NEW ORLEANS (AP) — One of the most accurate arms in the NFL had no trouble finding receivers Sunday night.

Thousands lined the streets to catch small, foam footballs thrown by Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees while he served as monarch of Bacchus, one of the biggest parades of the Carnival season that culminates in Mardi Gras.

The New Orleans Saints quarterback threw 10,000 black and gold footballs, along with the usual beads and doubloons, from his perch atop the float that was designed to look like a Roman chariot. Brees dressed as the Roman god of wine in a short gold and red tunic, gold boots and cape and a crown of gold grape leaves.

A cadre of police officers and parade officials had to accompany Brees from the limo that dropped him off at his float. He was accompanied by his wife, Brittany, who wore a white gown and gold crown. An eager crowd chanted his name and the familiar "Who Dat" cry of Saints fans.

The usual Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold were replaced along the parade route with the black and gold of the Saints jerseys worn by thousands.

"I missed the Saints parade," said Henry Exterstern, 50, of New Orleans. "No way I was going to miss him this time."

It was the second parade this week for Brees, after the Super Bowl victory parade Tuesday that celebrated the Saints' win over the Indianapolis Colts a week ago.

Sunday's parade appeared to get an attendance boost from the presence of Brees.

"This is a mad house," said Jennifer LeBlanc, 34, who said she sees the parade every year. "This is the biggest crowd I've ever seen. And every one is having a great time."

Brees began throwing the beads and footballs as soon as he boarded the float, giving a thumbs up to people who caught them.

As the float began to move, Brees took the microphone and chanted, "Who Dat, Who Dat."

"We love you New Orleans," he shouted. "Hail Bacchus."

The final weekend of Carnival saw dozens of parades roll throughout the New Orleans area. Another huge parade, Orpheus, is scheduled for Monday. More parades will roll on Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, when businesses will also be closed and the French Quarter and the parade routes will be crowded with revelers.

It all comes to a close at midnight Tuesday as police clear Bourbon Street and the heavily Catholic city welcomes Lent.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

We skipped out on New Orleans this year… it had to be freaking' crazy down there! Had a great time at Spanish Town and Poseidon, tho!

Drew Brees has sure had his share of parades in the past week... first in Disney, then the Krewe of Champions, then there he is again as the King of Bacchus! Classic pic of Sean Payton wearing LSU Beads with Paul Mainieri holding the Lombardi Trophy right before Orpheus rolled!

Hope everyone enjoyed the carnival season! No more King Cake until next year! :(

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The theme says it all.

"XXXpress It!" As if the Spanish Town parade wasn’t naughty enough already!

Locals have come to expect  lots of risqué  behavior at this long and winding, flamingo-ey festival — a pink parade of adult-themed humor. What else could you expect from groups with names like The Wasted Krewe, I-Da-Ho Potato Queens, or Krewe of Mixed Nuts?

The organizers of Spanish Town take delight in creating controversy, lampooning locals and poking political fun at the newsmakers of the past year. Be prepared to see outrageous costumes and floats that demand a double take. And don't be surprised at the throws you might see sailing through the air!

Spanish Town traditionally draws large crowds, including families. Probably one of the tamer spots to view the parade is from the alcohol-free family zone located on the north side of Convention Street between 5th and 7th streets, according to Board president Bruce Childers.

The parade starts at noon Saturday and features 70 floats this year. The 2010 dignitaries include King Tom Sylvest, Queen Liz Walker and Grand Marshal Nick Spitzer.

(And in all fairness, the “XXX” theme also refers to the krewe’s 30th anniversary.) Go to http://www.spanishtownmardigras.com for more information.

POSEIDON PARADE DEBUTS

While Spanish Town is winding down, members of the brand-new Krewe of Poseidon will be gearing up for their parade, which will begin about 4 p.m.

“Please wait for us,” said Kathy Farber, who with husband Steven, founded Poseidon last year. “We promise it will be worth the wait.”

The co-ed krewe has adopted the theme “Mardi Gras Myths and Legends,” illustrated by 14 floats and about 50 more units, including several bands, the LSU Tiger Girls, and many dance groups. Special throws include the krewe’s collectible polystone pendants  and illuminated seahorses, as well as an oversized plush blue and silver Silvio the Seahorse.

Grand marshals are Randy Jackson from the band Zebra and local blues artist Chris LeBlanc. Don’t miss the krewe’s mascot, Neptune, and his walking fish.

“We’re also very proud of our Dreams Come True Foundation float,” Farber said. “We heard that there were a lot of children with serious illnesses who loved Mardi Gras and had never ridden in a parade before, so we thought it would be wonderful to invite them to ride with us and give them the gift of a special Mardi Gras experience. It’s our way of doing something for our community.”

For more information, go to http://www.spanishtownmardigras.com.

SOUTHDOWNS AFTER DARK

The Krewe of Southdowns parade kicks off the weekend tonight at 7 p.m. with a route that winds through that normally quiet neighborhood.

The theme this year is “Southdowns Really Cooks” and the krewe royalty includes Grand Marshal Mike Futrell, King Gus Wilkes and Queen Kate Kane LaBorde.

The nighttime procession starts at Lee High School and features lighted floats, lots of music and flambeau carriers.

For more information, visit www.southdowns.org.

HISTORY IN NEW ORLEANS

A historical moment will take place Sunday, Feb. 14, in New Orleans, from the balcony of the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel, according to the captains of Orpheus and Bacchus.

While the Bacchus parade pauses on Canal Street, Orpheus nobility Coach Sean Payton will salute Bacchus Monarch Drew Brees.

The toasting tradition between the two super krewes began in 2003, and the New Orleans Saints’ Superbowl last Sunday win makes the tradition a Mardi Gras moment to remember.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Can you believe that it SNOWED this morning?!?!? I wonder if the Saints have anything to do with that?

Looks like another awesome lineup of parades in Red Stick this weekend… and we're not afraid of a little cold weather!

Besides, I gotta go see our TigerToons artist King Tom Sylvest!!!

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NEW ORLEANS — Only a Super Bowl victory parade could upstage Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Carnival floats carrying Saints players, coaches and team owner Tom Benson rolled past tens of thousands of jubilant fans in downtown New Orleans on Tuesday, two days after the 43-year-old franchise won its first NFL championship.

Players, wearing team jerseys instead of traditional Carnival masks and costumes, tossed beads into the crowd and signed autographs for throngs of screaming fans. Benson shouted “Who Dat!” into a microphone from his perch atop a float. Head coach Sean Payton blew kisses and held the Lombardi Trophy over his head.

“Here’s to the best Mardi Gras week in the history of this city,” Payton said, raising a glass of champagne during a toast outside the city’s historic Gallier Hall.

The parade, a week before the city’s signature Fat Tuesday celebration, started outside their home turf at the Louisiana Superdome. Black, gold and white confetti floated over the crowd and a man wearing a Saints jacket held aloft a sign that read, “Happy Lombardi Gras!”

The floats stopped at a reviewing stand so elected officials, including Mayor Ray Nagin, Gov. Bobby Jindal and Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, could toast the team’s 31-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts.

“How’s the ‘Who Dat’ nation feel tonight?” Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees yelled when his float stopped at the reviewing stand. “This toast goes out to you. We love you and we won that championship for you.”

Ten Carnival krewes lent floats for the team to ride. More than a dozen marching bands joined the team on its route, which passed by the edge of the French Quarter and ended at the city’s convention center. An official crowd estimate wasn’t immediately available, but many fans said the gathering seemed larger than any during Mardi Gras.

“This is wilder than Mardi Gras,” said Frank V. Smith, 55, a lifelong New Orleans resident who shot photographs of players from the rear of a pickup truck. “I’ve never seen so many people out here like this. This is beautiful, man.”

Shannon Cobb, 28, of Metairie, said the parade was a party with a purpose.

“Everybody is here for one reason: their love for the city and their love for the Saints and to show our appreciation for what they’ve done for us,” she said.

The Super Bowl win, which capped just the ninth winning season in franchise history, was a stunning reversal of fortunes for a team once derided as the “Aints.” Few players could appreciate that better than fan favorite Deuce McAllister, the team’s retired all-time leading rusher who joined the team on the sidelines for the Super Bowl.

“It’s been pretty crazy,” he said Tuesday. “Everywhere you go, you can see the pride in the fans.”

Fans are grateful for more than just the team’s on-field performance. Many members of “Who Dat” nation credit the team with uniting a city that has struggled with racial divisions and labored to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which left about 85 percent of the city underwater in August 2005.

“After the hurricane, people were more willing to come back when they realized the Saints were coming back,” said Scott Catalanotto, 35, whose 7-year-old son sat on a ladder and yelled for beads.

In the French Quarter, thousands streamed toward the parade route, turning Bourbon Street into a river of black and gold.

Will Kaplan, 28, stood out in a billowing white toga with a gold-colored halo and the word “Breesus” on his back.

His Jesus-inspired costume, he said, was made from sheets he had in a FEMA trailer he stayed in after Hurricane Katrina on the University of New Orleans campus.

“I’m the spirit of the party,” he said.

Enduring chilly, windy weather under overcast skies, fans started staking out spots along the parade route more than seven hours before the floats rolled.

Tim Thorn, a 35-year-old landscaper, drove in from Baton Rouge to be among the early birds. He said he gave his daughters, Cameron and Carson, the day off school because the event was too big to miss.

“It’s probably the biggest party in the world,” he said.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

The Saints' win in Super Bowl 44 has brought about MANY firsts! For starters, this was the first appearance in the Super Bowl for the Saints. Next, Super Bowl XLIV was watched by more than 106 million people - setting a new record. Not to mention… this parade was the first time that floats from different krewes rode together in the same parade! I'd also have to speculate that this was the biggest & best Super Bowl parade EVER!!!

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MIAMI (AP) — Marshall Faulk ran as far as he could from the dead-end Desire Projects. He bolted the New Orleans streets to play college ball in San Diego, then blossomed into an NFL star with the Indianapolis Colts.

Forced to take sides in this Super Bowl, it was easy. Faulk rooted for his roots.

From President Barack Obama to a Queen, from Mr. Big to Miss America, the retired All-Pro had lots of company. For one game, the Saints were America's Team — champions, too, after a 31-17 win over the Colts on Sunday night.

"We played for so much more than ourselves," quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees said.

That's for sure, Faulk said.

"This is very important to the city," he said a few days ago. "For the last five, maybe 10 years, whether it's Katrina, or the crime rate, the city's always in a bad light. Now ... you're getting to see some of the great things that we have to offer."

French Quarter hotels and restaurants filled up as Sunday's game between the Colts and Saints approached, with fans streaming into Louisiana hoping to begin celebrating a week ahead of Mardi Gras.

Almost 4½ years after flooding from Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and nearly chased the Saints out of town for good, the club's first Super Bowl win may well represent the city's rebirth.

"You can't put it into words," receiver Marques Colston said after the win. "This city and region have been through so much."

Even the Colts grasped the soulful connection between the Saints and their town.

"There's a reason America is pulling for New Orleans, and why wouldn't they? They've been through a lot," Indianapolis safety Antoine Bethea said recently. "Sports tends to pull people together, so it's commendable for New Orleans to be, as I guess you'd say, America's Team right now."

Who Dat! That's the shortened version of the team's rally cry: "Who dat, who dat, who dat say gonna beat dem Saints?"

Egged on by New Orleans players, Saints fans started that loud, familiar chant inside Sun Life Stadium an hour before kickoff. Adorned in black-and-gold beads, toting parasols in team colors and stirred by a brass band, they paraded outside. Clearly, they needed no prompting to start the party.

Long after the final whistle, Saints fans lingered inside, chanting and cheering. It was a win many of them thought they may never see. The franchise began playing in 1967, one year after the first Super Bowl, and had never reached the big game.

Perhaps the Saints' biggest fan — literally — is the NBA's Shaquille O'Neal, the 7-foot-plus Cleveland Cavaliers center who got his start at LSU.

"It's good for the city, the economy and the organization. When I went to school, they had, like, a 99-year curse and hopefully that curse is over," O'Neal said. "They haven't won it at all. They haven't always had bad seasons but they've always had, like, one play — a missed field goal or a fumble or somebody getting hurt — and now this is their chance."

The Saints have managed only nine winning seasons in their 43-year history, with blooper tapes often replacing highlight reels. Try as they might, their fleur-de-lis logo often stood for losing.

But the emblem took on a different meaning this week in South Florida. It came to symbolize the Saints' spiritual connection to New Orleans — and hope for a city that once had little.

The Superdome, which hosts the 2013 Super Bowl, was an even more tangible example of the town's renaissance.

In the days after Katrina, the stadium became a place of last resort, with perhaps 30,000 helpless, homeless people trapped inside without plumbing or power. When the Saints beat Brett Favre and Minnesota in overtime for the NFC championship, the dome was packed again — this time with jubilant fans toasting their heroes.

Obama found himself drifting in their direction, even though the Colts were still five-point favorites.

"I do have a soft spot in my heart for New Orleans, mainly because of what the city's gone through over these last several years and I just know how much that team means to them," he said during a pregame interview broadcast by CBS.

Made sense to Queen Latifah, who sang "America the Beautiful" before the game. She's worked and lived in New Orleans.

"It would be kind of fun, it'd be almost a Cinderella story to see the Saints come through against someone who's as strong and dominant and skillful as Peyton Manning and the Colts," she said.

Ah, Manning. He's a four-time Most Valuable Player and was MVP of the Colts' Super Bowl win three years ago. He's also from New Orleans, where Brees is now the star quarterback.

"It's a special place to me. My family lives there," Manning said. "What Drew, and really the entire Saints team have meant to that community has been extremely impressive. Being a fellow New Orleanian, I certainly appreciate it."

The Manning vs. Brees matchup attracted a lot of pregame attention. Comedian Chris Rock liked the Saints because of their QB.

"Just for a practical reason, not a sentimental one," Rock said. "Drew Brees has been as good as Peyton Manning the last two years."

New Orleans linebacker Scott Fujita left the Cowboys after the 2005 season and signed with the Saints seven months after Katrina.

"The Saints are America's adopted team. There's no question about it," he said. "When I chose to leave Dallas, everybody said, 'Why would you leave Dallas? They're America's team.'

"Well, they were self-proclaimed America's Team a couple decades ago, and they have really, really good, loyal fans, but the rest of the country hates them. I mean, let's be honest," he said. "So New Orleans, yeah, you've got people all over the country who are pulling for us for so many reasons and really, really valid reasons."

Echoed NFL commissioner Roger Goodell: "It's a great success story for us, and while I can't root for a team, I'm really proud of what happened there and I'm thrilled for the people of the Gulf Coast."

"I don't think that can be stated enough," Saints safety Darren Sharper said. "It's just a close tie between the city and the team. Everyone says, 'Are you guys playing for the community? Are you guys playing for New Orleans?' We think that we are."

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Of course they're "America's Team," now that they've won… yeah, and pigs can fly! As usual, the media is going to run this into the ground until everyone is a Saints hater. It doesn't matter - down here, the Saints are ALWAYS our team, even if we have to wear paper bags to the game.

WHO DAT?!?!?

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MIAMI — Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? The amazing, long-anticipated answer has come.

Nobody. Not when it mattered most.

Putting a bold exclamation point on what was already a storybook season, the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 Sunday night in Super Bowl XLIV.

Quarterback Drew Brees passed for 288 yards and two touchdowns, and Port Allen native Tracy Porter returned an interception 74 yards for the clinching score to make New Orleans’ first Super Bowl trip in its 43-year history a success.

“It was all meant to be,” said Brees, named the game’s Most Valuable Player, speaking of his decision to come to the team and of the team’s ultimate moment. “It was all destiny.”

As the final seconds ticked off the Sun Life Stadium clock, the Saints gave head coach Sean Payton the obligatory Gatorade shower, lifted him to their shoulders and began a celebration amid confetti and fireworks, as thousands of Who Dat supporters stood at their seats and partied like it was New Year’s Eve and Fat Tuesday combined.

And who could blame them?

A franchise that contemplated leaving New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina trashed the city and its stadium in 2005 now brings the Vince Lombardi Trophy to a region that has seldom had reason to even dream such a thing could happen.

The win came almost 30 years to the day after one of sports’ greatest upsets, the Miracle on Ice. It matters little that, facing the 5‰-point favorite Colts, New Orleans wasn’t as big an underdog as the U.S. Olympic ice hockey team that beat the Soviet Union juggernaut in the 1980 Winter Olympics.

That year the Saints won only one game. But if Sunday’s game didn’t erase the memory of New Orleans fans wearing bags on their heads, it showed that these are not the latter-day Aints.

Facing a likely future Hall of Fame quarterback for the third consecutive game — and this time it was one who grew up in the Superdome’s shadow and as the son of one of the bad old days’ few stars — New Orleans was superior on both offense and, more surprisingly, defense.

Peyton Manning was trying to lead the Colts to their second Super Bowl title in four years and have a Manning hold the Lombardi Trophy for the third time in that span. (Younger brother Eli won it with the New York Giants in 2008.) Such heights are far loftier than their father, Archie, experienced while never enjoying a winning Saints season from 1971-82.

New Orleans frustrated Manning as it had Kurt Warner and Brett Favre in the playoffs. Though he completed 31 of 45 passes for 333 yards, only one was for a touchdown, as the Saints didn’t allow him to create the big plays that have been his hallmark.

When New Orleans took a 24-17 lead with 5:42 left, Manning had plenty of time to tie the game. But that is where Porter made the biggest play of his athletic life. On third-and-5 at the New Orleans 31, the cornerback stepped in front of a throw to Reggie Wayne and, after a couple of cuts, took it past a delirious Saints bench for a touchdown and a 31-17 lead with 3:12 left.

“When I saw my blockers in front of me and only Peyton (Manning) and the offensive linemen left, I cut back and ran it in,” Porter said.

Manning marched the Colts as far as the New Orleans 3, but his last-gasp pass bounced off Wayne’s hands with 44 seconds left to play, and the stadium began to rock.

After falling behind 10-0, the Saints climbed back with a combination of execution and a gambler’s nerve. The bold play didn’t always work. Instead of asking Garrett Hartley to kick a chip-shot field goal in the second quarter, Payton tried to run it in from the 1, and linebackers Gary Brackett and Clint Session stopped Pierre Thomas cold.

So, Payton doubled down.

Trailing 10-6 at the half, he surprised everyone with an onside kick that reserve safety Chris Reis recovered at the Saints 42. It ignited a drive that led to New Orleans’ first touchdown, a 16-yard screen pass to Thomas, and its first lead, 13-10. Though Manning would answer with a drive punctuated by former LSU star Joseph Addai’s 4-yard touchdown run, Brees responded in moving the Saints to one of Hartley’s three field goals and a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jeremy Shockey. A two-point conversion pass to Lance Moore gave the Saints a 24-17 edge.

“Ever since you start playing football, you’re dreaming about playing in this game,” Shockey said. “I dreamed and prayed all day and night about being in the situation I’m in right now.”

More than an hour after the game, the chants of hundreds of other black-and-gold-clad fellow dreamers were chanting their team’s famous question.

It was, of course, rhetorical. At long last, they had the answer they wanted.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

WHO DAT??? What an excellent football game!!!

Of course (to those who don't know), the title of this post is an old joke that we 'Aints fans USED TO say. But, no more!!!

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Mardi Gras falls on a Sunday this year.

The city of the Saints is filling up with ex-New Orleanians and others ahead of the Super Bowl, many looking to cast off a legacy of football futility and natural disaster - others just looking to party down in one of the world's greatest party towns.

"We're gearing up for Sunday just like Mardi Gras day," said Earl Bernhardt, a bar owner in the French Quarter. "We're staffing just like we do for Mardi Gras, and if the Saints win, we won't close at all. We'll stay open as long as people are standing." After 43 years in existence, the Saints will make their Super Bowl debut in Miami on Sunday, facing the favored Indianapolis Colts.

Fans from most cities would be headed to South Florida about now. But for ex-pat New Orleanians, the game is triggering a pilgrimage home. And for everybody back in town, the party's already started.

A few are taking the week off in the countdown to game day. Others are punching the clock, but not getting much done. Saints jerseys, "Who Dat?" T-shirts and black and gold beads are the uniform everywhere you go.

The French Quarter's narrow streets also are awash in the team colors. As revelers cruise down its streets, strangers give each other high-fives.

"It's been all Saints all the time," said Steve Sabrier, an oil field worker who marched from the Superdome to the French Quarter after the NFC championship. "I pity anybody who needs something done in New Orleans these days. We can't concentrate on anything but the game."

Sister Mary Rose, a Dominican nun who attends every Saints game and teaches at a Catholic school in the Quarter, said the feeling of sheer excitement in the city is almost tangible. "I think 'exuberant joy' is the word," the nun said. "And it has brought such a unity to us, such a bond between all the people here it's just amazing."

Meanwhile, in Atlanta, New Orleans transplant Belinda Hernandez vowed to be in Miami if the Saints made the big game.

"But seeing the fever pitch in New Orleans and knowing how we party, I changed my mind," Hernandez said.

"Who wants to be on Miami Beach when they can be in the French Quarter with the Who Dats for the game?"

So Hernandez turned down some friends in South Florida, who offered to get her tickets.

Besides being Super Bowl weekend, this is the start of carnival season that ends Feb. 16 on the real Mardi Gras. There are four parades scheduled in New Orleans on Saturday and two on Sunday - but they're rolling early to avoid conflicting with the game.

All eyes on the game, starting Sunday at 5:25 p.m. local time.

Mary Beth Romig of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau says there's no question the Saints have created something special - this time for the city's tourist trade.

"This is turning into a very big weekend for the hotels in downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter," said Romig. "We did a survey and hotels are running about 90 percent full late in the week, and that jumps to 95 percent on Sunday. People are definitely coming to New Orleans for Super Bowl."

Sorry, Colts fans, but it's a different story up north.

Kimberly Harms, a spokeswoman for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association, said there was no noticeable jump in hotel occupancy there for the weekend. She noted, however that one hotel had set aside 44 rooms at the special rate of $144 in honor of the 44th Super Bowl. If Indianapolis wins, she said, the rooms will be free for those staying in them.

At New Orleans' Roosevelt Hotel, an upscale hotel where suites start at $259 a night and go up, marketing director Mark Wilson said they are seeing a "huge surge" of people who want to celebrate the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

"Let's face it, not everybody can get a ticket to the game," Wilson said. "And a lot of people seem to think being in New Orleans is a good alternative."

The Roosevelt is about 80 percent booked, which is 10 percent to 15 percent more than normal for a weekend with no convention in town, Wilson said. The big seller is the hotel suites, with much of the business coming from Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.

"People are booking the entertainment suites, which are great for parties of 25, 35 people," he said.

"Some are probably just people looking for a party. But a lot are former residents, I think. People in New Orleans have looked for this day a long time and now they want to be here for it."

Police will increase their coverage in the French Quarter this weekend, adding approximately 600 officers, police spokesman Bob Young said. That's about the number the city would deploy if New Orleans were hosting the game.

Rick Watson, and his wife, Katherine, are among the natives coming back.

Now residents of North Carolina, 35-year-old Watson said it took them a long time to believe the Saints had really made the big game, but not much time to decide where to watch it.

"When something big happens, you go home, and this is big," Watson said. "Besides, where would you rather be if the Saints win, the French Quarter or Miami? Even if they lose you want to be in New Orleans."

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Who Dat? Geaux Saints!!!

Check out the Saints Photo Gallery

A Letter to Miami…

Dear Miami,

The Saints are coming. And so are we, their loyal, long-suffering and slightly discombobulated Super Bowl-bound fans.

While there's still time to prepare -- although a few hard-core Who Dats will begin trickling in Monday, most of us won't arrive until Thursday or Friday -- we thought we'd give you a heads-up about what you should expect.

First things first: You need more beer. Yeah, we know. You ordered extra. You think you have more than any group of humans could possibly consume in one week. Trust us. You don't. New Orleans was a drinking town long before the Saints drove us to drink. But it turns out beer tastes better when you're winning. (Who knew?) So let's just say we're thirsty for more than a championship; adjust your stockpiles accordingly.

And look. When we ask you for a go-cup, be nice to us. We don't even know what "open container law" means. Is that anything like "last call"?

It's Carnival season in New Orleans (that's Mardi Gras to you), and we'll be taking the celebration on the road. So don't be startled if you walk past us and we throw stuff at you; that's just our way of saying hello.

Oh, and sorry in advance about those beads we leave dangling from your palm trees. We just can't help ourselves.

February is also crawfish season, and you can be sure that more than one enterprising tailgater will figure out a way to transport a couple sacks of live mudbugs and a boiling pot to Miami.

When the dude in the 'Who Dat' T-shirt asks if you want to suck da head and pinch da tail, resist the urge to punch him. He's not propositioning you. He's inviting you to dinner.

And if you see a big Cajun guy who looks exactly like an old Saints quarterback walking around town in a dress ...don't ask. It's a long story. We know that crowd control is a major concern for any Super Bowl host city. Our advice? Put away the riot gear.

Reason No. 1: Indianapolis is going to lose, and their fans are way too dull to start a riot.

Reason No. 2: New Orleans showed the world on Sunday that we know how to throw a victory party. We don't burn cars. We dance on them.

Reason No. 3: Even if we did lose, which we won't, leaving the stadium would be like leaving a funeral, and our typical response to that is to have a parade.

Speaking of which: If you happen to see a brass band roll by, followed by a line of folks waving their handkerchiefs, you're not supposed to just stand there and watch. As our own Irma Thomas would say, get your backfield in motion.

And hey, Mister DJ! Yes, we know you've already played that stupid Ying Yang Twins song 10 times tonight, but indulge us just one more time.

To us, "Halftime (Stand Up and Get Crunk)" isn't just a song; it's 576 points of good memories. It's the sound of a Drew Brees touchdown pass to Devery Henderson, a Pierre Thomas dive for first down on 4th-and-1, a Garrett Hartley field goal sailing through the uprights in overtime.

It's what a championship sounds like. You may get sick of hearing it. We won't. Encore, dammit.

Inside Sun Life Stadium, you may find your ears ringing more than usual. We're louder than other fans. Seven thousand of ours sound like 70,000 of theirs. Don't believe us? Ask the 12th man in the Vikings huddle.

