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Very odd. When I lived in Madison I experienced a strange flash/boom that turned out to be a meteor exploding over western WI. But there is clearly something else going on here. This is different. The sounds have continued for multiple nights and appear to be coming from the ground. This isn't the first incident, they have been documented all over the place for decades. I can't even speculate on the cause, I honestly have no idea and many of the online theories do not seem plausible. If past cases are any guide, the booming will go away after a day or two and there will never be a good explanation.

Milwaukee just broke the March temperature record, as it has now reached 83 degrees today.

Has anyone on here gotten BF NET?

Generally if you want to make the final four as a lower seed you have to knock off at least one 1/2 seed and sometimes both of them. It was fortunate that Wisconsin got put into the Syracuse bracket and I agree with others that it is a winnable game. If the outside shooting falls they will probably move on to face Ohio State. I really hope this is the year for Bo to get to the final four, but it's going to be tough. I don't see them beating Ohio State if they get that far. Marquette beating Florida is certainly not a given, but you have to like their chances. I'm really hoping for Marquette vs. Michigan State, that would be a classic. Also, the Big Ten is finally having tourney success, but they really need a final four team to get some respect. Too bad Purdue couldn't finish off Kansas.

What an ugly game between Marquette and Murray St. Crowder is completely lost and the teams are running up and down the court but barely scoring any points at all. Hopefully Marquette starts hitting some shots.

Wisconsin is supposed to warm faster than the global mean, so that's why I say it is a favored area for warming. It's not Wisconsin in particular, but the mid-to-high latitudes as a whole. Also areas away from the oceans warm faster because the ocean moderates the warming effect. I think most experts would say that global warming and this warm winter are related. But it wouldn't have been impossible to get a winter like this in the late 1800s and if you trust the temperature records, there were occasionally some very warm winters back then. For instance, the 1878 winter was warmer in Madison than 2012. But the sea ice doesn't vary as much as temperature, the historical record is more reliable, and sea ice is the lowest that it has been over the past several thousand years. I guess the most important message is that the feedback between warmer temperatures and weather patterns is very complicated and there is much that is still not well understood. We can't say how much of this warm winter is attributable to natural cycles and how much is attributable to global warming. They interact in complicated ways and even extreme and cold can relate to global warming. But the idea is that global warming would turn a certain extreme event (like a flood or a warm winter) that only occurs once in 100 years into an event that occurs more often, maybe once every 10 or 20 years. The way you could get a more exact number is by running a climate model for a warm climate and counting how many times you have warm winters. You could still get a warm winter in the normal climate, but you would get more of them in the warm climate.

I try my best to offer insightful comments on climate although it's not my area of research. I think there is a disconnect between many of the climate predictions that are talked about and the ones that actually affect the average person. There's always going to be plenty of ice in the arctic in winter and the Greenland ice sheets aren't going anywhere for thousands of years. The atmospheric warming that has occurred so far is somewhere around 1 degree C (2.5 degrees F) since the early 1900s. In an area like WI which is favored for warming it is a little more. That's not an extreme amount through--so on the average, people aren't going to notice that much. One of the issues with climate change that has gotten more attention is the increase in extreme weather. It is tricky because you can not attribute any individual weather event to climate change and the weather is what people tend to notice the most. The best you can do for predicting the future is to put all the physical information that we know about the climate into various computer models and see what the result is. And unequivocally the models say that the earth is going to warm further and the warming is caused by CO2 emissions. The climate models are completely different from the numerical models that predict the weather for this week. However, you can take the future climate from the climate models and then run the weather models with those future climate conditions. In that case, they tend to output more extreme weather, partially due to a higher amplitude jet stream, with sharp changes between cold and warm, especially in the winter. The high amplitude jet stream is the reason for the extreme weather this year--warm in the US, cold in Europe. Some studies say that arctic ice and snow melt encourages that. But it's still somewhat unknown. For an individual winter, there is so much else that goes into it, El Nino/La Nina, ocean currents, the position of high/low pressure centers, possibly the solar cycle, etc. So you can't even conclusively say that this warm winter is because of global warming. But when the climate scientists have been warning about this kind of stuff for decades now and the global CO2 is increasing at a record-breaking pace like it did in 2011, there is reason to be concerned. My personal view is that as a society we need to be better prepared for extreme weather regardless of global warming. It doesn't have to be a political issue. But even the Republican strategists are starting to realize that this is an issue--after "Climategate" they did some independent verifications of the data that agreed with the climatologists. And the sea ice loss is one of the best indicator because it is easy to verify with satellites--and it's been dropping significantly.

