Andrew.frampton

Jonathon Franklin

CREDIT: AP

During a window of time between football practice and class, Jonathon Franklin fires up his copy of EA Sports’ NCAA Football and begins a game with his UCLA Bruins. Franklin, UCLA’s all-time leading rusher, zooms in on the player starting in the Bruins’ virtual backfield. He’s wearing number 23 like the real Franklin, is built a lot like the real Franklin, and thanks to quite a few advances in modern technology, he looks as much like Franklin as a video game avatar possibly could.

Franklin isn’t the only one: go from team to team, from player to player, and they all look like their real-life counterparts too. And even though EA Sports will sell millions of these games at better than $50 a pop, players like Franklin won’t see a dime.

“They never asked us,” Franklin says. “They just put us in here.”

That’s part of the story told in Schooled: The Price of College Sports, an Epix original documentary that doesn’t so much present new evidence or arguments in favor of granting rights and compensation to college athletes as much as it collect a steady stream of body blows against all arguments for doing so in one place. And Schooled, based on historian Taylor Branch’s groundbreaking treatise against the NCAA — “The Shame Of College Sports,” published in The Atlantic in 2011 — isn’t aimed as much at convincing the power players who think the status quo is OK as much as it is at college sports fans who need to know that their favorite games have an ugly underbelly, and that players like Franklin aren’t suiting up each Saturday for the love of the game.

Schooled, which will debut Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Epix TV and Epix On Demand, made headlines this fall when early trailers showed former University of Tennessee running back Arian Foster, now with the Houston Texans, admitting that he took cash on the side while playing for the Volunteers, but Foster’s admission may be the most benign part of the 80-minute film, if only because the idea of a star running back receiving cash from boosters or coaches isn’t exactly shocking news anymore. Instead, Schooled is strong because it takes arguments in favor of amateurism — the central tenet of the college athletics system — and swats them away one-by-one.

The most central of those claims, of course, is that athletes receive a free education, a point Schooled refutes not only with the oft-repeated statistic that scholarships fail to cover the cost of attendance but with a detailed account of the lack of education many of the athletes receive. The goal of many big-time programs isn’t education but eligibility. “Your challenge is to get them eligible,” Dominique Foxworth, who played football at Maryland and for seven years in the NFL and now heads the NFL Players Association, says. “It’s not about educating them.” That may lead to higher-than-average graduation rates for athletes, but it doesn’t mean they’re leaving school with an education that rivals those received by many “regular” students, especially not when they fit class in between long days of practice, workouts, and games. “The contract is false,” University of North Carolina academic adviser Mary Willingham says. “When they leave school, they may have a degree, but they don’t have an education.”

Neither, the film asserts, is the NCAA particularly interested in the education side of the student-athlete equation. Schooled chronicles the academic scandal that rocked the University of North Carolina in 2012, when it was revealed that the school’s African Afro-American Studies department was providing “paper classes,” essentially sham courses that often benefited athletes by providing them easy grades. The NCAA, however, did not investigate UNC because the program didn’t specifically target athletes as its beneficiaries. “If the NCAA doesn’t want to look at this, you could argue they just sent a message to everyone across the country,” Dan Kane, a reporter from the Raleigh News & Observer, says in the film.

But Schooled‘s central argument isn’t that athletes need a better education or that college sports needs to be more focused on education. That, in a sense, would be putting the genie back in the bottle when it comes to the billion-dollar industry that is college sports. Instead, the system needs to acknowledge that the players, especially in men’s college basketball and football, should have rights and a voice in a system that makes a tremendous amount of money off of their abilities. That wouldn’t just protect athletes’ rights to compensation, it would also help athletes like Devon Ramsey, the UNC fullback who was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for receiving minor assistance from an academic tutor — an edit in a paper that was so insignificant the university’s academic board saw no problem with it. Ramsey, by all accounts a good student focused on his education as much as football, had no due process in front of the NCAA and little recourse once it made its decision. Giving athletes a “seat at the table,” as Branch calls it, would allow for remedies to all of the problems facing the NCAA and college athletics as a whole, since the most important voice in college sports would no longer go unheard.

Will Schooled matter? Not among the hard-line defenders of the NCAA status quo, the shrinking crowd that believes amateurism is still an idea worth upholding, it won’t. But at a time when players are taking up the fight too, suing the NCAA for how it has handled concussions and for locking them out of the current compensation structure and wearing wristbands on the field to protest the organization’s actions, Schoolied is another reminder for fans of college sports that the games they love have an ugly cost associated with them. Fans may love to think that college sports are pure because the players do it for the love of the game. Watch Schooled, and fans will learn that players play “for the love of the game” because that’s the only option they’ve been given.

