All Aboard the Butler Bandwagon

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[An exceptionally well-written article reprinted from the Wall Street Journal.]

THE COUCH | MARCH 29, 2010

All Aboard the Butler Bandwagon

The Bulldogs Will Have Everyone Backing Them in Indianapolis, including Gene Hackman

By Jason Gay

Head coach Brad Stevens of the Butler Bulldogs celebrates with teammates after defeating Kansas State during the west regional final of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Don't care if you're an NCAA tournament lunatic or an agnostic. Don't care if you're just a West Virginia win away from swiping that not-sure-if-it's-technically-legal office pool. Don't care if you're Magic Johnson and starred at Michigan State. Don't care if you have fabulous hair and can walk on water, like Duke.

This Final Four, you're rooting for Butler University.

Just hop on the blue Bulldog bandwagon. Don't be embarrassed—we're all going to be shameless about this one. A couple weeks back, most of us barely knew who they were. If someone asked you where Butler University was, you'd have said "Er ... in Butler?"

But this week, we're all Butler diehards. After another entertainingly volatile tournament—who'd have imagined a 2010 Final Four without a squad from Kansas, or that Cornell even played basketball?—the Bulldogs are basking in unlikely national hoops glory. They've never made a Final Four; they're the smallest school left; they're the hometown favorite, located just a bounce pass away from Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium. Butler doesn't have a single starter taller than 5-foot-2; they travel to away games on mules; and until last year, they played all of their home games by candlelight on a dirt floor.

Okay, maybe we're overdoing it on the underdog thing.

Follow the Twitter feeds of coaches, players and fans of NCAA tournament teams.

The truth is, Butler's not really a starry-eyed NCAA Cinderella, like 11th-seeded George Mason was in the 2006 Final Four. These fifth-seeded Bulldogs have won 24 games in a row, have made the Sweet Sixteen three times this decade and are much respected by the college-hoops cognoscenti. This tournament, they knocked off a No. 1 (Syracuse) and a No. 2 (Kansas State) to get to Indy. Their success shouldn't shock anyone, not even Barack Obama, who had them, zoink, falling to Syracuse.

But we're installing Butler as our honorary Final Four darlings anyway. It's schools like Butler that make the NCAA tournament a genuine treat, even if we've never come close to winning an office pool, and need to be locked in a hermetically-sealed tube as soon as CBS plays the first notes of "One Shining Moment," a song so corny it makes Barry Manilow sound like Lou Reed.

Besides, the tournament's last weekend could use a nice, viewer-friendly, heart-tuggy storyline. Despite the presence of hate-'em-cause-you-love-'em Duke, this is not exactly a glamorama Final Four. It's so low-watt, in fact, CBS just asked Tiger Woods if he can come back a week earlier—or at least come out at halftime and awkwardly apologize for something.

But a run by Butler would electrify this Final Four. The Bulldogs will be the first team to play in the Final Four in its hometown since UCLA in 1972. They should get to sleep in their own beds, order their own greasy campus pizza and they won't even be able to weasel out of term papers. They're led by a white-hot coach, Brad Stevens, who is 33 and looks 20 years younger—in aging cycles, that's known as a "reverse Jeff Van Gundy."

Butler's also got a handy pop culture entry point to stir those fickle casual fans. Let us be the 10,000th person to point out that Butler's home court, Hinkle Fieldhouse, was utilized in the underdog flick "Hoosiers," for the scene in which coach Gene Hackman measured the rim at 10 feet, explained the game was no different to small schools as it was to big schools and then passed a giant bottle of Captain Morgan around to all his players.

Or something like that. It's been a long time since we watched "Hoosiers." We're not worried about this, however, as we're certain every strained, imaginable parallel between that 1986 film and the current Bulldogs will be milked before Saturday's semifinal tipoff.

And good! Because are you going to root for, really? West Virginia? Hmm: nice win against Kentucky, and they haven't been to a Final Four since 1959. We can't pull for them until Bob Huggins upgrades that wardrobe of his. Against Kentucky, he looked like he was wandering to a five-dollar blackjack table.