Some people think it's just the Dome that heightens our volume. But you're about to discover a little secret: We can scream loud enough to make your head explode, indoors or out.

It's not the roof. It's the heart. Well, OK, and the beer.

Don't be surprised if there are more Saints fans outside the stadium than inside. A lot of us are coming just to say we were part of history, even if we can't witness it up close. The Saints are family to us, and you know how it is with family: We want to be there for them, whether they really need us or not. Because we know our presence will mean something to them, whether they can see us or not.

Come to think of it, seeing as how you're taking us in for the week, we pretty much regard you as family, too. So we're warning you now: If you're within hugging distance, you're fair game.

Hugging strangers is a proud Who Dat tradition, right up there with crying when we win.

Most sports fans cry when their teams lose. Not us. We've been losing gracefully and with good humor for 43 years. Tragedy and disappointment don't faze us. It's success that makes us go to pieces.

Hurricane Katrina? We got that under control. The Saints in the Super Bowl? SOMEBODY CALL A PARAMEDIC!!!

So anyway, don't let the tears of joy freak you out. We're just ... disoriented.

OK. Let's review:

Order more beer. Throw me something, mister. Suck da heads. Wear da dress. Stand up. Get crunk. Hug it out. Protect your eardrums. Pass the Kleenex. Hoist the trophy.

See you at the victory party.

Faithfully yours,
The Who Dat Nation

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NEW ORLEANS —  They sure ain't the Aints anymore.

The New Orleans Saints are heading to their first Super Bowl after battering Brett Favre and beating the Minnesota Vikings 31-28 in overtime Sunday on unheralded Garrett Hartley's 40-yard field goal.

Favre threw away Minnesota's best chance to win, tossing an interception deep in New Orleans territory in the closing seconds of regulation. Then the Saints won the coin toss and soon it was over.

The team that had no home five years ago after Hurricane Katrina ravaged its city and the Superdome overcame a slew of mistakes in the biggest game the Big Easy has ever seen.

"This is for everybody in this city," said coach Sean Payton, the architect of the Saints' turnaround. "This stadium used to have holes in it and used to be wet. It's not wet anymore. This is for the city of New Orleans."

Forget the paper bag masks and that long history of losing that started in 1967. Moments after Hartley's kick, they were toasting their hometown winners on Bourbon Street.

And in the Superdome, once a squalid refuge after Katrina, they boogied in the aisles as confetti covered the field.

"It's a moment I've been waiting for for a long time and obviously we're not done yet," said Drew Brees, Payton's hand-picked quarterback for the Saints' renaissance.

The Saints (15-3) will meet Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts (16-2) in the Super Bowl in two weeks in Miami. The Colts opened as four-point favorites.

It's the first time the top seeds in each conference made the big game since the 1993 season.

"Brett prepared us, but now we've got another challenge in Peyton," safety Darren Sharper said.

There were nine fumbles and two interceptions, and the biggest mistake belonged to Favre. Flushed from the pocket in the final minute, he seemed to have room to run to set up a field goal. But hampered by a left leg injured in the third quarter, the 40-year-old quarterback threw cross-field and was intercepted by Tracy Porter at the 22.

That finished off Minnesota's chance for its first Super Bowl trip in 33 years — and opportunity to win it for the first time after four defeats.

New Orleans won the coin toss, Brees guided it to the Minnesota 22 after converting a fourth-and-1 on Pierre Thomas' leap over the line, and Hartley — suspended at the start of the season for using a banned stimulant — split the uprights 4:45 into OT.

"Just helping my team get to Miami," Hartley said. "Just doing my part."

It was anything but easy for the Saints, in only their second conference championship game; they lost at Chicago three years ago.

They had to withstand yet one more comeback by Favre, who returned to the NFL with the Vikings (13-5) after another brief retirement. He was alternately spectacular and pedestrian Sunday, finally betrayed by his gambling style and, perhaps, an aging body.

Minnesota, meanwhile, lost its fifth straight NFC championship game.

Porter's pick sent it into overtime, the third time an NFC title game has needed extra time and the second in three seasons. Two years ago, Favre's interception in OT set up a field goal that sent the Giants past the Packers and into the Super Bowl.

The Saints can only hope they have the same happy ending as New York did back then.

"Yeah," said Reggie Bush, who scored a touchdown and also muffed a punt that set up a Vikings score. "One more step."

The seesaw game saw All-Pro Adrian Peterson score three touchdowns for Minnesota and Saints running back Pierre Thomas get two. The Vikings handily won the possession and yardage battles — Peterson rushed for 122 yards and Minnesota gained 475 overall. But the Vikings were undone by five turnovers, including three fumbles.

"We really gave those guys the game," said Peterson, who peeked at the rousing celebrations on the Superdome floor. "Too many turnovers. It's eating me up inside."

Check out the article at Fox News.

Somebody pinch me… I must be dreaming! Hope Pat saved an extra coat, cuz the devil might need it soon!!!

Geaux Saints!!!

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METAIRIE — The Saints will take a three-phased approach to preparing for their divisional playoff game, which will be played at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16 in the Superdome.

The players will have four days off beginning today. Then the team will follow a training camp-like schedule when it returns to practice and focuses on itself Saturday and Sunday. Then next Tuesday, after the opponent has been determined, a normal game-week routine will kick in.

The earliest New Orleans could know its opponent would be late Saturday night. If Philadelphia defeats Dallas on Saturday night, the Eagles would guarantee themselves a trip to the Superdome. If the Cowboys prevail, the Saints opponent would be the winner of the Green Bay-Arizona game, which kicks off at 3:40 p.m. Sunday.

“It’s different than a bye week in the regular season when you know who you’re playing,” coach Sean Payton said Monday at his weekly news conference. “When it’s one of three teams, you can begin statistical breakdowns on all three of those teams and get through the busy work that has to get done on those teams through the weekends.”

Payton said the Saints devoted some of their practice time last week to working their offense against their defense, something they will resume over the weekend.

“There will be meetings, walk-throughs, back on the field for a full practice,” Payton said. “It’ll be more of an ‘O’ (offense) versus ‘D’ (defense) emphasis, which is like a training camp practice where it’s competitive rather than carded because you don’t know really who you’re playing. There might be some things that we tinker with to get us ready for a certain game.”

The Saints tinkered with a few things in their 23-10 loss at Carolina on Sunday, including using running back Lynell Hamilton out of the “wildcat” formation.

“We had a few different schemes in there,” Payton said. “We snapped the ball to a running back and there were a few things we tinkered with that we’ll look at in the postseason.”

Payton said the coaching staff will have a short break early this week before returning for a day and a half to put together the plan for the weekend practices and begin preliminary game-plan work.

He said the main thing for the players to do is to get rest during their down time. Injured players will continue to rehab and receive treatment. Others are free to travel if they choose.

“I really don’t encourage or talk about what I think they should do with their time away other than just making sure they’re getting rest,” Payton said. “I think people will want to handle it differently. Some will travel, some won’t.

“The key is having trust in players and I think our team has real good leadership and understands how we have to approach this week and getting rest and having some time away and then being ready to come back with a focus when they get back in the building. I think they’ll handle that well.”

When it comes time to play, the Saints will be the healthiest they’ve been since early in the season as every player on the active roster is likely to be available.

Payton said he thinks running back Pierre Thomas, who missed Sunday’s game with a rib injury, will be back. Thomas said he expects to play despite three broken ribs. He said he played with two broken ribs against the Bears as a rookie in 2007.

“I just have to sit back and can’t do too much movement,” Thomas said. “My ribs weren’t as severe as it was my rookie year. My rookie year, you could see a big crack in them. These three, you see partial cracks. Maybe one of them is almost fully and two are half cracks.

“You don’t want to irritate it so they don’t want me doing too much. The two I had my rookie year, I couldn’t really do anything but sit back and relax. I’m moving around now; haven’t gotten a chance to run yet, just been on a bike getting some cardio workout in.”

Thomas said he’ll wear protection, likely a flak jacket, over the ribs during the game.

“You’re out there running hard, you’re out there breathing, you’re getting hit,” he said. “It’s going to bother you at some times. It’s like if you hurt your toe or something. Something is going to bother you. You feel it. It’s going to irritate you a little bit.

“You’re probably not going to focus on what you have to do out there on the field. You’re going to focus more on your injury than anything because it bothers you. But to me, I find a way to block it out. I find a way, don’t think about the injury and go out and play the game. If I get hurt, at that point in time, I suck up the pain, deal with it and go back out in the huddle. That’s what I’ve been doing lately, just sucking up the pain.”

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Despite the three-game slump at the end of the season, I have high hopes for the Saints in the playoffs! It's good to see some key guys coming off injured reserve and I'm looking forward to seeing Pierre Thomas with the ball in his hands again.

Speaking of Pierre Thomas... he recently autographed some awesome lithographs by artist Michael Hunt (see top of this post) which are being sold in limited quantities. Go check it out and many other fine LSU, Saints, Fleur De Lis, and Mardi Gras artwork at Hunt Studio.

Have Faith! Geaux Saints!!!

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OK, now it’s really official.

Four days after LSU and Penn State were invited to the 2010 Capital One Bowl, the two head coaches and athletic directors involved met in Orlando, Fla., on Thursday to sign a bowl contract and hold court with a handful of media members.

LSU’s Les Miles and Penn State’s Joe Paterno took turns talking about the reward for their teams and the challenge ahead in one of the more attractive non-BCS bowl games of the season.

The 13th-ranked Tigers (9-3) and 11th-ranked Nittany Lions (10-2) square off at noon Jan. 1 in the Florida Citrus Bowl. ABC  will televise the game.

“We look forward to this game, and it’s going to be a great setting,” Miles said. “It’s historically a great bowl game and played New Year’s Day. It’s exactly how we would want to end our season. The matchup with the Big Ten and Joe Paterno and a quality Nittany Lion team will be everything that we want.”

Especially if LSU caps this season like it has Miles’ previous four.

The Tigers are 4-0 in bowl games under Miles, with lopsided victories against Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Georgia Tech.

Those wins, as well as what LSU has done this season, caught the attention of Paterno, who has more coaching victories (393) than any coach in Football Bowl Sub-Division history.

“Getting an opportunity to play against a team as good as LSU is tremendous,” Paterno said.

Paterno turns 83 in 10 days and will coach in the Capital One Bowl (previously the Tangerine Bowl) for the fifth time, the first time since 2003 when Auburn edged the Lions 13-9.

As he did the day this season’s matchup was announced, the Penn State coach said the trip was a fitting reward for a team that for the second year in a row was a relevant factor in the national championship hunt.

The Lions’ only losses this season came against Big Ten foes headed for BCS games: Iowa 21-10 in State College, Pa., and Ohio State 24-7 on the road.

“I think we’re a pretty good football team,” Paterno said. “We played hard all year and stuck together after we lost to a couple of good football teams. … I hope we can play our best game of the year because we will need to against LSU.”

Now Paterno and his team close out the season on New Year’s Day in Florida — the 24th time in the coach’s 44 seasons Penn State will finish in a January Bowl.

“I have 17 grandkids and the oldest one is 14,” Paterno said. “For the last two weeks, they’ve all been asking me, ‘Are we going to Orlando? We want to go to Orlando!’ ”

Miles also talked about the reward of a postseason bowl, but noted that there’s business to tend to as well.

“We look at it as both,” he said. “The opportunity to have competitively played yourself into an advantage position where you can play for a bowl championship — we recognize that as the reason why we’re here. We also recognize that it’s through achievement that you are allowed to play in the Capital One Bowl, and so there is going to be a reward.

“There will be the opportunity to see Orlando and the sights, and that will be the reward. The greatest reward will be the opportunity to play well and to honor a very quality opponent with our best effort.”

In his nine years as a head coach, Miles has never coached against Paterno. He was on the Michigan staff for a pair of meetings in the early 1990s after the Lions joined the Big Ten — the Wolverines won at Penn State 21-13 in 1993 and the Lions exacted revenge with a 31-24 triumph in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1994 in a showdown of top-five teams. Penn State finished 12-0 that season, one of five undefeated campaigns under Paterno.

So Thursday’s face-to-face meeting was a first for Miles as a head coach. But growing up in Ohio, Miles knew who Paterno was. He said he visited the campus in State College, Pa., as a young assistant and even then didn’t understand the magnitude of Paterno’s impact.

“I visited Penn State probably so early in my career I don’t know who I was representing at the time,” Miles said. “(Paterno) has always been, and Penn State has always been, a program that has done it right. He has competed at the very highest level and his leadership has been exemplary. Anybody in football follows Joe Paterno and understands the tradition behind that Penn State uniform.”

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Geaux Tigers!!!

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BATON ROUGE -- The LSU football team will have a new look when they take the field on Saturday against Arkansas as the Tigers will be wearing the Nike Pro Combat uniform for the season-finale.

LSU, along with Nike, unveiled the uniform at a pep rally on campus on Monday afternoon. Nike worked closely with coaches and administrators at LSU and took great care to bring inspiration to the Nike Pro Combat uniforms that the Tigers will wear on Saturday. The uniform will be worn only for this week’s game against Arkansas.

The Tigers will sport a new look from head to toe on Saturday as the Tigers will be outfitted with a new look in everything from the helmet, to cleats, to the gloves. The jersey is white with purple numbers and gold accents, while the pants are white with a purple “L” on the hip along with a purple and gold stripe down each side of the leg.

The Tigers will wear the Nike Zoom Vapor Fly cleats, which are white and gold and feature a purple Nike Swoosh. The bottom of the cleats are gold in color as well. The Tiger receivers will be outfitted with the Nike Vapor Trail gloves, which display the eye of the tiger on the palm of each glove.

“This is a great uniform, both from the look as well as how lightweight it is,” senior running back Charles Scott said. “I think the team is going to like wearing these new uniforms for our final home game of the season. I wish I could be out there with them in this uniform.”

Scott, along with Richard Murphy, modeled the uniforms at the unveiling on Monday. Both players are injured and will not play against Arkansas.

Head coach Les Miles showed the team the uniform for the first time on Monday afternoon in a team meeting.

LSU joins 10 other schools from across the country to take part in this venture with Nike. Other schools include: Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech, Missouri, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas and TCU.

Nike designed the Nike Pro Combat uniform to address the evolution of the game: Today’s players are stronger and faster and the collisions are more violent and explosive than ever before.

Superior Lightweight Innovation

The Nike Pro Combat uniform is 37 percent lighter than current designs (23.7 ounces vs. 37.4 ounces). Nike utilized a four-way stretch twill that does not hold sweat or water and as a result, the new uniforms are 46 percent lighter than the current designs when wet. Overall, the Nike Pro Combat uniform, when wet, is still lighter than the teams’ current designs when completely dry.

Designed from the inside out, the Nike Pro Combat uniform begins with the Nike Pro Combat padded base layer. Strategically placed padding zones in the Nike Pro Combat Deflex shorts cover the thighs, hips and tailbone. The padding zones are composed of dual-density foam cells that absorb, deflect and disperse the impact of on-field collisions. A foam grid intersects the cells to maximize impact absorption and increase flexibility. A hard plastic shield covers the thigh padding where impact frequently occurs.

The Nike Pro Combat Deflex shorts are made with Nike Dri-FIT technical fabric to provide superior moisture wicking, helping to keep players dry and cool.

With the padding incorporated into the base layer, players gain greater mobility over traditional padding and the outer uniform becomes a lightweight, breathable shell with a sleek, explosive look.

“Players need their uniforms to be as light as possible so they can play the game at top speed,” said Kris Aman, Global VP and General Manager for Nike Athletic Training, which includes football. “The Nike Pro Combat uniform is a modern system of dress that is dramatically lighter while providing durability and protection.”

Nike scrutinized every detail of the Nike Pro Combat uniform with the goal of shedding as much weight as possible, right down to D-ring on the belt. Nike opted for a titanium D-ring, which is extremely durable and 66 percent lighter than the standard steel belt enclosure.

Engineered high-tenacity yarn inspired by Nike Flywire is incorporated into the high-impact shoulder area. The belt loops have been padded to provide added protection to the hip area without the bulk of traditional hip pads.

The new uniforms also feature improved ventilation and breathability. Side ribbed piping on the uniform pant has been replaced with sublimated Nike Dri-FIT mesh, which not only shaves ounces off of the pant weight but also aids evaporation in key areas. Nike Dri-FIT mesh wraps behind the knees, a key cooling zone on the body. By adding innovative evaporation and cooling zones, the player’s body expends less energy regulating body temperature, leaving more energy for the game.

Completing this true system of dress for football is the new Nike Zoom Vapor Fly cleat, which Nike customized for each team featuring their team colors, team logo and chrome-plated outsole. This incredibly lightweight cleat at just 10 ounces is available in 2010. It features Zoom Air cushioning in the heel and Flywire engineering in the medial and lateral quarter panels.

Check out the article at LSU Sports.

Cool uniforms!!! Now, time for the cochon de lait to begin!

Geaux Tigers!!!

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Around the Bowl and Down the Hole... Roll Tide Roll!

High on the list of strange but true facts about the LSU-Alabama series through the years, and especially this decade, is how little home-field advantage has meant.

Since 1970, the road team in this game is 27-11-1. The road team won every game between 1981-89 except 1985 when the Tigers and Tide fought to a 14-14 deadlock in Baton Rouge.

Since 1982, LSU is 10-3 against Alabama in either Birmingham or Tuscaloosa, with four wins in a row this decade in at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

LSU coach Les Miles has been the architect of the last two wins in Tuscaloosa — a 16-13 overtime thriller when the teams last met when both were ranked in the top 10 in 2005 and 41-34 in 2007 when the Tigers rallied with a pair of touchdowns in the game’s final 2:49.

“I think we’ve had good teams,” Miles said about the four-game wining streak at Bryant-Denny. “I think those guys know how to play on the road, play with poise, play with the confidence that they were going to be able to get it done and played well.”

As has Alabama. Two years ago the Crimson Tide was ranked No. 17 and on a three-game winning streak when LSU got to town.

The Tigers struggled when quarterback Matt Flynn got picked off three times in the first half, helping Alabama take a 27-17 lead late in the third quarter.

“I felt our team was very confident going into that game,” Miles said.

“I felt like certainly we recognized that was a great team we were playing. Every time we play Alabama — whether it’s on the road or at home — we recognize it’s going to be a very competitive game and matching two of the finest collegiate programs in college football.”

Alabama leads the series 44-23-5 and has a slim 9-8 edge in games played in Tuscaloosa. During Paul “Bear” Bryant’s tenure at Alabama, most games between the Tigers and Tide were played in Birmingham.

LSU and Alabama have also played occasional games in Mobile and Montgomery.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Yeah, I know... the Saban vs. LSU hype is starting to die down a little now that it's been three years. But I don't care! To me, this game is Saban Bowl III... and it's going to be a tough one! If the Tigers can pull out a W tomorrow, they can go all the way!!!

Geaux Tigers!!!

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Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Check out the article at History.com.

Halloween is the best holiday of the year!!!

Geaux Tigers

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Billy Cannon’s Halloween Run. Just the mention of those four words is enough to bring a sense of pride and joy to any LSU football fan.

Saturday's game against Tulane marks the 50th anniversary of the legendary game on October 31, 1959 in which LSU running back Billy Cannon returned a punt 89 yards for a touchdown.

The return turned out to be the only touchdown of the game as the top-ranked Tigers defeated the No. 3 Ole Miss Rebels 7-3.

Cannon, now 72, admits that while he may be getting older, his memory of the run that Halloween night is still fresh in his mind.

“My mind is getting fuzzy but the run isn’t,” Cannon said. “The games that you win or lose big drift away. But the ones where the outcome of the game depends on every play, those are the games that you remember vividly.”

Both the Tigers and the Rebels were undefeated heading into the game, which only added to the hype surrounding the already heated rivalry.

“The week of the game it was just crazy,” Cannon recalled. “Everyone just wanted to talk football.”

The game also marked the first time that the stadium sold out since new bleachers were installed in the south end zone. Over 67,500 people crammed into Tiger Stadium to watch the much anticipated matchup.

“To be playing before that many people with them sitting in the aisles and everywhere else, it was quite a stir,” said Cannon.

LSU trailed 3-0 through three hard-fought quarters.  As Cannon stood at his own 11-yard line with just under 10 minutes remaining, he knew that in order for the Tigers to have a chance to win the game he was going to have to make something happen.

“It doesn’t take a genius to look at the scoreboard and figure out you are down and that you are running out of time,” Cannon said.  “Before the punt I said to myself that if I have a chance I’m going to take this one back up the field because if we are going to do something we are going to have to do it pretty quick.”

And Cannon did just that.

Ole Miss’ Jake Gibbs tried to punt the ball out of bounds, but instead the ball took a bounce at the 11-yard line right into Cannon’s hands.

“I got the perfect bounce,” Cannon said.  “If I had caught it on the fly I don’t think it would have worked out the same. I think the bounce made them relax a little bit and they were just surprised when the ball bounced straight to me. I was just as surprised as they were.”

After fielding the ball, the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Cannon fought his way through seven would-be tacklers before finally breaking free around the 50-yard line. He then galloped his way into the end zone and into LSU history as the Tiger Stadium crowd erupted.

“There was a guy in the stands that was in the box seats that jumped out onto the field,” Cannon said. “He jumped on my back and he was beating me to death. One of my teammates, Donnie Daye, came over and pulled him off of me. He was so happy and going crazy. He was just going crazy and the whole stands were going crazy.”

Every year during the week of the LSU-Ole Miss game the black-and-white replay is shown numerous times on TV. These replays provide not only nostalgia for the fans of LSU football, but also for Cannon and his teammates.

“Over the years it has become a contest of who can point out what,” Cannon joked. “We have a lot of fun with it.”

“When I’m with Lynn LeBlanc, Lynn always says ‘Watch this block! Watch this block right here!’ because it was him making the block that took three guys down,” Cannon said, laughing. “But I tell him ‘Lynn I was by that guy before you even blocked anybody!’”

“Red (Brodnax) makes a block late in the play and Lynn accuses him of clipping and putting the whole team in jeopardy with the clip, but of course Red denies it,” Cannon added.

Fifty years have now passed since that Halloween night and Cannon’s punt return is still a prominent part of LSU history. But Cannon said he doesn’t want it to be remembered as an individual effort because it was a team effort.

“Not one of us on that entire team would have ever told you we were going to do something that would be so remembered 50 years later. We were there for the day, the moment, the game, and that period of time. That is all we cared about.”

Check out the article at LSU Sports.

Classic!

Check out these articles on the famous punt return:

• The Halloween Run: 50 Years Later
• Run to Glory

Geaux Tigers!!!

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NEW ORLEANS — For the second consecutive game, the Saints’ high-scoring offense played a complementary role to its rejuvenated defense.

A week earlier, Drew Brees passed for fewer than 200 yards for the first time in 23 games as New Orleans defeated the Bills, 27-7, in Buffalo.

On Sunday in the Superdome, Brees against fell short of the 200-yard mark — the first time in four seasons with the Saints that he has played the entire game both times and failed to reach that plateau in consecutive weeks.

The NFL’s highest-scoring offense scored just 10 points to support the 14 scored by the defense in New Orleans’ 24-10 victory over the New York Jets.

The Saints received the opening kickoff and nine plays later they had a first down at the Jets’ 22. A holding penalty on center Jonathan Goodwin put the Saints behind schedule and the drive ended with John Carney kicking a 34-yard field goal.

After the defense’s first touchdown — a 99-yard interception return by Darren Sharper — New Orleans appeared poised to take a 17-0 lead when it drove to a first-and-goal at the one. Pierre Thomas lost a yard, Heath Evans got the yard back, and Brees threw two incompletions, giving the ball back to New York.

But the defense got the points the offense couldn’t when two plays later, Will Smith sacked Mark Sanchez and caused a fumble, which Remi Ayodele recovered for a touchdown.

The Saints failed in another short-yardage situation in the third quarter, when on fourth-and-1 from the Jets’ 28, Thomas was stopped for no gain.

“We drove down the field on the first possession of the game and got three points, very well could have had seven,” Brees said. “After that, it was about managing the football game. I look at missed opportunities to get points and penalties that stalled drives. We’re going to continue to try and get better offensively.”

The offense finally put the ball in the end zone when it needed to in order to secure the victory, driving 74 yards to a touchdown that gave New Orleans a 24-10 lead with 6:07 left in the game.

Along the way, the offense finally found a way to convert a fourth-and-1 into a first down for them instead of the Jets. They lined up at the New York 43 and enticed defensive tackle Kris Jenkins to jump offsides.

Goodwin said the Saints had no intention of snapping the ball. They said Jenkins was susceptible to jumping the snap count.

“All the linemen just started yelling a bunch of snap counts,” Goodwin said, “and I got a little lower to make it look like I was ready to snap it. Then Drew did a great job with a hard count.”

Six plays later, Thomas was running one yard for the offense’s only touchdown of the game.

“The defense played excellent all day and we just wanted to try and put the game away and take some pressure of the defense,” wide receiver Marques Colston said. “We wanted to try and distance ourselves a little bit.”

The Saints had 14 touchdown drives in their first three games and just one Sunday, but that represented just the third touchdown drive in 46 possessions against the Jets’ stingy defense.

“We did everything we needed to do, especially in the fourth quarter, to win the football game,” Brees said. “My job as quarterback is to lead that group of men and manage the game and put us in the best position to score points, take care of the football, and win games.

“I think the balance (153 yards rushing and 190 yards passing) — playing that complementary type of offense with the run and the pass — it’s good for the offense, it’s good for the players, it’s winning football games. In the end, it doesn’t matter how we get it done, it’s that we get it done.”

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Geaux Saints!!!

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ATHENS, Ga. — Tired of getting ripped locally by fans and the media for being inept on offense?

Then drive 88 yards on 12 plays with the game on the line Between the Hedges.

Tired of hearing how the offense is underachieving?

Score twice in the final 2:53 to escape with a Southeastern Conference road win.

Tired of hearing how you can’t run the ball?

Then go to Sanford Stadium and bounce off a tackler like a Herschel Walker highlight reel en route to a 33-yard game winning touchdown in the last minute of a key SEC game.

