misunderestimation

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Unfortunately, we heard this story before (From HelenaIR.com):

Moments later, the 16-year-old Oak Lawn High School sophomore lost consciousness. Even before he came out of a coma two weeks later, he was thrust into an emotional debate over the use of aluminum bats.

Many claim the aluminum bat has made baseball much more dangerous. Check out this quote from The Science of Baseball:

Titanium was used briefly, but it was quickly prohibited because that metal’s combination of high strength, light weight, and elasticity was clearly going to result in shattering all hitting records in all phases of the game. “You could actually grab the barrel of the bat in your hands and squeeze, and you could feel the bat give,” says Manning, who adds: “The trampoline effect was enormous, and though titanium was banned, we learned a lot about how to make aluminum bats achieve the same effect.”

We are building stronger, lighter, faster, and more responsive bats. The result seems to be, the ball travels faster off the bat then ever before. This common belief is leading toward legislation. The latest is in New Jersey according to NorthJersey.com

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – A New Jersey lawmaker wants to return the crack of the bat to youth baseball games to help prevent serious injuries.

Assemblyman Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., D-Middlesex, on Thursday introduced legislation to require youth and high school baseball leagues to use only wood bats. The measure comes after a 12-year-old from Wayne was seriously injured when hit in the chest by a line drive off a metal bat.

“The speed at which a ball comes off an aluminum bat can be so great that the reaction time for a pitcher to protect himself or herself is reduced to almost zero,” Diegnan said. “We cannot protect every player against on-field injury, but we can correct a balance of power that has swung disproportionately in favor of hitters using increasingly lethal bats.”

The bill would mandate the use of wood bats in all leagues where youths under age 18 participate. An exemption would be granted only for a game in which the visiting team hails from out-of-state.

Must the choice only be wood? Not according to the Editors of NorthJersey.com:

The current debate, arising from a tragic incident where a line drive from an aluminum bat struck a 12-year-old pitcher in Wayne, stopped his heart and put him in a coma, has boiled down to whether non-wooden bats should be banned from youth baseball. But why must the choice come down to hickory or aluminum?

The fact is that aluminum bats can be manufactured to different specifications, including ones that reduce ball speed. As young athletes continue to get bigger and stronger at younger ages, it’s time for bat manufacturers and organized youth baseball officials to reevaluate the bat performance factors that manufacturers must adhere to and to design safer baseball bats.

Will wooden bats solve everything? Well, no. Check out this piece on major-league injuries from “come-backers” in The Enquirer.

Baseball players have a simpler formula: It comes back faster than it goes in.

Former Cincinnati pitcher Rob Dibble once threw a pitch 96 mph, only to see it returned to sender at 121 mph. Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan fired a 98 mph fastball hit back at him at more than 130 mph.

“You really can’t do anything,” Indianapolis reliever and former Red Brian Reith said. “You can try to get in a good fielding position … but if the batter squares up and hits it hard, you really have no chance of getting out of the way.”

Bottom line, baseball, like any sport, has risks…and there is nothing better than seeing your kid hit one deep.

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This is just too good to pass-up. Apparently robots are being developed that can determine our emotional state by analyzing our facial expressions. Check-out Playfuls.com:

The visitors of the next week’s Royal Society summer science exhibition are to participate at a “live” experiment, where computers are to read their emotional status, by analyzing their facial expressions.

A commercial application for this type of robots could be the smart advertisement system: a robot will play certain ads depending on the mood of the passer-by. If someone feels gloomy and expresses that in exterior the robot analyzes the facial features and decides it’s time for some happy holydays… “Our research could enable websites to tailor advertising or products to your mood,” Peter Robinson, professor of computer technology at the University of Cambridge said.

“For example, a web cam linked with our software could process your image, encode the correct emotional state and transmit information to a website.”

As for those who suffer from autism or the Aspberger’s syndrome the technology can help them interpret other’s facial expression. Actually the developers are working with American colleagues to build a headset for those emotionally disabilitated, which will allow them to understand what others are communicating through facial movements.

When you consider what Regine Debatty has to say on children bonding with robots and we could be in for an interesting future.

An experiment started last year by Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratories and a nursery school in San Diego is revealing that children can develop emotions toward robots, leading to new commercial possibilities as machines become smarter and friendlier.

“We adults tend to ask children if it is a toy or a human being, but they are free of such established categorisation,” explains esearcher Fumihide Tanaka who has been working on the project with Machine Perception Laboratory. “If intelligent-machine technology is successfully developed, a century later people will see the concept just as commonsense. This is natural as we are living in a different era now.”

I wonder if they have one of these that works on spouses…

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Clearly, this dog has issues…

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Lately, there has been a lot of buzz in the Tech world regarding the new DVD formats, HD DVD and Blu-Ray DVD. In an effort to get a better handle on the differences between these two technologies, I’ve decided to create a post to keep up with this discussion. I’ll update this page as new information becomes available.

