- University of Miami football player Ray-Ray Armstrong is not smart-smart. Prior to the season, the entire Miami program was thrown into disarray over allegations from disgraced booster and convicted Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro, who claimed he provided benefits for players ranging from lavish parties to cash, from flat screens to hookers and nearly everything in between, over the span of a decade. Armstrong was among those disciplined for his connection to Shapiro, receiving a four-game suspension for receiving benefits from him. Armstrong played five whole games without incurring any more discipline, but could not stay out of his own way and apparently forgetting the lessons he was supposed to have learned during his suspension, he got himself into trouble via the old athlete trap of Twitter. Last week, Armstrong tweeted that he was having dinner with the president of a PR group that represents professional athletes. That tweet would be problematic in any program at any time, but given the Shapiro scandal, how did it not cross Armstrong’s mind that dining with someone who could be construed as an agent or representative for pro athletes could be an issue or that tweeting about was an even worse idea? In light of his tweet, questions arose as to whether Armstrong was receiving a free meal, a violation of NCAA bylaws. The dinner came just a month or so after Armstrong returned from suspension and even though he was ultimately proven to be in the clear for the dinner, he was suspended for Saturday’s loss to archrival Florida State. He was reinstated to the football team and rejoined his team at practice Monday, but head coach Al Golden said his playing status for this Saturday’s game against South Florida is to be determined. “The A.D. is going to have the final say, but he’s allowed to return to team activities until we hear otherwise,” Golden said. The person with whom Armstrong had dinner, Double Coverage PR president/owner Arielle Washington, has not spoken about the dinner, but her father characterized relationship between his daughter and Armstrong as “not professional in nature.” So maybe Ray-Ray has a girlfriend with a successful career-career, but that didn’t excuse his tweet in the mind of his coach. “How can you do that? There’s a fine balance there between being an educator and having zero tolerance,” Golden said. “At some point, it’s going to be, `Hey, these decisions are irrevocable.’ I don’t think we’re at that point yet.” Well played, Ray-Ray…………
- It’s about freaking time. For too long, a menace and an annoyance has been allowed to exist unchecked not only in our nation’s church, but in the United States in general. We all know and/or have been adversely affected by the terror that is elderly people and their damn hearing aids. Thankfully, one church in Pueblo, Colo. is stepping up to tackle this problem and should be applauded for its efforts. The Fellowship of the Rockies church recently found itself face to face with elderly churchgoers Elmer and Irene Grosz, both of whom are hard of hearing. The couple showed up for the service on a recent Sunday and made the rest of the congregation miserable with their hearings aids buzzing so loudly that those seated around them could not hear the sermon. The couple claims that church leaders asked them to leave. "He said I was aggravating the whole church," said Elmer Grosz of the church’s pastor. Furthermore, the Groszes said they were told as long as they wear their hearing aids, they are no longer welcome to listen to the sermon in the sanctuary. “Not anywhere, anytime," said Irene Grosz. "I said, 'If Jesus was alive here, would he do us that way?'" Would he “do” you that way? Look at elderly Irene Grosz, using the same lingo as the kids. As for the question, clearly Jesus would probably be irritated by that buzzing sound as well, so let’s just assume his reaction would have been the same and keep moving. In its defense, the church issued a statement categorically denying the allegations. The statement read in part: “We did not ask this couple to leave our church. The hearing aid did have some problems and the ringing was at an unbelievable volume that honestly was a distraction to our worship service. What was not reported is that one of our pastors discussed this with them on October 24th and offered to help them resolve the issue. He offered to drive them to the doctor and if necessary Fellowship of the Rockies would pay to repair or replace the hearing aid. He also followed up on the morning of October the 29th. On October the 29th at our worship service, when the hearing aid was ringing at a high volume the couple was asked to sit in overflow to minimize the distraction. They were not asked to leave the church.” The church then attempted to pin blame on the local media outlets that have reported the story, claiming they did not take time to gather all of the facts. Yes, but the story as it was initially told was so much more interesting than the one you’re offering……………
- Amazingly enough, people were actually willing to live in Alaska at least 1,000 years ago and even more amazing, people still live in that frozen tundra today. Just tweaking you, Alaskans, although I would not want to live in your barren wasteland to the north. Proof of this is all around and another piece of evidence came with the recent discovery of a cast bronze artifact excavated from an Inupiat Eskimo home site in the lane known as The Last Frontier. A research team from the University of Colorado Boulder is working to determine the origin of the artifact, which is believed to be about 1,000 years old. They are unclear as to how it came to Alaska in the first place. "The object appears to be older than the house we were excavating by at least a few hundred years," research assistant John Hoffecker said in the release. Hoffecker led excavating at Cape Espenberg on Alaska's Seward Peninsula and found the object, described