Shockingly, she criticized liberals.

So I can’t figure it out: is NFL commish Roger Goodell a cultural imperialist, or is he just missing the point?  Says Goodell:

Our goal is to translate America’s obsession to the world’s passion," he told reporters on Friday, two days before the Miami Dolphins face the New York Giants at a sold-out Wembley Stadium. "This Sunday is clearly just the beginning."

This is after the NFL’s expansion league, NFL Europa (formerly known as NFL Europe) folded in June. With an average attendance of just over 20,000 per game in 2007 and only 6 teams, this translates into about 60,000 people per week who were actually interested in going to these events … for the entire continent of Europe.  And the lowest attendance was held by the Amsterdam Admirals–the only team outside of Germany.  Maybe if Goodell had arranged for this game on Sunday between Miami and New York to take place in Germany, I wouldn’t feel this way… But why continue to try to get the rest of Europe to go along with this sport?

Maybe they could have sold out the stadium 10 times over, but extended American Football experiments in Europe have failed.  And I don’t know why Goodell seems to think that this is the best way to keep cramming American football down the throats of the rest of the world.

The Blue-Gray Sky has an awesome aerial photo of the Army parachuters beginning their jump down to Notre Dame Stadium before Saturday’s game against USC. Definitely check it out.

Something happened yesterday on Comet Holmes, an obscure comet fainter than Pluto.  Until yesterday.  From Space Weather:

Whatever is happening to Comet 17P/Holmes, it’s weird. "I’ve never seen anything like it! It almost looks like a planet," says Eric Allen …The comet has no tail, a remarkable golden color, and yesterday it shocked astronomers with a spectacular eruption, brightening almost a million-fold from 17th to 2.5th magnitude in a matter of hours.

To put that in perspective, this is similar to the brightness of stars in the Big Dipper or Orion’s Belt, easily visible to the unaided eye from within major light-polluted cities.

Unlike the traditional notion of a comet’s appearance, this comet has no visible tail.  It’s just a small bright sphere, even in a telescope.  To the eye, it’s more starlike in appearance than cometlike.

For a recent event, this makes sense, because a comet’s tail is formed by  loose material with low mass and high surface area being blown away from the sun by the pressure of sunlight.  Whatever broke free from Comet Holmes hasn’t had time to get affected by sunlight to form a tail.

The comet is favorably placed for observers in the northern hemisphere.  It’s in the constellation Perseus, which is up all night at this time of year.  Here’s a star map from Space Weather.  I don’t know if the comet will stay bright or fade quickly, but it’s worth watching to see what happens next.

In other celestial news, the space shuttle was launched Tuesday.  The orbital alignment isn’t favorable for visual observers in the United States, but there are a few passes that can be seen at southern latitudes (e.g. Florida, southern California).  Predictions can be made at Heavens Above.   I think there may be some better visual passes near the very end of the mission.

…but road-tripping USC alum Jonathan Tu has the scoop on the biggest upset of all.

Heh.

Heh:

Browns rookie quarterback Brady Quinn reached into the back of his locker, pulled out the cardinal-and-gold No. 10 jersey and gritted his teeth.

“This,” he said, “is going to hurt.”

Quinn, the former Notre Dame star, then slipped the Southern California jersey over his head and felt his skin crawl.

“That’s why I’ve got extra layers on,” he said. “So it doesn’t actually touch any part of my body.”

Quinn had to wear USC’s colors on Wednesday after losing a bet with former Trojans quarterback Rodney Peete over last week’s game between Notre Dame and Southern Cal. …

Surely, Quinn got some points in the wager. After all, Notre Dame is 1-7 and USC is 6-1.

“It’s a pride bet,” Quinn said. “C’mon now. You don’t bet points. I got faith in my guys.” …

When he finished with his interview, Quinn quickly ripped off the jersey and slam dunked it into a nearby garbage can.

Mike Tran should sent Brady a sympathy card. :)

(Hat tip: Scott Wolf.)

The Red Sox lead the Rockies 10-1 in the bottom of the fifth. Jeez, couldn’t we have saved Josh Beckett for a night when we weren’t going to score a zillion runs?

Anyway, it looks like Colorado’s incredible 21-of-22 streak is about to end. (Knock on wood.) Now the question will be whether the Rockies can catch their breath and make this a series, or if they’ll become demoralized and fold. Obviously I want the Red Sox to win the series, but I hope the Rockies win at least one game, because I want there to be a Game 5 — Monday is my one full day and night in Denver. (My flight out is scheduled to land during Game 4, probably in the fourth inning or thereabouts.)

UPDATE: Sox 13, Rox 1, final.

I just submitted this to The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks:

Heh.