That’s what LSU’s embattled offense did Saturday in a 20-13 win over Georgia.

It was a monkey off the back of offensive coordinator Gary Crowton, a vindication of quarterback Jordan Jefferson, an emergence of freshman Rueben Randle and a return to form for running back Charles Scott.

And it was a not-so-subtle “Shhhh” to the critics.

They did it by pulling through in the clutch and becoming all-of-the-sudden explosive when, for the first 53 minutes it had alternated between being unable to finish drives in the first half and unable to drive at all in the second half.

The Tigers had only one second-half first down before they went 88 yards on 12 plays to take a 12-7 lead on Charles Scott’s 2-yard touchdown with 2:53 left in the game. And when that wasn’t enough after the Bulldogs quickly answered with their own touchdown with 1:09 left in the game, LSU responded.

The Tigers went two plays and 38 yards for the winning touchdown. Scott, a 1,000-yard rusher last year who has hardly seemed to fit in with this year’s offense, ran over Georgia linebacker Marcus Dowtin on a 33-yard run for the game winner with 46 seconds left.

Yeah. Big, physical backs can be useful, even on a team full of spread-the-field athletes.

That’s 126 yards and two touchdowns in the final two possessions after managing 242 yards and no touchdowns in the first nine drives.

How on earth do you explain that?

“We can throw and catch it,” head coach Les Miles said.

With more than just the usual players. On the 88-yard drive, Jefferson converted third-and-10 by finding Randle, who had two first-down catches for 29 yards on a drive where the Tigers’ two reliable senior receivers, Brandon LaFell and Richard Dickson, both dropped passes.

This was a drive about an “emergence of a fine young player,” Miles said of Randle. And Jefferson not only converted a third-and-10, but also a first-and-15 after an illegal shift killed a 17-yard pass. But Jefferson scrambled 26 yards to keep the drive alive.

The final drive? It was about Scott giving LSU its longest run of the year not in an insignificant moment against a bad team, but on the road in the final minute against the No. 18 team in the country. In other words, when it counts.

So, sure, this offense sputters and stalls and drives you crazy, but it also knows how to win.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

I couldn't agree more with the above article... except that not ALL of the critics are quiet. But, who cares what they say? They sure talked their trash two years ago... how many times did we hear "overranked'? But they shut up after Ohio State went down in the NC game, didn't they? They don't know what they're talking about, anyway. Hell, we shouldn't even have rankings this early in the season.

Labels: Entertainment, Sports

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BAKER — Zookeepers knew something spectacular was occurring late Sunday night.

They knew something was happening when they spotted BREC’s Baton Rouge Zoo’s four giraffes standing near the back of their exhibit, peering over a wall and staring.

Turns out, the giraffes were watching the birth of a black rhinoceros.

Four days later on Thursday morning, 21-year-old black rhinoceros Gemstone wouldn’t stop pacing.

Gemstone and her newly born female calf had been safely tucked away in a holding area to give them time to bond since the birth.

But just after 8:30 a.m. Thursday, zookeepers opened a gate between the holding area and the black rhinoceros exhibit and ushered the pair into their new home.

Seconds after Gemstone and the calf walked into the exhibit, Gemstone started pacing up and down the dirt a couple of feet away from the gate.

The entire time Gemstone paced, her 4-day-old calf trotted next to her.

Gemstone looked frustrated and snorted several times to show her displeasure with the new surroundings.

Sam Winslow, the zoo’s assistant director and curator, said Gemstone was snorting because she was nervous about being in a new location with the calf.

The birth was the first for a black rhinoceros in North American captivity in the last 12 months, said Mary Woods, a spokeswoman for the zoo. It’s one of three such births in the past 12 months worldwide.

The calf doesn’t have a name, but Woods said the zoo plans to have a naming contest soon so the public can get involved.

On Thursday, the 75-pound calf closely followed her mother.

Like Gemstone, once the calf grows up, she could weigh up to 3,000 pounds, Winslow said. That’s bigger than a 2006 Toyota Corolla which weighs 2,615 pounds, according to Toyota’s official Web site.

Gemstone gave birth to the calf following a 16‰-month gestation period, Woods said.

The father is a black rhinoceros named Tatu.

Winslow said zoo officials need to keep Tatu away from his calf and her mother.

“He could kill the baby. That’s just the wild instinct of the male,” Winslow said.

The calf will live at BREC’s Baton Rouge Zoo for two years, Winslow said.

After that, she will be shipped off to another zoo.

The black rhinoceros breeding at the zoo is part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan.

The plan is a population management and conservation program that manages the breeding of species in order to maintain a healthy and self-sustaining population.

Woods said there are less than 4,000 black rhinoceroses left in Africa.

Winslow said poaching for rhinoceros horns is the main reason the animals are an endangered species. The horns are used in the Asian medicinal market, Winslow said.

Winslow said a black rhinoceros matures in five years and can reach the 3,000-pound weight in that time.

Winslow also said the baby rhinoceros will trot right next to Gemstone for the first two years of her life.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Awww, how cute! We'll have to go pay the newborn a visit soon!

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WASHINGTON - That the national champion LSU baseball team traveled through the federal city Wednesday on a bus from a company called “Champion Coach” seemed fitting.

Thirty-one players made the trip, which included a luncheon, a reception at the White House and a visit with Vice President Joe Biden. The president was out of the country. “I’ve never been out of Louisiana before except to play baseball,” said William DeLatte, a redshirt freshman third baseman.

As much as it was important to visit the nation’s most famous house, coach Paul Mainieri made it a point to schedule visits to war memorials that included the Vietnam Memorial, Korean Memorial and Arlington Cemetery.

“It’s only possible because of their sacrifices,” Mainieri said at a luncheon for the team hosted by Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, of Louisiana. “And I think it’s important for them to understand that.”

But Mainieri was not dampening the excitement. The coach said he had trouble sleeping the night before looking forward to the trip.

“It’s the most amazing country in the world and they’re inviting LSU to Washington,” Mainieri said. “I told the players, this is a taste of victory.”

Five of the LSU players who went pro after the Tigers won the college baseball World Series in June came back for the honors.

Outfielder Jared Mitchell once had a chance to visit the White House to meet George W. Bush as part of the 2007 football national champions. Mitchell got permission from the Chicago White Sox, who he now plays minor league ball for in Arizona, to return to join his teammates.

“It’s like I was blessed twice to be able to come around a second time,” Mitchell said. “And I couldn’t pass it up.”

The only player missing from the team visit was relief pitcher Chad Jones. He also is on the LSU Tigers football team. The pitcher and safety had a 93-yard punt return for a touchdown last week and played critical roles in two goal-line stances in the team’s victory against Mississippi State.

Jones is preparing for Saturday’s football game against the University of Georgia.

“I said you’re not invited,” Mainieri said chuckling. “You’ve got to get ready for Georgia.”

The bus pulled up to Landrieu’s home on Capitol Hill and the first thing the players saw stepping off was the Capitol four blocks away. But they acknowledged the White House is what they set their sights on.

“It’s every kid’s dream to win the World Series and come to the White House,” said Micah Gibbs, a junior catcher. “It’s kind of a fantasy for every kid, and when you get here it really sinks in about what kind of impact you have.”

Blake Dean, the team’s slugging designated hitter, said it was special to be in the city with his fellow players.

“I’m going to take away a lot of memories with my teammates,” Dean said.

The White House reception was not open to the media.

Bill Franques, an LSU spokesman for the team, said afterward they were given a tour and met Biden in a room in the West Wing, where a reception was held. The vice president spent 15 minutes with the players before excusing himself for a meeting in the situation room over Afghanistan, Franques said.

Biden, an avid Philadelphia Phillies fan, was recently inducted into the Little League Hall of Fame for his service.

Mikie Mahtook, a center fielder and sophomore from Lafayette, called the experience “awesome.”

“It’s something you see all the national championship teams doing,” Mahtook said. “And you’re doing it.”

Players autographed a team jersey for Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, of Metairie. Scalise wore the jersey in the annual congressional baseball game, which Republicans lost.

“These guys were inspirational,” Scalise said.

Adding, that’s not to mention the fodder for ribbing Texas congressmen that the team provided for beating University of Texas in the World Series finals, Scalise said.

“It gave us something to give our Texas colleagues a real hard time about,” Scalise said.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Congratulations once again, Tigers! Sorry you couldn't make it, Chad... but, you have some Georgia Bulldogs to think about!!!

Labels: Entertainment, Politics, Sports

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No matter what direction quarterback Jordan Jefferson looks when he’s trying to make things happen for LSU’s offense, he finds somebody with a lot of experience.

So unless Jefferson keeps the ball himself or gives it away to Russell Shepard, he always knows somebody who has been there and done that is about to get the ball in his hands.

Saturday’s 31-3 victory against Louisiana-Lafayette was a testament to the tools at Jefferson’s disposal.

When No. 7-ranked LSU (3-0, 1-0 SEC) plays at Mississippi State (2-1, 1-1) at 11:21 a.m. Saturday (on WAFB), it will be the next chance for Jefferson to reach into the offensive toolbox and see if he and LSU can be a little more productive.

The Tigers are generating a respectable 325.7 total yards per game and have topped 320 yards in each game this season.

Veterans are at the heart of LSU’s production. Senior running backs accounted for 118 of the 164 rushing yards against the Cajuns — Scott with 63 yards, Williams with 41 and Holliday with 14. Scott also caught a 1-yard TD pass and Holliday dashed 11 yards into the end zone on a run.

Upper classmen combined for 13 of the 14 receptions by receivers and tight ends: Terrance Toliver (6 catches for 68 yards), Brandon LaFell (3-57, 2 TDs), Richard Dickson (3-27) and Chris Mitchell (1-4)

“It’s a really good feeling having all of those guys around me,” Jefferson said after hitting 16 of 25 passes for 165 yards. “I know those guys are going to get the yards and catch the ball for me. I’m going to keep feeding them the ball, and they’re going to keep doing good things with it.”

Nobody can question whether Jefferson is learning on the job.

There was more evidence of that Saturday as Jefferson made sure he got the ball to his most veteran playmakers at the right time.

Of LSU’s seven third-down conversions (in 12 chances), five came on pass plays to Dickson, LaFell and Toliver. The other two were on running plays: Williams’ 12-yard scamper on an option and Scott’s 2-yard blast from the fullback position in the third quarter.

After three games, it seems like Toliver has emerged as Jefferson’s top choice on third downs. On a drive that led to a 52-yard Josh Jasper field goal on the last play of the first half, Tolliver caught three third-down passes to keep the chains moving.

The lanky junior receiver repeatedly faced man coverage Saturday, and time after time he ran crisp curl patterns ranging from 10-15 yards, usually standing wide open with no defender close enough to make a difference.

With the right combination of size, explosion off the line of scrimmage and power to separate from the defender, Toliver has become an attractive target for Jefferson whenever defenses devote too much attention to LaFell split wide and Dickson roaming over the middle.

LaFell leads LSU with 14 receptions and three TD catches, while Toliver has 13 grabs and a team-best 15.8 yards per catch.

Likewise, the ball has been spread just as evenly on the ground. Scott has 37 carries and Williams 27 — both for 164 yards. Jefferson has carried 19 times for 112 yards.

Despite the 3-0 start, an undercurrent of grumbling among the fans persists that LSU hasn’t tapped its offensive potential.

That’s news to Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, who said LSU has “unbelievable talent at every position on offense.”

“Their offense is loaded with NFL talent at every position,” Mullen said Sunday. “It’s not the one thing you have to stop with them.

“They have a big, physical, strong offensive line and some really big powerful backs that have played a lot of football. You want to go load ’em up and stop the run, they’ve got a really athletic quarterback that can break contain and get out there and cause problems for you. You go to contain him, and you look out there and have every five-star wide receiver that’s come out of high school the last 3-4 years. It’s the depth of their talent across the board. There’s so much balance for them across the board, and that’s what makes them so difficult to defend.”

At times this season, the cast of playmakers has been tough to stop.

But consistency has been elusive, and LSU coach Les Miles doesn’t hide his dissatisfaction with the sporadic performance in the running game.

For the second week in a row, Miles spent part of his postgame session lamenting the inability to line up and grind out the clock once LSU had a comfortable lead.

Scott bulled his way to 42 yards in the final quarter, but there was never a sense LSU was controlling the line of scrimmage.

The Tigers are averaging 4.6 yards per carry and 163.7 rushing yards per game.

“We have too many good runners to not run the football more efficiently, so that’s our quest,” Miles said.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

The Tigers are off to a great start!

To all of the naysayers who didn't think the Tigers looked very good against Washington, and who laughed at Les Miles when he said that the Huskies were tough... what do you say now that they beat #3 USC??? I think I hear crickets chirping!

Geaux Tigers!!!

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Google's homepage is today given over to a "doodle" showing a flying saucer hovering over crop circles. The word "Google" is spelt out in several crop circles, with what appears to be a tractor completing the letter "L".

The internet giant also posted a tweet on its Twitter account with the map reference 51.327629, -0.5616088, which eagle-eyed sci-fi fans have identified as the centre of the small town of Horsell in Surrey. This was the spot where HG Wells set the first UFO landing in his novel The War of the Worlds.

Everyone's trying to read deep significance into this. Is it about abduction? Or aliens? Or Horsell? Or just crop circles? No. It's almost certainly a viral marketing campaign teasing people ahead of some launch in a week or two. One possible explanation is that it's trailing an online "happening" that will coincide with the 143rd anniversary of Wells's birth next week.

Crop circles were once fascinating additions to the English countryside, but now they have become tacky vehicles for corporations to advertise just about anything. A cottage industry has grown up with groups of circle-makers ready - for a price - to reproduce just about anything. The Royal Bank of Scotland, Disney, NBC, UKTV, Red Bull, Greenpeace, Microsoft, Nike, Shredded Wheat, Pepsi, Weetabix, the BBC, The Sun, Mitsubishi, O2, Big Brother, National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel have all paid to emblazon fields with their signatures.

Check out the article at Guardian.co.uk.

Cool art! Is it alien? I don't think so... but, cool, nonetheless!

Check out these cool Crop Circle links:

• 18 Coolest Crop Circles and Aerial Art
• Most Complex Crop Circle Ever Discovered
• Crop Circles on Wikipedia

Labels: Entertainment, Images, Space, Technology

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Have special plans this 09/09/09?

Everyone from brides and grooms to movie studio execs are celebrating the upcoming calendrical anomaly in their own way.

In Florida, at least one county clerk's office is offering a one-day wedding special for $99.99. The rarity of this Sept. 9 hasn't been lost on the creators of the iPod, who have moved their traditional Tuesday release day to Wednesday to take advantage of the special date. Focus Features is releasing their new film "9," an animated tale about the apocalypse, on the 9th.

Not only does the date look good in marketing promotions, but it also represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we'll see for almost a century (until January 1, 2101), or a millennium (mark your calendars for January 1, 3001), depending on how you want to count it.

Though technically there's nothing special about the symmetrical date, some concerned with the history and meaning of numbers ascribe powerful significance to 09/09/09.

For cultures in which the number nine is lucky, Sept. 9 is anticipated – while others might see the date as an ominous warning.

Math Magic

Modern numerologists — who operate outside the realm of real science — believe that mystical significance or vibrations can be assigned to each numeral one through nine, and different combinations of the digits produce tangible results in life depending on their application.

As the final numeral, the number nine holds special rank. It is associated with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positive side as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative, according to numerologists.

Though usually discredited as bogus, numerologists do have a famous predecessor to look to. Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and father of the famous theorem, is also credited with popularizing numerology in ancient times.

"Pythagoras most of all seems to have honored and advanced the study concerned with numbers, having taken it away from the use of merchants and likening all things to numbers," wrote Aristoxenus, an ancient Greek historian, in the 4th century B.C.

As part of his obsession with numbers both mathematically and divine, and like many mathematicians before and since, Pythagoras noted that nine in particular had many unique properties.

Any grade-schooler could tell you, for example, that the sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine. So 9x3=27, and 2+7=9.

Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also break down to nine. For example: 9x62 = 558; 5+5+8=18; 1+8=9.

Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2)...

Loving 9

Both China and Japan have strong feelings about the number nine. Those feelings just happen to be on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The Chinese pulled out all the stops to celebrate their lucky number eight during last year's Summer Olympics, ringing the games in at 8 p.m. on 08/08/08. What many might not realize is that nine comes in second on their list of auspicious digits and is associated with long life, due to how similar its pronunciation is to the local word for long-lasting (eight sounds like wealth).

Historically, ancient Chinese emperors associated themselves closely with the number nine, which appeared prominently in architecture and royal dress, often in the form of nine fearsome dragons. The imperial dynasties were so convinced of the power of the number nine that the palace complex at Beijing's Forbidden City is rumored to have been built with 9,999 rooms.

Japanese emperors would have never worn a robe with nine dragons, however.

In Japanese, the word for nine is a homophone for the word for suffering, so the number is considered highly unlucky – second only to four, which sounds like death.

Many Japanese will go so far as to avoid room numbers including nine at hotels or hospitals, if the building planners haven't already eliminated them altogether.

Check out the article at Live Science.

Interesting stuff, but I think sometimes people can read too much into things. To me, this is just a normal day.

Labels: Entertainment, History

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#10: Sanford Stadium - Georgia Bulldogs

I've been to a game up at Sanford and I couldn't imagine what a player must be going through while playing "between the hedges." The fans are loud, but overall, they're a pretty nice crowd. -- Matthew Smith, Bleacher Report

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#9: Autzen Stadium - Oregon Ducks

Oregon fans are loud. For a place that only seats 59,000, they make it seem like a whole lot more.

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#8: Michigan Stadium - Michigan Wolverines

100,000-plus screaming fans on game day are loud. The fans are passionate enough to make it a tough place to play for a visiting team.

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#7: Lane Stadium - Virginia Tech Hokies

The fans here are right on top of the action, which makes it one of the loudest places to play. But it loses points because it seats many fewer fans than the stadiums ahead of it.

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#6: Ohio Stadium - Ohio State Buckeyes

The Horseshoe makes it tough to beat when the pre-game show includes a script Ohio marching out on the field to screaming fans.

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#5: Kyle Field - Texas A&M Aggies

The 12th man is a formidable opponent for any visiting team at Kyle Field. They are constant and they never give up — a big reason why this stadium makes it into the top five.

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#4: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium - Florida Gators

Florida has some of the best fans in the country and playing a game there is tough, even once, much less having to do it every other year like some SEC schools. The Swamp has given the Gators the second-best winning percentage at home since 1990.

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#3: Beaver Stadium - Penn State Nittany Lions

There is no doubt that the tradition and passion of PSU football gives it a spot near the top of this list. Whether it be JoePa or a whiteout, there's some serious passion among fans here.

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#2: Neyland Stadium - Tennessee Volunteers

Tennessee has a great program and 100,000-plus fans doesn't hurt. They seem to always be into the game no matter the score and the design of the stadium can be very intimidating for opposing teams.

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#1: Tiger Stadium - LSU Tigers





The Tigers have some of the craziest fans in all of college football and trying to play in Tiger Stadium at night with 92,000-plus fans around you must be one of the most intimidating things a college athlete can do.

Check out the article at Fox Sports.

Not a bad list... give or take a couple of the entries (VT???). Won't argue with #1, tho... Geaux Tigers!!!

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As the 40th-anniversary celebrations of the moon landing end, a human voyage to Mars remains a holy grail for NASA.

"We're still looking at human exploration of Mars as one of the goals of the future at the top level," said NASA researcher Bret Drake with Lunar and Mars Integration at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "Having a human actually set foot on another planet would be one of the greatest adventures possible, one of the greatest monuments to history."

A crewed mission to the red planet is a daunting challenge that lies at the edge of current technological capabilities and possibly beyond. Still, NASA keeps a strategy to go there and constantly keeps up to date with new ideas.

"Mars is one of those targets of fascination that has been around a long time," Drake said.

How to get there

A voyage to Mars would take a crew about 180 days. So far NASA is exploring two options for propulsion there — a nuclear thermal rocket and a chemical engine.

A nuclear thermal rocket, based off designs from the '60s and '70s, would use a nuclear reactor to super-heat a gas and blast it out the nozzle to generate thrust. "It's a very high-performance vehicle, and we think it's very safe, not radioactive at launch, but it is a nuclear system," Drake said. "The idea for the chemical engine is similar to that used on the space shuttle, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. It's a fairly well-known technology, but it's not as efficient as nuclear thermal."

To reach the Martian surface, NASA envisions an aerodynamic lander that flies down with thrusters to help it descend. The ascent vehicle that takes the crew back into space for the six-month trip home will likely rely on a combination of methane and liquid oxygen. "Oxygen is present in the Martian atmosphere in the carbon dioxide, so you can use resources on Mars to make it," Drake said.

Before the crew even gets to Mars, the plan is to send as much cargo there ahead of time as possible.

"That way we can know it's operating right before we ever commit the crew," Drake said. "A Mars mission is not like a lunar mission where you can come home at any time — once they're committed, a crew is out there for years."

By current NASA estimates, a crewed mission to Mars needs to lift about twice the mass of the International Space Station into space — roughly 1.76 million lbs. (800 metric tons) of technology. To launch the equipment, NASA plans on using the Ares V rocket, designed to be the most powerful rocket ever built and capable of carrying about 414,000 lbs. (188 metric tons) to low Earth orbit at one time.

"We're going to try to minimize the amount of assembly needed," Drake said. "The heavy lift capacity we'll have with the Ares V will allow for simple automatic rendezvous in orbit and docking of components."

The crew would ride up in one of the upcoming Ares I rockets before starting the voyage to Mars.

"Having humans in place could bring a wealth of experience and training and the ability to put into context what they see and to make real-time decisions, all things difficult to do with robots," Drake said.

The very habitat the crew stays at on the Martian surface would be sent ahead of time. "You can also do things like produce and store oxygen from resources at Mars beforehand for the crew and the ascent vehicle. You could generate water as well."

Big crew, long stay

NASA envisions a crew of six astronauts for a Mars mission. "That's about what's required for the skills needed — a commander, scientist, engineer, medical officer, things like that, as well as cross-training," Drake said. "They'll need expertise in a wide range of disciplines."

Currently NASA envisions a long stay for a crew at Mars, about 500 days.

"Crew autonomy is vital, because there's an up to 40 minute time delay in communication between Earth and the crew because of the distance," Drake said. "And the crew doesn't have a capability for re-supply — they'll just have what they send ahead or what they bring with them — so when things fail, they'll have to be able to repair them. They must be self-sufficient."

To survive the voyage, air and water need to be completely recycled regularly.

"We're learning a lot on the International Space Station right now on air revitalization and water recovery," Drake said. "What's nice about Mars is that there's carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, so that can help get us oxygen and water for the crew. In terms of food, we're looking at smaller systems, 'salad machines,' to grow food for the crew. Fresh food is not only good for nutrition, but good for the mind as well. A fresh tomato can really boost psychology."

Mental and physical challenges

The long hardship of roughly two-and-a-half years in space with only a few people in a potentially lethal environment will undoubtedly challenge the psyches of Mars explorers.

"The Russians are conducting a test right now that hopefully will shed light on the behavioral sciences aspect of a Mars mission," Drake said. "Looking at other remote exploration endeavors is helpful as well — Antarctica, or submarines — all that feeds into the human behavioral aspects of crew selection."

A key concern for astronauts as well as during the stay on Mars is dangerous radiation in the form of storms of high-energy particles from the sun as well as cosmic rays from deep space. "The best radiation protection material is hydrogen, or water, which is rich in hydrogen," Drake said.

On the surface of Mars, NASA envisions that cargo deployed ahead of time can produce water before the crew arrives to use as a shield during the crew's stay there. On the way to and from Mars, the ship could be configured so that water and food surround areas where crew spend most of their time, but "a 'storm shelter' aboard the ship will be an integral part for short events of radiation that can be lethal," Drake said.

No firm date has been set for any potential Mars mission, but it remains of keen interest not just to NASA, but also others, such as China.

"It's humanity's next step to understanding and expanding our presence outward," Drake said. "We view human exploration of Mars as being an international endeavor, most likely not limited to just one country, but probably of global scale.

Check out the article at Fox News.

If human exploration and colonization of Mars is a subject that interests you, I highly recommend Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy - consisting of Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. In this awesome work of science fiction, Robinson delves into the technological, social and political aspects in a realistic future of Martian colonization and terraforming. You'll find no light-sabres or warp drives in these books... just down-to-earth, well-written sci-fi!!!

Labels: Entertainment, Space, Technology

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince



X-Men Origins: Wolverine



Star Trek (XI)



Angels & Demons



Terminator Salvation



Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen



Fast & Furious



Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian



Up (Disney/Pixar)



Land of the Lost



Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs



Public Enemies



G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra



Inglourious Basterds



The Final Destination



9 (Tim Burton)



2012



New Moon

There sure are some awesome movies coming out! We've already seen X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen... both excellent movies! Next on my list are Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Terminator Salvation, Star Trek, Angels & Demons, and Inglourious Basterds... the rest can wait 'til DVD!

Labels: Entertainment, Images

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With the mercury hovering around 95 degrees, several hundred people gathered on the Mississippi River levee to watch three World War II-era airplanes stage a mock attack on the USS Kidd during the day’s “Star-Spangled Celebration” of Independence Day.

People eagerly scanning the sky for the start of the show saw two F-15 Eagle jets approaching from across the river before roaring above the Navy’s retired destroyer moored on the downtown Baton Rouge waterfront.

Several minutes later, three T-6 trainers, their engines a dull hum compared to the jets, approached the Kidd, which began firing back angrily, causing many of the kids in the audience to clutch at their ears.

“They’re blanks! They’re blanks!” shouted Anthony Antoine, 47, a warning to people in the crowd not to worry. “Smell that gunpowder!”

Cheryl Cummins, of Prairieville, peered up at the unfolding battle, eagerly snapping photos with her digital camera.

This was the first Fourth of July celebration in Baton Rouge for Cummins, 60, and her husband Phil, 61, who moved to the area last month from Midland, Mich.

The couple, originally from Philadelphia, said they decided to stay in the Sheraton downtown, eager to avoid the traffic following Saturday night’s fireworks display.

