A view inside my mind for your entertainment and pleasure.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Calling all hip-hop fans
Excellent track off the "Daily Methods" album by Incise. You gotta pick this up.
Who doesn't love a big booty dance song?
Found this gem on another site and fell in love immediately. Enjoy.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Moscow Airport Bomb Kills Dozens
At least 35 people were killed today after a suspected suicide bomber blew himself up at Moscow's busiest airport.
The bomber entered the ground floor of Domodedovo airport's terminal building apparently unchallenged. He then made his way to the crowded international arrivals zone. At 4.32pm local time he set off a massive explosive device, possibly hidden in a suitcase, causing a blast equivalent to 7kg of TNT.
Up to 168 people were injured, many of them critically. Relatives waiting to meet family members and arriving passengers were killed instantly.
Witness Artyom Zhilenkov, 30, survived the blast and tonight told the Guardian: "There was a massive boom and then a wave of heat and pressure that swept along the floor, bent my legs and flung me aside.
"I was looking toward a dark-skinned man when it happened. I think it was the suitcase standing next to him that exploded."
According to unconfirmed reports, investigators found the head of a man aged 30 to 35, who is thought to be the suicide bomber.
Video footage from the airport showed bodies seemingly piled in a heap, fires burning, and abandoned luggage. Rescuers were shouting through the smoke. Some of the wounded were transported to ambulances on baggage trolleys.
The blast was the worst terrorist attack since two female suicide bombers from the volatile Dagestan region blew themselves up on Moscow's metro last March, killing 40 people. The Kremlin insists the situation in Russia's north Caucasus has stabilised after two brutal federal wars against Chechen rebels in 1994-1996 and 1999-2005. But the attack appears to show a renewed capacity by Islamist radicals to hit soft civilian targets in the capital.
The attack also comes at a time of political uncertainty for Russia. The question of who will lead the country after presidential elections next year is so far unresolved. It is unclear whether Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister and pre-eminent political figure, will return to the Kremlin, or allow President Dmitry Medvedev, in effect Putin's deputy, another term.
Domodedovo is the most modern and efficient of Moscow's three airports, and is a hub for British Airways and BMI. Both operate daily flights between London and Moscow, popular with Russians travelling to London and British expats based in the Russian capital. BA's flight 872, with 165 passengers, landed at 3.46pm, followed by BMI flight BD891, carrying 103 passengers and crew. It touched down at 4.33pm, seconds after the blast. The next BA flight, 874, was halfway to Moscow when it turned round and returned to Heathrow.
Russian investigators were tonight analysing CCTV footage from the scene, amid claims they had been warned a week ago about a possible airport bombing.
According to a law enforcement official, quoted by Russian news agencies, police were tracking three men and had been told an attack "could take place". One of the three could have been the suicide bomber, it was suggested. The bomber's head was recovered at the scene.
Another source told the news agency Interfax: "According to intelligence, three men may have been involved in organising the explosion, men who have been living in the region of the capital for some time. They have been put on the wanted list."
He said the three suspects were believed to be militants from the north Caucasus. They allegedly had connections to a woman who blew herself up in Moscow on 31 December and another who was later arrested in Volgograd. "It can't be ruled out that one of the three blew himself up at Domodedovo," the source said.
Russian opposition bloggers tonight demanded to know why security measures had not been enhanced at airports in response to the apparent tipoff.
And in a Twitter message, Medvedev wrote: "We mourn the victims of the terrorist attack. The organisers will be tracked down and punished." Medvedev postponed his departure to Switzerland for tomorrow's World Economic Forum in Davos.
The attack is likely to be blamed on Islamist radicals. The Kremlin has repeatedly insisted the situation in Russia's north Caucasus has stabilised after two brutal federal wars against Chechen rebels in 1994-1996 and 1999-2005. The airport bombing and last year's metro attack on the metro suggest this claim is a fairytale.
Across its mountainous southern frontier the Russian state is fighting a group of determined and well-organised insurgents who want to establish a pan-Islamic caliphate. The republics of Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan – where the insurgents operate – are gripped by civil war, with daily attacks on police and local security forces.
The Kremlin has responded to this threat to its integrity with characteristic brutality. It has launched a series of special operations. Last year its special forces killed Said Buryatsky, a senior rebel and Russian-born Islamist convert, in a village in Ingushetia.
Another insurgent leader, Egyptian-born Saif Islam, was killed in Dagestan. These killings may have prompted the two women to set off to Moscow last spring on a revenge suicide mission.
