The 2011-12 BCS games

On Sunday, the bowl games for 2011-12 were announced. Here I'll write about each BCS game and what I think about it.

The Rose Bowl features two explosive offenses that will clash in Pasadena. The scoreboard operator better get ready for this matchup between the Oregon ducks and the Wisconsin badgers, which may turn out to be the highest-scoring Rose Bowl in history, as Oregon ranks 3rd in the nation in offense with Wisconsin a heartbeat away at 4th. I think one of the biggest keys to the game is badger RB and Heisman candidate, Montee Ball, who is threatening the record of 39 TDs scored in one season. Ducks D-coordinator, Nick Aliotti, should start adapting many different schemes to stop Ball. The badgers' D also will have a headache, with RB LaMichael James becoming a factor for the ducks in this game and many others before. My prediction: Ball will get 300+ yards but Oregon takes this one 52-45.


#4 Stanford takes on #3 Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl. The 'pokes are seeking redemption for not being admitted to the BCS title game, but they did get a nice game here. Stanford features the Heisman candidate QB Andrew Luck, who may shred up OSU's D. He has many other D-coordinators scratching their heads, trying how to figure out how to get to him, let alone, sack him. Or maybe veteran QB Brandon Weeden will spark the 'pokes' offense to a blowout in an important matchup like they did in Bedlam. My prediction: Luck will bring Stanford luck, but not enough, as Oklahoma State wins big in overtime, 31-28.


In New Orleans, the Sugar Bowl  presents an interesting matchup with #11 Virginia Tech and #13 Michigan. With JoePa out of coaching, Frank Beamer is the longest active coach at Virginia Tech. David Wilson, the Hokie tailback, also adds to the picture. The Hokies played an easy schedule and was embarrassed by Clemson twice, but they are ready to roll.  Michigan first year coach Brady Hoke led his storied program to a BCS game for the firs time since the 2007 Rose Bowl. QB Denard Robinson has 1000+ yards in passing and rushing, and is not afraid to beat you either way. My prediction: Robinson and Wilson will both have good games, but Robinson will be the star of the game, and Michigan will win 41-37.


The Orange Bowl puts together West Virginia and Clemson. Clemson QB Taji Boyd and West Virginia QB Geno Smith will immediately begin firing bombs over the opposing D and will put on the jets around the opponent's D. I dont have much to say about this one because I haven't seen either of these two teams play. My prediction: As the Big East champion receives an automatic BCS bid, it doesn't really mean they deserve it and it'll be Clemson all over, 34-17.


The BCS Title game drew alot of boos from me, as a rematch of LSU/Alabama doesn't seem as interesting as, say, LSU/Oklahoma State, especially with this being the "SEC West title". LSU already won at Alabama 9-6 (boring), and is now playing on virtual home field in New Orleans. My prediction: LSU takes this 14-12.

Michigan vs Ohio

I've got great news here!


It was 2,926 days between November 22, 2003; and November 26, 2011. That is the same as 70,224 hours, which matches 4,213,440 minutes, which equals (take a deep breath) 252,806,400 seconds. In that same span, Michigan went 0-7 against "Ohio", as coach Brady Hoke calls Ohio State.

Last Saturday, "The Big House" overflowed to over 114,000 in attendance, just a hundred shy of setting the NCAA record (Michigan set the past 4 records, and one is still alive). It also overflowed with screams, shouts, and yells; as Michigan faced "Ohio"  amidst a 7-game losing streak in the series. And, oh, it was a game to remember!

Buckeye freshman QB Braxton Miller gained 100+ yards in the air and 150+ more on the ground. He accounted for all but one of  "Ohio's" 4 touchdowns, two on long passes. Meanwhile, Denard Robinson, Miller's counterpart, was the star of the game, hitting the 1,000 yard rushing mark for the season and scoring nearly at will. My favorite highlight was when he scrambled for 41 yards for the wolverine's first points of the game. He then did his "greedy" food celebration in front of the crowd (which I can't find a video of). Michigan prevailed 40-34, as the players and crowd went crazy, and as Hoke got the Gatorade treatment.

We were watching it at our Spanish-speaking neighbor's house so my Dad was cheering more in Spanish than English. We were hugging and jumping around as the clock ticked to double zeros, after 4 hours of eating popcorn and staring intently at a 60" plasma tv and after 2,926 days of buckeye triumph.

