Medary.com

First game of the Royals-Tigers series washed out by Kansas City rains.

Royals record-watch mercifully put on hold for a day.

Medary.com proudly presents The Conference Map Project. Currently, we have maps of the 2004-05 NCAA Division I basketball conferences completed. Maps of D-I football conferences and an update to the 2005-06 basketball conference alignments is forthcoming, as are maps of the Division II conferences.

There's a quick link to the Project at the top of all of the Medary.com pages. Please e-mail us at the Comment link (on the top of the left sidebar) with comments/corrections. Enjoy.

South Dakota State releases its women's basketball schedule for 2005-06. Here it is. Times/dates subject to change:

DATE(S)	OPPONENT/EVENT	LOCATION	TIME
Nov. 4	Minnesota-Crookston (exhib.)	Frost Arena	7 p.m.
Nov. 11	Upper Iowa (exhib.)	Frost Arena	7 p.m.
Nov. 19	Nebraska	Lincoln, Neb.	Noon
Nov. 20	Drake (Iowa)	Des Moines, Iowa	2:05 p.m.
Nov. 25, 27	Coors Rocky Mountain Invitational	Fort Collins, Colo.
Nov. 25	at Colorado State	Moby Arena	7 p.m. MT
Nov. 27	UC Irvine	Moby Arena	2 p.m. MT
Dec. 2	Middle Tennessee State	Frost Arena	7 p.m.
Dec. 4	Wisconsin-Milwaukee	Frost Arena	2 p.m.
Dec. 8	Wisconsin	Madison, Wis.	7 p.m.
Dec. 10	Southern Illinois	Carbondale, Ill.	TBA
Dec. 16	Texas State	Frost Arena	7 p.m.
Dec. 18	Alabama	Frost Arena	2 p.m.
Dec. 21	Marquette (Wis.)	Milwaukee, Wis.	7 p.m.
Dec. 28	Colorado	Boulder, Colo.	7 p.m. MT
Dec. 30	Long Beach State (Calif.)	Long Beach, Calif.	5 p.m. PT
Jan. 2	Idaho State	Pocatello, Idaho	TBA
Jan. 10	Kennesaw State (Ga.)	Frost Arena	7 p.m.
Jan. 14	San Jose State (Calif.)	San Jose, Calif.	7 p.m. PT
Jan. 19	IPFW	Frost Arena	7 p.m.
Jan. 22	Brown (R.I.)	Providence, R.I.	TBA
Jan. 26	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi	Frost Arena	7 p.m.
Jan. 28	Florida International	Miami, Fla.	7 p.m. ET
Feb. 1	Southwest Minnesota State	Frost Arena	7 p.m.
Feb . 4	North Dakota State	Frost Arena	7 p.m.
Feb. 11	Texas-Pan American	Edinburg, Texas	TBA
Feb. 13	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi	Corpus Christi, Texas	TBA
Feb. 18	North Dakota State	Fargo, N.D.	TBA
Feb. 24	IPFW	Fort Wayne, Ind.	TBA
Feb. 28	UC Riverside	Riverside, Calif.	7 p.m. PT
Mar. 3	Central State (Ohio)	Frost Arena	7 p.m.

The Lady Vols have posted their schedule. Times/dates subject to change:

Date	Day	Opponent	Location	TV	Outcome/Time
11/06/2005	Sun	Dalhousie - Canada (Exh.)	Knoxville, Tenn.		3:00 PM
11/10/2005	Thu	Carson-Newman (Exh.)	Knoxville, Tenn.		7:00 PM
11/20/2005	Sun	Stetson	Knoxville, Tenn.		3:00 PM
11/21/2005	Mon	UT-Chattanooga	Knoxville, Tenn.		7:00 PM
11/24/2005	Thu	Gonzaga/Maryland/Mich. State	St. Thomas, V.I.	FSN	TBA
11/25/2005	Fri	Gonzaga/Maryland/Mich. State	St. Thomas, V.I.	FSN	TBA
11/26/2005	Sat	Gonzaga/Maryland/Mich. State	St. Thomas, V.I.	FSN	TBA
12/01/2005	Thu	Texas	Knoxville, Tenn.	ESPN2	7:30 PM
12/04/2005	Sun	Stanford	Palo Alto, Calif.	ESPN2	3:30 PM
12/07/2005	Wed	George Washington	Washington, D.C.		7:00 PM
12/15/2005	Thu	Louisiana Tech	Knoxville, Tenn.		7:00 PM
12/20/2005	Tue	Princeton	Knoxville, Tenn.		7:00 PM
12/28/2005	Wed	Temple	Philadelphia, Pa.		7:00 PM
12/31/2005	Sat	Notre Dame	South Bend, Ind.		2:00 PM
01/02/2006	Mon	Old Dominion	Knoxville, Tenn.		7:00 PM
01/05/2006	Thu	South Carolina	Columbia, S.C.		7:00 PM
01/07/2006	Sat	Uconn	Knoxville, Tenn.	CBS	2:00 PM
01/12/2006	Thu	Georgia	Knoxville, Tenn.		7:00 PM
01/15/2006	Sun	Mississippi State	Starkville, Miss.		3:00 PM
01/19/2006	Thu	Vanderbilt	Nashville, Tenn.		8:00 PM
01/23/2006	Mon	Duke	Durham, N.C.	ESPN2	7:30 PM
01/26/2006	Thu	Kentucky	Lexington, Ky.		7:00 PM
01/29/2006	Sun	Alabama	Knoxville, Tenn.		3:00 PM
02/02/2006	Thu	Mississippi	Oxford, Miss.		8:00 PM
02/05/2006	Sun	Arkansas	Knoxville, Tenn.		3:00 PM
02/09/2006	Thu	LSU (Rivalry Week)	Knoxville, Tenn.	ESPN2	7:30 PM
02/12/2006	Sun	Vanderbilt (February Frenzy)	Knoxville, Tenn.	ESPN2	5:00 PM
02/16/2006	Thu	Georgia	Athens, Ga.		7:00 PM
02/19/2006	Sun	Alabama	Tuscaloosa, Ala.		3:00 PM
02/23/2006	Thu	Auburn	Knoxville, Tenn.		7:00 PM
02/26/2006	Sun	Florida	Knoxville, Tenn.		3:00 PM
03/02/2006	Thu	SEC Tournament	N. Little Rock, Ark.	FOX	TBA
03/03/2006	Fri	SEC Tournament	N. Little Rock, Ark.	FOX	TBA
03/04/2006	Sat	SEC Tournament	N. Little Rock, Ark.	FOX	TBA
03/05/2006	Sun	SEC Tournament	N. Little Rock, Ark.	ESPN2	TBA
03/18/2006	Sat	NCAA Tournament	Campus Sites	ESPN/ESPN2	TBA
03/19/2006	Sun	NCAA Tournament	Campus Sites	ESPN/ESPN2	TBA
03/20/2006	Mon	NCAA Tournament	Campus Sites	ESPN/ESPN2	TBA
03/21/2006	Tue	NCAA Tournament	Campus Sites	ESPN/ESPN2	TBA
03/25/2006	Sat	NCAA Tournament (Regional)	Campus Sites	ESPN/ESPN2	TBA
03/26/2006	Sun	NCAA Tournament (Regional)	Campus Sites	ESPN/ESPN2	TBA
03/27/2006	Mon	NCAA Tournament (Regional)	Campus Sites	ESPN/ESPN2	TBA
03/28/2006	Tue	NCAA Tournament (Regional)	Campus Sites	ESPN/ESPN2	TBA
04/02/2006	Sun	NCAA Final Four	Boston, Mass.	ESPN	TBA
04/04/2006	Tue	NCAA Final Four	Boston, Mass.	ESPN	TBA

