Final blog.

Well I can happily say this is the last blog I have to write. I did enjoy writing the blog more than I liked doing other school work, but the blog was still considered work to me and I'd rather be doing something else.

The biggest difficulty with the blog was thinking of topics to write about. I checked the headlines of the news for some stories to write about, but I didn't always find something I wanted to write about. My favorite blog was the one about the BSL. I consider myself a huge dog lover, and I enjoyed informing someone that the Pitbull breed's violent reputation is really unfair. The blog I least liked was the one about Joe Torre. I really do not like baseball or care about the Yankees, I just wrote the blog because I couldn't think of anything else.

Well that's about it, I'll probably never write another blog unless I have to for another class. But who knows, maybe I'll look at this website sometime when I'm older and have a laugh.

First semester is over.

Well the first semester of school went by pretty quickly. I was expecting it to be more difficult, especially from all the talk of my high school teachers and the faculty at St.Johns saying how much of a transition college is from high school. It really seemed very similar to high school, but with less hours and less day by day work. I did get lengthy assignments more often, but very little homework that was due each day, so it kind of evens out.

My only gripe is that it seems things will get really hectic this week and during finals. I seldom had more than one test per week, even during the mid terms the teachers didn't schedule them all on that mid term week. But I'm going to have all of my tests for every class in one week, which may be difficult. I also have a few papers and presentations due, it seems as if every teacher is trying to fit in the due dates for their assignments in the last few days of class. Oh well, I can't complain much, I haven't gotten nearly as much work as I had expected.

Human weapon

Has anyone seen this show? It airs on the history channel and is a must see for anyone interested in martial arts. The show also includes the history of the martial art, why it was formed, etc.

The basic outline for each episode is these two mma fighters travel around the world to train under a specific style for a few days. Once the training is complete they fight the champion of that style. The training mostly consists of learning one or two techniques from each sub category of the martial art. For example they will learn a technique from people who teach the martial art as a means for street self defense, and from people who teach it as a competitive sport. Then they try to implement these techniques in a full fight. They mostly fall back on their mma instincts during the fight, because it's hard to use techniques you just learned when they are not muscle memory yet. They always manage to do well though against the champion, so I think the fight is kind of set up, or at least the champion is not trying his hardest.

They have covered most of the mainstream styles such as Okinawa karate and tae kwon do. But they also do some of the lesser known martial arts such as krav maga (basically it's a french self defense style). It's a great show for a martial artist, but also for those just generally interested in history.

Holidays

Do you like the holidays? I'm starting to dislike them more and more as I get older. When I was younger I looked forward to Christmas for months, now it seems like a burden. Maybe it's because I have to buy gifts too now. It's not so much spending of money that I dislike, but the time it takes to go shopping as well as thinking of a good gift. If it were up to me I'd rather just not receive or give anything for Christmas. Of course this is socially unacceptable, and there are some people who do actually enjoy buying presents for people; and I would feel badly if someone gave me something and I gave nothing in return.

Another thing I dislike is that for both Thanksgiving and Christmas eve and day my family comes to my house. My father's side of the family comes on Christmas eve, and my mother's on Christmas day. I don't really like everyone coming to my house, or at least not for all the holidays except New Years. I have to stay with the dogs half of the time because people want to pet with them but are scared most of the time because they are so big, so it's really annoying. Although the one good thing is there's plenty of great tasting food.

BSL

BSL, breed specific laws that is, is something that really irks me. If you do not know, BSL is a law that bans the ownership of certain breeds of dogs. It is not a federal law, but some states have implemented it. The breed that receives the blunt of this law is the Pitbull.

