Idol Season 7 - 8 guys

Everyone was pretty close this week. No one stood out. Nobody was really terrible, either. It's going to be a close vote this week. Still confused by the song choices, there's got to be some better songs. Cook did something unique, which definitely helps. Michael sang INXS, which is his (very small) niche.

1. David Cook* - this week helped him
2. Michael - this week helped him a lot, but i don't feel like he's getting any better
3. David Archuleta* - came back to the pack a little, still the favorite
4. Castro - judges loved it, but it was a strange song. don't think the public will appreciate it quite as much
5. David H - Celine?
6. Danny
7. Luke M
8. Chiekieze

Luke should finally be done this week. I think Chiekieze is probably out. Danny is close, too.

Stadiums and Public Support

A response to Joe's post.

The study that Joe referenced is pretty good. That publicly financed stadiums don't really add to a city's economy isn't all that surprising. I doubt that most tax breaks for private endeavors ever realize any gain for the public as a whole. As the article points out,

A demonstration of a significant, positive economic effect on a host area
should not be seen as a prerequisite for allowing private sports
investment. Most investment in private businesses - even very
successful ones - would fail to demonstrate this kind of impact.

Another good point brought up by the study, but not really addressed,

Large conventions utilize stadiums and arenas, and super-stations and cable
television broadcast games nationally, increasing the likelihood that stadiums
and teams are successfully marketed to the rest of the country.

Joe's point about the Iowa Events Center is right on. The study was written in 1988, and in the 20 years since then, probably all of the stadiums and arenas are specific to the sport and team they host. Very few pro sports arenas are central to an metropolitan or state's major activities. Indy's RCA dome had an impact because they use it for all major sporting events in the state. They get NCAA tournament games every year, they use it for all divisions of state football championships, the Colts play there and it isn't a monstrosity, meaning it is a versatile venue. The new stadium will not have the impact that the RCA dome had. The Alamodome in San Antonio is the same type of deal. Although no pro team calls it home, it holds a similar importance.

The most prominent example I can think of is the Houston Astrodome - the "eighth wonder of the world." The first and only revolutionary stadium design, the Astrodome was central to the biggest events in the Houston area for over 30 years. The original multipurpose venue, the Astrodome was home at one time or another, four professional football teams, an MLB team, the University of Houston sports teams, nearly 20 years of bowl games, along with a final four. The Houston rodeo was held there for 37 years. Perhaps most importantly, the Astrodome was a Houston landmark. The idea of an air conditioned, indoor stadium was parallel with the over-the-top, booming persona of Houston during the 60's and 70's. The construction of the Astrodome made a lasting impact on the city that few, if any, stadiums have been able to replicate since. The builder and owner of the Astrodome - Harris County, TX.

Seattle shouldn't have to put up money for a new stadium, especially if they build it in the suburbs. It is their right to say no, and for everyone to paint them as the bad guys is ridiculous. The Sonics attendance is poor and there is no reason to think that a new stadium will help that. Besides, the current ownership wants to move the team to OKC, where there seems to be demand. The NBA should be okay with this. The city of Seattle supports the Seahawks fanatically, perhaps there just isn't enough support there for the Sonics, too. One would think that OKC will be supportive of the team for no other reason than there is no competition in the city or in the state. Any pro franchise should do better in a region without any other pro franchises. The OKC Sonics should be a "state team" much like the Indianapolis Colts are. Durant, the good young talent they have and the multitude of draft picks they have in the next few years should provide some additional excitement. If the demand isn't there in Seattle, why would the NBA force them to stay?

Public financing of stadiums and tax money spending

This post is being made based on Bill Simmons' recent article about Seattle losing the Supersonics. Normally, I don't read his stuff cause I'm not a big Boston sports fan, but I find it utterly ridiculous that owners of sports franchises demand the city pay for new stadiums or else. I mean, the current trend in the United States is to let schools, roads, electrical grid, parks and everything else completely go to shit while a city will drop 300 million for a stadium to promote economic development. I'm assuming they mean economic development for some already ridiculously wealthy white guy. I had suspicion that no economic development really occurs when an existing stadium that is already bringing in money is replaced with a modern facility. So I did what all good grad students do and I went to journal articles. I found this. I'll summarize some of the finer points in this post. Essentially, the data (which has several flaws that the author discusses, but has some strengths also) states that no metropolitan area really benefited in terms of per capita income growth by having a new stadium, and actually, three cities had negative impacts. The shocking thing to me was that having a professional sports team didn't help growth either in most cases. So the findings from the study are that its not a sound civic investment to invest in stadiums. I'm not going to explain anymore of the article, but its worth the read, it is interesting.

Don't get me wrong, I love watching sports, I love going to sports, I love playing sports, but why is our tax money going towards stadiums that are used in a for profit company? The idea of giving tax breaks to companies is that your city will benefit if they move a plant there by gaining jobs, hence economic growth. Maytag pulled some bs in Newton, IA where they essentially asked for so much tax money, the return of them being there wasn't worth it, so Iowa told them to go fist themselves. They gave small tax breaks to a few companies that are producing wind turbines, to move into the old Maytag plant, now Newton is gaining some of their jobs back.

I can understand building venues in places like Des Moines, where they have multiple semi-pro teams using the arena, host high school state tournaments, have concerts, and whatever else you can think of. Speaking of the Iowa Events Center, good for them for not using Ticketmaster. I'll explain my dislike of them later. I digress, sorry. I can also understand if the city chunks in some money cause it is a large investment. But I don't feel that tax payers should have to pay for something that a person is going to use to make exuberant amounts of money off of.

So in an era when public money is slim we buy stadiums. Good for us, we like luxury items more than things that actually encourage economic growth. It's messed up, and thats why the Seattle Supersonics moving makes me so angry. Them leaving because the city of Seattle wouldn't pay half a billion dollars for a new stadium is going to put other cities in the same situation. Do we vote it down cause we can't really afford it, risk losing our team to some crappy town like Oklahoma City, or do we just pass a tax increase and pay for the damn thing? Then theres the Yankees. They're paying 1.1 billion for their own stadium. The MN Twins are $140 million out of $450 million, the county is paying the rest. I guess we'll see what the Vikings do. Detroit did it right with Comerica, they added a rental car and hotel tax to pay their 40%. I could research this forever, but I think the point is, cities shouldn't pay for stadiums specifically designed for one sport team only.

American Idol - Season 7 - Four more voted off

Well, I'm surprised. Even though I picked two of the four voted off, I was caught off guard by the other two. I had Alaina and Robbie right in the middle of the pack. Kady (Houston native) just barely made it by in the bottom 3, which is where I had her. And Luke M. made it through again when I didn't think he should have. Looks like he was in the bottom three as well.

David Archuleta remains the overall favorite. After two weeks, I think Carly is the favorite for the girls. Brooke White was the big gainer over last week, bumping up 5 spots amongst the girls. Alexandrea was the biggest fall, dropping from where I had her as the 3rd best performance last week to being voted off (9th place) this week. Hosed was Alaina, who I had as the 4th best girl before she got voted off.

There's still a lot Idol left for the year and Idol voters can be fickle.

Picking the Losers:
5 for 8 62.5%
including bottom three: 7 for 10 70%

American Idol Season 7 - 10 chicks

Well, the 10 girls were tough to rank, but not because they were good. The first two started off strong, but it quickly got worse after that. It's going to be a while before we get strong performances out of all the girls. The boys sound pretty good comparatively. Again, these decade weeks should be lending themselves to the girls. A * is a lock to advance, anyone marked with an -x is in the danger zone (note how many more x's there are)

1. Carly* - good performance, got after it, didn't look real comfortable, though
2. Syesha* - better than the judges gave her credit for. could get really annoying though
3. Alaina
4. Ramiele - bad song for her, but she's definitely in the top 3 for female contenders
5. Brooke White -x - good song choice, mostly because she looks like 70's Carly Simon
6. Kristi Lee Cook -x - didn't think she was good enough to advance, but then four other people performed
7. Overmeyer -x
8. Kady -x
9. Asia'h -x - very, very bad, but I think she'll move on
10. Lushington -x - was stoked for some Chicago. she picked the lamest Chicago song ever. I thought they only came out with good songs in the 70's. Turns out I was wrong

Based on my own American Idol - Season 7 Power Poll, I think Kady and Alexandrea are out this week but wouldn't be surprised if Kristi Lee Cook or Overmeyer got bumped.

Lebron to the Nets? pt2

Note: this started as a comment, but quickly evolved into a dissertation; hence, the separate post.

