Recent Comments

I love that the Charity Bowl features 'Make Spencer Eat Cheese University' (MSECU) - if you look at the comments section, they even have a mascot & a fight song:

Meats leave you bloated
Grains give you turds
Veggies are disgusting
Go!  Fight!  Curds!

Also of note - the fictional Miskatonic University from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft made the list of donators.

That's what I was worried about! I didn't do this ... right?

I hope our tiny eaglet grows into a fierce raptor. The bird kind, not the Toronto kind. They are bad.

Nope.  Relishing the tears of the vanquished is just part of sports.  It's no big deal, it's not like you're celebrating a person losing their job or falling ill.  It's just sports.  This is what we do - everyone wins & loses.  You feel good, you feel bad.  You get to dole out some pride in victory, you gotta take your medicine in defeat.  You can't be too sensitive about everybody's feelings, because it's honestly not that important.  It's just sports.  It's better to not be a bunch of assholes, but it doesn't mean you have to carefully navigate the minefield of human emotion to avoid offending the enemy.

I need to change my avatar, I hate wisconsin now.

I would say nothing & try to ninja away unseen.  I'm afraid I would be more of a distraction than an inspiration.

it's ok, you won't be able to miss his future highlights on sportscenter

I like that clip in which he sets 3 screens in like a 7-second span.  he's just digging space out of the defense.  almost like a giant puppy.

scientist here.  his work checks out.  carry on.

I think it's for facebook, no?  I could be wrong.

wizards at work

I think so?  I'm not sure.  We won, though.  I feel happy.  Belein = good.

Edit: Ok ok I should expand a little to be thoughtful.  It seemed to me like one of the biggest things Belein did well was to get Jeff Withey away from the basket on defense.  We didn't always make the shot, but by pulling Withey towards the perimeter, it allowed McGary to go all McGary in the paint.  Which, as we know, was huge.  I guess I believe that Belein deserves some credit for getting McGary's production today.  Awesome stuff.

truly a noble endeavor.  I abstained from posting in the game thread, but I can tell you, I did not want to believe.  I was afraid of getting my heart broken if I believed.  but I stayed tuned in the whole game, experienced all the frustration & agony, and then finally the unbelievable relief & bliss.  I can't say I stayed optimistic.  that would be a lie.  but I stayed hopeful.  and holy crap am I happy!

I liked it when McGary would make jumpers in Witheys face. Yeah ... I liked that.

I'm so excited but I can barely watch!

In all seriousness, Vincent is the man. He wasnt shaken when it happened, and he's never been shaken since. He did a great Q&A session on reddit which just illustrated his effortless badassery. He even answered a question of mine about his sick blocking, 9 DAYS AFTER I POSED IT, cuz he's that sweet. He cited his "killer instinct", which I believe 100%. V. Smith forever.

You know, it's hard to tell. They're a relatively comatose crowd so far ... obviously there hasn't been a lot to react to. I'm with two lab mates who are local, they're basically just complaining about how terrible the badgers' FG % is. Which is legit. No particular insights, just wishing the shots were falling.

Hah, fair question - I'm a PhD student at UW-Madison, so I guess I've got a little bit of academic pride at least, and I enjoy Madison.  I was kinda cool with their football team, as they were in the Leaders Division, so who cares, but honestly I'm learning to hate them after this basketball season.  I had to see all their stupid fans' faces outside the Kohl Center after that miracle bullshit they pulled on us, and I was mere moments away from steering my vehicle into the masses.

JK I'm not murderous.  But for real, I was kinda mad.

PLoS Biology should be free to submit, as the "premium" journal.

Easy ... PLoS ONE was designed as an open access journal which evaluates submissions on quality of work alone, not the "hotness" of the topic.  That's why it's different from journals such as Nature or Science, which have high impact factors.  The trade-off is that these journals can be almost tabloid in nature - the kind of articles that get published here are cutting edge, but unreplicated.  A decent proportion of these high impact studies wash out as nothing of substance - just something that garners a lot of attention at first blush.

Additionally, PLoS has other "versions" of itself - such as PLoS Genetics & PLoS Biology.  PLoS Biology is actually a very prestigious journal with a high impact factor - but ironically, they are obligated to not advertise that fact based on their founding philosophy that impact factor is not the alpha & omega of publication.

