- Great, now there really are no legitimate reasons to watch
the Grammy Awards on Sunday. Collecting the biggest hacks from around the pop
music world, handing out awards to the same mainstream artists year after year
and pretending like the best artists are anywhere near the ceremony is a
ginormous waste of time every single February. The only real distraction from
the giant waste of time the night always ends up being is the skank-tastic
outfits some of pop music’s biggest starlets wear to the event. Hacks such as Fergie, Jennifer Lopez and Toni Braxton are known for showing up in extremely revealing outfits on
the red carpet and showing up on all the news magazine shows and tabloid covers
afterward. This year’s Grammys may not have that kind of cleavage-centric fun,
not if show organizers have their way. CBS, which will televise the show Sunday
night, has laid down the law in an email sent out to all attendees to warn them
about wearing appropriate attire. Ladies attending the 55th Annual Grammy
Awards in Los Angeles need to class it up and cover it up, according to this
email. "Please be sure that buttocks and female breasts are adequately
covered," the e-mail reads. "Thong type costumes are problematic.
Please avoid exposing bare flesh under curves of the buttocks and buttock
crack. Bare sides or under curvature of the breasts is also problematic. Please
avoid sheer see-through clothing that could possibly expose female breast
nipples. Please be sure the genital region is adequately covered so that there
is no visible 'puffy' bare skin exposure." Wow…an extremely graphic email
designed to rip the fun from a live telecast. CBS also wants to head off any
potential political controversies and has asked guests to avoid wearing outfits
featuring commercial or political statements. Is there anything else you’d
like, CBS? Maybe all of the women in burqas and all of the dudes clean-shaven
and in three-piece, monochromatic suits……….
- Racial insensitivity strikes the world of college campus
Greek life again. Mere months after group of Penn State soro-racists created
controversy by holding a Mexican-themed party complete with offensive signs and
costumes, the smart, spoiled students of Duke University have joined in on the
racist fun. The campus’ Kappa Sigma fraternity chose a different racial group to insult, but is
feeling the hear just the same. The chapter has been suspended by its parent
organization following a party billed on invitations as "Kappa Sigma Asia Prime."
When negative publicity resulted from the initial invitation, the name of the
party was changed to "International Relations,” but pictures purportedly
from the event posted on Facebook showed participants wearing conical Asian
hats, sumo wrestler suits, and traditional Asian garb. It sounds (and looks)
like typical, stupid frat-boy behavior and nothing more or less than you’d
expect from guys whose rooms are decorated by black light posters and beer
bongs, but Kappa Sigma is acting as if it is above all the nonsense. Wilson
Mitchell, the national executive director of Kappa Sigma, announced Wednesday
that all activities and events have been put on hold while the national
organization determines the status of the Eta Prime chapter. Also on Wednesday,
an Asian student group held a protest on the Duke campus over the party, which
took place on Feb. 1. Why these Asian students are so angry is perplexing. Just
because the invitation for the event used phrases like "Herro Nice Duke
Peopre!!" and featured an image depicting a caricature of North Korea's
dictator Kim Jong Un with the
caption "You had me at herro,” that’s no reason to get snippy. Besides, the frat dudes of Kappa Sigma
are simply continuing the legacy of Duke in the world of racist party fun, a
legacy built by people like the member of the school’s women's lacrosse team who
showed up dressed in blackface at a Halloween party. The school doesn’t plan to
discipline the fraternity and it clearly understands what is important here……..
- The future remains unwritten and uncertain for USA Basketball. After winning the gold
medal in London last summer, Team USA rode off into the next phase of its
existence not knowing who would be leading its roster. Duke's Mike Krzyzewski
has coached the team to two straight gold medals, but has expressed a desire to
step down and allow someone else to take over heading into the 2016 Summer Games
in Rio. USA Basketball officials aren't ready to let Krzyzewski go and
reportedly plan to hold off on naming its next men's national team coach until
after the college season is over at the earliest, in part to give Krzyzewski as
much time as possible to consider staying on. At 65 years old, Krzyzewski has
nothing left to prove on the international or collegiate level, but USA
Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo would clearly love to have him stay in the
role he has filled since 2005. Colangelo is expected to turn to San Antonio's
Gregg Popovich or Boston's Doc Rivers if Krzyzewski doesn’t reconsider and Krzyzewski
has offered no indication that his position has changed. Prominent members of
Team USA’s play pool have been effusive in their praise for Krzyzewski,
including Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant, who sounds like he
subscribes to Colangelo’s theory that Krzyzewski’s mind can be changed. "I'm
sure we can get him to come back," said last summer. The obvious fear if Krzyzewski
walks away is that Team USA will revert to its disappointing level of play that
led to at the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis (sixth place) and the
