- Never let it be said that Oklahoma State men's basketball coach Travis Ford and his wife, Heather, are not charitable people. They have taken up a cause that too many people (i.e. everyone but them) ignores or simply forgets about. Every year, a small group of women engage in an effort for anonymous sports success that catches the attention of dozens. This effort is known as the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, or WNIT. The WNIT, the Title IX-fueled equivalent of the equally irrelevant men’s NIT, pits team not good enough to qualify for the women’s NCAA Tournament in the quest to see who is the 65th best team in Division I hoops. This year, Oklahoma State has advanced to the WNIT final, which will be played Saturday against James Madison. Ford, realizing no one would have any interest in buying tickets for a second-tier women’s tournament game, Ford and his wife have purchased 400 student tickets for the Cowgirls' championship tilt. "The Cowgirls are playing great basketball right now," Ford said in a statement released by the university. "They need and deserve all the support they can get while trying to win the WNIT championship. Anything Heather and I can do to help them achieve this goal, we're willing to do. I just hope we can get as many students as possible at the game to cheer on the Cowgirls to victory." Hopefully for Ford’s sake, “anything” doesn’t include actually going to the game because that would be tremendously boring. A win would be meaningful for Oklahoma State despite the game’s irrelevant nature because the team has battled back after coach Kurt Budke, 50, and 36-year-old assistant Miranda Serna died when a single-engine plane transporting them on a recruiting trip crashed in Arkansas just one game into the season. To receive their free ticket, students need only bring their university ID to the table stationed on the north end of Gallagher-Iba Arena starting at noon on Saturday………
- Being a police officer seems like a decidedly non-fun job most days. Rarely, though, would the job be less enjoyable than it was for the officers who responded to a call at the VIP adult entertainment store in Orange, Conn. Thursday afternoon. Why were the police called to an adult entertainment store? Was a drunk, horny customer unruly and causing trouble for employees? Nope. Instead, employees had to call them in around 3 p.m. because one perv, er, customer was stuck in a pair of handcuffs. What he was doing in handcuffs, one can probably imagine (and cringe), but when the time came to take the handcuffs off, they were stuck. For some reason, no one had keys to unlock the cuffs and realizing the reality of their situation, employees dialed up the local police department. Officers showed up, but they too failed to free the man from his chains using keys. They finally used bolt cutters to free the man. Hopefully for the sake of the officers, the perv was fully clothed and, um, decent when they arrived and had to actually come into physical contact with him. And the incident also proves that there is something more embarrassing than frequenting an adult entertainment store: having your community know you frequent adult entertainment stores because the police had to free you from handcuffs at the adult entertainment store once you were done getting your thrills. That is probably not what the responding officers had in mind when they enrolled in the police academy………..
- Katie Couric is back, she and her damn irritating perkiness. After an ill-advised decision to leave NBC in 2006 as co-host of the “Today” show, Couric jumped to CBS as host of the "Evening News." She never caught on with viewers there, as he annoyingly upbeat demeanor never really resonated with a more serious crowd that was actually awake instead of nursing its first cup of coffee in the morning. She is now back where she belongs, in the world of morning shows. ABC announced Thursday that Couric will be guest host next week on "Good Morning America," the biggest rival of “Today.” Couric will be filling in for the vacationing Robin Roberts for a week, teaming with George Stephanopoulos. Maybe she can help “GMA” continue its ratings rise in the same way she contributed to the improved performance of "Today" after arriving in 1995. "Today" has won every week in the ratings since then, but its 850-week winning streak could be in danger. “GMA” has been gaining ground lately and last week, the show was only 137,000 viewers behind "Today" (an average of 4.98 million to 4.84 million). That is as close as the two shows have been since 2008 and “GMA” knows it has a big opportunity at hand. "This has been one of the longest marathons of all time," said Tom Cibrowski, senior executive producer in charge of "Good Morning America." "There will eventually be a time when the No. 1 spot turns over. We strive every day to take over the No. 1 position. We never stop working on that." With 15 years of morning hosting experience, Couric has at least a few fans and could add a curiosity factor for a week. "You kind of wait for these times in morning television, when you get a team together that clicks," Cibrowski said. "We have a team that is on fire. We have the big `C.' We have the chemistry now." NBC doesn’t have that same chemistry at the moment as it was for a decision by its top anchor, Matt Lauer, on whether he wants to continue in the morning. The Peacock should also receive a boost from the Olympics coming up this summer……..
