- Do Division I athletes to receive a so-called "free ride" through college on an athletic scholarship actually receive the free education that most assume they get? According to a report by Ithaca College researchers and a national athletes' advocacy group, the answer is no. According to the report, the average "full scholarship" Division I athlete winds up having to pay $2,951 annually in school-related expenses not covered by grants-in-aid. That figure encompasses expenses like tuition, student fees, room and board and ancillary costs not covered by scholarships, including campus parking fees and special equipment needed for specific classes (like a graphing calculator for a math class). The amount student-athletes in these situations end up paying out of pocket varies from institution to institution and in places like Arkansas-Little Rock, the 2009 shortfall as nearly $11,000. said Huma, a former UCLA linebacker who now heads the National College Players Association, believes that changing misperceptions about the supposed free ride that Division I student-athletes receive is a major necessity. "It's really deceptive to use the words 'full scholarship," Huma said. "There's never an explanation for recruited athletes that the price tag for attending school falls short of the scholarship amount." Why is this such an important issue? Because of the recent focus on unsavory agents plying financially struggling (or simply greedy and unscrupulous) college athletes with offers of illegal perks and benefits. Additionally, a law passed in California earlier this month requires the state's colleges and universities to disclose more complete information about the actual costs of attendance. Now, the cynic would argue that these athletes are still receiving a whole lot of financial support to kick, throw, spike, hit or bounce a ball and if that support doesn’t cover their entire tuition, so what? Non-athletes face the same struggles all the time. An athlete apologist would argue that the 20 or so hours a week athletes devote to their sport in addition to their class time makes it virtually impossible for them to work an actual job during their season. Yet another sign that college athletics are a business first and actually about the competition on the field a distant second………
- Now THAT is what I like to see. Check it, that’s what I LOVE to see. So many Americans are apathetic about politics to the point that they don’t vote, don’t become actively involved in any causes and have zero impact on the political process in any way, shape or form. But rest assured, a small-yet-vociferous minority are out there, full of rage and willing to use every ounce of strength and vitriol in their bodies to cram their beliefs and agenda down everyone else’s throat. Take, for example, the man wearing a "Rand Paul for Senate" T-shirt outside a televised debate Monday night in Lexington, Kentucky, a man who communicated his opposing viewpoint to a liberal outside the debate venue by stomping a mud hole in her and walking it dry. The woman, an employee with the liberal group MoveOn.org , was stomped by the Rand Paul supporter before the debate between Republican Paul and Democrat Jack Conway. Video footage from a local television station shows several men wearing Paul shirts ripping a blond wig off the head of Lauren Valle and pushing her to the ground. Next, one of the men stomps on her shoulder with his foot, which then lands on the side of her head. Bystanders could be heard shouting, "Get the cops. Get the police out here," during the incident. Valle did file an assault report with the Lexington police and an investigation using the video footage to try to identify those involved is underway, according to Sherelle Roberts, public information officer for the Lexington Division of Police. Paul’s campaign issues the requisite denouncement of the attack calling it "incredibly unfortunate" and issuing a statement condemning the use of violence to help elect Paul. "Violence of any kind has no place in our civil discourse, and we urge supporters on all sides to be civil to one another as tensions rise heading toward this very important election," a campaign statement said. In an incredible twist of irony, Valle claimed that she was at the debate to present Paul with an award from RepubliCorp, a MoveOn.org-created group that focuses on what it calls the merger between corporate America and the Republican Party. "We're here to present Rand Paul with the 'Employee of the Month' award. However, his supporters were not very nice to me and my message, which is the same as everyone else -- just wanted to get out here with a sign," Valle of East Falmouth, Massachusetts, explained. "I got my head stepped on, so I have a bit of a headache." In all honesty, I don’t know why everyone is so upset here. Aside from a headache, Valle is find. We know that there are people out there who are passionate about politics and care about the direction of their country. Rand Paul knows he has people backing him who like to fight and aren’t afraid to administer a healthy dose of vigilante justice. It’s a win-win-win from where I stand……….
