Category: News

Toby Gerhart may have been the figurehead of the 2009 Stanford football team, but the most important piece to the Cardinal puzzle this season just might have been filled by his backfield counterpart, redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Luck.

Just a quick look at the numbers suggests this. Gerhart had a spectacular season in 2008, breaking Stanford’s single-season rushing record with 1,136 yards and 15 touchdowns. Yet the Cardinal still went 5-7 and was never truly a force on the offensive side of the ball.

Gerhart’s numbers jumped dramatically this season, nearly doubling to an astronomical 1,871 yards and 27 touchdowns. But throughout all of it, Gerhart was essentially the same player doing what he’s always done. Running back is a position where success is largely based on size and speed, not experience. Even further, it’s a position where success is predicated on what is going on with the rest of the football team. If a team falls behind consistently, it will be forced to play catch-up and won’t run the ball much. If the offensive line experiences trouble, then the running back probably won’t be making an appearance at the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan come early December. And so on and so forth.

The difference in Gerhart’s numbers this season is explained by the fact that his team was simply better this season. It possessed the ball longer (leading to more carry attempts) and was in position to score more often (leading to more touchdowns).

Luck’s play at quarterback had a lot to do with that and this was evidenced by his absence in the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Senior quarterback Tavita Pritchard, who will be forever enshrined in Stanford football lore after leading the Cardinal to a 24-23 victory over No. 2 USC two years ago, just couldn’t match up against the Sooner defense. Although Gerhart tallied 135 yards and two touchdowns, it was an uphill battle for him all game, as the Sooners were able to put nine defenders in the box without having to pay for it.

“I thought our football team played as well as it possibly could,” said Coach Jim Harbaugh after the game.

With Luck out of the lineup, Stanford’s best wasn’t good enough.

After a stellar season, Stanford football had no such Luck against Oklahoma in the Sun Bowl. The Card offense struggled without its young quarterback, who was sidelined with a broken finger. (MASARU OKA/Staff Photographer)

In any case, the point of this article isn’t to harp on Pritchard for his performance or to downplay the numbers of Gerhart, who easily had the best season for a running back in Stanford football history — and probably should have won the Heisman Trophy. The point is to highlight the significance of Luck, a player who will be the team’s starting quarterback for what should be at least another two years.

Many Cardinal fans may be inclined to think Coach Harbaugh’s program has reached its apex, with Gerhart likely forgoing a possible fifth year of eligibility to take his shot at the NFL. But that just isn’t the case as long as Luck is at the helm. Gerhart’s numbers will be nearly impossible to replace, but freshman running backs Stepfan Taylor and Tyler Gaffney will relish the opportunity for more playing time in his absence and fill the vacancy to the best of their abilities. Taylor has already shown himself to be a shifty back with adequate power and speed.

That said, the Stanford program is in Luck’s hands, even though the humble quarterback would deny such a designation without second thought.

“There have been some really good quarterbacks at Stanford since John Elway,” ESPN broadcaster David Norrie told the San Jose Mercury News back in November. “But this is the first Stanford quarterback since Elway where you go, ‘Wow.’”

Harbaugh, known for his hyperbolic statements and his lofty ambitions, even called Luck “the country’s best quarterback.” The rising redshirt sophomore might not be that at this particular moment in time, but he has a great chance to put his naturally memorable name in the same conversation as the likes of Elway and Plunkett.

Italian manufacturer Alfa Romeo recently released UK pricing for the MiTo MultiAir range, set to arrive on the British market this spring. The vehicle will be available in two engine versions, namely the 135 bhp 1.4 Turbo, and the top-of-the-range 170 bhp 1.4 Turbo which will carry the Alfa Cloverleaf badge.

Available for order through the Alfa Romeo UK dealer network from early January 2010, the MiTo’s MultiAir engine range promises lower emissions and fuel consumption, as well a… (read more)

Article Tags: Met Office, UK Winter Forecast 2009/10, World Temperatures

Britain was warned today it is facing one of the coldest winters in 100 years as the Arctic blast brought more chaos to airports, roads, railways and schools.

