William Ayers on GMA

This will be an interesting thing to watch tomorrow morning. Good Morning America will have an exclusive interview with William Ayers, the same person Barock Obama has been criticized for having some sort of connection to. It says on the GMA website that he will talk about the reissue of his memoir "Fugitive Days" and about his life as a '60s radical. I wonder if Ayers will have anything to say about Barock Obama or if he decides not to get involved in this.

Can We Please Stop This Now?

You know what annoys me more then anything? When football ball coaches call a timeout just before the other time snaps the ball for a field goal. Come out people. I know you want to ice the kicker but secretly calling a time out without anyone knowing about it isn't fair. And besides, more often then not the kicker will miss the field goal that doesn't count and make the field goal that does count.

An Injury That Shouldn't Have Happened

During last nights Houston-Marshall football game Houston wide receiver Patrick Edwards fractured his right shin when he ran full speed into a service cart for the Marshall band(link). Why were those carts so close to the endzone? With players running full force to catch a touchdown that was a disaster waiting to happen. Edwards says that he feel no animosity towards Marshall University but to the Conference USA officiating crew he said "They are supposed to check and see if everything is off the field". The athletics spokesman for Marshall said that their insurance would pay for Edwards' medical bills, which is good because if they didn't they would probably be see a lawsuit for damages.

49ers Interested in Condoleezza Rice?

On his blog at NFL.com, Adam Schefter reported that both the San Francisco 49ers and United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are interested in talking about a high-level position within the team. According to Schefter, "Rice is an enormous football fan who once aspired to be commissioner, before Roger Goodell succeeded Paul Tagliabue" and that she "has told friends as recently as last week she would love to become president of an NFL team." I'm assuming if she were to take this job it would be after the next president has taken office. If George Bush could be a former owner of the Texas Rangers, Condoleezza Rice came be part of the 49ers.

Syracuse Looking For New Coach?

The New York Times reported that Syracuse University has hired a firm to look for the new head coach to replace Greg Robinson. Now, the athletic department has said they have done no such thing but as you know how things go in sports, when some story gets reported chances are high that if they aren't doing it now they'll be doing it soon. I've said before I think that Syracuse could find a new head coach. By all accounts Robinson is a great person but as a coach my god he has the worst winning percentage in any three year span of the program's history. We need to do something.

That's Not Suppose to Happen

Check out this video from last Saturday's LSU-South Carolina game




Funny isn't it. I don't think he meant to do it but it's still funny.

The Bee Gees Can Save Your Life

If you thought the beach story was weird check this story out. A study by the University of Illinois College of Medicine found that the 1977 Bee Gees hit Stayin' Alive provided the best beat to follow when preforming CPR on someone.

The study by the University of Illinois College of Medicine saw 15 doctors and students performing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on mannequins while listening to Stayin' Alive. They were asked to their time chest compressions with the beat.

Five weeks later, they did the same drill without the music, but were told to think of the song while doing compressions.

The average number of compressions the first time was 109 per minute; the second time it was 113 - more than recommended by the American Heart Association, but better than too few, according to Dr Matlock.

"It drove them and motivated them to keep up the rate, which is the most important thing," he told the Associated Press.

I can just see it now. Instead of asking if someone has stayed at a Holiday Inn they'll start asking if someone has listened to The Bee Gees?

Who Stole the Beach?

Ok, when I saw this news story I had to do a double take. Police in Jamaica are investigating into who stole 500 truck loads of sand form a planned resort in Coral Springs. Right now no one is sure who could have done this but by the shear amount of sand taken it seams to have something to do with the hotel industry. Apparently, illegal sand mining is a big problem in Jamaica because having a good beach is considered a valuable asset for hotels. What I would like to know is how could anyone steal 500 truck loads of sand without anybody realizing what's going on? This might have something to do with it:

"There is some suspicion that some police were in collusion with the movers of the sand."
Mark Shields
Deputy Commissioner of Police

Your Pinkie or Football

I can't remember what school it was but an offensive linemen for a D-II college team decided to have a pinkie amputated instead of having surgery on it that would have ended his senior year of playing. And this comes in a week were Dallas Cowboy quarterback Tony Romo is out for a month for a broken pinkie on his throwing arm. Now, I don't know wither or not what this college kid did was incredibly brave or incredibly stupid but I guess he thought that football was more impotent to him then his little finger. And besides, there was talk that he might of needed the finger amputated anyway. So, I guess it's best to deal with it sooner then later.