“We figure we had to do it once and do it right,” Cheryl Cummins said.

Maury Drummond, executive director of the USS Kidd Veterans Memorial & Museum, said the display was made possible by the Louisiana National Guard and Dan Fordyce, of Vicksburg, Miss.

“They’ve been so good to us every year,” Drummond said.

The T-6s were flown down from Mississippi earlier in the day and then waited at Baton Rouge Ryan Airport before taking off to perform in the mock battle, Drummond said.

Quite a few people could be seen milling around inside the museum Saturday, perhaps taking respite in the air conditioning from the day’s intense heat.

“It’s never been this hot,” Drummond said of the weather. “I’ve been producing a Fourth of July event for 24 years and it is absolutely brutal today.”

Drummond said he was grateful for everyone who came out despite the heat.

Earlier in the day, brothers Sean, 7, and Aaron, 10, Jameson munched on snowballs outside of the River Center. The boys and their parents crouched alongside an outside wall of the arena as they sought shelter from the noon sun.

They were among the first people down by the Mississippi river for Baton Rouge’s Star-Spangled Celebration.

As Sean ate his icy treat, a few drops of the blue snowball spilled onto his white T-shirt. Aaron showed off his green-tinged tongue as he laughed at his younger brother.

“The ice is melting before I eat it!” Sean pouted with his blue-stained lips.

The Jameson family, of Shreveport, were in Baton Rouge Saturday visiting relatives.

“We tried to get here early to beat the heat, but that didn’t happen,” said mother Laura Jameson, 39.

The all-day celebration started at 8 a.m. with Freedom Mile, a series of 1-mile races along River Road. The race was followed by tours of the USS Kidd.

As the day went on, more people showed up dressed in red, white and blue. Many of them found shady spots under trees or next to a building. Others laid out lawn chairs in the grassy area next to the USS Kidd and waited for the first live band to take the stage.

Young children found respite from the heat by splashing around in one of the area’s many fountains.

For Jeanie and Mitch Talbot, the celebration has become a Fourth of July tradition.

“We’ve been coming every year for about five years,” Mitch Talbot said. “We stay all day and wait for the fireworks.”

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Hope everyone is out enjoying their independence today! It's great to be free!!!

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OMAHA, Nebraska — Nine years ago, most of the players on LSU’s current roster were still just young boys whose baseball futures were only beginning to take shape on baseball diamonds all over Louisiana as well as in corners as far away as New Jersey, Michigan, California and Florida.

For many of them, watching the mighty Tigers carve out their place as college baseball’s dynasty of the ’90s was central to what they wanted to do someday.

At the heart of their baseball dreams.

Sometimes, dreams come true.

Sometime arrived in style Wednesday night, when LSU surged past Texas 11-4 at Rosenblatt Stadium to win the College World Series.

The championship is the Tigers’ sixth, their first since 2000. A nine-year drought that gave some new aspirations a chance to percolate.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling to be put in a position where in Baton Rouge you’re remembered forever,” LSU right fielder Jared Mitchell said. He and Chad Jones already possess national championship rings in football from the Tigers’ 2007 BCS national championship in football.

“We put LSU baseball back on top where it belongs and for years to come, and to be a part of that is something special.”

To get back to the top, LSU (56-17) got contributions up and down the lineup to knock off Texas (50-16-1) as the Tigers won the best-of-three championship series.

Mitchell, named the CWS Most Outstanding Player, got his college swan song started in rousing fashion with a three-run, two-out, first-inning home run.

Tough-as-nails pitcher Anthony Ranaudo gutted out 51/3 innings on short rest and battled as long as he possibly could to keep LSU in front.

When the Longhorns threatened to snatch momentum away, freshman center fielder Mikie Mahtook came through in the clutch again and then Sean Ochinko stuck a dagger in Texas’ heart with a two-out, two-run single.

And in the most fitting of endings, senior Louis Coleman — LSU’s unquestionable heart-and-soul — struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth inning to ignite a wild celebration in the middle of a Rosenblatt diamond that has been so kind to the Tigers through the years.

Coleman launched his glove in the air and braced for a bear hug from catcher Micah Gibbs as the LSU players converged on the mound. Paul Mainieri shared the moment in a long hug in front of the dugout with sons Nick and Tommy. Then, he found his 80-year-old father and mentor, Demie “Doc” Mainieri, as quickly as he could.

“I’ve dreamt my whole life of having this moment after the game to be able to talk about a national championship, and now it’s here. It’s almost surreal,” said Mainieri, who guided the Tigers to the national crown in his third season.

“I’m filled with so many different emotions right now. But all I could think about during the ninth inning was my father. I’m just so happy he could be here to share it with us. But I’ll tell you, I’m so proud to be the coach at LSU and represent that great state and all the great people in that state and a wonderful university.

“And all I could think about that was these wonderful kids I’ve had a chance to coach. … I’m so happy for these kids — they’ve done everything you ask them to do, and they’re great kids, and they deserve it.”

There was the customary victory lap and the sought-after national championship hardware was distributed, but the celebration was only getting started.

Because after nine years of waiting, the Tigers are back on top — the champions of college baseball again. And a new corps of little boys has a new set of heroes and a new set of dreams to hatch.

“If there’s a better way, you write the story for me,” Mitchell said when asked if the ending to the season was as good as he could’ve expected. “I can’t explain it. It’s been so much fun with these guys who I really care about to really come together the way we did.”

No. 1-ranked LSU danced with destiny all season long and did so with nearly perfect rhythm.

The Tigers began the season ranked No. 1 in two major polls, stayed in the top 10 of every ranking throughout the season, battled through the grinding Southeastern Conference to tie for the regular-season championship and then stormed back to win the league tournament.

LSU then blazed through NCAA regional and super regional play unbeaten and won three games in Omaha to get to the CWS finals without a hiccup.

Texas had the Tigers beat in the championship series opener, but DJ LeMahieu gave LSU life with a two-out, two-run ninth inning double and Mahtook drove in the game-winner two innings later.

The ’Horns finally wobbled the Tigers with a 5-1 victory Tuesday to force the decisive third meeting, but that wasn’t enough to separate LSU from what it wanted to accomplish.

Not even close.

Wednesday’s victory fulfilled destiny’s call by pulling together all the strands of success the Tigers have relied on all season long.

Ranaudo’s grit was at the heart of the triumph. He labored through his stint, at times showing flashes of brilliance that helped him win 12 games, at others reaching down deep to find whatever he could muster.

“I knew he was going to give us a chance,” Ochinko said. “I put my head on my pillow last night knowing that Anthony Ranaudo was going to get it done for us.”

Jones, known more as a football safety, amplified the element he has added since his late-season emergence as a left-handed reliever out of the bullpen with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief that bridged the gap to Coleman.

Together, those two capped a magical final series by the bullpen: only three runs allowed in 15 2/3 innings.

Ochinko swung the bat like he did early in the season when he helped carry the offense. He went 4-for-5 Wednesday with a monstrous exclamation-point home run in the ninth inning after he singled three times, none bigger than a two-out, two-run single in the sixth inning.

After the feisty ’Horns drew even at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers clawed back in front in the top of the sixth by erupting for five runs.

Mitchell continued a memorable championship day by beginning the inning by working Texas reliever Brandon Workman for a full-count walk. That snapped Workman’s streak of nine hitters in a row mowed down and seemed to rattle him.

UT catcher Cameron Rupp got handcuffed on a pitch that got away from him for a passed ball that allowed Mitchell to scamper to second with nobody out. Mahtook delivered his second big hit against Workman in the finals when he rifled a double to right-center to plate Mitchell with the go-ahead run.

As he reached second base, Mahtook pumped both fists.

“I didn’t have great at-bats my first three,” Mahtook said. “He threw me a fastball and I got it in the gap. Like they say, I play with a football mentality, and I just showed my emotions on second base.”

Gibbs laid down a perfect bunt to move Mahtook to third and UT reliever Austin Dicharry’s throw to first base was off the mark, allowing Gibbs to reach safely. Derek Helenihi cranked a deep fly ball to left field to score Mahtook for a 6-4 advantage, but LSU wasn’t finished.

Dicharry got Austin Nola on a groundout but walked LeMahieu on four pitches. Austin Wood took over and couldn’t get the door shut. He hit Ryan Schimpf and Blake Dean with pitches back-to-back to force in a run.

Then, on his first pitch to Ochinko, the first baseman rammed a single to left field to score LeMahieu and Schimpf for a 9-4 LSU lead.

“Got to two outs and we were in pretty good shape and then the wheels fell off the car,” legendary Texas coach Augie Garrido said. “We walked people, hit people and they kept the rally going by capitalizing on our mistakes. And then they added to it.

“Once they smelled the blood in the water, I think they did what they should do and really put us away.”

Things started with a dramatic shot in the arm for LSU when Mitchell wrapped a three-run home run around the right-field foul pole with two outs to give the Tigers an immediate lead and their earliest of the CWS finals.

Though buoyed by the quick advantage, Ranaudo wasn’t sharp like he has been most of the season, and the Longhorns got to him to cut the deficit in half in the third inning.

Travis Tucker laced a leadoff double into the left-field corner and Ranaudo walked Brandon Belt. Those two worked a double steal with one out and Tucker came home on a groundout.

With two outs Ranaudo walked three straight hitters, with Preston Clark forcing in a run when he won a 10-pitch battle with Ranaudo for an RBI walk.

The Longhorns erased LSU’s lead in the fifth inning on Kevin Keyes’ prodigious two-run blast into a section of left-center field bleachers populated by burnt orange-clad Longhorns fans.

That knotted the score 4-4 and allowed Texas to hit the reset button and turn the game into a four-inning battle for the championship.

LSU won that abbreviated showdown by scoring the final seven runs.

“They did the thing they needed to do to beat us twice,” Garrido said. “They are the best team we faced this season. By far.”

Best is what these Tigers will always be known as in 2009. Which means it’s time for new dreams.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Sweet!!! What an awesome College World Series this has been... and with such a fitting end!

Be sure to check out Return of the Tigers! at LSUSports.net.

Congratulations Tigers!

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OMAHA, Neb. -- After second baseman DJ LeMahieu erased a 6-4 deficit with a two-out RBI double in the ninth, centerfielder Mikie Mahtook laced a two-out RBI single in the 11th to give top-ranked LSU a 7-6 victory over Texas in game 1 of the National Championship series Monday night at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Freshman right-hander Matty Ott (4-2) earned the win for LSU, throwing three shutout innings between the ninth and eleventh, allowing no hits and striking out three.

“That was one of the most courageous, never-say-die, resilient effort out of one of my teams in 27 years of coaching,” LSU head coach Paul Mainieri said. “It was a total team effort tonight...one for the ages.”

The Tigers (55-16) will face Texas (49-15-1) Tuesday night at 6 p.m. CT. An LSU win will clinch a sixth national championship and its first since 2000.

Game 2 will be televised on ESPN-HD and will be aired on the LSU Sports Radio Network (WDGL 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge). Live audio and stats can be accessed in the Geaux Zone at www.lsusports.net.

LSU’s bullpen of Chad Jones, Paul Bertuccini and Ott allowed no hits in the final five innings in relief of starter Louis Coleman.

“Our bullpen has been fantastic the last month of the season,” Mainieri said. “It was great to see the rest of the guys pick up Coleman and rally around him, because he had a pretty tough outing.”

Coleman pitched six innings and allowed six runs on nine hits, including five solo homers, while striking out six.

Offensively, the Tigers were led by a 2-for-4 performance by LeMahieu, who also had three RBI and scored twice. Rightfielder Jared Mitchell also had two hits, including a two-RBI triple.

LSU wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as leftfielder Ryan Schimpf, the second batter of the game, blasted the second pitch from Texas starter Chance Ruffin over the wall in right center to put the Tigers up 1-0. It was Schimpf’s 22nd homer of the season and his third in the College World Series.

After notching only one hit through the first three innings, Texas tied the score in the fourth with a solo home run by second baseman Travis Tucker to tie the score at 1-1.

Two batters later, designated hitter Russell Moldenhauer crushed a ball off one of the flagpoles in centerfield to give the Longhorns a 2-1 advantage. It was only the second homer of the year for Moldenhauer.

Texas right fielder Kevin Keyes belted the Longhorns’ third solo homer in the inning two batters later, giving Texas a 3-1 lead. It was the first time a team has hit three homers in an inning at the College World Series since June 1, 1998, when LSU hit three against Mississippi State.

In the sixth, Ruffin left the game with two outs and Blake Dean on third and Micah Gibbs on first, giving way to left-handed reliever Austin Wood. The next batter, Jared Mitchell, hit a triple to left-center field, scoring Dean and Gibbs, tying the score at 3-3.

Ruffin threw 5.2 innings and allowed three runs on five hits with one walk, while tying a season-high with 10 strikeouts.

The Longhorns responded in the bottom of the frame when Moldenhauer launched his second solo homer of the game off Coleman, putting Texas back on top 4-3.

Texas made the score 5-3 when Keyes crossed the plate on a wild pitch by Coleman. The senior right-hander ended the sixth by striking out leftfielder Preston Clark with a runner on third.

The Tigers pulled the score within one in the seventh when second baseman DJ LeMahieu pounded a solo homer over the wall in center to make the score 5-4.

In the bottom of the frame, Texas blasted their fifth solo homer off the game, this time off the bat of centerfielder Connor Rowe, to put the Longhorns ahead 6-4.

Jones entered the game for Coleman after Rowe’s homer and retired the Longhorns in order, striking out first baseman Brandon Belt to end the inning.

The Tigers erased a 6-4 deficit with two outs in the ninth when LeMahieu laced a double down the left field line scoring Leon Landry and Derek Helenihi, tying the score at 6-6 heading to the bottom of the ninth.

After Ott got out of the ninth unscathed, the Tigers loaded the bases in the tenth, but Texas right-hander Brandon Workman entered the game with one out and struck out Helenihi and Tyler Hanover to end the LSU threat.

In the 11th, Ott struck out shortstop Brandon Loy and Maitland before forcing Rowe to ground out to Hanover at second base to end the game.

Check out the article at LSU Sports.net.

Gotta give them Texas boys props for a great game played... we're just lucky all of their homers were solos! In the end, the Tigers persevered and took one more step in proving to the nation why we deserve the title!!!

Everyone's getting in on the action! Gov. Bobby Jindal bet Texas Gov. Rick Perry a tray of Louisiana seafood against a tray of Texas Bar-B-Que that LSU will win!

Mmmmm.... Longhorn Ribeye!!! Geaux Tigers!!!

Be sure to check out LSU Baseball at LSUSports.net.

Also check out Line Drives: LSU Baseball with Randy Rosetta.

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OMAHA, Neb. — It’s really not meant to look this easy.

So far, though, LSU’s journey back to the top of the college baseball world hasn’t required much heavy lifting.

The No. 1-ranked Tigers blazed past Arkansas 9-1 Monday at Rosenblatt Stadium, seizing one of the cherished catbird seats at the College World Series.

The Tigers (53-16) get three days off and can sit back and watch as the Razorbacks (40-23) and Virginia battle to determine who gets the next shot at LSU at 1 p.m. Friday.

If the Tigers win that game, they punch a ticket to the best-of-three national championship series, which starts Monday.

To arrive at that enviable position, LSU jumped on Arkansas quickly to give senior pitcher Louis Coleman some immediate breathing room.

Freshman Mikie Mahtook launched a three-run first-inning home run to kick-start the Tigers and Coleman worked through a rocky beginning to discover a comfort zone.

By the time Coleman exited after six innings on the way to his 14th victory, LSU had erupted for a five-run sixth inning, anchored by home runs from Austin Nola and Blake Dean.

That was all the Tigers needed to cruise for their 12th win in a row, and the most important of Coleman’s career and coach Paul Mainieri’s three-year tenure.

How important? Now the Tigers get some extra time, which Coleman really wanted.

To make sure he and his teammates get to tour the world-famous Henry Doorly Zoo next door to Rosenblatt.

“Knowing that it could be a three-game swing,” Coleman said at first when asked about his frame of mind before the game.

“We talked about it a little bit before the game started, saying if we win (Monday), it makes it a whole lot easier. If we lose, then we’ve got to win two or maybe three to get to the end. That was really what my mentality was.”

Then after a brief pause: “And we get to go the zoo.”

Baffled earlier this season when Coleman twirled a two-hit, complete-game shutout against them, the Razorbacks couldn’t do much more with him Monday, even though he wasn’t nearly as dominant.

“When you give ball to Louis, you know he’s going to compete with everything that he’s got for his team,” Mainieri said. “Even though maybe he wasn’t electric early, I thought he became electric in the middle innings and his stuff got better as the game went on.”

Mahtook made calming down much easier for Coleman and everybody else.

With hard-throwing right-hander Brett Eibner on the mound, leadoff hitter DJ LeMahieu lashed a single to right-center field to begin the game and stole second base with Ryan Schimpf at the plate.

Schimpf fell behind Eibner 1-and-2, fouled off four pitches, took a second ball and fouled off four more pitches before finally drawing a walk to end a 13-pitch battle.

Eibner nearly got off the hook when he got Blake Dean on a fly ball to left field and struck out cleanup hitter Micah Gibbs.

But Mahtook worked the count full, fouling off a 2-and-2 offering, and then blasted a bomb toward the left-field foul pole that just cleared the top of the fence for three runs.

“He threw me a slider on the first pitch and I chased it in the dirt,” Mahtook said. “After that, I pretty much saw every pitch he threw pretty well. He tried to sneak a fastball by me, and I fouled it off. Then I was looking for the slider, because he’d thrown it a couple of times. He threw the slider and left it up a little bit. I put a good swing on it and was able to get enough of it to get it out.”

Added Mainieri, “I thought Mikie Mahtook really gave us the big lift in the first inning. We had first and second and nobody out, we did nothing in the next two at-bats. And then Mikie, with two outs, hits a three-run homer, and it’s off to the races for us.”

Arkansas took a small bite out of the lead with a run in the first when Ben Tschepikow laced a one-out opposite-field double to left, Scott Lyons singled and Andy Wilkins knocked home a run on a fly ball to left field.

That was all the Hogs mustered, though. Arkansas threatened in the second and third as well, but Coleman evaded trouble both times.

In the third, he magnified the Razorbacks’ frustration by striking out pinch-hitter Jacob House with the bases loaded with no damage done.

Arkansas never mounted another serious threat on the way to its first loss of the NCAA tournament. Starting with House’s strikeout, Coleman clicked into a groove and retired 10 of the final 12 batters he faced.

“You have to give credit to Louis Coleman,” Hogs coach Dave Van Horn said. “He was outstanding.

“We were getting runners on, just not driving them in. … We were down 4-1 with the bases loaded, and we didn’t get the hit. We didn’t even hit the ball hard. If we get the hit, we’re right there.”

LSU, meanwhile, kept pummeling the baseball.

In the second, Schimpf doubled home LeMahieu for a 4-1 lead.

Arkansas reliever TJ Forrest — a former LSU pitcher — quieted the Tigers bats for a while with 3 1/3 scoreless frames.

But Nola, the nine-hole hitter, injected some new life when he cranked out a 2-and-0 pitch for a solo home run in the sixth. Schimpf walked with two outs and Dean unloaded a two-run bomb to right that stretched the lead to 7-1.

Two more runs came home after Gibbs singled, Mahtook walked and both scored on Jared Mitchell’s base hit to left field — Mahtook when House’s throw to third base was wide left.

As meaningful as the final five-run assault was, Dean credited Mahtook’s early blow for LSU’s offensive prowess.

“Mahtook brings a lot of fire to the team,” Dean said. “The older guys tend to go with the flow. When he hits a home run, he almost takes your arm off. As veterans, we try to calm them down and the young guys bring the fire.”

As does Coleman, who pitched in a fifth consecutive CWS game Monday and responded with another gritty performance, this time with a lot of help from his friends.

“When you get Louis nine runs, it’s going to be hard to lose the ballgame,” Dean said.

Added Mainieri, “Every time you give him the ball you expect him to keep you in the game and give you a chance to win.”

Check out the article at The Advocate.

The Tigers are on fire at #1! The 2009 College World Series is theirs for the taking!

Be sure to check out LSU Baseball at LSUSports.net.

Also check out Line Drives: LSU Baseball with Randy Rosetta.

Geaux Tigers!

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NEW YORK — With its scratches and sticky brown beer stains, the "Tetris" arcade machine near the back of a Brooklyn bar called Barcade has seen better days. Which makes sense, given that the machine was made in the 1980s.

Even today, though, it's not hard to find 20- and 30-somethings plucking away at its ancient controls, flipping shapes made up of four connected squares and fitting them into orderly patterns as they descend, faster and faster as the game goes on.

"You could just play infinitely," said Michael Pierce, 28, who was playing against Dan Rothfarb, also 28. Both have been fans since they — and the game — were young. "Tetris" has its 25th birthday this week.

Completed by a Soviet programmer in 1984, "Tetris" has come a long way from its square roots. It's played by millions, not just on computers and gaming consoles but now on Facebook and the iPhone as well.

"Tetris" stands out as one of the rare cultural products to come West from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And the addictive rhythm of its task-by-task race against time was an early sign of our inbox-clearing, Twitter-updating, BlackBerry-thumbing world to come.

In her book "Hamlet on the Holodeck," Georgia Tech professor Janet Murray called "Tetris" the "perfect enactment of the overtasked lives of Americans."

The game, she wrote, shows the "constant bombardment of tasks that demand our attention and that we must somehow fit into our overcrowded schedules and clear off our desks in order to make room for the next onslaught."

Many people who grew up with "Tetris" haven't stopped playing.

"Tetris" is easy to pick up. Rotate the falling shapes so that you form full lines at the bottom of the screen. Fit the shapes so there are as few open spaces left as possible. Aim for a Tetris: four lines completed in one swoop. Repeat. Watch your score zoom.

But Tetris is hard to master. Because the shapes — technically known as tetrominoes — come in a random order, it is hard to predict the best way to organize them so that they can form neat rows.

In fact, in 2002, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers determined that the potential combinations are so numerous that it would be impossible even for a computer to calculate the best place to put each falling shape.

Erik Demaine, an associate professor of computer science, praised the game's "mathematical elegance," which perhaps stems from the background of its developer.

Alexey Pajitnov was 29 and working for the Moscow Academy of Sciences when he completed "Tetris" on June 6, 1984, for a Soviet computer system called the Elektronika.

A computer programmer by day who researched artificial intelligence and automatic speech recognition, Pajitnov worked on the game in his spare time.

"All my life I liked puzzles, mathematical riddles and diversion," Pajitnov said in a recent interview from Moscow. "Tetris," he said, was just one of the games he made back then. The others are mostly long forgotten.

Pajitnov's creation spread in Moscow through the small community of people who had access to computers. Word filtered through computer circles to the West, where the game drew the interest of entrepreneurs.

A company called Spectrum HoloByte managed to obtain PC rights, but another, Mirrorsoft, also released a version.

Years of legal wrangling followed, with several companies claiming pieces of the "Tetris" pie — for handheld systems, computers and arcades.

Complicating matters, the Soviet Union did not allow privately held businesses. The Soviet state held the "Tetris" licensing rights and Pajitnov had no claim to the profits. He didn't fight it.

"Basically, at the moment I realized I wanted this game to be published, I understood that Soviet power will either help me or never let it happen," he said.

It wasn't until 1996 that Pajitnov got licensing rights. Asked whether he made enough money off the game to live comfortably, he says yes, but offers no more details.

Today, he is part owner of Tetris Co., which manages the game's licenses worldwide.

Nintendo Co. was an early and big beneficiary of the game, which stood out from its mid-'80s peers because it had no characters and no shooting.

When Nintendo was preparing to release its Game Boy device in 1989, the company planned to include with it one of the games that are also classics today: "Super Mario," "Donkey Kong" and "Zelda."

But Nintendo wanted something everyone would play — a "perfect killer game" that would sell the Game Boy, said Minoru Arakawa, the president of Nintendo of America from 1980 to 2002.

The solution was "Tetris" — though Nintendo needed help from Henk Rogers, a U.S. entrepreneur.

Rogers had spotted "Tetris" at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and bought the rights to a PC version of the game in Japan from Spectrum HoloByte.

In February 1989, he went to Moscow on a tourist visa to try to get the rights for Nintendo. He spent his first day in a taxi with a driver who didn't speak English, communicating by gestures and trying in vain to find the ministry of software and hardware export.

The next morning, he hired an interpreter and things went more smoothly, and "Tetris" got bundled into the first Game Boy.

Since then, "Tetris" has expanded to all kinds of devices and inspired a generation of knockoffs. Tetris Co. says 125 million copies have been sold in various incarnations.

Pajitnov says "Tetris" could stick around another quarter-century.

"I hope so, why not?" he said. "Technology changes a lot, but I can't say people change a lot."

Check out article at Fox News.

From playing against my brother via wire on long car trips... to hooking up my grandpa's Super-Gameboy on his TV so he could play Tetris without having to squint at the little screen... to competing against many family members for bragging rights on highest score... to downloading Tetris Party for the Wii and introducing it to my kids... I have many fond memories of this classic game! Congrats on 25 great years!!!

For more info, check out the Tetris Wiki!

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Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday praised an Army soldier in eastern Afghanistan who drew media attention this month after rushing to defend his post from attack while wearing pink boxer shorts and flip-flops, Reuters reported.

Gates said in prepared remarks that he wants to meet the soldier and shake his hand the next time he visits Afghanistan.

"Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage," Gates said in a speech to be delivered in New York.

"I can only wonder about the impact on the Taliban. Just imagine seeing that: a guy in pink boxers and flip-flops has you in his cross-hairs. What an incredible innovation in psychological warfare," he said.

Army Specialist Zachary Boyd, 19, of Fort Worth, Texas, rushed from his sleeping quarters on May 11 to join fellow platoon members at a base in Afghanistan's Kunar Province after the unit came under fire from Taliban positions.

A news photographer was on hand to record the image of Boyd standing at a makeshift rampart in helmet, body armor, red T-shirt and boxers emblazoned with the message: "I love NY."

When the image wound up on the front page of the New York Times, Boyd told his parents he might lose his job if President Obama saw him out of uniform.

