DBD 11.3.11 Choose Your Own Adventure: CGB Edition

The California women’s tennis team wraps up the fall tournament season, this weekend
No. 1-ranked California women’s tennis senior Jana Juricova will take aim at the 2011 USTA/ITA National Indoor Collegiate Championships singles crown, this weekend (Nov. 3-6), at the USTA-Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. The top-seeded Golden Bear is 11-2, in singles matches this fall, and opens up with a 12:30 p.m. ET match against 24th-ranked Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar of Texas A&M in the first round.

Philip Rivers of San Diego Chargers claims he said “Worst play ever”, not “Worst day ever”

Philip Rivers wants to set the record straight.

TV cameras caught Rivers saying what appeared to be, “This is the worst day ever,” moments after he fumbled away the snap in the final minutes of regulation Monday night as the San Diego Chargers were driving to what appeared to be certain victory at Kansas City.

The Chiefs recovered and went on to win 23-20 in overtime.

On Wednesday, Rivers said all the lip-readers out there are wrong.

“I didn’t say that. I don’t know if I ever said that. It wasn’t the worst day ever. It may have been the worst play I’ve ever been a part of, but it wasn’t the worst day,” Rivers said as the Chargers began preparing to face the undefeated Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

Twist #1 Detective Agency was unavailable to investigate. Let’s send our bench player out!

Here’s the gif.

Now, the contention is “Worst Play Ever” vs “Worst Day Ever”

I’m not linguist, but I am someone who speaks English. So here’s my take!

In order to say the word “play” and make that “p” sound, your lips have to touch. When you say “day” and make a “d” sound, your lips do not touch.

It’s clear after he says “worst” that his lips, in fact, do not touch, leading me to believe that he’s full of it.

Not that any of this matters, but I just wanted to point out!

California is the only school with two doubles teams at the indoor championships

California men’s tennis will send two doubles teams to the 2011 USTA/ITA National Indoor Collegiate Championships at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., this weekend (Nov. 3-6). The four Golden Bears represent the only school to secure two spots among the elite field of 20. Cal’s fifth-ranked duo of senior Nick Andrews and junior Christoffer Konigsfeldt is the fourth seed and will receive a first-round bye.

The Bears’ team of junior Carlos Cueto and sophomore Ben McLachlan earned a bid to the championships by virtue of their ITA Northwest Regional doubles crown. Cueto and McLachlan lead all Cal teams with a 10-2 record, this fall, and are currently riding a five-match winning streak. They will face the seventh-ranked team of Louis Cant and Malte Stropp from Mississippi State in a 9 a.m. ET first-round match on Thursday, Nov. 3.

Golden Bears close regular season in Palo Alto

Saturday, Nov. 5
7 p.m. (PST) – No. 23 Cal (12-5-2, 5-3-2) at No. 1 Stanford (18-0-1, 10-0)
Laird Q. Cagan Stadium – Palo Alto, Calif.
Series Record with the Cardinal: 11-15-4
Last Meeting: L, 3-0 in Berkeley (Oct. 30, 2010)

The No. 23 California women’s soccer team closes its regular season at top-ranked and rival Stanford in the Bay Area Derby on Saturday. The 7 p.m. contest will take place at a sold-out Laird Q. Cagan Stadium in nearby Palo Alto.

Cal enters its final regular-season match with a 12-5-2 overall record and a 5-3-2 mark in Pac-12 play. The Golden Bears are fifth in the conference with 17 total points as they look to leap-frog Washington State (19 points) and finish fourth in the league with a win on Saturday and a loss by the Cougars. Stanford captured its third-straight Pac-12 title last weekend and comes into its last match of the regular season with an unblemished 18-0-1 record and perfect 10-0 mark in the conference. The Cardinal has been ranked No. 1 in all four major polls for the majority of the season.

Cal in the National Rankings
California is ranked No. 23 in the latest TopDrawerSoccer.com national poll and is receiving votes in the National Soccer Coaches Association (NSCAA) and Soccer Times polls. The Bears climbed as high as No. 11 in the national rankings (TopDrawerSoccer.com) during the week of Sept. 19-25.

I’m cooking something up for a DBD. I can do tomorrow’s, that is if you’re done with the self loathing. But stop me of you want to go on.

Is being an A’s fan harder than being a Cal fan?

“The A’s aren’t going to make an offer,” Sosnick said Wednesday. “And if they do, it will be once they get a stadium decision. I don’t think it’s a case where they don’t want Josh, I just don’t think they’re strategically able to make a multiyear offer to anyone.”

BRB going fishing!

