BBC News has an interesting look into the lessons of The Lorax and I'm actually on board for most of these messages. Seuss had a way of giving those lessons like Mary Poppins administers medicine and it is sweet and cute and seemingly innocent (I respect people who take issue with that "innocence"). Of course I do laugh about the final lesson, Mazda using the movie hype to sell kids on their brand. Yeah, not a fan.
The NYTimes released one of the more bizarre reviews for the movie I've ever seen. I feel both assaulted as a conservative but somehow congratulated all at the same time. I'm really just confused by the whole experience, kind of like how people tried to go after the new Muppet movie for the oil tycoon villain.
RT isn't too hot on The Lorax, receiving a rotten rating currently (it's on the cusp). It hasn't reached 100 reviews yet, so that might change. I'll bet the political nature of it probably doesn't do it any favors though. Either way, I'm still excited (and at 56% it should be very watchable).
The President's personality. The NYTimes has an interesting look at David Plouffe, a key Obama election advisor. Very interesting person and a fascinating glimpse at who he is. Only wish they had something more to say about him.
Bountygate: the legal look. @mccannsportslaw takes a look at some of the legal implications of the Saints bounty scandal. Interesting on a purely speculative level, but I do feel like it's written in a semi-disingenuous manner. He mentions all of these potential legal consequences but basically says, at the end, "Well, they're not likely to happen." Which as a 1L, I would have assumed the same. I think the reasonable person would likely agree. I think it's interesting to have this kind of look for hypothetical/theoretical purposes, but you should really come out stating its more of a thought experiment rather than something that is likely to happen.
Mike Silver also takes a look at some of the implications for the league, likening the whole situation to Spygate of a few years back. As Mike says, this is going to be a whole lot worse though.
The malice at the palace. Grantland did an excellent piece detailing the whole circumstances of the crazy situation. It's written in an interesting manner in that it is recreated through quotes from the different individuals involved. Most of them were not willing to give current interviews, so it was bits and pieces of things they had said in the past. At first this kind of bugged me and I wanted more narrative but it grew on me as I read.
As far as the incident, I think my main beef of what went down resides in the refs. Refs are responsible for controlling the game. Undoubtedly players should be mature enough to control themselves, but that's just not how it works often times; things get heated and people get out of control, it's not right but it happens. So the game had become increasingly chippy and it was pretty much won already. The refs really should have called it tight and warned both benches (i.e. their coaching staffs). It doesn't sound like that was the case though.
It was interesting to see the comment about players demanding to meet their statistical requirement, not surprised by that much but I'm not sure I had ever seen a real comment about that ever.
Going back to officiating issues, it's interesting that Tim Donaghy was involved. Given what we've found out about him since, I wonder if the way he was calling the game was somehow influenced (you'd have to assume yes). Which means that potentially he was choosing not to call fouls due to his gambling problems. That's a scary thought. Also, since this was an issue that started on the courts I see absolutely no reason why the refs should have been allowed to run off of the court when it got out of hand. As I stated before, it is their responsibility to control the game. That means they should be ready and willing to put themselves into positions of danger to control the on the court situation. If the fans started flipping without an on court incident, I think their behavior could be excused, but that wasn't how this worked. I realize they are small, older men, but that seems like part of the responsibility they accept. If the NBA doesn't want it to work like that, then they need to have special security assigned to take that responsibility from the refs (and that's a fine alternative).
It's an incredibly long article, but I do recommend reading the portion about Ron Artest on the table. Just absolutely hilarious because he is such a bizarre individual. Ron breaking the fourth wall was a lot of what made this get out of hand. It was like he became a part of the crowd (and then he got real up close and personal). Of course it's too bad the NBA or the Palace didn't have a better way of enforcing known, unruly fans. Those guys that started the incident sound like they never should have been allowed in the building in the first place due to previous incidents.
UCLA Basketball is a mess. SI gave an interesting look into how much of a mess they've become. Of course to most of the article I say, "Whatever." Look I don't doubt the validity of what occurred and I certainly would never excuse any of the behavior, but they paint this as a huge institutional mess there and I don't think that's what's going on.
Lets start with Coach Howland. Frankly I'm surprised he's found so much success by being the type of coach he's portrayed to be in the article. My guess is that means he's a good recruiter and typically has recruited good, disciplined players (till more recently). I think it's fair to suggest there is a lack of institutional stability in that the head coach drives everything. If there are problems with the head coaching, undoubtedly issues will abound. However, it does sound like historically Howland has had a good eye for great players who have a good work ethic and great skills. Maybe he got lucky or maybe it's skill on his part. Of course things seem to have changed more recently, I think it's more of an issue that he brought bad apple(s) (I'd attribute that mostly to Reeves Nelson, but we'll get to that in a few) rather than his methodology fosters improper behavior in general. And maybe it's because of his recent success that he became more lax in those he selected for his program. Sure, I think he could and should improve and his hands off approach is not likely to fix problems. But I don't think this entails a complete institutional breakdown.
Now for the players. This is mostly where my "whatever" comment is driven. There's this big huge painting of the improper behavior of players and I just want to scream at society when I see this. Look most of what occurred does not sound any different that what is typically going on with most D1 programs. You have got to be kidding me that kids aren't partying quite regularly. And personally I don't find that to be acceptable, but I don't force my value system on others. They're adults, they're allowed to make up their own mind on acceptable behavior. However, the issue arises when they let that get out of balance as it appeared this UCLA Basketball team did. Maybe Howland could have helped with that, I don't know. I do know that a number of the players let the balance of off court stuff affect their on court stuff. Even with that going on though, that doesn't seem to be nearly the killer that Reeves Nelson was. Maybe this atmosphere of bad behavior encouraged the attitude of Nelson, I couldn't say for sure. However, he clearly seems to be a particularly vile individual in the way he chooses to behave. Unfortunately the coaching staff (i.e. Howland) failed to reign this in early and it turned into a big fiasco. But really Nelson is responsible for so much of what is going on now because he was clearly such a bad apple. That still all falls on Howland's shoulders, but I wouldn't be surprised to see UCLA rebound from this a bit. Their history is enough to rise above this current negative PR. But Howland may not be the coach that reaps those benefits.
Beautifully crafted ad. Bravo Guardian. Just tremendous work.
I know nothing about the genesis or purpose behind this, I just know it's fun, beautiful, imaginative, and really awesome. Clearly there is some influence from The Wizard of Oz behind it.
This might be the greatest sport ever invented. I really can't say much more about it. It's that awesome.
The Fulmer Cupdate. Just sheer genius as always. The story about the South Carolina kid is so masterfully crafted it brought a tear to my eye.
And in more awesomeness.
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