2004 Athens Olympics (bronze). "He's such a big part of USA Basketball.
So I'm waiting before speaking to
other candidates. ... (Popovich and Rivers) are great coaches, both of them in
their own right, and I think they would do an outstanding job, either one of
them,” Colangelo said in November. Under Krzyzewski, Team USA has a 62-1
record, including gold-medal triumphs in both Beijing in 2008 and London last
summer and a championship-winning run at the 2010 FIBA World Championship in
Turkey. They have also won 50 games in a row since an early loss to Greece at
the 2006 Worlds in Japan………..
- Rock and roll has a long history of raging against the
machine, but rarely has that rage led to small-minded idiots issuing death
threats to a band because its members happen to all be female. That unfortunate
fate has befallen the only all-girl band in India’s troubled Kashmir region, a band that
has split up after a controversial Muslim cleric issued a fatwa against them.
The band, Pragaash, was targeted by cleric Grand Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad on the
grounds that it was un-Islamic. The band’s three teenage members received
online threats after Ahmad’s proclamation and a band member named as Aneeka,
who is still in high school, insisted that “nothing has forced us to quit.”
“We quit
for the happiness of our people. As the grand mufti said, it is un-Islamic ...
that’s why we quit,” she said. Her face was blurred out when the interview
aired, underscoring just how untenable the climate surround the band is. Some
good has come from the unfortunate situation, as Ahmad is now facing a backlash
for his fatwah, including a leading human-rights lawyer planning to take him to
court over his claims against the band. “The lives of these girls were
threatened. They feel very harassed,” said human rights lawyer Parvez Imroz, of
the Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society. Imroz argued that the fatwa
against Pragaash was the last straw and said he is now planning to take Ahmad
to court. Ahmad has become a bit megalomaniacal in the past year, with his
over-the-top actions including a call for Americans to leave Kashmir and a
demand for Christians to appear in his court. “We are filing the case because
he’s claiming to be some ‘grand mufti.’ Under no law is there any such title,”
Imroz added. “These girls, they have a right to do it, but I’m telling you we
are raising the bigger question about this institution in the society, this
self-appointed priest and mufti who has been giving a very reactionary … view
of Islam.” With Imroz’s help, perhaps Pragaash will rock once more……..
- Want a faster buzz from that Jack and Coke this weekend?
Switch to a Jack and Diet Coke and you’re be hammered even sooner, according to
the results of a small study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. A study led by
researcher Cecile Marczinski, assistant professor in the Department of
Psychological Science at Northern Kentucky University, found that college
students who mixed vodka with diet soda became intoxicated quicker than those
mixing vodka with regular soda. Because sugar actually slows down the
absorption of alcohol in the body, a mixture of rum and diet soda leads to
intoxication faster than drinking same amount of rum and regular soda – almost
equivalent to one extra shot of alcohol. “What you choose to mix your alcohol
with could possibly be the difference between breaking or not breaking the
law,” Marczinski said. Breaking the law….or having a much better night? It’s
all about perspective, but this small-scale study mirrors the findings of a
previous study from the University of Florida that surveyed more than 400 bar
patrons and compared the mixed drinks they had during their nights out. The UF
study shows that caffeine had the most pronounced effect when sweeteners were
artificial, because a lack of sucrose slows the gastric emptying rate of
alcohol. Marczinski and her team worked off the idea that many people believe
adding diet soda to their alcoholic beverages helps them cut
calories, increasing the popularity of that particular mixture. That could lead
to faster consumption when alcohol levels are masked by the soda flavor and
when that is combined with a lack of sugar that allows alcohol into the blood
stream much quicker than regular soda, a drinker could go from sober to
hammered in no time flat. “I think the takeaway from this study is, don’t trust
your judgment about intoxication levels, you may be off,” Marczinski added……….
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