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Lots and lots of headaches.
“The first thing that came to mind was ‘that’s pretty cool,’ the national attention that it will bring to the Thomas & Mack and the university” new UNLV head coach Marvin Menzies said.
“But then the second thought was ‘wow, that’s going to be a logistical nightmare.’” Admittedly, the debate has been a logistical nightmare for just about everyone on UNLV’s campus, and very likely for the entire city of Las Vegas in recent days.
However, it’s taken an especially large toll on the UNLV basketball team because its offices are located in the Thomas & Mack and its practice facility is located right next door at the Mendenhall Center.
To prepare for the debate and to make sure the entire surrounding area is completely secure, the Runnin’ Rebels hoops team was forced to leave its offices last Friday and won't be able to return until Thursday morning.
Coaches have been put in temporary offices alongside other coaches in other sports, while practices have taken place at an intramural gym across campus.
When players, coaches and administrators left the facility last week, they were forced to bring anything with them they could possibly need for six days, knowing that once they exited they wouldn’t be allowed back in.
“There’s a long list of things,” Menzies said.
“We’ll need to bring basketball equipment and pads and balls and things of that nature.
And then your files, records, recruiting, things of that nature.
[Thankfully] in this day and age, technology is so advanced there’s a lot of things that we will work off of that will be off our laptops that we will be able to access.” The situation is unique and could be especially troublesome for this particular UNLV squad.
Menzies is in his first year as head coach after being hired in late April, and after bringing in nine new players this offseason (and returning just four from last year’s squad), there is a major learning curve for everyone.
Players are still not only getting to know the coaches (and vice-versa), but they’re also getting to know each other.
For most coaches, that alone would be a nightmare.
But then consider that precious time and effort in the preseason has been dedicated to such trivial matters as “where will practice be today” and “where will my office be for the next six days.” However, instead of looking at this situation as a negative, Menzies has turned it into a positive.
He will be able to see how his young team deals with a tiny bit of adversity.
And it will also give them a chance to grow together as a group.
“Getting your kids ready to handle change because change is coming,” Menzies said.
“Whether you’re going on the road to travel, whether you’re out because of an electrical outage.
It gives your kids an opportunity to handle change.
I think it can actually be beneficial depending on how you look at it and how you handle it.” And when discussing the “big picture” of the debate, Menzies takes things one step further.
After all, is it really a bad thing to alter a couple practices when the eyes of an entire nation will be on your school and campus?
Could it possibly be a negative to have an event in your home arena that required over 700 media credentials and will bring a reported $85 million in free advertising to your school?
It’s one of the biggest positives any school could ask for.
“Let’s face it, this is a national branding for the university,” Menzies said.
“[This is a national branding opportunity for] the Thomas & Mack.” And most important, it’s a teaching moment for Menzies and his staff.
Being a college basketball coach isn’t just about X’s and O’s, but about helping boys become men.
It’s about teaching them that life is bigger than basketball, and that it’s important to look beyond just the stat sheets and box scores to other important things in life.
That’s especially true as we enter one of the most heated and controversial elections ever.
“I think we’ve used it as an observation to talk a little bit about the privilege to be able to vote,” Menzies said.
“Being to see all the pomp and circumstance that goes with the debate, it makes it a little more real for the guys.
“It is [bigger than sports],” he said.
“The magnitude of this particular debate, along with that it’s just such a dynamic event in and of itself.
So to have it at your university, I think that’s a cool thing.
It’s a good thing.” Even if it does force you to move a practice or two.
Fact Buster Q: Does coffee make you dehydrated?
A: If you drink coffee regularly and don't drink too much it shouldn't dehydrate you.
Our expert: Dietitian Lisa Renn [Image source: Reuters | Mick Tsikas ] Have your say Have you found coffee can make you feel dehydrated?
Conditions of Use Have you been told that you need to drink an extra glass of water for every cup of coffee or tea that you drink?