I disagree with the BSL for a few reasons. The people who pass this law are rather ignorant when it comes to dogs, namely pit bulls. They feel that pit bulls are an innately more vicious dog that is prone to attack human beings. This is flat out incorrect. Pit bulls have the ideal size, speed, and strength to kill a human being pretty easily, no doubt about that. But the problem is not within the dog's inherent nature, it's the owners who train the dogs to behave this way. Pit bulls do have a high level of aggression towards other animals, but this can be mitigated with proper training. On the contrary Pit bulls are one of the breeds that have the least amount of aggression towards humans, because of this are generally not the best type of guard dogs. There is an actual standard dog aggression test that proved this, unfortunately I cannot find the link.

I own a pit bull, and from experience I can say she is not vicious towards any person or animal. In fact my 10 pound Yorkshire terrier is more aggressive and has actually bitten people, although it doesn't hurt much. I really wish that the law passers would educate themselves on some of the laws they pass. Instead of banning the ownership of the breed, I think it would be more fair to require a certificate that establishes someone as a capable Pit bull or other large dog owner. The Pit bull is really a great breed of dog, and it's a shame they are being punished for their inept owners.

School Shooting.

As you probably know, there was a fatal school shooting in Finland. Six students were killed and two faculty members, the shooter then killed himself. With school shootings becoming more common, the question is why?

Do you think that human nature has changed somewhat and there are more maniacs now than in the past? Or is it that people's insane thoughts are abetted by society? I personally do not think that there is a larger amount of psychos or sociopaths. Violence is becoming less of a sensitive issue in society. People can also find and talk with others who share their radical thoughts on the Internet, further encouraging them to act on their thoughts. I think Columbine established an unfortunate precedent. Since then, school shootings have increased almost exponentially. It also doesn't help that it's getting easier and easier for teenagers to acquire guns.

All of these reasons contribute to the increases in school shootings. You can argue that there are simply more people that are lunatics, but I think it has more to do the evolution of society. At any rate it's important to stop these shootings.

6-2

The New York Giants, my favorite football team, now have six wins and two loses. This is obviously a good record and seemingly bodes well for their playoff chances. But the winning record shouldn't get a Giant's fan hopes up too high yet.

For the past couple of seasons the Giants have started out six and two for the first half of the season. Somewhere along the line though they have a breakdown, and barely manage to make the wild card. It's kind of odd that this would happen, a possible cause is injuries. It could also be that the Giants have a rougher schedule during the second part of the season. It's not done intentionally, it just so happens that the teams the Giants play during weeks eight through seventeen are the better teams at the moment. The real test for the Giants will be week seventeen, when they play the Unbeaten Patriots.

Even if they Giants do relatively well during the second half of the season, realistically they will probably only make the wild card round. I highly doubt that they will beat Dallas for first place in their division. Dallas is a very good team, and already beat the Giants by a significant gap in week two. During the next several weeks we find out of the Giants are really legitimate, or if they have just been taking advantage of some of the weaker teams in the NFL.

Nutrition

As I mentioned in my last blog, nutrition is the most important element for successful weight training. You can workout as intense as you want, but without proper nutrition your gains will literally be cut in half. It has been proven that workouts can be up to twice as effective if followed with proper post workout nutrition. So how do you eat properly for weightlifting? Well there are two main types of diets, a cut and a bulk.

A cut is when you eat less calories than maintenance (maintenance being the amount of calories you can eat without gaining or losing weight). The purpose of cut for weightlifters is to lose as much fat as possible, but retain all the muscle. It's virtually impossible for an experienced weightlifter to increase muscle and strength during a cut, so the goal is simply to not lose any of it. Beginners do have this luxury though, they can add muscle and lose fat. The most common way to go about a cut is to limit carbohydrates to less than fifty grams per day, sometimes even close to zero, while keeping protein intake at normal levels (The normal protein intake is one to one and a half grams of protein per body pound). Some simply lower calorie intake, lowering carbohydrate and protein levels proportionally, but for most people this is less effective.