Record high in Madison yesterday, 82 degrees. -The average high is 43 so that is 39 degrees above average. -Warmest it's ever been this early in the year, going back to 1869. -This is also the warmest temperature ever recorded in March (tied with March 29th, 1986 and March 31, 1981), as is also (by two weeks) the earliest 80° reading ever measured there. -The previous record for a temperature so hot this early in the year was 79°F set the previous day, on March 14, 2012. No sign of any significant cooling in the 10-day forecast.

If I close this thread it will almost guarantee that you will get snow in April.

It really makes me appreciate the gritty, physical, defensive-orientated Big Ten when I see Wisconsin play a supposedly good defensive team from another conference. Wisconsin is moving the ball really well and getting good looks inside and out. If the faster pace is working, they may as well keep it going, although I expect Bo will have them buckle down on defense in the 2nd half. I still always worry about the offense going to sleep for 10 minutes though.

This year's bracket is just screaming upsets all over the place. The major conferences are weak. Don't get fooled by the seedings. The matchups are much more even than most years. Syracuse should lose quickly, either to K-State/Southern Miss or certainly to Wisconsin/Vandy. That is if Vandy can survive Harvard, they are due to get knocked out quickly after having an emotional run in the SEC tourney. Cincinnati over Florida State perhaps? Path looks most favorable for Ohio State. Creighton over UNC seemed like a worthwhile pick. Michigan will get knocked out by the Temple/South Florida winner. Belmont over Georgetown is possible for 14/3, otherwise SDSU will get them. I think Kansas will beat Purdue but it will be close. Creighton is my wildcard to get out of the Midwest. In the West, I like Long Beach State as an unlikely Sweet 16 team. Memphis over Michigan State is a popular pick--should be a close game. Murry State should give Marquette a good fight. Mizzou probably has the easiest path to the elite 8, but Florida has been hot and Donovan is a good tournament coach. Gotta go with Izzo in this region though. Overall the South is probably the most predictable region, which means it will probably be a disaster. Xavier has been inconsistent but they could be the ones to take down Duke. Otherwise maybe Baylor will do the job. Wichita St. is also getting some hype for potentially creating havoc. Can't go against Kentucky here. I'm going to invoke my B1G bias and pick MSU over Ohio State in a gritty 57-55 dogfight.

Yep, there's nothing retro about the park. It's very modern. All the signs and concessions have block lettering, not script. It's very colorful. Lots of blues, greens, reds, and yellows on the concourse. However, they haven't installed most of the art yet. So that could be part of why the park is sort of boring right now. Modern can be dangerous because it can be cold and unfriendly, but when you combine the modern architecture with that color scheme it works well. That's part of what is so awful about that sculpture, it doesn't match the theme of the rest of the ballpark at all. I haven't been to Target Field, which is too bad because that is probably the park that compares most closely. This place was built on a much stricter budget so I expect those who have been to both will rate Target Field higher. I've also never been to Minute Maid which is the closest comparison in terms of overall seating design and roof structure. The problem with Minute Maid is that it is gimmicky--the hill and the train (to an extent) are contrived and out of place. It's hard to pretend to be retro with the giant retractable roof--especially when your team is called the Astros! The modern look is better. And the blue seats are refreshing, Miller Park is too dark when there are 20,000 empty seats. They just really messed up with that statue. Loria just couldn't keep his hands off it. The whole feel of the panorama from the seats is ruined by it. It's far worse in person than the photos--you literally can not take your eyes off it. Also, we haven't talked much about the logo and new uniforms, but they are very popular down here and go well with the theme of the ballpark. Despite the initial complaints I think they are a success. The block lettering is essential considering the ballpark. The art deco is there but it's subtle.

