- What are most college students doing on a Sunday morning, let alone a Division I football player on what might be his only day off of the week? Their activity can typically be described in three words or one great acronym: NIO - napping it out. Still reeling from their bender the night (and morning) before, the average college student is worshipping at the church of the other side of the pillow through Sunday morning and into the afternoon, rolling out of bed just in time for a 1 p.m. breakfast of Natty Light and Cap’N Crunch. Marshall University wide receiver Troy Evans is an overachiever in that sense. Not only was he up and out of bed well before noon on a Sunday, but he was busy - really busy. So busy, in fact, that he was being held Wednesday morning at the Western Regional Jail on $250,000 bond. Why, you ask? Well, that is what usually happens when a person is allegedly responsible for not one, not two, not three, but four armed robberies near their college campus in a single morning. According to Huntington police Lt. J. Williams, Evans was arrested Tuesday on the campus without incident and faces a wanton endangerment charge in addition to the four armed robberies. He was reportedly arrested after football practice and not long after, the university announced he had been suspended indefinitely from the team for an undisclosed violation of team rules. Wait……robbing four apartments in the span of a few hours is a violation of team rules? Which rules? This guy was showing a go-getter attitude, not sleeping his day away and trying to solve the one puzzling problem that faces all college students and especially college athletes, namely how to fuel their fund for beer, ramen noodles and Cap’N Crunch while also going to class and in the case of athletes, practicing, training and playing in games. However, Evans probably could have made a better choice to raise funds. The same elusiveness that made him the team's leading punt and kick returner last season did not seem to translate into eluding detection and arrest after he (allegedly) robbed his four victims on Sunday morning…………
- There is no question soda, energy drinks and other sugary beverages are extremely popular among those age 50 and under in the United States. The next time you walk into any public places and don’t see nearly half the people there with a Monster, Red Bull, Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper or other sugar-laden beverage handy, mark it down because that will be a rare day indeed. That reality is extremely concerning to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has published the results of a survey that reinforces what the world already knew - in other words, it did what science does best. Both teens and adults ages 20-39 are getting a disturbing amount of their daily calories from sugar-heavy drinks, said Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist with the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the CDC. Teens who consume such beverages are taking in about 327 calories a day from them, while those in the 20-39 age bracket consume 336 calories a day from them. Those figures represent about 2½ cans of cola daily, which is probably a modest day of drinking for many Americans. The survey also showed that half of people in the USA drink sugary beverages on any given day and nearly 25 percent consume at least 200 calories a day from them. Furthermore, about 5 percent of people ages 2 and older consume at least 567 calories a day from these types of drinks, which is equal to more than four 12-ounce cans of cola. "Sugar-sweetened beverages are the number one single source of calories in the American diet and account for about half of all added sugars that people consume," says Rachel Johnson, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association. "Most Americans don't have much room in their diets for a completely nutrient-void beverage." And what is THAT supposed to mean, R. Johnson? Are you implying Americans are eating tons of fast food, fatty desserts, fried foods and other unhealthy grub? If that were the case, wouldn’t it show along the waistlines of……never mind. The risks of massive sugar intake are well-known: increased risk of obesity, high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease and stroke. Other findings in the study include: males consuming more sugary beverages than females, black and Mexican-American adults drink more calories from these beverages than whites and people in lower socio-economic groups consume more calories from them than higher-income people. All of this data can be found in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is considered the preeminent voice in evaluating food and beverage habits because the data is from in-person interviews about dietary habits. More than 17,000 participants were interviewed for the study and for purposes of the study, researchers considered drinks with added sugar to be sodas, energy drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks and sweetened bottled waters. In stark contrast to the 300-plus calories consumed daily by the aforementioned percentages of teens and adults, the AHA advises people to consume no more than 36 ounces or about 450 calories from sugary beverages a WEEK. As always, leave it to America to go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to downing unhealthy grub……………
- Brick Tamland, you may want to begin making your way to Cincinnati, Ohio. A local police department in the area has a job that would be perfectly suited for you. For those who aren’t fans of Will Ferrell’s comedy classic “Anchorman,” Tamland is the mentally handicapped weatherman with an IQ of 48 who killed a rival news anchor in a back-alley brawl using a trident, which just so happens to be the new weapon of choice for the Colerain Township Police Department. Colerain, located just outside Cincinnati, is trying to set an example for the rest of the state’s law enforcement in making a change in their non-lethal devices. Officers will now use a Mark 63 Trident instead of the Tasers that they have carried on the job for the last seven years. Given that Tamland hurled an actual trident several dozen yards and nailed a rival newsman in the chest, he could probably teach the officers of the CTPD plenty about their new toy, which can be used as a stun gun, baton, a blinding strobe light and also shoots pepper spray. Some have termed it the Swiss army knife of non-lethal weapons and Police Chief Dan Meloy said it reduces the number of decisions for officers on what to reach for in the event of a confrontation.
