3 Strikes and Carol & I were out for Movies Yesterday

I'm up in Binghamton this weekend to visit my beautiful wife and to take her to the NSA Banquet which we did Friday night. Saturday was kind of a lazy day, ending with partying plans being cancelled the last minute. With not much else to do in Binghamton (I wanted to hike, but the weather sucked and I didnt want to be wearing mud when we climbed back into my car) we made it a movie day.

So...

Carol and I went to see "Hot Fuzz" today. There were a few funny parts, but I was pretty disappointed by the movie. This was our pick over Nicholas Cage's new movie "Next." We should have gone to see 300 for the 20th or 30th time (yes, I exaggerate).

We got home after relieving our stress with some Cold Stone ice cream and decided to throw in one of our Netlixed movies "The Libertine." We got through about 10 minutes of that.

Finally we tried to watch "A Life Less Ordinary." Although I must admit that I did fall asleep through a good 15 minutes of it, I thought it was incredibly boring and had little to no interest in it.

That was pretty much the end of the day. It was certainly a short day, but Friday I was up from 3am to about 1am Saturday and was glad for the early night. Anyhow, a bad day for movies, yup.

Yup

le sigh...

Find the original article here.


Australian PM says US Congress vote on Iraq aids Al-Qaeda

Apr 26 10:44 PM US/Eastern

The US Congress' vote to push for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq was wrong and will bring comfort to Al-Qaeda insurgents, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Friday.

The Democrat-dominated US Senate on Thursday passed legislation which set a timeline for the recall of US troops from Iraq, where the US has been engaged in a bloody war since March 2003.

US President George W Bush has vowed to veto the law.

Howard, a staunch Bush supporter who has also committed troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, said the vote by the US Congress was "probably not helpful to the general situation in Iraq."

"I think it is wrong, and I don't think it is doing anything other than giving great comfort and encouragement to Al-Qaeda and the insurgency in Iraq," Howard said.

"They are looking at all this, they read newspapers, they see it on television and they say, 'The American domestic resolve is weakening, therefore we should maintain our resolve.'

"If there is a perception of an America defeat in Iraq, that will leave the whole of the Middle East in great turmoil and will be an enormous victory for terrorism."

The US bill, passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday, comes against the background of plunging public support for the war which has claimed the lives of more than 3,300 US servicemen and women.

I don't understand why this is so difficult for some others to accept or understand.

"When, in the history of war, has a nation that decides to retreat, printed up a schedule of that retreat and handed it to its enemies?" [asks Rudy Giuliani] Giuliani said at the event, hosted by the Civitas Institute, a Raleigh-based conservative think tank.

Does this sound illegal to anyone else?

The arrest, not the homework...

Find the original article here.

Student discharged from Marines after essay(http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/360827,CST-NWS-essay27.article)

April 27, 2007
BY DAN ROZEK, ROSALIND ROSSI AND ABDON M. PALLASCH Staff Reporters

One violent, profanity-laced English essay later and Allen Lee's future with the Marine Corps appears to be over.

Because of pending criminal charges stemming from his essay, Lee's recruiter told him Friday evening that the Marine Corps has discharged him from his contract, said Sgt. Luis R. Agostini, spokesman for the Marine Corps Recruiting Station Chicago.

''Basically he is no longer an applicant to become a Marine,'' Agostini said.

Police Thursday released portions of an essay used to charge a Cary-Grove High School student with disorderly conduct, leaving several experts puzzled at an arrest based on such schoolwork.
Asked to write about whatever he wanted in a creative writing class, would-be Marine and honors student Lee, 18, described a violent dream in which he shot people and then "had sex with the dead bodies.''

But then he immediately dismissed the idea as a mere joke, writing, "not really, but it would be funny if I did.''

A second disorderly count accuses Lee of alarming first-year teacher Nora Capron by writing that "as a teacher, don't be surprised on [sic] inspiring the first CG shooting,'' an apparent reference to Cary-Grove High.

Lee said Thursday he was "completely shocked'' to be arrested Tuesday for his essay, especially because written instructions told kids not to "censor'' what they wrote.

