- Never, ever again should anyone underestimate how much college basketball means to the good people of North Carolina. Too often, rabid fans of a team are said to treat a sport as “a religion,” but those words actually do apply to a select few whack-a-doos who can't maintain an actual working relationship with reality. Count Katina Dorton as one of those whack jobs by virtue of her filing a lawsuit Friday against her sister, her sister's husband and Duke University regarding the transfer of two tickets that once belonged to her father for games at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils are annually one of college basketball’s best teams and seeing their games from the best possible seats seems to mean more to Dorton than having a non-toxic relationship with her family. She is seeking unspecified damages and asking the court to invalidate the "fraudulent transfer" to Gordon and Sophia Caudle that occurred without the knowledge or consent of her father or other family members, according to the complaint. Dorton’s father John was a Duke graduate and dentist who treated athletes and coaches over the years and purchased tickets through longtime contributions to the Iron Dukes -- the fundraising arm of the school's athletic department. He passed away in January 2010 at age 81, but passed on his season tickets to Dorton’s sister and her husband in July 2008. Dorton alleges her father was "ill and unable to act for himself" when the transfer occurred even though the Iron Dukes allow members to pass on tickets to family members willing to meet financial obligations. In John Dorton’s case, that meant a $50,000 transfer donation and a $6,000 annual contribution. The lawsuit seeks to void Sophia and Gordon Caudle’s arrangement while allowing Katina Dorton to assume the transferred ticket rights. "This is important and it's valuable," said Randall M. Roden, an attorney for Dorton. "She's a graduate. She genuinely wants to support the Blue Devils and go to the games. But she was shocked by the way Duke handled this." Shocked enough to file suit in Wake County Superior Court and throw whatever remains of her relationship with her sister under the oncoming bus. "Sophia and Gordon Caudle regret that this private family matter has been made public," said John N. Hutson Jr., an attorney for the Caudles. "Now that it has been made public, they welcome the opportunity to present their case in court where they believe both they and Duke University will be found to have acted properly." They regret it? Not nearly as much as the rest of us. The legal basis of the complaint is that Caudle had no authority to arrange the transfer because he wasn't yet married to Sophia Caudle when he signed the agreement. Controversy ensued and the Caudles later composed an agreement returning the tickets to John Dorton for his lifetime after he became "extremely upset and agitated" by the change. He later signed the document stating he agreed to the transfer, though the complaint claims it's invalid because Dorton was "suffering from diminished capacity" and his focus was to regain control of the tickets. Now that he’s gone, the fight is on and sisterly love is nowhere to be found, all over college basketball tickets. "They're good seats in Cameron," Roden said. "That's a big deal in anybody's book." All righty, then……….
- Terrified by the superbug known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and its potential to send you shuffling off this mortal coil too soon? According to Dr. Eric Matheson of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and a few of his colleagues, you can mitigate that risk simply by drinking hot tea or coffee. In a study reported in the July/August issue of Annals of Family Medicine, Matheson and his team found people who drink either beverage are less likely to carry MRSA in their noses. Consuming either beverage was associated with about a 50 percent relative reduction in the odds of nasal MRSA carriage. Caffeine addicts who consumed both beverages saw a 67-percent reduction in their MRSA risk the researchers wrote that the findings "raise the possibility of a promising new method to decrease MRSA nasal carriage that is safe, inexpensive, and easily accessible.” Potential enthusiasm over the findings has been somewhat damened by the fact that the relationship between nasal MRSA carriage and the chances of systemic infection has not been resolved. But not knowing the clinical importance of the finding doesn’t mean the study was a waste of time and money because it still accomplished a helluva lot more than most studies ever do. Previous studies have demonstrated antimicrobial properties in coffee and tea when applied topically. This new round of research included 5,555 individuals ages 2 and older, representing 182.1 million people. Less than half of participants (48.6 percent) reported consuming hot tea over the past month and 60.8 percent reported drinking coffee over the past month (hopefully the 2-year-olds weren’t the ones chugging coffee). A mere 1.4 percent of the participants carried MRSA in their noses and even after adjusting for age, race, sex, poverty status, current health status, hospitalization in the past 12 months, and use of antibiotics in the past month, there were lower odds of nasal MRSA carriage among individuals who drank any amount of hot tea, coffee or both compared with those who drank none. Even when separating adult participants from the mix, the results for them were the same. Unfortunately, the same benefits were not found to extend to iced tea drinkers, perhaps because iced tea has lower levels of polyphenolic compounds than hot tea, or that the volatile antimicrobial compounds in coffee and tea reach the nose in vapor form, according to the researchers. So how do the researchers explain their findings? "In the case of coffee, particular attention has focused on the potential antibacterial properties of trigonelline, glyoxal, methylglyoxal, and diacetyl," Matheson and colleagues wrote. "For tea, attention has focused on the antimicrobial properties of tannic acid and catechins." Their report adds the positive news that drinking both coffee and tea decrease iron absorption, which could affect the growth of S. aureus. While no one is completely certain what all of this means, it is wonderful to find a study that does something other than reaffirm facts we all already knew…………
