fuel rods

Take a look at these two pictures:

Picture I found by searching google images for:
"Nuclear control rods"

Picture I took of a model that
I made using Google Sketchup

You see the similarities right?  I mean sure the second one is a much more basic computer graphic image and covered on the outside, but they are very similar looking objects.  Which is why I have chosen to talk about this today, because they are not similar in function or location.  In fact you might think I'm crazy when I tell you that I think that a chandelier in the Oquirrh Mt. Temple reminds me of a nuclear power plant.

Image from the church news web-site

Look carefully at the chandeliers in this rooms and you might notice the glass-like rods sticking out of the bottom.  It is these chandeliers that I have tried to reproduce in the model I pictured above.  You might think I'm crazy, but the similarities are undeniable.

On a side note, I love the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  I tell people that I got married there because I loved the architecture, which is true, but really I got married there because it is a temple of God, and there I could be sealed with my wife for this life and for all eternity.  It just happens to be the most beautiful temple (imho) in the area.  I love the chances we have to go and worship in the temple again.

Uni-forms

You may not know this, but I love sports uniforms, more to the point I love college football uniforms.  Considering that Nike, Under Armor, and others are spending millions, possibly billions on creating cool, trendy, and stylish uniforms that college recuits will like, it's not a surprise that I (a near-college age male) like them.

Because of my slight obsession with the college uniform scene I found a blog called The Uni-Watch.  It is run by uniform enthusiasts who are quite thorough in their coverage of uniform changes, updates, discrepancies, and specialties.

Through this blog I stumbled upon a very narrowly minded site tracking the Oregon Duck uniform changes (most would say it was the ducks who began this national uniform trend).  I also found The Gridiron Uniform Database, a complete collection of NFL jerseys worn every game for the past several years.

After this years explosion of college football uniform advancements some devoted uni-watchers decided to expand the gridiron database to include college football, and this is the result.

If you notice the second team on this list, Boise State, (the were second at the time of this writing but that could change) who's uniforms were reproduced here by none other than you're truly, me.

I will say, I do believe they are quite the work of art.  And hopefully I'll be able keep up weekly with the new uni-combos they wear and make improvements eventually to those currently 'done.'  (I forgot the name on the back of the first two, oops.)

The Holy War

You might have to em-biggen the video to see it well enough.

Basically I thought it was silly to hear BYU fans say, "We've won 3 of the last 5."
While Ute fans retorted, "We've won 6 of the last 9!"
And really, you can manipulate that statistic to serve your team anyway you want.
(BYU has won 26 of the last 39, including a 18 out of 20 stretch!)

So the only way to truly understand the game and the record of the teams is in a dynamic fashion, charting wins overtime.  I made this graph in Excel and animated it using Visual Basic.  I'll try to get the file uploaded somewhere somehow so you can download it and play with it yourself if you like.

For now, enjoy this upload.  It has some explanatory notations and I've included my analysis afterwards.

What do we learn from this?  

We learn that the series has been VERY close for the past 6 years.  

From 2002-2005 Utah took over (surprisingly the time  when Championship machine Urban Meyer took over and the Utes BCS-Busted the Fiesta Bowl).  

It was pretty even again for a while until the early 90's throughout the 80's and into the 70's (the height of BYU's program under Lavel Edwards) when BYU won 18 out of 20 ('72-'92).  

Ute fans will of course point to thier recent success saying they've won 6 of the past 9, but oh wait, not a single player on their team played for the 2005 team, so really they can only claim more recent history of which BYU has won 3 out of 5 (some BYU players have been on the team for all 3 wins).

So... It's close game, and an AWESOME rivalry.  I'm glad to see that The Holy War has even gotten some national media attention over the past few years, and I hope to never see an end to this great game.

This link should be an excel file, right click to download.

Remember to ENABLE MACROS to have the buttons work properly.

Also, sorry I was too lazy to make a 'reset' button.

Hand signs

So my last post got a little distracted with my slight obsession with those Nike gloves, so back to the point...

Hand signs are cool, not just as a "We just scored so throw your hands up!" way, but also in a passing on the street, simple way to show your team spirit.  However they aren't the easiest thing to have.  Ignoring the new glove-palm salutes, only five teams that I know of have hand signs.  So please, if there are other widespread hand signs let me know about them.

