Dezy's Top 50 CBS Sports Posters
The Office Temperature Wars
temperature affects productivity
But it's not just a comfort thing. Studies show the temperature in a workplace affects productivity. Alan Hedge, a professor in the department of design and environmental analysis at Cornell University, conducted two studies on climate's effect on productivity (a third is still in progress). Hedge and his team placed monitoring devices on employees' desks to measure keystrokes and mouse movement at different temperatures.The results surprised him. Hedge placed the temperature in the low 70s in the winter, basing the temperature on standards set by the American Society for Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers; they say 76 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal in summer, and 72 in the winter. "We expected that when you cool people down, they work harder and better," he says. "We found the exact opposite. When it was cool to colder in the office, people did less work and made more mistakes."
Steinberg doesn't need a scientific study to figure that one out. "It's really hard to type when wearing gloves," says the senior sales director at the trade show group Go Green Expo.
Hedge explains that temperature is adaptive. So the ideal thing to do is measure what the outdoor temperature was the previous month and set the thermostat accordingly.
Wouldn't it be nice if life was so easy? In the case of employees at Go Green Expo, their building is pre-war, which means the heat comes from a radiator and is nearly impossible to regulate. Things are complicated by the air-conditioning unit, which opens to the outdoors, sending chilly air throughout the building's ducts. The copy room gets the brunt of it -- employees literally see their breath when they go in to make copies -- though vents open onto the main floor. One employee has placed plastic bags over the vent to minimize the chilly draft.
women get colder than men
If it seems like there's a gender divide, you're right. Muscle insulates, says Hedge. Since men tend to be more muscular than women, they tend to run warmer. Their clothing adds to it too. Men often dress for work in suits and pants and sweaters that allow only their face and necks to be exposed, whereas women's clothing tends to expose more skin.Many women turn to the trusted office sweater draped behind their chair for comfort. That's not enough for Nicole Bradshaw-Jackson, who works as a public liaison for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. She comes to work dressed for the warm Atlanta days, but you'd hardly know that it's 75 degrees outside. She keeps wool socks, a long scarf and a sweater at her desk, and frequently wears all three. She supplements them with a space heater under her desk and about five glasses of hot tea throughout the day.
"I have to wrap myself up to keep warm, and when I'm cozy, I get sleepy," she says. She recently switched to a new department at the CDC and is hesitant to call building services to raise the thermostat because she doesn't want to start a temperature war in her new office. "Yesterday I was cold and the people on both sides of me were burning up," says Bradshaw-Jackson. "I had my thick sweater on."
Before the department switch, she was "infamous" to building services. She didn't want to seem like she was nagging them, so she made sure to ask how their families were doing and what they were up to for the holidays.
heated arguments
Temperature wars at the office are a real problem. Judith Bowman, a workplace etiquette expert and author of Don't Take the Last Donut, was once called in to mediate an office fight over the temperature. One employee was notorious for sneaking to the thermostat and changing it to her liking while the others weren't looking. To solve the dispute, Bowman recommended taking a poll. If 99% of the people are comfortable, then there has to be a give and take," she says.
Hedge, the Cornell professor, says technology is getting to the point where companies can individualize workspaces, similar to cars. He says it's possible to put ventilation openings in the floor and allow employees to control the air that comes out and even the direction it flows. Another approach is to separate the "spines" that connect cubicles and put ventilation in there, or do it through the duct work in the floor.
That way, employees can dress for the weather outside -- not the weather inside.
Top Ten Drug Lords
Number 10
“Freeway” Ricky Ross
Country of operation: USAClients: The Western United States
Product: Crack cocaine
A major crack distributor during the 1980s, Ross’ operation is alleged to have purchased in excess of 400 kilos of cocaine a week while selling as much as $3 million of crack every day. As a result, some consider him to be solely responsible for the crack cocaine epidemic in the U.S., a claim flatly refuted in 1999 by the U.S. Department of Justice, who acknowledged the mammoth size of his operation, but dismissed any notion that Ross -- or any one individual -- could conceivably shoulder all the blame.
Downfall: In 1996, Ross was set up by his partner to sell 100 kilos of coke to an undercover DEA agent.
2008 status: Ricky Ross is currently incarcerated in the U.S.
Number 9
Paul Lir Alexander, aka “The Baron of Cocaine”
Country of operation: BrazilClients: USA
Product: Cocaine
Some early aspects of Alexander’s story -- namely his claims of having been trained by the Israeli Mossad -- are highly suspect. What is known about him is that he became a major Brazilian coke trafficker before his luck ran out, and he also became a DEA informant. As an informant, he was instrumental in bringing down a number of major traffickers, or -- to put it another way -- he succeeded in eliminating many of his competitors, as Alexander did not bother to shut down his own operation while ratting out others.
Downfall: Alexander had a habit of double-crossing people, and the DEA didn’t appreciate that.
2008 status: Alexander is currently incarcerated in Brazil.
Number 8
Santiago Luis Polanco Rodriguez, aka “Yayo”
Country of operation: USAClients: USA, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic
Product: Crack cocaine
Rodriguez brought crack to the masses by using a more traditional business model than is typically seen in the drug trade. His clever merchandising techniques included weekend discounts, the use of business cards, brand recognition, and distribution to dealers in glassine envelopes (the kind stamp collectors use). In the words of sociologist Robert Jackall, “One has to recognize his particular and peculiar genius even if one doesn’t honor it.”
Downfall: Rodriguez ditched a massive DEA dragnet in 1987, but non-drug-related trouble in the Dominican Republic earned him some prison time.
2008 status: Today, Rodriguez lives lavishly with his wife and children in the Dominican, beyond the reach of U.S. authorities.
Number 7
Felix Mitchell, aka “The Cat”
Country of operation: USA
Clients: USA
Product: Heroin, crack cocaine
“Mob 69,” Mitchell’s massive, gang-controlled drug operation, was the first of its kind, and he controlled it in part with a brilliant bit of PR: Sponsoring local athletics and taking children on field trips to zoos and amusement parks. Yet, when he was thrown in prison, a new kind of inner-city violence was born: what had been a tightly controlled monopoly under Mitchell became an unstable battleground in his absence, replete with drive-bys and increased violence between competitors vying for his business.