"In creative writing, you're told to exaggerate,'' said Lee. "It was supposed to be just junk. . . .
"There definitely is violent content, but they're taking it out of context and making it something it isn't.''

"I have no intention of harming anyone,'' said Lee, who has been transferred to an alternative school setting. "I miss school.''

Lee's father, Albert Lee, who emigrated from China 32 years ago, said his son has a clean academic and police record. He, too, insisted his son's essay was not threatening but authorities "drew a conclusion before the investigation. They didn't want to do the investigation.''

However, the father would not comment on whether he believed authorities acted quickly because his son is of Asian heritage, as was the Virginia Tech campus shooter.

Family therapist Michael Gurian, author of The Minds of Boys, said Allen Lee needs at least good counseling, but "If he was arrested solely based on those words, I don't see that as the most helpful course.''

Bernardine Dohrn, director of Northwestern University's Children and Family Justice Center, laughed when she heard the charge.

"You might want to talk to him, talk to his parents, but the criminal justice system seems to be the last thing you'd want,'' said Dohrn, a former Weatherman leader who lived for years as a fugitive.

Mike McInerney, former head of the Cook County Public Defender's Juvenile Court office, said he "wouldn't be happy'' if his son wrote such words but "I wouldn't criminalize free expression. . . . I don't think it's going to hold up criminally.''

Write or wrong?

Excerpts from Allen Lee’s essay• “As a teacher, don’t be surprised on inspiring the first CG [Cary-Grove High School] shooting.”• “Blood, sex, booze. Drugs, drugs, drugs are fun. Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, s..t..a..b...puke.”• “So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P 90s [submachine guns] and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did.”what do you think?

I want a telescope

There are very few things that make me want to forget the politics and issues of our world. This is one of them. Find the original article here.

Sorry for the bad formatting. The author of this article broke it up so much that fixing it for easy viewing here was not a worthwhile endeavor. If you're having that much of a problem with it, follow the link above.