My bowl prediction for this 10-2 team is against Houston (12-0) in the Sugar Bowl.

Bevo

Bevo is Texas' beloved mascot and the mascot of the week. I haven't posted in a while because we were sick, and then on vacation. But for now, I am posting.

At halftime on the Texas-Texas A&M game of 1916, two cowboys went onto the field and presented a half-dead longhorn to the crowd. Legend says that his coat was as orange as Texas' colors, so they showed him to Texas.

It is very widely accepted that Bevo got his name from some Texas A&M joksters that branded 13-0, the score that Texas A&M beat Texas by, on Bevo's coat. Then Texas fixed it by changing the 13 to a "B", the hyphen to an "E", put a "V" in between the hyphen and the 0. They left the 0 as an O. That spelled out B-E-V-O. That story is true, but Bevo was already named by then. He was named the moment he was presented to them ("His name is Bevo" the coach made known).

Texas is now on their fourteenth Bevo. Bevo II once rammed at a Southern Methodist cheerleader, who used his megaphone to ward off the longhorn. Bevo V scattered Baylor's band one time. Since then no Bevos have done anything bad. Bevo XIII is to date the Bevo that saw more Texas wins than any other Bevo.

I Think It Was a Good Game

Yesterday was Super Bowl XLV (45). The Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25. My whole family are Packer fans except for one. We had a party at my grandparents home. My Grandma had a gigantic Steelers cookie that she forgot to give to her friend. She gave it to us. Earlier today we put a Packers helmet o a toy figure and took a picture of him "eating" the Steelers cookie. My Mom said that when we eat it, we will be crushing the Steelers (that disappointed my brother because he was the one that was a Steeler fan).

Now for the game summary.

After a few punts, the Packers got on top with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Nelson on 3rd and one. But that was not before "Donald the Driver" got injured, he's out. Pack 7, Steels 0. On the next play from scrimmage, the number 37 guy gets a forty yard pick-six. Then, out of the blue, a really questionable excess of celebration call on the Pack. That penalty is enforced on the ensuing kickoff so that's still fourteen push-ups for me (I did as many push-ups as they scored). Pittsburgh makes a short FG after that. A shocking touchdown follows on a 21-yard pass to Jennings. 21-3! Man, this is just going for the Pack. But then, a demoralizing (injuring Charles Woodson - out for the game), 7-play, 77-yard drive brings us to 21-10 at the close of the half.

The halftime show stunk but we had a good meal.

Back to the action an eight-yard Steeler touchdown brings us close. The Pack get stuck in a 3rd quarter pickle, despite a missed FG, on behalf of Pittsburgh. In the early 4th quarter, however, a touchdown pass to Jennings gives me more push-ups to do. 28-17. But then Rothesburger passes a killer 25-yard touchdown. The Steelers went for two. On the conversion, Rothesburger lateraled it off and they converted. Green Bay got a Field Goal, but I saw a possible Pittsburgh touchdown. On 1st down they made 5 yards. Rothesburger then threw it out of bounds to kill the clock. On 3rd down their pass fell incomplete. Then it was a nail-biting fourth down (my Grandma, all decorated with Packer helmet earrings and necklaces left the scene in a nervous state). Rothesburger looked ahead, dodged Clay Matthews, and threw. It floated back and it was INTERCEPTED! Final score, 31-25, Packers!!!!!!

Cast of Characters:
"Donald the Driver"..............Packer's record for best receiver
Charles Woodson.....................Best defensive back on the Packers (and former Michigan star)
Ben Rothesburger..................Steeler 6' 7" 250lb quarterback
Clay Matthews..........................Packer's best linebacker (with long, long girly hair)

I think it was a good game and it will go down in memory as the first FULL (every play) NFL game I have ever watched.  And about that cookie, it is going to taste great all smashed up in my mouth.

Gadolinium

This week's element is gadolinium.

Gadolinium is a lanathide. Its atomic number is 64 and its atomic weight is 157.3. Its melting point is 1312 degrees Celsius (that's 2394 degrees Fahrenheit or 1585 kelvins), and its boiling point is 3273 degrees Celsius (that's 5923 degrees Fahrenheits or 3546 kelvins). 

Above is a picture of the electron configuration. Gadolinium, like all lanathides, goofs around with its electrons and hides them. The electron configuration should be like  2, 8, 18, 18, 18  with an element that has 64 electrons, but gadolinium has it like, 2, 8, 18, 25, 9, 2. The lanathides all goof it with their electrons but it at least has 64 electrons to neutralize the positive protons.

