- Mark Cuban hasn’t said anything too nutty or controversial lately, so the bombastic Dallas Mavericks owner clearly felt it was time to put himself back on the map. Speaking at a University of Pittsburgh forum on Tuesday, Cuban theorized that steroids could have a legal and useful place in sports -- as long as they are administered under a doctor's supervision to help athletes recover from injuries and there's no risk of long-term health effects. "I'm not an expert in the subject, but if we get to the point where there aren't long-term negative health impacts, why wouldn't you do it?" Cuban said. "I'll get killed for saying this . . . but I'm not so against steroids if they're administered under proper supervision and there is no long-term damage. We do performance-enhancing things all the time, just not steroids," Cuban added. "If you administer them properly and fairly and set the rules strictly, as long as in doing so we recognize there are no negative long-term health-impact issues." That response came after Cuban was asked a question about Orlando Magic forward Rashard Lewis's 10-game suspension during last season's playoffs after testing positive for elevated testosterone levels. Contrary to what Cuban may think, I’m not here to rip him for his comment. He’s an extremely smart businessman, the NBA season is about to start and he’s managed to snag some attention for himself and his team. Furthermore, I disagree with his opinions on the subject, but in the end he’s entitled to it. The fact is that steroids do have a negative long-term impact on health and although the cheaters and their chemists are always looking to come up with the next miracle ‘roid to beat the drug tests, I don’t see them coming up with one that has no potential to do serious long-term damage to the health of users. Furthermore, the percentage of athletes who would use steroids only under the circumstances Cuban postulated would be incredibly small, even miniscule. Aside from Andy Pettite, who lied and said he only took HGH once in order to heal from an injury, get back on the field and help his teammates, not many athletes have offered that excuse when they tested positive. Heck, even Cuban doubled back after his panel appearance and clarified that he would support only the supervised use of steroids if they were proven to not have long-term health effects. "You have to get to the point where that risk isn't there, and we're not there yet," he said. Exactly. This discussion is so theoretical and hypothetical that it’s not worth making a big deal over. Cuban is right; there will be uproar over his words, but unjustifiably so. Take a step back, look at what the guy really said and just keep moving……….
- Barnes & Noble may not have been able to keep its new electronic reader device much of a secret, but the bookstore giant hopes that its new toy will be able to establish itself as a competitor for Amazon’s Kindle nonetheless. Early reaction to the Nook has been mostly positive, with the aesthetics of the $260 device receiving rave reviews. The Kindle doesn’t really have any strong competitors in the field of e-book readers, so perhaps the Nook will be that. Barnes & Noble leaked product details hours before the official Nook announcement on Pier 60 in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon. "Simply following the leader is not in our DNA," said Barnes & Noble president William Lynch. The Nook and Kindle do differ in several ways, with the most notable being that the Nook comes with a feature called LendMe, which lets users borrow certain the same way readers have traditionally traded paper books. The Nook also features a color touch screen that allows you to navigate titles and enter search terms using a virtual keyboard that goes dark once you're reading. You can pre-order the Nook for $260 at Nook.com and it will ship in November. Another nice feature is that the Nook can read a user's PDFs, as well as the 1 million-plus books, magazines and newspapers available in Barnes & Noble's eBook store. The connection to the eBook store is a free 3G AT&T connection, but the Nook lacks a web browser "because those are clumsy" on eReaders, Lynch says. One issue I would have with the Nook, aside from not having a browser, is that while you can subscribe to RSS feeds from the internet, but the available RSS feeds are dictated by Barnes & Noble, which selects certain feeds to convert to ePub, then sends them out each morning for a fee that varies by publisher. Users may also have a beef with the battery life for the Nook, which spans only 10 days, while the Kindle’s battery lasts for 14. The Nook’s 2 GB hard drive is big enough to hold 1,500 books and a microSD slot that allows you add up to 16 GB more. There will also be the requisite selection of accoutrements and toys to trick out your Nook, things like designer cases and color-customizable back panel. The operating system for the Nook will be Android OS, which Lynch said "works really well for navigating on this small device." My initial feeling on this is that if I were looking to buy an e-book reader, I would sit out the first incarnation of the Nook, wait for the bugs to be worked out and see if the increased competition in the e-book reader field will drive down that $260 price tag……………
