An Epic Ballade of Texas

It may be hard to believe, but the Epic Ballade of Kansas weblog is not the only item of interest on the World Wide Web. Today I decided to be conscious of my fellow bloggers out there and share with you a couple of my personal favorites. If you’re at all like me, you’ll like these sites as well. Which means you probably won’t like them… Freakonomics My favorite blog, which I return to often, is inspired by the recent best-selling book Freakonomics. The book uses economics theory to statistically analyze all sorts of things, such as: how drug-rings are like McDonalds (similar corporate structure), how sumo-wrestlers are like teachers (both cheat more often than you think), and how swimming pools are more dangerous than guns. The blog is basically just an extension of the book, with more interactivity from the public. No topic is left untouched by the statistical analyses of the Freakonomics universe! Just recently, there were reports about how rich people tend to be hap...

Episode XL: Championship My second year of residence here in Lawrence has been somewhat of a charmed year for KU sports. Our football team has had their best season ever en route to winning BCS bowl game, and now, in case you haven’t heard: The KU Basketball team just won the 2008 NCAA Championship!!! The season was a good one (apparently the winningest season in KU history), and I watched (via television) essentially every game. Of course I had to choose last year, instead of this year, to purchase season tickets to the home games. Nevertheless, I had a good time watching the games, especially the Tournament games. This year we had a very well-balanced team (perhaps too well-balanced even), including my favorite active point guard in the nation (after Steve Nash). Quite frankly, I felt like the first three rounds of the tournament were fairly easy games, although the team did not perform at a high level. Then, in the Final Four, against a UNC team coached by ...