1. World Cup.  Alright, everyone’s got their vuvuzula stuff out of their system by now right?  I mean, this thing has been underway for a while and the competition is heating up.  There are bad ref calls and whatever.  What I just learned is that the United States wants to host the Cup in the future.  Why?  While the US Team is doing fine and dandy, people don’t really care.  They may pretend to care just like they pretend to like classic films like Casablanca when they haven’t ever really seen it.  I’m more than okay letting the world enjoy their World Cup without America feeling like she has to get all into it.

2. Oil Spill. OMFG, is that shit still going on? You know, when I made my first Facebook post about that, it was already two weeks old. Now it’s more than two MONTHS old. Beaches are getting trashed, lives are being devastated, and it’s become quite the nightmare environmental scenario. Worse, the relief wells are still not due to be complete for over another month and you know, I am not all that confident that’ll fix things either. This situation cannot be minimized. It really is THE most important thing in America right now. It practically screams what’s wrong with our government, our industry, and our energy policy what with all the corruption and inaction across the board.

3. Afghan War. A big time general got kicked out because he said lots of negative things about those in charge in an article published in Rolling Stone. First, Rolling Stone still exists? Secondly, I want to know why we’re still in Afghanistan. It ain’t to fight Al Qeada like was originally planned. They’ve moved on to Pakistan. Is it to fight the Taliban? Is it to fight people that only fight us because we’re there fighting them fighting us? I thought I elected Obama to get us out of these wars. Wait, that brings me to…

4. President Obama. He hasn’t closed down Gitmo. He hasn’t brought home our troops. He hasn’t really done a very good job at bringing our economy back. He kept many of the Bush era policies of warrant-less wiretapping and secret prisons. He’s half-assed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. He’s half-assed nominated liberalish people to the Supreme Court. I’m going to say what many of my liberal friends won’t… he’s not been an effective leader. Yes, I know it’s only been such and such many months. Yes, I know he inherited many problems. But he’s had plenty of time to suck on his own. He completely has bungled the Oil Spill. He continues to not be a good leader in economic policies that reform the way things are done. Handing out cash isn’t a solution. His one big win of Health Care isn’t even really that impressive considering it lacks a Public Option and the implementation of the effects are all way diluted with time. He has squandered a majority in the house and senate and now with mid-term elections looming, under his leadership or lack thereof, there are overwhelming predictions that Republicans (and even more terrifying Tea Party members) are going to be roaring back. Son, I am disappoint.

5. “Later, Skater: On Tour!” Buy your copy for summer reading today. Sales haven’t been great, which is confusing me. I mean, I sold and gave away lots and lots of copies of the original “Later, Skater” The sequel is bigger and better and downloadable for instant gratification for only 5 dollars. FIVE DOLLARS! Get it today to help keep me encouraged about my writing.

A U.S. cage fighter ripped out the heart of his training partner while he was still alive after becoming convinced he was possessed by the devil, it was alleged today.

Jarrod Wyatt also cut out Taylor Powell’s tongue and ripped off most of his face in a brutal assault that police said looked like a scene from a horror film, officers said.

They claim they found the 26-year-old standing naked over his friend’s body with parts, including an eyeball, strewn around the blood splattered room in Klamath, California.

Wyatt allegedly told police he had drunk a cup of tea spiked with hallucinogenic mushrooms and became convinced Powell was possessed.

According to an autopsy Powell, 21, bled to death after his heart was ripped out.

The coroner said Powell had been alive when the organ was ripped out after his chest had been sliced open with a knife.

Wyatt told the police he thrown the heart into a fire along with other organs that he had removed from the body, it was claimed.

He allegedly told investigators he cooked the body parts because he was fearful Powell was still alive and he ‘needed to stop the Devil’.

Police had been called to the grisly scene after a third friend had witnessed a sudden mood change in Wyatt after they had all ingested wild mushroom tea.

Justin Davis told police he returned to the flat to find Wyatt naked and covered from head to toe in blood.

He noticed an eyeball lying in the middle of the floor and saw Powell’s mutilated body.

A lawyer representing Wyatt has claimed the wild mushrooms caused him to act in such a violent way and had not control over his actions.

‘My client was trying to silence the devil,’ said James Fallman.

‘I think he was having a psychotic fit based on the mushrooms he had.’

Wyatt has been charged with first degree murder and torture.

Prosecutors added the torture charge as Powell was still alive when his heart was removed.

U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir says he received threats from anti-fur activists that made him fear for his safety, causing him to scrub any plans to stay at a hotel while in Vancouver for the Olympics.

“I felt very threatened,” he said Saturday. “I’m not allowed to say how everything got through, but my agent got letters and faxes and e-mails. I got letters at the ice rink, somebody found my phone number.

“All these crazy fur people. Security-wise, to stay in a hotel would be very difficult. There have been threats against me. I didn’t want to get hurt.”

Weir is sharing a suite with U.S. ice dancer Tanith Belbin in the Olympic village. The longtime friends have their own bedrooms and bathrooms.

Belbin won Olympic silver in 2006 with partner Ben Agosto. A three-time national champion, Weir, who finished fifth in Torino, was third at this year’s nationals to gain the final spot on the U.S. team.

The men’s short program is Tuesday with the free skate set for Thursday.

“I’m just an easy person to pick on because I like fur,” he said. “It’s easy to put your case against an athlete who is going to the Olympics. It’s a very good, easy thing for these activists.

“It’s a very scary thing. I’m a figure skater, I’m not some huge politician who gets these things all the time.”

Weir was criticized by animal-rights activists after he donned a costume in nationals with white fox fur on the shoulder. He said after the event that he would wear faux fur in the Games, but has since changed his mind.

“It was not because I was pressured to change it, but because I don’t like faux fur,” Weir explained. “I didn’t change the costume, I’m just switching back to another costume.”

SAN DIEGO — Talk about adding a late-inning buzz to a ballgame.

Thursday’s game between the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres was delayed for 52 minutes in the top of the ninth inning Thursday when a swarm of bees took over part of left field at Petco Park.

A beekeeper was called the downtown ballpark and sprayed a chair and a ballgirl’s jacket that had attracted the bees.

“The umpires made the right call to stop the game,” Padres president Tom Garfinkel said. “There’s a couple thousand bees there. If they decide to swarm on a person, whether that’s a person, an employer or a fan, we could have a real situation.”

The game was halted at 3:09 p.m. The beekeeper arrived at 3:56 p.m. and the game resumed five minutes later.

After Joe Thatcher’s first pitch to Miguel Tejada with two outs in the ninth, Padres left fielder Kyle Blanks began walking in toward the infield. Second base umpire Mike Reilly walked toward left field to see what was going on.

Within minutes, the rest of the players left the field.

The swarm first appeared along the warning track. Later, fans were cleared out of several sections down the left-field line.

Houston led 6-1 at the time.

Garfinkel said head groundskeeper Luke Yoder had the beekeeper on his speed dial.

Adult entertainment production company Pink Visual is offering local Comcast customers a $10 coupon to allow them to finish viewing the porn that interrupted the Super Bowl last Sunday.

“We feel really bad for the customers that were just getting into it when Comcast rudely switched back to the football game before the clip could really get going,”
Kim Kysar, a spokeswoman for the company, said in a news release.

The $10 promotion can be attained by going online to www.iPinkVisualPass.com and entering ‘pornbowl’ into the promo code box.

Earlier this week Comcast customers who viewed the porn clips were told they could get a $10 credit on their next cable bill by calling 1-888-315-8219 from the phone number that is listed on their Comcast account.

(Ed note: That’s brilliant. Exactly the type of marketing strategy needed in this day and age.)

TACOMA, Wash. — Debris flew into the grandstands at a monster truck show in Washington state, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring another spectator, witnesses and city officials said Saturday.

A red truck came apart while doing doughnuts during the freestyle competition of Friday night’s Monster Jam show, the witnesses said. Debris from the truck flew 30 to 50 feet over a safety barrier into the stands.

“Parts were falling off and a piece flew up and hit a little boy,” Christine Moe told King Television of Seattle.

Police Officer Mark Fulghum said officers serving as security at the Tacoma Dome investigated the accident.

“At this point, there’s nothing to indicate that there’s anything criminal,” Fulghum told The Associated Press on Saturday night. “Right now it looks like a tragic accident.”

The Pierce County medical examiner’s office identified the boy killed as Sebastian Hizey of Puyallup.

The boy’s father, Jessie Hizey, issued a statement to KIRO-TV on Saturday that said his son was hit in the head by a Frisbee-sized piece of metal, weighing between 7 and 12 pounds.

“I cannot get the images” out of my head, the father said.

The man who was injured was taken to a hospital Friday night, but Robert McNair-Huff, community relations manager for the city, said the man’s identity was not available Saturday.

Some spectators told the TV station they had to throw cups off the stands to get the attention of medics. The show continued after the two were hurt, and many spectators left.

“They just kept going,” Moe said. “We grabbed our kids and just bee-lined out of there.”

Laurie Deranleau, 32, a nurse from Westport, told The News Tribune, “Everybody sitting around thought they should have dropped the show and gave the family some respect. Nobody was paying attention to the show.”

The Tacoma Dome was continuing with four Monster Jam shows on Saturday and Sunday.

McNair-Huff said the promoter, Feld Motor sports, promised more inspections of trucks in the show and that the truck involved in the accident would be withdrawn.

“All of us at Feld Motor Sports are saddened by the accident that occurred last night at the Monster Jam Show in Tacoma when two of our customers were seriously injured,” the Aurora, Ill., company said in a statement Saturday to the AP. “Feld Motor Sports is looking into this tragic accident as the safety of all our customers is our top priority and this type of incident has never happened before in the history of Monster Jam events.”

YAHOO TOP 10 OVERALL SEARCHES FOR 2008

— 1. Britney Spears

— 2. WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)

— 3. Barack Obama

— 4. Miley Cyrus

— 5. “RuneScape”

— 6. Jessica Alba

— 7. “Naruto”

— 8. Lindsay Lohan

— 9. Angelina Jolie

— 10. American Idol

MINNEAPOLIS – While police say a high-profile indecent conduct case in the Minneapolis Metrodome Saturday is closed, a Carroll woman involved in it told the Daily Times Herald she believes she was a victim of foul play rather than a willing collaborator.

Lois K. Feldman, 38, of Carroll, and Ross M. Walsh, 26, of Linden, were ticketed for indecent conduct after they were reportedly caught engaging in sexual activity in a Metrodome men’s restroom handicapped stall during the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers game with the Iowa Hawkeyes. More than a dozen people in the restroom were cheering Feldman and Walsh by the time authorities arrived, a University of Minnesota Police report says.

Feldman acknowledged drinking heavily before the game and says she doesn’t remember being in the bathroom.

“I would never ever do that,” Feldman said. “My kids are my life. I go to church every Sunday.”

Information obtained in police reports and during an interview with University of Minnesota Police Chief Greg Hestness revealed no suggestion or evidence that the incident was anything but consensual on the part of both Walsh and Feldman.

But Feldman tells the Daily Times Herald she may have been drugged or otherwise victimized.

“Everybody thinks something got put in my drink,” Feldman said.

She offers no further details as to how that might have happened or who may have been involved.

“Right, and that’s what my attorney and I are working on,” Feldman said.

Contacted this morning and asked if Feldman was planning to file a complaint or seek a reopening of the investigation in Minneapolis, Jeff Minnich of Carroll, Feldman’s attorney, said he had no comment.

The Daily Times Herald sought to contact Walsh, but there is no phone listing with the address he gave police. An Avalon Security officer, Craig Andrashko, who was listed in the police report as the first witness to the incident, did not return a phone call.

But in the police report, Andrashko described what he observed as “sexual intercourse.”

Hestness said the case is closed by citation.

When asked to respond to Feldman’s suggestion that she is a victim of a crime, Hestness said: “All I can say is the actions went on for some period of time with many witnesses on hand and no one reported either party was objecting.”

Hestness said Feldman made no allegations to the officers at the scene about the incident being non-consensual.

“If the implication is lack of consent due to intoxication, I guess that could be true for either party, however, they declined the officer’s request to submit to an (alcohol test) so the extent of intoxication cannot be demonstrated,” Hestness said.

(Ed note: Ah yes, the I’ve so embarrassed myself I need to make it look like I’m a victim excuse. I believe next comes sit down with Good Morning America, then admittance, then divorce, then the inevitable crappy ass book deal. Call it the six stages of criminal fame.)

MINNEAPOLIS — While the Hawkeyes were stomping the Gophers on the Metrodome field last weekend, police said two Iowa fans were having a romp of a different kind in a restroom. Both events, police say, had their share of cheering fans.

A 38-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man turned to a handicapped stall for their tryst Saturday evening.

On the field, the Hawkeyes were on their way to 55-0 trouncing of the Gophers. In the restroom, a crowd of intoxicated fans gathered to cheer the off-the-field event.

Eventually, a security guard tipped off University of Minnesota police. Officers had to interrupt the couple to cite them for indecent conduct, a misdemeanor.

Police Chief Greg Hestness said the woman initially gave a false name to officers. She was released to her husband and the man was released to his girlfriend.

A female football kicker was let back on the field last weekend. But controversy keeps swirling around the decision to let her play football with home-schooled and private school boys.

The Georgia Football League official who sidelined Spalding County kicker Kacy Stuart for most of the season based on her gender gave in and allowed her to play. But he doesn’t want to discuss it.

“There’s no story,” said Hank St. Denis, the league’s executive board chairman. “She’s playing, isn’t she? End of story.”

In August, St. Denis told Kacy, 14, she could not play after she was accepted by and practiced with the New Creation Center Crusaders.

The first team Kacy faced relied on the Bible to express its beliefs about female football players in a pre-game statement, said New Creation athletic director Coach Ken Townley.

“The East Atlanta Mustangs didn’t play us under protest but they were allowed to read a statement on their beliefs about female football players,” Townley said. “They used biblical verses from the book of Romans. I was very stunned by that.”

Mustangs Coach Alan Hawkins did not immediately return phone calls or e-mails Monday asking for comment. St. Denis didn’t want to discuss why he changed his mind after being sent a letter from an attorney representing the Stuarts.

The Crusaders beat the Mustangs 39-8, with Kacy doing all the kicking and completing three extra-point attempts, Townley said.

“She’s an amazing kicker and I’m glad she got to play,” he said. “She’s a natural, she’s really good and only 14.”

The Crusaders were slated to face the Bartow Generals Saturday for the last game of the regular season but that has been scrapped. Kacy’s mother, Angie, thinks the team doesn’t want to face a girl.

But Generals coach Mike Gifford disputed that. “We’re not playing them but for reasons not related to that,” he said, without elaborating.

The Crusaders, who won the league championship last year, have a 4-3 record, Townley said, and are expected in the playoffs.

Instead, Townley said the Crusaders will play LaGrange’s Dawson Street Christian School Wildcats Oct. 30 at 7 p.m.

DALLAS — Three girls were disciplined for playing a suggestive song at a North Texas high school pep rally, school administrators said.

The girls, who are on the twirl team, were disciplined after playing Katy Perry’s song “I Kissed A Girl” at a pep rally at Van High School in Van Zandt County.

The song’s lyrics, which are performed by a woman, say, “I kissed a girl, and I liked it.”

Jordan Downey, one of the girls who was disciplined, said she didn’t think the school would care about the song.

“They told us that it probably won’t be a very good a idea, and then we decided, like, it’s not a big deal, we’ll just run for it, no one’s going to care,” she said.

School officials said the girls broke the student code of conduct.

“We did have rules in place, and rules were broken and discipline followed,” said Van Independent School District spokesman Suzie McWilliams.

Downey said she thinks she and the other two girls were disciplined because the song is about a girl kissing another girl.

“It’s a song,” she said. “It’s just like any other song.”

School administrators told NBC 5 the twirlers will not be allowed to attend two football games and one pep rally.

“The pep rally is OK. I could deal with that one,” Downey said. “But the game — I really like to perform, especially since it’s a home game.”

Downey, a senior, has been a member of the twirl team for the last four years.

Taylor Lewis, a senior at Van High, said band members wore stickers that said, “no twirlers, no band” and that the drum line is saying it will not play at the games.

A parent, who did not want to be identified, said she feels the song is inappropriate for school and should not have been played at a pep rally.

Jordon Downey’s mother, Jane, said the situation wasn’t a big deal. She also said the punishment was fair.

She said her daughter isn’t a bad person. The school district agreed and said the matter is closed.

Oh and if you want more…

Beijing — One little girl had the looks. The other had the voice.

So in a last-minute move demanded by one of China’s highest officials, the two were put together for the Olympic opening ceremony, with one lip-syncing “Ode to the Motherland” over the other’s singing.

The real singer, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, with her chubby face and crooked baby teeth, wasn’t good-looking enough for the ceremony, its chief music director told state-owned Beijing Radio.

So the pigtailed Lin Miaoke, a veteran of television ads, mouthed the words with a pixie smile for a stadium of 91,000 and a worldwide TV audience. “I felt so beautiful in my red dress,” the tiny 9-year-old told the China Daily newspaper.

Peiyi later told China Central Television that just having her voice used was an honor.

It was the latest example of the lengths the image-obsessed China is taking to create a perfect Summer Games.

Also Tuesday, Beijing organizers confirmed that some of the opening ceremony’s fireworks display — 29 gigantic footprints shown “walking” toward the National Stadium — featured prerecorded footage. The footage was provided to broadcasters “for convenience and theatrical effects,” said Wang Wei, vice president of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee.

(NBC also has augmented its Olympic coverage in the past to set the right mood. That fire in the studio fireplace during the 2002 Salt Lake Games? It was just a video.)

But the switched singers was creating the biggest uproar among the Chinese. In a brief phone interview with AP Television News on Tuesday night, the music director, Chen Qigang, said he spoke about the switch with Beijing Radio “to come out with the truth.”

“The little girl is a magnificent singer,” Chen said. “She doesn’t deserve to be hidden.” He said the ceremony’s director, film director Zhang Yimou, knew of the change. He declined to speak further about it.

China has been eager to present a flawless Olympics face to the world, shooing thousands of migrant workers from the city and shutting down any sign of protest.

The country’s quest for perfection apparently includes its children.

“The national interest requires that the girl should have good looks and a good grasp of the song and look good on screen,” Chen said in the Beijing Radio interview, posted online Sunday night. “Lin Miaoke was the best in this. And Yang Peiyi’s voice was the most outstanding.”

A member of China’s Politburo asked for the last-minute change during a live rehearsal shortly before the ceremony, Chen said in the video. He didn’t name the official.

“The audience will understand that it’s in the national interest,” Chen added.

On Tuesday the link to the video on the Beijing Radio Web site no longer worked.

Miaoke’s performance Friday night, like the ceremony itself, was an immediate hit. “Nine-year-old Lin Miaoke becomes instant star with patriotic song,” the China Daily newspaper headline said Tuesday.

Zhang, China’s most famous film director, was asked at a post-ceremony news conference about the little girl who swung on wires high above the Bird’s Nest National Stadium during the performance.

“The girl in red is named Lin Miaoke, a 9-year-old kid,” Zhang said, according to a transcript posted on the Beijing organizing committee’s web site. “She is selected among many girls. She is a lovely girl and she sings well.”

During the live rehearsal the Politburo member decreed that Miaoke’s voice “must change,” Chen said in the radio interview.

Peiyi’s looks apparently failed the cuteness test with officials organizing the ceremony, but she had the most beautiful voice.

“We had to make that choice. It was fair both for Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi,” Chen told Beijing Radio. “We combined the perfect voice and the perfect performance.”

He said he felt a responsibility to explain to the country what happened.

The switch became a hot topic among Chinese and raced across the country’s blogosphere.

“The organizers really messed up on this one,” Luo Shaoyang, 34, a retail worker in Beijing, said Tuesday. “This is like a voiceover for a cartoon character. Why couldn’t they pick a kid who is both cute and a good singer? This damages the reputation of both kids for their future, especially the one lip-synching. Now everyone knows she’s a fraud, who cares if she’s cute?”

Others disagreed.

“They want the best-looking people to represent the face of China. I don’t blame the organizers for picking a prettier-looking kid over the not-so-pretty one,” said Xia Xiaotao, 30, an engineer.

“It’s the unfortunate reality that these sort of things turn political,” said marketing worker Zhang Xinyi, 22.

It was not the first time an Olympics opening ceremony involved lip-synching.

At the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Luciano Pavarotti’s performance was prerecorded. The maestro who conducted the aria, Leone Magiera, said earlier this year that the bitter cold made a live performance impossible for Pavarotti, who was in severe pain months before his cancer diagnosis. Pavarotti died in September 2007 at age 71.

Neither of the two little girls involved could be reached by The Associated Press on Tuesday, and it was not clear how the ceremony — or the controversy — might change their lives.

Peiyi is a first-grader at the Primary School affiliated to Peking University. Her tutor, Wang Liping, wrote in her blog that Peiyi is both cute and well-behaved, with a love for Peking opera.

“She doesn’t like to show off. She’s easygoing,” Wang wrote. She and other school officials couldn’t be reached Tuesday.

Miaoke, however, was a minor celebrity even before the opening ceremony. The third-grader appeared in a television ad last year with China’s biggest gold medal hope, hurdling champion Liu Xiang, and she was in an Olympics ad earlier this year, China Daily reported.

Miaoke has her own blog, and one of the latest photos posted there shows her looking up nervously at the ceremony’s director, Zhang. “Giving the child encouragement,” the caption says.

Her father, Lin Hui, told China Daily he learned Miaoke would be “singing” only 15 minutes before the opening ceremony began.

Lin “still cannot believe his daughter has become an international singing sensation,” the report said

* Today is the last day you can vote in the current Pretty Boy Poll

* Related perhaps, please keep the *chan conversations off the tagboard. I don’t want to gain notoriety with those folks. It would only end poorly for my sites, I’m sure.

* Boku No Sexual Harassment OAV 3 is now available over on shotalicious.org

* Any donations you’d like to make to help me get to DragonCon and/or Anime Weekend Atlanta this year would be much appreciated. Buying a book gets you a book and me 4 bucks so maybe it’s time to finally get your copy?

* Stupid sexy Randy Orton got into a motorcycle accident just after he was cleared medically to return to the WWE and now is out -another- 3-6 months. Damn you Orton!

* I really thought the Opening Ceremony for Beijing’s Olympics were the most beautiful thing ever televised.

* In Soviet Russia, Georgia will become part of you. (By force if necessary, apparently.)

* Happy (belated) Birthday Elf.

* Over on the secret Pico x Chico x Coco Hype site, the AMV for Boku No Pico has been fixed to where it now includes sound. Yeah, it kinda helps to have sound in an anime MUSIC video.

Police and firefighters were called to the University of Texas’ Jester Hall to free 26 cheerleaders who had crammed themselves into an elevator.

A group of 14- to 17-year-olds attending Texas Cheer Camp in Austin decided to see how many girls they could squeeze into the elevator around 6 p.m. Tuesday, campus police said.

The elevator successfully descended from the fourth floor to the first, but the doors refused to open.

The panicked girls managed to wiggle a few cell phones free to call for help. But it took about 25 minutes before a repairman was able to fix the door, police said.

“It’s dangerous actually,” said Rhonda Weldon, director of communications for the UT Police Department. “They’re lucky that that’s all that happened.”

One teen fainted and was treated and released from a nearby hospital. Two others were treated at the scene.

“Take the sign seriously,” Ms. Weldon said. “There are signs everywhere: No more than 15 people or 3,000 pounds.”

A banned bullfight involving a 10-year-old child matador will go ahead Thursday in the southern French town of Arles despite protests from anti-corrida campaigners, organisers said.

Michelito, a Franco-Mexican who is a bullfighting star in Mexico, is in France to take part in several “becerradas” — bullfights for beginners in which the calves are not killed.

But French authorities twice cancelled the event last week, in Arles and nearby Fontvieille, following protests by an anti-bullfighting alliance complaining about the presence of a minor in the ring.

Michelito has killed 60 bulls in Mexico since he was six years old. The anti-corrida alliance said it targeted him over other becerrada participants because “he fights in corridas aiming to kill”.

Michelito, whose full name is Michel Lagravere Peniche, was given the green light however to perform in the Atlantic town of Hagetmau on Wednesday, and organisers said the fight in Arles would also go ahead.

“The becerrada planned for last Saturday will take place on Thursday at 6:30 pm (1630 GMT). Michelito will take part along with three other bullfighting students,” said Paquito Leal, head of the Arles bullfighting school.

The local prosecutors’ office said that the situation “has absolutely not changed” since last week, when the Arles fight was banned on the grounds that the bullring did not conform to security standards.

But the mayor’s office in Arles, which supports the event, said a safety committee would visit the arena before the fight and that there was “no reason” for it not to allow the fight.

“The bullring is new and it has been used before for this type of event,” said a spokesman.

Atlanta Braves broadcaster Skip Caray died in his sleep Sunday afternoon. This year was his 33rd season of calling games for the Atlanta Braves. He passed away in his sleep Sunday afternoon in his home in Atlanta.

“Our baseball community has lost a legend today,” said Braves President John Schuerholz in a release by the team. “The Braves family and Braves fans everywhere will sadly miss him. Our thoughts are with his wife Paula and his children.”

Skip Caray was the son of legendary Chicago Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray. Skip’s son Chip Caray followed in their footsteps as well. He joined TBS four years ago to call Atlanta Braves games before moving to their national broadcast team that calls multiple teams. Another son, Josh Caray, currently calls games for the Rome Braves.

According to the Atlanta Braves release, Skip Caray began his broadcasting career at KMOX-Radio in St. Louis, Mo., as host of a 15-minute high school sports show and as a sportscaster for high school basketball games. He later joined his father as a color commentator for University of Missouri football.

He began broadcasting baseball for the Tulsa Oilers of the Southern League in 1963. He also has announced for the Atlanta Crackers in baseball’s Southern League and basketball for St. Louis University. He joined the NBA’s St. Louis Hawks broadcasting team in 1967, moving to Atlanta with the team the following year.

Caray was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame in 2005 with his longtime broadcast partner Pete Van Wieren.

He devoted many hours to volunteer work, serving as a board member of Camp Twin Lakes, a camp for children with special needs and worked with the Hemophilia Association.

Born in St. Louis, Caray was a graduate of the University of Missouri, with honors in journalism. Skip is survived by his wife, Paula, and four children; Chip, Cindy, Shayelyn, and Josh and seven grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later time.

(Follow up to It’s An Olympic Trap post.)

For more than a year, officials in Beijing have been designing a special laboratory to determine the sex of any athletes taking part in this year’s Olympic games. “Suspected athletes will be evaluated from their external appearances by experts and undergo blood tests to examine their sex hormones, genes and chromosomes for sex determination,” says Professor Tian Qinjie. The tests will not be conducted on every female athlete, but will be required if serious doubts have been raised about an individual competitor – invariably one competing in the women’s events. “The aim is to protect fairness at the games while also protecting the rights of people with abnormal sexual development,” he says.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) introduced sex testing in 1968 at the Olympic games in Mexico City, after the masculine appearance of some competitors, many pumped up by anabolic steroids, had started to raise questions about the gender of athletes in female events. Unsurprisingly, gender-determination tests were seen as degrading, with female competitors having to submit to humiliating and invasive physical examinations by a series of doctors. Later, the IOC decided to use a supposedly more sophisticated genetic test, based on chromosomes. Women usually have two X chromosomes; men an X and a Y chromosome. So, according to the rules of the test, only those athletes with two X chromosomes could be classed as women. However, many geneticists criticised the tests, saying that sex is not as simple as X and Y chromosomes and is not always simple to ascertain.

It is thought that around one in 1,000 babies are born with an “intersex” condition, the general term for people with chromosomal abnormalities. It may be physically obvious from birth – babies may have ambiguous reproductive organs, for instance – or it may remain unknown to people all their lives. At the Atlanta games in 1996, eight female athletes failed sex tests but were all cleared on appeal; seven were found to have an “intersex” condition. As a result, by the time of the Sydney games in 2000, the IOC had abolished universal sex testing but, as will happen in Beijing, some women still had to prove they really were women.

Transsexuals, who have had a sex change from male to female, can compete in women’s events in the Olympics, as long they wait two years after the operation.

The following are some of the more famous instances when female athletes were caught in the gender trap.

Santhi Soundarajan

One of the most tragic recent cases is yet to reach a conclusion. Soundarajan, a 27-year-old Indian athlete, has had to endure public humiliation after she was stripped of her silver medal for the 800m at the Asian games in 2006. Soundarajan, who has lived her entire life as a woman, failed a gender test, which usually includes examinations by a gynaecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist and a genetic expert. The precise results of the test have not been made public, but it has been reported that the likely cause is a condition called Androgen insensitivity syndrome, where a person has the physical characteristics of a woman but whose genetic make-up includes a male chromosome. The Canadian cyclist Kristen Worley, who has undergone sex reassignment surgery, is one of a number of people who are calling for Soundarajan’s medal to be reinstated. “It should never have been handled in such a gross manner, amounting to public humiliation because of their ignorance of her condition,” Worley has said. “The Olympic movement has been dealing with intersex people since the 1930s. You’d think they would have got the hang of it by now.” The humiliation and prospect that her career may be over has taken its toll on Soundarajan. In September, Indian newspapers reported that she had survived a suicide attempt.

Edinanci Silva

Born with both male and female sex organs, the Brazilian judo player had surgery in the mid-90s so that she could live and compete as a woman. According to the IOC, this made her eligible to participate in the games and she competed in Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens in 2004. In Sydney, she beat the Australian judoka Natalie Jenkins, who raised the issue of Silva’s gender in a press conference, constantly referring to her as “he”. “I have never fought that one before. My plan was not to grip with her, she’s – he’s – very strong,” she said. Silva gave a mouth swab to officials, which proved she was female.

Dora Ratjen

In the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, Adolf Hitler wanted to show the world the supremacy of the Aryan race – and he needed German athletes to win. Ratjen, notable for her deep voice and her refusal to share the shower room with the other female athletes, was Germany’s entry for the women’s high jump. She came fourth. Britain’s competitor, Dorothy Tyler, who won a silver medal, remembers her. “I had competed against Dora and I knew she was a man,” she says. “You could tell by the voice and the build. But ‘she’ was far from the only athlete. You could tell because they would always go into the toilet to get changed. We’d go and stand on the seat of the next-door cubicle or look under the door to see if we could catch them.” Tyler held the world record for the high jump, but when officials wrote to her telling her that Ratjen had broken it, she wrote back. “I said: ‘She’s not a woman, she’s a man,’” she says. “They did some research and found ‘her’ serving as a waiter called Hermann, so I got my world record back again.” Dora, who had been born Hermann Ratjen, had in fact been a member of the Hitler Youth and said that the Nazis had forced him to enter as a woman.

Stella Walsh

At one point, Walsh, a Polish-American sprinter, was the fastest woman in the world. Born Stanislawa Walasiewicz in Poland in 1911, she grew up in the United States, although she represented her country of birth at the 1932 and 1936 Olympics, winning gold and silver medals respectively for the 100m sprint. During her long career, she set more than 100 national and world records and was inducted into the American Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1975. She lived her entire life as a woman, and even had a short-lived marriage to an American man. In 1980, Walsh was killed by mistake during an armed robbery at a shopping mall in Cleveland, Ohio. The postmortem revealed she had male genitalia, although this did not prove that she was a man as she was also found to have both male and female chromosomes, a genetic condition known as mosaicism.

Heidi Krieger

It is believed that as many as 10,000 East German athletes were caught up in a nightmarish state-sponsored attempt to build a race of superhuman communist sports heroes and force-fed cocktails of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. One of them was Heidi Krieger, a shot putter. When she was 16, her coach put her on steroids and contraceptive pills and she gained weight, built muscle and started to develop body hair. By 1986, aged 20, she was European champion. Her overdeveloped physique had put a huge amount of pressure on her frame, causing medical problems, while the drugs had caused mood swings, depression and resulted in at least one suicide attempt. By the mid-90s, Krieger underwent gender reassignment surgery and changed her name to Andreas. She had already been confused about her gender, but felt that the drugs had pushed her over the edge. “I didn’t have control,” Krieger told the New York Times four years ago. “I couldn’t find out for myself which sex I wanted to be.” At the trial in 2000 of Manfred Ewald, the East German sports official and architect of the doping regime, Krieger said “They just used me like a machine”.

Olympic host Beijing has set up a sex determination lab to test female Olympic athletes suspected to be males, state media reported Sunday.

Experts at the lab, located at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, will evaluate dubious cases based on their external appearance and take blood samples testing sex hormones, genes and chromosomes, Xinhua news agency said.

Sex testing has been routine at the Olympics and other sports events for decades, triggered by fears that male athletes sought to cheat by posing as women.

Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan was stripped of an Asian Games silver medal in 2006 after failing a gender verification test.

And it’s really really funny. I mean, that pretty much is the sheer definition of dumbassness when they have this wordfilter like this.

PARIS (AP) — Police say the last section of the Olympic torch relay through Paris will not be run because of chaotic protests.

Security officials snuffed out the torch and rushed it onto a bus at least five times because of the raucous protests against China’s human rights record.

A police spokeswoman says a vehicle now will carry the torch for the entire last part of the route, to a sports stadium in the south of Paris. The French Olympic Committee says it hopes that runners still might be able to carry the torch at the very end.

A Paris police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media, says at least 28 people have been taken into custody at the protests.

Despite massive security, at least two activists got within almost an arm’s length of the flame before they were grabbed by police. Officers tackled many protesters and carried off some of them. A protester threw water at the torch but failed to extinguish it and was also taken away.

At the start of the relay, a man identified as a Green Party activist was grabbed by security officers as he headed for 1997 400-meter world champion Stephane Diagana, the president of France’s national athletics league, who was carrying the torch from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. The man was tackled before he got close to Diagana.

The procession continued but, soon after, a crowd of activists waving Tibetan flags interrupted it for the first time by confronting the torchbearer on a road along the Seine River. The demonstrators did not appear to get close to the torch, but its flame was put out by security officers and brought on board a bus to continue along the route.

Less than an hour later, the flame was being carried out of a Paris traffic tunnel by an athlete in a wheelchair when the procession was halted by activists who booed and chanted “Tibet.” Once again, the torch was temporarily extinguished and put on a bus despite protesters’ apparent failure to get close.

Some 3,000 officers were deployed on motorcycles, in jogging gear and using inline roller skates. Still, police barely stopped the second rush at the torch, and the attempt to extinguish it with water. Other demonstrators scaled the Eiffel Tower and hung a banner depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs.

The torch was extinguished for the third time when police interrupted the procession as a precaution because they spotted a crowd of demonstrators on a bridge they were approaching.

Police said they did not immediately have a count of the number of arrests. Mireille Ferri, a Green Party official, said she was held by police for two hours because she approached the Eiffel Tower area with a fire extinguisher. In various locations throughout the city, activists angry about China’s human rights record and repression Tibet carried Tibetan flags and waved signs reading “the flame of shame.”

Riot police squirted tear gas to break up a sit-in protest by about 300 pro-Tibet demonstrators who blocked the torch route.

France’s former sports minister, Jean-Francois Lamour, said that though the torch had been put out, the Olympic flame itself still burned in the lantern where it is kept overnight and on airplane flights.

“The torch has been extinguished but the flame is still there,” he told France Info radio.

Police had hoped to prevent the chaos that marred the relay in London a day earlier. There, police had repeatedly scuffled with activists angry about China’s human rights record leading up to the Beijing Olympics Aug. 8-24. One protester tried to grab the torch; another tried to snuff out the flame with what appeared to be a fire extinguisher. Thirty-seven people were arrested.

In Paris, police had drawn up an elaborate plan to try to keep the torch in a safe “bubble.” Torchbearers were encircled by several hundred officers, some in riot police vehicles and on motorcycles, others on skates or on foot. Boats patrolled the Seine River that slices through the French capital, and a helicopter flew overhead.

About 80 athletes had been slated to carry the torch over the 17.4-mile route that started at the Eiffel Tower, heading down the Champs-Elysees avenue toward City Hall, then crosses over the Seine before ending at the Charlety track and field stadium.

Across town, City Hall draped its building with a banner reading, “Paris defends human rights around the world.”

One torch bearer, two-time French judo gold medalist David Douillet, told RTL radio that he regretted the choice of China, “because it isn’t up to snuff on freedom of expression, on total liberty, and of course, on Olympic values.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has left open the possibility of boycotting the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing depending on how the situation evolves in Tibet. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that was still the case.

Activists have been protesting along the torch route since the flame embarked on its 85,000-mile journey from Ancient Olympia in Greece to Beijing.

The torch’s round-the-world trip is the longest in Olympic history, and it is meant to shine a spotlight on China’s economic and political power. Activists have seized upon it as a backdrop for their causes, angering Beijing.

Beijing organizers criticized London’s protesters, saying their actions were a “disgusting” form of sabotage by Tibetan separatists.

“The act of defiance from this small group of people is not popular,” said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee. “It will definitely be criticized by people who love peace and adore the Olympic spirit. Their attempt is doomed to failure.”

The torch relay also is expected to face demonstrations in San Francisco, New Delhi and possibly elsewhere on its 21-stop, six-continent tour before arriving in mainland China May 4.

(Ed note: I’m all for people having an opinion on Tibet and Human Rights in China. They should protest and protest loudly. But to continue to dog the Olympic Torch as it tours through the world is a pathetic display in and of itself. The fact that it turns violent is counter-productive at best and downright shameful and hypocritical at worst. The Olympics is about World Unity. There are much better ways for governments and their people to show disdain for China, like via trade policy. The most peculiar part of all this is, do they really think the Dahli Lama would approve of such actions. Of course not.)

What was supposed to be a celebration after another successful Wrestlemania, ended up with dozens of people injured when fireworks and cables landed on part of a near sell-out crowd at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando on Sunday night.

Orlando Fire Department spokesman Greg Hoggatt says a cable holding the fireworks collapsed at the end of the show. The collapse sent sparkles from fireworks into the crowd. He says there were burn injuries, “up and down the stadium.”

The show experienced a problem earlier in the show when power was temporarily lost to the lights surrounding the ring, leaving the announced crew confused as to what was going on.

At least 40 people were injured when the fireworks and cable collapsed. Officials say all the injuries were minor, but at least three people were taken to area hospitals.

World Wrestling Entertainment has had serious problems at a pay-per-view event in the past, most notably, the death of wrestler Owen Hart, who fell from a scaffold atop the ring while preparing for a stunt.

The Associated Press reported the phone number for the press relations office at the WWE Corporate Headquarters stayed busy for much of the day. Stadium officials have yet to comment on the story. The WWE typically launches fireworks as a show begins and multiple times during a show as certain wrestlers enter a venue.

The company released this statement on the accident:

“We’re investigating the incident and doing everything we can to find out why it happened and to make sure it never happens again. While we apologize to anyone who was injured and/or alarmed by this occurrence, we take solace in the fact that the reported injuries were minor.”

Estimates for last night’s crowd for Wrestlemania topped 74,000.

(Ed note: I hate TMZ but here is the link to the video. Obviously Undertaker should leave the pyro to his brother, Kane.)

CARTHAGE, Mo. (AP) – Ultimate fighting was once the sole domain of burly men who beat each other bloody in anything-goes brawls on pay-per-view TV.

But the sport often derided as “human cockfighting” is branching out.

The bare-knuckle fights are now attracting competitors as young as 6 whose parents treat the sport as casually as wrestling, Little League or soccer.

The changes were evident on a recent evening in southwest Missouri, where a team of several young boys and one girl grappled on gym mats in a converted garage.

Two members of the group called the “Garage Boys Fight Crew” touched their thin martial-arts gloves in a flash of sportsmanship before beginning a relentless exchange of sucker punches, body blows and swift kicks.

No blood was shed. And both competitors wore protective gear. But the bout reflected the decidedly younger face of ultimate fighting. The trend alarms medical experts and sports officials who worry that young bodies can’t withstand the pounding.

Tommy Bloomer, father of two of the “Garage Boys,” doesn’t understand the fuss.

“We’re not training them for dog fighting,” said Bloomer, a 34-year- old construction contractor. “As a parent, I’d much rather have my kids here learning how to defend themselves and getting positive reinforcement than out on the streets.”

Bloomer said the sport has evolved since the no-holds-barred days by adding weight classes to better match opponents and banning moves such as strikes to the back of the neck and head, groin kicking and head butting.

Missouri appears to be the only state in the nation that explicitly allows the youth fights. In many states, it is a misdemeanor for children to participate. A few states have no regulations.

Supporters of the sport acknowledge that allowing fights between kids sounds brutal at first. But they insist the competitions have plenty of safety rules.

“It looks violent until you realize this teaches discipline. One of the first rules they learn is that this is not for aggressive behavior outside (the ring),” said Larry Swinehart, a Joplin police officer and father of two boys and the lone girl in the garage group.

The sport, which is also known as mixed martial arts or cage fighting, has already spread far beyond cable television. Last month, CBS became the first of the Big Four television networks to announce a deal to broadcast primetime fights. The fights have attracted such a wide audience, they are threatening to surpass boxing as the nation’s most popular pugilistic sport.

Hand-to-hand combat is also popping up on the big screen. The film “Never Back Down,” described as “The Karate Kid” for the YouTube generation, has taken in almost $17 million in two weeks at the box office. Another current mixed martial arts movie, “Flash Point,” an import from Hong Kong, is in limited release.

Bloomer said the fights are no more dangerous or violent than youth wrestling. He watched as his sons, 11-year-old Skyler and 8-year-old Gage, locked arms and legs and wrestled to the ground with other kids in the garage in Carthage, about 135 miles south of Kansas City.

The 11 boys and one girl on the team range from 6 to 14 years old and are trained by Rudy Lindsey, a youth wrestling coach and a professional mixed martial arts heavyweight.

“The kids learn respect and how to defend themselves. It’s no more dangerous than any other sport and probably less so than some,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey said the children wear protective headgear, shin guards, groin protection and martial-arts gloves. They fight quick, two-minute bouts. Rules also prohibit any elbow blows and blows to the head when an opponent is on the ground.

“If they get in trouble or get bad grades, I’ll hear about it and they can’t come to training,” he added.

In most states, mixed martial arts is overseen by boxing commissions. In Missouri, the Office of Athletics regulates the professional fights but not the amateur events, which include the youth bouts. For amateurs, the regulation is done by sanctioning bodies that have to register with the athletics office.

The rules are different in Oklahoma, where unauthorized fights are generally a misdemeanor offense. The penalty is a maximum 30 days in jail and a fine up to $1,000.

Joe Miller, administrator of the Oklahoma Professional Boxing Commission, said youth fights are banned in his state, and he wants it to stay that way.

“There’s too much potential for damage to growing joints,” he said.

Miller said mixed martial arts uses a lot of arm and leg twisting to force opponents into submission. Those moves, he said, pressure joints in a way not found in sanctioned sports like youth boxing or wrestling.

But Nathan Orand, a martial arts trainer from Tulsa, Okla., said kids are capable of avoiding injuries, especially with watchful referees in the rings. He thinks the sport is bound to grow.

“I can see their point because when you say ‘cage fighting,’ that right there just sounds like kids shouldn’t be doing it,” Orand said.

“But you still have all the respect that regular martial arts teach you. And it’s really the only true way for youth to be able to defend themselves.”

Back in the Carthage garage, Bloomer said parents shouldn’t worry about kids becoming aggressive from learning mixed martial arts. He said his older son was picked on by bullies at school repeatedly last year but never fought them, instead reporting the problem to his teachers.

And fighters including his 8-year-old son get along once a bout is over, Bloomer said.

“When they get out of the cage, they go back and play video games together. It doesn’t matter who won and who lost. They’re still little buddies.”

NEW YORK — Pro wrestling is getting smacked down by the CW network.

The long-running “Friday Night Smackdown” won’t be airing on the CW this fall, the network and World Wrestling Entertainment said late Thursday. In separate announcements, they stated that “after a successful decade of `Smackdown,’” they had agreed to conclude their partnership after the 2007-08 season.

No reasons were offered.

WWE added that it began talks with other networks after the CW’s exclusive period to negotiate a renewal ended Jan. 31. Although no details were disclosed for a possible new home for the show, candidates might include NBC Universal, whose USA cable channel already carries “WWE Raw,” and MyNetworkTV, where some affiliates aired “Smackdown” when they were UPN stations.

The two-hour “Smackdown” premiered on then-fledgling UPN in fall 1999 as strategic counterprogramming on Thursdays. “Smackdown” gave UPN a foothold on that night of bruising prime-time competition, but even as a ratings contender, it proved to be a sometimes uncomfortable fit with UPN’s image.

When UPN, owned by CBS, merged with Warner Bros.’ WB in 2006, “Smackdown” seemed no less out of place on the resulting CW network.

BEIJING (AP) – The upcoming Beijing Olympics is more than just a point of pride for China—it’s such an important part of the national consciousness that nearly 3,500 children have been named for the event, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Most of the 3,491 people with the name “Aoyun,” meaning Olympics, were born around the year 2000, as Beijing was bidding to host the 2008 Summer Games, the Beijing Daily reported, citing information from China’s national identity card database.

The vast majority of people named Aoyun are male, the newspaper said. Only six live in Beijing. The report didn’t say where the others live.

Names related to the Olympics don’t just stop with “Olympics.” More than 4,000 Chinese share their names with the Beijing Games mascots, the “Five Friendlies.”

The names are Bei Bei (880 people), Jing Jing (1,240), Huan Huan (1,063), Ying Ying (624) and Ni Ni (642). When put together, the phrase translates to “Beijing welcomes you!”

Chinese have increasingly turned to unique names as a way to express a child’s individuality.

In a country with a population of 1.3 billion, 87 percent share the same 129 family names. That’s why 5,598 people have the same name as basketball player Yao Ming and 18,462 share a moniker with star hurdler Liu Xiang, according to the Beijing Daily report.

Parents have turned to unusual combinations of letters, numbers and symbols when choosing their child’s name, Li Yuming, deputy director of the National Language Commission, told the Xinhua News Agency in an August interview.

At least one couple wanted to call their child “1A,” he said, while others use the e-mail address symbol (at), which in Chinese is pronounced “Aita,” meaning “love him.”

Since someone stole a base during the World Series, America gets a free taco!

At Taco Bell between 2 and 5pm on Tuesday October 30th you get a free taco.