- Jim Delany Wants the Power to Fire Coaches– A story in the Chronicle about how Jim Delany, the commissioner of the Big 10 wants the league to give him the power to fire coaches as a fallout from the Penn State debacle. Two comments: 1. There is nothing like a crisis to grant a single executive with undue power; 2. Most likely it is a relatively useless clause since any offense that would warrant Delany firing a coach would result in the university firing the coach (assuming, of course, that the matter became public enough), unless the Commissioner has much more information about the various violations at his universities than is being let on–which would make him somehow culpable in past violations anyway.
- Vicar condemns hotel after it replaces Gideon Bible with 50 Shades of Grey-The Damson Dene Hotel in Crosthwaite replaced the Gideon bibles in its rooms with 50 Shades of Grey. The manager of the hotel suggests that “the Bible is also full of references to sex and violence and the best seller is a much easier read.” He also suggests that most people are too ashamed to buy 50 Shades but are curious, and that the Gideon Bible will still be available at the desk. The local Vicar suggested that this is nothing more than a gimmick to cash in on the transient success of 50 Shades of Grey.
- Why NHL teams cry poor despite the league’s record growth-An article about the NHL and its current collective bargaining issues. The league is going really well in sum, yet in the current negotiation, the Owners would like to make massive cuts to the percentage of the revenue that the players can bring home. The reason for this discrepancy is that the big revenue teams (Chicago, Detroit, New York, Boston, Toronto, Montreal, etc) are making hand over fist, while the small revenue teams are losing money. This is an attempt by the league to cut money from the players in order to fill the gap and make the low revenue teams profitable because (in this argument) they think it will be easier to take the money from the players than it will be to force the high revenue teams to share more of their money. The real problem here is that there are too many low revenue teams in the NHL and more than any other sport, there is a massive revenue gap between teams in the NHL.
- Loch Ness Monster Real in Biology Textbook-this news is a few weeks old, but it is the first I’ve heard of it. Basically, a small christian academy in Louisiana is trying to use vouchers to bring in 135 new students for whom it has no space or resources. In the curriculum at the school is a biology textbook (in use at many christian academies) that teaches that the Loch Ness Monster is a dinosaur, thereby proving evolution false.Despite the peculiarities associated with teaching “Nessie” as a biological fact, the real story here is that a new school voucher system was passed in Louisiana and lawmakers there have determined to oppose any Islamic schools receiving vouchers. One such school that had applied for funding withdrew its request as a result.
- How Long Will China Back Assad-A note about why China has vetoed the latest UN resolution about Syria.
As always, comments encouraged. What else is out there?
Noodlings 