Interesting things happen in three's around here.  First, a man arrested and put in jail 21 times in Spanish Fork, Utah decided to try avoiding trouble by giving a police office a false name.  The problem is if you have been to jail 21 times, cops get to know you.  Well, this particular cop thought he recognized the man and called it in.  Make that 22 arrests.  It didn’t help that the guy had six outstanding warrants out on him. 

 

How about this one: Patrons at a Super 8 Motel in Salt Lake called police and management to complain about a naked man wandering the hallways.  Police showed up and asked the man to get into his room and get dressed.  Well, the naked man decided to take on the police and employees of the hotel in a complete throw-down fight.  It took tasers, batons, and many men to subdue the guy.  Turns out the guy was strung out on crack and no thinking too straight. 

 

And former President “Bubba” Clinton is coming to little old’ Utah to stump for his wife and raise some money.  I believe this will be Bill’s first trip to Utah since before 1992, at least a public visit.  Well, back in 1996 he designated 1.7 million acres in the southern part of the state as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  Sure, in the process he saved some incredible areas, but he didn’t ask the state how they felt about it and in the process put one of the world’s largest deposits of cleaner coal (less sulfur in it) out of the reach of any mining.  So, the ex-Prez is here to raise some money.  Utah has already given a little over $100,000 to Billary, er, Hillary to her campaign.  Wow, that’s amazing!  It would take a whole day to raise that much in states like California or New York.  Turns out there are a few Democrats in Utah that actually give money to New Yorkers.  Well, they are mostly people that moved here from New York or California for the skiing. All the candidates are fighting for all the Electoral College votes that Utah can give them.  I don’t remember how many that is, but I know it can’t be more than four.  Such a joke.

The first inversion of the season is gripping Northern Utah.  Sure, there is some smoke in there from California, but mostly it is local gunk stuck in the valleys of the northern part of the state.  Cold air gets trapped under warm air when a high pressure system sticks around and we have no wind.  I may disagree with Al Gore on a number of things he says, but I agree with him on one thing – we do need to cut down on the pollutants we spew out into the air.  I believe this because I can see the crap in the air, or rather, I can’t see the mountains across the valley because of the brown haze.

 

Purdue beat the Northwestern Mildcats yesterday.  They need to win games they are favored in, so it was good that they did.  Utah won as well, beating Colorado State.  At the beginning of the season I stated that I would be surprised if Utah won more than 2 games.  Well, the injuries weren’t as bad as I thought they would be, Utah found a running game, and the Mountain West, along with two out-of-conference teams turned out to be much weaker this year than previously though.  BYU should win the WAC-Lite conference this year, but it won’t mean much.

 

Utah is one of those places where construction can be a spectator sport.  Hundreds of people watched as a bridge that crosses Interstate 215 was picked up and moved to the side of the road.  That’s right.  Instead of knocking the bridge down, they brought in a self-propelled modular transporter to lift the 2+ million pound bridge up and park it down the road.  The transporter will be used today to lift the new bridge into place.  They have been building this new bridge on the side of the road for the last few months.  Driving by made for an interesting “What the hell is that?” type of moment.  This process has allowed all three lanes of the highway to stay open for the last three months with the highway being completely closed for only 1 weekend.  Decent payoff I suppose.

 

This just in – Viagra may cause hearing loss.  Odd, that doesn’t sound so bad to me.  It allows one to have sex and then not have to listen to the chatter afterwards.  Win-win, right?  Actually, for those on Viagra and the other ED drugs, I wouldn’t worry about this too much.  Since Viagra has been on the market, there have only been 20-some reported cases.  How many men have taken these drugs since they came out on the market?  Millions?  You can’t get odds like that at Vegas.

This is why I dislike politics more and more as the years go by.  It now looks like a Utah couple was involved in the Hillary Clinton campaign finance scandal that happened a few months ago.  Clinton got $850,000 from Norman Hsu, a known scam artist who has allegedly stolen $60 million from investors in his Ponzi schemes.  Hsu has since been arrested on charges of being a scam artist.  He has also been a fugitive for 15 years.  The Clintons have a history of taking shady money, so I’m not sure why this surprises anyone. 

