Click for larger image.

Man, I'd hate to live in one of those crappy blue states where sports doesn't matter!

The UND hockey coach is pretty close, and the NDSU football coach is getting closer. Off the top of my head, the list is something like:

1. UND Med School dean - 575k
2. UND hockey coach - 500k
3. NDSU football coach - 400k

Okay. Now have a source for ND:

INFORUM | Fargo, ND

And the top 5, in case anyone is interested:
1. UND med school surgery director- 758k
2. UND hockey coach- 650k
3. UND med school dean- 580k
4. UND med school administrator/professor- 453k
5. NDSU football coach- 367k

...We like our doctors.

I feel like they made this map just because of Nevada. Ha ha.

No wonder education is so expensive.

Very serious.

And in that case, completely wrong.

When the highest paid public worker in every state is a school coach or official there is a problem.

A) Most of those salaries are paid by boosters, not the school, so it's not actually money out of taxpayer pockets.
B) The issue with higher education cost is far, far bigger than what the highest paid coach makes. Compare the cost of new campus building construction per year vs. what the football coach is paid directly by the school - it's not even close.

yeah, stadiums and practice fields are EXPENSIVE

There are a lot of reasons why education is so expensive, but athletic programs that are subsidized by tuition and fees are certainly part of the problem.

In sc neither public u spends one penny of public money on the football program. In fact the football boater donates 5 mm / yr to general Ed fund at CU

That's a bit of a red herring. Football programs are generally profitable, but the athletic departments are not for all but a handful of D-1 schools.

Yeah, I'm talking about athletic programs, not just football. According to the public data put together by USA Today, all but seven of the 228 schools they examined took some subsidy from the university. Clemson took over five milion.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colle...ools/finances/

Not sure about most of them, but the subsidy that Washington takes is a state-mandated subsidy for women's sports (that's what the $3M is) - in every other respect the department is self-sustaining and turns a profit (well above the Title 9 subsidy).

And those are usually paid for by donors. The schools that engage in facilities arms races are also typically the ones that A) have donors that foot all or most of the bill, and B) are ones where the stadium in question is the engine that funds 90% of the athletic department (and is thus a wise investment).

The University of Washington will be spending over $1B in 2014; they will be sending ~$3M to the athletic department by state mandate to help offset Title 9 costs. So that subsidy represents less than 0.3% of their expenses in a year.

Even if you took an institution that was spending just 25% of what the UW did while subsidizing their athletic department at ~$20M per year (the upper end of that USA Today list), that still represents just 8% of their expenses for the year. And I would bet good money such a situation is rare.

Russian gold medalists kiss on medal stand at world championships to protest anti-gay laws

When girls do it it's not gross.

Ah well...

From Jennifer Vanasco at the Columbia Journalism Review:

Anyone doing a quick Google search can find the video from the event — because of course the track world championships were televised. In the video, you can see that each of the women [on the team] shared a quick, social kiss with each other in the standard European way. There was nothing romantic or political about it — it was the equivalent of a back slap, over in seconds.

Russian athletes issue angry denial of 'gay kiss' protest - CNN.com

Stop ruining it for me please.

I just need the photo and an imagination thanks.

The giant panda at the National Zoo gave birth to a cub the other day, here's the first "baby photo." Now the zookeepers will be having a dickens of a time, hoping that cub survives.



/tk

We've been following the Atlanta Zoo panda babies as well as Xiao Liwu in San Diego. Baby pandas are pretty freakin' adorable and hilarious. Hope Mei Xiang doesn't lose this one. So far so good.

Mei Xiang mated with Tian Tian at the National Zoo but also received an insemination from Gao Gao in San Diego. I really think they should have both pandas go on Maury to find the paternity results. Team Gao Gao!

no way man! DC is where the pandas breed!

Hahaha. They will be doing a paternity test at some point soon, according to the National Zoo website. Also according to the updates, Mei Xiang gave birth to another cub last night but it was stillborn. :( The good news is that the one that wasn't stillborn has had its first exam and things look good.

I have a special love for pandas. I hope this one makes it.

/tk

Cripes. My face hurts.

ouch

My wife feels I am irrationally proud to have taken this picture this morning.

I feel it is the pinnacle of my life.

The story around the stillbirth is pretty heart pounding. The panda team saw Mei grooming a motionless cub and heard no noise. For five minutes they thought the cub had died. Then the first cub started squaking -- Mei had tucked the first cub inside her arm where the couldn't see it when she had the second cub. She groomed it for 17 minutes before she put it down and turned back to the live cub. The panda team had to figure out what was happening, so they gave Mei some food so the could retrieve the stillborn cub and grab the live cub for a quick exam. After a few minutes, Mei got upset that her cub was gone and was yelling and standing on her hind legs. They quickly got the live cub back in her den, she picked it up and curled up in the corner to nurse it.

