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Last Call for your Vote in 2005 Koufax Awards

I have been writing my class syllabus (conservation genetics) for awhile today and as a reward, I thought I'd peek in on you all to see what you are doing. I just learned that, for reasons that escape me, the Koufax Awards voting deadline has been extended until tonight. I think this is great! So, just to prove to you all that I did not win the first runner-up in the BoB Awards' "blog whore" category for nothing (badge at top of left sidebar), here I am again, asking for your vote for the 2005 Koufax Awards. This round of voting is simply to identify those 6-10 top vote recipients for each…

How I Got Here

When thinking about the move to ScienceBlogs, I worried about my old material becoming lost in the shuffle, many of which brought a lot of new links and visits to my site when I first published them. I actually happen to like some of this material, so I decided to use Janet's idea of publishing her blog bio. Now that I have a few minutes, I am doing the same thing. Still Big Favorites Tsunami: One Year Later, Part I: What We Know About The Event Itself. Galapagos Tortoises Visit NYC Backtracking Birds Show Islands are not Evolutionary Dead Ends Thoughts on the Value of Blogs to Science How…

Update on My New Roommate

The little hawk-headed parrot is settling in fairly well. (S)he is rather cautious about me, reminding me, by flying away whenever the opportunity presents itself, that I am not the human that (s)he is familiar with. This will pass soon enough, though. This bird is is good flesh, but is not yet eating on her (his?) own even though I give her(him?) a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as a seed mix, so I am handfeeding her twice per day; once in the morning and then again in the evening. The food is a powder that I mix with water (five parts water to one part food) and is fed…

London Update: I am Here!

I have been taking pictures to share with you but unfortunately, forgot the equipment necessary to download the images from my camera to my laptop, so we all will have to wait a little while longer. I am disappointed by this because London is so story-book magical and you all just have to see it! I am absolutely exhausted though. The night before I was to leave, my NYC neighbors decided to blast their stereos through much of the night, so I didn't get much sleep (not that I could have slept anyway, really), and then, anticipating that I would not be able to sleep on the flight to London, I…

Proof That God Exists?

That's the title of the site, anyway, Proof That God Exists. It ain't. It's a dreary exercise in the fallacy of the excluded middle. You are lead through a series of binary choices, in which you are asked to choose one alternative or the other, with the goal of shunting you to the desired conclusion, which is, of course, that God exists. Building on a fallacy is bad enough, but even worse, it can't even do that competently — it cheats. All of the options are designed to bounce you to only one line of reasoning, and if you don't play the designer's game, it gets all pissy at you and announces…

Peonies

Branch of White Peonies, with Pruning Shears (1864) by Edouard Manet. I have always loved (and written) poetry, but on those days following September 11, 2001, I first read a poem by Mary Oliver, who immediately became one of my two favorite living poets. I was in Seattle Center on several of the most silent autumn days that I have ever experienced, watching thin sunlight struggle through the cool mist. In front of me stood a mountain of flowers that reached eight feet high, creating a riot of color that contrasted with soft grey skies. In fact, every flower in the entire city and…

Holy Hot Neptune, Batman!

The amazing Swiss team (Gillon et al A&A L in press) have another amazing planet pick for us... ...as pointed out to me by Dunkleosteus in the comments. Greg at systemic has the full story This is a good one, with all the ingredients - and the competition aspect also. Teaches us to a) read astro-ph when it comes in at night, not the next morning and b) always follow up your hot RV detections with systematic transit surveys. So, what have we got this time? Gliese 436b - an 23 Earth mass planet around a nearby M star (0.44 times the mass of the Sun). It has a 2.6 day orbital period - it…

Iran IAEA report

WaPo has the IAEA report to the UN on Iran's compliance or lack thereof (PDF) Good stuff on Verification blog Interesting stuff. IAEA full story is here (it helpfully explains they won't release the restricted distribution report that the WaPo printed...) The Iranians have made a bunch (~ 100 tons) of natural uranium hexafluoride, suitable to enrichment in their centrifuge cascade, and have two 164 centrifuge cascades in place with two more to be up by the end of the month, and they are being prepped for a run through. They did a 50kg batch test run, enriching to 4.2% (compared to 0.7%…

how to write grad school app essays

A part of the typical graduate school application is the "essay" or personal statement I also did this, when I were a wee lad. I came from Europe, but for obscure historical reasons was mostly applying to universities in the US. Upon reading the application forms, I found a small box which said something to the effect of "tell us why you want to go to grad school". It was, typically, a very small box. Because US application deadlines were, much to my surprise, much earlier than typical European deadlines, I was in a bit of a rush. So I wrote, in #2 pencil of course: "I like physics. I have…

SubPrime U.

