To warm the hearts of geeks everywhere, the account of IBM Watson's victory at Jeopardy!
This is a reminder to us all in the US of the good we are capable of, if we're willing to dream and work toward goals together. Anything's possible, if we are willing to work for it, long term, patiently, not always focusing on pumping this quarter's results.
This sort of thing happens in places that have freedom as a bedrock value, the rule of law, the profit incentive firmly in place. This sort of thing does not happen in places like Russia, or Saudi Arabia, or Venezuela. It happens in places like the US, Canada, and the other handful of still-functional countries around the planet.
It's a genius piece of marketing, both for IBM and Sony, owner of the Jeopardy! brand.
It's a very slickly produced piece of short film, and kudos to their creators.
This is inspiring. This shapes the culture in some very good ways, if we direct it to good ends. This is not for Goldman-Sachs to employ in creating another generation of fraudulent securities, or for the next nutcase regime to use to create nukes.
This really could spark the next Renaissance, if its creators and purchasers make good decisions.
Showing posts with label Bubba Watson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bubba Watson. Show all posts
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Monday, August 16, 2010
The PGA Covers Itself In Mud: The 2010 PGA Championship
The Damage Control has begun already.
The PGA will have to get out ahead of this massive, public screwup before Monday morning, but they will fail. The world saw the ball fall into the deep part of the crowd, on ground that had been trampled over again and again and again. Young Mr. Johnson was crowded in on every side by that crowd, with his ball lying on a flat sandy patch of soil, replete with grass and weeds. He was on the 18th hole on Sunday at the PGA Championship, with a one-stroke lead. He hits his shot, and scrambles to -11 for a three-way playoff. As he walks off the green, the rules official intercepts him to tell him that was a bunker he played from, after all.
David Feherty of CBS was with him when he played the shot. Feherty is an experienced professional player and journalist, someone who knows the game inside and out. Feherty didn't perceive it to be a bunker. He even went back to the spot, and said it again. The crowd that had witnessed the shot was with him, and they concurred. They were there. Where was the rules official? From what vantage did he see the event?
One rules official, somewhere, decided to play God, to claim his fifteen minutes of fame. Two-stroke penalty for young Mr. Johnson, or DQ for refusing to sign the card, and one of the strictest codes of silence in the world: Even breathe a word that we screwed up, my boy, and your career ends. Just try it.
Thus, let us take note: On 15 August, 2010, the PGA joined the ranks of the NBA, NFL, NHL, World-Cup Soccer, NCAA, and Major (and minor) League Baseball, where the umpires have decided that they deserve to intervene and direct the outcomes of games. Because they can.
They can take away a perfect game from a pitcher on the final out of the baseball game, and get away with it. Because they can.
They can allow one team to commit egregious fouls on another in the NCAA basketball tournament, and just about assure its victory. Because they can.
The rules are no longer the means of maintaining the integrity of the game, but the means by which the umpire can bend the outcome to his will, and gain the notoriety that so eludes him by any other means of legitimate achievement.
Mark Wilson, co-chairman of the PGA of America Rules Committee, got his minute on camera with CBS--how sweet was that? Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!--to begin the damage control.
The crowd was chanting 'Let him play!' Wilson decided to enter the history books this weekend, and he goes to his hotel satisfied in his quest.
Young Mr. Johnson is penalized two strokes. The playoff gets underway, and it is easy to sense the deflation in the entire proceeding. On eighteen, Bubba Watson hits his second shot into the creek, and a rules official is there, explaining it all to him, including the two-club-length rule from the hazard line. So, Bubba dutifully marks off his two club lengths, lay the driver down, mark with a tee, lay the driver down, mark with a tee. Only the rules official has his ****!!!! back turned as Bubba marks it off!
Inspires all sorts of confidence in the PGA Rules officials, now doesn't it?
The PeopleInChargeOfSuchThings back at PGA HQ will be on full-tilt damage-control and charm campaign. The press releases will fly, the ads of smiling golf pros with poor young children in the hospitals will run heavily. On and on and on,'cuz if sponsors (such as FedEx, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, and RBC) smell trouble, sponsors walk. The PGA office will talk and talk and talk, and massage and massage, and spin and spin, and explain and explain, and privately threaten young Mr. Johnson within an inch of his young life, if he dare utter an honest opinion of the idiocy of his situation.
But the fans, and the players, know the truth already:
Mark Wilson screwed Dustin Johnson. Because he could. Not for the sake of the integrity of the game, but simply because he could. And the current leadership of the PGA will back him to the hilt, because they think they can get away with it.
