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Blackmail Scheme Involving Giants Coach

The Giants’ Monday night opener against the Browns isn’t till next month. But their coach, Tom Coughlin, is already making news — of a non-football variety.

Today, the FBI filed a criminal complaint against a man, charging him with intent to extort money from Coughlin through the following alleged scheme (which is laid out in an FBI affidavit):
On or about July 30, 2008, Thomas Coughlin . . . received a letter via U.S. mail that had been mailed from Philadelphia, purportedly from two females identified as “ND” and “AB” who were claiming to have had sexual relations with Mr. Coughlin while he was in Philadelphia with the team during December 2007. The letter threatened that “ND” and “AB” would share this information with Mr. Coughlin’s wife and family unless he paid them $10,000-$15,000 each. The letter gave Mr. Coughlin until August 6, 2008 to make the payment or they would make his life “a living hell by doing something to [his] family.” . . .On or about July 31, 2008, Mr. Coughlin received a second letter. . .purporting to be from “ND” and “AB” which repeated the threat described above, included identifying information regarding Mr. Coughlin’s family, and which moved up the deadline for payment to August 5, 2008.

Todd A. Berry, the FBI agent who conducted the investigation, wrote the affidavit and filed the complaint, said he conduced interviews with “ND” and “AB,” who identified the handwriting in the letters as that of a former co-worker “who had previously written threatening letters.”

To us, there exist a dozen (or so) odd things about this. But of all the people to attempt to blackmail, why Tom Coughlin?

Source:

Interested in blackmail? Check out the Burn After Reading microsite here.

• 2.4/5
• 1659
• 9
• 9/12/2008
• by CraveOnline

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Baseball's UK Heritage Confirmed

Local historians in Surrey (South East of England) have confirmed evidence that baseball was played in the UK more than 20 years before American independence.

A diary that documents a game being played in Guildford in 1755 has been verified by Surrey History Centre.

William Bray, a Surrey diarist and historian from Shere, wrote about the game when he was still a teenager.

Major League Baseball, the governing body of the game in the US, has been informed of the discovery.

Julian Pooley, Surrey History Centre manager and William Bray expert, said the diary showed the game was a well-established sport in the 18th Century and was played by men and women.

Tricia St John Barry, who owns the diary, dug out the documents last year after watching a report on BBC South Today which said the sport began in the 1790s.

Ms St John Barry remembered the old manuscript, which she had had for many years, and responded to an appeal to viewers for more information on the subject.

William Bray lived from 1736 to 1832 and worked as a solicitor, a steward of Surrey manors and a Surrey historian.

Mr Pooley said: "He kept lots and lots of diaries that we have in the Surrey History Centre but last year a new one was discovered in a garden shed and it contains his diary from 1754 to 1755.

"It contains a reference to him playing baseball. What intrigued me is he is playing it with a load of young ladies."

The diary states they had tea after the game on Easter Monday and also played cricket.

Kevin Sullivan, the Washington Post's London bureau correspondent and an avid Boston Red Sox fan, told BBC Radio Four's Today Programme: "It's a great American tradition to take things from other places and improve them.

"We've always known that baseball evolved - it wasn't invented like basketball."

There was a later historical reference to the game being played in England in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, written between 1797 and 1798.

Source

I... don't know why I found this interesting. I hope at least one other person does too :/

• 4.15/5
• 786
• 14
• 9/11/2008
• by InsayneJayne

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Former UFC Champ Evan Tanner Found Dead

Article Submitted by ug7344.

Ultimate Fighting Championship star Evan Tanner has died in the desert east of San Diego, possibly of heat exposure.

Sheriff's Lt. George Moreno said the 37-year-old Tanner was found Monday about two miles from his campsite in a remote area of the Palo Verdes Mountains, where temperatures had reached 110 degrees. Moreno said a preliminary coroner's report suggests Tanner died of heat exposure.

Tanner left for the desert last week to go camping and motorcycle riding.

His agent, John Hayner, said Tanner called a friend on Wednesday to say the dirt bike had run out of gas. He was about 100 miles from the nearest town.

"As an extreme ultimate fighter, practicing mixed martial arts, he really didn't define himself as being a fighter," Hayner told FOXNews.com. "He defined himself as being an adventurer, and he would fund his adventures through fighting."

And Tanner has been thinking about risky adventures in recent months.

"This summer he wanted to go kayaking from Alaska to California, and I said, 'Evan, that's incredibly dangerous; you could die out there," Hayner told FOXNews.com. "And he goes, 'Well, you could die anywhere.'

"He always had this kind of concept [of], well, it sharpens your senses by being on a razor's edge with your life actually on the line."

Tanner, 37, had blogged ominously about his trip into the desert to "cleanse."

