The picks:

Houston -7½ over Penn State (3 units), Georgia -3 over Michigan St. (3 units), South Carolina -3 over Nebraska (5 units), Oregon -6 over Wisconsin (3 units).

My best bet of many years was discussed weeks ago - Oklahoma State (-3) over Stanford (50 units.) Today the line is -5.

Go Gators!

Open Thread.

Most New Year's Days, we'd be preparing to watch a day of college football. But Sundays are ruled by the NFL. The bowl games have been moved to tomorrow.

Tim Tebow faces a make or break game for the Broncos, and I suspect, for his career. While it seems likely Tebow will get the starting nod for the Broncos next year, if he wins today, advancing the Broncos into the playoffs, he probably gets the whole season.

That's a lot of pressure and the Broncos also have to deal with the fact that they unnecessarily handed the Chiefs their QB for today, Kyle Orton. That was a pretty inexcusable move by Elway and I am a bit surprised that more is not being made of it in Denver. While Orton is a terrible QB in pressure situations, when nothing is on the line, he can be good. The Chiefs and Orton have nothing to lose so I expect they will play well. And win.

Which means that whether the Raiders give up ANOTHER 1st round pick for Carson Palmer depends on the Chargers and Phillip Rivers saving the Raiders from themselves. Cuz if the Raiders make the payoffs, they get bounced in the 1st round and lose another 1st round pick. Since it is the Raiders, that is what is going to happen. Raiders beat the Chargers.

The big game to night is Giants-Cowboys. I think the Cowboys win.

Open Thread.

It's already 2012 in Auckland, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Dubai and celebrations are underway. From Sydney:

Sydney's harbour erupted in a blaze of colour and light on the stroke of midnight on Saturday with a 12-minute pyrotechnic display drawing more than 1.5 million people to crowded foreshores and city landmarks.

Times Square is expecting a million people -- many of whom have already arrived.

What's on your agenda for this evening? I'm cooking lasagne. Whether you are out celebrating or avoiding the noise and crowds, we wish you all a happy, healthy, prosperous, freedom-filled New Year.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Happy New Year's Eve morning!

We are now in college bowl season in earnest. I was saved from complete disaster yesterday by a garbage time back door cover by Oklahoma.

Today will be better. The picks: UCLA +3 over Illinois (2 units), Texas A&M -10 over Northwestern (12 units), Vanderbilt -1½ over Cincinnati (2 units), Utah +3 over Ga Tech (2 units), Auburn -3 over Virginia (2 units.)

Have a great day.

Open Thread.

End of year swampage plus deadlines.

Here are some bowl picks: Tulsa -1½ over BYU (5 units), Iowa State -1 over Rutgers (5 units), Mississippi State -7 over Wake Forest (3 units), Oklahoma -14 over Iowa (4 units.)

BTW, the Okla State line has moved from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2. It'll be 6 by game time. Make your investment early if you like Okla State, as I do (best bet in a long time imo.)

Open thread.

Lots of end of year stuff to take care of. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

From Wired: The year intellectual property trumped civil liberties.

Update: ICE launches a hotline and new form for detained individuals "to ensure that individuals being held by state or local law enforcement on immigration detainers are properly notified about their potential removal from the country and are made aware of their rights."

... detained individuals can call if they believe they may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime. The hotline will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by ICE personnel at the Law Enforcement Support Center. Translation services will be available in several languages from 7 a.m. until midnight (Eastern) seven days a week. ICE personnel will collect information from the individual and refer it to the relevant ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Field Office for immediate action.

The new form, available here, instructs law enforcement they may not hold a detainee more than 48 hours after the individual would have otherwise been released.

I'm swamped. J too from the looks of it.

Open Thread.

Big stories for today: The the Zetas' radio network and the ongoing hacking of credit card and email databases by those identifying themselves as members of Anonymous/AntiSec or related groups.

Both are more interesting than which Republican will win the Iowa caucuses, but since we've had no politics posts all day, here's an open thread, all topics (politics or not) welcome.

Update: Also interesting, this article about fears over tiger prawns (giant shrimp) invading the Gulf of Mexico.

Christmas is over, the news is slow, I'm starting on my "end of year" tasks. What are you hoping to wrap up or change by New Year's?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Christmas Eve has arrived. This year at the TL house, we're celebrating with dinner and movies. "Love Actually" is my favorite for this time of year, even though I've probably seen it 10 times.

Whether you're cooking, watching movies, relaxing or celebrating with friends and family, we wish you a Very Happy Holiday Eve.

Darlene Love on Letterman is a Christmas Tradition. I really like this 2005 version.

If you're tracking Santa, he just arrived in Uzbekistan.

What's getting you in the mood for Christmas?

Wait, what? That's right- SATURDAY NFL Open Thread. My investment touts:

Redskins (-7) (3 units); Cardinals (+4 1/2) (3 units); Ravens (-12) (4 units); Chiefs (-3) (3 units); and the J-E-T-S! JETS JETS JETS JETS! (-3) (5 units.) I'm rooting for the G-Men, but the Jets are going to win.

Also too, here's my top investment opportunity in 4 years - Oklahoma State (-3 1/2) over Stanford. LOVE this one. I like the Cowboys by 20.

Finally, Joe Posnanski on Tebow Time:

The Tebow story might be the only story in recent years about which I literally cannot get enough. We live in the Era of Overkill, and most of the wonderful sports stories lose their joy just a few hours into their news cycle. The story (and Tebow himself) have been hyped, re-hyped, soaked, drained, lauded, scorned, celebrated, mocked, on and on and on, to the point where it’s clear that we’re not even talking about Tebow anymore. We’re talking about so many other fascinating things — faith, teamwork, convention, talent, history, will and so on. We’re probably talking about ourselves.

Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings!