Farewell to a Difficult Season

Today is the last day of March - and hopefully the last day of what has been a prolonged, difficult winter season. I don't think I am the only one to feel this way: Many bicycle blogs have slowed down this month - with fewer posts and fewer comments, and lots of people have mentioned feeling dispirited. Funny that March should be the month to almost do us in, rather than January...

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NASCAR Continues to Go its own Way

Just as the NHL and the other big 3 professional sports leagues continue to crack down on athlete misconduct on and off the field, NASCAR seems to be headed in the opposite direction. The NHL now forbids blindside hits to the head, and the NFL forbids almost any hit to the quarterback, but NASCAR has decided that it is permissible for one driver to intentionally crash his car into another driver during a race. I have a new column up on the Huffington Post that compares NASCAR's new (or reborn) "have it and have a good time" policy with the safety/image-first...

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That simple but profound joy in life and sports

To: The Sportsleader FamilyFrom: Steve Frommeyer, Principal and Head Football Coach Eminence High School - Eminence, KYFirst, I would like to thank Lou Judd for giving me the opportunity to share some thoughts with the Sportsleader Family on a regular basis. SportsLeader and Lou have both been a tremendous asset to our program, myself personally, and most...

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House of Commons CRU Email Report

The UK House of Commons has released its report (PDF) on the issues associated with the release of emails and other materials from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia last November. The report keeps a tight focus on CRU and Phil Jones. It provides a nice summary of issues, complaints and responses but adds very little new substance, which is...

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Climate Science and Sea Level Rise: A Report from the Real World

A Guest Post by Skip StilesSkip Stiles is the Executive Director of Wetlands Watch a nonprofit based in Norfolk, Virginia focused on the protection and conservation of Virginia's wetlands. In this guest post he describes his view from the front lines of adaptation policy -- trying to deal with both climate science and sea level rise.I read with interest and conflict, the...

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WKC Classics LCCJ 27/3

I was away at the WKC's (World Kettlebell Club) long cycle competition in New York this weekend. I just had to go to a competition. Since Ventspils in August there has been some good opportunities, but I was always hindered from going. I just felt I had to compete or risk losing motivation and getting sloppy with working the details (a few "no-counts" are great cure for that...

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Selective Ignorance--Practical Tips for Developing a Low Information Diet

Tim Ferriss advocates the practice of selective ignorance. Selective ignorance is where you edit out information in your life that is useless and irrelevant to your projects in order to free up more time. A low information diet is great advice until you try to implement it. Then, you have to make decisions, and that sucks. So, I will help you out with these practical tips.A...

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I hate having my photo taken ...

but today I relented and let Nick take a few of me with Brennan. All I will say is it is lucky Brennan is so handsome and photogenic!...

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Is Kane the answer?

Is this the man who is the answer to the New Zealand cricketteams problem.A man who can bat long innings, a bat who can score at a decentrate and score big centuries.Surly this series was an eye opener, he may be young, but starthim young so he learn, when you want to be the best, you have to play against the best.Here's hoping that Kane Williamson will be the name on theselectors...

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New Sports Law Scholarship

Recently published scholarship includes:Douglas E. Abrams, Sports in the courts: the role of sports references in judicial opinions, 17 VILLANOVA SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT LAW JOURNAL 1 (2010)Roger I. Abrams, Sports arbitration and enforcing promises: Brian Shaw and labor arbitration, 20 MARQUETTE SPORTS LAW REVIEW 223 (2009)Timothy S. Bolen, Note, Singled out: application and defense of antitrust law and single entity status to non-team sports, 15 SUFFOLK JOURNAL OF TRIAL & APPELLATE ADVOCACY 80 (2010)Christopher B. Carbot, Comment, The odd...

