DBD 12.7.10 Regular Season Fantasy Football Champion!

Mens soccer player earns honor:

BERKELEY – California senior defender Demitrius Omphroy earned a spot on the TopDrawerSoccer.com Team of the Week, after he assisted on two goals in the Golden Bears’ recent NCAA Tournament quarterfinal game at Akron. Cal tied the Zips, 3-3, through two overtimes, before falling in a penalty-kick shootout, 3-2, on Dec. 4 in Akron, Ohio.

Omphroy set up Cal’s second goal against Akron, as he fired a shot that Akron Zips David Meves saved but could not hang onto, and sophomore midfielder Tony Salciccia smacked the loose ball into the net to give Cal a 2-2 tie. With time winding down and Cal trailing, he sent a ball from midfield into Akron’s six-yard box. Sophomore forward John Fitzpatrick latched onto the ball and fired past Meves to send the game into overtime at 3-3.

Mike Mohamed and Joe Starkey to be honored:

NEW YORK CITY – Former Cal linebacker Mike Mohamed and current radio play-by-play broadcaster Joe Starkey will be honored at the National Football Foundation’s Annual Award Dinner on Tuesday in New York City.

Mohamed is one of 16 members of the 2010 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class that are also finalists vying for the prestigious 21st William V. Campbell Trophy. Starkey will receive the Chris Schenkel Award which recognizes a sports broadcaster who has enjoyed a long and distinguished career at a single institution.

Each Campbell Trophy finalist will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship, and one of the 16 will be announced as the recipient of the Campbell Trophy during the event. The honor, endowed by HealthSouth, recognizes an individual as the absolute best scholar-athlete in the nation. Renamed last fall in honor of Bill Campbell, the chairman of Intuit, former player and head coach at Columbia University and the 2004 recipient of the NFF’s Gold Medal, the award formerly known as the “Draddy Trophy” and often referred to as the “Academic Heisman” comes with a 25-pound bronze trophy and a $25,000 post-graduate scholarship.

Mens Golf head coach to be inducted into HoF:


LAS VEGAS, NV – Cal head coach Steve Desimone will be one of seven members of the Golf Coaches Association of America’s 2010 Hall of Fame Class to be inducted Monday, December 6. The group will be officially honored at the GCAA Hall of Fame Reception and Awards Banquet at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas.

“There are a lot of great people and great coaches in college golf’s Hall of Fame, and many of them are the ones who really built college golf into the great sport that it is today,” said Desimone. “To be included in that group makes me smile and is something that will stay with me forever.”

Anybody have any recommendations on good iPad apps?

Broncos fire head coach:

Josh McDaniels has been the talk of the town ever since jumping on board in January of 2009. Certainly the city of Denver has been shaken to the bone ever since Mike Shanahan was fired after the abysmal 2008 season, but with McDaniels’ risky personnel moves, his leash was beginning to get shorter and shorter.

After trading Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Peyton Hillis and Tony Scheffler while using essentially a first round pick to draft Alphonso Smith, Josh McDaniels was putting his neck on the line. This news may come as no surprise to many but the timing of this coaching change leaves a lot of questions.

More evidence God hates me:


The Red Sox held a press conference today to introduce their newest player: star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez from San Diego.

It was all about good feelings a day after the Red Sox and Gonzalez had nearly parted ways with the trade left dead due to contract disagreements. While Theo Epstein said they hadn’t signed a contract extension, he emphasized the trust that had built between the two parties. Saying they went through with the deal as an act of “good faith”, he characterized the current situation as both sides having “an understanding” of what it would take “when the time is right.”

Niners QB Carosel continues:


An hour ago, Jason LaCanfora tweeted that Alex Smith would again be the 49ers starting QB:

    Alex Smith is again 49ers starting QB. Coach Mike Singletary met with his staff in San Fran when the decision was made. Troy Smith backs up

Thanks to Since79 and demise for their FanPosts on the topic, but obviously this is a discussion worthy of the front page. Since79 and others are vociferously against this decision and were so even before the announcement. The 49ers QB situation as is has arguments coming in from all over the place. We’ve got some folks who want Troy Smith running things, others want Alex Smith, and even others want Nate Davis to get his chance before the season ends. Poor David Carr has no support…that we know of.

