- Cornerbacks are locked in a pitched battle with wide
receivers on and off the NFL playing field. On the field, they’re trying to
stop one another from accomplishing their respective goals. Off the field, they
duel for the title of most cocksure and arrogant athletes in the league,
b*tching about everything from the size of their contracts to who is the best
athlete in the NFL. Arizona Cardinals three-time
Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Peterson isn’t backpedaling from any battle over
who’s the best, not even if his opponent is the smack-talking, Super
Bowl-winning defensive backfield hero of the reigning champion Seattle
Seahawks. Earlier this month, Peterson said he felt he was worth more than the
$57.4 million extension Seahawks standout Richard Sherman signed and Sherman
responded with a tweet of a graphic showing him to be the league’s interception
leader over the past three seasons by a wide margin. The tweet may or may not
have been directly aimed at Peterson, but that didn’t stop him from returning
fire during a radio interview this week. He said Sherman couldn't handle
playing in Arizona's defensive scheme. "I believe if you put him in
our system I don't think he'd be able to last, honestly," Peterson said.
"I actually do much more than he is. I don't want to get into that debate
as far as the stats that he has and things he has." Great Pat, but the
stats are better for Sherman and what he has is a Super Bowl ring that you
definitely do not have. His 20 interceptions to your 12 over the past three
seasons also suggest he’s better than you. "He's only covering space. He's
not really covering a guy," Peterson said. "At the end of the day, he
has great stats and he has great playmaking ability, not taking that away from
him because he is a good corner. But as far as being a shutdown corner,
man-to-man guy, in my eyes, I don't believe he's that." Peterson’s case
hinges largely on the fact that he plays a token role on offense and returns
kicks, but until he wins anything that matters, talking so much only makes
noise……..
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Brazil is about to host its first
of two major world sporting events in a two-year span, but it’s safe to say
that not all Brazilians are happy about their nation’s state of affairs. If
they were, several thousand of them would not have marched through an expensive business
district of Brazil's largest city to protest against urban developments for
next month’s World Cup. Demonstrators claim the building process has left many
homeless and their rage was palpable as they chanted, "I don't want a
World Cup in Brazil, I want a roof," while parading past the extravagant
Iguatemi shopping center, demanding government housing for those who have been
pushed out of their homes by skyrocketing real estate prices. "You can
send in troops, but if you don't look after the people there will be no
Cup," a banner read. Sadly, the demonstration remained peaceful even
though it clogged up traffic and forced many shops to close their doors to
avoid additional drama. It fell well short of the standard set by recent riots,
which have spiraled out of control to include violent clashes with police and
rioting. Officials have expressed concern that such violence could disrupt the
World Cup when it kicks off in three weeks at Sao Paulo's new Arena Corinthians
stadium. This particular display of disdain was organized by a group called the
Homeless Worker's movement, which represents 4,000 families living in a tent
city on land a few miles from the stadium that they say priced them out of
their working class neighborhood. They did not seem satisfied with Brazilian
President Dilma Rousseff’s promise of low-cost government housing to resolve
the dispute and given the overall lack of action toward this aim, it’s hard to
argue with them……..
- Give yourself a pat on the back, science. You’ve finally
cracked the 150-year-old evolutionary mystery of the
origins of the iconic New Zealand kiwi. The iconic bird no longer flies, but University
of Adelaide scientists have confirmed that the kiwi once did take to the skies.
Its closest relative is not the
emu, as was previously thought, but rather the extinct Madagascan elephant bird,
which stands as tall as 10 feet and can weight more than 600 pounds. The research
team examined specimens of the kiwi and found that the now-flightless bird wasn’t
always ground-bound. "We recently found fossils of small kiwi ancestors,
which we suggested might have had the power of flight not too long ago," said
Flinders University researcher Dr. Trevor Worthy. "The genetic results
back up this interpretation, and confirm that kiwis were flying when they
arrived in New Zealand. It also explains why the kiwi remained small. By the
time it arrived in New Zealand, the large herbivore role was already taken by
the moa, forcing the kiwi to stay small, and become insectivorous and nocturnal.”