Ok here are the photos: LINK

The last time I was at Miller Park was May 2011 and I don't remember seeing any closed captioning. Did they add it to the ribbon board since then? The line drives over the backstop were only about 2/3 up the lower level. The top 10 rows of the lower level are vulnerable. This park might have the largest lower level in the major leagues, but it still needs to be higher. Usually at Miller Park the nastiest line drives hit the press box. Here, they were going straight into the crowd. Also, there is more foul territory than usual here down the outfield lines. The stands do not come right up to the foul line, there is a cushion of a few extra feet.

So I took in a game at the new Marlins Park tonight. First reaction: "Holy ---- that statue is HUGE!!!!" Way bigger in person than in the photos. I took some pictures that I will post later that attempt to reference it, but the thing is literally 40 feet high. Furthermore, the rest of the outfield is boring so there is nothing else to distract your attention from it. I didn't hear anyone say they liked it, almost everyone thought it was ugly and some suggested it will be taken down later. They haven't actually turned the thing on yet, that is being saved for the big home opener. I think people will grow to accept it eventually, but for now it really sticks out in a bad way. The game itself was boring, the opponent (FIU) was told only a few hours before the game that MLB was not going to allow them to use aluminum bats. The University of Miami was allowed to use aluminum bats last night so I'm not sure what changed. Not surprising, FIU had trouble scoring runs because they were borrowing bats from the Marlins that they acquired right before batting practice. Strange. The roof was closed since there were some showers in the area. It was nice to have A/C. It's only March but it is already humid enough outside that it would be uncomfortable with that many people crammed together. It's a standard 3-panel roof, with all 3 panels sliding over the plaza outside the stadium. They opened it after the game but we didn't realize it until we were already driving away. I've now been to 15 major league stadiums, so I have a decent background to compare this place to. So first, the good: -Traffic was great getting into and out of the stadium. There were only 15,000 for this game (and maybe only about 11-12,000 actually there), but I had no problems getting in and using my parking pass to park in the garage. The garages are well designed to get cars in/out quickly with one-way driving, angled parking spots, and large entrances. For a crowd of 37,000 I think the main problem will be that there isn't enough parking, which could create major headaches as people search around for a spot on someone's lawn. -There is not a bad seat in this place. No obstructed view seats. No thick railings to block the view. The outfield is the best area. There is lots of room to walk around and several hundred people were watching the game from the walking area in the outfield. I hope they do not block that off. The outfield seats also offer a great view for the price. You can sit directly in center field which is very rare in newer ballparks. Also, about 1/2 of the seats are in the lower level. The lower level has about 35 rows (I think Miller Park is around 20). The upper level was closed but it doesn't have very many seats and appears to be a good view. -At least as of right now, there is no advertising in the park at all. It is the first time I have ever been to a baseball game with zero advertising, period, not even on the scoreboard between innings. It was quite refreshing. I know they will add plenty before the season starts, but based on the available paneling for ads, it looks like they will be relatively few and far between compared with Miller Park. There will not be large advertising boards blocking view in the outfield like in Miller Park. The Marlins had relatively few in-game sponsors in the past, so it will be interesting to see if they continue to keep the advertising down. -The moving outfield panels (like Miller Park) are really cool. They are tinted blue and the tracks are built right into the walkway in the outfield. So when they are open it will literally be completely open in the outfield with just a railing separating the fans from the Miami skyline (the outfield concourse is not at ground level, it is tall enough to see over neighboring buildings). It is a shame that the roof will be closed for most of the season because it will take away from a really unique aspect of the park. The bad: -The outfield statue is just too big and too obnoxious. It is good to be unique, but this was going to far. -Minor issue, but the plastic for the seats is really cheap. They are not especially comfortable either. We were sitting almost directly behind home plate in seats that will usually cost almost $100, so I would have expected nicer seats. In contrast, the diamond club right in front has high-backed movie theatre chairs. -The park is still overall kind of boring. The color scheme is nice but the light green in the outfield is ugly. Other interesting notes: -They had closed captioning on the edge of the ribbon board throughout the entire game. It wasn't working well, but it was something different. -The backstop netting is too small. There were several balls hit over the net that went straight into the crowd. -Dimensions (left to right) are approximately 345-385-420-390-345. The wall is at least 10 ft. high so there will be no home run robbing at this park. Definitely will play as a pitchers park, but you can get it out down the line and Jose Reyes is going to hit lots of triples this year. With the roof open I'm not sure what it will be like. Unlike Miller Park, this stadium isn't dug into the ground, so you have to go up from the entrance to reach the lower concourse. The result is that the outfield windows are very high up relative to the surroundings. The wind currents are going to be very strong when the roof and outfield panels are open. I am not sure how it will affect the ball current, but I imagine it will favor LH hitters. -I can't comment on the concessions since most of the menu items (especially the local cuisine) was not open yet. Word is that there will be a number of local cuisine options. There was only standard ballpark food available tonight. Overall: -It's not as nice as 2011 Miller Park. But it is about as nice as 2001 Miller Park before all the improvements were made by Mark A. So the challenge for the Marlins is if they can continue to update and improve the ballpark and listen to customer feedback. All the locals think the place is awesome because they have nothing to compare it to. And it is really nice. I noticed that the crowd tonight was primarily young and Hispanic. That is important, since Miami is the capital of Latin America and the team has the potential to appeal to a huge international audience. The old Florida Marlins never reached that audience, but I think the Miami Marlins will. Even if the Marlins have a string of losing seasons, they will never go back to the bottom of the league in attendance again. I hesitate to rate the park since it was a preseason game and not everything was fully running yet. But I think it will come in somewhere in the middle of the pack in the end. One of the main things that sets is back is that the surrounding neighborhood (Little Havana) is quite ugly with nothing to do around the ballpark. The photos can be viewed here.

