Monday, December 3, 2007
Archive for December 3, 2007
Good points
The BCS did not choke away a national title berth against a four-touchdown underdog the last night of the season. The BCS did not lose to Oklahoma, rise all the way up to No. 1 — then lose to the Sooners again.
The BCS did not lose on its own home field to Stanford. Or Arkansas. Or South Carolina. Or Illinois.
The BCS did not lose 48-7 in its showcase non-conference game.
The BCS did not win its first 11 games against a bunch of nobodies, rise to No. 1 in the country, then lose in its first and only marquee game.
The BCS did not soar to No. 2 in the standings, then implode upon losing its starting quarterback. The BCS did not give up 473 yards to Texas Tech — then blame it on losing its starting quarterback.
Mandel does blame the BCS for the unappealing match-ups that resulted, however.
3 CommentsWeekend Genius Challenge #9
The mental_floss weekend trivia quiz this weekend was “California has four, Texas has three, Florida has two, and New York has one. What are they?”
Think you know? Follow the link to find out.
Personal DNA Profiles Are a Ripoff
Want to buy one of the personal DNA tests popping up these days? “My message is you are wasting your money,” Christine Patch, a genetics counselor and member of the UK’s Human Genetics Commission, said Friday.
. . .It seems like a new company is cropping up every week to hawk DNA tests over the Internet. These aren’t the kinds of targeted tests doctors order for patients at high risk for a given disease connected to one or more well-known mutations. They’re one-size-fits all tests that can cost thousands of dollars and make a range of sweeping promises from predicting disease risk to describing ancestry.
December 3rd
Andy Williams is 80. Williams headlined at Caesar’s Palace when it opened in 1966. That is, he was once a very big star.
Ozzy Osbourne is 59.
Daryl Hannah is 47 today. So is Julianne Moore. Together they have four Oscar nominations, two for leading actress and two for supporting actress. All are Moore’s, of course.
Brendan Fraser is 39.
George B. McClellan was born on this date in 1826. McClellan was the commander of Union forces in the east during much of the first two years of the War of the Rebellion. He loved to organize and feared to fight. McClellan was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for President in 1864, receiving 21 to Lincoln’s 212 electoral votes. For his unabashed hubris, McClellan rates right up there as one of the great asses of American history.
Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born on this date in 1857. Born in the Ukraine of Polish descent, Joseph Conrad learned English in the British merchant marine in his twenties. He began writing in the 1890s and published his first novel, Almayer’s Folly, in 1895. Lord Jim (1900) and Heart of Darkness (1902) are his most famous works. The Writer’s Almanac has more about Conrad.
The first human heart transplant took place in Cape Town, South Africa, on this date 40 years ago (1967). The patient, Lewis Washkansky, survived 18 days before he died from double pneumonia, a result of anti-rejection drugs suppressing his immune system.