24/04/07 - Science & tech section
Found 20 light years away: the New Earth
It's got the same climate as Earth, plus water and gravity. A newly discovered planet is the most stunning evidence that life - just like us - might be out there.
Above a calm, dark ocean, a huge, bloated red sun rises in the sky - a full ten times the size of our Sun as seen from Earth. Small waves lap at a sandy shore and on the beach, something stirs...
This is the scene - or may be the scene - on what is possibly the most extraordinary world to have been discovered by astronomers: the first truly Earth-like planet to have been found outside our Solar System.
The discovery was announced today by a team of European astronomers, using a telescope in La Silla in the Chilean Andes. If forced bookies to slash odds on the existence of alien beings.
The Earth-like planet that could be covered in oceans and may support life is 20.5 light years away, and has the right temperature to allow liquid water on its surface.
This remarkable discovery appears to confirm the suspicions of most astronomers that the universe is swarming with Earth-like worlds.
We don't yet know much about this planet, but scientists believe that it may be the best candidate so far for supporting extraterrestrial life.
The new planet, which orbits a small, red star called Gliese 581, is about one-and-a-half times the diameter of the Earth.
It probably has a substantial atmosphere and may be covered with large amounts of water - necessary for life to evolve - and, most importantly, temperatures are very similar to those on our world.
It is the first exoplanet (a planet orbiting a star other than our own Sun) that is anything like our Earth.
Of the 220 or so exoplanets found to date, most have either been too big, made of gas rather than solid material, far too hot, or far too cold for life to survive.
"On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X," says Xavier Delfosse, one of the scientists who discovered the planet.
"Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life."
Gliese 581 is among the closest stars to us, just 20.5 light years away (about 120 trillion miles) in the constellation Libra. It is so dim it can be seen only with a good telescope.
Because all planets are relatively so small and the light they give off so faint compared to their sun, finding exoplanets is extremely difficult unless they are huge.
Those that have so far been detected have mostly been massive, Jupiter-like balls of gas that almost certainly cannot be home to life.
This new planet - known for the time being as Gliese 581c - is a midget in comparison, being about 12,000 miles across (Earth is a little under 8,000 pole-to-pole).
It has a mass five times that of Earth, probably made of the same sort of rock as makes up our world and with enough gravity to hold a substantial atmosphere.
Astrobiologists - scientists who study the possibility of alien life - refer to a climate known as the Goldilocks Zone, where it is not so cold that water freezes and not so hot that it boils, but where it can lie on the planet's surface as a liquid.
In our solar system, only one planet - Earth -lies in the Goldilocks Zone. Venus is far too hot and Mars is just too cold. This new planet lies bang in the middle of the zone, with average surface temperatures estimated to be between zero and 40c (32-102f). Lakes, rivers and even oceans are possible.
It is not clear what this planet is made of. If it is rock, like the Earth, then its surface may be land, or a combination of land and ocean.
Another possibility is that Gliese 581c was formed mostly from ice far from the star (ice is a very common substance in the Universe), and moved to the close orbit it inhabits today.
In which case its entire surface will have melted to form a giant, planet-wide ocean with no land, save perhaps a few rocky islands or icebergs.
The surface gravity is probably around twice that of the Earth and the atmosphere could be similar to ours.
Although the new planet is in itself very Earth-like, its solar system is about as alien as could be imagined. The star at the centre - Gliese 581 - is small and dim, only about a third the size of our Sun and about 50 times cooler.
The two other planets are huge, Neptune-sized worlds called Gliese 581b and d (there is no "a", to avoid confusion with the star itself).
The Earth-like planet orbits its sun at a distance of only six million miles or so (our Sun is 93 million miles away), travelling so fast that its "year" only lasts 13 of our days.
The parent star would dominate the view from the surface - a huge red ball of fire that must be a spectacular sight.
It is difficult to speculate what - if any - life there is on the planet. If there is life there it would have to cope with the higher gravity and solar radiation from its sun.
Just because Gliese 581c is habitable does not mean that it is inhabited, but we do know its sun is an ancient star - in fact, it is one of the oldest stars in the galaxy, and extremely stable. If there is life, it has had many billions of years to evolve.
This makes this planet a prime target in the search for life. According to Seth Shostak, of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in California, the Gliese system is now a prime target for a radio search. 'We had actually looked at this system before but only for a few minutes. We heard nothing, but now we must look again.'
By 2020 at least one space telescope should be in orbit, with the capability of detecting signs of life on planets orbiting nearby stars. If oxygen or methane (tell-tale biological gases) are found in Gliese 581c's atmosphere, this would be good circumstantial evidence for life.
Dr Malcolm Fridlund, a European Space Agency scientist, said the discovery of Gliese 581c was "an important step" on the road to finding life.
"If this is a rocky planet, it's very likely it will have liquid water on its surface, which means there may also be life."
The real importance is not so much the discovery of this planet itself, but the fact that it shows that Earth-like planets are probably extremely common in the Universe.
There are 200 billion stars in our galaxy alone and many astronomers believe most of these stars have planets.
The fact that almost as soon as we have built a telescope capable of detecting small, earth-like worlds, one turns up right on our cosmic doorstep, shows that statistically, there are probably billions of earths out there.
As Seth Shostak says: "We've never found one close to being like the Earth until now. We are finding that Earth is not such an unusual puppy in the litter of planets."
But are these alien Earths home to life? No one knows. We don't understand how life began on our world, let alone how it could arise anywhere else. There may be an awful lot of bugs and bacteria out there, and only a few worlds with what we would recognise as plants and animals. Or, of course, there may be nothing.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute uses radio telescopes to try to pick up messages sent by alien civilisations.
Interestingly, Gliese 581c is so close to the Earth that if its putative inhabitants only had our level of technology, they could - just about - pick up some of our radio signals, such as the most powerful military transmitters. Quite what would happen if we for our part did receive a signal is unclear.
"There is a protocol, buried away in the United Nations," says Dr Shostak. "The President would be told first, after the signal was confirmed by other observatories. But we couldn't keep such a discovery secret."
It may be some time before we detect any such signals, but it is just possible that today we are closer than ever to finding life in the stars.
William Hill said it had shortened the odds on proving the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence from 1,000-1 to 100-1.
Spokesman Graham Sharpe said: "We would face a possible eight-figure payout if it were to be confirmed that intelligent life of extra-terrestrial origin exists. We felt we had to react to the news that an earth-like planet which could support intelligent life had been discovered - after all, we don't know for sure that intelligent extraterrestrial life has not already been discovered."
The new planet, so far unnamed, is 20.5 light years away and orbits a red dwarf star called Gliese 581.