Silver And Black Pride looks at Raiders playoff chances:



In Summation:

In the craziest AFC West in recent memory, the Raiders could finish 8-8 or 9-7, winning all 6 divisional games and not win the Division. Kansas City can finish 8-8 or 9-7 and not win while San Diego goes 1-3 against the Raiders and Chiefs yet wins the Division. Now wouldn’t that be an OUTRAGE?

Cheers and Go Raiders!!!

Sharks beat Detroit:



After a 3-1 loss in which they looked sloppy and lethargic, the Sharks came into Joe Louis Arena and handed the Western Conference leaders only their second regulation loss at home.

That’s not to say there wasn’t a fair amount of lethargy on San Jose’s part, though.

The Sharks didn’t inspire much confidence early, falling into a familiar 1-0 hole on Detroit’s first power play chance seven minutes into the game. At that point, Todd McLellan appeared to have had enough. Just 13 seconds later, the coach made a deft call, taking an early time out and lighting a fire under his team.

It worked.

ASUC does something:



The ASUC Senate passed a bill Wednesday night that aims to restructure an existing campus committee on student service fees into a new committee more representative of the student body that would make student service fee allocation recommendations to Chancellor Robert Birgeneau in order to comply with recently revised guidelines set forth in UC policy.

The bill recommends that the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Student Services and Fees become a Student Fee Advisory Committee and suggests that there be nine voting student members as well as campus administrators who would serve as nonvoting ex-officio members.

Currently, the advisory committee is composed of four members from the Committee on Student Fees and Budget Review – which was criticized for not following the nonbinding Guidelines for Implementing the UC Student Fee Policy, revised by the UC Board of Regents in May – and two members each from the ASUC and Graduate Assembly.

UC reads future:


With the University of California facing an increasingly precarious financial situation, the university’s Commission on the Future unveiled its final recommendations for maintaining the UC’s fiscal viability on Monday.

The recommendations focus on various methods to generate revenue for the university in a time of drastically reduced state funding for the system’s 10 campuses, including increasing the number of out-of-state students, negotiating better cost recovery rates to reduce research overhead costs, increasing the amount of money yielded through private fundraising and increasing the revenue generated by the UC’s self-supporting programs.

Lawsuit over Berkeley city library nears settlement:



After three months of negotiations over the Berkeley Public Library’s contentious renovation plans – which do not currently require Environmental Impact Reports – the city of Berkeley and the Concerned Library Users are on the verge of a settlement, though its validity has yet to be determined.

The settlement, which was announced Tuesday, would reconcile debate over the classification of the library’s zoning. In the lawsuit filed Aug. 30, the association challenged the city in its adoption of a new law permitting the library to obtain a use permit, rather than a variance – which would require the Zoning Adjustments Board to complete an EIR for the renovations – in order to proceed with any future construction projects.

The Berkeley City Council is scheduled to either confirm or deny the proposed settlement in a closed session on Dec. 13, according to city spokesperson Mary Kay Clunies-Ross, though the details of the settlement will remain confidential until after the meeting.

UC looks to cut excess utilities costs:

For the past six years, UC Berkeley has spent at least $6 million more on utility bills per year than the state provides, leaving those extra expenses to be paid for through the campus’s own funds, according to campus officials.

The campus receives roughly $20 million annually from the state to pay for natural gas, steam and electricity usage, but it has been paying between $26 million and $29 million, said Lisa McNeilly, campus director of sustainability. Due to the high utility bills, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau allocated $6.4 million in the 2009-10 academic year, $9.9 million in 2008-09 and $7.9 million in 2007-08, according to campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof.

