Pacific Northwest-Coast Bias

Winter Solstice is upon us. Normally I would think of this as a relief and that hours of sunlight will begin to improve moving forward. But, it never really seems that way, especially in the depths of rainy February.

Are days going to start to get longer right away?

Not really.

Right now in Seattle we only have 8 hours and 25 minutes of sunlight. And the curve is not very steep for improvement.

For the first few weeks after the solstice, days get longer by only 30 seconds or so. Then, the pace starts to accelerate, and we gain 2-3 minutes per day pretty quickly.

Where do we gain the extra time? At night or early morning?

The good news is that although we don’t gain very much time in December and early January, it’s almost all at night.

In the first 30 days after the Solstice, we gain 30 minutes at night, but only 5 minutes in the morning (look at the flat red line). I’ll definitely take the longer evenings.

Note: The jump in March is Daylight savings

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Who to pick this year in your college football pool? No fear – here’s your guide to who will win this year in the college football bowls.

Some people think they know who will win. I don’t. But, I have a system to select which teams are more likely to win than others, and following this system has done better for me than worse.

Guiding Principles:

1. Bet on the home team – the home team generally has a 2.5-3 point advantage. I believe Vegas underweights this advantage during bowl season
2. If the coach is gone, bet against the team
3. For Big Conference vs. Sisters of the Poor, bet against the sisters
4. If I watched the team simply implode over the year (i.e. I have no confidence in them), pick against them
5. Pick teams that had better records in 2010, as a signal of more-likely-to-win-teams
6. Flip a Coin (based on conference)

Home teams:

How can Alabama be favored in the national championship game? It doesn’t make any sense. LSU beat Alabama on the road already, and now they have a home game. While Saban made 2 tactical errors with Marquis Maze (throwing the football, and punt return) that he won’t repeat, Les Miles shouldn’t have any problems with a 5-point swing in his favor by being at home.

Teams playing against Absent Coaches:

Nevada is playing against Southern Miss, whose Larry Fedora is long gone. Missouri is playing North Carolina, who is on the other side of the Larry Fedora move, and Air Force is facing Tim Beckman-less Toledo. I don’t like picking against Ohio State. However, there is no way I can pick any of these teams.

Big Conference Picks:

Poor Little Sisters of the Poor (Western Michigan and Utah State). They never had a chance.

Pick against the implosion-prone teams:

This is un-scientific. But I watched Texas, Washington, and Virginia stink all year. They made no progress (albeit Virginia looked so horrible last year, maybe they actually did make progress). Either way, they deserve to lose this game.

Toss ups, but picking the team that had the better record last year:

‘nuf said. No clear winner in these games, but picking the winner purely on last years performance.

Toss ups, but picking pro-Big Ten and Pac-12, and anti SEC:

Don’t have a great rationale, but picking for the Big Ten and Pac-12, and against the SEC and ACC. We’ll see if these pan out.

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In short: Yes. The NCAA sanctions the bowls, so if they approval a bowl game, that game is going to happen whether or not there are enough teams with a winning record to fill the slot.

This year, UCLA is going to the renown Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl with a 6-7 record. Since the team has 6 wins, they’re bowl eligible despite a losing record (and no head coach).

When was the last time a team with a losing record played in a bowl?

North Texas (5-6), 2001, R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. North Texas won the conference, and thus the automatic entry.

Have you ever noticed the hidden message within the FedEx logo? Don’t worry, I hadn’t either until it was pointed out to me (thanks Christian). Here’s the logo:

Here’s a hint: The hidden message reflects speed and precision.

Any help? Don’t worry, if you don’t see it, I didn’t either

Here’s the hidden message:

What a clever insertion into the Federal Express Logo – an arrow in the space between the E and the X.

But the best part about the arrow is not the arrow itself, but the fact that very few people know about it. You’re now in exclusive company. In fact, the designer preferred that FedEx didn’t draw attention to the fact that there is a secret arrow in the logo. But once you see it, you can’t forget it.

Several questions come to mind:

• How do you remind your employees to live out the company’s mission statement every day?
• Is there a way to re-enforce the message in an effective way that will stay with employees no matter where they are, including in the field and with customers?
• Does your company live and breathe the mission, even to the point that it’s in the logo?

Photo credit: jcwpdx

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Andrew Luck may be this year’s Heisman Trophy winner. This would be quite the feat for a West Coast athlete from a school other than USC.

In the last 40 years, there have only been 4 Heisman Trophy winners from players in the Pacific Time Zone (All from USC, Reggie Bush included in the totals). Mountain Time Zone fairs even worse with only 2 winners. Heisman voters don’t stay up late on Saturday night.

Interestingly, the last player from the West Coast that won the Heisman Trophy and didn’t come from USC was QB Jim Plunkett in 1970, from none other than Stanford.

But the real Heisman bias is not in region, but in position. If you’re not a QB or RB, you’re probably not winning. Only 3 non-QB/RBs have won the trophy in the past 40 years.

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