The post ‘Schooled’ Is The Documentary College Sports Fans Need To See appeared first on ThinkProgress.

GRAVITY - the best movie I’ve seen this year.

Great photography from Burning Man by Gabriel De La Chapelle

Music video producer/DJ/remixer Robin Skouteris spliced and chopped Miley's "Wrecking Ball" with O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" and created the ultimate shaved-head crying lady clip. It's called "Nothing Compares to Wrecking Ball," and actually, it really works.

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While all eyes are focused on the looming October 17 deadline for Congress to raise the debt ceiling or force the country into default, the residents of the town where all the drama is happening are worrying about a different date: On or around October 13, the District of Columbia will run out of money to keep its own local government open.

The city council of Washington, DC, has no control over its own budget. Rather, since the roughly 600,00 residents of DC don’t have a governor or a state to call home, the city government of the District needs Congressional approval to spend money — money that it makes through local tax revenue, not U.S. taxpayer dollars. That approval is wrapped up into every budget that Congress passes and, when it doesn’t get a budget passed in time, the DC government is not allowed to spend, just like the federal government.

The only reason that the DC government didn’t shut down on October 1 is because Mayor Vince Gray (D) declared all city employees “essential” and tapped into the city’s “rainy day” fund to keep paying them until Congress got its act together.

But there’s not enough money in the fund to last until October 17th, when all hopes are that Congress will finally work out a deal to both fund the government and avoid default. Rather, city officials estimate that the rainy day fund will be tapped out by October 13. After that, the DC government will go into shutdown mode — meaning that public schools, fire departments, trash collection, some buses, the city’s university, and a host facilities and programs will be put on pause.

On Tuesday, Mayor Gray sent a letter asking for a meeting with President Obama, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D). He hopes to convince them to pass legislation that allows DC to spend its money freely during the remainder of the shutdown — and, moreover, to “decouple” Washington’s city budget from the federal government’s.

“In no other part of our country are Americans facing the loss of basic municipal or state services due to the federal government shutdown,” he wrote.

Gray’s letter also pointed out that many of the city’s services are already feeling the consequences of the shutdown: Payments for Medicaid providers in the District are on hold, and DC failed to make its quarterly payment to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority this month. Gray also ordered city workers last week to start collecting trash from the parks that are owned by the National Park Service. They are already shut down, but since there’s trash inside the garbage cans there, there’s a growing problem of “rodents and other vermin.” That also means DC’s picking up the $58,000 bill for the work.

That could only get worse if DC can’t pay for its water and sewage authority, keep its unemployment benefit offices open (especially needed given the number of furloughed federal employees in DC), issue permits and licenses from the Department of Motor Vehicles, pick up trash and sweep the streets, or keep its brand new healthcare marketplaces established by Obamacare running.

During the 1996 shutdown, Congress appropriated funds to keep DC’s city services running while they worked out a deal for the federal government. That’s a lesson they only learned, as Mike DeBonis points out in the Washington Post, after an earlier shutdown cost the city “$7.3 million in wages paid to employees who were not required to report to work, plus about $78.5 million in revenues that went uncollected or were collected late.”

Gray hopes that his meeting can convince Boehner, Reid, and Obama to do the same thing now — approve one-off legislation to allow DC to keep using its own funding to run the city. In fact, the House already passed emergency legislation that would do just that. But because House Republicans have used a so-called “piecemeal” approach to refund only the government programs they like, the Senate has thus far blocked any measure that would independently fund one thing without restoring funding to the whole government.

The post Debt Doomsday Will Come Early For DC appeared first on ThinkProgress.

To Everyone in our Washington Redskins Nation:

It used to be a whole nation of redskins, but let’s not let history get in the way.

As loyal fans, you deserve to know that everyone in the Washington Redskins organization – our players, coaches and staff – are truly privileged to represent this team and everything it stands for.

Bad parking, a muddy field and my arrogance. Oh yeah, and something about a racist logo and nickname.

We are relentlessly committed to our fans and to the sustained long-term success of this franchise.

You saw the part about the muddy field, right? And your quarterback’s knee?

That’s why I want to reach out to you – our fans – about a topic I wish to address directly: the team name, “Washington Redskins.” While our focus is firmly on the playing field, it is important that you hear straight from me on this issue. As the owner of the Redskins and a lifelong fan of the team, here is what I believe … and why I believe it.

