Wow! It's Yow! Happy Days to follow for NCState

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/06/27/553501/expect-a-direct-approach-from.html

Stunning news this week from my alma mater, NCState, which announced that Debbie Yow will take over as Athletic Director on July 1 after 16 years in the same position at Maryland. This hire has my full support -- Yow is known for her fiscally responsible means of running an athletic program and perhaps more importantly, FOR HOLDING HER COACHES ACCOUNTABLE AND EXPECTING THEM TO WIN!

The atmosphere among NCState coaches is going to get a bit more pressure-packed now since expectations will be raised for all programs. No more status-quo and medicority. Teams will be expected to compete for conference championships and if the current coaches can't get the job done, Yow has shown at Maryland that she is not afraid to cut ties and move in another direction. This can only be a positive for the future amongst the athletic programs:

FOOTBALL -- Tom O'Brien has yet to have a winning season since taking over for Chuck Amato. He has the most to lose with yet another losing or break-even season in 2010.

MEN'S BASKETBALL -- Sidney Lowe is much beloved amongst NCState alumni but has yet to take the team to the NCAA Tournament. With a healthy recruiting pipeline now well-established, the pressure is going to be on Sid to produce or be forced to leave.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL -- Kellie Harper is perhaps one of the safer coaches in the NCState family, taking over for Yow's sister last season and taking the team to the NCAA Tournament in her first season at the helm. Yow has experience coaching women's basketball and hired Brenda Frese, who led Maryland to a national championship in 2006.

BASEBALL -- Time may be running out for Eliot Avent, who seems to have NCState competitive year after year but has yet to prove he can win the Big Games. Yow may leave Avent alone initially, tho; Maryland's un-funded baseball team has never done much in this sport and Yow may take a wait-and-see approach in her first couple of years. Many alumni, tho, would like NCState to become a national power in baseball and return to Omaha for the first time since 1968.

MEN'S SOCCER -- George Tarantini is the most likely candidate to be replaced. NCState soccer, once a national powerhouse, is mediocre at best most years...although every few years, they make national headlines. Tarantini has been at NCState since 1988 but we have done very little on the national scene during his time with the Wolfpack.

I am very excited to hear that Debbie Yow is coming to NCState...completing the family circle started with her sisters Kay and Susan, NCState's first All-American in women's basketball.

Little Lord Fauntleroy and more brown oooze..

All right...I'm now TOTALLY convinced...although I have been nearly there for a while. Our president is a petulant child who demands perfection and throws temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way. And don't dare speak the truth if it makes him look bad.

The removal of Gen. Stanley McCrystal as head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan today provided the definitive confirmation. This president will NOT tolerate anyone publicly making comments that are less than flattering. All of this because of an article in "Rolling Stone" magazine that hasn't even hit the press yet.

I can understand protocol that says those in command do not show disrespect to the Commander-In-Chief...but the comments made by McCrystal were not insulting; he simply stated that the President seemed not to be "engaged" during their initial meeting to discuss strategy for Afghanistan. Any negatively blatant comments about POTUS were made by aides to McCrystal; any blatantly negative comments by McCrystal were about the civilian commander Eikenberry, who is to help manage the war with McCrystal. And can anyone really blame making a little bit of fun at VP Joe Biden? Or should we say VP Potty Mouth?

In the end, McCrystal was a victim of an outspoken nature not normally associated with the stringent requirements of the military establishment. I like the man; he speaks his mind, even if his views are unpopular or against the Program. It is not always good to walk with your head in the clouds or in the sand. We need more people out there like Stanley McCrystal. Sadly, we have lost a good soldier. Meanwhile, the Obama machine rolls on. I imagine one reason McCrystal had to go was that the meeting held today prevented the Anointed One from playing yet another round of golf...or attending another baseball game...or hosting a rock star or another group of college athletes.

I'm not the only one with opinion that Obama acts, more times than is comfortable for the POTUS, like a child. Jeb Bush has even gotten into the fray, expressing what many of the political pundits have been saying for a while that he needs to grow up and "stop blaming George W. Bush for everything." At some point, Obama has got to accept responsibility for things; not EVERY crisis is someone else's problem.

Obama has NEVER met a TV camera he didn't like. This man hits me as one who enjoys the perks of being President but can't ACT like a POTUS should. The USA is heading down an ominous road toward defeat, from which recovery will be difficult if not impossible...and sadly, we do not have a leader right now who can pull us out of there. And the more things look bleak and the pressure increases...we can probably expect more childish outbursts like "looking for someone's ass to kick" "I can't go down there and plug the hole" or "I can't suck the oil up with a straw." I certainly hope that sometime before he leaves office (which should be in 36 months if all cards fall correctly) he will show us what he CAN do well (besides spending money, swatting flies or shooting hoops).

The meeting in Washington today was yet another roadblock to this Administration's ability to focus totally on the Gulf oil spill. That disaster took another nasty turn today when an underwater robot accidently nudged the cap that had been placed over the leaking well, resulting in the cap having to be brought back to the surface for repair. Now, there is NOTHING preventing the full plume of oil from spewing into the Gulf until the cap is replaced. And the relief wells are still a month or more from being finished. Not good.

Leaders from the states affected directly by the oil spill are angry and frustrated. Louisiana is probably wishing now that the big Purchase of 1803 had never occurred. What is wrong with allowing the state to take whatever measures are necessary to protect their wetlands if the Federal Government is too lazy or slow to make decisions...none of which seem to favor the states themselves.