"I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life," he wrote on his journal for Spike TV.

Tanner is a former UFC champion middleweight. He lost his last bout in June.

Tanner made his MMA debut in April 1997, winning three fights in one night, including a win over Paul Buentello. His biggest fight came in February 2001 when he challenged then-UFC Light Heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz in the main event of UFC 30 but was knocked out in just 32 seconds.

Tanner later moved down to 185 pounds and won the vacant UFC Middleweight Championship over David Terrell, but then lost the title in June 2005 to Rich Franklin in a fight where the winner would also become one of the coaches for the second season of "The Ultimate Fighter."

The UFC signed Tanner to a four-fight contract last November with the first fight of that contract taking place earlier this year in March at UFC 82 in Columbus, Ohio. He lost by KO to Yushin Okami and then suffered another loss in June to Kendall Grove by split decision on the TUF 7 Finale show in Las Vegas.

• 4.5/5
• 1750
• 13
• 9/10/2008
• by InsayneJayne

Video:

Bulgarian Women's Ice Hockey Loses 82-0

Article Submitted by Cipher.

There's the "agony of defeat." And then there's this women's ice hockey score from the European Olympic pre-qualifying tournament: Slovakia 82, Bulgaria 0.

That's correct: 82 goals for Slovakia, none for Bulgaria.

The International Ice Hockey Federation said the result, from a game played Saturday at the tournament in Liepaja, Latvia, set a record score for a women's IIHF-sanctioned event. It was not the all-time record for futility, however; that is still held by Thailand, which lost 92-0 to South Korea in the 1998 Asia-Oceania U18 Championship.

Slovakia, which won all four of its games at the tournament, outshot Bulgaria 139-0, scoring on 58.9 percent of its shots on goal. Slovakia averaged one goal every 44 seconds.

"We took it as training," Slovakia coach Miroslav Karafiat said after Saturday's game.

Bulgaria trailed 7-0 after 5 minutes, 19-0 after 10 and 31-0 at the end of the first period.

The drubbing capped a woeful showing for the Bulgarian women, who also lost 30-1 to Croatia and 41-0 to Italy in earlier games.

Janka Culikova led Slovakia with 10 goals, while Martina Velickova scored nine. Fourteen different players scored at least one goal.

Slovakia, which also beat Croatia, Latvia and Italy, advanced to another qualifying group with Germany, Kazakhstan and France. The winner will secure a spot at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Bulgaria was eliminated after scoring one goal and giving up conceding 192 in the tournament.

The Slovakian men's team clinched its biggest ever victory against the Bulgarians 14 years ago when they won 20-0.

Source, Source

• 4.61/5
• 2216
• 12
• 9/10/2008
• by InsayneJayne

Video:

Beijing Olympics: Cheeky Condom Adverts Released

Olympic-themed condom adverts have been released in China to coincide with the start of the 2008 Beijing Games. The cheeky adverts, which depict stick-man athletes using condoms as apparatus in Olympic events, have become a viral sensation in China.

The contraceptives prove themselves remarkably versatile, standing in as bicycle wheels, basketball nets, archery targets and gymnastic rings.

A ribbed condom is also used to illustrate choppy water in the swimming version of the campaign.

The adverts were made for Chinese condom-maker Elasun, with the broken English slogan “Sports make you health”.

The firm is by no means first to make the connection between the Games and sex, with Olympic villages reputed to be hotbeds of after-hours indulgence.

Earlier this week it emerged that the 16,000 competitors staying in the Beijing village will be able to purchase a wide variety of soft pornography, including erotic books featuring provocative pictures of naked women with titles such as "Drawing book for the Nude".

At the 2004 Athens Olympics 130,000 free condoms were made available to athletes and officials.

In the Sydney 2000 Games, each competing athlete was given 51 condoms on arrival at the Olympic Village, but another 20,000 had to be shipped in when supplies began to run low.

Source

• 4.61/5
• 1600
• 12
• 7/30/2008
• by bajaboy

Video:

Thai Referee Beat Up By Soccer Team

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai soccer referee was beaten up by an entire team after sending off three of their players during a match to decide promotion to country's second division, local media reported on Friday.

Referee Prakong Sukguamala needed 50 stitches and also broke a finger after being attacked by the Kuiburi FC squad, furious at being shown three red cards during a 4-1 loss to Kasem Bundit on Thursday, the Thai-language Thai Rath newspaper said.

The angry players charged into Prakong's dressing room at the stadium in Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, and started to kick and punch him. They dispersed after police fired gunshots into the air.

The players then chased Prakong into the stadium's office, where the hapless official ran into a mirror, leaving him with cuts all over his body.

Prakong told Channel 3 television he was forced to lock himself in the room to escape his attackers.

