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It’s Tuesday and that can only mean it’s time for our weekly feature, the BlackBerry Buzz. The BlackBerry is old in phone years, as RIM started moving from producing pagers to entering the corporate phone business a decade ago. The BlackBerry has been one of the most successful product lines in any business, and the look back that engadget has taken is an interesting read. They cover the last ten years, including landmarks for RIM such as hitting the one millionth subscriber back in 2004. The article is a must-read for all BlackBerry enthusiasts.

BlackBerry owners were no doubt beside themselves over the holidays as another service disruption hit that prevented web access. This latest outage was so soon after the prior outage that pundits are wondering what RIM can do to prevent them from happening so often. My newbie Crackberry spouse was almost frantic from the web disconnection, something amusing to watch as she’s only had a BlackBerry for a few weeks. This was her second major service disruption.

The Tour is a nice BlackBerry, although some wished it had better specs. Information about the Tour2 is emerging, and it looks like it will be a nice improvement of what is already a pretty good phone. The processor is beefed up and the cool trackpad and keyboard are still quite good. This looks like it will be a good refresh of the Tour.

Filed under: Government/Legal, Toyota

Remember the case of Dimitrios Biller versus Toyota? The lawyer and former Toyota employee accused the Japanese automaker of withholding evidence in rollover crashes and claimed to have boxes full of evidence that would make his case.

Well, Toyota is still dealing with Biller, but one of the side cases that sprung up as a result of Biller’s allegations appears to be going away. The New York Times reports that Todd Tracey, a lawyer with a history of suing Toyota, is dropping his plan to reopen 17 cases against the automaker. Tracy reportedly went through Biller’s stash of evidence and found that “I did not see any type of concealment, destruction or pattern of discovery abuse that affected my cases that I had sought to reopen.”

That’s a far cry from the “rise up to get Toyota to tell the truth about its hidden crash safety data” rhetoric Tracy unleashed a couple months earlier and one less headache for Toyota to deal with in what appears to be a very busy 2010. True, it’s likely Toyota will still have to deal with Biller, but Tracy’s public statement that the evidence wasn’t enough to justify opening old suits shows is less than a vote of confidence for the former Toyota employee’s chances in the court of law.

[Source: New York Times | Image: Joe Raedle/Getty]

REPORT: Lawyer Tracy withdraws lawsuits against Toyota originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this year at the SemTech conference in San Jose, I sat down with Wolfram|Alpha‘s Russell Foltz-Smith. Wolfram|Alpha bills itself as a "computational knowledge engine," a nerdy and unfortunately not very intuitive description. Because it’s hard to grok, most people have categorized Wolfram|Alpha as a new type of search engine. The site got a lot of press when it launched in May, as many pundits saw it as a challenger to Google. However in our own extensive tests of the product before launch, we concluded that it isn’t a "Google Killer" and that it has more in common with Wikipedia.

Even now there is still confusion about what Wolfram|Alpha is and what its main use cases will be. In this interview with Russell Foltz-Smith, we discuss what people are using Wolfram|Alpha for now; and more importantly what its uses will be in the near future.

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Editor’s note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we’ll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year – and ahead to what next year holds – we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It’s not just a best-of list, it’s also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb!

Wolfram|Alpha: What is it Good For?

Wolfram|Alpha is a product that was built on top of founder Stephen Wolfram’s Mathematica product, a software tool for mathematicians that was initially released in 1988. The aim is to allow users to type human-like statements and have computations done on those. Wolfram|Alpha was first conceived and started development about 4 years ago, and just 6-8 months ago the team gave serious consideration to taking the product to a wider consumer audience.

I started out by asking Foltz-Smith what the Wolfram|Alpha team thought of all the media hype around their product, particularly about the "Google Killer" theme which many media outlets reveled in. Foltz-Smith replied that they were expecting to be compared to Google, but not to that extent. Their team was a little surprised there wasn’t more discussion around Wolfram|Alpha’s similarities to Wikipedia and Freebase (although he noted that ReadWriteWeb certainly covered that!). Regarding the Google comparisons, Foltz-Smith said that they didn’t give into the hype – they stuck to what their goals were.

I remarked that many people still seem confused about what Wolfram|Alpha does and what it can be used for. Foltz-Smith said that people will use it for different things. The crux of the product though is that it allows people to compute and calculate things.

