Archive for November, 2007
Rocks that sail in the wind
Nov 2nd
I recently read an article in National Geographic about Death Valley in the states. There is a place called Racetrack Playa where rocks move across the landscape leaving tracks in the mud. Some of the stones are really big, but nobody has ever seen one move.
There isn’t a real consensus, but it seems like winds are able to move these (sometimes huge) rocks across the mud. It must be a really strange place – all these rocks with their tracks across the mud.
Wikipedia has a pretty detailed article on it all.
Racial quotas and the rugby world cup
Nov 1st
The Economist has two articles (here and here) about our Rugby World Cup victory and racial quotas in sport. From the article:
- They think it “pragmatic” to have “brief periods of positive discrimination to jump-start any group that has been racially oppressed for generations and has been unable to achieve its potential.”
- “But once a big affirmative shove towards greater fairness has been engineered, it is dangerous to perpetuate a system of quotas, racial or otherwise, because it always risks undermining the principle of individual merit.”
- “Far better for the government to concentrate on investment, training and talent-spotting in poor black schools.”
As far as I am concerned, it is almost always best not to impose quotas on sports. Time and energy should instead be focussed on developing affirmative talent young so that real stars are developed.
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