Snow has already closed Manchester Airport this morning, while ten train services between London and Leeds on the East Coast Main Line have been cancelled and thousands of school pupils have been told to stay home.

Six inches of snow is forecast to fall today as the icy blast tightens its grip. The South is expected to see the worst of the weather as heavy winter showers move south across England and Wales throughout the day.

Click source to read FULL report

Source: dailymail.co.uk

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Bowl season — a time to reach elite status or salvage a season. A time to knock off the big boys or cement your team’s success. A time to prove how competitive your conference is.

Someone forgot to tell the Pac-10.

After the regular season, many people, including yours truly, thought that the Pac-10 was the best — and certainly deepest — conference in all of college football. Seven of the 10 teams made bowl games. Five teams finished the regular season in the BCS Top 25, more than any other conference.

The Pac-10’s juggernaut USC had not just been dethroned — the Trojans were embarrassed, falling to fifth in a conference they once dominated. What some would call parity was thought to be depth. Six Pac-10 teams won eight or more games in the regular season and five of the six were in contention for a Rose Bowl berth in the final weeks.

This, combined with the Pac-10’s success in previous bowl seasons (5-0 last year and 4-2 two years ago), made fans excited about this year’s bowl games. Finally, a chance to show East Coasters that the best football in the nation is played out west. A chance to prove the doubters from the SEC wrong and to further legitimize the protests that Toby Gerhart is the true Heisman Trophy winner.

Whoops.

You might have heard what happened to Stanford. Losing 31-27 against perennial powerhouse Oklahoma when the Cardinal was missing its starting quarterback, redshirt freshman Andrew Luck, is certainly nothing to hang your head about — particularly for a program coming off seven consecutive losing seasons.

Of course, detractors like to point out that Oklahoma was missing its starting quarterback as well, former Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford. Clearly this was an enormous loss, especially combined with the loss of All-American tight end Jermaine Gresham, but the Sooners have been playing nearly all year with backup quarterback Landry Jones — this was not as big of adjustment as it was for Stanford to miss Luck.

Stanford was an underdog by just over a touchdown, thus it’s no shock that it fell short. Still though, the Cardinal had an experienced backup Tavita Pritchard filling in and Stanford led at halftime, so there isn’t much of a sense of a moral victory. At least the Cardinal did not disappoint as much as the rest of the conference, though.

Of the six other Pac-10 teams, only two won their bowl games, while three lost by double digits. The games went as follows: Oregon State looked outmatched against BYU 44-20 in a game that was expected to be nearly a dead heat; Cal was dominated by Utah, 37-27, in a game Cal led 14-0; USC overcame a lackluster first half to outlast offensively-challenged Boston College, 24-13; UCLA came back from a halftime deficit to defeat Temple (which hadn’t been to a bowl game in 30 years), 30-21; Arizona got flat-out embarrassed by Nebraska 33-0; and Oregon laid an egg against Ohio State 26-17 in the Granddaddy of Them All. What makes this 2-4 bowl record even worse is that all six of these Pac-10 teams were favored to win their games by the oddsmakers.

As a Pac-10 fan and a hater of East Coast bias, this bowl season really hurt. I knew the Mountain West teams were very talented, so I thought BYU and Utah had a chance against Oregon State and Cal, but I expected the Beavers and Golden Bears to at least put up respectable performances. The wins by the L.A. schools were dull and expected, but at least they won. I cannot believe how poorly Arizona played against Nebraska — I would never have thought the Cornhuskers could score 33 points, not to mention hold Arizona scoreless.

Despite all these embarrassing performances, the toughest to handle for me was Oregon losing in the Rose Bowl. For once, all the experts predicted a win for the Pac-10 and Oregon seemed to finally be getting its share of hype. There seemed to be no way the Buckeyes could stop the high-powered Ducks offense, yet that’s exactly what they did.