In 2008 Doku Umarov, Chechnya's most senior surviving rebel leader, promised to take his violent campaign to Russia's towns and cities. He indicated he had reconstituted the suicide brigades used to devastating effect during the second Chechen war – which saw the bombing of the Moscow metro in 2004, as well as the hijacking of a Moscow theatre and the siege of Beslan, a school in south Ossetia in which 300 people, mainly children, died. It appears that the rebels have again demonstrated a capacity to hit deep into the heart of the Russian state.
The Guardian
The bomber entered the ground floor of Domodedovo airport's terminal building apparently unchallenged. He then made his way to the crowded international arrivals zone. At 4.32pm local time he set off a massive explosive device, possibly hidden in a suitcase, causing a blast equivalent to 7kg of TNT.
Up to 168 people were injured, many of them critically. Relatives waiting to meet family members and arriving passengers were killed instantly.
Witness Artyom Zhilenkov, 30, survived the blast and tonight told the Guardian: "There was a massive boom and then a wave of heat and pressure that swept along the floor, bent my legs and flung me aside.
"I was looking toward a dark-skinned man when it happened. I think it was the suitcase standing next to him that exploded."
According to unconfirmed reports, investigators found the head of a man aged 30 to 35, who is thought to be the suicide bomber.
Video footage from the airport showed bodies seemingly piled in a heap, fires burning, and abandoned luggage. Rescuers were shouting through the smoke. Some of the wounded were transported to ambulances on baggage trolleys.
The blast was the worst terrorist attack since two female suicide bombers from the volatile Dagestan region blew themselves up on Moscow's metro last March, killing 40 people. The Kremlin insists the situation in Russia's north Caucasus has stabilised after two brutal federal wars against Chechen rebels in 1994-1996 and 1999-2005. But the attack appears to show a renewed capacity by Islamist radicals to hit soft civilian targets in the capital.
The attack also comes at a time of political uncertainty for Russia. The question of who will lead the country after presidential elections next year is so far unresolved. It is unclear whether Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister and pre-eminent political figure, will return to the Kremlin, or allow President Dmitry Medvedev, in effect Putin's deputy, another term.
Domodedovo is the most modern and efficient of Moscow's three airports, and is a hub for British Airways and BMI. Both operate daily flights between London and Moscow, popular with Russians travelling to London and British expats based in the Russian capital. BA's flight 872, with 165 passengers, landed at 3.46pm, followed by BMI flight BD891, carrying 103 passengers and crew. It touched down at 4.33pm, seconds after the blast. The next BA flight, 874, was halfway to Moscow when it turned round and returned to Heathrow.
Russian investigators were tonight analysing CCTV footage from the scene, amid claims they had been warned a week ago about a possible airport bombing.
According to a law enforcement official, quoted by Russian news agencies, police were tracking three men and had been told an attack "could take place". One of the three could have been the suicide bomber, it was suggested. The bomber's head was recovered at the scene.
Another source told the news agency Interfax: "According to intelligence, three men may have been involved in organising the explosion, men who have been living in the region of the capital for some time. They have been put on the wanted list."
He said the three suspects were believed to be militants from the north Caucasus. They allegedly had connections to a woman who blew herself up in Moscow on 31 December and another who was later arrested in Volgograd. "It can't be ruled out that one of the three blew himself up at Domodedovo," the source said.
Russian opposition bloggers tonight demanded to know why security measures had not been enhanced at airports in response to the apparent tipoff.
And in a Twitter message, Medvedev wrote: "We mourn the victims of the terrorist attack. The organisers will be tracked down and punished." Medvedev postponed his departure to Switzerland for tomorrow's World Economic Forum in Davos.
The attack is likely to be blamed on Islamist radicals. The Kremlin has repeatedly insisted the situation in Russia's north Caucasus has stabilised after two brutal federal wars against Chechen rebels in 1994-1996 and 1999-2005. The airport bombing and last year's metro attack on the metro suggest this claim is a fairytale.
Across its mountainous southern frontier the Russian state is fighting a group of determined and well-organised insurgents who want to establish a pan-Islamic caliphate. The republics of Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan – where the insurgents operate – are gripped by civil war, with daily attacks on police and local security forces.
The Kremlin has responded to this threat to its integrity with characteristic brutality. It has launched a series of special operations. Last year its special forces killed Said Buryatsky, a senior rebel and Russian-born Islamist convert, in a village in Ingushetia.
Another insurgent leader, Egyptian-born Saif Islam, was killed in Dagestan. These killings may have prompted the two women to set off to Moscow last spring on a revenge suicide mission.
