Archive for December, 2007

Unfortunately, all of us here in WV are forced to wonder just why Rich Rodriguez left our beloved mountaineers. Maybe a lawsuit will clear things up a bit. I will be interested and anxiously awaiting the former Coaches response.

It’s bad enough that we lost Coach Belien to Michigan, but two coaches in as many years heading off to the same school? What the hell happened here? Are the Michigan deals simply too good to turn down, or is WVU pissing in the coaches Cheerios every morning?

By Pam Ramsey
Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON — West Virginia University’s Board of Governors sued former football coach Rich Rodriguez Thursday to collect a $4 million buyout of his contract with the school.

The lawsuit, filed in Monongalia County Circuit Court, says the university believes Rodriguez doesn’t intend to abide by the contract.

The buyout clause requires Rodriguez to pay $4 million to WVU over a two-year period, with one-third of the total due 30 days after his employment’s termination. His resignation was effective Dec. 19.

Rodriguez’s agent, Mike Brown, declined to comment Thursday night on the lawsuit.

Rodriguez went to Michigan after seven seasons in Morgantown, where he led West Virginia to four Big East championships and a 60-26 record.

West Virginia officials decided to ask a court to enforce the contract after supporters of Rodriguez questioned its validity and the coach did not disavow those statements, said Alex Macia, vice president of legal affairs and legal counsel for the university.

“There are very clear statements and factually incorrect statements by people who purportedly speak for the coach,” Macia said.

“There comes a time when you have to have a court pronounce as a matter of law what happened,” he said.

Rodriguez and the university agreed to a seven-year contract on Dec. 21, 2002, and it has been extended twice since then. The latest revision was agreed to on Dec. 8, 2006, when Rodriguez was considering an offer from Alabama. The revised contract was to run through the 2013 season.

In addition to increasing Rodriguez’s salary, the 2006 contract extension included a $100,000 supplemental payment to the assistant coaches’ salary pool and $6.2 million in improvements to the team’s athletic building, the Milan Puskar Center.

According to the lawsuit, the university fulfilled the contract’s terms and Rodriguez never gave it written notice, as required by the contract, that it had not followed the agreement, the lawsuit said.

“The university performed and upheld its end of the bargain,” Macia said.

University officials were not aware of and did not consent to Rodriguez’s discussions with Michigan officials about the Wolverines’ coaching job, the lawsuit said.

A summons issued to Rodriguez gave him 20 days to respond to the lawsuit.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to me! I have just received word that I have won an elliptical from Nordictrac.com!

This isn’t one of those scammy things either. I really won it, and it’s mine, mine, mine!! AHHAAHAAHAA….. erm… I mean… isn’t it nice?!

With the New Year on the way, and new years resolutions being thrown around my house like candy at small town parade, this couldn’t have come at a better time. I have already began quitting the smoking habit, (Sunday will make 2 weeks without any nicotine). I quit cold turkey. I think that if you really want to quit, you can do it without all of the new drugs that are available.

Back to the elliptical, like I was saying, what better a way to start off the new year than with a brand spanking new piece of exercise equipment, and no more cigarette stink. The New Year is already off to a great start, and I hope that it continues for another 12 months!

There will be several more posts on this subject. I’m so excited! I have never won anything like this before! Stay tuned!

It’s a big tower surrounded by glass. The air under the glass gets heated by the sun and goes up trough the tower spinning the generators. This technology is very simple, almost perfect I say, one such tower could work for hundreds of years if maintained

Australia plans to build one with a collection area of 7km in diameter.

Spain built one with an area of 244 m diameter, it worked for 8 years and generated some 50kW at it’s maximum, until it was closed due to “structural problems”

I would like to see these towers wherever there is space for them, their simplicity is inspiring… sort of like personalized pens.

