- Bitter former athletes who can’t let go are one of sports’ most-loathed, yet plentiful commodities. Whether it’s the high school baller who is now in his 40s but can still recount every crucial moment of that big game when the coach benched him and cost the entire team a championship or the curmudgeon-y former pro who rants against today’s athletes and how they’re not like athletes in his day, no one likes this guy. Unfortunately for former North Carolina State basketball players Tom Gugliotta and Chris Corchiani, that is the guy both of them seem to be. They attended Saturday’s matchup in Raleigh between the Wolfpack and No. 20 Florida State, a game the Wolfpack lost 76-62 and saw current N.C. State player C.J. Leslie admit after the game that his team wasn't mentally there against the Seminoles. But the story everyone wanted to talk about after the game was not a third straight win for Florida State to stay atop the Atlantic Coast Conference standings. No, what everyone wanted to talk about was the bizarre mid-game ejections of two of the school's best players from the 1980s and `90 by referee Karl Hess. Hess evicted Gugliotta and Corchianai with just over six minutes left in the game, stopping the game to kick them out of their seating area behind the scorer's table. Making the moment that much better, both former players’ jerseys hang in the RBC Center's rafters. Hess wanted no part of explaining the ejections when approached by a reporter after the game, but through the magic of Twitter the world was able to hear Corchiani’s point of view not long after the contest ended. Corchiani tweeted that Hess "didn't like fact Googs (and) I told him he was having a bad day, inconsistent, (and) telling the truth." N.C. State head coach Mark Gottfried said he didn’t know what went on and didn’t seem especially concerned that two obnoxious former players were getting all of the attention instead of his underachieving team. "I don't have any idea what happened there," Gottfried said. Telling Gugliotta and Corchiani to dial it down a notch probably wouldn’t help, as cantankerous former athletes who can't accept the fact that they’re no longer an active part of the game rarely listen to sound advice………….
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Way to step it up, China's Muslim Uighur minority. With China's leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping in Ankara on Tuesday to begin talks with Turkish officials on regional issues, the Uighurs seized upon the occasion to protest outside the hotel where Xi was staying in the Turkish capital and burn Chinese flags in an inspiring display. The uprising was small, but 60 Turkic-speaking Uighurs from China's northwestern Xinjiang province still made their voice heard as Xi completed the last leg of a trip that also took him to the United States and Ireland. Xi, a near-lock to succeed Hu Jintao as Chinese president in just over a year, actually entered the scene saying nice things about Turkey's growing role in trying to resolve issues such as the Iranian nuclear dispute and Middle East conflicts. Coming off a warm reception in the United States, he landed in Turkey to the sight of angry demonstrations by Uighur activists. Feverishly waving the pale blue flag of East Turkestan, adorned by a white star and crescent, the protesters torched a Chinese flag and a poster of Xi before police overreacted and descended on the scene to stop the demonstrations. Why are the Uighurs so angry? They maintain that China committed a litany of human rights abuses during a crackdown after Uighur riots in 2009. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan described the events as a "genocide" at the time but doesn’t seem quite as upset these days. As to the question of why a Chinese minority was protesting in Turkey, the country is home to thousands of Uighurs who have fled Xinjiang since the Chinese Communists took over the region in 1949. Some of those Uighurs were bold enough to speak out as Xi came to town blowing political and economic sunshine up Turkey’s backside. "A member of the G20 with a growing economy and an important country in the Middle East, Turkey has for a long time tried to bring stability and development to the region and played an active role in trying to solve 'hot' issues," Xi said of the country. He met President Abdullah Gul on Tuesday and signed seven bilateral economic agreements before traveling to Istanbul to meet Erdogan, who is recovering from surgery at home there. Sadly, he did not receive the same warm reception there…………