Downfall: Mitchell’s notoriety made him a target for authorities, earning him a life sentence in Leavenworth.
2008 status: Mitchell was stabbed and killed less than two years into his sentence. His funeral was a spectacle: Rolls Royce limousines followed a horse-drawn carriage bringing his casket through crowded Oakland streets lined with thousands of mourners.
Number 6
Carlos Lehder
Country of operation: The Bahamas
Clients: USA
Product: Cocaine
Lehder made two significant contributions to the illegal drug trade: 1) He cofounded the Medellin Cartel, possibly the most profitable and violent drug cartel in history; 2) He revolutionized the transport and distribution business by upgrading from drug mules to prop planes, flying drugs from Colombia to the U.S. via the Bahamas. In one stroke, he increased volume exponentially; profits -- in staggering numbers -- inevitably followed.
Downfall: Lehder’s megalomania got the better of him. He commandeered an entire Bahamian island and transformed it into his own untouchable transport headquarters, where an estimated 300 kilos of coke arrived every hour.
2008 status: Lehder is currently incarcerated in the U.S.
Number 5
Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha
Country of operation: Colombia
Clients: North, Central & South America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, and possibly Asia.
Product: Cocaine
As a young man, Rodriguez was a hired gun for emerald-mine mobsters, working for notorious coke traffickers like Veronica Rivera de Vargas before moving up to become the Medellin Cartel’s No. 2 man behind Pablo Escobar. He would ultimately amass a fortune in the billions, drawing the attention of Forbes, which put him in their list of global billionaires in 1988.
Gacha was nothing if not tireless, always looking for new, creative trafficking routes from Mexico into the U.S. He is also credited with substantially raising the brutal profile of the Cartel by hiring foreign mercenaries to come to Columbia and train the cartel’s troops in such things as assassination and guerrilla warfare.
Downfall: Increasing violence on behalf of the Cartel, including multiple assassination orders direct from Rodriguez, led to a crackdown on Medellin in the late 1980s.
2008 status: Gacha died in 1989, following a gunfight with Colombian police.
Number 4
Griselda Blanco, aka the “Cocaine Queen of Miami”
Country of operation: USA
Clients: USA
Product: Cocaine
As the undisputed “Cocaine Queen of Miami,” the brutal, ruthless and probably psychotic Blanco proved a highly effective trafficker for the Medellin Cartel, amassing a personal fortune estimated at $500 million.
She also liked to wear haute couture fashions and loved to smoke crack, but her greatest passion -- as well as the source of her enduring legend -- was in ordering creative, cold-blooded assassinations, possibly as many as 200, including one failed attempt in which the hitman was instructed to use a bayonet.
Downfall: Blanco’s ruthlessness -- which included the shooting death of a 2-year-old -- gave DEA agents added incentive to hunt her down. In 1985, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for trafficking.
Status: Released from prison in 2004 and immediately deported to Columbia, Blanco’s current whereabouts are unknown.
Number 3
Khun Sa, aka “The Opium King”
Country of operation: Burma (Myanmar)
Clients: Predominantly the USA
Product: Heroin (opium)
In the mid-1960s, Burmese warlord Khun Sa disappeared into the jungle with an army of 800 men and began to cultivate opium. An entire town sprung up around his operation, and at the height of his power, Khun Sa was the world’s most prolific heroin trafficker, producing as much as three quarters of the world’s supply and regularly running mule trains loaded with heroin through Thailand en route to the U.S. The DEA, which referred to him as a ruthless “Prince of Death,” desperately wanted to bring him to justice and continually offered Burmese officials as much as $2 million to hand him over.
Downfall: In the mid-‘90s, allegedly concerned that officials would in fact turn him over to the U.S., Khun Sa surrendered to the Burmese government, which then steadfastly refused to extradite him.
Status: Khun Sa lived a luxurious life in Rangoon until his death in late 2007.
Number 2
Amado Carrillo Fuentes, aka the ““Lord of the Skies”
Country of operation: Mexico
Clients: USA, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile.
Product: Cocaine
Fuentes learned the drug trade by working for Colombians during the cocaine boom, but his first brilliant move was to eschew cash payments. Instead of cash, Amado took his pay in coke and used it to develop his own distribution system. As Colombian cartels buckled under the crackdown of the late 1980s, Fuentes was turning the colossal Juarez Cartel in Mexico into a $30-million-a-day juggernaut -- in large part due to his audacious decision to use a fleet of 727s to ship product from Peru, Bolivia and Colombia to Mexico. At his peak, he had Mexico’s top drug enforcement official on his payroll, and his own net worth was believed to be somewhere around $25 billion.
Downfall: Although a sophisticated and diplomatic businessman, Amado’s operation was so huge that he inevitably became the most wanted trafficker in the world.
Status: In 1997, plastic surgeons altering his appearance fatally botched the procedure; those surgeons were later discovered stuffed into oil drums.
Number 1
Pablo Escobar
Country of operation: Columbia
Clients: North, Central & South America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, and possibly Asia.
Product: Cocaine
Pablo Escobar was not the most intelligent drug lord, nor was he the most organized or the most innovative. Simply put: He was the most ruthless, and this made all the difference. The head of the Medellin Cartel ran his empire with virtual impunity within Colombia, carrying out a campaign of violence against anyone who dared challenge it, resulting in the assassination of 30 judges, over 400 police officers, and the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 in the mistaken belief that Colombian presidential candidate Gaviria was on board (he wasn’t, but 107 civilians were). Estimates put the Medellin kill toll at over 3,000.
At its peak, Escobar’s cartel is believed to have controlled four-fifths of the world cocaine market, seeing an estimated annual revenue of $30 billion (roughly double the revenue for Oracle between Colombia and the U.S.).
Downfall: Anxious about being extradited to the U.S., Escobar brokered a sweetheart deal with the Colombian movement that put him in the most luxurious prison imaginable, but Escobar couldn’t stay out of trouble and soon he fled the prison.
