Sport

You may not think combustible dust is something to worry about, but it's more prevalent a cause for concern than you might suspect. Between 2009 and 2013, 57 combustible dust incidents caused 26 people to die, and another 129 to be injured. Now, after a fireball engulfed a crowd of patrons in Taiwan, authorities in the U.S. are issuing warnings about powders used in Color Run events. The incident in Taiwan, which injured and burned hundreds of people, was caused by the ignition of colored powders that were sprayed over the crowd. "That was corn starch, which is a combustible powder, an organic powder," said Wichita Fire Department Fire Prevention's Chief Stuart Bevis. "It'd be just like flour or something like that." If the powder is made out of something combustible, and there's the right...

Week 1: Three workouts per day; six meals per day (start tapering down meals) Week 2: Begin putting salt in drinking water; continue tapering down meals Week 3: Begin juice-only diet (7 raw juices total) Day of Photo Shoot: No drinking or eating until right before the shoot -- eat only raw white potatoes This is the diet undertaken by Bryce Harper, a 22-year-old professional baseball player for the Washington Nationals. Once considered the most overrated new player, Harper is now considered the MVP favorite in the MLB, and he was one of many athletes highlighted in this year’s edition of ESPN’s Body Issue magazine. The Body Issue magazine, Huffington Post states, “highlights and celebrates athletes’ physiques in all their wondrous shapes and sizes” -- female athletes, like U.S. hammer thro...

On Friday, July 10, South Carolina finally removed the Confederate flag from the state capitol building, lowering the controversial symbol "with dignity." Major retailers like Wal-Mart have declared they will no longer sell merchandise that contains images of the flag. Now, a major institution of southern white culture is grappling with the issue as well -- critics are demanding NASCAR do more to keep the flag out of its racetracks this summer. In the popular imagination, NASCAR is perhaps unfairly maligned as a "redneck" sport; however, in a nation with almost 800 cars per 1,000 residents, it's also a hugely popular All-American culture of its own. NASCAR issued a statement supporting South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's efforts to take down the flag once and for all this July. Plus, t...

Recess might be all fun and games, but a new study reveals that it's having an important impact on children. Between 2006 and 2012, 281 California schools took part in the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Healthy Schools Program. Researchers from UC Berkeley's School of Public Health took the data from the program, and used it to compare the participating schools to 709 other schools in the state. Recently, the findings were published in one of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's journals, Preventing Chronic Disease. The researchers found that the more schools made an effort, the healthier the kids were. There were greater reductions in the prevalence of student obesity amongst schools that engaged with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Healthy Schools Program,...

The Galaxy Shootout XVIII went off without a hitch on April 25th and 26th in Hickory, North Carolina, hosting more than 30 teams and 350 young soccer players from around the country. The Hickory Daily Record reports that last weekend, soccer players ages 10 through 14 competed in the Henry Ford River Soccer Complex for the title. The Rotary Club of Lake Hickory, a community organization, helped sponsor and coordinate the event, along with Galaxy Food Centers and other contributors. The club used the advertising revenue and local contributions to fund scholarships to deserving students. More than 40 games were played, with the 350 or so players and their families staying in Hickory for the weekend. Eighty local businesses and individuals sponsored the event, raising at least $40,000 outsi...

Football is a huge deal in the United States. According to the National Football League (NFL), its 2014 season had 17.6 million viewers on average per game, and about 205 million Americans watched at least one football game that season. Most impressive, 34 of the 35 most-watched fall TV shows in the U.S. were football games. The only non-NFL program to rank was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which only came in at number 22. According to the Nielsen Company, some 114.4 million people tuned in for last January's Super Bowl XLIX, making it the most watched TV event in history. What many don't realize, though, is that there's another huge event every football season besides the Super Bowl: Draft Day. Last year, the NFL Draft drew a record 45.7 million viewers across its three days of co...

The season for tennis and squash tournaments is heating up in some places, but other groups have had to modify their plans due to unforeseen circumstances. The World Squash Federation had initially planned to hold this year's world junior squash championships in Cairo, Egypt, from July 25 to August 4. However, the organization announced that it has been canceled. The reason, the WSF said, was that many parents and others associated with the tournament expressed fears over terrorism in the region. Specifically, the WSF said that parents worried about "the extreme radicalism in the region, not specific to Egypt," including the recent deaths of tourists by militants in Tunisia. The move no doubt comes as a disappointment to the many youngsters who have participated in squash training clin...

The University of Delaware has become the newest school to add gymnastics as a club sport. Like other intercollegiate gymnastics clubs, the University of Delaware team is registered with the National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs (NAIGC) and will be competing against teams from colleges throughout the Northeast and the rest of the country. The University of Delaware gymnastics team attended its first meet, the Nittany Invitational at Penn State, on March 21st. The women's team did not place, while the men took third place all around and fifth place for floor exercises. "At this point, our team's strengths are on floor and vault,” club president Jenna DiStefano told the college's online newsletter, UDaily. “We have a hardworking bars lineup who are adding difficulty ...

A South Florida youth soccer league won big last month at the Weston Cup and Showcase Florida Premier Soccer President's Day Weekend Tournament, firmly establishing itself as one of the premier youth soccer clubs in the nation. The Sun-Sentinel reports that the Plantation Eagles Soccer Club, based near Fort Lauderdale, dominated two categories of the event. The Eagles' under-15 girls team won the under-15 bronze division after four rounds. The team won the opening tournament game 3-0 against the West Pines United FC. The Eagles managed to secure another 3-0 victory against the Wellington Wave in the second round. The third round saw a 2-2 tie with the Naples Azzurri but the Eagles managed to reach the finals and once again faced the West Pines United FC. The Eagles secured the title with a...

Sports have a long and well-documented history of helping kids in many ways. Kids who are in shape tend to score 30% higher on tests than kids who aren't, and kids who play sports generally have higher self-esteem. High school athletes are more likely to attend college and earn a degree than non-athletes, and youth sports can even discourage negative behavior, according to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.But is there a downside associated with all of these benefits? As youth sports become more "professionalized," it's beginning to look more and more like there might be.  Children are starting sports earlier than ever before, and some even begin playing competitively by age three or four. Children ages five and six are playing in "elite level talent develop...