If you've been watching the Confedrations Cup and wondering why it sounds like the game is being played inside a bee hive this is your answer. The vuvuzela. FIFA has discussed banning it for the 2010 World Cup, but apparently they will not because the instrument is a part of South African culture.

I hate South Africa.

Quoted: Sepp Blatter has stated that vuvuzela horns will not be banned for the World Cup Finals next year in South Africa after television broadcasters complained about the noise during the Confederations Cup. “It is African culture, we are in Africa and we have to allow them to practice their culture as much as they want to," he told reporters.

Quoted: Paul Donahoe and one of his University of Nebraska wrestling teammates posed nude for a pornographic Web site aimed at gay men. And that was only the beginning of the trouble.

A very interesting article. However it (indirectly) launches a very challenging debate about halfway through.

Quoted: Donahoe says he is straight

Can someone claim to be straight if they knowingly agree to

Quoted: "There Donahoe was, gyrating and masturbating among tousled bed sheets, under running water in a marbled tile shower and on a charcoal chaise lounge facing a patio window.

on camera, knowing it would be posted to a porn website for gay men? Does it matter if you're a wrestler?

Then it gets to the true question of a double standard, given Nebraska's checkered history of turning the other cheek with football players.

If Memphis doesn't receive any postseason ban or scholarship reduction (and they don't expect to), why should the NCAA enforce anything? Pleading ignorance is no excuse. The fact that Calipari will skate on this again is also ridiculous. This will be the second or third time in his collegiate coaching career that he has left a job, only to have the school he left get investigated for major NCAA violations.

Quoted: Memphis was first notified in May 2008 that star freshman point guard Derrick Rose had an invalidated standardized test score the previous year at Chicago's Simeon High School, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the e-mail...Specifically, on [date redacted] an unknown individual completed [redacted (Derrick Rose's)] SAT, with [redacted (Derrick Rose's)] knowledge, which was used to obtain his admission into the institution and to certify his NCAA eligibility.

Mark Dantonio strangely gives himself a little hanging rope for some later point in his career.

Maybe this is a forced situation by the NCAA, but the odds that the rest of Glenn Winston's career at MSU goes on without incident are *extremely* small.

Quoted: Suspended Michigan State running back Glenn Winston will remain on an athletic scholarship while he serves a six-month jail sentence for two misdemeanor assault convictions, coach Mark Dantonio said.

Well it looks like the future is now for the Tigers, and I don't blame them. The economy is shit and they either make some noise and give people a reason to spend their rapidly dwindling entertainment dollar, or they fade into bolivian.

Quoted: Porcello, 20, and Perry -- both right-handed pitchers -- made the Tigers' Opening Day roster, according to Tigers Insider Steve Kornacki...Porcello was told Wednesday he had earned a spot in the starting rotation. Perry will start the season in the Tigers' bullpen, along with right-handers Eddie Bonine and Juan Rincon.

Wildly interesting speculation from The Sports Guy on the impending impact of the economy on the NBA and pro sports in general.

Quoted: And you wonder why I didn't want to write about All-Star Weekend. Looking at the big picture, the league won't struggle even 1/10th as much as the NHL in years to come -- of all the wildest predictions I heard in Phoenix, the craziest came from a connected executive who predicted that fifteen NHL teams would go under within the next two years (and was dead serious) -- and Major League Baseball is about to get creamed beyond belief. Other than the NFL, the NBA will emerge from this financial quagmire in the best shape of any professional sport; not just because its billion-dollar deals with Disney and Turner (inked fortuitously in the summer of 2007) run through the 2015-16 season but because the Lockout That Hasn't Happened Yet will ultimately solve every major league issue except its stupefyingly dreadful officiating.

Times are tough for the paper industry indeed.

Quoted: According to Kent County court records, David Mayo is charged with "possession with intent to deliver marijuana, between 5 and 45 kilgorams" and "controlled substance/maintaining a drug house."

As if he weren't a big enough target already. New York should have a field day with this.

Quoted: Alex Rodriguez met head-on allegations that he tested positive for steroids six years ago, telling ESPN on Monday that he did take performance-enhancing drugs while playing for the Texas Rangers during a three-year period beginning in 2001.