Status: Pablo Escobar died in 1993 after being hunted down by Colombian and U.S. government forces.
i need a new drug lord
Notably missing from this list is Frank Lucas, subject of the Denzel Washington film America Gangster. Although the film portrays him as one of the era’s most powerful drug lords, it has since been revealed that the movie’s source material was Lucas himself (to a magazine writer some years ago) and that, in the words of one of the case’s prosecutors, the film is “1% reality and 99% Hollywood.”
Just Play the @#^& Game
Do any of you actually think there is something wrong with Tom Brady’s ankle?? The walking boot is all Bill Belichick!!! Personally, I think it’s funny. The press takes that stuff hook, line, and sinker. And all the while, Belichick and Brady are laughing their butts off.
I do think the game sets up to be a good one. The Giants defense has an idea what to expect. Notice I said… “has an idea”. Belichick is capable of installing an entirely new offense with two weeks off. The Patriots defense is the key to the game for me. At some point they have to start playing old don’t they?? Bruschi, Seau, Vrabel, and Seymour are a collective 874 years old. I guess you could argue they have started playing old given the struggles of the second half of the season. I know, it’s hard to talk about struggle when they’re 18-0, but you know what I mean. We know the Pats are going to score. What we don’t know is whether the Giants can keep their momentum going for one more game. Eli seems to have finally grasped that if he doesn’t do stupid things with the football, the Giants have a chance to beat anyone. What the Giants offense has done over this run through the playoffs is not rocket surgery!! They’re running the ball effectively and completing short, possession type passes which opens up the vertical passing game. …DUHHH!!! I believe we discovered this formula at about the same time Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. The question here is whether they can do it when the game starts on Sunday.
The Great Commercials of The World
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unkAvO9v2Nk
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-OqKWXirsU&feature=related
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYX_zhlTDr8&feature=related
4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmSCh5ZkMqk&feature=related
5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bpUZGUHuFI&feature=related
6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4EnnlZf2j0&feature=related
7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiTarkl31Gw&feature=related
8) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHX2mvFVQMs&feature=related
9) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEJJUGJZxpU&feature=related
10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYZwlG4q0-8
Honoerable mentions go out to all of the Here's to Football Commercials out there
The Words of the True HomeRun King
Hank Aaron
Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is eighty percent of being a successful hitter. The other twenty percent is just execution.
Hank Aaron
I don't feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat.
Hank Aaron
I don't see pitches down the middle anymore - not even in batting practice.
Hank Aaron
I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them.
Hank Aaron
I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before. If they do, I'm still looking for it.
Hank Aaron
I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That's when you've got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing's a joke to me. I don't feel like I should walk around with a smile on my face.
Hank Aaron
I'm hoping someday that some kid, black or white, will hit more home runs than myself. Whoever it is, I'd be pulling for him.
Hank Aaron
It took me seventeen years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.
Hank Aaron
It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.
Hank Aaron
My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.
Hank Aaron
On the field, blacks have been able to be super Giants. But, once our playing days are over, this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the bus again.
Hank Aaron
The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.
Hank Aaron
The triple is the most exciting play in baseball. Home runs win a lot of games, but I never understood why fans are so obsessed with them.
Hank Aaron
You can only milk a cow so long, then you're left holding the pail.
Hank Aaron
You got to play a hundred and fifty games a year, so pick your spots. You can miss two games a month; so pick the days you're gonna be hurt, or you're gonna rest or you're gonna have a drink or two. The rest of the time, be on that field.
Hank Aaron
Texas Highway Patrol
"What the hell did you do that for?" the driver asks.
The trooper responds, "You know damn good and well that when I step up here you're supposed to have your driver's license and proof of insurance ready for me to check."
After the trooper is finished writing the ticket he walks over to the passenger side, leans in and smacks the other man in the head with his flashlight.
"What the hell are you doing?" the passenger screams.
"I'm just granting your wish," replies the trooper.
"What wish?" asks the man.
"I know for a fact that half a mile down the road you're gonna lean over to your friend there and say, 'I wish he woulda pulled that crap with me.'"
Top Ten Irritating Cartoon Characters
Number 10
Robin
BatmanLame doesn’t even begin to describe what your life must be like when you spend your teenage years cruising around town with a 35-year-old man, wearing little more than a pair of green leotards. If he had served a better purpose it would have been one thing, but Robin’s primary duty was to get rescued by the Dark Knight while uttering idiotic lines like “Leaping lizards, Batman!” Thanks, but if my life is on the line, I’ll stick with Superman.
Number 9
Rocket J. Squirrel
The Rocky and Bullwinkle ShowI’ve always believed that squirrels are just rats with better PR, which is one of many reasons we detest Rocky the Flying Squirrel. I also hate his morally righteous attitude and his voice, which is so gratingly high-pitched that it sounds like he has been squeezing his nuts rather than hiding them.
Number 8
Boo-Boo Bear
The Yogi Bear Show
It’s appropriate that Boo-Boo is named after a mistake, because that’s precisely what William Hanna and Joseph Barbera made when they added this pint-sized cub to The Yogi Bear Show. A genuine wet blanket, this blue bow-tie-wearing bupkes always brought the action to a grinding halt, preventing his old pal Yogi from satisfying his carnal need for “pic-a-nic” baskets. And what was the deal with his painfully plodding cadence? If anyone actually thought as slowly as he talked they’d still be deciding what to have for breakfast yesterday. Suffice it to say, this Jellystone Park resident was -- and always will be -- duller than the average bear.
Number 7
Newton
The Mighty HerculesEasily the most inept superhero sidekick of all-time, Hercules’ little buddy was constantly getting nabbed by Daedalus and even his cat Dydo. No matter how you do the math, the bare-chested, girly sounding Newton was half boy, half horse and all annoying.
Number 6
Dennis Mitchell
Dennis the MenaceThe very personification of annoyance, Dennis Mitchell was a devilish little imp whose mischievous spirit caused headaches for everyone around him. From the smudge of dirt on his nose to the well-worn slingshot protruding from his back pocket, this spawn of satan was less welcome than mono at a make-out party.
