Jedi Mind Tricks: Will Admiral Akbar Make His Presence Felt In The SEC?

In our lives, we get to make choices everyday. Thats one of the greatest parts of living in America... land of the free, home of the brave. But every once in a while stories like this break, and make you reconsider the idea of democracy. You should never give people the power to vote on something unless you control the parameters of what they can pick. We have primaries before elections, we narrow down nominees before we give out entertainment awards... very rarely are you given complete control to make a choice. A few years back I read a story about the British Census. They left an open space for people to pick their religous denominations. Over 390,000 people, or almost 1% of Englands population, wrote in Jedi. Yes, Jedi... the religous order of the Jedi Knights from Star Wars. Besides the fact that this is hysterical, it just goes to show you what happens when you open doors for people to make decisions. These were not just Lucas loving fanboys of Star Wars, this was 1% of Englans population. To bad Ole Miss wasn't paying attention.

About 7 years ago, Ole Miss wanted to replace their old mascot, Colonel Reb. Colonel Reb is a Confederate type soldier that has somewhat racist undertones, and since we live in politically correct times, the university wanted to get rid of him. So they have pondered what to do for a new mascot. The student body became interested in helping out with the selection, and a vote was taken by the administarion. Thousands of students voted for Admiral Akbar, Miltary Commander of The Rebel Alliance in George Lucas's Star Wars epic. Akbar is a minor character, but has the memorable line "It's a trap!" when the rebels relize they are about to be ambushed by the Empire in Return of the Jedi. Now, since the university is only looking to replace the on field mascot and will retain their "Rebels" team name, who would be a better choice to embody this?

So, in effect, Ole Miss is about to go from this:

To This:

I'm sure there are some legal issues to picking Akbar, but that is not such a huge problem. George Lucas needs to sign off on this immediately. This is a minor character, and he will be immortalized for the future on the sidelines of Ole Miss sports teams. But also, it would be a thank you from Lucas to all his fans out there. It might also open up some previous non Star Wars fans to check out the 6 part epic. I hope this happens, cause we don't get the choice to make big decisions so conmpletely very often. Wouldn't it be great if when we did it was of epic geek-like proportions??? How can you not root for these guys. Lets hope Ole Miss gets this one done... Go Rebels!!!

Vancouver Olympics 2010 Mascots... Repping The Great White North

The 2010 Olympics start tommorow, and I just wanted to introduce you to the 3 mascots created to represent the city of Vancouver...

Here they are:

Here is a brief description of the 3:

Sumi - is an animal spirit who lives in the mountains of British Columbia. Like many Canadians, Sumi's background is drawn from many places. He wears the hat of the orca whale, flies with the wings of the mighty thunderbird and runs on the strong furry legs of the black bear.

Quatchi - is a young sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Canada. Quatchi is shy, but loves to explore new places and meet new friends.


Miga - is a young sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod, beyond Vancouver Island, near Tofino, British Columbia. Sea bears are part killer whale and part bear. (Miga is part Kermode bear, a rare white bear that only lives in British Columbia.)



Here is a cool video introducing the mascots to the world:



Pretty cool kids... check it out!!!!