Archive for January, 2014

The NFL playoffs are finally set! So now it’s time to take a look at each team’s chances to win the Super Bowl based on who they’ll have to play, and where the oddsmakers have them slated. At Betfair online, betting odds are already posted for each team’s likelihood to win the Super Bowl, which gives us a good gauge to use in predicting outcomes. So without further ado, here’s how the match-ups break down, and how each team projects to do.

AFC PLAYOFF PICTURE

(5) Kansas City Chiefs @ (4) Indianapolis Colts
These teams have almost even odds to win the Super Bowl, with the Colts at 33/1 and the Chiefs at 37/1. Given how the Chiefs fell off late in the season, as well as how easily the Colts handled them in Kansas City just a few weeks ago, Indy is the favorite.

(6) San Diego Chargers @ (3) Cincinnati Bengals
At 17/1, the Bengals now have the 6th best overall odds to win the Super Bowl following a 5-1 finish to the season. They have to be considered a strong favorite to knock out San Diego.

TBA @ (1) Denver Broncos
If the preceding match-ups play out as predicted, this match would see the Colts facing a Broncos team with 3/1 odds to win it all. Indy may be one of the only teams to have beaten the Broncos, but in Denver, with Peyton Manning’s offense as hot as it is, the Broncos are heavy favorites.

TBA @ (2) New England Patriots
That would leave the Bengals facing off with the Pats (9/1 odds) in what would be an interesting game. Tom Brady is always a good bet in the playoffs, and with Julian Edelman looking more and more like Wes Welker, the Pats’ offense may be at its best. However, if you’re picking an upset anywhere, the Bengals may be an interesting team to take here.

NFC PLAYOFF PICTURE

(5) San Francisco 49ers @ (4) Green Bay Packers
San Francisco has 10/1 odds to win it all, next to Green Bay’s 22/1 long shot, but due to the strangeness of playoff seeding this game will be in Green Bay. That’s always dangerous, but the 49ers have been strong on the road all season, losing only to Seattle and New Orleans – arguably the two strongest home teams.

(6) New Orleans Saints @ (3) Philadelphia Eagles
Road games are trouble for the Saints, and with the teams at just about even odds – 26/1 for the Saints, and 24/1 for the Eagles – this one should be close. In Philly, that gives the Eagles a slight edge.

TBA @ (1) Seattle Seahawks
If games play out as discussed above, the 49ers would be traveling to Seattle, where they simply haven’t played well in the past couple of seasons. This is budding into a strong rivalry, but we’d give Seattle (with the best odds to win the Super Bowl at 14/5) the nod.

TBA @ (2) Carolina Panthers
Eagles @ Panthers would be an enjoyable game, but the Panthers, with 9/1 Super Bowl odds, ought to have the defense to stop the Eagles, or for that matter anyone else that might get through.

Of course, anything could happen in the end. But the way things are slated, the teams with first round byes look well poised to advance to the semi-finals, with New England perhaps being the most vulnerable should they face Cincinnati. Whatever the case, we’re in for some great football!

Last Wednesday, Sherlock returned to our screens after two years.

It was an okay return. But I was less of a fan than most. Firstly there was the endless comic relief. I do not remember any from the first two series. It was a series detective show. Now you have Anderson is the crazy comic relief character. Not to mention everyone spent a great deal of time laughing at John’s mustache. Because anyone with a mustache must be an object of ridicule.

Secondly, the sweeping cinematographic changes made it feel like not-Sherlock to me. The first two series had a very distinctive style that stamped their brand on the episodes. This one departed from that significantly.

Thirdly, the mystery was not very good. It was almost an afterthought that they plugged into the story half way through. It was mostly about Sherlock turning up and all the personal drama surrounding that. You can say “that is fine, lots of shows do that”, but most shows produce more than three episodes per series. To waste one everyone hugging and making up, with a small mystery thrown in on the sidelines resulted in an episodes that felt crowded but unsatisfying to me.

That is not to say I did not enjoy it. It was very funny. But it did not possess the enthralling Sherlock qualities that I fell in love with.

Ally Fogg recently published a very good article in The Guardian regarding Alan Turing. It said basically the same thing I wrote back in July. Sure, his writing is more poetic and his spelling may be correct. But… I don’t really have an end to this sentence.

I haven’t written anything in a few days as I didn’t see the point when I had nothing to say. Things are going well though. I beat the third boss on Scale Warriors. Not sure how. Mainly just luck I think lol.

Today I did All I Want To Do on score attack (easy) and completed it! That was cool. Of course there are four or five difficulty settings before you have master the song but it is still cool to know I’m making some progress. I tried it a few days ago and totally failed it.

