Draft Overkill

This rant is aimed at a certain unnamed sports channel. Perhaps a worlwide leader. Who doesn't carry many truly international events. But I digress. The people whose Rose Bowl coverage almost made this Southern boy denounce college football is now making me despise the NFL. Okay, just the draft. I get it, there's no other sports on, certainly not playoffs in 50% of the pro sports leagues to devote hours and hours of droning speculation to. I've never cared about the NFL draft. The draft coverage attracts two types of fans: helpless fantasy nerds and insufferable fans of crappy teams. Oh, and it also gives Jets fans something to boo during the offseason. I might check online Sunday morning who the Broncos got and if Jerious Norwood got drafted. And that'll be it. Like it should be with normal people (notice I didn't say people with a life, for a reason). And it's not just me who thinks it, out there in the far reaches of the interweb, another scientist/rugger with a blog agrees with me.

Congrats to the Sun-Herald

Well, it seems that the newspaper from one of my many hometowns has gone and won itself a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, which it's sharing with the Times-Picayune. Considering the readership of the other papers in the lists of winners, I think it's quite an accomplishment. There's more story here. This sums it up nicely

The Sun Herald won for its "valorous and comprehensive coverage ... providing a lifeline for devastated readers"

and hopefully the next one they win will be for entirely different reasons.

Easter candy turducken

Because nothing goes with a religious holiday like a treat that can induce a diabetic coma and should come with a dentist's phone #. In the spirit of the original, I present you the chocolate bunny/ marshmallow Peep/ Cadbury egg "turducken" courtesy of the culinary masterminds at Asteroid.
Even the picture makes my molars ache.

Road Trip!!!

Well, it seems that the Auburn Hooters was suggested to start dishing out specials that weren't on the menu. Just to confuse, the acutal lawsuit involves a dude suing for sexual harrasment. And here I thought the waitresses were just teases out for extra tips. The "pep talk" came courtesy of a representative from corporate hq! Looks like I frequented the wrong loacations.

Feds pinch Methodist ninja!

A sad day for shady owners of black sweatsuits everywhere. So here's the rundown (no pun intended, but yet still implied): Kid dressed as a Ninja at UGA is coming back from a Wesley Foundation party with a Pirate vs. Ninja theme (which is an aspect of Holy Week I was unaware of until now) and the ATF agents on campus (?!) take him down. And proceed to use his neck as a kneeler. There's more here. With the best comment

when ninja costumes are outlawed, only outlaws will have ninja costumes.

But, as is often the case with Real Ultimate Power, this is not yet over...

Inadvertantly pretentious movie news

And for those of us out there who like to long for some long-lost time known as "the good-old days", here's a little realism to bring us back down to earth. Namely: what is popular and what is considered good over the long haul are seldom the same thing. Take that into account when mashing preset buttons on your stereo or rolling your eyes at the movie listings. And embrace the smug. Hell, even the story only gets 2.5 stars from the readers.

MySpace + reverse Lolita teacher = Jail

Yep, you knew it was bound to happen. The teacher who slept with her student (no, not the one in Washington, no not the "manic-depressive" media-blaming one from Florida) is back in the news. And back in jail. I suppose this will give the "White girls in peril" cable news folks something else to talk about for a day or so. I'm sure they already have a "Hot teahcer did what...again" graphic ready. Good thing there's nothing else going on in the world for them to talk about.

So That's the Problem!

Well, according to this helpful post, and also this one I'm pretty much doing it all wrong here. So to the literally dozens of people who stumble across this amalgam of rambling nothingness...oh well. Plus, if this is any indication (and we've all seen it happen), we're not missing out on much.

Science! Controversy!

Wow. Nothing says online smack-fest like this story. An ecologist may have suggested the earth would be better off with less of us around. A lot less. 90% less. Of course, an actual transcript of said speech seems to be impossible to track down, and that's where the fun begins. This story courtesy of the Society of Amateur Scientists with some editorial comments here (bonus points for Manson and Hitler analogies) and it seems to have ignited the folks at Hit and Run (their headline sums it up). Of course, the comments are fun to delve into. The Bioethics Blog took the story up, too. Finally, the sciencey-politicy Panda's Thumb suggests it might be some sort of conspiracy.

Great Day to be a Dawg

In pulling a one-two combo of on the field and off the field screw-ups, my alma mater has proven that of all the Charlie Browns in the SEC, they're the Charlie Brownest. First, the #1 baseball team in the land drops 2 out of 3 in freakin' Tuscaloosa, and then as the sprinkes on the icing of the bitter, bitter cake that is MSU sports, some football players beat up an off-duty cop in a ratio usually reserved for fraternity beat downs. I am allegedly surprised and reportedly disappointed.
Local News...
Regional News (uh oh)..
NATIONAL NEWS!
All the outlets that picked it up from the wire!!! Just freakin' great.
Yes, it is a fine day to be an alum of North-Central Mississippi's finest land-grant institution.