Rhubarb Report 075

The flurry of activity that is traditionally the first two weeks of a new semester of teaching are now over. For some reason, even after teaching the same class (Functional Anatomy) for 10 years - 8 with the same co-instructor - the first two weeks always seem to be filled with craziness. It's nice to finally get back in the groove for the long haul of a fall semester.

The fall season actually tends to be one of familiarity and comfort. The weather improves - making it far more comfortable to be active outdoors. It is all soon followed by the comforts of Thanksgiving and the holiday season, even with the challenges they tend to dish up for many.

But that doesn't mean that everything settles down in the real world - far from it. With that in mind, here is Episode 75 of the Rhubarb Report, once again reminding us that truth is, in fact, stranger than fiction.

1. It would be impossible to have a new episode of the Report without mentioning what is rapidly the becoming a debacle of sorts on the Forty Acres. The University Of Texas football program, ranked #15 in the country at the start of the season, is staring at a 1 - 2 record. What makes this worse is that the next three games are against Kansas State, Iowa State, and, yes, Oklahoma. Don't forget the fact that KSU has beaten the Longhorns 5 straight years. Or that coach Mack Brown has a 6 - 9 record against the dreaded Oklahoma Sooners.

It's quite conceivable that this team won't get to 8 wins this year. It is also quite conceivable that Mack Brown loses #10 against OU. Neither of those options is acceptable when a coach is paid something to the tune of $4+ million a season, putting him in line with the likes of Nick Saban. Remind me again, how many national championships does Nick have over the past decade? Case closed.

Mark October 12 on your calendar. That's the date for the Texas - Oklahoma match-up in Dallas. It might be the end of an era.

2. Ever since the days of my youth, the space program has fascinated me. This week, it went one step further when NASA announced that Voyager 1, developed in the 1970's, has now officially traveled 11.6 billion miles to interstellar space. That sounds pretty cool. But add one important fact: it has less than 40 KB of memory on board. Your 16 GB iPhone 5 has 240,000 times the memory than Voyager 1. Yes, you read that correctly!

For it to have been so successful for so long is amazing. But to have done so much with so little is phenomenal and a testament to the power of great minds pushing the envelope of their thinking. Epic stuff.

3. Today, the US and Russia reached an agreement to have Syria's chemical weapons removed or destroyed. This agreement was reached after many countries simply would not support airstrikes on the country. With that said, there wasn't even agreement among those within the United States.

Sometimes, diplomatic efforts really do work and don't signify a weakness. If anything, it takes more courage to not go to war and to find a solution than it does to simply pull the trigger. Let us be thankful that cooler heads prevailed to find a solution to what could have been (and could still be) a volatile scenario.

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• Rhubarb Report 074
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• Rhubarb Report 072

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