In the same interview, Kuiburi's coach accused Prakong of biased refereeing but said he had urged his players to show restraint when tempers flared.

Prakong, covered in bruises, insisted he had refereed the game fairly and had been told by Thailand's soccer federation to press charges against the Kuiburi team.

Source

• 4.65/5
• 3126
• 17
• 2/11/2008
• by InsayneJayne

Video:

Blind Woman Hits Historic Hole-In-One

Drummond, blinded by diabetes 26 years ago, experienced the highlight of her golfing career Sunday, recording an ace on the 144-yard, par-3 fourth hole at Mahoning Valley Country Club.

Playing with her husband and coach, Keith, and two friends in a steady rain, the 53-year-old Drummond hit a driver on the hole. The shot cleared a water hazard, flew between traps and landed on the green, where it hit the flagstick before dropping into the hole. "They were saying, 'It's a great shot,' and then I heard it hit the pin," Drummond said.

"For a hole-in-one, you have to hit it onto the green, so it's a little bit of skill and a lot of luck." In 1999, Golf Digest said the odds of an amateur getting a hole-in-one are 1 in 12,750. That number, no doubt rises, for a blind golfer.

Drummond is a member of the board of directors of the United States Blind Golfers Association, and the organization believes she is the first totally blind female to record a hole-in-one. "We've looked everywhere, and haven't been able to find anyone else," she said.

Drummond took up golf about 15 years ago, and three years later qualified as the first female member of the USGBA. "I just try to do the best I can," said Drummond, who carries a 48 handicap with the USGBA. "I get nervous.

"But I wasn't nervous (Sunday), I just don't like playing in the rain."

Source: WCBSTV.com

• 4.59/5
• 2934
• 11
• 8/21/2007
• by DaVyWaVyBaBy

Video:

Hockey Fighting Camp Draws Attention

A controversial summer hockey camp that teaches youth how to scrap on skates is attracting censure from critics who fear the youngsters are being groomed for hockey mayhem. Organizers defend the fight camp, saying it teaches players to protect themselves.

Trevor Lakness, GM of Puckmasters, says they're not trying to make more fights in hockey. "What we're doing is if kids get into fights, they're not going to get hurt, they're going to know how to protect themselves."

A Hockey Canada spokesman calls the program unnecessary.

The Regina camp is the brainchild of Lakness and Minnesota Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard, who has had 26 fights in 113 games during his first two seasons with the team.

The two-hour lesson, which is held at the Puckmasters training facility and costs $40, instructs players from ages 12 to 18 on the art of on-ice fighting.

"Kids now go out on the rink and now they have the confidence that 'If I do get into a fight, I'm not going to get my butt kicked'," Lakness said.

Instructor Derek Parker said the mandate of the school is not to teach kids how to become teenaged bruisers, but to avoid black eyes themselves. "To get the most out of your players, you have to take the fear away so at least they can protect each other," he said.

The camp includes a fight tape that is a compilation of Derek Boogaard and his brother Aaron's junior and professional fights as well as television play-by-play that breaks down the science of the on-ice brawl. The tape also shows the Boogaard brothers demonstrating the hockey fight "code," where they are seen easing up and skating away once their opponents fall to the ice.

After the film, students undergo a strenuous workout that includes cardio and crunches. Finally, they get on their equipment, a full-face shield and one boxing glove as instructors demonstrate proper technique.

When the program first began, concerned parents began spoke out against it, some describing it as "barbaric" and a "goon school." Lakness defends the school from those critics, saying it's for the benefit of the young players. "It's no different than karate -- why do people put their kids in karate? It's protection, it's an art."

Despite the controversy, organizers say they want to run a similar camp next off-season. "We'll keep doing this clinic as long as there's a demand for it. As long as there's fighting in the NHL," Lakness said.

"If they're there teaching kids at the ages of 12, 13, 14 to defend themselves, that's fine," said Wayne Gretzky. "I took boxing classes when I was 10. It didn't pay off for me."

• 4.46/5
• 2865
• 17
• 8/19/2007
• by Scienott

Video:

33 Classic Motorcycle Quotes

SOURCE: SHOUTWIRE.COM: I have compiled what I think are the greatest motorcycle quotes found throughout various sources. None of these quotes are mine, but I plan on coming up with my own personal bike quotes for another editorial. My bike has been in the shop for about 2 weeks, which can account for the feverish inspiration.

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Anonymous People:

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"I'd rather be riding my motorcycle thinking about God than sitting in church thinking about my motorcycle."

"Four wheels move the body. Two wheels move the soul."

"You start the game with a full pot o’ luck and an empty pot o’ experience...
The object is to fill the pot of experience before you empty the pot of luck."

"Never trade the thrills of living for the security of existence."

