Medary.com

The lawsuit of the National Invitational Tournament against the NCAA begins.

In a civil case projected to feature testimony from college presidents, coaches, athletic directors and economists, the NIT - the older of the two tournaments - is asking a jury to find that the NCAA violated federal antitrust laws.

As a fan of a school which is not likely to get a whiff of the NCAA tournament for some time, my inclinations are toward the NIT. But, the libertarian in me says "the schools sign a contract with the NCAA, they need to live with it."

I received this via e-mail--it was sufficiently amusing to post:

I'm not sure exactly how it works, but this is amazingly accurate. Read the full description before looking at the picture.

The picture below has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress level at St. Mary's Hospital.

Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study of a group revealed that in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical; a person under stress would find differences in the two dolphins. If there are many differences found between both dolphins, it means that the person is experiencing a great amount of stress.

Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences you may want to take a vacation.

Once again, long pointless hours spent blogging and linking are paying off, as Medary.com has evolved into Flappy Bird status in the TTLB Ecosystem.

The money will come rolling in any minute, I'm sure. (crickets chirping)

Hmm, birds eat crickets . . .

#10: Is no pain killer safe?
#9: Mariners 11, Royals 3
#8: Sprint Center hole gets bids
#7: Virgin Galactic gets U.S. OK
#6: Western rights vs. Islam
#5: blogrolling.com banned in Iran
#4: Reporters cower before Mexican drug lords
#3: The President Who Can't Say No
#2: Another State judge appoints himself Education King
#1: Kelo decision aftermath: time for a new Tea Party?

A new study shows that acetaminophen (i.e. Tylenol) raises blood pressure in women:

The study, which looked at the medical records of 5,123 women -- ages 34 to 77 -- for up to eight years, found that those who took 500 milligrams or more of acetaminophen daily were twice as likely to develop high blood pressure as women who did not take the drug.

From the same article, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) also raises blood pressure:

Older women, ages 51 to 77, who took an average daily dose of more than 400 milligrams of ibuprofen a day were 78% more likely to develop high blood pressure than older women who did not take the drug. And younger women, ages 34 to 53, who took those daily doses were 60% more likely to develop high blood pressure, according to the study published in today's issue of Hypertension.

I don't know if the study controlled for recent marriage of the women, which incontrovertably raises blood pressure in The Better Half. (grin, duck, run)

It's really not even funny any more.

The Kansas City Royals remained in their downward spiral Monday night when they were overpowered by Seattle rookie phenom Felix Hernandez in an 11-3 loss at Safeco Field.

Hernandez, 19, allowed just one run and three hits in eight innings in sending the Royals to their 16th consecutive defeat. He struck out 11 and walked just one in a dominating 99-pitch performance.

It's not the other pitchers that are good, it's the Royals that are just bad hitters. Royals need to go 43-2 to finish .500, 25-20 to avoid 100 losses, 1-44 to avoid losing all of their remaining games.

The delayed bid letting to begin Kansas City's Sprint Center foundation excavation finally happens:

Contractors who balked at responding to the original request for bids complained that the 2½-inch thick document was cumbersome and onerous. One described it as having “public sector bureaucracy all over it.”

City and Mortenson officials believed the biggest obstacle was the interpretation by potential bidders that the contract would make them liable for up to $25,000 per day in damages should the arena miss its completion deadline. Among other things, the revised bid specifications capped that potential damage amount at $150,000.

Private space flight takes a big step forward.

“It allows us to activate all the parts of the project,” Whitehorn told SPACE.com in an exclusive phone interview, such as use of technology—SpaceShipOne’s reentry concept and hybrid rocket motor design, for example—that can be licensed through Paul Allen’s Mojave Aerospace Ventures.

I think Richard Branson is a flake, but I must admit, he's a flake with style. Not to mention a boatload of cash.

OpinionJournal with yet another good editorial on the conflict of radical Islam with fundamental Western values:

The first is the draft constitution of Iraq, now due next week. Iraqi women like Naghem Khadim, demonstrating on the streets of Najaf, are fighting to prevent an article from being put in the constitution that would establish that the legislature may make no laws that contradict Shariah edicts. The second case is the province of Ontario, in Canada. There, Muslim women led by Homa Arjomand, an activist of Iranian origin, are fighting--using the Canadian Charter of Rights--to keep Shariah from being applied as family law through a so-called Arbitration Act passed as law in Ontario in 1992.

You see, there is a fundamental contradiction between Western liberty and Islam as interpreted by its more radical followers. One must prevail, and the other must yield. There can be no compromise where liberty is concerned--once it's gone, it's gone, and only massive amounts of blood and treasure can restore it.

Iran blocks blogrolling.com:

Many bloggers perceive this as an 'attack' to the Persian blogosphere. "I don't know what would happen next, but this is just the beginning," the writer of 'Persian Buddy' wrote in his blog.

World Politics For Dummies, Lesson One: enemy states (i.e. Iran, China, North Korea) implement broad restrictions on the information their populace receives. Free states don't. Definition of "broad restrictions" is left as an exercise for the reader.

Via Michelle Malkin.