Conferences are judged by their best teams and the Pac-10’s best teams could not deliver. The top four teams in the Pac-10 were outscored a combined 134-64 in the most important games of their seasons, which is frankly unacceptable.

I still believe the Pac-10 is one of the toughest conferences in the nation, but it’s hard to make a very compelling argument to support that now. Instead, Pac-10 fans have to resort to one of the most common clichés in sports.

There’s always next year.

Jacob Jaffe feels incredibly guilty about rooting for USC. Give him some joy by discussing the Trojans’ latest NCAA infractions at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu.

BBC News (Yolande Knell)

With photo

Archaeologists in Egypt have said they have discovered the largest known tomb in the ancient necropolis of Sakkara, to the south of Cairo.

The tomb dates back 2,500 years to the 26th Dynasty and contains important artefacts, including mummified eagles.

It is one of two newly discovered tombs found by an Egyptian team working close to the entrance of Sakkara, the burial ground for Egypt’s ancient capital.

The tomb consists of a big hall hewn out of the limestone rock.

There are a number of small rooms and passageways where ancient coffins, skeletons and well-preserved clay pots were discovered, as well as the mummies of eagles.

Discovery News (Rossella Lorenzi)

With some good photos.

An Egyptian team led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has unearthed the largest tomb yet discovered in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, also known as the “City of the Dead.”

Saqqara largest tomb

Filled with skeletons, coffins and eagle mummies, the tomb was found just near the entrance point of the archaeological site.

Simply cut into limestone, the burial, which dates to the 26th Dynasty (664 -525 B.C.), extends from a large rock-hewn hall into a number of corridors and small rooms. Inside, the archaeologists found several coffins, skeletons and pots.

Saqqara largest tomb

At the tomb’s northern end, the team unearthed a room filled with shards of ancient pottery, coffins and mummified eagles.

According to Dr. Hawass, the 2,500-year-old tomb had been opened several times during its history. Most likely, it was robbed at the end of the Roman period.

Saqqara largest tomb

The team also uncovered a second large tomb which featured a sealed limestone room. Scattered inside, there were many clay pots and several ancient coffins.

The finding “shows that Saqqara still harbors secrets,” Dr. Hawass said.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Being a Stanford sports fan just got harder. A lot harder. Gone are the days of being able to sit in the Red Zone chanting “Toby, Toby!” over and over while Cardinal football steamrolls opponents. Gone are the days of watching All-Americans Kelly O’Hara and Christen Press lead Stanford women’s soccer to an undefeated regular season and a berth in the National Championship.

Gone are the days of women’s volleyball winning its 16th conference title and making its 29th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. Gone are the days of men’s soccer reclaiming national prominence. Gone are the days of seeing men’s water polo atop the national rankings.

Now? Our ‘welcome back to campus’ gift this quarter was a game in which Jerome Randle and the rest of the California Golden Bears crushed a woefully overmatched Stanford squad, 92-66.

Yep, the good-ol’ days are definitely gone.

To compensate for the drop-off of talent and success, here are seven promotions, giveaways and gimmicks that would give the men’s basketball season the amusement it so desperately needs.

1. Bring a keg to the game. The first 50 students (21 and older, of course) in the game are allowed to buy a $10 seat in the student section for their kegs. This one will take care of three problems. First, it encourages students to arrive early. Second, it will all but force fans to stay to the end of the game, no matter the score, because who wants to lug a half-full keg back out of the arena? Third, it will raise some much-needed revenue for the Athletic Department.

2. Golf Cart Giveaway. All students who attend the game will automatically be entered into a halftime raffle to win a golf cart, complete with an all-access parking pass. One caveat: winning fan must hop into the cart and ghost ride all around the court á la Marshawn Lynch.

3. Borat Night. In honor of 6’10’’ sophomore center Matei Daian, a native of Romania, all students will receive a neon-green Borat swimsuit and fake moustache. As frivolous and ridiculous as the giveaway may sound, can you think of a more surefire way for Stanford to get on SportsCenter? I didn’t think so. (And yes, I’m aware Borat is from Kazakhstan, but I don’t think Stuart Scott and Scott Van Pelt would mind.)