On the other hand, a bulk is when you exceed your calorie maintenance levels. There are two types of bulks, a dirty bulk and a clean bulk. A dirty bulk is when you eat virtually anything that has protein, carbohydrates, and calories. On a diet like this the goal is to gain as much weight as possible, even if a good portion of it is fat. Mostly the only people who do these types of diets are football lineman or other types of athletes that are required to be big. A clean bulk is when you eat good clean foods as opposed to anything (Whole wheat bread as opposed to white bread, brown rice as opposed to white rice, etc). It's inevitable to gain some fat during a bulk, but a clean bulk limits the fat while still adding plenty of muscle and strength. It's not uncommon for bulk diets to exceed 4,000 calories per day.

A popular way of implementing these two diets is to bulk during the winter and cut during the summer. This way you add the most strength and muscle during the winter, then during the summer cut you retain that muscle, but lose the fat. It's important to note that whether on a cut or bulk, it's essential to eat at least four times a day, preferably six or seven. Just to give you an idea of how effective proper nutrition can be; my weight has varied from roughly 180 during a cut, to about 225 on a bulk. All the while I changing very little between my workout programs, and simply changed the dieting. Unfortunately there is so much to discuss about nutrition, such as macro nutrient timing and management, supplements, what your actual calorie maintenance level is, and more. This is just a very general description of two of the more popular types of dieting, but there much more information, too much to write about in a blog, covering every little facet of nutrition.

Weightlifting

Weightlifting is something that has become part of my lifestyle. I've been lifting for about five years now. It's something I look forward to during the day, it's a great way to relive stress and get quality exercise. There are two main types of weightlifting, power lifting and bodybuilding.

Power lifting is solely concerned with increasing functional strength as much as possible. Power lifters do not care much about aesthetics, but it will come with time. They mostly perform compound exercises, that is exercises that use more than one joint (Knees and hips for example). The four essential exercises for power lifting are: Bench press, squat, dead lifts, and cleans. These exercises will add total body density and strength. A power lifting routine generally sticks for low repetitions per set, something around 1-5 reps. This is because 1-3 reps are the most conducive to strength, and 4-6 reps is a good range for adding strength and size. Power lifters also take long rests in between sets. This is because they want their muscles to be fully rested so they can use as much weight as possible for each set. Power lifters may not look as strong as body builders, because they don't focus on "beach muscles", but a power lifter can have incredible strength relative to his size.

Bodybuilding on the other hand is mainly concerned with aesthetics, adding as much lean muscle as possible. Bodybuilders also do compound exercises, but they do many more single joint ones than power lifters do. Unlike power lifters, body builders generally do sets with reps of 8-12 repetitions, as this is best for hypertrophy. They usually have very little rest between sets, usually a minute or even thirty seconds. They don't want to give the muscle a chance to recover, causing it to get cut up. It's also not unusual to see bodybuilders perform multiple exercises without rest, helping the muscle to get ripped. This is seldom seen in power lifting, as it's not too conducive to strength gains. Although bodybuilders will look strong because they have so much lean muscle (and they are strong compared to people who do not lift), you can't compare their strength to a power lifters of the same weight.

I've done both types of training, and I like power lifting a little more. Currently I'm doing a hybrid program that follows power lifting principles for compound lifts and bodybuilding principles for auxiliary lifts. Hopefully this will contribute to a good mix of lean muscle, but with lots of strength. It is important to understand that variety is essential when weight lifting, but the most important thing is nutrition, which i will discuss in another blog.

Several weeks ago a fraternity was suspended at St. John's University, the school I attend. One of the pledges was allegedly subject to severe hazing. I don't believe the fraternity members meant to hurt the pledge this badly, it was probably a joke to them. But the fact is the victim is in the hospital on kidney dialysis, no laughing matter. As a pledge, the victim allegedly had to perform rigorous acts of conditioning such as walking down flights of stairs on his knees, doing push ups with people on his back, hold heavy objects for extended periods of time, and he was also supposedly beaten. Now these acts appear to be criminal in nature, especially the beatings, but there is an important question that must be answered before any legal action can be taken.