One thing is undeniably clear, LeBron James is the most business savvy basketball player that has ever played in the NBA. I think Jordan took what was given to him (to use a terrible cliche). Nike came calling, and he obliged. So did Fruit of the Loom, and so on and so forth. But he really didn't do much other than play basketball and take his money. He was pretty quiet, and let the marketers define him. This was a wise move on his part - to let professionals build him into a global icon. However, the other ventures he's led weren't maximized in a business or marketing sense (baseball, team ownership, team management, etc). LeBron came out of the gate and took a shorter contract in order that he might make more money in the long term. Unheard of, but pure brilliance, none the less. Most in the NBA business were surprised by it. Something so simple yet so obvious is a mark of business genius. Everyone else in the class (Wade, Bosh, Carmelo) obviously thought so. The Cleveland Cavaliers know LeBron has a different mindset. They know he's about more than basketball. I'd bet they've talked with him about it. The Cavs haven't won anything relevant in a really long time. Getting to the finals proved to LeBron and the team that they can get close. I would not argue that LeBron wants to win a championship for his "hometown" team. Immediately elevates the legacy. However, I don't think he needs to win multiple championships there. The Cavs and LeBron have decided to pull all the stops for him to win a championship in Cleveland and then see what happens from there (see: Brooklyn Nets). Cleveland is happy (kinda), the front office can say it tried, and LeBron won one for the home team. He'll might be vilified by Cleveland for jumping ship, but the national media will love the move.

All these articles give great reasons for him to go, now a couple, small, reasons it might not work.

1. Cleveland can give him more money.

One of the best parts about the NBA. Allow the team that has a player give him a larger max contract than anyone else. Every other pro sport allows a player to get poached from the team that drafted him, but the NBA gives a player's current team the upper hand. It's why Kobe stayed in LA, it's why Carmelo will stay in Denver. Some smaller markets can't afford the max contract, but Cleveland would for LeBron. He wouldn't make more money in NY unless he had a stake in the operation ...

2. Players can't own part of the team.

This is one way that the NBA is similar to other pro sports. A stake in a franchise would make a lot of sense to someone like LeBron who already makes more money off other sources than basketball. It would also allow LeBron to capitalize on the marketing money that his name would draw in NY. Unless, of course, Jay-Z would go 50-50 with LeBron on his new marketing company and get in on some of the advertising revenue the new stadium would bring in with the game's biggest star. Let's not forget ...

3. Jay-Z is not the Nets majority owner

Bruce Ratner is the principal owner. And as such, would probably want as large a chunk of the LeBron pie as he could get. He's a developer, the one who initially floated the idea of bringing the Nets to Brooklyn. Landing LeBron makes his investment increase ten-fold. The 'new' New York team, with LeBron? Shoot. Good luck prying any of the marketing money out of his hands. LeBron and Jay-Z could try some auxillary marketing opportunities, but without NY, they'd have the same opportunities in Cleveland as they would in Brooklyn.

4. What would he do with that house?!?

American Idol - 10 dudes

The guys started really slow last night. There wasn't a standout performance until David Hernandez halfway through the show. Four out of the last five were really good. Again, the * designates a J.Meeks lock to advance.

1. David Archuleta* - Still the favorite. Really, really good rendition of Imagine. People always sing it, but he made it his own. He's had the two best performances so far.
2. David Hernandez* - I've liked him from the beginning. Simon's criticisms have really driven him.
3. Chiekieze* - I liked his performance last week. We'll see how he does after the decade weeks.
4. David Cook*
5. Noriega - again, unfortunately, he passes to next week
6. Robbie
7. Castro - I like the guitar, not the strongest performance, but he'll pass on, too
8. Michael Johns - he's middle of the pack at best. seems to have lots of potential. he'll get by on that for at least one more week, should do well if next week is the 80s (INXS!!!)
9. Yeager - didn't think he did that bad of a job, judges harsh and he was towards the bottom last week
10. Luke M. - weird performance. I had him at the very bottom last week. its over this week.

New Jersey "King James/Jay-Z" Nets

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Aj9mhzgQwwaMH.KAZNa3gx28vLYF?slug=aw-lebronjayz022508&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

This is the link to an interesting article on the close relationship between Jay-Z and LeBron James. Cleveland had better start planning ahead as the Nets currently are if they want to keep their franchise from falling back into the dump. Jay-Z and LeBron together in New York could be huge. With the plans for a new arena in the works and Jay-Z's guidance, LeBron could be one of the biggest stars, sports or not, this country has ever seen. On the basketball end....remember that trade the Nets just made? Well, they dumped some salary, picked up some younger players, and old balls Van Horne, and two first round draft picks in 2008 and 2010, the year LeBron is due for free agency. Could these be the complimentary players James is looking for? Expect the Nets to do something with Carter if they are serious of this pursuit of James. That free agency class could be huge with James, Wade, Bosh and I think Carmelo. Can you imagine James in New Jersey, Wade in Chicago, Bosh just in the US and Caremlo inside of a Hershey's bar? Sounds tasty. Read the article it makes more sense than me.

We're on Google!

We've finally made it! Someone out there found our blog somehow and that was it! We exist in the world of Google!!!




We also got our first comment spam. Such an exciting time!

Bonds

Sorry, I am really bored and just hooked up our wireless so I can sit on the recliner in the living room.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2008/news/story?id=3264187
The latest news links Bonds to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I think Bonds would be a good fit in Tampa. They could sign him for cheap and he would improve their offense. This is a team that will be fairly competitive this year without him and could make some noise with him. By DRays consideration, noise mean over .500. It would bring some fans to the Devil Rays and be good for baseball. His troubles will be overshadowed now by Santana and the Tigers and most of the buzz around the Devil Rays should be positive.

Baseball Season Again!

I have been looking forward to baseball season from the time the Cubs got swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Cubs first Spring Training Game is this Thursday and although I am filled with much anticipation for the Cubs season, there are many intriguing storylines I look forward to following throughout the year.

Same Faces, New Places

It is always fun look at the same players in different uniforms. This offseason has been fairly active and has made some teams and divisions much different.

1) I am most looking forward to watching the 2008 Detroit Tigers. Dontrolle Willis and Miguel Cabrera are key additions. I don't look for Willis to be a dominating pitcher, especially in the AL where the hitters are better, and he can't hit. He will add some depth to their staff that has been oft injured the past few years. To me, Dontrolle Willis was free for the Tigers, the key to that trade was Miguel Cabrera. I have always been a big fan of Cabrera and I seriously believe he has the ability to win the American League MVP maybe not this year but possibly in the next few years, especially with this lineup in which Pudge Rodriguez could be hitting 8th or 9th! Oh yeah they improved at shortstop where they added another former Marlin Edgar Renteria.
2) The second best pitcher in the game has been traded to the National League. Johan Santana, who most refer to as the best pitcher in the game will undoubtedly change the National League and the Mets. To me, Josh Beckett is the best pitcher in the game right now. Santana had a down year by his standards last year (15-13, 3.33 ERA, 219 IP) and I look for him to improve on those numbers this year being in the NL and with the Mets. However, I don't think this move is as huge as everyone says. Santana's innings I think will be right around 200 this year because there will be games when he must be replaced in a game for a pinch hitter. The move will certainly improve the Mets and put the NL East winner at around 93-94 wins. I look for Santana to put together a season of around 19-7, 3.01 ERA and roughly 200 IP. He will get a few wins with poor performances simply because the Mets will score some runs and they have the Cabrera/Willis-less Marlins and the Nationals in their division.
3) Fukudome could be a great addition for the Cubs. Or he could turn out like the rest of the Cubs additions. I think he will have a good year after a slow start adjusting to the MLB. It makes the Cubs lineup more of a threat and adds some speed. It sounds like Pinella will use him in the third spot followed by Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez. Pinella wants to add some speed to the top of the lineup with Soriano, Theriot and Fukudome followed with the power of Lee, Ramirez and rookie catcher Geovany Soto. I still would like to see Lee in the third spot, he is the best pure hitter the Cubs have and his power numbers were down last year. It will interesting to see it play out.

Players to Look For:

John Maine (SP NYM): With the addition of Santana and the health of Pedro Martinez, Maine will no longer be opposed with front-line starters and will have a chance for more victories. Maine still managed 15 wins last year couple with 10 losses and a 3.91 ERA. I look for him to add a few wins and subtract a couple losses with the Santana trade and lower his ERA just a titch. Maine is a young solid pitcher and will be overshadowed by Santana most of the year which could be an advantage for him. I look for statistics around 17-8 with a 3.75 ERA.

Hanley Ramirez (SS FLA): Ramirez will lose some protection and runs with the loss of Cabrera but Ramirez who came to FLA in the Josh Beckett trade is one of the best young players in the MLB. Ramirez is another guy I look for to potentially win an MVP if placed on a good team. His statistics last year (.332 BA, 29 HR, 81 RBI, 51 SB) from the leadoff spot were very solid. The Marlins are considering moving him to the three hole which I think could hurt his BA and SB but improve his HR and RBI. I look for him to have about the same statistics if left in the leadoff spot with fewer RBI's. His teammate Cameron Maybin could be a candidate for NL Rookie of the Year along with Cubs catcher Geovany Soto.

