The Liberty Papers

Off topic, and downright embarrassing.

From Megan McArdle, the idea is to go back to Amazon.com, log in and find your first order.

Mine — well, bear in mind that I was 21 years old at the time, but back in 1999 my first order occurred on my 21st birthday, so I assume it was from a gift certificate. I ordered CD’s by Dave Matthews Band (2), Korn, Limp Bizkit, Lo-Fidelity All-stars, and Moxy Früvous, proving that my taste in music at the time was both exceedingly bad and mind-bogglingly eclectic. At least there wasn’t any Rammstein in there. Yes, very embarrassing.

I have to then redeem myself and post my second Amazon order as well, which was my first book order, and of course was The Fountainhead. I read Anthem in high school, and had just read Atlas Shrugged for the first time a few months prior, so I was hooked.

To my co-contributors, readers, and other bloggers, feel free to post your own.

Well, since I broached the third rail subject last night, I might as well atone with something a little lighter. I saw this and thought it was pretty cool. Click on the below photo to link to Flowing Data, the original source.

Hat Tip: The Big Picture

Jennifer Hudson might have slimmed down to sing “One Shining Moment”, but the NCAA seems to want to turn March Madness into a bloated flabby mess. It’s a stupid decision, but then again, the NCAA isn’t known for its desire to act in the fans’ best interests. After all, if basketball decided a champion the way it’s decided in football*, either Kansas or Kentucky would be celebrating this morning.

But they’re not. Butler made a strong run, but the team that fulfilled the dream is Duke.

That means we had a last-second change to the standings in the TLP NCAA Bracket Challenge:

1. William Satterwhite – 279
2. Nate McHugh – 277
3. nic stersic – 264
4. Brad Warbiany – 262
5. Doug Mataconis – 260

So congratulations, William! I’ll be contacting you offline soon to handle the guest posting opportunity, and if you don’t hear from me, contact me at the admin link listed on the left sidebar.

I’ll be planning to do this again next spring, and I definitely learned a few things. First, I initially worried that I biased scoring too heavily to the first two rounds, but William and the Duke Blue Devils proved that selecting the correct champion was still just enough to squeak into victory. That said, this year was significantly more upset-heavy than most, so in future years I’ll try to better balance scoring opportunities between rounds.

Either way, it’s been fun, and it should be a nice tradition to continue.
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The NCAA Tournament has been one of the most exciting in recent memory, with more major upsets than just about anyone could have rationally expected. As such, even prior to the Final Four, we’ve seen just about every entrant in the Liberty Papers Bracket Challenge go bust. Below are the standings:

1. Nate McHugh – 277
2. Brad Warbiany – 262
3. Brad Porter – 254
4. liberty for kids – 253
5. nic stersic – 248
10. William Satterwhite – 231

Why did I include the #10 spot? Because the competition can now only be won by Nate McHugh or William Satterwhite. Everyone else is mathematically eliminated.

Nate has Kansas [eliminated] winning the whole thing; William has Duke. With Nate’s big lead, all he needs to do to win is for Duke *not* to win the whole thing. He doesn’t need WVU to beat Duke, he simply needs Duke to lose either against WVU or in the championship game. William needs Duke to win out, which would give him a two-point advantage and the win in the final standings.

Good luck Nate, and good luck William.

Well, big things have happened this weekend. The opening round of the NCAA tournament brought far more excitement than last year’s, with some major-league upsets.

I’ve heard that some big vote occurred in Washington as well, but I’ll have to look into that later.

In our own bracket challenge, the first weekend has ‘sploded quite a few of your brackets — at least for anyone who chose Kansas to win it all (just under half the field picked them). The standings of the top 5:

1. 256 pts – Brad Warbiany
2. 249 pts – Nate McHugh
3. 230 pts – Brad Porter
4. 221 pts – Jim Johnson
5. 220 pts – Nic Stersic

Of those top 5, only Jim and I have someone other than Kansas taking the trophy [Kentucky for me, Syracuse for him].

There’s a lot of time for people to catch (and pass) me though, as half my bracket is already crushed — I chose Kansas into the final game and Pitt into the Final Four, so I’ve got a lot of concern…

But I don’t care, because Purdue has now upset* their first two opponents and will be ready to [actually] upset Duke on Friday night. It reminds me [and should remind Jim] of a day back in 2000, when a bunch of hung-over frat boys participated in the Boiler “Academic Super Bowl” and upset the field by taking second place against a bunch of the schools professional societies in a trivia challenge.

Good luck to all the competitors who joined the challenge [17 total]. Next year I’ll make sure to start things off with more advance notice, and I think I’ll adjust scoring somewhat to even out the first weekend with the rest of the tournament — I think it’s too heavily weighted for the first weekend.
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