Archive for July, 2009

The Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills Program at LSU, which is for student-athletes and teachers them the basics of life in preparation for life outside of being a student-athlete, is holding the Shaq Classic on September 1, 2009, at Carter Plantation. The Classic is a golf tournament fundraising event with limited spacing. LSUSports.net has more information on how to register.

Eleven days ago, Texas A&M issued a press release to rally its fan base on Facebook. In it, they noted that LSU had, at the time, the largest Facebook fan base at 56,000. Over the past week, they’ve engaged their fan base and have added more features to their page. Yesterday they issued another press release claiming that they now had the largest Facebook fan base of any university-sponsored page. Because of this challenge, they added around 16,000 fans, which is four times the amount that LSU added in the same timeframe.

They are, of course, claiming that they have the greatest fans in the world. Not only is this a ridiculous claim, but it’s utterly inaccurate. LSU has what Texas A&M could never have: a reason for its fans to be passionate. And we’ve shown time and time again that we are the best fans in the world. Now it’s time to do it once again. Let’s shut those freaking Aggies up. We’re currently 1,600 fans behind A&M—an easy feat for LSU.

Become a fan of LSU on Facebook now.

(Also, LSU, it would be nice if you hired a social media expert to take charge of your online brand. Just saying.)

Updated: Mashable has linked to this post. See here for more details.

For as long as anyone can remember, the Athletics Department at LSU has been an autonomous unit functioning within yet outside of the purview of the University. Funded by the massive and influential Tiger Athletic Foundation, which has more money than the University does, the Athletics Department had little official interaction with the University. Chancellor Michael Martin announced recently that as a result of the huge budget cuts to the University, the Athletics Department will officially combine with the University in order to save money and streamline the institution. As part of the administrative downsizing, Martin recently announced the termination of the Vice Chancellor of Communications and University Relations. Replacing him is Senior Associate Athletic Director Herb Vincent, whose new title is Vice Chancellor of University Relations, in addition to Senior Associate Athletic Director. This puts him in charge of the image of the University for all of the Baton Rouge campus—which is the state’s only national flagship university.

I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a wonderful partnership, one that’ll continue to grow over the next few semesters as LSU tries to save money and make the administration more efficient. It’s about time that the two organizations officially wed under one name and focus on strengthening both brands as one. It’s no joke that the Athletic Department has done a fantastic job over the past few years building an incredible department that is run with grace and efficiency. With new buildings, high attendance ratings, multiple honors and championships and strategic hirings, someone is clearly doing their job right. I think this is a great decision and a step forward for the flagship agenda—and the financial savings is just icing on the cake.

Tuesday night was, like most nights, filled with epic sessions of coding and otherwise total pwnage. When I finally picked my head up, I found my family in the throes of a great debate over what was to be consumed for dinner. After a brief discussion, our family headed to the dynastically-inclined PF Chang’s China Bistro in the Town Center. Of course, we were like every other family in Baton Rouge on Tuesday night, and so during our atrocious wait time, I tweeted about our trek to the far east (it’s actually west, but who’s counting) of Baton Rouge to eat at PF Chang’s. Instantly I got a few replies from followers expressing approval in our choice and even proffering a few entrée suggestions. When we finally reached the Cantonese doors, I was convinced that there might be something to the enthusiasm on Twitter, and after one night, I can only express my feelings in one word: 精彩.

Menu and Food

The menu can, at first, be quite overwhelming. Aside from their exclusive dishes, you’ll find classics such as Spring Rolls, General Tsao Chicken, fried rice and others. Their selection is impressively broad in terms of the traditional Chinese dishes, but also very mature and features several exclusive dishes. I was hit with a dilemma when trying to order, and only after an arduous elimination process did I finally settle on the kung pao chicken. One important thing to note here is that spicy in Chinese (火) in no way compares to Cajun spicy. I recommend asking for extra- or super-spicy for you Cajun folk. Otherwise the chicken was delicious. So were the dumplings, spring rolls, fried rice, sesame chicken and hot fish—all dishes we ordered. Of course, delicious really doesn’t do the food justice. It was absolutely scrumptious and the aroma that permeates the restaurant is so appetizing that it was almost cruel to my starving stomach. Coming from someone who has been to China and tasted authentic Chinese food, believe me when I say to you that this is as close as I’ve gotten in the US—it was just that good.

You might be wondering how after such a wonderful review PF Chang’s marks low in the menu selection rating. There’s really only one caveat that prohibits me from awarding them this distinction: price.

Menu Selection Rating—

Quality of Food Rating—

Atmosphere

PF Chang’s is marketed as a high-end restaurant, and as such the interior décor is very fancy. It’s decorated in a very balanced mix of ancient, dynasty-era Chinese and modern Westernized style. It makes for a comfortable atmosphere to enjoy a flavorful meal. Moreover, the waiters were all very accommodating. They were extremely polite and very helpful when wading through the huge menu. They were also very helpful when delivering a baby. (This almost happened. A women started having contractions behind us. I almost thought the poor kid would have to apply for dual-citizenship.)

