5 Thoughts for September 23, 2015

1. Kam Chancellor ended his holdout, and it looks like he'll be playing on Sunday against Chicago at Centurylink Field. That's only half the problem on defense, as the cornerback position opposite Richard Sherman has thus far underwhelmed. Also, offensive play-calling has to step it up a couple of notches and get the ball into Graham's hands. How about a backside chip block (and release) from Graham while Wilson does a rollout with Lynch in front?
2. Staying with football, this is USC's sack differential (sacks gained - sacks given up) / total sacks, for the last 5 seasons (red = before Steve Sarkisian): 2010 = +10 / 28; 2011 = +23 / 31; 2012 = +28 / 45; 2013 = +1 / 35; 2014 = +1 / 33; 2015 = -1 / 5 (so far). There are two components to consider: Offensive line and defensive line. With Ed Orgeron in charge of defensive line and James Cregg on offensive line (2010, 2011, 2012) there were double-digit sack differentials. With the revolving offensive line (Mike Summers - 2013, Tim Drevno - 2014 and now Bob Connelly - 2015) and Chris Wilson (2014, 2015) in charge of defensive line, the sack differential has all but disappeared. Now go read this article about how Ed Orgeron is influencing LSU's defensive line. 
3. VW has shown that "clean diesel" is an oxymoron, now that they've admitted (once presented with the evidence, that is) to rigging their diesel vehicles to pass pollution control inspections. While there are roughly 500K vehicles in the US affected by this, globally there are 11M vehicles affected, meaning that the vast majority of these polluting vehicles are in the EU. Furthermore, it appears VW is just a portion of the problem. NOx, the pollutant that was being released at (up to) 40x allowed levels, mixes in the atmosphere to destroy the ozone layer -- VW, the great ozone killer corporation.
4. Kim Davis is now a 6x loser and counting. With the current ACLU court challenge and her current legal team's strategy, she may become a 10x loser before the end of October. The cognitive bias is strong with this one, surrounded by her fans who reinforce her belief of righteousness -- this despite the courts up and down the system telling her that she's wrong.
5. Kindly remember this story about how and why Microsoft ditched Bing in favor of Baidu's search engine, for Windows 10 in China, when Microsoft asserts that Google's search and mobile phone dominance is a product of illegal monopolization.

+5 Quick Links

1. Texas is complex. The state with the largest wind-generated electricity capacity has a closed market, so prices went negative.
2. Seattle Seahawks followed through and reacquired George Farmer and put him on the practice squad.
3. That moment when Cable realized that people really, really, REALLY hate Cable.
4. Bill Gross says it's okay for short-term pain to gain long-term stability -- forgets he has money while average Americans not so much.
5. September 29 will be a busy day. In the morning, Google reveals new products, at night Tesla follows.