But will mainstream people use Wolfram|Alpha? Right now, it seems to be focused on mathematicians. Foltz-Smith replied that yes, eventually Wolfram|Alpha will find a mainstream audience. It has started specific, but it will go broader. First, he said, it has to "pass a test" with "serious users" – by which he means academics and computational users. If it’s useful for them, claimed Foltz-Smith, it will then go mainstream.

Use Case: Education

One real-world use case we talked about was using Wolfram|Alpha in education. Russell Foltz-Smith said that Wolfram|Alpha could be used to automatically generate problem sets for students, and then research those sets.

A recent article in education website Chronicle.com argued that Wolfram|Alpha may have a less desired effect: encouraging cheating and laziness in students. This is because Wolfram|Alpha not only solves complex math problems, it "also can spell out the steps leading to those solutions."

Stephen Wolfram told Chronicle.com that computer-algebra systems like Wolfram|Alpha actually improve education – because they allow students to explore complex problems on their own and intuitively determine how functions work, rather than just learn rote processes. Wolfram claimed that "it’s better to let them [students] stand on that platform and go further."

Either way, it’s clear that Wolfram|Alpha and similar computational software will force the education system to adapt and change. Students now have a new (and certainly easier to use, as it’s on the Web) platform on which to compute things. There’s no point in the education system pretending it doesn’t exist. If you’re interested in tracking the progress of Wolfram|Alpha in educational settings, there is a wiki devoted to ‘Teaching Undergraduate Math with Wolfram|Alpha.’

Use Case: Computational Journalism

This one was described to me as "anomaly spotting." For example with the current interest in swine flu news, Wolfram|Alpha could be used to fact-find and compute interesting trends. As Foltz-Smith described it, Wolfram|Alpha could "automatically enhance news."

Foltz-Smith noted that CNN and other major networks do this already (analyze data), but that it’s expensive to do. The end results on CNN are added value things like interactive maps and fancy diagrams. Wolfram|Alpha could make this type of data gathering and analysis presentation inexpensive and common place amongst all kinds of news operations – including good old blogs.

Use Case: Sports Watching

Imagine sitting in your sofa in the lounge, remote control in one hand and your favorite beverage in the other. You’re watching the Friday night game on TV, it’s a close game and you’re curious about which team has the better chance of winning. Why, check Wolfram|Alpha of course! In real time, Wolfram|Alpha could compute statistics about not just the history of the two teams – but the history of the location of the game, the weather, the season so far, etc.

As Foltz-Smith explained it, Wolfram|Alpha would be able to do "chained queries" – queries made up of multiple parts. For example: which quarterback had the best winning record in games played in the rain during the 1970s.

Other Use Cases

We also discussed medical and scientific use cases. Although there are early examples of Wolfram|Alpha in health, such as a nutrition label generator, Foltz-Smith was generally cautious about medical uses – because a lot of health data "can’t be wrong." He noted that in use cases like medical research, the issue of data fidelity is key. For example with the human genome, you have to take great care of that data and associated algorithms. Also he explained that as something like the human genome scales, how do you do QA?

Foltz-Smith admitted that the Wolfram|Alpha team is still working on these and similar issues. But they have a lot of people devoted to solving this problem. Some types of data could be crowdsourced, e.g. in linguistics, but other data needs different approaches.

Conclusion

It was interesting to hear about some of the potential uses of Wolfram|Alpha. We at ReadWriteWeb think this product has a promising future. If Web 2.0 was about creating data (user generated content, to use the most familiar term for this), then the next generation of the Web is all about using that data. Wolfram|Alpha is premised on using and computing data.

Let us know in the comments what use cases you see for Wolfram|Alpha, and whether you’re aware of similar computational web apps.

See also:

• Wolfram|Alpha: Our First Impressions
• Wolfram|Alpha in Action: Our Screenshots
• Mixed Emotions: Our First Hands-On Test Of Wolfram|Alpha
• Wolfram|Alpha Launch: Here’s What You Need to Know
• Wolfram Alpha Gets Its First Update

Discuss

Para el año que comienza en pocas horas y hasta el 2012, Audi planea invertir unos 7.300 millones de Euros para ampliar su gama de modelos, invertir en nuevos combustibles y efectuar mejoras de fondo en sus plantas de Ingolstadt y Neckarsulm.

De todo ese dinero, aproximadamente el 80% se dedicarán al desarrollo de nuevos productos y a la optimización de las directrices convencionales y al desarrollo de modelos eléctricos e híbridos.