"I can assure you that Specialist Boyd's job is very safe indeed," Gates said in the speech.

The U.S. defense chief was scheduled to deliver the speech at New York's annual Salute to Freedom dinner in Manhattan.

Check out article at Fox News.

Now that's what I call some serious dedication! Hats off to Spc. Boyd!!!

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INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Motor Speedway has made the reputation of racing greats: A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, the Unser family.

It's been a testing ground for safety features such as rearview mirrors and seat belts, well before they became commonplace in Americans' everyday lives. It's been a movie set, and the place where Janet Guthrie struck a blow for female athletes by becoming the first woman racer at the Indy 500 in 1977.

And, as of this year, Indy has been part of American driving and racing for a century.

"Not only is this the same joint, the (first) surface is still there ... the crushed rock and tar is still there," speedway historian Donald Davidson said.

The common perception that bricks were used first as the first track surface is as untrue as the speedway's reputation for being a race car-only facility - that was never the intent.

When Carl Fisher and three other partners bought four large plots of farmland for $72,000 in 1908, they wanted to make the speedway a showcase for what was then a major automobile-producing city.

Early cars reached maximum speeds of about 10 mph on the city's dirt roads, so Fisher surmised automakers needed a place to demonstrate whose stripped-down cars were the best.

By 1911, with Indy automakers going out of business, track owners switched gears and started the Indianapolis 500 International Sweepstakes, which gave the speedway and generations of drivers their signature event.

It worked.

Seventy-five thousand out-of-towners from as far away as New York came to Indy and saw Ray Harroun drive a locally built Marmon Wasp to victory in the first Indy 500. The influx of fans never stopped. Tuesday's rookie orientation kicks off practice for the 93rd Indianapolis 500, a race that likely will draw 300,000 people on May 24. The race was shut down during the two world wars.

"The early testing was 'Can we drive this thing from Indianapolis to Greenfield (Indiana) and back,' and then it was 'How can we push these things to the max?'" Davidson said. "The thinking was 'We need a track so we can push them to the limits at all times.' How did you find the weak link? You just stood on it till it broke and then you took it back to the factory to find out how it broke."

Fisher had bigger plans, though, and over the decades the speedway has often transcended auto racing alone.

The first event at the speedway, in fact, was a helium balloon competition. In June 1910, Orville Wright was flying planes over the facility at the United States' first aviation meet. During World War I, the track served as an Army aviation depot to repair planes, and then-owner Eddie Rickenbacker, a World War I flying ace, offered it up for the same purpose during World War II.

By the end of that war, the track nearly ended up on history's scrap heap..

It was nearly destroyed by overgrown foliage and rotting wood, prompting some to contend it should be torn down and converted into a subdivision to help ease the nation's housing crisis - a move that would have forced all those familiar names to attain fame somewhere other than Indianapolis.

Then, in 1945, Terre Huate businessman Tony Hulman Jr. saved it. He bought the track from Rickenbacker and started a major renovation project.

"The infield was just a jungle, and everybody thought the thing was pretty much done for," Davidson said. "The locals said it was falling apart and the wood was rotting and falling down."

Not for long. Throughout the '50s and '60s, the track played an integral role in the city's image. The ABA (and now NBA) franchise that first took the floor in 1967 called itself the Pacers partly because of the Indianapolis' racing reputation. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward filmed the movie "Winning" at Indy. Afterward, Newman got involved in the sport himself.

Despite the complaints of some, the races have gone beyond traditional Indy cars: NASCAR, Formula One and even motorcyles have or do compete here. To kick off this month's centennial celebration, the speedway held hot-air balloon races.

But to those who grew up around the track, the history and future of the track gets back to the 500.

"The 500 is something that will endure a long time after I'm gone," said Tony George, grandson of Hulman, whose family still owns the track. "You know when I was young, I enjoyed coming out and going to the cafeteria under the old terrace tower and having a Coke or a chocolate malt. That's why I wanted to come to the track."

What will the next century bring?

George, who turns 50 later this year, isn't sure. After spending millions of dollars to build the road course for F1, a road course Fisher lobbied for as part of his grand plan, he wants F1 to return to America. The track also has been involved in a redevelopment plan for the city of the speedway.

Yet George insists his family will fulfill the track's purpose - putting on good races and being a community partner with the city and its businesses.

"I learned about the commitment to be a steward of the institution," George said. "That's how my grandparents did it, and the generations that followed have tried to do the same thing."

Check out article at Fox News.

Very interesting info on how the Brickyard came to be!

For more info, check out the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Wiki.

Be sure to check out the Official Indianapolis Motor Speedway Website.

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Tiny and dying but still-powerful stars called pulsars spin like crazy and light up their surroundings, often with ghostly glows.

So it is with PSR B1509-58, which long ago collapsed into a sphere just 12 miles in diameter after running out of fuel.

And what a strange scene this one has created.

In a new image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, high-energy X-rays emanating from the nebula around PSR B1509-58 have been colored blue to reveal a structure resembling a hand reaching for some eternal red cosmic light.

The star now spins around at the dizzying pace of seven times every second — as pulsars do — spewing energy into space that creates the scene.

Strong magnetic fields, 15 trillion times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, are thought to be involved, too. The combination drives an energetic wind of electrons and ions away from the dying star. As the electrons move through the magnetized nebula, they radiate away their energy as X-rays.

The red light actually a neighboring gas cloud, RCW 89, energized into glowing by the fingers of the PSR B1509-58 nebula, astronomers believe.

The scene, which spans 150 light-years, is about 17,000 light years away, so what we see now is how it actually looked 17,000 years ago, and that light is just arriving here.

A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).

Check out article at Fox News.

Whoa... awesome photo!!! Let's just hope it stays out there and doesn't head this way, as is predicted in Nine Inch Nail's The Warning, from Year Zero!!!

Check out my Nine Inch Nails: Year Zero post!

Labels: Entertainment, Images, Space

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The economic downturn could not overshadow the revelry of Mardi Gras on Tuesday as partiers jostled for beads on parade routes and the French Quarter swelled with boozy fun and masked crowds.

In fact, many revelers poked the recession in the eye, dressing in costumes riffing on the bailouts, the stimulus package and busted budgets.

Suzanne Gravener dressed as the Statue of Liberty - but without a crown. That, she joked, had to be sold for cash because of the hard times. Her husband lost his job as a dairy salesman, she said.

"I still have my torch, though," the 59-year-old New Orleans school teacher said.

Carnival was one luxury the family could afford, she said. "This is the greatest free show on earth."

The day opened with clarinetist Pete Fountain leading his Half-Fast Walking Club out onto Uptown streets and headed for the French Quarter in a trolley car. The marching club marks the unofficial opening of Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, the last day of celebration before the solemnity of Lent.

By dawn, spectators crammed parade routes in anticipation of the day's biggest parades and costumed revelers mingled with all-night partiers in the French Quarter's narrow streets.

"It was cold, but nobody minded," said Delores Johnson, 53, of Slidell, La., who staked out a place on St. Charles Avenue with a group of friends dressed in matching green and gold shirts. They arrived on the oak-lined historic parade route just after midnight Monday.

The first parade of the day was Zulu, the traditional African-American parade, followed by Rex, the king of Carnival, and hundreds of truck floats.

At 4 a.m., Zulu members got into costume, which for them means blackface, huge afro wigs and grass skirts. Zulu marks its centennial this year.

"Oh, my God, if my family could see me now, the only good news is that they wouldn't recognize me," said Zulu member John Rice after his face was painted. "This is the only city in the world where you can get away with this."

In the company of Zulu rode Mayor Ray Nagin on horseback. The mayor was outfitted as a gladiator, or as he called himself a "recovery gladiator," in honor of a city's rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina.

Katrina was on the mind of Cherry Gilbert, a 42-year-old Seattle bus driver who helped organize a family reunion for about 80 members of the Gilbert clan, many displaced to cities like Dallas and Atlanta by the 2005 storm.

"This is the first time since Katrina we've all gathered here and it's a beautiful thing. There's nothing like New Orleans ... and family," Gilbert said, camping out on St. Charles.

It was the 49th time Fountain, 78, has made the journey from Commander's Palace, one of the city's most famous restaurants. Costume-clad revelers snapped photographs of Fountain and his entourage of men dressed as toy soldiers in reds, greens and aqua blues. Fountain has had health problems since Hurricane Katrina, but still plays his clarinet during the parade.

Along for the walk for the 43rd time was Jim Ponseti, 74, of Gretna, La. "We don't play, we just play around," Ponseti said of himself and his fellow nonmusical marchers.

The weather was expected to be mild, with temperatures in the 60s and the skies sunny.

Big crowds over the weekend and nearly full hotels bode well for a busy Mardi Gras. Visitors bureau spokeswoman Mary Beth Romig said officials were cautiously optimistic because of the slumping national economy.

Tourism officials hope to match last year's crowd of about 750,000. Before Katrina, Fat Tuesday typically brought in about 1 million people.

There was a shooting after Friday's parades and police said there was another shooting about 6 a.m. Tuesday near Bourbon Street. Still, police said the celebration was mostly peaceful.

"Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and not making trouble for anyone else," spokesman Bob Young said.

Many visitors gather in the French Quarter area, where Carnival's more ribald side takes place.

"I just keep calling my friends at work and telling them what they're missing," said Bud Weaver, 31, of Philadelphia. "It's 40 degrees colder there and none of them had beer for breakfast."

Mardi Gras officially ends at midnight Tuesday. Police, followed by street sweepers, move down Bourbon Street announcing the event is officially over and Lent has begun.

In heavily Catholic New Orleans, many revelers will be in church Wednesday to have ashes daubed on their foreheads as they begin 40 days of prayer, penitence and self-denial leading up to Easter.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

The Spanish Town parade was awesome, as usual!!! Unfortunately, we can't make it to NOLA this year.

Have a Safe and Happy Mardi Gras!!!

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Spanish Town, the quirky, yet charming section of Baton Rouge that is inundated with multitudes of pink flamingoes year round, is the inspiration behind one of Baton Rouge’s most famous parades – The Spanish Town Mardi Gras Parade.

“Buy Yeaux Bailout” is the politically charged theme of this year’s Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade, which runs in the heart of downtown Baton Rouge, and it is like no other. It is hysterically insulting to all it pokes fun at, and it is done so in the worst taste possible – all in good fun of course.

Many are familiar with the parade, but lack knowledge on the way that it is coordinated, which is very fitting to its fun-filled theme.

“The board meets 10 to 12 times each year mostly from August to March,” said Jim Work, Society for the Preservation of Lagniappe in Louisiana (SPLL) Board Member. “We have a few drinks then go into a communal trance. When the trance is broken, voila, we have a theme – maybe.”

In keeping up with the socio-politic trends, SPLL works to find a fitting theme each year, drawing crowds of 100,000 to 200,000 spectators who can’t wait to participate in this event.

“You cannot describe the STMG [Spanish Town Mardi Gras] parade without visual aides,” said Work. “It is un-quantifiably the best political satire event since the ’64 Democratic Convention. Spectators are mostly from here, but thousands come from other planets to catch this extravaganza.”

Those who attend can look forward to seeing this parade’s 75 floats, which is the maximum amount of floats the city will allow, explains Work. This parade brings out so many spectators that you can’t park for miles around downtown. It is custom to get out there early, spending the day eating, drinking and hanging out with friends up until the time of the parade. Think of it as Mardi Gras tailgating.

When preparing for the parade, many hours of, let’s call it “work” – are put into SPLL’s parade planning.

“Decorating a float for the parade requires countless hours of drinking, thinking and planning – and decorating a couple of hours, I guess,” said Work.

With this kind of planning, who wouldn’t be interested in joining the fun? Spanish Town Parade entices many, encouraging their involvement in what is certainly an entertaining time.

“Fun-a-holics have found a way to reach the towering heights that are necessary to slide into the inner circles of STMG mosh-pit,” said Work.

Although Spanish Town has residents that vary in socio-economic status, they are unified as one, symbolizing this with their treasured pink flamingoes regardless of whether the home is extravagantly large or whether it small and rented by a poor college student, trying to make a place in this world. This heart of Baton Rouge is inhabited by lawyers, doctors, artists, writers, and many others who may not see eye to eye on all issues, but they do agree on one – the pink flamingo that is the inspiration for all who live there, characteristically representing unification – if you will. This simple, tacky lawn ornament represents so much to this town, and they are placed in the lakes downtown prior to each Spanish Town Mardi Gras Parade, as a reminder to all, that Spanish Town is one of a kind.

“Why Spanish Town?” said Work. “Because they worshipped the humble pink, plastic lawn ornament from which we all draw strength and wisdom,” Work said. “Enthusiasm of all the fruit-cakes that have made this parade what it is today,” continues to spike Work’s interest in the Mardi Gras mayhem.

Check out the article at Tiger Weekly.

It's that time again... I love PINK, it's my favorite color!!! ;-) We'll be out there all day!!!

Be sure to check out the Official Spanish Town Mardi Gras website!

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To trumpet the Southeastern Conference as powerful in the college football scene isn’t groundbreaking stuff. Especially around these parts.

After all, the SEC holds the last three national titles, with LSU as the crème filling to Florida in a BCS Oreo.

However, just take a moment to look at the league’s 6-2 run in the bowl season and concentrate on the three teams that wheezed their way into bowls — LSU, Vanderbilt and Kentucky — yet came up with victories.

• Vanderbilt, which had lost six of its final seven games after a 5-0 start, had its first bowl win since 1955 and its first winning season since 1982, when the Commodores last played in a bowl.

  With a key fumble recovery in the end zone, Vandy beat No. 24 Boston College 16-14 in the Music City Bowl.

• Kentucky, which had lost six of its final eight games after a 4-0 start, has won three consecutive bowl games for the first time in school history.

  With a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to start the second half and a 56-yard fumble return for a touchdown as the game-winner with 3:02 to play, Kentucky beat East Carolina 25-19 — after trailing 16-3 at halftime — in the Liberty Bowl.

• And LSU, which had lost five of its last eight games after a 4-0 start, won its fourth straight bowl game, all under Les Miles, in a run that includes last season’s BCS title-game win and a Sugar Bowl win.

  The Tigers, who have won 10 of their last 12 bowls, put up 28 points in the second quarter and destroyed No. 14 Georgia Tech 38-3 in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

What does all this mean? The SEC, 7-2 in bowls the previous season, is good. You knew that, right? Then again, last year is so last week.

ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach has LSU, which went 8-5 and finished unranked this season, at No. 9 in his day-after-the-title-game top 25 preseason poll.

Of SEC teams, Florida is No. 1 and Alabama No. 5, with Ole Miss checking in at No. 12, Georgia at 15.

That ranking reflects how much LSU did to earn back respect with that Chick-fil-A Bowl. Plus, true freshman quarterback Jordan Jefferson’s performance, coupled with the hiring of defensive coordinator John Chavis, provide hope LSU can fix its glaring problems at quarterback and on defense.

Had LSU not collapsed against Arkansas, the Tigers would have finished in the final top 25 this season. (As it was, they were effectively 28th).

Is No. 9 too lofty? The suspicion here is LSU won’t be in the top 10 when the preseason polls surface in about seven months. Look for a start in the top 15.

Ole Miss — given a six-game winning streak to close the season, a blowout win over former No. 1 Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl, a demolishing of LSU in Tiger Stadium and that one-point win at Florida in September — probably will begin ahead of LSU.

Either way, that’s two teams in the top five and five total in the top 15. Yep, the SEC will continue to be powerful.

Check out article at The Advocate.

Congrats to Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators on the 2008 National Championship!!!

Congrats to the LSU Tigers on their rout of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets! Jordan Jefferson had a great game and I'm looking forward to seeing him next year at the starting QB position... and what do you know, his favorite receiver, Brandon LaFell, decided not to head off to the NFL after-all! Things are definitely lookin' up for next year!!!

SEC RULES!!!

Be sure to check out SECSportsFan.com.

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Each year, millions of eyes from all over the world are focused on the sparkling Waterford Crystal Times Square New Year's Eve Ball. At 11:59 p.m., the Ball begins its descent as millions of voices unite to count down the final seconds of the year, and celebrate the beginning of a new year full of hopes, challenges, changes and dreams.

On November 11th, 2008, The co-organizers of New Year’s Eve in Times Square (Times Square Alliance, Countdown Entertainment) unveiled a new Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball at a press conference at Hudson Scenic Studio in Yonkers, New York.

The new Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball is a 12 foot geodesic sphere, double the size of previous Balls, and weighs 11,875 pounds. Covered in 2,668 Waterford Crystals and powered by 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDS, the new Ball is capable of creating a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns producing a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square.

The organizers also announced that the new Ball will become a year-round attraction above Times Square in full public view January through December.

“For one hundred years, the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball has attracted millions of revelers to Times Square on December 31st to celebrate the beginning of the New Year” said Jeff Straus, president of Countdown Entertainment and co-organizer of Times Square New Year’s Eve. “The new Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball will be a bright sparkling jewel atop One Times Square entertaining New Yorkers and tourists from around the world not only on December 31, but throughout the year.”

“The New Year’s Eve ball is bigger, better and brighter than ever, just like Times Square itself,” said Times Square Alliance President Tim Tompkins. “And like Times Square, it’s not afraid to show off. That’s why we’re proudly putting it on display year-round so visitors to the neighborhood can enjoy a true Crossroads of the World icon.”

Check out article at Time Square Alliance.

I wish everyone a safe, happy and prosperous 2009!

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AT THE GREENWICH PRIME MERIDIAN, England (AP) -- Just a second, 2009. It's going to take a little longer to say goodbye to the worst economic year since the Great Depression, but all for good cause. The custodians of time will ring in the New Year by tacking a "leap second" onto the clock Wednesday to account for the minute slowing of the Earth's rotation. The leap second has been used sporadically at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich since 1972, an adjustment that has kept Greenwich Mean Time the internationally agreed time standard.

Some scientists now say GMT should be replaced by International Atomic Time - computed outside Paris - because new technologies have allowed atomic time to tick away with down-to-the-nanosecond accuracy.

But opponents say atomic time's very precision poses a problem.

A strict measurement, they say, would change our very notion of time forever, as atomic clocks would one day outpace the familiar cycle of sunrise and sunset.

The time warp wouldn't be noticeable for generations, but within a millennium, noon - the hour associated with the sun's highest point in the sky - would occur around 1 o'clock. In tens of thousands of years, the sun would be days behind the human calendar.

That bothers people like Steve Allen, an analyst at the University of California at Santa Cruz's Lick Observatory.

"I think (our descendants) will curse us less if we choose to keep the clock reading near 12:00 when the sun is highest in the sky," Allen said.

Atomic time advocates argue that leap seconds are onerous because they're unpredictable.

Since the exact speed of the Earth's rotation can't be plotted out in advance, they're added as needed. Sometimes, like this year, they're added on Dec. 31, sometimes they're inserted at the end of June 30.

Those willy-nilly fixes can trip up time-sensitive software, particularly in Asia, where the extra second is added in the middle of the day.

Critics say everything from satellite navigation to power transmission and cellular communication is vulnerable to problems stemming from programs ignoring the extra second or adding it at different times.

Although the time will pass in the blink of an eye, Judah Levine, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., predicts the change will make him a very busy man starting about 5 p.m. Mountain Time. As part of the institute's Time and Frequency Division, he'll be helping to work out the bugs that follow.

"There's always somebody who doesn't get it right," Levine said. "It never fails."

Britons seemed less concerned about the remote prospect of having tea at 3 a.m. than the notion of leaving a France-based body in control of the world's time.

"I think there's some kind of historical pride we might feel in Britain about Greenwich being the point around which time is measured," 50-year-old telecoms executive Stephen Mallinson said as he waited to board a Eurostar train for Paris at London's St. Pancras Station.

"But in practice, does it make a difference? No."

At the Royal Observatory, 53-year-old homemaker Susie Holt was adjusting her wristwatch to match the digital display above the meridian. She said it would be a pity if GMT were made obsolete. Her daughter, 15-year-old Kirsty, was more forthright.

"We don't want the French to control time," she said. "They might get it wrong or something."

Meanwhile, Elisa Felicitas Arias, a scientist at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which computes atomic time at a facility outside Paris, has been busy lobbying to scrap the leap seconds that have given the 17th century Royal Observatory pride of place.

"GMT is out of date," she sniffed.

She said she has been garnering considerable support, with the International Telecommunications Union - the arbiter of international time standards - considering a vote on a switch as early as next year, with a 2018 target to implement it.

The U.S., France, Germany, Italy, and Japan were all on board, she said.

But David Rooney, the Royal Observatory's curator of time, defended leap seconds, saying they give everyone "the best of both worlds."

The arrangement, he said, allows satellites, physicists, and high-frequency traders to benefit from the accuracy of atomic time while keeping our clocks consistent with the position of the sun in the sky - and with GMT.

The American Astronomical Society is officially neutral on the proposal to switch to atomic time, which is calculated based on readings from more than 200 atomic clocks maintained across the world.

Perhaps predictably, Britain's Royal Astronomical Society has come out in favor of conserving leap seconds. While spokesman Robert Massey said star-watchers could cope no matter what happened, he urged caution on such an important change.

"It's not just a matter for the telecommunications industry to tell everybody to get rid of the leap second," Massey said. "It would be a big cultural change at the very least. Abandoning the connection between time and solar time is really a big shift."

Check out article at The Advocate.

I'm on the fence on this one... scientific accuracy is important, but I kinda like that time matches solar time. Guess we'll have to see how this argument plays out over the next few years.

Anyway... Please everyone remember to be safe and responsible tonight... and enjoy the celebrations!

Labels: Entertainment, History, Images, Technology

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ATLANTA — Whether it’s the first game of the season, the handful along the way against bitter rivals or the last time a team will strap on helmets and take the field together, every football game boils down to matchups.

Can your best players line up and beat the best players from the other team man-to-man, play-after-play more often and more convincingly for 60 minutes?

In that sense, the Chick-fil-A Bowl between LSU (7-5) and 14th-ranked Georgia Tech (9-3) won’t be much different than the previous 12 games the teams have played this season or the last three bowl outings the Tigers have turned in under coach Les Miles.

What’s different is the matchups facing LSU’s defense.

Georgia Tech’s triple-option offense is a hybrid of the wishbone from the 1960s and ’70s and the spread offenses in vogue now.

And the stakes, motivation and sense of urgency are intertwined and packaged differently for LSU as well.

Instead of putting a crescendo on a stellar season like they have the last three years, the Tigers are relegated to tacking something positive onto a season that spiraled out of control in November.

Whether LSU can dig deep enough to find the necessary motivation to play well will be nearly as important as how well the Tigers slow down the Yellow Jackets proficient offense, making this season finale intriguing.

“It’s real important for us to come out and play with energy and intensity because we want to finish this season a lot better than we’ve played the last few games,” LSU linebacker Darry Beckwith said. “If we do that and play good fundamental defense the way we’ve been coached, we’ll be OK.”

Those fundamentals boil down to what LSU coaches deem “assignment football.”

Each member of the defense has a specific role depending on the formation and is expected to take care of that job and not stray from the script.

“The great thing we’ve had is time, so we’ve been able to take it and break it down and teach it concept by concept and really get a lot of work done on what we need to stop, so it’s fortunate that we’re facing them in a bowl game and not in the middle of the football season,” LSU defensive co-coordinator Bradley Dale Peveto said.

Peveto’s co-coordinator Doug Mallory said whatever success LSU’s defense has will start up front with the defensive line.

“It starts with those guys up front and how disciplined they can be,” he said. “We’ve got some guys who when we face a conventional offense, they’re geared to getting up the field as fast as they can and rushing the passer. Against this kind of offense, the defensive ends are tied into option reads and they have to get geared up to play within the framework of the defense.”

Translation: The Tigers ends and cornerbacks have to stay home and dictate the quarterback’s decision.

If the two ends and two corners are effective, most running plays will either be funneled inside or strung out to the sideline where linebackers and safeties will be counted on to limit the damage.

“The linebackers are going to have to make a lot of open-field tackles,” LSU buck linebacker Perry Riley said. “We have to break down and be fundamentally sound and not miss when get a chance to wrap the running back up. We’ll be the first ones who have that chance and we want to make a lot of tackles and not leave it up to anybody else.”

That all sounds good in a neatly wrapped package, but part of Tech’s success and the danger the offenses poses is based on patience until the defense slips up.

While the triple-option might seem like a grind-it-out, ball-control way of doing things, the architect of Tech’s scheme takes umbrage with that notion.

“Honestly, I don’t think too many people out there understand (the triple option),” said Johnson, who relied on the offense to guide Georgia Southern to two Division I-AA national championships and then lead Navy to five straight bowl games. “I think that there’s the perception out there, which sometimes is perpetuated by the media and other people, that it’s just 3 yards and a cloud of dust and that fans don’t enjoy watching it because it’s boring and that guys can’t get to the next level playing in it. I think most of that has been proven wrong and as we get further into it here, all of it will be proven wrong.”

This season has certainly supplied some legs for Johnson’s argument.

In 12 games the Jackets have 64 plays of 20 yards or more. Broken down, 46 of those plays were rushes for 1,669 yards — 36.3 a carry. Eighteen pass plays went for more than 20 yards for 633 yards.

“There were a lot of games played this year where you could see our offense get 3-to-4 yards every carry and then all of a sudden hit a big one,” Tech center Dan Voss said.

“If you get out of position or if you take one false step or have any wasted motion, that can be the difference between a 3-yard gain and a 60-yard touchdown,” defensive end Kirston Pittman said.

So the Tigers have watched the triple option for three weeks, broken it down in the film room and a scout team has tried to emulate how the Jackets will attack.

“We’ve done everything we can to be as close to their style of offense to show it to our defense,” Miles said.

“If LSU’s scout team can execute as well as we can, we’re in trouble,” Jones said. “It’s going to come down to us executing our offense the best we can, and we always feel like if we execute our offense, we’re going to have a good chance.”

Johnson didn’t disagree.

“To me, what we do is a game of adjustments,” he said. “We don’t know how LSU’s going to play and they don’t know exactly what we’re going to do, so it’ll be who can adjust.”

Man-to-man, play-by-play, 60 minutes. Sound familiar?

