Thursday, March 4, 2010
After major losses, Blockbuser brings back late fees
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Who needs American Idol when there is Youtube?
NFL Blog Found

Thursday, February 18, 2010
Steroids and Baseball
Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Fines in Sports
Animal Testing

Hyrbid dogs
A couple months ago I watched a Tv show on the Smithsonian channel that really interested me. “Man’s Best Friend” was a show documenting the presence of dogs in our lives and the ever-changing popular breeds of dogs. Introduced over the course of the program was the idea of hybrid dogs. Hybrid dogs are a combination of different pure breed dogs, created to combine the best of both breeds into one. Over the past 5 years, hybrid dogs such as the puggle, snoodle, and labradoodle have evolved, producing high demand. There are many perks to hybrid dogs besides their obvious cuteness. The most popular of these breeds is the labradoodle, a hybrid cross between the labrador retriever and poodle. This particular breed has become immensely popular in the past few years because they are hypoallergenic dogs, meaning that even those with allergies can now own dogs! However, these dogs do not come cheap! Labradoodle puppies are sold anywhere from $1,000-2,500 per puppy. So it seems like this is the perfect idea right? We have man’s best friend, now lets make him even better; the ultimate dog! Wrong. The consequences and complications that come with hybrid breeding can be damaging. Issues such as hip dysphasia, blindness, and other diseases and disorders become more prevalent in hybrid dogs. Also, the conditions that these animals are being bred in are often unacceptable, bordering on puppy mills! Often an owner will have hundreds of dogs at a time, experimenting with new breeds of dog. The thing that really bothers many people, including me, is that these pure breed dogs and hybrid dogs are putting mutts and pound puppies out of homes. These same dogs are often euthanized if a homes can no be found, or there is not enough room in shelters. Ironically, people want hybrid dogs because they are the mix of two purebred dogs, which ultimately makes it a mutt. So what is the difference between the $50 mutt found at the local shelter, and the $2500 mutt labeled a hybrid? The difference is the labeling and advertisement. Unfortunately, these hybrid dogs, such as the labradoodle are already showing up at local shelters across the country. Personally, I find it ridiculous to pay thousands of dollars for a dog just because of its looks and their supposed superiority. Millions of people find their dog, man’s best friend, at the local animal shelter. So why waste the money, and risk the health consequences of hybrid dog breeding? As all things come and go out of style, hybrid dogs will do so as well. What we are then left with is even more dogs and a shortage of homes and families to love and care for these animals.
Olympic Snowboarder Seth Wescott
Like most Americans, my television has been centered on sports for the past few days as the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics began. As I have watched the Olympic events, one story I found particularly interesting is that of Seth Wescott, the 33-year old Olympic snowboarder from Maine. After winning the gold in the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, Wescott returned to defend his title. However, battling with injury and poor qualifying times, Wescott had his work cut out for him. Coming from the back of the pack, Wescott made a heroic comeback to narrowly defeat Mike Robertson to win the gold. My main attraction to this blog about Seth Wescott was the fact that he was from Maine. Everyone likes to see star athletes and famous people emerge from their home communities. The fact that a two time Olympic gold medalist did the majority of his training at Sugarloaf Mountain is pretty exciting for residents of Maine! I actually know several people who frequently ski and snowboard at Sugarloaf who have met Seth Wescott.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/15/seth-wescott-wins-snowboa_n_463170.html
Found MLB Blog
Steroids in Baseball
Steroids in Baseball
Steroids have become a huge part of baseball in the United States. Players like Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, who are two of the best home run hitters of all-time have been accused taking these illegal drugs. They are not the only ones however, those are just two names among hundreds of players who have been accused of taking steroids, or have tested positive for performance enhancers.
It is really too bad that players used steroids to try and break records and become the best at their sport. I’ll give it to them, it worked. I guess if you’re not cheating you’re not trying. So many players were doing it that maybe the ones who weren’t felt like they were falling behind, and maybe that lead them to do steroids. Who knows what was going through some of these guys heads. What happened, happened. So now what to do with all these new records that have been recorded during the so called “steroid era”? If you ask me, there shouldn’t be any asterisks, and records shouldn’t be taken off the books. Yes, I disapprove of players taking steroids, and no I am not a fan of any player who took steroids. However, with the huge population of players who took steroids, there is no way to figure out all the players who were taking steroids, and all the players who weren’t. Are you going to put an asterisk next to every name who played during the “steroid era”? That’s not fair to the guys who were clean. Are you going to put an asterisk next to names or completely take names off lists of players who tested positive? You could, but who’s to say the next guy on the list wasn’t taking performance enhancing drugs.
There’s definitely easy way to “fix” this. I don’t think there’s anyway to fix this at all. The records just have to stay as is. Is it fair? That’s your call. I’m still not positive, but right now that seems like the fairest way to deal with it.
Gadling: The World's Biggest Travel Blog
Celtics Fan blog
Ray Allen trade
Monday, February 15, 2010
on edge!
Too fat to fly
My Favorite Blog

One of the things I really enjoy in my spare time is cooking. After looking at a bunch of different blogs I decided that "my kitchen addiction" was my favorite. I first got the idea to look for a cooking blog from the movie "Julie and Julia". This blog includes all different kinds of recipes. Every week or so the blogger writes about a new topic involving food. On each of the posts you can leave comments and read other peoples feedback. Another cool feature about the blog is that it suggests other blogs to look at that are similar. There are some really awesome recipes and pictures too!
http://www.mykitchenaddiction.com/
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Should Drinking Age be Lowered?

Should the drinking age be lowered to 18 in America?
The drinking age in America is 21 and many people have debated that the age should be lowered. It is said that people can smoke, fight in the war, serve on a jury and gain several new privileges at the age of 18 but they can't have alcohol. Some colleges even believe that lowering the drinking age is the best idea and think that preventing underage college kids from drinking is not really working. It is almost impossible to prevent underage drinking because if kids want alcohol they will find a way to get it, especially on a college campus. Underage drinking occurs on all college campuses and because its illegal many students will hide their drinking leading to other problems. For example if a person gets alcohol poisoning they might hesitate to get help because they will get in trouble by thier parents and because it is against the law. Another important factor is that kids might not be taught enough about alcohol in school or in their homes and might not realize that it can lead to trouble. In many countries drinking is not an issue because the drinking age is lower and kids learn about drinking in moderation from their families. In America kids are told that they can not drink until they are 21 but most kids don't listen to that law because they figure that no one will catch them, or that they don't even care about getting into trouble. Lowering the drinking age would help kids become more familiar with alcohol and maybe become safer while consuming alcohol. I also think that it would be very important to make sure that laws were state in high schools about the drinking age and that students were taught about alcohol in health class before they turn 18. Many people believe that when the drinking age was changed to 21 it just shifted the amount of fatal drinking car accidents from teens to the young adults. Maybe 20,000 lives were saved between the ages of 18-20 year olds because the drinking age changed to 21 but im sure about 20,000 young adults died that year from drinking and driving. Lowering the drinking age would be a good idea because kids will become more familiar with drinking at home and increasing alcohol education could also be helpful in decreasing fatal accidents and decreasing drinking related incidents. The drinking age wont matter if it stays at 21 because college kids and others will still get alcohol and drink if they want to. Acknowledging that kids are drinking at a younger age and changing the drinking age is the best solution to the problem. Requiring kids to take health class that talk about the effects of alcohol and talking to kids about what happens while drinking and driving should also be required.
A few sites that prove/talk about these theories:http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/19/60minutes/main4813571.shtml
http://www.youthrights.org/dafaq.php
http://drinkingage.procon.org/
Winter Olympics Tragedy 2010
This blog was about Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian Luge athlete that just died while practicing for the Olympics. I had heard about this tragedy but wasn't really sure what had happened so therefore I picked this blog to read and comment on. I thought that it was very thoughtful of the team to wear black scarves, black arm bands, and carry the flag with the black ribbon to honor him in the opening ceremonies. I also heard that after this incident they made some changes to the course making a higher protective wall on that last turn and starting the luge course a little lower down. I think that is very important that they changed something about this course to show that this was a big deal and that it obviously wasn't just the athlete screwing up in his practice runs. Even if it made the course easier at least the course is now safer, which is obviously more important. I also think that it is pretty cool that they are creating a new luge track in Bakuriana and it will be named after Nodar. I think this must be very sad for his family and friends and also for all the people in Georgia cheering for their team.