The Michael Jordan-Kobe Bryant comparisons have obviously gotten on MJ’s nerves. Michael wasn’t messing around, trying to get a rise out of the crowd. He was saying what he truly believes.. And he’s right. In their primes Michael Jordan is better than Kobe Bryant. Not even close.
Other than MJ setting the record straight the best part of the video is the kids in the background yelling for a 45-year-old Michael Jordan to dunk the ball. You can see Mike only wanted to shoot jumpers and layups, but he’s also a showman so he gave the people what they wanted.
From YouBeenBlinded.com
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Houston, We have a Problem?
The NBA is a copycat league. In the 80s, everyone got caught up in the run and gun of Showtime. The 90s, build your team around 2 superstars like Jordan/Pippen, Duncan/Robinson, Hakeem/Drexler, then fill your roster out with role players. Now, heading into the 2008 season, the 3 headed monster is the way to go. Dont get me wrong, teams still want the superstar that sells tickets, the classy superstar that doesnt cause any "image" problems, and the up-and-coming superstar that has a cult following. With the Celtics pummelling the Lakers in Game 6 of the Finals, the verdict was in: You can't win without the three headed monster. Ultimately, KG, Ray Allen, Pierce and Co. proved too much for the Lakers and Kobe. The key here it was Kobe, Gasol, and the third piece was Odom by default. Had they had the promising Bynum in the lineup, it is another ball game. So what has happened since then? Panic.
Teams are going after the new model of small ball and agile stars. The latest sucked into this fray are the Houston Rockets. The Rockets traded Bobby Jackson, a player to be named (Dontae Green), and a future 1st rounder to the Kings to rent Ron Artest. Yes, rent. Artest is in the last year of a contract that pay a modest $7.4 million. Yes, modest for a player that is arguably the Dennis Rodman of his era when its comes to defense, intensity, and plain old scary. But this experiment could over as just another Houston melee did with Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley. One and done. Beyond that, where does Ron Ron fit in the lineup? Last years starters: Alston, T-Mac, Battier, Scola, Yao. So does Ron Ron play the 4 and Houston play somewhat small ball. (Sidenote: Can't play small ball when someone on your team is 7'5.) Projected Lineup A: Alston, T-Mac, Battier, Ron Ron, Yao. Good lineup if you are playing against the East but does Ron Ron guard Amare, Boozer, David West, Pau? Dont think so. Sure he has help over the top in Yao but that is a lot to ask a player that would rather promote his rap album next summer with DJ Drama.
I hope this is just trade bait to lure an actually need to Houston. With the stars on this team turning the corners in their careers, Houston is still in the playoffs, but they are not going anywhere fast.
Why play a losing game?
Study uncovers why low-income people buy lottery tickets
Although state lotteries, on average, return just 53 cents for every dollar spent on a ticket, people continue to pour money into them — especially low-income people, who spend a larger percentage of their incomes on lottery tickets than do the wealthier segments of society. A new Carnegie Mellon University study sheds light on the reasons why low-income lottery players eagerly invest in a product that provides poor returns.
In the study, published in the July issue of the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, participants who were made to feel subjectively poor bought nearly twice as many lottery tickets as a comparison group that was made to feel subjectively more affluent. The Carnegie Mellon findings point to poverty's central role in people's decisions to buy lottery tickets.
"Some poor people see playing the lottery as their best opportunity for improving their financial situations, albeit wrongly so," said the study's lead author Emily Haisley, a doctoral student in the Department of Organizational Behavior and Theory at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business. "The hope of getting out of poverty encourages people to continue to buy tickets, even though their chances of stumbling upon a life-changing windfall are nearly impossibly slim and buying lottery tickets in fact exacerbates the very poverty that purchasers are hoping to escape."
The researchers influenced participants' perceptions of their relative wealth — or lack thereof — by having them complete a survey on their opinions of the city of Pittsburgh that included an item on annual income. The group made to feel poor was asked to provide its income on a scale that began at "less than $100,000" and went upward from there in $100,000 increments, ensuring that most respondents would be in the lowest income category. The group made to feel subjectively wealthier was asked to report income on a scale that began with "less than $10,000" and increased in $10,000 increments, leading most respondents to be in a middle or upper tier.
Participants, who were recruited at Pittsburgh's Greyhound Bus terminal, were paid $5 for completing the survey and given the opportunity to buy as many as five scratch-off lottery tickets. The experimental group purchased an average of 1.27 lottery tickets, compared with 0.67 tickets bought by the members of the control group.
