[Russia forward Ilya Kovalchuk reacts after scoring a goal against Finland during the first period of a men's quarterfinal ice hockey game at the 2014 Winter Olympics on Wednesday. Image via Julio Cortez/AP.]

Alex Myers is an Australian exchange student currently studying journalism at SUNY Oswego, part of New York's state university system. Last month he was given a class assignment to produce a profile on a public figure. He chose Oswego men's hockey coach Ed Gosek and began in the standard manner: he reached out to Gosek's colleagues in the sport.

Feast your eyes on these terrifying members of Ukrainian feminist group, FEMEN. They are protesting the 2014 world cup, to be held in Belarus.

Every single television critic has written their "10 Best of 2011" article and it's all, "Oooh, Breaking Bad." "Let's hear it for Community." "Friday Night Lights should never leave!" "Do you love Louie? I love Louie. You should love LOUIE!" Fuck them! All their damn lists are the same year after year. Here are some of the other things that happened on television when the critics were playing Ookie Cookie with each other.

The only member of Russia's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team to survive a plane crash that killed 44 people, 26-year-old Alexander Galimov, died of severe burns in a Moscow hospital today. A member of the flight crew is the last survivor.

It's fun to watch Tim "Two Percent" Pawlenty hatch a new lame scheme each week to try to get anyone interested in his tries-too-hard presidential campaign.

"Hey, uh, Vancouver? Sorry for the violent riots." That's what a handful of regretful Canadians are saying on blogs, Facebook pages and media reports after they were linked to last week's downtown Vancouver hockey riot.

CBC tracked down the couple in the now-famous photo of two people apparently making out in the middle of Wednesday night's hockey riots in Vancouver. They were not, as it turns out, making out. But neither was the photo staged for the camera!

By now you've probably seen footage of the hockey riot in Vancouver. And if you're from the US, you've probably said to yourself, "Damn, I didn't know they had it in them!" Thanks to a riot analysis from the Times we know that we could be dealing with a new, ultra-violent Canada. Here's your Vancouver hockey riot but what does it all mean? article:

This photo, of two unidentified people (apparently) making out on the street surrounded by riot cops, is just about the only good thing to emerge from Vancouver's intense hockey riots, which erupted last night following the Canucks' Stanley Cup loss.

There's little anonymity left in rioting these days. Thanks to cameraphones and tagging, police will be able to identify some of the Vancouver hooligans who set fires, smashed storefronts and overturned cars in Stanley Cup related rioting.

The Vancouver Canucks (hint: hockey) lost the Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday night, falling to the Boston Bruins 4-0 in the seventh game. This is a big deal in Canada, where hockey is basically their version of American Idol. And so they've decided to riot.

Remember when the White House agreed to push forward President Obama's speech about U.S. involvement in Libya last month because people really needed to see Dancing with the Stars? Something similar has happened up north, where Thursday's French language political debate was moved forward to avoid conflicting with a Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins playoff game. From the Toronto Star:

Watch as a puck at a Cape Breton Screaming Eagles hockey game is struck with such force that it shatters one of the plexiglass panels that protects the spectators, giving one small boy quite the scare.

Among the many varied traditions of peoples all over the world, throwing 23,096 stuffed animals onto a hockey rink has go to be one of the two or three dumbest. But it looks pretty impressive.

The Philadelphia Flyers barely missed a .01-second overtime goal this week against the San Jose Sharks. The puck hadn't crossed the line in time and the game had to go to shootout. This is about as close as it gets.

Which gets the bigger cheer at this hockey game: a goal, or the celebration afterwards during which a fan holds up a giant "Easy Button" sign until the scoring player skates over and pushes it? The crowd must be fed!

For those tired of seeing spectacular hockey shootout trick shots, here is one to balance the scales. Ilya Kovalchuk needed one to keep his team alive, and it was comically anti-climactic. He recently signed a 15-year, $100 million contract.

Let's face it, hockey is only worth watching for the fights. And one man, Bob Probert, made fighting on the ice an art form. He died yesterday in Ontario at 45. He ranks fifth all-time in NHL penalty minutes.

Using a remote control, this girl pranks her boyfriend while he is intensely watching Game 6 of the Stanley Cup. Rage ensues: he destroys the living room and blames the loss on her once he realizes what she was doing.