The Chicago Spire

Have you heard about the soon-to-be-built Chicago Spire?

Scheduled for completion in 2011 and designed to stand 2000 feet tall and include 150 floors, this new residential tower - currently under construction at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive - will soon be the tallest free-standing tower in North America and the tallest all-residential building in the world. The Chicago Spire will surpass Chicago's own Sears Tower, which stands 1450 feet tall, New York's upcoming Freedom Tower, planned to be 1776 feet tall, and Toronto's CN Tower, which stands 1815 feet tall.

Here is a link to the official Chicago Spire Web site: http://www.thechicagospire.com/

And here are links to two informational videos of the Chicago Spire:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNI37ncgdXQ
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpGsWa3kV8c

Be sure to check out the image gallery at http://www.thechicagospire.com/building/imagegallery/. Click on the FULLSCREEN link in the bottom right hand corner of the images to see them largest and best.

Artist's rendering of the Chicago Spire as it will be seen from Lake Michigan

Fascinating stuff, indeed!

Nathan Scheelhaase - new Illini football commitment

Another Juice Williams! GO ILLINI!



Two more videos are linked on the left side column; Segment #2 has the commitment announcement...
http://www.kcondemand.com/MetroSports.aspx

Chicago's "Cloud Gate" bean - COOL!!!

Photo by Dan O'Brien

Millennium Park's stainless steel "Cloud Gate" bean - what a cool sculpture!

For more details on the "Cloud Gate", check out http://gct13.com/e/20080312/chicago-bean and http://www.millenniumpark.org/artandarchitecture/cloud_gate.html.

2008 College World Series Bracket

This year's field of eight includes:
1. Miami, FL
2. North Carolina
3. Florida State
4. Rice
5. Georgia
6. LSU
7. Stanford
8. Fresno State

Bracket

UI would get 2.8% increase in funding

SPRINGFIELD – The state budget sent to Gov. Rod Blagojevich would give the University of Illinois $19.9 million more in operating funds next year, or a 2.8 percent increase.

That would help the university plug a $17 million gap in the $4.1 billion preliminary 2008-09 budget approved by UI trustees in late May. That budget, based on no additional state funding, showed $51 million in new income next year – mostly from tuition – but about $68 million in new costs.

"This is a little larger increase than last year. This certainly will be helpful to the university, there's no question about that," said Rick Schoell, UI executive director of governmental relations, trying to sort out budget details Saturday night.

UI would get 2.8% increase in funding

Homeless James Bond Part 2

"Bond. Vagabond. Homeless 007 is back again."

read more | digg story

Homeless James Bond 007

"This should be in theaters soon."

read more | digg story

A Limbaugh Analysis of Oil Prices

RUSH: Let me give you some more oil data here. Again, according to the US Department of Energy, US oil production has fallen approximately 40% since 1985, while US consumption has grown more than 30%. So in real barrels, US oil production is now below five million barrels a day. It was approximately nine million barrels a day in 1985. So in 23 years -- and see, it's happened slow. The market impact here has been slow, it's been gradual, but we've cut our production in half in 25 years -- and, by the way, can I ask you a question, folks? In doing that, in those 25 years, global warming's gotten worse, has it not? And in those 25 years the planet's gotten dirtier, has it not? According to what these people say. In the 25 years that we have stopped producing oil by half, we have cut our oil production in half, in 23 years; in those same 23 years the environmentalist wackos who are behind this keep telling us how rotten things are getting, how horrible things are getting, and we're destroying the environment; the polar bears, the planet, you name it.

We've been getting the blame for it! Yet we've cut our production in half. And you can see one of the results of this is the price that we're all paying for this stuff, oil-related products today. At the same time -- now, this is going to really frost you -- while in the last 23 years we have cut our production in half, the government has put billions of barrels of domestic oil and natural gas off limits to domestic exploration. According to federal government estimates, there is enough oil in the areas that we are now place off limits, 112 billion barrels to power more than 60 million cars for 60 years without importing a drop. It's off limits. The government, because of the environmentalists. So we're not producing this. We're not getting this. We've cut our own actual production in half in 25 years, and they still blame us for destroying the planet. We keep hearing about ANWR.