I'm going to be in Denver on Tuesday, so Becky made me a cake early, and we're about to start eating it. Mmm, cake. :)

This weekend promises to be a pivotal one in the race for college football’s mythical national championship. In all but two of the eleven games featuring at least one undefeated or one-loss team, the point spread is less than a touchdown. Homestanding Hawaii and Missouri are favored by 27 and 29 points over New Mexico State and Iowa State, respectively, but aside from them — and idle LSU and Oklahoma — every other team with a zero or a one in the loss column is potentially vulnerable, at least on paper. Could this be the week when the ranks of the unbeaten and once-beaten become so thin that we begin seriously discussing the possibility of a two-loss team reaching the BCS title game?

Certainly, there will be at least three losses this weekend among the sixteen teams on our radar: the Fantastic Five unbeatens and the Edgy Eleven once-beatens ("edgy," in the sense of "on edge," because one more loss would well and truly eliminate them from the title race… probably). That’s because, of course, #8 Virginia Tech (6-1) hosts #2 Boston College (7-0) in this week’s edition of the ESPN Family Of Networks Thursday Night Game Of The Century Week; #5 Oregon (6-1) hosts #12 USC (6-1) in a battle for Pac-10 supremacy on Fox Sports Net (pay no attention to the Bruins and Sun Devils behind the curtain!); and #23 UConn (6-1) hosts #10 South Florida (6-1) in a major Big East showdown that, of course, everyone has had circled on their calendars all season long… right?

So, yeah, three of those six teams have to lose. But lots of other teams from the Fantastic Five and the Edgy Eleven face tough battles this weekend, too. For instance: Arizona State finally puts its undefeated record to the test, albeit at home against a suddenly reeling Cal team. Kansas travels to Texas A&M. West Virginia visits revenge-minded Rutgers. And of course, #1 Ohio State visits #25 Penn State in the OMG Buckeyes If You Win This Game Then All You Have To Do Is Beat A Bunch Of Midgets And Those Guys Who Lost To Appalachian State And You’ll Make It To The Title Game Again And Then Lose By Eight Thousand Points To Another One-Loss Team Bowl.

Oh, and lest I neglect the flip side of the college-football coin, let’s not forget the BrendanLoy.com winless watch. Colorado State finally won a game last week, breaking an 13-game losing streak. So now the Frail Four is a Threadbare Three. (Hat tip: Patrick, last year.) And one of them is actually favored this week: #118 Marshall (0-7), which hosts #112 Rice (1-6). In fact, the Thundering Herd is (are?) an 8.5-point favorite! That’s more than #15 Virginia (7-1) can say about its away game against #82 N.C. State (2-5): the Cavs are only favored by three! Talk about disrespect from Vegas! But anyway, I digress. So yeah, Marshall is favored, and Utah State (0-7) is just a 2.5-point underdog against Louisiana Tech (2-5). Among the Threadbare Three, only Florida International, they of the worst-in-the-nation 19-game losing streak, is seen as a sure loser (at 39-point-favorite Arkansas).

So, whether you’re interested in the top of the heap or the bottom of the barrel, this promises to be a very competitive week of college football. And depending on how it goes, maybe I’ll have to start tracking two-loss teams next week. (Sigh.)

Anyway, without further ado, here is this week’s list of the unbeaten, once-beaten, and constantly-beaten:

(more…)

– President Bush signs a federal disaster declaration, freeing up federal funds for families affected by the wildfires.

Now I understand what’s going on with those folks in West Virginia.  Residents of Maryland, take note: we now know what our neighbors to the west are doing to make themselves the constant butt of our jokes:

WV mommas smoke while they’re pregnant.

And I was approached by a sheep the other day.  It told me that it was seeking asylum, because it had been the victim of sexual harrassment in Morgantown.

Rudy Giuliani, alleged Yankees fan, is rooting for the Red Sox to win the World Series.

P.S. In other Election 2008 news, Stephen Colbert is in a statistical tie for fourth place in the Democratic presidential race:

In the Democratic primary, Colbert takes 2.3 percent of the vote –
good for fifth place behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (40 percent),
Sen. Barack Obama (19 percent), former Sen. John Edwards (12 percent)
and Sen. Joe Biden (2.7 percent). Colbert finished ahead of Gov. Bill
Richardson (2.1 percent), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (2.1 percent) and former
Sen. Mike Gravel (less than 1 percent).

The poll has a 5 percent margin of error, so it’s meaningless to talk about Colbert’s 2.3 percent being "behind" Biden’s 2.7 or "ahead" of Richardson’s 2.1. As I said: he’s tied for fourth — with everyone else not named Clinton, Obama or Edwards. (He’s tied with me, at 0.0 percent, for instance.) The headline, really, ought to be simply: Colbert gets measurable support. (Hat tip: E&P, via InstaPundit.)