In 2008 Doku Umarov, Chechnya's most senior surviving rebel leader, promised to take his violent campaign to Russia's towns and cities. He indicated he had reconstituted the suicide brigades used to devastating effect during the second Chechen war – which saw the bombing of the Moscow metro in 2004, as well as the hijacking of a Moscow theatre and the siege of Beslan, a school in south Ossetia in which 300 people, mainly children, died. It appears that the rebels have again demonstrated a capacity to hit deep into the heart of the Russian state.
The Guardian
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Norwegian boy fends off wolves with Creed song
Luckily for Walter Eikrem, it does not appear Norwegian wolves care for Creed.
The 13-year-old was walking home from the school bus stop in the town of Rakkestdad this week when he noticed something on the hillside near his family’s farmhouse, according to Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine.
At first he thought they were dogs, but he soon realized they were wolves – four of them – the magazine said, citing Norway’s TV2.
The boy, remembering that his mother had told him never to run from wolves, pulled the headphones out of his mobile phone and cranked up the volume on the tiny speakers.
He was listening to “Overcome” by Creed, an arguably Christian rock band, and apparently, the wolves were not fans.
(Initial reports indicated Walter shooed the wolves away with a Megadeth song, but the blog at Gibson guitars cleared up the confusion.)
“They just turned around and simply trotted away,” he told the TV station, according to Der Spiegel. “The worst thing you can do is run away because doing so just invites the wolves to chase you down ... but I was so afraid that I couldn't even run away if I'd wanted to.”
To be fair, Walter was yelling at the top of his lungs and wildly flailing his arms, so it’s tough to say exactly what made the wolves decide the boy might not be delicious.
His mother told the local paper that she was going to pick her son up from school because she knew there were wolves in the area, but she got carried away shopping, Der Spiegel reported.
“I have a completely guilty conscience,” she said. “The previous evening, we saw three wolves on the edge of the forest when we were putting our horses in their stall. The horses were panicky.”
Um, thanks, mum? … Well, OK, scratch that. Perhaps sarcasm is a little harsh for the woman who taught young Walter never to run from wolves.
Source: CNN
The 13-year-old was walking home from the school bus stop in the town of Rakkestdad this week when he noticed something on the hillside near his family’s farmhouse, according to Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine.
At first he thought they were dogs, but he soon realized they were wolves – four of them – the magazine said, citing Norway’s TV2.
The boy, remembering that his mother had told him never to run from wolves, pulled the headphones out of his mobile phone and cranked up the volume on the tiny speakers.
He was listening to “Overcome” by Creed, an arguably Christian rock band, and apparently, the wolves were not fans.
(Initial reports indicated Walter shooed the wolves away with a Megadeth song, but the blog at Gibson guitars cleared up the confusion.)
“They just turned around and simply trotted away,” he told the TV station, according to Der Spiegel. “The worst thing you can do is run away because doing so just invites the wolves to chase you down ... but I was so afraid that I couldn't even run away if I'd wanted to.”
To be fair, Walter was yelling at the top of his lungs and wildly flailing his arms, so it’s tough to say exactly what made the wolves decide the boy might not be delicious.
His mother told the local paper that she was going to pick her son up from school because she knew there were wolves in the area, but she got carried away shopping, Der Spiegel reported.
“I have a completely guilty conscience,” she said. “The previous evening, we saw three wolves on the edge of the forest when we were putting our horses in their stall. The horses were panicky.”
Um, thanks, mum? … Well, OK, scratch that. Perhaps sarcasm is a little harsh for the woman who taught young Walter never to run from wolves.
Source: CNN
Follow Will Hill on Twitter
While I normally hate this site, it does offer some great comedy at times when you see what high profile athletes have to say..which leads me to Will Hill. The University of Florida safety and NFL hopeful didn't spend much time thinking about the response he would get with his public profile....
While Urban Meyer was winning championships and reading from the book of Tebow on off-days, his players were thinking about other things, and posting those thoughts online for the world to see. Hill isn't afraid to spill every part of his day on the internet, referencing marijuana, oral sex, Florida's dining services, and the fragility of a baby (in not so well thought out terms).
This forces you to wonder, what do NFL GM's think after reading about Hill's love life and daily adventures
Will Hill's profile picture
We all know how annoying those instances can be..
Worse than what? Hill leaves that up to the reader to decide
Those pesky reggae tutors, as long as they don't try to steal your weed
At least he's not on the cell phone
well?? How does it?