That question is if the pledge performed these acts on his own volition, or was once he decided to join this fraternity, was he forced to perform them. The immediate answer in my mind is he acted freely, although some investigation is needed. I say this because two other pledges dropped out on the second of five days of pledging. The victim stayed until the fourth. I don't see any logical reason that the fraternity would force this one person to stay in the fraternity, and allow the others to leave. The victims mother is saying her son felt he would be beaten even if he left the fraternity. It has been made clear that she wants some legal repercussions to follow, and I think she is saying this in order for the suspects to be arrested.

The fact of the matter is we will probably never know what happened. It's hard to blame the school for this, considering all of the acts of hazing took place off of school campus. I'm mostly shocked that the fraternity would subject people to this,even if they treated it as a joke. If the allegations are true this behavior is border line barbaric. I would think young adults would have some sense in them and understanding of the serious consequences that can and did occur. I mean it's not unreasonable to say that another day of pledging could have caused the victim to die. Hopefully this incident will open up people's eyes, namely those belonging to a fraternity, and this form of hazing will end.

As you may have heard, there have been reports of nooses found lieing around or hanging in trees. This is a pretty blatant form of racism in my opinion. It is believed they are being placed around as a response to the jena six case, where six black minors are being charged with attempted murder for beating a white kid. Take whichever stand you want on the case (I personally think attempted murder is a little ridiculous, although some reprimandations should follow), but placing nooses around is simply ignorant.

If you disagree with the case being turned around, from attempted murder to a lesser sentence, that's one thing. The people who think attempted murder is injustice are forming petitions and protests, perhaps the people who think the original sentence is appropriate should do the same. I'm not sure if I agree that persons placing nooses around should be criminally charged, unless it's evident there was intent to follow it up with a form of violence to something to that effect. In any case I would think that this form of idiocy and biogtry wouldn't exist in a supposedly sophisticated society, I guess I was wrong.

I can understand why people are getting upset over the nooses, especially the blacks, whom this form of racism is aimed at. Personally if someone does something that is supposed to offend me because of ethnicity I normally shrug it off and laugh at their stupidity. That's why I don't see a reason to prosecute the noose placers (If someone is inane enough to think this will get their point across, who cares.) but I really do understand why some would want them to be charged.

I'm starting to get sick of my favorite genre of music, rap. All the new music released is essentially the same thing said in a different way. If the song has a good beat the rapper could have any ridiculous nonsensical lyrics, but the song will sell because of the beat. It's really starting to annoy me that most of the newer successful rappers have little lyrical talent and simply rely on catchy phrases. Lil john is a good example of this, on ninety percent of his songs he just repeatedly says: "YEAH, OKAY, WHAT", and has other rappers featured in his song that rap the verses, which are invariably egregious. Yet he's one of the more successful rappers as far as record sales go.

In my opinion the only current main stream rappers that have quality lyrics are Jay-z, The Game, Eminem, and maybe a couple others I can't think of at the moment, but those three are the three best in my opinion. Fifty cent used to have good lyrics, now he's relying on his past success to carry the sales of his newer songs. In the 1990's, you could argue that for the most part rap was intellectually profound. The rap of 2pac and Biggy, who wrote during the 1990's, was a form of poetry that was lyrically genius and some of their songs addressed social issues. You can't even compare the best lyrical song of some of these newer rappers to one of 2pac's weaker songs.

Don't get me wrong, there are quite a few very good lyricists around. It's just that their records don't sell and you don't hear about them. People are ignoring the fact that someone such as Lil John has no talent as a song writer. I'm not sure if it's cause they don't care and just like the beat, or they don't realize that his lyrics are garbage. For me the solution has just been to listen to the older stuff, even though it's old it is so much better than most rap out there now.