Chad Qualls (RP ARI): Traded from the Astros to the D-Backs for Jose Valverde, Qualls is one of the best set-up men in the league. Put on a good team in the Diamondbacks he will have an opportunity to record the oh-so valuable hold quite often. The Diamondbacks were smart in realizing how overrated the save statistic is and just rewarded themselves with an 8th inning shut-down man. He had a 3.04 ERA with 84 K's last year in just about 85 innings pitched last year. He could post an ERA below 3, very good for a set-up man, and compete for the prestigous Rolaid's Relief Award.


I'll include my predictions for the season as Opening Day comes closer.

Week Six

I haven't reported for awhile. In fact, not since my Super Bowl blow-up. You probably have figured I quit after that, or you probably don't care. I managed to back down to normalcy after a week or so following the Super Bowl. I regret eating so much because it put me back at least one week and if you really think about it, more like two because I could have lost weight that week instead of gaining, a double edged sword. However, it is behind me and I have continued my decline. I don't really report what I eat anymore, I use the site to look at healthier options and to report my weight to keep track of my progress and goals. This morning I weighed in at 214.4 for a total loss so far of 4.2 pounds. I have hit a low of 213.2 in the past week. I like to keep track of my lows overall as well as my weekly weight because it gives me more motivation and confidence. Water can fluctuate(sp?) my weight but as long as those fluctuations keep going down I am happy. I have noticed tremendous gains in the weight room too. I orginally started my bench press at three sets of ten repetitions at 115 pounds just to ease my way back into lifting. After six weeks I am currently doing three sets of ten repetitions at 165 pounds. I wouldn't say my bench has gone up 50 pounds because I could have probably started at more than 115 but it has improved dramatically. Part of this may be due to my regime in which I do two different excercises for the main upper body areas and make sure to lift the opposite muscles ex: (tricep and bicep or chest and lat). Almost all of my lifts have gone up at least 20 pounds in just six weeks. My goal is to get to 200 pounds and hopefully 185 pounds by Opening Day (March 31st).

Starting Weight: 218.6 lbs
Current Weight: 214.4 lbs
Total Loss: 4.4 lbs

Average weight loss of a little more than 2/3 of a pound per week.

American Idol Season 7 - First Vote Off

I did pretty well. 3 of my bottom 4 were voted off. And the one dude who wasn't in my bottom four was in my danger zone. Obviously, I have an eye for this. Or I've just watched way to much AI in the past. No surprises yet, either good or bad. The group song sucked - which is to be expected. Don't know what next week's theme is. Look for David A. to do well again, look for David Hernandez to get a little more face time. I think Alexandrea Lushington is one to watch, even if she isn't the most talented. Again, I say the top of the dude pool is strong, even if the girls might be a little deeper top to bottom. If we're counting advances, I'm 19 of 20. Should hav started an AI pool.

American Idol Season 7 - 12 Girls

The girls started out slow. They picked up towards the end. Same format as with the guys. No one really stood out. There's a lot of potential with the girls, but the top guys had better performances than the girls - not good, considering the genre nights generally lend themselves better to the females.

Ramiele*
Carly
Alexandrea Lushington* - fun performance, gets props for singing Amy Winehouse during Hollywood week
Asia'h
Syesha - maybe thinks she's better than she is
Alaina Whitaker
Kady Malloy
Overmeyer
Brooke White
Kristy Lee Cook
Joanne
Amy Davis - yawn

American Idol Season 7 - 12 guys

For the real American Idol fans, the season has finally begun! Just got a chance to watch the 12 guys perform for this season's American Idol. You can find recaps anywhere else on the internet, so I'll just drop my rankings from the first show. Looks like 10 will advance, and I didn't see 10 worth advancing. With the rankings, some comments. Also, the * designates a J.Meeks lock to advance.

1. David Archuleta* - got after it while singing, immediately knew he didn't nail it, favorite so far
2. D. Hernandez
3. Cook - good take on familiar song
4. Jason Castro* - AI finally caught on to let people play an instrument. They probably wish they would have with Chris Daughtry.
5. Robbie
6. Michael Johns - he thinks he's a little better than he is. liked the beginning of the song, lost intensity/focus
7. Chiekieze
8. D. Noriega - unfortunately he'll move on
9. Colton - ditto
10. J. Yeager
11. Garrett - not good
12. Luke M. - didn't even listen to the whole song

Week Three

I would first just like to say that the Super Bowl killed me. My approach going in was not conservative by any means and I decided I would eat and drink all that I wanted to and I did. Was it worth it? The drinking yes, the food no. One of the best football games I have watched was the culprit of a weight gain this week. For the first time I gained weight and I did it in one day. I was 215.6 going into the Super Bowl day. If I could have maintained it would have been a loss for the week but instead I ended up at 217.4 the next day for a gain of 1.6 pounds for the week. Some of this hopefully is water weight. This helped me realize though that I can't eat and drink whatever I want and I have to watch myself. Here is to a better week, gotta go to class.

The lending 'crisis'

If I had money, I could offer to loan it to an individual. In offering that loan, I would evaluate the probablily that said person would repay the loan. Depending on that evaluation, I would request that they pay it back in a manner that is front loaded, based on how I evaluate their ability to repay the loan. Should I give a loan to said person, I am taking on the risk that the loan will not be repaid. However, I have assumed the risk that my loner will not repay me. And with that, I apologize for all those whom have take an elementary economics course.

My point comes now! This is the state in which many lenders (read: huge, huge banks) find themselves. Big banks, along with the investment houses that bought consolidated loans, assumed huge risks through giving loans to individuals and families that perhaps could not have paid them.

My point is that banks, not the federal government, should shoulder the burden of loans that have defaulted. These banks, which have posted incredible returns, should be assuming the burden of these defaulted loans. There is no reason why the federal government should be bailing these companies out. Banking is a for-profit endeavor. Or for-loss endeavor.

Patriots Song!

I found this on youtube. It is pretty sweet. Pretty much sums up how I feel about the whole thing. Enjoy!

Bush's Last Tax Cut

Bush's last tax cut just took effect at the beginning of this year. It doesn't apply to me, as I own no stock, and don't have the deductions to get under the earned income limit. If either of you know someone who has stock, this would be a good year to sell. The article didn't say, but I'd assume this only applies to long-term capital gains. Otherwise this would be a great time to dabble in some daytrading.

Side note: What percentage of people in this tax bracket do you suppose own stock? What percent do you suppose have a savings account? I'd guess more have a savings account, as should every American. So why does long-term capital gains get taxed at 0% whereas interest gets taxed at the normal rate? This to me, is a joke. Just like the reduced tax rate on dividends. Tax cuts for the top 10%!

Side side note: Why is bank interest taxed, anyway? The government should be promoting savings, rather than penalizing it. At the very most, interest should be taxed at the same rate as dividends, 15 percent. With the tax "rebate" and reduced interest rates, the government is telling us to take our money out of the bank and 'invest' it in $600 LCD TVs. Good for Wal-Mart, bad for Americans.

Week Two

Another week, another drop in weight. Although not as good as last week's loss of 2.4 pounds, this week still resulted in a loss which puts me closer to my goal. I idled around my previous weight most of the week. I managed to lose .4 pounds over the weekend. Oddly enough I think I need to consume more calories than I did last week. Many times I was well below 2,000 calories and the site recommends 2,650. This stopped my metabolsim and I think inhibited my weight loss. In the weight room I am making significant gains and my workout routine seems to be working and is easy to follow. I considered moving my weigh-in day to later in the week because Monday's can be pretty brutal at times. I decided not to, to help limit my intake on the weekends. This next Monday should be interesting being the day after the Super Bowl, but if nothing else it may keep me from super bloating myself. My goal for this week is to get below 215 pounds. My rate in weight loss has declined but I am still making progress and as I have learned before patience is weight-losses best friend.

Week Starting Weight: 216.2
Week Ending Weight: 215.8
Week +/-: -.4 pounds
Total +/-: -2.8 pounds

Jay Borschel

Jay Borschel, a high school friend of mine, has finally got the respect he deserves. After losing only one match his entire high school career he was recruited heavily but was still not even the best recruit in his Virginia Tech recruiting class. After Brands jumped ship for Iowa, so did his recruits. All of them lost a year of elgibility for the move. Now Jay, a third year Sophomore, is in his first season of collegiate wrestling attached to a university (the last two years he spent wrestling in collegiate tournaments unattached). After beating two wrestlers ranked in the top five at the National Duals the other weekend in Cedar Falls, Borschel has climbed up to 2nd in the nation. It was always fun watching Jay in high school prove his doubters wrong. When I would go to his house to play PS2 or plan something for our tailgating club his wall was covered with inspirational quotes and newspaper clippings of people who doubted him. Jay was not once ranked pre-season #1 in his weight class in high school. He proved everyone wrong winning 4 state titles at 103 lbs, 125 lbs, 152 lbs, and 171 lbs, the first to ever win four titles at four different weights. I am happy for Jay after the troubles he has faced between Virginia Tech and Iowa. Now that he is finally getting a chance to prove himself at the college level he is taking full advantage of it. How sweet would that be for him to add a National Championship title to his resume? Best of luck to Jay, the #2 ranked wrestler in the nation.

