Real Kato Blog

Fox News commentator Sean Hannity said he'd volunteer to be waterboarded for charity. Now MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann has
challenged him to go through with it. My hunch says Hannity chickens out.

The San Antonio Spurs are out of the NBA playoffs. Normally I couldn't care less* about non-Detroit teams in the NBA, but if there are two teams that make me happy when they lose, it's the Spurs and the Lakers.

Egypt is slaughtering 300,000 pigs over swine flu fears, despite the fact that no cases have appeared in Egypt yet. Next: Egypt to kill all Spaniards due to fears of Spanish flu.

*And yes, the correct phrase is "I couldn't care less", not "I could care less"... pet peeve grrr.

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Posted by Ken in: commentary, sports

GOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLL!

Tuesday, 2009 April 28 - 9:07 pm

1:20 in the 3rd, Hurricanes tie Game 7 against the Devils.

0:31 in the 3rd: Hurricanes go up 4-3. Amazing.

And it's over... Hurricanes advance. That was such an incredible finish; my mind is officially blown. Wow.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Whoo Michigan Whoo

Thursday, 2009 March 19 - 8:39 pm

Well, after a ten year NCAA tournament drought, Michigan comes into the dance this year with a big opening round win over Clemson. (Sorry, Margo.) Go Blue!

CBS, irritatingly, kept switching away from the Michigan game to show other games. But to CBS's credit, you can watch any tournament game online on their web site. They use Microsoft Silverlight to stream the video, and you know, the picture quality was pretty dang good. CBS and Microsoft doing something right, AND Michigan wins an NCAA tournament game... strange things are afoot at the Circle K.

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Posted by Ken in: sports, techwatch

The State of Michigan Football

Sunday, 2008 October 26 - 10:38 am

I haven't been keeping up with my football recaps. When Michigan is sitting at 2-6, and looking at the real possibility of ending up 2-10 for the year, it's hard to sit down and write about them week after week.

What's wrong with this team? I think there's plenty of blame to go around. Here are my midterm grades...

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football Recap

Sunday, 2008 September 28 - 9:59 pm

So yeah, I didn't recap the Michigan-Notre Dame game. Can you blame me? While Michigan showed some flashes of competency in that game, that was overshadowed by the ineptitude that is best captured by a single statistic: 6 turnovers. Despite significantly outgaining Notre Dame on offense, you just can't win a game when you spot the opponent a three-touchdown advantage because you can't hang on to the football.

Michigan 27, Wisconsin 25

After half of the Michigan-Wisconsin game, it seemed like déjà vu all over again.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: sports

News In Brief

Tuesday, 2008 September 23 - 9:22 pm

Random things I noticed in the news today:

Time Warner Cable in North Carolina is going to carry the Big Ten Network, finally. It'll be on a digital sports tier, but it'll be worth it to be able to catch all my Meeechigan games.

Clay Aiken is gay. No, for real this time.

Sarah Palin met Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in New York today. Why is everything that Sarah Palin does described as "controlled" or "scripted"? McCain might as well have chosen a wooden puppet as his running mate.

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Posted by Ken in: commentary, politics, sports

College Football Recap

Wednesday, 2008 September 10 - 8:56 pm

Late late late, I know. I'll make this brief.

Michigan 16, Miami (OH) 6

Well, Michigan squeaked by a mediocre MAC team. The offense was an improvement, but still not terribly efficient; Threet missed a lot of wide-open receivers. The defense played well but was helped by a number of Miami mistakes and dropped passes.

N.C. State 34, William and Mary 24

The Wolfpack struggled early against the I-AA (er, FCS) school, but Harrison Beck replaced starting QB Daniel Evans in the second quarter, and the offense started to move the ball. William and Mary made the score respectable with a couple of late touchdowns, but State was in control for most of the game.

Other News

Notre Dame eked out 21-13 a win against a bad San Diego State team. Notre Dame benefited from a questionable call of a goal-line fumble by the Aztecs. Michigan plays Notre Dame in South Bend this Saturday.

Ohio State struggled to a 26-14 win against Ohio U, and will need to improve drastically to compete with USC this weekend.

Vanderbilt upset South Carolina 24-17.