I’d say that the only thing that marks against PF Chang’s was their wait time. On a busy weekend, a half-hour wait time would be understandable; on a Tuesday night, this is unforgivable. With this kind of crowd, you’d expect the exact type of service and quality of food you get—which slightly mitigates the negative impact.

Atmosphere Rating—

Overall Review

Overall, I was extremely satisfied with my experience. After one visit, I know that I’ll be a returning patron. I think it’d be a great place for a date, although a tad expensive for a normal college student. I highly recommend stopping by PF Chang’s if you haven’t already. I also recommend lifting a pair of their chopsticks. They just look so fancy. (Disclaimer: I am in no way advocating petty theft.)

It’s worth mentioning here the recommendations I got via Twitter:

• @ngscheurich recommends the oolong blend hot tea.
• @deegeebee recommends the lettuce wrap.
• @jbeswick recommends getting Northern Style Spare Ribs as an appetizer.

Overall Rating—

Urbanspoon Rating—

By now I’m sure you’ve all seen the headline about the drunken idiot who went to a Louisiana State Trooper station and tried to check in like it was his hotel. Of course, they booked him on DWI. Thanks, 25-year-old, Mitchell Deslatte for making Louisiana headline again.

I guess this is a good time to make a friendly reminder: When you do stupid things that make national news, not only are you making yourself look bad, but you’re making our state look bad. I and my fellow citizens don’t appreciate this. Please be cognizant of this next time.

Might have heard around town about these dudes selling DVDs of themselves shooting guns and stuff. I hear a director’s cut is on its way with new deleted scenes. (okay that last part was a joke. )

A three-month old suburban New Orleans baby was found dead in her crib after she bled to death from more than 100 rodent bites. This is almost as insane as the fire ants that almost killed another kid in Louisiana we posted about a while back.

FoxNews.com has the full story →

Until the start of LSU Football season. First game is on Saturday, September 5 at Washington in Seattle, WA. Kickoff at 9:30 PM CST. Broadcasting on ESPN and the LSU Sports Radio Network.

Time recently published an article on the South’s growing obesity rate:

So there you have it. Southerners have little access to healthy food and limited means with which to purchase it. It’s hard for them to exercise outdoors, and even when they do have the opportunity, it’s so hot, they don’t want to. To combat this affliction, some Southern states have adopted programs to fight rising obesity. In 2003, Arkansas passed a school body mass index–screening program that assesses weight and sends the results home to parents. Tennessee encourages its schools to buy fresh ingredients from local growers. And in 2007, Mississippi adopted nutritional standards for school lunches. Most of these programs are relatively new, so it will be a few years before experts can determine their efficacy. “I think there’s reason for optimism,” says Barrett. “But it’s likely that the Southeast will lag behind the rest of the country for some time to come.”

There’s some good points in this article. Obviously culture does play a huge part in obesity for Louisiana, but some of these other factors are huge players as well. One factor that the article didn’t mention is race, which according to extrapolation CDC data plays significantly into these rates as well.

Currently Louisiana has an obesity rate of 28.3%, which puts us at number 6. The Department of Health and Hospitals does have a separate council on obesity called the Louisiana Council on Obesity Prevention whose main goal is to reduce the obesity rate. There’s also the popular “Louisiana 2 Step” marketing campaign sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana. Also, Pennington Biomedical Research Center is one of the foremost obesity and nutrition research centers in the world. Needless to say, Louisiana is quite invested in this issue.

Continue reading the article on Time.com →

Bobby Jindal published another opinion article, this time in the main section of the Wall Street Journal.

In Washington, it seems history always repeats itself. That’s what’s happening now with health-care reform. This is an unfortunate turn of events for Americans who are legitimately concerned about the skyrocketing cost of a basic human need.

In 1993 and 1994, Hillary Clinton’s health-care reform proposal failed because it was concocted in secret without the guiding hand of public consensus-building, and because it was a philosophical over-reach. Today President Barack Obama is repeating these mistakes.

The reason is plain: The left in Washington has concluded that honesty will not yield its desired policy result. So it resorts to a fundamentally dishonest approach to reform. I say this because the marketing of the Democrats’ plans as presented in the House of Representatives and endorsed heartily by President Obama rests on three falsehoods.

You can read the full article on the WSJ web site →

A few notes to aid your reading and analysis:

• This is an important issue to Jindal. His first major governmental position was as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals under Governor Mike Foster. Later, he was appointed by President Bush and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate to be the Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation.
• In this article, Jindal refers to a Lewin Group report. The Lewin Group is a corporation that provides health and human resource consulting. The full report can be found here.
• Jindal discusses the ineffectiveness of bureaucracies in major decision making. Marketing mogul Seth Godin wrote an intriguing article a few years ago concerning this. You can read it here.