- The most decorated nation in the history of Olympic
boxing still has hope for at least one medal in London. After thinking it was
done at the XXX Summer Olympics, the U.S. men's boxing team received a
reprieve after amateur boxing's governing body decided Errol Spence should have
won his bout against Indian welterweight Krishan Vikas late Friday night. Vikas
clutched and grabbed his way to a 13-11 victory, but the American team protested
the result and AIBA's competition jury reviewed the bout. Jurors decided Vikas
had committed nine holding fouls in the third round alone and intentionally
spit out his mouthpiece in the second round, which should have resulted in at least four
points of deductions. Spence was awarded the victory and advanced into the
quarterfinals to face Russia's Andrey Zamkovoy on Tuesday. A win would keep
American medal hopes alive and allow the men's team will avoid leaving the
Olympics with no medals for the first time ever. With 108 medals and 48 golds,
U.S.A. Boxing typically does not struggle on the world’s biggest stage. Spence
was predictably fired up to hear he still had a shot to win gold. “I am
obviously thrilled that the competition jury overturned my decision and I can
continue chasing the gold medal I came here to win," Spence said. "I am
going to make the most of this second chance.” He admitted he felt he had won
the bout afterward, expecting his hand to be raised in the ring. The win came
after a string of eight losses for the U.S. men in the previous five days,
including three-time Olympian Rau'shee Warren's 19-18 loss to France's Nordine Oubaali an hour earlier.
Three boxers are still alive on the women’s side of the draw for the U.S., but
Spence is the only hope to match or better the one bronze medal the U.S. team
won in Beijing. Spence’s after-hours reversal of fate was also a
nice turn for the U.S. after Roy Jones Jr. was jobbed out of a gold medal at
the 1988 Olympics in Seoul by a panel of corrupt judges…………
- Voters rarely have the opportunity to elect a convicted felon
to the top post in their local law enforcement department. Clay County, Ga. voters will now have that
chance after election officials restored the right of challenger Freddy Johnson
to appear on the ballot against incumbent Roger Shivers. Johnson was disqualified
from the race because he had been convicted on cocaine charges in Alabama, but
officials decided that did not disqualify him from running and he will now be
on the ballot in November. Shivers has been sheriff for 32 years and believes
that his reinstated challenger would not be able to adequately do the job if
elected. "The Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, they
regulate and dictate whether or not you are a certified officer, their policy
and their rules are that anyone convicted of a felony, even with a pardon,
cannot be certified," Shivers said. Johnson clearly disagrees and he will
face Shivers and Freddie Ingram in November. One might think Johnson would be
elated at the decision to allow him to run, but he did not want to comment on
the situation and instead chose to refer all requests for a reaction to his
attorney, with whom he is undoubtedly well-acquainted. Perhaps in between now
and November, Clay County voters will come around to the idea of who better to
understand the mind of a criminal than someone who has walked in their shoes,
sat in their jail cell and sold the 8-ball of coke that they are trying to
peddle. Plus, there is always the possibility that Johnson will slide back into
his criminal ways and voters can enjoy the unique sight of sheriff’s deputies
arresting their own boss…………
- Their predictions for the end of the world in 2012 may
be sketchy, but clearly the Mayans were ahead of their time when it came to
culinary delights. A team of archaeologists working in the Yucatan peninsula
believes, based on traces of 2,500-year-old chocolate on a plate, that the
Mayans may have used chocolate as a condiment or sauce with solid food. The
choco-residue was found on a plate rather than a cup, suggesting it was an accent
and not a main dish. While experts have long believed cacao beans and pods were
mainly used in pre-Hispanic cultures as a beverage, made either by crushing the
beans and mixing them with liquids or fermenting the pulp that surrounds the
beans in the pod, such a drink was believed to have been reserved for the
elite. The new find was announced this week by Mexico's National Institute of
Anthropology and History and suggests that chocolate may have played a bigger
role in ancient Mexico then simply being a treat for the elite. "This is
the first time it has been found on a plate used for serving food,"
archaeologist Tomas Gallareta said. "It is unlikely that it was ground
there (on the plate), because for that they probably used metates (grinding
stones)." Traces of chemical substances considered "markers" for