I should also admit that I'm a big proponent of open access scientific formats, & I think it's particularly favorable for large scale studies that use a high volume of data because there are no length restrictions or limitations on how the data can be shared with the scientific community.

My two cents.

This is my only one, although I think there's a guy called Blue Badger who hangs around these parts ... sometimes I wonder if I'm also him.  Like if maybe I'm the modern Wisconsin equivalent of a werewolf - I get mind-shatteringly drunk on PBR & brandy old fashioneds, take on a new personality, sign onto an alternate Mgoblog account I was never even aware I made, & post insightful things with no memory of ever doing so.  I mean, it's possible.

Apparently Adidas unveiled short sleeved jerseys for the Golden State Warriors earlier this month.  This is what they look like:

I ain't even mad.  I want people to go vote for Denard.

me also. it's pretty cool!

I too get regularly mistaken for a Badger when in fact I am a Wolverine.  KNOW YOUR MUSTELIDS.

I made some shirts through Underground Printing for my lab back at Michigan & they added the little (TM) so tiny you can barely see it next to the Michigan logo.  They said it was required.

Here at Wisconsin I recently designed some shirts for one of the surgical departments on customink.com - I wasn't the one who inquired, but one of us did check to see if we needed to include that next to the motion W, & nobody told us we had to.  So we didn't.

So yea, I dunno.  Way to be super helpful, Wisconsin Wolverine.

**Pats self on back.**

• mgoterp (February 11th, 2013 at 12:24 pm): " ... who cares, no one is actually going to listen to you anyway."
• mgoterp (February 11th, 2013 at 12:51 pm): " ... why are you against rushing the court after big wins"

***Logical inconsistency detector at peak levels!***

This video makes me want to set fire to my mgoblog account & re-register with a username that has nothing to do with this stupid state.

They don't set out the chairs & tables on the terrace in the winter.  :(  You can still go out there & walk around, though.

I'm thinking about acquiring a ticket & going to the game in madison by myself in full maize & blue gear to troll the badger fans ...

I'm pretty certain he was trying to be muddy on purpose, considering that he also mentioned the wolverines' "return to relevancy", which is not something you'd say about wild animal populations.  we've been trolled!  however, as a zoologist, I actually read the article anyway cuz I think animals are fascinating.  so ... I win?

Yeah I think this is different from a "typical" kickstarter ... a lot of the times, backers are expecting the kickstarter to provide them with the promised product (in fact, I think the kickstarter is legally bound to provide it).  But in our case, the "product" is your service to the community.  That's what we wanted to make happen.  So, as far as the reward side of things, I'm sure it's very easy for us to be endlessly patient.  I hope you're making great progress in Pahokee!

Good thing I cover tons of ground on a daily basis here in Madison ... I can prob leave my mark all over town from all my various, labatories, offices, libraries, & coffee shops.  I'm definitely going to buy the cheesehead hat.

drank some capital brewery supper club, should have been working though. probably should be working right now. I'll get back to working later. maybe. go badgers?

Thank you for the update. What a weird couple of hours.

Brady Hoke next level recruiting tactics - build fake recruit profile, commit fake recruit to Michigan, watch Dantonio burn scholarships on fake recruit.

Profit.

I still think "sup-Harbaugh-l" is clever.

It is extremely uncharacteristic of me to care even a little bit about celebrity drama, which is why I am so totally perplexed by the fact that I just can't look away from this train wreck. Can't help it, no idea why. Maybe it's because it's a sports thing, maybe because I do not like Notre Dame ... maybe because the whole thing is so superlatively BIZARRE that it hurts my brain for there not to be a logical resolution. Which, unfortunately, I'm beginning to think there never will be. In short, I have no idea why I'm paying attention. But I am.

It's a posbang thread.  Double the posbangs for you!

Yeah I think it's impressive that the Badgers took them down in Assembly Hall again.  Usually it's tough to win in Madison.

Bullet point approach!

THE NEGATIVES
- It was a blown assignment & easy pickings for the defender
- The RB is tiny & standing upright with little momentum

THE POSITIVES
- The defender got in fast
- The defender caused a fumble & recovered it
- Helmet asplosion

So basically, it was a golden opportunity for any defender, but Clowney made more of it than most others would have.

Nobody tell him. DONT ANYBODY TELL HIM. You're welcome.