Week One

After one week my resolution is still intact. Even with using Monday as a marking point, I was still able to lose 2.4 pounds. My goal is to keep this pace up so that every 4 weeks I will lose 10 pounds. This would result in a loss of 20 pounds by Spring Break, not that I am going anywhere that will require less clothing than four shirts, long johns, a hat and mittens. However, 20 pounds is a nice "milestone" if you will and it would put be under 200 pounds for the first time in awhile. Cutting calories has been easier than I imagined. The website told me to shoot for 2,650 calories per day. I have been keeping it under 2,000 calories except for the weekend. I am pleased with week one's results after a weekend that included 50 cent draws, Hickory Park and Old Chicago. I will try to keep a weekly tab on my progress, not that anyone really cares.

Week One Start: 218.6
Week One End: 216.2
Week One +/-: -2.4 lbs
Total +/-: -2.4 lbs

Another reason why Time Warner sucks

Apparently, Time Warner wants to charge users for total data transmission. I'm not sure if this is in addition to the bandwidth rates they charge for now. In any case, they are trying to get their piece of the content-on-demand pie. Essentially, they are going to tax anything you don't get through their set-top box. (Assuming they offer video on demand)

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/time-warner-download-too-much-and-you-might-pay-30-a-movie/

Here's my comment,

Data networks are RATE limited. Therefore, providers current process of charging for Mbps is appropriate. Even at this, they are apparently over selling their bandwidth, because I've heard that cable companies do not provide the rates they advertise. This would contrast with power companies. They charge per kilowatt-hour because they have to input coal, natural gas, whatever to generate the electricity. Some of the charges are going to transmission costs, sure, but the majority is to the creation of energy. In essence, Time Warner is taxing content that they did not create - or even provide!

This is not the first questionable pricing scheme by TW. When looking into cable service, I was informed that TW would charge me $25 per outlet to have analog cable installed. I attempted to discover what this charge was for. Of course the sales rep did not know, but she switched my call to a technical service rep. She said that the charge was to "turn on" the service. I told her that I didn't think the service needed to be "turned on" for each outlet individually, that it needed to be hooked up at the box, then all my outlets would work. We didn't get anywhere, and I didn't get the TV service (I did, however, get cable internet). It turns out that the "installation" consisted of the technician making a coax cable and screwing one end into the wall and the other into your TV. That's something I probably could have handled.

New Year's Resolution to Look Like Zach Morris

Roughly five years ago I hit my pinnacly of obesity. Standing around 5'10 and weighing in at 25o pounds I was just about as wide as I was tall. I finally decided to put an end to it. Over the next year and a half or so I changed my lifestyle and transformed myself into a 6 ft tall 175 pound 21st century Zach Morris. I vowed to never get hefty again. Half-way through my third year in college I have once again turned into a chubster. Fully equipped with sugar tits, a flat tire and two chins, I have decided to change my lifestlye once again. Five years ago I didn't enjoy some of the greater pleasure life has to offer, namely Keystone Light and Jack Daniels. That is one more obstacle I am going to have to overcome this time. To help me in my quest to once again look like Zach Morris I found a site (Calorie-Count Plus) that keeps track of your daily allotment of calories taken in and calories burned. It gives you healthy alternatives for a variety of foods and also can serve as a poor man's facebook. It is my latest craze and hopefully it will last. To hold myself accountable I will try to keep updates of my progress.

Week One
Started January 14th
218.6 pounds

If done right I should lose approximately 1-2 pounds per week. I will use Monday's as my weighing date although I weigh myself daily. Wish me luck.

2008 Presidential Nomination Season Heating Up

A quick thought, isn't it interesting that all the candidates keep saying they are running for president. Technically, they are running for their party's nomination. It's hard to argue that we wouldn't be better off with more choices when it actually comes down to ballot box time, but the truth is there will be two presidential candidates: one representing the democrats, one representing the republicans. The current candidates seem to have forgotten this. One step at a time, and if one of the players (especially on the Democrat side) stepped up to say they wanted to lead their party, I think it would resonate with a lot of voters.

Well that wasn't that quick, at all. Here's what I wanted to include in the blog. USA Today has a Presidential Nomination Poll Tracker. It gives a neat look at where public opinion is headed and where it has been. Also, its about the only practical application of regression analysis I've ever seen.

Roger Clemens

Roger Clemens is slimy. The tape released at today's news conference reeks. McNamee seems like he's upset about something. Clemens sounds like he's acting. When Clemens says "I don't know who's on the line." He lies to him. Then Clemens talks about a press conference, but doesn't say that he's going to throw McNamee under the bus. McNamee starts breaking down at the end of the call and asks Clemens what he wants him to do. Clemens asks McNamee why he would tell everyone that he did steroids. Clemens didn't ask McNamee why he lied and McNamee didn't say that he lied. It sure sounds like McNamee is at the end of his rope. Someone who has everything to lose has nothing to gain by lying.

Clemens and his lawyers came across as pretty greasy, taping a phone call without the other person's knowledge and exposing that person's raw emotions to the world. If Clemens was really "pissed off" like he told Mike Wallace, why wasn't he screaming at McNamee, the person who started this whole thing?

Republican caucus

I'm deeply concerned about the caucus coming up in a few weeks. As a pretty liberal person, I don't normally follow republican politics too closely. I currently am following it in Iowa, since I heart Huckabee is making a big run. I really want that guy named Mitt or Mr. 9-11 to win, since they will both get crushed in the general election by any of the democrats. I'm worried about I heart Huckabee since he can probably win every southern state with his Christian ways, and will probably pick up a couple northern states as well (Possibly Iowa, Ohio and maybe Florida). Losing those states again would be detrimental towards Democrats goal of gaining control again. I think he would be an awful president who would blur the separation of church and state lines (he was a minister) and would decrease social programs and cut taxes all while heavily funding the military. Anyway, just a quick thought. Also, Mitt Romney's commercial is really funny. He says "I believe marriage should come before children because every child deserves a mother and a father." However, apparently he doesn't believe that every child deserves health care. Ah, the good, core values of a multimillionaire. Here's his health care policy:
Rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all, government-run system, we must recognize the importance of the role of the states in leading reform and the need for innovation in dealing with rising health care costs and the problem of the uninsured. By expanding and deregulating the private health insurance market, we can decrease costs and ensure that more Americans have access to affordable, portable, quality, private health insurance.

Putting health care in the hands of states isn't the best idea. It decreases buying and negotiating power that the federal government could have with a single payer system. The medicare reform did something similar thing where there are a bunch of private companies that people can chose from. Taking choice away from people sucks, but it also gave the government no power to decrease medicine costs that the single payer system is useful for.

Texans Win!

Texans had a big home win against the playoff bound Bucs. Tampa Bay was without Jeff Garcia, and their best WR, "Old Man" Joey Galloway was probably a step slow coming off an injury; however, Houston wasn't at full strength either. Ahman Green has been placed on IR, and Ron Dayne went down with an injury early in today's game. The Texans were able to manage the clock through short, controlled passes by Sage and a decent running game from rookie Darius Walker. They always seemed to get just enough for a first down. The Texans were effective on third down (10-17, 59%) which allowed them to keep the ball for most of the game.

Sage and Matt Schaub have been around for about the same length of time in the NFL. Sage had a few starts and some relief appearances before this year, whereas Schaub hadn't had much experience at all. Still, Schaub is supposed to be the man. So why do I have more faith in the Texans when Rosenfels is starting? He seems to manage the game a little better, has thrown more TD passes and seems to put up more consistent numbers than Schaub. Joe asked whether anyone was talking about Sage starting instead of Schaub. I haven't heard any talk yet; the Texans believe Schaub is their starting QB of the future, and they will play him when he's healthy. However, it has to be reassuring to the Texans coaching staff and front office that they have a backup QB that can win games both as a starter and in relief.

The Texans' Record Setting Season
Best record through 13 games: 6-7 (.452) 2007
Total team TD passes: 17, 2007

Are libraries still relevant?

An article in last Sunday's Houston Chronicle spoke of the deficincies of Houston's school's libraries. The state of Texas has established benchmarks (9000 books with an average age of 15 years or less) to measure libraries. Many of the schools in Houston's school districts fall short. The funding necessary to update these resources would be large. Even larger would be the funding necessary to staff these upgraded libraries. My question is, are libraries outdated? Over Thanksgiving, my grandfather was lamenting Monticello, Iowa's building of a new public library. He made a remark that most people are getting information from the internet. This made me think on a couple levels. One, I was unaware that he knew what the internet was. To my knowledge, neither of my grandparents have been exposed to the information superhighway, and two, he was on to something. I haven't been to a library since I moved to Houston. I can't remember the last time I went to a city library, and I don't believe I had ever checked out a book from the library at Iowa State. Are libraries still relevant?

