Category: Browsing

Interesting tidbits from the world wide web.

How Rebounds Work

So, for my brothers not on the twitter, Kirk Goldsberry of Grantland.com did a cool analysis of where rebounds go, depending on where on the court the ball was shot from, according to 95,000 rebounds as tracked by the NBA’s new SportVU system.

There’s an analysis of how rebounds work, along with a really cool interactive feature where you move your mouse to different points on the floor and it will automatically show you where those shots end up getting rebounded.

Check it out!

The Medicine Game

I was flipping through stations the other night and I came across PBS showing The Medicine Game.

It’s a film about two Onondaga youth who grew up playing lacrosse and dreamed of playing for Syracuse. It displayed both their accomplishments on the field and in the class room. It was very interesting.

Unfortunately, the post show discussion on the American Reframed episode that this was shown on is not included on the web episode. The point I found the most interesting that the Native American guest (I think one of the film’s producers) talked about was some of the things that could lead to Native American youth having a difficult time in the traditional US school system. She mentioned that in Native American culture, education of the youth is very much community oriented. Your parents teach you specific things, your grandparents teach you specific things, your aunts and uncles teach you specific things. Everyone is involved. Then you pull these kids of their communities and put them in public schools where the education falls mainly on the individual, your grades are your responsibility, your assignments are your responsibility, your studying is your responsibility, your overall success is basically solely your responsibility. It’s a very different experience than what they have grown up with up to that point.

Lincoln and the Book of Mormon

lincoln
I just finished reading “The Lincoln Hypothesis” by Timothy Ballard (my Father’s Day gift) in which he describes how Abraham Lincoln checked out a copy of the Book of Mormon from the Library of Congress and how it affected his outlook on the Civil War. Pretty interesting book and highly recommended. It made me appreciate Lincoln even more and made me excited to try to visit his Presidential Library next summer!

Freebie for American History buffs

I received a link to this freebie audio download page all about Benjamin Franklin–it is put together by The Homemaker’s Mentor (a Christian group that makes and sells various homeschooling curriculum and tips and ideas for keeping a good home and raising kids with good values).

It looks like some good stuff–there is a range of stuff applicable to different ages.

Will and Trish, maybe your kids would like this or you could use it to supplement some of your curriculum for this coming year? Also Justin and Laurie? I saw this and thought of Malachi!

This download is ONLY available through this Saturday the 21st! So hurry if you want it!

Here is the link: http://www.homeschoolradioshows.com/FranklinFreebie/

–Andrea

The Eagles

When you here The Eagles you’re either talking about the rock band, The Eagles, or you are talking about what Tolkien characters say just when it looks like our heroes are on their last leg. For this time though, I’m talking about the band.

Bill Simmons is one of my favorite author/columnist. I was first introduced to his basketball opinions by a coworker when he was the man headlining ESPN.com’s 2nd Page. He’s also the author of The Book of Basketball, a great read if you haven’t read it. You may have noticed him in studio with Magic, Barkley, and Wilbon during the NBA playoffs. He also is one of the people responsible for Grantland.

Recently on Grantland, he wrote up a review of his favorite movie so far of the summer. It’s not Star Trek or Man of Steel. It’s The History of the Eagles, Part One.

Tons of stuff there, here’s a couple other links I looked through after reading the review:

Email responses to the review

2003 conversation with Henley and Frey.

And a BBC documentary about the LA music scene from the 60s to the 70s.

Just a warning, there is some language and drug use in the movie, articles, and documentary (dude, it was rock in the 70s, what do you expect?). But it was pretty interesting since I know most of us love their songs.