Soil Compilation

Music
When We Were Young in Las Vegas, 2025 Festival Preview

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This weekend, Las Vegas will host the fourth edition of When We Were Young. A festival celebrating the scene out in the desert holds more than you’ve bargained for as 53 bands take on 4 stages in 1 day. A whirlwind for every pair of vans and fishnets in the pit, it’s Christmas in October for many. Here is your stage by stage preview of When We Were Young 2025.

Online Content
Ethical Gaming: Choices, God, and “How Fish Is Made”

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Developer Wrong Organ’s existential horror game “How Fish is Made” left me with some deeper questions about the nature of choice in the broader context of our existence. If the only way forward is death, does it matter what choices you make in the meantime?

Sports
Sports

The Bears are Ryan Pace’s Team and this Years Draft is the Proof

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Ryan Pace is not in the business of shooting for 9-7. He is in the business of taking calculated and measured risks in an attempt to build a roster full of players that have legitimate potential of one day belonging in the top tier of their position group. A blueprint exists for building the type of team Pace seems determined to build. Drafting players with conviction and signing free agents that project to be more valuable in the future, rather than paying players for what they have done in the past. So far Ryan Pace has been following this blueprint. … Continued

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Breaking Down the Hawkeyes Taken in the NFL Draft

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Iowa City, Iowa – Before the first pick in the draft rolled off in Philadelphia, many thought the talented Iowa seniors would hear their name called early. All but one fell past the first two days. Desmond King held a draft party Thursday night with hopes of being selected in the first round. Many others pictured him as a mid to late second round pick. King a former Thorpe Award winner for the nation’s best cornerback returned to school to improve his draft stock. Tight end George Kittle caught the eyes of scouts with his combine performance, particularly in the … Continued

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A “Short” Preview of the Weekend in Soccer: Weekend of April 29th

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(Disclaimer): Opinions expressed are my own   There’s a lot of soccer out there. Here’s an appetizer of some of the soccer you may hear about or catch on TV this weekend…   Four Point Difference, Five Games Left Chelsea maintains a four-point edge on Tottenham in the English Premier League as both teams have five games left. They both face formidable opponents this Sunday as Chelsea visits Goodison Park to play at Everton at 8 am central time, while Tottenham hosts Arsenal in the North London derby. Everything’s to play for in regard to all of those teams, as … Continued

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Introducing OPS+ and FIP- in the Big Ten

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NCAA Baseball can have sabermetrics, too. The “sabermetric revolution”, or the application of using objective methodology to determine and understand player performances, is swirling all around Major League Baseball. Statistics such as  On-Base Plus Slugging Plus(OPS+) for hitters and Fielding Independent Pitching Minus(FIP-) with pitchers, among many more sabermetrics. All these unique stats determining player performance are great ways to understand the game of baseball from a unique perspective. The MLB and everyone working with it/alongside it make these stats easily available. I thought to myself, why not do some digging and research to have these metrics present in NCAA … Continued

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Chicago Bears Mock Draft

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The NFL draft is now upon us, one of the oddest sports television phenomenons that our country annually celebrates. It’s a time that brings hope to all 32 franchises, but is often looked back on as a day where hopes and dreams turned into pain and anguish for fans across the country. As a Bears fan, the last decade or so of draft picks has produced little worth celebrating. The bears have only extended four draft picks since the 2007 draft, and right guard Kyle Long is the only current  Bear draft pick that is in his second contract with the team. … Continued

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Ronaldo, Real Madrid Down Bayern Munich

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    (Disclaimer): Opinions expressed are my own. For full coverage of the UEFA Champions League, visit http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/index.html   Cristiano Ronaldo scored five goals in two games as defending champs move on   Surprises were abound in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals; an 18-year-old scored three goals in two games, and a man with no international goals netted two goals versus Barcelona. But the only surprise in Ronaldo scoring his 100th career Champions League goal was in how quickly it happened.   That’s because it indeed happened in the quarterfinals as Real Madrid beat Bayern Munich. The soccer celebrity scored … Continued

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Cristiano Ronaldo in a 2015 UEFA Champions League game vs. FC Schalke. Photo courtesy of Chris Deahr via Wikimedia Commons. Photo licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

Iowa Spring Game Leaves More to be Learned

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Changes to the Spring Game Don’t Change the Questions about the Hawks By Ben Colin Iowa City, Iowa – Not your typical Friday night lights. First off, it’s a mild spring evening, not a chilly fall night. Second, this was a Hawkeye football game of 16,500 people instead of a local high school. Third, the final score; Gold (defense) beat Black (offense) 63-47. The high scoring affair under the lights that combined to a grand total of 110 points. The missing detail, one team scored on nearly every play, in one way or another. The Hawkeyes spring game uses an … Continued

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Oh No! Colin Cowherd Missed an Important Point

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Iowa City, Iowa – Once again Iowa footballs scheduling tactics are under fire, this time after adding Middle Tennessee to the 2019 non-conference line-up. Well known Iowa football critic and FS1 personality Colin Cowherd joined the conversation yesterday on his show ‘The Herd’. Nothing new but Colin once again brought up his ideas of Kirk Ferentz’s speed dial. The first number he’d imagine, “1-800-CREAM-PUFF”. Each year Colin ridicules Ferentz for dialing up the Northern Illinois’ and Iowa States of the world. He has a point; Iowa hasn’t put much into its non-conference schedule in recent years. In addition to Iowa … Continued

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Baseball Mid-Season Report

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Iowa City – The Iowa Hawkeye baseball team captured its 20th win of the season on Tuesday after a 4-1 victory over Western Illinois. With this past weekend marking the halfway point of the season, let’s take a look at how the men’s baseball team is doing thus far. The Hawkeyes have found themselves with a 20-11 overall record but just 3-3 in Big Ten play which puts them tied for 7th in the conference with Michigan State. Coming up this weekend is a vital three game series against the Nebraska Cornhuskers who currently sit at number two in the … Continued

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