Tech Thursday: The Internet is 20 Years Old

I've been absent for a while (really, I don't have an excuse, so here's some candy - tell them Scott sent you), but found this article on Wired to be rather relevant for FIWK. 20 years ago, today, Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau submitted a proposal to CERN for funding for HyperText (a.k.a. The Internet!). It's amazing to think that 20 years ago, the backbone for today's world had a $0 budget. Oh, how far we've come.

Image via Wikipedia.

Wet Wednesday: I like to drink beer while watching the NFL

There's a Thursday game this week. And I'm out of town tomorrow and Friday. And the Chargers have a Bye. So I'm giving you my picks today. I don't know what the Chargers having a Bye has to do with making my picks today, but it does explain the picture above. It actually takes place on the deck of an aircraft carrier because San Diego is a Navy town and there are many goodwill opportunities entertaining several thousand sailors before they ship off on a six month deployment.

There are 32 teams in the NFL. Every team has played 8 or 9 games, four wins is probably .500 or really close. There are 22 teams with between 4 and 6 wins. 22. Over two thirds of the NFL has 4 wins. Only 6 teams are more than two games back in their division (32-6=26 teams within two games of the division lead). And that includes 2-6 San Francisco who is only two games behind the 4-4 Rams and Seahawks. Since I've only had two days to prepare, instead of the normal four, I will only be making a prediction if I feel it's appropriate and/or relevant to my thoughts at the moment.

Music Tuesdays - Favela Rock by Afrobots

Warning - This song gets in your head and becomes kind of annoying. But it's still kinda fun. Yes, I absolutely got this song from the FIFA 10 soundtrack.

This week in sports: Home dogs

Last week every home team was favored. They went 8-5 ATS and 9-4 SU with the Chiefs being the only home team to win and not cover. I picked eight underdogs and only five favorites, but still went 8-5 overall. This week has seven home underdogs. For the year home underdogs are 22-16, which isn't really significant enough to draw any conclusions. Let's make some overly generic predictions before getting to the slightly more specific predictions. I think home underdogs will go 4-3 ATS (I know...such a bold prediction) and since I always take the Chargers, I have to find two more home dogs I think will lose. Between Buffalo (vs. Chicago), Cleveland (vs. New England), Detroit (vs. NY Jets) and Cincinnati (vs. Pittsburgh), who are all underdogs by 3-4.5 points, I think one team will get blown out, one team will lose, but cover, one team will win outright and one team will provide an extra game so that my odds of getting this prediction right are much higher than you think. Although Chicago @ Buffalo is actually in Canada (saying Canada makes it seem so much farther away...driving from Buffalo to Toronto only takes about two hours, and most of that is because there is a big lake in the way), so do we count them as a home dog? Are they half home, half neutral site? Would this allow me to say that 3 or 4 home underdogs will beat the spread this week? Can I be less bold?

Slap Them, They're French

A tip of my cap to fellow FIWKer Royce for dropping this Economist article on the aftermath of the French pension reform protests into my lap today. I have been dying to discuss the situation in France - and especially since Black Tuesday - and why not let this be the forum?