Number 5
Tweety Bird
Looney TunesI’ve never subscribed to the belief that something is adorable simply because it’s pathetically undersized, and that’s especially true with Tweety. This cloying yellow canary’s schtick can be boiled down to a single redundant plot, a tiresome catchphrase and a voice so sickly sweet that it could send a listener spiraling into a diabetic coma.
Number 4
Olive Oyl
PopeyeI like our cartoon characters to be voluptuous vixens like Jessica Rabbit, which is why we’ve always been disappointed by Olive Oyl, a one-dimensional beanpole with enormous feet and breasts that look like mosquito bites. In addition to having a face that could stop a clock, Olive Oyl was also constantly disrupting Popeye’s schedule by getting kidnapped and tied to railroad tracks. Just once we would have loved to have seen the crusty ‘ol sailor man leave her there and get on with his life.
Number 3
Lucy van Pelt
A Boy Named Charlie BrownA fuss-budget of the first degree, Lucy lived to torment others. Whether converting Linus’ beloved blankie into a kite or swiping the football away from Charlie Brown at the last possible moment, her thoughtless actions always left a path of heartache and destruction in their wake. As if that weren’t bad enough, Lucy was also the group’s resident know-it-all whose psychiatric advice would always leave her patients feeling more distressed than when they arrived. It’s no wonder that Schroeder constantly rejected her advances.
Number 2
Woody Woodpecker
The Woody Woodpecker ShowOne of the industry’s original screwball characters, Woody Woodpecker was a cruel prankster with the kind of voice that would make you want to drive a lawn dart into your ears. When he wasn’t polluting the air with his sickening laughter, Woody was stealing from hapless victims and drilling his razor-sharp beak into the heads of innocent bystanders.
Number 1
The Great Gazoo
The FlintstonesIt’s never a good sign when you need to introduce an annoying green alien to help reinvigorate your program. It’s especially troubling when your program is set in the Stone Age. That was precisely what happened on October 29, 1965, when producers of The Flintstones foisted The Great Gazoo on an unsuspecting public. This blatant Mr. Mxyzptlk knockoff was constantly showing up at the most inopportune of times and would literally add insult to injury when he would refer to Fred and Barney as a pair of “dumb-dumbs.” Not surprisingly, The Flintstones was canceled soon after The Great Gazoo’s first appearance, bringing an inglorious end to an otherwise classic cartoon.
toon in
Unfortunately for today’s cartoon aficionados, annoying characters aren’t limited to a single generation. Irritating sidekicks and meddlesome villains continue to pollute our screens and ruin promising shows.Womens Sports- An Inconvenient Truth
Full disclosure: I have never been employed by the Washington Post or by any of its subsidiary companies. I have never owned stock in The Washington Post Company.
On 19 January 2008, the Washington Post published a Letter to the Editor from a woman living in Brattleboro, VT. This woman had visited the DC area about a week prior to the publication of the letter and she was displeased with the Post’s sports section in the 13 January 2008 edition. She was “shocked to see that the 14-page Sports section had not one photo of a female athlete, coach or team.” When she did find a small story on one of the inner pages about a female high school track athlete that day, it did not assuage her feelings because she concluded her letter thusly:
"I guess no other female athlete, team or coach did anything deserving of coverage on Jan. 12. The unthinkable, alternative conclusion is that in 2008, the patriarchy is alive and well and everyone in The Posts sports department was interested in or unaware of any sporting event in which women competed. Sad."
I have to admit that in a 14-page sports section in a major metropolitan area of the US, there ought to be something more than a single story reporting on a female high school track athlete that is worthy of consideration. However, the author of this letter did not seem to be able to think of yet another “alternative conclusion” in her quest to “understand” how this could happen. So, with all of the emotional warmth shown by Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek episodes, let me attempt to provide another “alternative conclusion”.
The Washington Post is a business. It does not publish newspapers for any grand altruistic reason; it publishes newspapers and sells them to the public as a means to generate more revenue than the cost of publishing and distributing those newspapers. That’s not very touchy-feely, but it happens to be reality.
As a business, the Washington Post allocates resources – in household terms, it sets a budget – related to what will receive attention in their pages. Once again the resource allocation processes are not altruistic; the paper will spend more time, money and space on those things that its readership finds interesting than it will spend on “other stuff”. That allocation model helps them retain circulation numbers in these economic times when newspapers around the country are looking at declining numbers of readers. By retaining those circulation numbers, the paper continues to receive steady flows of advertising revenues because here is another piece of economic reality: advertisers do not spend lots of money to advertise in newspapers that no one buys and reads.
Continue to think of newspapers and the people who make decisions within those newspapers about what will show up in the newspapers and you may begin to see the dawn of another “alternative conclusion”. Read the political coverage in the Washington Post; you’ll find coverage of the minute details of candidates’ activities in the Democratic and Republican Parties; you won’t find much at all about the fundraising events of the Libertarian Party or whatever the American Vegetarian Party morphed into after its demise about 3 decades ago. The reason is simple. A far larger number of readers care about what is going on within the Republican and Democratic parties than care about all of the other parties combined. That may not be the way someone might wish it were; it is merely reality.
So, back to the sports section… Obviously women play sports; many women excel in athletic endeavors. Anyone who wants to assail either of those points is either a hermit or a sexist - - or both. The problem when it comes to coverage of women’s sports is not nearly so gently stated. Far fewer people who regularly read sports pages care even a little bit about women’s sports than the number who care about men’s sports. Once again, this is a dose of reality.
If the Washington Post spent half of its sports page space on women’s sports – that would be roughly proportional to the overall readership of the paper as a whole – they would lose the majority of the people who turn to the sports section. If those people went to another paper for their sports news or found it online, a fraction of those people might stop subscribing to the Post or stop buying it from a newsstand on their way to work in the AM. That would decrease revenues and you need to go up a few paragraphs to check out the first reality of the newspaper business, which is to have revenues exceed costs. Anyone who is angry enough at the fact that coverage of men’s sports swamps coverage of women’s sports to write to the paper to complain about it is either a hermit or a sexist (in reverse) - - or both.
