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ScottS

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  1. Didn't see a better thread for this so doing a little necro bump.

    Arkansas pitcher Austin Ledbetter leaving baseball team to play QB for Razorbacks

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    Austin Ledbetter is leaving the Arkansas baseball team, but he will still be a student-athlete for the Razorbacks. Ledbetter announced on Thursday that he is joining the Arkansas football team as a quarterback for the 2024 season.

    Ledbetter played baseball for the past two seasons at Arkansas. He appeared in 15 games last year, finishing with a 7.09 ERA.

    The Bryant, Arkansas native was a two-sport start at Bryant High School, prior to joining the Arkansas baseball program.

    “First and foremost, I want to give glory to God for all of the opportunities he has presented me with. These past two years playing baseball at Arkansas have been nothing short of amazing. I want to thank the coaches and staff for always supporting me and constantly pushing me to be my best,” Austin Ledbetter said in a statement.

    “Thank you to my teammates who have been there for me through everything. After much prayer, thought and consideration with my family, I have decided to put my career in baseball behind me. After talking with Coach [Sam] Pittman and Coach [Bobby] Petrino, I have decided to pursue a football career at the University of Arkansas. I am super grateful for this opportunity and ready to get to work!”

    Austin Ledbetter put up impressive stats as a quarterback at Bryant High. He passed for 42 touchdowns and five interceptions as a senior in 2021 and 40 touchdowns, with eight picks, as a junior in 2020.

    Now he will try to continue that success with the Arkansas Razorbacks football program.

    Sam Pittman details how Arkansas will fix offensive line issues

    Austin Ledbetter is joining an Arkansas football team that will look to have a bounce back year in 2024. The Razorbacks finished 4-8 (1-7) this past season.

    One big issue was offensive line play. Sam Pittman recently shared how Arkansas will try to fix issues on the o-line.

    “Well, you gotta go in the portal. And I look back at Auburn coming in here and I think four of their five was from the portal. And think seven of their top eight players, O linemen, were transfers. There’s an opportunity to do that. We’ve gotta get better with the ones that we have here, as well. But you don’t have to be a football coach to know we need help,” Pittman said.

    Arkansas’ offense languished in 2023. Offensive coordinator Dan Enos was fired after a three-point showing less than a year into his tenure and the results weren’t that much better after the staff shakeup. By Pittman’s own analysis, much of what ailed his squad in 2023 can be remedied by some improved play up front on offense.

    “So we’ve gotta go address that and that will be our No. 1 place to address because without that, you really can’t have a lot of success, offensively. And with that, you can have a whole bunch of success. But we’ve gotta get it fixed, and that’s nothing negative about the kids we have. We just gotta get that one fixed. I think everybody knows that,” Pittman said.

     

  2. 50 minutes ago, RPM said:

    ALABAMA PLAYER ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY SPREADING STD

    Alabama lineman Elijah Pritchett reportedly was arrested Wednesday on an STD charge.

    The Alabama player was taken into custody and charged with knowingly passing on a sexually transmitted disease, according to the Tuscaloosa Thread.

    A spokeswoman for the Tuscaloosa Police Department confirmed a report was filed last week and the arrest warrant was served Wednesday, according to the same report.

    The redshirt freshman eventually bonded out for $500. Knowingly passing on an STD in Alabama is a Class C misdemeanor.

     

    It just means burns more?

    • Haha 2
  3. 6 minutes ago, Xminus6 said:

    I’ve said this for a while. I’d ESPN invested as much in volleyball as they did in the WNBA they’d get much better return on their investment. Women’s basketball will ALWAYS be unfavorably compared to men’s basketball. 

    It will be interesting to see what the ratings for today's match end up being.  Going up against the NFL is usually not great for most programming.  But my completely uneducated guess is that moving the championship match to Sunday and putting it on broadcast television is a signal that ABC and ESPN are looking to give women's sports some more exposure.  If I recall the women's basketball title game pulled in some good numbers on ABC but I have no idea what it was up against programming-wise.

