Scuttlebutt Pipeline

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That would be China’s solution to making the air safer to breath for the Olympic athletes in Beijing during the upcoming Olympic games. Never mind the fact that they’ve known since 2001 that they would be host to the games and that they promised the pollution levels would be down by the time of the games. They’ve had well over six years to work on their pollution, but has China done anything?

That would be a big fat NO.

So, on July 20th, 2008 all building construction will come to a halt. No construction, digging, pouring or laying concrete, and no outdoor spray-painting. Also, some 19 businesses have also been told to cut their emissions by 30% as well. So basically, they’re hoping that this 3 week halt of construction will lower the pollution levels in time for the games. A three week period to do what they could have been working on for the past couple of years. Talk about a last ditch effort combined with stupidity.

I’m still at a loss as to why Beijing is hosting the games anyway.

Do you think you know it all when it comes to a certain team, sport, or sports? Maybe you would just like to test your knowledge of sports trivia? Either way, you may want to head on over to TriviaFix.com and go at it head to head with other sports junkies in the ultimate test of skills.

TriviaFix.com is a bit different from most sports trivia sites however, so listen up. TriviaFix.com is user generated community that is driven by you. Members submit their own questions (including video and audio) and will create their own trivia teams, as well as organize the competitions. You can follow your progress and check the stats of not just your friends and yourself but other members as well. This allows you to determine who you want on your team and what areas you need to work on. There is a scoreboard on every category and sub category page for just this reason.

This unique community environment allows members to truly test the limits of their knowledge, learn, and most of all, interact on a new level with fellow junkies. And with monthly prizes being awarded every month to the top members in all sports there is no reason not to sign up and test your knowledge.

Are you in search of some hard to find tickets? Has the event been listed as sold out but you’re still hearing of people getting tickets? Maybe they use Zickets.

Zickets aims to provide you with a fast, easy, and secure way of buying tickets for hard to find and sold-out events. Looking for tickets for a play, concert, sporting event or even an exhibition? Why pin your hopes on finding a scalper on the day of the event with tickets in the nose-bleed section. Let Zickets be your hook up instead. Not only will you be able to rest assured that, once your order is filled, you have tickets to the venue of your choice but you’ll also be paying low prices to boot. Place your luck on a scalper or trust Zickets? It’s really not a hard choice to make!

So Zickets sells tickets for hard to find events, but what if, despite their best effort, Zickets cannot fill your order? Have no worries, your card will not be charged until your order has been filled. In the case that Zickets is unable to fulfill your request you will receive an email notifying you of this.

…You may want to head on over to Soccer Goalz Inc which provides quality portable Soccer Goals at fairly reasonable prices. This easy on the eyes and fast loading website provides a variety of portable soccer goals, from pop up ones to backyard tournament designs, as well as soccer backstops and soccer rebounders. Many of the items listed can be used, not just for soccer, but other net-sports as well. Practicing hockey or lacrosse? These goals will suit your needs just fine. In fact, Soccer Goalz Inc also carry pvc and metal hockey goals too.

Soccer Goalz Inc using a secure shopping cart and checkout service provided by Yahoo! Stores for your ordering. If you are planning on buying more than one item and or wish to see the contents of your shopping cart the layout of the website makes it a bit difficult. There is no readily apparent link to view one’s cart on the navigation to at the top of the page or the left-hand column. I would strongly urge the creators and owners of this site to add that feature as it makes the shopping experiance much more easier and enjoyable. If I have to keep adding and then deleting items in order to just view my cart’s contents I would be inclined to give up and find another store. So this feature really should be added.

As for shipping and handling, they offer a flat shipping rate of $10 for ground mail. Since you know these items are not going to light that is a fairly good deal. Ground shipping can take five to seven business days and is available in the States only. For expedited shipping they also offer other options.

NEW YORK, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The American media turned on Serena Williams on Wednesday, labelling the former world number one as “classless” and “graceless” after her sullen reaction to her U.S. Open exit at the hands of Justine Henin.

Top seed Henin beat the American 7-6 6-1 in the quarter-finals for the third consecutive grand-slam event on Tuesday but a despondent Williams gave the Belgian scant praise.

“I just think she made a lot of lucky shots and I made a lot of errors,” Williams said at her news conference.

“I really don’t feel like talking about it. It’s like I don’t want to get fined. That’s the only reason I came. I can’t afford to pay the fines because I keep losing.”

Players who fail to appear for post-match news conferences face fines from tennis officials.

Williams’s words and manner were greeted with widespread disdain.

“(Williams) met the media afterward like a rattlesnake meets a ground squirrel,” wrote Bill Dwyer, in the Los Angeles Times.

“If anybody was expecting perspective afterward, or maybe a gracious nod to a better effort by an opponent, forget it. We had sullen Serena. Snippy Serena. Snarly Serena.”

(Full Article)

You want to know what I think about this? Well you’re reading my blog so I assume you do. I think this is something that is being blown out of proportion. I mean really, she lost. How do expect a person to give you “tremendous” insight to the match? Weren’t you there watching? Can’t you figure out the gist of what happened without having to harass the athlete?

That’s basically what this boils down to, expecting a little too much from athletes. You have to remember that the majority of these athletes (no matter the sport) are there for the love of the game and or the money. Having a mandatory press conference afterwards even for the loser is just rubbing salt into an open wound. For those who love the game or playing for money, the loss has to be humiliating or at least painful and here you [the press] are expecting them to be graceful and pliant to your every question that must feel like a stab through the heart. Guess what, they’re only human and if they would rather not talk about their loss and say so then leave it be.