Norwell Advances to Golf Regionals

Imel cousins, Drew and Taylor, led the Knights who finished six strokes back of Huntington with 310.  The top two teams advance to the regional next Friday at The Players Club in Muncie

The Democrat Hop

So I see Senator Obama has resigned from the Trinity United Church of Christ after the latest round of hate speach came out of there., by a Catholic Priest, no less.  And the DNC has decided that instead of giving the Senators both zero delegates, they'll assign a certain number to give each of them based on a closed-room deal. Obama picked up a total of 32 delegates in Michigan (not bad since his name wasn't even on the ballot), including superdelegates who have already committed, and 36 in Florida. Clinton picked up 38 in Michigan, including superdelegates, and 56.5 in Florida.Obama's total increased to 2,052, and Clinton's to1,877.5.

Nivicolous Hominis

Since polar bears have been officially recognized as endangered, our attention turns to the next species perilously close to extinction -  nivicolous hominis, known by children the world over as the common Snowman.

Last Hoosier Knocked out of Spelling Bee

Vaibhav Vavilala (a 7th grader from Carmel, IN) was the last hoosier in the National Spelling Bee this year. He lost on 'Serdab' in the sixth round. A 'Serdab' is a living room in the basement. It's from the Egyptian and was originally a hidden chamber in a tomb.

Did we used to have to know words from other languages?

Update: Well, my information was wrong... Vavilala was not the last Hoosier in the spelling bee... a Hoosier won!

With the sister coaching him, Sameer augmented his spelling talent with a sense of humor that often kept the Grand Hyatt Ballroom audience laughing. The 13-year-old from West Lafayette, Ind., was finally all business when he aced "guerdon" — an appropriate word, given that it means "something that one has earned or gained" — to win the 81st bee Friday night.

"I'm not used to people laughing at my jokes — except for my sister," Sameer said.

Norwell meets Bellmont in Sectional

Knights, Braves in Peru baseball sectional final

The Knights finished off the Maconaquah Braves 11-1 in six innings Thursday in the second semifinal game of sectional 22, while Bellmont ousted the Peru Tigers 8-4 in the first game.

Norwell (19-11) will be going for its 12th sectional championship, while the Braves (18-10) will be looking for its 17th title.

Game time is 7 p.m. tonight at Peru.

Earnings to Date

As you can see (click on the image above if it's too small), this site has earned nearly $60 since opening in August of 2007. The money comes from folks viewing this site and the occasional click on the ads on the right hand column. Google pays out the month after the total reaches $100 and the money will go toward the Norwell Class of 1977 coffers. Click away, perhaps we can reach $100 by the 1 year point.

Indy out pollutes LA?

If you believe Indianapolis and Louisville are polluting the atmosphere more than Los Angels, New York City and Chicago then you're so deep into the Global Warming hysteria that you can't think straight.  What's being measured in the article is our availability of public transportation and the type of power plants being used -- not how much pollution we generate.  And as far as that goes, so what if Indy dumps CO2 into the atmosphere, it's surrounded by fields and open spaces that suck up Carbon Dioxide like there's no tomorrow.

Well, if you believe the study, you may also believe there's no tomorrow...

Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling 2008

Tulip Tree Blossom

Windfall Profit Taxes Who? You.

John Stossel on who loses if Senators Clinton or Obama are actually allowed to follow through on their threats to wipe out Oil Company profits.

Taxing "windfalls" is politically rewarding, but in the final analysis, only people pay taxes. When a corporation is taxed, the burden falls on workers (through smaller raises), consumers (through higher prices) and shareholders (through lower stock prices).

Do Clinton and Obama really want to tax these innocent people just to spite oil executives for high profits?

Freeman Dyson weighs in

Freeman Dyson is something of a growing rarity:  a practical scientist. I always enjoy reading him, he examines a problem and uses his knowledge to develop a solution that seldom has anything to do with politics or gamesmanship or funding.  He's a theoretical physicist and mathematician and that's how he thinks.  He believes that global warming is the result of Man burning fossil fuels, but doesn't believe the models predicting global disaster.  He is a huge proponent of genetic engineering and believes it won't be long until Man engineers trees that will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into fuel, or something else useful.  Here, he reviews some recent Global Warming books.  I especially found this section interesting:

All the books that I have seen about the science and economics of global warming, including the two books under review, miss the main point. The main point is religious rather than scientific. There is a worldwide secular religion which we may call environmentalism, holding that we are stewards of the earth, that despoiling the planet with waste products of our luxurious living is a sin, and that the path of righteousness is to live as frugally as possible. The ethics of environmentalism are being taught to children in kindergartens, schools, and colleges all over the world.