But after today, we know a few things about the PGA:
No player, however skilled, however honest, irregardless of years of sacrifice to play at that level, is safe from a Mark Wilson. A shadow now hangs over the game, and every player must now always look over his shoulder while trying to compete, wondering where the next Mark Wilson hides.
No tournament, relying upon hundreds of volunteers donating thousands of hours and millions of dollars, is now safe from one rules official who decides how he wishes the tournament to conclude.
No corporate sponsor, spending money to buy goodwill from backing a tournament, is now safe from having their money flushed down the crapper by the PGA, when one rules official decides how he wishes the tournament to conclude.
Because he can.
Today, 15 August 2010, professional golf became just another professional sport.
The PGA will have to get out ahead of this massive, public screwup before Monday morning, but they will fail. The world saw the ball fall into the deep part of the crowd, on ground that had been trampled over again and again and again. Young Mr. Johnson was crowded in on every side by that crowd, with his ball lying on a flat sandy patch of soil, replete with grass and weeds. He was on the 18th hole on Sunday at the PGA Championship, with a one-stroke lead. He hits his shot, and scrambles to -11 for a three-way playoff. As he walks off the green, the rules official intercepts him to tell him that was a bunker he played from, after all.
David Feherty of CBS was with him when he played the shot. Feherty is an experienced professional player and journalist, someone who knows the game inside and out. Feherty didn't perceive it to be a bunker. He even went back to the spot, and said it again. The crowd that had witnessed the shot was with him, and they concurred. They were there. Where was the rules official? From what vantage did he see the event?
One rules official, somewhere, decided to play God, to claim his fifteen minutes of fame. Two-stroke penalty for young Mr. Johnson, or DQ for refusing to sign the card, and one of the strictest codes of silence in the world: Even breathe a word that we screwed up, my boy, and your career ends. Just try it.
Thus, let us take note: On 15 August, 2010, the PGA joined the ranks of the NBA, NFL, NHL, World-Cup Soccer, NCAA, and Major (and minor) League Baseball, where the umpires have decided that they deserve to intervene and direct the outcomes of games. Because they can.
They can take away a perfect game from a pitcher on the final out of the baseball game, and get away with it. Because they can.
They can allow one team to commit egregious fouls on another in the NCAA basketball tournament, and just about assure its victory. Because they can.
The rules are no longer the means of maintaining the integrity of the game, but the means by which the umpire can bend the outcome to his will, and gain the notoriety that so eludes him by any other means of legitimate achievement.
Mark Wilson, co-chairman of the PGA of America Rules Committee, got his minute on camera with CBS--how sweet was that? Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!--to begin the damage control.
The crowd was chanting 'Let him play!' Wilson decided to enter the history books this weekend, and he goes to his hotel satisfied in his quest.
Young Mr. Johnson is penalized two strokes. The playoff gets underway, and it is easy to sense the deflation in the entire proceeding. On eighteen, Bubba Watson hits his second shot into the creek, and a rules official is there, explaining it all to him, including the two-club-length rule from the hazard line. So, Bubba dutifully marks off his two club lengths, lay the driver down, mark with a tee, lay the driver down, mark with a tee. Only the rules official has his ****!!!! back turned as Bubba marks it off!
Inspires all sorts of confidence in the PGA Rules officials, now doesn't it?
The PeopleInChargeOfSuchThings back at PGA HQ will be on full-tilt damage-control and charm campaign. The press releases will fly, the ads of smiling golf pros with poor young children in the hospitals will run heavily. On and on and on,'cuz if sponsors (such as FedEx, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, and RBC) smell trouble, sponsors walk. The PGA office will talk and talk and talk, and massage and massage, and spin and spin, and explain and explain, and privately threaten young Mr. Johnson within an inch of his young life, if he dare utter an honest opinion of the idiocy of his situation.
But the fans, and the players, know the truth already:
Mark Wilson screwed Dustin Johnson. Because he could. Not for the sake of the integrity of the game, but simply because he could. And the current leadership of the PGA will back him to the hilt, because they think they can get away with it.
But after today, we know a few things about the PGA:
No player, however skilled, however honest, irregardless of years of sacrifice to play at that level, is safe from a Mark Wilson. A shadow now hangs over the game, and every player must now always look over his shoulder while trying to compete, wondering where the next Mark Wilson hides.
No tournament, relying upon hundreds of volunteers donating thousands of hours and millions of dollars, is now safe from one rules official who decides how he wishes the tournament to conclude.
No corporate sponsor, spending money to buy goodwill from backing a tournament, is now safe from having their money flushed down the crapper by the PGA, when one rules official decides how he wishes the tournament to conclude.
Because he can.
Today, 15 August 2010, professional golf became just another professional sport.
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