Why NHL players shouldn't have to tolerate fan abuse

Bourne Blog: Why NHL players shouldn't have to tolerate fan abuse

Yahoo! Sports recruited former minor-league player Justin Bourne to write about the NHL.

Rather than a "no-holds barred" tabloid style, Bourne writes fresh, thoughtful pieces with the perspective of someone who has experienced the ups and downs of life as a journeyman hockey player. 

Today, Rick Rypien will have his hearing with the NHL today to determine his punishment for foolishly grabbing a fan during a game in Minnesota this week. Without excusing Rypien, Justin Bourne tries to explain the difficulty of being "professional", while being taunted by obnoxious fans during emotional and competitive games.

Tom Larscheid retires tonight

After 33 years as the Canucks colour commentator, Tom Larscheid is broadcasting his last game tonight. 
Although sometimes he drove me crazy ("Bingo, bango, bongo..."), Larscheid deserves a lot of respect.  Iain MacIntyre and Tony Gallagher have good tribute pieces on his retirement here and here, respectively. 

C. diff: Blame hospitals? Or food? : Wired Science

http://m.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/c-diff-blame-hospitals-or-food/

Free 2010-2011 NHL Hockey Pool Guide in Excel (not mine)

The 2010-2011 Ultimate Pool Preview

I've been creating my own hockey pool predictors for the past five years, and just didn't have the time or energy this year to keep going with "Chris' Hockey Pool Picks and Stats Guide".  The 2010-2011 Ultimate Pool Preview (UPP) is an excellent substitute, and it's free.

The UPP includes the predictions from 10 of the major NHL hockey pool predictors (e.g. TSN, ESPN, McKeens, Rotowire, The Score Forcaster, etc.) side-by-side in an Excel spreadsheet, and the analysis of how well they did last year (Hint: the best predictions last year were from CBS Sportsline).  There are skaters and goalies, salaries, draft trackers, player links, and more.  These guys did their homework!

The only other thing you'll need is a list of the most up-to-date player injuries (from CBS).  Let the 2010-2011 Regular Season begin!  Good luck in your pools!!

San Francisco says "It Gets Better!"

The It Gets Better project is a series of video postcards from happy, well-adjusted LGBT adults to isolated queer teens who think that they're they only "different" people in the world. No matter what your sexuality, these are wonderfully uplifting -- and "it gets better" is a great message for kids everywhere, queer, straight, or undecided.

It Gets Better: Dan and Terry