 

James and Sherlene Dean of Salt Lake City gave $9,200 to Hsu to “give” to Clinton.  In the past, one of Hsu’s front companies made a payment to a company held by the Deans.  $9,200 is the maximum amount a couple could give under federal rules.  So, the Deans are registered Republicans and according to records have not donated to a federal candidate in the last six election cycles.  Interesting.  The Deans have since disconnected their phone line and are not talking to anyone.  More interesting. 

 

On top of this, the Los Angeles Times is now reporting that Clinton’s campaign recently took in 150 donations from low-wage works that the paper cannot find.  These folks are dishwashers, street vendors, and the like – most likely illegal that their bosses “contributed” for because Clinton will make their lives so much better.

 

Colbert in 2008

 

Colbert and these guys would be just as good as the yahoos currently running…

 

Contrary to popular belief, there is alcohol in Utah.  Problem is, the state has a monopoly on it.  So, not that more people are moving in from out of state and wanting the spirits, the state is having to build more liquor stores.  Oh, and the state is making a very nice profit these sales as well (charges more than one would pay in most other states).  Now, if only the non-drinkers in the state government would figure out the rules they lay down every few years on alcohol make no sense...

 

Oh, and go Rockies.  Maybe they will wake up and make the World Series interesting.

There are many reasons new drugs cost so much.  Some reasons are good, like research costs and the difficulty in manufacturing them.  Some reasons are bad, like company mark-ups, wholesaler mark-ups, and government fees.  Wait, what’s that you say?  What sort of government fees?  Well, for fiscal year 2008 (October 2007 to October 2008) the FDA will charge companies $1,178,000 to look at new drug applications.  Product fees for the year will be around $65,030.  For a company like mine, that’s close to $3 million for the year.  So what, you say.  Well, do you think companies just eat that cost?  No, they pass these costs on to you, just like tobacco companies pass cigarette taxes on to the consumer.  So just remember, the next time you complain about spending $3 per pill for a prescription, remember that about 5-10% of that is for Uncle Sam.  And then think of this: if we get nationalized healthcare and the government is paying for all our drugs, we will not only be paying for the drugs with our tax money (or everyone elses if you don't need anything), we will be paying for the government fees that FDA chargers the drug makers with our tax money.  Yes, we will, in theory, be paying double taxes for our drugs.  Sign me up for that!  Actually, it all evens out in the end even if the government is providing drugs on our tax dollars, but we'll be spending more than we need to.  In fact, all that safety we are demanding that the government insure our drugs have is slowly bumping up the cost of drugs.  I'm not saying we drop all the safety testing we do, but at some point people are going to need to realize that drugs involve some risk. 

So, in Utah we have an insect that goes by the name of the Boxelder bug. These things are around most of the summer, but they are out in force this time of year because they get out onto windows, sides of buildings, and the like to sun themselves to warm up.  Okay, so they don’t bite or fly around your head much, but they are annoying because they are all over everything and they are hard to kill.  You think you’ve squished one with paper or the like, and then tossed them into the trash, only to see them come crawling out 10 minutes later.  If they are warm enough they will do their best to get away from you.  Oh, and if you really do squish one, you are rewarded with a foul odor and a large stain.  The bugs stink!  If you squish one with your hands, you have to go wash them immediately or live with the smell for the rest of the day.  Birds don’t eat them because of it. 

 

 

Why do I bring this up?  Well, probably because I spent 20 minutes when I got home today rounding up a bunch of the little bastards that were in my home trying to stay warm.  I was doing a good job of getting them outside without squishing any until I stepped on one.  I managed to ground the thing into the carpet.  So, I had a little bit of a stain and the smell.  I hit it with some cleaning fluids of various strengths and managed to get rid of the stain, but the smell is still there.  My place smells like Scrubbing Bubbles, Febreze (vanilla & baking scent), Lysol, and Boxelder bug stink.  And this year they are especially bad.  They have been seen swarming - staying in large clumps for warmth.  Thank you, Mother Nature.