Check out article at The Advocate.

Best of luck to the Tigers! I know this season hasn't been all that we hoped it would be, but this is still a talented team with a winning record and they deserve our respect and support!

Geaux Tigers!!!

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Who says Santa Claus doesn't exist?

The military personnel charged with being the eyes in the sky are certainly acting like he does — and they've been joined on the Internet by millions of believers.

Even doubters have reason to pause when they hear the North American Aerospace Defense Command — or NORAD, which monitors air and space threats against the U.S. and Canada — is in charge of the annual Christmas mission to keep children informed of Santa's worldwide journey to their homes.

"They challenge it, but only to a point," said Senior Master Sgt. Sharon Ryder-Platts, 49, who for five years has been a Santa tracker, taking calls from those wanting to know the location of jolly old St. Nick.

According to NORAD, Santa began his latest flight early Wednesday at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. Historically, Santa visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. NORAD points out that only Santa knows his route.

Last year, NORAD's Santa tracking center answered 94,000 calls and responded to 10,000 e-mails. About 10.6 million visitors went to the Web site, which can be viewed in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese.

NORAD's holiday tradition can by traced to 1955, when a Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears, Roebuck & Co. ad telling children of a phone number to talk to Santa. The number was one digit off, and the first child to get through reached the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.

Col. Harry W. Shoup answered.

Shoup's daughter, Terri Van Keuren, said her dad, now 91, was surprised to hear that the little voice on the other end thought he was Santa.

"Dad thought, `What the heck? This must be some kind of code,"' said Van Keuren, 59.

Shoup, described by his daughter as "just a nut about Christmas," didn't want to break the boy's heart, so he sounded a booming "Ho, ho, ho!" and pretended to be Santa Claus.

Enough calls followed that Shoup assigned an officer to answer them while the problem was fixed. But Shoup and the staff he was directing to "locate" Santa on radar ended up embracing the idea. NORAD picked up the tradition when it was formed 50 years ago.

"If we didn't do it, truly I don't know who else would track Santa," Maj. Stacia Reddish said.

The task that began with no computers and only a 60-by-80-foot glass map of North America now includes two big screens on a wall showing the world and information on each country Santa Claus visits. It took off with the Web site's 1997 launch, Reddish said.

Now, curious youngsters can follow Santa's path online with a Google two-dimensional map or in 3D using Google Earth, where he can be seen flying through different landscapes in his sleigh.

NORAD officials are hesitant to list all the potential sites Santa will visit with certainty.

"Historically, Santa has loved the Great Wall of China. He loves the (Space) Needle in Seattle. He of course loves the Eiffel Tower," Reddish said. "But his path is completely unpredictable, so we won't know."

Check out the article at Fox News.

This is a great service that NORAD is providing... the kids love to track Santa! Besides, with NORAD keeping watch over the skies, we can hopefully avoid any unwanted accidents... I'm sure Santa is grateful!

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One of New Orleans’ newest traditions, and one of the most colorful, is the annual “Miracle on Fulton Street” sponsored by Harrah’s Casino and Hotel. This free, seasonal event, which began in 2007, kicks off on Thanksgiving week and runs through the end of the year, celebrating the holidays in imaginative ways on the Fulton Street Mall, just outside the main Harrah’s Hotel.

Among the displays and attractions visitors can expect to see during the month-long event include the following:

• Two winter wonderland tunnels, complete with Santa and his reindeer
• A giant gingerbread house
• “Faux Snow” falling every hour on the hour, starting at noon
• Live entertainment with top local performers on weekends
• Holiday-themed dining at nearby participating restaurants
• Santa’s Shop, selling official “Miracle on Fulton Street” merchandise, including commemorative ornaments, apparel, bells, coffee mugs and more

Holiday drinks including Cajun egg nog, hot cocoa and hot toddies will also be on sale. Santa will be available for photos on Fulton Square.

Visitors can enter the fully decorated Mall at Poydras Street through a series of custom-built, faux wrought iron arches, accentuated by 12-foot-high Christmas trees and 3-foot-high fleur de lis ornaments. The arches will create a dramatic canopy illuminated by thousands of LED lights of various holiday colors.

Participating restaurants offering special holiday menu items include Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, Grand Isle seafood restaurant and Ernst Café – all of which border on the Fulton Street Mall.

Harrah’s New Orleans is operated by a subsidiary of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., the world's largest provider of branded casino entertainment. Since its beginning in Reno, Nevada nearly 70 years ago, Harrah's has grown through development of new properties, expansions and acquisitions. Harrah's Entertainment is focused on building loyalty and value with its customers through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership.

Check out the article at New Orleans Online.

This is a very nice attraction to the riverfront area of Nola - we really enjoyed it! Check out my above photos!

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Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by American rock band Guns N' Roses. It was released on November 23, 2008, worldwide and in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2008. It is the band's first studio album since 1993's "The Spaghetti Incident?", and their first album of original studio material since the simultaneous release of Use Your Illusion I and II in September 1991. Retail store chain Best Buy is the exclusive retailer of the album in the United States.

In a 2007 interview, Axl Rose's close friend Sebastian Bach stated that Chinese Democracy will be the first installment in a trilogy of new albums. Bach also remarked that Rose had told him the third, as yet untitled, album has been slated for 2012.

Guns N' Roses began to write and record new music in 1994. Ex-bassist Duff McKagan is quoted as saying, "[the] band was so splintered at that point that nothing got started". Slash has criticized Rose for making the band seem "like a dictatorship". Slash quit the band in 1996; drummer Matt Sorum and McKagan left soon afterwards. Slash was replaced by Nine Inch Nails touring guitarist Robin Finck, ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson replaced McKagan, and Josh Freese joined as the drummer. In early 1998, the band — which comprised Rose, Finck, Stinson and Freese along with long-time Guns N' Roses associate Paul Tobias, keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman — began recording at Rumbo Recorders, a state-of-the-art studio in the San Fernando Valley where Guns N' Roses had partially recorded parts for their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. During this time, Geffen paid Rose $1 million to try to finish the album, with a further $1 million if he handed it in to them by March 1, 1999.

In 2000, Rose hired avant-garde metal guitarist Buckethead, and drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia to replace the departed Freese. Later on in 2000, Finck rejoined the band as the third guitarist. On January 1, 2001, Guns N' Roses played their first concert in over seven years at the House of Blues in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was followed by their headlining performance at Rock in Rio III on January 14, 2001 in front of 190,000 people. On August 29, 2002, the band made a surprise visit to the MTV Video Music Awards, playing old songs along with a new "Madagascar" to an ecstatic New York crowd.

On December 14, 2006, Rose published an open letter to the band's fans on their website, claiming that remaining tour's shows were taking up time the band needed to finish recording Chinese Democracy. Rose also revealed that the band had parted company with their manager Merck Mercuriadis, implying that the reason the album was not released in 2006 was Mercuriadis's fault (many times throughout 2006, Rose had said the album would be released that year). In the letter, Rose announced a tentative release date of March 6, 2007 for the album, however, the album was once again delayed.

On February 22, 2007, the band's road manager, Del James, announced that all recording for the album had been completed and it was in the mixing process, James stated that there was no release date for the album but that things appeared to be moving on after a number of delays.

On March 26, 2008, various media outlets reported that Dr Pepper will offer a free can of Dr Pepper to everyone in America — excluding former Guns N' Roses guitarists Buckethead and Slash—if the band releases Chinese Democracy in 2008. Later on March 26, Rose replied to Dr Pepper on Guns N' Roses' official website and spoke of his surprise at Dr Pepper's support. Rose also said he would share his Dr Pepper with Buckethead as "some of Buckethead's performances are on [Chinese Democracy]". After it was announced that the album would be released in 2008, Dr Pepper confirmed that it would uphold its pledge.

On September 14, 2008, "Shackler's Revenge" was released on the music video game Rock Band 2, making it the band's first official release of new material since 1999's "Oh My God". "Shackler's Revenge" was shortly followed by another release, "If the World", which, according to Rolling Stone, plays during the closing credits of Body of Lies. A firm release date was announced by Billboard in October, 2008, set for November 23rd. In the US, the retail release will be sold exclusively through Best Buy. The first single from the album, "Chinese Democracy", was released on October 22, 2008.

Check out the Chinese Democracy Wiki page.

It's about freakin' time!!! I can't wait to pick up my copy... and I want my free Dr. Pepper, too! =)

Speaking of the Dr. Pepper promotion, you gotta love the press release from back in March, it's a classic...

DR PEPPER WILL GIVE EVERYONE* IN AMERICA A FREE SODA IF AXL ROSE RELEASES NEW GUNS N’ ROSES ALBUM, CHINESE DEMOCRACY, IN 2008

*Guitarists Slash and Buckethead Will Not Be Eligible For Free Soda.

Then, the response from Axl...

We are surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr Pepper with our album “Chinese Democracy,” as for us, this came totally out of the blue. If there is any involvement with this promotion by our record company or others, we are unaware of such at this time. And as some of Buckethead’s performances are on our album, I’ll share my Dr Pepper with him.

LOL!!! Be sure to check out the Official Chinese Democracy website and the review from Rolling Stone.

UPDATE: Got the album and it freakin' rocks! Be sure to check it out, it's an awesome addition to any music collection!!!

Labels: Entertainment

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Around the Bowl and Down the Hole... Roll Tide Roll!

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Four bronze, larger-than-life statues look over Bryant-Denny Stadium’s front lawn, one for each man to win a national championship here.

From right to left, the statues stand chronologically: Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Bear Bryant and Gene Stallings. To the left of Stallings, there’s a lonely pedestal of grass, reserved for the next immortal.

It’s been considered that Nick Saban, who has Alabama at the head of the Bowl Championship Series title chase, could be the missing link.

“After we beat Georgia,” said David Jones, owner of the Alabama Express gift shop right off campus, “somebody actually went out there and put a mock statue of him in that spot.”

Such is the buzz absorbing Tuscaloosa these days. Sooner than anyone could have expected, Saban has awakened the 8,000-pound, crimson-clad elephant in the room.

Alabama football sleeps no more.

When the Crimson Tide face No. 15 LSU on Saturday afternoon in Tiger Stadium, it will take the field with a No. 1 ranking attached to its name for the first time since 1980, a year after Bryant won back-to-back national titles. It is the first time Alabama has had the ranking, period, since Stallings bronzed his status with a victory over Miami in the Sugar Bowl, following the 1992 season.

By beating the Tigers, the Tide can clinch a trip to the Southeastern Conference championship game. Alabama hasn’t done that since 1999, four coaches ago.

“Bama fans don’t really know what to do with ourselves right now,” said Jeremy Tuggle, a 2004 graduate from Birmingham. “We really thought it would be one or two more years before we were having these conversations.”

Saban, 57, might be the most popular man in town these days. Or it might be Mal Moore, the man who hired him.

One of the two.

It has been only 22 months, after all, since Moore, the Alabama athletic director, shocked football circles — NFL and college alike — by luring Saban from the Miami Dolphins, rushing him home on a private jet and introducing him as Alabama’s next coach at a news conference.

Across the nation, Saban was ripped for leaving Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga in a lurch. For investing only two years in Miami, then bolting. For famously announcing “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach” at a Dolphins news conference, only to reverse field.

Tuscaloosa never cared.

When Moore and Saban touched down, houndstooth-adorned fans — from the boosters to the coeds — rolled out the crimson carpet.

“You hear people talk about the Saban effect,” said Jones, who recalls Jan. 3, 2007, as a landmark day for sales. “I’ve thanked Mal Moore several times.”

Saban’s arrival was the big splash Bama craved. It promised the SEC’s most storied program a chance to end years of hit-and-miss and regain its traditional place as a consistent national player.

That’s what Moore wanted when he cast a line into the water after firing Mike Shula, like Moore a former Bama quarterback. For all the high marks he’d earned after directing a $125-million effort to enhance Alabama’s facilities, the A.D. knew he had to get this right.

Money wasn’t an issue. Neither was taking chances.

“I knew I wanted a proven coach who’d won a championship,” Moore said. “But I didn’t know that coach Saban was a real option for us. I’d only heard from different people that he might want back in the college game. When I flew down there, I didn’t even know if he’d talk to me.”

Moore left Tuscaloosa for south Florida the weekend of Miami’s final game, in Indianapolis. He returned a few days later with Saban, who had agreed to an eight-year, $32 million contract.

“I think it was a relief as much as anything,” said Kirk McNair, founder and editor of Bama Magazine. “Everybody was scared that Alabama wasn’t going to be able to get a (top-quality) coach.”

The one they got was one they knew. Saban, after all, had coached SEC West rival LSU to two conference titles and one national championship in five years.

He could do it here, too, couldn’t he?

The Tide had rolled through five coaches since Bryant retired after the 1982 season. Stallings, the third try, had been the only one worthy of a statue.

This would be different, Bama fans believed.

When the Saban story broke, its impact in Tuscaloosa could be measured in several ways, Web activity among them. McNair watched Bama Magazine’s message boards explode after he posted the news.

“It went berserk,” McNair said. “I’ve never seen the forums do anything like that.”Turning the Tide

Saban doesn’t seem to have changed much. He’s still not one to break out an oxford shirt or coat and tie very often. He’s still driven and competitive. He’s still impatient, for the most part, with anything — media functions included — that cuts into his time on the practice field or film room.

And his formula remains the same.

If you put this Alabama team in gold helmets and white jerseys, replaced its mascot with a live Bengal tiger and changed the lyrics of its fight song, you’d swear it was 2003 all over again. Saban has rebuilt in Tuscaloosa just as he did in Baton Rouge, carrying the same kit of tools.

He’s winning with defense. Solid, steady quarterback play. Preparation and discipline. He’s winning with the kind of team made for the long haul.

“It reminds us of a certain other coach,” said Ken Gaddy, director of the Bryant Museum, on the Alabama campus. “It’s what people think is Southern football.”

In other words, Bama isn’t flashy.Not yet.

Bama’s most recent recruiting class, however, was the best in the nation, according to Rivals.com, Scout.com and other recruiting services. It included the likes of Julio Jones, a tall, athletic receiver who has caught 33 passes and started every game as a freshman.“People know he’s stocking the pantry,” McNair said of Saban, who recruited equally well at LSU, where he landed a consensus Top 5 class three times, in ’01, ’03 and ’04.

The most encouraging thing — or, if you’re a Bama rival, discouraging thing — about this 9-0 start? The Tide has only nine scholarship seniors, a sign that more of the same could await.

Saban won the SEC championship in Year 2 at LSU, but that team’s best ranking was No. 7, reached after a victory over Illinois in the Sugar Bowl. He didn’t have the Tigers in the national championship conversation until Year 4, a season that ended with LSU winning the BCS title.

Who knows where November will take Alabama? But it seems a lock the Tide will enter Year 3 under Saban ahead of schedule.

“Right now,” said Tuggle, the Bama grad from Birmingham, “we’re playing with house money.”Feeding the monsterSaban may not have a statue in front of the football stadium. But like every other man who has coached a game at Alabama since Bryant’s retirement, he does have an exhibit at the Bear Bryant Museum.

For now, the Saban display, located an option toss from the gift shop, is fairly unspectacular. It features a couple of magazine covers, a football commemorating the coach’s 100th career victory (registered against Tulane in September), last year’s Independence Bowl trophy and a highlight video accompanied by “Sweet Home Alabama” music.

But Kathleen Page, a lifelong Tide fan, figures the exhibit will need a remake soon. Her excitement is evident, from the ring tone on her cell phone (Yeah Alabama, by the Million Dollar Band) to her Tide handbag. She is too caught up in the unbeaten start to ponder star-studded recruiting classes.

“It’s been a long time coming,” the 44-year-old said, as she scanned old newspaper articles, bowl-game programs and game-worn equipment inside the museum. “And I really think this is the year we’re going to take it all the way.”

Every team in the SEC has passionate, impatient fans, to be sure. But nowhere else has a scrimmage drawn 92,000 fans, as Saban’s first spring game did.

“Coach Saban has preached to us about not getting too far ahead of ourselves,” said Gaddy, who has 12 team portraits on the wall in his office at the museum, one for every recognized national champion. “But the goal, long-term, come January, is to be No. 1 at the end of the season.”

And yes, to provide some company for Wade, Thomas, Bryant and Stallings. To put another Tide coach on that kind of pedestal.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Well, it's that time again... time for Saban Bowl II. Not sure how this one's gonna turn out, those guys are on fire! No matter what happens, I wish my Tigers a great finish to the season and a worthy bowl appearance. Best of luck to the Crimson Tide on their national title hunt!

In other news, it seems that Mike the Tiger doesn't want to attend the football game! I'm sure he'll get more used to the crowds soon enough. This probably won't be the best game to bring him out due to the expected crowd noise, but it's ultimitely Mike's decision. But, as the Herb Vincent says... “When it’s a 500-pound tiger, there’s only so much you can do!”

Geaux Tigers!!!

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Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Check out the article at History.com.

I love Halloween!!! Then again, who doesn't? Check out today's Google art:

Happy Halloween!

Labels: Entertainment, History

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Instinct or self-defense?

Or was Wilbur Hackett Jr. just reliving his days as a linebacker at Kentucky?

Somewhere in the answers to those three questions lies an explanation for why a Southeastern Conference umpire is a YouTube.com phenomenon this week.

Hackett landed in the spotlight — but not in hot water — when he inadvertently (apparently) logged an assisted tackle against South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia during LSU’s 24-17 triumph against the Gamecocks Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Late in the first half, South Carolina’s Carlos Thomas intercepted a Jarrett Lee pass and returned it to the Tigers’ 8-yard-line. On the Gamecocks’ first snap, Garcia took a shotgun snap and ran to the right side on an option read play.

Garcia cut back against the grain and seemed to have an angle and open path toward the end zone, but Hackett at first held his ground and then appeared to plant his feet and unload a forearm shiver on the Gamecocks QB.

That slowed Garcia down enough for LSU safety Curtis Taylor to level Garcia at the 4.

The Gamecocks scored two plays later to take a 17-10 lead, but only after a hold-your-breath moment for USC fans when Garcia bobbled a third-down snap.

LSU coach Les Miles joked about the play Monday.

“We told (Hackett), ‘Listen, you’ve got to use your flipper, you’ve got to use your forearm, but then once you have contact, you gotta wrap up,’ ” Miles said, tongue-in-cheek. “He didn’t wrap up.

“I want you to know that we were disappointed in his effort to be honest with you. We felt like he could knock him down a little bit.”

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier wasn’t as jovial, but also didn’t fault Hackett.

“He was trying to get out of the way,” Spurrier said. “Stephen sort of cut back right into him. Sometimes that will happen.”

Hackett is no stranger to tackling quarterbacks.

He was a prep star in Louisville in the mid-1960s and spent three seasons at Kentucky, where is credited with being one of the SEC’s first black team captains. He has been an SEC official since 1998.

SEC Coordinator of Officials Rogers Redding reviewed the play and determined that Hackett was protecting himself on the play and no disciplinary action will he taken.

“That happens so regularly in games,” Miles said. “Sometimes the ball breaks right at him, and it’s very difficult. Certainly, everybody in this room would look to defend themselves, and I’m certain that’s what he was thinking when that ball came at him.”

Moving the chains

LSU has won six consecutive games against top-10 ranked teams, including a 26-21 triumph at then ninth-ranked Auburn on Sept. 20. … LSU and Georgia have combined to claim five of the last seven SEC Championships — the Tigers in 2001, ’03 and ’07, the Bulldogs in 2002 and ’05. The teams also rank 1-2 in overall wins in that stretch, LSU with 61 and Georgia with 57. … This is the Bulldogs middle game of a three-game stretch against ranked foes. Georgia beat No. 22 Vanderbilt 24-14 last week and collides with No. 7 Florida next week in Jacksonville, Fla. The last time the ’Dogs squared off with three straight ranked opponents was 1969 (No. 3 Tennessee, No. 13 Florida, No. 11 Auburn). … Georgia’s defense has recorded 14 scoreless quarters this season and has limited four opponents to under 60 yards rushing.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Thanks but no thanks, ref!!! We can handle it without your help! =)

Best of luck to the Tigers this weekend as they take on the Georgia Bulldogs!!! Hopefully we can break back into the top 10 with a W

Geaux Tigers!!!

Labels: Entertainment, Sports

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CAMBRIDGE, England — Most clocks just tell time. Not the newly unveiled clock at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, which aims to disorient and dazzle, to remind people of their own mortality and to pay tribute to one of the most famous watchmakers of all time.

No wonder it cost more than 1 million pounds (US$1.8 million) to build and drew the attention of famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who formally unveiled the masterwork Friday.

This clock blasts away all preconceptions about timepieces. For one thing, it has no hands. And it is specially designed to run in erratic fashion, slowing down and speeding up from time to time.

The "Corpus clock" is the brainchild of inventor John Taylor, who used his own money to build it, in part to pay homage to the genius of John Harrison, the Englishman who in 1725 invented the "grasshopper" escapement — a mechanical device that helps regulate a clock's movement.

Making a visual pun on the grasshopper image, Taylor has designed a fantasy version of a grasshopper at the top of the clock face, and uses this beast — with its long needle teeth and barbed tail — as an integral part of the clockworks.

Its jaws begin to open halfway through a minute, then snap shut at 59 seconds. The creature's eyes, usually a dull green, occasionally flash bright yellow.

The oversize grasshopper is called a chronophage, or "time eater."

"Time is gone, he's eaten it," Taylor said. "My object was simply to turn a clock inside out so that the grasshopper became a reality."

At the unveiling, Hawking predicted the creature atop the clock would become "a much-loved, and possibly feared, addition to Cambridge's cityscape."

The chronophage stands atop the clock face, which is four feet in diameter. It displays time with light — a light races around the outer ring once every second, pausing briefly at the actual second. The next ring inside indicates the minute, and the inner ring shows the hour.

The lights are light-emitting diodes, or LEDS, which are constantly on. The apparent motion is regulated mechanically through slots in moving discs.

Weirdly, the pendulum slows down or speeds up. Sometimes it stops, the chronophage shakes a foot, and the pendulum moves again. Because of that, the time display may be as much as a minute off, although it swings back to the correct time every five minutes.

"There are so many expressions in everyday life about time going fast, time going slow and time standing still. Your life is not regular, it's relative to what's going on," Taylor said.

"This is the first clock in the world that does not set out to show accurate time," Taylor said.

He noted Albert Einstein's observation: "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity."

On Taylor's clock, the hour is tolled not by a bell or a cuckoo, but by the clanking of a chain that falls into a coffin, which then loudly bangs closed.

"I'm in my early 70s," Taylor told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "When you're a young person you think there is plenty of time. The sound was to remind me of my mortality."

The clock is the showpiece of Corpus Christi's new library, also a gift from Taylor. His wealth comes from inventing controls for electric tea kettles, inventions which he estimates are used 1 billion times a day around the globe.

Taylor is intrigued by making the ordinary interesting.

"Clocks are boring. They just tell the time, and people treat them as boring objects," he added. "This clock actually interacts with you."

Check out the article at Fox News.

Awesome concept! That is one cool clock!

For more info, check out the Corpus Clock Wiki Entry

Labels: Entertainment, History, Images, Technology

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It is the stuff of legend.

A packed Tiger Stadium. A physical, defensive game between two Southeastern Conference powerhouse football teams. A score of Auburn 6, LSU 0, late in the fourth quarter.

With national rankings at stake and a national audience watching on ESPN, LSU quarterback Tommy Hodson threw a touchdown pass to tailback Eddie Fuller on fourth down with 1 minute, 47 seconds remaining in the game. The eruption of the crowd registered as an earthquake on the seismograph located in LSU’s Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex.

Today, Hodson and Fuller say that after 20 years, the 1988 LSU-Auburn game is still an earthshaking experience. In fact, both say the famous play is even bigger now than it was then, since it has taken on a life of its own as part of LSU folklore.

“Initially, I didn’t believe it,” Fuller recalled of first hearing that the crowd noise registered on the seismograph. “I think it took a couple of years for it to sink in. It never dawned on me how big that play was here until years later, when I came back to LSU.”

Fuller said he first began to realize how amazing the “earthquake” game was when he saw it featured in a Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in the early 1990s. “I was going through this Ripley’s museum in Niagara Falls, and I looked up and there it was!” he laughed.

Hodson said he remembers opening LSU’s student newspaper, The Reveille, and seeing a photo of the seismograph reading, or seismogram. “The story is even bigger now than when it happened,” Hodson said. “To have my name tied in with that play is an honor. It’s great to be a part of LSU history.”

The Earthquake Game is one of those magical moments in LSU history that fans and the media relive year after year. And although Hodson and Fuller are the two names most often mentioned in connection with the game, they were quick to give credit to some of the game’s unsung heroes.

“The defense,” they both said in unison. Indeed, the defense held Auburn — which was ranked No. 4 in the nation at the time — to only two field goals in the game. And after LSU scored the touchdown and kicked the extra point, Auburn’s offense got the ball back with 1:41 on the clock. The LSU defense preserved the 7-6 win.

Every Tiger fan who was at the Earthquake Game has some memory of that famous touchdown and the ensuing celebration. There are stories of downed light fixtures in the North Stadium dormitory, which was still open to students at the time; strangers hugging one another in the stands after the touchdown; and the incredible noise of the crowd. But Hodson and Fuller have their own memories of the game, and apparently, fans weren’t the only ones holding their breath on that fourth-down play.

“Time stood still,” Fuller said. “I saw Tommy throw the ball and it looked like a defender might have tipped it. It took forever for the ball to get to me, and it seemed like I almost dropped it because I had waited so long.”

“The defender didn’t tip it,” Hodson said with a smile. “But his hands were right there.”

When LSU fans learned that their reaction registered on a seismograph, they were pleasantly surprised. But LSU geologists were downright stunned.

Riley Milner, research associate with the Louisiana Geological Survey, was the first one to discover the seismograph reading. He walked into the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex on the Monday after the game, and the seismogram caught his eye.

“I saw a very distinct recording of something and my first reaction was, ‘What in the world is this?’” he said. He took the seismogram to Donald Stevenson, the researcher then in charge of LSU’s seismic program. “We tried to figure out what it might be, and we backed up the time and realized it coordinated perfectly with the time of the touchdown,” Milner said. “It was a total surprise. We never expected the seismograph to pick up the ground shaking from a football game.”