4. Taunt the Tree at Halftime. The Leland Stanford Jr. University Marching Band’s mascot has gained notoriety for being cited for public drunkenness at a game after blowing a 0.157 and for fighting and removing the head of Oski, the Cal mascot. So, why not let the Tree get a taste of its own medicine? At halftime, students will be prompted to throw any objects they want at the Tree, which will be forced to stand at center court and take the abuse. Soda, tomatoes, dirty underwear, Stern Dining lasagna — anything that passes through a metal detector.

5. Retro Night. Show footage of the Lopez Twins, Josh Childress, the Collins Twins and other former Stanford greats to remind fans that yes, the Cardinal once had an elite program; and yes, that success can be replicated in the near future.

6. Treehouse Pizza Eat-Off. Ten lucky students will be chosen for an eating competition. The rules are simple: you have the entire game, from tip-off to the final buzzer, to consume as much greasy Treehouse pizza as possible. The student section will be divided into ten groups and assigned to a competitor. If your eater wins, you receive a coupon for a quarter-long supply of pizza.

7. Lil’ Romeo Night. When USC strolls into Maples Pavilion, its most famous (and arguably worst) player, Percy Miller a.k.a. Lil’ Romeo, will be treated to a montage of his work. At every timeout, fans will hear such classics as “My Baby” and “True Love.” At halftime, the Jumbotron will show a few of Mr. Miller’s acting clips, including, but not limited to, Honey, Uncle P and everybody’s favorite, Crush on U.

Mike Lazarus thinks Stanford can attract basketball fans by giving away free shit. Tell him you’d prefer a center to a Borat suit at mlazarus “at” stanford.edu.

Article Tags: PETE DU PONT

Al Gore said the other week that climate change is “a principle in physics. It’s like gravity. It exists.” Sarah Palin agreed that “climate change is like gravity,” but added a better conclusion: Each is “a naturally occurring phenomenon that existed long before, and will exist long after, any governmental attempts to affect it.”

Over time climates do change. As author Howard Bloom wrote in The Wall Street Journal last month, in the past two million years there have been 60 ice ages, and in the 120,000 years since the development of modern man, “we’ve lived through 20 sudden global warmings,” and of course this was before–long before–“smokestacks and tail pipes.”

In our earth’s history there has been both global warming and global cooling. In Roman times, from 200 B.C. to A.D. 600, it was warm; from 600 to 900 came the cold Dark Ages; more warming from 900 to 1300; and another ice age from 1300 to 1850. Within the past century, the earth has warmed by 0.6 degree Celsius, but within this period we can see marked shifts: cooling (1900-10), warming (1910-40), cooling again (1940 to nearly 1980), and since then a little warming. The Hadley Climatic Research Unit global temperature record shows that from 1980 to 2009, the world warmed by 0.16 degree Celsius per decade.

Source: online.wsj.com

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The sun isn’t supposed to help your vision, but for patients suffering from blindness, solar power may be the key to restored sight, according to Stanford researchers.

Ophthalmology Prof. Daniel Palanker, along with a team of researchers, has created a new artificial retinal implant that uses photovoltaic power to provide power to a chip implanted at the back of the eye. The discovery is particularly significant because previous implants had no way to send power to the chip in order to process light and data inside the eye.

Development of these new retinal implants used electronic retinal prostheses in order to restore sight to patients suffering from degenerative retinal diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa and Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

While normal vision may be out of reach for many patients, the implants could nonetheless offer dramatic vision improvements.

“We hope to be able to restore visual acuity up to the level of 20/100 because while 20/20 is normal vision, people with retinal degeneration may lose sight to the levels of 20/400 or below,” Palanker said.

According to neurobiology Prof. Stephen Baccus, a member of the research team behind the implant, the goal is to produce an electronic device that allows people to naturally perceive visual images, objects and motion.

