It's an old debate: Does the curveball really bend, or is it just an illusion, like the river that runs uphill at Marshy Hope? Both says Arthur Shapiro, Associate Professor of Psychology at American University in Washington DC. Shapiro's demonstration of the illusory component won the Neural Correlate Society's Best Illusion of the Year Contest. In the game of baseball, a pitcher stands on a mound and throws a 2.9-inch diameter ball in the direction of home plate. The pitcher creates different types of pitches by releasing the ball at different velocities and with different spins. A typical major league “curveball”...

24 June, 2009

[caption id="attachment_916" align="alignright" width="150" caption="CCF MP for Cape Breton South, 1940-1957"]Clarie Gillis[/caption] .. .. Cape Bretoner Joey Schwartz, now living in Toronto, is not impressed: ...

11 June, 2009

After decades in the wilderness, they emerged, victorious, on the mountaintop. They had vanquished the foe, dispatching the king and his courtiers to a life on the back benches—or worse. Victory, sweet victory, was theirs. They ruled! So they would party, right? Party was their last name. They would gather together in gay frivolity to savor the sweet fruits of victory 'til dawn. Or not. This was the scene at midnight in the ballroom of the Dartmouth Holiday Inn, where the socialist hordes gathered to celebrate. The merriment went on 'til, oh, 10:30 or so, before the troops, led by their newly minted MLAs,...

10 June, 2009

Contrarian reader Scooter Bob complains that the media is ignoring NDP ads that are just as negative as the Tories': The NDP are distributing a two-page flyer. On one side is a less-than-flattering picture of Rodney MacDonald and a list of five alleged missteps — ERs closing & longer wait times; wasting money on expensive vehicles for ministers; putting HST on electricity; and putting the province in more debt. Isn't this exactly the same negative, US-style electioneering the NDP are complaining about? Why doesn't the media report on this? Perhaps because the ads go a step further by implying illegality by the...

07 June, 2009
[caption id="attachment_669" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Liberal Donor John Bragg"]Liberal Donor John Bragg[/caption] Liberal leader Steven McNeil tries to draw a distinction between political contributions from unions and those from corporations on the grounds that the next premier will have to negotiate with unions. In fact, the next government is far more likely to find itself negotiating with the companies owned by John Bragg, whose Oxford Seafoods Ltd. is one of McNeil's two largest donors, than with the Mainland Building and Construction Trades Council and its member unions. Bragg's companies, including Eastlink, have multiple business dealings with the province, including bidding on contracts and receiving loans and other assistance. The Trades Council negotiates mainly with a parallel employers' council consisting of large construction companies. Its members are not public sector unions and would have little occasion to negotiate with government.
05 June, 2009
Show more
Loading...