Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

There may not be any football being played right now, but it is one of the best times of the year to be a sports fan! The Baseball season is fresh and Cubs fans still have that hope that this will be “the year”. We all know that April Baseball isn't worth the effort, so we'll just leave that alone for a few months. Baseball tonight and maybe a random drunk day at the park will suffice until, say.. August? Hockey and Basketball have just begun their playoffs, meaning there are multiple playoff games every night of the week.

Listening to Charles Barkley talk provides enough entertainment to justify the very long NBA Finals. We've got thrilling first round match-ups such as the Portland Trail Blazers and the Memphis Grizzlies! How could you go wrong? As a Chicago fan, I am excited about the Chicago Bulls post season chances. They finally have a healthy Derrick Rose to pair with surprise superstar Jimmy Butler and are poised to make a deep playoff run in a weak Eastern conference. If the Eastern Conference is not represented by the Chicago Bulls or Cleveland Cavaliers it would be a shock.

The Western Conference is a little more difficult to navigate. The San Antonio Spurs are always tough in the post season, no matter how old they get. However the team I am pulling for is number one seed Golden State Warriors. Stephen Curry has had an MVP caliber year and is my favorite player to watch currently. This year he sank 286 3-pointers to beat his previously held record of 272. Hands down he is the best shooter in the NBA today. The Warriors are involved in one of the more intriguing first round match-ups with the New Orleans Pelicans. Golden state has taken care of business in their two home games but lets see what Anthony Davis and the Pelicans can do in front of what is sure to be a raucous home crowd.

 A Brief History of Piracy

We have an interesting perspective, having been born in the early 80’s when the personal computer industry was just starting to bloom and grown up in the 90’s and 2000’s when piracy began to become widespread among computer users. Before then, though, people would still pirate software and music alike.

Software has always been a common target for piracy, and before it was available online in such easily accessed forms as torrents or even just as downloadable files via email or web browser, it was available on BBSes as far back as the 1980’s. The reason that most people were not aware of this at the time was that access to the required technology and skill to use it was not very commonplace. As BBSes gave way to more user friendly software like AOL and eventually to the World Wide Web that we know today, more advanced computing power, faster internet speeds and more robust storage made it as easy as a few mouse clicks to pirate software as well as helping to distribute it to others.

(Listen in to the Retrospectical Podcast Episode 08: Online Piracy: Is Illegal File Sharing Stealing?)

Music has a similar story: people began copying vinyl records (although the process was far from perfect at the time) back in the 60’s, but really started gaining steam with the invention of the cassette tape. The issue there, though, was that the audio quality would degrade every time an additional copy was made. Still better than nothing, right? Soon after, CDs came out and with the advent of CD-burning technology, you could finally copy audio quickly, and with the same quality. At this point we also had digital rips from CDs to various audio formats that ranged in quality. It almost seemed like a step down since people were distributing music that sounded more similar to cassette tapes than a high quality audio source. Again, as compression algorithms were improved and the speed and power of computers and the internet increased, we’ve now gotten to the point where very high quality audio (as well as video including television and movies) are almost immediately available.

Peer-to-Peer

-        In quite a few cases in the 90’s and 2000’s, people who had downloaded illegal files were sued by specific organizations: the RIAA or MPAA, for example. You hear less and less about this now because people are downloading in ways that are more difficult to track. By decentralizing the way that these files are distributed, applications like Napster (originally) and now BitTorrent and its siblings can make it much for difficult for people to be traced to their actions.

-        Although we don’t hear much about lawsuits these days, ISPs are still keeping fairly good track of what you’re doing out there on the web and will often send copyright infringement notices via email or snail mail that let you know they have eyes on your activities online. At some point in the future, these same ISPs could cut off internet access for those people who are infringing their terms of service by participating in such activities.

Is File Sharing Stealing?

-        Let’s assume that all people who are using illegal file sharing are not just thieves. Why would someone who wouldn’t steal a physical item feel comfortable stealing something digital? What is the moral/ethical difference between those two things?

-        Wouldn’t stealing mean that one party has taken something from another party, meaning that the original person no longer has the item in question? Downloading a file from the internet does not actually remove it from the possession of someone else. Of course, the internet is not a tangible thing either; could it be shown that the item being stolen in some cases is actually a piece of the original party’s livelihood?

-        A common argument is that downloading something to ‘try it out’ or that you would never have purchased otherwise isn’t ethically wrong. Is there any truth to this? What if a person finds that they really do like or use something that they had downloaded illegally? They should then purchase the item in question, right?

-        In general, music, software and other media like television shows and/or movies are not really being sold – that is, if you purchase them you don’t own them outright, but rather a license to use them. It’s redistributing them that is illegal according to the agreement. Is there any way around this line of thinking to someone that ‘steals’ that intellectual property?

-        These days there are many places from which you can play music, or watch TV and the IP owners still get a piece (however small) of the pie. Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, Hulu, etc are all places where you can consume media for free while still supporting their creators. If this is the case, why are so many people still downloading files illegally?

What About The Little Guy?