Of all the sports where women and men compete in the same events, I can only think of three where the women’s version of the sport is more popular than the men’s version: tennis [this was not always the case but certainly is now], gymnastics, and figure skating. While each of these sports has its loyal following and each is far more popular than the fringe sports, none of them could rightfully claim “major” status in the US in 2008.
In every other instance I can think of, there is no contest in terms of following, attendance, TV ratings and participation between the men’s version and the women’s version of the same sport – although I’m sure someone will point one or two out to me pretty soon. It matters not that women competing in many sports do so at a high level nor that their games are highly competitive, most women’s sports do not capture the interest of sports fans. Until they do, the reporting of their games and events in the sports pages of US newspapers will be very small – like the coverage of a Libertarian Party rally in a non-election year.
ESPN did a poll recently that may have some bearing here. And I think it is interesting to note that ESPN would benefit from increasing popularity in women’s sports because such increasing popularity would give them new programming properties to pursue and new ways to generate “revenue streams”. Make no mistake; ESPN is no more altruistic than the Washington Post.
ESPN Sports Poll asked folks to name their favorite female athlete. The top four athletes receiving votes were:
Serena Williams 8%
Mia Hamm 4%
Venus Williams 3.8%
Anika Sorenstam 3.2%
These results are shocking. The percentage of votes garnered by these top four finishers is awfully small; the total here is only 19% of the votes. The reason that total is so low is that over 60% of the respondents said that “None” was their favorite female athlete. If in a political primary election, “None of the Above” got 60% of the vote and the best showing by a living/breathing candidate was 8%, that would be front-page headline news. For the ESPN Sports Poll, that result was not important enough to generate a headline or any significant discussion. I submit that is a measure of the public’s indifference.
If someone wants to engage in the philosophical “chicken/egg” argument here and ponder if the lack of coverage of women’s sports is what prevents women’s sports from becoming widely – and wildly – popular, have at it. Mr. Spock deals only with data and reality. In 2008, the newspaper business is in a siege mentality; cost containment and revenue maintenance are the paramount concerns. In that environment, coverage of women’s sports would engender increased costs – if there were not a concomitant decrease in the coverage of men’s sports – or it would jeopardize revenues via lost readership. In the siege mentality of the business, that’s just not gonna happen.
By the way, that siege mentality and the fear or alienation of readers is also precisely why the Washington Post would not run anything akin to this response to this woman’s criticism in their pages. They print her letter; the writer feels as if she has scored a point; people of a like mind with the writer get to nod their heads and say, “Right on!”. Meanwhile, the regular readers of the sports pages probably don’t even notice this petit contretemps and continue on with their lives.
I know that the woman from Brattleboro VT who wrote her angry letter to the Washington Post will not read this. My suspicion is that if she accidentally did read it, she would not like it. Nevertheless, I hope that I have provided those of you who did take the time to read it with an alternate conclusion beyond her assumption that all the folks in the Post sports department were “uninterested in or unaware of any sporting competition in which women competed.” An inconvenient truth is that most – not all to be sure – of the sports page readers are indeed only marginally interested in any sporting competition in which women competed.
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…
Top Athlete Bloggers
Athletes have now gone to the blogoshpere to increase the PR value and connect with their fans. Some, like Curt Schilling, have their own domain names and get hundreds of comments on all of their posts. Most have theirs hosted on a popular sports site like ESPN.
1.) Gilbert Arenas Agent Zero’s is widely considered one of best athlete blogs. Agent Zero won the Weblog’s award for best celebrity blogger of 2007. His blog offers extremely indepth (and long) posts on the NBA, the Wizards, and what’s happening in his life. Some recent excerpts: (*-Arenas doesn’t actually write his blog himself, but he tells his writers what to write.)
2.) Curt Schilling He updates more often–about three times a week–but his posts are often not as interesting. He posts less about sports than Arenas and more about whatever he is thinking. However his posts about the steroid scandal have been extremely interesting. As a harsh critic of steroid use, he offer candor that you don’t hear from other players:
His Thoughts on the Mitchell Report
3.) Curtis Granderson Granderson only posts during the baseball season, but his posts are very informative and entertaining. They are mostly just about the Tigers. They give more info on what fans might want to know about what’s happening, for example detail on the hot prospects or insight on a series.
4.) Bryon Friedman You don’t know who Bryon Friedman is because he’s a ski racer. His blog is an interesting look at a sport that Americans don’t know enough about. Also, it has cool videos of ski races and crashes.
5.) Pat Neshek Neshek plays for the Twins. He has a lot of interesting posts (year-long, not only during the season), like his series on what it’s like to be drafted. His site software is pretty weird, so I can’t link directly to any of those posts. That’s the one problem. He has black writing on a red background, which is interesting, I guess, but not optimal for a web page.
6.) David Wright Like Granderson, he only posts during the MLB season, but his posts are entertaining and include good pix.
7.) Etan Thomas Warning: This blog is not about sports. Thomas blogs for the Huffington Posts about politics. Yes, his views are wrong, but how many athletes blog about politics?
8.) Ian Crocker The US swimmer’s posts are almost as long as Arenas’, but he posts less often (though I’m sure he posts himself). They aren’t always about swimming.
9.) Moritz Voltz Certainly a well-writen blog, but I’m not into soccer.
10.) Donovan McNabb Short and to the point, his posts are mostly about football.
11.) Ben Roethlisberger Unfortunately, he doesn’t post about motorcycling.
12.) Greg Oden His posts are even shorter than McNabb’s posts, but he has an interesting feature where he answers fan questions.
13.) Rod Benson After playing ball at Cal, Benson is trying to play his way onto the Nets. Along the way, his honest, though unfrequently updated, blog posts entertain. He also took the time to make an obnoxious title with photoshopped pictures of himself, like a real blogger.
14.) Evan Tanner UFC Fighter. It’s not a lot for words, but it has some cool pictures. (Which make it take a while to load.)
