Ben’s Blog

Some interesting book-related news that I’ve seen over the last few days:

• J.R.R. Tolkien died in 1973, but his “new” book comes out on April 17th. He started writing The Children of Hurin in 1918, and his son, Christopher, has recently finished it. I’m a bit of a Tolkien nut, so I’m sure I’ll end up with a copy of it. I have pretty much everything else written by him, though I haven’t necessarily read it all. The last Tolkien book to be published was The Silmarillion in 1977. I started it, but never finished. It is rather dense to say the least. My friend Bill described it as “an elven phonebook.” This new book seems like more of an easy read. (via WillBardwell.com)
• The cover for the new Harry Potter book has been made public. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released on July 21st. It’s the seventh and last book in the series. Yes, I’m a Harry Potter fan too. Anything that gets kids to read more is good in my view.
• I’m always fascinated by the amount of power that Oprah wields. She’s right up there will Wal-Mart. She recently announced her latest book club pick, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy is a fairly well-known, but reclusive author. His first TV interview ever will come on Oprah’s show. Prior to being picked by Oprah his book had sold 138,000 hardcover copies. A paperback version was planned for September, but his publisher immediately produced a huge first-printing of 950,000 paperbacks when they found out about the selection. Strangely enough, apparently McCarthy spends most of his time at the Santa Fe Institute, a research institute mostly made up of scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• Not really book-related, but…the USPS will be issuing a set of 15 Star Wars stamps on May 25th. The most popular one will be reissued later in the summer. I’m upset that R2-D2 doesn’t get his own stamp. He has to share one with Princess Leia.

Yesterday afternoon while I was running I listened to last week’s Science Friday on my iPod. They had Rep. Bart Gordon on, who is the chair of the House Science and Technology committee; the same committee that Al Gore testified in front of last week.

I wasn’t particularly interested in a lot of what they were discussing, but some stats he threw out caught my ear. He said that over 50% of US math teachers and 92% of US physical science teachers have neither a degree nor certification in their subject area. He didn’t say where he got those numbers or how current they were. If those are the numbers for the US as a whole, then I suspect Mississippi is even worse off. Why wouldn’t we be? We’re behind in all other education categories. As of the current school year the No Child Left Behind Act requires that all teachers be “highly qualified.”

Rep. Gordon mentioned that they were working on legislation that would create scholarships for students going into science and math teaching. Scholarships are fine and good, but a better way to attract and keep good teachers is to pay them more.

I’m not talking about an across the board pay raise for teachers. (Though that’s needed too.) I’m talking about paying math and science teachers more than we pay other teachers. Why? We’re obviously having a hard time finding qualified math and science teachers. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand. Universities already do it. Engineering faculty make more than liberal arts faculty, and business school faculty make more than anyone else.

Science Friday is an excellent podcast by the way. It’s two hours long, but they break it up into segments so you can pick and choose the ones that look interesting.

It was fun while it lasted, but the Ole Miss women’s basketball team is now out of the NCAA tournament. They lost 98-62 to Tennessee last night in the Elite Eight. I didn’t expect them to beat Tennessee, but I would have hoped they’d have kept it a little closer. They did have a great season though. It’ll be interesting to see what they can do next year. In addition to Tennessee, LSU, UNC, and Rutgers are in the women’s Final Four. I’m pulling for Tennessee and LSU. An all SEC championship game would be nice.

Ole Miss won their baseball game 6-5 against Southern Miss last night. It was tied 5-5 going into the 9th inning. Ole Miss loaded the bases and pushed a run home with a sacrifice fly from Cody Overbeck. Our first four runs came off of three home runs in four at-bats during the fourth inning. We started some different guys, including Alex Kliman at catcher and JoJo Tann at DH. We also threw six different pitchers. Scott Bittle pitched in the 8th and threw 3 wild pitches, but managed to get out of the inning without giving giving up any runs. I predict he doesn’t close any close games this weekend. Hopefully there won’t be any. We play a three-game series at Auburn this weekend. They are 0-6 in SEC play.

Mississippi State’s men’s basketball had made it all the way to the Final Four of the NIT, but lost by one point to West Virginia last night. I was pulling for State…really. It’s rare, but it happens. State had a two point lead with 2.1 seconds left. West Virginia inbounded the ball and hit a three-pointer with no time remaining. That’s a tough way to lose a game.

The Ole Miss women’s basketball team defeated Maryland last Tuesday to advance to the Sweet 16. It was nothing short of a miracle. Oklahoma wasn’t supposed to be quite as good as Maryland, but they were still expected to beat us. They had won 10 consecutive games coming into tonight. Their best player, Courtney Paris, had 60 consecutive double-doubles.