Security upgrades to deal with protests are $$:

Close to midnight on Dec. 11, 2009, several dozen masked demonstrators marched to UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s on-campus home, angered over the mass arrest of 66 protesters earlier that day. Some wielded torches; others smashed the house’s lights and damaged its impact-resistant windows as Birgeneau and his wife called police from inside. Close to $14,000 in damages was done to the home, and eight protesters were arrested by campus police.

Later that month, the campus was authorized to spend $151,050 on a brand new security system for the home consisting of several cameras and motion detectors, as well as paint and patch work to install the new system. By July, the campus had spent an additional $85,800 on further security upgrades to the house including 350 feet of new fencing, two gates and several “no trespassing” signs.

GSI Union votes to ratify contract:


Following four days of voting and more than five months of negotiating, it was announced Friday morning that members of a union representing nearly 12,000 academic student employees voted to ratify a tentative agreement recently settled between the union and the University of California despite unprecedented levels of dissent within the union over the contract.

Thursday marked the final day of voting by members of the United Auto Workers Local 2865 – a union that represents graduate student instructors, readers and tutors throughout the UC system – and after polls closed, members of union election committees from each UC campus traveled down to Los Angeles where all campuses’ ballots were counted. Early Friday morning, results showed that 62.4 percent of members over all the campuses had voted to approve the contract.

Notes from Pats Pulpit

AP Recap

I’m no Pats fan; I only like Brady because he’s from San Mateo (represent!), but I can’t stand Rex Ryan or the Jets or Mark Sanchez.

Sanchez had a JaMarcus Russell-esque 27.8 QB rating with 3 picks.

[1]

So what, exactly, is going on? There’s no way to know, but I have two theories. The first theory is that, while Pau’s offseason actually being an off season is surely a good thing, it might actually be harming him in the short term as he logs these heavy minutes. It is important for professional athletes to give themselves a break for their overall health. The body needs time to recover from the rigors of the travel and pounding on the body that all athletes go through. However, it is considerably more difficult to build day-to-day stamina than it is to maintain it, and we might be seeing that with Gasol now. It’s may not be good for Gasol to play 40 minutes a night for long periods of time, but it might be easier for him to have done so when his body was used to playing basketball all the time.

The other theory is a little more worrisome. Perhaps Pau’s play in the last few games has been more injury driven than fatigue driven. We all know that reports of a slight hamstring strain surfaced after Pau’s anemic nine point, eight board effort against the Houston Rockets, but that was hardly the first game of Gasol’s fall from the statistical top of the league. Considering the sharpness of Pau’s decline (the game before the four game sample given above, Pau shot 9-14 en route to 21 points and 13 boards against the Utah Jazz), it seems far more likely that Pau’s hamstring has been an issue for longer than we’ve been made aware of it than the alternative explanation that Gasol quite suddenly got too tired to play up to his high standards.

Colbert is funny

Are there 5 sweeter words in the English language?

“California Golden Bears win again!”

“I’m breaking up with her” (Friend stops being lame and whipped"

“I’m breaking up with him” (Girl becomes available)

“I’m buying you a drink”

“Twist has been banned indefinitely”

“Here is your Christmas bonus”

“I’m naming my son Rishi”

“Alex Smith will not start”

“I’m lonely; please come over”

“Your stock portfolio is up”

Vanity Fair profiles Randy Quaid.

They’re spending nights in their car, on the run from the same shadowy cabal—"the Hollywood Star Whackers"—who may have killed Heath Ledger, possibly sabotaged Jeremy Piven, and could now be targeting Lindsay Lohan. No, this is not the plot of Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner Randy Quaid’s latest movie. It is what he and his wife, Evi, swear is really happening to them. With the Quaids in Canada, the author probes their nightmare reality, which has alienated friends and family, and turned the couple into outlaws.

NYT: What the tax deal means for you

The deal would ultimately set an exemption of $5 million per person and a maximum tax rate on estates of 35 percent — a higher exemption and far lower rate than many Democrats wanted.

The estate tax lapsed this year, but it was scheduled to return on Jan. 1 with an exemption of $1 million per person and a maximum rate of 55 percent.