Last night was an extremely close night for most games in the NBA. Four games went into overtime. For the data lovers, the average spread between the scores of the winning and losing teams was 4.36 points and the largest differences were between the Pistons and the Bobcats (11 points) and the Kings and the Bucks (8 points). If you were to remove those two games, the average spread barely changes to 3.22 points. For games going into OT, the average spread was 2.5 points.

Of the total 21 periods played in OT games last night, the winning team outscored the losing team in each separate period less than 50% of the time (48.33%). And if we remove the obvious period, being overtime (except for the 76ers and Cavaliers with double OT) in which the winning team outscored that period, then the winning team only outscored the other team in 36.25% of the periods.

Even more interesting, at the end of each of the 21 periods, the winning team was ahead only 29.17% of the time. Again, if we take out the overtime period in which they won, the winning team was ahead only only 12.5% of the time at the end of each period. The only OT game in which the winning team was ahead at the end of the first quarter was the Trailblazers vs. Timberwolves.

It's amazing what a few minutes, Excel, and a Google Desktop Gagdet can do. Completely useless, yes. But still amazing.

Labels: basketball, nba, statistics

Two points of some interest to some people:

1. I recently found the Google Gapminder tool. It is amazing. It was featured in one of the TED Talks. Go to the tool's site, and change the X axis to children per woman (fertility to rate), slow down the speed a little bit and click play. You'll notice the entire world, 1st, 2nd and 3rd world countries, move into the upper left corner, signifying longer life expectancy and fewer children per woman. The exception? The entire continent of Africa come 1990. They are by default purple dots. The entire continent will experience a decline in life expectancy. The creator believes this is due to the AIDS epidemic. It's amazing the data that is out there for free.

2. LDS.org will be switching over to the new site design this coming Tuesday between 2 and 3 am. All links to the Gospel Library content will eventually need to be updated (they'll be kind and leave the old links up for awhile). Our sites will have a lot of updating to do. By the way, even if you don't link to LDS.org stuff, there's a great add-on for Firefox called Check Page Links. Every so often I go through our pages and use this tool and it tells me which links are dead, which are alive. You'd be surprised how often content changes places.

Labels: data, gapminder, lds, visualization, webmaster tools

As anyone familiar with youtube knows, you have to be careful about the things you watch. Slipped into all of this sometimes useful content is a lot of inappropriateness disguised. Yesterday I was searching for something particular and came across some videos supposedly celebrating the beauty of human nature. Now, we all know that the adversary attempts to counterfeit everything that is good, but I think that this is one area in which he failed miserably. The counterfeit for love and acceptance...pretty good. The counterfeit for joy and excitement...it can get you sometimes. But the counterfeit for the beauty of human nature is so off that it's almost ridiculous.

Joseph Smith laid out aspects of our true beauty in the King Follett sermon. Teryl Givens reminded us of those true beauties in "Lightning out of Heaven," delivered at BYU on Nov. 29, 05. He reminded us that man is eternally existent, inherently innocent, inherently free, and infinitely perfectible. Those are true beauties of human nature. And of human connection? "Joseph [Smith] was affirming the fact that heaven is constructed out of a web of human relationships that extend in every direction."

The adversary sure missed this one. Of course, I appreciate art and I think that God has created a wonderful thing in our bodies. They are, like the scriptures say, the temple of God. But that body taken out of the context of the soul, being infinitely perfectible through the resurrection, inherently in innocent, etc is nothing more than flesh. Decomposing, constantly dying, flesh. The true beauty of human nature is not in the flesh, but in it's connection to the soul and the possibilities inherent in that connection.

Maybe the adversary actually messed up all of the counterfeits and he isn't as good as I think. Maybe it's just that I can be easily blinded by some things, so I assume he has a talent in that area, rather than I a weakness. I would imagine that when compared with the real thing, none of his counterfeits will stand a chance. So, the only thing to do is flood the earth with the real deal. Pure love extended at every opportunity, eternal perspectives in every decision, true happiness being experienced and shared because compared to what is really available, the only ones partaking in the counterfeits will be those that know not where to find it.