Michigan State? A clutch victory against Tennessee on Saturday, but you can't be serious. Not only have they won multiple national titles, this is the sixth time they've made the Final Four since 1999, including last year. Hoping the Spartans will make the Final Four is like hoping Dan Brown will crack the bestseller list. Even Michigan State hero Magic Johnson looks kind of jaded by the success. We'd have preferred to see Tennessee reach the Final Four, not only because they've never made it, because we think Volunteers coach Bruce Pearl is amusingly loony—he's the Rex Ryan of college basketball.

But Duke? Nothing against blue people, but we didn't root for "Avatar" at the Oscars, and we're not rooting for Duke in a Final Four.

Here's how we'd like next weekend to go. In Saturday's semifinal, Butler finds a way past Michigan State -- sweet home-state revenge for the Spartans beating Indiana hero and No. 1 seed Indiana State in 1979. In Monday's final, Butler's the underdog regardless of who they play: Duke, West Virginia or the New Jersey Nets. Okay, maybe not the Nets. The game is a close one, a real Greg Gumbel nailbiter. With five minutes to go, Gene Hackman has snuck his way into the Butler huddle alongside Mr. Stevens, and of course it comes down to free throws, which the Bulldogs swish, because Mr. Hackman's been nagging them about it for months.

And then CBS cuts to "One Shining Moment" and, poof, the power goes out for four minutes.

It'd be another Final Four classic. Let's summon our collective fan energy, and make it so, Bulldogs.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702303429804575150220889592644-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwOTEyNDkyWj.html

[Link should be available until 4/5/10.]

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Healthcare Reform – How You May Be Affected

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10 Ways the New Healthcare Bill May Affect You

by Katie Adams
Friday, March 26, 2010

Provided by:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act, more commonly referred to as the "healthcare bill", has taken over a year to craft and has been a lightning rod for political debate because it effectively reshapes major facets of the country's healthcare industry.

Here are 10 things you need to know about how the new law may affect you:

1. Your Kids are Covered

Starting this year, if you have an adult child who cannot get health insurance from his or her employer and is to some degree dependent on you financially, your child can stay on your insurance policy until he or she is 26 years old. Currently, many insurance companies do not allow adult children to remain on their parents' plan once they reach 19 or leave school.

2. You Can't be Dropped

Starting this fall, your health insurance company will no longer be allowed to "drop" you (cancel your policy) if you get sick. In 2009, "rescission" was revealed to be a relatively common cost-cutting practice by several insurance companies. The practice proved to be common enough to spur several lawsuits; for example, in 2008 and 2009, California's largest insurers were made to pay out more than $19 million in fines for dropping policyholders who fell ill.

3. You Can't be Denied Insurance

Starting this year your child (or children) cannot be denied coverage simply because they have a pre-existing health condition. Health insurance companies will also be barred from denying adults applying for coverage if they have a pre-existing condition, but not until 2014.

4. You Can Spend What You Need to

Prior to the new law, health insurance companies set a maximum limit on the monetary amount of benefits that a policyholder could receive. This meant that those who developed expensive or long-lasting medical conditions could run out of coverage. Starting this year, companies will be barred from instituting caps on coverage.

5. You Don't Have to Wait

If you currently have pre-existing conditions that have prevented you from being able to qualify for health insurance for at least six months you will have coverage options before 2014. Starting this fall, you will be able to purchase insurance through a state-run "high-risk pool", which will cap your personal out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare. You will not be required to pay more than $5,950 of your own money for medical expenses; families will not have to pay any more than $11,900.

6. You Must be Insured

Under the new law starting in 2014, you will have to purchase health insurance or risk being fined. If your employer does not offer health insurance as a benefit or if you do not earn enough money to purchase a plan, you may get assistance from the government. The fines for not purchasing insurance will be levied according to a sliding scale based on income. Starting in 2014, the lowest fine would be $95 or 1% of a person's income (whichever is greater) and then increase to a high of $695 or 2.5% of an individual's taxable income by 2016. There will be a maximum cap on fines.

7. You'll Have More Options

Starting in 2014 (when you will be required by law to have health insurance), states will operate new insurance marketplaces - called "exchanges" - that will provide you with more options for buying an individual policy if you can't get, or afford, insurance from your workplace and you earn too much income to qualify for Medicaid. In addition, millions of low- and middle-income families (earning up to $88,200 annually) will be able to qualify for financial assistance from the federal government to purchase insurance through their state exchange.