A second experiment reported in the paper found that indirectly reminding participants that, while different income groups face unequal outcomes in education, jobs and housing, everyone has equal chances of winning the lottery induced an increase in the number of lottery tickets purchased. The group given this reminder purchased 1.31 tickets, compared with 0.54 for the group not given such a reminder.
In the study, the researchers note that lotteries set off a vicious cycle that not only exploits low-income individuals' desires to escape poverty but also directly prevents them from improving upon their financial situations. They recommend that state lottery administrators explore strategies that balance the economic burdens faced by low-income households with the need to maintain important funding streams for state governments.
"State lotteries are popular revenue sources that are unlikely to go away anytime soon," said George Loewenstein, a study co-author and Herbert A. Simon professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon. "However, it is possible to implement measures that can actually benefit low-income lottery players and lead to fairer outcomes." Loewenstein noted that one such potential method for addressing income inequality, which has shown promise in other countries, is tying lottery tickets to savings accounts.
Although state lotteries, on average, return just 53 cents for every dollar spent on a ticket, people continue to pour money into them — especially low-income people, who spend a larger percentage of their incomes on lottery tickets than do the wealthier segments of society. A new Carnegie Mellon University study sheds light on the reasons why low-income lottery players eagerly invest in a product that provides poor returns.
In the study, published in the July issue of the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, participants who were made to feel subjectively poor bought nearly twice as many lottery tickets as a comparison group that was made to feel subjectively more affluent. The Carnegie Mellon findings point to poverty's central role in people's decisions to buy lottery tickets.
"Some poor people see playing the lottery as their best opportunity for improving their financial situations, albeit wrongly so," said the study's lead author Emily Haisley, a doctoral student in the Department of Organizational Behavior and Theory at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business. "The hope of getting out of poverty encourages people to continue to buy tickets, even though their chances of stumbling upon a life-changing windfall are nearly impossibly slim and buying lottery tickets in fact exacerbates the very poverty that purchasers are hoping to escape."
The researchers influenced participants' perceptions of their relative wealth — or lack thereof — by having them complete a survey on their opinions of the city of Pittsburgh that included an item on annual income. The group made to feel poor was asked to provide its income on a scale that began at "less than $100,000" and went upward from there in $100,000 increments, ensuring that most respondents would be in the lowest income category. The group made to feel subjectively wealthier was asked to report income on a scale that began with "less than $10,000" and increased in $10,000 increments, leading most respondents to be in a middle or upper tier.
Participants, who were recruited at Pittsburgh's Greyhound Bus terminal, were paid $5 for completing the survey and given the opportunity to buy as many as five scratch-off lottery tickets. The experimental group purchased an average of 1.27 lottery tickets, compared with 0.67 tickets bought by the members of the control group.
A second experiment reported in the paper found that indirectly reminding participants that, while different income groups face unequal outcomes in education, jobs and housing, everyone has equal chances of winning the lottery induced an increase in the number of lottery tickets purchased. The group given this reminder purchased 1.31 tickets, compared with 0.54 for the group not given such a reminder.
In the study, the researchers note that lotteries set off a vicious cycle that not only exploits low-income individuals' desires to escape poverty but also directly prevents them from improving upon their financial situations. They recommend that state lottery administrators explore strategies that balance the economic burdens faced by low-income households with the need to maintain important funding streams for state governments.
"State lotteries are popular revenue sources that are unlikely to go away anytime soon," said George Loewenstein, a study co-author and Herbert A. Simon professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon. "However, it is possible to implement measures that can actually benefit low-income lottery players and lead to fairer outcomes." Loewenstein noted that one such potential method for addressing income inequality, which has shown promise in other countries, is tying lottery tickets to savings accounts.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
U.S. AIDS policies neglect blacks
Link
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. policies and cash may be leading the fight against AIDS globally, but they have neglected the epidemic among black Americans, the Black AIDS Institute said in a report released on Tuesday.
While blacks account for one in eight people in the United States, half of all Americans infected with HIV are black, the report found.
"We are 30 percent of the new cases among gay men, 40 percent of the new cases among men in general, 60 percent of the cases among women and 70 percent of the new cases among youth," Black AIDS Institute CEO Phill Wilson told reporters in a telephone briefing.
"Yet ... the U.S. response to AIDS in black America stands in sharp contrast to the international response to the epidemic overseas," he added.
