Could this be the year Spartans snag another national title?

Forde Minutes: 40 names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college hoops - ESPN: "Michigan State (5). Why the Spartans can win it: Seven players in the rotation were key parts of their 2009 run to the national championship game, and guard Kalin Lucas apparently has gotten the leadership message his coach sent a while back. Izzo is as good a coach as there is in the country, and you know his teams will rebound and defend until the last dog dies. Their 7-0 Big Ten start shows that Sparty is locking in right on time.

Why they might not: Michigan State doesn't have anyone taller than 6-foot-8 in the regular rotation, which could eventually create a problem despite the surplus of biceps in Izzo's lineup. The Spartans also could find themselves a step slower than some elite competition.

Record against RPI top 50: 2-1.

Record against RPI top 100: 7-3."

Comment -- Forde notes that every top team has its faults. MSU has fewer than most.

The great thing for us Spartan fans is that MSU could be even stronger next year! I think Lucas is coming back and we have a terrific, top-five-in-nation recruiting class arriving. On the other hand, Morgan graduates and that's a big loss.

Some small towns require a big income to live there

The 50 Most Expensive Small Towns in America 2010: No. 4: Los Altos Hills, Calif. - BusinessWeek: "Located between San Francisco and San Jose and just five miles south of Stanford University, Los Altos Hills is home to many executives in Silicon Valley. It has 65 miles of off-road paths and trails—or pathways, as locals call them—that allow residents to enjoy the outdoors."

Comment -- Many of the 50 Most Expensive Small Towns are located in the Bay area where Vanessa and Rory live. But most of the towns on the list are in the New York City region.

It would be interesting to see a list of the Least Expensive Small Towns.

Not enough money being spent to find killer asteroids

SkyandTelescope.com - News Blog - New Report Spotlights Impact Hazards: "In 1998 Congress felt worried enough about the sky falling that it tasked NASA with finding 90% of all the near-Earth asteroids at least 1 km across within 10 years. (Anything this size would likely trigger global devastation during and after its collision.) Then Congress raised the bar in 2005, mandating that NASA find 90% of all the threatening asteroids with diameters down to 140 meters (460 feet) by 2020."

Comment -- This article says Congress has not appropriated enough money for NASA to find most of the asteroids that are big enough to really smack us.

The good news is that there actually are some plans in place to move a threatening asteroid away from a collision. But the easiest method (using a spacecraft to push the asteroid out of the way) requires decades of lead time. Which makes it all the more important that we find these rocks soon! Keep looking up...

Nothing cures an ouchie quicker than a strip of bacon

Bacon Bandages - Archie McPhee & Co.: "Ouch! That smarts! Treat your minor cuts, scrapes and scratches with the incredible healing power of meat. And if a fancy bandage isn't enough to dry up your tears, how about a FREE PRIZE! Each comes in a 3-3/4' tall metal pocket tin and contains a small trinket to help make even the ouchiest owies feel all better in no time. The 3' x 1' Bacon Strips are cut to look like small slabs of bacon. Fifteen per tin."

Comment -- Click over to the Web site to see other products like a bacon wallet, bacon watch, bacon dome lunchbox and my personal favorite: a bacon belt!

Pretty darn cool astronomy video

Astronomy Picture of the Day: "Explanation: What would it look like to travel across the known universe? To help humanity visualize this, the American Museum of Natural History has produced a modern movie featuring many visual highlights of such a trip. The video starts in Earth's Himalayan Mountains and then dramatically zooms out, showing the orbits of Earth's satellites, the Sun, the Solar System, the extent of humanities first radio signals, the Milky Way Galaxy, galaxies nearby, distant galaxies, and quasars."

Comment -- An alternate way to view this video is to click through to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U&feature=player_embedded

It's a slick production. What really struck me is the depiction of the very short distance (in relation to the rest of the galaxy) that our radio waves have traveled over the past 100 years or so. It's no wonder no one knows we're here! Although, maybe that's just as well. It's a dangerous galaxy out there.

San Francisco surfing

This is a picture of unusual water conditions under the Golden Gate Bridge. It's not typically a spot for surfers, but this week's storms have raised some high waves.