8. Flexible Spending Accounts Will Become Less Flexible

Three years from now, flexible spending accounts (FSAs) will have lower contribution limits - meaning you won't be able to have as much money deducted from your paycheck pre-tax and deposited into an FSA for medical expenses as is currently allowed. The new maximum amount allowed will be $2,500. In addition, fewer expenses will qualify for FSA spending. For example, you will no longer be able to use your FSA to help defray the cost of over-the-counter drugs.

9. If You Earn More, You'll Pay More

Starting in 2018, if your combined family income exceeds $250,000 you are going to be taking less money home each pay period. That's because you will have more money deducted from your paycheck to go toward increased Medicare payroll taxes. In addition to higher payroll taxes you will also have to pay 3.8% tax on any unearned income, which is currently tax-exempt.

10. Medicare May Cover More or Less of Your Expenses

Starting this year, if Medicare is your primary form of health insurance you will no longer have to pay for preventive care such as an annual physical, screenings for treatable conditions or routine laboratory work. In addition, you will get a $250 check from the federal government to help pay for prescription drugs currently not covered as a result of the Medicare Part D "doughnut hole".

However, if you are a high-income individual or couple (making more than $85,000 individually or $170,000 jointly), your prescription drug subsidy will be reduced. In addition, if you are one of the more than 10 million people currently enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan you may be facing higher premiums because your insurance company's subsidy from the federal government is going to be dramatically reduced.

Conclusion

Over the next few months you will most likely receive information in the mail from your health insurance company about how the newly signed law will affect your coverage. Read the correspondence carefully and don't hesitate to ask questions about your policy; there may be new, more affordable options for you down the road.

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Supersizing the Last Supper?

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Study: Last Supper paintings supersize the food

Has even the Last Supper been supersized?

The food in famous paintings of the meal has grown by biblical proportions over the last millennium, researchers report in a medical journal Tuesday.

Using a computer, they compared the size of the food to the size of the heads in 52 paintings of Jesus Christ and his disciples at their final meal before his death.

If art imitates life, we're in trouble, the researchers conclude. The size of the main dish grew 69 percent; the size of the plate, 66 percent, and the bread, 23 percent, between the years 1000 and 2000.

Supersizing is considered a modern phenomenon, but "what we see recently may be just a more noticeable part of a very long trend," said Brian Wansink, a food behavior scientist at Cornell University.

The study was his idea. For biblical context, he sought help from his brother, Craig Wansink, professor of religious studies at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, Va., and an ordained Presbyterian minister.

The Bible says the Last Supper took place on a Passover evening but gives little detail on specific foods besides bread and wine.

"There's nothing else mentioned. They don't say there's a fruit cup or carrot cake," though other foods such as fish, eel, lamb and even pork have appeared in paintings through the years, Brian Wansink said.

For the study, he used paintings featured in the book "Last Supper," published in 2000 by Phaidon Press. They include perhaps the most famous portrayal of the meal, by Leonardo da Vinci. Computer technology allowed them to scan, rotate and calculate images regardless of their orientation in the paintings.

Details are in the April issue of the International Journal of Obesity.

The study is "not very meaningful science," said Martin Binks, a behavioral health psychologist and a consultant at Duke University Medical Center. "We have real life examples of the increase in portion size — all you have to do is look at what's being sold at fast-food restaurants."

A more contemporary test would be to analyze portion sizes in Super Bowl commercials, he suggested.

"That would be a much more meaningful snapshot of how this society's relationship to food has changed," Binks said.

Craig Wansink specializes in New Testament studies and is the author of Chained in Christ: The Experience and Rhetoric of Paul’s Imprisonments.

Paintings and study: http://www.mindlesseating.org/lastsupper/

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Wagah – The Border Closing Ceremonies

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Wagah is the only road border crossing between India and Pakistan. The village of Wagah was cut in half in 1947 by the controversial Radcliffe line dividing India and Pakistan, and granting independence from Britain to each. The eastern part of Wagah is in India while the western half is in Pakistan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagah

Every evening there is a retreat ceremony called “lowering of the flags”. The ceremonial gates to each country are then closed. Over the last several years the aggression displayed at the ceremonies has been toned down. That said, please watch the video.






http://www.youtube.com/user/Triassical1#p/f/6/LZ0ue-XGl9c

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