Además la ya prolífica marca aumentará el número de modelos, de los 34 modelos actuales hasta 42. Esto ocurriría en el año 2015 de seguir adelante como hasta ahora con el nuevo plan de inversiones anunciado.

Si desde hace rato que nos parece que Audi está creciendo de manera desmesurada, esta noticia lo confirma. 42 modelos en catálogo de una marca de coches no es poca cosa y me gustaría saber si no será más contraproducente que beneficioso para la marca de Ingolstadt.

Vía | Audi Prensa

by Kit Stolz

The columnist George Will recently wrote about the new movie Up in the Air.

While breezily discoursing on the emotional pain of the worst unemployment record in decades,  Will happened to mention that the “opening soundtrack” to the movie, featuring a new version of Woody Guthrie’s classic This Land is Your Land, was (and I quote) “weird.”

Check out the song for yourself, via the interesting free music site LaLa:

Will, the bow-tied baseball-ed embodiment of white-bread conservatism, is about as stuffy as a man can be, so it’s no surprise that he completely misses the point of this funkified classic by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.

Jones sounds like a young Aretha unleashed. She and the Dap-Kings turn out to be a fascinating story in their own right, a collective devoted to the classic funk of the James Brown style.

Their sound is brassy and tight, but without synthesizers or digital gear, giving their songs an analog funkiness that’s timeless, sexy, and in your face. They even turn out to be the secret weapon behind the huge success of Amy Winehouse and her hits “Back to Black” and “You Know I’m No Good.”

But the truth is, of course, that George Will could never in a million years say anything good about this greatest of all American folk songs, funkified or not, because the lyrics challenge the unbounded faith in private property espoused by him and other American conservatives.

In the glossy, funny, but not phony movie, we only hear the first of Guthrie’s words. and then an up-dated fade-out of the song from the band, mentioning locales such as Houston and L.A.

Is it possible that after all these decades, the lyrics are still too radical for most movie-going Americans? Take a look or a listen, and decide for yourself …

As I went walking, I saw a sign there
And on that sign it said “Private Property”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothin’
That side was made for you and me !

Filed under: Etc., Videos

Only ten days ago Jonny Greaves jumped his closed-course race truck from one dirt ramp to another — those ramps being separated by close to 300 feet. Greaves ended up going 301 feet, and set the record for the longest ever jump in a 2WD truck. It’s even more fun to watch than to read about, if only because his engine makes his Toyota sound like it’s powered by demons and banshees. Follow the jump for the vid. The only thing it’s missing is Waylon Jennings…

[Source: Monster Energy]

Continue reading VIDEO: Johnny Greaves jumps stadium truck over 300′ to set world record

VIDEO: Johnny Greaves jumps stadium truck over 300′ to set world record originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Car Buying, Concept Cars, Marketing/Advertising, Aston Martin, Toyota, Design/Style

There are few automakers on earth as exclusive as Aston Martin, so we were more than a little surprised when the English exoticmaker announced it was going to build the Cygnet, a city car based on the prosaic Toyota iQ. After all, we chastise automakers for rebadging all the time, but Ford, Honda and General Motors products don’t have anywhere near the exclusivity of Aston Martin. Then there is the Cygnet’s reported $35,000 price tag. Some Aston purists were a little taken back by the “modest” $120,000 price tag of the V8 Vantage, so a $35,000 Toyota with a Rapide grille probably won’t go over well with more than a few loyalists.

The New York Times has shed a little light on the subject, reporting that only owners of full-sized Astons will be eligible to purchase the Cygnet. Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez said in the winter issue of Aston Martin magazine that “this concept is akin to an exclusive tender for a luxury yacht.” If that doesn’t make sense to you non-yacht owners, think of it as a 105 mph golf cart for Aston owners.

To further help the Cygnet stay exclusive, Aston only plans to build 2,000 copies of the iQ-based city car and there are no current plans to sell the mini car in the U.S. market, so it might be fair to say this is a bit of a commuter special for Londonites. Even still, while this novel sales plan may help to mitigate potential brand degredation that Cygnet skeptics suggest it may bring about, we can’t help but wonder how the thousands of non-Cygnet toting Aston owners will feel about their favored brand dipping a foot into the House of Toyota.

[Source: The New York Times]

REPORT: Want an Aston Martin Cygnet? You’ll need to have a big boy Aston first originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Petfinder.com, one of my favorite pet sites online (it’s how we found our sweet Honey, after all!), has released their list of the top names for pets for 2009.

