College Pigskin, Week 9

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Not much to see here. The undefeated teams remained so. There were some losses on the bottom of The top 25 (South Florida, Arizona State, Illinois), but they were not especially surprising. Those three teams probably didn’t belong there in the first place.

Just a few short notes:

  • Indiana continued to look invincible by posting a 56-6 win over UCLA.
  • Oklahoma State and Wisconsin continued their tribulations. State was shut out. Wisconsin finally scored a TD in the fourth quarter after 14 consecutive quarters without one.
  • Kent State won their third game of the year!
  • The quarterback for North Texas, who is only a freshman, passed for 608 yards. And it wasn’t one of those Drew Brees things where the kid aired it out 80 times. He pulled that off in 49 attempts. That wasn’t a big surprise. The North Texas Mean Green (I’ll bet you didn’t know their team name) came into the game as the highest-scoring team in the FBS, and they held that position. Their next game is an interesting contrast in offensive philosophies, as Mr. 600 Yards takes on Navy, a team that runs the ball about 80% of the time.
  • Speaking of Navy … If the regular season were now over, Navy would be in the playoff! As I’ve noted before, there are only four strong conferences, but the top FIVE conference winners get an automatic bid. At the moment, Navy is the top-rated conference leader outside the Fab Four, and would get the #12 seed in the tournament.

Overrated teams o’ the week

If you’ve read down to this point, you already know that the most overrated team is Navy. The computers rank them #82, but the coaches’poll ranks them #23, and they would get the 12th seed if the season ended now. The AP places them just outside the Top 25 at #26. No other team is overrated by more than 25 places, but they are more than double that. If they actually got that #12 seed, they would probably be the worst team ever to make the playoff. I hope my middle son isn’t reading this. (He is an active-duty captain in the U.S. Navy.)

It would be a miracle if Navy finishes the season in the top 25, because they have not yet come to the hard part of their schedule. If they get by high-scoring North Texas next week, their next game is against Notre Dame. Following that, it’s South Florida and Memphis, two teams that have been in the top 25 at various times this year. Three of those four match-ups are road games. It’s a long row to hoe.

The full list, based on Sagarin’s computer ratings (listed first in parens) and the AP poll:

1. 56 places – Navy (82,26)
2. 24 places – Houston (46,22)
3. 22 places – Virginia (37,15)
4. 15 places – Georgia Tech (23,8)
5. 14 places – BYU (24,10)
5. 14 places – Cincinnati (31,17)

Virginia is the most overrated team in the top fifteen.
Georgia Tech is the most overrated in the top ten (by a whisker over BYU).

Scoreboard

New rankings

New computer ratings

Former US president Ronald Reagan FULL 1987 speech on tariffs and free trade

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The province of Ontario ran some TV ads quoting Reagan. President Trump claimed they were presented out of context and did not represent Reagan’s positions. He then imposed additional tariffs on Canada.

Here, for the record, is Reagan’s speech:

I started it at 1:14 because the introduction is about some era-specific squabbles with Japan. You can take it back to the start if you want to hear every word.

Here’s a transcript of the middle portion:

When someone says, ‘Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports.’ It looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works, but only for a short time. What eventually occurs is first homegrown industries start relying on government protection in the form of high tariffs. They stop competing and stop making the innovative management and technological changes they need to succeed in world markets. And then while all this is going on, something even worse occurs. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens. Markets shrink and collapse. Businesses and industries shut down and millions of people lose their jobs.

This is for your information. I am neither endorsing nor refuting, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Reagan’s positions.

It is clear that the Ontario ads did accurately reflect Reagan’s position, whether it was right or wrong.

When you’re ready to make your first heist, Böcker can give you a lift

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Capitalism at its finest.

The Louvre thieves used Böcker equipment to get up to and down from the second-story window, so the company took the opportunity to promote their products.

The NY Times reported:

When thieves climbed to a second-floor window of the Louvre, grabbed jewels of staggering worth and descended to their getaway scooters via a furniture elevator, many in France were stunned and furious.

But the German company that made the elevator saw a once-in-a-lifetime marketing opportunity.

Alexander Böcker, the chief executive of the German machinery company Böcker, and his wife, Julia Scharwatz, recognized their Agilo truck-lift instantly, he said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday. A day after the heist last Sunday, they rolled out a new advertising campaign.

The managers of the German company took great pleasure in the fact that the crooks were unwilling to rely on French equipment to assure their success.

SIDEBAR:

When I lived in Norway, I was shocked by the fact that I could have removed valuable paintings from the wall of the National Museum, and handed them right through ground-floor windows. I didn’t, of course, not because I’m an honest guy, but because I wouldn’t know what to do if I somehow got away with it. The hardest part of a heist like that for a schmuck like me is not the stealing part, but the fact that schmucks have no idea how to convert stolen art to cash.

OK, let’s imagine that I had somehow succeeded, and had Munch’s The Scream in my apartment, next to my golf clubs. How would I have unloaded something like that? It’s not like I could find a high-dollar fence in the phone book, and I couldn’t just fly around the world to drop in on art-collecting billionaires. Some of them might have talked to me, but the honest ones would have ratted me out, and the corrupt ones would have just had me killed, taking the painting for free.

At least I guess that’s what the corrupt ones would do. It’s certainly what I would do if I were a ruthless, corrupt, art-collecting billionaire.

Come to think of it, that’s what I want to be when I grow up. Fuck my current job as a peripatetic philosopher-prince and soft-core pornographer. Where is the university where I can major in ruthless, corrupt, art-collecting studies?

It sounds like something they might teach at Heidelberg, along with “White Superiority 101” and “Choosing the monocle that’s right for you.”

Liv Henneguier and Clara Bretheau topless in Dammen (2025)

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This is a 15-minute short from France. They were topless. I guess. Who can tell? They were nowhere near the camera.

Two young women are enjoying the wild surroundings of an isolated lake. It’s a sunny day.

Whew! That’s probably too much excitement for me. I would have watched the entire film, but at my age, I’m not sure my heart can stand the stress.


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Clara Bretheau is the one standing up.

Defoe’s video in here. Kidding aside, even this excerpt is incredibly boring. On the other hand – pretty photography!

Matilde Gioli topless in Dedalus (2024)

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Italian dark comedy and thriller.

Six content creators are selected to participate to Dedalus, a new social contest that promises to make the winner rich and famous. Locked in an isolated arena, the contestants participate in games that gradually prove to be more and more dangerous. What seems like a simple game slowly turns into something completely different, and the creators find themselves victims of an elaborate revenge.


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Video