The Virginia Tech Shooting and Gun Control

I don't mean to say that I'm the sharpest knife in the drawer, but damned if I haven't been saying this since the day it happened. It would take both of my hands to count the people that I know I said it to. Now, Anne Coulter and others, say it.

I do think that there was an error in the licensing system if indeed it is true that a background check for a concealed carry permit overlooked a history of, and continuing concerns of mental illness. That being said, the only other thing that could have helped the victims of this mass murder is the ability to defend themselves. The problem there is that under no circumstances I know of, can anyone but law enforcement bring a firearm onto school property as stated by campus policies.

Did any of the victims have licenses for concealed carry? If they did, then would the school be in danger of a wrongful death suit because they disallowed weapons to be carried by those who were given the privilege by the state?

No, but that doesn’t mean the threat shouldn’t still be made.

Each student and faculty member was well aware that firearms were not allowed on campus, and each individual had every right NOT to attend the school if they had a problem with the rule. One assumes the risk of being defenselessly executed while attending said institutions (notice the tongue-in-cheek).

There needs to be change:

1. Non-citizens who have a history of, and continuing concerns of mental illness should not be given pistol permits.
2. If the state says that I can carry concealed, the state should stand up for that privilege.

The reason (at least in NY, and at least as I understand the logic) for concealed carry is concealment. A gun will not create hysteria because it is concealed. The only time you’ll know if/when I have my weapon on me is in a life or death situation when I’d have no other choice – such as we saw last Monday.

I was told that “...the answer isn’t more guns.” I’m not suggesting that the answer is “more guns.” I’m suggesting that someone like the nut who shot up VTECH wants to do what he did, he’ll find a way. It may have made things more difficult, but I don’t believe that denying him the ability to legally purchase weapons would have prevented him from obtaining them. I think I read somewhere that he filed off the serial numbers – isn’t that an offense itself? If you can assume that my suggestion of a nut doing what nuts do (something undeniable even before now) is accurate, then what is the logic in preventing me from being prepared to defend myself? No, I’m not asking to be strapped 24 hours a day no matter what I’m doing. Asking to be allowed to carry my gun into an everyday place like my class is NOT asking to be strapped while meeting with The President (could you imagine the left’s new position on gun control if we could though?)

More questions: Does a student, fully licensed for concealed carry, break school policy and carry? Does he risk being caught with it for his own safety? I don’t think doing so would consist of breaking the law, but let’s just say it does, for the sake of argument. Should this student, now a lawbreaker, be allowed to maintain his license?

I wonder what impact we could have on American’s attitudes toward guns if we bombarded them from elementary school with gun use and safety the way we do with sexual education. Although I can’t cite any specific cases, I’m of the understanding that a parent has no right to prevent a public school from forcing sex-ed on their student. I wonder what the champions of this situation would say if we forced firearm education on our students.

Sherdog.com, MMA, and Boxing

If I were to give myself to the lifestyle of the starving artist, I would be able to spend a lot more time fighting, and a lot more time writing. What a wonderful life it would be to be a sportswriter, and for a fan of MMA, a writer for Sherdog.com...if you were independently wealthy and money was of no object. I am excluded from this endeavor because I am not independently wealthy, but I have every desire to be just that eventually. Working in real estate and going to law school will help me get there, not training and writing sport articles.

I do, however, love MMA and writing. I hereby applaud the life and give my admiration and respect to the writers of Sherdog.com.

