Week-end Wrap.

Some random items I didn't get a chance to comment on:
MLB adds two wild cards, moves Astros to AL

Two wild card teams will be added to Major League Baseball's playoffs no later than 2013, the same year the Houston Astros will begin play in the American League.

I know a lot of people like the idea of more opportunities for teams to get into the post-season and for more interleague play, but I worry about baseball become too much like other sports.  IMHO Selig is taking MLB down the road the NHL has gone, and that's not a good thing.

Report: Red Sox meet with Bobby Valentine - Nooooooo!!!!!

This is one of the best takedowns of the Penn State-Paterno cult I've seen.  Trust me, a lot of Pennsylvanians are still in denial over the whole thing and are hostile to articles like this.

PSU could raise tuition to cover damages from suits - How about taking the money from the football program and if necessary athletics as a whole?  Doesn't this remind you of the bailing out of Wall Street?  I don't expect to see Penn State students rioting over this though.

Speaking of which, academia really doesn't like students protesting income inequality and college finances, the latest over the top crackdown coming at UC-Davis.  I know it annoys many that students want debt forgiven and many millenials did think they were entitled to great jobs just by going to college.  But this is the lie that was sold to them by their parent, guidance counselers and of course the universities themselves.  The rapid rise in tuition (above the rate of inflation) is due in part to the need to pay for the bloated administration, which also drives the push for mire enrollments, the dumbing down of the curricula (and the increasing worthlessness of degrees). For decades people were told by society that if you wanted to get a good job you needed a degree, any undergrad degree would do. Now you pay more and get a crappier education for your degree and can't even get a good job.  The same society tells the students they spoiled and deceived it was their own fault  they chose to go to school and tough shit that you can't a good job.
BTW, no one's even got into the cronyism problem yet, which goes along with the branding/markteing mindset in the hiring of faculty and technical staff. Yours truly discovered the hard way that actually running an electron microprobe lab and years of electronic repair experience can't compete with people who assisted in a lab for two year with the right pedigree and connection.  Should make you question the quality of data coming out of geoscience analytical labs these days.

Nobody should surprised at this - Lobbying firm's memo spells out plan to undermine Occupy Wall Street. 

But this may surprise you - Geraldo Defends Occupy Wall Street Demonstrations From Eric Bolling’s Repudiation.  Of course at one time Geraldo did fancy himself a crusading investigative reporter, so he really doesn't mesh with Fox's politics, just their sensationalism.

This is one of the better discussions I've seen of Peak Oil. I like the "just the facts and spare me the doomerism and conspiracy" approach.  It's enough of a problem w/o attaching whackiness to it.