  4. 50 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

    Don't worry Nebraska. Wait until....oh right this is the only sport you are good at.

     

    47 minutes ago, South Austin said:

    Is Mebraska good at anything?

    From what I can gather, corn is something of a powerhouse in women's bowling. Six national titles since the NCAA started conducting a championship in 2004.

    https://www.ncaa.com/history/bowling/nc

  5. You can get your Doritos in liquor form now.

    This New Doritos Liquor Is More Than Just a Cheesy Gimmick

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    Nacho Cheese Doritos have been a staple of the snack food aisle for nearly half a century. Now, they’re headed to the liquor shelf.

     

    In a most unconventional crossover, the iconic tortilla chip brand has partnered with Empirical Spirits to release an 84-proof clear liquor that actually smells and tastes like the real thing, minus the signature crunch — thankfully. Which is to say, it’s unlike any alcohol you’ve ever smelled or tasted before. And we don’t mean that in a bad way. 

    Ensuring the integrity of the new creation is Lars Williams. The former chef and self-avowed flavor expert spent time at Noma before breaking off to co-found Empirical in 2017. Since then, he’s steered the company toward “uncategorized” spirits. This grants him and his team the freedom to experiment without conforming to the well-defined parameters of, say, a gin, a rum, or a whisky. 

    It’s precisely this sort of unrestrained attitude that led to the serendipitous development of a Doritos-flavored booze.

    “In Empirical’s very early days in Copenhagen, a team member returned from lunch with a sandwich and a bag of Doritos,” Williams recalls of the origin story. “Curiosity led me to turn this snack into a spirit. Upon tasting it, the result was amazing, and we burst into laughter. We shared it with friends, especially chefs. We would just give them a little glass without telling them what it was. The sheer joy in their face was amazing to watch.”

    Indeed, one sniff of the spirit is enough to reveal its anchor ingredient. The bouquet is brimming with the unmistakable tang of cheese dust. But in the sip, it’s all about cornier elements. It leaves your palate with a drying note, akin to what accumulates on your tongue after you’ve crushed a sizable bag of corn chips. In other words, it’s maybe more Fritos than Doritos. 

    “My goal was to recreate the entire experience of opening a bag of Doritos, getting that signature aroma, followed by its flavor dance across the palate with its unmistakable savory, cheesy, and umami notes,” adds Williams. 

    To get there, he started with a base of distilled beer — pilsner malt, to be precise. The Doritos were then introduced and allowed to infuse in the liquid, under exacting time and temperature. Vacuum distillation, which operates at lower temperatures than traditional distillation, was used to safeguard flavors collected during maceration. Ultimately, you can think of the product as a nacho cheese-flavored vodka. 

    The folks at PepsiCo, Doritos’ parent company, were suitably impressed by the mashup. It was Empirical who approached them with the idea of the collaboration. Despite the unlikely commingling of Noma-pedigreed personnel with America’s most popular snack chip, the pairing makes perfect sense when you realize that high-end chefs have a well-known penchant for off-shift junk food.

    The release will arrive on shelves next month wearing a cost closer to that of caviar. The limited edition bottle of Empirical x Doritos Nacho Cheese Spirit is set to retail at $65 — nearly twice the average sum of super premium vodkas. The ability to show up at a Super Bowl party offering shots of Doritos, however, is surely priceless. Just don’t hold your breath for a Cool Ranch follow-up. Williams tried that and wasn’t happy with the results. Perhaps some Funyuns rum, instead?

     

    Empirical x Doritos liquor

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  6. 17 minutes ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

    Cougar High.  In Houston, when a 7-11 gets robbed you never know if it was a Cougar High grad doing the robbing or manning the cash register.

    Thanks.  Can't believe I have never heard that slang for UH, especially since I grew up in the Houston area.

