Death To Thug U! University of Miami May Be In Line For The College Sports Death Penalty [CHEATERS]

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The NCAA informed University of Miami administrators it will consider invoking its “willful violators” clause and make an exception to the traditional four-year statute of limitations in the Nevin Shapiro case, a university source told Yahoo! Sports.

Traditionally, the NCAA’s bylaws would only allow it to sanction the Hurricanes for infractions that occurred during the four years prior to receiving a letter of inquiry from investigators. For example, if Miami received a letter of inquiry for a case on Sept. 1, 2011, the NCAA could only sanction the school for applicable violations dating back to Sept. 1, 2007. But the clause – reserved for “a pattern of willful violations” – can spin a probe back to the earliest applicable infractions.

Nevin Shapiro said this photo was taken in his luxury box during Miami’s 2008 season. From left to right are then-men’s basketball assistant coach Jake Morton, Shapiro and William Joseph.
(Special to Yahoo! Sports)

Applied to the Shapiro allegations, it means the NCAA could reach as far back to early 2002, when the booster said he began funneling benefits to Hurricanes players. And if the probe stretched back to 2002, it would overlap with Miami’s two-year probationary period from the baseball program, which was leveled from February 2003 to February 2005. That could potentially tag the Hurricanes athletic program with a “repeat violator” label and make the school further susceptible to the NCAA’s so-called death penalty.

[Y! Sports probe: Who is Nevin Shapiro?]

 

NCAA president Mark Emmert said that despite the penalty being used only once before in college football – against Southern Methodist University in 1987 – the association isn’t shying away from such a drastic sanction.

“We need to make sure that we’ve got, for the committee on infractions, all the tools they need to create those kinds of deterrents,” Emmert told USA Today. “If that includes the death penalty, I’m fine with that.”

And while the likelihood of the death penalty remains questionable, the possibility of the willful violators clause is not welcome news for an already-embattled athletic department. Miami athletic director Shawn Eichorst released a statement Thursday assuring the school’s commitment to “the integrity of the NCAA investigation” and “demanding the full cooperation of our employees and student-athletes.”

“There are tough times ahead, challenges to overcome and serious decisions to be made, but we will be left standing and we will be stronger as a result,” Eichorst said. “I understand there are unanswered questions, concerns and frustration by many but this athletic department will be defined now and in the future, by our core values, our integrity and our commitment to excellence, and by nothing else. The University of Miami, as an institution of higher learning, is a leader in exploration, achievement and excellence and we will work hard to do our part to live up to that standard.”

 [Photo gallery: Miami booster parties with athletes]

 

Shapiro is a Miami booster currently serving a 20-year federal prison term for operation a $930 million Ponzi scheme. He detailed to Yahoo! Sports a wide-ranging eight-year run of violations that include cash, gifts, prostitution, entertainment at nightclubs and strip clubs, parties at his mansion, yacht cruises and other benefits. Yahoo! Sports found at least seven coaches, three support staff members and 72 athletes with direct involvement or knowledge of infractions committed by the booster from 2002 to 2010.

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For Miami, booster’s bombshell means it’s time to start talking about the worst

For the NCAA, sentencing a major football program to the “Death Penalty” is the equivalent of dropping the atomic bomb. It’s only been deployed once, in the most extreme of circumstances, and to suchdevastating effect that it’s almost inconceivable that the button could ever be pushed again — at least in part because no program, or anyone who cares enough about a program to cheat on its behalf, would be willing to take the risk again.

It’s that context that makes the scope of Yahoo! Sports’ sprawling, meticulously documented account of NCAA violations at the University of Miami over the last decade so difficult to summarize. Since the NCAA nuked SMU’s program in 1987, there’s really no comparison to the story outlined Tuesday by reporters Charles Robinson and Dan Wetzel. We’re not talking about one player getting paid by an agent, or a father soliciting money on behalf of his son, or half a dozen players exchanging memorabilia for tattoos, or even the head coach lying about what he knew about half a dozen players exchanging memorabilia for tattoos. We’re not parsing the merits of a scouting report here.

There is no equivalent in the last quarter-century of the number of players, the amount of money, the extent of the opulence or the level of entrenched access of the booster in question, Nevin Shapiro, who now ranks among the most infamous figures in the history of the sport.