Cheerleaders and Mock Executions

There has been some controversy about this skit by the Nacogdoches High School cheerleading squad were they do a mock execution of the opposing team:






And there even more controversy because an article in the schools newspaper critical of the skit was edited by the school principal.
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5996974

Now, like the video says I don't think the cheerleaders meant this in any real mean spirited way but I'd think that someone might have thought "You know this might not be a good idea" before they did this.

Your Civic Duty To Not Vote?

I'm one for these people think that every American that is old enough to vote should vote; no excuses. Well, John Stossel form 20/20 has a different idea. In his article for 20/20 Stossel states that there are people out there whose civil duty should be to not vote on election day because they just don't know enough about the government. Now, there are a bunch of things that I have agreed with Stossel on. This isn't one of them. Do we really want to say that only a privileged few should be aloud to vote and tell how the country goes? I've seen how that works in history class and it isn't pretty. And for those who say "Well I don't know much this election so I'll just not vote." Well for the love of God you have around three weeks before election day. Is it that hard to find a candidate whose political views are close to yours? Not voting is bad enough but to not even get yourself informed so that you don't have to vote is inexcusable.

When Things Get Ugly

You know this election is coming to a close when the real nasty politics start coming in. But here's something I saw in this article from ABC News.

At a rally on Monday in Clearwater, one man shouted "Kill him," according to the Washington Post, after Palin mentioned Obama's association with 1960s radical Bill Ayers. It was not clear who made the comment or if the man was referring to Ayers or to Obama, but the Secret Service says it will investigate.

So this is how far we've gone? I think it is ok to question Obama on any association with Bill Ayers but threading him with death is not something you should do. You can't really blame Palin for this because she wasn't the one who said it, but there are those like Kimberly Gross, a professor of political communication at George Washington University who think she should have done something about it:

Gross said politicians had a responsibility to call out their supporters when they say offensive things, not only for the good of their own electoral chances but for the good of the political system.

"In my opinion candidates have a responsibility to say something," she said. "Negative campaigning per se is not absolutely a bad thing, and can be informative. But candidates do us disservice when they create the conditions that can allow a crowd to get out of hand. It just reinforces a cynicism about politics."

I think she has a point. It would be a sign of great respect to call a supporter out when they say an offensive thing and would make me think more highly of them. Unless they want to totally ruin Obama's career which hopefully is not the case.

There is one thing that I always wonder. Bill Ayers is considered a terrorist yet he is a Distinguished Professor at the the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. We either must be very forgiving or I'm seriously missing something here.

UPDATE:
I want to thank John McCain for trying to calm the crowd down Friday. It's nice to know that there are people out there that know that you can disagree with someone at still say that they are a good person.

Buy an Endzone for $500,000

This is something interesting. As part of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book the Dallas Cowboys are selling one 530 square yard endzone for $500,000. Of course their are other thing included but you really want endzone don't you? So if you have one really big backyard and lots of money to blow you can have this. But there is more then just this up for sale. Hear are some more:

Every 45 RPM vinyl record that was listed on the Billboard Top 100 Rock and Pop charts from Jan. 1, 1955, through Dec. 31, 1990: $275,000

Medieval and Renaissance Era Rings : $25,000-$45,000

HIS & HERS: Life-Size Replica in LEGO Bricks: $60,000

A Custom Backyard Golf Course Designed by Jack Nicklaus: $1,000,000

On Court Experience With The Harlem Globetrotters: $110,000

Luxury Destination Wedding Package at The Resort at Pelican Hill: $1,300,000

Authentic Guinness Home Pub: $250,000

NM Limited-Edition 2009 BMW Individual 7 Series Sedan: $160,000

There's a whole lot more but this just the some of the most interesting ones. So, if you have a lot of money and aren't suffering from this economic slowdown here are some good gift ideas for Christmas.

Oh The Irony

I'm sure by now you've seen the new Windows commercials were they take a slam at Mac's commercials. Well something interesting came up about them. It seems that some of those commercials were made using Macs. Apparently someone on Flicker discovered traces of Apple's operating system and Adobe's Photoshop CS3 in the still images of the commercials. Of course in response to it Microsoft removed all traces from the images. I guess the the long run it doesn't take away from what the message it but you have got to admit you have to see the irony in this.

Find out more here.

Homecoming

So last night I went to my high school's homecoming events. I've always gone to see the homecoming football game and for the past two years I've gone to the homecoming dance, but for my last homecoming there were a couple of firsts for me.

