Happy 4th of July From The Heap!

Here’s to you, heapsters. Hope that you and your family continue to have a safe and fun holiday. Do what the forefathers would want us to do, like eat 60 hotdogs in one sitting, watch cars race around in a 2.5 mile oval with gas prices close to 3 dollars a gallon, and, where it’s [...]

Fun with Graphs

Just keep this in mind whenever anyone asks what Obama has done in the first 100 days of his presidency. I laughed pretty hard when I saw this graph. Thanks to PV for posting it on Facebook. Have a good Tuesday.  

FTDO: “It’s Never Too Early”

To start campaigning for the next presidential election. While at The Heap we wouldn’t endanger our country by actually voting Sarah Palin into office in 2012, we would love to vote for whoever came up with the sign.

Japanese and American Baseball: Part 4

The conclusion of my essay on how Japanese and American culture plays itself out through the sport of baseball. It was during this time that Japan as an individual nation was looking for a place among the countries of the growing market. In an age of perceived Social Darwinism, Roden writes that “many assumed that [...]

Japanese and American Baseball: Part 3

The continuance of my essay on how Japanese and American culture plays itself out through the sport of baseball. By the 1890s baseball had become one of the most popular collegiate sports in Japan despite the constant exclusion from the game the Japanese often faced by Americans. Through the victories of Ichikō in Tokyo, the [...]

Japanese and American Baseball: Part 2

The continuance of my essay on how Japanese and American culture plays itself out through the sport of baseball. In order to fully understand the integration of baseball into the Japanese culture, it must be noted how the game came to the islands from the West. In an essay titled “Baseball and the Quest for [...]

Japanese and American Baseball: Part 1

And then there were 3. Last night, the Korean National Team was able to soundly eliminate Venezuela 10-2, clinching a spot in the WBC final. They await the winner of USA vs. Japan, who play today. The US-Japan match up is intriguing from a historical perspective. Baseball is often considered the quintessential American game, the [...]