Books are important. They continue to remain an important part of education. The state of Texas has differentiated between elementary school, middle school and high school libraries. I'd agree with them. Real books are more important for younger children, who are more likely to read fiction stories front to back. High schools students are more likely to use books as resources, and are looking for specific information. This information is more easily accessed digitally, however the "whole picture" that reading a book on a subject would give you would be lost. Certainly, there are different needs for different groups of users, but how can we adapt to provide the best resources for each group at a reasonable price?

Elementary schools should have large, fully staffed libraries. Especially in Houston, where many students don't speak English as a first language, libraries should have many books of varying difficulties. The librarian is important in stimulating students' interest in books and finding books that would be of interest to the student. However, the age requirement doesn't make much sense to me for younger students. My book about big cars, small cars probably still has relevance. High schools are a somewhat different story. I believe there should be a determined effort to digitize much of what is contained in libraries. Access could be restricted to computers in the school to protect copywrite laws. I enjoyed the traditional method of research - looking through indexes and reading large portions of books to find relevant material. However, I think that may be a little outdated. While real books will continue to be an important part of research, online searching should be appreciated as a larger part. Aside from the digital editions of books, another logical step would be to link the collections of all libraries in HISD. As one of the largest school districts in the nation, HISD could spread the burden of a complete library over many different schools and campuses. Keep an online record of all the books and allow students access to books at other sites. There are probably trucks travelling between the schools anyway, why not put books on them? This makes sense because students are there everyday anyway, so they are more likely to order a book from another site knowing they won't have to do much to pick it up and return it.

I feel libraries are still relevant, but they need to adjust to technology. Maybe they don't need the resources that they once did, just a little more innovation. Large school districts can benefit from distributing the burden and allowing students to check out books from any location. Finally, older students should be able to conduct research through digital access to collections. Google has begun an effort, and I believe most authors and publishers would be receptive to having their books available in an electronic format to students and educators.

$100 laptop and Amazon digital books

The rise of Amazon's new digital book, combined with the "$100" laptop ($188 is current cost of manufacturing) has big implications in world education if we can get past the cost. I find it interesting that schools in third world countries are buying laptops when they can't afford chalk, pencils, or anything else. However, with internet access, computers are far more important than any of that other stuff. Especially if you can download books on line, especially text books. Now there just needs to be someone with the courage to offer free downloads of old textbooks. I noticed in Mali, they just don't have any way to learn, since there aren't enough books for everyone. I think the combination of the $100 laptop, a few generous professors who say screw it, I'm open sourcing my textbook could revolutionize the bottom of the pyramid's education system. This will never happen, since professors make huge profits off of textbooks, hence the "revisions" of editions every few years. I would love to write some simple textbooks, like basic math, basic science, etc, and not copyright them and make them available for download. There would be no profit, but if you could get a bunch of people working on it, it wouldn't be too big of a deal. The problem is, with higher level of courses that are changing, it would be difficult since not having any financial incentive to advance the field could hinder development. But basic k-8 science and math aren't really changing as far as I know. Anyway, just a quick thought for the day.

Thoughts from Week 10

The Packers are the real deal. They seem to have found a running back in Ryan Grant. Donald Lee looks like a fine replacement for Bubba Franks. Brett Favre still has something left. His wide receivers look pretty good and spreading the ball around makes it tough for the defense to defend the pass.

The Vikings are terrible. Brooks Bollinger is not a NFL quarterback. He looks tentative in the backfield, can't complete a pass when necessary. They'd be better off lining up two left tackles and Peterson in the backfield. I understand now why Peterson doesn't get the ball as many times as he should. Minnesota can not convert third downs and their offense can't stay on the field. On the flip side, it looks like the way to keep AD from dropping 300 on you is to keep him off the field. The Packers have been running the ball, converting third downs, chewing the clock.

Fox just switched to a different game! We're now watching the Eagles play the Redskins. Washington missed a PAT: bad. They then chased the points after their second TD and missed the two point conversion: worse. Philly just scored, and what do they do? Chase the points. Of course they missed it. This wasn't as bad of a call as the Redskins, but I'd take the free point in the third quarter.

After ups (win vs. Colts) and downs (2 losses vs. Texans) last year, Jacksonville seems to have figured it out this year. Garrard seems comfortable with his position as starting QB, Gray has played well with Garrard hurt. The RB tandem of Taylor and Jones-Drew seems to keep both fresh and effective. Maybe most of all, the mood on the sidelines seems to be positive. Garrard congratulating Taylor on a TD run, Taylor congratulating Jones-Drew on a big run. Playing as a team is what it will take to win in the AFC.

The Vikings got the ball 1st and 10 inside the redzone. Sounds like AD time, right? I guess not. 1st down: B. Bollinger pass to TE, 7 yards. 2nd and 3rd: AD? nope, B. Bollinger pass to C. Woodson. Charles Woodson plays for the Packers. Who is calling these plays!?! You have three yards to gain and three plays to gain them. Perhaps you should give it to the NFL leading rusher / offensive ROY / best rookie RB of all time. Just a thought. (Editors note: Editor just read that Peterson was hurt in the third quarter and didn't return to the game. Editor still thinks Vikings should have run the ball instead of letting Bollinger pass.)

Eagles just missed another 2 point try. They now lead by 1 point, instead of three, with a little over 3 minutes left. The Redskins let Philadelphia score after giving them the ball back. The Redskins get the ball back with a little over 2 minutes to play and it's still a one possession game. If Philly kicks in the third, they could have kicked in the fourth to go up three and now they'd be up 10 with two minutes left. Take the free points early in the game!

Brian Westbrook accounted for 183 of the Eagles 379 total yards (48%) and 18 of the Eagles 33 points (54%). My guess is that he accounts for more total offense than any RB in the NFL. Andy Reid is probably overrated as a coach, but one thing he knows: giving his best player, Westbrook, the ball a whole bunch gives him the best chance to win the game. Coming into today's game, Westbrook had 1036 of the team's 2950 total yards (35%) and 36 of the team's 156 points (23%). That's a pretty sizable chunk of the offense.

A quick look showed that Adrian Peterson had 44% of the Vikings total yards and 32% of their points. Brad Childress should attend the Andy Reid school of coaching.

This just in ... Childress was the offensive coordinator for the Eagles before taking the Minnesota job! 2003 through 2005, while Childress was the offensive coordinator, Westbrook averaged 15.5 touches per game. The last season and a half? 22.3. Maybe it isn't so surprising that Peterson is only averaging 18 touches a game.

Does anyone suck the life out of a telecast quite like Joe Buck? He's got an uncanny way of making even the most exciting games nearly unwatchable.

I just noticed that every article on espn.com has a comment section except for Bill Simmons. Here's the comment I just submitted to Page 2.

Why is there a comments section on every other article on espn.com except for Bill Simmons'? Jemele Hill gets constant harassment, TMQ gets railed for his articles but Simmons gets a free pass? I think readers would appreciate the chance to let other espn.com readers know how they feel about The Sports Guy.

We'll see what they have to say.

21 Tags! A very productive Sunday.

Sage Wins!

This post is about a week late, but with the Texans on a bye, I get one too.



Sage looked pretty good in his first start with the Texans. The Raiders aren't much of a team, but there are not gimme wins for the Texans. Rosenfels did some work with his feet, including a 14 yard scramble on the Texans' first offensive play of the game and a fourth down QB sneak. Kubiak has confidence in Sage and his ability to run the offense, going for it on fourth down from the Oakland 5. That decision was rewarded with a TD, only the second touchdown on an opening drive all season.

The one issue that Rosenfels has is under throwing deep balls. He also has a tendency to lead the receiver into the middle of the field, allowing DBs to make a play on the ball. The second play of the second quarter was a deep pass that was intercepted. Walters, the WR, was uncovered and had a lot of ground. If Sage throws the pass so Walters straightens his route out and puts the pass 5 yards deep in the endzone, it goes for a TD, or at the worst, an incompletion, because the DB doesn't have a chance to make a play on it. This quote, about his 4th quarter TD pass, pretty well sums up his hesitancy to air it out.

"Andre' ran a great route," Rosenfels said. "I saw that he had 3 yards on him
and threw it. I thought I overthrew him, but he ran that sucker down."

Overall, Sage had an effective day. The Raiders had been allowing about 175 yards passing, and had allowed 6 TD passes through 7 games. Sage's numbers were 180 yds and 1 TD, which is pretty good for a backup QB making his third career start.

Look for Matt Schaub to start next week against the resurgent Saints.

The Texans' Record Setting Season
Best record through 9 games: 4-5 (.444) 2007, 2004

Coal - the first step in energy independence

A coworker brought up an interesting point. Oil is valued in US dollars. As the dollar continues to decrease in value, oil becomes cheaper for other countries. This increases the demand worldwide and increases the price for the US. Specifically, the Canadian dollar has increased in value 26% against the US dollar since the beginning of the year. That means more and more US dollars are needed to purchase a barrel of oil. The same would be true for natural gas, a source of energy that is increasing in favor in the US.