Parade: For the first time I took part in the homecoming parade. The theme of the parade was Going Green so are float had an environmental theme to it. I had a special part in this parade. I was a dancing solar panel. I'm not kidding and it was my idea. We also had a "silent rave" in which my class listened to our MP3 players and danced during the whole parade.

Football Game: I went to see the game which we won. Before the game all of my school's fall sports teams where on the field and told how there are doing this year. Also, the seniors on the football team were introduced before the game. It was a good game. It was also cold. Every we* tried to get some hot chocolate to warm us up they ran out.

*This would be a good time to talk about another first for me. I took a girl with me to the homecoming dance. I actually took her to the parade, game and dance.

Dance: I had a fun time at the dance. Now I say dance but despite what others tell me I really, really don't think I can dance. About the only dance I can do is the one that goes "To the left. Take it back now y'all." And has sure as the sun will rise there will always play Cotton Eye Joe, Baby Got Back, and Jump On It at these dances. Anyway, there was one very cool thing that happened at the dance. Both me and the girl I took were nominated for Homecoming King and Queen respectfully for our class. We didn't win but I thought is was still cool that happened.

No Football, No Cry

It was so fun watching Colgate's homecoming game, except that it didn't happen. Colgate's homecoming football game against Georgetown was canceled due to the norovirus outbreak at Georgetown University. My grandpa and I have season tickets for Colgate games so I was bummed by the news. So other then watching college football and playing NCAA Football 2007 I had absolutely nothing to do today. No make-up date has been set for the game but they're going to have to have the game because it is a league game and you need to play all your league games.

Now for my high school's homecoming game we won. I had a lot of fun at homecoming but I'll talk about that later.

In memoriam: ANN-FF

Yesterday I lost one of my favorite places to spend time online. The ANN (Anime News Network) Fan Forums. It was hacked into yesterday by somebody and form the sounds of it the main admin has been locked out of it. Though there are different theories as to who could have done this I currently do not have proof. It's sad to see this happen because I really loved going there and everyone was nice. I don't know what will happen next but I'm sure in some way ANN-FF will rise again like a phoenix from the ashes.

My Dumb Smart Printer

I have one of these smart printers at home. You know, the ones work as a printer, scanner, and copier. Well it does a very good job as a scanner and a copier, but it has trouble doing the thing it is meant to do: print. The thing does not catch the paper itself, so you have to help feed the paper into the printer. And you must have your timing right or else the printer will say it's out of paper or it will get jammed. If that's isn't bad enough now there is a new problem it has. The cartridge will get jammed and when it works the ink gets all messed up. When I buy my own printer I'll make sure it loads the paper from the top so I hopefully won't have this problem.

Fire Greg Robinson

As someone who has been a lifelong fan of Syracuse football I just want to say can we please fire Greg Robinson. I've been waiting patiently for four years just so that he could get all the players he needed to run his team. Well it's been four years, you should have everyone you recruited now and we still aren't any better. You see, I remember when Syracuse had descent teams and gone to bowl games. Now, we get blown out by Akron. Who gets blown out by Akron? And while other Big East teams that used to be laughing stocks have gotten better we've become the laughing stocks. How any BCS team can only manege to win eight in four years under someone is beyond me. I don't normally think that hiring a new couch will automatically make a team better but I have to think anything would be better then we have now.

Three Boneheaded Plays

I want to talk about three boneheaded things that happened last week in the NFL. One by a ref, one by a team, and one by a player.

Ref: We all know Ed Hochuli blew that call at the end of the San Diego-Denver game, including Hochuli himself. Everybody could tell Jay Cutler fumbled the ball but it was still ruled an incomplete pass. So now Denver is happy they are 2-0, San Diego is mad that they are 0-2, and Hochuli has been "demoted" and "given a bad grade" for the game. You never leave school do ya?

Team: I was watching in end of the first half of the Pittsburgh-Cleveland game and all I could think was What kind of clock management was that? For one thing I can't remember the Browns calling one play that went to the sidelines; you know, so you can stop the clock. But the real kicker came after they converted a 3rd and 1 and called time out with eight seconds left. I thought they when going for a field goal, so, I thought why would you leave eight seconds to kick a field goal? But they did one more shot to the end zone and it got intercepted. So they left the field with no points instead of three points.

Player: I'm sure we're all seen the video of DeSean Jackson early celebration. What were you thinking? Couldn't you have waited until you were deep in the end zone before you started to celebrate? And it's not like this was the first time he did something like this. He did in before, in high school. Luckily the only things keeping him from being run out of town are a) none of the Cowboys' players realized what happened until it has to late and b) Brian Westbrook score a touchdown on the very next play.