Through 100 jailhouse interviews with Shapiro himself, nearly 100 more interviews with other sources, more than 25,000 pages of financial, business and cell phone records, and more than 1,000 photographs over the last 11 months, Robinson and Wetzel surmised that Shapiro’s web had ensnared…

• 66 current and former Miami football players.

• 25 former NFL draft picks, including 13 first-rounders. Among the most high-profile names: Devin Hester,Vince Wilfork, D.J. Williams, Jonathan Vilma, Willis McGahee, Andre Johnson, Frank Gore, Kellen Winslow Jr. and the late Sean Taylor.

• 16 players listed on the current Miami roster, including starting quarterback Jacory Harris and All-ACC linebacker Sean Spence.

• 7 players who now play for other schools, including Florida wide receiver Andre Debose and Kansas Staterunning back Bryce Brown, a one-time Miami commit who was ranked as the No. 1 incoming prospect in the country in 2009.

• 7 former assistant coaches with alleged “knowledge or direct participation” in violating NCAA rules.

• 2 first-round picks, Jon Beason and Vince Wilfork, who signed to an agency Shapiro allegedly co-owned, Axcess Sports & Entertainment.

The dollar total involved may be impossible to surmise. Shapiro’s attorney told the Miami Herald earlier this week she didn’t have a figure attached to the illegal benefits he says he provided, but it clearly exceeded her estimate of “well over thousands of dollars”: For eight years, Shapiro lavished players with cash, hotel rooms, invitation-only parties with scores of prostitutes, entertainment in his multimillion-dollar homes and his yacht, paid trips to high-end restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bounties for on-field play (including bounties for injuring opposing players), travel and on at least one occasion, an abortion. By his own estimate, he spent millions — all of it stolen, part of the $930 million he swindled from investors in a Ponzi scheme that put him behind bars for 20 years.

He spent thousands in bona fide booster fashion, too, and reaped the usual benefits: A suite at home games, access to the press box and sideline, occasional face time with coaches and university officials, an occasional seat on the team plane, a player lounge named in his honor. But he was not the rogue booster discreetly slipping cash into players’ hands in a back room somewhere outside Fort Lauderdale. He was the guy who tried to install a stripper pole in his suite in LandShark Stadium. He was the guy who tried to fight the compliance directorin the Orange Bowl press box. He was a guy who openly aspired to be the next “Uncle Luke”:

“Here’s the thing: Luther Campbell was the first uncle who took care of players before I got going,” Shapiro said, referring to the entertainer notorious for supplying cash to Miami players in the 1980s and 1990s. “His role was diminished by the NCAA and the school, and someone needed to pick up that mantle. That someone was me. He was ‘Uncle Luke,’ and I became ‘Little Luke.’

“I became a booster in late 2001, and by early 2002, I was giving kids gifts. From the start, I wasn’t really challenged. And once I got going, it just got bigger and bigger. I just did what I wanted and didn’t pay much mind toward the potential repercussions.”

He was a guy who considered himself the owner of a de facto pro franchise, and he was basically right.

From an NCAA compliance perspective, there is nothing, nothing, that this story lacks. A prominent booster of a major program with a long rap sheet of NCAA violations spent huge sums of ill-gotten money providing dozens of players with cash, gifts and sex for nearly a decade, under two different head coaches. The university president, athletic director and coaches knew him by name and enthusiastically accepted his money; for a while, they literally put his name on a piece of the program. And he implicates multiple assistant coaches. And he owned a sports agency that signed high-profile Miami players on their way to the draft. And then he turned out to be an even more prominent federal criminal, on a scale that prompted the local press to compare him to Caligula. (And this is the local press in Miami we’re talking about, which knows from squalid excess.) And if he hadn’t been thrown in prison for perpetuating one of the most massive frauds in U.S. history, he never would have been caught — by the NCAA, by Yahoo! Sports, and certainly not by Miami.

If it wasn’t true, you couldn’t make it up. It is such a nightmare, such a perfect storm of arrogance, negligence and corruption, that it’s almost a parody of the genre. It’s a feature film that makes you roll your eyes and wonder how they ever expected an audience to swallow that it was “inspired by true events.”

It’s also a test of the NCAA’s mettle: Just how far is it willing to go to continue to enforce the facade of “amateurism”? In the most extreme, unabashed affront to its most fundamental premise — hell, to its veryexistence — in 25 years, where does it draw the line?

