Michigan State v. Texas Tech

I get a little flak around here (this is Hayden Fry's old turf) for wearing a green sweatshirt with a big "Michigan State" on it, so thought I'd look up MSU's bowl game: The Valero Alamo Bowl, this Saturday, January 2, 2010, Spartans versing Texas Tech in what may be the highest scoring defensive game since the invention of the number 30. [Update 12/31 Weird. Texas Tech just fired their head coach for insubordination. MSU 75 — TT 6.]

Next Tuesday, Iowa plays in the Toilet Bowl as per usual. This year that's the Fedex Orange Bowl, January 5 in Miami where the Hawks^† are pegged to lose by multiples of 5 against Georgia Tech. Quando omni flunkus moritati.

^†Tiger Hawks?? WTF. Fry's idea of a morale-building pre-season lineup, as you may recall, could best be described as a small sea lion maiming penguins for fun.

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In a curiously related afterthought, did you catch What Darwin Never Knew on PBS last night?

Just when we thought we'd found the orchestra leader (DNA) in the symphony of Evolution, suddenly the podium is empty again! DNA is not the assoluta after all.

Something else is directing "switches" (more like volume control knobs that say when and how much) that turn particular protein-coding stretches of DNA (i.e., genes) on and off.

Yet another gap in the chain of command sort of feeds the "Intelligent Design" monkeys, but at least now they have to accept Darwin and embrace Evolution in order to reach their foregone conclusions — so some actual science gets smuggled into the Kansas Board of Education curriculum! This is not a bad thing.

I love it when TV turns out to be about reality.