Hill hates doing laundry, just wants to keep his sheets clean
Hill has run into some awfully thoughtful women down in Gainesville
For the remaining tweets, visit Every Day Should Be Saturday
While Urban Meyer was winning championships and reading from the book of Tebow on off-days, his players were thinking about other things, and posting those thoughts online for the world to see. Hill isn't afraid to spill every part of his day on the internet, referencing marijuana, oral sex, Florida's dining services, and the fragility of a baby (in not so well thought out terms).
This forces you to wonder, what do NFL GM's think after reading about Hill's love life and daily adventures
Will Hill's profile picture
For the remaining tweets, visit Every Day Should Be Saturday
Friday, January 21, 2011
Bill Cowher picks Jets in AFC Championship game
Former Steelers coach Bill Cowher doesn’t believe his old team will win the AFC Championship Game and make it to this year's Super Bowl.
During a recent interview on WFAN Radio in New York, Cowher picked the Jets to win their third consecutive road playoff game this Sunday in Pittsburgh, where he was the head coach for 15 years.
“Well, I’ll tell you what, Pittsburgh will have some issues this weekend,” Cowher said. "The way the Jets are playing, I’m telling you this is going to be a game, I think it will be a classic game, and I like the Jets.
“They made a believer out of me last week with what they did, I think they match up well. I think it’s going to be a tough ballgame, but they certainly have all the ingredients.”
source:
FOX Sports
During a recent interview on WFAN Radio in New York, Cowher picked the Jets to win their third consecutive road playoff game this Sunday in Pittsburgh, where he was the head coach for 15 years.
“Well, I’ll tell you what, Pittsburgh will have some issues this weekend,” Cowher said. "The way the Jets are playing, I’m telling you this is going to be a game, I think it will be a classic game, and I like the Jets.
“They made a believer out of me last week with what they did, I think they match up well. I think it’s going to be a tough ballgame, but they certainly have all the ingredients.”
source:
FOX Sports
The NFL & NFLPA -- Playing the Fans Like Suckers
The NFL is about to embark on what may be an historic playoff weekend.
The NY Jets are one step away from their first Super Bowl since Joe Namath was wandering the streets of Fort Lauderdale and making "Bachelors III" the most famous nightclub in America. They are now eight regulation quarters away from sending New York into a tizzy, and Giants fans running for cover.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are one step away from doing what many thought completely impossible and improbable. Returning to the Super Bowl in a season that began with their starting QB riding the pines for using his celebrity status to (badly and incorrectly) pick up women, and being stupid enough to smile as the cell phone cameras were flashing.
The Green Bay Packers are dreaming about their first Super Bowl appearance since Head Coach Mike Holmgren suffered a minor attack of brain lock regarding the downs count and allowed the Denver Broncos to score what turned out to be the winning touchdown.
And then, the Chicago Bears. Harken back to "The Super Bowl Shuffle," Jim McMahon's running battle with Commissioner Pete Rozelle, Refrigerator Perry scoring a touchdown and not devouring the football on his way in, and that utter shellacking of the New England Patriots for their first and only victory in the Title game. They were back four years ago, but a complete and embarrassing collapse that begin in the second quarter left Bears fans wishing George Wendt and Chris Farley were on the sidelines calling plays.
No matter how you look at it, this Conference Championship weekend has more dramatic buildup than fanboys already salivating how Anne Hathaway will look in leather when she takes her turn as Catwoman in the upcoming third Batman movie starring Christian Bale entitled, The Dark Knight Rises.
Everyone who has not been bound, gagged and forced to watch even one episode of Glee knows that we could thus be just three games from seeing our last real, honest football game played by real professionals for a year, and maybe more. As usual, it's about war between the Players Union and the NFL. As usual, it's all about more money in everyone's pockets with little or no concern about the product or those menial peons in the seats coughing up cash or the equivalent of their first-born male child.
It's not just a possibility, rather a probability at this stage of the game, there will be a lockout by owners due to the combined failure of reaching accord on a new collective bargaining agreement.
A few words then for NFL owners and players.
Go ahead. Do it. Double dog dare.
Seriously, go ahead. Literally and figuratively spit on the people who have arguably made you the #1 spectator sport in America. Spread your cash among each other. Bathe in it. Make paper dolls out of it. Roll good Cuban tobacco in it and light those fat boys on fire in front of a national television audience.
It won't make any difference. Not to those who enjoy football and continually shell out mortgage payments for tickets, food, beer, luxury boxes, club seats, preferred parking, foam fingers and undergarments with the team logo affixed in just the right place. Or places.
