- Because I’ve never been a daughter, I can’t imagine how this next story would make me feel, but something tells me I wouldn’t feel too good. Kendall Gryzb, a University of Alabama student, was involved in a little domestic squabble with her boyfriend, Alabama linebacker Courtney Upshaw. Upshaw and Gryzb were arrested in what police say was a domestic violence dispute in the parking lot of the Student Recreation Center. As a quick aside, if you’re going to brawl with your significant other, have the common decency to beat the crap out of each other in private. As it happened, these two got into it, the police were called and both parties were hauled off in the paddy wagon. Yet it was Upshaw who ended up sitting in jail and finding support from an unlikely source: Dave Gryzb, father of the girl he’d just traded punches with. ! “I hate to see this guy get in too much trouble because I honestly think it was probably initiated by my daughter,” Dave Grzyb said. “I don’t think he laid a hand on her. He just tried to restrain her to keep from getting hit again.” Are you freaking kidding me? Even if you think your kid is a troublemaker and a bad seed, don’t come out and publicly side with a guy who was just arrested for fighting with them. I know Crimson Tide football is huge in the state of Alabama and for some of you down there, it’s pretty much your religion. That being said, I don’t think it’s too much to ask that fathers side with their daughters in cases of alleged physical abuse. Rather than feeling bad for Courtney Upshaw as he sits in the Tuscaloosa County Jail, how’s about bailing your daughter out and making sure she’s okay? Sure, witnesses to the fight say that Kendall Gryzb dished out just as many punches and slaps as she took, but she still deserves the support of her father. Just imagine what sort of treatment this girl is going to receive from her dad if Upshaw is suspended, the Alabama defense falters because of it and they lose a couple of key SEC games. Papa Gryzb may disown his daughter, cut her off financially and come to campus to rip her car from her. Always good to see people who truly have their priorities straight in life……..
- Rural Kenya isn't exactly a corner of the world you’d expect to be a leader in the world of cell phone technology, but maybe that perception should change. With the scarcity of landlines and the inefficacy of most other forms of communication, Kenyans are like millions of others in emerging nations who rely on mobile phones in order to communicate. However, unreliable power grids in rural towns and villages often make charging the phones a huge headache. Finding a solution for that problem is both a challenge and an opportunity, one that Kenya's biggest mobile phone company, Safaricom Ltd., is looking to solve by launching the nation's first solar-charged phone this month. The phone does come with a regular electrical charger, but its standout feature is a solar panel that charges the phone using the sun's rays. And unlike the iPhone, which invariably comes at a price of several hundred dollars every time Apple tries to jam up users with a new version of its smart phone, this solar-powered phone sells for about $35. They’re also manufactured by Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corp, so it shows that it isn't only here in the United States that nearly every consumer product you use on a daily basis was made in China. Safaricom plans to make an initial supply of 100,000 phones available, but that number could expand quickly if demand warrants it. Kenya isn't the only country turning to solar cell phones, as Samsung introduced its first sun-powered phone in India in mid-June. It too has high expectations for its new phone, the Solar Guru, in India, another country where electrical supply can be erratic. To understand just how much of an asset this phone could be for Kenyans, you need only to realize that about 1.3 million of Kenya's 37 million people are connected to the national electrical grid. That’s just about 3.5 percent of the population, meaning that the other 35.7 million people in Kenya would have no way to charge a phone if they could afford one to begin with. On top of that, the country has been undergoing power rationing after a three-year drought. Still, some 17 million Kenyans use cell phones and until now, they’ve been forced to use either bike-powered generators to charge their phones or pay businesses in major cities to charge their phones. Now, Kenyans have an alternative and it will come from above………
- Every time it appears that the furor over Michael Vick’s return to the NFL is beginning to subside, a new story pops up of some yahoo who is making it their life’s mission to take a stand against the worst crime ever in the history of the world, a guy operating a dogfighting ring. Yes, I love dogs and find Vick’s actions heinous and offensive. However, the people who are acting like this guy is a serial killer who raped and slaughtered dozens of women and children need to gain some perspective. These are people like Steve Coffman, owner of Slate's Prime Time Grill in Sandpoint, Idaho. Coffman thinks he’s making a huge social stand by refusing to show Philadelphia Eagles games from his bar’s televisions and refusing to serve beers from brewers who continue to be sponsors of the team for as long as Vick plays for the Eagles. Yes, this tool is boycotting the Philadelphia Eagles and their corporate sponsors. He has joined the national "Sack Vick" movement, filled with people who are either ignorant of or don’t care about the fact that in no way, ever, is their little crusade going to force the Eagles to release Vick or otherwise impact his football career. Coffman’s contention is that athletes should be held accountable and NFL teams should have better judgment, although he doesn’t do a good job of explaining what he means by that. "We just seem to say 'okay' and we continue to spend $40 to $50 and go to a game and buy the products. I think it's time we stopped and said, 'Hey, you know its enough.', " said Coffman. Whatever you want to do, go for it, you kook. And while I’m certain that Coffman would say that he’s fine with this, the reality is that if he pulls Coors and Miller Lite and refuses to show Eagles games, he’s going to lose customers. If the Eagles and Giants are playing in a big Monday night game and Slate’s Prime Time Grill won’t show the game, people will go elsewhere, likely to a bar not run by a complete tool……..
