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).