For some time there has been a belief that drinking coffee and tea can make you dehydrated because the caffeine they contain has a diuretic effect.
(A diuretic is a substance that causes your body to produce urine, and it has been suggested caffeine can do this because it increases blood flow through the kidneys.)
But is there any evidence to show that your morning cuppa needs to be offset with a big glass of water?
If you regularly enjoy a few cups of coffee or tea a day, then you can rest assured the moderate amount of caffeine they contain doesn't cause you to lose more fluid than you ingest, says Lisa Renn, accredited practising dietitian and spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia.
Nor will your cuppa be any more likely to send you off to the loo than any other drink.
"There is evidence that caffeine in higher amounts acts as a diuretic in some people, but moderate intake is actually not that significant," Renn says.
A recent UK study of regular male coffee drinkers found no difference in hydration levels between those who drank four 200ml cups of coffee a day and those who drank the same amount of water.
Researchers measured the men's urine output over a 24-hour period and other hydration markers in their blood, and concluded moderate coffee intake provides similar hydrating qualities to water.
While the study focused on the intake of coffee, those who drink tea can also take heart from the results as it contains similar amounts of caffeine to coffee.
It's worth noting, the study involved men who were regular coffee drinkers – and it's been suggested coffee may have more of a diuretic effect on those who do not habitually consume caffeine because they haven't developed a tolerance to caffeine.
But so far the evidence on this point isn't completely clear.
How caffeine affects hydration One of the reasons that drinks containing caffeine, such as coffee, tea, chocolate, cola drinks and energy drinks, have been given such a bad rap over the years is because caffeine is a diuretic when consumed in large doses (more than 500mg).
Diuretics make your body produce more urine, so not only do they have you running to the toilet more often, they also cause you to lose sodium and water.
When you lose too much sodium and water you become dehydrated, and this can have an effect on a range of bodily functions – from temperature control to absorption of food.
However, the amount of caffeine you get in a cuppa is unlikely to have these effects and it can actually contribute to your overall daily fluid intake.
"If you have to have more than four cups of coffee a day you may see a diuretic effect from that, but if your intake is less, then from a dehydration view you're going to be okay," says Renn.
Men's bodies need around 2.6 litres and women's around 2.1 litres of water a day, but this can be gleaned from a range of food and drinks other than water, including coffee and tea.
"Certainly you can be interspersing coffees and waters throughout the day, so you might have a bottle of water with you and be sipping on that most of the time, and then you might have a coffee in your break times," Renn says.
The good and bad sides of coffee It's worth noting there are also other side effects associated with caffeinated drinks, which include: rapid heart beat (palpitations) restlessness and excitability anxiety and irritability trembling hands sleeplessness.
And if you are drinking coffees with lots of milk it may affect your weight.
"Lattes and cappuccinos can make an excellent dairy-based or soy-based snack, but if you're having lots of those throughout the day, especially if you're trying to lose weight and having four milk coffees a day, it's going to impact on your calorie intake," Renn says.
However, drinking coffee can also have a range of health benefits, and has been linked to decreased risk of some cancers, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
"Coffee is certainly not the evil we once thought it was, but it's that old adage of everything in moderation," says Renn.
For more on caffeine, it's side effects and benefits see our Caffeine fact file.
Squeeze on consumer spending is the worst in peacetime for a century, new research shows Households are facing the most savage peacetime squeeze on consumer spending in almost 100 years.
Figures show that only during the Second World War did spending suffer a deeper fall.
Even the Great Depression saw nothing on this scale.
Analysis by the independent Centre for Economics and Business Research shows an 8.4 per cent fall in real consumer spending per household between 2007 and the end of this year.
The comparable figure for 1939-1945 was 14 per cent.
Consumer spending: Only during the Second World War did it suffer a deeper fall Chief executive Douglas McWilliams said only in the slump of 1919-1920 was there possibly a peacetime drop on today’s scale.
