Spring 2009 sports

Spring intramural sports possibilities include:

* Basketball Nat league (Jan. 27 sign-up; Sunday @ 1pm, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Mon-Thu @ 6, 7, 8, 9)
* Floor hockey (Feb. 2; Mon-Thu @ 6:00-10:00pm)
* Broomball (Mar. 11; Mon-Thu @ 7:30, 8:15, 9:00, 9:45)

All have co-ed leagues available.

Going to ICA and/or AAPOR?

In an effort to make the May conference process smoother, can we get a roll call of people who are going to AAPOR (New Orleans, May 15-18) or ICA (Montreal, May 22-26), or think they might? Please add yourself in the comments -- hopefully this will help everybody in terms of coordinating rooms and travel.

Fall 07 IM sports thread

We're thinking of moving to soccer this fall, but our other options are:

Flag football (again)
Ultimate frisbee
Volleyball
Dodgeball

If you have thoughts on what we ought to do, whether it's endorsing soccer or advocating something else, please post in the comments.

Broomball!

Questions about broomball? Rules are other info are available here, cost is $50 split across the team (probably $5-10 each).

Point #1: Broomball is a blast!

Ad power in the WI Dem AG primary

The "Reform Dem" blog has an interesting look at the recent Democratic primary for the Wisconsin Attorney General race, in which Kathleen Falk defeated incumbent Peg Lautenschlager. Maps of strength of victory by county and the Wisconsin media market divisions show distinct similarities.

Blogging the new semester

For those who are new to it, this is our humble Vilas Hall blog. Comments are open to anybody, and if you'd like to contribute to the front page just let me know and I'll add you as an author. Wendy Swanberg had an interesting idea, which is for people to post about classes they've taken in other departments, since that knowledge is mostly spread through random conversations now. If you'd like to post about classes you've taken, just put a [Classes] tag at the beginning of your post's subject so that people can easily find those posts through Google.

Fall IM sports discussion

For those interested in joining a Muckrakers intramural sports team, check out the available options and then post your thoughts in the comments section for this post. We did basketball last spring, which was fun but not terribly successful, since everybody we played seemed to take it much more seriously than we did. I've been pushing for floor hockey this semester, but it turns out to only be offered in the spring. Maybe flag football? Kickball?

Nationwide Wi-Fi to emerge in Spain?

FON Technology of Madrid is planning to offer Spaniards wireless routers for about $5, with one catch:

Today, finding WiFi access is a hit-or-miss affair. Starbucks coffee shops and McDonald's restaurants offer fee-based WiFi connections, and a growing number of cities are building municipal networks. Urbanski wants to recruit millions of ordinary people who would make WiFi available to anyone within range of the wireless routers in their homes.

People who join FON (pronounced "phone") are eligible to purchase a new wireless router for $5, plus an $8 shipping fee. This router is programmed with software that lets other FON members connect to the router for free Internet access. The router also protects the owner's privacy by blocking access to any other data on his home computer network. If enough people join FON, they'll create a nationwide WiFi network, with free service to all FON members. The FON website features frequently updated maps showing where FON service is available.

FON will make money by charging nonmembers about $3 a day for access to the network. Half of this money goes to the FON member whose router is being used.

FON has already signed up over 60,000 users, including about 10,000 in the United States. But since standard WiFi routers have a very short range -- less than 300 feet -- the company must deploy millions of routers to create a truly comprehensive network.