Gaines Adams, Chicago Bears Defensive End Dead at 26 Years Old.

Posted on January 17th, 2010 by John Sostak

Gaines Adams at Chicago Bear Introductory Press Conference

ESPN just reported Bears DE Gaines Adams died on Sunday morning in Greenwood, S.C. at 26. Adams was pronounced dead at Self Regional Hospital. He also told the station that Adams appeared to be in good health before his passing.

Brittany Murphy just died of natural causes at 32 years old.  These deaths do not seem natural.

An autopsy was scheduled for Sunday.

Adams was the fourth overall selection in the 2007 draft by the Bucs. Tampa traded him to the Bears in October for a second-round draft pick in April. “It’s a new phase in my life and I’m just ready to start over and get things done,”   Adams said at the press conference introducing him to Chicago media as a Bear.

“He’s a very good player,” said general manager Jerry Angelo. “The two marquee positions in our scheme are the three-technique and the right end. If we can re-create history with him, I would go back to my days in Tampa when we brought in Simeon Rice. We had some success. Rod was there. That would be [the ideal situation] for us if something like that were to happen.

Jerry Angelo said, “we feel very strongly about our scheme, our coaches and the way we evaluate players. We did all our due diligence and we felt like we were going to make it happen. There are risks to a draft pick [and] there are risks to this. I’m just hoping he’s coming in here wanting to be a great player. If he is, I feel like we’ve got all the tools to facilitate him coming to fruition.”

Gaines appeared in 15 games last season with the Bears and Bucs and recorded one sack. RIP Gaines Adams.

Tags: Bears, Dead, Gaines Adams

50,000 to 100,000 Dead in Haiti, Considered a “Conservative” Estimate

Posted on January 16th, 2010 by John Sostak

Haiti earthquake victims. Between 50,000 & 100,000 estimated dead

The Haiti death tolls have gone up non-stop since the earthquake days ago. The current Haiti death tolls are only in the tens of thousands, but unofficially, it may already be much more.

At this current time, they have collected 50,000 dead, according to Haitian officials. But for days, estimates have been in the hundreds of thousands range, at the very. For the moment, the Haiti death tolls have been estimated at 200,000, though that is down from the original 500,000 estimation.

Haiti’s Interior Minister, Paul Antoine Bien-Aime, told Reuters that the death toll is at 50,000 for now. His estimation is that 100,000 to 200,000 people are actually dead. But sadly, that kind of estimate is actually good news, compared to early predictions of 500,000 killed.

If the total reaches the hundreds of thousands, it will be among the deadliest earthquakes of all time. But given how many may be buried underneath rubble, and how many may never be found, it could be impossible to get a final total. Even Bien-Aime admitted that they will probably never know the exact number.

The Pan American Health Organization has a conservative estimate of between 50,000 and 100,000. However, even they really don’t have an accurate number. In any case, the Haiti death tolls may not take the aftermath into account.

No one will ever know how many people were directly killed by the earthquake, or from the horror afterward. With aid still slow to actually come in, virtually no authority in Haiti, and with the capital city practically destroyed, there is virtually nothing to stop further bloodshed.

Lawlessness, a lack of clean water, and disease could kill many more in the weeks and months ahead. Thanks to all of those factors, the true Haiti death tolls may take years to truly measure.

Please donate to help the recovery and rescue efforts in Haiti:

American Red Cross

Presidents Clinton & Bush Haiti Relief Fund

Tags: Bush, Clinton, Haiti

Presidents Obama, Bush, & Clinton Join Forces to Help Haiti

Posted on January 16th, 2010 by John Sostak

Presidents Bush, Clinton & Obama Join Forces to Help Haiti

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama on Saturday brought together his White House predecessors, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton, for a joint appeal for victims of Haiti’s devastating earthquake.

“By coming together in this way, these two leaders send an unmistakable message to the people of Haiti and to the people of the world,” Obama said in the Rose Garden, flanked by the two former leaders.

“In these difficult hours, America stands united. We stand united with the people of Haiti who have shown such incredible resilience, and we will help them to recover and to rebuild.”

The United States was launching “one of the largest relief efforts in our history” to bring aid to Haiti following Tuesday’s devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the heart of the poorest nation in the Americas.

Bush, who congratulated Obama for his “swift and timely response to the disaster,” said he was pleased to work with Clinton “to mobilize the compassion of the American people.”