Petfinder points out the interesting trend of Americans veering away from “traditional” pet names like Fido and Fluffy, and are instead opting for either more “human” names or going all out wacky (there’s an “oddest names” list too).

Buddy, Max, Daisy and Lucy are the top names for for dogs, and cats don’t stray too far with Lucy, Smokey, Midnight and Bella leading the feline list.

The unusual names list is the one I find most interesting, though. It makes me want to know how these people came up with them, at the very least (my favorite is “Angry Donut”):

~ Shyanne Thailand Moo Goo Guy Pan
~ Mr. Tomfoolery Scardeycat Eliot
~ Rusty Buckets
~ KeelHaul
~ Too Fancy for You
~ Angry Donut
~ Maple Syrup
~ Hoseclamp
~ Prince Xavier Binxley
~ Hoku-ho’okele-wa’a

What the most interesting pet name you’ve heard this year?

[image: flickr]

Post from: Blisstree

Petfinder’s Top Pet Names of 2009

Coinciding with the recent Nexus One news out there and pulling a page out of Apple’s playbook, Google has scheduled a press conference in Mountain View, CA on January 5th, 2010.  The text reads:

“With the launch of the first Android-powered device just over a year ago, we’ve seen how a powerful, open platform can spur mobile product innovation. And this is just the beginning of what’s possible.

Please join us in Mountain View on January 5, for an Android press gathering.”

I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t directly related to the Nexus One device.  Stay tuned for more information as we get it!

Via: Engadget Mobile

The founder of Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet has slapped Kim Kardashian and her famous caboose with a hefty lawsuit after the buxom reality star slammed the lifestyle fad as “unhealthy” in a post on her Twitter account this month.

Siegal is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.

If the sources that Digitimes is reporting are correct, then China can expect to see a few more customized, 3G phones in the coming year. The sources are saying that both Acer and Asustek are planning models for 2010, and that Acer is working with China Mobile and China Unicom to produce TD-SCDMA and WCDMA models while Asustek is reportedly set to release a China-specific Garmin-Asus branded handset for both carriers in 2010 as well. Now, keep in mind of course that none of this has been confirmed by either company as of yet, but the move certainly wouldn’t surprise us, either.

Acer, Asustek working on custom 3G phones for China? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unibody MacBook dips to $728 educational pricing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well well. Look at this. Taking a page from the CES-challenging Apple / Macworld playbook, Google has announced a press event on January 5th (just like we told you) in Mountain View, stating:

With the launch of the first Android-powered device just over a year ago, we’ve seen how a powerful, open platform can spur mobile product innovation. And this is just the beginning of what’s possible.

Please join us in Mountain View on January 5, for an Android press gathering.

If this lines up with the news we’ve seen recently, it’s likely a Nexus One announcement will be the order of the day, and most (if not all) of your nagging questions will get answered. You know we’ll be there live… so hang on to your hats, and mark down the date!

Google announces Android press conference for January 5th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article Tags: Climate Protest, ClimateGate, WeAreChange, YouTube

H/T TomNelson.BlogSpot

CHICAGO IL On Tuesday, November 24th 2009, We Are Change Chicago attended a book signing with former vice president Al Gore, at the Borders Bookstore on 150 N. State Street.

Source: wearechangechicago.com

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Filed under: Etc., Videos

Only ten days ago Jonny Greaves jumped his closed-course race truck from one dirt ramp to another — those ramps being separated by close to 300 feet. Greaves ended up going 301 feet, and set the record for the longest ever jump in a 2WD truck. It’s even more fun to watch than to read about, if only because his engine makes his Toyota sound like it’s powered by demons and banshees. Follow the jump for the vid. The only thing it’s missing is Waylon Jennings…

[Source: Monster Energy]

Continue reading VIDEO: Johnny Greaves jumps stadium truck over 300′ to set world record

VIDEO: Johnny Greaves jumps stadium truck over 300′ to set world record originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The record $42 billion issuance seems to have gone through decently, the high yield of 2.665% was only slightly higher than pre-auction. Find the full official release here.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Treasuries Are King Ever Since The Crisis Started
• Japan Denies Reports About It Dumping Treasuries
• Traders Freaking Out Over Rumors That Japan May Dump $100 Billion In Treasuries

by Todd Woody

‘Tis the season for the annual year-in-review column,
beloved by writers and editors desperate to fill pages and screens of blank
space during these slow news weeks. 