Well, when you put it like that... :D

I don't know either of these players/teams, don't follow baseball - but this is one of the greatest gifs ever. Love it.

+1

:) Definately! +1

Yep, awesome GIF

some cool ones in here. I am partial to #9

21 College Campuses That Make You Feel Like You're At Hogwarts

Have done the tour at #3….which is where parts of the interior of Hogwarts were filmed. #20 is pretty awesome, got to attend a wedding there once.

I've been in #1 and it's one of the most beautiful university building interiors I've ever seen in person (although you wouldn't think it looks that way from the outside).

dayum!

One lucky fuck

Where did this gif happen?

I think in Holyfuckistan

Taiwan.

LUCKY DRiVER ESCAPED DEATH WHEN BiG BOULDER ALMOST CRUSHED CAR TAiWAN

Made me LOLZ

Heh. I have often argued FOR the use of the Oxford comma. That's one of the best arguments against I've seen.

Same :)

SI

That looks like Jeff Francouer now.

Each of those are separate things, I don't see how someone would interpret it that way...

Now if it said, His eyebrows were ..., and that would make a case for the picture but we wouldn't be having that discussion then.

Well This Celebration Certainly Just Got Awkward

I'm shocked to see every single champ in the article were Asian. :D

I've never envied an ice cream cone so much in my fucking life.

is that strawberry ice cream? gross.

Shows internet usage dependent on time of day.

"Ugliest residents" is tough to cope with as a single 20-something.

You would think Washington would be closer to the Dakotas.

You have to give it to Mississippi. First in obesity, but somehow not first in cancer, heart disease or strokes.

Surprised Indiana is the least green considering the massive wind farms in the northern part of the state and the ethanol production. But hey, I'm being a homer.

That was one of the ones that jumped out at me as just wrong.

Tornadoes for Minnesota is also patently wrong. I have yet to see anything that doesn't have Oklahoma as #1 for that.

Ohio doesn't strike me as all that nerdy, either.

And, Utah and p0rn?

But this was put together by Alabama which seems like it could take about half the titles on the map.

SI

The Utah porn thing I've seen before. That comes from search engine results.

I just wonder what "bad" porn usage is. My definition would be a prude least not the most.

Yeah, I was wondering if they were "best" or "worst" at pr0n

SI

And Idaho...is that a bad thing or a good thing?

Montana...at least if you are going to drink and drive do it in a state where you are very unlikely to hit or for that matter see another person.

You forget, Utah's AG at one time hired a "Porn" Czar to curb the amount of porn coming into the state.

But yes, they probably do lead the nation in porn subscriptions and prompt porn cancellations with the excuse of "No one in my house purchased something like this" followed up with a divorce....

Watches the most.

not sure if cool or disturbing, but definitely unique.

makes me think those stories of ancient Eagles eating people aren´t all that far fetched as you might think ...

That is crazy.

Backstory

We are number one in binge drinking! WooHoo!

FYI, this is how they came up with the "worst" stuff for each state.

The United States of Shame (CHART) | Pleated-Jeans.com

Idaho's "weakest government influence" is based on a D.C. newspaper's list of states by influence in Congress, as calculated by number of representatives, number of representatives in committees and position of leadership, per capita federal spending received, etc.

The Indiana "least green" one seems random, but it's just based on proportion of consumers who have "purchased carbon offsets, organic foods, renewable power, and hybrid vehicles and those who compost, reuse grocery bags, and donate money to environmental groups." But that study only ranked the top 25 states by population, so Indiana is only the worst of those top 25.

Minnesota did rank #1 in reported Tornados, at least in one year (2010)

Edit: And ya, Utah has the highest per capita number of pornography website subscribers, which really just means that Utah residents are the most ethical porn consumers in that they don't pirate as much porn.

So ya, not super-scientific, but fun.

Probably not far behind in those. First thing I noticed was Louisiana. So what would make me most happy: being obese or having gonorrhea?

Several years ago, a state legislator tried unsuccessfully to change the state motto from "Virtute et Armis" to "At least we're not Arkansas".

Mississippi is fat for a reason.

Local cuisine includes Cajun food from Louisiana, Creole food from New Orleans, Steaks from Texas Ranch country, Soul Food from the South, BBQ from Tennessee ALL in one place. Love Mississippi and Louisiana for it's great food mecca status.

From a CNN story on the creation of a lightsaber like form of matter, the top 3 comments below the article were classic

Scientists create light-matter like Darth Vader's lightsaber - CNN.com

Yeah, I ate a lot of good food in when I lived in Jackson, including Greek and sushi.

So now they are just showing off.