Currently, the research team is studying how the retina processes visual information as a way to understand how neural circuits in the brain function.

“A natural use of this research is to construct an electronic device to replace part of the function of the retina in cases of retinal degeneration,” Baccus said.

Unlike similar methods, the Stanford system uses “real-time computer processing to transform visual images in a way that approximates the real neural code used by the retina,” Baccus added.

This particular research project also mirrors the well-known Stanford tradition of interdisciplinary collaboration.

“Due to [the] highly interdisciplinary nature of this project, our group includes specialists from four departments at Stanford: Ophthalmology, Hansen Experimental Physics Lab, Electrical Engineering and Neurobiology,” Palanker said.

Currently in the basic research state, Palanker’s team is using both in vitro methods and in vivo–using small animals–in order to better understand the implants. Further development, including the change from lab animals to humans, will depend on funding and perfecting the current method of research. The team aims to design systems that transmit visuals more naturally.

“By making the electronic stimulation as natural as possible, we hope that learning process will be easier,” Baccus said.

As its first action item of the new term, the nine-member Palo Alto City Council last night unanimously elected Pat Burt as mayor of Palo Alto.

Burt, a resident of the city for the past 28 years, has served as councilmember since 2007.

At the meeting, Councilman Sid Espinosa was also named vice mayor by unanimous vote, and the year’s new City Council was officially introduced. As more than 200 attendees looked on, four new councilmembers–Karen Holman, Gail Price, Greg Scharff and Nancy Shepherd–and one returning member, Larry Klein, were sworn into office.

They replace outgoing Mayor Peter Drekmeier, Vice Mayor Jack Morton and councilmembers Yoriko Kishimoto and John Barton, who is also a Stanford lecturer in architectural design.

Spyker is still in play to take control of Saab but a final decision is yet to be made. Still, if such a scenario becomes reality, Spyker plans to delay plans to launch the much-debated Saab 9-1 entry-level car but continue to rely on popular models such as 9-3, 9-5 and 9-4X. The plans were revealed by Spyker CEO Victor Muller in an interview for AOL Autos but they would only come into effect in case the Dutch company manages to complete the deal with GM.

According to Automotive N… (read more)

Growing up in a small apartment house in Queens, New York,Nenna Yvonne at an early age discovered she had a natural gift for music. At 14 she decided that she wanted to devote her life to music. She had her heart set out to study music – so while attending La Guardia High school of Arts, she learned to write and compose music in various genres and languages including German, French, and Italian. At 19 she partnered up with DTox,her now producer and manager (whom she credits for much of  her development as an artist and soon to be released  first album project).

This 21 year old Nigerian born diva takes Jamati Entourage ‘Seun Johnson,on a journey through her music career,her experiences and her soon to be released debut album titled “Model Citizen“. Recently she received an honorable mention from the VP and Editor-in-Chief for Billboard magazine.

Jamati: How did music all begin for you?

Nenna: My interest in Music began in grade school when I sang the lead for a recital.

Jamati: How were you able to combine music and school,and what were your parents initial opinion about it?

Nenna: Hard work and dedication. My parents have always been supporters of the Arts.

Jamati: You sing,write songs,model,and you’re an enterpreneur.What else do you do?

Nenna: I can walk a tight rope off the empire state building..(joking) but I also write poetry.

Jamati: Have you ever wondered how much you’ve achieved at 21.What can you attribute these successes to?

Nenna: Supportive Friends and Family.

Jamati: What’s working and being managed by D-Tox been like?

Nenna: He’s been super supportive and an amazing producer.

Jamati: You’ve been outta Nigeria for like all your life.How do you relate with home and do you intend visiting anytime soon?

Nenna: I’ve been to Nigeria multiple times. I relate with people everywhere and hopefully I can do a live show there soon.

Jamati: You’re often compared to renowned singers like Neyo,Whitney Houston,Britney Spears…how does that make you feel?

