College BB Teams Earn Frequent Flyer Miles this Summer

Forget the Maui Classic, forget the Great Alaska Shootout, and pay no attention to the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands. 

The travel season has begun early for dozens of college hoops teams who are allowed to take a trip abroad every few years as kind of a preseason for the upcoming college basketball season.

Coaches can use this time to give their young teams some valuable experience or use as a recruiting tool to show potential recruits that they take a cool trip every few years.

Here is the list of who's going where:

LSU Italy May 17-27

Mississippi State Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris Aug. 5-15

Villanova France, Netherlands Aug. 7-16

West Virginia Italy Aug. 8-21

Texas A&M Switzerland, France Aug. 8-17

Iowa State Italy Aug. 9-19

Illinois Italy Aug. 10-20

Louisville Bahamas Aug. 10-14

Baylor Toronto Aug. 11-16

DePaul France Aug. 11-21

California Sweden, Norway, Denmark Aug. 12-22

USC Brazil Aug. 12-21

Georgetown China Aug. 13-24

Duke China, Dubai Aug. 14-26

Virginia Tech Canada Aug. 16-18

Oregon Italy Aug. 22-Sept. 2

Stanford Spain Sept. 3-14

Northern Iowa Brazil Aug. 1-9

Murray State Canada Aug. 4-9

North Florida Canada Aug. 4-10

La Salle Canada Aug. 6-9

Hawaii China, Japan Aug. 6-21

Wichita State Brazil Aug. 7-18

Ball State Canada Aug. 8-16

Dayton Amsterdam, Paris Aug. 8-18

Illinois State Canada Aug. 8-13

UTSA Australia Aug. 9-19

Drake Australia, New Zealand Aug. 10-20

Wright State Italy Aug. 10-20

Central Florida Canada Aug. 10-15

Creighton Bahamas Aug. 11-17

Stony Brook Ireland, England, France Aug. 11-22

UMKC Italy Aug. 11-20

Duquesne Canada Aug. 12-15

Elon Germany, Italy Aug. 12-22

Oakland Canada Aug. 13-15

Fairfield Italy Aug. 15-25

BYU Greece Aug. 15-27

UT-Arlington Vancouver Aug. 16-23

Albany Canada Aug. 19-25

Saint Louis Canada Aug. 19-29

Santa Clara Vancouver Sept. 5-10

I believe three of the Duke games in China are going to be televised on ESPN (imagine that) and how about Cal's trip to Scandinavia, Stanford to Spain, and Drake to Australia and New Zealand.  Great spots.  And how about Duke's side trip to Dubai.  You can do that when you are Duke.

Is the Blackberry Brand on Life Support?

They may not be on life support yet, but they are heading in that direction.

Shares of Research in Motion, Ltd (RIM) dropped 21.5% to their lowest level since 2006 on Friday after the BlackBerry smartphone maker said quarterly revenue might drop for the first time in nine years and unveiled plans to reduce jobs.

Revenue will be $4.2 billion to $4.8 billion in the fiscal second quarter, RIM said Thursday. That was less than the average analyst estimate for sales of $5.47 billion, according to a Bloomberg survey. Profit this quarter will be 75 cents to $1.05 a share. Analysts had predicted $1.40.

RIM is losing market share in the U.S. to Apple's iPhone and handsets running Google's Android software, in part because it hasn't introduced a major new BlackBerry model since last August. Cheaper Google phones are also making inroads in Latin America, Asia and Europe, threatening the popularity of less-expensive BlackBerry models like the Curve.

RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, plunged $7.58, or 21.5%, to $27.75, the lowest level since Sept. 12, 2006. The stock has dropped 52% this year.

"Its product portfolio is just not up to snuff with its key competitors," said Paul Taylor, chief investment officer at BMO Harris Private Banking in Toronto.

RIM has come under increasing scrutiny from investors after its stock slumped, the company lost phone market share, and its new PlayBook tablet computer, a rival to Apple's iPad, was criticized by technology columnists for poor performance and being rushed to market.

Last week, investor Northwest & Ethical Investments called for RIM to separate the roles of chairman and chief executive as analysts question whether RIM's co-CEO structure is the best way to manage the company.

Dire Straits Censored 25 Years Later

Radio stations in Canada have been warned to censor the 1985  hit "Money for Nothing," by Dire Straits  after a complaint that the lyrics of the Grammy Award-winning song were derogatory to gay men.

A St. John's, Newfoundland, station should have edited the song to remove the word "faggot" because it violates Canada's human rights standards, according to ruling this week by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.

A unnamed listener to OZ FM in the Atlantic Coast province complained to the industry watchdog last year after hearing the song.

The council said it realized Dire Straits uses the word sarcastically, and its use might have been acceptable in 1985 when the best-selling album, "Brothers in Arms" was released, but said it was now inappropriate.

"The decision doesn't really relate to the Dire Straits song at the end of the day, the decision relates to the word in question," Ron Cohen, the council's chairman, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

OZ FM argued unsuccessfully that the song has been played countless times since it was released more than 25 years ago, has won various industry awards, including Grammys in 1986, and remains popular with listeners around the world.

Although the Dire Straits ruling only sanctions the St John's station, it means other Canadian radio stations could get in trouble it they air the song without censoring it.

The Broadcast Standards Council is a non-governmental industry group that administers ethical standards established by its members, Canada's private broadcasters

Dire Straits was led by frontman Mark Knopfler, they dissolved as a band in the 1990s after a string of hit albums and lots of play on MTV.

To this day, still pretty good music.  Order it here in MP3 format.

Snowbound Highway Travelers Rescued in Canada

Police and the Canadian Forces have rescued all 237 people stranded in their vehicles along snowbound Highway 402 in Lambton County, the OPP said Tuesday night.

Police said 200 tractor-trailers and 124 cars which had been trapped in deep snow along the highway were checked. Some vehicles had been abandoned, police said.

There were no reports of missing persons

A state of emergency continued around London and Sarnia Tuesday after a raging snowstorm forced the closure of Highway 402, sections of the 401 and left hundreds of motorists stranded in the freezing darkness.

Police were using snowmobiles and ATVs to get to vehicles. The Canadian Forces joined the effort with a CC-130 Hercules fixed-wing airplane and two CH-146 Griffon helicopters.

The blowing snow and windy conditions continued Tesday night into Wednesday morning.