Skinner Forced to Leave BC

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Yesterday, Al Skinner got fired from Boston College after serving BC for 13 years as the head coach of the Boston College men's basketball team. In the earlier days, Boston College has had success under Skinner, but since 2006 the team has truly faced a drought. The BC basketball team was unable to make even the NIT in two of the last three years. In 2009 the team led by Tyrese Rice had to settle for a 7th seed losing in the first round in the March Madness tournament. The overwheliming opinion from Boston College students is that it is time for Al Skinner to leave, hopefully he finds success wherever he ends up.

I have been to every Boston College home game this year that did not conflict with either Spring Break or Christmas break and here is what I can say about Al Skinner's positives and negatives:

+'s
*Good Player-Coach relations
*Experience as a college player and played with the great Dr. J
*Plethora of head coaching experience with almost a decade of head coaching experience at Rhode Island.
*Took BC to the Sweet Sixteen the NCAA tournament in 2006 losing a close game to top-seeded Villanova

-'s
*Poor Recruiting, rarely getting highly ranked players by scouts
*No recruits for 2009-2010 incoming class.
*Too traditional: Al Skinner sticks to the "game plan." Al Skinner does not try out anything new using only the original playbook. He tends to stick with the same starters and gives them the same minutes despite player performance. He tends to only make adjustments well into the future. Pays no attention to players who are "hot" in a game still benching them when time would traditionally be up in their average game.
*Poor media relations. He is known by the school newspaper as the toughest athletic coach to approach making interviews few and hard to conduct.
*Lack of excitement at games fuels student apathy

The Disadvantage of Bleach

Today I did a laundry load of whites. As a result, I wanted to use some bleach along with regular detergent. On the way to the laundry room the container of bleach rubbed on my sweatshirt and it looks like a bit of bleach seeped through somehow. It's unfortunate how problematic bleach can be at times even when you avoid spilling it. It's kind of hard to see through the picture so I circled the discoloration in the black hoodie caused by the bleach.

Boston College wins Hockey East

Yesterday, 4th-ranked Boston College squared off against Maine in the Hockey East Championship game at TD Bank arena. This game was extremely high scoring with over 30 shots on goal by both teams. The end score was 7-6 with Boston College winning in sudden-death overtime. Now the Boston College hockey team advances to regionals as the top-seed at Worcester.

A Lot of Celebration for a Wednesday Night

So today is Saint Patrick's Day and like the last three Saint Patrick's Days I am in Boston for this one, the American city where Saint Patrick's Day was essentially founded. Boston is home of the longest-standing St. Patty's Day parade. Despite Saint Patrick's Day having such a strong influence on the city of Boston, I have to say something that I realize is quite a risk...the holiday seems a bit overrated. March 17 fell on a Wednesday this year and from the looks of it, it seems clear that Saint Patrick's Day even in Boston has become more of an excuse to drink on a Wednesday without getting judge as opposed to commemorating the patron saint of Ireland. I know others celebrate Saint Patrick's Day for other reasons which is excellent, but despite being in Boston I cannot find anything so "marvelous" about keeping the spirit of Saint Patrick's Day. Nevertheless, after walking around and feeling out of place, I made sure I switched from a maroon to a green shirt...so please do not think I am a grinch. Heck, why not, have a happy Saint Patrick's Day! But most importantly, make safe decisions and keep in mind it is a Wednesday and some people have to get up early the next day for work.

Even those 100 Dollar Textbooks Can Make Big Mistakes

The beginning of a college semester can tend to be quite excruciating when it comes to buy textbooks only realize that you've paid about 1000 dollars just buying reading material that will only get used for a few months. One of my books of this semester is on game theory titled, Games of Strategy third edition, which I believe I paid around 100 dollars for in January. The worst part about it is while this book has supposedly been edited it has left some pretty sizable errors that I or even someone not familiar with the subject matter are able to catch.

Chapter 17 is on Bidding Strategy and Auction Design. Page 660 talks about the types of auctions and reads:
"Other, less common, configurations also can be used to sell goods at auction. For example, you could set up an auction in which the highest bidder wins but the top two bidders pay their bids, or one in which the high bidder wins but all bidders pay their bids, a procedure discussed in Section 5. Although we do not attempt to consider all possible combinations in this chapter, we do analyze several of the most common auction schemes by using examples that bring out important strategic concepts."

Page 661 regarding Auction environments reads:
"Other, less common, configuarations also can be used to sell goods at auction. For example, you could set up an auction in which the highest bidder wins but the top two bidders pay their bids, or one in which the high bidder wins but all bidders pay their bids, a procedure discussed in Section 5. We do not attempt to consider all possible combinations here. Rather, we analyze several of the most common auction schemes by using examples that bring out important strategic concepts."