 

I haven’t posted anything all week because I’ve been busy between work and my fiancée being in town.  Weddings are too much work.  Seriously, all the stuff that goes into not just getting married, but all the other planning and whatnot.  $500 or more for a cake?  Close to $1,000 for a photographer (plus some photos)?  My idea for a donut cake isn’t taking off.  I’m going to have to lobby for that one a little bit more energetically.  Think of it – a giant stack of donuts arranged in a tiered fashion to resemble a cake.  We could even have it decorated to look like a cake.  It would be great!

 

But enough about that, let’s talk beer.  Specifically, Utah beer.  The state of Utah gets a lot of bad press for the crazy alcohol laws we have, and some of the bad P.R. is warranted.  And even though Utah beer is 3.2% alcohol by volume (4.0% by weight compared to a little over 5% by weight in other states), the beer served here is pretty good for the most part.  Some is good enough to win at the Great American Beer Festival.  Redrock Brewing Company, located in Salt Lake City, was named the “Large Brewpub of the Year” at the festival this year, and the pub’s brewmaster was named “Brewer of the Year”.  The pub’s Zwickelbier won a gold medal.  The pub also won three silvers and a bronze medal.  With higher-alcohol beers, it is the easier to hide any imperfections, said Redrock brewmaster Templin. "You can't do that with a lighter beer."

Other Utah brewers took home some hardware as well.  The Utah Brewers Cooperative received two medals - gold for Squatters IPA, and silver for Squatters Organic Amber Ale.  Hoppers Grill and Brewing Co. won a gold medal for its Lil' Pip's Mild Ale.  So, if you like beer for its taste, come to Utah.  If you want to rent beer just for its buzz, go somewhere else.

 

A total of 222 medals were awarded at the festival this year for various categories.

 

For a complete list go to http://www.beertown.org/events/gabf/

 

Let me start this out by saying that no matter what your stance is on global warming, this is interesting on a number of levels.

 

It has been declared that Utah, yes Utah, is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions per capita than the rest of the nation.  Simply stated, if the amount of greenhouse gas (CO₂) emitted from the state of Utah was divided by the number of people living in the state, we would have more gas per person than any other state in the U.S.A.  Also, according to the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Climate Change, Utah is warming faster than the global average.  Part of the reason is that people keep saying the name of the Governor’s council out loud, releasing more hot air. 

 

This council of the Governor’s is made up of researchers from state universities, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Utah Mining Association.  The council’s findings include the increase of the average temperature during the past decade was higher any other time over the last century, the state is expected to warm faster than the entire globe, Emissions in Utah amount to about 1% of the nation’s total, the average amount per person is slightly higher than the national average (wait for it…), gross emissions in Utah are rising faster than the rest of the country, greenhouse gas emissions at or above current levels will result in a decline in mountain snowpack (and hurt the ski industry). 

 

Let’s take a moment to break all of this down.  Utah has the highest per capita greenhouse emission in the country, but we are only slightly higher than the national average on emissions per person.  Well, which is it?  Are we the best or just above average?  Let’s also remember that the number of people living in the entire state of Utah is less than the number of people living in New York City proper, so our per capita output is going to be higher.  Utah does have a number of coal fired power plants.  Some of these plants actually supply most of their output to other states, including California (because that state doesn’t allow new power plants to be built and lets rolling brown outs take place).  So, the 1% of the nation’s total that Utah puts out is a HUGE number, when you look at it the right way.  Or, if you look at it another way, we can’t bee in the top half of states producing the most emissions.  Let me see, 100% divided by 50 states gives me 2% per state.  Utah has another whole percentage point to go!

 

So we are hotter now than we were over the last 100 years.  Okay, I believe that.  Utah is going to be hotter than the global average over the next couple of decades.  How does that work?  Does that mean once I cross the border into Colorado it will automatically be 2 degrees cooler?  I would believe it more if they said the American Southwest was going to be hotter than the global average.  How are we going to be hotter than Arizona or Nevada? 

