There are various to the levels of scandals being committed within college sports.  There are corporations who are paying universities billions of dollars to put their merchandise on to the university athletes. In order to do this the corporations must either buy out the school or the buy out the coaches.  Corporations are making a large profit off of university athletes wearing their products. The SEC made over one billion dollars and the big 10 was not far behind with 905 million dollars. This money comes from concession sales, merchandise, and licensing fees, but the majority of it comes from television contracts. March Madness alone pulled in over 50 million viewers.  Other scandals within the world of college sports include the scandal that Reggie Bush, while playing for USC, was receiving free airfare, limo rides, a car and a free home in California. This scandal was deemed as improper benefits and his Heisman trophy was taken away. Another scandal was the rumored recruited use by Cam Newton's father while Cam Newton was in junior college.  OSU had a large scale scandal when it was discovered that more than 28 of the athletes were trading autographed memorabilia, including jerseys, for money and tattoos at a tattoo parlor located downtown.  There has also been a debate as to whether or not college athletes should receive a salary. Walter Camp is known as the father of football. He fine tuned all of the rules and even designed the current football field. Teddy Roosevelt wanted to either civilize or destroy football. He called a gathering of Harvard, Princeton and Yale at the White House and they determined that football needed to be reformed in order for it to survive.  The NCAA was created and they helped to enforce the rules of football. However it wasn't until 1939 that the use of a football helmet was introduced.

The video that we watched in class, presented an interesting topic, that video game players can help to make the world a better place. This is a topic I had never thought about before watching the video.  The average video game player spends over three billion hours playing video games annually and it has been determined that the same amount time spent in school learning as a child is the same as the amount of time spent playing video games. In order for video game players to change the world and make it a better place they have to go beyond the threshold of imagination.  The speaker believes that best version of ourselves if presented in video games.  Video games create a world in which no challenge is unbeatable. Challenges are presented based upon the gamers specific skill set.  Online gaming also has feedback available from hundreds of people that are available to help complete challenges.  The gaming community is filled with super powered, hopeful individuals and together these gamers can join together and do great things. There have been games created that simulate world crises and encourage the gamers to solve these crises, as well as forcing the gamers to think creatively in order to survive in a simulated world without resources.  According to the speaker, if the gamers take the ideas and concepts presented within the game and apply them to their lives they can make a difference in the world today.  An example of this is the game that simulates a shortage of oil. Research showed that the players in the oil shortage game used less oil in their daily lives, outside of the game, than those who have never played the game.

 Within Chapter 1 of Good Reasons, "Reading and Discovering Arguments", Lester Faigley and Jack Selzer assert that it is possible to make writing more credible, informative and effective.  Their claims are supported by exploring argumentation. They define an argument in regards to writing and combine this with the expectations of writing in a college setting.  The intent of Faigley and Selzer is to effectively summarize the elements used when writing an argumentative piece, with the hopes that this will better prepare students for college level writing assignments. The authors use examples and other tools in order to make the information easy to understand for the average college student.

A blog that I enjoy following is called Smart Pretty and Awkward. It's a blog that gives tips how to be smarter, prettier and less awkward.  Each post begins with an inspirational quote.  The most recent quote that was posted is

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage” — Lao Tzu