Linux the Easy Way

In my post Ways to Try Linux, I mentioned getting a computer with Linux preinstalled as a nice way to jump into things. This LinuxPlanet article discusses that approach.

Playoffs

To me, it's deplorable that in the NBA playoffs, so-called "hard fouls" are an acceptable part of the game. The game wasn't meant to be played that way.

Orlando's Dwight Howard has been suspended for game 6 of the series with Philadelphia for an elbow thrown at Samuel Dalembert. The Celtics' Rajon Rondo should have been suspended for his hit on Chicago's Brad Miller. The hard hits are the norm, and the penalties for them are weak.

Current situation in the NBA Playoffs (seedings in parentheses):

Western Conference:

(1) Lakers win over (8) Utah, 4 games to 1.
(2) Denver wins over (7) New Orleans, 4 games to 1.
(6) Dallas wins over (3) San Antonio, 4 games to 1.
(5) Houston leads (4) Portland, 3 games to 2, game 6 tonight at Houston.

Eastern Conference:

(1) Cleveland sweeps the (8) Pistons in 4.
(2) Boston leads (7) Chicago, 3 games to 2, game 6 tonight at Chicago.
(3) Orlando leads (6) Philadelphia, 3 games to 2, game 6 tonight at Philadelphia.
(4) Atlanta lead (5) Miami, 3 games to 2, game 6 Friday at Miami.

Playoff Leaders:

Points: LeBron James (CLE), 32.0
Rebounds: Dwight Howard (ORL), 15.8
Assists: Deron Williams (UTA), 10.8
Blocks: Kendrick Perkins (BOS) and Tyrus Thomas (CHI), 3.2
Steals: Rajon Rondro (BOS), 3.2

Eating Right

Harvey and Marilyn Diamond's Fit for Life describes a healthy eating style focused on fresh fruits and vegetable and proper food combining. I liked the idea of having only fresh fruit to start out the day, a high volume of fresh fruits and vegetables, and not combining carbohydrates and protein at the same meal. Eating this way is a good method for keeping yourself healthy and keeping your weight down.

For more info on the concepts, see:

http://www.thedietchannel.com/Fit-for-life-diet.htm

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fit_for_Life

Gandhi

Peace, love, forgiveness, humility, non-violence -- some of the things that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Mahatma, was all about. Yet, as with Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King, Jr., violence ultimately took his life.

Just finished Louis Fischer's The Life of Mahatma Gandhi. Check it out, take a ride.

An excerpt:

General Douglass MacArthur, supreme Allied military commander in Japan, said: "In the evolution of civilization, if it is to survive, all men cannot fail eventually to adopt Gandhi's belief that the process of mass application of force to resolve contentious issues is fundamentally not only wrong but contains within itself the germs of self-destruction."

More On The Flu

To put things in perspective:

"U.S. seasonal flu kills 13,000 since Jan."

"Common flu far more deadly than swine flu in U.S."

From the latter article: "The Centers for Disease Control estimates 36,000 people die annually in the United States from the flu."

The Swine flu has a scary name and a lot of hysterical media coverage, but so far it's nothing compared to the common flu. Let's not get freaked out yet.

Flu Scare

It's been reported that something like 159 people have died from the Swine Flu in Mexico, although the World Health Organization (WHO) has only positively linked seven deaths to the disease.

"There are 64 confirmed cases in the United States in five states," said Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and so far, one confirmed death in the U.S.

Scared?

The flu kills something like 500,000 people worldwide each year, so why the current media-driven hysteria about this new flu strain? I'd say that your chances of contracting and dying from it are tiny compared to your chances of dying in a car accident this year.

Simmons

So what if ESPN's Bill Simmons gets it right less than half the time? As a sports writer, Simmons is a baller. He's like a gym rat down at the IM building (pick your campus). Always there, always bringing it. Over-doing it, but with style. Playing for the love of the game.

Here's Simmons, the Celtics/Red Sox/Patriots fan, hatin' on the Chicago Bulls' Yoakim Noah:

I hate Joakim Noah. I hate looking at him. I hate his hair. I hate how he dunks. I hate the way he high-fives. I hate every reaction he has. I hate his game. I hate the way announcers pronounce his name. I hate the story that I've heard a million times about his tennis-playing father. I want the Celtics to win for a variety of reasons, but one of them is because it means Joakim Noah would lose. I want him to cry when it's over. And we are only two games in. I can't imagine how I'm going to feel about him by Game 5. He's like a cross between Bill Laimbeer, Marcus Camby and Lisa Bonet.

That last line is classic Simmons...

To get Simmons in full-effect, check out "Celtics-Bulls is one for the ages."