HD DVD Explained: HD DVD technology is based on existing CD/DVD technology, but takes advantages of modifications that allow greater storage capacity on existing CD/DVDs. However, HD DVDs can hold up to 45 GB of data.

Blu-Ray Explained: Basically, Blu-Ray technology is exactly the same to existing DVD/CD technology with one major exception; Blu-Ray uses a blue laser versus that standard red laser. Blue lasers utilize a shorter wavelength and the laser beam can focus on a much smaller area. With more control over the focus, you can store more data on the same sized disc. Blu-Ray discs can hold up to 100 GB of data.

Launch Dates:

HD DVD: Launched April 18th 2006
Blu-Ray: Expected September 2006

HD DVD Supporters: Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros.

Blu-Ray Supporters: Disney, Fox, MGM, Sony, Electronic Arts, Apple, Dell, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, and TDK.

Updates:

6/23 – Samsung may or may not be announcing a dual-format HD DVD/Blu-Ray player. Check out the post by Richard Lawler on HDBeat.com.

Gizmodo thinks that LG may be following Samsung’s lead…

Who’s Blogging:

• HDBlog.net: Blue Laser Discs Have Already Failed?
• Which is Better: Blu-ray or HD DVD?

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If you have not heard of MySpace, talk to your kids. MySpace has become “the place” for teens to discuss issues, swap information, meet people, and generally “hang-out.” The fact that this place only exists in the magical world of the Internet doesn’t matter; it’s the place to be.

I believe one of the things driving teens to MySpace is the level of anonymity. Teens can escape from their current existence and become someone else; if only for awhile. MySpace users swap pictures, interests, and personal information. Of course, any place where teens congregate also has the ability to attract teen predators. Add to that, the ability for predators to hide behind fake personas, and you have a recipe for disaster.

With pending lawsuits and explosive growth, MySpace has started to tighten security. The following is from Information Week:

The social-networking site, which has posted tremendous growth over the last year, has become the focus of child advocacy groups that fear MySpace.com has become a favorite of sexual predators. Concerns over the safety of teens on the site have sparked a federal proposal to bar schools and libraries from allowing children to access MySpace.com and other similar sites.

In trying to allay the public, MySpace.com, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., put in place Wednesday added security for 14- and 15-year-old members, new options for privacy settings for all members and restrictions on ad placements to teens.

“MySpace is committed to innovating new product features to heighten online safety, particularly in the area of 14 to 15 year olds,” Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace.com, said in a statement. “In addition to technology innovation, MySpace remains dedicated to a multi-pronged approach that also involves education and collaboration with law enforcement, teachers, parents and members.”

Will it work?

It remains to be seen whether the additional measures would help in MySpace.com’s defense against the lawsuit filed Monday by the Austin, Texas, girl. The $30 million suit claims the 14-year-old was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man she met on MySpace.com, which the suit accuses of failing to do enough to protect minors against sexual predators, the Reuters news agency reported.

Lesson to parents: Always know who your kids are talking with on the Internet and never assume that “security measures” are a replacement for active parenting.

For more on protecting your kids or general MySpace issues, check out the following:

Security! MySpace Scrambles to Protect Underage Users
MySpaceSafetyTips
megfowler.com

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To funny to pass up:

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While checking Chicago sites for information on Ozzie today, I came across a blog by Dave Wischnowsky on the Chicago Tribune site. If you are the parent of a teenager, it’s definitely worth the read!

“Especially among younger people, it appears that customers are ahead of cell phone companies in devising new applications,” Simpson quoted an unnamed “Siemens bigwig” as saying.

In light of the Siemens survey, mediapost.com struck out to interview teens from across the country, just to confirm that they really do want snazzy new features on their cell phones.

Not surprisingly, their answer was: “Yeah.”

Be sure to read the entire post, especially the comments. This is my favorite:

Fifteen-year-old from Calabasas, Calif.: “I’d like to be able to scan in exam questions so I can text them to my friends in the library. My thumbs get really tired having to manually enter them now.”

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Welcome to Roger Clemens Day!

Today is the second day of summer and Houston’s favorite home-town pitcher is back where he belongs, on the mound a Minute Maid Park. How fitting is it that #22 comes back on June 22nd for a contract worth $22,000,022? I bet you couldn’t plan it better than that.

Roger has completed his tour of the minor leagues and will be heading to the “Show” tonight. I’ll keep updating this post as all thing’s Roger occur throughout the day.

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I’ve seen this video posted on several sites and it graphically illustrates the change in customer service demonstrated by large corporations. Vinny Ferrarri wanted to cancel his AOL account. He had heard stories about nightmare calls to AOL, so he decided to record his AOL encounter…

Check out Vinny Ferrarri’s site for the complete story.

Tip: Blogs of War

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