Labels: counterfeit, human nature, joseph smith, teryl givens

I've read articles and listened to speakers talk about the reasons for Apple's success narrowing down to the fact that while every manufacturer and developer tries to add new features, Apple is able to actually throw out features and just make sure it (whatever it is) performs the basics and does it well. Basically, Apple is simple. The iPod doesn't have the features of a Creative, Microsoft, or whoever else. But it works

I realized that this was more than an Apple thing after I spent more than a day putting up icicle Christmas lights on the house, only to have the whole family come out and say, "It's too cluttered." It was the exact same layout that we had done the past three or four years, yet I agreed. This year it looked too cluttered. I actually took down all of the lights and put up simple, elegant bulbs (satin finish globes). It looks very simple and everyone liked it. So I've been trying to figure out why it is that we're moving towards simplicity and away from features. Here are two possibilities:

1. The more features, the more confused. We simply can't figure out how to work it or get it to do what we know it's supposed to be able to do. So we get tangled up in the icicle lights or end up yelling, "Just play the dumb song" at our knock off brand MP3 player.

2. The Wal-mart effect. Wal-mart has made things more affordable. As a result, we are buying more things and lower income families can afford more things. A couple starting out can actually furnish their kitchen with appliances to make their life easier. Parents can afford to get their children cool and fun toys, including electronics. And Christmas decorations, especially including those giant inflatable air pumped things that everyone has on their lawns, became affordable. Not long ago, it seemed like putting more and more things out on your lawn and roof for Christmas showed that you could afford it. Now, it might seem like you're buying all of your Christmas decorations at Walmart (I have no trouble buying them there). So, now cluttered and more features doesn't mean that you can afford it, it might mean that you're shopping where things are made cheaply. iPod is more expensive with less features.

It could be a combination. What really drove this post was my recent purchase of the Creative Zen Vision W (which I love), the announcement of the iPhone, and my decision that I never wanted to put up an inflatable air pumped Christmas lawn decoration and I didn't know why. Other theories are welcome.

Labels: christmas shopping, simple, walmart

The new 2007 Mutual theme for the Church is 'Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God' (D&C 121:45). In support of this theme, I am making a commitment to provide more content that will help the users of our sites garnish their thoughts with virtue. To begin, I would encourage everyone to read, "As a Man Thinketh" by James Allen. I have no experience in recording, but to make it easier on some, I will be reading and posting mp3s of the chapters in the podcast section of both ldsteenhelp.com and helpforguys.com. This is legal because this particular book is no longer copyright protected. It is considered public domain. Even though it's easier to listen to a book than it is to sit down and read one, I recommend you get a copy of this one. I don't think you will get the full effect by just listening to it, especially just listening to me read it. I hope to have the whole book posted within the next two weeks. Here is the link to the first sections:

Foreward
Thought and Character

If you have any ideas that can help others to let virtue garnish their thoughts unceasingly, let me know and we'll try to include it here.

*Update - The rest of the material has been posted to another blog entry. You can also find it by going to a Peer Help Group site and clicking on Readings and Podcasts down at the bottom.

Sometimes, the only thing keeping us connected to a situation, especially damaging ones, is our emotional involvement. We easily get caught in the wave like movement of those emotions and allow ourselves into situations that we would reject under clear thinking. Tonight I sat next to a man on a plane that works for Fox. He told me that he would take his daughter to the sets where they were filming TV shows and she would see how it was actually done. Being able to see the fake cities that they used in NYPD Blue and the chocolate sauce blood in other shows gave her a new perspective on TV violence. Suddenly, her emotional connection to what was happening on TV completely dissolved. When a scary part would come on the TV, her dad would cover her eyes and she would say, "Dad, it's just chocolate sauce." She didn't really get involved in what was on the screen. She could see it for what it really was.

How often are our emotional attachments to situations based on false pretenses? I would say very often, especially the negative situations. People struggling with addictions are often caught up in the fantasy of the situation or the emotional roller coaster that they experience but if they could step back for a second, they would see that not only are they getting involved in an activity that isn't good for them, but it's something that they themselves don't even really want. They have no desire for the actual activity once that emotional attachment is severed. That is one of the reasons that we're told to count to 10 when we're losing our temper. If you can just give yourself a small amount of time to let the emotions settle, you'll be able to see more clearly. So, I think that this brings a whole new light to the mist of darkness that we're supposed to be experiencing during our lives here on earth. I'm not saying that emotions are negative things by nature, but they can be used against us to cause us to be blinded to the road we're on and the effects of our choices. Choosing to break that emotional connection can free up our ability to see clearly all of our choices and the paths that will follow each choice. So, if you're struggling with something in this life, try and learn to recognize the emotions that precede your slip. What can you do that would break those emotional threads before you fully act on them? What can separate you from what you're feeling and your actions so that you can see clearly?

Labels: avoiding temptation