So, how much do faculty make. The Incoherent Ponderer Pseudonymously Reveals All The US system seems very byzantine on occasion to Us Europeans, lot of gamesmanship. The IP discusses the situation well, the top private universities - Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Caltech crowd definitely pay top dollar - with the IAS probably paying best. The large public universities probably pay better than most of the private small liberal arts universities, although it is generally incorrect to say that they receive a lot of funding from the government - faculty term salaries come primarily out of student…

iPod iChing - what planets?

Cool snowy friday, and we ask the Mighty iPod: what has CoRoT wrought? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh. The Covering: Follie! - Verdi The Crossing: Make You Feel Better - Red Hot Chili Peppers The Crown: Sexuality (London Remix) - Billy Bragg The Root: Flamingo Baby - Violent Femmes The Past: I Don't Need This Pressure Ron - Billy Bragg The Future: Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together - Morrissey The Questioner: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra Variation XII - Benjamin Britten The House:Twydale's Lament - Half Man, Half Biscuit The Inside: Kirkjuhvoll The Outcome: I Melt With You -…

More NASA Conference Travel in 2009

More news on the NASA conference ban for 2009, and the possible impacts. The source of the conference amendment (sec 1121 of HR 6063) is Sen Coburn, apparently, as noted in comments in the previous post. NASAwatch links to the NASA memos on this policy Two things are unambiguous: NASA direct payment for conference activity is virtually prohibited, not just because of the spending cap, but also because of the reporting and audit requirements. Secondly, NASA civil servant spending on conference travel is tightly capped and will be severly curtailed. The memos suggest that priority will be…

UC researchers and families attacked

"...a fire was started on the porch of a faculty member's home. Injuries were sustained as the faculty member and his wife and children escaped the residence." Attack comes after pamphlets were found threatening faculty claimed to use animals in research. Fires were set at two faculty residences, car in the driveway of one house, and on the porch of another's house. "Injuries were sustained as the faculty member and his wife and children escaped the residence." UPDATE: Injury was incurred during escape down a fire ladder, researcher whose house was firebombed identified as Prof Feldheim -…

PZ goes too far!

PZ, you bastard! Now you have gone too far. Some of us do try to teach our children proper reverence, and what do you do? You rip the pages of a perfectly good book. This will not stand! I haven't even read the God Delusion yet and PZ goes ripping up a perfectly good copy. What. A. Waste! Books have information, and history, and store atmospheric carbon by the megaton! to just rip their pages out is a waste. Grrr. Unless they are mildewy, of course, or you are about to freeze to death (and it is a particularly bad book). Seriously, though, I have kept half an eye on the Great Cracker…

All complex ecosystems have parasites

A cautionary tale from Cory Doctorow in his most recent Locus column, Persistence Pays Parasites. My friend Katherine Myronuk once told me, "All complex ecosystems have parasites." She was talking about spam and malware (these days they're often the same thing) and other undesirable critters on the net. It's one of the smartest things anyone's ever said to me about the net - and about the world. If there's a niche, a parasite will fill it. There's a reason the cells of the organisms that live in your body outnumber your own by 100 to one. And every complex system has unfilled niches. The only…

the probable cost of swine flu

so what would a mild swine flu pandemic cost? we get out the envelope... best case is about 1% hit to GDP this year so far on the swine 'flu we know: it is a new type A influenze variant probably essentially no one has immunity to it it seems to spread rapidly and easily and be past where it can be contained it might fizzle due to summer coming, or spread global in the next 2-6 weeks it might come back next winter, possibly more virulent, or not the fatality ratio, so far, does not seem any worse than "regular 'flu" - under 1%, and probably consistent with few percent of the seriously sick…

final stimulus

there is a revised version of House Resolution 1 on thomas.loc.gov looks like it might be the "final version" of the stimulus bill, post-conference assuming that it is, here are the relevant bits (thomas.loc.gov is dynamic, can't provide static links): UPDATE: Nope, those are too small - Pelosi put back a lot of the science funding and it is even better than this version of the compromise - see David Bacon's comment I'll update later. Ok, there is an eighth revision of the stimulus bill, which puts in even more money for science, I thought I had it right last night because the seventh…

