- Notre Dame football has spent the past decade on a quest
to become an elite program again. Their former glory has faded completely and a
series of head coaches have been unable to get the Irish back to where they
once were on an annual basis, at the top of college football. In two-plus
seasons, current head coach Brian Kelly seems to have made progress in
rebuilding the program. The events at an off-campus house party late Wednesday
night and into early Thursday morning suggest that Notre Dame may be closer to
elite status than anyone realized. Every top program needs its share of rule
breakers, knuckleheads, petty criminals and felons. Thanks to quarterback
Tommy Rees and linebacker Carlo Calabrese, the Irish have several entries
checked off from that list. Rees was released from jail on $250 bond late
Thursday afternoon after being charged with four misdemeanors following his
arrest early Thursday morning. Rees faces four misdemeanors: minor consumption,
two counts of resisting law enforcement and battery after initially being jailed
on a preliminary felony charge of battery on a police officer and misdemeanor
resisting arrest and alcohol charges. According to South Bend police Capt. Phil
Trent, Rees attempted to flee the party when the cops raided it. He was one of
five people who jumped a backyard fence and ran, but officer Brandon Stec caught
up with Rees. The fact that a Div. I athlete could not outrun a cop is
embarrasing, but Rees attempted to make up for it by going MMA on Stec, going
with a knee lift into the officer as both fell in a scuffle, leaving Stec with
a bloody right arm when he hit the pavement. At that point, Rees continued
"thrashing around and resisting," at which point he was subdued with pepper
spray and placed in handcuffs. Ever the good teammate, Calabrese tried to
intervene by explaining who Rees was. When the “Do you know who I am?” card
didn’t work, Calabrese went full-on jock knucklehead, threatening an officer by
saying, "My people are going to get you," according to Trent. When friends
tried to restrain him, Calabrese shook them off and reiterated his threat to
the officer. He and Rees got to ride downtown together, where Trent said Rees
registered 0.11 percent on a blood-alcohol test and Calabrese registered 0.12.
The school has yet to announce discipline for either player, but this incident
may not help Rees in his battle to win the starting quarterbacking gig………….
- Balloons are awesome. Therefore, the fault has to lie with
someone or something else when dozens of clusters of balloons explode during a political rally in the central
square of Armenia's capital and injure at least 144 people. There is no way
helium-filled spheres of joy and delight for children of all ages are going to
bring that much harm, whether they are afloat in Yerevan, Armenia or anywhere
else in the world. So who is to blame? Believe it or not, a filthy smoker.
Shocking, right? Some leather-faced, gravelly-voiced cancer stick addict
lighting up near the balloons is believed to be the cause of the explosion,
which led to 104 people being hospitalized with burns. The Emergencies Ministry
confirmed the injuries, although Health Minister Artyom Pushkian said no one
had life-threatening injuries. Event organizers intended for the balloons to be
flown at a Republican Party rally that drew tens of thousands ahead of Sunday's
parliamentary vote in the former Soviet republic. Despite the injuries and
disappointment of so many balloons being wasted, Armenian President Serge
Sarkisian addressed the rally with a speech in support of his party, which
maintains a firm grip on the parliament of the impoverished nation that borders
Turkey. As prevalent as smoking is in many European nations, the incident is
hardly a surprise, but it doesn’t make it any less disappointing. Respect for
balloons clearly is nowhere it needs to be in Armenia……….
- Label your turtles well, kids. If you do, you’ll be able
to identify them 47 years after you first find them. That lesson was driven
home recently for Holland and Jeff Cokeley of South Strabane, Pa. Holland Cokeley was out
in the woods recently, walking with his neighbor’s dog, Zack. The dog began
nosing around at an object on the ground and when Cokely went over to see what
it was, he spotted a turtle. Initially, the find didn’t grab his attention too
much, but a closer look sent him back in time to 1965, when his son Jeff found
a turtle and carved his initials into its shell before releasing it back into
the wild. When Holland Cokeley picked the creature up, he spotted the initials
etched there nearly five decades ago. “I picked it up, and I thought ‘Oh geez,
this is Jeff’s turtle!’” said Cokeley. “It’s been here for 47 years, and it
still has the same the same markings on it.” Jeff Cokeley was 13 years old at
the time and now, he’s a 60-year-old man living in New York. When his father
sent pictures of the turtle with his initials still visible, Jeff Cokeley began
laughing. That the turtle is still alive isn't a total surprise, as wild,
eastern box turtles in the right environmental conditions can live up to 100
years. After finding the turtle, Holland Cokeley kept the animal for a few days
before releasing it back into the wild to keep up its placid existence………….
