000,000. That's 2,000,000 PEOPLE who could be going away forever.
The jobs, on the other hand, will come back. Many people will lose a lot of money. Nobody really knows how much. But once we have vaccines and treatments and herd immunity, we will once again need the things we needed before, and there will be jobs involved in providing them.
Even in strictly economic terms the loss of that many people is a tough shock to absorb. In ethical and moral terms, trading them for a few months of economic security is unthinkable.
One of the scariest moments of my life was having Bubba Paris kick open the door of the TV lounge in South Quad and leap full length on the guy sitting immediately in front of me. I didn't know the guy well, but he seemed like a real goofball.
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Welcome back, Ace. As always, great writing and great to hear from you.
This hit me right in the face. Brian started out this season writing "They run like they have nothing in their pockets". They have stuff in their pockets now. I hate that this happened.
Great news, Seth! Very happy to hear it. Also, glad you're doing the preview. I will be in attendance, virtually speaking.
Best wishes to your son and your whole family, Seth.
Risk 1.0 bot
Well, I wasn't going to classify someone as a "good person" based solely on their religious tolerance or lack thereof. But aside from that, yeah, that's pretty much what I'm saying.
I've been in the Austin, TX area for 12 years now, and it seems like a mixed bag to me. I've had one lady who saw me in my Michigan shirt complain to me about the Muslims implementing Sharia law in Detroit, and seen dozens of folks greeting their Muslim neighbors with joy and respect. I've seen mosques defaced with graffiti, and neighbors rallying to help clean up and show support. It seems like in these times we can't just let our neighbors be without having to have some sort of opinion about it, but on the whole more of the things I see are positive than negative.
Eid Mubarak!
This is a great writeup, but for me the thing that will always stand out about Hassan Haskins is how he rose to the challenge when Corum went down with an injury. For a couple of months there, Haskins was pretty much the whole offense, and that was fine, because he kept getting the yards. If it hadn't been for him, Michigan would never have had a shot at the B1G championship. Amazing effort.
I've been through some of what you're going through. I've had my marriage fall apart and had to rebuild my life. But I've never had the thing that I created from nothing, the thing that I was basically better at than anybody, become the thing that wrecked everything else that mattered to me. I can't imagine what that's like.
So I'll just join the chorus in saying thank you, Brian, and I wish you well in putting things back together in a way that will work.
Heheh... Nope, computer systems. Your commute is safe from me.
It's my understanding that Seth gets paid for his work here. That would make him a professional moralizer.
Also, it seems to me that the thing we need even less than a bunch of white people talking about the legacy of racism at Michigan, is nobody talking about it.
I ask about selection, and you go back to talking about recruiting. This conversation is starting to seem unproductive.
That's my point. You talk about identifying students and recruiting them, or developing them. My point is, it's not about having recruits, it's about selecting from them in a way that is effective and also stands up to legal and public scrutiny. Your plan doesn't address that.
One problem with your plan is, you don't identify the solution to the fundamental problem. The issue is not that the University doesn't have candidates. There are always many more applicants than there are openings. The issue is, how do you select from the applicants in a way that prioritizes increasing diversity, without pissing off the white people who think they should have been selected?
It's been a while since my Industrial Engineering classes, but shouldn't the goal of any system design be to produce the desired results with the least amount of work possible?
My freshman year was the year Good Time Charley's opened. Not coincidentally, that was the first place I ever bought a drink. Snuck in with some friends and a borrowed ID. Going to bars wasn't a big feature of my time in Ann Arbor, but I'll always remember that one. Good times indeed.
Sorry, I am not the strawman you're setting up for me. I never said he had to be terrified. I said his attitude and expressed position were inconsiderate for a man who has other people depending on him. There's more to protecting yourself from contagion than performatively wearing a mask.
Yeah, but in his chosen profession, he wears protective equipment, and trains himself in practices that reduce the risk of injury. Doesn't sound like he's doing that with regard to the coronavirus. Wearing a mask "out of respect for others" is kind of like "wearing a helmet because NFL rules require it".
He has a wife and kids. I wonder how "If I die, I die" sits with them.
According to the NCAA (https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/NCAA_Football_Injury_WEB.pdf), there were 34 catastrophic injuries in a five year period across all of college football (64,879 players). That's a rate of 0.01%. Even by highly conservative estimates, you're talking about increasing that rate by 10 times.
I love the attempts to rationalize the idea that these young people should be putting their long term health at risk for our entertainment.
I have to say, I don't find posts like this helpful. Nobody is a "fan" of the shutdown. Everybody agrees that being shut down sucks. Nobody is getting "bitten in the ass" by test results, because, so far, there aren't enough test results to be meaningful.
What we have going on is a debate with insufficient information on all sides. There is a significant amount of evidence that more people have been infected than we have been counting officially. There's also, if you look at the unexpected death statistics, a fair amount of evidence that more people have died from Covid-19 than we have been counting officially. What's the real fatality rate? We don't know yet. What's the real level of exposure? We don't know yet. What's the real level of immunity provided by recovering from the disease? We don't know yet. How long does immunity last? We don't know yet. What's the long term damage to the economy? How long will it take to recover? We don't know that either.
At this point, we're all picking sides based on our priors. "WE HAVE TO GET BACK TO WORK!!!" is just as knee-jerk as "WE HAVE TO STOP THE VIRUS!!!". Hopefully we can try to stay rational, and learn from the information as it comes in, and not just select from it to confirm our positions.
I think this is going to improve college basketball in a couple of ways. If the G League takes some, or most, of the one-and-done kids, that means the one-and-done factories have fewer open spots each year, meaning the top college kids will get spread out to more schools. And with kids staying around longer, team basketball can make a resurgence.
Also, I think it should improve parity. The talent curve is asymptotic. If the few physical marvels like Zion and LeBron are removed from the college game, the focus shifts to larger number of merely excellent players remaining.
The problem is, it's a false analogy. Redistributing the wealth of millionaires isn't the point. Today a millionaire barely ranks in the top 20%.
There's about $100 trillion of wealth in this country, and the top 20% of people own 70% of it. If we were to take, say, 50% of that, or $35 trillion, and distribute it over the remaining 240 million people, it would be something like $140,000 each. That would double the wealth of almost half the people. It would make a huge difference.
Are people really still arguing this? The best science we have available says that somewhere near 100,000 people in the US will die from this. That's WITH strong social distancing. Without social distancing, it could be 2,000,000. That's 2,000,000 PEOPLE who could be going away forever.
The jobs, on the other hand, will come back. Many people will lose a lot of money. Nobody really knows how much. But once we have vaccines and treatments and herd immunity, we will once again need the things we needed before, and there will be jobs involved in providing them.
Even in strictly economic terms the loss of that many people is a tough shock to absorb. In ethical and moral terms, trading them for a few months of economic security is unthinkable.
Thanks Seth. I appreciate getting some reasoned analysis to counter the "Don Brown doesn't know anything about football" crowd.
One of the scariest moments of my life was having Bubba Paris kick open the door of the TV lounge in South Quad and leap full length on the guy sitting immediately in front of me. I didn't know the guy well, but he seemed like a real goofball.