"A cold hamburger can be reheated quite nicely by strapping it to an exhaust pipe and riding forty miles."

"Sometimes it takes a whole tankful of fuel before you can think straight."

"Keep your bike in good repair: Motorcycle boots are not comfortable for walking."

"The best alarm clock is sunshine on chrome."

"If you don't ride in the rain, you don't ride."

"Catching a yellow-jacket in your shirt at seventy miles per hour can double your vocabulary."

"Well-trained reflexes are quicker than luck."

"Sometimes the best communication happens when you're on separate bikes."

"When you're riding lead, don't spit."

"Safety is a cheap and effective insurance policy."

"Never ride faster than your guardian angel can fly."

"If you ride like there's no tomorrow, there won't be."

"If you really want to know what’s going on, watch what’s happening at least five [vehicles] ahead."

"If the person in the next lane at the stoplight rolls up the window and locks the door, support their view of life by snarling at them."

"A friend is someone who’ll get out of bed at 2 am to drive his pickup to the middle of nowhere to get you when you’re broken down."

"If she changes her oil more than she changes her mind, follow her."

"If you want to get somewhere before sundown, you can’t stop at every tavern."

"A good long ride can clear your mind, restore your faith, and use up a lot of fuel."

"Everyone crashes. Some get back on. Some don't. Some can't."

"Respect the person who has seen the dark side of motorcycling and lived."

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Notable People:

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"Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death..." - Hunter Thompson

"There are only three sports: mountain climbing, bull fighting, and motor racing. All the rest are merely games." - Ernest Hemingway

"A zest for living must include a willingness to die." - R.A. Heinlein

"People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs." - Alexei Sayle

"I carry groceries home on the tank of my motorcycle." - Stephan Jenkins

"If I'm out trail-riding, I have a favorite motorcycle. Riding on the road, I've got a favorite.
If I'm jumping, I have a favorite, and if I'm racing, I have a favorite." - Evel Knievel

"Riding a motorcycle on today's highways, you have to ride in a very defensive manner. You have to be a good rider and you have to have both hands and both feet on the controls at all times." - Evel Knievel

"When I was 21, I got into a motorcycle accident while traveling in Europe and I had to lie around a lot in the aftermath, which was really the first time in my life that I became really focused and inspired to write." - Chantal Kreviazuk

"And I to my motorcycle Parked like the soul of the junkyard Restored, a bicycle fleshed With power, and tore off Up Highway 106 continually Drunk on the wind in my mouth Wringing the handlebar for speed Wild to be wreckage forever." - James Dickey

• 4.16/5
• 7485
• 8
• 5/21/2007
• by Scienott

Video:

Villainy Lives: Colts Beat Bears in Superbowl

In a shocking feat of victory, evil has done what movies would have you believe impossible. Optimus Prime has lost "The Touch" and harlots with hearts refuse to save Bond. Villainy abounds as the Indianapolis Colts managed to steal victory, and much more, from the Bears.

Typically, this would be the time to talk about all the evil this Colts' victory means for you and me. Surely, you will see the horror of Bea Arthur in a speedo and the silhouette of Michael Jackson lurking in the sky. The curse of the apocalypse is coming.

There's a more important issue going on here though, one that needs discussion. The issue is called "Judasery".

Judasery is when a friend betrays you, either to go off and score some play or for money, much like Judas of the Christian tradition. Case and point example.

You are at a party. You have a few too many drinks and can't see so clearly by party's end. With blurry eyes, you fall into a state of alcohol induced desperitis (AIDs), where you would hook up with a 2 ton tuna with questionable morals.

It's at this point where a good and loyal friend would pack you up and take you home. Not so for Judas. Judas is the guy who takes pictures of said event, gets a good laugh from it and then posts them on Spiked. You all know the guy.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that my good buddy, Xxoozero, was a Judas. With an amazing last-second change of heart, Zero pulled the reverse game-bet on me. We both cheered for the Bears, the glory of Ditka, and the ancient genius of the 80's Super-Bowl shuffle. Minutes before the game started, however, Xxoozero painted himself blue and white and switched sides. Betrayed, and caught of guard, the Bears and I fell.

Verily, true believers, mark my words. Hard times are now on us. The next year will be full of villaininity. K-fed will win a Grammy. Old men will wear pink speedo thongs at the beach. That Nigerian prince who loves to email you will upgrade to broadband and get 30 new servers. These wrongs will not be righted until Peyton Manning and his Colts lose again.

So here is your prize, Xxoozero. Your Judas-move put you in the victors circle and I sit, eating my words along with a bag of Doritos. Just know that the evil you wrought will bring dark times for us all. Long Live Ditka.

• 3.18/5
• 2805
• 12
• 2/5/2007
• by dockwats