I enjoy almost every aspect of MMA, mixed martial arts for those of you that do not know. You may know it as "ufc" (ultimate fighting championship) style martial arts. I love watching MMA and I think it's more entertaining than boxing. Watching it on television has inspired me to train in MMA several days a week and I'm glad i started it. There's so many different things to learn because it's not a traditional martial art that just focuses on stand up fighting or grappling, but rather incorpates the arguably best elements of each martial art into one, hence the term mixed martial arts. The main styles in MMA are boxing, muay thai, wrestling, Brazilian jujitsu, and judo. I personally like the muay thai and wrestling the best, but it's all fun.

Boxing and muay thai are both stand up style martial arts that have little to do with grappling. Boxing obviously is just based around hand fighting, but it's arguably the best type of style for punches. Muay thai is also a stand up style, but it includes four ways of attacking: Fists, elbows, knees, and shins. The muay thai kicks are not intended to strike with the foot, but rather the shin as it's a much harder and dense bone. Muay thai also has a clinch element, something that is broken up quickly in boxing. A muay thai clinch is when the hands are wrapped around an opponents neck and you mainly use your knees and elbows to strike from there, but you can also sweep or trip the person.

Wrestling, jujitsu, and judo on the other hand revolve mostly around grappling and do not have many striking techniques. Wrestling is a great style to take someone to the ground, there are all types of slams and shots you can do. Jujitsu is also good for take downs, but really excels when the person is already on the floor. When on the ground Jujitsu's main goal is a submission lock or choke, something that will break a joint or bone or cause someone to pass out. Judo is good while in the clinch as there are all types of nasty sweeps or throws you can do, such as a hip throw, which essentially tries to flip someone over your hip so they land on their head. Judo is a little impractical because it's best suited for tournaments as it takes advantages of gi fighting, that is fighting with something similar to a karate uniform. However some of the Judo throws can be very damaging with or without a gi.

Overall i really enjoy watching and training in MMA. It's a great form of exercise but more importantly it's fun. I've only been training for about seven or eight months, but hopefully i will continue for a while, the only reason i would stop is because of time constraints.

Last night the NY Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs. This is, of course, sad news for most NY baseball fans (aside from some die hard Met fans). I seldom follow baseball but when the playoffs start and a NY team competing for the world series, I pay attention. The Yankees lost the series four games to one, losing the first two of the series. So what happens now?

For one Steinbrenner, the owner of the Yankees, has said he intends on firing Joe Torre, the Yankees' coach. This can be disputed, but i agree with Steinbrenner. The Yankees have a 200 million dollar roll, fraught with star players at most positions, certainly more than the Cleveland Indians have. So what it comes down to is poor motivation and game time play, which results from poor coaching. Joe Torre has done great things for the Yankees in the past, no doubt about that, but that is the past and as a ulitarian would say, "what has he done for me now?"

Among other things, the Yankees now have to find a capable head coach, one that could turn 200 million dollars into a championship formula. Another problem the Yankees face is that two of their better players, Jorge Pasada and Rivera are both now free agents and able to leave the Yankees if they get a better offer. This would certainly damage the Yankees roster, considering that Rivera is one of the best closing pitchers in baseball. It will be a long and interesting off season for the Yankees, but hopefully things turn around for them.

Halo 3

So, it's finally here, "The Game of All Games," Halo 3. Veteran and novice gamers alike have anticipated this game for three years, ever since the new Microsoft console, Xbox 360, was released. It's here, I bought it, and yes it is the best game of its genre to date (in my opinion of course). The hype surrounding the game was unprecedented, over 1.7 million reserved orders alone, that's not including the countless number of the more casual gamers who will just head to the game store to pick it up when they get the chance. Make no mistake, this is the fasting selling entertainment product ever sold in history, that's right, not just the fastest selling in the video game industry but the entire entertainment industry. And all of this hype and success is a good thing, it's good for the gaming industry, for Microsoft, and of course for all the gamers who finally have a chance to play it.

