About First Place Charter School, it IS a great school that already exists. I tutored there and it is a school with a dedicated staff and smart students.

A couple of things to note:
- First Place has been around a long time. Why didn't any philanthropic groups/people step up sooner to help it expand (as it will a a charter) so that their good work could help students sooner?

- First Place is the reason to have a small number of charters that serve specific students in an innovative way. None of the other approved charters even come close. Most are just very strict schools (one even has a stated greeting that the middle-school students have to say every - single - day to an administrator at the door).

It's a sad thing.

If those rovers keep fucking around on Dunes they're liable to get eaten by sandworms.

It must be incredibly frustrating for China to see our rovers doing tricks on Mars so long after their expiration date. Poor Jade Rabbit just died before it started.

@3, As long as they roll without rhythm they should be fine.

Read the column about the Super Bowl by Greg Easterbrook.

It includes this:

"Single Worst Play of the Season -- Final Edition: The highest scoring offense in football history trailed 29-0 when the Broncos began their first drive of the second half. With a fast-paced attack, Denver's hopes were not foreclosed. The Broncs moved quickly from their 23 to first down at the Bluish Men Group 38. The most important Seattle defensive series of the night then occurred, though without any flashy play -- incompletion, incompletion, loss of a yard. Now it's fourth-and-11 on the Seattle 39, and in trots the punting unit.

"Not only was Denver punting when down by 29 points in the second half of the Super Bowl, not only was the No. 1 offense in pro football history punting when down by 29 points in the Super Bowl, a team trailing by 29 points in the second half of the Super Bowl was punting in opposition territory.

"Who cares if it was fourth-and-11? The Broncos absolutely had to score on that possession. As the punt team trotted in, Peyton Manning trotted off with his head hanging, not protesting the decision. There is no way on God's green Earth that Tom Brady, Drew Brees or Brett Favre would have trotted off passively in that situation. They would have gone to their coaches agitated, demanding a try. This play, not any of the interceptions -- trotting off without trying -- was Manning's worst down in any of his many postseason flameouts.

"In the NFC title contest, Seattle's low-voltage offense faced a similar choice -- fourth-and-7 on the San Francisco 35 -- and went for it. Result of the play: touchdown. Was John Fox saying Denver's offense could not do something that Seattle's offense could do? Or had Fox simply quit on the game with nearly a half remaining? That is: Did Denver head coach John Fox quit on the Super Bowl?

"As the punt boomed, your columnist thought, "This is the single worst play in all of football history." And yea, verily, you don't need to know anything about the remainder of the game."

#7

If the score had been 0 for Denver it would have been less puzzling. But they showed they were able to throw long and score at touch down quickly at least once. My question is why didn't they do that again? It seemed like Denver was always going for the short pass. At the same time Manning didn't seem to move more than a couple of feet around in the pocket if that much! What game were they playing? Not Manning's (long passes). Was he lacking receivers or did we have them that bottled up? Rather than going for it on fourth down, they should have gone all air, and risked interceptions at the other end of the field. As it is, they threw short and still got intercepted!

Have I ever said thank you for Brendan Kiley? That man deserves constant accolades. Best asset of The Stranger.

Statistically speaking, offense still wins games and championships at the NFL level.

One outlier does not mean truth, regardless of its magnitude, or timeliness.

I love defense and wish this was not true, but it is.

Seattle's success is not just about the defense, but also due to its top notch special teams unit, and an offense that can run the ball and manage the game.

There have been hundreds of teams with great defenses that have done nothing, because at the end of the day, you still need to score points.

@10: Truly great defenses score points. In recent years when my beloved Chicago Bears had a crushing defense but an anemic offense, they'd often score as many touchdowns on fumbles and interceptions as on offensive plays.