Environmentalism has replaced socialism as the leading secular religion. And the ethics of environmentalism are fundamentally sound. Scientists and economists can agree with Buddhist monks and Christian activists that ruthless destruction of natural habitats is evil and careful preservation of birds and butterflies is good. The worldwide community of environmentalists—most of whom are not scientists—holds the moral high ground, and is guiding human societies toward a hopeful future. Environmentalism, as a religion of hope and respect for nature, is here to stay. This is a religion that we can all share, whether or not we believe that global warming is harmful.

Unfortunately, some members of the environmental movement have also adopted as an article of faith the be-lief that global warming is the greatest threat to the ecology of our planet. That is one reason why the arguments about global warming have become bitter and passionate. Much of the public has come to believe that anyone who is skeptical about the dangers of global warming is an enemy of the environment. The skeptics now have the difficult task of convincing the public that the opposite is true. Many of the skeptics are passionate environmentalists. They are horrified to see the obsession with global warming distracting public attention from what they see as more serious and more immediate dangers to the planet, including problems of nuclear weaponry, environmental degradation, and social injustice. Whether they turn out to be right or wrong, their arguments on these issues deserve to be heard.

Beaten by Brisco

You just don't come out of your pit box and swing three lanes out. That why there's a 'get up to speed' lane and an 'at speed' lane. I was at speed."

Italy moves to Nuclear Power

Nuclear power had been banned in Italy by public referendum for more than twenty years, but has decided to go nuclear now.

The continent turned its back on nuclear power in the 1980s in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, but political and economic conditions are markedly different now. Oil was under $50 a barrel then, global warming was a fringe science and climate change had not been linked to manmade emissions.

Although economic considerations and global warming are driving the debate, energy security is also an issue never far from the surface. Few European countries have their own energy reserves and are completely reliant on imports. As well as escalating prices for oil and gas, plus the political upheaval in the Middle East, Europe watched in horror in 2006 as Russia's President Vladimir Putin cut off the natural gas supply to Ukraine in a price dispute, leaving it in darkness.

Although Europe is committed to harnessing wind and solar energy, so far the problems to doing so have proved insurmountable. Solar power is problematic in northern Europe, while dense populations in many parts of the continent make it difficult to find suitable sites for wind farms.

Even biofuel, once touted as a possible panacea, has gone out of fashion as its unsustainable impact on the environment and food prices has become apparent.

America needs to get on board, as well.

Alaska Governor Sues

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced last week that her state will sue to block Washington from listing Polar Bears as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.  The current Alaskan polar bear population is near an all time high.

Sports Roundup 5-23-2008

The Banner rounds it up including this:

Coastal Carolina freshman third baseman Scott Woodward, a 2007 Norwell graduate, was named to the first team of the 2008 Big South Conference baseball team. Woodward also was Freshman of the Year.  Woodward ranked first in the Big South in the regular season with 35 stolen bases, 42 walks, a .513 on-base percentage...

And also this:  Norwell defeats Bluffton:

Drew Imel and McCormick Clouser tied for medalist honors Thursday to lead the Norwell Knights golf team to a 154-182 victory over the Bluffton Tigers at Timber Ridge golf course.  Norwell ended up with a team score of 154, while the Tigers shot a 182. Imel and Clouser each shot a 37, followed by Taylor Imel with a 39. Ross Mathews shot a 41 to round out the team score, while Zach
Johnloz finished with a 44.

Norwell defeats South Adams

Norwell moved to 17-10 on the baseball season by defeating South Adams 11-1 on Monday.  They've really got their offense rolling.

Indianapolis, SuperBowl 2012

Indy has won their bid to host the SuperBowl in 2012.

According to the ancient Mayans, the world comes to an end on 12/21/2012 at 11:11 p.m. Universal Time.  So we're coming in right under the wire.

This is getting out of hand

Remember reading all those inspirational stories of people with physical challenges overcoming their hardships to triumph?  Remember TV shows about blind people learning to cope in a sighted world, how they handle pouring drinks, counting money, curbs, stairs, etc.  In America we're saying goodbye to all those stories.  The modern way is to sit back and take your physical challenge to court.  Money discriminates against the blind. 