Friday Fun: A syllabus and book list for novice students of science fiction literature

I'm a life-long fan of science fiction, mostly as a reader but occasionally as a book reviewer. Way back, when dinosaurs walked the earth, I even took a couple of science fiction literature classes. And, as readers of this blog well know, I love nothing better than a good list of books. So combining all those passions is a big win for me. Take a look at this, from io9, A syllabus and book list for novice students of science fiction literature. I'll list the books here, but please head over to the io9 post for the rationales for chosing each book. WHAT THIS LIST IS AND ISN'T There are a few…

Pig pile on Robert Bazell!

Bazell wrote an irritatingly obtuse commentary on Intelligent Design creationism, and I dawdled about expressing my dislike for it…but Tara and Orac and John Pieret and even non-scientific humorists (and I'm sure there are others I've missed) have all chimed in now, so you'd think I could just let it pass. But no! This is the blogosphere! We will all shout out our condemnations! Bazell is not a complete idiot. He recognizes that evolution is and should be a serious component of a doctor's education, and he is no supporter of Intelligent Design or any other brand of creationism. That's all…

Birdbooker Report 35

tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books "One cannot have too many good bird books" --Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927). The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that are or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is published here for your enjoyment. Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by which lists ecology, environment, natural history and bird…

Bag of Bones

tags: Bag of Bones, Dunya Mikhail, poetry, National Poetry Month April is National Poetry Month, and I posted one poem per day every day this month for you to enjoy. You have sent me so many poems and suggestions that I plan to use all of them in the coming weeks; I will post one poem per week, on Wednesdays at noon, for as long as you send suggestions for me to share with my readers. Today's poem, the last one to appear here during National Poetry Month, is one that I heard the poet read in person when I visited Kansas State University. The poet, a native Iraqi, fled from her home in…

Every religion has its insane elements

Orthodox Jews are rioting in Jerusalem. The reason: because the city allows a parking lot to remain open on Saturday, which means people are able to drive on their holy day, which they consider sacred. Anne Barker was there to record the event as a journalist, and she switched on her recorder to document it all — when the protesters turned on her. I found myself herded against a brick wall as they kept on spitting - on my face, my hair, my clothes, my arms. It was like rain, coming at me from all directions - hitting my recorder, my bag, my shoes, even my glasses. Big gobs of spit landed…

Those awful ads

It's annoying. Garbage is thriving: the Discovery Channel is running ads for the Creation "Museum", and our very own scienceblogs is intermittently running an ad for creationist literature. There are a couple of things to know about this. One is that the economy sucks, and the media, in particular are struggling. Science media especially are suffering, so everyone is scrambling to scrape up whatever revenues they can. The other thing to notice is that in a down economy, faith-based lies and wishful thinking are cheap to produce and continue to sell, so that's what's happening. There isn't…

A peek into Obama's “Faith Council”

Frank Page is a former head of the Southern Baptist Convention (i.e., nuts) and is also now a member of the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In an interview, he talks about what's going on in that council, and there is actually some good news. My hope was that there would have been more time for focusing on formulating actual policy recommendations for the president. They keep saying that that's something we'll have more time for in the future. But most of our time so far has been briefings from administration officials about various government programs that are…

What is the Difference Between Russian and Asian Brides?

