Author Archives: Nik Bronder

Piracy up again.

Pirate Hunters.

The Piracy Reporting Centre says Piracy is up once again:

In the first 9 months of the year a total of 15 vessels were hijacked, 172 crewmembers were taken hostage, 63 were kidnapped, and 21 were assaulted.

There was a lull in Piracy in 2005 but as we all know that was just the clam before the storm. I’m not sure if the photo above is of Pirates or Pirate Hunters but those guys look pretty serious. Granted, I don’t see where they could attach a plank.

Lately there has been a bevy of Piracy articles in the news:

National Geographic: Dark Passage

BBC: Dip in global pirate ship attacks

BBC: Somalia’s pirates are ‘thriving’

AP: Piracy Off Somalia’s Coast Increases

Have the Football Gods forsaken us?

Needless to say this has been the most dynamic College Football season of recent memory. From Michigan and Notre Dame starting 0-2 to South Florida sitting at number 2 in the first BCS Poll. Not only is USF in the top 15 but so is Boston College, Kentucky, South Carolina and Kansas. What is going on in College Football?

BCS Standings
Rk Team W-L Harris Coaches CPU % BCS
Rk Points % Rk Points % Prev Avg
1 Ohio State 7-0 1 2845 .9982 1 1495 .9967 .8300 0 .942
2 South Florida 6-0 3 2508 .8800 3 1320 .8800 1.0000 0 .920
3 Boston College 7-0 2 2650 .9298 2 1383 .9220 .8200 0 .891
4 LSU 6-1 5 2303 .8081 5 1173 .7820 .9300 0 .840
5 Oklahoma 6-1 4 2503 .8782 4 1288 .8587 .5500 0 .762
6 South Carolina 6-1 6 2009 .7049 8 997 .6647 .8600 0 .743
7 Kentucky 6-1 11 1759 .6172 13 874 .5827 .8500 0 .683
8 Arizona State 7-0 12 1697 .5954 12 936 .6240 .8300 0 .683
9 West Virginia 5-1 8 1926 .6758 7 1007 .6713 .6400 0 .662
10 Oregon 5-1 7 1974 .6926 6 1077 .7180 .5000 0 .637
11 Virginia Tech 6-1 13 1638 .5747 11 982 .6547 .6600 0 .630
12 California 5-1 10 1894 .6646 9 983 .6553 .4800 0 .600
13 Kansas 6-0 15 1200 .4211 15 705 .4700 .6600 0 .517
14 USC 5-1 9 1915 .6719 9 983 .6553 .0900 0 .472
15 Florida 4-2 14 1458 .5116 14 726 .4840 .3100 0 .435

Of course I found the only USF fan in Illinois this weekend siting next to me at the bar. This man guaranteed to me that USF would roll throw a Big Ten schedule and would beat Ohio State by 20 points ala Florida. If this guy didn’t have the grip of a coal miner I might have been able to sway him more. I guess we’ll see when they face off against Syracuse and Pittsburgh… but I digress.

And to top off the week I watched Vinny Testaverde throw a touchdown pass in High Definition. Is this even possible. I wonder if Vinny is available for flag football games? Here’s to hoping the Ol’ Ball Coach wins the SEC.

Game #2: Ohio State at Purdue.

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Yesterday Rob & Erin and I traveled down to West Lafayette for the Ohio State – Purdue game. I got to check off another Big Ten stadium from my list. Ohio State ended up destroying Purdue 23-7 in what was a routine outing by the defense.

I’ve never been to Purdue so I can’t say this definitely but the town of West Lafayette just plainly smelled bad. I’m not sure if there was some kind of gas leak or not but the entire stadium smelled rank. We only sat in our seats for the first 5 minutes of the game because it was unbearable. Rob managed to score a field pass so we took turns watching the game from the Purdue sideline near the 10 yard line. Needless to say it was awesome.

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Google Maps: Big Ten Stadiums:


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I’m moving right along with my goal of visiting all the Big Ten Stadiums. West Lafayette was only a 2 hour drive from Chicago making it an easy trip especially for a night game.