I think it depends on the region. There might be problems with division rivals but I'm not sure about California. I honestly think the Giants fans were heckling for fun because they can't get too serious knowing the Barry Bonds situation. If anything, the generic "Brewers suck" heckling will get replaced by "Braun's a cheater" but I find it unlikely that it will get serious or dangerous. Here in South Florida, the people I have talked to all think Braun is innocent. Part of it is probably because he is a UM alum, but either way people do not seem to be buying into the media spin machine.

Gonzalez batting cleanup? Oh my. Lets hope we never see that outside of the first week of spring training.

Seems like the Marlins giant statue might be a little too close to centerfield for left handed hitters. LINK I personally think the media is making a big deal of things prematurely, but in a ballpark that already has 390 foot power alleys, it could definitely be a problem.

Glad to know that it was a good time at the ballpark today. I guess the Giants fans are having fun being on the other side of the "cheater" chants for once!

I think some of the reason is that an opposing team may manipulate their roster to take advantage of two consecutive lefties. Especially if they are also facing more lefties in the series before or after the Brewers.

It was definitely on ESPN3 out of state. Great season for MU and nice to see the Bradley Center full again.

I don't understand the argument that this diminishes the 162-game season. Instead, it makes it more important because the 2nd place team no longer gets an automatic berth into the divisional series. I do think there should be one additional clause in the rule. If the 2nd Wildcard team finishes more than 5 games below the top Wildcard, then the top Wildcard automatically advances and doesn't have to play. And of course they should add some scheduled doubleheaders to get more time for the playoffs. They can be day/night doubleheaders so that revenue is not lost.

Nasty storm expected this evening, be careful. Will only last a few hours but will pack a punch.

It's basically impossible to predict the weather beyond 4-5 days out. From about 6-14 days it is possible to get a general idea based on the jet stream whether the pattern will be warm/cold or active/dry. For 15-30 days, there are lots of people out there who attempt to forecast that time period, but they are usually probabilistic and often inaccurate. The best I can offer you is the Climate Prediction Center's 30 day outlook, which is currently forecasting a good chance of above normal temperatures for March. Specifically looking at the models, there looks to be a huge warmup next week in the Midwest. Highs in the 50s will be possible again in the Milwaukee area. It looks like it will stay warm for the first 1/2 of March. Who knows beyond that.

I think this has to do more with the big payday than Milwaukee. I'm not happy with ESPN either, but I'm not willing to make too much of a big deal out of this tweet.