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OSKI DISCIPLE’S TRIVA FUN, A DAILY DBD FEATURE

Schrödinger's cat was once accidentally booked to appear on Celebrity Jeopardy.

(All trivia verified by the International Trivia Foundation.

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Schrödinger's cat jokes abound at my current work place where we build quantum computers.

i like this company's logo >> https://alice-bob.com/

the company name is taken from the fact that almost every undergrad exercise about quantum communication involves Alice trying to send a secret message to Bob. the name of the 3rd party who is trying to steal the message varies from story to story.

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Meow!

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I'm on PTO today and tomorrow. Y'all post away.

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enjoy (hopefully) whatever fun thing you are doing.

about 15-20 in of late season snow is falling in VT today. headed up for weekend skiing and the Mon eclipse from Burlington.

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PRO

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Giants try very, very hard to Beat LA, but at the end of the day they do not Beat LA

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2024/4/2/24119668/giants-dodgers-recap-logan-webb-mookie-betts-landen-roupp-jorge-soler

You know when doctors, and masseuses, and other various professionals who have the capacity to physically hurt you in the name of healing you (or so they say), do that thing where they press on you with increasing pressure and tell you to tell them when it hurts too much, and then they back off to the level immediately below that?

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Mookie Betts collects career hit No. 1,500 as Dodgers take series from Giants

https://www.truebluela.com/2024/4/2/24119652/dodgers-giants-game-recap

The Dodgers fended off the San Francisco Giants Tuesday night to secure a 5-4 victory, taking their second straight series.

Ryan Brasier opened the game for the Dodgers, making just his second career start. In his lone inning of work, Brasier walked one and struck out one on just 12 pitches.

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Home plate umpire was horrible all game. At least 2 ball width strikes in the left handed batters box.

https://twitter.com/UmpScorecards/status/1775533053525336249

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Apr 3·edited Apr 3

But at least Cuzzi was consistent. At least his strike zone wasn't a shape-shifting water bottle. It was largely what it was supposed to be as per the rule book. Which is why I think that batters are partly at fault here in this case and throughout MLB in general: they're not adjusting.

The vast majority of fans do not understand that the strike zone popularized through TV is just the front of the zone. Or maybe it's the middle of the zone; I'm not sure because TV doesn't tell us how they determine the box they're showing the audience on their TV screens. The strike zone is a three-dimensional shape that can best be described as a column with the same top (lid) and bottom (base) dimensions as home plate that hangs in space from the hollow of the batter's knees to the letters on the jersey.

Even though humans are prone to error, I would rather have humans call balls and strikes than robo umps because robo umps will not admit error and they will only be as good as their programming. See Star Trek TOS, S2E24, The Ultimate Computer. Clearly, an over-the-top analogy, but otherwise dead on.

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I know that the Sportsnet LA does show a 3D box animation when it's a pitch on the edge. I think Webb was getting the outside calls because his slider sweeps from in the zone to out of the zone, vs Yarbrough as a lefty didn't because his balls stayed out of the zone in the same place.

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Apr 3·edited Apr 3

Which brings up a point often not considered - the movement of the ball makes a difference. If a ball moves through a portion of the zone, it's a strike. If it nicks a corner or an edge of the zone, it's a strike. If a pitch never touches the zone in any way, it's a ball.

Cuzzi's chart shows a lot of pitches on the outside edge against lefties called as strikes and three pitches around the lower outside corner (presumably against righties) called as strikes. One of the biggest and most consistent challenges I had as a home plate umpire was calling pitches on the outside edge and the low-and-away corner. There's a tendency to widen the zone to the outside. There's also a tendency to drop the bottom of the zone on occasion. Not because it's tough to track, but because a pitch sometimes starts high and it makes a precipitous drop as it approaches the zone. The tendency is to remember the track as it started out in deciding where it ended up. Sometimes being in the slot is of little help in making that call.

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W's with solid home win vs Dallas.

that being said, the W's are a mediocre team that plays well occasionally. i would be shocked if they won their first round matchup even if it was a favorable one somehow.

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The 2nd team played well, overtook Dallas, built a lead, then the starters let Dallas back in. Happened it the end of the 2nd and at the end of the game. The usual story. Stupid TOs and not taking good shots.

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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DBD AV CLUB

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CAL

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[BASE] Bears Blast Tigers

https://calbears.com/news/2024/4/2/baseball-bears-blast-tigers.aspx

BERKELEY – The California baseball team used eight pitchers who combined to hold Pacific to one run over seven innings as the Golden Bears won 17-1 on Tuesday evening at Stu Gordon Stadium.

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Too bad they couldn’t do that over the past 3 weekends…

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[SB] Nonconference Week Ahead For No. 20 Cal

https://calbears.com/news/2024/4/2/softball-nonconference-week-ahead-for-no-20-cal.aspx

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BERKELEY – The No. 20 California softball team returns home for a four-game nonconference slate this week, beginning Wednesday vs. Saint Mary's, followed by a three-game series with Loyola Marymount over the weekend.

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Go Bears!!!

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ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE

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