- U.S. Americans, we are not faring very well in the various polls and rankings that decide who the best nations in the world are. First, Newsweek slots us 11th in its ranking of the best countries of the world to live in. Now, many of the nations ahead of us (Finland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Luxembourg) have less debt and are amazing places (having visited three of those four, I can say as much), but coming in behind 10 other nations is unacceptable. Our debt, environmental issues and lack of unity be damned, we cannot be falling that far down any list. So maybe we should feel better about the fact that we moved up one spot on the list when the London analytical center Legatum Institute compiled its annual list ranking the prosperity of 110 of the world's nations. Norway, Denmark and Finland took the top three spots on the list and Sweden further cemented Scandinavia’s dominance by finishing sixth in the rankings. So how does the Legatum Institute compile its rankings? "The Prosperity Index seeks to understand how economic fundamentals, health, freedom, governance, safety, education, entrepreneurial opportunity, and social capital influence a country's economic growth and the happiness of its citizens," the group explained. In addition to scoring the top three, Europe locked down six of the 10 spots on the list, as Switzerland and Netherlands also made the cut. The lone representatives from the duo of North and South America are the United States and America’s Hat, a.k.a. Canada. As you would expect, eight of the Bottom 10 nations are from Africa, with Zimbabwe coming in last. Here is the list:
The Top 10:
1. Norway
2. Denmark
3. Finland
4. Australia
5. New Zealand
6. Sweden
7. Canada
8. Switzerland
9. Netherlands
10. United States
- New species discovery time, y’all! Who’s fired up to learn about new species of plants and animals being found in this big, wonderful world of ours? Let’s get it going. The World Wildlife Fund, which still has a black mark next to its name in my book for stealing the WWF acronym from what was formerly the World Wrestling Federation announced this week that more than 1,200 new species of plants and animals have been discovered in the Amazon rainforest over the past decade. A new WWF report called "Amazon Alive! A Decade of Discoveries 1999-2009," was published Tuesday and lays out the extraordinary diversity found in the world's largest rainforest which spans eight South American countries. The totals are absolutely staggering, as 637 new species of plant were found during the period, as well as nearly 500 new fish and amphibians, including 24 new poison dart frogs. Finding one or two poison frogs is a good decade in most centuries, so 24 of them is freaking epic. I’m so pumped up by this news that I am even tolerant of the fact that a four-meter long anaconda snake native to Bolivia and 54 other new reptile species were also discovered. I’m not a big reptile guy, so let’s keep moving on to cooler discoveries like a Bolivian river dolphin that was one of 39 new species of mammals. Then there’s the brightly colored bald parrot (Pyrilia aurantiocephala) and 15 other new bird species. "This is report is really intended to bring home the richness of the Amazon forest and how much is there. The Amazon is the single most important place on Earth for biodiversity -- it holds ten percent of the world's known species," said Jim Leape, WWF international director general. To put the number of new Amazon finds in perspective, the total is more than the combined number of new species found in Borneo, the Congo Basin and the Eastern Himalayas during the same time period, the report states. Making matters better (or worse, depending on your perspective) is the fact that nearly one-fifth of the Amazon rainforest has been cut down in the past 50 years. "All of us in the choices we make everyday in our supermarkets are actually part of this picture," Leape said. "On a more basic level, this is a place that stores perhaps more than 100 billion tons of carbon and it absorbs a lot of the carbon we put into the air. So it's hugely important to the future of the world's climate." Agreed and agreed, so here’s hoping the world steps up to change the terrible path it’s heading down………
- Must be nice to be Kanye West. You can walk around arrogantly proclaiming yourself to be the voice of a generation that views you as nothing more than a bombastic ass clown, jump up on stage at comically overhyped awards shows and interrupt crappy country pop singers enjoying their 15 minutes of fame, wear some of the most ridiculous shades known to man and you’re still good enough to record a joint album with freaking hip-hop royalty like Jay-Z? It’s true, West and Jay-Z are working on a joint album named “Watch The Throne.” West admitted that he and H.O.V.A. have already begun work on the album and if that wasn’t enough, they will soon restart the recording process in the freaking south of France. "We're going to the south of France at the end of this month, just to record new ideas," he said. "We'll probably be done with the album in a day or whatever. We’ve done about five [songs] so far… but we got some more. But think about it, it's really easy; he only has to think of 10 verses.” Way to rub it in our faces, K. Ah, just jetting off to the south of France to lay down some beats with the greatest rapper of this generation. Part of me hopes that West's new album, 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” absolutely flops when it drops on November 22, just on the off chance it might actually humble West. But then again, we’re talking about Kanye West here, so that ain’t happening………
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