Nenna: It excites me and I’m appreciative that I am being compared to veterans of Music.

Jamati: You have plans of releasing your debut album titled “Model Citizen”.Can you tell us more about this album…what inspired it’s title,who will you be featuring,number of tracks,the behind-the-scene experiences,etc.

Nenna: We’ve got features from Lady Gaga’s Producer Space Cowboy, Hip Hop Legends Mobb Deep and few undislosed names. But most importantly,6 great songs and a lot of emotion and growth as an artist. The production and vocals convey strength and power and that’s who I’ve become as a Nigerian Woman growing up In the States! I’ve learned a lot and I’m excited to share the experience with the World. I have A Model Citizen Campaign on the way, radio interviews posted on my MySpace Page and tons of great new photos and poems on my Music page as well. The inspiration for this experience came from months of writing and listening and just observing. A lot of credit is owed to my manager Dtox for taking the time to develop and mould my artistry.

Jamati: The music industry is filled with multi-platinum record holding artistes with billions of fans world wide,how do you feel entering this same industry?

Nenna: Excited to share the stage and anxious to get on stage in front of potential fans!

Jamati: How do you see your music affecting the lives of people?

Nenna: My passions for music will become my passion for any other works I take on as an artist.It doesn’t stop with the music. Hopefully my gift will act as a catalyst to working with those who have achieved great success through other forms of media in hopes to achieve unity and strength in this world.

Jamati: What’s the secret to your good looks and stunning vocals?

Nenna: Genetics! African women rock!

Jamati: What makes Nenna Yvonne tick?

Nenna: My love for Family,Music and God creations.

Jamati: What advice would you like to give young aspiring females around the world who seem lost in their dream to doing their own thing?

Nenna: My advice to all female who aspire to have more and never settle is just that! Set short term goals for yourself and realize that no one can work as hard for you as you can for yourself.Lots of prayer and humility goes a long way too.

Jamati: Who’d you like to give a shout out to?

Nenna: Shout out to Dtox- A true friend and Supporter! Without him none of this is possible.

Jamati: Jamati Online wishes you the best in all you do this New Year.

Nenna: Thanks Jamati! Happy New Decade!

5 Fun Facts About Nenna

– Her favorite food is African food and Indian food….she leaves us guessing?

– She loves going to the beach!For you all who wanna hook up,lol.

– She writes everyday on her blackberry…songs and poetry obviously.

– She’s met quite a few celebs…a long list you bet!

– She really feels cool to know she shares the same music interests as some major acts you might know.

You can listen to her songs and read more on Nenna Yvonne on the following links.

www.NennaYvonne.com
www.MySpace.com/NennaYvonne
www.StereoFame.com/NennaYvonne
www.Twitter.com/NennaYvonne
www.YouTube.com/NennaYvonne
www.facebook.com/NennaYvonne

Jill Lajdziak, the former CEO of GM’s Saturn, has been appointed President of smart USA by Penske Automotive Group, the retailer of the German brand in the United States. Lajdziak’s appointment in the new role comes less than a month after she was said to have started working for smart as vice president, sales and marketing.

As we look to enhance the position of the smart brand, Jill’s background and experience will help us reinvigorate the dealer network and bring a greater awar… (read more)

It was quite obvious that a potential deal between Mercedes GP and Michael Schumacher would have closed all doors for German driver Nick Heidfeld on his way to Brackley. The former BMW Sauber racer was hoping to secure the vacant seat alongside compatriot Nico Rosberg at Mercedes, but the return of Schumacher practically sealed all his hopes for the future.

While several other teams continue to be alternatives for the F1 veteran to continue his career in the series – Renault, US F… (read more)

Article Tags: John Vennari

Religious Leaders Hoodwinked into Global Warming Hysteria

England’s Prince Philip, once president of the World Wildlife Fund, said that when he dies, he wishes to return as a killer virus to “lower human population levels”. This same Prince Philip explained in 1990 that it was a major goal of the anti-life ecology movment to get religious leaders involoved, so as to give enviromnentalism a “spiritual imperative”. In this, the Green Movement has succeeded. Our church leaders are now dancing to the tune of today’s pro-abortion environmentalism.