I’m going to forgo that annual holiday journalism tradition—sort of. While perusing various year-end and year-ahead trend story pitches
that had popped into my in-box since Thanksgiving, I came across one from the
United States Environmental Protection Agency that caught my attention.

The EPA was releasing its annual enforcement stats for 2009.
Usually that’s a big yawn, given that for most of the past decade prosecuting
polluters was not high on the must-do list of the former administration. But in
2009 not only was there a much more enforcement-minded EPA administrator in
Washington (in the person of Lisa Jackson), the agency for the first time created a Google
map mashup of its enforcement actions for the year.

The map lets you zoom in on your city, county, or state and see the civil and
criminal cases filed by the EPA for violations of its clean air and water laws and other
environmental statutes. Click on the air, water, land, and criminal buttons and
colored markers start to populate the map showing you the location of various violations.
When you click on a marker a link to detailed information about the case pops
up. You can also review any past violations.

The EPA’s new interactive enforcement map could launch a new era of digital transparency.

“EPA mapped the locations of more than 90 percent of the
facilities that were the subject of enforcement actions last year,” the agency
said in a statement. (Note that you won’t find any drinking water treatment
facilities hit with lawsuits or complaints; the EPA did not map them “due to
potential security concerns.”)

Clicking around the EPA map, I learned that in Alameda County, Calif., where
I live, an Oakland recycling company called California Waste Solutions paid
fines totaling $172,200 for failing to comply with storm water permits at two of
its local facilities. (The Bay Area was relatively law-abiding compared to,
say, greater Seattle, where the map was purple with environmental violations.)

Okay, so why does this matter? Knowledge, as the saying
goes, is power and the average citizen is unlikely to sift through thousands of
pages of government data to find out if local companies or government
facilities have been polluting their air and water in violation of
environmental laws. And as metropolitan newspapers continue to gut their staffs
and environmental reporters become an endangered species, you’re unlikely to
read about such transgressions unless they reach oil-spill proportions or
involve big money.

In contrast, the EPA’s new map and its successors will allow a quick visual
comparison of the government’s enforcement actions from year to year. In fiscal
2009, the EPA said it filed 387 new criminal cases—the most in five years—and reached settlements that require polluters to spend $5.4 billion to comply
with environmental laws.

Still, the new interactive map is a work in progress. First, it is not comprehensive. “While these large cases are a vital part of our work to
protect public health and improve compliance, they do not reflect the totality
of the annual environmental enforcement activities,” the agency said.

Second, the information that is available on
violations is inconsistent, ranging from detailed to sketchy. Click on a big enforcement action
or high-profile case, and you’ll get plenty of data. But many other cases just offer
cryptic references to violations of environmental statutes, making it difficult
to ascertain if a company is guilty of dumping toxins into a local waterway or just bad record-keeping. I couldn’t tell, for example, what that Oakland recycling
company had done to violate its storm water permit.

I had a similar experience when I came across an air
violation by an Alameda County Trader Joe’s, that Costco for the bobo set. When I tried to get details on the violation I came up short. Clicking on the map marker took
me to an “Enforcement Case Report” that listed the violation as “Air Emissions
Not Otherwise Specified.”

After a few minutes of clicking around the EPA database I
found that the violation was deemed “minor” but no other information was
available.  (The EPA could take some cues
from The New York Times’ ongoing investigative series on water pollution that features an
interactive database that lets readers identify polluters near their
homes.)

Making the map a real-time snapshot of environmental cases
as they are filed rather than a static end-of-year review would make good on the
EPA’s promise to “increase transparency, improve access to data, and provide the
public with the bigger picture of enforcement activity occurring in communities
around the country.”

The ‘09 map mashup could just be the start of a new era of digital
transparency. One can imagine an app that would tap the iPhone’s GPS to geotag
polluters or issue alerts of enforcement actions.

Better yet, if the EPA really wants to tap the power of social media in the new year, let people create their own mashups. Just imagine an army of iPhone-toting citizen enforcers geotagging and reporting suspected environmental violations to a database monitored by their local EPA office.

Related Links:

Broken promises follow Tennessee coal ash disaster

Why the Copenhagen Accord boosts the odds for Senate passage of bipartisan climate legislation

Could AlertMe be the Apple of energy efficiency?

Time for part two in my ‘better late than never’ series.

This time I will be looking at Miami (FL) versus Wisconsin.