Since Flickr is being an ass these days and won't let me share images with you that they don't approve of, which includes just about everything I put on my blog and no doubt includes screen shots of ads that I am using to illustrate my points, you'll just have to accept that I am not misleading you if you can't see the offending ads themselves. Basically, if you take a peek at the ads in the top and right sidebar of this blog, you'll notice that Seed Media has revised their advertising policies recently. One of the results of that revision has been to run Google ads on both these blog…

Interdepartmental Memo

Since I am unemployed, I get these notices second-hand, but I am more than happy to share them with those of you who still manage to keep a job that actually pays money. Dear Employees: It has been brought to management's attention that some individuals throughout the company have been using foul language during the course of normal conversation with their co-workers. Due to complaints received from some employees who may be easily offended, this type of language will no longer be tolerated. We do, however, realize the critical importance of being able to accurately express your feelings when…

Science Book Lovers' Meme

tags: blogosphere, meme, science books meme Here is a meme that I was tagged with recently by the good peeps at Science on Tap. The author writes; Imagine: YOU are asked to assign a half-dozen-or-so books as required reading for ALL science majors at a college as part of their 4-year degree; NOT technical or text books, but other works, old or new, touching upon the nature of science, philosophy, thought, or methodology in a way that a practicing scientist might gain from. Post your list, and forward the meme to a half-dozen-or-so other science-oriented bloggers of your choosing. As you…

For obesity prevention, IOM focuses on environments

The Institute of Medicine has released a new report, Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation. The committee behind it assessed nearly 800 recommendations that had been previously published, and prioritized those that could have a big impact when undertaken together. They identified five critical areas for change: environments for physical activity food and beverage environments message environments health care and work environments school environments Their goals and corresponding recommendations focus on these environments: Goal 1: Make physical…

What's taking so long?

"What's taking so long?" might be uttered by a youngster waiting for a parent to assemble a swing set, or an art patron waiting for a conservator to restore a masterpiece. When the wait is finally over and the eager child or art lover see the final product, they realize the time was well spent. Public health and worker safety advocates have been asking "what's taking so long?" for the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to complete a review of a draft occupational health standard. A 1993 Executive Order gives OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) authority…

Occupational Health News Roundup

The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board has warned about the dangers of combustible dust before, and its new report on a series of disasters at the Hoeganaes facility in Gallatin, Tennessee once again highlights how deadly this hazard can be. In three separate incidents at the Hoeganaes powdered metals plant, fires killed a total of five workers and injured three more. Here's a summary of the CSB's findings: The CSB investigation found that significant amounts of fine iron powder had accumulated over time at the Hoeganaes facility, and that while the company knew from its own…

MSHA should scrap any plan to wait for OSHA action on respirable crystalline silica

Before too long the US Department of Labor (DOL) and other federal agencies should be issuing their annual regulatory plans and semi-annual agendas. These documents serve as official public notice of agencies' regulatory (and deregulatory) priorities. The Regulatory Flexibility Act and Executive Order (EO) 12866 direct agency heads to release these documents in April (agenda) and October (plan and agenda), but the Obama Administration doesn't have a good track record meeting those deadlines. I'm not going to predict when the next agenda and plan will be issued or, as I did in the Spring, on…

WWII hair styles for safety, no kidding, watch it for yourself

Our friend and APHA OHS colleague Mark Catlin has assembled on YouTube an amazing collection of more than 500 environmental health and safety film clips. The video collection contain footage dating back to the 1920's, with loads WWII-era films produced by the U.S. military, Public Health Service and companies promoting tires, asbestos, oil, steel, tetraethyl lead, and more. The collection has already had a million hits this year. One of my favorites, Safety Styles, features WWII pin-up model Veronica Lake. The actress, known for her flowing long blonde peakapoo hair style, encourages…

Not an “accident”: Norberto Galicia Romero, 49, suffers fatal work-related injury in Marrietta, GA

Norberto Romero, 49, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Monday, February 16, 2015 while working at Thomas Concrete on Canton Road in Marrietta, GA. The Examiner reports The incident occurred at about 3:05 pm “when someone called 911 to report that someone was trapped inside a concrete silo” Firefighters worked "throughout the evening to free the man's trapped body….[it] was recovered around 9 pm" WXIA explains that Romero, 49, was one of “two subcontractors from Texas [who] were cleaning the inside of the cement silo. …Romero attempted to unclog a ‘hopper’ in the silo, he fell into and…

Tech Note: How To Install Linux On A Laptop With UEFI

Here's what I did to replace Windows 8 (boo) with Linux Mint (yay) on a 2013 Asus ultrabook with the problematic UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) firmware, using an external DVD drive linked to the machine with a USB cable. Download Linux Mint and burn a bootable DVD. Disable Windows Fast Startup (in Windows' Control Panel). Reboot machine while pressing F2, to get into BIOS setup. Under the Security menu, disable Secure Boot Control. Under the Boot menu, disable Fast Boot. Under the Boot menu, enable Launch CSM – if you can. (I couldn't at first. This menu option was visible but…

