In what can only be called one of the more improbable upsets of the season, Michigan beat the ever living snot out of Florida yesterday. The score was 41-35, but it wasn’t that close. That was with 4 Michigan turnovers, two inside the Florida 1 yard line. I don’t make it a habit of rooting for the dudes in the Winged Helmets, but I thought that this was the exception. The Wolverine lines dominated and without the turnovers, the Gators would have been on the wrong end of a 50+ point beat down…

Consider, Ohio State held Michigan to 91 total yards and 3 points…Just saying.

The Heisman Curse lives on, win the Heisman, lose your bowl game. Nice to see continuity, though in fairness to Tim Tebow, he played a good game. When your offense puts up 35 points you kind of expect to win. Just how bad is that Gator defense this year?

In another delicious story line, Appalachian State obviously should be playing in the SEC…The Gators have now been beaten by the team that lost to a IAA team at home while ranked #5.

And just where was that SEC speed? Oh yeah, I remember, it was busy chasing guys wearing Maize and Blue as they torched the Gators in every conceivable manner. Not only did the Wolverines out physical the Gators, they left them chomping dust when they couldn’t contend with Big 10 speed. What I want to know is, where are the articles from the pundits today saying that? Oh yeah, it’s “journalist and analyst” types were dealing with, they can spout off whatever they’d like but aren’t accountable when they are wrong, wrong, wrong. What was that? Jamison just hit Tebow again? Or was it Matthews streaking past the over-matched, slow Florida secondary…Doesn’t matter, the Big 10 is still slow – we may see a replay of this Jan 7…

In other action yesterday, Wisconsin suffered from the “I forgot how to tackle” malady in the first half leading to a close defeat at the hands of Tennessee. This is the #4 Big 10 team giving the #2 SEC team all it could handle…The Vols were fortunate to come away with the win. Turnovers decided that game. Too bad. The Illini got blown out as many predicted they would. That was sad, I thought they’d put up a little more resistance. USC looked very good dismantling Illinois, that was the Juice Williams we all expected to show up at Ohio Stadium November 10th…Had the Nov 10th version shown up, the game would have been closer, but they still would have lost given the way USC played.

I’ll put a LSU/OSU game preview later this week or perhaps this weekend. Hope you enjoyed the games, I sure did.

Last week US Geothermal announced that the construction phase of the 13MW Raft River One Unit is now completed. After a little more testing, the facility will enter production (although the test power is being sold presently according to the company.) Congratulations to US Geothermal on making the leap from developer to operator.

Raft River Plant during Construction

Photo Credit: US Geothermal

I wish you all a very Happy New Year! I’ll post something more when I have something worthwhile to say. Today, I’m not feeling particularly inspired to post.

Truman the Dog

Photo Credit: Sweetney

Why this image? It’s just the latest example of mainstream, professional media stealing IP from the blogosphere and representing as their own. I think I might keep a running tally of this type of activity this year….

Have you ever wanted to send an official, bureaucratic communication of: a grievance, observance of a holiday, formal apology, statement of gratitude, official invitation, or acknowledgement of an occasion? If so, your search is over! I present the Bureau of Communication website where you can send your very own official communication. I sent one to President Bush this morning while exercising my right of free speech (while I still have it…) See the message below:

After sending this, I was presented with a nice little receipt on the web page and an email confirmation of delivery! Like it? Compose and send your own.

This weekend we went to see the San Francisco Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker, it was great. My daughter, though very tired in the second act, seemed to love the experience and seeing all the ballet dancers. (She’s taking ballet and I think that she found it inspiring that this is where it could lead after long years of practice.) Personally, I thought the Arabian and Russian dance sequences in the second act stole the show – they were outstanding. The war with the Mouse King was presented well, but scared my daughter (particularly the cannon blast.) One other tip, if you’re coming into the city, there is no better way to get to the Civic Center than by using Bart (we parked in Daly City and it worked great.)

If you haven’t been to San Francisco to see this show, you’re missing out. It was very well done from the orchestra, to the choreography, to costumes and sets, and of course the dancers were top shelf. I had never been to the War Memorial Opera House before and was impressed by the old venue. It’s a nice sized theater, the acoustics were excellent and we had a very good view of the action on stage. Here are some photos I snapped of the venue (I didn’t take pictures during the performance for obvious reasons…)

War Memorial Opera House – Stage


War Memorial Opera House – Interior, Stage Left


War Memorial Opera House – Chandelier