- Kurdish rebels, you have been warned. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has placed you on notice that you will pay a "heavy price" after launching an ambush that killed 13 Turkish soldiers. That vow was punctuated by soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launching a major offensive in south-eastern Turkey on Friday, one day after an ambush in which 13 soldiers and seven rebels were killed - the deadliest clash in three years. "I'm openly telling the terrorist organization and its extensions that they should never expect any goodwill on our part in the face of such ill-intentioned actions," Erdogan said. Meanwhile, a Kurdish umbrella group declared "democratic autonomy" in direct defiance of the government. "As the Kurdish people we declare democratic autonomy, remaining bound to the national unity of the peoples of Turkey," read Aysel Tugluk, deputy chairwoman of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) on Thursday as the ambush took place. No one is quite sure what "democratic autonomy" means, but its general concept was still enough to enrage the government, so much so that prosecutors opened an investigation into the declaration. They could even press criminal charges against some of the 850 delegates who took part in the DTK event. The group describes itself as a local grouping of Kurds in eastern Turkey, comprising intellectuals, representatives from civil society organizations and pro-Kurdish politicians, while the government seems to view them as equivalent to terrorists. Erdogan derisivelt referred to the declaration as a "self-styled thesis" and mocked the group as not being on the level of actual political activists. "If they want peace, there is one thing to do: the terrorist organization must lay down arms," Erdogan said. The overall struggle for peace with the Kurds has dragged on for several years even though they have been granted some improved cultural rights. At present, the main Kurdish political party, the DTP, is boycotting parliament, demanding the release from prison of several of its members who won election to parliament last month. Yes, members of parliament are currently chillaxin’ in a Turkish prison. The greater struggle for Kurdish autonomy dates back to 1984 and in the 28 years since, more than 40,000 people have been killed. That number seems fairly likely to continue rising…………
- Maybe it’s cynical, but it’s still fair to wonder why the hell actors, actresses, directors and producers get so angry when their show or movie is not nominated for an Oscar or Emmy. After all, these awards are like every other damn pretentious, self-congratulating, elitist industry awards show in that they recognize the same shows and people over and over again, whether they deserve it in a particular year or not. The same holds true in the music industry and yet, those who believe they have been snubbed for an award often react with immense rage, as if receiving an award validates their work instead of knowing they have produced something of quality whether some lame academy voter base recognizes it or not. Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter is a perfect example of this phenomenon, as he took to Twitter (of course) to unleash a few F- and C-bombs after his show was not nominated for the awards he believed it should receive. Sutter let loose with a Twitter tirade for the ages, but couched his comments by insisting, "If I was really pissed off, I wouldn't be on Twitter ranting about it.” He did complain that media outlets reporting on his rant were doing a poor job of putting his comments in context - continuing the ever-popular refrain amongst public figures making controversial remarks that they were taken out of context. "All the people who follow me on Twitter know my sense of humor," Sutter said. "I sometimes forget the blogosphere will give it more weight than I intended ... [But] 10 percent of all that is what I feel and 90 percent is me just throwing sh*t up." He explained that his tirade began as a few simple jokes before he "got a great tweet from Damon [Lindelof]. So then I said, 'F*ck it,' and went off and have some fun." After the fact, Sutter claimed he was angry not only over the Emmy selection process, but also at himself. "I get more pissed off at myself for having expectations [of Emmy nominations] than not getting them," he explained. "You don't want to get invested, but then then Katey [Sagal, Sutter's wife] wins the Golden Globe and you do these roundtables and panels and you get so pumped up." Perhaps the critical disapproval of his show’s third season factored in to the lack of nominations, or maybe it was as Sutter suggested, that his bosses at FX favored some of the network's other shows over SoA. Regardless, he would be well served by taking a step back, examining the true absurdity and worthlessness of the entire awards show scene and directing his Twitter rants at more worthwhile targets…………
- Kooks are everywhere. They are in lowly positions with no authority, they are in positions of great authority and they are everywhere in between. For instance, you might just find one working as the county supervisor in Riverside County, Calif. Step up, Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, and receive your due recognition. Why is Stone a kook? How about trying to go all Civil War on the rest of his state and secede? That’s right, this tool wants to form the 51st state by seceding his region from California because the state's problems require "radical" solutions. "Listen, I knew I'd be criticized. I learned in my tenure of being a politician for 19 years, sometimes you have to do radical things to get people's attention," Stone said. "We have hit a nerve with citizens who are just fed up with business as usual in the state. I'm talking about a secession plan from the state of California." Criticized? No, not at all. Laughed at hysterically? Absolutely. But the Riverside County Board of Supervisors is actually encouraging Stone’s pipe dream and this week, the board authorized him to Stone to hold a summit of California's local leaders to discuss solutions for the state’s many woes, including his plan for secession. The only caveat is the board insisting that no taxpayer money be used for the conference. Attendees will be able to hear all about Stone’s plan for a new state, for which he has already come up with a name: South California. Under Stone’s plan, the new state would be composed of 13 largely Republican counties, most of which are inland along the Nevada and Arizona state lines. It would exclude Los Angeles County, but would include Orange and San Diego Counties, both on the coast. At this point, it seems like a solid idea to ask what exactly Stone’s grievances with the state are and it turns out they are many and varied: high taxes and fees, inability to reform welfare programs, high unemployment and excessive regulations. "What the state has done is they've been balancing their budgets on the backs of our local coffers. They've been stealing our sales tax, property tax," Stone stated. "The bottom line for me and my constituents is jobs. We are sending jobs out of the state of California by the train load." To be fair to Stone and his idiocy, Riverside County is among the hardest hit communities by the recession and mortgage meltdown. “We are the foreclosure capital of the world," Stone claimed. "We have some areas of the county that have 25% unemployment. The average in Riverside County is about 15%." Those are definitely disheartening figures, but most pundits don’t give Stone’s plan much of chance for success. At least 27 other secession efforts have taken place in the state since the 1800s and obviously, none has been successful. The financial costs alone would be overwhelming, especially that whole getting a new state government up and running thingy. Yes, kooks certainly are everywhere………….
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