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!

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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!!!

Labels: Entertainment, Sports

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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