Etc...

Save Paris for another trip

Perhaps in the belief that visitors to Europe don't already have enough attractions available to them, some idea men in the former Yugoslav republic of Croatia are proposing yet another. They want the government to reopen the communist-era prison on the barren Adriatic Sea island of Goli Otok. The notorious old gulag has been rusting away since it was closed in 1989. But these visionaries imagine paying customers willingly enduring a regimen of stale food, solitary confinement, and pounding rocks into stones with sledgehammers - all while obliged to wear convict uniforms. On completion of his - shall we say - term, each vacationer would be given a certificate of achievement. "Of course," says the chief proponent of the idea, "unlike real prisoners, nobody would be tortured."

In Kentucky, basketball season never seems to arrive soon enough. That's especially true in Lexington, home of the University of Kentucky, which attracts the largest crowds of any school in the nation to Rupp Arena for its men's games (an average of 22,710 last season). Of course, it helps to have a winning tradition, and the UK Wildcats own the most victories (1,876) and the best all-time winning percentage (.765) of any major-college team. In the first years of the 21st century, other programs have won at a faster clip than Kentucky. But the Wildcats still rank among the most consistent in the game (and that includes the University of Connecticut, the defending men's national champion). The 10 winningest major-college men's teams since 2000 and the winning percentage for each:

1. Duke .854
2. Stanford .825
3. Gonzaga .806
4. Utah State .795
5. Kansas .783
6. Oklahoma .780
7. Cincinnati .774
8. Kentucky .766
9. Arizona .765
10. Syracuse .756
- Official 2005 NCAA Men's Basketball Records