15.) Jeff Samardzija Sample post: “Glad I graduated Notre Dame last year…”
16.) Mike Conley, Jr In Conley’s defense, Oden has a lot more time to blog now that he isn’t playing.
17.) Carmelo Anthony Just learn 2 read txt msg language b4 tackling his.
18.) Dontrelle Willis Willis started his after getting traded.
19.) Diana Taurasi From the WNBA…
20.) Rajon Rondo The 2nd year point guard for the Celtics, who has been assigned the position of taking the Celtics down in the playoff with his inexperience, talks about what it’s like to be expected to take the Celtics down in the playoffs with his inexperience.
Chuck Norris Has Company
Vijayakanth is India's Answer to Chuck Norris
vijayakanth - tamilnadu's freedom fighter
he has acted in lots of movies kicking butts of terrorists and villains
he is a person who acts more than the money given to him
1. Vijaykanth makes onions cry
2. Vijaykanth can delete the Recycle Bin.
3. Ghosts are actually caused by Vijaykanth killing people faster than Death can process them.
4. Vijaykanth can build a snowman..... out of rain.
5. Vijaykanth can strangle you with a cordless phone.
6. Vijaykanth can drown a fish.
7. When Vijaykanth enters a room, he doesn't turn the lights on,......... .... he turns the dark off.
8. When Vijaykanth looks in a mirror the mirror shatters, because not even glass is stupid enough to get in between Vijaykanth and Vijaykanth.
9. Brett Favre can throw a football over 50 yards. Vijaykanth can throw Brett Favre even further.
10. The last digit of pi is Vijaykanth. He is the end of all things.
11. Vijaykanth does not know where you live, but he knows where you will die.
12. Bullets dodge Vijaykanth.
13. A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Vijaykanth and that you will be handicapped if you park there.
14. Vijaykanth' calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Vijaykanth.
15. If you spell Vijaykanth wrong on Google it doesn't say, "Did you mean Vijaykanth? " It simply replies, "Run while you still have the chance."
16. Vijaykanth can do a wheelie on a unicycle.
17. Once a cobra bit Vijaykanth' leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
18. When Vijaykanth gives you the finger, he's telling you how many seconds you have left to live.
19. Vijaykanth can kill two stones with one bird.
20. Vijaykanth was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.
21. Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Vijaykanth can kill 100 percent of whatever he wants.
22. There is no such thing as global warming. Vijaykanth was cold, so he turned the sun up.
23. Vijaykanth can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
24. Vijaykanth has a deep and abiding respect for human life? unless it gets in his way.
25. It takes Vijaykanth 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
Vijaykanth once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, "Bang!"
26. In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Vijaykanth could use to kill you, including the room itself.
27. Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Behind every dead man, there is Vijaykanth.
28. Vijaykanth destroyed the periodic table, because Vijaykanth only recognizes the element of surprise.
29. Vijaykanth got his drivers license at the age of 16 Seconds.
30. With the rising cost of gasoline, Vijaykanth is beginning to worry about his drinking habit.
31. The square root of Vijaykanth is pain. Do not try to square Vijaykanth, the result is death.
32. When you say "no one's perfect", Vijaykanth takes this as a personal insult."
So dont mess with vijayakanth
Words of Wisdom
They can because they think they can.
Virgil
They wil rise highest who strive for the highest place.
Proverb
Never say die.
Proverb
Most ball games are lost, not won.
Casey Stengel
It isn't hard to be good from time to time in sports.
What's tough is being good every day.
Willie Mays
You are never a loser until you quit trying.
Mike Ditka
If you can't accept losing, you can't win.
Vince Lombardi
Nothing succeeds like success.
Proverb
A loving heart is the truest wisdom.
Charles Dickens
On every thorn, delightful wisdom grows,
In every rill a sweet instruction flows.
Edward Young
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Albert Einstein
Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.
Voltaire
If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
Jospeph Addison
5 Things You Didnt Know About The NFL
1- The Redskins were the NFL’s last segregated team
By 1961, 13 of the league’s 14 teams had, to some degree, been desegregated and featured black players on their rosters. The one hold-out could be found in the nation’s capital. The Washington Redskins were the league’s last all-white team, and whether it was coincidental or not, they were also the worst (from 1959 through 1961, their record was 5-30). Team owner George Marshall had staunchly refused to desegregate, claiming he would do so when the Harlem Globetrotters hired white players. That all changed with the incoming presidential administration.JFK had been elected, in part, thanks to his pro-civil rights platform, and having the league’s only all-white team in the nation’s capital was an eyesore for the administration. JFK, therefore, instructed his Secretary of the Interior, Stewart L. Udall, to threaten Marshall with federal retribution if the team didn’t hire black players; namely, they would be evicted from District of Columbia Stadium. In doing so, it became the first time in history that the federal government had attempted to desegregate a professional sports team.
2- The NFL scores forfeits 2-0
According to the official NFL rulebook, a forfeit occurs: “... when a game is not played because of the failure or refusal of one team to participate. In that event, the other team, if ready and willing to play, is the winner by a score of 2-0” (the points earned in a safety). Why a two-point safety? Because those points are the league’s only scores that are not credited to any one player.This little-discussed rule is even less frequently applied, since dating back to 1920 there has been just one forfeit. Specifically, December 4, 1921, when the Rochester Jeffersons lost by forfeit to the Washington Pros/Senators. Since the league was just a year old and this rule was not yet established, the referee scored the game 1-0. No word on whose stats got padded with the point.
3- It was created in an automobile showroom
Organized professional football dates back to 1920 and a legendary meeting in Canton, Ohio. Fittingly, it featured a handful of former athletic standouts, such as George Halas and Jim Thorpe, hanging out in an automobile showroom, slamming beers and talking sports on a Friday night. Among other things, they settled on a name, the American Professional Football Association, and a membership fee, $100.Since then, more than just the name has changed. Today, the NFL is a revenue juggernaut. According to Forbes, the mean value of the NFL’s 32 teams exceeds $950 million, making the NFL the world’s richest and most profitable professional sports league. It can further boast of having the world’s most valuable sports franchise, the Dallas Cowboys, valued at a cool $1.5 billion.
