Facebook and Social Networking Online is a Blockbuster Success

In case you have never heard of Facebook, you ought to take a look, because this social networking website is a blockbuster success. As written at Wikipedia at the entry Facebook:

"Facebook is an English-language social networking website, popular among college students. It was originally developed for university students, faculty and staff, but has since been expanded to include everyone, including high school, corporate and geographic communities.

As of December 2005, the website had the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites (at over 7.5 million US college student accounts created with an additional 20,000 new accounts being created daily).^[1] It is the number one site for photos, ahead of public sites such as Flickr, with 2.3 million photos uploaded daily^[2], and is the seventh most trafficked site in the United States, according to comScore's Media Metrix.

The name of the site is based on the paper facebooks that colleges give to incoming students, faculty, and staff depicting members of the campus community."

One thing that makes this site popular is the necessity to have some kind of an official connection to the organization or institution whose network one wishes to join.

Through our Stanford alumni email address, for example, we have been able to join the Stanford network, which includes students, alumni, staff and faculty.

We are not sure that there is any benefit to us through this network at the moment, but just imagine what a powerful tool this is - or could be - to get the word out about something to a specific target audience of any kind. Just imagine if you were a college fundraiser, for example, and had access to this kind of a university network. Many things would quickly become easier.

One can argue about whether or not the new digital age is - as some allege - actually creating "new" communities. But for already existing communities, there can be little doubt that online networking sites are vastly increasing the opportunities for better communication among members of those communities in the future.

Music Gift of the Year 2007 : Club Hits Mixed by DJ Giuseppe D. MicMac Records Hothead Productions (incl. Kristy Kay)

This is not an ad, but our own opinion. We like this music.

Kristy Kay is our Selection for Female Music Artist of the Year
and
this 3-volume CD (see below)
is our CD / DVD Music Gift of the Year 2007
for Dance Floor Music and Club Music lovers
which we received as a mail-belated Christmas gift today
(i.e. allow some time for delivery)
and which we obtained solely because CD 2 (Evolutions II)
of the 3-volume set includes a song (Track Nr. 12) by Kristy Kay

THE SONG: When You Find Love
THE ARTIST: Kristy Kay

which for us us was the Song of the Year 2006

and as an unexpected bonus
Track Nr. 2 of CD 2 also features Kristy Kay in two songs including
Kristy Kay's fabulous
Don't Break My Heart
a sample of which you can hear here
(use the music bar below at that linked page to shift to the song you want,
which also includes Who's That Loving You Now)

As noted previously, this is in our opinion for
Dance Floor and Club Mix music lovers
THE
Music Gift of the Year 2007 :
Club Hits Mixed by DJ Giuseppe D.
MicMac Records
Hothead Productions
available at
CD Universe
MicMacRecords (168546 requests since Wednesday 28 July, 2004)

We always say that the music you love mirrors your own inner voice and inner beat.
Music is not a matter of taste, rather, it is a taste of the true matter of life.
Each to his own, ENJOY.

More New Year's Day 2007 Football Bowl Game Prognostication Results

Outback Bowl : Penn State 20 Tennessee 10

Penn State defeated Tennessee 20-10 as the Nittany Lions and Volunteers played a pretty even game which was decided in the 4th quarter by an 88-yard fumble recovery return by the Nittany Lions' Tony Davis.

We did not pick the winner but beat the spread. We are now 19-10 in picking winners and 13-12-1 against the spread (three of the games had no spread that we were able to find online).

Capital One Bowl : Wisconsin 17 Arkansas 14

Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt continued his game of musical chairs at the quarterback position and the Razorbacks lost their third game in a row, as we predicted they would, 17-14 to the Wisconsin Badgers, whose total offense output was nearly half that of Arkansas. But to win, you have to have a winning quarterback. As written by AP sports writer Noah Trister at Yahoo Sports:

"The Razorbacks stuck with their plan to start Casey Dick at quarterback and bring in freshman Mitch Mustain for the third series. That was Mustain's only appearance of the first half, although he returned for a bit in the second.