And in more serious election news, Hillary Clinton says she "would consider giving up some of the executive powers President Bush and Vice President Cheney have assumed since taking office." At least, that’s what the Associated Press says she said — and the AP headline turns that into "Clinton Says She’d Give Up Some Powers," which is clearly quite different than saying she "would consider" doing so. And even "would consider" might not be quite right. From the original Guardian article about their interview with Mrs. Clinton:

Ms Clinton said the accumulation of executive power [under Bush and Cheney] had put America
into "new territory" because Mr Bush and the vice president had taken
the view that what were previously extraordinary powers were now
inherent powers that belonged to the White House.

"I think I’m
going to have to review everything they’ve done, because I’ve been on
the receiving end of that," she said. Ms Clinton stated it was
"absolutely" conceivable that, as president, she would give up
executive powers in the name of constitutional principle.

"That has to be part of the review I undertake when I get to the White House, and I intend to do that," she said.

So, what she actually said was that she’ll "review everything they’ve done," as "part of the review I undertake" (which is functionally equivalent to saying she’ll set up a committee to study the issue), and that it’s "conceivable" that she would give up some executive powers. And somehow the AP headline-writer translated that into "Clinton Says She’d Give Up Some Powers." Hmm. Wishful thinking much? (Hat tip, again: InstaPundit, who declares himself "somewhat skeptical" that Hillary will follow through on her, uh, non-promise.)

By the way, the Guardian article, if you’re wondering, is headlined, "Clinton vows review of executive power." That is actually accurate.

– Wildfires have now forced 321,000 people from their homes, California officials say.

Via e-mail, Bonnie Stone reminds me of something very important that I almost forgot: today is National Mole Day!

Huh? you ask. Well, to quote myself from 10/23/2002:

This annual holiday — which technically starts at 6:02 AM and ends at 6:02 PM — does not actually celebrate small furry animals that dig holes in the ground, but rather, a chemistry concept: Avogadro’s number, the “mole,” 6.02 x 10²³. (10/23… 10²³Ã¢â‚¬Â¦ get it?) That’s 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, for the scientific-notionally challenged among us, and it’s an inconceivably huge number. How huge? A mole of marshmellows would cover the planet Earth 12 miles high, and a mole of seconds would last so long, the universe would die out before it was done!

(Hat tip: myself, in last year’s post on Mole Day.) Wikipedia explains the history:

Mole Day originated in an article in The Science Teacher in the early 1980s. Inspired by this article, Maurice Oehler, now a retired high school chemistry teacher from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, founded the National Mole Day Foundation (NMDF) on May 15, 1991.

So, yeah, It’s Mole Day. Have some Mole Day cake!

Blogger "RA" of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania has a lengthy Mole Day post on her blog, in which she nerdily explains:

Nestled within National Chemistry Week, October 23 celebrations glorify the mole and Avogadro’s number, approximated at 6.022 x 10²³. A mole is an absolute number without a unit, similar to a dozen. A dozen is always 12, whether it’s made up of donuts or people or cars. It’s the same with a mole, except that it’s always 6.022 x 10²³, which is a number of fantastic magnitude, such that a mole of oranges would be as large as the earth. Practically speaking, when dealing with elements and compounds, the mole allows us to switch between atomic mass units (which are ridiculously small) to grams, which we can see, feel, and measure. So, 6.022 x 10²³ atoms of carbon (atomic weight of 12 amu), or a mole of it, would have a mass of 12 grams, which is so much more helpful because we have known atom quantity and mass. On Mole Day, we’re really celebrating the awesomeness of this one magical number.

"Nerdily" is a compliment in this instance, by the way. :) Meanwhile, in Downer’s Grove, Illinois, some high-school students are using the day as an opportunity to show off their extreme dorkiness:

Classes do not begin at Downers Grove North until 8 a.m., but more than 350 students are expected to be at school at 6:02 a.m. Tuesday.

About 14 percent of the student body will be running laps and decorating windows with homemade periodic tables for Mole Day, a national celebration of Avogadro’s number, 6.02 x 10 to the 23rd power, which is used as a basic measurement in chemistry. What was initially planned as a one-time event with 100 people four years ago, has grown steadily, much to the surprise of chemistry teacher Tom Redig who organized the first event. …

Senior Jess Mulcone of Downers Grove said she first went to Mole Day as a sophomore for extra credit but got hooked on the event. Even though Jess is not in chemistry now, she said she is looking forward to going with many of her friends.

“It’s fun just being at school at 6:02 in the morning,” she said. “No one else is there, and you feel so ridiculous for being there.”

Heh. Nerds! I love it!

But this is stuffed-animal cruelty: "The run or walk starts with a bang from a mole cannon, a tube filled with flammable materials used to detonate a stuffed mole." Oh, the mole-manity!