Oh Well; study day Fall 2008

I had planned to get up at 4 am (as usual) so I could go swimming but my wife kept me awake with her constant coughing.

So I’ll do something over lunch hour (2000 yards maybe?) or perhaps run a few miles (4-5) on the home treadmill and swim tomorrow morning instead. Since I was feeling a bit rundown over the past couple of days, a couple of easy days might recharge the old batteries, I think.

Update: very slow 5 mile “run” on the ‘mill; it did energize me a bit.

I was going to work at home (it is study day) but I have decided to update my virus protection on the home computer; that ALWAYS takes hours. It isn’t as if I could get much done at home anyway because my wife is home, coughing away.

Oh well, she’ll feel better in a few days, I think.

We got sleet/snow last night; conditions outside were just plain rotten.

Football Did you know that more teams are in bowl games than are not? That’s right: there are 68 bowl teams and 51 non bowl teams. Hmmm, it appears that the “everyone gets a prize” mentality has now percolated to college football, except for the fact that coaches with losing records still get fired.

But yeah, getting to a bowl game basically means, for most teams, scheduling enough out of conference patsies to reach 7-5 or 6-6. So for Big 12, Big 10 and SEC teams (who play 4 out of conference games), 4 cupcakes plus 2 or 3 conference wins means a bowl. It is a bit tougher for the PAC 10 teams who only play 3 non-conference games; they actually have to win 3-4 conference games to become bowl eligible.

I should point out that not all teams schedule out of conference pastry: Florida played Florida State (always) and Miami (usually good) and former BCS bowl game participant Hawaii. USC played Ohio State and (traditionally good) Notre Dame.

Science, Social Policy and Hypocrisy

3-quarks daily points to an interesting article about hypocrisy. Sometimes, claiming that “the messenger is a hypocrite” (often a correct charge). might blind us to the truth of the message.
This is neither a liberal nor a conservative phenomenon.

Don’t get me wrong; I think that it is still a good idea to practice what you preach.

Politics: 538.com has an interesting analysis of Obama’s win in the western states. Note: this has nothing to do with African American turnout or Republicans staying home.

Theist-Atheist Ad wars

An atheist group is paying to have these signs put up on buses:

Note: us non-believers have had to put up with “god signs” for years and years.

But, of course, some fundies think that they should respond with this sign:

To which, an atheist responds:

Now if all of this “back and forth” makes you roll your eyes, just count the number of pro-church or pro-deity signs you see on a day to day basis, especially if you commute to work (for example, I walk to work).

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