However there is something rather troubling about the release of Halo. And that is the way in which some people are responding. People have camped out for days in an attempt to be the person to own the first Halo 3 copy. Grown men are taking days off from work simply get in some extra hours of game time. Students are missing school to play this, and worst of all their parents allow it! I mean this is a real life caricature of society's priorities. I enjoy playing Halo as much as anyone, but come on now you have to draw the line somewhere, it is after all just a game. I don't know about you, but I think it's damn ridiculous to play a game over going to work or school.

I hate MTV. Labeling this station, "Music Television", is as hypocritical as the most blatant oxy-moron ("Living-dead" comes to mind). What happened to the times where MTV would play hours upon hours of music video marathons? I don't know why but for some reason MTV has succumb to the reality T.V. phase that has swept many television stations, and I for one am not pleased with it. It's not so bad if a station has gone from showing sitcoms or something to airing reality shows, but when your station is named Music Television, you have a problem. But MTV had a chance to redeem itself.

Several years ago they announced a new, 'Music television' station, one that would actually play music twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. This was called MTV2, and for a while it actually did play music all day every day, as it promised. But as time passed it slowly but surely transitioned itself into a reality based T.V. network. I guess showing videos just isn't profitable enough for them, I can't see any other reason for them to not show music.

Okay fine, so they want to air reality T.V. all day instead of music, at least make it good reality shows! Every reality show is the same thing recycled, it's either some eccentric dating show or one that follows the lives of several wealthy people as they face, you know, the hardships of life that result from belonging to America's upper class... right. At the very least MTV should change its station's name to something along the lines of, "Second rate reality show television". Of course the best thing to do is to just bring back the music, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

A memoir is essentially a biography. It is one of the most popular forms of creative nonfiction among readers, but attracts relatively few aspiring writers. This is because the writers put little imagination into writing a biography. In order to succeed in writing a memoir you need to follow a few rules.

First the write must resist the impulse to tell the reader everything they have learned about their subject. If they include every little nuance of the person's life it will result in an insipid and monotonous narrative.

Second, they need to find the story they want to tell about their subject, a story buried under all of the information they've gathered. A well written memoir will condense all the information to fit a particular story about the subject's life.

Lastly, a memoir shouldn't be written in chronological order, like a history timeline is. The day-by-day narrative pattern of most biography needs to be reimagined. Mixing up the chronological order can add an element of suspense by using flashbacks and future references, similar to how a documentary film would be done.

A memoir is a work of literature that can take over a dozen years to complete. It is unfortunately a work most writers stray from, but when it is done properly it is one of the most popular forms of literature among readers

As you probably already know, this week there was an armed gunman on the Queens campus of St. John's University. He was apparently wearing a George Bush mask and armed with a single shot rifle. Fortunately no one was injured and things are back to the norm for the most part.

St. John's did a great job in handling the situation. They communicated to the whole school using their newly established communication system. Essentially they just text message or voice message the students and faculty that are signed up. Even though everyone is not registered for it (you have to go sign up) the word spreads pretty quickly from the people who are in the system. There was an immediate lock down of the whole campus, including the Staten Island campus. This is because it was initially unclear which campus the gunman was on. Of course it was frightening when the news of a gunman on campus was announced, but i felt safe because of the lock down. After an hour or so the gunman was apprehended and the police searched the campus extensively for another possible suspect.

After seeing how promptly the university responded to a potential catastrophe, I feel pretty safe on campus. It's just unfortunate that it took the VA tech. incident to bring about this unprecedented level of security.

This Friday my former high school football team, the St. Joseph by the Sea Vikings, played their island rival, the Farrel Lions. Unfortunately my team lost by five points, but it was still a great game to watch none the less.

Now what I'm really getting at was the atmosphere of Friday's game. Rarely do two catholic island teams meet and play each other, but when they it's something football fans mark their calendar for. Now most of the time the island teams play some team from the another borough and the only people who show up are to the games are a few students and of course some of the parents. But the other day Farrel's stands were complete filled, standing room only ten minutes into the game. Everybody came down to watch it, not just people associated with either school. Head coaches from other programs, eighth graders interested in playing high school football, and a flock of students and alumni all came out to see the game. It was like a scene out of the movie, Friday Night Lights. This is something that, in my opinion, is missing from most Staten Island football games, and I do not think there's a reason for it.