I don’t know the answer, and I doubt anyone will for a long time. The NCAA process is well underway, and its response is going to be the usual long, protracted exercise in bureaucratic tooth-pulling, spanning many months and many bureaucratic steps, and probably an appeal or two in the name of giving Miami its due process. At no point in that span will I write that Miami is going to get the death penalty, or that it shouldget the death penalty. Frankly, I don’t have an opinion.

But if the death penalty is in the bylaws, it must be on the table here. Practically speaking, if this isn’t a death penalty case, then the death penalty no longer exists.

ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE–> DEATH PENALTY FOR MIAMI

 

THE BEST SMART PHONES FOR YOUR NEEDS. [MOBILE PHONES]

Best smartphone for business

While most professionals know about the BlackBerry, the business phone that deserves more attention and runs on a familiar Microsoft platform is the Dell Venue Pro. This enterprise-focused smartphone, which is available for T-Mobile and AT&T subscribers, is an elegant-looking device with its 4.1-inch AMOLED display and slide-out keyboard. With sizable buttons and pronounced tactile feedback, the Dell Venue Pro is great for typing emails and taking extensive notes on the fly.

The phone’s Windows Phone 7 software may not be the most exciting mobile operating system, but it is arguably the most reliable. Further, if you or your business already run Windows products like Microsoft Office, the WP7 platform offers the most seamless integration. The Dell Venue Pro is currently the best device available on that platform, which also has its share of fun and games. When you’re waiting for a flight at the airport or killing time between meetings, the Dell Venue Pro offers thousands of apps and even Xbox Live integration.

With the recent flops of Blackberry this post needed an updated and some strike outs. Now the best phones for business are from Motorola. The Photon, the Atrix, The Dinara, will all be the replacements for blackberries because of their ability to conect to TV or Computer monitor displays and be used as a desk top replacement. If you want more information on this look here –> Google Bought Motorola For Great Hardware Not Just Patents [BOOM!!][UPDATING]

Of course, there is no denying that the BlackBerry is a top-dog for many business-focused smartphone users. With its robust operating system, advanced messaging capabilities, efficient keyboard and no-nonsense approach, manufacturer Research In Motion still has a strong grip on the corporate market. Another important benefit of BlackBerry smartphones is that they are available to customers of all major carriers including Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.

Increasingly, business users are also embracing iPhones and select Android devices. Just make sure to get the green light from your company’s technology managers before making the purchase.

Best smartphone for gaming

Apple made this one easy with the iPhone, and specifically the iPhone 4. And with the next generationjust around the corner, iDevices will offer even more fun for gamers. Beyond the state-of-the-art graphics and controls that set the standard for gaming on mobile devices, there are more than 70,000 iPhone games available in Apple’s App Store. Whether you are simply a casual gamer who likes to occasionally tap into a crossword puzzle or a hardcore action-arcade fanatic, there truly is something for everyone. The popularity of a game like Angry Birds, which began life on Apple’s smartphone before hitting other platforms (and, essentially taking over the world), has made everyone stand up and take notice. It’s also telling that instead of console and PC games shaping the iOS gaming market, the tide is beginning to turn. Games that were created for iPhones including Fruit Ninja, Backbreaker Football, and the aforementioned Angry Birds are now available on major consoles. The iPhone 4 is currently available for AT&T and Verizon customers.

The iPhone of course is not the only game in town. We’d be remiss to not give Sony Ericsson’s Xperia PLAYa brief mention. This Android-powered device is sometimes known as the PlayStation phone as it can play classic old titles from the original console in addition to the thousands of current games in the Android Market. However, there’s no denying that commercially it is a bit of a flop. Despite some nice hardware, including the familiar PlayStation slide-out gamepad, the device hasn’t really taken off and received a price cut pretty soon after launch. However, the convergence of mobile and console gaming is certainly something that will grow over the coming years, so perhaps the Xperia PLAY has started a precedent, even if hasn’t been much of a success itself. The Xperia is currently available for Verizon subscribers.

***I also personally think the Motorola Atrix should be given high marks in this area.  With its snappy duel core processor it can handle the graphics of even the most in depth games flawlessly.  However the real kicker for me is the TV doc.  It allows you to play any of the on phone games through your TV with KEYBOARD AND MOUSE. This is a huge advantage and allows for you to easily score high scores in many of the top games.

