knapplc

Just because man has an effect on the climate does not mean "ZZZOMG MAN WILL DIE!!!!" which is the tenor of every single report you hear about climate change. I have yet to see a single report showing that an increase in base temps could possibly be beneficial to mankind. It is impossible that every single climate model shows "disaster" via an overall warmer planet. Yet I have seen none in any major news report... ever. That's a too much Chicken Little for me.

I am old enough to remember hearing about the "next Ice Age" scare in the 1970s. We had some pretty cold/snowy winters in 1977 and 1978 and our impending doom from glacial growth was all the talk.

I didn't like the phrase "down on them," either. I rewrote that a couple of times. I don't like any of the phrases I came up with. And yes, you do rise as one. A very weak Big Ten isn't going to propel a dominant Wisconsin into the National Championship game. You're going to have to beat good teams along the way. You beat up on weak conference mates and you get a BCS bowl against some schlub. Just ask Boise.

It's not "global warming" anymore. It's "climate change" because some places will get warmer, some will get colder, and some will get more/less rain. It's also based on the notion that the general weather patterns we've seen over the past 100 years or so represent the "optimal" weather for Earth. Ignoring the fact that it's been alternately much warmer and much colder here over the past several million years, and life has continued on just fine.

It's not Ohio State's fault that they dominated the last ten years. It's Penn State's, Michigan's, Sparty's, Iowa's and Wisconsin's. You can't be down on them for winning. You have to go beat them. I hope Hoke leads Michigan back to prominence. I hope Bielema has Wiscy on an upward trend. I hope Meyer keeps OSU winning. I hope that the overall strength of the B1G is high for the next decade - and I hope Nebraska beats 'em all. There's no glory in beating weak teams. Let's build this conference into something formidable, and then let's go beat the hell out of everyone in our bowl games.

And here's a Q&A with Cooper from the Tulsa World: Cooper's girlfriend is former Husker women's BB player Layne Reeves, from Lubbock, TX. Good to see they're still together. They make a cute couple. EDIT - it's worth noting that Khiry Cooper's only TD reception came in 2009 against Texas Tech off a pass from Cody Green.

Hot off the presses:

Earle couldn't pull off the 'stache.

The original proposal for the Catalyst Project was a 13-story building - which, for Lincoln, would be a high-rise. That didn't get axed because of this law, it just didn't work out for the builders. Here are some articles about this project: 2009 - original plans fall through due to lack of financing. 2009 - Nine-story building approved. Somewhere after this the building went from nine stories to ten. Not sure when that happened. 2011 - The developers part ways. 2012 - Everything is going great.

Who is accepting what da skers is saying as fact?

I don't see what he's doing (or what most Christians are doing) as any different than trying to encourage a guy to become a fan of your team. I also think Tebow is more the product of a media storm created by the confluence of Urban Meyer, the SEC, ESPN's SEC love-fest, and some pretty good teams built around him. He then benefited greatly from the Bronco defense last year, and through some bizarre convoluted process he's got this self-sustaining celebrity thing going on. To me, he's the Kim Kardashian of football. He's popular for being popular more than anything else, and now that he's popular whatever he does is greatly magnified by the press. Then we talk about it, the press sees us talk about it, and they cover him more. Just wait until some bad thing comes out about the guy. Nobody is totally flawless. He'll have forgotten to leave some waitress a tip at a restaurant, he'll get busted jaywalking, he'll forget to rewind his VHS tape before he returns it to Blockbuster, then we'll have several news cycles about "what happened to Tim Tebow" and the ball will keep rolling.

Ohio State's coach was coaching in the Big Ten before Oklahoma stopped pretending you were their main rival. Yeah, but not as a head coach. So we're good.

Mostly Meyer has that SEC taint about him, which I find unpalatable. But if he fits in to our culture here in the Big Ten, then we'll accept him for one of us. See? We're so assimilated already that we get to accept your coach. Membership has its advantages.