So what I would like to see is an all island football league. No more games where island teams play schools from Queens that people have no interest in. There are enough teams on Staten Island for it to have it's own league, roughly ten. If the games are set up this way everybody benefits. The schools make more money because there is more people paying to get in, the players are always more interesting in playing island teams if for nothing else than simply bragging rights, and it gives island football fans really something to look forward to.

Sincere wager, or marketing ploy?

Last week, the week of September eleventh, two outrageously prosperous rappers released their albums on the same day. Kayne West released his album titled, Graduation and 50 cent released his new album titled, Curtis. The latter of the two released the fasting selling rap album ever released, amassing just short of 1.2 million copies sold in it's first week. Kanye West knows a thing or two about success as well, selling eight hundred thousand in his previous album's debut week. When both of these rap juggernauts have an album released on the same day, things get interesting.
50 Cent has publicly announced that if Kanye West outsells his newest album he will retire from making solo albums, a bold statement. Kanye hasn't really responded to 50 cent's claims, possibly because he knows it is unlikely he will outsell him. I personally believe this is just a marketing ploy 50 is using to increase sales, perhaps for both rappers. 50 Cent's main concern is making money, and if he loses is supposed to stop doing what makes him the most money. This is why i believe his claims are simply balderdash.
A week after the formerly mentioned albums were released, Kanye West's lead grew exponentially, selling roughly 300,000 more than 50 Cent. 50 Cent's response was that it is simply too early to tell who will come out on top, even with Kanye that far ahead.
It will be interesting to see if 50 Cent sticks to his word if in fact he does lose, although i highly doubt he will retire from rap if he does. With that all said, the real winner is the music industry, which hasn't had two albums sell more than 600,000 copies each in one week since 1991.

3 time superbowl champions?

For those of you that do not know, this weekend the Patriots beat their division rival the Jets 38-14. However around half time a video tape for the Patriots was confiscated as it had hand signals for the Jet's plays on it. Taping another teams hand signals is of course illegal to do in the N.F.L. While this had no direct affect on the outcome of the game on sunday, it raises a number of questions.
The Patriots have been accused of doing this before, but this is the first time conclusive evidence is available. So this raises the question as to whether the Patriot's former superbowl victories were won legitimately, or did they cheat and know what the play was going to be before the snap? It's also a possible explanation as to how the patriots manage to do so well each year with less than stellar players at most positions.
A more important question is is this form of cheating widespread in the N.F.L. and were the Patriots just unfortunate enough to get caught? I personally believe it is something only the Patriots have done, but I would not say it's impossible for this to be going on elsewhere.
As a result of have conclusive evidence, the Patriots are of course being penalized severely. They are losing a first round draft pick, which can have tremendous ramifications. The Patriot's head coach is also being fined $250,000, the highest amount a coach has been fined in the N.F.L's history. In addition to this, the Patriot's film will be monitored to assure they are not recording hand signals. In the next few weeks we will find out if the Patriot's are really that good, or if their victories were a result of foul play.

Why i write

I write because i have to write. I write to take notes i hear in class. I write to study. I write to help focus myself. I write because I am told to write. I write when i am bored. I write communicate with friends. I write when i am tired of speaking. I write when I want to listen. I write to be humorous. I write so i can do well in school. I write to be professional. I write on a computer to be organized. I write because i can. I dislike to write but i do it anyway. I write to pass time. I write to define words. I write so i can learn. I write when i am reading. I write summaries of books for later reference. I for professors. I write to remember. I write for organization. I write to improve my penmenship. I write when i am blogging. I write to relive memories. I write for posterity. I write as a means to an end.