tears of joy

Big Ten Football is back! What a feeling! I’m happy the questions were finally answered and everything was able to get worked out. Everyone involved has been given the opportunity they were asking for a month ago. Of course there are a lot of things between now and December that can change things. The football schedule still hasn’t been released yet but I imagine the schedule will look pretty Husker to the one that was released around a month ago (minus Michigan State). We do know there won’t be any bye weeks but it doesn’t open an interesting set of games to be played the same week at the Big Ten Championship Game.

As of right now, there would be won’t be any fans inside the stadium during the games other than the players’ families. I think this is the right call. Maybe the conference will allow them to open the stadiums for more fans if everything works out. Will there be a gathering outside of Memorial Stadium? Husker bars across America still be packed throughout the season? These are interesting things to keep in mind in the days leading up to the start of the season.

I’m pleased with how everything ended up. And no matter what happens, playing two or three or four games in the fall will be better than playing the same number of games in the winter or spring. Anyways..onto Flakes.

Frosted Flakes

Larry Frost, Father of Scott Frost, Has Passed Away | News | Nebraska TV

The father of Husker head coach Scott Frost passed away on Wednesday according to a Facebook post by Larry Frost’s oldest son Steve. Steve wrote: Today my good father Larry Frost went home to be with the good Father and his son. We love you dad... and we will see you soon enough. Larry Frost played for Bob Devaney in the 1960’s. As a high school athlete at Malcolm, Frost would eventually score 121 touchdowns, including 9 in one game, at the 8-man school.

Big Ten Football Is Back! | Football | Corn Nation

This new schedule looks like it will have eight regular season games before the reported conference championship weekend of December 19. That leaves very little wiggle room for cancellations or postponements - which seem like an inevitability with the COVID numbers the way they are on college campuses.

Bill Moos and Ronnie Green Talk Testing Protocols, Fans, Black Friday and More | Football | Hail Varsity

With so much optimism in the air, there remain a number of questions about the procedures the league will be implementing in order to pull off a successful season, as well as questions about how some of the league’s concessions will impact teams moving forward.

NCAA Division One Council Announces Basketball Start Date | Basketball | Corn Nation

The NCAA Division I council has settled on a start date of Wednesday, November 25th for this upcoming basketball season. So we will have college basketball leading into Thanksgiving weekend.

NCAA Division One Council Proposes Spring Start Date For Volleyball, Other Fall Sports | Volleyball | Hail Varsity

Regular season play in volleyball will begin Jan. 22 and conclude April 10 with tournament selections made the following day. The NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship is scheduled for April 23–25. That event was slated for Omaha in 2020, but at this early stage all championship sites are to be determined.

Shatel: Thanks to Nebraska, the Big Ten Football Season is Back — Better Late Than Never | Football | Omaha World-Herald

What did we learn in five weeks? That COVID-19 testing and science is an evolving, fluid world. Also, that Big Ten CEOs have eyes and ears. They saw the push-back. They heard the criticism. Most of it came from the southwest. From the first day to the important chess-move players’ lawsuit, NU never stopped pushing.

McKewon: Heat from Huskers and Better COVID Testing Led to Return of Big Ten Football | Football | Omaha World-Herald

Without rapid, on-site antigen testing that can be conducted daily, if teams wish, the league’s presidents and chancellors weren’t likely to budge. But if the fundamental tenet of keeping athletes safe is keeping them from the virus, constant testing helps do that. Athletes might get COVID-19 anyway, but it’s likely to be away from the practice field and, if you’re constantly testing, that person can be isolated quickly.

Sipple: After Big Ten Reverses Field, Nebraska Fans’ Celebration Likely Muted | Football | Lincoln Journal-Star

But how many Big Ten teams will end up playing a full schedule, given the stringent medical standards unveiled Wednesday? Will the season even get off the ground? That’s a big question among Nebraska officials. It’ll be a colossal challenge. A lot of questions remain, including how difficult is the Big Ten going to make Nebraska’s schedule?

For Now, No Fans Allowed in Memorial Stadium When Huskers Return to the Field | Football | Lincoln Journal-Star

“Both Chancellor (Ronnie) Green and I pushed very hard in our respective meetings that attendance should be based on local authorities, health officials, governments, etc.,” Nebraska AD Bill Moos said Wednesday. “In our footprint, our situation is different. “But that does not appear that it’s going to be the case (and) we certainly did not want it to be a deal breaker.”

Travel

United Introduces New High-Tech Cleaner For During Cabin Disinfection | Travel | Travel and Leisure

The NovaRover will now roll through United airplane cabins and spray a mist of the EPA-registered Zoono Microbe Shield antimicrobial across all surfaces, the airline announced on Wednesday.

A Year After Stranding Hundreds of Thousands of Travelers, Thomas Cook Is Back | Travel | Travel and Leisure

The company is now positioning itself as an online Travel agency that aims to take at least some of the guesswork out of pandemic travel. Thomas Cook’s relaunched website sells vacation packages only to destinations that won’t require travelers to quarantine upon returning home.

