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.)