Cup of Coffee: May 16, 2008

May 16th, 2008 by SBG

Yep, we're back to .500.


This entry was posted by SBG on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 6:51 am and is filed under Cup of Coffee. It is one of 2465 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.

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Comments Feed39 Letters to the Editor

twayn replied on May 16, 2008 at 7:02:52 am

I don't mind being back to .500 so much. It was the way we got there that hurts. I don't ask for all that much from a professional baseball team. But a little professionalism would be nice.

Rhubarb_Runner replied on May 16, 2008 at 12:34:30 pm

Brushes and brooms - aisle four.

 
 
zooomx replied on May 16, 2008 at 9:40:10 am

Today would be a great day for the Twins to play outside. Oh... they are playing outside... in Colorado!

Can't wait for the new stadium. Roof? Roof? We don't need no stinkin' roof!

kg2005 replied on May 16, 2008 at 9:48:53 am

I need a roof.

zooomx replied on May 16, 2008 at 9:51:16 am

You have been programmed by the man to only "think" you need a roof.
( ;

kg2005 replied on May 16, 2008 at 10:42:18 am

The man did a really nice job. Must have had some good QA.

 
 
 
davidwatts replied on May 16, 2008 at 3:18:37 pm

for how crappy this spring has been weather wise, 4 of the last 5 days have been fantastic!

 
 
Andrew replied on May 16, 2008 at 9:46:46 am

Boog and I are off to Chicago at lunch today to see the Fire play tomorrow. It should be pretty fun.

 
Jeff A replied on May 16, 2008 at 12:56:53 pm

Keeping up with the ex-Twins: Cleveland designates Jason Tyner for assignment.

ubelmann replied on May 16, 2008 at 1:04:29 pm

I wonder when he's going to be able to get his shot against the Indians to prove that they were wrong about him.

twayn replied on May 16, 2008 at 1:11:19 pm

I wonder how many commenters at the Strib blogs will be calling for the Twins to sign him again.

 
SBG replied on May 16, 2008 at 2:43:23 pm

Forget the Indians, I think he's coming after you.

ubelmann replied on May 16, 2008 at 5:08:41 pm

IIRC, GreekHouse and Andrew wanted a shot to beat Tyner in a HR derby. If he's unemployed soon, he might be up for participating in a publicity stunt put on by the World's Greatest Online Magazine. (Does better publicity exist?)

I concede that Tyner is better at baseball than I am, if that's what he's after, though. :)

 
 
 
 
Jeff A replied on May 16, 2008 at 1:02:55 pm

Baseball Digest Daily notes that Jason Bartlett is day to day for "personal reasons". I have no idea what that might be about, but it's rare that it means good news.

brianS replied on May 16, 2008 at 2:34:24 pm

St. Pete Times says he's attending to a "family matter". That's often code for a death in the extended family.

 
 
brianS replied on May 16, 2008 at 1:21:21 pm

South Carolina cleans up its act:

It takes 396 hours of training before police officers in South Carolina can work their beats, but that’s nothing compared to what the state required for stylists looking to shampoo hair. Gov. Mark Sanford (R) this week repealed a law that demanded 1,500 hours of education before Palmetto State beauticians had the authority to lather and rinse customers’ heads, The (Charleston) Post and Courier reports. “This is the kind of thing that deserves to be on Comedy Central,” the governor said, scrubbing the old law.

ubelmann replied on May 16, 2008 at 1:29:05 pm

That sort of comparison always bothers me. How many hours does it take to properly train beauticians? I don't know. What I do know is that it has nothing to do with the number of hours it takes to properly train law enforcement. Hell, I'm way over 396 hours of training at this point--where's my PhD? Surely practicing theoretical physics is less dangerous than practicing law enforcement.

While this is a pretty harmless decision, it seems like lazy reasoning to me.

sean replied on May 16, 2008 at 1:47:33 pm

Hmm, this got me wondering how many hours are needed for a four year degree. There are 103 credit hours to get a computer engineering degree at the U of MN. Quick counting of number of weeks in the Fall 2008 semester gives 13.8 weeks of school. Assuming every credit hour means one hour per week, then that's 1421 hours of training I need. Or not that far from the 1500 for beauticians.

 
brianS replied on May 16, 2008 at 1:52:09 pm

obviously, it wasn't about training per se, ubes. It was about restricting entry.

this sort of legislation happens all the time (see the post a couple weeks ago about the fight in Texas over whether the ankle is part of the foot -- a Scope of Practice fight between podiatrists and MDs).