Ole Miss somehow pulled out another upset today by defeating Oklahoma 90-82. Defense was the key again, as it has been all season. Ole Miss forced 26 turnovers. Oklahoma had averaged only 18 per game this season.

Armintie Price had 31 points, 10 rebonds, 5 assists, and 5 steals. The five steals pushed her over 400 steals for her career, making her only the second woman in the history of college basketball to have 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 400 assists, and 400 steals.

Ole Miss will play Tennessee in the Elite Eight on Tuesday night. The winner advances to the Final Four. Tennessee is a perennial powerhouse in women’s college basketball. They won three national championships in a row from 1996 to 1998. For more good stuff, look at Pat Summitt’s Wikipedia page. It’s quite impressive. Tennessee has beaten Ole Miss 14 consecutive times, including a 81-69 win on February 15th.

The Ole Miss baseball team won their home series against Alabama this weekend by beating them 3-2 on Saturday and 15-9 on Sunday. Alabama won 8-5 on Friday night. (Post continues below picture.)

Cassie and I went to the Friday night game. I put some of my better pictures on Flickr. We should have won this game and swept the series. We were winning 5-2 going into the 8th inning, but we let them score five runs in the 8th and another one in the 9th to make it 8-5. Scott Bittle, our closer, actually walked in two runs in the 8th. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets another chance in a big game for a while. Cody Satterwhite seems like a better choice for a closer. He did a great job closing on Saturday.

Starter Brett Bukvich gotted pulled in the third inning of today’s game after allowing three runs. It’ll be interesting to see if he starts next weekend. He’s done well in the past, so I expect he will. Luckily our bats were hot today. Both Kline and Lynn, our other two weekend starters, have been consistently good this year. We just need to find a good closer.

We play Southern Miss Tuesday night in Pearl, Mississippi (a neutral site). That should be a good game. They already have wins over LSU and Rice this year. Next weekend we play a three-game series at Auburn. Auburn is 0-6 so far in the SEC play, being swept by Georgia and Florida.

When I said I wouldn’t post about sports again this week unless Ole Miss beat Maryland, I really didn’t expect Ole Miss to win. In fact, I thought their chances were pretty slim. Maryland was last year’s national champion, and they returned all five starters. They beat us by 31 points back at the beginning of the season. They came in having beaten 31 consecutive non-conference opponents.

This was quite a big upset. It even made the front page of ESPN’s web site. It’s the earliest in the women’s NCAA tournament that a defending national champion has been defeated. This will be the first time since 1992 that Ole Miss has played in the Sweet 16.

Ole Miss had a 17 point lead at the half, and we led by as many as 23 points during the second half. Maryland tried to rally late in the second half, but they could only cut the lead to six. The final score was 89-78. The story of the night was that Ole Miss forced 29 turnovers; 20 of them in the first half. Maryland never had a chance to run their offense.

Armintie Price, Ole Miss’ star player had 29 points, leading all scorers. She also had 3 steals, which puts her at just 4 short of 400 for her college career. Reaching 400 steals would make her only the second women in college basketball history to have 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 400 assists, and 400 steals. She is expected to be selected in the first round of the WNBA draft on April 4th.

Ole Miss will face Oklahoma on Sunday afternoon. Oklahoma is a three seed, while Ole Miss is a seven seed. The winner will face the winner of Tennessee and Marist. I think it’s fairly safe to say that will be Tennessee. (Tournament bracket)

Today Cassie went to the doctor for her 30 week checkup. Everything looked good. Only ten more weeks to go, give or take a couple of weeks. She goes back to the doctor in two weeks.

As the title suggests, we have more or less decided we’re going to call him Luke. Cassie is pushing for “Benjamin Luke,” but I’m trying to come up with something a little more original. I’ve suggested “Alexander Luke,” “Isaac Luke,” and “Philip Luke” but Cassie doesn’t like any of those. I’m open for suggestions. :)

One of Cassie’s friends got her a BeBeSounds Prenatal Heart Listener a few weeks ago. We had considered buying one earlier, but I decided it probably wouldn’t work. I was right. There’s a reason it only gets two stars on Amazon. We tried it a couple of nights ago, and we couldn’t hear anything except the occasion thump we he kicked at it. :) As it turns out it’s just a microphone with some headphones attached. The ones the doctors have actually use ultrasound, and are much more expensive. About $800 according to Cassie’s doctor. He told us he hadn’t had any luck with the cheap ones either.

Both Cassie’s fellow teachers and our church back in Belmont are throwing her a shower. We haven’t registered anywhere yet. I guess we should get on that.