Not to those few hardy souls who could care less if the NFL stands for "National Football League" or "Nuclear Fission Linguistics." These are the oddballs who don't plan their schedules around game time. Refuse to get involved with a sport that allows Brett Favre to juxtapose the letters in his name for the sake of easy pronunciation. Only know the name "Jerry Jones" by keeping a scorecard on who has undergone more plastic surgeries between the Dallas Cowboys owner, Joan Rivers or Heidi Montag.
The NFL knows this. Owners and players remain confident that no matter what they do, you will come back to professional football. Miss an entire season? No worries. It will only serve to increase fan salivation for meaningless confrontations over the amount of trash talking before a big game. The TV networks will scream about the loss of advertising revenue, but have already made plans for filling the monetary void with more vapid and cheap reality shows featuring bad performers and future competitors from the International Federation of Competitive Eating.
The NY Jets are one step away from their first Super Bowl since Joe Namath was wandering the streets of Fort Lauderdale and making "Bachelors III" the most famous nightclub in America. They are now eight regulation quarters away from sending New York into a tizzy, and Giants fans running for cover.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are one step away from doing what many thought completely impossible and improbable. Returning to the Super Bowl in a season that began with their starting QB riding the pines for using his celebrity status to (badly and incorrectly) pick up women, and being stupid enough to smile as the cell phone cameras were flashing.
The Green Bay Packers are dreaming about their first Super Bowl appearance since Head Coach Mike Holmgren suffered a minor attack of brain lock regarding the downs count and allowed the Denver Broncos to score what turned out to be the winning touchdown.
And then, the Chicago Bears. Harken back to "The Super Bowl Shuffle," Jim McMahon's running battle with Commissioner Pete Rozelle, Refrigerator Perry scoring a touchdown and not devouring the football on his way in, and that utter shellacking of the New England Patriots for their first and only victory in the Title game. They were back four years ago, but a complete and embarrassing collapse that begin in the second quarter left Bears fans wishing George Wendt and Chris Farley were on the sidelines calling plays.
No matter how you look at it, this Conference Championship weekend has more dramatic buildup than fanboys already salivating how Anne Hathaway will look in leather when she takes her turn as Catwoman in the upcoming third Batman movie starring Christian Bale entitled, The Dark Knight Rises.
Everyone who has not been bound, gagged and forced to watch even one episode of Glee knows that we could thus be just three games from seeing our last real, honest football game played by real professionals for a year, and maybe more. As usual, it's about war between the Players Union and the NFL. As usual, it's all about more money in everyone's pockets with little or no concern about the product or those menial peons in the seats coughing up cash or the equivalent of their first-born male child.
It's not just a possibility, rather a probability at this stage of the game, there will be a lockout by owners due to the combined failure of reaching accord on a new collective bargaining agreement.
A few words then for NFL owners and players.
Go ahead. Do it. Double dog dare.
Seriously, go ahead. Literally and figuratively spit on the people who have arguably made you the #1 spectator sport in America. Spread your cash among each other. Bathe in it. Make paper dolls out of it. Roll good Cuban tobacco in it and light those fat boys on fire in front of a national television audience.
It won't make any difference. Not to those who enjoy football and continually shell out mortgage payments for tickets, food, beer, luxury boxes, club seats, preferred parking, foam fingers and undergarments with the team logo affixed in just the right place. Or places.
Not to those few hardy souls who could care less if the NFL stands for "National Football League" or "Nuclear Fission Linguistics." These are the oddballs who don't plan their schedules around game time. Refuse to get involved with a sport that allows Brett Favre to juxtapose the letters in his name for the sake of easy pronunciation. Only know the name "Jerry Jones" by keeping a scorecard on who has undergone more plastic surgeries between the Dallas Cowboys owner, Joan Rivers or Heidi Montag.
The NFL knows this. Owners and players remain confident that no matter what they do, you will come back to professional football. Miss an entire season? No worries. It will only serve to increase fan salivation for meaningless confrontations over the amount of trash talking before a big game. The TV networks will scream about the loss of advertising revenue, but have already made plans for filling the monetary void with more vapid and cheap reality shows featuring bad performers and future competitors from the International Federation of Competitive Eating.
The only people really rooting for the lockout are divorce lawyers, confident in the fact their business is about to experience a spike not seen since people saw what a terrible couple Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd made on Moonlighting.
The most heavily impacted by any work stoppage in the NFL? The gambling industry, both legal and illegal. Over $15B are spent legally every year on fantasy sports, and that remains a guess, at best. Las Vegas bookies are used to a $100M tab for the Super Bowl alone. Illegal gambling on the NFL alone accounts for $80-100 billion every year, the largest amount of cash changing hands in American that isn't owned by the Chinese. The hardcore players, however, will simply move their addiction on to some other form human element wagering. And when the NFL returns, so will their cash in record numbers.