After a disappearing act in the ocean this summer, huge schools of striped bass have roared into San Francisco Bay in the past two weeks and provided the best fishing of the year. Stripers are a tide-dependent fishery, and for the coming weekend, the tides are ideal for a sensational encore performance in the north bay: A 4.4 high tide at 9 a.m. followed by a low tide of 3.2 feet at 5 p.m.

Ben has great news…

Bernanke warned that economic improvement will probably be “frustratingly slow,” with policy makers forecasting a 1 percentage-point drop in the jobless rate to about 8 percent over two years. The chairman said buying mortgage bonds is a “viable option,” comments that give the idea an “extra push” and increase already-high odds of the move, said Neal Soss, chief economist at Credit Suisse in New York.

So Amazon has opened a Kindle library.

How exactly does it work? I’ve done the reading so you don’t have to!

You own a Kindle device (iPads with the Kindle software do not apply) and Amazon Prime (still unclear if Prime for students is eligible).

Some books you can “borrow” for free instead of buying. There are some quality (though older) selections like Liar’s Poker and Fast Food Nation. You can only borrow one book at a time, up to once a month. There is no due date. Because of this once a month limit, Amazon has not manufactured scarcity for the e-books yet (the equivalent of a book already being checked out at the library). No word as to whether they plan to expand into a premium service that lets you “Netflix” books.

You return the book by hitting “return”, which enables you to borrow another book.

This just in: Big firms don’t pay enough taxes

A comprehensive study released on Thursday found that 280 of the biggest publicly traded American companies faced federal income tax bills equal to 18.5 percent of their profits during the last three years — little more than half the official corporate rate of 35 percent and lower than their competitors in many industrialized countries.

“One Last Thing”

Really interesting. Warts and all. Good stuff from Walt Mossberg (technology columnist at the Wall Street Journal).

By the way, here is the full joint interview with both Gates and Jobs. Fascinating stuff.

I had an awkward moment yesterday. I had to meet a client downtown at a bank in WC. It turned out to be right in front of the Occupy Walnut Creek protest. So, I found myself walking towards the bank right through a big group of people marching chanting “HEY HEY HO HO CORPORATE GREED HAS GO TO GO”

Of course, I was in a full suit, so they must have thought I was the enemy. I would say the average age was about 70 or so years old. It was vaguely sad, really. There were a bunch ofpeople at Starbucks nextdoor just watching the whole thing. One of the protestors came up and yelled “Grab a sign and join us!” to the random group there. Nobody moved. Kinda funny.

Field Hockey-er gets honord:

BERKELEY – Sophomore forward Andrea Earle was named the NorPac West Offensive Player of the Year and was also tabbed as the NorPac West co-Player of the Year at the NorPac Tournament banquet, held Wednesday night in Palo Alto. Earle was one of four players to be named to the All-Conference team. Freshman forward Lara Kruggelearned All-Conference honors and was tabbed as the NorPac West Freshman of the Year.

Cal had four players named to the NorPac West All-Conference team. In addition to Earle and Kruggel, senior defender Erin Magill and sophomore midfielder Shannon Elmittalso earned All-Conference honors.

Earle had a breakout season, transforming the Bears into one of the top-10 offenses in the nation (currently ranked No. 8 in goals per game with a conference-best mark of 3.68 per game). Earle, who leads the Conference in goals per game (.94, 16th in the NCAA) and points per game (2.19, 19th NCAA), has been the spark plug igniting the Cal offense all season. She has been named the NorPac West Offensive Player of the Week three times this season, more than any other player in the Conference.

“Andrea is an offensive weapon as her stats show,” said head coach Shellie Onstead. “In addition, she has scored a number of goals in clutch situations when we are tied or behind. She is also splitting time with five other Cal forwards while ranking as high nationally as forwards that play 70 minutes per game.”

Earle shares the Player of the Year honors with Stanford’s Becky Dru, who earned the Defensive Player of the Year award.

MWP to take on UCSB:


Bear Bites:
No. 4-ranked Cal (16-3, 4-1) plays its 15th road match of the season when it travels to No. 5 UC Santa Barbara (14-7, 2-2) for an MPSF contest Saturday (Nov. 5) at 12 p.m. at UCSB’s Campus Pool. With only four regular season matches remaining, the Golden Bears are looking to finish strong in order for a high seeding at the Nov. 25-27 MPSF Tournament at UCLA. Cal’s three losses this season have all been by one goal and to teams currently ranked above the Bears (6-5 to No. 1 UCLA Sept. 18, 10-9 in overtime to No. 3 Stanford Oct. 2, and 9-8 in sudden death overtime to No. 2 USC Oct. 15). Conversely, Cal also has victories over both top-ranked UCLA (8-4 Oct. 2 and 8-5 Oct. 7) and Stanford (8-7 Sept. 18). Cal features the 2010 National Player of the Year Ivan Rackov, who leads the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in scoring with 55 goals in 18 matches (3.06 gpg). The Bears also lead the MPSF in team scoring with 12.89 goals per game, and are fourth behind USC, Stanford and UCLA in team defense, allowing 5.95 goals per game. Cal has outscored its opponents, 245-113, this season. On Sept. 5 Rackov became this season’s first MPSF Player of the Week after tallying 12 goals in Cal’s Sept. 3 home victories over UC Davis and Santa Clara, and he was the Oct. 24 conference POW with four goals in an 11-8 win over No. 6 Pepperdine. The Bears’ junior goalie, Justin Parsons, was tabbed as the Oct. 10 MPSF Player of the Week after tallying 26 saves in MPSF wins at current No. 1-ranked UCLA and Long Beach State, and a victory at No. 10 UC San Diego.

Aldon Smith honored:

The recognition for the resurgent San Francisco 49ers continues to roll in as rookie outside linebacker/defensive end Aldon Smith was named NFL Defensive Player of the Month for October. He finished the month with 17 tackles, 6.5 sacks, one forced fumble, one safety and three passes defensed. He became the first 49ers player to record a sack in four consecutive games since Andre Carter did it in 2002. The last 49ers rookie to win a player of the month award was Patrick Willis in December 2007.

The September winner was Redskins outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan. The Redskins use him as an every down linebacker, which will keep him in the running for the award. Through two months, Kerrigan has 33 total tackles (four for a loss), two sacks, 13 QB pressures, an interception, four passes defensed and two forced fumbles.

Silver And Black Pride is concerned about Oakland offense:

The Raiders offense is going to be completely unrecognizable this Sunday. It is both thrilling and frightening at the same time.

This has the potential to be an absolute disaster. Carson Palmer will be starting after being back in football for two and half weeks. The team’s offensive MVP Darren McFadden is almost certainly out. TJ Houshmanzedah replaced Derek Hagan. Marcel Reece is back for the first time since Week 2, and Jim Otto will be playing center (I might have made this up).

That is a lot of change. There will undoubtedly be a problem with fluidity. However, there is also a chance to see dimensions out of this offense we haven’t seen.

FearTheFin talks Penguins preview:

1.9%. Any guesses on which Penguin posted this shooting percentage over their final twenty game stretch last season?

Not Orpik, not Talbot. That’s James Neal’s shooting percentage after he was traded with Matt Niskanen from the Stars for Alex Goligoski.

Yuck.

Many doubted Neal’s successful first few seasons in the league, and his long term scoring potential in the NHL, based on those twenty games when he put just one goal in the back of the net in a much more critical hockey market. He was brought over in part to help with the absence of Crosby, and by almost all metrics was a complete and utter dissapointment.

That’s the thing about sample size, though. A twenty game stretch is a poor indicator of expected career play, especially for a guy who has scored 27 and 24 goals in full seasons prior to last. Case in point, Neal has nine goals in just thirteen games this year, scoring on a whopping 17.3% of his shots. Will he continue at this clip all year? No, and that’s kind of the point of the argument. You can’t assume anything with confidence based on limited stretches of play, good or bad. Still, the 17.3% is a hell of a lot closer to his career 13.5%-ish number.

This discussion about sample size when it comes to shooting percentage isn’t just interesting in the context of tonight’s game, but also because the Sharks have their own roller coaster shooter. Joe Pavelski.

[1]

Authorities used tear gas early Thursday on anti-Wall Street protesters who defied orders to disperse after earlier shutting down the Port of Oakland, California, police said.

A crowd of several hundred people threw rocks and shot fireworks at officers after being asked to leave the scene, prompting officers to fire tear gas, authorities said.

…

Police said in a statement that after a day of “primarily peaceful” demonstrations, they responded to a late-night call that protesters had broken into and occupied a downtown building and set several fires.

“The protesters began hurling rocks, explosives, bottles and flaming objects at responding officers,” the statement said. “Several private and municipal buildings sustained heavy vandalism.”

Dozens of protesters wielding shields were surrounded and arrested, police said.

Police issued their first order to protesters to clear the area about 11:55 p.m., the statement said. After “repeated orders” were issued, police were then ordered to fire tear gas and bean bags at the demonstrators.

Also, I’m a terrible person, but this made me laugh

Earlier Wednesday, police said a small group of protesters vandalized five businesses, including banks and a Whole Foods.