The Penalty BoxWritten by Gary Whittaker
Nowhere can an example of corrupt capitalistic society be found more perfectly than in this NHL labour dispute. This is essentially a battle between Haves and Have Mores, who are scratching and clawing each other over their share average man's money. As regular man, we pay our money gladly for tickets, concessions and merchandise for our favourite sport teams as a diversion from everyday life. For Canadians, are national pastime has been held hostage by 2 groups. The owners are no saints. They have continuously held cities holding bag trying to meet their demands under blackmail of moving their franchises elsewhere. They ask for public to fund 500 million dollar stadiums that depreciate worse than used cars, only to ask for better stadiums 5 years into a 20-year term. They constantly look for markets based on volume of people over love of game, as Quebec City and Winnipeg have lost franchises despite strong local support, while Phoenix and Nashville continue to languish in relative isolation. Owners don't care, as they get to split hefty expansion fees between themselves. For a fan to choose owners side is like picking Stalin over Lenin; both systems have been corrupted and neither truly benefited people. That being said, owners do have a right to choose structure that best benefits league. Despite fact that there statements of losing money is an obvious lie for most of teams out there, no one can truly argue that rocketing NHL team salaries are actually keeping pace with league revenue. It is owner's fault. They are responsible. They must be allowed to set up a system that allows for a levelling of a playing field. Take a look at baseball. Only 5 teams can seriously compete for quality free agents, leaving a pool of mediocrity for rest of league. The players know that sports are a competition, on and off rink. Owners will try and bid for players over other teams, thereby raising value of rest of league. Their arbitration is such that not only can players not lose money for an off-season, but also other players can benefit from higher salaries if they can post slightly better numbers.
| | The history of snowboardingWritten by Jakob Jelling
How a piece of wood changed world history.Many times someone doing something a little different and having his or her ideas catch on has changed history. The pasteurizing of milk to prevent spoiling and contamination is a perfect example. Snowboarding was also result of someone doing something a little different. In a few short years we have taken a crazy idea and turned it into a household word and created a culture and language around it. Snowboarding has become an Olympic event and has even forced us to ask ourselves questions about our society when we use phrase “Smoke a fatty for Rebagliati”. The history of snowboarding officially begins in 1929 with a man named M.J. Burchett. For some unknown reason, perhaps a dare from friends or result of drinking, Mr. Burchett changed history when he cut a plank of plywood and secured it to his feet using a clothesline and horse reins. This humble beginning changed history forever. Not much changed for snowboarders until 1965 when Sherman Poppen invented a toy for his daughter and eventually marketed it. His “Snurfer” consisted of 2-ski bound together with a rope at nose of skis to hold on to. This idea caught on fast and Mr. Poppen sold half a million of his Snurfers by 1966. Mr. Poppen helped create demand for his product by holding contests for Snurfers. Jake Burton took part in many of these competitions until he broke his collarbone in a car accident. Snowboards as we know them came into existence in 1969 when riding down snowy hills on a cafeteria plate in college inspired Dimitrije Milovich. Mr. Milovich decided to make snowboards that where based upon design of a surfboard but worked same way skis did. In 1972 Mr. Milovich started a company called Winterstick and really fired up idea of snowboarding until 1980 when he left industry. To this day Milovich is seen as a very important pioneer in industry. In 1977 Burton came back to his first love, Snurfer. After completing university, Burton moved to Vermont and needing to make some money, started to produce Snurfers again. Burton’s snowboards where made of laminated wood and he shocked world when he won a Snurfer competition on his own board. One major reason for Burton being able to win competition was skiing styled binding that he added to his boards thus allowing him to control them much better.
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