July Pieces Of My Mind

Sad case in my municipality of date rape made worse by fathering fail. 20-y-o guy coerces 15-y-o girl to blow him by threatening to tell her dad they're together. Good dads are who you run to when somebody tries to blackmail you. A publicist offers me to review the latest in a popular series of detective novels (that I've never heard of) on my blog. I accept and receive an epub file. Then I realise that this is just an ebook reissue of a book from 1997. Not reviewing it. Michael Jackson didn't die. He just completed his transformation into a Deep One. Just look at the song lyric, "The girl…

And the Earl of Dalkeith's Wreath Was Very Pretty Too

When I turned 25 my friend Sanna gave me a little poetry anthology that I have since treasured. Kathryn & Ross Petras's Very Bad Poetry (1997) is a lovely read. One of the versifiers most voluminously represented there is W.T. McGonagall (1830-1902). After quoting his words, "The most startling incident in my life was the time I discovered myself to be a poet", the Petrases comment, "Many people in his native Dundee, Scotland, apparently disagreed with his discovery." Here is McGonagall's "The Death of Lord and Lady Dalhousie". Alas! Lord and Lady Dalhousie are dead, and buried at last,…

The Lejre Freya Miniature

Apparently the Lejre excavators still haven't realised that the lovely silver miniature they found depicts an aristocratic woman who can't be Odin, regardless of who may be the owner of the throne she sits on. A Danish news site contacted me today and asked me about the issue. Here's what I said (and I translate). In the art of the Vendel and Viking Periods, just as in today's art, there's a set of conventions for how men and women are depicted. Largely it's a question of clothing and jewellery that real people used as well. The main difference is that Iron Age art only depicts aristocrats,…

In defence of Exxon

Ha. Now you know I really have gone over to the Dark Side. Prompted by British funds back Rockefellers' green rebellion to bring in new ExxonMobil chairman. The complaint appears to be that The firm has refused to follow rival oil companies in committing large-scale capital investment to environmentally friendly technology... Exxon maintains that present green technologies are not financially viable. But critics fear that the company's reluctance to explore alternative energy will prove to be bad business judgment in the long run as rivals such as BP seek to capture public affection by re-…

A Dozen Years of Fornvännen

When I was in grad school, twelve years ago to the day, my thesis supervisor gave me a part-time job. He got me onto the editorial board of Swedish archaeology's main research journal. I became co-editor of Fornvännen on 15 April 1999. The other editors were pretty busy people, I was paid by the hour, I enjoyed the work and I saw the career potential. So I made sure from the start to grab all the responsibility I could. This state of affairs was formalised in 2008, when I was made Managing Editor, a box that hadn't existed on the org chart before. I did the journal work in my research…

Two wrongs don't make a right

A far right wing wanker is suing Ohio State University for discrimination. I hate to say it, but if this account is at all accurate, he might have a case. In 2006, Savage agreed to serve on a committee to determine required reading for incoming freshmen at the Mansfield campus. Savage said the books considered by the committee were too liberal and suggested The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian. Professors James F. Buckley and Norman W. Jones filed a sexual-harassment complaint against Savage, saying he was homophobic for suggesting the book. The complaint was dismissed as unfounded.…

Get Ready to Get Pissed

I've said it before and I'll say it again: as cynical as I am about government, I can't possibly keep up with reality. Last week an appeals court says the government can seize your property without even charging you with a crime, and this week Ohio has a law that allows people to be declared sex offenders without being charged with a crime. Read that again: without even being charged with a crime. And now they want to add people to the public sex offender registry based on that law as well: An Ohio legislative panel yesterday rubber-stamped an unprecedented process that would allow sex…

Religious Fraud Increasing

According to this AP article, the incidence of religion-related fraud is on the increase. Billions of dollars has been stolen in religion-related fraud in recent years, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association, a group of state officials who work to protect investors. Between 1984 and 1989, about $450 million was stolen in religion-related scams, the association says. In its latest count -- from 1998 to 2001 -- the toll had risen to $2 billion. Rip-offs have only become more common since. "The size and the scope of the fraud is getting larger," said Patricia…

