Ted Turner is Protecting Your Family

My first celebrity of my celebrities making a difference category is Ted Turner. In high school, I did a report on how he got his start. He was one of the first to grasp the potential for network television, and made most of his money by starting tv channels such as CNN, TNT, and Turner Classic Movies. He is not an entertainer or sports figure, but he is a billionaire with a cowboy attitude. What I did not learn about him until now is that he has started a lot of charities. His philonthropic projects are concerned with very ambitious global problems: the enivoronment/animals, world safety, and human rights. Rather than giving money to existing charities, he has started his own. The most interesting are the United Nations Foundation and the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
Ted Turner started the United Nations Foundation about ten years ago because the United Nations would not accept donations from individuals. He pledged 1 billion dollars, but delayed some of his payments when AOL Time Warner's stock fell. He even offered to pay some of the US's debt to the United Nation's. (I have no idea how the US can get into debt with the UN, or what the UN can do about it.) Anyways, the money has gone to the causes that the UN deals such as peacekeeping and aid to poor populations.
The Nuclear Threat Initiative seemed interesting because I had never heard of a charity concerned with nuclear terrorism. I had always thought of this topic as something that only countries can address. But NTI has supporters and cooperates with many different contries. I guess there might be a benefit for a an organization to address nuclear safety when there is nothing else on the political agenda. They have been partially responsible for eliminating highly enriched uranium in Serbia, setting up stronger security for the storage of nuclear material, and have funded the emergency response team for the World Health Organizes which is set up to address any rapid spread of a disease.
Bravo Ted Turner, I am going to do my part by watching your channels more often.

From Miami to Pheonix

I don't want this to be a sports blog, but I have to write about my favorite athlete of all time: The Big Aristotle aka The Big Deisel aka Shaq Daddy. He got traded from Miami to Phoenix this past week for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. I watched his press conference and had several ruminations.

I first thought of the situation from the perspective of Mr. O'Neal who obviously wanted to be traded. The Miami Heat did not look like they were going to win another championship. Even though he won a championship with them a couple years ago, he is more interested in getting another ring than remaining on the sinking ship that he had one glorious voyage on. This is not surprising because he has been traded twice before for similar reasons. He seemed happy in the press conference to be with the Pheonix Suns primarily because of Steve Nash. The top three guards in the NBA are probably Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, and Dwane Wade. Now Shaq can say that he plays/played with all of them.

Then I thought about the trade from each of the team's perspectives. The Heat will not make the playoffs this year, so they would rather rebuild the team with a younger player in Shawn Marion. I understand that. But why would the Suns want Shaq? He is always injured. He doesn't fit in to the fast paced offence. They already have a good forward named Amare Stoudemire.

I look forward to seeing what the Suns look like with their new addition. Even if it turns out poorly, it will be better than cheering for the lowly Heat.

Big Deisal Dance Off!

Introduction

I was reading other people's blogs in the class, and some of them introduced themselves which I thought was a good idea. My name is Steve. I'm the really tall kid who comes in late sometimes because I have a class in Engineering Hall right before this one. The elevators are slow. I don't think I'll be late anymore because I figured out that it is faster to run up six flights of stairs. I am interested in everything, so feel free to talk to me about anything. If you are not in my class and don't know what I am talking about, why are you reading my blog?

Stetson Man

I also noticed that he has done some print advertisements for Stetson Cologne. This is a coincidence because my profile picture for my wetpaint account was also a Stetson man, Mr. Matthew McConaughey. So maybe my next post will be about him.

Superbowl Sunday

Since today is Superbowl Sunday, I will write about one of its main contestants, Tom Brady. As you probably know, he did not come out as the victor. However, this is not a big deal because he has already won the Superbowl before, and he still has a interesting life off the football field.

For instance, he has a girlfriend, Gisele, who is a model. OK, maybe that's not too surprising. There are a lot of NFL quarterbacks who have dated models. The first that comes to mind is Tony Romo who is dating model Jessica Simpson. You may say that she is a singer/actress and not a model. But I believe her looks have been more beneficial to her career than her vocal/acting skills.

Back to Tom Brady. So he just had a son (not Gisele's), his foot was injured, and he had to prepare for the Superbowl. So he must have been spending a lot of time taking care of those issues. Right? Probably, but there are also some recent photos of him walking around with his girlfriend. These photos may not seem very interesting, but I noticed a peculiarity. I am probably not the first to notice this, but he seems to have loyalty to both the Yankees and the Red Sox. As you can see, he has worn both of the teams baseball caps. I can understand wearing the baseball caps of two different teams, but not when the two teams are the biggest rivals in baseball. I've never heard of anyone who is a Yankees and Red Sox fan. That just doesn't make sense.

My only explantion is that he plays for the Patriots. They play near Boston. And his girlfriend lives in New York. So maybe he wants to look like a local wherever he goes. That is the extent of my investigative reporting.