There is little or no concern in the hallowed halls of the NFL, to a lesser extent the NFL Players Association, for one simple fact.
The fans are suckers. Rubes. Ill-mannered lemmings who don't have the desire nor the will to cause much of a stir. Don't even argue this point. You can't win because the evidence against your protestations is powerful and easy to find.
Of the 11 stadiums built since 2002 designated as football only, more than half of their funding came from public funds. Don't try to sell it as money coming from hotel and rental car taxes, meaning it didn't come out of your pockets. That money could have been used for education, housing, social programs, etc. It absolutely came out of your wallet and went right into that of the franchise. And that average public investment is close to $300M.
Say you didn't have a choice in the matter? Another bad sale. Public referendums for tax dollars being used to build these palaces pass with an average of 71% of the vote. Those that were defeated concerning these 11 stadiums were later craftily and sneakily rerouted via another referendum or given the green light by your State elected officials.
In San Diego, the Chargers are not about to give up on their plan to have their new home built with close to $500M in public cash. So if you live in San Diego and are not already a fan of the Chargers, better start loading up on jerseys and hats. Because in the end, you're part of the mortar and brick to hand the franchise a stadium.
Fans are the ones who every single year allow themselves to be extorted by teams regarding season tickets. NFL teams demand you purchase pre-season tickets in every season ticket package. And every one of these practice games is at full ticket price.
As 18 of the 32 franchises raised their ticket prices this season past, bringing to over $400 the average cost of a family of 4 attending one game. And if you're one of those deciding to not pay the game price, the NFL has you lock, stock and cable remote with their dedicated pay-per-view.
The Super Bowl? Now you can purchase a ticket to stand outside the stadium. No seat. No in-person viewing. Standing. Outside The Jerry Jones Palace. All for a measly $200 per ticket.
We have shown the NFL, time and time again through our actions with their sport and many others, that no matter how you put the screws to us, shovel money out of our wallets, dilute the product, or allow bad owners to destroy once-legendary franchises, we will always come back. We want you. We need you. We can't live without you.
Suckers.
The most heavily impacted by any work stoppage in the NFL? The gambling industry, both legal and illegal. Over $15B are spent legally every year on fantasy sports, and that remains a guess, at best. Las Vegas bookies are used to a $100M tab for the Super Bowl alone. Illegal gambling on the NFL alone accounts for $80-100 billion every year, the largest amount of cash changing hands in American that isn't owned by the Chinese. The hardcore players, however, will simply move their addiction on to some other form human element wagering. And when the NFL returns, so will their cash in record numbers.
There is little or no concern in the hallowed halls of the NFL, to a lesser extent the NFL Players Association, for one simple fact.
The fans are suckers. Rubes. Ill-mannered lemmings who don't have the desire nor the will to cause much of a stir. Don't even argue this point. You can't win because the evidence against your protestations is powerful and easy to find.
Of the 11 stadiums built since 2002 designated as football only, more than half of their funding came from public funds. Don't try to sell it as money coming from hotel and rental car taxes, meaning it didn't come out of your pockets. That money could have been used for education, housing, social programs, etc. It absolutely came out of your wallet and went right into that of the franchise. And that average public investment is close to $300M.
Say you didn't have a choice in the matter? Another bad sale. Public referendums for tax dollars being used to build these palaces pass with an average of 71% of the vote. Those that were defeated concerning these 11 stadiums were later craftily and sneakily rerouted via another referendum or given the green light by your State elected officials.
In San Diego, the Chargers are not about to give up on their plan to have their new home built with close to $500M in public cash. So if you live in San Diego and are not already a fan of the Chargers, better start loading up on jerseys and hats. Because in the end, you're part of the mortar and brick to hand the franchise a stadium.
Fans are the ones who every single year allow themselves to be extorted by teams regarding season tickets. NFL teams demand you purchase pre-season tickets in every season ticket package. And every one of these practice games is at full ticket price.
As 18 of the 32 franchises raised their ticket prices this season past, bringing to over $400 the average cost of a family of 4 attending one game. And if you're one of those deciding to not pay the game price, the NFL has you lock, stock and cable remote with their dedicated pay-per-view.
The Super Bowl? Now you can purchase a ticket to stand outside the stadium. No seat. No in-person viewing. Standing. Outside The Jerry Jones Palace. All for a measly $200 per ticket.