Belief. Not logic or common sense. Belief.

Like so many of you, I was born a fan of the Washington Redskins. I still remember my first Redskins game. Most people do. I was only six, but I remember coming through the tunnel into the stands at RFK with my father, and immediately being struck by the enormity of the stadium and the passion of the fans all around me.

Indoctrination is a weird thing. Like, I would like Beck more if he wasn’t a crazy Scientologist, but since he was born and raised in that particular cult, I don’t hold out much hope he’ll ever leave it. I imagine it’s the same if your fortunes were tied to the team you grew up worshiping. He’s never going to see another point of view on this issue, blinded by nostalgia.

I remember how quiet it got when the Redskins had the ball, and then how deafening it was when we scored. The ground beneath me seemed to move and shake, and I reached up to grab my father’s hand. The smile on his face as he sang that song … he’s been gone for 10 years now, but that smile, and his pride, are still with me every day.

Snyder’s father passed away years after he bought the franchise, so I’m not quite sure if he’s still trying to earn his father’s approval by owning their favorite football team or if memories of his dead father are the reason why he’s keeping the terribly racist name. Some people want to keep everything exactly the same after they lose a loved one because they worry if things change they’ll lose another part of that person. So one man, with the wealth and power to own a football team, can hold his grief over those being marginalized even further with a racial slur.

That tradition – the song, the cheer – it mattered so much to me as a child, and I know it matters to every other Redskins fan in the D.C. area and across the nation.

Next time I meet a Washington fan, I’m going to demand they sing me the team’s fight song so they can prove to me they’re a real fan.

Our past isn’t just where we came from—it’s who we are.

As some of you may know, our team began 81 years ago – in 1932 – with the name “Boston Braves.” The following year, the franchise name was changed to the “Boston Redskins.”

See? This is totally not Washington’s fault. This mess was caused up in Boston, they’re the real racists.

On that inaugural Redskins team, four players and our Head Coach were Native Americans. The name was never a label. It was, and continues to be, a badge of honor.

Right. “Red people but no black people” was the team’s motto until the government threatened to take away your stadium in 1962. Some history you’re proud of there, Snyder.

Also, if saying “redskins” isn’t so racist in your mind, why doesn’t this sentence read, “On the inaugural Redskins team, four players and our Head Coach were redskins.”

In 1971, our legendary coach, the late George Allen, consulted with the Red Cloud Athletic Fund located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and designed our emblem on the Redskins helmets. Several years later, Coach Allen was honored by the Red Cloud Athletic Fund. On the wall at our Ashburn, Virginia, offices is the plaque given to Coach Allen – a source of pride for all of us. “Washington Redskins” is more than a name we have called our football team for over eight decades. It is a symbol of everything we stand for: strength, courage, pride, and respect – the same values we know guide Native Americans and which are embedded throughout their rich history as the original Americans.

Corrected: It is a symbol of everything we stand for: strength, courage, pride, and respect – the same values we know guide redskins and which are embedded throughout their rich history as the original Americans.

I’ve listened carefully to the commentary and perspectives on all sides, and I respect the feelings of those who are offended by the team name. But I hope such individuals also try to respect what the name means, not only for all of us in the extended Washington Redskins family, but among Native Americans too.

Because fans in Arlington with enough disposable income to spend on football have the same quality of life as Native Americans living in trailers on reservations. Totally the same thing.

Consider the following facts concerning the “Washington Redskins” name:

1) The highly respected Annenberg Public Policy Center polled nearly 1,000 self-identified Native Americans from across the continental U.S. and found that 90% of Native Americans did not find the team name “Washington Redskins” to be “offensive.”

Self-identified. Not polled on tribal lands, self-identified.

2) In an April 2013 Associated Press survey, 79% of the respondents stated the Washington Redskins should not change their name, while only 11% believed the team’s name should change.

Survey of whom? Redskin fans? Giants fans so they won’t be considered the most embarrassing team in the division?

Paul Woody, a columnist for the Richmond Times Dispatch, interviewed three leaders of Virginia Native American tribes this May. They were all quoted by Mr. Woody as stating that the team name doesn’t offend them – and their comments strongly supported the name “Washington Redskins.” Also in May, SiriusXM NFL Radio hosted Robert Green, the longtime and recently retired Chief of the Fredericksburg-area Patawomeck Tribe, who said, among other things:

“Frankly, the members of my tribe – the vast majority – don’t find it offensive. I’ve been a Redskins fan for years. And to be honest with you, I would be offended if they did change [the name, Redskins….This is] an attempt by somebody…to completely remove the Indian identity from anything and pretty soon… you have a wipeout in society of any reference to Indian people….You can’t rewrite history – yes there were some awful bad things done to our people over time, but naming the Washington football team the Redskins, we don’t consider to be one of those bad things.”