Last month’s “Under the Green Thumb” (CFN, December 2009), spotlighted the questionable science and dark agenda behind today’s frenzy over alleged man-made global warming.[1]

We saw that this modern environmentalist movement is pro-abortion, pro-population control, and anti-human at its core; and that there are scientists by the thousands who challenge the entire concept that global warming is a man-made phenomenon; or that global warming is even happening! Meteorologist John Coleman calls the whole notion “the greatest scam in history”. [2] BBC climate correspondent Paul Hudson reported that many people would be surprised to learn “the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.”[3]

Source: cfnews.org

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FormSpring.com is a data collection and management system with a particular emphasis in online forms, registrations and surveys. And enterprise-level system, FormSpring.com might seem rather dry to anyone but an online retailer or event coordinator.

FormSpring.me, on the other hand, has tapped the very essence of what makes the social web so addictive. This new application, a free and social side project, nearly has all the requisite puzzle pieces to go completely viral. It’s fun, engaging, and slightly game-like, and it encourages the behaviors users love to indulge. It’s only missing one critical element.

Sponsor

A stable back end. But more about that in a moment. First, let me tell you what makes FormSpring.me so infinitely entertaining.

First, the site is user-to-user Q&A. This is the kind of formula that has populated the Web with masses of UGC on sites such as Yahoo! Answers and Wiki Answers. It’s also the basic formula behind such highly praised startups as Aardvark, which allows users to ping one another across networks to get answers about specific topics. Q&A between end users is a growing trend on the web, without a doubt.

Second, the site allows one user to anonymously ask questions of another user. Anonymity has bred some of the most interesting and varied experiments of the social web. Very often, a lack of links to users’ true identities leads to bathroom-wall-of-the-Internet content such as 4chan or YouTube comments. But while anonymity breeds trollism and is actually a dying phenomenon online, having a thin veil between the asker and the answerer of a question can act as a confessional booth in a way, allowing for more frank communication or the posing of some very interesting, controversial questions that might otherwise be considered impolite or risky.

Finally, one of the most enduring trends of the social web, from its inception to the present day, is our deep and insatiable love of self-reference. The provocative beginning question for the site is, “Ask me anything,” which users then tweet or post to Facebook. Answering questions all about you, your preferences, your past, your thoughts, your wishes and hopes, your regrets, what you eat and where you live – nothing is more intoxicating to the average social media user. From our first LiveJournal entries to mid-2000s MySpace chain surveys to our latest tweets, we clearly love talking about ourselves. The way that FormSpring.me caters to this inherently human attribute is by giving us the impression or illusion that someone, somewhere actually cares about what we think and do enough to ask us and expect an answer.

So, when you combine the power of a Q&A site with the magic of an anonymous commenting system and the addictive qualities of navel-gazing with the expectation of being noticed, you basically have on your hands the social web app of the year just waiting to happen.

And if it weren’t for back end – which is likely built on Ruby on Rails, according to a few sources we’ve consulted today – FormSpring would have not only a money-making enterprise app but also a blockbuster social app.

Although the concept is fascinating, the implementation is transparently shoddy. It seems like a hastily put-together weekend project along the lines of a Startup Weekend or Rails Rumble one-off. In fact, several developers we consulted said the site bears all the marks of a Ruby on Rails product, including rampant database scalability errors. ActiveRecord is a Rails class for accessing databases, and it’s been shown in past applications to be unscalable. Concurrency issues mean that a small group of geeks or judges can have a grand time with your app, but the second it catches on with the social media crowd and then – god help you – general Internet users, the app’s database is unable to handle that volume of traffic over a period of seconds, and end users start seeing error messages and abandoning ship like so many faithless rats.