RIP Richard Wright

In case you haven't heard Richard Wright keyboardist for Pink Floyd died yesterday at age 65 form cancer. Pink Floyd is my all time favorite band so the news of Wright's passing is very sad to me. In honor of him here is a tribute video from YouTube user prompen3


Rest in peace Richard Wright. You will never be forgoten.

Obama and Islam

Something that really annoys are all these people on the Internet that keep saying "You know Obama is one of THOSE Muslims". And it doesn't help that Obama has this slip up during his interview with George Stephanopoulos



If you saw the full interview it sounds like it's nothing but an innocent slip of the tongue but these guys make it out to be incontrovertible proof that Barack Obama is a Muslim. What I have to say to that: "Who Cares!" Even if his was one, which he has said many times he's not does it make a different? The only people that would make a big deal about this are the ones that think Muslims = Terrorists. Not every one that is a Muslim is a terrorist and Islam itself is not a bad religion. It's like I always say "Religion is not bad, it's the people who run the religion that make it bad."

Three Cheers for Craig Ferguson

This has been a crazy election. It seems like sometimes this election has been about everything but the issues at hand. Which is why I love what Craig Ferguson did last night on his late night talk show. Here is a guy who just became a US citizen and is experiencing his first election yet he realizes all of the things about this election that has been a bunch of bull.




In the first video he talks about how this election has been treated by the press and the candidates and near the end of the first video and in the second video he talks about the people who choose not to vote in the elections. Like he says "If you don't vote, you're a moron". And for those who say they just don't care about politics how can you go through your day without politics effecting your life?

Histroic Milestone for Baseball

This is an interesting story. Sean Forman from the website Baseball-Reference.com along with research from the Society for American Baseball Research have estimated that Gary Sheffield grand slam in the 2nd inning of the Oakland-Detroit game was the 250,000th home run hit in the major leagues. That's an amazing thing to think about. Think of all the runs that have been scored in the 133 years since Ross Barnes hit the first one on May 2, 1876. And how about all the runs scored without home runs. You can find the list of all the historic home runs here:

Pissed Catholic Mother

A good friend of mine I knew form school posted a respond video on You Tube for a video called Pissed Catholic Mother. If you've never seen this video all I can say is yikes.



Powerful isn't it? I think that the way this mother handled the situation was wrong. Now my friend and I have different opinions when it comes to religion. I do not have a problem with religion; I think religion is generally good and far from being useless. So I not saying this because I'm anti-religion, I saying this because the son should have the right to believe what he wishes to believe. I can tell that she is a very devout believer so it wouldn't have been bad to talk to her son and ask why he no longer believes in God, but she shouldn't have verbally lashed out at him.

I won't completely condemn her for this because I know that when people get angry they do things that they would not normally do. So, I hope that by the time this video was taken to now that these two have "buried the hatchet " and gone back to being a happy family. If not, then I hope that the son has stuck to what he believes.

I know I have friends that are very religious so I would love to hear your opinion.

Political Ads

I not going to able to vote in this years presidential election but that doesn't mean I haven't been following this election closely. I won't say specifically who I would have voted for because my dad always tells me never say would you are voting for, although some people know who I would vote for. In any case, if there is one thing that I've learned that I will take with me when I get to voting age is this one thing:

Never take political ads with a grain of salt.

Why? Because they are filled with half truths and/or outright lies to make either one candidate look good or the other candidate look bad. Take for example a resent McCain ad that says Barack Obama wants to razes taxes on middle class families; oh, and don't forget to have a depressing looking image of a family to drive the point across. Now if you've never done any research you would think "This is bad. We can't have this.", but if look at his plan the only families that could have a tax raze are the ones that probably have enough money to live several lives*. That's not to say Obama is in the clear. There are plenty of ads out there that have half truths and lies about McCain.

So what is one to do? Maybe one should go to a candidates web site and see just what someones views are. I sure you could come up with plenty of counter-arguments but who would you trust more to tell you what Candidate A's views are: Candidate A or Candidate A's opponent?

*Ever notice that every candidate always says that the other will raze taxes.

Hello World

Hello there. You may know me as darksideoftheanime form over at ANN and ANN-FF. I've seen some of my forum buddies have made blogs over here so I thought I'd give it a try. Like the title says this will be different thoughts and musings on I have on things that could be totally unrelated to one another. It could be about anime, or football, or anything else I can possibly think about. Now, I haven't been very good at keeping these things up to date so I will try to post here every time I find something I want to talk about. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this.