  7. 3 hours ago, bullet said:

    When I was in school it was

    Land thieves

     

    Pig

     

    7-11 thieves

    A&M

     

    The pooooor aggys had been bad for so long, they weren't in the top 3.  At least Cougar High was competitive.

    Okay, I have to ask:  7-11 thieves references who, exactly?  I have no recollection of ever hearing that in reference to another school.  Apologies in advance for the ignorance and thanks in advance for clearing up my confusion.

  8. 37 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

    I've lived in SoCal 59 years, and I've hated the dodgers every minute of that, but, next season my ass will be at Chavez Ravine as often as I can get there.   @Sbbruin are they still talking about that gondola deal from Union Station?

    https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/story/2023-12-05/half-a-billion-thats-the-latest-price-for-a-gondola-to-dodger-stadium

    The latest cost estimate for the gondola is almost as much as the Dodgers just signed Ohtani for.  So it will never get built, or get built for about the cost of an entire team of Ohtanis.

    • Like 1
  9. 4 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

    It's hilarious.  They averaged 7-5 in the Big XII, with (as you said) 1 double-digit season.

    image.png.58729ee4c729ca7800c6625f798986af.png

    If you leave out all years after 1995 and before 2012 that are not 1998, Texas A&M averages 11 wins a year.  That's just basic math ya dumb sip. 

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  10. 1 minute ago, HeyMcFly said:

    They’re fixing to let bama and Georgia in and kick us and fsu out lol

    I half expect the committee to come up with some bs reason why Bama, Georgia, Michigan, and Ohio State are in the playoff.  Probably something to do with completion percentage.

  11. 5 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

    Any Hateful Eight teams we don't have scoreboard on, now?

     

    4 minutes ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

    Scoreboard on everyone including nebraska

    From Winsipedia (don't think they've updated with today's result):

    image.png.97e64d9049f3b5afda2c1a18f6021752.png

    Kind of pissed that we are even with West Virginia.  We all know about aggy and the children of the corn.  Texas is 12-7-0 against Colorado and 18-6-0 against Missouri.  BYU...well, it is what it is.

    • Like 1
  12. 15 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

    Driving down 35 back from a wedding in Dallas. Passed through Waxahachie, and had a thought:

    If I ever opened a depilatory studio there, I’d call it “Wax My Hachie.”

     

    15 hours ago, Scheiss Meister said:

    Or open a strip club called Watch My Hoochie.

    Probably a shopping center somewhere in Waxahachie that has space for both.  Seems like having a depilatory studio next door to a strip club would just make good business sense.

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  13. Could probably go in several different threads but I'll just put it here.

    Video: Florida man with ‘all gas, no brakes’ neck tattoo crashes after fleeing Polk County crime scene

    image.png.78137d698f2668b26e339d69cd417160.png

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    DAVENPORT, Fla. - A man has been arrested and a woman remains hospitalized after deputies say the couple was involved in a vehicle crash as they tried to flee from authorities in a Polk County subdivision following reports of car burglaries. 

    According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a report of a car burglary in the Preservation Pointe neighborhood off of County Road 547 at around 3:28 a.m. on Monday. Deputies say a man and a woman were seen trying to break into several vehicles in the neighborhood. 

    According to PCSO, the suspects’ white 2006 Cadillac CTS was last seen headed toward the only exit out of the neighborhood. 

    A deputy says he tried to pull the Cadillac over, but it sped away into the neighborhood. PCSO says the deputy did not pursue the car because there was only one way in and out of the subdivision. 

    "There's one way in and one way out," said Brian Bruchey, a spokesperson with PCSO. "They were like a trapped mouse running around trying to get out of there." 

    While speeding through the streets, investigators say the suspects sped past one deputy, turned around and sped back down the same street while trying to find a way out. 

    According to PCSO, the Cadillac eventually slammed into a parked and unoccupied vehicle.