Had President Clinton not vetoed exploration in ANWR in 1995 -- oil was $19 a barrel in 1995 -- America would currently be receiving over a million barrels a day from Alaska. Experts estimate that ANWR contains 5.6 to 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Okay, now at $123 a barrel -- and, by the way, ten years ago they said, "Well, it will take ten years to get the first drop. We can't do it." It's been ten years or more. We'd have had it, it would be online. Now they say, "It would be ten years if we start. We can't count on that." There are people, elected officials -- Democrats and some Republicans and entire members of the leftist environmentalist wacko organization -- who don't want this country to be energy sufficient and independent. The environmental movement in this country is largely comprised of -- the militant and wacko realm of it, consists of -- displaced communists and socialists who want this country down to size because it's not fair to everybody.

A Limbaugh Analysis of Oil Prices

YouTube video: "The Comcast Cable Guy Who Fell Asleep In My House"

NICE, Comcast!!! I'll stick with my AT&T DSL, thank you very much.

Gerry DiNardo Previews Illinois Football

Microsoft, Intel to build two college computing centers

Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. are giving a combined $20 million to build computing research centers at the University of Illinois and University of California.

The Universal Parallel Computer Research Centers (UPCRC) will attempt to accelerate development of parallel computing, which involves using multiple computer cores, or engines. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), for example, has worked on an 80-core research processor.

Officials at Redmond-based Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) said multi-core processors represent a "revolution in the computer industry."

Microsoft, Intel to build two college computing centers

Hockey club named national champions

What an amazing season! GO ILLINI!!!

A dream season came to a perfect end for the Illinois hockey club at the American Collegiate Hockey Association National Championships in Rochester, N.Y. A 4-2 victory over No. 2 Lindenwood in the tournament finals on Wednesday night secured the Murdoch Cup and an unblemished 38-0-0 record.

Senior center Drew Heredia scored twice in his final game as the Illini won their second national championship and first-ever perfect season.

The championship game was the fifth meeting between the two teams this season and the third time the top-ranked Illini have played the nation's No. 2-ranked team.

In their bid to upset the nation's top ranked team, it was the Lions who struck first in the tournament final, as Lindenwood forward Larry Kopecky scored 10 minutes into the first period.

Illinois would storm back, however, rattling off three unanswered goals to assume a 3-1 lead, which lasted until a late second period goal from Lions forward Travis Bokina, keeping the game close entering the final 20 minutes.

Neither team found a clear advantage in the third period until a precise Johnny Liang pass to Tom Connell set up a backhanded shot that found the net and gave the Illini a 4-2 lead.

From there, Illinois kept its conference rival at bay, as goaltender Mike Burda and the Illini defense preserved the two-goal lead despite the Lions desperate attempts to score in the final minutes with their goaltender pulled.

The mostly pro-Illini crowd erupted after the final buzzer sounded, chanting "38-0!" as the Illinois players stormed the ice.

Heredia, the team's captain, was named the tournament's most valuable player after the victory, while Brad Hoelzer and Liang were named to the first all-tournament team and Burda earned second all-tournament team honors.

Head coach Chad Cassel won his second national title in his 11th season with the team, the first coming in 2005.

Hockey club named national champions: No. 1 Illinois beats No. 2 Lindenwood to finish season undefeated, 38-0-0

Illini Hockey - Undefeated 2008 ACHA National Champions!

March 05, 2008 - First it was CSCHL Regular season champs for the Illini, then CSCHL playoff champs,and now you can add undefeated, 38-0-0, ACHA Division I National Champions to their title. From the start of the season the Illini had their eyes on the prize of being national champs, and tonight after a long hard fought season, that prize is theirs to enjoy.

The perfect end to the perfect season

Y-Basketball: Bulls 28, Spurs 10

The Bulls completed another fine Y-Basketball league season with a solid 28-10 victory from the Spurs last Saturday morning at the Champaign County YMCA.

Balanced scoring was the rule for the Bulls in this contest: Henry, George and Joe set the pace with 6 points each, while Tobin added 4 and Michael, Jarron and Luke each added a bucket. Rory and Nathan also played, but did not score.

Solid defense again keyed numerous fast-break opportunities for the Bulls. And the Bulls enjoyed another strong performance from their backcourt: good ball-handling, good passing and few turnovers resulted in another outstanding ballgame.

Congrats to the Spurs' Max and Johnny, who played great games on Saturday as well. Max led all scorers in the game with 8 points and Johnny added the other 2 for the Spurs. It's always difficult playing (and coaching) against your friends.

And so the Bulls finish the Winter 2008 league with a 6-1 record and high hopes for more success in the future. The nucleus of this team - including George, Joe, Michael, Tobin, Luke and Nathan - has posted the following (unofficial) won/loss Y-league records over the past twelve months:

Winter 2008:  6-1   0.857
Fall 2007:    7-0   1.000
Winter 2007:  7-0   1.000
-------------------------
Total:       20-1   0.952

When you consider that the only loss this team has taken in the last twelve months was by just two points (and that game could have easily ended in a tie), you might agree that there are good reasons for optimism going forward. Winning consistently is difficult to achieve, especially when you're talking about 6- and 7-year-old kids who are still learning the fundamentals of the game. Certainly, this group of St. Matthew first graders will be a force to be reckoned with when they grow to be fifth graders and wear the green unis for the St. Matthew Raiders. Meanwhile we're enjoying our journey into the future with this team.

I should mention that the Champaign County YMCA does not condone keeping score or declaring winners or losers in our basketball games at this level. But a year ago, when we started to come together as a team, we coaches noticed that this group of kids was special. Our team seemed to gravitate to success rather quickly. It was this success that prompted me - and several other team parents - to start unofficially tracking game scores. Most parents seem to want to know if we're winning or losing anyway. It sure is nice when you can inform them that we're winning.

Y-Basketball: Bulls 28, Suns 18

Tobin's 10 points in the paint carried the Bulls to a 28-18 victory from the Suns this morning in YMCA Youth Basketball at the Champaign County YMCA.

Tobin got things going early in his breakout game for the Bulls, positioning himself in the paint and taking advantage of a porous Suns interior defense. At the other end of the court, the Bulls played another typically strong defensive game and coasted with comfortable leads throughout the first three quarters, leading 26-10 after three periods were complete.

But poor ball handling and some rushed shooting by the Bulls in the fourth quarter allowed the Suns to cut into the lead with an 8-2 run.

Henry had another strong game in the paint, adding 6 points for the Bulls. George and Joe each had 4, and Michael and Nathan each hit a basket for 2 points apiece to round out the scoring for the good guys, who improve to 5-1 with the victory. Henry, Tobin, George, Joe and Michael did a solid job rebounding in the game. And Nathan and Joe provided excellent ballhandling skills throughout their three quarters of action.

Next up for the Bulls: the final game of the league season against the Spurs at 9 AM this Saturday at the Champaign County YMCA.

Crimson and sour cream: Indiana heads for a fall

For Indiana basketball, there have been a few moments of glory during this decade. There was the remarkable win over Duke in the 2002 NCAA Tournament. There was the overtime win against Maryland in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge the following season. There was Tuesday’s home victory over Purdue to put the Hoosiers within striking distance of the 2008 Big Ten title and send Kelvin Sampson into “retirement” as a winner.

OK, so it’s not a long, long list.

It’ll have to do.

There will not be many more moments to cherish with Indiana basketball for a long time. The descent has only begun. The challenges will become greater, the solutions less accessible. It may be years before we again recognize this program, even if the Hoosiers stick to those candy-stripe warmup pants.

...

Whoever becomes coach probably will encounter a program nearly as empty as Cincinnati was a couple of springs ago. Players willing to consider walking out on a season will not hesitate to consider transferring when that season is done. The two best players, D.J. White and Eric Gordon, will be gone regardless. And IU can forget about the recruiting class promised last fall. Those guys will be asking for releases.

It will be years before we recognize Indiana basketball as the power with five national champions. If you think about it, maybe offering the job to Bob Knight wouldn’t be such an awful idea. He might be the only qualified coach willing to take it.

Crimson and sour cream: Indiana heads for a fall

Sampson out at Indiana; Hoosiers head to Northwestern with Dakich as coach

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP)—The long legacy of Indiana basketball began a new chapter Saturday.

One day after coach Kelvin Sampson accepted a $750,000 buyout and jilted players threatened a boycott, interim coach Dan Dakich found a pleasant surprise at Assembly Hall: Every player, including senior captain D.J. White, was on board the team bus.

The smattering of fans who showed up, shook hands with players and coaches, wishing them well for Saturday night’s game at Northwestern. All hoped to move beyond the embarrassment created by Sampson’s alleged NCAA violations.