- Greenland's glaciers have taken a lot of blame
– maybe too much blame. Glaciers have been pegged for contributing heavily to sea-level rise,
but a team of researchers under the direction of lead author Twila Moon from
the University of Washington has discovered that the melting process of the
glaciers is not speeding up as much as
previously thought. As a result, those so-called ice rivers may be
contributing "significantly less" than had been thought to rising sea
levels. Previous studies predicted that Greenland’s glaciers would double their
flow by 2010 and maintain that speed in future years. Moon’s team speculated
that while the glaciers are not melting as quickly right now, they could
eventually flow faster than earlier studies estimated. Using data stretching
back to 2000-2001, researchers collected from more than 200 outlet glaciers. Their
database included results of previous surveys by Canadian, German and Japanese
satellites. "So far, on average, we are seeing about a 30 percent speed-up
in 10 years," Moon observed. That number is significantly less than
previous projections, one of which estimated that glacial flow would increase
by 100 percent. However, the research team did extrapolate that glacier flows
would continue to increase in speed during the rest of the century. Melt rates
are important because the volume of ice and meltwater from land being deposited
in the sea has a direct impact on global sea level. With glaciers being the
main transportation mechanism that moves this material from the interior of
land masses such as Greenland and Antarctica to the oceans, slowing their melt
rates is paramount. Before global warming doubters hail this study as proof
that bleeding heart liberals are wrong, study co-author Ian Howat from Ohio
State University has a few words of caution. "There is the caveat that
this 10-year time series is too short to really understand long-term
behavior," Howat said. "There still may be future events - tipping
points - that could cause large increases in glacier speeds to continue. Perhaps
some of the big glaciers in the north of Greenland that have not yet exhibited
any changes may begin to speed up, which would greatly increase the rate of
sea-level rise." More about all of the riveting work done in this study
can be found in the latest issue of the journal Science……….
- It was a bittersweet occasion Friday for New Orleans
rapper Mystikal (real name Michael Tyler) and thousands of fans in his hometown
as he prepares for a May 14 return to jail following a February arrest on a
misdemeanor charge of domestic abuse battery. Tyler was released from a Louisiana
prison in 2010 after serving six years for sexual battery and extortion, but
obviously could not steer clear of trouble with a woman he was living with as
longtime domestic partners. “I’m going through some things, but it’s gonna be
all right,” Tyler said from the stage during his performance. “Fellas if you
get into it with your girl, just walk away. Me? I’m gonna run. Eighty-one days
and I will be back.” The 81-day comment was an allusion to the length of his
pending jail term after district court judge Tony Marabella ordered him to
serve 90 days in jail for the violation but gave him credit for the nine days
he was detained after his Feb. 22 arrest. With only a few water breaks to slow
the pace, Tyler ripped through a set list that included fan favorites “Bouncin’
Back, “Danger (Been So Long),” and “Here I Go,” with support from by his full
brass band “Hot Sausage.” Fans cheered rabidly, clearly willing to ignore (or
simply unaware of) the reason he is headed back to prison. Granted, an
altercation with your lady is not quite as heinous as being found guilty of
forcing your hairstylist to perform what a judge called “continuous sex acts,”
which Tyler pleaded guilty to in 2003, but it’s still bad. Mystikal may never
top accusing a hairstylist of stealing $80,000 worth of his checks and making
her perform oral sex as punishment, but perhaps another stint in the gray bar
hotel will convince him to change his ways………
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