    "If they were to lose control they could slam into a house and people could get hurt. Well, somebody did get hurt. It was the burglars," said Bruchey.

    Deputies say they immediately pulled the two suspects out of the disabled Cadillac and called for emergency medical services.

    According to PCSO, Timothy Allen Hogue, 37, of Apopka, was driving the Cadillac when it crashed and 31-year-old Rebecca Kozub of Ocoee, was in the passenger seat.

    Detectives who interviewed Hogue after he was released from the hospital, say he admitted to the burglaries and that the crime was Kozub’s idea.

    According to deputies, Hogue said that he fled because he, "just freaked out."

    "Fleeing from a law enforcement traffic stop demonstrates very poor decision making, but to do it in a small, residential neighborhood at a high rate of speed is a terrible idea, and dangerous. It’s amazing and fortunate that nobody innocent was hurt or killed. They could have very easily crashed into a house. It should not come as a surprise that the driver has a tattoo on his neck that says, ‘All gas, no brakes’," stated Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

    Hogue, who has a prior criminal history that consists of 31 felonies and 18 misdemeanors, is now faces charges of burglary of an unoccupied conveyance with enhancement of crossing county lines, felony petit theft, fleeing to elude, conspiracy to commit burglary, possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana less than 20g, possession of drug paraphernalia and resisting without violence.

    A judge set Hogue's bond at $11,500.

    Deputies say charges are pending against Kozub, who suffered a broken leg in the crash and is still in the hospital. She has 19 prior felonies and 20 prior misdemeanors, according to PCSO. 

     

  14. Seems like an appropriate thread to post this.  Sergey Brin has too much money, decides to bring back the blimp and makes it really big.

    The world’s largest aircraft breaks cover in Silicon Valley

    Quote

    As dawn breaks over Silicon Valley, the world is getting its first look at Pathfinder 1, a prototype electric airship that its maker LTA Research hopes will kickstart a new era in climate-friendly air travel, and accelerate the humanitarian work of its funder, Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

    The airship — its snow-white steampunk profile visible from the busy 101 highway — has taken drone technology such as fly-by-wire controls, electric motors and lidar sensing, and supersized them to something longer than three Boeing 737s, potentially able to carry tons of cargo over many hundreds of miles.

    “It’s been 10 years of blood, sweat and tears,” LTA CEO Alan Weston told TechCrunch on the eve of the unveiling. “Now we must show that this can reliably fly in real-world conditions. And we’re going to do that.”

    A series of increasingly ambitious flight tests lie ahead, before Pathfinder 1 is moved to Akron, Ohio, where LTA Research is planning an even larger airship, the Pathfinder 3. The company eventually hopes to produce a family of airships to provide disaster relief where roads and airports are damaged, as well as zero-carbon passenger transportation.

    For the next year however, the gigantic airship looks set to become a Silicon Valley landmark as its novel materials and systems are methodically put through their paces within shouting distance of companies like Google, Meta and Amazon. “I’m excited about the potential of not building just one airship, but laying the foundation for many airships to be built,” said Weston. “The innovations and the technologies that we’re about to demonstrate have the potential to lay the foundation for a new industry.”

    The biggest aircraft in almost a century

    At 124.5 meters long, Pathfinder 1 dwarfs the current Goodyear airships and even the massive Stratolaunch plane designed to launch orbital rockets. It’s the largest aircraft to take to the skies since the gargantuan Hindenburg airship of the 1930s. Although similar in appearance to that ill-fated airship, and using a passenger gondola supplied by Zeppelin, the Pathfinder 1 was mostly built from the ground up using new materials and technologies.

    LTA’s airship uses stable helium rather than flammable hydrogen as a lifting gas, held in 13 giant rip-stop nylon cells and monitored by lidar laser systems. A rigid framework of 10,000 carbon-fiber reinforced tubes and 3,000 titanium hubs form a protective skeleton around the gas cells, surrounded by a lightweight synthetic Tedlar skin.