Al Sharpton, a prominent activist and founder of the National Action Network, agreed.
"U.S. policy makers seem to be much more interested in the epidemic in Botswana than the epidemic in Louisiana. This is an unnecessary and deadly choice. Both need urgent attention," Sharpton said.
Dr. Helene Gayle, former head of AIDS for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now president of the poverty-fighting charity CARE, said many HIV infected blacks are not in traditional high-risk groups such as men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers.
"The federal government's approach to the epidemic in black America is fundamentally flawed," Gayle said. This includes both a lack of funding and poor targeting of the money, she said.
EMPOWERMENT AND EDUCATION
Approaches that would work among black Americans include policies to empower women. "Black women often cannot insist on abstinence or the use of condoms for fear of violence or other emotional trauma," Gayle said.
Black American women are 23 times more likely than white women to become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, the report found.
A lack of education works against young people, who are often powerless and in sexual relationships with older people, who can infect them, Gayle said. Wider testing for HIV among blacks is also essential, the report stressed.
And better prevention messages that use language that will reach drug users, youths and men who have sex with men are key.
"We have focused on abstinence-only (methods) even though they don't work in our community," Wilson said.
Information about condom use is important, Wilson said. "We also need to look at needle exchange," he said -- noting that although needle exchange programs work to reduce HIV transmission while doing nothing to encourage drug use, they are frowned upon by the federal government.
Education campaigns can battle myths about disease transmission, as well as conspiracy theories that cause many blacks to mistrust the medical system, Wilson said.
The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, will spend $48 billion over the next five years to help treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in 15 targeted countries and is considered a showpiece of George W. Bush's presidency.
"More black Americans are infected with HIV than the total populations of people living with HIV in seven of the 15 countries served by PEPFAR," Wilson said.
"Were black America a separate country, it would elicit major concern and extensive assistance from the U.S. government. Instead, the national response to AIDS among black Americans has been lethargic and often neglectful."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. policies and cash may be leading the fight against AIDS globally, but they have neglected the epidemic among black Americans, the Black AIDS Institute said in a report released on Tuesday.
While blacks account for one in eight people in the United States, half of all Americans infected with HIV are black, the report found.
"We are 30 percent of the new cases among gay men, 40 percent of the new cases among men in general, 60 percent of the cases among women and 70 percent of the new cases among youth," Black AIDS Institute CEO Phill Wilson told reporters in a telephone briefing.
"Yet ... the U.S. response to AIDS in black America stands in sharp contrast to the international response to the epidemic overseas," he added.
Al Sharpton, a prominent activist and founder of the National Action Network, agreed.
"U.S. policy makers seem to be much more interested in the epidemic in Botswana than the epidemic in Louisiana. This is an unnecessary and deadly choice. Both need urgent attention," Sharpton said.
Dr. Helene Gayle, former head of AIDS for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now president of the poverty-fighting charity CARE, said many HIV infected blacks are not in traditional high-risk groups such as men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers.
"The federal government's approach to the epidemic in black America is fundamentally flawed," Gayle said. This includes both a lack of funding and poor targeting of the money, she said.
EMPOWERMENT AND EDUCATION
Approaches that would work among black Americans include policies to empower women. "Black women often cannot insist on abstinence or the use of condoms for fear of violence or other emotional trauma," Gayle said.
Black American women are 23 times more likely than white women to become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, the report found.
A lack of education works against young people, who are often powerless and in sexual relationships with older people, who can infect them, Gayle said. Wider testing for HIV among blacks is also essential, the report stressed.
And better prevention messages that use language that will reach drug users, youths and men who have sex with men are key.
"We have focused on abstinence-only (methods) even though they don't work in our community," Wilson said.
Information about condom use is important, Wilson said. "We also need to look at needle exchange," he said -- noting that although needle exchange programs work to reduce HIV transmission while doing nothing to encourage drug use, they are frowned upon by the federal government.
Education campaigns can battle myths about disease transmission, as well as conspiracy theories that cause many blacks to mistrust the medical system, Wilson said.
The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, will spend $48 billion over the next five years to help treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in 15 targeted countries and is considered a showpiece of George W. Bush's presidency.
"More black Americans are infected with HIV than the total populations of people living with HIV in seven of the 15 countries served by PEPFAR," Wilson said.
"Were black America a separate country, it would elicit major concern and extensive assistance from the U.S. government. Instead, the national response to AIDS among black Americans has been lethargic and often neglectful."
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