Charles Barkley Arrested, Not For Gambling But DUI

Charles Barkley plans to run for governor of Alabama. His latest trouble with the law may not help him.  He was arrested on 31DEC08 on suspicion of DUI in Arizona.  This after his previous $400,000 gambling debt, does not seem to improve the odds of his gubernatorial run.

yojoe out

The Rose Bowl: USC And Penn State Preview, Predictions, And Odds

The 2009 Rose Bowl features the Trojans of USC against the Nittany Lions of Penn State.  Both teams come in with a record of 11-1, SC having lost to Oregon State and Penn St losing to Iowa.  The Men of Troy are representing the Pac-10 and the Nittany Lions are representing the Big Ten.  Both teams are among the top ten college football programs of all time.

The Trojans may have the best defense of all time, but Penn State feels they have something to say about that.

Notes and news on the game:

• USC fullback Stanley Havili is academically ineligible, so D.J. Shoemate will get the start.
• Pete Carroll promises not to fight JoPa.
• Damian Williams and Stafon Johnson are both 100 percent.
• Aaron Corp has moved ahead of Mitch Mustain to be the number 2 quarterback for SC.
• Tight end Blake Ayles will not play because of a knee injury.  
• Safety Kevin Ellison will not play because of a knee injury. 
• The legend Joe Paterno shows why he epitomizes the old-school coach (must-see picture of his shoes)
• JoPa will be coaching from the press box.
• Both schools claim to be Linebacker U.
• Brian Cushing explains why he chose USC over Penn State.
• Rey Maualuga predicts the game will be very close and come down to the 4th quarter. 
• Penn State talks some old-school trash. 
• bodog has USC favored by 10.

Prediction:  USC – 21  Penn State – 13

In the Bowl Challenge Cup the Pac-10 is doing better than the Big Ten.

Cooking Prime Rib On A Big Green Egg

This is how I cooked a prime rib roast on my Big Green Egg (BGE) on Christmas day 2008. I started with a prime rib roast, about 4.5 pounds.  The night before, put the roast in a glass dish, covered with a paper towel, and place it in the refrigerator.   I seasoned with the following:

• 2 Tablespoons rosemary
• 2 Tablespoons cracked black pepper
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup of Kosher salt

First brush the roast with olive oil, then apply seasoning on all sides.

Notre Dame To Lose Tenth Bowl Game Against Hawaii

The Fighting Irish will try to avoid losing their tenth straight bowl game against Hawaii.

The last time Notre Dame won a bowl game was the Cotton Bowl against Texas A&M in 1994, then the losses started:

• 1995 L, 24-41 – Colorado – Fiesta Bowl
• 1996 L, 26-31 – Florida State – Orange Bowl
• 1997 L, 9-27 – LSU – Independence Bowl
• 1999 L, 28-35 – Georgia Tech – Gator Bowl
• 2001 L, 9-41 – Oregon State – Fiesta Bowl
• 2003 L, 6-28 – NC State – Gator Bowl
• 2004 L, 21-38 – Oregon State – Insight.com Bowl
• 2006 L, 34-20 – Ohio State – Fiesta Bowl
• 2007 L, 41-14 – LSU – Sugar Bowl
• 2008 L, 28-10 – Hawaii – Sheraton Hawaii (prediction)

This record-setting loss should renew the calls for Charlie Weis to be fired.

yojoe out

P.S. This is why I do not bet on sports.  I must eat my words.  Notre Dame had a great game, dominating the entire game.  Jimmy Clausen threw for 401 yards, and the Irish dominated 49-21.  An early Christmas gift for ND fans.  Congratulations!

USC Football: Rey Maualuga Update, MVP, Bednarik, All-American

Apparently College Football’s Scariest Defender, Rey Maualuga, has a softer side.  According to reports, the Trojan linebacker is going to already going to miss his time at USC.

“It’s my last week next week. It’s going to be hard. Emotions are going to come out. I’m just going to give it everything I’ve got and make sure I don’t have any regrets when I leave here.”

There is little more that SC fans could ask from Maualuga.

Maualuga had received the following accolades:

• First Team AP All-American
• MVP USC 2008 team
• Pac-10 Defensive MVP
• Chuck Bednarik Award for the nation’s best player on defense

Wishing the best to Rey and his family this holiday season, and for a long and prosperous career in the NFL.

yojoe Fight On!

