Welcome 2008 ! ,happy !happy new year V Five burning questions as we begin New Year’s Day

Wishing a very happy happy new year to the all reades of our blog.
Same time from the various news source of wishing of year 2008 we note the five questions of By Tony Barnhart of ajc.com.
pls note
Happy New Year folks! If you’re a college football fan this is the most fun day of the year with wall-to-wall games, ending with our Sugar Bowl match-up tonight.

When New Year’s Day gets here I always have a lot of questions. Here are my top five. What are yours?

I’ll come back with an update at the end of the day and give you some final thoughts before tonight’s Sugar Bowl.

1. Can the SEC go 9-0? Auburn’s dramatic overtime win over Clemson in last night’s Chick-fil-A Bowl gives the SEC a 4-0 record in the bowl season thus far as Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Alabama have also won. Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, and Georgia all play today. LSU plays for the BCS championship here on Monday night. At the end of this day the SEC could be 8-0 in bowls after going 7-1 last season. It’s a long shot, but it could happen.


We again wecome 2008

2. Will Tim Tebow be more fired up than normal?: The Florida quarterback isn’t into smack talk, but he is an intense competitor, one of the most intense I’ve ever seen. So when Michigan linebacker Shawn Crable says that Tebow, the Heisman Trophy winner, “is just a quarterback” you have to wonder if the big fella may play pretty well today in the Capital One Bowl. Shawn, my man, you don’t tug on Superman’s cape.

3. Will Darren McFadden step up? Arkansas running back Darren McFadden will be one of the top three picks in the NFL draft even if he were to sit out today’s Cotton Bowl with Missouri. And it has not been a fun week for McFadden as charges swirled that he obtained a car from an agent in violation of NCAA rules. McFadden was cleared of those charges but you have to wonder where his mind is as this game begins. Does he run with a chip on his shoulder? Or does hold back?

4. Will West Virginia care? We know the Mountaineer fans don’t care about the Fiesta Bowl because they turned back so many tickets. Traditionally West Virginia fans travel better than anybody, but it’s been a tough month for them. West Virginia lost a chance to play for the national championship with the inexplicable collapse against Pittsburgh on Dec. 1. Then coach Rich Rodriguez bolts to Michigan in what has become a very messy divorce. Forgotten in all of this, as is usually the case, are the players. What is their mindset going to be when they take the field against Oklahoma? Oklahoma, we should point out, is very, very good. Think the Fiesta Bowl people are wishing right now that they had taken Hawaii?

5. What is the over and under on how many times Colt Brennan will get hit? Trust me when I tell you that, win or lose, Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan will need to spend some time in the hot tub Wednesday morning before he goes back to Honolulu. Georgia is going to keep it clean, but every time the defense gets a chance to give him a love tap, they will. Try to keep score at home tonight and see now many times he gets “nudged.” I will say this: He is a tough kid and he’s used to getting hit. But I don’t think he’s used to getting hit by SEC defenses.

Marine biologists are tracking a rare visitor off St. Pete Beach.

Biologists Track Sperm Whale Sighted Off St. Pete Beach
Marine biologists are tracking a rare visitor off St. Pete Beach.

A charter fisherman spotted a 25-foot-long sperm whale less than one-half mile offshore Sunday.

Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Mote Marine Laboratory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as a University of Florida veterinarian, are monitoring the whale's movements and condition.

This may be a young whale, said Laura Engleby, a marine biologist with the NOAA Fisheries Service. Male adult sperm whales can be 60 feet long, and female adults can be 40 feet long.

Sperm whales are the largest toothed whales in the world and have been known to live seven decades.

According to the NOAA Fisheries Web site: "The sperm whale was listed as endangered throughout its range on June 2, 1970 under the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969 (35 FR 8495) and is also protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972."
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PALMETTO - A 25- to 30-foot sperm whale that has been stuck in shallow water near the mouth of Tampa Bay likely will have to be euthanized, officials said Monday.

The whale has drifted from Pinellas County to waters near Terra Ceia Bay but showed no signs of going out to deeper waters, said Nadine Slimak, a spokeswoman with the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.

Officials were able to give the whale a sedative on Monday and determined it had no obvious injuries. When it gets closer to the coast, biologists will euthanize the whale, which is likely an older juvenile, Slimak said.

That decision could be overturned if the whale swims toward deeper waters, but Slimak said its condition seems to be declining. At one point on Sunday, it became stuck on a sandbar, and has remained in waters as shallow as four feet deep, Slimak said.

Sperm whales are the most common type of large whales found in the Gulf of Mexico, but they tend to stay farther out to sea. Sightings near the Florida coast are rare, and are usually an indication the animal is in distress.