    Twelve electric motors powered by diesel generators and batteries enable vertical take-off and landing. They can propel the Pathfinder 1 at up to 65 knots (75 mph), although its initial flights will be at much lower speeds.

    This morning, the airship floated silently from its WW2-era hangar at NASA’s Moffett Field at walking pace, steered by ropes held by dozens of the company’s engineers, technicians and ground crew.

    The whole operation occurred under the cover of darkness, not because LTA has something to hide but because the airship’s flight test program begins with the first rays of the morning sun. The first lesson its engineers hope to learn is how Pathfinder 1’s approximately one million cubic feet of helium and weather resistant polymer skin will respond to the warming effect of Californian sunshine.

    “We have sophisticated methodology that allows us to replicate real-world conditions using static test stands,” said Jillian Hilenski, senior mechanical engineer at LTA. “However, dynamic on-ship flight tests provide the best data on the health and efficiency of the airship.”

    Test, test, test again

    At the start of September, the FAA issued a special airworthiness certificate for the Pathfinder 1 allowing test flights in and around Moffett Field and the nearby Palo Alto airport, and over the southern part of the San Francisco Bay.

    Those tests will initially happen just a few feet off the ground, with the airship tethered to a mobile tripod mast. These will be followed by simple maneuvers around Moffett Field, before a series of flights out and over the Bay.

    “The advantages of going over the water are multiple,” said Weston. “First of all, when you come off Moffett Field, the air is smoother over the Bay than it is anywhere else. That’s very important. And there’s not much in the way of traffic on the surface, so that’s a big plus as well.”

    Safety is top of Weston’s mind as he works to reintroduce rigid airships to the skies of North America — and ultimately the world. The first 50 flights of Pathfinder 1 covered by the FAA certificate will allow flights no higher than 1,500 feet, and will use two pilots rather than the single pilot the airship was designed to need.

    “I can count the number of companies in the lighter-than-air space on my hands, and we all have a lot to lose if anybody has a serious problem,” he said. Weston says LTA is working closely with the FAA to ensure that anything the company builds has a safe and sensible path to full certification. “The last maiden flight of an airship like this was the Graf Zeppelin II in 1938,” he noted during the interview. “The FAA wasn’t even around then.”

    In a world of eVTOL air-taxis, electric aviation startups and hydrogen planes, Weston acknowledges that airships are only ever likely to be a partial solution. “I can’t see airships replacing aircraft,” he said. “But I do see a niche for airships to be part of the transportation architecture that reduces the carbon footprint of air travel.”

    Another important niche could be responding to natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes. Sergey Brin also funds a nonprofit called Global Support and Development that aims to deliver humanitarian aid within the first 24 to 96 hours of a disaster.

    Brin founded GSD in 2015 after using his own superyacht to deploy medics to the scene of a cyclone in the South Pacific. The nonprofit has since partnered with the nonprofit YachtAid Global, and now also has its own purpose-built vessel, the MV Dawn, that can swiftly transport dozens of doctors and aid workers, alongside life-saving supplies.

    While Pathfinder 1 can carry about four tons of cargo in addition to its crew, water ballast and fuel, future humanitarian airships will need much larger capacities. They will also likely use zero-carbon technologies like hydrogen fuel cells for power, said Hilenski. That will involve a long, slow slog to validate the new technologies and to demonstrate, to the FAA and paying customers, that a new generation of super-large airships can match the generally excellent safety and reliability record of today’s commercial jets.

    “What excites me about what we’ve done so far is that we’ve shown to ourselves, and we hope to show to the rest of the world, that we can scale in size and productivity,” said Weston. “And I believe in our potential to scale up again in the future.”

    The FAA’s experimental certificate for the Pathfinder 1 expires in September 2024.

    LTA Research’s Pathfinder 1 airship

    (Some other technical information here.)

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