All Louisiana wants to do is build some sand berms to protect its wetlands and provide a barrier for the oil before affecting the beaches. What is wrong with that? Obviously, the locals are more on top of the situation and willing to be proactive than our own national government. Goodness...let them do what they need to do. In the meantime, oil is also starting to affect Mississippi, Alabama and Florida beaches. This story is not going to have a happy ending.

There comes a time when the Environmentalists need to cease and desist for the greater good. And I think that time has arrived.

Well, I'm heading out of town for a few days to spend some time with my Dad as he celebrates his 80th birthday. It will be a good visit...and we'll both be keeping tabs on the news. I may even update with a new post or two while I'm away. But you can be assured I'll be really wound up when I return home. There's no telling WHAT will happen to our country in the next few days.

Gulf Oil Spill...By The Numbers

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100621/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_how_big

Interesting little article about the mathematics of the Gulf Oil Spill. Some highlights:

-- The size of the Gulf Oil Spill would fill 9200 average living rooms
-- The Mississippi River dumps as much water into the Gulf Of Mexico in 38 seconds as the
oil leak has released into the Gulf since April 20.
-- If all of the oil released so far were collected, each American could have four soft-drink
cans of crude oil.

7 down...77 to go...

Today marks the end of the Spring Quarter 2010 at VC...and the 7th quarter I have taught at the school. Should I stay through retirement age, that means I only have 77 quarters left until I hang up the whiteboard markers and erasers and head into my twilight years.

Wow...that's kind of depressing. 77 more quarters teaching fractions!

I was talking with Kari Sunday (she who believes fractions are "holy torture") and some interesting stats came up while I was trying to describe how big my lot is...since I seem to spend a lot of time mowing the grass. It really just SEEMS I spend a lot of time mowing the grass; I have an electric mower, featuring a battery that doesn't always let me finish the yard in one mowing:

-- My lot is 70 feet by 130 feet. That's 9100 square feet.
-- An acre is defined as any region with a perimeter of 43, 560 square feet.
-- 9100 square feet is 20.6% of an acre, or just a little larger than 1/5. The actual
FRACTION is 103/500 of an acre.
-- An acre is 40% of a hectare. So by that measure, my lot is a little more than 8% of a
hectare.

Now aren't you glad you read the blog today?? Have a good one!

Well, he has his life back...

While residents along the Gulf coast watch in horror as their livelihoods get destroyed by encroaching oil, BP CEO Tony Heyward took time off to attend a yacht race off the coast of England.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100619/D9GEI7UG0.html

In early May, Heyward, who is still in charge of cleanup operations for BP despite being demoted earlier this week, stated with frustration that "he wanted his life back." I guess his wish was granted. Meanwhile, I'm sure the career fishermen in Louisiana and Mississippi would like things to return to normal, too...but they will not be that fortunate in the foreseeable future.

I dunno about you, but I believe it is safe to say that Tony Heyward does NOT have a future as head of a PR firm once his days at BP have ended. Have you ever seen ANYONE more out of touch, emotionless and just downright arrogant during such a serious situation? I wonder if his demeanor would be different if this oil spill was fouling British waters...and preventing him from attending any yacht races off the Isle of Wight.

$*(%#*($*#(*$(#*%(#*%(&#%&#$*%&q(##$(*#($*#(*!!!!!!

MY FIRST POST!

Yes! After months of THINKING about it, I finally bit the bullet and decided to create my own blog. I hope this little piece of the web will be useful for not only my math students as I post updates on assignments, etc...but will also serve as a voice for me on some other important issues, like WORLD EVENTS. I've read hundreds of blogs over time and always thought it would be interesting to express my own views on things for others to see...and due to USERID/PASSWORD overload, it's just not possible to create accounts at all the different venues so I can comment at all the different sites. So this blog will serve multiple purposes.



I hope anyone who has found my blog will find it interesting, useful and intriguing enough to be a repeat viewer. Maybe I'll even garner a comment or two, eventually. I guess we'll just have to see!



While I'm editing my first post...let me just take a moment to comment on the Gulf Oil Spill. What is transpiring is, in a simple word, heartbreaking. Ya really have to feel bad for the helpless people of the Gulf region directly impacted by the landfalling oil; their livelihoods have been disrupted, possibly for years...decades, even. And it could be 20 years or more before nature re-establishes equilibrium in that part of the world. The pictures of oil-drenched birds, dead marine life and tar-stained beaches are difficult to view without getting emotional. And now whales are being found dead, 70 miles south of the expolosion site.



I have followed this story with deep interest ever since the explosion occurred. The congressional hearings held yesterday were interesting; certainly, the tone set by the questioners was tough and hurtful...but in the end, it was just a grand show of theatre. NOTHING was really accomplished; BP CEO Tony Heyward seemed to pretty much plead the Fifth Amendment on the toughest questions and looked as close to being an amnesia victim as the CEO of a huge corporation could get. He seemed ignorant of a lot of details about the Deepwater Horizon. For a man who has claimed that he "wants his life back," he had very few arrows in his quiver to accomplish his ultimate goal. And I'm not even going to comment on the bizarre and downright stupid comments by Joe Barton. WHAT WAS HE THINKING? Sometimes, it is best to pull head out of rear end before speaking. I guess that's what being one of the largest recipients of monetary contributions from the oil industry will do to ya when one has to question the head of the world's largest oil company.



Geez...hadn't intended to write a book my first time out. This is long enough for now, methinks. I'll post more a bit later. For now...it's time to get into work mode. Hope you enjoyed your visit and will come back again soon.