A modest proposal
The conference shuffling in NCAA Div I-A football is heating up again. This has been going on in fits and starts since Arkansas left the (now-defunct) Southwest Conference for the Southeastern Conference a decade ago. A suggestion for the powers-that-be in college football: just do a big ol' realignment and get it over with. Of course, since the NCAA doesn't have a lot of control over what its member institutions do, this is a pipe dream, but it would be nice to see happen.

I propose 10 12-team divisions (there are currently 117 teams in I-A, plus Florida A&M and Alabama St. as provisional members -- I threw in Florida Atlantic to make an even 120). I kept the BCS conferences as they are (or will be in 2005), and added new members geographically. I then distributed the college football have-nots into 4 geographically aligned conferences. Here they are:

ACC: Clemson, Duke, E. Carolina, FSU, Ga. Tech, Maryland, Miami, NC State, UNC, Va. Tech, Virgina, Wake Forest
Big XII: Baylor, Colorado, Iowa St., Kansas, Kansas St., Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech
Big East: Army, Boston College, Buffalo, Cincinnatti, Louisville, Navy, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, UConn, W. Virginia
"Great 12": Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan St., Michigan, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Ohio St., Penn St., Purdue, Wisconsin
Pac-10: Arizona, Arizona St., Cal, Fresno St., Oregon, Oregon St., San Diego St., Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington St., Washington
SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi St., Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
"Deep South": Alabama-Birmingham, Alabama St., Arkansas St., Fla. A&M, Fla. Atlantic, Tulane, Memphis, Middle Tennessee St., Southern Miss, Troy St., Central Fla., Southern Fla.
MAC: Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent St., Marshall, Miami(OH), N. Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
SWC: Air Force, Colorado St., Houston, North Texas, Rice, SMU, TCU, Louisiana Tech, Tulsa, La.-Lafayette, La.-Monroe, UTEP
WAC: Boise St., BYU, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, New Mexico St., San Jose St., UNLV, Utah, Utah St., Wyoming

This would pave the way for a playoff -- all conference winners get in, the four lowest ranked meet in the first round, the top six get byes.
- posted by Doug @ 6:00 PM    11 comments

 
Joy.
One of the recently departed members of NASA's Safety Advisory Board says that a serious accident is "waiting to happen" on ISS due to poor communication and conflicting goals between US & Russian controllers.

Can we just get NASA out of the manned spaceflight biz now (turning it over to private enterprise) and let them do what they do best?
- posted by Doug @ 3:58 PM    Comment

 
Chomp.
Yum, yum.
- posted by Doug @ 3:51 PM    Comment

 
This is cool..
A research group at Philips is experimenting with 'electronic paper', that is, paper on which the ink image can change in response to a digital signal. Cool, you say, but other groups have been looking into that for some years now. What's new and exciting about this?

Here's what - the Philips group's process allows the image to change in milliseconds -- fast enough to be used as videos.

So soon we'll be able to have a moving picture in our home picture frames (digital cameras can already take movies), or newspaper/magazine articles could be accompanied by short animations.

Those with a subscription to Nature can view the original article here.
- posted by Doug @ 11:14 AM    1 comment

 
Our Friends the French
The same jokers that put out a bestselling (in France) book that claimed the US was behind the 9/11 attacks has now published its own deck of playing cards. Rummy is the Ace of Spades, Bush only rates King of Diamonds (Cheney, naturellement, is the Ace), and Osama is the Joker. (But who's the Penguin?)

The full deck, if you're interested, is ici.
- posted by Doug @ 10:56 AM    2 comments

 
Heads are starting to roll
All 9 members of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel handed in their resignations in the wake of the Columbia Accident Invesitgation Board's report.

I fear that NASA's days of meaningful manned space flight are over (some would say they've been over since 1973). In some ways, that's a shame, since NASA had so much coolness factor to me as I was growing up. In other ways, it's probably best if manned spaceflight starts getting developed by private companies from here on out.

...

Apologies for the light blogging of late. I was in a training session at work all day yesterday.
- posted by Doug @ 1:56 PM    Comment

 
Ouch.
Sigh.
- posted by Doug @ 11:37 AM    Comment