Things That Must Be Brought To Your Attention
SUNDAY, AUGUST 8, 2004 7:43 PM
SOMETIMES IT'S OKAY FOR ORANGUTANS TO FIGHT
So in Thailand, they've stopped Orangutan kickboxing matches in the Safari World animal park. The problem isn't that, you know, it's a little odd and possibly sort of wrong to train orangutans to box, but if we can train seals to jump through hoops I guess this is in that line of progression. Apparently, the problem is that they are illegal orangutans, smuggled in from Indonesia. So the lesson is not having an orangutan permit is bad, but orangutan kickboxing is okay.

SEE, IT'S THE LAWS THEY DON'T ENFORCE
It's funny that the first I've ever even thought about super (unnecessarily) big SUVs violating those laws was reading Andy Bower's article on Slate. I'm especially curious because my San Francisco street has those "vehicles over three tons prohibited" signs all up and down it. I can see that enforcing it is politically unpopular, but I can also see that my compact car probably does less damage to the roads than a heavier vehicle, especially if it's in the neighborhood all the time.

BASEBALL STATISTICS DEEMED RIDICULOUS
So I don't think all baseball stats are silly, but Stephen Rodrick really put it into perspective. It is sort of cruel that these mythic numbers are created that are the threshhold that proves you were great or kinda almost great. There's no difference really between 490 and 500 home runs. I agree that we all should be pretty satisfied that Fred McGriff can hit home runs well. And the milestone tracker? I stumbled upon that when looking at stuff about the Hall of Fame. I was deeply confused by it all, mostly because I didn't know whether or why I supposed to care.

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