College Humor's Amazing Rocky 4 video

Back in November, College Humor created an awesome mockumentary about the fight that wasn't: Rocky Balboa vs Ivan Drago. They imagined if it did in fact happen.

Once again, I was on the right path, but slightly off. About a dozen years earlier in grad school, I postulated that Soviet failures in non-economic areas were in a small way responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. I cited the 1980 Olympic hockey loss as a key moment when the Soviet Union began to be looked as losers and the US as winners.

"Further destroying the confidence of the Soviet people was the continued successes of the West (i.e. the U.S.) and an increasing number of Soviet failures in non-economic areas. Even before glasnost, the Soviet people saw an increasingly confident U.S., possibly led by their 1980 Olympic hockey victory, elect Ronald Reagan, a “preeminent anti-communist” not afraid to take on the “Evil Empire” (7, 2). Meanwhile, the Soviet military’s continued failure in Afghanistan began to chip away at the infallibility of the Red Army. The Soviet ideal was collapsing and needed to be changed."

Just another example why national momentum is important. Countries that lose momentum usually struggle to gain it back. This goes for most political movements, ideas, and even sports teams. People like a winner.

And another example when I wonder what path I should take in life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyWx1CkMTtI

Florida State's epic April Fool's joke

On April 1st, Florida State University and the University of Florida played an epic April Fool's joke. With the coordination of both university presidents, the schools announced the creation of a merged "super university".

The FSView (who I wrote for years ago) had a great article about the fake merger. According to the FSView:

The exact date for the merger and the relocation are still unknown, but a source close to the situation tells the FSView “it should be take about 27 weeks and two days, but no longer than 4-8 months.”

My reaction when I heard the news that I would be an alumnus of the same school as Tim Tebow:



Not to put a damper on the great joke, but the proposed location of the FSUUF super university was listed as Perry, FL, a quaint little town between the two current universities.

When I think of Perry, I don't think of sleepy Florida town along Highway 19. I remember a place where Al Sharpton and other leaders of the African-American community converged to protest a local bar that discriminated against an African-American state politician from Maryland.

According to a 2001 Orlando Sentinel article,

Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth leveled charges of racism this week against a bar owner who was accused of forcing a black patron through a back door and into a back room before serving him.

I remember this being a medium-sized deal in North Florida while I was at Florida State. It made the news for a few weeks. Especially because Al Sharpton got involved.

I used to drive through Perry on Highway 19/98 on my trips to see family.  After the incident, I made it a point not to stop in town for gas or food. Sometimes I would blast Rage Against the Machine songs at top volume. That was my contribution to fighting racism in Perry.

Being how hyper-aware college students are of social issues, I can imagine this incident being dug up and amplified if the two colleges were really to merge. Thank goodness that is not the case.