Being so close together, you would assume the editors would catch nearly identical paragraphs, but even they were unable to do what I did on my first reading of the chapter. Another less grievous error is that on page 722 the header states: "[CH. 17] BARGAINING" when it should state "[CH. 18] BARGAINING" because this page is on Chapter 18 and not 17 (in fact this page is closer to Chapter 19 than 18)

Now the book is selling for substantially less than I bought it for which makes me think a new edition is underway. With the make of a new edition the publishers and authors will end up getting a lot more money by preventing causing people to trash their old editions and causing resale...in other words benefiting for their own mistake. This is not so much a knack on this book; however, it is more of a criticism of the publishing industry in general that has a disincentive to produce good editions in the first place.

Kind Acts

There are a lot of rotten people in the world, but I would like to believe that there are a great deal more of good ones. Yesterday, when I was at the airport, I took the forward escalator to get to my gate. There were a few people in front of me and one way up ahead dropped his boarding pass. I did not even see the ticket drop but the woman right in front of me picked it up and successfully tracked the guy down to deliver him his boarding pass. Of course the easier thing to do would have been to just leave the boarding pass, but sometimes a small inconvenience for one can mean a lot for someone else…so much that it had inspired me to write about it!

Dansby and Rolle to Go

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It's tough times for the Arizona Cardinals as the team was unable to resign linebacker Karlos Dansby and safety Antrel Rolle. Dansby signed a contract to play for the Miami Dolphins after the dolphins released two other linebackers. Rolle agreed to a contract with the New York Giants. Both these players were two explosive defensive players for the Cardinals - a team who can not afford to get any weaker on D. This is coming after wide receiver Anquan Boldin was traded to Baltimore for 3rd and 4th round draft picks in the 2010 draft. I was not too upset with the Boldin trade because post-trade Cardinals will still have a very strong receiving core with Fitzgerald, Breaston and Doucet. Additionally, Boldin, over the past two years, has expressed seemingly unwarranted frustrations with offensive decisions by the Cardinals particularly when the Cardinals have been playing well...Terrell Owens anyone? Boldin even indicated he would not like to play for the Cardinals the day the Cardinals made it to the Superbowl. Nonetheless, with the loss of Boldin you would hope to free up salary space to resign Rolle and Dansby, unfortunately the Cardinals were unable to do either. With a larger amount of draft picks and a bit extra cash, hopefully the Cardinals can get some quality players to have a strong team for the coming season.

(500) Days of Summer Absent from Oscars

The nominees are out for the 82nd Academy Awards that will take place this Sunday, March 7th. While I have yet to hear the results, I can already say that the Academy has made an immense mistake by not nominating the (500) Days of Summer for anything. I am happy with the inclusion of some films, but then again what movie critic could argue that none of the best films and performances are not included? At the same time, it is amazing to see such a huge blunder for such a good movie. There are now 10 Oscar Nominees for Best Picture, so it shocks me that a movie as good as (500) Days of Summer could not even make the top 10 of the year. While I am not necessarily saying it would or should win this particular category it is definitely worthy of some recognition. I am not alone on this either. Probably the two most popular online movie databases IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes gave (500) Days of Summer stellar ratings. (500) Days of Summer has such a unique plot, is not cliche (as shocking as it may seem for a "story about love"), and is packed with comedy. The elements in (500) Days of Summer including the end split frame that contrasts reality and fantasy are so well done. However, while this movie would be nominated for Golden Globes the Oscars decided to focus on movies that had more "serious" storylines or involved bigger name actors.

Game Review: Infectonator World Dominator

Rating: 4.5/5

Infectonator World Dominator by Toge Productions is an extremely fun game where you must strategically capture certain units to charm them on your side and fight your foes. However, in this case you are “charming” opponents to become zombies that attack human forces. The game is full of skill because you can only infect humans a limited amount of time so the player must try to infect a densely populated area. When the zombies attack they have a chance of infecting attacked humans to join the zombie forces. OK…you are probably thinking that this game sounds a quite weird and admittedly it is, however, this game is extremely addicting and fun. The features of this game make it a significant improvement from the original Infectonator that is now labeled as the “60’s edition. More upgrades have been included so that special units such as Michael Jackson and Ronald McDonald zombies can be spawned once unlocked after a certain stage in the game. As before, spawned zombies can receive bonuses such as attack, defense, and speed boosts with cash received from destroying units and cities. Overall this game is excellent. While the graphics are poor the gameplay is good enough to get you instantly hooked which is why Infectonator World Dominator receives a rating of 4.5 out of 5.

Is Nobody Going to Televise Klitschko v. Chambers Match?

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Images From: www.aworldofboxing.com and fightnight.easports.com/

On March 20, one of the best imaginable heavyweight boxing matchups will take place in Dusseldorf, Germany. The matchup is between Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko and American Eddie Chambers. Wladimir Klitschko is the IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine champion. ESPN sports expert Dan Rafael ranks Klitschko as the number 1 heavyweight boxer in the world. While massively undersized compared to Klitschko Eddie Chambers is a fast-punching boxer and currently the top American heavyweight. While Wladimir is the overwhelming favorite we see underdogs pull upsets in boxing all the time. Furthermore, this game is between two excellent boxers and it baffles me that no American television network is willing to pick up this fight. I was looking forward to watching this fight live on TV...could it possibly be that American networks are going to let this one go by?