-        It’s true that if I pirate a copy of a big budget movie, that will not affect in any substantial way the profits that the movie will make, or how many sequels will come from its success. But what about the little producers? For them, the margin involved when people are not paying for the product that they are producing is in some cases too large to ignore.

Interesting Facts about Online Piracy

Bitcoin has been one of the rising stars of the internet over the past couple of years. It started back in 2009 when you could use your own computer to reasonably mine for bitcoins and just one coin was worth basically nothing. Bitcoin, or more likely something similar, has the potential to change the way that the world economy works (though not for many, many years to come). Recently, Dave and I sat down on our Retrospectical Podcast to discuss bitcoin.

(Retrospectical Podcast Episode 07: Bitcoin - What is it & How do we use it?)

Like any currency, bitcoin is made stronger when it has a large user base and has a stable value. Unfortunately, Bitcoin currently has neither of these traits, but as a brand new technology, it’s not expected to have these right away. Nevertheless, Bitcoin is still relevant because it’s the world’s first widespread electronic cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are cheaper, more secure and easier to use than traditional paper money.

Bitcoin is vastly more accessible to the entire world, when compared to traditional currencies. Only 7% of adults in developing nations have credit cards and 41% of them have bank accounts (compared to 89% in the developed West). Compare this to access to cellular phones, of which there are nearly 7 billion worldwide. According to the UN, more people have access to a cell phone than have access to a modern toilet. The point here is that there is already infrastructure in place in order to deliver banking services via Bitcoin to the entire world. This is especially beneficial when you consider that half of the world’s population doesn’t really have access to any banking services, even if they wanted it.

The decentralized design of Bitcoin keeps it from being controlled by one entity, like the Federal Reserve Bank in the United States. In this manner, the only changes to the currency are those that are accepted by a majority of the users. The decentralized nature spreads the computing power needed to run the network out across the entire world. This assures that a single entity would not be able to take over the network unless they had more computing power than the rest of the network combined, which is basically impossible.

All Bitcoin transactions are anonymous, but they are far from secret. The bitcoin network has a public ledger called the block chain (read more about it here). This is basically a list of every transaction that every bitcoin has been involved in from its creation. This feature is important because basically every computer on the network must agree that the block chain is correct, thus preventing someone from trying to falsify their copy of the block chain. For more info about the block chain and how bitcoins are created, check out the wiki section on mining, or the article on the bitcoin wiki.

Bitcoin can easily take the place of credit card transactions (maybe debit cards would be a more direct replacement, as Bitcoin does not extend credit to consumers). Bitcoin is vastly cheaper for the merchant than traditional credit cards, with transaction fees either being a fraction of credit card fees or completely nonexistent. Bitcoin can also be spent like cash, enabling a practical micropayment system that doesn’t have to be specific to one company or website.

You can spend bitcoin in denominations down to 1 Satoshi, which is 1/100,000,000^th of a bitcoin. For reference, at the time of writing, $1 US is equal to about 410,000 Satoshi (where 1 bitcoin is equal to about $244 US). As a unit of measurement, a Satoshi is not very relevant today, but could be in the future once bitcoin is more widespread and has experienced some built-in deflation.

Today, some people think of bitcoin as an investment. This is mostly due to the volatility in the price and it should be noted that bitcoin is NOT an investment tool. Bitcoin is meant to be used as a currency, and is strongest when people use it as such and don’t treat it as a commodity. Over time, the value will stabilize and it won’t be something that people acquire as an investment, but something that people use as a tool.

Currently, most places to spend your bitcoins are websites, which doesn’t help out the saying that bitcoins “not money for the internet, it’s the internet of money”. Some of the larger websites that accept bitcoin are Expedia, Tiger Direct, Overstock.com, and Malwarebytes. Paypal has also set up an option for their merchants to be able to accept bitcoin now, enabled by just a click of the mouse.

Bitcoin has really not penetrated the brick and mortar stores yet. A quick yelp search only turns up one place in Chicago to spend your bitcoins (though there’s likely more) and just a handful of places in New York City. At least in New York City you can go to the Bitcoin Exchange and buy or sell bitcoins, or use a bitcoin ATM (also a few in Chicago).

So, what does the future have in store for bitcoin? Currently, it would be a stretch to even call the people using bitcoin today early adopters. For the most part, bitcoins do not appear to be used for commerce, though that is changing. I hope that the lunatic fringe gives way to the early adopters and that leads to a worldwide, easily used, and universally accepted cryptocurrency that can be controlled by the people and not a single organization. Call me an idealist, I don’t care, I just think that things can get a lot better with technology.

A Quick History of Bacon

A quick thank you to all the pigs out there, for your service.Pigs weren’t always the domesticated and farm-raised animals that we are familiar with today; modern pigs all originally came from several different populations of wild pigs in Europe and Asia. People hunted wild boar and their meat became very sought after but dangerous to obtain because of their teeth and tusks. At around the same time in Asia and Europe, people began to tame pigs and use salt to cure the meat (including the pork belly) so that it could last longer and this cured pork could arguably be referred to as the foundation for what we call bacon today.

