Baghdad Burning

Posted on April 12, 2013 by mea

For those of you who have been asking about me and wondering how I have been doing, I thank you. “Lo khuliyet, qulibet…” Which means “If the world were empty of good people, it would end.” I only need to check my emails to know it won’t be ending any time soon.

via Baghdad Burning.

She’s back after 5 1/2 years, her last post on 10/22/2007.   Back during the start of the Iraqi war Riverbend’s blog had insights into life in Baghdad for regular Iraqis during the invasion.   Her blog was very well written and descriptive.  Her last post in 2007 mentioned how she had to escape Baghdad to Syria and then that was it.  I feared something happened to her.  Today google news alerts sent me an email that she’s active once again and still alive.  That made me happy.  From the masthead of her blog:

… I’ll meet you ’round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend…

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Will Ware be stuck with the bill?

Posted on April 1, 2013 by mea

As the civil rights historian Taylor Branch put it in his landmark analysis of the NCAA, “the real scandal is the very structure of college sports, wherein student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies while earning nothing for themselves.” Those players are treated as worse than mere commodities — because at least commodities are given a financial value. They are treated as indentured servants, who do not get their fair share of the revenues and who can be discarded if they dare get hurt doing a job for the very school that refuses to guarantee them a full college education.

via Will Ware be stuck with the bill? – Salon.com.

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4-Billion-Pixel Panorama From Curiosity Rover Brings Mars to Your Computer Screen

Posted on March 29, 2013 by mea


Mars Gigapixel Panorama – Curiosity rover: Martian solar days 136-149 in The World

After several technical glitches shut down operations for a while, Curiosity resumed its science investigations earlier this week. Before the shutdown, the rover had been hard at work drilling into the Martian surface and discovering excellent evidence that the planet was once a place that could have hosted life. Though the probe is back up and running, it will be ceasing operations for a while beginning in April, when Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the sun, which can mess with communications.

Via 4-Billion-Pixel Panorama From Curiosity Rover Brings Mars to Your Computer Screen | Wired Science | Wired.com.

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End the NCAA’s Long Con: Why Student-Athletes Should Be Paid and the Higher Education Bubble Should Pop

Posted on March 23, 2013 by mea

College basketball and football together generate more than $6 billion in annual revenue.  Television deal terms are skyrocketing.  Two years ago, the NCAA and CBS/Turner Sports agreed on a $10.8 billion deal to broadcast March Madness basketball games till 2024.  The Big 12 conference has a 13-year contract with ESPN and Fox for $2.6 billion; the ACC has a deal with ESPN for $3.6 billion.  That cash sluices everywhere on campus, irrigating many stadiums, halls and quads, but not one penny ends up in an athlete’s pocket.

via End the NCAA’s Long Con: Why Student-Athletes Should Be Paid and the Higher Education Bubble Should Pop – Forbes.

Ponder this as you watch March Madness these next few weeks.

After his team’s championship win, according to Grantland, Nick Saban was asked by a reporter why he continues to coach instead of retiring after so many victories.  Saban pulled a spin move with a righteous turnaround: “Why do you do what you do? Are you driven to be the best at what you do?”  What he didn’t add was that he is set to make $45 million over the next eight years.  On top of that, he can add whatever endorsement deals he gets and whatever Nike pays him and the university to outfit the team in its gear.  His players receive nothing.

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What Woodward’s John Belushi book can tell us about the sequester scandal.

Posted on March 12, 2013 by mea

First off, Woodward wrongly calls the cafeteria scene a rehearsal, when half the point of the story is that Belushi pulled it off without ever rehearsing it once. Also, there’s actually nothing in the anecdote to indicate laziness or lack of discipline on Belushi’s part, yet Woodward chooses to establish the scene using those words. The implication is that Belushi was so unfocused and unprepared that he couldn’t make it through the scene without the director beside him telling him what to do, which is not what took place. When I interviewed him, Landis disputed that he ever referred to Belushi as lazy or undisciplined. “The greatest crime of that book,” Landis says of Wired, “is that if you read it and you’d just assume that John was a pig and an asshole, and he was anything but. He could be abrupt and unpleasant, but most of the time he was totally charming and people adored him.”

via Bob Woodward and Gene Sperling: What Woodward’s John Belushi book can tell us about the sequester scandal. – Slate Magazine.

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