Miami FL (9-3, 5-3 ACC) vs. Wisconsin (9-3, 5-3 Big Ten)

December 29th, 2009 8:00 PM ET

Florida Citrus Bowl, Orlando, Florida

Hooray! A bowl that I have more than a passing interest in.

This game represents the first time a Big Ten team will take the field this bowl season, so it is relatively important as far as the whole ‘image’ thing goes for the conference.

It is beyond dispute that the Big Ten has a generally unfavorable reputation amongst the national media at the moment, so winning bowl games becomes that much more important.

This also represents the first game this bowl season that I am actually excited to watch. Maybe that makes me a bad fan, but whatever, I can deal with that. Let’s just say that I am a Buckeye fan first, second, and third, a Big Ten fan fourth, and then a college football fan fifth.

This game also represents a match-up (according to ESPN) between a lightning quick Florida school and a slow plodding Big Ten school which we get to hear so much about every time a Big Ten team loses, but not so much when they win, which happens from time to time as well.

So this game is important for the Big Ten’s reputation, important for at least making ESPN look stupid (I have given up on actually changing ESPN’s talking points) for continuously peddling the southern speed BS that they never seem to get sick of, and important because it is actually a match up between two top 25 teams, which (I think) is the first ranked pairing.

This is also the first time that Miami (FL) will play a Big Ten team since they lost to Ohio State in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. Good times.

So grab a six pack and enjoy the show tonight.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin comes into the bowl winners in 5 of their last 6 games. However, the loss was to Northwestern in the second to last game of the year. Take from that what you will.

On offense, Wisconsin is Wisconsin.

The key to Wisconsin's offense.

Big, bruising back running behind a good to great offensive line. This year that back goes by the name of John Clay who was the Big Ten Offensive POTY after rushing for 1396 yards, good for 116.3 per game.

Miami (FL) has a respectable rush defense (28th, 118.33 per game) so it should be interesting to see if Wisconsin can establish the run early. If they can, that will obviously go a long way towards a Wisconsin win.

On the flip side, Wisconsin fields a (somewhat) surprisingly good defense that is ranked 19th nationally in total defense and 8th against the run. If Wisconsin can pressure Jacory Harris early and often with their defense front (it helps that Miami’s LT is out with an injury) and establish the run on offense, they will be in good shape.

That is pretty much their game plan every week for the Badgers, like I said, Wisconsin is Wisconsin.

Miami

Miami is a young team with lots of talent (they should be a lot of fun to play in The Shoe next year, but more on that in the summer) who is having their best year in quite some time.

The key to Miami's offense, with a little less blind side protection.

They boast a 9-3 record but when I look at their schedule, I really don’t see an impressive win since week 4 when they beat an injured Oklahoma team 21-20.

Since then they have lost to Clemson and North Carolina, and have had a close call against Wake Forest, narrowly edging out the victory 28-27.

What does this all mean? probably not much, but the Hurricanes haven’t really beat a good team in a long time, and they will be without the starting left tackle Jason Fox, leading me to believe that Wisconsin has a decent shot in this game.

Based on my record at picking bowls, however, I could very well be wrong.

Regardless, I will be rooting for Wisconsin.

Who Are We Picking?

Mali (8-3): Miami

Eric (6-5): Miami

Jeff (4-7): Miami

Jim (4-7): Wisconsin

Thanks to A&M (hey, at least I was right about them having a terrible defense) Jeff and I have fallen a bit further behind the pack.

Since I am the only one to choose Wisconsin in the game, I can either solidify my last place position or finally make a move. The funny thing is, we chose these games well in advance of the first bowl way back when, so my knack for picking the underdog has hurt me thus far, but could allow me to climb back into contention.

More than likely I will just fall further back, but hey, one game at a time. Hopefully Wisconsin can get the W tonight.

Back in May, we wrote about the effort to get a Right to Repair bill passed for automobiles:

There is no legitimate basis for this at all. It’s a clear misuse of intellectual property laws — which were never designed for this sort of thing — to prevent independent auto mechanics from repairing newer cars. But it’s the end result of the increasing creep of intellectual property rights, and the growing computerization of everything. It allows manufacturers to extend “IP” rights to physical goods, and create all sorts of new monopolies. In a perfect world, this wouldn’t need a separate law. It would be a clear violation of antitrust laws. But, we don’t live in a perfect world, and for the time being you’re probably paying a lot more money to repair your car because of it.

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