"I don't think we should have to rely on people to tell us what our money is," said Mitch Pomerantz, the council's president.

The U.S. acknowledges the design hinders blind people but it argued that blind people have adapted. Some relied on store clerks to help them, some used credit cards and others folded certain corners to help distinguish between bills.

The court ruled 2-1 that such adaptations were insufficient. The government might as well argue that, since handicapped people can crawl on all fours or ask for help from strangers, there's no need to make buildings wheelchair accessible, the court said.

It can't be too much further off when we'll reach the point when everyone agrees that the government cannot assign someone to carry you from your couch to your bed, no matter what your issues happen to be.

I wrote about this before when Target was taken to court because their websites discriminate against the blind.  People are not all the same, tall people have an advantage in basketball over short people, sighted people have many advantages over blind people in many areas... it should not be up to Washington to remove colors from the world because some can't see them.

Norwell skunks South Side

Caleb McAfee combined with Noah Patten for a 12-0 shutout over Fort Wayne South Side last Thursday. The Knights move to 16-10 on the season.

Norwell 2nd in NHC Golf

Homestead barely squeaked by Norwell to capture the NHC golf tournament crown on Saturday at Bridgewater West.

The Spartans got a 2-under 70 from junior Grant Sawyers to edge the Knights, who were paced by a 73 from Drew Imel and a 77 from McCormic Clouser.

DeKalb's Nick Kelley was third individually with a 75, while Carroll's Brock White had a 77. The top-five finishers made the all-NHC first team.

Dutch Cartoonist

A Dutch Political Cartoonist in Amsterdam was arrested for insulting people.  He was released the next day, but really, is this direction we want to go?  And is everyone going to be held to the same standards?

Here's some of his cartoons.

Pistorius Allowed

I wrote about Oscar Pistorius before, here.  He's the double amputee who's trying to make the South African Olympic team in the 400 meter dash.  Originally, a ruling as made that would not allow him in the Olympics because his high tech, Cheetah Flex-Foot legs might just give him an advantage over real, flesh and blood legs.  Well, that ruling has been overturned.  He still has to lower his best time of 46.56 down to 45.55 in order to qualify. 

I thought, and continue to think, that the original ruling was correct.  Taking nothing away from Mr. Pistorius' inspirational story, would he be allowed on the Olympic Swim Team if he swapped his spring legs out for flippers and started breaking world records?  Tell me, if you can't take a pill to improve your performance, what sense does it make to allow modifying your body parts to improve your performance?

Biking Frustration

The fellow in white, on the left, snaps his bike chain... and gets a little angry with his bike.

Prayers for Landon Bailey

Another tragedy struck the Wells County area Tuesday when 6-year old Landon Bailey died in an ATV accident.  Prayers for his family, for the Markle and Ossian Communities and for all the Northern Wells County area.

Norwell out golfs Bellmont

Freshman Taylor Imel outshot his cousin, Drew Imel, to lead the Knights over the Braves.

Knights move to 15-10

The Norwell baseball team crushed Columbia City 19-0 to move to 15-10 on the season.

Lady Knights Advance

The Norwell Girls Track Team took second place to Ft. Wayne Wayne's first at the Sectional Track Meet at Bluffton.

Norwell was led by senior Katy Moore, who won the 800 meter run and was second in the high jump. She also ran the anchor leg of the 4x800 meter relay with Mallory Bushee, Kayla Sweet and Caitlyn McGrew.

Moore's busy night ended up with an anchor leg on the 4x400 meter relay team which placed fifth. However, only the first four places advance to regional.

Along with Moore, the Knights will be represented by Sweet in the 3200 meter run, Emily Gresley and Paige Fremion in the pole vault, Rebekah Witzig in the 400 meter dash.

Mallory Bushee is daughter of Sevens member Jeff Bushee and Emily Gresley is daughter of Sevens member Jeff Gresley.

Congratulations!

Girls wins Team State Track Title

Bonnie Richardson was the only member of her track team to make it to the state meet in Texas.  She brought home the 1A Title by scoring 42 points.

Richardson's title march began with field events on Friday when she won the high jump (5 feet, 5 inches), placed second in the long jump (18-7) and was third in the discus (121-0).