Around May 11, 2007, Coast to Coast AM webmaster, Lex, received an email letter with attached May 6, 2007, images of a very odd aerial object (or some new type of modern furniture) from a Central California resident who calls himself “Chad.” Chad is worried about his family’s safety and health since he has now seen the bizarre aerial object at least eight times from his house windows and on hikes near his home. Neighbors, he said, have also seen the unidentified aerial object. Then on May 15, 2007, I received another similar aerial “drone” image allegedly taken by a person at Lake Tahoe, California, on May 5, 2007 and identifying themselves at UFO Casebook.com as “Lake Tahoe-05-05-07MUFON Submitter 7013.”Now on May 21, 2007, the following images have been posted at Flickr.com with this email by rajman1977:

“This week I was visting my fiance’s parents in Capitola (we were actually there to tell them about our engagement, in fact). We were eating dinner on the back porch when we

noticed this “object” sort of hovering in the sky. The camera was still out from earlier so Igrabbed it and tried to get some clear shots of it. It took off over the roof shortly after, so I ran into the street in front of the house to follow, trying to get more shots without wobbling around too much (which was harder than it sounds). It then came in lower over a telephone pole, where I was able to get a few more pictures, before it finally took off into the distance pretty fast. I thought it was gone but noticed it was still visible, so I grabbed a few more pictures.

At one point a car stopped to look as well. No one had any idea what this thing was, but everyone in the car was visibly freaked out by it. Once it was gone they told me to call the news and drove off. I’m not sure who else saw it in the neighborhood since I don’t live down there, but I’m sure at least a few others must have noticed it. It was way too werid and way too close to go unnoticed. Once it was gone and I caught my breath I could barely stop my hands from shaking for the next hour or so. Needless to say, this is all we talked about for the rest of the night. None of us can figure out what it was (and that’s saying something, because my fiance’s dad is a mechanical engineer).

We sent a copy of the photos to their newspaper but haven’t heard back yet. I dunno how long that kind of thing takes.

There’s also some writing on this thing, which I didn’t recognize (and I read both English and Hindi). You can see it in a few of the pictures.

Anyway, I created this Flickr account for the best of these pictures. I have no clue what this thing is so I’m putting it out there to see if anyone else saw it.”

Rajman1977 Image 0018, taken with a Konica Minolta DiMAGE X on May 16, 2007, in Capitola, California. Image © 2007 by rajman1977 at flickr.com.

Rajman1977 Image 0018, taken with a Konica Minolta DiMAGE X on May 16, 2007, in Capitola, California. Image © 2007 by rajman1977 at flickr.com.

Rajman1977 Image 0018, taken with a Konica Minolta DiMAGE X on May 16, 2007, in Capitola, California. Image © 2007 by rajman1977 at flickr.com.

Rajman1977 Image 0018, taken with a Konica Minolta DiMAGE X on May 16, 2007, in Capitola, California. Image © 2007 by rajman1977 at flickr.com.

Rajman1977 Image 0018, taken with a Konica Minolta DiMAGE X on May 16, 2007, in Capitola, California. Image © 2007 by rajman1977 at flickr.com.

Rajman1977 Image 0018, taken with a Konica Minolta DiMAGE X on May 16, 2007, in Capitola, California. Image © 2007 by rajman1977 at flickr.com.

Via Earthfiles.com

And more here

‘Twas the night before Christmas–Old Santa was pissed.
He cussed out the elves and threw down his list.
Miserable little brats, ungrateful little jerks.
I have a good mind to scrap the whole works!

I’ve busted my ass for damn near a year,
Instead of “Thanks Santa”–what do I hear?
The old lady bitches cause I work late at night.
The elves want more money–The reindeer all fight.

Rudolph got drunk and goosed all the maids.
Donner is pregnant and Vixen has AIDS.
And just when I thought that things would get better
Those assholes from the IRS sent me a letter,
They say I owe taxes–if that ain’t damn funny
Who the hell ever sent Santa Claus any money?

And the kids these days–they all are the pits
They want the impossible–Those mean little shits
I spent a whole year making wagons and sleds
Assembling dolls…Their arms, legs and heads
I made a ton of yo yo’s–No request for them,
They want computers and robots…they think - I’m IBM!

Flying through the air…dodging the trees
Falling down chimneys and skinning my knees
I’m quitting this job there’s just no enjoyment
I’ll sit on my fat ass and draw unemployment.

There’s no Christmas this year now you know the reason,
I found me a blonde. I’m going SOUTH for the season.
(Can anyone recommend something good for tool storage?)