Dick went 9-of-21 for 98 yards with an interception. Mustain was 5-of-10 for 41 yards with an interception."

We picked the winner and beat the spread. We are now 20-10 in picking winners and 14-12-1 against the spread (three of the games had no spread that we were able to find online).

Toyota Gator Bowl : West Virginia 38 Georgia Tech 35

This was a strange high-scoring game won by the West Virginia Mountaineers won 38-35 over Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. And yet, after West Virginia scored three quick touchdowns early in the 3rd quarter, and with 6 minutes still left on the 3rd quarter clock, no team scored again in the game as the Mountaineers reverted to a time-consuming running game and Georgia Tech was plagued by an interception and a missed field goal. Georgie Tech put up more yards total offense (493) than the Mountaineers (444), which was a surprise to this observer.

We picked the winner but did not beat the spread. We are now 21-10 in picking winners and 14-13-1 against the spread (three of the games had no spread that we were able to find online).

Rose Bowl : USC 32 Michigan 18

Except for the third quarter, this game was a standoff. After a 3-3 tie at halftime, the defense was the difference as Michigan surrendered an interception and a fumble to USC in the third quarter, which not only stopped the Michigan offense, but helped USC put 16 unanswered points on the scoreboard, and that was the ball game.

Neither team could move the ball on the ground and the game was decided in the air, where the Michigan defense has weaknesses, as already shown in their 32-28 Alamo Bowl loss to Nebraska last year, so that the Trojans put up 100 yards more total offense than the Wolverines.

The Michigan secondary was unable to cover Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith, who between them caught 18 passes for over 300 yards. You would think that Lloyd Carr and his staff would have watched this year's USC-Nebraska game films for clues about how not to play against the Trojans, as Callahan played a similarly ineffective defense against USC. As UCLA showed, there is only one way to play USC defensively and that is to put permanent pressure on the quarterback. However, USC QB Booty had too much time to throw and was sacked only twice, whereas Michigan QB Henne was sacked six times.

We did not picked the winner and did not beat the spread. We are now 21-11 in picking winners and 14-14-1 against the spread (three of the games had no spread that we were able to find online).

Fiesta Bowl : Boise State 43 Oklahoma 42 (OT = in Overtime)

The real NCAA Coach of the Year in our opinion is clear, regardless of how the honors may have been bestowed by others. We vote for Boise State head football coach Chris Petersen, whose 13-0 start is rivalled in NCAA football only by that of Larry Coker. Petersen took over head coaching duties from Dan Hawkins at the start of 2006, who went to Colorado to put up a 2-10 record this season.

We can not say that we were overjoyed to see Big 12 Champion Oklahoma lose 43-42 in overtime against Boise State, but we did predict that it would happen. The Broncos exploited the defensive weaknesses of the Sooners to forge a 28-10 lead in the 3rd quarter and then to come from behind not only to tie the game at 35-35 in regulation on a 50-yard pass play with only 18 seconds left on the 4th quarter game clock, but also to win the game in overtime on a courageous "chess player's" strategic two-point conversion.

Modern football is not won any more by coaches who play simplistic checkerboard strategies but rather those who have the minds of good chess players.

As it should, the Boise State win again puts the BCS bowl system of determining a national champion without real playoffs into question. Boise State finishes undefeated - and - if Florida were to beat Ohio State, would be the only undefeated team in NCAA Division I football. Even if Ohio State wins that game and remains undefeated as well, this year's national championship will always have a question mark on it.

We picked the winner and beat the spread. We are now 22-11 in picking winners and 15-14-1 against the spread (three of the games had no spread that we were able to find online).

Callahan's Milk Toast Offense Fails Again : Cotton Bowl 2007 : Auburn 17 Nebraska 14

Cotton Bowl 2007 : Auburn 17 Nebraska 14

Nebraska had more first downs, more yards rushing, more yards passing, and - again - still lost. They were coached into oblivion.

