June 2008 Archives

Uga VI dies of congestive heart failure.

Uga VI, who was only one year old at the time of his coronation, was the biggest of all the mascots weighing in at 65 pounds—more than 20 pounds heavier than his father—and like his forefathers was a solid white English bulldog.

The Georgia football teams compiled an 87-27 record during Uga VI’s tenure, which officially began in 1999 with pre-game ceremonies prior to the South Carolina game in Athens. The Bulldogs captured both the 2002 and 2005 SEC Championships and won six of eight bowl games over that span. Uga VI’s record surpassed the mark of 77-24-4 of Uga IV.

All of Georgia’s athletic teams enjoyed remarkable success during Uga VI’s reign. All told, 19 of Georgia’s 35 national championships have been secured under Uga VI. Bulldog athletic teams also have won 35 SEC Championships. In addition, Georgia has recorded six top-10 finishes in the Director’s Cup, the annual all-sports competition ranking the nation’s top athletic programs.

So I’m sitting here in Minneapolis, giving my talk, chairing my session, and just hanging out at Evolution 2008. And what is happening out in the world?

Georgia has played it’s way in to finals of the College Baseball World Series!

Woo!

Two more wins to title time!

PS. And I finally met PZ today, slipping Prof. Steve Steve up on the podium during his talk.

I just returned from putting Tiffany on an Amtrak overnight to Orlando. On Friday, I’ll catch a plane to Minnesota for the Evolution conference, where we’ll be able to have a mini howler fest.

Three years ago I mentioned that the creator of the Sims was working on a new game-of-life called Spore. It now looks to be nearly done and they’ve offered an early showing of their “creature creator” to celebrities and choice bloggers to help advertise their game. Although inspired by the science of evolution, the developers have taken plenty of artistic liberties with the concept to make this game. Don’t expect Spore to be anything like Avida anytime soon.

While I tried to make a Prof. Steve Steve inspired creature, it didn’t work too well. Instead I opted on creating a “Howling Nightmare”. This is the creature’s description:

Howling Nightmare, Alouatta pandas, is a flying carnivore covered in hard armor and known for its powerful howls and painful bites. It typically hunts at night, ambushing large, slow herbivores while they sleep. A single pair can consume five thousand times their body weight during a breeding season to feed their ravenous brood. Although this secretive creature is rarely seen, its kills litter the landscape, while its frightening howls remind you that it is never far away.

Firefox 3 was released today, with several nice features that improve some subtle glitches in our layout. Yay!