That being said, I'd like to say that not only do I enjoy the articles, but the topics Sherdog's writers choose to write about are right on the nose with some of the things I wish people would say. So, without weighing this post down any more than I need to, I present to you "Boxing in MMA's Shadow by Jake Rossen, originally published on Sherdog.com. Find the original article here. BTW, on the opening survey this morning, I voted for Randy.

Boxing in MMA’s Shadow
By Jake Rossen [4/23/2007]

Fueled up with all of the bravado that comes with being an untouchable athlete, boxing royalty Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced to the press in recent weeks that the "UFC ain't sh-t," concluding that "anyone can get a tattoo and get into a street fight."

Mayweather's elegant, articulate overview of the sport was once common currency among mainstream media and its athletic performers -- now it seems almost quaint in its (alleged) ignorance.

Floyd's peers Evander Holyfield and Oscar De La Hoya have taken the opposite tact, championing the bastard child of boxing and imagining a world where both can peacefully co-exist.

The industry of boxing has become woefully divisive on the matter; it's likely little coincidence that the most malevolent comments have come from agitated promoters with future fortunes to lose, while athletes near retirement age prefer to keep an open mind.

The exception is Mayweather, who, despite being one of the most well compensated fighters in either game, feels the need to choreograph unsolicited outbursts about the mixed-style competition. (And let us not forget fellow naysayer James Toney, who has also decreed he would clean house against the likes of Chuck Liddell (Pictures).)

It's difficult to ascertain whether these statements are simply part of the self-promotion game or not. Both Mayweather and Toney generate dollars by being belligerent, brash antagonists -- a financial lesson that extends from Ali to Tito Ortiz (Pictures). With press outlets and state commissions shaping new attitudes about MMA, it's hard to imagine fellow athletes not being able to discern between a bar brawl and a professional bout.

Or is it?

Try playing devil's advocate and recall your first exposure to the sport. Were you really able to appreciate the intricacies of the mat? Did the stand-up component look as polished and sharp as a pro boxing bout?

Now consider your business is pugilism: it's not hard to believe a passing glance at a bout as sloppily contested as Griffin-Bonnar wouldn't incite some kind of acid reflux.

I sympathize with boxers like Mayweather, who have spent their entire lives honing a specific craft until it's an elite-level display of skill. And now they're watching as fans and media are craning their necks over to a roughneck sport full of athletes who wear their hands at their hips and wind up punches from other states. It's like being Olivier and having to sit and listen to critics praise the latest Adam Sandler vehicle. Perception is reality.

Of course, we (the obsessive-compulsives who own third-generation copies of World Extreme Catfighting) know it's not as simple as that. MMA athletes aren't the strikers boxers are for the simple reason that not enough hours in the day have been allotted to become proficient at every aspect of the fight game. In addition to striking, cross-style athletes have to worry about checking leg kicks, avoiding (or initiating) takedowns, and getting acclimated to the deep waters of jiu-jitsu.

Mayweather doesn't see that. He sees wild swings married to some kind of bizarro wrestling match, a human pretzel of arms and legs on the mat. Toney sees Liddell's awkward stance, a squatting defilement of proper boxing technique, and believes he could take his head off … not stopping to think of what happens when you try and adopt pure boxing into MMA, not understanding what a leg kick does to your thighs, and not cognizant of the perpetual danger of someone trying to take your legs out from under you.

Observers would scoff at MMA's chances of succeeding boxing only a few years ago. The masses, they said, would never tolerate the ground game. Boxing would remain our premier combat sport, and fighters like Toney and Mayweather would never bother to even comment on the variation.

That scenario is changing rapidly, thanks in large part to the free-fight industry refusing to let people wander around with bovine complacency in the matter. National television exposure has altered everything. At the height of the UFC's old-school popularity, a quarter-million pay-per-views were sold; today, that number can exceed one million, despite the increased distractions available via the iPod, the Internet, and a 500-channel cable universe.