On Saturday, she won the 200 meters in 25.03 seconds and nearly pulled off a huge upset in the 100 before finishing second (12.19) to defending champion Kendra Coleman of Santa Anna. Richardson, a junior, earned a total of 42 team points to edge team runner-up Chilton (36).

That's one State Meet to remember!

Parker may Pitch in Ft. Wayne

Jarrod Parker will be pitching against the Wizards in a double header at Memorial Stadium in Ft. Wayne on Friday, May 16th.  The game starts at 5pm.

Assault... with Milk?

Must every offensive act be cause for court and prison?

World Wide Telescope

Interested in Space?  Go to World Wide Telescope and download the free application to explore the universe.

Komets bring home Turner Cup

The Komets scored in the third OT of the 7th game of the Turner Cup Championship Finals against Port Huron to win 3-2 and bring the Turner Cup home to Ft. Wayne. The Coliseum was sold out.

Norwell defeats Bluffton... Twice

An excellent headline, that: "Norwell defeats Bluffton... Twice!" I really enjoyed typing it out. The Knights move to 13-10 on the season and the Tigers fell to 6-12-1 (what's with the "1," there's no tying in baseball!).

The first game was a seven-inning pitcher's duel between Norwell's Caleb McAfee and Bluffton's Jarred Carpenter.

McAfee came out on top with the shutout, holding the Tigers to two hits. He struck out eight batters, walked two and hit one. McAfee threw about 50 pitches through three innings, but he settled down over the next four.

"I thought he got stronger as the game went on and mixed the pitches well," said [Coach] Weybright.

Well done!

Scott Dixon at the Poll

New Zealand's Scott Dixon claimed the pole for this year's Indy 500 with a four lap average speed of 226.366 mph.  The fastest four lap average ever was in 1996 when Arie Luyendyk made the trip in an average 236.986 mph.  The 200 mph barrier was broken in 1981 and the track appears to be maxed out at it's current speed limit without changes in banking.

Obama and Clinton battle on

Senators Obama and Clinton remain locked in battle long after the race has been decided.

Sports Roundup for 5-10

The Bluffton News-Banner rounds up area sports action, including

The Norwell Knights defeated Columbia City Friday afternoon in high school boys varsity golf action at the Eagle Glen course in Columbia City 151-167.

McCormick Clouser posted an impressive 32 on the front nine to take medalist honors, while Drew Imel posted a one-over-par 37. Other scores for the Knights were Brandon Bennett 40, Ross Mathews 42 and Taylor Imel 42

Recently, a couple of Middle Schoolers I know in Ft. Wayne won events in the Ft. Wayne Middle School City Track and Field Tournament.  Is there anything about that in the Fort Wayne Newspapers?  Is there anything, anywhere online?  No.  The Bluffton News-Banner does a wonderful job of covering Wells County Area events.  Keep them in business by subscribing, who knows, perhaps if the Banner makes money some paper in Ft. Wayne will take notice and start covering local events.

Playing the Slots

Time to end Subsidies

Food Emergency, well that's what the New York Times says, anyway.  With Washington subsidizing ethanol, corn prices have risen 25% in the last year and wheat and soybean prices have doubled.  Ethanol plants are dotting our landscape here in the Midwest, but the tide of public and scientific opinion seems to be turning against burning food for fuel.

Primary Day at last

I don't know about you, but we have been swamped not only with commercials on radio and TV, but with mail, phone calls and even doorknob hangers asking us to vote for Senator Barack Obama.  Clinton?  Not so much... not any mailers, not any phone calls, not even any streetwalkers (Bill Clinton pun intended).  Republicans?  Nothing at all.  So who should get our vote today?  Operation Chaos is nudging Righties to cross over and vote for Senator Clinton -- just so the Democrats will continue spending their money defeating each other.  That, of course, would be against the law unless your intent is to vote Democratic in November.  (When did Indiana start criminalizing intent?) 

On the Republican side, Ron Paul remains in the race with his radical revisioning of America, despite John McCain already having enough delegates to win the nomination.  This is more like what Hoosiers are used to in the primaries -- come out and vote for the winner... or not, whatever.

Exciting Choices!  At least that's what the TV tells me.