Florida beat Miami 26-3.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Football Season Starts Boo

Sunday, 2008 August 31 - 3:04 pm

Michigan 23, Utah 25

This game was not as close as the score indicated. Utah utterly dominated Michigan, and if not for a couple of turnovers and a flood of timely Utah penalties, Michigan would probably have lost by three touchdowns.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Football Season Starts Whoo

Thursday, 2008 August 28 - 10:05 pm

Hooray football season hooray.

N.C. State gets off to its typically dismal start. South Carolina leads 27-0 in the fourth quarter right now, and State's starting quarterback went off the field on a stretcher. Ugh.

Michigan plays Utah this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. I'd like to put out a full preview, but I don't have the time (and sites like MGoBlog do that sort of thing much better). My prediction: 19-17 Michigan. Utah will keep it very close; Michigan will prevail on defense and special teams.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

We Win! (Detroit Red Wings edition)

Wednesday, 2008 June 4 - 10:12 pm

Whew.

So Monday night, I suffered as the Detroit Red Wings gave away the game-tying goal to Pittsburgh with 34 seconds left in the game, and proceeded to lose in triple-overtime.

Tonight, Detroit was within inches of giving it away again, but managed to stave off the Penguins, 3-2, winning the series in six games. The eventual winning goal came because Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury sat on the puck after it trickled between his legs, and his butt squirted the puck into his goal. On the other end, as the clock expired, the puck went all the way across the goal mouth after getting by Chris Osgood, but didn't go in.

I'm amazed at the level of talent on this Detroit team. It finally all came together: offense, defense, goaltending. Henrik Zetterberg was amazing. I guess this makes up for the disappointing finish of the Detroit Pistons (who, by the way, fired Flip Saunders after three years of underachieving).

Congratulations to the Detroit Red Wings.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Confluence

Monday, 2008 February 4 - 11:20 am

So tomorrow is Super Tuesday, and Wednesday is college football's national letter-of-intent signing day. If there were also a Macworld expo and an American Idol finale happening this week, the Real Kato Universe of Things I Follow Obsessively would absolutely explode.

Fortunately, only two of the four things are happening, and I think I can wrap my head around both at once. In a single blog post, even.

In election news, Obama has erased Clinton's lead in many polls, most notably in the critical state of California. The Democratic race will probably not be decided this week... in a lot of ways, that's bad news for the Democratic party, who will have to continue spending money on primaries instead of saving for the general election.

The Republican party seems to be consolidating behind John McCain, though it'll be interesting to see where Christian conservative voters go if Huckabee drops out.

As far as Michigan football recruiting goes, the big question mark is still whether Terrelle Pryor will come to Michigan or not. Many fans and analysts think he's leaning slightly towards Ohio State; while that wouldn't spell total disaster for Michigan, it would certainly hurt, especially considering that Michigan desperately needs a spread-offense quarterback. Michigan did pick up Justin Feagin, a two-way player who played both safety and quarterback in high school. If Pryor doesn't end up at Michigan, Feagin might compete for the starting job.

Oh, I do have one quick "American Idol" note... did you catch Jordin Sparks singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl? I thought she did a great rendition.

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Posted by Ken in: politics, sports

Mallett, Manningham, Arrington Leaving Michigan

Wednesday, 2008 January 9 - 2:06 pm

It just became official; quarterback Ryan Mallett is leaving Michigan, in search of a program that better fits is pro-style passing skills. He is considering Tennessee, where former Michigan offensive coordinator Mike DeBord and former Michigan quarterbacks coach Scott Loeffler are reportedly being considered for jobs.

Meanwhile, coach Rich Rodriguez said last night that Arrington and Manningham are also leaving Michigan for the NFL.

With only two inexperienced scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, Steven Threet and David Cone, it has suddenly become critical for Rodriguez to land some quarterback recruits. You can expect that Rodriguez will call for an all-out-blitz to land top high school prospect Terrell Pryor, a mobile quarterback who would do well under Rodriguez' spread offense.

At wide receiver, Michigan has had success in previous recruiting classes, and depth is decent; however, there will surely be a drop-off from Manningham and Arrington, who each had dazzling performances at times during this past season.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football Recap

Tuesday, 2008 January 8 - 11:03 am

A look back at the Michigan game, and comments on last night's championship.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Live-Blogging the Michigan Game

Tuesday, 2008 January 1 - 1:27 pm

Well, almost live... I'm starting on a twenty-minute DVR delay.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: sports