Even more of a surprise was that the seismogram showed 15 to 20 minutes of recorded ground shaking. That’s right — 15 to 20 minutes. “It was a solid register of jubilation in the stadium,” Milner said.

Surprisingly, when asked about their fondest memories at LSU, neither Hodson nor Fuller mentioned their accomplishments on the football field.

“My greatest memories are of Broussard Hall (which was then the athletic dormitory) and the camaraderie with all the guys,” Hodson said. “There is a common bond among all LSU players that is amazing, even between players from different eras. That’s the greatest part of playing football for LSU.”

“My greatest accomplishment at LSU is graduating,” Fuller said. “When I got drafted by the Buffalo Bills, I promised my mom I would come back to LSU and finish my degree.”

Fuller said he intended to enroll for the spring semester of 1991 after his first pro football season ended. But instead, his team went to the Super Bowl, which meant the season didn’t wrap up until LSU’s spring semester was well under way. In fact, that happened for four years in a row, as the Bills and Fuller competed in four straight Super Bowls from 1991-1994. After his time with the Bills, Fuller played for the Carolina Panthers in 1995. He completed his degree — and his promise to his mother — in 1997.

Today, Fuller lives in Prairieville, La. After a working as a special events coordinator for LSU’s Tiger Athletic Foundation, Fuller moved on work in medical sales for Johnson and Johnson. He and his wife Tressa have one daughter, RaeDiance, who is 11 years old.

Hodson graduated from LSU in 1990 and played for the New England Patriots from 1990-1992. After brief stints with the Miami Dolphins and the Dallas Cowboys, he played for the New Orleans Saints in 1995 and 1996. Today, he lives in Baton Rouge, where he works for JTH Agency, a company in electrical apparatus sales.

He and his wife, Andy have twin daughters named Catherine and Christina, who are 13 years old.

Both Hodson and Fuller agreed that one of the best things about the earthquake game being shown year after year is that their children get to see it. Also, they are forever linked with one of LSU’s greatest moments.

Article updated for 20th anniversary. Originally posted on LSUsports.net Oct 23, 2003.

Check out the article at LSU Sports.

Although I wasn't there that night, I distinctly remember watching The Earthquake Game on TV - it's hard to believe it's been 20 years!!! What an exciting finish that was... it just adds to the colorful history of LSU and the rivalry with Auburn.

Geaux Tigers!

Labels: Entertainment, Sports

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In the Eighties, thrash metal wasn't a scene, it was an arms race: riffs kept speeding up, drum kits got bigger. But with 1991's Black Album, Metallica opted for unilateral disarmament, slowing their tempos, shortening their songs and smelting their chugging guitars and piston-powered drums into armor-plated pop hooks. After that, the band rushed from one reinvention to another, starting with the Southern-rock infusion of 1996's Load and culminating in the muddled, bizarrely produced group-therapy session of 2003's St. Anger. No longer: Death Magnetic is the musical equivalent of Russia's invasion of Georgia — a sudden act of aggression from a sleeping giant.

Just as U2 re-embraced their essential U2-ness post-Pop, this album is Metallica becoming Metallica again — specifically, the epic, speed-obsessed version from the band's template-setting trilogy of mid-Eighties albums: Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightning and, especially, the progged-out ...And Justice for All. That much is clear from the 90-second mark of Death Magnetic's first track, "That Was Just Your Life," where the band unleashes a barrage of James Hetfield's dutta-duh-duhnt riffing and Lars Ulrich's octuple-time double-bass-and-snare smashing. That long-vanished sound, as essential to Metallica as variations on the "Start Me Up" riff are to the Stones, is all over the album —you wonder how these fortysomething dudes are going to handle playing it live night after night. (Enter chiropractor.)

Death Magnetic marks the group's split with producer Bob Rock, who helmed every Metallica album from 1991 to 2004 and pushed them toward concision and immediacy — until St. Anger, when he seemed to throw up his hands altogether. (As the 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster demonstrates, Rock deserved credit for getting any music at all out of a band determined to self-destruct.) New producer Rick Rubin shoves Metallica in the opposite direction: Half of Death Magnetic's tracks are over seven minutes long, with song structures that are not so much "verse/chorus/verse" as "long intro/heavy jam/verse/even heavier jam/chorus/bridge/wild solo/outro."

This feels like the right move for an era where Guitar Hero is the new rock radio. (Appropriately, the full album will be downloadable for GH play.) And it's not as if Top 40 stations were going to slip in Metallica between Chris Brown and the Jonas Brothers, anyway. These songs rarely feel too long: At their best, they combine the melodic smarts of Metallica's mature work with the fully armed-and-operational battle power of their early days. "The End of the Line" is a freight-train rocker with a ricocheting riff and lyrics about a doomed, drug-addicted star. It builds to a frantic guitar duel between Kirk Hammett and Hetfield, a wah-wah-crazed solo and, finally, a bridge that feels like an entirely new song. And the spectacular "All Nightmare Long" — a thematic sequel of sorts to "Enter Sandman" — combines relentless Master of Puppets guitars with a Black Album-worthy chorus.

St. Anger was a misguided attempt to recapture the band's mojo by sounding "raw" — but Death Magnetic manages to sound huge, polished and tough. The musicianship feels thrillingly live throughout, and nimble new bassist Robert Trujillo helps, even though he's mostly heard as a distant, ominous rumble. (Has there ever been a more bass-averse band in rock?)

There's supposed to be a lyrical theme here — something about death — but it's hard to discern. After expanding his lyrical palette on previous albums, Hetfield is now so determined to re-metallize that he pushes toward self-parody: "Venom of a life insane/Bites into your fragile vein," he barks on "The Judas Kiss." The "One"-style half-ballad, half-thrasher "The Day That Never Comes" appears to be yet another tale from Hetfield's rough childhood, complete with the awful pun "son shine."

But if you ignore the lyrics, Death Magnetic sounds more like it's about coming back to life. Everything comes together on the fan-favorite-to-be "Broken, Beat and Scarred," which manages to channel the full force of Metallica behind a positive message: "What don't kill ya make ya more strong," Hetfield sings, with enough power to make the cliché feel fresh. The aphorism he paraphrases happens to come from Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols, which is subtitled How to Philosophize With a Hammer. Metallica's philosophizing may get shaky — but long may that hammer strike.

Check out the article at Rolling Stone.

Death Magnetic rocks!!! Metallica is back!!!

Be sure to check out Metallica's Wiki Entry, and of course... Metallica.com!

Labels: Entertainment

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By the time LSU coach Les Miles stepped to the podium to address the media Saturday night following a 34-24 triumph over Mississippi State, the final upset of a topsy-turvy weekend was complete.

The victims were a Who’s Who of college football royalty — Southern California (ranked No. 1 last week), Georgia (No. 3), Florida (No. 4) and Wisconsin (No. 9).

Once Alabama put the finishing touches on a stunning 41-30 triumph against Georgia between the hedges in Athens, Ga., fans and media had the green light to start calculating where and how much the national rankings would shift after four top-10 teams stumbled this week.

The Tigers weren’t one of those teams, of course. And where they would be ranked today was a hot-button topic of discussion in the postgame of a gritty victory that required a full night’s work.

Not that Miles wasn’t about to take the bait.

“I really don’t care about ranking at this point,” he said after LSU upped its record to 4-0, 2-0 in the SEC. “If we can just win ’em one at a time from this point forward, we’ll take care of our own ranking. There’s so much more in front of us to play.”

Echoed Tigers tailback Charles Scott, who continued to build All-American credentials with 141 rushing yards and two touchdowns against State, “I don’t really look at our ranking. The only thing that matters to me is where we’re ranked at the end of the year.”

After the dust settled on Saturday and votes were cast Sunday, there aren’t many teams left in front of LSU and the top of the polls.

When Sunday’s updated rankings were released, the Tigers had climbed to No. 3 in the Associated Press poll and No. 2 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll.

Boosted by the huge win at Georgia, Alabama (5-0, 2-0) vaulted to No. 2 in AP and No. 3 in the coaches poll. The Crimson Tide got 21 first-place votes in the media rankings, but only two from the coaches.

In the initial Harris poll released Sunday, LSU was No. 2 with three first-place votes, behind Oklahoma with 102 first-place votes. Alabama was third with seven firsts.

Oklahoma (4-0) climbed from second into the top spot in both polls, earning 43 first-place votes in the AP and 57 from the coaches.

None of that may matter much right now to the Tigers, who have a bye week before heading to now 12th-ranked Florida for an Oct. 11 showdown of the previous two BCS national champions.

But as much as there is always a professed focus on the opponent in the field of vision, knowing USC had tumbled at Oregon State on Thursday and that Ole Miss had knocked off Florida earlier in the day Saturday was hard to completely ignore.

Even Miles said the subject of the earlier upsets came up before Saturday night’s evening kickoff. “We went through the SC (game) very specifically, and I’m certain that, without mention, that the Florida-Ole Miss (game), the guys understood that,” he said.

Understood, yes. But knowing what had happened earlier might have developed into a distraction.

“Of course we were all thinking about it,” Scott said. “We saw USC go down big Thursday night and saw Florida go down against Ole Miss. Actually we were all watching the Ole Miss-Florida game. I think that might have kind of thrown our focus off. We were more focused on everybody else than we were on Mississippi State.”

There shouldn’t be any danger of losing focus now.

LSU has 12 days to rest up, heal and prepare for the next road test in a brutally tough stretch of the SEC schedule. Florida plays at Arkansas this week, but should still have plenty of mad left over when the Tigers walk into The Swamp.

That’s OK with Scott, as was the notion that Alabama and second-year coach Nick Saban are poised in prime position to challenge the Tigers in the West Division.

“We like it,” Scott said. “It looks like it will be us and Alabama. It will be a showdown here against them. When we go to Florida that will be a huge game and then Georgia comes to play here. You can’t look at it like you are in control because crazy things happen, as you can see. We just have to take it one game at a time.”

LSU’s victory Saturday was flawed and uncovered more deficiencies for a defense not accustomed to giving up much yardage.

The Bulldogs (1-4, 0-2) never allowed the Tigers to completely run away and hide with a steady, albeit not flashy, offense.

MSU had scored only one touchdown in a 10-quarter span until notching one right before halftime Saturday and then two in the fourth quarter.

State did not turn the ball over Saturday despite entering the weekend with 12 giveaways in four games, which matched South Carolina for worst in the SEC.

The Bulldogs spent over 16 minutes on the field in the second half — anchored by an 18-play, 74-yard series that ate up 9:11 and seemed to put the LSU defense on its heels at times.

The Tigers had trouble defending short passes to running backs coming out of the backfield, as nine of State quarterback Tyson Lee’s 17 completions went to backs for 83 yards and a touchdown.

“Defensively, we made some mistakes,” Miles said. “These things are things we can fix. We’ll have some time to do that.”

Check out the article at The Advocate.

What an exciting weekend in college football!!! I'm just thankful that the Tigers weren't bitten by the upset bug!

Geaux!

Labels: Entertainment, Sports

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In folklore and in fact, it might someday be hard to separate Appalachian State’s season-opening upset of Michigan in 2007 from Appalachian State’s season-opening visit to LSU this weekend.

The Tigers, who will entertain the Mountaineers at 4 p.m. Saturday, are fully versed in the specifics of Appalachian State’s 34-32 shot heard ’round the college football world nearly a year ago.

“We see a lot of the Michigan film,” LSU coach Les Miles said Monday at a news conference to discuss his fourth season opener as coach of the Tigers.

That Miles, a Michigan man, has studied his alma mater’s stunning loss to Appalachian State is but one in a series of connect-the-dots plot lines tying this weekend’s matchup to various stops on the road map of history.

Miles, of course, played and coached at Michigan. After the Wolverines lost to Appalachian State in the Big House, Miles became the most widely discussed potential candidate to replace Lloyd Carr as Michigan coach.

Instead, Miles stayed at LSU, famously denying a report that had him taking the Michigan job as his Tigers prepared to play Tennessee in the SEC Championship Game.

Michigan eventually hired Rich Rodriguez, whose West Virginia team followed LSU’s victory against Tennessee with a shocking loss at Pittsburgh, opening the door for the Tigers to play for the national championship.

The same Rich Rodriguez long ago showed Jerry Moore the finer points of Rodriguez’s spread-formation football. Moore put his own touches to the hottest trend in the college game and coached Appalachian State to the past three national championships in the former Division I-AA.

Those are just some of the moments on history’s timeline that will echo Saturday in Tiger Stadium when LSU, the reigning national champion of the Football Bowl Subdivision, meets Appalachian State, the reigning national champion of the Football Championship Subdivision.

Here’s one you may have forgotten: LSU was supposed to open the 2007 season at home against Appalachian State, but the prospect of a Thursday night ESPN game at Mississippi State became more attractive to LSU.

Appalachian State had to find another opponent. Michigan obliged.

On Sept. 1, 2007, LSU was two days removed from its 45-0 victory at Mississippi State. Miles and his staff were in their offices preparing for Virginia Tech when word filtered down the hall of a brewing shocker in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Miles didn’t see any of it live, but he later watched highlights, including the final play of the game.

“Michigan lined up to kick the field goal to win the game,” Miles said, “and it didn’t work out that way.”

A game many casual fans considered a Michigan tune-up for bigger and better things turned out to be a humbling defeat for the Wolverines.

“That’s a great example for our team,” Miles said.

It’s certainly a timely one.

Considering Michigan regrouped in time to end the season with a victory against Florida, the reigning national champion at the time, the gravity of Appalachian State’s accomplishment is impossible for the Tigers to deny.

Just in case, LSU offensive line coach Greg Studrawa has been hammering his charges with the theme of respect for the Mountaineers.

“We have to match that mentality and not take this team lightly because they’re a great team and they haven’t won multiple national championships for no reason.”

LSU will pay Appalachian State $750,000 to play in Tiger Stadium, including $100,000 in compensation for forcing the Mountaineers to scramble for opponents on multiple occasions, LSU officials said.

An LSU schedule conflict caused the schools to scrap the original playing date — this season — and agree to play in 2007, Ausberry said. Then the chain of events began that led to the historic upset in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The increasingly common shuffling of schedules then prompted LSU to ask Appalachian State to move the game to 2009. Then, in the spring, with ESPN helping to put back the deal it helped negate previously, the schools settled on this year’s opener as a showcase national TV game.

Miles acknowledged the Mountaineers don’t seem intimidated by any team.

“They play well year after year,” Miles said. “I think Jerry’s done a great job in guiding the program. Certainly, they’re in position to play strong against anybody. They have a great football team. It’s not specific to any division. They have a good football team.”

Check out the article at The Advocate.

Another Football season is upon us! WOOT! It seems that another hurricane decided to disrupt the Tigers, as well. The kick-off has been bumped up to 10am due to Hurricane Gustav! Hope you like beer in your cheerios!

Everyone has been hitting the stores for supplies with the storm looming... I just hope they're not out of beer – with the Tigers playing tomorrow, Labor Day weekend to celebrate, and hurricane partying to do – we're gonna need a lot!

On the political front, Obama stirred the welfare millions last night with a rousing speech sure to go down in history - provided that you overlook the empty promises and blatant contradictions... basically pure BS, but he sure knows how to dish it up right!

Additionally, McCain announced today that the hot governor from Alaska, Sarah Palin, will be his running mate. She's much easier on the eyes than Dick Cheney, that's for sure! Excellent strategy on his part!

Labels: Entertainment, Images, Sports

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NEW YORK — Happy birthday, LEGO man!

On Monday, one of America's favorite yellow toy figures turned 30 years old. He's having a birthday party, and yes, you're invited.

If you lost touch with him long ago, it's time to catch up with your old childhood friend. Here's what he's been up to: He's held a variety of jobs over the years, from secret agent to superhero, traveled the world, made loads of friends and has been to his share of glitzy parties.

And recently, he's started his own blog called GoMinimanGo.com. Yes, really.

Actually, he's not all that different from the average 30-year-old man — except that he's yellow, and plastic, and he's been cloned and re-accessorized over four billion times.

"I'm sure plenty of people who see all the places I've been and things I've done probably wonder when I'll slow down; but I feel as if the adventure is just beginning," says LEGO man.

The yellow guy looks like he hasn't aged a bit; in fact, he's gotten more flexible.

Typically standing the equivalent of four stacked LEGO blocks, or 1.5 inches tall, he can move his body in more than 970 different ways.

The first LEGO figures — a family of four — were created from combinations of static LEGO bricks in 1973. Two years later, a smaller figure was invented with a head on an unmovable body.

That design was tweaked to create a movable, more-fun figure, and the first policeman LEGO mini-figure was born on August 25, 1978.

That was when LEGO man swung into action: orbiting the earth as an astronaut, wrangling cattle as a cowboy, stealing booty as a pirate and going after sunken treasure as a deep-sea diver. Through the more than 8 quadrillion possible combinations of minifigures, which can be made by swapping each figure's body and clothing parts, the yellow guy has held just about every job under the sun. He's even been a cross-dressing princess.

In 1998 he made a splash in Hollywood as a movie star and superhero when the first LEGO Star Wars figures were launched. Since then, he's played a host of other film roles, including Harry Potter.

"For 30 years, the figures have embodied the creative hopes and dreams of children as they explore their imaginations through LEGO play," said Jette Orduna, manager of the LEGO Group archives.

In the past three decades, over 4 billion minifigures have been produced; that's more than 12 times the population of the United States. Every second, 3.9 minifigures are sold around the world; that's 122 million per year.

And the most popular figure of them all? After 30 years, it is still the original policeman.

In honor of his 30th birthday LEGO man is throwing a big party, complete with videos, games, news, and contests on his Web site, aiming to reconnect children with the iconic yellow toy.

It's often said 'Life begins at 30,' so we look forward to seeing where the world's children of all ages take the mini-figure next through building and play," said Orduna.

Check out the article at Fox News.

As cheesy as he may appear, LEGO Man's got style! He's been just about everywhere and done just about everything! Plus, I gotta admit... it's pretty cool to watch him play out a movie's dramatic scenes in his own humorous way. Happy Birthday, LEGO Man!

Be sure to check out:

• Go Miniman Go!
• Play LEGO Games
• Official LEGO Website
• LEGO Wikipedia Entry

For some AWESOME LEGO Photos, check out:

• LEGO Beijing Olympics
• Classics in LEGO
• Awesome LEGO Creations!
• Brickshelf.com

Labels: Entertainment, Images

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Electronic Arts Inc. eventually to hire 220 people at facility

Rarely has recruiting a new company with a $6 million yearly payroll created such a buzz in Baton Rouge, but it’s the kind of jobs and the potential for keeping young people excited about staying in Louisiana that animated Wednesday’s announcement of a video game testing center coming to LSU.

Electronic Arts Inc.’s center at LSU’s South Campus on GSRI Avenue eventually will hire 220 people, 200 of whom will form a part-time platoon of students doing the heavy lifting on games like EA’s 20-year-old Madden NFL franchise, its Tiger Woods PGA Tour game and its NCAA Football series to make sure they’re consumer-ready.

Over the next decade, Gov. Bobby Jindal and economic development Secretary Stephen Moret envision EA’s Baton Rouge presence growing to higher-paying jobs for professionals who actually develop the video games, something that now takes place for EA largely in Orlando, Fla., and Vancouver, British Columbia.

If Baton Rouge reaches that zenith, construction of a digital research complex for kindred companies could result on LSU’s 200-acre South Campus area, Moret said.

“Ladies and gentlemen, with EA Sports this place definitely is more cool today than it was yesterday,” Adam Knapp, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s Generation X chief executive, told a Capitol audience at Wednesday’s announcement. “We have some investors (at the chamber) who believe and dream that the Baton Rouge area can be cool — and it is.”

Among the noteworthy Baton Rouge credentials cited by EA leaders in their location decision is this stunner: Not only is Louisiana’s obsession with LSU football and other sports not a negative as is often assumed by critics of the state’s higher education priorities, but the sports obsession is a huge plus, because the testers need to be savvy about the games they play for a living at EA.

“Is it fun? Does it have the right feel? Is it too hard? Is it too easy” are among the questions EA employees will answer at LSU, where Southern University and Baton Rouge Community College students are expected to fill the testing ranks as well, said Dave Steele, EA’s senior director of quality assurance.

“Because of the sports knowledge here, people can look at a football game and have the skills needed to test functions,” he said. “They still have to have a feel for the game. You’re down by less than a touchdown with less than two minutes to go on fourth down — what do you do? That’s really one of the reasons we wanted to come to Baton Rouge.”

The company also benefits from Louisiana’s offer of a 20 percent tax credit against state income tax liability, credits that can be claimed by the company or sold to a third-party for a cash advance.

All told, EA’s incentives for bringing the testing center to Baton Rouge will be worth about $14 million in the next decade, including payroll tax credits through the state’s Quality Jobs program.

Jindal said EA’s recruitment is invaluable for what it will mean to building the digital industry in the state, but it’s a good deal on the bottom line alone for this project.

“The state Department of Economic Development really looks at a 10-year return on investment as a good deal,” the governor said. “Within five years, we will get our return on investment. We look at this as the first step toward a much larger and bigger relationship with EA Sports.”

Simon Carless, publisher of Game Developer magazine, agreed that EA’s site selection represents a coup for Louisiana that could generate many more digital media gains.

It’s unusual for a global video game software company to open a testing-only center, which leads to the conclusion that actual video-game development business from EA could be within Baton Rouge’s reach, he said.

“I think what states struggle to do is get large-name publishers to set up offices in their area,” Carless said. “Electronic Arts is the world’s largest publisher, so I think it’s important if you can get someone like that. I think it’s definitely a positive introductory step, but it’s also important for individual area to reach a critical mass of game production or development before you can really get an ecosystem there, if you will.”

So far, three significant game developers have emerged in Baton Rouge: Founded by Southern University engineering graduate and former Motorola executive Jacqueline Beauchamp, Nerjyzed Entertainment LLC has published “Black College Football: The Experience”; Yatec LLC will publish its third major game, “Say N Play,” with voice recognition software late this year; and a Resurgent Entertainment LLC unit publishes the “Enigma: Rising Tide” war game.

“The industry will not develop overnight in Louisiana,” Redman said by e-mail Wednesday. “We said that back in 2005, but a couple of small companies every few months add up, and the synergy with Louisiana’s film industry will only become more apparent. … With EA, Louisiana has an enormous win to hold up and show to the world.”

Check out the article at LSU Sports.

Excellent news coming out of LSU! That's exactly the kind of thing we needed here! Not to mention... What a kick-ass job that would be!!!

Labels: Entertainment, Sports, Technology

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URUMQI, China — Once-reclusive China commandeered the world stage Friday, celebrating its first-time role as Olympic host with a stunning display of pageantry and pyrotechnics to open a Summer Games unrivaled for its mix of problems and promise.

At the end of the ceremony, retired Chinese gymnast Li Ning lit the Beijing Olympic flame, which will remain lit throughout the Olympic games.

Now ascendent as a global power, China welcomed scores of world leaders to an opening ceremony watched by 91,000 people at the eye-catching National Stadium and a potential audience of 4 billion worldwide. It was depicted as the largest, costliest extravaganza in Olympic history, bookended by barrages of some 30,000 fireworks.

To the beat of sparkling explosions, the crowd counted down the final seconds before the show began. A sea of drummers — 2,008 in all — pounded out rhythms with their hands, then acrobats on wires gently wafted down into the stadium as rockets shot up into the night sky from its rim.

President Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were among the glittering roster of notables who watched China make this bold declaration that it had arrived. Bush, rebuked by China after he raised human-rights concerns this week, is the first U.S. president to attend an Olympics on foreign soil.

Already an economic juggernaut, China is given a good chance of overtaking the U.S. atop the gold-medal standings with its legions of athletes trained intensely since childhood. One dramatic showdown will be in women's gymnastics, where the U.S. and Chinese teams are co-favorites; in the pool, Chinese divers and U.S. swimmers are expected to dominate.

The run-up to the games had epic story lines — China investing $40 billion to build the needed infrastructure, reeling from a catastrophic earthquake in Sichuan province in May, struggling right up to Friday to diminish Beijing's stubborn smog. China's detentions of political activists, its crackdown on uprisings in Tibet and its economic ties to Sudan — home of the war-torn Darfur region — fueled relentless criticisms from human rights groups and calls for an Olympic boycott.

Second-guessed for awarding the games to Beijing, the International Olympic Committee stood firmly by its decision. It was time, the committee said, to bring the games to the homeland of 1.3 billion people, a fifth of humanity.

The games, said IOC President Jacques Rogge, "are a chance for the rest of the world to discover what China really is."

The story presented in Friday's ceremony sought to distill 5,000 years of Chinese history — featuring everything from the Great Wall to opera puppets to astronauts, and highlighting achievements in art, music and science. Roughly 15,000 people were in the cast, all under the direction of Zhang Yimou, whose early films often often ran afoul of government censors for their blunt portrayals of China's problems.

The show's script steered clear of modern politics — there were no references to Chairman Mao and the class struggle, nor to the more recent conflicts and controversies. The ceremony was taped for broadcast 12 hours later in the United States.

A record 204 delegations were set to parade their athletes through the stadium — superstars such as basketball idols Kobe Bryant and Yao Ming, as well as plucky underdogs from Iraq, Afghanistan and other embattled lands. The nations were marching not in the traditional alphabetical order but in a sequence based on the number of strokes it takes to write their names in Chinese. The exceptions were Greece, birthplace of the Olympics, which was given its traditional place at the start, and the 639-member Chinese team, which lined up last.

The American flag-bearer was 1500-meter runner Lopez Lomong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, who spent a decade of his youth in a refugee camp in Kenya. He's a member of the Team Darfur coalition, representing athletes opposed to China's support for Sudan. On Friday he avoided any criticism and said the Chinese "have been great putting all these things together."

Abroad, human rights activists were less generous.

"The Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee have wasted a historic opportunity to use the Beijing Games to make real progress on human rights in China," said Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch.