Welp, we have one side of the story in one quote. Case closed!

Our franchise has a great history, tradition and legacy representing our proud alumni and literally tens of millions of loyal fans worldwide. We have participated in some of the greatest games in NFL history, and have won five World Championships. We are proud of our team and the passion of our loyal fans. Our fans sing “Hail to the Redskins” in celebration at every Redskins game. They speak proudly of “Redskins Nation” in honor of a sports team they love.

See all those wins? All those fans? Snyder owns the third most valuable brand in the NFL, the most valuable sports brand in the United States. You don’t mess with the brand. Ask New Coke about that.

So when I consider the Washington Redskins name, I think of what it stands for. I think of the Washington Redskins traditions and pride I want to share with my three children, just as my father shared with me – and just as you have shared with your family and friends.

“So we’re keeping the racist name so my kids can better know their dead grandpa. Being rich is the best. If you have the means, I highly recommend you own your football team someday.”

I respect the opinions of those who disagree. I want them to know that I do hear them, and I will continue to listen and learn. But we cannot ignore our 81 year history, or the strong feelings of most of our fans as well as Native Americans throughout the country.

81 year history? Well, that should mollify Native Americans whose ancestors were here for thousands of years before the Vikings first made it over in their little boats.

After 81 years, the team name “Redskins” continues to hold the memories and meaning of

My dad.

where we came from,

Boston.

who we are,

A corporate brand owned by a billionaire.

and who we want to be in the years to come.

Still flithy rich AND getting our way.

We are Redskins Nation … and we owe it to our fans and coaches and players, past and present, to preserve that heritage.

81 years is a strong heritage. I mean, the team didn’t even exist when my grandparents were children, so best we preserve that legacy before it’s lost for the ages.

With Respect and Appreciation,

Keep buying tickets suckers,

Dan Snyder

Human Eye Booger

PS. Wherever I go, I see Redskins bumper stickers, Redskins decals, Redskins t-shirts, Redskins … everything. I know how much this team means to you, and it means everything to me as well. Always has. I salute your passion and your pride for the Burgundy & Gold.

PS. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I’M GOING TO DIVE INTO MY POOL FULL OF KRUGERRANDS!

Chilean-born street artist Dasic specializes in large-scale outdoor pieces. Above, he's used the underside of a bridge to craft a vibrant, dreamlike scene – but you have to be in just the right spot to see it.

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Ah, young love. Check out this adorable mash-up by Nerdist of the ridiculously catchy 'Royals' by Lorde and Zelda—not only is the result charming, but it's also chock full of references to the Nintendo franchise.

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Of course the metalheads would be into it!

Rock on, rock on always.

Olivier Senny, an artist in Belgium who goes by the name Olsen, creates vivid, lively works in paint, pencils and animation. His series entitled “Les Evadés du Plakadre” shows cartoonish characters whose hijinks break into our own world. For them, the frames around their realities are a means to escape from the two-dimensional world.

-via Lustik

With a bit of Photoshop magic, Spanish artist Santiago Pérez Alonso turned a simple image of a squirrel on a tree branch into scenes from a dozen action movies and video games. You can view more images in the series here, including the squirrel as Kratos, Batman, Master Chief and Pikachu.

-via Obvious Winner

The Ring

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie
- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

We are utterly impressed with this: Shanghai-based artist Jian Guo (breathing2004 on deviantART) masterfully illustrates passages from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series of books in the style of stained glass.

You Cannot Pass

"I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass." - The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

Welcome From Lothorien

On two chairs beneath the bole of the tree and canopied by a living bough there sat, side by side, Celeborn and Galadriel. Very tall they were, and the Lady no less tall than the Lord; and they were grave and beautiful. They were clad wholly in white; and the hair of the Lady was of deep gold, and the hair of the Lord Celeborn was of silver long and bright; but no sign of age was upon them, unless it were in the depths of their eyes; for these were keen as lances in the starlight, and yet profound, the wells of deep memory. - The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

Pure eye candy! View more over at Jian's gallery over at deviantART. Prints are available at Leewiart- via Buzzfeed