- The enigmatic Rivers Cuomo and his pals from Weezer are set to release their latest album, "Raditude," on October 27. Following up on yet another self-titled album (also dubbed “The Red Album”), Cuomo says the band is currently choosing from fifteen different songs for possible inclusion. Among that number will be songs such as "The Girl Got Hot" and "I'm Your Daddy" that the group recently debuted live. The album’s first single will be "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To." In the interim since the release of “The Red Album,” Cuomo released a solo project, 2008's "Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.” Now, he and his band of admitted misfits are back with a new project. “The sound of "Raditude" is fun, high energy rock," Cuomo explained. "Which is exemplified in a song like '(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To.' 'I'm Your Daddy,' has an up vibe with the same, heavy Weezer guitar riff but with a little electro influence. And 'The Girl Got Hot' - that's kind of a witty, party jam.” Yes, you just read a quote from a rock star that used the word exemplified. Only the Harvard-educated Cuomo and a few select artists would venture that deep into the English language at any point. I have to admit that even as a Weezer fan, one thing that concerns me is that one of the confirmed tracks for the album, “Can't Stop Partying," was co-written with Jermaine Dupri. If Chris Cornell’s regrettable, overproduced collaboration with uber-producer Timbaland taught us anything, it’s that rockers and hip-hop-backgrounded producers don’t always work well together. But history has proved that Weezer’s devoted legions of fans tend to support their albums extremely well. According to Nielsen SoundScan, 2008's "Weezer" has sold 443,000; the group's debut, 1994's "Weezer" (a.k.a. "The Blue Album") has sold 3.3 million copies, followed by 2001's "Weezer" (a.k.a. "The Green Album") at 1.6 million copies and even 1996's "Pinkerton," once considered a commercial failue, has sold an impressive 852,000 units. Early buzz for the new album is strong, but Cuomo cautions that the process of writing and recording it has been challenging. “I think making a rock record is rarely easy or smooth," he says. "It requires a lot of work and sometimes you have to write more songs that end up on the record; sometimes you have to go back and re-record a song more than once. Sometimes you have to switch studios or producers, you have to go on a bit of an exploration about what it is you're trying to make. And in those regards, I think 'Raditude' is pretty much normal.” If you’re wondering where the peculiar album titled came from, look no further than Cuomo’s good friend , Rainn Wilson from NBC’s “The Office.” Apparently Wilson and Cuomo were talking about the project and Cuomo solicited his pal’s assistance in naming it. “He has a super-rock persona," Cuomo explains. "When it came time to find a title for the Weezer album, I asked him what he thought the ultimate album title would be and he said 'Raditude.'” Come October 27, we’ll get to see if the album’s attitude can match its name……..
- How dare Anheuser-Busch have the audacity to make its beer more enjoyable for college sports fans to drink! The brewer has launched a new marketing campaign that features Bud Light beer cans decorated with local schools' team colors. Dozens of colleges, led by their idiotic and provincial administrators, have decried the campaign on the grounds that the promotions near their campuses will contribute to underage and binge drinking and give the impression that the colleges are endorsing the brew. First…no one has to encourage or promote underage and binge drinking on and around college campuses – it’s going to happen whether the beer is in cans, bottles, kegs or cups and regardless of the coloring on those containers. Second, no one is going to think that a school is endorsing these beers…but what will give them that impression are the banners, signs and other commercial partnerships between colleges and beer companies. Yes, I feel safe in saying that if you go to a college sporting event, especially a football or basketball game, you’ll see signage for a beer company and if that doesn’t imply the school’s endorsement of those beers, then I just don’t know what the meaning of endorsement is. The degree of opposition to this marketing campaign has varied from school to school, with some merely speaking out against it while others are demanding that the sales be stopped. What absolutely infuriates me about these dissenters is that you just know their supposed concerns about promoting underage drinking are a total falsehood. They are concerned about one thing and one thing only, that being their bottom line. If they believe that someone is making money by doing anything remotely connected to their institution, they want a piece. Opposing "Fan Cans" has nothing to do with any concern for underage and binge drinking, period. Besides, Anheuser-Busch maintains that the campaign is aimed only at fans who can drink legally and honestly, no one can definitively prove otherwise. These cans don’t promote underage drinking any more than any other can of beer. Besides, the deciding factor in beer purchases on college campuses isn't the appearance of that can, that much I can guarantee you. No, the focus is on how cheap the beer is, plain and simple. So as of right now, the Bud Light promotion involves 27 different color combinations and the only way any color scheme will be dropped is if the school whose colors mirror that of the can registers a formal complaint. Some schools have announced their intention to do so, showing once again their true, hypocritical colors…….
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