So this means no more Derrick Green posts until Jan 26, right guys? guys?

Denard's career energy release is equivalent to roughly 4 & a quarter grams of TNT exploding, or a little higher than the energy of a 50 caliber round fired from a Browning Machine Gun.

I used some of the designs I had posted a few weeks ago as iPhone wallpapers to make custom t shirts for my family - I think they turned out pretty well!  They haven't been washed yet, so I dunno how well it'll hold up.

we are a 14 team keeper league, which is exactly as insane as it sounds. we have 17 slots including defenders, special teams, & coaches ... so we really scrape the bottom of the talent barrel, digging pretty far into teams' depth charts to find serviceable players. drafting guys out of college is important. I finally won the league last year (the league's fifth season), and I made it into the championship matchup again this year with a pretty close victory over my best buddy last weekend.

the highlight personnel:
- drew brees
- Julio jones
- dez bryant
- Hakeem nicks
- Darren McFadden
- literally no other RBs, every one I pick up gets broken
- gronk

I like to keep a roster of young guys to help my future success.

... either the internet is catering to my manly style, or the internet thinks I need to work on improving my manly style.  Not sure which.

Who's awesome?  All you guys are awesome.

Here are a few more:

iphone 5

iphone 4/4s

AUGH I double tap "save" so hard on this bloody phone. Kill me.

Aaaaand a double post. Thread is now complete.

I think you just touch & hold the image to bring up a little menu that lets you save it to your camera roll (on the iPhone). then from your photos you can select it & designate it as your wallpaper.

I should have seen this coming.

iphone 4/4s

iphone 5

What size would that be?  A quick googling told me 320x480.  Does that sound right?

Funny

(Come on, somebody moderate me as "redundant" ...)

If each school in the B1G was a data point of just one value, you might be right.  However, you would also need the distribution to be normal, as mentioned above.  This very likely wouldn't be true because we know that the quality of B1G football teams is not a bell curve, and 12 just isn't a very large sample size.

Now, each school in the B1G is not just one value.  There are many numerical values associated with each team, and for each one the distribution will be different.  Just look at offensive points per game - 8 teams are above the mean, 4 are below.  I'm pretty confident that observation alone should punch a hefty hole in whatever point you were trying to make about the uselessness of these data.

I'm starting to think we might be the same person ...

I'm here. I'm ready. go blue!

no. I just want notre dame.

The Annexation of Puerto Rico

I still can't believe I was at that Michigan State game.  It's even more amazing now looking at the math & the historical comparisons.

cool - vid makes the stadium look huge. well I mean, it is huge, but this perspective really shows it.

Definitely interesting.  I kinda want to dig into the math myself & play around with whatever it is they're using.  I just want to look at its insides & see how it works.  For science.

I'm finally getting a smart phone on thursday!  iPhone 5.  never had a smart phone before, I'm excited to download apps & stuff.

If you want to do this ... If you really want to do this (sigh), then you're going to need to present a real, structured argument.  I recommend bullet points and stats.  Lots of stats.  It's not enough to say "Do you see the potential I see?  Gardner can throw better."  I strongly prefer some real analysis, or else I really can't even be bothered to prove you wrong.  You haven't put up anything.

Minnesota WR: "nice, I caught the reverse pitch. that misdirection should freeze a linebacker or two. I'll just run it to the outside & get the edge."

Jake Ryan: "LOL the freshman QB is trying to block me."

I know this is a DG appreciation thread, but I hope Gallon gets a ton of cred for what he did this weekend.  Dude was all over the field making big plays, even in spite of that ankle tweak he did.  He even went over the top of that gopher DB to high point a touchdown.  He just never quits!

I guess I'm really surprised that the offense maintained some level of complexity and smooth execution under Gardner's command ... I dunno how that kid managed to stay on top of the playbook and the signal calling while spending all season at WR.  I felt like he's got athleticism and talent, I just didn't know how well he would lead the offense.  I'm really impressed that he brought it all together.  He looked intelligent out there.

I think I've lost that a bit as well.  Now I find myself feeling really satisfied when I see a technically beautiful takedown.  You really don't have to utterly destroy your opponent to stop him dead in his tracks - a form tackle will do just fine.  I do understand that you want to intimidate the other guy, you want him to be scared, you want him to have you in the back of his mind when he's going up to catch a ball.  But I think the way we're going, that 'kill or be killed' psychological factor may be diminished somewhat, and that's fine.  I think we'll still see great football.  I hope so anyway.