Another early variation of bacon came from Ancient Rome and was called “petaso”. Petaso was made by boiling the pork with figs and then searing it in a fire and seasoning it with a pepper sauce. A great pairing.. there are still quite a few ‘pig and fig’ dishes out there that I’ve had at restaurants and gastropubs.

Let’s jump to the Middle Ages in England. Lots of food historians believe that farmers raising pigs in this period of time may have begun to notice that some pigs had meatier sides than others. They would have bred these pigs to continue that trend because there have been accounts of a cut of pork belly and pork loin that was cured and eaten (the closest resemblance yet to modern day bacon) by the people at that time. This ends up being more like what we call ‘back bacon’. This is a leaner cut, wet or dry cured, that is not smoked and is still quite popular today in England.

(Listen to the Retrospectical Podcast Episode 06 all about bacon, including an interview with Baconfest Chicago co-founder, Seth Zurer) 

A few hundred years afterward, peasants in Europe began to smoke the bacon, roughly following the same set of preparations that we do today. After acquiring some good quality cured pork bellies, they must be dried completely so that a pellicle (coating of proteins) forms over the meat. This is so the meat will absorb the smoke better and not dry out the insides. Then the pork bellies are smoked – generally for a long period of time at a relatively low temperature. At this point, they can be sliced to whatever thickness is preferred and cooked.

Back in the 17th and 18th centuries in England, nearly everyone owned pigs and had their own secret recipes for bacon (city dwellers were even allowed to keep pigs in their basements for those purposes until that was made illegal in the 1930’s). Obviously more of the bacon came from local farms and butchers but regardless, this explosion of such a variety of different kinds of bacon, sausage and other pork products must have been something to behold.

Toward the end of the 18th century, a bacontrepeneur named John Harris pioneered a new way of curing pork bellies in a brine that proved to be both quicker and more cost-effective. This started the bacon revolution full force, with hundreds of companies forming thereafter using his techniques or similar to get low-cost bacon out to the masses. This should be looked at as a compromise, however, as it is more than likely that the ‘craft’ dry-cured bacon that was previously being made by the people was much tastier and also higher quality product.

What Different Kinds of Bacon Are There?

All the bacons.. MMmmMMmmMM..Side bacon, or streaky bacon, comes from pork belly. It is very fatty with long layers of fat running parallel to the rind. This is the most common form of bacon in the United States. Pancetta is Italian streaky bacon, smoked or un-smoked, with a strong flavor. It is generally rolled up into cylinders after curing.

Middle bacon, from the side of the animal, is intermediate in cost, fat content, and flavor between streaky bacon and back bacon.

Back bacon (rashers, or, in the United States, Canadian bacon) comes from the loin in the middle of the back of the pig. It is a very lean, meaty cut of bacon, with less fat compared to other cuts. It has a ham-like texture. Most bacon consumed in the UK is back bacon.

Cottage bacon is thinly sliced lean pork meat from a shoulder cut that is typically oval shaped and meaty. It is cured and then sliced into round pieces for baking or frying.

Jowl bacon is cured and smoked cheeks of pork.

Slab bacon is side bacon that is not sliced. It generally has the rind still intact, and usually has a medium to very high fraction of fat. It is made from the belly and side cuts, and from fatback. Slab bacon is not to be confused with salt pork, which is prepared from the same cuts, but is not cured.

(Click on the picture for a full-size version that you can actually read!)

5 Interesting Facts About Bacon

• Bet you thought Baconnaise contained bacon.. think again!Bacon Explosion is one of the most popular dishes in the world after it went viral on the internet several years ago.. The Bacon Explosion is made of bacon, sausage, barbeque sauce and barbeque seasoning or rub. The bacon is assembled in a weave to hold the sausage, sauce and crumbled bacon. Once rolled, the Bacon Explosion is cooked, basted, cut and served.

• Bacon is addictive – not just because of how good it is! It contains large amounts of glutamate, which actually produces stimulates the umami receptors in the brain and gives us a specific savory taste and lasting sensation. Interesting stuff.. other foods known to have this effect include: beef, potatoes, parmesan cheese and shellfish. Yum!

• A bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover: "Bread is high in carbohydrates and bacon is full of protein, which breaks down into amino acids. Your body needs these amino acids, so eating them will make you feel good." "Bingeing on alcohol depletes neurotransmitters too, but bacon contains a high level of aminos which tops these up, giving you a clearer head." Researchers also found a complex chemical interaction in the cooking of bacon produces the winning combination of taste and smell which is almost irresistible.

• Baconnaise is vegetarian.. yup. Believe it or not, they mock this dressing up to taste just like the real thing but it actually contains none of it!

• 70% of bacon in the U.S is eaten at breakfast time. This may seem perfectly reasonable, but it didn’t start off this way. In fact, it’s really pretty much only due to the meddling of Sigmund Freud’s nephew.. who - to no great surprise - was skilled in psychology, and therefore advertising. Mr. Edward Bernays. He, through a Beech-Nut Packing Company ad campaign (they manufactured a lot of pork products among other things), convinced the American public that a heavier breakfast (bacon and eggs, specifically) would be beneficial. This was backed up by some of his friends in the medical industry through a study that was performed. Immediately during and after the campaign, bacon became a huge part of the traditional American breakfast.