4- The origin and meaning of the 25 stars on the
NFL’s logo are unknown
The top portion of the league’s iconic logo, or ”shield,” has had 25 white stars against a blue background since the 1940s, and despite plenty of research on the part of the NFL’s brand and marketing operations, it is unknown precisely what they’re meant to represent. This is just one reason why the league has decided to revamp the logo.The league’s new logo will debut at the draft in April of 2008. Overall, it’s been streamlined: It is thinner, the background at the top is a darker shade of blue, the font of the NFL letters has changed, the football image in the top middle now resembles the football atop the Lombardi trophy, and it features four larger stars on each side, denoting the league’s eight divisions.
5- No TV broadcast tapes of the first Super Bowl are
known to exist
The first Super Bowl following the merger between the NFL and the upstart AFL was a far cry from today’s extravaganza; it was so lowly regarded, and its outcome seemingly obvious to so many, that the 1967 game between Green Bay and Kansas City didn’t even sell out.Nonetheless, since CBS held the broadcast rights for NFL games and NBC held it for AFL games, both networks covered Super Bowl I, making it the only pro football game to be simulcast on two networks until the New England Patriots-New York Giants game on December 29, 2007.
In a decision that accurately reflects the lack of interest and assumed historical importance of the game, both networks destroyed their televised tapes. As a result, the only known footage of Super Bowl I was shot by NFL Films, a production company that, until two years before the game, had been privately owned and operated under the name Blair Motion Pictures.
Top Ten Unsolved Crimes
Number 10
Dan Cooper skyjacking
November 24, 1971
The unassuming Dan Cooper boarded a Boeing 747 that was destined for Seattle and announced that he had a bomb. Cooper's intention wasn't to kill anyone. He simply asked for $200,000, along with four parachutes. When he received his deliverables in exchange for hostages, the plane returned to the air and within minutes, Cooper parachuted from the plane's airstair and was never seen again.
In 1980, the FBI found almost $6,000 in ransom money near the Columbia River, begging the question of whether Cooper survived his jump. Initially, Richard McCoy, who performed a sky robbery four months later, was thought to be Cooper, but that was dismissed since he wasn't near the crime scene. Another lead, John List, denied involvement, but was later convicted of murder. Today, an FBI fingerprint of Cooper exists and it is being matched against a database of suspects, but with no further hits to speak of.
Number 9
The Gardner Museum art theft
March 18, 1990
Isabella Stewart Gardner opened her own Boston museum in 1903. Known for its wide range of classical and modern art, the museum was also home to the largest art theft in U.S. history. Thieves, disguised as policemen, entered the premises and walked away with 13 works of art valued at approximately $200 million. Among the notables were three Rembrandt projects and a Vermeer painting.
No one has been charged, but the FBI investigated a 2005 lead linking the art theft to the mob. The lead stems from a 1999 incident, when Carmello Merlino and David Turner were arrested for allegedly planning an armored car robbery. Intense police questioning led to a theory that the two were part of the Gardner theft, with the paintings being sold to Europeans through an American mob connection. Turner denied any involvement while Merlino remained coy and hinted that he knew the whereabouts of the art.
Number 8
Japan's million yen robbery
December 10, 1968
Four Nihon Shintaku Ginko employees were carrying 300 million yen -- intended for Toshiba workers -- by car when a policeman stopped them with a tip that their car contained explosives. The employees left the car while the policeman inspected it and when smoke became visible, he told them to run. The "cop" then jumped in the car and drove away with the money.
Despite over 100 pieces of evidence, including the fake police motorcycle, the crime scene was useless. The investigation listed over 100,000 suspects, the leading one being the 19-year-old son of a cop. The boy had committed suicide and there was no trace of the money until after the statute of limitations passed. At that point, the boy's friend was arrested on a different charge and was found to be in possession of a substantial amount of money with no reason given. As no criminal or civil charges can be filed, any perpetrator could go public without repercussions.
Number 7
The murder of Bob Crane
June 29, 1978
Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane was happily married to his high school sweetheart. But, as the years passed, Crane's marriage crumbled as he explored a darker side of life with his friend John Carpenter. Carpenter worked in electronics and the two men began producing pornography. On the same night that their friendship turned sour, Crane was killed in cold blood.
The murder weapon was never found, but other clues pointed to Carpenter. He'd called Crane's home when police were there, without questioning why they were in his suite. Blood was also found in Carpenter's rental car that matched Crane's blood type. In 1992, the blood was to be tested for DNA, but it was found to be improperly preserved. Carpenter was still charged and although the trial highlighted their bizarre relationship, he was acquitted and died in 1998.
Number 6
The killing of JonBenet Ramsey
December 25, 1996
A child beauty queen, JonBenet Ramsey lived with her family in Boulder, Colorado. The day after Christmas, her mother, Patsy, discovered a ransom note asking for $118,000. Against the note's wishes, the police were contacted, and eight hours later, a search of the house by family and friends led to the discovery of JonBenet's body in the basement.
Police found no signs of forced entry and the note was written on paper belonging to the family. The ransom note's figure matched the bonus of father John Ramsey's recent check and Patsy's handwriting allegedly wasn't excluded as a possible match. That aside, investigators do believe the culprit didn't live in the house, based on unknown footprints in the basement, a strange bedroom rope and unmatched DNA evidence. In 2006, police in Thailand arrested John Mark Karr, who said he had been with JonBenet when she died, but his DNA didn't match the evidence and no charges were filed.
Number 5
Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls
September 7, 1996 and March 9, 1997
Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie Smalls or Notorious B.I.G.) were two of rap's most popular figures when they were murdered only months apart. While visiting Vegas for a boxing match, Tupac left by car with Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight. A car pulled up and opened fire, hitting Tupac four times. Similarly, Biggie was attending a party at L.A.'s Peterson Automotive Museum when he was told the party was ending early. He left by car until two other cars pulled up and a man in a bow tie fatally shot Biggie four times.