chocolate were initially found on fragments of plates uncovered at the Paso del
Macho archaeological site in Yucatan in 2001. Experts at Millsaps College in
Jackson, Miss., later conducted tests on the substances as part of a joint
project and discovered a "ratio of theobromine and caffeine compounds that
provide a strong indicator of cacao usage," according to a statement by
the university. Despite the excitement over this new find, the plate fragments
date to about 500 B.C., and are therefore not the oldest chocolate traces found
in Mexico. Beverage vessels found in excavations of Gulf coast sites of the
Olmec culture, to the west of the Yucatan, retain that title with traces around
1,000 years older. Still, there is no denying it’s a sweet find………
- The showdown is on in Pakistan, where the Supreme Court on Friday struck down a
recently passed law to protect the prime minister from being charged with
contempt of court and ousted from office, like his predecessor, for refusing to
reopen an old corruption case against the president. The current premier, Raja
Pervaiz Ashraf, is one week from a deadline set by the court to tell the judges
whether he will obey their order to write a letter to Swiss authorities asking
them to reopen the graft case. For several months, the government and the court
have been locked in a pitched battle over the conflict and instability in
Pakistan has been one of the many repercussions. A Taliban insurgency and struggling
economy have further complicated matters and the court could repeatedly disqualify
prime ministers over the issue, undermining the government and forcing an early
national election. The parliament thrust itself into the mix when it passed the
new law in early July after former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was
convicted of contempt and forced to step down. Before the court struck the law
down, it provided greater protection to the prime minister and other senior
government officials against contempt charges. In its decision, the court
explained that it struck down the law because it violated the basic principle
of equality among the country's citizens. However, the government has continued
to refuse to reopen the corruption case against Zardari, saying he enjoys
immunity from prosecution while in office. That double standard has not sat
well with Pakistanis, even though Zardari’s supporters have accused the court
of pursuing the matter because of animosity between Chief Justice Iftikhar
Chaudhry and the president. Ashraf has indicated he has no plans to write the
letter to Swiss authorities, but if the court convicts him of contempt and
orders his removal from office, the government would be forced to once again
seek support in parliament to elect a new premier or call early national
elections. The case against Zardari centers on kickbacks he and his late wife,
former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, allegedly received from Swiss companies
when Bhutto was in power in the 1990s. A Swiss court convicted them in absentia
in 2003, but Zardari appealed and Swiss prosecutors dropped the case after the
Pakistani parliament passed an ordinance giving the president and others
immunity from old corruption cases that many agreed were politically motivated.
The battle has continued to the present and shows no signs of concluding any
time soon…………
- The rap game is about to get a wonderful reprieve. Lil
Wayne, vastly overrated, overhpyed and far too reliant on digital crutches to
fuel his music, is apparently tired of hip-hop and is trading in his microphone
for a skateboard. The “Tha Carter IV” star wants to put his career on hold to focus on
skateboarding. As he prepares to celebrate his 30th birthday later this year,
he explained that he wants to leave his solo career behind and focus on other
projects. “Being me, I always feel like I ain't done nothing yet, so I'm always
looking for the next thing to do," he said. “It does get pretty boring
when it comes to just the rapping and all that type of stuff. I've been doing
it since I was eight and I'm about to be 30 in September.” In Wayne’s mind, he doesn’t
want fans to grow tired of his music – which definitely doesn’t have a lot of
variety in its sound – and walking away would prevent his game from growing
stale. "I think I deserve that. I think fans deserve a little-to-no Wayne.
I've been everywhere. I've been out on everybody's song. My artists are doing
awesome; I believe the fans deserve some peace from me, so I'll be on my
skateboard in the meantime,” he added. Of course, odds are that he’ll drop off
the grid for a while, then make a “comeback” to huge fanfare. The latter part
of his comments hint at that very plan and the fact that he recently revealed
that he is currently recording an album
of "love songs", which will be titled “Devol” suggests that
Weezy won't be gone for long………….
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