as a rectangular bar connected to a broken circular ring. It measures about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide and was found in August at a home site dug into a beach ridge. The digging was part of a project paid for by the National Science Foundation to study human response to climate change at Cape Espenberg from A.D. 800 to A.D. 1400. A total of seven home sites were excavated as part of the project, according to archaeologist Owen Mason, a research affiliate with the university based in Anchorage. "The whole plan was to look at how subsistence and social practices changed over about 500 years in time," Mason stated. Hoeffecker’s team’s find came in what was the third and final complete season for the project, with a large collection of animal bones and wood objects including boat parts found over its duration now being analyzed. "We're trying to figure out if the people were whaling," Mason said. "That's a big topic. The wood is a big story. We have to get more radiocarbon dates, more tree ring dates. We're going to figure out the climate story from the wood." Finding the mysterious bronze artifact meant digging through 3 feet of sediment near the entryway to a house and the discovery was made by University of California, Davis, doctoral student, Jeremy Foin as he used a sifting screen. The only pieces of evidence about where it may have come are beveling on one side of the bronze and the concave shape of its other side, which indicate the item was cast in a mold. Based on the bronze artifact and other items recovered during the dig at the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Hoffecker theorized that Korea, China, Manchuria or southern Siberia could be the point of origin, but early Inupiat Eskimos in northwest Alaska might have brought the object from the other side of the Bering Strait about 1,500 years ago and passed it down through generations. Left unanswered was why Eskimos still have so damn many words for snow…………
- Ladies, enjoy Brat Pitt on the big screen while you can. Unlike acting icons like Morgan Freeman and Sean Connery, Pitt apparently has no plans to age gracefully for all the world to see through his movie roles. Pitt, speaking during a news conference during a visit to South Korea to promote his latest film "Moneyball," indicated that he plans to stop acting in three years, after he turns 50. Pitt said he intends to movie into the directing and producing business full-time once he turns 50 and that a shift into the producer's chair was something that appealed to him. "I do quite enjoy the producing side," he said, adding that he would like producing films which are difficult to make under the current system or "getting behind talent that we believe in.” His admission that he plans to quit acting in three years came in response to a query from an Australian current affairs show in Tokyo broadcast on Sunday. "Three years," he told the interviewer. His starring roles have spanned both the globe and a wide range of characters, from a displaced Austrian surveyor stranded far from home in Seven Years in Tibet to a bombastic Army sergeant killing Nazis in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds.” In explaining his plan to retire before turning old, Pitt spoke about life away from the movie business. "I think happiness is overrated, truthfully. I do. I think sometimes you're happy, sometimes you're not. There's too much pressure to be happy," he said. "Satisfied, at peace, those would be more goals for myself." If he does retire from acting, Pitt should still have plenty to keep him busy away from his career. He now has six children with fellow actor Angelina Jolie and admitted that media scrutiny on his children is the one issue that really gets him fired up. Additionally, Pitt conceded that parenthood had changed him but said he had no problem with getting old despite being a sex symbol for much of his career. “Me personally, I like aging. With age comes wisdom... I'll take wisdom over youth any day,” Pitt stated. Whatever makes you truly happy, bro………….
- So China has its own Amtrak……sort of. While trains aren’t derailing at an alarming rate, the country’s high-speed Beijing-to-Shanghai line has been closed for the past week after bullet trains on the most prominent rail line in China were recalled over safety concerns following a deadly crash on another line. China sports the world's longest high-speed rail network with about 6,012 miles of routes in service as of June, including 2,184 miles of rail lines with top speeds of 186 mph. The Beijing-to-Shanghai line will gradually resume service from this week, Chinese state media reported Monday after China's state-owned train maker, China CNR Corp., recalled 54 trains on the route on Aug. 12 following repeated delays blamed on equipment failures. The recall occurred after a train crash killed 40 people on a high-speed line near the eastern city of Wenzhou in July. That crash sparked a wave of fear throughout China and brought criticism of the government’s push to develop and use the rail network even though security and safety measures might not be keeping pace. The high-speed railway program, once a crowning jewel for the Communist Party, suddenly became a target for criticism. Now that the government is returning the line to service, hopefully those concerns have been addressed and all problems resolved. "After a three-month process of modifications and repeated tests, previously reported problems with the CRH 380BL trains have all been fixed. Operations will gradually resume starting from Wednesday," the official Xinhua News Agency reported an unnamed Ministry of Railways official as saying. Six of the recalled 54 Beijing-to-Shanghai bullet trains are slated to resume service Wednesday and all 54 trains will return to service in between now and Dec. 6. Here’s hoping the results aren't disastrous……………
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