Here's the original MGoBlog thread in which the story was discussed:

http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/michael-ferns-class-act
 

And here's a more recent Chantel Jennings article that accompanies the video:

http://espn.go.com/colleges/michigan/football/recruiting/story/_/id/8547790/st-clairsville-football-team-delivers-memorable-moment-freshman

I also have extensive training & experience in zombie warfare.  this diary is brilliant!  I play with my brothers who live in different states/countries, so this is kind of our non-traditional form of 'quality time'.  It goes great until big brother can't be trusted to responsibly apply molotovs, then suddenly everyone's on fire & angry & dead.  good times ...

I am not comfortable with this much responsibility, I'm not even a very good poster.  I wasn't ready for this.  I wasn't ready.

I'm afraid you guys might be overlooking the very best part of this article - the comments section.  here's how The South views an 'authentic' tailgate:

"Start talking about the tailgate party the week before. Argue over beers on TU, WED and TH, especially during the ESPN TH game of the week.

Saturday arrives.

8 AM - first of the 50 people who will be at the party arrive. With Cigars. 
810 am - first beer and /or mimosa or bourbon 
900 AM - bourbon and cokes accompany the grilled breakfast items, including large slabs of extra thick bacon, lots of coffee, eggs, sausage and someone's leftover deer meat from hunting the week prior 
1000AM- someone sets up not one but THREE TVs to watch gameday. 
1000 - start the smoker for the 2 boston butts you will grill - each weighs 10 pounds. 
Noon - wife and GFs arrive. clean up breakfast, start preparing for lunch 
1230 - put slabs of ribs on the grill 
100 PM- the uppity guy from the good southern fraternity puts pork loin on the grill. 7 pounder. 
100-300- arguments ensue over ACC quality. GF argues that Duke's WR's could 'torch' WVA's dbacks. Since she went to Alabama she will of course know their names andhometowns.

100-330 - Games commence - beer pong, lots of solo cups, bean bag toss.

DID I MENTION NO ONE EVER MAKES A DAMN QUESADILLA AT A SOUTHERN TAILGATE???

330 CBS game of the week- since it's a SOUTHERN TAILGATE - it will be an SEC game ..with the auxiliary TVs showing Big 12 game and maybe a reigonal SEC tilt.

330-7PM - lots of eating, sides including mac and cheese, home made southern beans, a fried side or three, shots of Crown Royal. Little kids get sent inside since the REAL SOUTHERN TAILGATE HAS STARTED.

500-700PM - beer run at halftime, more bourbon, someone you trust has arrived with tequila.

7PM /dark - You are in CT so we here in the south appreciate that it's dark there by 515 pm ... bring out the fire ring, put wood on.

730 PM game- the SEC game is usually at 730 or 8 AND there is a game on a 9 pm ... watch them ALL.

730 - Someone refires up the grill since a guy from Texas A and M has arrived with 5 packs of bratwursts.

9 PM- police arrive, you lower the sound, end the beer pong game.

10 PM- the front yard looks like a tornado hit it. Time to grill dessert- arguments ensue, you start planning the next week.

1130 PM - the last of the lightweights has left.

12 midnight- College Football Final is now on, ESPN. Pizzas arrive. Wives leave the inside of the house (the ones from the PAC 12 schools who married SEC grads), and come outside to sit by the fire and eat pizza with left over boston pork butt thrown on slices.

1230-130 - Someone finds an old DVD of (1)a classic rivalry game (2)a spring game (3)It's not the DVD, it's the damn replay of the game we saw at noon!

So you drink some more. ONE person suggests making a quesadilla, so he gets pants'd. Last of the 10 bratwursts are cut up and put on a paper plate, served caviar style to the remaining stalwarts.

130-200 - lights out. Bring TVs in, leave the rest as is til the morning, It can wait, your team has won.

there you have it TRUE SOUTHERN TAILGATE.

NO QUESADILLAS. EVER."

I thought this thread was going to be about Michigan uniforms, or at least college uniforms going forward.  I don't think I would call this "the future of uniforms" because it's a high school team, and it involves Flo Rida.

that was touching.  hey Pat keep Ann Arbor going strong & having fun for those of us who can't be there!