We have shown the NFL, time and time again through our actions with their sport and many others, that no matter how you put the screws to us, shovel money out of our wallets, dilute the product, or allow bad owners to destroy once-legendary franchises, we will always come back. We want you. We need you. We can't live without you.
Suckers.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Six Keys to Changing Almost Anything
Change is hard. New Year's resolutions almost always fail. But at The Energy Project, we have developed a way of making changes that has proved remarkably powerful and enduring, both in my own life and for the corporate clients to whom we teach it.
Our method is grounded in the recognition that human being are creatures of habit. Fully 95 percent of our behaviors are habitual, or occur in response to a strong external stimulus. Only 5 percent of our choices are consciously self-selected.
In 1911, the mathematician Alfred North Whitehead intuited what researchers would confirm nearly a century later. "It is a profoundly erroneous truism," he wrote, "that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them."
Most of us wildly overvalue our will and discipline. Ingenious research by Roy Baumeister and others has demonstrated that our self-control is a severely limited resource that gets progressively depleted by every act of conscious self-regulation.
In order to make change that lasts, we must rely less on our prefrontal cortex, and more on co-opting the primitive parts of our brain in which habits are formed.
Put simply, the more behaviors are ritualized and routinized -- in the form of a deliberate practice -- the less energy they require to launch, and the more they recur automatically
What follows are our six key steps to making change that lasts:
1. Be highly precise and specific.
Imagine a typical New Year's resolution to "exercise regularly." It's a prescription for failure. You have a vastly higher chance for success if you decide in advance the days and times, and precisely what you're going to do on each of them.
Say instead that you commit to do a cardiovascular work out Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m., for 30 minutes. If something beyond your control forces you to miss one of those days, you automatically default to doing that workout instead on Saturday at 9 a.m.
Researchers call those "implementation intentions" and they dramatically increase your odds of success.
2. Take on one new challenge at a time.
Over the years, I've established a broad range of routines and practices, ranging from ones for weight training and running, to doing the most important thing first every morning without interruption for 90 minutes and then taking a break to spending 90 minutes talking with my wife about the previous week on Saturday mornings.
In each case, I gave the new practice I was launching my sole focus. Even then, in some cases, it's taken several tries before I was able to stay at the behavior long enough for it to become essentially automatic.
Computers can run several programs simultaneously. Human beings operate best when we take on one thing at a time, sequentially.
3. Not too much, not too little.
The most obvious mistake we make when we try to change something in our lives is that we bite off more than it turns out we can chew. Imagine that after doing no exercise at all for the past year, for example, you get inspired and launch a regimen of jogging for 30 minutes, five days a week. Chances are high that you'll find exercising that much so painful you'll quit after a few sessions.
It's also easy to go to the other extreme, and take on too little. So you launch a 10-minute walk at lunchtime three days a week and stay at it. The problem is that you don't feel any better for it after several weeks, and your motivation fades.
The only way to truly grow is to challenge your current comfort zone. The trick is finding a middle ground -- pushing yourself hard enough that you get some real gain, but not too much that you find yourself unwilling to stay at it.
4. What we resist persists.
Think about sitting in front of a plate of fragrant chocolate chip cookies over an extended period of time. Diets fail the vast majority of time because they're typically built around regularly resisting food we enjoy eating. Eventually, we run up against our limited reservoir of self control.
The same is true of trying to ignore the Pavlovian ping of incoming emails while you're working on an important project that deserves your full attention.
The only reasonable answer is to avoid the temptation. With email, the more effective practice is turn it off entirely at designated times, and then answer it in chunks at others. For dieters, it's to keep food you don't want to eat out of sight, and focus your diet instead on what you are going to eat, at which times, and in what portion sizes. The less you have to think about what to do, the more successful you're likely to be.
5. Competing commitments.
We all derive a sense of comfort and safety from doing what we've always done, even if it isn't ultimately serving us well. Researchers Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey call this "immunity to change." Even the most passionate commitment to change, they've shown, is invariably counterbalanced by an equally powerful but often unseen "competing" commitment not to change.
Here's a very simple way to surface your competing commitment. Think about a change you really want to make. Now ask yourself what you're currently doing or not doing to undermine that primary commitment. If you are trying to get more focused on important priorities, for example, your competing commitment might be the desire to be highly responsive and available to those emailing you.
For any change effort you launch, it's key to surface your competing commitment and then ask yourself "How can I design this practice so I get the desired benefits but also minimize the costs I fear it will prompt?"
6. Keep the faith.
Change is hard. It is painful. And you will experience failure at times. The average person launches a change effort six separate times before it finally takes. But follow the steps above, and I can tell you from my own experience and that of thousands of clients that you will succeed, and probably without multiple failures.