Behold the Glory of Bill Dembski

"But enough about me, let's talk about you. What do you think of me?" So goes the classic scene with the insufferable bore. Now compare that to Dembski's comments about Barbara Forrest signing her book for him "with thanks": She thanked me. Why was that? Because, at a deep level, she realizes that her professional advancement (she is now an endowed professor -- she was largely unknown, like O'Leary, before entering this debate) and, indeed, her reason for having any sort of intellectual career worth talking about is that she has become a principal opponent of ID. What's more, my contributions…

Bush and the Courts

As expected, the Bush administration is asking the courts to ignore possible violations of the constitution stemming from the NSA programs for tracking domestic and international calls without ever looking into the question. The U.S. government has asked a pair of federal judges to dismiss legal challenges to the Bush administration's controversial domestic eavesdropping program, arguing any court action in the cases would jeopardize secrets in the ongoing "war on terror."... In asking federal judges in Detroit and New York to throw out challenges to the eavesdropping, the Bush…

Randall Terry: Expert on Islam

This cracks me up. I regularly look at the Agape Press website for ideas on things I might wanna write about involving church and state or ID. But I had to laugh when I read this (scroll to the bottom): One expert says Islam's worldview is making massive inroads in Europe and could do the same in America. Randall Terry, who has spent a couple of years in intensive study of Islamic history, believes that religion's violent worldview is more misunderstood than people realize. While most of Islam's followers personally "would never cut someone's head off," Terry says, "most Muslims don't even…

Thomas More Law Center Sues SF

The Thomas More Law Center is suing the city of San Francisco claiming an establishment clause violation over a resolution passed by the Board of Supervisors that condemned the Catholic Church's teaching on gay adoption and urged Catholic Charities locally to ignore the Church's directives on the matter. Frankly, I think they may have a case and I'm curious to hear from some of our attorneys here. Certainly we would all agree that if the Board of Supervisors had voted to endorse a Catholic Church teaching as true, that would be an establishment clause problem. Is it a problem for them to take…

Lazy Blogging Saturday

It's been a while since I looked at the search engine keywords on Goggle Analytics for this site. It's a little depressing to find that PZ Myers turns up three times ("pharyngula," "Pharyngula," and "PZ Myers") before my own name. Worse yet, Aaron Bergman, who doesn't even have a blog any more, also shows up three times before I do. Aaron, start blogging again. Or get a LiveJournal account, given that "aaron bergman livejournal" is the fifth most popular search term on this site. Give the people what they want, already. There are also lots of people wanting to know how many substitutions you…

Best Novels of the 1990's

Over in LiveJournal Land, James Nicoll (SF reviewer and walking True Lab Story) is discussing the best novels of the 1990's. He doesn't have the "SF" in there, but it's sort of implicit, because that's what James does. Keeping up the literary/ pop culture bent of the last couple of weeks (there'll be science stuff soon, but it's the end of the term, and I don't even want to think about physics right at the moment-- it reminds me of the grading I should be doing), I'll post some suggestions after the cut. The list will mostly be SF, because that's the bulk of my reading, but I'll mix in a few…

Call for Posts: Enough is Enough

Back when ScienceBlogs was all new and shiny, I did a couple of posts asking questions of the other bloggers. I got involved with other things after a while, and stopped posting those, so I'm not sure this will still work, but here's a question for other ScienceBloggers, or science bloggers in general, that I thought of when I was writing about science books: What topic or phenomenon that's generally in your area do you really wish people would stop asking you about? I don't mean a major political controversy that you have a strong opinion about, but might be tired of (so no "creationism"…

The Essence of March

I'd be required to turn in my fan card if I didn't at least mention Syracuse winning the Big East Championship in one of the more improbable runs I've ever seen (the AP story is tarted up with ESPN graphics here). They looked dead heading into the tournament-- having lost by 39 to lowly DePaul barely a week earlier-- but won four games in four days by a total of eight points to defend their conference championship from last year. It's really hard to overstate how impressive Gerry McNamara's performance was in this tournament, though the sports media are going to do their damnedest to. I don't…