- Boy, hard to see how this dynamic pairing could possibly go wrong. That former American Karaoke karaoke-er, Adam Lambert, is releasing his forthcoming debut album "For Your Entertainment," on Nov. 23 and one of the songs on this surefire train wreck is with the living Halloween costume of pop music shi**iness that is Lady Gaga. I suppose the pairing of a gay dude and a chick who looks like a Vegas showgirl every time she appears in public is a decent fit, but that’s where the positives end. Like anyone who has ever appeared on AK, Lambert forfeited any musical credibility he ever had or ever may have had in the future. You set foot on the set of the world’s biggest karaoke contest an you bastardize every piece of music you ever touch. Mixing in a crappy, over-produced pop tart like Lay Gaga can only exacerbate the problem, so I’m expecting a nuclear bomb-like result here. Lambert will also have a song on the upcoming soundtrack to the film "2012." The song, "Time for Miracles," hit the internet this week in the form of the music video for the song. Lambert is also apparently trying to make himself seem edgy with longer hair and head-to-toe black attire, but it’s hard to be tough and edgy when your sole claim to fame is singing crappy karaoke renditions of crap-tacular pop songs as part of the world’s biggest karaoke contest. The revelation of his collaboration with the aforementioned freak show that is Lady Gaga was posted on Lambert’s Twitter page, and God help you if you are following this tool on Twitter. “I spent yesterday in the studio with the insanely talented and creative Lady Gaga recording a song that she wrote!" Lambert Tweeted. "I love her." Why? Because her music sucks so bad that it might actually take attention away from how much your own songs absolutely blow? Incredibly enough, the collab with Lady Gaga may not even be Lambert’s most terrible of the album. He’s also hit the studio Pink, the results of which should be preemptively barred from ever appearing on any album or radio station by the FCC as a means of protecting the unsuspecting ears of listeners around the world. In other words, run the other direction as fast as possible if you ever find yourself confronted with the horrific reality that is "For Your Entertainment.” Run and don’t look back…………
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Sure, it may be a mercenary effort in Mexico, courtesy of environmental activist group Greenpeace, but I take my social dissidence any way I can get it. Following the Mexican government's decision to allow cultivation of the first genetically modified corn, about 45 Greenpeace activists descended on Mexico City to protest a decision they say could ruin the nation's native crop. The Greenpeacers hung a black banner and protest signs Sunday at the Angel of Independence, a traffic circle on one of the city’s busiest roads. "Today, the Angel of Independence is in mourning to demand that the Mexican government protect our principal nourishment -- corn," said Aleira Lara, a Greenpeace leader at the protest. Never have I seen someone so fired up about corn, but it’s all good. The actual action by the government the agriculture and environment departments approving two permits last week from among 35 applications to grow the mutant corn. As opposed to the traditional method of modifying crops through selective breeding, genetically modified crops are engineered by having changes introduced into their DNA. That can lead to positive developments, such as increased nutritional content or resistance to herbicides, pests and disease. However, critics object to possible effects on consumers and the environment. This is an unquestionably important issue in Mexico, where corn is grown on about one-third of the country's cultivated land. Currently, there are 55 varieties of native corn, but protestors expressed concern that the new mutant corn could endanger those 55 varieties (Mexico has 55 varieties of corn, Heinz has 57 flavors in its ketchup, Baskin Robbins has its 31 flavors of ice cream – whatever). At this point, the mutant corn will be planted only on plots controlled by the government and isolated from other crops. The Mexican government insists that the new crops are only in the experimental stage at this point, but that did little to abate the rage of the protestors who gathered over the weekend.. "Without corn, there is no country," some protesters said. The slogan sounds much better in Spanish on account of rhyming: "Sin maiz, no hay pais." The protestors do have science on their side; two scientific studies have determined that transgenic corn has already contaminated some native Mexican corn fields. Fueled by that research and their inner outrage, protestors came up with some solid, albeit hyperbolic, signs for their demonstration. Signs hung on statues at the protest said: "Our corn first, traitors" and "Transgenic corn: End to independence." The economic side of this story also cannot be overlooked; Greenpeace an its supporters argue that the mutant corn would drive small-scale farming operations into financial ruin because they would have to buy the high-priced mutant corn seeds from one of the four government-licensed companies with a patent on the technology. The government would likely argue that it is in a difficult position when it comes to corn, as its own farmers are unable to meet the increased demand for maize and the country must import about 89 percent of the corn it needs for feed. If mutant corn can be grown faster and in places where native corn varieties cannot grow, then it could help Mexico better meet its own needs. Additionally, with the price of corn having doubled since 2007, an increase in native corn production could alleviate much of the problem. Something tells me there is a mildly happy balance to be struck here between the two sides, but as long as I get to seed more protests, riots and dissidence in action, I don’t really care…………