 

Something to think about: whatever you believe the cause of global warming (man made, man helped, or 100% natural cycle) it is safe to say that man has been spitting out pollutants into the air that we breathe and that fall on us all the time.  I know this because I live in a place where I can see it on a regular basis.  Fly into L.A. or San Diego and tell me if you can’t see the “brown layer” during the landing approach.  We’re breathing this crap.  So I’m in favor of lowering the levels of the crap we are throwing into the air.  But here is the problem, even if we stop all greenhouse gases tomorrow, the world will still have a problem.  Why?  Because of BRIC.  That is, Brazil, Russia, India, and China – the up-and-coming countries.  In fact, China is so bad that the Olympics may be in trouble next year.  So the amount of crap going into the air isn’t going to decrease if Utah slows down its massive greenhouse gas emissions.  Maybe the Blue Ribbon Advisory Council should think about that.

A few passing sports thoughts that have noting to do with Utah:

 

Monday Night Football isn’t very interesting anymore, mostly because ESPN wants to make it into a huge Broadway production rather than a game.  Tony Kornhole is worse than Dennis Miller.

 

Why would MLB get a comedian to do a commercial and not try to make the commercial funny?  Then again, they didn’t get a very funny comedian to do the commercial.  Then again, that’s just my opinion and I find Family Guy very funny.

 

The MLB playoffs have been pretty good so far.  Sure, all but one of the series has been 3 and done, but there is nothing worse than watching two teams stretch it out to 5 or 7 just to have the winner get the snot knocked out of them in the next round.  Plus, I dislike the Cubs, it is good to see the Rockies do something the team hasn’t done before, it is great to see the Diamondbacks prove they belong, and seeing Boston do what they built to do.  Now if the Indians would win so we can get on with the next round.  An interesting World Series for me would Rockies and Indians, but I wouldn’t mind if the Diamondbacks made it.

 

College football is good, even if Purdue football is mediocre.

 

What’s worse?  Being Notre Dame and only having one win or being UCLA and being the one that have given Notre Dame their only win?

 

Seriously, Joe Tiller, please retire.  We don’t want to fire you, but we don’t want you leading the team anymore either.  We fans are very torn.

I’ve decided that I’m want to head up the Joe Tiller Retirement Party.  I’ll be the head coordinator in charge of getting things together for the party, sending out invites, making sure that a number of his former players and assistant coaches will be there to wish Joe well on his way to retirement.  It will be great!  I can see using the large ball room at the Union.  We’ll get it all decked out in proper black and gold decorations.  We can even make it into a Roast format – I’ll be a great hit.  Oh, and I’ll have to make sure to get someone to donate a proper gold watch for Joe’s present.  You know, one of those really nice ones with an inscription on the back and maybe the Purdue logo on there someplace.  I can’t wait.  I’m willing to take suggestions from people as well.

 

Oh, by the way, Purdue lost to Ohio State last night.  On national television.  At home, under the lights.  The score was 23 to 7, but those 7 points were mercy points scored in the last 30 seconds of the game. 

 

So, I think it is time for Joe to retire and go do oatmeal commercials or sell life insurance.

 

So, at the beginning of the football season, I saw Utah only winning a couple of games.  I picked the UCLA game and the Louisville game as ones that Utah would have their hats handed to them and kicked through the door.  Well, I was wrong.  Utah has not yet won a Mountain West game, but they have beaten UCLA (then ranked #11) and now Louisville.  Granted, the Cardinals have shown that they have no defense and displayed that again last night.  I wasn’t sure if Utah had the offense to keep up with Brian Brohm and company.  Call it luck, but Brohm’s two favorite targets were on the bench Friday night with injuries and the back-up receivers dropped some passes that the normal starters wouldn’t have.  Doesn’t matter, Utah still won a non-conference game.  Now, all the Utes have to do is figure out how to win a conference game.  Trust me, the conference isn’t that good.

 

Purdue plays Ohio State tonight, under the lights, in West Lafayette.  Purdue doesn’t play much under the lights as the stadium doesn’t have lights.  Purdue isn’t known as being a good “night” team.  This will be the Biolers first big test.  Zoinks!!!!

A new species of dinosaur discovered in Utah was recently announced.  Gryposaurus monumentensis, a duck-billed dinosaur was capable of holding up to 800 teeth in its head.  It is considered a duck-bill on steroids.  It was discovered in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, where crews discovered two separate specimens of the dinosaur.

