Monday, December 19, 2011

Random Thoughts--December 19, 2011

Some random thoughts that have occurred to me today:

1).  The federal government wants automakers to build cars that are more fuel efficient, which often means lighter cars.  If the government is serious about fuel efficiency, how about sponsoring an X-Prize competition to radically improve the internal combustion engine--which is largely unchanged over several decades?

2).  A man whom I respect a great deal as a soccer commentator and with whom I probably disagree with politically wonders: "Is it that civil discourse is simply an antiquity in our modern blogging, social media world. We write what WE think and have no patience or tolerance for what anyone else has to say."  We live in a world dominated by confirmation bias--and in a world where most people don't know what "confirmation bias" means.

3).  What is it about the Star Spangled Banner that inspires children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the National Anthem, yet adults are rarely inspired to do so?

4).  If soccer is not a "big time" sport in America, why did I see two pickup soccer games on the National Mall yesterday, but only one pickup football game?

5).  Did the man who invented the Smurfs' song (you know that annoying la, la, la, la song) know that he was dooming millions of fathers to hours of insufferable repetition by children?  It a brain worm worse the "It's A Small World After All."
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Check out my soccer blog at Nutmegs and Stepovers

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