The challenges in Haiti “are immense, but there’s a lot of devoted people leading the relief effort,” he said.

“The most effective way for Americans to help the people of Haiti is to contribute money. That money will go to organizations on the ground who will be able to effectively spend it.

“I know a lot of people want to send blankets or water. Just send your cash,” added Bush.

Clinton, the United Nations special envoy for Haiti, said the priority for now to ship food, medicine and water to Haiti.

“But when we start the rebuilding effort… we want there to be a place where people can know their money will be well spent, where we will ensure the ongoing integrity of the process. And we want to stay with this over the long run,” he said.

Obama and the ex-presidents directed people to the Clinton Bush Haiti Relief Fund to make donations.

To donate to the American Red Cross, click here.

Tags: Bush, Clinton, Haiti, Obama

IFSA changes the name of the Burn Camp to Camp I Am Me.

Posted on January 5th, 2010 by John Sostak

Brittany and Ray at Burn Camp on Visitor's Day

No other IFSA program has received greater attention from the fire service, medical community, general public and the media than has the summer camp for burned children. Burn Camp provides the setting for burn survivors to share their common experiences while being able to play and not feel self conscious about their scars. The benefits to the campers — physical, psychological, and emotional — have been enough to inspire a long list of eager volunteers and contributors.

A recent IFSA Executive Board decision was unanimously approved to create a name for Burn Camp. Burn Camp will now be referred to as Camp “I Am Me”.

This decision was made after a discussion with a young burn survivor at last year’s camp. This camper commented that she was uncomfortable walking around with a tee shirt that stated Burn Camp on it. She further explained how one of the nice things about coming to the IFSA camp was being able to just be a kid, not a burn victim. This was the only time that kids like her were able to blend in and forget about the burn injuries.

It is also the intent of the IFSA to allow kids to be kids. It’s an opportunity for them to spend time with other children and adults that are just like them. It is always interesting to see the children show up on the first day of camp with their long sleeve shirts and long pants, even though it’s 90 degrees in the shade. As the week goes on, you can see the campers wearing shorts, tee shirts, and swimming suits. This is one of the most obvious signs that camp is allowing kids to be just another kid. For one week a year they don’t have to worry about people starring or being different.

Well, it took this young camper’s comments for us to realize that we were inadvertently placing label on the children that we were working hard to erase. So last year we asked campers to think of a name for camp. We had several of the typical camp names like Camp Friendship, Camp Courage, etc. Molly Schaller, a camper came up with the name “I Am Me.” This turned out to be the unanimous decision.

Camp “I Am Me” describes what we want the camp experience to be; a place where children can come and be themselves. Of course it will take many of us several years to get used to saying Camp “I Am Me.” We will still have to refer to IFSA Burn Camp for people that won’t identify with the new name. When it comes to t-shirts and any other printed materials, it will have the new name.

To learn more about Camp I Am Me, and the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance, visit IFSA.org.

The picture above is Brittany Bosca.  Brittany lives in Chicago and has a snow cone benefit each year that raises money for the burn camp.  Click here to visit Brittany’s site.  Thank you Brittany.

Tags: burn camp

Tiger Woods on the cover of Vanity Fair by Annie Leibovitz

Posted on January 5th, 2010 by John Sostak

Tiger Woods on the cover of Vanity Fair by Annie Leibovitz

Vanity Fair has a Tiger Woods article and Annie Leibovitz pictorial coming out in the February issue.  I am looking forward to it.  Vanity Fair is a great magazine, really the only one I still buy every month, sorry Playboy.

Tiger has been dropped by major corporate sponsors AT&T and Accenture, but EASports said yesterday it will stand behind Woods for the release of a new online golf game, “Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online.”

EA Sports President Peter Moore said Woods is “still one of the greatest athletes in history” despite his “mistakes.”  I think this is wise, and Nike is smart for standing by Woods too.  To be honest, I am now a Woods fan.  He has made some shitty mistakes, but he is so much more human because of it.

The Vanity Fair picture is cool, obviously all of Annie Leibovitz work is.

If I were to venture a guess at what Tiger is doing now that Ellen and he have separated and she is in Stockholm, it would be that he is now practicing his golf game, and will return better then ever to the Masters in April.  I also assume he is crushing hot ass, and popping Vicodins.  He probably bought a new Cadillac Escalade too.  I love this guy.