- This is not a good thing. One of the banes of my sports existence is sycophantic, idiot fans who vehemently believe that the refs are out to get their team, that they are getting the short end of every foul or penalty call and that their team is getting screwed out of a win by the officials. A big “thanks for nothing” goes out to David Pierce of Ball State and Kyle Anderson, a visiting professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, two tools from academia who released the results of a study this week showing that college basketball referees are biased in favor of home teams. The study supposedly looked at 365 college games during the 2004-05 season and found that referees are big on "make-up" calls, they make more calls against teams in the lead - especially if the game is on national TV - and they have a noticeable tendency for keeping the foul count even. A prime example cited by the study is the 2005 Final Four meeting between Illinois and Louisville. The Illini were whistled for the first seven fouls but by the end of the game, the foul count was Louisville 13, Illinois 12 and the Illini won 72-57. Nearly every major conference was included in the study, as were all 63 NCAA tournament games. Based on the results, coaches would seem to be well-advised to encourage their team to be as physical as possible because in the end, officials will (allegedly) find a way to even things out. "Part of the reason for the study came from something my coach used to tell me," Anderson. "He said a team can come in and push and shove and grab and hold, and by the end of the game, or end of the half, they've only got one or two more fouls because officials kind of get tired of calling it." Findings from the study were published in The Journal of Sports Sciences earlier this year, with the noteworthy points:
• The probability of a foul being called on the visiting team was 7 percent higher than on the home team.
• When the home team is leading, the probability of the next foul being called on them was about 6.3 percentage points higher than when the home team was trailing. The professors also cited an earlier study that concluded there were more calls against teams ahead in games on national TV versus those ahead in locally televised games. Calling fouls against the leading team tends to keep games closer, the studies said.
• The bigger the difference in fouls between the two teams playing, the more likely it was that the next call would come against the team with fewer fouls.
When asked about the findings, one retired official didn’t exactly debunk the theory that officials are less than impartial. "There's something to it," said Irv Brown, a former official who worked six Final Fours and was supervisor of officials for the Western Athletic and Big Sky conferences. "If you're looking at the board and one team has a lot more fouls, you probably look a little harder to do something, subconsciously." However, Anderson did speak with many referees as part of his research and according to him, the majority said "you're crazy. We don't do this." The only consolation for officials in this mess is that Anderson and Pierce made a point of saying that the tendencies they describe are not intentional. They are subconscious and not purposeful attempts to influence the game. Yeah, thanks for that. Fans who glom onto this study and use it to feed their erroneous beliefs about their team getting screwed by the refs don’t care whether it’s conscious or not………
- Are you freaking kidding me, America? My expectations for the type of music you all will embrace have been significantly lowered the past few years based on the fact that so many of you are musical morons who will embrace damn near anything if a record label will put it out and tell you it’s good. However, the news I’m about to share astounds and disappoints me even with those lowered expectations. The freak show that is Susan Boyle – she of the some lame-tastic reality karaoke show I don’t know – has released her album "I Dreamed A Dream" and music retailers are reporting that the album is already exceeding expectations both in stores and online. In fact, Boyle is poised to deliver a beatdown to this year's top debut-week seller, Eminem's "Relapse." Yes, some FAT karaoke singer from abroad is poised to knock off one of the best in the hip-hop game in his own country. Eminem’s album sold 608,000 units in the week ending May 24, which also represents the best overall sales week for an album this year. The possibility that Boyle’s crap-tastic karaoke collection could out-sell that number is disappointing at best and offensive at worst. The only thing that could make is any worse is…..yup, the news that another karaoke-er, former American Karaoke contestant and Liberace in training Adam Lambert’s "For Your Entertainment" is also outperforming sales expectations and is projected to move about 225,000 units in its first week. Never has an album title been so inappropriate, because I am damn sure that there is nothing entertaining about what has to be one of the worst albums in this or any year. Pop music sucks and few people embody that more than Boyle and Lambert…..unless, of course, it’s that costumed freak Lady Gaga. Her current triad of crappy pop music projects - "The Fame Monster" deluxe edition, "The Fame" original version, and "The Fame Monster" EP - could sell as many as 350,000 units by week’s end. Taken together, these three pieces of musical news are as disappointing as any I’ve heard in a long time and are nearly enough to ruin my Thanksgiving. But I can look at great recent releases by bands like Jet, the Elms, Mute Math, Switchfoot, the Mountain Goats, Jay-Z and Phillip LaRue………
- Prepare for a rare sight, New Zealand. The Kiwis could soon be seeing the first of more than 100 icebergs that were first spotted off the coast of Macquarie Island, an Australian territory around 900 miles south east of Tasmania, visitors from Antarctica that are extremely rare. The first of the icebergs are now thought to be only 200 miles away from New Zealand's south coast. It’s only the second time in 78 years that large Antarctic icebergs have been sighted so far north, with the previous occurrence coming in late 2006 when icebergs could be seen from the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA – not legendary rappers NWA, sadly) is tracking the icebergs by satellite and reports that the largest one is thought to be 1,640 feet wide, 164 feet tall and with a total thickness of 1,148 feet. In total, there are an estimated 100 main icebergs heading for New Zealand and possibly hundreds of smaller ones that could form around them as they break up. As passengers on the Titanic found out the hard way, only around 10 percent of an iceberg is visible above the water level, thus the danger to watercraft. Maritime New Zealand has already issued an alert to shipping in the area, alerting the many deep-sea fishing fleets, cruise ships and cargo freighters that regularly travel in the area. "While the size of the icebergs has attracted a lot of attention, it is not unusual for icebergs to be found in these waters," a spokesperson for Maritime New Zealand explained. The current crop of icebergs are believed to have come
- Score another one for oppression in China. Huang Qi, a Chinese blogger who had the audacity to help victims of a devastating earthquake has been sentenced to three years in prison, the maximum sentence for "illegally holding secret state documents." His attorney, Mo Shaoping, confirmed the sentence, which came even after the U.S. State Department protested the Huang’s jailing, saying his activities support China's efforts to institute the rule of law. Huang was initially detained in June 2008 after working to help families of children killed in the May 12, 2008, Sichuan earthquake. His crime, it seems, was founding and operating f the human rights Web site 64Tianwang, on which he posted articles criticizing the way the earthquake relief was being organized. "The reports we are seeing are biased," he wrote on May 20, 2008. "In reality, it is very difficult for NGOs to deliver food aid. They are obliged to go through government channels. The government is using its propaganda to portray itself as a savior to little avail. Few citizens trust the government because of the corruptions scandals that already occurred during similar disasters in the past." How are he write such heinous lies, right? The Communist a-holes running the Chinese government charged him with illegal possession of state secrets after posting the appeals and complaints of the families. Officials said they found two municipal documents in his house, which is a dubious claim at best from this regime. Huang’s sham of a trial took place secretly in August, despite the vociferous objections of Amnesty International. This is not his first stint in prison, as Huang previously spent five years in prison following a June 2000 arrest on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on demonstrators in Tinananmen Square. In that incident, he was charged with subversion for posting articles about the incident by exiled dissidents on his Web site. For what it’s worth (nothing), Huang plans to appeal the sentencing by the Chengdu Wuhou District Court, Mo said. Assuming that the bogus case against him is upheld by The Man, he is scheduled to be released in June 2011, three years after authorities arrested him. Thanks for showing that your constant oppression and unfairness is something we can always count on, Chinese government………
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