For Food Tour Guides, Requests to ‘Eat Like a Local’ Are Complicated | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler

Visitors bring with them misconceptions and biases, and some local guides, as much as they want to show an authentic, unfiltered version of their city’s food scene and tell more interesting, personal stories, find their “eat like a local” mission to be a lot more complicated.

What Does A Safe Return to Cruising Look Like? | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler

The halt to cruising has left some of its biggest fans eager to pick back up with the trips they had hoped to take, while other travelers wonder about the safety of sailing. We spoke with medical and industry insiders about cruising in the age of coronavirus—what the risks are, how to mitigate them, and what’s to come.

This Airport Has Been Awarded the World’s First Five-Star Anti-COVID Rating | Travel | Lonely Planet

The airport industry ratings body Skytrax gave Rome’s Fiumicino Airport the “COVID-19 5-Star Airport Rating” after conducting a three-day audit there earlier this month. According to Skytrax, the rating was based on “a combination of procedural efficiency checks, visual observation analysis and ATP sampling tests”.

Take a ‘Secret Operation Sleepover’ At DC’s International Spy Music | Travel | Lonely Planet

The International Spy Museum is allowing guests to experience its exhibits outside of regular admission hours with family-friendly experiences that include an after-hours private tour or a full overnight sleepover in the museum from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 a.m.

The Unusual Tour Cleaning Amsterdam’s Canals | Travel | BBC

What do the following have in common? Rubber ducks. A disco ball. A laptop. Numerous sex toys. A prop zombie hand. A ballpoint pen that turned out to be a family heirloom. A sock stuffed with baggies of cocaine and a weighing scale. They were all fished from Amsterdam’s murky-blue canals in the past year.

The Maya World Untouched for Centuries | Travel | BBC

Archaeologists have suspected there was more to Tikal, El Zotz and Holmul. But it wasn’t until recently that proof came – in the form of Lidar, a type of remote sensing technology.

Europe’s Most Misunderstood Capital? | Travel | BBC

Luxembourg has been afflicted with a boring and staid reputation – but there’s much more to its dynamic and diverse capital city than meets the eye.

Why Does the United States Have So Many Chinatowns? | Travel | National Geographic

Chinatowns have been in the U.S. for more than 170 years. The first one, in San Francisco, served as an unofficial port of entry for Chinese immigrants escaping economic and political chaos in the mid-1800s. Men sought their fortunes in the California Gold Rush, and when mining waned, they found work as farmhands, domestic helpers, and in the 1860s, as workers for the Transcontinental Railroad.

The Rest

The Best Place for Chicken Wings In Each State | Food | Travel Pulse

Born in Buffalo, the humble chicken wing has become one of America’s most beloved foods. Along the way, wings have grown from simple bar & grill appetizer into main course staple, with many restaurants now dedicated solely to selling wings and their sauces. Whether you prefer drummies, flats, or boneless, the following 50 places are all sure to satisfy your hunger for top-notch hot wings.

Phosphine On Venus: Possible Sign of Life Stirs Up Heated Debate | Astronomy | National Geographic

Something deadly might be wafting through the clouds shrouding Venus—a smelly, flammable gas called phosphine that annihilates life-forms reliant on oxygen for survival. Ironically, though, the scientists who today announced sightings of this noxious gas in the Venusian atmosphere say it could be tantalizing—if controversial—evidence of life on the planet next door.

Why Every Year — But Especially 2020 — Feels Like the Worst Year Ever | Science | National Geographic

Stories of fear and peril pique our anxiety. They put our brains on high alert, an advantage that once protected our early hominid ancestors from predators and natural disasters, but one that now leaves us “doomscrolling,” endlessly refreshing social media and online news to stay abreast of the latest threats. Our hearts race, and our minds keep constant vigil for the next perceived catastrophe.

Florida’s Flying Squirrels — Smuggled Abroad in the Thousands | Animals | National Geographic

Florida wildlife officials allege that the animals, which number somewhere in the tens of thousands in the state, are being poached from people’s backyards and funneled into the nation’s largest flying squirrel smuggling enterprise. Seized financial documents and maps indicate that as many as 10,000 squirrel traps have been set in the state during the past five years in Florida, where it’s illegal to take them from the wild in almost all circumstances.

The NASA Astronaut Who Returned to a Pandemic-Ridden Earth | Space | The Face

Jessica Meir completed her space mission in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic after seven months on the International Space Station. Here, she reveals how it felt going from isolation to, well, isolation.

The Office Will Never Be the Same | Future | Popular Science

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic immediately altered when, where, and how we work, and more changes are yet to come. As public health officials have come to understand more about the novel coronavirus, it’s become increasingly clear that our offices, our most common commute strategies, and even our elevator rides can contribute to the spread of this deadly disease.

Fukushima: The Ghost Town Behind the Gates | Feature | NPR

Fukushima was forever changed by one of the world’s biggest nuclear disasters nearly a decade ago. The Japanese government has poured billions of dollars into recovery efforts. But what does recovery really mean? The answer is a combination of resilience, reinvention and regret.

Last But Not Least