In a pattern which has become a trademark of the Callahan-led Huskers, an early lead was given up in the course of the football game by poor playcalling, which led to avoidable scores by the opponent.

As AP sports writer Stephen Hawkins writes at Yahoo Sports:

"The Cornhuskers (9-5) opened with a dominating drive, but couldn't do much else right in their first January game in five years....

After the opening TD, Taylor's next pass was thrown behind Terrence Nunn. It bounced into the air and was intercepted by Karibi Dede, who rambled 52 yards to the 9. From there, Stewart caught a pass out of the backfield and scored untouched.

Then on fourth-and-1 from their own 29, the Cornhuskers tried a fake punt. They instead fumbled on an attempted reverse and lost 15 yards."

Auburn turned that totally unnecessary "bush league" fake punt playcall on 4th and 1 from their own 29 - in the first quarter! - a risk which at that early stage of the game and from such a precarious position should never have been taken, into a touchdown and led 14-7, even though the Tigers had a mere 30 yards rushing and passing on the board.

This game was a gift to Auburn by the hapless NU coaching staff.

Also the unnecessarily dangerous and intercepted short pass call on 3rd and 3 into the flank
1st-10, NEB38 4:49 M. Lucky rushed up the middle for 3 yard gain
2nd-7, NEB41 4:19 M. Lucky rushed to the left for 10 yard gain
1st-10, AUB49 3:44 Z. Taylor passed to D. Todd to the right for 4 yard gain
2nd-6, AUB45 3:04 M. Lucky rushed to the right for 3 yard gain
3rd-3, AUB42 2:34 K. Dede intercepted Z. Taylor for 52 yards
was a stupid call, on a pass going to Terence Nunn which - again - helped cost NU the game, as on numerous previous occasions where Callahan decided to call plays going to Nunn in important game situations. The Callahan coaching staff simply does not learn from their previous errors.

For the umpteenth time this season, Nebraska did not score in the 3rd quarter, and to make matters worse, did not score in the 4th quarter, playing the kind of timid football that the Auburn defense relishes and that has become a Callahan trademark for second half NU play. In spite of being behind and needing TO WIN, NU ran the ball 65 times (averaging 2.5 yards per carry) and passed only 25 times (averaging 5.2 yards per pass play), reverting to the fearful offense used by Callahan in losing to USC early in the season. This is coaching at its worst. In addition, we fail to understand what advantage the Callahan Milk Toast Offense has over Nebraska's old option offense when it is proving to be primarily a less-effective running tool.

Why was NU running when it should have been throwing??

Whatever adjustments could have been made in the NU offense after the first half by the coaching staff to score points against Auburn remained on the eternal drawing board in the locker room at half time. Really, we doubt sincerely that Nebraska makes any real adjustments at all at half time. How else is one to explain a nearly steady parade of zeroes in the third quarters of their games this season, regardless of their opponent?

What appears to us to be the case is that Callahan must have a pre-game plan for the game which is adhered to regardless of what is going on in the field. His famed Milk Toast Offense is then used - not to score - but to control the ball and the clock, to move the ball to within the opponent's 30 to 40-yard line, and then, because the coaching staff has not been smart enough to get a field goal kicker who can kick beyond 40-yards, to resort to their favorite "offensive" tactic, which is to punt the ball from scoring territory (30 to 40-yrd line of the opponent) into the coffin corner and try to stymie the other team behind its own 10-yard line, a tactic which has brought the Huskers nothing this season, as their own team is unable to exploit offensively whatever supposed advantage might be gained from this foolish, antiquated football strategy.

Coaching? Nah. That's not coaching. That is coaching incompetence.

As a Husker alumnus, one could ask, are we fans of Callahan? You bet - NOT. We would be much happier to see him coaching some opposing team.

We did not pick the winner and the spread was tied by the win. We are now 19-9 in picking winners and 12-12-1 against the spread (three of the games had no spread that we were able to find online).