Sampson out at Indiana; Hoosiers head to Northwestern with Dakich as coach

Illinois Memorial Stadium Rededication Set for Sept. 6

Feb. 13, 2008

The University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics has announced plans for the rededication of Memorial Stadium to take place on Sept. 6 in the home opener against Eastern Illinois. The Fighting Illini will wear throwback jerseys honoring the Dick Butkus era. Also, the DIA will honor the greatest Illinois gridders that played at Memorial Stadium during eight timeouts throughout the game.

"This is a must see, once-in-a-lifetime event for Fighting Illini football fans," said Assistant Director of Athletics Chris Hanna. "We believe fans will get chills seeing many of the history makers, who made Memorial Stadium such a revered venue, standing side-by-side at one timeout after another. This is an event that will be talked about for years to come."

A fan vote will be held on fightingillini.com/CoachRonZook.com that establishes the top 10 players at the following positions: quarterback, running back, receiver, offensive line, defensive line, linebacker, defensive back, and specialist. Fan voting will begin on Monday, March 10 and conclude on Thursday, Apr. 10. The results of the fan balloting will be announced soon thereafter.

Players will appear on the ballot if they earned first or second team All Big Ten honors or if they played at least four years in the NFL. Harold ³Red² Grange, Dick Butkus, Tony Eason, Jeff George, Howard Griffith, Kevin Hardy, Dana Howard, Ray Nitschke, Rashard Mendenhall, and J Leman will be among the names fans can support for this tremendous distinction. Illinois will make every effort to have as many living members of this elite group as possible appear on the field Sept. 6.

The Butkus Era throwback jerseys will provide another special touch. The jersey will be very similar in look to the Fighting Illini jerseys of that time--blue with orange numbers. The helmets will also be made to resemble the Butkus style, featuring bold player numbers.

"Nike creates very few throwback jerseys each college football season," Hanna said. "We are excited Nike chose to create the Butkus Era jersey for us to both honor one of our great legends and make the Rededication Game that much more special."

Illinois Memorial Stadium Rededication Set for Sept. 6: Illini legends, throwback jerseys create special event

Indiana gets list of alleged violations related to phone calls

Well, well, well... I guess former Hoosier basketball greats Kent Benson and Ted Kitchell were justified in returning their Hoosier season basketball tickets after all.

It's called karma, IU fans. Your pathetic athletic director hired a known cheater, and now not only is coach Cellphone Sandscum's job in jeopardy, Greenspan's job is under scrutiny too.

The house of cards that is Cellphone Sandscum's IU basketball team is coming down - soon.

Too freakin' bad, Hoosiers. But enjoy the rest of your tainted season. Oh, and by the way, give EJ Gordon and his fine family our regards and well wishes as Junior moves away from all the impending trouble in Bloomington and on to the NBA next year.

We Illini fans are loving every minute of this. Oh, and so are Purdue fans, Ohio State fans, Notre Dame fans...

Sampson had been sanctioned after making impermissible phone calls while he was the coach at Oklahoma. Indiana then revealed more bad calls while Sampson was at IU. Multiple sources told ESPN.com that the NCAA was looking into whether Sampson did not tell the truth about those calls, resulting in the allegations of major violations.

This new information that helped result in a major violations tag could leave the Hoosiers' season, and Sampson's career, under a cloud of uncertainty.

ESPN.com made multiple efforts to reach Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan over the past week and he never returned calls. Sampson didn't return a message Tuesday.

Indiana gets list of alleged violations related to phone calls

NCAA: Sampson misled IU about calls

NCAA allegations

NCAA letter to IU

New tires for our Lexus: Goodyear Eagle featuring ResponsEdge Technology

Well, kids, it's about time to install new tires on our 1999 Lexus ES 300. I narrowed my final choices down to two Goodyear tires: the Assurance featuring TripleTred Technology and the Eagle featuring ResponsEdge Technology. And after extensive research - including information on design specs and customer product reviews at TireRack.com - I have settled on purchasing the Eagle with ResponsEdge Technology for our Lexus.

Twin City Tire, one of Champaign's certified Goodyear dealers, is going to install these tires and complete a four-wheel alignment on the car, which has been handling extremely poorly for a few weeks now. At first I thought all the vibration in the steering wheel was coming from cruising the crumbling streets of Champaign-Urbana, but the vibration has only intensified and worsened in the last week. I just don't trust the old (original!) Michelin MXV4s that are currently on the car anymore - they're toast.

I'll post here again with my impressions after I have a chance to drive the Lexus with the new Eagles installed...