http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/ New journals from Robert Niles on SensibleTalk.com en-us http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/201008/80/ I am an American. In my country, there is no official language, so my government can't tell me what to say. There is no official religion, so my government can't tell me what to believe or to think. And everyone born here is a citizen, so the government can't pick and choose who gets rights, based on who our parents are. These are not problems with America. These are the strengths that make our country great, and each of us, as Americans, should accept the responsibility to protect them. I'm pasting the above to my Facebook profile today, and I invite you to copy-and-paste these sentiments around the Internet as well, as a statement against the religious fundamentalists in our country who disagree with them. Thank you. Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:56:00 MST http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/201005/79/ And I thought the electoral college was bad. Here are the results from yesterday's Parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom. Note the number of votes each of the top three party received, then the number of seats in the next House of Commons they'll have as a result: Fri, 07 May 2010 16:46:58 MST http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/201003/78/ These feathered friends joined us for a spell on our walk around the neighborhood today: Apologies for the low-res iPhone photo quality. And, yes, I know that they are a peacock and a peahen. Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:25:00 MST http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/201002/77/ For 10 years, people bought over-priced houses they could not afford without borrowing extreme amounts of money that they would never be able to pay back. When that Ponzi scheme ended and the economy collapsed, the government chose first to bail out the bankers who made those loans. The losers in that decision? Among others, the nation's kids. Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:04:00 MST http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/201002/76/ Which city's sports fans have suffered the most? As a stats geek, I'm not happy with answers that rely on goats and curses. Nor can I accept that fans of one team have suffered too terribly when the other pro teams in that same city have racked up one championship after another. (Jets fans, I'm looking at you.) So in 2007 on my ThemeParkInsider.com site I developed a quantitative solution to answering this question: The Sports Misery Index. In short, here's how it works: A city gets one point for each season played its pro sports teams since the last calendar year in which one of those teams won a championship. Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:27:00 MST http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/201002/75/ This is for readers in the Los Angeles area (or anyone who's spent some time in LA). Which of these old-school LA-area joints would you most like to go to for lunch? poll by twiigs.com Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:10:03 MST http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/201001/74/ Tomorrow's BCS championship surely will bring with it calls from some newspaper columnists and TV and radio hosts for a college football playoff. Some of them might point to polls that report public support for the idea of doing away with the traditional bowl system in favor of a playoff. But how many people would support a college football playoff if it meant, for example, no longer having a Rose Parade on New Year's Day? Because that's exactly what a playoff system would do. Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:15:00 MST http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/200901/67/ I had a dream last night. (No, not that I would begin an entry with a wretched cliche - just indulge me on that, okay?) Laurie and I were going to throw a dinner party with another family, and Laurie had just left for the store to pick up a few final items. Our guests arrived early, but they weren't the close friends I'd expected. Instead, they were college friends of Laurie's, who just happened to be in town, I guessed. Then the doorbell rang again. It was a high school friend of mine, with her children. But where were my kids? Were they upstairs with their friends? I realized that I didn't know where they were, only that they were not at the party. More people arrived: People who worked with former colleagues, but whom I hadn't met. High-school classmates of Laurie's, whom I'd met at a reunion. Someone who'd been reading my website and wanted to say hi. Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:26:00 MST http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/200812/66/ Here's the long version of an essay that I wrote for the American Youth Soccer Association, which appeared it is Whistle Stop national e-mail newsletter for youth soccer referees. It's got some good stuff in it for youth sports officials, I hope. Full piece after the jump Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:26:00 MST http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/200810/65/ FWIW, This is how you follow a story. And this is not. Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:26:00 MST