Some negatives too. The guitar tuner crashed on me and nothing would respond. I couldn’t see a reset button the PS3, so in the end I just used the eject button and that exited back to the PS3 start page. Then the controller started responding again and I was able to reload the page.

I’ve now played every song but one. That one is locked and it says go to Uplay to unlock it. However, when I went into there it isn’t clear how I unlock it. I probably just need to play around with it some more.

Also the pricing for extra songs isn’t cheap. I went into the shop today and individual songs are £2.39. You can also get song packs which vary in price. For example Alice in Chains which contains 5 songs is £9.69. The Green Day song pack contains three songs and is priced at £6.49. Those seem to be the two price points for the amount of songs you get.

At the start of 2013, which as usual begin with a January I was busy eating as I put together my book while taking some doctor-ordered time off killing things. We found time for a New Year’s Eve part of course. I attended my first Bettakultcha and we held the first Worfolk Limited Christmas party. Gijsbert moved to Glasgow and I became Vice President of Education at White Rose Speakers.

In February a failure of referees to call what was clearly pass interference cost the 49ers the Super Bowl while Bill Gates delivered an excellent Dimbleby Lecture. We celebrated Darwin Day, Galileo Day and Copernicus Day. I got my area trophy for humorous speaking and Hiltler’s other pope resigned.

I took Elina to the Dales for her birthday in March. There were ponies. Also steak. Michelle paid a visit and I competed in the International Speech Contest for the first time. Trinity opened and found out that really needed a proper roof. I read The Grapes of Wrath – not that I don’t often read, but it is such an amazing book. Sarann and Moz becamse the first A-Soc couple to get married and the Foundation published its report on on how much you can earn begging. The answer is, not much.

There was much sorrow and joy depending on your position in April when Margaret Thatcher passed away. Meanwhile I was busy campaigning for the return of Thai curry steak Yorkshires. The NFL held its 2013 draft and I started reading Discworld. I won the area contest in the International speech contest with “The Easy; and the Worthwhile” that I videoed at White Rose Speakers. I placed third at the division level.

In May Leeds Skeptics set a new record attendance with Dr Brooke Magnanti who also spoke at QED while she was down here. James ran the Leeds Half Marathon and we went to Chester Zoo. I attended the Riviera Renaissance conference in Torquay, at which there was another zoo. I donated my thousandth dollar on Kiva, we partied for Eurovision and I spoke out against the tyranny of clothing.

I was elected president of Leeds City Toastmasters in June while Bob stepped down after 34 years serving as secretary for the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire. The BHA brought its annual conference to Leeds and we had a magic show at Leeds Skeptics.

It was a busy summer in July with trips to Flamborough (from which I posted lots of photos), Finland (again, lots of photos) and relatives visiting from Canada. John Sweeney spoke at Leeds Skeptics, we celebrated Higgs Day and CWF announced Anxiety Leeds. Perhaps a bigger achivement than all of that was that I finished Ulysses.

Yorkshire Day kicked off August and in honour I made some Yorkshire puddings. We visited Yorkshire Wildlife Park and Alan Partridge returned, this time to the big screen. We also held Toastmasters in the Park and visited Hull. The biggest achievement of the month however was without a doubt the founding of Worfolk Media and launch of the Leeds Restaurant Guide.

In September I was a little saddened to see John Oliver’s spot guest-hosting the Daily Show come to an end. We visited Michelle in Jersey and Anxiety Leeds held their first meeting after some great build-up publicity including interviews on Radio Aire and BBC Radio Leeds.

It was a month of travelling in October with PNPNW13, the North West Humanist Conference and going down to London to see the NFL at Wemberly. Toastmasters held an event for Leeds Business Week and I won the area speech contest and for the first time ever, the division level one as well. Leeds Skeptics set another new attendance record when Simon Singh came up to give a talk and we launched Sunday Assembly Leeds.

Pretty much nothing happened in November. Or maybe so much happened that I didn’t have time to blog about it. Probably the latter given we moved house. I travelled down to Colchester to compete in the UK & Ireland speech contest finals and visited Temple Works which a isn’t particularly significant event but it is an amazing building. I paid my first visit to Leeds Arena to see Nickelback and we attended our second year of Finnish Christmas carols. Meanwhile Sunday Assembly Leeds held an event that was actually on a Sunday.

Finally in December the comedian Kate Smurfwaite delivered her show at Leeds Skeptics, I walked out of my first ever gig at an incredibly disappointing Tenacious D concert. Nelson Mandela passed away and we all spent a few days scoring points off each other – it is what he would have wanted. There was some kind of holiday season and the Humanist Action Group’s annual Holiday Food Drive for local homeless shelters raised over three thousand pounds worth of donations.