Honk if you love justice!

UNLEASH HELL

Remember the Nerf N-STRIKE Vulcan EBF-25 belt-fed office warfare toy spotted at Toy Fair 2008?  It’s available.  :D  Totally worth it, too.

Sabres.com has the preseason schedule up, including a game against the Canadiens in the city that won CBC’s Hockeyville contest (Roberval, Quebec).  Annoyed here as usual that the Sabres seem to play every game away, only 2 of the 7 games are at home (not calling a Habs game in Quebec neutral site).  Two preseason games versus the Leafs, maybe making up for two less during the season?  I’d rather be rid of them, as their toolbag fans might ruin the normally kid-friendly preseason games.

The Buffalo News has an article that thrilled my son…Teppo Numminen is in talks to return to the Sabres.  Numminen missed all but one game last year after a heart valve condition had to be repaired during training camp.  Interesting thoughts from Ottawa coach John Paddock (who coached Teppo in the past):

Former Ottawa coach John Paddock, who coached Numminen when they were in Winnipeg, said he felt the loss of the veteran defenseman actually damaged the Sabres more than the losses of Daniel Briere and Chris Drury to free agency.

It actually makes sense…the Sabres still scored their goals but struggled at keeping opponents out of their end and clearing the puck once it was in.  Thomas is watching with interest.

As you might guess from the title, I saw The Dark Knight.  I managed to stay remarkably spoiler-free beforehand, so there were some twists I was NOT expecting.  Great movie, but I’ll keep the real details for after the jump (to help keep others unspoiled)… Continue reading »

Quickly uploading a few pictures.

Sabres.com also has a short Q and A with Ryan Miller.  I really enjoy reading or listening to what Ryan Miller says, as he always comes off as deep-thinking and serious.  He knows he’s got a good thing, playing a sport for a living.  Here are some of my favorite lines:

but for me it’s a commitment from the team that says they want to go with the core group of guys that we have and try to build a winner.

Someone was talking about this on WGR today…it’s worth remember that Miller played for a few years with Gaustad, Paille, Vanek, Pominville and the like in Rochester.  He had no special connection to Drury or Briere, but seeing these guys signing (right Pommers??) might be more important to him.

I feel good. I feel like I’m in good shape. I’ve had a little bit longer to work out and get myself back to neutral. Before I was really pushing it to get back into shape at a peak level, but I feel ready now.

…

We have been going over some things to work on monthly during the season so I have some goals outside of just winning hockey games- performance goals and skill goals- to work on to become a better goalie. Getting back to some of those basic attitudes and looking to improve on certain skills that have treated me well in the past will help me throughout the year.

I can’t wait to see his work pay off this year.

Thanks to Getty Images

According to Sabres.com, Ryan Miller has signed a five-year contract, which will keep him here through 2013-2014.  Terms were not disclosed.  Now it’s down to Pominville.  :D

Adding my own thoughts, well, this is fantastic!  Miller is a very solid goalie who got worked over last year.  If the team commits to playing Lalime for more than the 6 games or whatever Thibault had last season, I’m thinking Miller will have a great season.  Some of my enthusiasm might get tempered once the numbers on this deal are out, but they needed to make this move.

edit:  5 years, $31.25 million as per WGR.

Luck be a lady tonight

 I just love this picture.  Derek Roy looks genuinely pleased for TV.  Spacek looks suspicious - perhaps he’s trying to intimidate the refs, knowing how ridiculous some of the calls were last year.  Timmy was distracted by something shiny.  Spotted at Sabres.com.

Throw a little hot-rod red in there.

I admit, ever since I saw the V-22 Osprey, I loved it.  It just LOOKS cool, and I’m a military geek.  That tech (they fixed it finally, honest!) is now making it’s way to the civilian airspace with the Bell 609.

Looking and flying like a smaller cousin of the military V22 Osprey, also a Bell vehicle, the 609 will undoubtedly please millionaire business people since it can perform all the rooftop-landing duties of a normal helicopter, but flies twice as fast and can fly 9 passengers up to 25,000 feet altitude.

Just so you know, all of the copious (*sigh*) ad revenue I generate is going in a fund to buy one of these (along with the money to pay the pilot).  After I buy Sabres tickets for this year, of course.

Technology Review has posted an article about Graphene, which has been thought to be the strongest material known since it was first isolated.  Scientists were finally able to test it and confirm that it is.

Jeffrey Kysar and James Hone, mechanical-engineering professors at Columbia University, tested graphene’s strength at the atomic level by measuring the force that it took to break it. They carved one-micrometer-wide holes into a silicon wafer, placed a perfect sample of graphene over each hole, and then indented the graphene with a sharp probe made of diamond.

Now, before you tremble in fear at the thought of the next generation of battle robots covered in this stuff, as they noted that “Only a tiny sample can be perfect and superstrong”.  What they ARE interested in using this for is as a replacement for silicon in transistors.

“The main liability concerning the microprocessing industry is strain,” says Julia Greer, a materials scientist at Caltech. Not only must the materials used to make transistors have good electrical properties, but they must also be able to survive the stresses of manufacturing processes and the heat generated by repeated operations. The processes used to pattern metal electrical connections onto microprocessors, for example, exert stresses that can cause chips to fail. And, says Greer, the main obstacle to making faster microprocessors is that “the heat is too much for materials to take.” Based on measurements of its strength, graphene transistors could take the heat.

That means they could stay in the kitchen, as well.  Very nice.  H/T to Gizmodo for the link to a neat article.