And since FormSpring.me is in all likelihood a side project from a single staffer or a couple employees (the company blog doesn’t even mention the offshoot), it might not get the executive attention for further development or resource allocation. After all, without a revenue model, why would an enterprise-focused company waste time and energy on a social application?

Speculation aside, FormSpring.com support tech Ryan Dillman writes, “Eventually, we plan to rewrite the FormSpring.me code from the ground up using the same type of database as sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc., so that we can handle the load. In the meantime, the millions of calls to the database cause frequent issues during peak times.”

Many parts of Twitter are built on Scala, and Facebook’s database abstraction layer was developed in-house. If that kind of userbase – millions upon millions of users accessing the site around the clock – is what FormSpring is preparing for, they’re going to need a much more robust solution that’s much closer to bare metal than whatever they’re currently running.

And we do suggest they find one. FormSpring should consider monetizing and quickly scaling such an addictive little application before someone else does it next and better.

So, to take the site’s “Ask me anything” query and pose it to the site’s creators, do you plan to seriously devote resources to create a stunning and addictive social app, or is this experiment destined for the digital dustbin?

Ask us anything – or give us your frank opinions – in the comments.

Discuss

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San Jose’s hockey team isn’t the only shark in the Bay Area, according to a complaint filed against Comcast Cable by Stanford University, the city of San Bruno and two local cable providers.

The Dec. 23 Federal Communications complaint — filed jointly by Horizon Cable TV, WaveDivision Holdings, the city of San Bruno and Stanford University–alleges that Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, unfairly combined its Sacramento and Bay Area regional sports networks, forcing cable competitors wanting to broadcast Comcast’s programming to purchase both CSN Bay Area and CSN California (Sacramento).

Comcast reassigned its game coverage of MLB Baseball’s Oakland A’s and the NHL’s San Jose Sharks from its San Francisco network (CSN Bay Area) to its Sacramento network (CSN California), raising the price of both networks, even though CSN Bay Area lost coverage of its headlining teams. Competing cable companies that wanted to run coverage of those teams had to pay more for two Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) and non-Comcast subscribers were landed with increased rates.

What’s more, the complaint says, Comcast raised prices for its own combined sports network package without increasing “major league sports programming.”

Comcast maintains that it reassigned its game programming to reduce scheduling conflicts and increase local sports coverage. For instance, according to CED Magazine, CSN Bay Area used to run games of both the A’s and San Francisco Giants, whose extra-long major league seasons would conflict with The Sharks’ and NBA Golden State Warriors’ games. Comcast says offering games on the Sacramento network eliminates any overlaps.

The allegations come at a bad time for Comcast, which is in the process of buying NBC Universal. The petitioners, backed by the American Cable Association, which represents small and medium-sized cable operators like Horizon and WaveDivision, slapped Comcast with the FCC complaint now to ensure that Comcast does not discriminate prices with NBC content.

“The complaint highlights the need for additional safeguards and remedies to prevent Comcast Corp. from abusing its market power to harm consumers, competitors, and the public interest in the distribution of ‘must have’ regional sports networks under its control,” said American Cable Association President Matt Polka in a statement. “Regulators must be certain that if Comcast takes control of NBC Universal, it can’t engage in unfair methods of competition and deceptive practices when competitors seek access to NBC broadcast signals, Comcast-NBCU national cable networks, and various Internet-content services, such as live streaming of the Olympics.”

Stanford University, the city of San Bruno and WaveDivision and Horizon are asking for the FCC to sanction Comcast, restore the previous major league content arrangements and award damages to the petitioners.

By Jessica Shambora, Reporter, Fortune Brainstorm Tech

Despite the controversy surrounding standardized tests for college admissions (Are they fair? What do they measure?), exams like the SAT and ACT remain a necessary evil for most college-bound students.

The same might be said of the process of preparing for these exams, a phenomenon that has spawned a multi-billion dollar industry led by two companies, the Washington Post Co.’s (WPO) Kaplan and The Princeton Review.

But like the music and publishing industries before it, the test-prep sector faces disruption from scrappy Internet startups.

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