Most Expensive Whisk(e)y

Hit-n-run: I stumbled across the Most Expensive Journal blog, attempting to chronicle the most expensive items available for purchase. One of the recent posts was about whiskey and whisky (a favorite topic ’round these parts). I’m surprised that the most expensive bourbon whiskey isn’t moreso.

Fair Warning

Well, the semester is over and I’m home for a couple of weeks of respite with my family. That means I finally have time to pick back up the Bunton’s CDs series. So look out—I hope to make a significant dent before January 4. Just don’t expect anything on Christmas or December 31-January 2 (Gator Bowl).

Grand Unified Weekly

Hit-n-run: The brand new Grand Unified Weekly site/blog/podcast. (Is there a difference anymore?) Blogroll’d.

Suspicious Activity in Political Futures Market

As those of us who play with the Hollywood Stock Exchange know, futures markets can be a great way of aggregating information.  Nate Silver over at the awesome blog FiveThirtyEight has reported on an interesting pattern in the value of Barack Obama’s presidency win bond.  Someone is periodically shorting massive quantities of that stock while, at the same time, buying massive quantities of Hillary Clinton’s.  The only way that could pay off is if something eliminated Obama from the race…

They Play Football at Duke?

A couple of quick-shots as you watch your favorite baseball team fall further and further from contention. (So this is what it feels like, Joe?)

• Today’s post at the Duke Chronicle’s sports blog asks the age old sabermetric question: should you go for it on fourth down?

• The pre-season coaches’ poll is out, and for the first time, Steve Spurrier did not vote for Duke. Allegedly, it’s because he was asked not to do so in order to protect the almighty integrity of the poll. I’ll pause and wait for you to stop laughing.
• The Cutcliffe era started yesterday.

Blog on the Run

It’s a brave new world. In the latest update to the iPhone, the ability was given to third parties to develop their own applications for the device. There are several killer apps, like I mentioned in the comments of the Pandora blog entry. Now: writing WordPress posts mobily. Hi from SC state road 8, aka Easley Highway!

Why to root for…

The Grand National Championships has a reason to root for every one of the 119 Division 1-A football teams. Thanks to Deadspin for the heads-up.

Dr. Delegate

I’ve told most of you about my friend and colleague Paul Richardson, who was elected as a delegate from South Carolina to the Democratic National Convention this year. His blog is now live, so we can follow his journey to Denver.

Final Jeopardy!

Finally, a practical use for blogs: every night’s Final Jeopardy!.

(Thanks to Marilyn for the heads-up.)

Football in April

The blog has been quiet lately… too quiet.

It’s understandable. There are exams to be graded, weddings to be planned, and research papers to be written. I just realized I have seven different papers in various stages of completion (six of them are thankfully nearly done). I’ve been pretty stressed and the EPA is about the nicest, lowest stress research environment I can imagine. All the same, it’s time for distraction. Thus, I present the April football round-up:

First off, offensive lineman Justin Boren — whose right to do as he saw fit I defended not long ago — has indeed decided to transfer from Michigan to “the” Ohio State to play with his brother. I wish him well, but if he’s playing offensive line for this year’s match-up, I think we may see the OSU quarterback sacked a dozen times. A cocaine-fueled Jeff Smoker (who to his great credit has recovered) took that many sacks and still won the second-most-recent “Greatest Michigan-Michigan state game ever”