Follow Tony Schwartz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TonySchwartz
Monday, January 17, 2011
"Pursuit of Happiness" [Steve Aoki Remix] - Kid Cudi (feat. MGMT & Rata...
Awesome remix of a Kid Cudi song by Steve Aoki
Divisional Round Losses: Four Cities' Newspapers React
This weekend of the NFL playoffs saw both conference favorites - Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots - get knocked off, following a Wild Card week that had its own share of surprises. All four games were high-scoring and high on energy and excitement. Looking ahead, there's a divisional grudge match between Chicago and Green Bay, and a matchup of defensive-minded teams with Pittsburgh and the New York Jets squaring off that surely won't disappoint. At the same time, columnists from the hometowns of the most recent teams to get knocked out of the playoffs are writing their final farewells to the season gone by. Here, what they're saying in New England, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Seattle today:
Patriots fell short: "What do you say when you are whipped, fair and square?" asks Bob Ryan inThe Boston Globe. It happened last year, too, but that Patriots team wasn't that good and had "issues." This team, however, "had come in as the AFC top seed with a 14-2 record and had been playing very well during an eight-game winning streak. And no Belichick team had lost a playoff game after earning the much-coveted first-round bye." They should have gone further than they did.
Embarrassing Falcons: "It's year three of this great franchise awakening, and that means one thing: We don't grade seasons on the first 16 games," says Jeff Schultz in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. While the team made great progress, now they "should be graded on postseasons." And, according to that criteria, "they failed. Epically"; they got "bodyslammed" out of the playoffs. This kind of "meltdown" was supposed to be a thing of the past. "We thought the Falcons were past this."
Ravens didn't deserve it: The explanation is simple: "They just couldn't handle success," says Peter Schmuck in the Baltimore Sun. The Ravens had the game in hand, but couldn't hold on. "Who knows why fate frowns at certain times, but it made a very ugly face at the Ravens" late in the game. There's nobody to blame; it just wasn't the Ravens' day.
Seahawks were exposed: The Seahawks made a nice run, but "reality hit them Sunday with all the force of a Midwestern snowstorm," says Steve Kelley in The Seattle Times. It "felt more like the truth than last week's Qwest Field fantasy win" last week. "They awoke a slumbering city with a couple weeks of magic," but still remain in a state of rebuilding. "The Seahawks reached their modest goal. They reclaimed the West. But the Bears exposed them on Sunday, a biting reminder of the hard work ahead."
Remember why you get off from work today
This Monday, January 17, marks the 25th anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, honoring this amazing hero and all he stood for and accomplished. Of all Dr. King's lasting legacies, one of the most powerful was his belief in strengthening communities and empowering individuals. This belief propelled Dr. King to accomplish a great many things for this country that have inspired generations of Americans.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is also the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service. A part of United We Serve, the President's call to service for citizens, the MLK Day of Service provides the opportunity to come together with friends and neighbors to address some of American's most pressing issues.
One such issue is a lack of financial literacy. The importance of learning the basic concepts of money management, from a young age, cannot be understated, yet many feel inadequate to take the job upon themselves.
The recent recession taught many Americans just how little they know about personal finance, let alone our nation's complex financial system. Learning basic financial concepts early on in life helps build a foundation for making smart financial decisions throughout one's life. The cry for money management lessons to be taught to our children is loud. A recent Junior Achievement (JA)survey found that 83 percent of students said they wanted to learn about money management and work readiness during grades K-12.
Junior Achievement and AARP recognize the importance of this issue and want to help young people throughout our nation's communities understand the necessity and value of learning to manage their money. For their part in the MLK Day of Service, JA and AARP teamed up to create atoolkit on how to teach kids about money management and help volunteers make the leap from novice to know-how mentor a simple one.
Just because you don't hold a finance degree doesn't mean you can't make an impact in a young person's life by giving them the guide posts of money management. Junior Achievement provides the training and materials you need to make an impact, and the rest is just showing up.
Contact your local JA office to see which local schools are looking for volunteers. For those without a local JA office nearby, look to family members and friends with kids, and take time to get to know them and share with them the basics of managing their money and the importance this plays in their economic success. You can make an impact in your community by joining the hundreds of thousands of people who serve on MLK Day and throughout the year.
See what Junior Achievement programs are available in your area and get involved today. Now more than ever, young adults need your knowledge and skills to help them succeed and you can make a big difference in the life of a young person. For more information, visit www.ja.org.
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