Burning coal is a major source of pollution, yes, however, coal is cheap and plentiful within the United States. A major part of any energy policy should be the continued work toward energy independence. This, as shown above, would be good for the economy, as well as international relations.

That's a long introduction to what I found in the Houston Chronicle on Friday. Thad Hill, president of NRG Texas had this to say,

"Coal is our most abundant energy resource, and there's no way for the U.S. to get anywhere near energy independence without finding an acceptable way to use coal."

That's an expected statement from a company that operates a coal power plant, but it makes it no less true. Coal is a national resource and we should be looking for ways to use coal in a cleaner manner. Check out how NRG is working toward that in Friday's Chronicle article.

Sustainability

I recently looked in this magazine called Dwell. Its an architecture magazine, and the thing I found interesting was that a lot of the "trendy" products in there were popular because they were sustainable. This has a major implication that "green" things will become a very profitable future (Therefore many people will start working that area) and also will help the environment significantly. People in the developed world love trendy things and if going green is the new thing, we could make significant strides reducing our carbon footprint. It seems like architects are on the fast track to become green builders, while engineers seem to not care. Obviously this is a generalization, but seems to be true on the whole. However, engineers are the key to developing environmentally friendly buildings, cars, and whatever else. See this article for something about using fly-ash from power plants to create bricks. I think its pretty interesting and hope engineers get fully on board.

Another Sage Sighting

Sage played again in San Diego, this time because of a Matt Schaub concussion. Unfortunately for Sage, Houston had already spotted the Chargers 32 points by halfway through the 2nd quarter. He still looked effective passing against a talented Chargers defense, even though the play calling was obviously skewed away from the run. It sounds like Rosenfels will get the start this Sunday vs. the Raiders, a winable game for the Texans. Hopefully they let Sage throw the ball around from the beginning.

The Texans Record-Setting Season
I can't think of anything right now.

Warren Buffet and taxes

I watched NBC Nightly News tonight and they had a story about Warren Buffet's tax beliefs. He feels that he should pay more taxes than he currently does, even though he has no tax shelters and said "I pay exactly what congress tells me too." Anyway, I've always been a fan of Buffet since he's a self made billionaire who has always been considered by most to be an honest investor who never takes advantage of people. Anyway, you should read this article, it's pretty interesting. From the initial thought, I agree that people who make less shouldn't pay a higher percentage than multimillionaires. Oh well, quick, thought. By the way, he offered $1 million dollars to anyone in the top 400 richest in the U.S. who can prove that their secretary pays a smaller percentage in taxes than they do. Gotta like Warren Buffet.

Sage!!!

I'm officially the only Texans fan still excited. There's the tough matchup against the Chargers this weekend, the tough loss to the Titans last weekend and the embarrassment of the Sunday before that. What was once an over .500 season isn't even an even .500 season anymore. The prospects look grim at best. No playoff hopes. Last in the division, behind by 3.5 games. But I see something through the darkness ... behold ...

SAGE!!!

Sage's four fourth quarter TD passes were impressive, as were his 290 yards passing. Between last weeks heroics and the garbage time he played the week before that, Sage has thrown for 372 yards and 5 TDs. Schaub in those two games? 282 yards and 0 TDs. Here are the season lines for both QBs.

Sage has a slightly higher completion percentage, essentially the same yds per attempt, the same number of TDs (with only a quarter of the attempts), a higher rating, and maybe most impressive of all, he hasn't been sacked. Granted, he played garbage time against Jacksonville and the Titans were playing prevent in the fourth, but this was the same line behind which Carr got sacked 41 times last year. He should be getting sacked on accident!

It isn't set in stone that Sage will start. I hope he does, because I'd like to see him play. Unfortunately, Schaub will start the week after that and all through the rest of the season. Rosenfels probably deserves a chance to start at least part of a season, but he won't get that opportunity in Houston.

The Texans Record Setting Season

Even with the two losses, we're still in the midst of what could be the greatest season of Texans football ever. I'll add some new records every week and link to my ever growing list.

Most touchdown passes in a game: 4, Sage Rosenfels 10/21/07

spread offense

This will be a short post about how I think defenses could catch up to the spread offense. First, the defensive line would stay the same, because they still need to be able to stop the run just in case. Next, the linebackers would be smaller and faster. They'd be more like safeties. This allows better pass coverage on the excess amount of people who go out for passes. The safeties and would be more like corners and corners would stay the same. Making the defense smaller and faster would end the spread offense. You could also play the safeties shallower from the start if you knew they were quick enough to not get burned, which would allow them to help out with the run. I kind of like spread offenses, it makes the nfl more exciting, but I can't believe teams can't stop it yet. Also, TMQ made a good point last week about how all of the Patriots passes are down the middle deep. I know other teams have that figured out, but I think Moss is opening up the middle of the field for people like Wes Welker since he's double covered about every play now. I think that shows how good Moss still is. Anyway, thats my brief football column. Let me know your thoughts. I should probably do some real work now.

Wind energy in Texas

As I've said before, the key to making wind energy truly useful will be finding a way to store the energy locally and dispense as a more consistent power source. The link below talks about Texas' increasing use of wind energy and work being done to store it.

http://www.isa.org/Content/ContentGroups/News/20071/October30/Understanding_wind_powers_variability.htm

Texans win! vs. Dolphins 22-19

This is why you visit houstonramblings: hard-hitting Texans insight! Sure, the Texans won, but did they look good? Sortof. They scored 22 points, which isn't shabby, but 15 came from field goals, which isn't good. And three of those field goals were longer than 50 yards, which means they didn't move the ball very far into Dolphins' territory. Once they got the ball on the other side of the 50, it didn't seem that they tried very hard to score touchdowns. But it was an awful lot of trouble for them to get the first one (4 rushes to gain 3 yards). You'd like to see them put more emphasis on the TD because field goals aren't going to beat teams like Indianapolis. That said, I had Kris Brown on one of my fantasy teams (23 points, if you're scoring at home), so I'm not complaining. And neither should Texans fans, a win is a win.

The Texans Record Setting Season
The Texans are 3-2 after beating the winless Dolphins 22-19. This is, apparently, the first time in franchise history they've started 3-2. Not sure if that qualifies for "best start" status. It is, however, better than .500, which is rare for the Texans. In 2004, the Texans got their third win in the sixth game of the season. Every other season, it's taken them many more games to get the third win. The Texans have only been over .500 for 3 weeks before this season (1-0 in the first two seasons and a 4-3 start in 2004). This is already the fourth week they've been over .500 this season. Now you can see why Texans fans are excited!

Africa and solar lighting

Interesting advancements in technology are making electricity more and more feasible each day for people in rural Sub-Sahara Africa and other impoverished areas. So why is nothing happening to reduce the number of people without electricity from 1.6 billion? It is predicted that 1.3 billion will still be without electricity in 2030 (a large percentage reduction, but 1.3 billion is a lot of people). I feel this is unacceptable, considering the massive benefits electricity offers in life quality.

Solar energy is getting more and more affordable, micro-hydroelectric is very feasible (People in Alaska use it). So people can have power without the high cost of extending the already overburdened grid that exists in developing nations. I say overburdened grid because the power cuts in and out constantly in third world countries. At least that's what I experienced and have been told by people who have been in countries in central and south America and other parts of Africa. Back to the question at hand, why isn't this happening? I think there are three major problems. First, people can't afford the initial costs of these systems. Some microfinance organizations are the scum of the Earth, charging up to 50% interest rates. Also, most of these are designed to finance entrepreneurs not people who just want lights, radios, water purification, refrigeration for vaccines and other important factors. One microfinance organization that has good reviews is http://www.kiva.org/. I've heard good things and read a lot of good reviews. It's a really interesting idea at a minimum. You loan people in poor areas money to improve their business at no interest, and then you probably get your money back. They have volunteers on the ground evaluating business plans, and deciding who should get finance. Once someone has income, they can purchase small solar electric systems. One example is the nurse in one of the villages I was in. He has a good income as an educated state employee, and he bought a system that has two fluorescent lights, a radio and a small tv along with a lead acid deep cycle battery. All that for $180.
Which brings me back to the three problems hindering electricity to spread to rural areas. It is damn hard to distribute things to rural areas in Mali, and I'm assuming this is the same case in other rural third world places. It took us about 4 hours to drive 90 km (~55 miles). It would be very tough for trucks to pass certain parts of the roads, however, it is possible. The third is electrical storage devices. Batteries suck in hot environments and everyone knows this is a common problem, yet thats what everyone is using in their solutions (We're guilty too). So you have a solar panel that lasts 20 years and a battery that lasts 3 years, if it's buried in the ground.