About 440 tons of gadolinium is dug up in a year, but all that gets used for just one thing. Gadolinium is really good at absorbing neutrons, so gadolinium is used when neutrons are used. If a neutron was to hit you then, you would be radioactive, with a half-life of 15 hours (a half-life is how long it takes for half the atoms to decompose, in the case of humans you'd mostly likely die). Gadolinium absorbs the neutrons so you don't get hit by a neutron in the lab.  Don't worry there were no nuclear reactors before the discovery of Gadolinium.

Good thing it is found naturally occurring in Scandinavia and Sri Lanka - because now we can study neutrons.

Big Al

This is Big Al. He is the mascot of the week. He is also University of Alabama's official mascot. I googled up some pictures of him and drew him, using the pictures as a model. I think I will alternate element of the week and mascot of the week.
Big Al is just a goofy guy that runs around, in a costume. Some schools
(such as Colorado) keep real, live animals. Big Al has to move around in every sport just like every mascot. But unlike the players, who have to travel for one sport, he has to move around for both basketball, and football.
Alabama has an elephant, but there are two stories of how he came. Both of the stories come from the 1930 season.
One story says that the Alabama football team was borrowing some suitcases from a company. The company's logo was of an elephant standing on a red suitcase. When the team arrived in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl, some people associated the elephant to their logo.
The other story was like the linemen of the Alabama football team were so big, a fan called them "the red elephants". From then on, the Alabama linemen were known as "the red elephants. Then someone wanted an elephant mascot. Whatever the story, Alabama did not accept the elephant as an official mascot until 1979. The name 'Big Al' was a student vote.

Make sure that he doesn't mess with this guy, who he hates!

Rhodium, the element of the week

This is a continuation of element of the week. My mom picked out Rhodium because she never heard of it. Rhodium and Rhenium (75) are easy to confuse. When I first heard of the elements I had a hard time distinguishing the two because they both start with "Rh". Now forget about Rhenium, and think about Rhodium.

Rhodium is a supershiny metal. In fact it is too shiny. It is shinier than platinum (78), gold (79), silver (47), and palladium (46). It is found in South Africa, Russia, and in minute quantities around Sudbury,        Ontario. South Africa is the world's leading producer of rhodium. Rhodium is prone to price swings. As of October 2007 Rhodium was worth eight times as much as gold, and thousands of times as much as copper (wow!). It is now still worth twice as much as gold, which is still precious. Rhodium is used in jewelry because it enhances the luster. Rhodium's melting point is 1966 degrees Celsius and its boiling point is 3727 degrees Celsius. It is a transition metal located around gold and silver, in what I call "the precious metals corridor".
Although it is a precious metal it is sometimes used in the manufacturing of cars, but I don't know exactly how.

Now you know more about one of the most precious metals. And now, inform all the pirates that there is a metal more precious than gold.

Technetium, the element of the week

The last few posts were about elements. I am doing a new thing called "element of the week". I asked my brother to pick out a random element that he had never heard of. I got stuck with technetium. Please do ignore the four of hearts in the corners, I had to scan my periodic table playing cards in order to represent technetium. This darn old playing card just gave away all the facts for you. Its symbol is Tc, its atomic number is 43, It is radioactive, it is- WAIT STOP! there is something unusual here. All elements with atomic numbers over 83 are radioactive. There are only two elements with atomic numbers less than 83 that are radioactive (technetium and promethium). This is odd. Now, back to the facts, it is synthetic, it- STOP AGAIN! Again technetium and promethium (61) are the only synthetic elements until neptunium (93). All the others before 93 are naturally occurring although time to time technetium atoms appear (from the decay of other elements) but break down after about a minute. Technetium's atomic weight is 98.91 and, FYI the atomic weight is the number of protons plus neutrons. You might be thinking "how do you get 0.91 neutrons?". What we do is calculate the average of all the different isotopes of technetium and presto! you end up with the atomic weight. Technetium's melting point (the point when it changes from solid to liquid) is 2,172 degrees Celsius and the boiling point (liquid to gas) is 4,877 degrees Celsius. At the bottom of the card it shows technetium's uses. Medical research and radioactive diagnosis use technetium. Now remember, Tc, and not TCU, the college football team.