5 Thoughts for November 9, 2015

1. PAC-12 Football: It's been a crazy season in the PAC-12, hasn't it? If you only watched the first week of the season, fell into a coma, then woke up today, you would have been shocked to find out that WSU, who'd lost to Portland State in week one, is now 6 - 3 with wins over both Oregon and Arizona schools. Meanwhile, Stanford, who'd lost to Northwestern mustering just 6 points, has now won 8 straight games, scoring at least 30 points in each game, and is at the top of the PAC-12. Oregon and USC? Well, they're both 6 - 3 and looking a lot better now than several weeks ago, but neither team controls their own destiny, and one of them will finish no better than as a 4-loss team, as they will meet each other in two weeks. The odds are likely on USC's side, as Oregon will be beat up playing against Stanford next week, while USC goes to Boulder to play the worst team in the PAC-12 South.
2. Russia: Last December, ARD (a German TV station) aired a documentary on Russian cheating, prompting the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) to perform an in-depth investigation. Today, WADA has released a report (PDF) stating that Russian sports is corrupt, from the top, and recommended that Russia be banned from sports. What makes this story striking, is that it represents the widest cheating scandal since East Germany under...USSR. It turns out, the key figures in this Russian cheating scandal were the same people involved back in the old USSR. If you watch the documentary, it's clear that the issue goes all the way up to Vladimir Putin. If you read the report, it sidesteps Putin's involvement by adding it into a footnote. We're talking bribes, cheating, drugs, FIFA, the Olympics and Russia -- apparently they're not incongruous.
3. The sexes: This report in Scientific American states that men are attracted to non-conformist women. Very true. See, here's the problem: Vanilla may taste great but one gets tired of vanilla when there are so many other flavors out there -- chocolate, caramel, strawberry -- metaphorically speaking, of course. Speaking of flavors, I must go and check out Salt & Straw's special flavors for Thanksgiving -- buttered mashed potatoes and gravy, how interesting!
4. Mosquitoes: Just the thought of mosquitoes makes many people itch, but on the Big Island the mosquitoes are now spreading a most improbable outbreak of Dengue Fever. In a matter of a week, they've suddenly jumped to 27 confirmed cases of infections. Seeing as it never really gets cold on most of the Big Island, this seems like an intractable problem -- if you've been in the rain forest in Hawaii, you know what I mean -- with zero opportunity for mosquitoes to go dormant.
5. Animation: Portland Oregon makes an appearance in Hombre McSteez's latest animation. Hilarious stuff. :D