The extraordinary figures are published today ahead Tuesday’s expected downgrading of economic growth in the third quarter.
The first estimate showed the economy roaring back to health, with growth of one per cent from July to September.
But it is now thought that this may have exaggerated the recovery from recession and that the second estimate is likely to see the rate of expansion cut to 0.9 per cent, or lower.
The psychological impact could be out of proportion to the size of the reduction, according to Howard Archer of independent consultancy IHS Global Insight.
‘The fact of no longer having a “one” in front of the decimal point and having a nought instead may weigh with some people,’ he said.
‘More worrying is the possibility of a flat or negative number in the fourth quarter.
Much will hinge on spending over Christmas.’ He said higher than expected inflation may make people more concerned and this, in turn, could make worries about negative growth in the first quarter of next year into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A recession is defined as two successive quarters of negative growth, so shrinkage in this quarter and the next would plunge Britain into a slump for the third time in less than five years.
Trevor Williams, chief economist at Lloyds Bank wholesale markets, said: ‘The second estimate could be lower, perhaps 0.9 per cent instead of one per cent.
‘As for the fourth quarter, I would expect that to be flat, or even slightly negative.
But the prospects of a triple-dip recession are more remote.
There is no obvious reason why we would get a negative reading in the first quarter of next year.’ Peter Dixon, strategist at Commerzbank, said: ‘There is a possibility of a negative fourth quarter.
I am certainly not looking for anything stellar.’
Royal Jordanian Air is making a last-ditch pitch to travelers, telling Middle Easterners to visit the United States before a possible Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE presidency.
ADVERTISEMENT "Just in case he wins... travel to the U.S. while you're still allowed to!"
the airline tweeted on Election Day.
The post includes current prices of the Royal Jordanian Air's flights to the U.S. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, originally proposed a ban on Muslim immigration to the U.S. but has recently scaled back his rhetoric to focus on "extreme vetting" of those who want to enter the U.S. Royal Jordanian Air flies from Jordan, a Muslim-majority country, to New York, Chicago and Detroit.
The airline isn't the first to use Trump's rhetoric for an ad campaign.
Earlier this year, Air Canada invited Americans to "test drive" the country should Trump win.
Corporations And Governments The Real Threats To Free Speech Above Photo: This guy is not actually the biggest threat to free speech in the country, despite the New York Times using him to illustrate an op-ed (11/12/15) on “Who Is Entitled to Be Heard?” Daniel Brenner/NYT.
I find this statement in a New York Times oped (11/12/15), coming from Suzanne Nossel, the head of PEN America, to be absolutely stunning: Some of the most potent threats to free speech these days come not from our government or corporations, but from our citizenry.
Anyone who can write a sentence like this simply doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
Which is fine, but not fine when the person is the head of an organization dedicated to freedom of expression.
By “our citizenry,” Nossel is referring to the recent round of free speech wars on college campuses.
Now, when these issues of free speech arise on campus, you usually see an explosion of conversation about it: on the campus itself, and in the media.
Far from dampening down discussion, the controversy over free speech on campus actually ignites discussion.
Everyone has an opinion, everyone voices it.
And while I wouldn’t diminish the challenges to free speech that these controversies pose, the notion that they are far more common and threatening than what governments or corporations do is risible.
Though given that Nossel is a former State Department flak, perhaps understandable.
She is, after all, someone who has said: To advance from a nuanced dissent to a compelling vision, progressive policymakers should turn to the great mainstay of 20th-century US foreign policy: liberal internationalism…should offer assertive leadership — diplomatic, economic, and not least, military — to advance a broad array of goals.
When there are not just threats but actual abridgments of speech at the workplace—Nossel says “corporations,” referring I guess to firms’ financial lock on the political process, but as I’ve argued many times, it’s in their capacity as employers that firms really do damage to free speech—there is no such explosion as there is on college campuses.