"You have a deadly situation or non deadly situation, one of the two. From the non-deadly situation, you have the tool and the means within one devise to make the decision on how best to handle it," Meloy said.
"You're always looking to improve, what's best." What’s best in the eyes of the CTPD is eschewing the Taser even though the popular device was not responsible for any incidents or deaths involving its officers. Tasers have caused fatalities in southwest Ohio as well as other parts of the country and earlier this month, a college student was killed after University of Cincinnati police used a Taser on him. Of course, Brick Tamland has already taught the world that tridents can be plenty lethal too…………
- Since officially disbanding the group that made him a rising rock star, Jack White has been a busy man. He was busy before dissolving the White Stripes, with side projects the Dead Weather and the Raconteurs keeping him hopping. He also founded his own label, Third Man records, and since opening the label and a and recording studio in Nashville in 2009, Jack White has produced dozens of singles by a wide range of artists: Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, Jerry Lee Lewis, Cold War Kids and country singer Pokey LaFarge. As eclectic a mix as that is, White’s latest project seems even more bizarre for a guy who has built his entire image on being offbeat and unusual. Shock rock/rap group Insane Clown Posse is White’s newest musical partner, as Third Man Records announced Wednesday that White will produce a 7” single on which Insane Clown Posse covers a little known piece by Mozart called "Leck Mich Im Arsch." For the German-ignorant, that translates to "Lick Me in the Arse" in English. The song is thoroughly ridiculous and can already be heard on line. It will be released as a single and paired with a B-side called "Mountain Girl" on which ICP members Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J rap about meth, moonshine and a shotgun wedding. Against this sophisticated musical backdrop, it’s difficult to see how everyone won't be fired up about the full album going on sale Sept. 13. That White would work with ICP is not surprising, as he has clearly been looking to expand his brand and range since he and ex-wife Meg ended their run as the White Stripers earlier this year. He made a recent appearance on The Colbert Report, showed a great sense of humor and displayed his capability to be one of rock ‘n' roll's finest straight men. His tongue-in-cheek sense of style and humor has always made White a polarizing figure among music fans, but he has shown a willingness to swing to any extreme when it comes to who he will work with, even if the end result is perplexing and just plain weird……….
- Ballet dancers have always been the badasses of the dance world, so this next story comes as no real surprise. Some enterprising Dominican drug ring decided to hide under the umbrella of common knowledge about ballet dancers’ edgy ways by smuggling a whopping 150 kilograms of pure cocaine hidden in a shipment of ballet shoes smuggled in from the Dominican Republic. French police seized the shipment after arresting two Dominicans last week at the French capital's Charles de Gaulle airport in a sting operation and using information obtained from those arrests to locate the shipment in an apartment in the east of Paris. Two other accomplices, also Dominicans, were arrested and are currently being held in custody. Narcotics police said the four men were part of a Dominican drugs gang that also owned properties in The Netherlands and Spain. None of this is shocking and the real stunner is that no one attempted a stunt like this before. Drug rings and cartels are always looking for seemingly innocuous products in which to hide their product and ship it across oceans and international borders, so why not capitalize on ballet dancers’ reputation for being the gang-banging, tatted-up, gangstas of the dance world? Tell me you don’t know a ballet dancer who is the toughest, meanest S.O.B. you’ve ever met and I will call you a liar. This incident also underscores the reality that the Dominican Republic is fast becoming a major hub for drugs heading from South American cartels in Colombia and Venezuela to western Europe. Oh, and it also explains how ballet dancers remain so thin all the time and fit into their outfits, because a FAT coke addict is a rare sight indeed. Just kidding, ballet dancers…………
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