My response wasn't intended to say "You should stop talking about this," just that if it's bothersome, turn the channel. People who annoy you consistently aren't the problem, it's you allowing them to do that. I'm with you in the "not a fan of Tim Tebow" category - for whatever reason. He doesn't bother me, though, because I don't let him. It's very liberating.

So not going to go with something actually fact based then? A tried but true approach I must say. BTW the '06 posts in the Meyer thread probably won't be as much help as you're hoping. Meh. I'm not hoping for much. I don't really have a dog in this fight. I don't dislike Meyer, and I'm not worried about him being at OSU. I'm hoping he keeps you guys strong - but that we beat you whenever we meet up. A strong Ohio State is good for the Big Ten.

Covered this:

I don't. There's a huge uproar over every proposal in this city. The Arena project had some people having kittens, and they're still crying about it. The Luddites want to keep Lincoln this tiny little farm town. It's bizarre.

I suppose I could cruise through BP circa 2006 and regurgitate what I read there.

I think that's what VA was getting at - there's no call for that here. Lincoln doesn't do enough to encourage major investment by outside companies. We have a pretty decent school right here, but few jobs for the graduates. Boulder, CO is one example of what a school can do to partner with its community to create an environment conducive to keeping their graduates in town, fueling growth and stimulating the economy. Boulder brought in companies like Lockheed Martin, IBM, the NCAR/NOAA, etc., all of whom provide high-paying jobs that Lincoln doesn't. Lincoln is a nice town. It's quiet and simple and relatively convenient. But it is not a growth-oriented town, and there are a LOT of people here who want to keep it as small as possible. I don't understand that mentality, but it's quite common around here.

I was JUST coming to post this article, and I was debating where to put it, too. I think it belongs here, even though it's more about Meyer-at-Florida than Meyer today. It really makes me wonder how he'll do long-term in C-Bus. Some of his "roster management" techniques won't fly in the Big Ten, like oversigning and cutting scholarships. Some of the criticisms in this article are a little iffy, though. The part about benching players for discipline and telling people the players were injured happens in a lot of places. Some places very close to where I'm sitting right now. Not sure that deserves to be part of an exposé piece.

It is, but it's still not wrapped all the way around to where it's going to end up. I haven't talked to any workers for a while to see if they could tell me what that southern end is going to look like.

That is exactly how it feels. I'm glad I'm not the only guy seeing this. Stop with the trickeration. Line up, do what you do, and if they can stop it great - we'll line up and do it again. If not, Reed's gone or Cotton has leveled your DE/LB. The biggest problem with that "out-think the other guy" mentality is that we did it all season. At some point it becomes your pattern, not your aberration.

I could understand if it was the first few games of the year and Beck was still figuring out what he had (although he SHOULD know that already from being in the program), but it happened all year. I'm watching the Sparty game right now (when I have time) and it's still going on. I had a freaking conniption and forced the wife to watch an Option play three times, focusing on the play-side OT and the backside TE, both of whom whiffed on blocks on two levels. Abysmal.

The best thing Beck could do to get Reed and Cotton more involved is switch them around in his head. Last year, despite injury, Beck called Reed's number more to seal the end on an Option than to catch the ball downfield. That is a HUGE mistake, and Reed routinely failed at making his (often crucial) block. That's not a knock on Kyler Reed, it's just that he's not built for that type of play. But Cotton is. Despite this, you'd see Cotton downfield in two TE sets as a decoy for the run that went to Reed's side of the field - and the play would get blown up. Cotton never blocked anyone and was wasted on the play. Reed failed in his block, and often his man made or was involved in the tackle. I have been rewatching the 2011 season, and I pull my hair out over and over watching our line play. Our blocking schemes are ridiculous. You want to get these guys more involved? Find out if they're a square peg or a round peg, and fit them in accordingly. That's Step One.

The Catalyst Project at 13th & Q, 10 stories, is going up right now. EDIT - actually, the East Stadium upgrade will be eight-ish stories, equal to the West Stadium. Those would both be on that list.