I got to watch/listen to three very good baseball games this weekend. Ole Miss (ranked 14th in the country) was playing a three-game series in Nashville against Vanderbilt (ranked 1st in the country). Vanderbilt was undefeated going into the series, which is fairly rare for this point in the season. Unlike football, you’re expected to lose a few games even if you’re really good. So yes, Vanderbilt did win two of the three games, but Ole Miss played really well. We could have just as easily swept the series if a couple of plays had gone the other way. The series definitely had a postseason feel to it. If Ole Miss can play this well the rest of the season, we’ll be hosting another regional.

Friday night Ole Miss was winning 2-1 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. Vanderbilt scored a run to force extra innings. They scored again in the tenth to win the game. Vanderbilt’s ace, David Price, was amazing in this game. He pitched a complete game with 14 strikeouts, and only allowed 2 walks, 4 hits, and 2 runs.

Saturday Ole Miss jumped out early. It was 5-0 after 2 innings. We scored another run in the sixth, and Lance Lynn had a shutout and no-hitter going into the eighth inning. Vanderbilt did score in the eighth, but it was too little too late. It was Vanderbilt’s first loss of the year. Lance Lynn was named SEC Pitcher of the Week for his performance.

Sunday’s game was the most exciting, with the lead changing hands several times. Ole Miss scored two runs in the second inning, and led until the fifth when Vanderbilt tied it up, 4-4. Vanderbilt scored a run in the seventh to take the lead. Ole Miss scored two runs in the top of the ninth to go up 6-5. I was already celebrating, but Vanderbilt scored two in their half of the ninth for the win.

Ole Miss and Vanderbilt won’t play each other for the rest of the regular season, but there’s a good chance they’ll meet again in the SEC Tournament. It should be interesting. Ole Miss plays South Alabama in Mobile tomorrow afternoon, and will play Alabama in a three-game series this weekend in Oxford. Alabama took two games from Tennessee this past weekend.

College baseball has about four different polls. Three of them have been updated today, and Ole Miss moved up one spot in two of them and stayed put in another. I actually thought they might get bumped up two or three places. They are now ranked as high as 13th. Vanderbilt maintained their no. 1 ranking in one poll, went from 1 to 2 in another, and went from 2 to 1 in yet another. Go figure.

The men’s basketball team was just defeated 89-68 by Clemson in the second round of the NIT, so their season is over. Their record is 21-13, which is a big improvement over last year. Speaking of last year, former Ole Miss basketball coach Rod Barnes became the head coach of Georgia State’s men’s basketball team.

The Ole Miss women play Maryland (the defending national champions) in the second round of the women’s NCAA tournament tomorrow night at 6pm.

To my sportphobic friends, I promise that this is my last sports-related post of the week unless the women beat Maryland. :)

Today the New York Times had a front page article about the Shriners and their Hospitals for Children. The article was about some problems they are having with embezzlement and fraud, but the thing that caught my eye was their $9 billion endowment. That’s huge.

I wasn’t able to find a definitive list of non-profit groups ranked by endowment size, but I’d say that puts the Shriners in the top 20 in the United States pretty easily. They might even be in the top 10. The largest non-profit by endowment is the Gates Foundation ($31.9 billion), closely followed by Harvard University ($28.9 billion). Other than Harvard, only four universities have larger endowments than the Shriners Hospitals. They are Yale, Stanford, the University of Texas (the entire system), and Princeton.

The University of Mississippi has a $415 million endowment. That sounds pretty small compared to the big guys, but it does put us in the top thirty public universities in dollars of endowment per student. Here is a list of US colleges and universities by endowment amount.

Last weekend Cassie and I took a little trip to Huntsville, Alabama for some shopping and relaxing. Cassie found several good “baby stores,” and I found a nice local photography shop called Southerland’s. I tried out their Canon EOS 30D and bought some medium format film for my Holga that I got at B&H in New York last summer. I should really get around to posting those New York Pictures one of these days.

Above is the only picture I took on our trip. We didn’t go to the Space Center this time around, and there isn’t much else to take pictures of in Huntsville. I took this picture from our hotel parking lot Sunday evening. I-565 is in the foreground. You can see the U.S. Space & Rocket Center on the left.

The bigger rocket is a model of the Saturn V, the biggest rocket ever built. They have a real one lying down in the back of the exhibit area. It’s currently being restored. It’s one of only three complete ones in the country. I believe the smaller rocket on the far left is a Saturn I.

It’s not visible in this picture, but they also have an A-12 “Oxcart” out front. Most people assume it’s an SR-71 Blackbird, but it’s not.

One of these days when I get Photoshop I’ll get rid of that light pole in the middle of the picture. :) By the way, if the bottom third of the picture looks nearly completely black to you, your monitor is probably mis-calibrated. You should be able to make out the overpass, some small trees, and a few cars.