http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/ New journals from Robert Niles on SensibleTalk.com en-us 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 http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/200809/64/ I think many journalists and analysts are missing the core story underlying the populist revolt over the Bush administration's proposed Wall Street bailout. People aren't merely upset with the idea of their tax money going to prop up rich Wall Street businesses and investors. They're disgusted with an American economy that increasingly values gambling over work. Not only that, many of these Americans are perfectly willing, even eager, to watch this gamblers' economy fail. In many neighborhoods across the country, families can no longer afford to buy a home and anticipate a comfortable retirement on the money that they make working. Salaries and wages just don't provide enough cash. Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:26:00 MST http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/200809/63/ Laurie and I have put our home and cell phone numbers on the U.S. federal Do-Not-Call list, but that hasn't stopped solicitors from calling. Curiously, though, the sales calls we've been getting tend to come in clumps (more pronounced that your typical Poisson distribution) and often ask for the same wrong name. Clearly, our numbers have gotten on some list, associated with a variety of wrong names. Given that we tend to get a new string of calls every month, we figured this isn't random chance resulting from someone writing down a wrong number on an application someplace. Furthermore, the folks who call us rarely have any idea what the do-not-call list is (tipping us that they don't work for large, established call center firms), and often will keep going with their pitch even after we tell them that there's no one by that name here. What's up? By talking with some of these callers, combined with some online sleuthing and a little deduction, here's what we've figured out. Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:26:00 MST http://www.sensibletalk.com/journals/robertniles/200809/62/ I've been a bit quiet on the blog in recent weeks, as I have been working on launching several new projects. I will announce each one here, as it launches. After that flurry, though, I will continue to blog here, from time on time, on topics that do not fit well into any of these other projects. So sub the RSS feed to keep up with the new posts, when they happen. Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:26:00 MST