Klayton Reed

A very nice article about Klayton Reed of the Norwell Track Team

In the previous three years, all Norwell senior Klayton Reed has done at the NHC track meets is win three straight 3,200-meter relay and two straight 800 races. He is hoping to keep both those streaks alive tonight at New Haven at this year's meet.

Still unbeaten in those races, Reed will be the prohibitive favorite in the 800, and the Knights are the team to beat in the 3,200 relay.

Go get 'em!

Mayor Ellis Said What?

Obama faces race issue in fight for small Indiana towns

Ted Ellis, mayor of Bluffton about an hour away [from Martinsville], is endorsing Obama because he thinks his approach is "more calm and reasoned."

But race is an issue in his town, he says.

"I think a lot of undecided voters aren't really undecided. They're just not saying. Who will tell you that race is a deciding factor?"

Bluffton, like dozens of other Indiana towns, once warned blacks to be indoors by nightfall or gone from town altogether after spending the day working as porters and waiters.

"A lot of those mindsets die hard," says Ellis, who had welcoming signs promoting an "inclusive community" posted at the town limits.

"You don't turn this ship on a dime. You just try and make sure you're not making any more mistakes."

Well, well, "Race is an issue" in Bluffton where the mindset that Blacks need to be indoors by nightfall is dying hard and voters aren't "undecided" they're racist. Thanks so much for putting a good face on Wells County, Mayor.

Sports Roundup for 5-2-08

The Banner rounds it up, including a fine golf outing

Drew Imel and McCormick Clouser were sizzling on the warm spring day at Timber Ridge golf course, leading the Norwell Knights to a double victory over Adams Central and Southern Wells.

Imel and Clouser each shot a two under par 34, while Ross Mathews added a 38 and Tayler Imel a 39 to give the Knights a team blazing low round of 145. Adams Central was next with 184 and Southern Wells finished with 191.

Norwell beats East Noble

Norwell 10, East Noble 2, Norwell moves to 11-6 on the season.  They are 3-1 in the NHC.

Peacock Feathers

This picture was taken at the Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo.  Did you know peacocks have no pigment in their feathers?  The beautiful shiny eye images are created by tiny, colorless micro hairs in a lattice design.  These peacock feather hairs are hundreds of times smaller than human hair and are so small they reflect different wavelengths of light in different directions to create the eye pattern.

If we were to encounter marvelous patterns made out of colored stones as we walked beside the edge of a river, and if we also saw that there were eye-like designs arranged like a fan, then we would think that these had been laid out in a conscious manner, and not that they had appeared by chance. It would be evident that these patterns, reflecting an artistic perspective and addressing human aesthetic tastes, had been made by an artist. The same thing applies to peacock feathers. In the same way that pictures and designs reveal the existence of the artists who produced them, the patterns in the peacock feather reveal the existence of the Creator Who made them.

 And that long held belief that the peacock's plume evolved to attract the peahen?  It turns out to be false.  So what purpose have they but beauty?

Penguins - BBC

Gotta love this video...

Global Stasis

As I've probably mentioned before, try as you might, you cannot find any significant plateaus or reversals in the global warming computer model (above) that's being used to scare the world. The problem with the graph is that there hasn't been any warming since 1998 -- and now, those whose paychecks come from global warming worries are saying we may not see any warming for the next 10 years or so because of ocean currents. So much has been invested in proposed global warming that when it doesn't occur, when it isn't even projected to occur, the warmers tell you, "Oh, it's coming, it's coming -- it may not be here now, it may not be here in 10 or 12 years, the world may not warm up for a 20 year span -- but our models are still relevant. Ignore the missing solar cycle, ignore the variability of ocean currents, ignore the actual temperature and look, look at how hot our computer says it's going to get in 2100!"

So, look at the graph again and find the year 1998, the year global warming peaked. There has been no warming since then and scientists are backing off of predictions of warming for the next ten years (at least until 2018). Raise your hand if you see a falling or flat line between 1998 and 2018 on the graph. If this doesn't convince you that the model is corrupted, that you're being sold a bill of goods, then nothing will.

And while we're at it, please remember that due to a Y2K data computation flaw, 1934, not 1998, was the hottest year of the last century... and where is that peak shown on the model? Why does the model show 1934 as half a degree lower than 1998 when it wasn't?

A Funny Dance from BGT

This isn't just a Michael Jackson Clone-Dance, so don't click off too soon. Too bad Britain's Got Talent isn't broadcast in America (that I can find, anyway).