Blog Archives - Jay Evensen

Why gambling on NCAA sports is dangerous

5/30/2023

It ought to be obvious.
If you dance around a swamp too much, you’re going to fall in and get muddy. If you get your kicks jumping over fires, prepare to get burned. If you keep poking a hornet’s nest … well, you get the idea.
We all understand the analogies. So, why do Americans think they can wholeheartedly embrace sports gambling and not see more betting scandals and more lives ruined?

Would you take a slow train to Vegas or Boise?

5/23/2023

Young people today — Millennials or, perhaps, even Gen Z’ers — are supposed to be changing our culture.
They prefer high-rise or townhouse living to a house on a quarter-acre lot. Many of them would rather rent than buy. They like short commutes and walkable neighborhoods. They would rather summon an Uber or take mass transit than buy a car and sit on the freeway. You can find all of this with a quick Google search.
But will they bring back train travel – the long form?

Don't expect free fares to catch on at UTA

5/23/2023

It may have been way back on page 43 of his annual budget proposal, but Gov. Spencer Cox’s plan to spend $25 million to launch a year-long free-fare pilot project on the Utah Transit Authority’s trains and buses got people’s attention.
It’s not a new idea. A bill sponsored by Rep. Joel Briscoe, D-Salt Lake City, was filed in the 2022 legislative session. It derailed without much debate.
But Salt Lake Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who was a catalyst for “free fare February,” a month-long pilot program last year, mentioned the governor’s proposal in her annual state of the city address last week. “That’s a huge development for the state of Utah,” Mendenhall said. “Someday we will have free fare forever.”
Well … don’t cut up those transit passes, yet.

Is it too late to regulate AI?

5/19/2023

In Congress, a debate did unfurl,
Regulating AI, they did hurl.
But the lawmakers found,
Their knowledge was unsound,
As algorithms danced and twirled.

The beauty of that limerick is that it was written entirely by the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT, just now, after I asked it to write one about Congress’ attempts to regulate AI. The program took less than five seconds to spit out the composition.
I kind of like it — the way it captures the weaknesses of a representative democracy trying to police and regulate a technology that dances and twirls around us, growing stronger each minute.
View it just a little differently, however, and it reads as if it is sticking its artificial tongue at us all, menacingly.

What about your own personal debt ceiling?

5/17/2023

So, who is negotiating your debt ceiling?
Are you taking a cue from Washington and appointing one child to represent the father and one to represent the mother in negotiations? Is discretionary spending (desserts, movies) on the table, or is one side demanding just a clean increase with no conditions?
I’m kidding, of course. Well, only slightly.
Each of us has a debt ceiling, set mainly by the bank-imposed limits on our credit cards or the things we can use as collateral. But there are many more ways to borrow money, from bank loans to home equity lines of credit to applying for even more credit cards or calling to ask for a higher limit.
And we’re doing all of that, apparently.

The pandemic is over; so, where are the celebrations?

5/12/2023

The pandemic is officially over. So, where are the parades? Where are the victory parties? Where are the press conferences with beaming politicians boasting that they won?
The public health emergency that President Trump declared in early 2020 caused more loud and irritating crashes and bangs nationwide – from conspiracy theories (computer chips embedded in vaccines?) to political venom and permanent changes in everyday life (how’s that home office looking?) – than any other event in memory, with the possible exception of the Vietnam War. Yet, when it officially expired on Thursday, it seemed to end with a whisper, or maybe a stifled cough; nothing more.

Are the nation's schools failing?

5/5/2023

Could you answer this test question correctly?
“Which of the following is a right guaranteed by the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution?

Right to public education
Right to health care
Right to trial by a jury
Right to vote

Or how about this essay question concerning a proclamation by George Washington, saying the nation should “with sincerity and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers” in a military conflict pitting Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain and the Netherlands against France? The question asks for one reason why he would believe such a policy was necessary.

How many houses will slide down the hillside?

5/3/2023

When it comes to earthquake preparedness, a lot of people (myself included) have focused on the need to shore up the approximately 140,000 aging homes and buildings along the Wasatch Front made of unreinforced masonry. When the ground shakes, these tend to crumble, injuring anyone beneath. In the 5.7-magnitude quake that hit the Salt Lake Valley in 2020, falling bricks from these buildings posed the biggest danger.
But now, it’s clear that landslides ought to be a big concern, as well. Utah’s majestic mountains have a way of shaking themselves off from time to time, like irritated sleeping giants.

weebly statistics

weebly reliable statistics

weebly statistics