I think there is a problem with third world engineering in general also. People go in there thinking they're going to fix everything because they're smart and educated. Clearly, this isn't the case. It takes years to develop a working solution in an unfamiliar culture and climate. Many people who do work in developing nations aren't as smart as they think either. A classic third world example is this stove that a team designed, called a Lorena stove. I'm not going to insult the team that made it, they worked hard and tried to make a difference, but the stove ended up using more wood than a 3 stone fire, due to a misunderstanding of heat transfer. The material ended up absorbing heat, not insulation. That stove is everywhere in the world. It does remove smoke from houses, which is a very good thing, as wood smoke causes TONS of health problems, including blindness and infant deaths. But, people ended up not using them since they had to go and collect more wood than previous stoves. Another stove example is a solar cooker. These are good ideas, but in some places, women called them stick stoves. This is because the women wouldn't have dinner cooked at the right time, then they would get beaten. Women in many third world countries are treated as second class citizens, who aren't allowed education and other things I would consider rights. In Mali, the women don't eat with men, and the men even say it's because they're not equals. Women work ridiculously hard. A feminist in the U.S. would probably go on a killing spree of dudes if one went to a developing nation.

Also, a lot of people just design a product here, then go and drop it off in a poor country and just leave. They never go back and redesign. They just assume it works here, it'll work there. I don't think we have any solutions that really work for any of their problems, but effort is the first step towards some success.

So our plan is currently something that is semi-new but kind of used in Kenya. Kenya sets up battery charging stations where people can pay a buck or two to charge their car battery. The charging stations are located on the electrical grid. They then use this battery to power whatever they want in their village. I'm guessing most people power fluorescent lights, although, there are probably tvs and radios depending on what people can afford. So our idea is to create a charging station off of the excess power created from the solar panels for the water systems that are installed in a few villages in Mali. We'll give the batteries to a person in the village, who will distribute the batteries. He will then charge people for recharging their batteries. He'll save 1/2 of the money he makes to buy new batteries when the old ones crap out, which will probably be 3 years. The pay back period that we estimated is two years, so the person will have a pretty good business. Just let me know what you think.

Alright, I've wasted enough of my time and yours. And I didn't proofread, so ignore the grammar and whatnot.

This post was kind of weird, since i usually try to stick with sports, but I've just been thinking about this quite a bit lately.

Salary cap and the NFL draft

John Clayton has written a pretty good article discussing the merits of the NFL salary cap. Apparently, the salary cap could end in 2008. The NFL salary cap seems to work better than the other three sports, in no small part because of contracts that aren't guaranteed. Unlike baseball and basketball, where unproductive players are dragged along and paid huge sums well past their effectiveness, football players can be cut. Owners and GMs, in any sport, put pressure on coaching staffs to play the expensive players, even when there are better options sitting on the bench. More guaranteed money in contracts given to players, especially unproven draft picks, will continue to handcuff front offices and coaching staffs alike - with the play on the field suffering.

Perhaps more interesting in Clayton's article is his talk of quality teams filling needs through the draft. I thought I had written about this, but wasn't able to find it. A championship team doesn't necessarily need to have great steals in the late rounds of drafts, but just use all of their picks effectively. Look at teams like Indianapolis, New England and the Chargers. All have formed their teams through great use of their first round picks. This, as Clayton says, allows you to fill your team with good, young, cheap players. The good teams fill in as needed through free agency or trades, being careful not to spend too much in any given year. Man, this sounds really familiar, I'm disappointed I hadn't written about this before. This was as close as I got.

Championship teams are made through the draft - regardless of the sport. (See
San Antonio Spurs, New England Patriots)

It seems like a pretty basic idea, but requires foresight from the GM/team president and patience from the owner and fan base.

Mali

I arrived in Mali last night after an excruciating journey through airports and the pain of sitting on a jet for 3 hours, then 8 hours, then 6 hours. We got to circle Bamako for about 1/2 hour while they tried to get the landing gear to go down, which it finally did (obviously). Fun stuff. Also, apparently the blogger is in french, and I can't figure out how to change it, so we'll see. Anyway, the reason I'm blogging is I'm still in Bamako waiting for a ride out to the village. I guess the two cars were full, so they had to go and come back. They decided to leave the guy who doesn't speak French, so I just went and sat at a bar for a couple hours. It was air conditioned and glorious. I drank a couple beers while watching some golf on tv. I tried to leave a tip at the end and the guy ran after me to give me my money back. So then I went onward to the internet cafe to kill some more time. I wandered around the city for awhile today also, but it's hard to find your way around a city when there are no street signs. So while I was wandering, I decided to get on a green truck that piles people in the back and drives them around. It cost me 125 cfa, which is less than 20 cents. I had no idea where it was going, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. So I rode for about 5 minutes, then got off and then took one going the opposite direction. I guess it worked out since I ended up back to an area that I recognized. Alright, thats about all I have for now. I'll post an in depth Africa blog when I get back.

Rafael Nadal - the greatest ever?

If Roger Federer were not around, would Nadal be considered the best ever? Or at least on the verge of it? It seems as though Nadal and Federer have been meeting each other often in the finals of tournaments. As Federer displayed today, he still owns the grass, and Nadal owns the clay, but what about other surfaces? How many times, exactly, has Nadal lost to Federer in the finals of grand slam events? How many grand slam titles would Nadal have if he didn't have to play Federer?

Federer and Nadal have combined to win the previous 8 grand slam championships and 11 out of the last 15. I was surprised to find out that Nadal is 3-2 against Federer in head-to-head matches in grand slam events. The three wins have been at the French Open and the two losses have been at Wimbledon. Four of the matches occurred in the finals, one in the semis. Even if we assume Nadal wins the two Wimbledons, that puts him at 5, still a long way from the 11 that Federer has.

Considering Nadal has not won a grand slam event other than the French Open, even if we give him a couple Wimbledons. Winning all four of the grand slam tournaments seems to be a prerequisite for being part of the greatest ever debate. That's the knock on Federer and that would be a knock on Nadal as well. Nadal would be good, but not nearly as dominant as Federer has been over the past five years. He'd easily be number one (Federer and Nadal have been 1 and 2 for more than 100 weeks) but there wouldn't be a debate quite yet.

That said, Nadal is only 21 - Federer is 26. Unless Federer can get lucky, Nadal should continue his dominance on clay and continue to get better on grass. It was evident today that Nadal is playing much better on grass and is gaining on Federer. Nadal has been able to combine his athleticism with a more strategic game. As Federer slows down and Nadal picks up, it isn't unreasonable to think of Federer catching Sampras at 14 grand slam titles and Nadal closing in on Federer.

NBA Finals - Game 3

Hopefully I have something to say for this game, I might have let it all out there on Sunday. But, I'm not going to be watching Game 4 from my couch, so this might be my last chance to write about these Finals.


Too much is being made about San Antonio losing by a bunch to the Jazz in Game 3 of the Conference Finals. The big difference between these two series is that the Jazz were good. We'll be able to tell quickly whether the Spurs are on point or still playing a little loose away from home. I don't think Popovich lets them play like that, knowing they have to play three here.


8:08 Game starts, deliberate possession by the Spurs. I don't like the first play with Finley trying to post up. That should be Duncan.

8:10 Duncan is good. Another nice shot by him. There's no reason a Spurs player should take a tough shot without getting Duncan at least one touch. Same should go for Cleveland and LeBron, but it doesn't.

8:14 Well, I didn't think the fouls were going to play a big part in this one, but it seems they might at this pace. And now a make-up call for the Oberto foul.

8:16 Van Gundy (I think I called him Stan last time) is talking about players cutting themselves with razorblades instead of calling timeouts. Good point, but a little creepy at the same time.

8:30 Bowen should ask if he can shoot his free throws from behind the line in the corner. I'm pretty sure he'd shoot 80%. They'd have to look better than those two ducks he just put up there.

8:31 Duncan eats up carrot top (I can't spell his name). When he thinks he has somebody, he'll make a quick move to the basket, but he's also usually a lot closer than when Z is guarding him.

8:33 If you don't think these people read the stories about them, look at Duncan after the fouls called on him. Hand up after the first one, no bug eyes after the second, questionable, call.


SECOND QUARTER


Well, this is a closer game than the previous two games. I suppose that's a good thing. Mostly for the Cavaliers. The longer they can keep the crowd in this, the better off they'll be. I'm getting warmed up (read: more beers) so look for this to get better.


8:44 Probably the first time in the series that the Cavs have an advantage with their lineup. The Spurs should try to dictate the tempo a little bit with Duncan on the bench with two fouls. The uptempo game is going to play in the hands of the home team.

8:46 Henry Abott (and everybody else associated with ESPN) is sitting courtside blogging this game live. Where do I sign up for that job? This is as close as I can get to that. This one is probably closer to what I'd be qualified for.

8:53 Parker is getting involved, this is good for the Spurs. The Cavs have good ball movements sometimes, but once it gets to LeBron he just holds it.