If you follow the link to the source article, it notes that this law distinguishes "shampooers" from "cosmetologists". It drops the level of training required for shampooers, which will allow salons to hire less-skilled individuals to do the shampooing. It is analogous (albeit much less socially significant) to allowing nurse practitioners to prescribe antibiotics for sinus infections rather than requiring it to be done by a physician.

as for the lazy reasoning, well...I think that is just the reporters and pols offering a hook for the story.

ubelmann replied on May 16, 2008 at 2:00:20 pm

as for the lazy reasoning, well...I think that is just the reporters and pols offering a hook for the story.

And that's still the part I have a problem with. Want to distinguish between shampooers and cosmetologists? Fine by me. It still doesn't have anything to do with law enforcement, though.

SBG replied on May 16, 2008 at 2:46:03 pm

Except to point out the absurdity of the requirement.

ubelmann replied on May 16, 2008 at 3:29:36 pm

It's a complete apples-to-oranges comparison, though. You're opening a whole new can of worms. Perhaps the law enforcement officers are undertrained and the shampooers are appropriately trained. Honestly, 396 hours of training for police officers sounds frighteningly low to me.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
twayn replied on May 16, 2008 at 4:08:11 pm

But 1,500 hours of training (37.5 weeks at 40 hrs/week) to wash people's hair sounds absurdly high, no matter what you compare it to. I mean, how long does it really take to learn apply, lather, rinse, repeat?

 
brianS replied on May 16, 2008 at 4:09:15 pm

that's roughly a 10-week training course (full-time).

In California, the "regular basic" training course is 664 hours, or about 15 weeks (full-time).

 
ubelmann replied on May 16, 2008 at 4:58:06 pm

But 1,500 hours of training (37.5 weeks at 40 hrs/week) to wash people's hair sounds absurdly high, no matter what you compare it to.

If it is so absurdly high, why not compare it to something more sensible then? There would be plenty of good options--the national average for shampoo training, the number of states who require less training for the same job, etc., etc.

Either way, it still has nothing to do with law enforcement.

 
ubelmann replied on May 16, 2008 at 5:03:12 pm

that's roughly a 10-week training course (full-time).

In California, the "regular basic" training course is 664 hours, or about 15 weeks (full-time).

I like what you did here--you wanted to see if 10-weeks was a reasonable time to train police officers, so you compared it to the amount of time that a different set of police officers are required to train. That's a meaningful comparison. What you didn't do is compare the officer training requirement to the amount of training required to become a lawyer, car mechanic, or registered nurse.

 
Rhubarb_Runner replied on May 16, 2008 at 7:58:45 pm

I think the point here is, how many more hours are required by law enforcement officers (who can't find work in their own profession) to become licensed shampooers?

 
 
 
 
 
Jeff A replied on May 16, 2008 at 3:13:47 pm

The number of hours I needed for law school is about the same as the number I need for seminary. I'm not sure what conclusion to draw from that, other than that I've spent an awful lot of years in school.

 
 
 
brianS replied on May 16, 2008 at 1:24:09 pm

btw, I just got back from watching internet icon Vint Cerf give a speech. Entertaining.

But not half as entertaining as the talk I saw Scott McNeally give yesterday, in which he shilled tirelessly (and, to my mind, fairly effectively) for the state govt of California to jump on open source with both feet ASAP.

(good luck with that, Don Quixeally!)

Rhubarb_Runner replied on May 16, 2008 at 8:02:09 pm

Had an older co-worker who know Vint pretty well, and corresponded via email regularly with him. Quite a guy.

 
 
brianS replied on May 16, 2008 at 2:48:19 pm

Ira Flatow is talking beer today on NPR. Streaming live at the moment from my local NPR station.

davidwatts replied on May 16, 2008 at 3:32:17 pm

I miss Newtons Apple

 
 
brianS replied on May 16, 2008 at 2:50:22 pm

Ok. this seals it. I'm switching to Obama.

twayn replied on May 16, 2008 at 3:09:46 pm

Are you sure?

brianS replied on May 16, 2008 at 3:23:23 pm

so, while Bill didn't inhale, Hillary swallows?

freealonzo replied on May 16, 2008 at 3:43:02 pm

Of course she swallows, how do you think she became Mrs. Bill Clinton?

 
 
 
 
brianS replied on May 16, 2008 at 11:54:24 pm

Matt Punto: "Tolbert was hurt diving into first base on the last play of Minnesota's loss to Toronto on Thursday"

 
brianS replied on May 16, 2008 at 11:56:43 pm

Half-baked crap alert:

In the third inning, Carlos Guzman reached on a two-out single and moved to second on Helton's error on a pickoff attempt. After Brendan Harris walked, Joe Mauer singled up the middle to make it 1-0.

davidwatts replied on May 17, 2008 at 12:03:06 am

super speed!

 
 

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