- Gluten-free foods are one of the current dietary crazes for those looking to eat healthier and live longer, but a new study from Italy suggests that not everyone who rips gluten from their diet reaps great benefits. Gluten-free foods are more expensive and study co-author Dr. Roberto Corazza of the University of Pavia believes that money is wasted by many would-be healthy eaters. With the worldwide market for gluten-free products nearing $2.5 billion annually, gluten-free is big business. For those who don’t know much about the need for gluten-free products, gluten is a component of the protein mixture in wheat, rye and barley flour. People with the autoimmune condition celiac disease cannot consume gluten because it triggers the immune system to attack the lining of the small intestine. The lone treatment is a lifetime of gluten-free eating. Left untreated, celiac disease raises the risk of life-threatening conditions such as digestive tract cancers. Only 1 in 133 Americans has celiac disease, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation. The authors of this study believe that many people simply believe they have what has come to be called “nonceliac gluten sensitivity.” Even when celiac disease has been ruled out, these whiners complain of a variety of symptoms after consuming gluten, including bloating, abdominal discomfort, flatulence and headaches. Corazza and Dr. Antonio Di Sabatino wrote in a summation of their research that at this point, “Considerable debate about nonceliac gluten sensitivity has recently surfaced on the Internet, with a sharp increase in forums, patients or patient groups, manufacturers, and physicians advocating a gluten-free diet,” the two write in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “Claims seem to increase daily, with no adequate scientific support to back them up.” As a result, gluten-free diets have become trendy and fashionable even though they offer no substantial benefits to non-celiac sufferers. Maybe stopping these whiners from all their lamenting and complaining because they believe their altered diet is helping should be benefit enough………….
- Cash 4 Gold may have some competition in a state whose lone professional basketball team has gold miner’s tools in its logo. If some Colorado lawmakers have their way, citizens will soon be able to use gold and silver coins as currency. A bill currently before the state senate would legalize gold and silver as currency, mirroring a measure already in place in neighboring Utah. Twelve other states are considering such plans and supporters of the bill point to the relative weakness of the U.S. dollar as a reason to embrace gold and silver. They worry about the growing debt crisis and inflation and believe using gold and silver can relieve some of the economic stress. “Over history just about every country in the world that has had a serious debt crisis has intentionally inflated their currency,” said Sen. Kent Lambert, R-El Paso County. Lambert and other proponents of the bill cite places like Zimbabwe as an example of what the U.S. needs to avoid. Zimbabwe has a $100 trillion bill that is currently worth about 40 cents in the U.S. “Coins that are minted by the U.S. government should be something that we can use in trade,” Lambert said of the bill he’s sponsoring. Following World War I, such coins were banned in currency in the U.S. As the ubiquitous commercials begging people to drop their broken, unwanted jewelry in a FedEx pouch and ship it off to some bogus processing operation that will give them 20 cents on the dollar for their gold remind us all, gold is as valuable as it has been in a long time. However, the only way to use gold and silver coins at present is to convert them into paper money. With gold trading at $1,700 an ounce as of Friday, the idea seems to have some merit. And if it eases the troubled minds of financially struggling Coloradans, so be it. The bill has already cleared the Senate Finance Committee and needs a vote from the full chamber to pass………….
- Now that MTV isn't in the business of airing music videos or anything else music-related and is focused entirely on meathead-centric reality programming, someone may as well step up and fill that void. Ironically, former MTV favorite Diddy, the man of many monikers, wants to be that someone. He plans to launch his own music television channel, which is to be called Revolt. Diddy unveiled plans for the channel Thursday and expressed optimism that the channel will begin broadcasting before the end of the year. He has reportedly pitched Revolt as a music and news television channel "influenced by the nonstop chatter of social networking.” In other words, it’s going to lean heavily on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and all of the nonsense constantly found there. The man whose real name is Sean Combs will partner with Comcast, which is the largest cable television provider in the United States. Diddy’s new channel comes in part due to an agreement with the federal government hat allowed Comcast to take a shareholding stake in NBC Universal in exchange for a pledge to carry several new channels owned by people from ethnic minorities. Aside from a recent handful of interviews and promotional events, Diddy has remained relatively low-key about the project. "We're coming with a new energy, we’re coming with something that people are going to want to tune in to see," he said. Left unsaid was whether Revolt will feature significant air time for its biggest commodity - its owner……………
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