Best of the blogs

Colleges clustering their athletes

ERIC FERRERI ON CAMPUS NOTES: USA TODAY has unveiled a special report revealing that at many universities, disproportionate numbers of athletes are in the same majors.

It's called clustering, a practice critics say helps universities improve their graduation rates at the expense of the athletes themselves.

To summarize: The report found that on football, men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball teams at 142 colleges, at least quarter of juniors and seniors were majoring in the same thing, and on more than half those teams, at least 40 percent were in the same major.

The story includes a searchable database. Keep in mind it isn't comprehensive. The investigation culled data from university sources such as media guides, but not every major for every athlete at every university was available, and the newspaper focused on upperclassmen.

A few highlights from our local universities:

* At N.C. State, 10 of 22 baseball players majored in sports management. That's 45.3 percent. Ten of 34 football players, or 29.4 percent, did so as well.

* At Duke, 11 of 27 football players, 40 percent, majored in sociology.

* At UNC-Chapel Hill, four of seven men's basketball players majored in communication studies, and three of eight women's basketball players were in the exercise and sport science program.

* At East Carolina, nine of 15 baseball players, 60 percent, were communication majors, as were 13 of 31 football players. That's 41 percent.

$2 gas again after all this time

BRUCE SICELOFF ON CROSSTOWN TRAFFIC: Self-service regular is selling for an average $1.97 a gallon in the Triangle, and a few places are posting prices below $1.80. (And at one place in Durham, $1.55!)

It's the first time since March 2005 that we've paid less than $2 a gallon. This is good news, but it means different things to different people.

Carolyn Jones, a semi-retired school cafeteria worker, says she can afford now to go back to the grocery store for bread to go along with the butter she got a few days earlier. Albaro Hernandez, who works in a Subway sandwich shop, says he can afford to park his four-cylinder Ford Focus and start driving around again in his six-cylinder Chevy Blazer.

The sexiest woman? She's not Angelina

SAMANTHA THOMPSON SMITH ON THE FASHION PLATE: E! entertainment television says the honor goes to Karolina Kurkova, a Czech lingerie model and one of the world's highest-paid models.

Don't worry, Angie, you're still hot, only you're hot at No. 3. The second-sexiest woman is Israeli Bar Rafaeli, a supermodel who has been linked to actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Here's the rest of the ranking:

4. Gisele Bundchen

5. Scarlett Johansson

6. Adriana Lima

7. Heidi Klum

8. Penelope Cruz

9. Manuela Arcuri

10. Shakira

Bauer's power hours

ADRIENNE JOHNSON MARTIN ON HAPPINESS IS A WARM TV: Honestly, I barely remember what last happened to Jack Bauer the last time we saw him on FOX. But to watch this appetizer of a TV movie, "24: Redemption," tonight at 8, you don't need to remember.

I mean, we know Jack, right? He's troubled, an outcast trying to do right when everyone else is corrupt and HE. WILL. KILL. YOU.

So, if you like classic Jack, you'll like "Redemption." It's not the very best, but it's good, solid Jack, and it reminds you of what you love and hate about "24." (You're not a real fan if you don't both love and hate "24.")

Groped or ogled?

FROM STEVE FORD ON THE OPINION SHOP: Ah, the glamour of air travel. Or make that, the erstwhile glamour. These days your fellow passengers probably will be dressed like slobs. They will be expected to fight through crowds to handle their own paperwork, then herded like beasts as they are subjected to indignities by security personnel, some of whom would flunk the civility part of a test to become a prison guard.

Now we find out that new passenger screening devices will undress you, or at least provide an image that gets down to intimate details. No, the pictures aren't kept, they say. And someone selected for screening can choose instead to be patted down. That sounds like a no-brainer, but some people do have an aversion to being felt about the body in such peremptory fashion. Maybe they'd rather take their chances with the video. I'd go for the pat treatment.

This comes from someone who once was required to pose for official-type photos in his birthday suit. When you're a college freshman and are told to report to the gym for posture photos, you figure that's just part of the drill. For members of my class at Yale in the fall of 1964, that's exactly what it was. Only years later did the extent of the ludicrous "posture photo" experiment become clear, with its dubious rationale exposed.