Best indestructible smartphone

OK, perhaps ‘indestructible’ is a bit of a stretch. But there is no denying that there is a market out there for smartphones that offer great features and functionality, but can also withstand a darn good beating. One such device is the Casio G’zone Commando. This Android-powered device on the Verizon network can withstand dust, extreme temperatures and even immersion in water. The Commando also sports high-powered front speakers that let you carry on hands-free conversations while you work out or even cascade down a ravine.

The Motorola Defy is also worthy of mention in this category. Marketed as a rugged and durable Android device that still sports a slim profile and large screen, it features Gorilla Glass to prevent scratches to the touchscreen and can also reportedly stand being dipped in water. The Motorola Defy is available in the U.S. on T-Mobile.

Best smartphone for battery life

Here’s a phone that could easily fit in the category above, too. While the Sonim XP1300 CORE doesn’t run on a major operating system like Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 or BlackBerry, it does offer email, a browser, FM radio and other familiar features. But what is most impressive is the phones’s 18-hour talk time and 800 hours of standby life. There are not many devices on the market that can boast anything close to that kind of battery life, which is why it sits at the top of this list. The Sonim XP1300 is available for AT&T and T-Mobile customers.

Still, Sonim’s main offering of massive battery life will not please everyone. If you’re already rocking a much more dainty iPhone or Android smartphone, there are still some steps you can take to prolong your battery life. The iPhone 4 is certainly good for gaming, but a few hours of Infinity Blade and your juice will be depleted before lunch. As for that hot new Android with 4G connectivity: sure, it’s fast, but all that power comes at a cost. These days it pays to have a spare charger at work or school just in case. Even with moderate use, most smartphones need to be recharged by the end of the day at the very least.

Best value smartphones for teens

Mom and dad might not want your greasy mitts all over an iPhone 4 just yet, but the Apple iPhone 3GS still offers a lot of phone for just $49 instead of the $200 asked for the premium iPhone 4. Admittedly, as iOS continues to be updated and developed, the older device might not be able to do as much as its newer brethren. Still, it’s a competent device for casual gaming, communications, music and navigation. The iPhone 3GS is exclusive to AT&T customers.

Though we already mentioned BlackBerry in the business category, many teenagers are also turning to the RIM smartphones. BlackBerry devices are often free these days (although still require a pricey contract), and they offer the rugged reliability and easy texting capabilities that both parents and teenagers enjoy.

We should also mention T-Mobile’s line of fun and friendly Android devices aimed at the younger generation. The carrier, which pending regulatory approval will be acquired by AT&T, offers cheaper voice and data plans than many of its competitors. Further, T-Mobile’s handsets like the colorful Sidekick 4G with its slide-out keyboard or myTouch 3G Slide (available in white or red) are fun, less expensive alternatives to the many other devices out there. They are worth a look if the newest, flashiest, and more expensive devices aren’t something you want to see in your kids’ hands just yet.

ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE –> Choosing the smartphone that works best for you

Apple Spends Way Too Much Money Lobbying Too Not To Be Up To Anything Dirty.

I wonder why Apple needed to spend so much money on Capital Hill this year….I bet its becuase they are up to something no good.

Full Story Here –>Apple spent $560,000 lobbying in the first quarter

WASHINGTON (AP) — Apple Inc., which makes the iPhone, iPad and other consumer electronics, spent $560,000 lobbying the federal government on green technology, technology spending for education and other issues in the first quarter, according to a quarterly disclosure report.

That’s the same amount the company spent in the year-ago quarter.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based consumer electronics maker lobbied the House, Senate and Environmental Protection Agency on numerous environmental issues during quarter includingelectronic waste and green technology.

Apple has replaced many of the hazardous materials in its gadgets with less harmful and more recyclable ones, and designed the A4 processing chip in its iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch to be energy efficient. It has also designed proprietary longer-life batteries for its computers, media players and phones.

Other issues Apple lobbied on included patent reform, corporate tax reform and children’s online privacy and safety.

In addition to the House, Senate, and EPA, Apple lobbied the Department of Education, Federal Communications Commission and other federal agencies during the first three months of the year, according to the disclosure report filed with the House clerk’s office on April 20.