8:55 Well, another make up call. LeBron gets his third on a questionable call, the Duncan gets called for his third. Neither were that bad of calls. Just seems suspect that Duncan gets his third right after LeBron gets his. Tim had a little bit of the bug eyes, but he didn't look as bad as James did after his foul.

9:02 This game kinda sucks. I either need the Spurs to dominate and put on a clinic or LeBron to do something special. With the star for each team sitting on the bench, not much chance of either of those happening.

9:09 Lead down to 3 after Cleveland's largest lead of 8 points. The Spurs generally make up ground quietly after a timeout. After the Cavs being up all first half, the Spurs could tie this ... Horry hits a three. Cavs take a time out. It won't surprise me if S.A. leads going into halftime. Or if I fall asleep during halftime, don't wake up until the game's over, and not really feel bad about it.

9:12 And the Spurs take the lead going into half! Hopefully everyone believes me when I say I write this as the game goes. That basket was set up by Parker attacking the lane even though there was 7 seconds left. The foul allowed the other Spurs to get down the court, call a play and spread the court for Parker.

HALFTIME

It's not good for the home team. Parker hasn't been anywhere near as effective as he as been in the first two games, Duncan had to sit, LeBron played most of the first half, and the role players for the Cavs are playing pretty well. They're still down by two.

Here's what I'd say if I were on the halftime commentary team. [showing highlights of first half] JMeeks: THIS IS WHY THEY CALL THE SPURS A BORING TEAM!

9:34 Second half starts, yawn. They show a shot of P.J. Carlesmo talking with Popovich. It seems the best teams in the NBA have a former head coach working as an assistant. Dallas has had Del Harris helping out Avery Johnson. And the Spurs have Carlesmo. I can't think of any other teams like this, but it seems to have helped these two.

9:42 I tried finding Drew Gooden's dunk against Iowa State, but it apparently hasn't found its way on to Youtube. I remember watching Kansas play and Gooden having a killer windmill-type jam from the side in the open court. It was not appreciated by the home crowd.

9:49 I'm about ready to split-screen this thing and start playing some Tiger Woods on the XBox. Seriously, this is a finals game? I respect the Spurs and enjoy watching them when they are playing well. Unfortunately for them, all anyone will remember is them being difficult to watch, when in fact, the Cavs on any given night are three times as painful to watch as the Spurs on their worst night.

9:53 Another call for the home team. Carrot top isn't anywhere near set and Ginobili gets called for the foul. Marc Jackson thinks it's a good call, Mike Breen backs him up and Van Gundy calls them out. No way that was a foul on Manu. He looks for contact, but it looked like the lane was his.

9:56 Gooden gets 3 fouls in 4 possessions - one Cavs possession and two Spurs possessions! To say he isn't very good at defense would be ... absolutely correct.

9:56 1/2 In case anyone forgot ...




I was looking for Brent Barry winning the Dunk contest and I got an added bonus of seeing Finley back when he could jump! In NBA Live 2003, Finley is on the All-90s team and he is a machine. He could dunk like whoa. Guess this is where they got it from.



10:14 Duncan is getting more active on the offensive end. He's passing up some shots to gallop across the lane for some running hooks. It seems to be working for him. What's a little scary is Duncan putting it on the floor in traffic. Not quite as graceful as some, but effective.



10:26 Carrot top needs to chill out. He's made some pretty bad plays in this game. He reminds me of Tommy Boy and the dinner roll. He's just so excited! Then he comes down and hacks the crap out of Duncan - you could hear it! - and no call.



10:36 This was almost a game. Carrot top takes an ill-advised shot. Go figure. LeBron will not have kind words for him during this timeout. If Mike Brown is half of a coach, he'll play Z for the rest of the game.



10:48 Maybe a foul on LeBron. Probably better for him in the long run that they didn't call it. If he makes the first two and misses the second, that's pretty rough. Tony Parker is using any excuse to show his "O-face".








That's my T.V, by the way.


END OF GAME



Well, this was exciting! I retract my previous statement about blogging this in person at the finals. I would have rather bought nude pics of Amanda Beard on my ESPN corporate credit card and called it research. I bet I'm more serious about playing darts than I am about watching the second half of the game on Thursday. Can't wait to blog about something more fun to watch ... like the Astros ... or the Texans.

NBA finals - Game 2

Alright - I thought about writing about things during Game 1, but didn't. Hopefully I'll find stuff tonight to write about. This will probably be disjointed, oh well. I'm including timestamps because that tends to be the standard. Let's see how long it takes before I get bored of this.


8:02 A quick word from our sponsors: This blog is being fueled by the last of Reggie Roby's Miller Lite. He's in Europe and I'm stuck here - he can deal with it.

8:06 Sick pass by Parker - right through Larry Hughes' legs! Easy bucket for Duncan and a foul, too! Hughes didn't even turn around! Why is he playing instead of Daniel Gibson? This might be why - Gibson is making just more than 400 grand this year. Hughes? $13.3M.

8:15 Everyone on the Spurs knows what they want to do with the ball before they get it. When Oberto got the ball under the basket, he went straight up with it. Mike Finley either takes a shot or passes immediately. No one on their team passes up an open shot, even if they aren't one of the 'big three.' You don't see that with Cleveland. It seems like they might be thinking they're taking shots away from LeBron when they take a shot. By taking a shot or getting the ball to someone else, you're not giving the defense a chance to rotate.

8:26 Gibson with another nice shot. I think this would be a good chance to point out that he's from Houston.

8:33 That makes me think that the Houston pro teams should be looking at talent originating in the Houston area. Gibson was picked with the 42nd overall. The Rockets had the 32nd overall. They apparently forgot about Hakeem and Clyde - players who brought championships to the Rockets after playing for the University of Houston. Championship teams are made through the draft - regardless of the sport. (See San Antonio Spurs, New England Patriots)

8:49 Break in the action. Check this out - I think I'm going to try to watch this girl play some time. She's 6'5 and has dunked a couple times in games.




9:05 Wow, San Antonio is up by like 28 points! I must not be paying attention. At least we don't have to hear about how Cleveland is "only" down by so much.

9:22 This has turned into quite the whooping. So much for Cleveland coming out a bunch stronger tonight.

9:45 I'm back. Oh gee, I'm getting tired of Tim Duncan's reactions to every foul. If he doesn't think he fouled somebody, he should scream obscenities at the refs and kick the ball and make a lot bigger deal about it. That whole bug-eyed thing should be really embarrassing for him. (Note: That was sarcasm. What I'm really tired of is everyone complaining about it. Seems like a relatively minor thing for people to jump on him about. None of his fouls are really that extreme and he deals with it in a civilized manor. Seems like a better way of handling it than laying down on the scorer's table.)

10:01 Not much to write about. Spurs are owning.

10:04 Horry with his fourth block! Once upon a time, he played for the Rockets, too. Won two championships with them. He's another player that the Spurs have had good success with. Horry is here to win a championship, he understands his role, and the coaches do a nice job of playing him effectively. It's tough to beat the experience that 6 rings brings you. I've got to believe that Horry is coming back next year. The Spurs aren't going to be changing much next year, would have to be considered favorites out of the West again, and Horry continues to get meaningful minutes and contribute. If I were the Spurs, I'd ask him back.

10:08 As I wrote the previous, Horry hits another three. Go figure.

10:15 So, Spurs up 27 starting the fourth quarter and Duncan and Parker are sitting on the bench. Is there even a chance this series makes it back to San Antonio. With the 2-3-2 (which I hate!) the next three are in Cleveland. Doesn't give the home team much of a chance for a celebration. Besides, why would you do it one way for the rest of the playoffs and then change it when it matters?

10:39 Don't look now, but this turned into a game for a little bit. This probably isn't a bad thing for either team. The Spurs will have some things to work on for next week. Well Mr. Marc Jackson just said the Cavaliers can feel good going into game three because they made a comeback against San Antonio's good players, but that was not the case and Stan Van Gundy agreed with me. Duncan and Parker sat long enough for Cleveland to get some momentum then came off the bench a little cold. It brought some competitiveness back into a game that was really done shortly after it started. The Spurs end on a nice note. Cleveland ends with a loss. Moral victories don't exist in the finals. The "boring" Spurs won a game that could be considered high scoring for these playoffs and scored 103 points on cruise control for most of the game.

Recap: Look for the Spurs to come out in game 3 in Cleveland focused and without the laughing and looseness they displayed in S.A. The crowd will be rowdy, but not enough. LeBron showed flashes towards the end of this one, but the Spurs' defense takes him out for large parts of the game. Duncan will assume his silent assassin demeanor and Parker continues his ways. Fouls tend to go the way of the home team, but they haven't been a factor in either of the first two, so I don't see them making the difference in Game 3. We'll see together.

Don't know if the blog is making a comeback for Game 3. I enjoyed it, included some stuff that I'd wanted to get onto the site, and it took some of my attention away from an otherwise uneventful whooping. After reading some other "analysis" I'll probably have more to say.