Let Me Repeat: Louisiana Dropped the Ball

I've been called many things in the past 48 hours due to my Katrina-related rant. "Cold"... "heartless"... the circumstances of my birth questioned, and even been called "right" and "dead-on" by a few.

Yes, Katrina turned southern Louisiana and Mississippi into 3rd-world landscapes overnight. And it sucks.

And no, I don't find that description to be an exaggeration when looting has become so bad that martial law is declared with official public emphasis put on the "ruthless police response" part.

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Priomh Potpourri: Everyone's a Target

Bit different of a Potpourri this time around -- a collection of things that annoy me and/or are ticking me off. I have gripes in a lot of areas right now, and it's time get them out there for everyone else to cope with, whether ya'll like it or not...

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Canada's Falklands?

One of the more-bizarre stories to come along the wire in *quite* a while, Canada is doing some genuine sabre-rattling over some uninhabited rocks in the ocean near the North Pole.

Denmark (who owns Greenland), claims the mostly-worthless island in question (Hans Island) is theirs. The Danes are upset that the Canadian defense minister visited there in July. Canada claims it is theirs as part of their arctic territories, and now is sending their meager navy north to assert their claim.

In the meantime, the rest of the world seems to be looking on, making confused faces, and asking "What the heck is wrong with you two?!". The BBC article subtly suggests the real reason for the spat is probably over control of an eventual Northwest Passage due to global warming, plus Denmark for some reason thinks it should own right to the entire North Pole (which makes little-to-no practical sense anyways). Don't these two have better things to do?

Sending your navy to assert territorial claims? Bickering over a possible Northwest Passage?

Guys? Did I miss the memo that it was the 1700's again or something?


-- Primis.

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Finally, NHL Dumps ESPN.

Mercifully now, it's over.

The NHL won't be back on ESPN any time in the near future. I feel sorry for some of the guys in Bristol that are actual die-hard hockey fans (like John Buccigross -- keep in mind a lot of these guys are Midwesterners or New Englanders that grew up with the game, and with ESPN's hoem being in Bristol, Conn. their exposure to the game is greater than most), but the network has consistently treated the NHL like dirt ever since they and ABC got the rights to the NBA, and unless ESPN and ABC were going to dump the NBA it was high time to move on.

ESPN complained that NHL ratings were too low and interest wasn't there. They have only themselves to blame. They never put up a regular schedule of NHL games, instead electing to just sporadically cover them from week to week in some haphazard fashion, often with little-to-no promotion. Oftentimes game start times were 9pm Eatsern or later -- whcih eliminates most of your east coast audience for much of the game (how many Avs-Coyotes game do we need to see, fellas?).

ESPN would try to claim that they "even devoted a Baseball Tonight-ish show for hockey called NHL 2nite". Yes. And they buried it on ESPN2 at 1am with no repeats during the day the next day. So who ever got to watch it? Nobody. Which is too bad because Buccigross, Barry Melrose, Ray Ferraro, and the others all put on a pretty good show. Compare this to the 347589375 times a day ESPN will gladly rerun Baseball Tonight or NBA Tonight and you begin to understand how once ESPN got the NBA they really did deliberately sabatoge the NHL in hopes of getting out.

ESPN also did have some good hockey broadcasters. Despite what anyone else says, the truth is Gary Thorne and Bill Clement are light years beyond the old clowns CBC has on Hockey Night in Canada, and better than the no-talent hacks on TSN, and Steve Levy/Darren Pang was a decent duo as well (even if Levy does get lost from time to time and Panger is a bit excitable). Even some years ago with the death of Tom Mees (who was ESPN Hockey through and through at the time), ESPN consistantly brought good hokcey broadcasters to the table. Too bad they couldn't devote that same energy and enthusiasm to promotion and reasonable scheduling (look at how often they showed Ranger games when the Rangers haven't been any good for some years now).

The NHL didn't succeed on ESPN because ESPN never even gave it a fair shot to succeed, so ESPN has only itself to blame. They wanted the "coveted" NBA though, now they've got it. And now people are beginning to realize the NBA is a boring game right now and I can't help but wonder where this will lead in another 2 years, when the NBA is lagging in ratings and they begin eyeing the NHL as the more-interesting and growing game. The NBA is creeping up on the same thing the NHL ran into in the 1990's regarding its game slowing down and becoming defensive sloth-fests.

The one uncertainty out of this now is what Comcast will do with the NHL. I don't honestly see them putting it on OLN, since OLN's market presence isn't very big. Also, OLN also simply doesn't have the technological assets to broadcast it. It would require a big rework of their network.

The other strange thing is that to most fans it won't matter. They won't watch it on OLN or wherever anyways, they'll watch it on their local or regional broadcast instead.

It'll be funny though to see in a couple years how this all pans out. After this year NBC could decide to increase their slate of games with the NHL and, given the fact NBC doens't really have much else going for it in the sports arena and riding the NHL could make NBC a major player in TV sports once again, and ABC and ESPN might really regret dissing a hardcore, loyal audience for a fickle, casual NBA audience. We'll see....


-- Primis.

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Reilly on Baseball Writers: "Gutless Wonders"

In the current issue of Sports Illustrated, Rick Reilly does what we've all wanted every sportswriter to do since the whole steroid thing came about.

He not only blast the players themselves, he also calls the rest of the baseball media out, including one specific writer.

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Oasis: "Please Explain Our Songs To Us"

I thought this was a joke at first (primarily because we've been joking for years that Oasis has no clue what they're songs are about because nobody else sure knows), then sadly realized it's not a joke at all but just a sad truth.

Noel Gallagher of the inexplicably-popular British rock band Oasis has no clue what his band's songs are about. See, constant drug use will do that...