It's huge business, brimming with the kind of buzz and exposure that boxing used to enjoy. But the Tysons are gone and the De La Hoyas are nearly out the door. There appears to be no one on the horizon who will be boxing's great salvation, the Ali that stirs emotional investment in middle-aged housewives.

Boxing isn't going anywhere; no obituaries are needed. But I do wonder what happens 20 years from now, when the elder statesmen who grew up looking to that sport as an institution are gone, and the current generation will have been weaned on the likes of Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) and Matt Hughes (Pictures).

Perhaps boxing will devolve into the kind of fringe activity that kickboxing is today, a stand-up attraction that toils in the shadow of a more noble and respected sport.

Evolution isn't meant to be kind. Mayweather's not happy, but I doubt the theropods were, either.

In Brief

Mirko Filipovic (Pictures)'s anticipated run through the UFC heavyweight division hit a stumbling block in the form of Brazilian Gabriel Gonzaga (Pictures) on Saturday. Cro Cop's first-round knockout loss puts a serious damper on the mega-money matches that were on the table against Randy Couture (Pictures) and Chuck Liddell (Pictures). Both Gonzaga and Matt Serra (Pictures) seem to be signaling another change in the proverbial (perhaps literal) guard, where grapplers are getting up to speed on the stand-up game. … If commentator Mike Goldberg utters the exhausted phrase "meteoric rise" one more time, I might puncture my eardrums with a toothbrush. … In a performance that enforced his now 1-6 record in the UFC, Elvis Sinosic (Pictures) was again used and abused in an effort to make hometown draw Michael Bisping (Pictures) look good. Sinosic is a game fighter with a great attitude, but he's shark bait in the UFC, easily devoured from within his own guard. Let's move on already.

The month of the Underdog

Cro Cop almost had his head taken off last night. The kick that sent him to sleep looked a lot like one of his own. Gonzaga controlled the entire fight, start to finish. I knew he was a game fighter, but to make Cro Cop look like an amateur the way that he did was a huge suprise to everyone - except of course Randy.

Cro Dropped: Gonzaga Shocks Croat in UFC
April 22, 2007
by Paul Concannon (uk_mma2007@yahoo.co.uk)

[4/22/2007] MANCHESTER, England, April 21 -- In a crammed MEN arena, Gabriel Gonzaga (Pictures) became the latest in an ever-growing list of fighters to prove that in mixed martial arts, above all other sports, nothing is sacred.

Even those who felt that the Brazilian grappling standout had a chance to upset the odds against Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic had to have felt that no victory would be gained without the four-time BJJ Brazilian national champion walking through fire against the lethal hands and feet of the Eastern European dynamo.

As it turned out, "Napao" made the whole thing look relatively simple, controlling almost every second of the four minutes and 51 seconds the bout lasted, before finishing the Croatian powerhouse with a high kick to the temple.

"I knew I was aiming for a knockout in this fight," Gonzaga said. "I saw the opportunity and took it."

"Cro Cop" entered to an enthusiastic reception from a Manchester crowd of 14,921 that seemed blissfully aware of what manner of fighter was gracing the night with his presence.

Yet it was the confident-looking Gonzaga who largely controlled the feeling out process, repeatedly throwing, if not landing, a straight right hand while giving the impression he was looking at setting up something altogether bigger. More importantly, he kept the 2006 PRIDE Open-Weight Grand Prix champion from getting set for his lethal left hand and nuclear-powered kicks.

Absorbing Filipovic's first kick of the night to the body, Gonzaga scored a solid takedown to get the lighter man exactly where he wanted him.

Controlling from half-guard, Gonzaga unleashed a busy ground-and-pound attack, mixing in punches with nasty looking elbows. Gonzaga maintained position, and dealt out a solid, steady beating that almost inevitably led to bleeding, which appeared to be coming from a cut somewhere close to the hairline.

With the round over four minutes old, and "Cro Cop" pressed against the fence eating punches, referee Herb Dean (Pictures) requested a surprising and somewhat controversial stand-up. The arena crackled with excitement as the bout entered Mirko's territory. The crowd waited for a bomb to drop, and sure enough, it did -- but it was the Croat that was the surprising recipient.