Yahoo! Search Engine Offers More Privacy Than Google Or Microsoft

If you are looking for privacy and anonymity in your Internet searches you should use Yahoo! search. Yahoo! recently announced that it,

will anonymize user log data within 90 days with limited exceptions for fraud, security and legal obligations. Yahoo! will also expand the policy to apply not only to search log data but also page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks.

By comparison, Google will anonymize data after 9 months.  Here is Google’s privacy policy.

Microsoft keeps data for 18 months before making it anonymous.  Here is Microsoft’s privacy policy.

So, before searching for things you may not want others to know about, at least after 90 days, you may want to consider Yahoo!.

yojoe out

Odd Search Engine Term

It is interesting to see what search terms direct people to your blog. I actually had three occurrences of the following search term:

gay dating gastric bypass

Wow, what has this blog turned into?

Fleet Of Sunken World War I Ships In Maryland: Visible On Google Maps

Most people know about the Liberty Ships of World War II. These were the merchant vessels used to ship men and material to Britain, and to replace ships that had been torpedoed by German U-boats.
Lesser know, are the wooden steamships constructed by the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) for the same purpose during World War I.

Of 285 wooden EFC steamships built by August 1, 1920, at least 152 ended up in Mallows Bay within nine years. Today the remains of at least 30 percent of the entire EFC wooden steamship fleet still lie in the embayment, surrounded by derelict vessels of all kinds dating from the late 18th century through the 1980s.

Here is the link to the Google Maps version, below is a view of the ships.

BCS Declares Germany Winner Of World War II

This post is not original, I only wish I was this creative.  The following is from a email that is making the rounds.

After determining the Big-12 championship game participants the BCS computers were put to work on other major contests and today the BCS declared Germany to be the winner of World War II.

“Germany put together an incredible number of victories beginning with the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and continuing on into conference play with defeats of Poland, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. Their only losses came against the US and Russia; however considering their entire body of work—including an incredibly tough Strength of Schedule—our computers deemed them worthy of the #1 ranking.”

USC Over UCLA 28-7 At The Rose Bowl

The Men of Troy finished their regular season by beating the Bruins 28-7, and finished the 2008 season with a record of 11-1 and 8-1 in the Pac-10.  The Bruins showed a great deal of sportsmanship by agreeing to take a timeout, because the USC was charged a timeout by the NCAA for wearing the wrong uniform.  Both Coach Carroll and Coach Neuheisel agreed to restore the tradition of both teams wearing their home uniforms.  Coach Neuheisel did the right thing by burning a timeout after USC was penalized.

Things did not stay so congenial after that, and  things got a bit chippy after halftime.

With this win, and the loss by Oregon State, the Trojans are headed to the Rose Bowl for the 4th straight year.

yojoe Fight On!

Notre Dame Needs To Fire Charlie Weis

I have made my case for Notre Dame firing Coach Charlie Weis based not on his coaching performance, but on the poor example he sets for his players.  That is not to say that he has not performed poorly on the field, e.g., amassing 9 total yards in the first half against USC does not make one an offensive genius.

Here is a sample of what others are saying about Coach Weis:

• Weis, on the other hand, was a successful NFL assistant coach for several seasons with the New York Jets and New England Patriots. But after a promising first season at Notre Dame, he has since shown himself mostly incapable of coaxing college players to perform at a level that resembles anything close to the sum of their parts.
• If this was Weis’ death rattle, it was stinging. Notre Dame was outgained 449-91.
• The other significant number to consider: .571, Weis’ winning percentage at Notre Dame through four seasons following the loss to the fifth-ranked Trojans. That officially slides him below Bob Davie (.583) and Tyrone Willingham (.583) in the lineup of Irish coaches.
• The offensive guru now puts his team at a decided schematic disadvantage every time it takes the field.
• This is the worst loss of Weis’s tenure, and probably the worst loss of the last 15 years for the school. I don’t remember a loss by Bob Davie or Ty Willingham being anywhere near this bad.
• That would leave Weis at 28-21 in four years with Notre Dame, not far off from Willingham’s 21-16 in three seasons.
• It’s time for some new faces to lead this group, and you can start on that request yesterday, please.
• After 4 years, it’s obvious that he cannot develop talent, he cannot properly motivate or inspire his players, and sadly, he can’t even call plays very well anymore.

It is not looking good for Charlie “I Looked at Myself and Saw a Disaster” Weis.

yojoe out