If you set your VCR now, you won't have to wait long for the "Whatever Happened to Rex Grossman?" segment on College Gameday.

Gators' Grossman decides to turn pro

Florida quarterback Rex Grossman will forego his senior season and enter the NFL draft.

"He has definitely made the decision to leave Florida," his mother, Maureen Grossman, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Grossman finished the season with 3,102 yards, 22 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. It was a far cry from the 3,896 yards and 34 TDs he threw in 2001 when he was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in Steve Spurrier's last season at Florida.

Grossman struggled in the offense designed by Spurrier's replacement, Ron Zook, but never complained. Despite Florida's struggles -- the Gators finished 8-5 -- Grossman said as recently as the Outback Bowl on Wednesday that he was having a hard time with the decision.

posted at 14:07

Damn these communist, er, ah, terrorist-loving academics. (Use vwxyz/vwxyz if you don't have an nytimes.com username/password.)

M.I.T. Studies Accusations of Lies and Cover-Up of Flaws in Antimissile System

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is looking into accusations that its premier laboratory lied to cover up serious problems with the technology at the heart of the administration's proposed antimissile defense system.

The university was prodded to act by Theodore A. Postol, a tenured M.I.T. physicist in security studies and a prominent critic of the antimissile plan. In letters to Congress and elsewhere, Dr. Postol has said M.I.T. appeared to be hiding evidence of serious flaws in the nation's main antimissile weapon, a ground-based rocket meant to destroy incoming enemy warheads by impact. His accusations center on a 1998 study by Lincoln Laboratory, a federally financed M.I.T. research center, and have grown over the years to include the institute's provost, president and corporate chairman.

Dr. Postol became known as an antimissile critic after the Persian Gulf war in 1991, when he argued that contrary to Pentagon assertions Patriot missiles had shot down few if any Iraqi Scud missiles. His contention, at first ridiculed, in time became accepted as truth.

posted at 13:50

I wonder if maybe the GOP power brokers didn't... heh... VET this guy properly before anointing him. Heh... vet...

Frist asked to atone for killing cats

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is being asked by an animal advocacy group to support legislation for better animal treatment to make up for fraudulently adopting cats from animal shelters then experimenting on and killing them while he was a medical student.

A Dec. 31 letter from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asked Frist to make amends by pressing for reforms that would replace old-style tests where animals are subjected to painful and sometimes deadly procedures with newer, more humane approaches. They also requested that he help fund research to find non-animal alternatives.

Frist acknowledged in a 1989 book that he routinely killed cats while an ambitious medical student at Harvard Medical School in the 1970s. His office said it had no record on how many cats died. Frist disclosed that he went to animal shelters and pretended to adopt the cats, telling shelter personnel he intended to keep them as pets. Instead he used them to sharpen his surgical skills, killing them in the process.

The newly elected leader of the Senate Republicans revealed the practice in his book "Transplant: A Heart Surgeon's Account of the Life-and-Death Dramas of the New Medicine."

"It was a heinous and dishonest thing to do," Frist wrote, in a passage quoted by The Boston Globe. On Tuesday, Frist's press aide, Nick Smith, told United Press International that "Senator Frist denounces the activities that he did while he was in medical school -- as he has done before."

posted at 22:07

Remember all those times Iraq attacked the United States in the past 12 years? No? Huh. Me either.

Bush: Attack by Iraq Would Hurt Economy

President Bush is keeping an unwavering aim on Iraq while insisting North Korea's nuclear ambitions can be held in check diplomatically and without resort to military force.

Iraq's Saddam Hussein poses the greater immediate danger because an attack by him, either alone or in concert with terrorist allies, "would cripple our economy," Bush said Tuesday.

After several days of holiday seclusion at his 1,600-acre Texas ranch, Bush emerged to defend his policy of treating Saddam as a looming threat while using long-term international diplomacy to isolate and pressure North Korea's Kim Jong Il.

Since North Korea is actually believed to already possess one or two nuclear weapons and is threatening to produce additional weapons-grade material, Bush is facing increasing criticism that his priorities are reversed.

posted at 10:19

Michigan Tech finished a distant (and really pathetic) fourth at the Great Lakes Invitational this past weekend but I guess State and U of M not winning is kind of a moral victory.

BU Outlasts Michigan To Claim GLI Title

The banners at Joe Louis Arena are a little bit redder.

With a 5-4 win over Michigan Sunday night, Boston University won the Great Lakes Invitational, making the Terriers the second straight team not from Michigan to win the Detroit-based tournament. North Dakota won the GLI last year.

Boston University had to endure a lot from the Wolverines in order to raise its banner next to Detroit's 1996 President's Trophy banner, as the Maize and Blue put 41 shots on goal.

posted at 23:25

Looking to quell a friend's unwanted romantic advances this New Year? Planning to use cyanide? Sophie's all over that action, beating the hell out of whatever Dick Clark might have to say.
posted at 21:41