As I drove on the freeway in Salt Lake County (U of U territory) I passed a man with a BYU sticker on his car, and I wished that BYU had a hand sign that I could have flashed, letting him know that I too was a BYU fan.  Alas, the only think I could come up with was a sign language Y, but that's not a BYU tradition, so I didn't

Now, about those teams that do have signs:

Perhaps the most well known sign, Hook 'em Horns:

Then there's the growing in popularity Oregon O:

If I ever attended an Oregon game, I'd buy these.

TCU has it's "Horned Frog" although it looks nothing like a frog (or horns for that matter):

The University of Miami (FL) has their U shape:

probably my 3rd or 4th fav of the gloves

Some would argue that Utah also has one, but there's a debate about the U symbol...

And one I just found out about this past weekend, the ASU pitchfork:

And through my searching I came across of few less-well known others (the Houston Cougar Paw, the Villanova V?) but nobody really cares about those so we'll leave it at that.

Some are cool, others are weird, but hand signs (sadly) are not for every team.

NCAAF Gloves

Quite a bit of hullabaloo has been made recently regarding hand signs in college football. Over the past year or so there have been a flew flags thrown over 'excessive celebration' relating to the using and showing of hand signs after touchdowns.

Most recently, Fox Sports' Mike Pereria complained that the Oregon Ducks should get penalized similarly for their O sign.  Then after further clarification from officials and administrators he recalled his statement, saying that flashing the hand sign was ok to use in a 'non-taunting' fashion.

This is probably a good thing, since more and more teams are getting awesome gloves that make for sweet glove-palm salutes.

Entré Les Photos!

UGA

Oregon State

U of Miami (FL)

Horned Frog (TCU)

TCU

Stanford

Boise St. (probably the best design)

Army

Navy

Michigan State

LSU (totally awesome)

Florida

Florida State

Alabama

Texas

Nebraska (a little over kill with the 2nd pair)

And if you want to see more Nike Pro Combat Unis take a look at these news stories from the first three years of uniform releases.  First Second Third

Apple and Amazon

Two of my very favorite tech companies, that until recently, have held their place in very different parts of the technology world.  Slowly though, over the past two years or so, Amazon has been creepin' in on Apple's turf, and even going beyond in someways.

Amazon started with mp3 sales.  Something they've really promoted with college students.  After I bought some books from Amazon (using my free 1-year amazon student account) I was awarded with $20 towards mp3s at their online store.  I think in all I've recieved about $35 worth of free mp3s from Amazon, showing that they really want me to explore their store, and they often have really good $5 albums (two of which I've bought).

Then this spring the launched their cloud player, a huge step up and above almost any other company's cloud based music services.  (The greatness or lack thereof is still in debate after some server blackout issues).

Amazon also began to offer movie downloads/streaming and soon created an app store for both Android devices and general PC applications (I got the free AirPort Mania, not a bad game).  And now they're poised to strike at the near monopoly Apple has on the tablet market.

Everyone knows that the iPad rocks, and that all the imitators really just don't cut it, especially when they're just as, if not more expensive than the iPad.  This is where Amazon steps in and slashes away at the tablet market

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/02/amazon-kindle-tablet/

With prices to beat the iPad and an online media store (probably bigger than Apple's) the next generation Kindle is likely going to become the next hottest device in America.  I already think the Kindle has some great stuff going for it, and it is only going to get better. 

So now I am faced with a hypothetical dilemma, if I were to stumble upon several hundred dollars to be used in the purchase of a personal media consumption device, which one would I pick?  $499 for the baseline iPad, or $250 for the Kindle, but then you get the rest of the money ($249) to spend on accessories, apps, music, and movies...  That's a tough choice!  You know that if you bought an iPad it would be nearly worthless without at least some money put into useful apps...  It's a tough decision, and luckily not one I have to make anytime soon.

On a strictly media standpoint, Amazon offers media at lower prices, so I might be inclined to go with that.

A new Blog

So we have a new blog.  I will still use this one to voice random opinions, mostly relating to football and other random things.  But the Murray Family Blog, posted on by myself and by beautiful wife.  If you'd like to check it out:

http://smmurray.blogspot.com/

Go there to see about our new house and our recent trip to washington.

overkill

So we bought a new car.  We looked at a dealer, and didn't really find anything we loved, plus the salesmen are so annoying.  We looked at a bunch of private sellers and we found a car that we think we'll love!  Our primary requirement was having good gas milage.  Our new Ford Focus gets 36 highway, and it has a lot of add-ons.  In fact, it's a little overkill, we certainly don't need a 6-disk mp3 capable stereo system... but it's nice.  It has leather seats, cruise control, power locks/windows, and it's orange.