 

The Gryposaurus is the second new species of dinosaur identified from the southern Utah monument this year.  Paleontologists believe that a dozen or so other new species - including velociraptors, tyrannosaurus and horned dinosaurs have also been taken out of the Grand Staircase area.  Gryposaurus was initially discovered in 2002, but it took a number of years to figure out that the bones belonged to a new species.  The last confirmed new species found on the monument was a feathered raptor named Hagryphus giganteus, a giant four-footed, bird-like dinosaur that ate meat as well as plants.

 

Why all the dinosaurs out of Utah lately?  Well, the Grand Staircase is a hard place to get into and there are not a lot of people trekking around that part of the country.  The climate and conditions help as well. 

 

So, once in a while, there is something informative and useful coming out of Utah.

 

http://www.ut.blm.gov/monument/paleontology-news.php

The California-based Spaceward Foundation is testing ideas for a space elevator, and Utah is hosting the competition.  The third annual Spaceward Games will be held Oct. 19-21 in Farmington, Utah.

 

During this event, 24 engineering teams will compete in two categories: the tether competition and the climber/power beaming competition.  The prize is up to $500,000 in cash, put up by none other than NASA.  Evidently, shooting shuttles up into space has become too much of a pain for the government, so they just want to hit the UP button and step off on the top floor.

 

According to www.spaceward.org, the space elevator is a tethered cable, held taut by a counterweight object at the other end that would extend 62,000 miles from into space.  A counterweight in space?  Okay, I’m not a physicist or an engineer, but I have heard of this little thing called gravity…

 

Vehicles traveling along that cable would be powered by beams of light rather than rocket fuel.  At the Spaceward Games competition, vehicles must scale a 100-meter vertical racetrack in less than 50 seconds without the aid of fuel or batteries.  I could enter this competition with a weight tied to a couple of squirrels and let them run up that track.  Have you ever watched squirrels run up a tree?  They could do it in under 50 seconds, I’m sure of it.

 

According to the website, the proposed tethering materials, called carbon nanotubes (CNTs), were discovered in the early 1990’s.  The Spaceward Foundation believes such a contraption could be developed by 2020.

 

The group’s charter statement is “The Spaceward Foundation is a public-funds non-profit organization dedicated to furthering space science and technology in education and in the public mindshare.”  Someone explain what that has to do with a space elevator?  What happens when I get in this elevator, go to the top, and step out?  Do I need to make sure I keep the “door open” button pushed so I can get back on?  Oh, no wait, I’ll die of cold and suffocation before that happens.  Actually, if this thing is used to put satellites into space, that would mean we could get a lot better GPS and TV systems out there.

 

The teams competing in this year’s competition - the third of its kind and the first for Utah - hail from various aerospace companies and universities, including the University of Idaho, the MIT, and Canada's University of Saskatchewan.

 

Spaceward Games 2007:

www.spaceward.org/games07.html

Rat Island, in Alaska, like many other treeless, volcanic islands in the Aleutian chain, is infested with rats that have proved devastating to wild birds that build nests in the earth or in rocky cliffs.

 

Alaska is trying to clear out the rats on many islands, like Rat Island, in an effort to help native species survive or make come-backs.  But if they kill off the rats, can they still call it Rat Island?

 

Alaska state officials have issued sweeping new regulations that slap rat-prevention mandates on Alaska ports and harbors that have served as entry points for invading rodents.  Alaska wildlife refuge managers have maintained a "rat-spill" program in which emergency responders prevent the spread of rats from shipwrecks, similar to oil-spill contingency plans maintained by state and federal agencies.  Many maintain that in a shipwreck situation, the damage created by rats coming into the environment could be even worse than that of a major oil spill.  What?  So Exxon’s little accident wasn’t as bad as The Secret of Nimh? 

 

The situation on the Aleutian island of Kiska, which still holds a colony of millions of auklets, a small seabird, is just such a situation.  The introduced rats are decimating that natural population and turning parts of the island uninhabitable.

 

So there you have it, rats are worse than oil spills.  Maybe we should figure out a way to power our cars with rats rather than gas.