Snookums and I will try to make the Connecticut game and the LSU/Vanderbilt weekend.

Delta Air Lines is exploring bankruptcy financing:

The Atlanta-based airline is holding the discussions with lenders including GE Commercial Finance, which provided restructuring money in 2004, the Times said, citing both airline employees and members of the financial community. It said GE Commercial declined to comment.

Northwest may be close behind on the road to bankruptcy.

"We think the risk of bankruptcy is too high to continue to hold the stock," Standard & Poors analyst James Corridore wrote in a research note advising investors to sell. He's also not swayed by Northwest's $2.1 billion in cash.

None of the "main line" airlines with their extravagant labor contracts and relatively inefficient operations (compared to, say, Southwest) are a good bet to survive much longer.

So says a Virginia district court judge.

Virginia's law is unconstitutional because it presumes that an individual with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 or higher is intoxicated, denying a defendant's right to a presumption of innocence, Judge Ian O'Flaherty ruled in dismissing charges against at least two alleged drunken drivers last month.

Gee. Presumption of innocence. Who'd a thunk it?

via Fark.

The Save a Connie folks have a big engine repair bill :

Officials of the Airline History Museum at the Wheeler Downtown Airport were devastated by the blowout, which occurred during routine maintenance checks on the ground.

Three cylinders in the No. 2 engine failed, spewing gallons of oil and fire that “stuck like napalm” to the plane’s metal skin, disfiguring the plane.

“It was a black, black day,” said Foe Geldersma, president of the Airline History Museum.

The engine failure meant scrubbing a visit to an air show last weekend in Rockford, Ill., and another scheduled for Labor Day weekend in St. Louis.

The nonprofit museum board and members are all volunteers, and many of them are former pilots. Rebuilding the Wright R3350 engine would cost more than $120,000 and wipe out their reserves.

The Airline History Museum in Kansas City could use some help here.

Hamas renews "Death to Israel" vow:

Hamas, which is dedicated to Israel's destruction, showcased its leaders and political message on the heels of a Palestinian Authority-organized Gaza beachfront celebration on Friday of the planned Israeli pullout.

There already exists a Palestinian state. It's called Jordan. Why do they need two? None of this is about Palestinian independence, it's about the extermination of the Jews.

Iraq closes in on a constitution:

"The meetings are still going on and we have gone forward," Talabani told reporters. "There is a meeting today and another meeting tomorrow and God willing we will finish the job tomorrow" — one day ahead of the deadline for parliament to approve the charter. Talabani said the meetings are concentrating on federalism in Shiite areas of central and southern Iraq, as well as the role of Islam in the state.

Progress is made more by little incremental steps than by grand great events. Iraq struggles toward freedom.

Iran's President Rafsanjani is astonished that the world is nervous about Iran's nuke program:

"It was astonishing and really strange...that eventually what Europeans and America wanted was approved with unanimity. How is it possible?" Rafsanjani told worshippers at Friday prayers at Tehran University.

"We didn't think that an international organization, before the eyes of the whole world, would sanction that Iran should stop everything," he added in a sermon broadcast live on state radio. "The decision was a cruel one."

They sound remarkably like the schoolyard bully when his behavior is finally called out by the Principal. "You're cruel, it's not fair!"

Gee, you don't suppose committing acts of war aganst everybody and generally trying to export Islamofascism to the world kinda gets people's attention?