March 16th: Earthquakes and Charlie Sheen and the NFL, oh my!

Welcome back ladies and gents. UMaine officially has the earliest spring break ever, which is pretty lame if you ask me. I hope everyone who did go on spring break had a good one. We actually got some interesting stuff going on in the past couple weeks. Japan got hit with their worst earthquake in recorded history (a 9.0 on the Richter scale). Charlie Sheen got kicked off of the show two and a half men. And the NFL failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, officially beginning a lockout. Let's get right into it shall we?
So everyone has probably heard of the devastating earthquake that hit Japan so talking about it might be beating a dead horse, but oh well. On March 11th an Earthquake hit the Northern part of Japan and was the strongest earthquake in Japan's recorded history. The earthquake caused a massive tsunami to devastate Japan's coastline. Conservative estimates have 4,500 killed and another 9,000 missing, although it is feared that this is a gross underestimation. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366898/Japanese-earthquake-Death-toll-expected-reach-25-000.html?ITO=1490 has a number of pictures of the devastation that the earthquake has caused. More than 400,000 people are left homeless and living in shelters. My thoughts are with the people of Japan affected by this disaster. Some people think that the mass die-offs of random animals and this are just the start to the end of the world, which is obviously false. But hey, we can let the crazy nut jobs think whatever they want to think.
In lighter news, Charlie Sheen was kicked off of Two and a Half Men due to his recent antics. In my opinion, this was not a smart move by CBS, in particular for Two and a Half Men. Charlie Sheen was perfect in his role and after 8 years of being on the show, not having him on it will kill ratings. John Cryer and Angus T. Jones are funny but are not even close to being able to carry on the show by themselves. Sheen made the show, period. He's a drunk womanizer in real life and playing that on the show just came naturally. CBS needs to just cancel the show and leave it at that. It was rumored that John Stamos could be the replacement for Sheen, but I honestly don't see that working out. Uncle Jesse on a show like Two and a Half Men doesnt seem right.
Now let's go to the NFL. As fans of football may already have heard, the collective bargaining agreement between the owners of the NFL and the NFL players association as recently expired and attempts to reach a new agreement has failed. It came down to the owners wanting more money that would be taken out of things like a retirement fund for the players. As of now there is no football next season until a new agreement is made. This thought might scare people but consider that the owners have a lot more to lose from not having a season than having one. I will say right now that i believe there will be football next season. Preseason might not happen but the regular season definitely will.
Well that's all I have now. At least i had a few interesting things to talk about this week. I hope everyone has a good rest of their week and as always, in the words of the great Ron Burgundy "You stay classy, Planet Earth."