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The Scope of MLB's Antitrust Exemption

With Major League Baseball's Opening Day less than a week away, I thought now would be an appropriate time to mention my new article considering the scope of MLB's antitrust exemption, Defining the 'Business of Baseball': A Proposed Framework for Determining the Scope of Professional Baseball's Antitrust Exemption, slated for publication later this year in the U.C. Davis Law Review.While baseball's exemption from antitrust law is generally well established, lower courts have struggled to define the boundaries of the exemption following the Supreme...

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Coaches Wedding Renewal

Over the weekend my wife and I had the opportunity to attend one of the most inspiring SportsLeader events ever - The Coaches Marriage Renewal. It was beautiful to be able to attend something with my wife.  We were 7 couples, 1 Priest and 1 young man who is giving a year as a volunteer. 5 couples were from the Covington (KY) Catholic High School football program, 1 from Cincinnati Winton Woods Wrestling and us. I cannot encourage you all to organize something like this for you and your program strongly enough. You NEED to do this! We...

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Thoughts on Consumerism, Vanity, and Enrichment

To enjoy life, you don't need fancy nonsense, but you do need to control your time and realize that most things just aren't as serious as you make them out to be.TIM FERRISSAs anyone who knows me will tell you, I am a cheapskate. What this means is that I don't buy a lot of consumer items on credit. The reality is that if I won the lottery tomorrow (which I never play) my...

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Freeing Energy Policy From Climate Science

Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger have a new essay over at Yale e360. It is right on target. They argue that justifications for action on energy policy need to be decoupled from climate science -- for the good of both. Here is how they start off:The 20-year effort by environmentalists to establish climate science as the primary basis for far-reaching action to decarbonize...

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Taxing professional athletes

The state of Tennessee last year enacted a Professional Privilege Tax on Professional Athletes, taxing home and visiting NBA and NHL players $ 2500 per game, up to three games. (H/T: Deadspin, via FIU student Wes Plympton). Detroit Red Wings Captain Brian Rafalski has objected to the tax, noting that seventeen teammates who make in the $ 500,000 range (minimum NHL salary) end up losing money on the days they play in Tennessee. Proceeds from the tax apparently go to the municipality to fund various public parks/recreation projects. Interestingly,...

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Coaches Wedding Renewal Father Matthew Talk

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Speak it into Existence

By Randy TraegerHead Football Coach OregonSpeak it into ExistenceI had been coaching about 10 years and our teams had had moderate success.  We were average, ever looking for the secret formula that would propel our program to the next level. A state contender.Then one day, it dawned on us. While we all were harboring secret thoughts of playing for a state championship,...

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A Response to Stavins

[FURTHER UPDATE 3/30: Professor Stavins has just now emailed me to explain that he does not delete comments, and perhaps my comments went into the spam bin. I am happy to hear this and appreciate the opportunity to engage in an open exchange of views.]Harvard economist Robert Stavins, a long-time advocate for cap-and-trade policies as a means to reduce carbon dioxide emissions,...

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Frank Rich on the Racist Sexist Xenophobic Homophobic Tea Party

The Rage Is Not About Health Carehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/opinion/28rich.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=printIf Obama’s first legislative priority had been immigration or financial reform or climate change, we would have seen the same trajectory. The conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House — topped off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional committee chairman — would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what...

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Institutional symbolic counter-speech

Sport represents the only occasion in which adults regularly participate in patriotic symbolic rituals and ceremonies, such as the singing of the national anthem. I have written a great deal about the free-speech liberty to engage in patriotic symbolic counter-speech--declining to participate or engage with the symbol or its associated rituals or otherwise using (or not using) the ritual to protest the symbol and its message.An interesting twist on symbolic speech and counter-speech is playing out at the institutional level at Goshen College, an...

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A Day in the Life of Jacqueline

When I initially borrowed Jacqueline, I was not sure whether I would actually use the bicycle for transportation, or just ride a bit in my spare time. But after half a day, I decided not to renew my weekly public transport card for the duration of my stay in Vienna. It is very easy to get around the city by bicycle - not just through the central touristy parts, but through...

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