- Boy, ESPN definitely needs to reevaluate its screening and hiring process when it comes to its baseball analysts. For the second time in the last year, allegations of sexual impropriety between an ESPN baseball analyst and a staffer has surfaced and this one is ugly. Analyst Steve Phillips, a former general manager for the New York Mets, acknowledged having an affair with an assistant at the network and has taken a leave of absence during the playoffs. The affair came to light in August, when ESPN production assistant Brooke Hundley began calling Phillips' wife, Marni, on Aug. 5 after he broke off the affair and sent her a letter graphically describing their relationship and Phillips' birthmarks. According to a Wilton, Conn., police report, Hundley told Marni Phillips in her letter that that "we both can't have him. I'm a real person in his life and I care deeply about his happiness." But the letter isn't the whole story here, not even close. On Aug. 19, Marni Phillips called police when she came home to find Hundley in her driveway. "I knew instinctively that this was the woman Steve was involved with and I was terrified," she wrote in a police statement. Hundley apparently panicked and attempted to back her car out of the driveway in a hurry. In the process, she smashed her car into a stone column and was only able to make her getaway by driving across the Phillips’ lawn. Yeah, I’m guessing that didn’t make too much of a scene. Some crazed mistress smashing a stone column with her whip, then tearing across the lawn to get away. After that hasty exodus, Marni Phillips found Hundley’s letter attached to her front door. The situation became even more twisted later that evening, when , the Phillips' 16-year-old son told his parents that Hundley had posed as a high school classmate and sent repeated instant messages asking personal questions about his family and his parents' marriage. Hundley also assumed a second identity to contact the boy via Facebook. "This woman has clearly displayed erratic behavior and delusional tendencies," Phillips said in a statement to police. " She has shown up at our house. She has taken on the identity of at least two people (minors) to violate our son (a minor). I have extreme concerns about the health and safety of my kids and myself." Boy, that’s rich. You have an affair with a woman half your age, put her and yourself in a horrible position and then you’re looking to paint her as this troubled soul who you need to be protected from. Funny, you didn’t seem to need protection from her when you two were hitting it at her apartment or whatever hotel room you rented for your alleged trysts. Fact is, this isn't the first time Phillips has been accuse of having an affair with someone who worked for him. While working for the Mets in 1998, Phillips admitted having sex with a team employee, who sued for sexual harassment. That case was settled out of court. In other words, dude seems to be one of those scumbags who is always looking for a fresh piece of tail and seems unfettered by the fact that he’s married. While it was wrong for Hundley to make "harassing phone calls and text messages" to Marni Phillips, none of this happens if Steve Phillips can keep it in his pants and remain faithful to his wife. The one positive to come from this, if there can be one, is that Marni Phillips seems to have finally seen the light and she filed for divorce Sept. 14. It only took two very public affairs and a crazed, jilted lover turfing her lawn to get the message through. On Wednesday, Phillips said in a statement released by ESPN that he requested the leave of absence "to address this with my family and to avoid any unnecessary distractions through the balance of the baseball playoffs." Yeah, that’s something you should have done a long time ago, amigo. The police report indicates that the only reason he finally came clean with his family about the affair is because Hundley pressure him to do so. Nothing like the mistress being the voice of reason in an affair. As I mentioned at the top, this isn't a new problem for ESPN. In 2006, baseball analyst Harold Reynolds was fired after a female intern complained about what he called a "brief and innocuous hug." Call me crazy, but there seem to be some deep-seated issues within the baseball family at ESPN and there don’t appear to be a lot of high-character individuals among the network’s baseball analysts……………
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