– After taking Sunday off, the Tigers had a short practice today. Coach John Calipari was all set to scrimmage for awhile, but after just two four-minute segments, he saw what he needed to see and called it a day. No need to spoil a good thing.

– Calipari left on a recruiting trip at the end of practice, but players stayed to do some individual work. That all ended when Willie Kemp did a 360-degree dunk, then ripped off his shirt and ran back to the locker room. When Willie does a 360, there’s no reason for anybody to stay on the court.

– Before practice, Calipari held an individual workout with Pierre Niles and was highly complimentary of his effort. Despite his ongoing weight issues, Niles does some impressive things. I think Calipari is going to try everything possible to get him into the rotation now, even if it’s just a 5, 6 minute cameo.

– Matt Simpkins, the 6-9, 215-pound power forward from The Patterson School, will be in Memphis on his official visit this weekend. Simpkins is ranked 47th overall in the class of 2008 by Rivals.com. Simpkins has had some academic difficulties, and Patterson is his sixth school in five years. Simpkins is originally from Berkley, Calif., and several Pac-10 schools are recruiting him. My sense is that Memphis wants a commitment from either Simpkins or Wesley Witherspoon, whichever one they can get first. Getting both is probably not too realistic, since they are both in the 6-8, 6-9 range.

– As of now, point guard Andre Allen will be eligible to participate Thursday against Siena. Allen was thrown out of the game Saturday against Arizona for coming off the bench with 8:11 remaining when Chris Douglas-Roberts was fouled hard by Kirk Walters. Though Allen, by rule, probably should be subject to a one-game suspension for being ejected from the game, the officiating crew never recorded an ejection with the official scorekeeper. As it was happening, I heard the official near the Memphis bench tell Calipari that Allen had to go to the locker room for coming off the bench. But no technical foul was called, so I’m not sure it really was an official ejection. Therefore, I’m not sure how a penalty could be enforced.

Sounds like there will be big doings in DeSoto County at midnight tonight as Horn Lake resident Donny Counts lowers a giant New Year’s Eve ball in front of his home.

According to an article in last Friday’s newspaper, the crystal ball he’ll use is actually 6 inches larger in diameter than the one that’s used in Times Square in New York.

Which actually makes sense, if you think about it.

After the way they’ve been shirking responsibility for helping clean up the Memphis metro area’s pollution problems, I think it’s fair to say that nobody drops the ball like the folks in DeSoto County.

Happy New Year!

Here is one New Year's resolution public health officials are encouraging women of child-bearing age to make - eat a diet rich in folic acid. That is the B vitamin found in dark leafy vegetables, dried beans, citrus fruit and such enriched products as bread, flour, macaroni and cereals. Women who get enough folic acid are less likely to have children with spina bifida and certain other birth defects.

National Folic Acid Awareness Week starts the first Monday of January.

To mark the event, the Memphis & Shelby County Health Department is set to give away free multi-vitamins with folic acid. They will be offered to women of child-bearing age between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Jan. 8 in the lobby of 814 Jefferson.

Too bad it didn’t quite work out like this… eh Al?

Oh well, I thought it was pretty interesting anyway.
Cheers.

Why Socialism
by Albert Einstein

This essay was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949).

Is it advisable for one who is not an expert on economic and social issues to express views on the subject of socialism? I believe for a number of reasons that it is.

Let us first consider the question from the point of view of scientific knowledge. It might appear that there are no essential methodological differences between astronomy and economics: scientists in both fields attempt to discover laws of general acceptability for a circumscribed group of phenomena in order to make the interconnection of these phenomena as clearly understandable as possible.

But in reality such methodological differences do exist. The discovery of general laws in the field of economics is made difficult by the circumstance that observed economic phenomena are often affected by many factors which are very hard to evaluate separately.

In addition, the experience which has accumulated since the beginning of the so-called civilized period of human history has—as is well known—been largely influenced and limited by causes which are by no means exclusively economic in nature. For example, most of the major states of history owed their existence to conquest. The conquering peoples established themselves, legally and economically, as the privileged class of the conquered country
.
They seized for themselves a monopoly of the land ownership and appointed a priesthood from among their own ranks. The priests, in control of education, made the class division of society into a permanent institution and created a system of values by which the people were thenceforth, to a large extent unconsciously, guided in their social behavior.

But historic tradition is, so to speak, of yesterday; nowhere have we really overcome what Thorstein Veblen called “the predatory phase” of human development. The observable economic facts belong to that phase and even such laws as we can derive from them are not applicable to other phases. Since the real purpose of socialism is precisely to overcome and advance beyond the predatory phase of human development, economic science in its present state can throw little light on the socialist society of the future.

Second, socialism is directed towards a social-ethical end. Science, however, cannot create ends and, even less, instill them in human beings; science, at most, can supply the means by which to attain certain ends. But the ends themselves are conceived by personalities with lofty ethical ideals and—if these ends are not stillborn, but vital and vigorous—are adopted and carried forward by those many human beings who, half unconsciously, determine the slow evolution of society.

For these reasons, we should be on our guard not to overestimate science and scientific methods when it is a question of human problems; and we should not assume that experts are the only ones who have a right to express themselves on questions affecting the organization of society.

Because Stephen C. Leggett of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress is such a nice guy, he usually emails me in the summer or fall every year to remind me to nominate films for the National Film Registry.

Beyond all the obvious things like defense and depth and experience, the Tigers’ 76-63 victory over Arizona last night showed me something more subtle but incredibly necessary for them to win a national championship: In a high-profile game, Memphis does not have to rely on its guards to get things done offensively.

It’s been proven over and over in the NCAA Tournament that teams with great guards and mediocre post players simply don’t win national titles. You can get to the Final Four, perhaps, but to win six straight games in March and April, you need big people to provide easy points you can count on.

Last year, Florida’s top three big men accounted for 38.5 percent of the team’s points. Here’s how the previous national champions this decade stack up by the same statistical standard:

2006 Florida — 40.2 percent
2005 North Carolina — 47.2 percent
2004 Connecticut — 37.3 percent
2003 Syracuse — 51.2 percent
2002 Maryland — 38.1 percent
2001 Duke — 47.9 percent
2000 Michigan State — 34.5 percent

Admittedly, this is a flawed statistical analysis for many reasons. With Syracuse, for instance, you have to count Carmelo Anthony as a big on that team, even though he is more of a wing. But the point remains, I firmly believe that legitimate national title teams have to get roughly one-third of their points from their big people.

How does Memphis stack up in that regard? Through 11 games, 28.4 percent of the Tigers points have been scored by Robert Dozier, Joey Dorsey and Shawn Taggart. That’s up from 26.9 percent last season by Dozier, Dorsey and Kareem Cooper. It’s also worth nothing that Dozier and Dorsey have each missed two games due to injuries, so the Tiger bigs would probably account for well over 30 percent if they had been healthy.

Though Dorsey is pretty much giving you what he’s going to give you — a consistent 8 to 12 points — Tiger fans have every right to be encouraged by the uptick in production from Dozier (19 points against Georgetown, 18 against Arizona) and Taggart (15 points against Arizona).

We’re hosting an online conversation with certified personal trainer Judy Oros this week. If you haven't seen her advice for 2008 in The Commercial Appeal, check it out online at commercialappeal.com/news/lifestyle/health-fitness/
Got a question about starting a fitness program or improving your health in the new year?
Ask it here.
She’ll check the blog and respond.