As soon as Gonzaga's leg smashed against Filipovic's temple, one knew there could be no possible way back. Falling limply to the canvas, out cold, the force of the kick almost turned the southpaw inside-out; there were a few worrying moments until, thankfully, he was able to come round, sufficiently enough to graciously deliver a post-fight interview.

The ecstatic Brazilian had delivered an almost flawless performance, and barely taken so much as a punch in anger for his trouble.

"I was right mentally and physically and I knew the knockout would come," Gonzaga said afterwards.

Sitting ringside was UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture (Pictures), who had likely been licking his chops at the prospect of taking on "Cro Cop" later in the year, will now likely have to contend with the powerful Brazilian instead.

As for Filipovic, it's unclear where he goes next, a fact duly acknowledged by the MMA legend moments later.

I don't know," came his stoic response during the post-fight interview. It's likely he just had a bad night, but what is certain is that Gonzaga had a very good one.

View the original article in its entirety at Sherdog.com by clicking here.

Only the Devils

How do you go from finishing in second place in the league to going down 2-1 in the first round of the playoffs?

Well, first you fire your coach for not preparing you for the playoffs...I guess the rest is yet to see. Thoroughly disappointing.

http://www.newjerseydevils.com/

I suppose here would be a good place and time clarify...I think the reason that I root for the Devils is this: Everyone around me when I was younger was a Ranger fan. This was escalated when the Rangers won the Cup, but by then I was already a Devils fan. I have no connection to New Jersey whatsoever; in fact, I hate the state. I think it was just my youthful pain-in-the-assness that made me want to root for a different team than everyone else did. If that's not the reason, then I don't know what it is. There you have it.

Now they need to STOP SUCKING. Especially Brodeur. How do you give up two shit angle goals like that, two games in a row? Those were your mistakes. Your defensemen played those plays as well as anyone could have asked them to. Those goals can not go in even if you're just trying to get by a bottom seeded team in the first round of the playoffs. If you get tooled by Tampa Bay...I suppose I'll shut up here and wait for game IV.

"...there's no margin for error right now." ~ Ken Danyko

Gee, didn't see this coming II

I think I'm going to have a "Gee, didn't see this coming series." All that really means is that there will be many posts with that title and a number after it. yay.

Found here at The Smoking Gun. The original article has pictures and other stuff, check it out.

Duke Charges Dropped
North Carolina attorney general calls lacrosse trio "innocent"
APRIL 11--Meet Crystal Gail Mangum. The North Carolina woman, a 28-year-old college student/exotic dancer, last year claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a trio of Duke University students after she performed at an off-campus party attended by members of the school's lacrosse team. This afternoon, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced that he was dropping all charges against the men, saying that there was "no credible evidence" against the "innocent" trio. Cooper said that, in fact, evidence gathered by investigators contradicted the accuser's claim, adding that the woman herself has "told many stories" that were themselves contradictory. Asked if she had lied about the attack, Cooper said that investigators think that she "may actually believe" the many different stories she has told. As for charging Mangum in connection with her claims, Cooper said it was "not in the best interest of justice" to file charges against her. He then made reference to "sealed" records--which apparently regard her mental health--about the woman that convinced prosecutors not to pursue charges against her. With investigators now formally repudiating Mangum's assault claims, we're publishing a booking photo of her snapped by Durham cops. She was arrested in June 2002 on a drunk driving rap (and other misdemeanors) and later copped a plea and was sentenced to probation.

Shame

Click here for the orignial article.

Report: Guillard Tests for Cocaine
By Sherdog.com Staff [4/13/2007]

April 5 won't be the day Melvin Guillard (Pictures) remembers as the time he lost to Joe Stevenson (Pictures) in 27 seconds. Rather, the lightweight from Louisiana will likely remember the most recent UFC Fight Night for becoming the first mixed martial artist to test positive for cocaine metabolite in the state of Nevada, fightnetwork.com reported Thursday.

Guillard, 23, participated on the second season of The Ultimate Fighter and has since gone 3-2 inside the Octagon.