I'll say impromptu with the benefit of leaving all the shitty ones on the cutting room floor.

Loving the alignment of the Spartan twitterverse with the final drive from Saturday's matchup.  It's definitely a relief to welcome Paul home.

dude I know!  I'm gonna be at the UW-MSU game next weekend too!  I would love to see them lose two (three I guess, heh) weekends in a row.  and then of course the halloween festivities later in the day ... oh it's gonna be a big day.

I have a couple brunette girl friends who absolutely love that this has become a thing.  And why the hell not?  Cheers to the brunettes, and to the mighty GIBBONS!

Oh you're good.

Thanks!  At first glance, a correlation coefficient of 0.785 looks very strong to me, but that's probably because I work with biological data (read: mass chaos) in which values of 0.4 can be very promising.  In the context of college football, it's kind of like you mentioned - achieving a low correlation would probably be quite difficult considering the large-scale consistencies.

Additionally, looking at end-of-season rankings alone kind of smooths out a lot of stochasticity over the course of a season to generate an overall indicator of performance.  I'm curious what FEI's rate of success is in predicting results of individual games (which is further complicated because the amount of predictive data increases as the season progresses).

I'd like to rearrange the more detailed breakdown you cited as well - let's start with the 20% that ended within 2 spots of their pre-season prediction.  I imagine this chunk of data represents the perennial elites and FBS basement dwellers that are the easiest to guess.  26% ended within 5 spots, but this group would actually include the previous 20% we just talked about.  That means that the difference - 6% - of teams ended 3-5 spots from their prediction.  That's a pretty sharp drop-off, reflecting that they are a lot harder to dial in.  The next group, which was called "half" of teams ending within 10 spots, could then be alternatively viewed as 24% of teams ending 6-10 spots from their prediction.  That's not too bad, really.  

I'd like to see some historical data on how accurate FEI predictions have turned out to be.

Huh?

Huh.  We seem to be collectively having trouble deciding how to distribute credit for such a good couple of defensive performances this season.  How the times have changed.  I am ok with this new set of difficulties.

I also predict 51-9.

mah badger.

LOOK WHO'S FULFILLING THE MICHIGAN STEREOTYPE NOW

yea I got my email pretty early.  I am poor & only chipped in a tenner, but I'm still excited about my wristband.

oh God I just realized I'm married to the lab.

Yes.  I think we can all agree he had a horrible game, and you may go "ARGH DENARD" & that's ok.  I acknowledge he played poorly (well, he threw poorly.  He ran pretty well).  But at this point, he's morally tenured as far as I'm concerned.  I've bought in to Denard as a person and an athlete, and I'm willing to live & die by his actions.  He gets my unconditional support based on everything he's done already.  So, both things are true - terrible game, there's no way around it, but still a great man.  Let's go forward.

I think about this from time to time, & I think it's funny ... we basically invent probability for these games based on things we don't really know about.  I mean, there is basis to it.  but with a matchup like this, it's pretty close.  it's impossible to know the true 'likelihood' of the outcome of this competition with such little data to go on.  so, if ND is the favorite here, it doesn't mean they 'should' win the game ... it means they ought to have a slightly better than 50/50 chance of winning, given the public's perception.  I believe predictions make more sense later in the season.  right now it's just madness.  I'll take my chances, beat the Irish!

additionally, hasn't it been changed to the 'Crisler Center'?

cancer's the kind of thing you have to be constantly vigilant about, even after you beat it.  which kinda sucks, but it works for a lot of people!  you got this, Grow.

I agree.  I say we take off & nuke the planet from orbit.  It's the only way to be sure.

Seriously though, I wouldn't mind it if Michigan has a good year while the rest of the B1G struggles.  Conclusion: my Sparty hatred has overtaken my rancor of ND - it's a matter of streaks.  We've had ND's number, MSU has had ours.  I wish the worst upon the recent best.

what the hell, how did cartoon dicks turn everyone on the board into bloody savages?

Yeah I spent about 90 seconds on that thread before deciding fully that it was total insanity.  Sorry, Bama - I like you, but that shit's just nonsense.

Boys, what we have here
Is something I like to call
Opportunity.

I dunno man, it's actually kinda groovy.  Brian really gets a beat going there.

Very 80's broadcast style.  Totally rad.