UFC on the big screen

UFC has been making millions of dollars in the past few years with their bloody fighting matches. The mixed martial arts sport sells out to arenas like the Bell Center in Montreal and Mandalay Bay to name a few.

In Morgan Campell’s blog posted on the Star.com, he explores new information and upcoming fights. His most recent http://thestar.blogs.com/fightingwords/ found here, explains Dana White- president of the UFC’s decision to bring pay-per-view fights to movie theaters.

UFC has taken over the sports world. Leading the way in gruesome fighting, it has left boxing to take the back seat. Starting March 27^th at UFC 111 they will take a lesson from boxing by having their shows in the theaters. Despite boxing taking a blow when they implemented this, UFC has better hopes. An average fight costs over 50 dollars to order on your home television. At one fight a month that can set the average fan back. But when UFC hits theatres, tickets will be costing the same price as regular movies.

Despite initial thought that this could take away from pay-per-view revenue for UFC, one has to think of it like this: The majority of fans don’t order fights and sit at home alone watching them. They have friends over and have fight nights. So what does this mean for the UFC? It’s still going to be a lot cheaper for people to split the cost of watching a fight at home rather than going to the theatre to all pay admission.

Hand-in-hand with fighting, goes drinking. Bars and Pubs make huge revenue of holding a fight night. Bars that would normally be dead on a Saturday night, have waiting lines to get in to watch the fight once a month.

Dana White is being smart with his empire, constantly coming out with new ideas to build a fan base and new programming ideas. Recently UFC started airing undercard fights for pay-per-view free on Spike, which leads to an incentive for people to order the fight to see how it ends. Also, UFC recently hosted a fight in Australia. Building fan base around the world has taken off. Already two fights have been shown in Montreal, Canada.

For fans out there waiting for UFC to expand into Ontario, they will be waiting a long time. Premier Dalton McGuinty recently told reporters that UFC is not a priority right now. Stating that jobs and strengthening the economy are main priorities right now. UFC officials are stating that Ontarians are their biggest fan base. They are predicting a crowd of over 35,000 spectators if it was held in Ontario.

Despite protestors on UFC it clearly proves that it is one of the biggest televised sports right now, and isn’t going away any time soon.

Other Sources:

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/02/17/12920551.html

No More Hot Dogs

Hot dogs are one of the highest choking hazards for children under 14. Something as simple as cutting a hot dog length wise could cure this problem. But according to Dr. Gary Smith of Nationwide Children’s Hospital that’s not enough.

On Monday, American Pediatricians said Hot dogs need to be redesigned so they aren’t potentially lethal to small children in a new policy statement.

As of now Pediatricians are calling for some of these things:

-          Warning labels on foods that pose a high choking risk

-          The establishment of a nationwide food-related choking-incident surveillance and reporting system

-          Keep coins and other small items out of reach of young children at all times.

Hot dogs consist of processed meat, sometimes containing two or three different types. They also contain fillers and sodium nitrate. This alone should scare parents away from feeding these to their children. But yet child after child falls victim to choking on something as simple as a hot dog.

Rather than spending the time and the money to put warnings on these packages or change the shape, why not educate the public on what their putting into their children’s bodies. Soon enough everything is going to be set with warning. Children don’t come with an instruction manual but common sense and a little public knowledge could be saving children’s lives if their parents aren’t capable of it.

Our biggest enemy is ourselves

Losing to the U.S., Canada’s rival in hockey, was devastating to people across the nation. Despite dominating in sports like Ladies Speed Skating or Men’s Skeleton, hockey is what Canadians care about.

After the game last night that many celebrities were present at, Buzz Aldrin gave his thoughts on Canada’s loss to The Canadian Press, in this article published for the Vancouver 2010 special in The Star.

“The media makes an awful big thing about how many gold medals do you win, who’s first. That’s not the point.” Said Aldrin.

Own the Podium, has spent 117-million dollars in the past five years to ensure Canada finishes first in the medal standing. Own the Podium hasn’t been much luck for Canadians as we’re tied for fourth in the Olympics with nine medals and America leading with 24. Coming in first is now unrealistic for our country.

With services like Own the Podium set up it gives a ‘we’re better than you’ message to other countries. What’s wrong with Canada being happy to host the Olympics and give athletes recognition for their work and hardships endured to get here.  I’m sure VANOC and Olympic fans give recognition to athletes, but is that what gets the most publicity? No. The focus is on what sports we lose, and how many medals we can achieve.

Canadians need to see the underlying issues of the Olympics. Sure, there apparently supposed to boost our economy, but what about the debt were consuming? What about the hundreds of poor people in Vancouver being kicked out of subsidised housing?

There are more important things to life than how many medals our country can claim on home soil.

Original Article:  http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/769496–don-t-have-to-be-first-second-man-on-the-moon-tells-canada

U.S., UN help distribute aid as violence continues in Haiti’s streets

Original article published in National Post, on Monday January 18^th 2010 by Andrew Cawthorne and Catherine Bremer. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2456245

 As everyone is now aware of the devastation that hit Haiti on January 12^th 2010, newspapers and newscasts are pumping out information by the minute on updates and news about the earthquake that reached 7.0 on the Richter scale.

 Despite the massive loss residents are dealing with, crime and looting has erupted throughout Port-au-Prince. Mobs and gangs are taking control over the streets leaving people with even more grief and hardships to endure.

 No matter what newspaper you read or what channel you turn your T.V. to, you’re bound to be bombarded with more news about Haiti. While the situation is devastating and hard to believe people cannot sit in shock and hope for the best. Situations like this only get solved by help from other countries.

 “We do not have the capacity to fix this situation. Haiti needs help … the Americans are welcome here. But where are they? We need them here on the street with us,” said policeman Dorsainvil Robenson, deployed to chase looters in the capital, as quoted in the National Post.

This kind of response raises the question if the rest of the world is really doing all they can do to assist in this situation. Although for a person sitting on the outside watching in, it is hard to make those assumptions.

The estimated death toll has reached 200,000 in Haiti and will only rise in time. Rescue efforts will soon end as almost a week has gone by since the earthquake. Then the attention will be guided to the injured and trying to re-build the economy.

 As terrible of a situation as this is, it has given the public awareness of issues that Haitians face. Not only is the news full of updates on the earthquake but investigative stories on the failing economy before this. Children being sold into sex trade and orphanages being crowded with children left behind. Now the public wonders what will happen to these children in orphanages. While they are full at capacity and begging for supplies one would only hope that the adoption process in Haiti could speedup and give relief to the youngest victims in all of this devastation.