The study, which took place at the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre
for Ancient DNA, had a broader focus of figuring out the origins of giant
flightless ratite birds, such as the emu and ostrich, which are found across
the southern continents. Previously, these avians were believed to have
developed as flightless birds isolated by the separation of the southern
continents over the centuries. To test this idea, the researchers extracted ancient
DNA from bones of two elephant birds held by the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa
Tongarewa. Testing revealed a close genetic connection with the kiwi, despite striking
differences in geography, morphology and ecology between the two. "This
result was about as unexpected as you could get," said researcher Kieren
Mitchell. "New Zealand and
Madagascar were only ever distantly physically joined via Antarctica and
Australia, so this result shows the ratites must have dispersed around the
world by flight.” Ironically, UA professor Alan Cooper previously postulated
that the closest living relatives of the kiwi were the Australian emu and
cassowary, but his fellow academics at the university proved him wrong. The new
working theory is that flying ratite ancestors dispersed around the world right
after the dinosaurs went extinct, before the mammals dramatically increased in
size and became the dominant group. That is, of course, until the next great
theory emerges……….
- David Bowie doesn’t show up many places these days – even
when the Summer Olympics are in his hometown and he’s being honored at the closing
ceremonies – but that doesn’t mean one of his most famous albums can't show up
on stage, performed by the men who served in a supporting role for the project.
Members of
Bowie's backing band from the Ziggy Stardust era of his career, The Spiders From
Mars, are set to perform a concert in London in September in which they will
play Bowie's third album, 1970’s “The Man Who Sold The World.” The band will
play the full album from start to finish, with help from an ensemble of ten
musicians including Spandau Ballet saxophone player Steve Norman and Heaven
17's Glenn Gregory. They will not be joined by Bowie himself, although he has
reportedly given his blessing to the project. Tony Visconti – who produced
Bowie's 2013 comeback album 'The Next Day' among many others – and Mick
"Woody" Woodmansey, will helm the project and both seem genuinely
excited about the chance to have people pay attention to them again – even if
it is playing someone else’s music. “'The Man Who Sold the World' was the first
album Mick Ronson and I played on, our first even in a proper London studio,
yet it never got played live," Woodmansey said. Woodmansey added that “'The
Man Who Sold The World” was Bowie’s “first step into rock n’ roll” and received
such critical acclaim that not touring in support of it was a true
disappointment. This may not be a tour and it may not involve Bowie, but the
album is still a classic and the show, which will take place at The Garage on
Sept. 17, should be solid……….
- The University of Tennessee, like so many institutions of higher
learning, has a lot of people who act like they’re high 97 percent of the time.
These alcoholics and potheads do what many college students do, namely enjoy
parties and road trips with just enough class mixed in to remain off academic
probation and possibly graduate at some point. A few of them even join
fraternities so they can booze and bong it up with like-minded bros while
wearing sweatshirts featuring Greek letters whose meaning they still don’t know
even though it’s the name of their fraternity. The frat bros of UT are also
renowned for allegedly inventing the now-famous butt-chugging technique used to
get alcohol into a person’s system faster than normal, and yet the powers that
be at the university are up in arms over a relatively benign hazing ritual that
involved neither binge drinking nor any trips to the emergency room to have
someone’s stomach pumped. University officials have suspended the school’s chapter
of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity after an investigation led to admissions of
hazing….via hot sauce. That’s right, UT documents show the hazing involved
paddling and pouring hot sauce on pledges’ genitals. Putting Frank’s Red Hot on
another man’s package would be a reason to go for virtually any dude, but guys
who are willing to endure immense pain and humiliation for entry into a place
where they can readily access the best dank and cheat using saved tests and
term papers from their predecessors will go through most anything their pledge
leaders an dish out. According to the university, Alpha Phi Alpha wasn’t supposed
to be admitting any more members, but a dozen students were trying to gain
entry. Ten of these courageous college students denied the hazing, but two weak
suckers eventually admitted to it. Now, the fraternity has had its charter
revoked and despite not having a house on campus and rocking single-digit
membership, UT felt compelled to persecute it even further by banning it from
admitting any new members until August 2016 and ripping its status as a campus
organization………
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