- The threat of nuclear annihilation makes for odd friends. With Iran creeping toward nuclear weaponry, unlikely allies Israel and Azerbaijan have found themselves hurled together. Israel has secured access to airbases on Iran's northern border through a defense alliance with Azerbaijan, tacking another entry on the list of Israel’s recent (alleged) hostilities against Iran. A senior U.S. intelligence official was recently quoted as saying that the Israelis have in essence established the whole of Azerbaijan as an airfield in the region. Predictably, Israeli officials have professed total ignorance of the alleged strategic acquisition and openly questioned the report’s reliability. Sources have suggested that Iran’s hostile reaction to its neighbor’s growing relationship with its mortal enemy may actually be strengthening the bond between Israel and Azerbaijan. ''The more pressure applied by Iran, the more they unveil plots to carry out terror attacks on Azerbaijani embassies, the more they [Azeris] are co-operating with us,'' an unidentified Israeli official said. ''Iran's fear that its considerable Azeri minority may have aspirations for independence is the current bed of its relations with Azerbaijan. As a result, Azerbaijan is very interested in firming up its relationship with Israel.'' The relationship came to light last month when Israel confirmed the sale of drones and anti-aircraft missile defense systems to the former Soviet state for a robust $1.6 billion. A full-fledged alliance between the two countries is unlikely and Azerbaijan’s focus is more likely on strengthening its position against Armenia, which currently occupies 20 percent of its territory. Its economy is dependent on the safe export of oil and that means regional stability, which is difficult in a region with Russia, Iran and Turkey. Ironically, nearly 35 percent of Iran’s population are ethnic Azeris, including Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's spiritual leader. However, attempting to retain friendly relationships with both Israel and Iran could be Azerbaijan’s undoing……….
- Is the human brain as complex as is commonly assumed? After all, “Beavis and Butthead” is back on the air, “Jersey Shore” is still in production and people seem to enjoy both, so can the human brain really be that sophisticated? Scientifically, the brain has been described as "the most complex object in the known universe,” comprised of tens of billions of connecting nerve fibers in a tangled mix. However, a team led by Van Wedeen of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston has determined that despite its overall complexity, the underlying structure of the brain itself may be quite simple. Weeden argues that if you unfurl the brain’s folds, brain consists of a three-dimensional grid of fibers. Using magnetic resonance imaging, he and his team discovered the pattern. With their find, they hope to spur additional research that could explain mysteries of brain development and evolution and find the root causes for neurological and psychiatric disorders by linking them to abnormalities in brain structure. Previously, scientists mapping the brain have used a technique called diffusion tensor imaging, which tracks the diffusion of water through biological tissues, to follow fibers through the brain, seeing how one region connects to another. Weeden’s team chose to use a related method called diffusion spectrum MRI, which tracks the movement of water molecules and is useful for highlighting where fibers cross. The process revealed sheets of parallel fibers running at 90 degrees to each another, much like a woven fabric. Primates have shown many of the same patterns and the growing intricacy of the folds and curves of the brain with the same underlying grid structure would help explain how brains wire themselves together. Some have likened the pattern to how the grid of New York City's streets functions. Weeden theorized that the discovery of the grid could explain how complex brains evolved. Under the previous model, with brains organized like a tangle of spaghetti, it would be difficult to see how mutations could lead to gradual changes. "Try going into your basement and randomly rewiring your house," Wedeen says. "In a grid structure, it's much easier to imagine changes in the developmental code producing adaptive changes in behavior." The only problem with Weeden’s study is that diffusion MRI can't detect nerve fibers directly. Because it is not a microscope, researchers are merely looking at reconstructed images based on the movement of water molecules in a magnetic field. Still, the findings could at least shift the paradigm of the discussion……….
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