**********************************UPDATE**************************************************************

So after doing some further research I found one area where Apple probably wants to keep on the down low.  The original article is posted on Gizmodo here –>Is Apple So Far Ahead Because They Use Tech From the Future

First I slightly disagree with Apple thinking they are “so far ahead” but they bit of time they have spent ahead of the pack is probably because they are committing vertical monopoly crimes.  The article states:

What Apple does is use its cash hoard to pay for the construction cost (or a significant fraction of it) of the factory in exchange for exclusive rights to the output production of the factory for a set period of time (maybe 6 – 36 months), and then for a discounted rate afterwards. This yields two advantages:

1. Apple has access to new component technology months or years before its rivals. This allows it to release groundbreaking products that are actually impossible to duplicate…

2. Eventually its competitors catch up in component production technology, but by then Apple has their arrangement in place whereby it can source those parts at a lower cost due to the discounted rate they have negotiated with the (now) most-experienced and skilled provider of those parts – who has probably also brought his production costs down too… 

Gizmodo probably doesn’t even realize what they have discovered with this information, but if Apple is truly doing this in the technology supply industry, they are in violation of monopoly laws that prevent specifically this type of action.  It is called a vertical monopoly. Most people only understand monopolies as a horizontal. This mean that one company controls all of the available supply of a certain product, thus having complete control over the price of such a product and making the market non competitive.

However vertical monopolies are also illegal. A perfect example of a vertical monopoly is the steel industry in the USA during the beginning of the industrial revolution. One company (US Steel) owned the mines, the rail road used to transfer the materials, and the refineries to process the raw materials into steel.  This allowed US Steel to control the supply of raw materials and limit the availability of them to other refineries thus allowing them to control the market price of steel.  This is also exactly what apple is doing by restricting the release of other companies technologies to all companies in the industry.

Which is probably just a small portion of why Apple is spending so much money lobbying on capital hill.

Now That Unlimited Data Plans Are Going The Way Of The Dinosaur, These Are The Apps That Will Eat Up Your Data Plan.

The apps that eat your wireless data…

NEW YORK (AP) — If you have a cellphone with a monthly limit on how much data you can use, here are some tips on what types of phone use will gobble up your precious megabytes:

— Streaming video and videoconferencing. The biggest offender. One minute of YouTube-quality video eats up 2 megabytes. If you’re on a plan that gives you 200 megabytes per month, you can’t even watch Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” video once per day. If you’re on a 2 gigabyte plan you can, but don’t make your iPhone a replacement for a TV. In either case, it’s fine to indulge in YouTube and Netflix if you’re on Wi-Fi.

— Streaming audio. The second biggest offender, and potentially more serious. While video is something we need to see to enjoy, Internet radio is more of an accompaniment to other activities, such as jogging or doing dishes. That means some people like to keep it on for hours. Audio consumes about a quarter of the data that video does, but 10 minutes a day will break the bank if you’re on a 200 megabyte plan. One hour a day of Pandora consumes nearly a gigabyte, which you can afford if you’re on a 2-gigabyte plan and don’t use other data-hogging apps.

— Photos. If you’re a real shutterbug, photos can consume significant amounts of data. Sending and viewing photos both count toward your monthly limit. Posting 10 photos per day eats up most of a 200 megabyte plan. If you’re on a 2-gigabyte plan, you probably don’t have to worry about photos.

— Maps. Navigation apps consume lots of data when they retrieve map images, up to a megabyte a minute. You’re also likely to use them for long periods of time when you’re away from Wi-Fi, such as when you’re driving. Watch out for these.

— Web surfing. Web pages vary widely in size, so this will depend quite a bit on whether you like to visit graphically rich sites (lots of data) or spare, text-oriented ones (less data). But roughly speaking, ten pages a day will eat up about half of a 200 megabyte plan. Again, those on 2-gigabyte plans don’t need to worry much about surfing.

— Facebook. Roughly equivalent to Web surfing. Status updates won’t take much data, but sending photos and viewing friends’ pictures will.

— Email. Most emails are tiny, in terms of data. Basically, you can send and receive email all you want, as long as they don’t have attachments such as photos.

— Twitter. Like email, these short messages don’t use much data, but if you follow a lot of people and click on links, usage adds up.

— Weather apps. Small, focused apps that report simple but useful things, such as the weather forecast, save data (and time) compared with looking up the same information on a Web page.

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Online:

AT&T’s data calculator:

http://www.att.com/standalone/data-calculator

Originally posted at –> The apps that eat your wireless data