Weather Underground notes that Palo Alto, where Vanessa and Rory live, got less than an inch of rain from this latest storm. But other parts of the region got more than 3 inches.

FoxNews said today that higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains (quite a bit east of Palo Alto) will get 10 feet of snow. Yes, that's 120 inches! How would you like to have to shovel that out of your driveway?

Evil scammers who want your Haiti relief money

Make sure you donate to Haiti relief, not scammers - MarketWatch: "As Americans open their hearts and their pocketbooks to help those devastated by the earthquake this week in Haiti the federal government is warning that scammers are anxious to take advantage of that generosity.

Millions of dollars are pouring in to help those who have been left hurt and homeless after the quake toppled buildings and battered the landscape of the capital of Port-au-Prince Tuesday, killing thousands and affecting upwards of 3 million."

Comment -- The article says that reputable outfits are the American Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, www.crs.org, Doctors Without Borders, www.doctorswithoutborders.org, Mercy Ships, www.mercyships.org, and Partners in Health, www.pih.org.

Be careful you don't get mixed up and give money for disaster relief in Tahiti instead of Haiti (yuk yuk.)

Stop Motion Mario 3

Click on the link below to watch:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1927655

300 frames, 36 hours of work using nothing but paper, colored pencils, glue and cardboard. Pretty fun to watch. And the soundtrack is really cute.

Watching TV and movies on the Wii

Netflix Streaming Coming To The Wii This Spring: "Netflix announced this morning that it will bring streaming to the Wii starting this Spring.

This is a big win for Netflix. It gains access to a new customer base -- 26 million Wii owners. Its current subscriber base is 11 million, so this a chance to grab some new customers.

To get the movies streamed through the Wii, Netflix customers will have to order a free DVD
which will play in the console."

Comment -- I'm excited about this (sort of.) It's cool because we are already Netflix subscribers, and because we own a Wii that's connected wirelessly to our broadband link.

On the other hand, the amount of video that's available from Netflix for streaming is pretty limited. And, it remains to be seen how good the quality will be for the streamed programs.

Still, it's a free ad-on for our Netflix subscription. I'm willing to give it a try this Spring!

Over the holidays we toured the Humane Society of Huron Valley's new facility. I thought this restroom sign was pretty clever.

Interesting commentary on why Avatar is an offensive movie

Op-Ed Columnist - The Messiah Complex - NYTimes.com: "It rests on the stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic. It rests on the assumption that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades. It rests on the assumption that illiteracy is the path to grace. It also creates a sort of two-edged cultural imperialism. Natives can either have their history shaped by cruel imperialists or benevolent ones, but either way, they are going to be supporting actors in our journey to self-admiration."

Comment -- It's a terrific adventure movie, but I have to say that I agree with Brooks that it was uncomfortable being "entertained" by watching U.S. Marines being killed. I know, in the movie they were called mercenaries, but Cameron clearly intended everyone to recognize that these are evil American soldiers finally getting their comeuppance.

The plot is trite and cliched, but I guess if it were novel and unique, it might be overwhelming for the audience to comprehend at the same time it's trying to absorb the astonishing special effects.

It's good to have a Prius

Pump prices on pace to top 2009 high by weekend | Comcast.net: "The cost of filling up the car is rising in the wake of soaring crude and by this weekend, pump prices will race past the highs for all of 2009. Tracing the ascension of crude, up 14 percent since mid-December, energy prices across the board are catching up. On Tuesday, benchmark crude prices closed higher than they had on any day last year."

Comment -- It's hard to believe that gasoline sold for about $1.75 a year ago in Lansing.

I heard an interesting podcast this week that talked about oil prices. The economist being interviewed said that we forget how much oil prices have risen in the past decade. He said it was largely driven by demand from China and India.

Unless there are some big changes in Congress this fall, I expect the Obama administration to use taxes and regulations to push gasoline prices even higher.

Lake effect snow on Lake Michigan

I took this photo Saturday at Mary's house on Lake Michigan, north of St. Joseph. By Sunday afternoon, they had an honest two feet of fluffy snow.

I'm not anxious to get that much snow in Lansing, but a few inches for cross country skiing would be nice.