It was quite a sports weekend!

On Friday night Jennifer and I attended the MSU game and watched them beat Toldeo. Even to my untrained eye, it seemed like MSU turned in a lackluster effort -- an opinion that was echoed very strongly by Izzo in his postgame radio show.

But, the MSU players must have really taken Izzo's criticisms to heart because they responded Sunday afternoon with a smashing 90-60 win over a decent Valparasio team (a team that had earlier given North Carolina a pretty good fight.) The speed and agility of the MSU players is really breathtaking to watch. I continue to be amazed by Lucas. Every once in a while he simply turns on the jets and makes the defenders (all of whom are running as fast as they can) look like they are simply standing still.

So, those are the sports wins for the weekend. On the debit side:

• The MSU hockey team got swept by Notre Dame.
• Holt's football team got crushed in the Division I semi-finals by Detroit Catholic Central.
• The MSU football team played one good half and then got smacked around in the second half by Penn State.

And finally, Brandon and I lost our tennis match Saturday night 2-6, 3-6. But, it was still great fun to have a chance to play tennis with my son. Thinking back to when we first start playing together when he was just a little mutt, I'm amazed at the improvement in his skill, strength and speed on the court. But as good as he is, he could not fully compensate for my all-too-frequent brain freezes and bone-headed plays.

Still, I'm slowly getting better, I think. Team Rogers has one win and two losses for the season and I'm hopeful that we can pick up another win or two in our final three matches.

Bike at night with a mobile laser lane

The Best Designs of 2009: LightLane - BusinessWeek: "Bike lanes have proven to be an effective method of protecting cyclists on congested roads, yet they can be prohibitively expensive to install. LightLane provides an alternative. Using a laser, a rider projects a crisply defined virtual bike lane onto the pavement, giving drivers a familiar boundary to avoid. With this wider margin of safety, bikers will regain their confidence to ride at night, making the bicycle a more viable commuting alternative."

Comment -- What a cool gadget! But, I personally would never risk riding a bike at night, regardless of how much protective lighting I had.

Hey, even robbers want to get good gas mileage!

2010 Prius used as robbery getaway car by Tennessee football players | PriusChat: "Earlier this week 3 Tennessee football players were arrested in connection to an attempted armed robbery. The details of the attempted robbery don't really matter to Prius enthusiasts, save one: their getaway car was a 2010 Toyota Prius."

Comment -- Just in case you doubted the Prius has enough get-up-and-go to be a getaway car!

Weighty subject for Twitter tweets

What if friends won't follow you on Twitter? Therese Poletti's Tech Tales - MarketWatch: "A privately held French technology company, Withings, has developed a WiFi-enabled bathroom scale, and now it has a new feature -- it will automatically send out a Twitter message with your weight."

Comment -- The author of this article says the Twitter-linked bathroom scale is "appalling." But no one forces you to send messages about your weight, and none of your Twitter followers are forced to read your Tweet.

Want to follow me on Twitter? I'm mwrogers. But my tweets are also linked to my Facebook updates, so you can get my pithy messages there.

Basketball future looks bright for the Green and White

Recruiting: ESPN.com's class rankings could undergo a complete transformation in the coming week - ESPN: "If we had redone our rankings heading into signing week, the top five would remain relatively static. It would likely consist of Ohio State, Syracuse, Michigan State, Memphis and Illinois -- with the Spartans, who recently added big man Adreian Payne (Dayton, Ohio/Jefferson Township), being the only newcomer to the top five. North Carolina's two-man class likely would've dropped down."

Comment -- We're looking forward to Friday's regular season opener at Breslin.

MSU's perch in the top five recruiting classes for 2010 bodes really well for the future success of Spartan hoops. In fact, you could make the case that next year's team (assuming Kalin Lucas returns for his senior year) could be even better than this year's team. Raymar Morgan is the only senior, and we'll be replacing him with a ton of young talent. Go Green!

So smart and yet so tasty

Mirror, mirror, in my pen… - SmartPlanet: "“My, what big ears I have!”

OK, perhaps that wasn’t the first thought of the eight domesticated pigs studied by a team of animal welfare scientists at the University of Cambridge. But they were observant enough to look in the mirror, proud enough to check themselves out and clever enough to track down their food from its reflection.

According to the study, pigs (like others that can use mirrors—elephants, dolphins, gray parrots, some primates and humans) are able to learn what a mirror image represents and use it to obtain information. When put in a pen with a mirror in it, young pigs made movements while apparently looking at their image." (photo by shawnzam http://www.flickr.com/photos/shawnzam/)

Comment -- If pigs are so smart how come they're unable to avoid being turned into tasty pork chops and bacon? Ummmm...bacon...

On Sunday night Brandon and I won our first tennis match

It was tough! We lost the first set 2-6. But Brandon's really smart about tennis and he changed our strategy in the second set. He used his size and speed to attack the net and had me work at simply keeping the ball in play with lobs. After winning the second set 6-3, we fell behind 0-5 in the tiebreaker -- but then we reeled off six straight points, finally winning 10-6. It was really fun!

I continue to be amazed at the brilliant shots that Brandon makes. My main tactic is to keep the ball in play long enough for Brandon to eventually hit a winner.

I was sore after the match last night but I'm feeling pretty good today. Victory helps the healing process.

We play again on Sat. Nov. 21.

Cool ESPN video tour of Izzo's basement

Anti-fur and pro-ornament

At left, an anti-fur animal rights group stages a little propaganda stunt. It was so chilly that I bet those men and women on the cold sidewalk were actually glad to be wearing their furs.

The other picture is a stack of giant Christmas ornaments delivered downtown by Bronner's for the upcoming Silver Bells parade.

More expensive food is making us fatter?

Holding down food costs is making us fat - MarketWatch: "As the unemployment rate inches toward 10% and consumers find themselves increasingly strapped, they are turning to cheap but effective means to fill their families' tummies. And those who do have jobs are working longer hours, forgoing exercise and searching for foods that are not only economical but convenient. As a result, more consumers are turning to processed foods, either already prepared, frozen or canned and typically filled with fat-generating calories, refined grains and sugars. That's making more Americans chubbier and prone to obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes in what has been dubbed "recession fat."

Comment -- Two reasons this report tastes a little off to me. First of all, we just went through about 15 years of prosperity when consumers could presumably easily afford all kinds of healthy food, but average weights still went up. Secondly, for years "cheap" food has been blamed for contributing to obesity. Now, the high cost of food is being blamed for obesity?

Halloween Party photos

Builder Brandon and Jailbreak Jenny.

Pooh Bear and the Bear Hunter.