For Chinese dissidents who have dared to challenge the Communist Party's monopoly on power, the start of the Olympics meant tighter surveillance and restrictions.

"It's not my Olympic Games," said Jiang Tianyong, a human rights lawyer. "It's not the games for the ordinary people."

By all indications, however, most Chinese have embraced the games, buying up tickets at a record pace, volunteering by the thousands for Olympic duties, nursing expectations of triumphs by their home team.

To their eyes, the omens were good. The ceremony began at 8 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008 — auspicious in a country where eight is the luckiest number.

"It not easy to meet with such a date," said Wang Wei, secretary general of Beijing Organizing Committee. "Hopefully this lucky day will bring luck."

Check out the article at Fox News.

I'm excited about the Olympics and will definitely be checking out the games, but I'm not too excited about red China hosting them. I feel that the International Olympic Committee could have done more to persuade China to earn the right to host the games in the future, instead of just handing it to them now and allowing their inhuman policies to go unpunished.

Oh well, not much I can do at this point, but to hope that the Chinese lose every single event! Not likely, since their athletes are raised from birth specifically to compete!

GO USA!!!

Be sure to check out 08-08-08: You're Lucky Day???

Labels: Entertainment, History, Images, Politics, Sports

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Batman has sent Spidey packing as king of Hollywood's box-office superheroes.

"The Dark Knight," the crime saga about vigilante Batman and his wealthy alter ego Wayne, debuted with a record $158.4 million.

Starring Christian Bale as Batman and the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, "The Dark Knight" surpassed Hollywood's previous best opening weekend of $151.1 million set in May 2007 by "Spider-Man 3."

The movie's release was preceded by months of buzz and speculation over the performance of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, Batman's nemesis. Ledger, who died in January from an accidental prescription-drug overdose, played the Joker as a demonic presence, with critical acclaim over his maniacal performance firing up fans for the film and prompting predictions that the role might earn him a posthumous Academy Award nomination.

"We knew it would be big, but we never expected to dominate the marketplace like we did," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released "The Dark Knight." The movie should shoot past the $200 million mark by the end of the week, he said.

"The Dark Knight" reunites director Christopher Nolan with his "Batman Begins" star Christian Bale, whose vigilante crime-fighter is taunted and tested by Ledger's Joker as the villain unleashes violence and chaos on the city of Gotham.

"The Dark Knight," which cost $185 million to make, also broke the "Spider-Man 3" record for best debut in IMAX large-screen theaters with $6.2 million. "Spider-Man 3" opened with $4.7 million in IMAX cinemas.

On opening day Friday, "The Dark Knight" pulled in a record $67.85 million. The previous opening-day record also had been held by "Spider-Man 3" with $59.8 million.

Additionally, "The Dark Knight" broke the record for a 12:01 a.m. film opening, earning an unprecedented $18,489,000 at the box office. The previous record was also held by "Spider-Man 3" with $16.9 million

Check out the article at Fox News.

What an awesome movie! Definitely worth seeing again! Heath Ledger's performance was excellent, on par with the rest of the cast!

Labels: Entertainment, Images

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The United States Navy's Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, popularly known as the Blue Angels, was formed in 1946 and is the world's first officially sanctioned military aerial demonstration team, as well as the oldest currently flying aerobatics team.

The Blue Angels’ mission is to enhance Navy and Marine Corps recruiting efforts and to represent the naval service to the United States, its elected leadership and foreign nations. The Blue Angels serve as positive role models and goodwill ambassadors for the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps.

A Blue Angels flight demonstration exhibits choreographed refinements of skills possessed by all naval aviators. It includes the graceful aerobatic maneuvers of the four-plane Diamond Formation, in concert with the fast-paced, high-performance maneuvers of its two Solo Pilots. Finally, the team illustrates the pinnacle of precision flying, performing maneuvers locked as a unit in the renowned, six-jet Delta Formation.

The team is stationed at Forrest Sherman Field, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, during the show season. However, the squadron spends January through March training pilots and new team members at Naval Air Facility El Centro, California.

The Blue Angels are scheduled to fly 66 air shows at 35 air show sites in the United States during the 2007-2008 season, as the team celebrates 20 years of flying the F/A-18 Hornet. Last season, more than 15 million spectators watched the Blue Angels perform. Since its inception in 1946, the Blue Angels have performed for more than 427 million fans.

Check out the Official Blue Angels website.

We headed back to Pensacola to catch the annual Blue Angels Airshow. Saturday rained out, so it was rescheduled for Sunday, July 13... but they didn't disappoint! If you've never seen the Blue Angels perform live, you don't know what you're missing! They're awesome every time you see them!

Labels: Entertainment, Images, Military, Technology

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Pensacola is a sea port on Pensacola Bay, which connects to the Gulf of Mexico. A large United States Navy base, Naval Air Station Pensacola, is located southwest of Pensacola and is home to the Blue Angels flight demonstration team, the National Museum of Naval Aviation, the Pensacola Naval Air Station Historic District, and historic Fort Barrancas and its associated Advance Redoubt are all located at NAS Pensacola.. The main campus of the University of West Florida is situated north of the city center.

Pensacola is nicknamed "The City of Five Flags" due to the five governments that have flown flags over it during its history: the flags of Spain (Castile), France, Great Britain, the Confederate States of America, and the United States. Other nicknames include "World's Whitest Beaches" (due to the white sand prevalent along beaches in the Florida panhandle), "Cradle of Naval Aviation," "Western Gate to the Sunshine State," "America's First Settlement," "Emerald Coast," "Redneck Riviera," and "Red Snapper Capital of the World."

Check out the article at Wikipedia.

We had an awesome vacation in Pensacola! The city is beautiful and boasts a very nice public parks system. The highlights of our vacation were Historic Downtown Pensacola, Naval Air Station Pensacola, and Pensacola Beach! We didn't get a chance to do any fishing, but this is the place for it: from the bayfront parks in downtown to the Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier, to some awesome offshore charters!

While we were there, we discovered Pelicans in Paradise, which is a promotional city-wide art project (much like the New Orleans Festival of Fins) from a few years back. The only question I have is... now that the city's project is over, where have all of the pelicans gone? The original locations are mostly vacant, so I've embarked on my own personal Pelican Hunt!

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Louisiana’s nickname “the Sportsman’s Paradise” is a well-earned one.

Our state boasts what’s arguably the best saltwater fishing in the nation in both the inshore and offshore sectors, and has always been consistently productive in freshwater areas.

Each year, anglers wonder what lies ahead for their favorite fisheries, so we put together this calendar to give you the inside scoop on five of the state’s top species from the northern tip of Toledo Bend Reservoir to the Chandeleur Islands.

Check out the article and calendar at LA Game & Fish.

We had an awesome day saltwater fishing out of Port Fourchon, Louisiana last Sunday! Our group brought in 30 Red Snapper, 6 Mangrove Snapper, 1 Black Drum, 4 Amberjack, 2 Wahoo, and 8 Dolphin! WOOT! Lots of fish in the freezer!

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Back Home In Omaha. The Tigers have arrived. LSU enjoyed the two-hour flight from Baton Rouge to Omaha on a spacious charter plane as the team landed just after 8 p.m. Clear skies and temperatures in the mid-70’s gave way to a sunset on the plains of Nebraska.

LSU took a 20-minute ride by bus to its hotel where the Tigers were greeted by several fans and the gracious College World Series staff. LSU head coach Paul Mainieri and the players signed autographs for the fans and a Little League baseball team that is also staying at the hotel.

After a pizza dinner, the players called it a night as Friday’s schedule will be a busy one. Most of the players enjoyed the remainder of Thursday evening watching the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers in their rooms. LSUsports.net will take you all-access with the Tigers on Friday that includes media opportunities, practice at Rosenblatt Stadium, an autograph session and the College World Series opening ceremonies.

Our “Back Home In Omaha” blog will feature audio and video from Friday’s festivities. Throughout the Tigers’ stay, infielder Buzzy Haydel will go behind the scenes with “The Buzz From Omaha” and keep you updated from a player’s perspective.

Check out The Buzz From Omaha at LSU Sports.

Congratulations, Tigers! Unfortunately, I will be at scout camp with my boy next week and will miss all of the action... at least I'll have my radio!

Be sure to check out the College World Series Headquarters at LSU Sports.

Geaux Tigers!

UPDATE: The Tigers lost Friday night and headed home after one helluva great season... keep your heads up, Tigers - we're proud of you!!!

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Michael Hollander caught the last out of the regional, a foul pop near third base. Then he flipped it softly into the grandstand.

It was a simple gesture, something any player on the team might have done, but you suppose if anybody understands the meaning of a special souvenir at Alex Box Stadium, it’s someone’s who’s been in those seats.

Hollander, a senior, is preparing for his last weekend at Alex Box. He and junior teammate Nicholas Pontiff are the links to LSU’s national championship years.

Pontiff is the younger brother of the late Wally Pontiff, a freshman starter on LSU’s 2000 team, the most recent to win it all. Hollander grew up idolizing Wally and followed his baseball career path to Jesuit High School in New Orleans and to LSU.

After Wally died of a heart abnormality at 21 in 2002, Hollander was all but paralyzed with shock and grief, unable to play some of his summer-league games.

Six years later, Hollander is playing Wally’s old position, third base, and is the inaugural recipient of LSU’s Wally Pontiff Jr. Scholar Athlete Award.

“I would rather receive this than the Golden Spikes Award,” Hollander said, referring to the award given annually to the best amateur player in the country.

A highlight video can sell a 17-year-old on signing to play baseball at LSU, but it can’t pump purple and gold into his bloodstream the way growing up a fan of the Tigers can.

There is no substitute for being a part of the family before you’re part of the team.

In the years when LSU baseball made the leap from growing program to national power, the Tigers were fond of repeating a Skip Bertman saying: “Hold the rope.”

The pitcher leaving the mound tells the one replacing him. A batter who wills his way on base tells a pinch runner.

The 1996 team tells the 1997 team.

Hold the rope.

Blair Barbier, a player on the 1997 and 2000 national championship teams, was an LSU assistant coach last year. He understood.

Hollander’s LSU career ends when this season ends. Pontiff, a senior in the classroom, may or may not be back.

Whether the season ends at The Box or at the College World Series, who will hold the rope next year, and how tightly?

Turnover in personnel is so common in pro sports, Jerry Seinfeld said of the fans, “When you root for a team these days, you’re mostly rooting for laundry.”

In college sports there is some of that, but a roster of players from Mandeville and Metairie and Shreveport and Baton Rouge has meaning at LSU.

There’s one way this roster, with its sunflower-gold laundry, can ensure the 2009 team has a piece of rope to hold, a link to the championship days. Seven wins would do it.

Two this weekend would buy the ticket for the trip to finish the job.

Check out article at The Advocate.

The Tigers are playing some great ball right now! Let's hope we can keep up our streak!

Geaux Tigers!

Let us not forget... on this day in history: D-Day: June 6, 1944

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See "Fusion Man" fly via a jet-powered wing on his back, a giant beetle escape a smuggler, volcanic ash falling eerily, and more!

Check out Photos in the News at National Geographic News.

Awesome photos!!! Check out the National Geographic Photography feature for more cool pics!

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BATON ROUGE -- Before the largest paid attendance in Alex Box Stadium history, No. 22 LSU beat Mississippi State, 9-6, Sunday and swept the weekend series in the final regular season contest at the historic ballpark.

After the victory, over 100 former LSU players spanning seven decades of baseball in Alex Box Stadium joined current players, coaches, fans and LSU Athletics Director and legendary Tiger baseball coach Skip Bertman to commemorate 70 years in “The Box."

The Tigers (35-16-1, 15-11-1 SEC), winners of 12 consecutive games, swept their third straight SEC series for the first time since the 1991 national championship season. Mississippi State dropped to 20-32 and 7-20 in the SEC.

LSU is in first place in the SEC Western Division, 1.5 games ahead of Alabama and Ole Miss. The Tigers’ 12-game win streak is the longest by an LSU squad since the 2000 club won 13 in a row at the end of its national championship season.

Fans couldn’t take their seats with them Sunday after the last regular season game at LSU’s Alex Box Stadium, but they could take their memories and, if they wanted, a souvenir T-shirt or program.

Like nearly everyone else at the ballpark, Bobby Box left with more than a few of each those things.

Box, 55, a Baton Rouge resident who is the nephew of the stadium’s namesake, recounted growing up a few blocks from the stadium named years before in honor of an uncle he never met.

As a youth, he would ride his bike over to the stadium with his friends and shag foul balls for the baseball team, Box said Sunday during the regular season finale against Mississippi State. In return for foul balls, he said, the players gave the children their cracked wooden bats, which Box and his friends taped up and used in their own games.

Box knew all about his family’s legacy attached to the stadium — his father, Neal, had told him at an early age about Alex Box, an LSU baseball and football player and U.S. Army first lieutenant killed in North Africa during World War II.

But for Bobby Box — and about 6,555 other fans who crowded into the stadium for one more game — the memories weren’t about the name that adorned the stadium, the seats or the field.

It was always about the game.

With a No. 22 ranking, a lead in the SEC Western Division and 12 consecutive wins, some say LSU has put itself in a prime position to host an NCAA regional at Alex Box Stadium one last time.

Can you say Omaha?

But regional sites won’t be announced until the final day of the Southeastern Conference Tournament on May 25, so many fans left the ballpark Sunday afternoon wondering if that was the last game they would see within the stadium’s walls.

That’s the reason why there was no question LSU had to have a ceremony after the game commemorating the park’s history, said Bertman, the outgoing LSU athletic director and architect of the national championship winning program.

Bertman, who said he “fulfilled a lot of dreams" at the old stadium, acknowledged it will be difficult to leave behind the stadium but added that players and fans will make new memories at the new ballpark.

“It would be just another ball yard except for these fans," Bertman said after the post-game ceremony. “The fans made The Box, and they’ll make the new stadium."

The new $31 million Alex Box Stadium is being built at Nicholson Drive and Gourrier Lane, about 1,000 feet south of the present Alex Box Stadium. It will seat more than 8,700 fans — about 1,000 more than the present stadium — and is scheduled to open at the beginning of the 2009 season.

For some fans, however, leaving behind the old stadium on Sunday was still difficult.

Check out the article at The Advocate.

I’ll miss Alex Box, but have to say that I’m very exited about the New Alex Box that’s being built! For more info, check out New Alex Box or LSU Sports.

Labels: Entertainment, History, Sports

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LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Studio executives hope they've trained their audience well as the season of summer blockbusters arrives.

From May through mid-August, Hollywood will bank on the idea that there is at least one movie every week -- and sometimes two -- that you simply must see.

Summer features such box-office staples as Will Smith, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller and Jack Black, and brings back beloved characters such as Indiana Jones, Batman, Speed Racer, Carrie and her "Sex and the City" gal pals, the "Narnia" kids, the Incredible Hulk and two very different agent couples: paranormal troupers Mulder and Scully and comic spies Maxwell Smart and Agent 99.

A look at the lineup:

MAY 2: Robert Downey Jr. takes the lead in "Iron Man," playing a wealthy inventor who lacks superpowers but does have a nifty high-tech suit of armor that really leaves an impression when he gives villains a knuckle sandwich.

MAY 9: "Speed Racer" is an adaptation of the animated show starring Emile Hirsch as the kid roaring along the roadways, Christina Ricci as his helicopter-flying girlfriend and Matthew Fox as mystery man Racer X. The film will also be released in IMAX.

MAY 16: Things sure can change in 1,300 years, as Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie learn when they go over the rainbow again in "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," the second installment in the fantasy franchise based on C.S. Lewis' books.

MAY 22: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" reunites the dream team of Harrison Ford as the archaeologist-adventurer, director Steven Spielberg and creator-producer George Lucas. As for the big question fans have posed -- is co-star Shia LaBeouf the love child of Indy and Marion? -- neither Ford nor Lucas will say.

JUNE 6: "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" stars Adam Sandler as an Israeli commando who pretends he's been killed so he can become a New York City hairdresser.

JUNE 6: "Kung Fu Panda" is an animated action comedy that features Jack Black voicing the tubby Po, a panda stuck working at his family's noodle shop when he's tapped to train as a martial arts master and battle an evil snow leopard threatening the land. The voice cast includes Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and Seth Rogen. The film will also be released in IMAX.

JUNE 13: The Marvel gang went back to the drawing board for "The Incredible Hulk," starring Edward Norton in a new take that the filmmakers say will channel both the comic books and the 1970s and '80s TV show starring Bill Bixby. The movie wastes no time explaining how Norton's Bruce Banner was transformed into a man who mutates into the Hulk when angered, said producer Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios' head of production. The story hints at what happened to him then jumps into the action, he said.

JUNE 20: Maxwell Smart took himself seriously, even when he was talking into his shoe phone. So the makers of "Get Smart," an update of the 1960s TV comedy, took him seriously, too.

JUNE 27: So far, the Pixar-Disney animation outfit has done no wrong! Director Andrew Stanton now offers up "Wall-E," the tale of a janitorial robot toiling away for centuries because no one remembered to turn him off after humanity trashes Earth to the point that the planet must be abandoned. Here's Stanton's short take on the story: "The last robot on Earth crosses the galaxy for love."

JULY 2: Will Smith has owned the Fourth of July weekend. He aims to dominate it again with "Hancock," which co-stars Charlize Theron in the tale of a churlish superhero with real problems like the rest of us. "It's the very authentic version of an alcoholic superhero," Smith said. "You will scream laughing, then there's some dramatic turns that just leave your jaw dropping. Huge special effects. It is all things."

JULY 11: "Journey to the Center of the Earth," starring Brendan Fraser, is a modern twist on Jules Verne's classic tale presented entirely in three-dimensional digital video that practically sets the characters and effects in the audience's lap.

JULY 11: The weekend's other big name, Eddie Murphy, gets to inhabit his own weird environment -- himself -- in the comedy "Meet Dave." Murphy stars as the leader of a group of tiny aliens scouting Earth because their own race is endangered. They blend in with humanity by tooling about in a ship that looks just like Eddie Murphy.

JULY 18: Batman is back with "The Dark Knight," reuniting star Christian Bale with director Christopher Nolan and pitting the soul-searching crimefighter against his greatest enemy, the Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger in his next-to-last role. The film will also be released in IMAX, and Nolan filmed some scenes in the large-form technology.

JULY 25: The basic story for "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" has been kicking around in writer-director Chris Carter's head since his paranormal TV series went off the air six years ago. Carter reunites with stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson for the second big-screen adventure of Mulder and Scully, who spent years in the FBI chasing aliens and supernatural phenomena.

AUGUST 1: "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," is the third outing for the adventuresome family who, as Brendan Fraser puts it, "by some bizarre coincidence just always encounters the undead."

AUGUST 15: Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder" is a comedy that features Robert Downey Jr. as a white actor portraying a black character with insanely serious devotion and Tom Cruise as a bald, raving studio boss with hilarious dance moves. "The movie's kind of taking off on actors who obviously have to take it seriously when doing these films, and you see these interviews where they talk about the experience as if they've been in a real war," Stiller said. "I think it's very easy to see the humor in that."

Check out the article at CNN.

Cool line-up! I'd like to go see "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man," "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," "Hancock," and "WALL E" - in that order... the rest I'll wait for DVD.

Labels: Entertainment, Images

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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President George W. Bush welcomed the national champion LSU football team to the White House Monday afternoon in what was an all-day event for the Tigers.

The trip marked the second time in five years that the Tigers have made the distinguished visit to the nation’s capital as they took their first trip after winning the 2003 BCS title.

The Tigers arrived at the White House at 12:45 p.m. and were given a tour of the building.

The highlight of Monday’s festivities was a photo opportunity on the South Lawn of the White House. With the LSU football team standing behind him, President Bush spoke for approximately 10 minutes as he congratulated the Tigers on their 2007 campaign.

Head coach Les Miles presented President Bush with a No. 7 jersey, in reference to the 2007 season, and senior captain Jacob Hester gave the 43rd president of the United States a bronze football.

After the recognition on the South Lawn, the 180-member LSU travel party took a tour of the National Mall area which including visits to the Lincoln Memorial, Reflection Pool, the Washington Monument, the National World War II Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On Tuesday, a group of Tigers will visit the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Additionally, the national champs will tour the Pentagon, meet with the Louisiana Delegation at the United State Capitol and then witness the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at the Arlington National Cemetery before returning to Baton Rouge.

Transcript from WhiteHouse.gov:

THE PRESIDENT: Good to see you all. Welcome. Go Tigers! Sit down. Please sit down. Thanks for coming.

So I met some of these men in 2004 -- they feel pretty comfortable they were going to be back here. Some of them weren't so sure I was going to be back here. It's good to welcome you back. Proud you're here. Nothing like being called, "National Champs." LSU has the honor of being the first school to win two BCS titles. This year there is no split.

I appreciate Les Miles, and Kathy -- thanks for coming. Proud to have met you, Coach. It was a great honor for me to have called you after you won that day. And I know you told the team that at least one guy called to congratulate you. I welcome the LSU administrators, personnel, coaches, trainers, locker room folks, and most of all, the players.

I want to welcome members of Congress -- Jim McCrery. Jim, good to see you, sir. And, Scott and Clark, good to see you boys. Rodney Alexander -- Congressman, good to see you. Charles Boustany -- I'm glad to see you, Charles. Thanks for coming. I appreciate you taking time to be here. Out of the state government is State Treasurer John Kennedy. John, thank you for coming. Appreciate you coming up for that. Glad you brought Preston.

Is Breaux here? No, he -- he's working. Which is a major upset -- no.

Winning requires very strong leadership -- that's what it takes. After eight years of welcoming national champs there's always one common denominator, and that is it requires a strong leader to motivate people toward a common goal. And that's exactly what you have in Coach Les Miles. Coach Miles's three years has helped the team compile a 34-and-6 record. And this is a guy who's not afraid to take risks. He tried two fake field goals, fake punt, went for 4th down -- went for 1st down on 4th down -- 15 times. Made it nearly every time. Of course, he had the players who helped him take that risk.

He also had to deal with some delicate situations away from the field, like inaccurate press stories. Coach, let me just say, I know the feeling.

This is Coach Miles's first time celebrating here at the White House, and a lot of folks are going to remember it because it's the first time he's been seen in public without a hat on.

LSU fans had an amazing season. They -- first of all, in the season, the number one ranking changed hands six times. Of course, LSU was number one on the day it counted; that's why they're here. You had to overcome adversity to get here. You played as a team, and you won some dramatic football games. And when you lost, it was pretty dramatic, too. You beat Florida in a comeback with the largest crowd ever to watch a game at Tiger Stadium. Two weeks later, you rallied to beat Auburn on a touchdown scored with one second left on the clock.

After you lost to Arkansas, a lot of folks counted you out. But you held a team meeting and decided you had something to play for. In other words, you didn't let adversity affect you. You said, we're going to do something about it. And then you beat Tennessee to win the SEC Championship, and you went from number seven to number two -- and you went straight to the national title game, which didn't start off so good. And yet you had 31 unanswered points, like a true champion team, to win 38 to 24. And you're here at the White House, representing LSU University as the National Champs. And we congratulate you.

Being raised in Texas and growing up in Texas, I've got a lot of friends in Louisiana. And you inspired people across the state. I thought Matt -- quarterback Matt Flynn put it best. He said, "You can't dream it any better than that." And that's what a lot of people were saying around your state.

You earned your place in the record books. You scored the most points in school history. And the seniors will go down as LSU's winningest class. No other senior class has had a better record.

I welcome defensive tackle, Glenn Dorsey. And so did the team when he turned down -- when he decided not to turn pro last year. A lot of fans said, "Thank you, Glenn." A lot of opponents said, "No, thank you, Glenn." After all, he was the defensive player of the year for SEC, Outland Trophy winner, Lombardi Trophy, and Nagurski Award. He'll have his time in the NFL, and a lot of teams are sure anxious to have him play for them. Congratulations, and welcome. Glad you're here.

This is a team of great athletes. Two players were drafted by Major League Baseball. One of the stars, Trindon Holliday, holds the school record in the 100 meters. One of your linemen, Herman Johnson -- he holds a different kind of record. He was the largest baby ever born in the state of Louisiana, at 15 pounds, 14 ounces. That's why he's known as "The House," which puts him in good stead with his fellow teammates known as, "Putt," or "Surfer Boy," "L-Crazy," and "Cheese." Whatever nickname you prefer to be called, all of us here are calling you "Champs." And you deserve it. I want to thank you for being champions on the field.

I appreciate you understanding that once you're a champ on the field, means you have a responsibility to be a champ off the field, as well. And there's no better inspiration than Les Miles and his wife, Kathy. They host events that raise money for the Children's Miracle Network. They're active in cancer fundraising and the Special Olympics, the Baton Rouge Children's Advocacy Center. I told the coach that I was going to mention this, and that is, I'm aware, as the Commander-in-Chief of the finest military ever assembled on the face of the Earth, that he went to boost our troops in Iraq and Kuwait as part of a USO tour. I want to thank you, Coach, for doing your job.

I appreciate the example that Glenn Dorsey has set on the field and off the field to -- he works to educate children about the dangers of drugs, and encourages them to work hard. His advice is: "Dream big and make things happen." There's nothing better than a champ to help somebody dream big and to encourage them to make something happen.

And so when you leave here, I hope you leave here knowing that you've got a special responsibility, not only to represent your school on the football field, but to help make America a better place, just like Ciron Black did, when he heard the story of an 8-year-old LSU fan who was suffering from leukemia. And he took time to send an encouraging message, then he wrote the boy's name, Mikey, on his wristband during the national championship game. Sometimes people say, I can't help because I can't solve all the problems. But in this case, he showed that you can help one person. And in helping one person, he helped the nation as a whole. And I want to thank you, Ciron, for your leadership.

There's a lot of great stories about the character of the people behind me, but it's getting chilly, and I'm looking forward to getting my LSU jersey. And so I want to welcome you all to the White House, to the South Lawn of the White House. I'm so honored and proud to welcome the LSU Tigers here as the National Champs. God bless you. God bless LSU, and God bless America.

Check out the article at LSU Sports.

Sweet! Congrats to the Tigers for a well-earned trip to the White House! Geaux!!!

Labels: Entertainment, Sports

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