Both killings took place in busy areas, but no suspects have ever been charged. One reason for silence is because witnesses were afraid to speak out. Others whisper that police corruption and a larger conspiracy is at work. While gang ties, unpaid debts and royalties are possible motives, some theorists feel that Suge Knight might have been active in both killings to set up a rivalry gone wrong.
Number 4
The Black Dahlia
January 15, 1947
Elizabeth Short was living in L.A. following the death of her fiancé, Matthew Gordon. An aspiring actress, Short mentioned an upcoming film audition in her last letter. On January 9, 1947, Robert Manley drove her to the Biltmore Hotel, where she disappeared a few hours later. Her body, which was severely mutilated with her face slashed open from the corners of her mouth to her ears, was discovered on January 15.
The investigation yielded many suspects, including 60 bogus confessions. The media nicknamed Short as "The Black Dahlia," based on her black hair and the mystery of the crime. Besides Manley, one of the prime suspects was Mark Hansen, a nightclub owner who had housed Short and was linked to some personal information sent to the newspapers. Woody Guthrie, Orson Welles and Bugsy Siegel were each suspected at one time. Some historians point to Dr. Walter Bayley, who lived a block from the crime scene and whose daughter knew Short's sister. Investigators believe the killer had a medical background and others allege that Bayley's mistress was keeping a dark secret.
Number 3
Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance
July 30, 1975
Starting in 1957, Jimmy Hoffa was the Teamsters Union President. He encouraged unity among Americans in the transport sector, but hurt his own cause by using mob connections for intimidation. After going to prison for a juror bribe, Hoffa was released by President Nixon and later disappeared from Michigan's Manchus Red Fox Restaurant on his way to meet mobsters Anthony Giacalone and Anthony Provenzano.
Hoffa's vanishing act has only recently received its best leads. DNA evidence puts Hoffa in the car of his Teamsters colleague, Charles O'Brien, on the day of his disappearance. Felon Richard Powell, Louie Milito of the Gambino crime family, and hitman Richard Kuklinski are among those who claim some responsibility for Hoffa's disappearance and presumed death. The most compelling theory involves Frank Sheeran, a mob hitman, who told ex-prosecutor Charles Brandt in 2004 that he took Hoffa's life for a mob hit.
Number 2
Jack the Ripper
August to November, 1888
In 1888, a killer attacked prostitutes in London's Whitechapel district. There were five known victims, with others subject to debate. One of the perpetrator's bizarre trademarks, besides the grisly nature of his crimes, was that he would kill in areas with public access -- with streets, doorways, and stable entrances being examples. This made it easier to get caught, but more frustrating for those trying to apprehend him.
The Jack the Ripper case bears no obvious suspects -- though many have been named over the years, including noted author Lewis Carroll and artist Walter Sickert. Jack the Ripper's name was penned in various letters to Scotland Yard that may or may not have been authentic. Police didn't have the technology that they do now, so they relied on volunteers to watch for ominous characters on the street. While clues were scarce, one killing featured a cloth that was left below some anti-Semitic graffiti, whose creator is unknown. It seems that the case of Jack the Ripper will never be solved, but he does offer historians a glimpse into the early days of how the media covered fearsome killers.
Number 1
The Zodiac Killer
1968-1969
The elusive Zodiac Killer claimed to have taken 37 lives, but detectives only consider five to officially be his doing. After killings in December of 1968 and July of 1969, the killer sent three letters to San Francisco newspapers with pieces of a 408-symbol cryptogram. The cryptogram was solved, but it didn't offer clues as to the Zodiac Killer's identity. The letters and cryptograms continued (no others were solved), as did the murders. Police estimate that the killings stopped in 1969, but the letters continued into the mid-'70s.
Much suspicion was cast on Arthur Leigh Allen, a sex offender caught with bloody knives in his car the same day as a Zodiac murder. Eerily, both Allen and the Zodiac shared an appreciation for the short story The Most Dangerous Game, which tells the tale of a big-game hunter who decides animals are no longer worthy prey and changes his game to include humans. Despite three search warrants on Allen, he was never charged as his DNA tests, handwriting analysis and fingerprints have never offered a match.
the mystery remains
With every unsolved crime, the clock continues to tick and the clues continue to mount. As is often the case, the clues take investigators in various directions, sometimes blurring the lines between the truth, lies and coincidence. Until they're solved, all we can do is watch in continued morbid fascination in the hopes that some of the more murderous criminals still on the lose don't strike again.
Funny Haha Maybe Sort of Kinda
- A guy took his girlfriend to her first football game. Afterward, he asked her how she liked the game.
"I liked it, but I couldn't understand why they were killing each other for 25 cents," she said.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Well, everyone kept yelling, 'Get the quarter back!'" - A man walks into a bar with a dog. The bartender says, "You can't bring that dog in here."
"You don't understand," says the man. "This is no regular dog, he can talk."
"Listen, pal," says the bartender. "If that dog can talk, I'll give you 100 bucks."
The man puts the dog on a stool, and asks him, "What's on top of a house?"
"Roof!"
"Right. And what's on the outside of a tree?"
"Bark!"
"And who's the greatest baseball player of all time?"
"Ruth!"
"I guess you've heard enough," says the man. "I'll take the 100 in 20s."
The bartender is furious. "Listen, pal," he says, "get out of here before I belt you."
As soon as they're on the street, the dog turns to the man and says, "Do you think I should have said DiMaggio?" - A man steps up for a tee shot with a row of trees on his right side. He slices it wildly and it heads off in the direction of the trees. He gets another ball and continues playing. About 15 minutes later a highway patrolman approaches him.
"This your ball?" asks the policeman.
"Yes, I think it is."
"Well," says the officer, "it went over the trees and through the window of a house. It hit a cat and the cat ran out the front door. A school bus was driving by at the time and the driver, while trying to miss the cat, hit a tree. The bus exploded in flames, and there were no survivors."
"Gee, I'm sorry.'' said the golfer. “Is there anything I can do?"
The policeman replied, "Well, you might try keeping your left arm a little straighter and start your downswing with your hips."
-nay-