"I get the odd night when I’m halfway through 'Don’t Look Back In Anger' when I say to myself, 'I still don’t know what these words mean!' "

"I’m thinking what the…what the… 'stand up beside the fireplace?! Why?!'...

...All these kids will be singing it at the top of their voices with all their arms around each other and I kind of feel like stopping and going, 'Look, can somebody help me out here? Am I missing something?'..."

Yes Noel. You missed the fact your band:

a) sucks

b) only ever released one good song ("D'Ya Know What I Mean?", and that was ages ago)

and c) that you and your bandmates are such complete losers you don't even have the foggiest idea what you're playing or singing about.


I'd rather somone explained why Oasis is still around and popular. THAT'S the real mystery.


-- Primis.

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Firefox Backlash Showing Tangible Results?

BBR put up an innocent-looking article entitled "Firefox Loses Market Share to IE" earlier today. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal at first glance, but upon further examination there might be something to it after all.

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USA Today and Quality Control (the lack thereof)

Chalk up USA Today as another publication whose fact-checking skills are apparently zero.

USA Today ran a feature in its business section on August 7th about one Larry Twombly, CEO of a company called Hat Trick Beverage. It's the inspiring story of a former Harvard hockey star, was invovled in a horrific motorcycle accident in which he lost a foot, but cam back to play and was drafted by the Boston Bruins, playing out his career in the minor leagues in the AHL and IHL, before moving on a successful CEO of a venture business on the west coast.

The problem is, there's no evidence any of it it ever happened or is true in the least.



The site Inside College Hockey had seen the article and found it curious, since as college hockey enthusiasts they'd never heard of the guy or his story.

So they began digging through statistics and team records. And nowhere in college or minor leagues could they find a single reference to Mr. Twombly. So INCH contacted USA Today, who then noted that they too found a lot of inconsistencies and problems with the story.

By August 11th USA Today ran a follow-up to the story, noting the inconsistencies and seriously questioning the authenticity of any and all of Twombly's claims, and his very business itself. From the second article:

"In the story, Twombly said his company is based in Encinitas, Calif., and is poised to do about $5 million in business this year. City records in Encinitas show no business license for Hat Trick Beverage, but San Diego County records show it granted a license this year. No other records of the company under that name are listed with the California Department of Corporations, the state's Franchise Tax Board or the Secretary of State.

When he was reached Monday, Twombly said his company is registered in Colorado.

A listing with the Colorado Secretary of State showed Hat Trick Beverage was incorporated there in 2003. But the state dissolved the registration on June 1, 2005, because the company failed to submit paperwork listing its principal place of business and registered agent.

Hat Trick Beverage's last filing with Colorado in 2004 showed it based in Newport Beach, Calif. "

Oops.

So yeah, the guy's busted. This is probably going to result in some sort of larger situation for him involving fraud and who-knows-what-else.

The real question here though is, why didn't USA Today check out a *single fact* in the story before printing it, when a writer for a college hockey website had no problem finding inconsistencies with it? Where were USA Today's fact-checkers?

Do they even have or use any?

Apparently not.


-- Primis.

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NCAA: Erasing Native American History

I'm completely and utterly flabbergasted at the recent NCAA decision to rule that member school Native American nicknames are, to use the NCAA"s own exact words, "hostile and offensive".

What are the offensive names you ask? The horrible, tragic names of the Florida State Seminoles, the Central Michigan Chippewas, Illinois Fighting Illini, and the Utah Utes, to name a few.

And I can see how they'd be offended at the reminder that there were once, and still are, native americans in this country. Clearly that's what this is all about, right?...

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Zero Tolerance... For Whom?

We all know how well (read: poorly) "Zero Tolerance" policies work in schools and in the genral public.

One of the prime examples of this is an ongoing story out of Pennsylvania where a group of high school students are being charged as felons for "breaking in to" school-supplied laptops using a "password" that was knowingly and deliberately supplied on the bottom of the laptop.

Another example is the current media frenzy over wide open wireless access points, and the attempted criminalizing of anyone who might use them because they're running out in the open.

Two different stories with 1 very similar bent. So what gives?

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The New NHL - Hypocrites Disinterested in Justice (Same As the Old)

The National Hockey League reinstated Vancouver Canuck forward Todd Bertuzzi on Monday from his indefinite suspension for possibly ending an opposing player's career in an on-ice attack.

Bertuzzi missed a total of 13 games for his suspension.

What a joke and complete miscarriage of justice...

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Busted.

As everyone in the whole world knows by now, Orioles outfielder Rafael Palmiero has tested positive for steroid use. This is the same Palmiero who went before Congress a few months ago, pointed his finger at them and stated "I have never taken steroids". Oops.

You'll hear a lot of people trying to make excuses for Palmiero because, unlike say Barry Bonds, the world in general doesn't hate him and wish him dead. Whatever. HE TESTED POSITIVE. At this point, the burden of proof is now on him, not anyone else.

So far Palmiero's excuse it "I didn't know, I don't know where it came from". Sooooo.... you're just the stupidest person on the planet, and not a cheater? That's SOOO much better.

Palmiero knew he and everyone else in baseball would be under the microscope now. If he doesn't know what he's putting in his body still, he deserves to be punished solely for being the biggest moron in a sport full of complete morons.

Either way, he deserves everything he gets, and unless someone can prove the test for performance-enhancing drugs is faulty, so does everyone else. Shed no tears over him. Next time he steps out onto the field, boo him, call him a cheater. And make him ashamed of what he is and what he did.

And make him an object lesson and example for any other players that still think they can't and won't get caught.


-- Primis.

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