Afghan jail breaks, weekend movie news and the might of the naked mole rat

- Why in the world would anyone want to escape from a place at swanky as an Afghan jail? That’s a question I can't answer, but there are 12 guys who could explain it – the 12 prisoners who escaped jail through a tunnel they dug from their cell to the outside in western Afghanistan. This dirty dozen was a collection of low-level Taliban militants, drug-dealers and other minor criminals. Farah province police chief Gen. Mohammad Faqir Askar revealed details of the escape, along with news that a 13th prisoner was arrested during his attempted escape. That prisoner spilled the beans on his comrades and told authorities that the tunnel took 10 days to dig and the plan was to slowly empty the prison overnight. At the time of the escape, there were more than 300 inmates were held in the prison, which was built to hold about 80. Now I am the first to admit that I am not the holder of a master’s in advanced mathematics, but that sounds to me like this prison was about 220 prisoners over capacity, give or take a few. Prison overcrowding has been a major problem in Afghanistan as the country’s corruption-prone government struggles to establish a justice system and prove to the nations – especially the United States – assisting it that there is hope for a better future. Escapes are not the only issue facing Afghani prisons, as violence inside detention facilities has also been a major problem. Last year, inmates in the main prison in Kabul took control of entire cellblocks before being pushed back. In June 2008, Taliban militants launched an assault on a prison in the southern city of Kandahar that freed 900 inmates. Prison overcrowding is also an issue here in the United States, but clearly a developing, war-torn nation like Afghanistan is going to have a much bigger struggle with the same problem because of its limited resources and lack of experience in handling such issues. Not to speak for our government and for Secretary of State Hank Clinton (largely because I fear that Hank might kick my ass if I do), but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that a mass prison escape isn't what Hank had in mind when he proclaimed a need for the Afghan government to weed out corruption and step its game up if it wants to continue receiving assistance from the U.S…………

- Thank God that Bud Selig is at least a little bit smarter than a group of ass-hatted Major League Baseball owners who clearly don’t understand what’s good for their sport. Sure, Selig has done some nice things for the game of baseball during his tenure, but this guy has made as many major errors as he’s had success stories. For every implementation of the wild card system, there’s a tie in the All-Star Game, a failure to institute wider use of replay in the game and an imbecilic decision to award home-field advantage for the World Series to the winner of a meaningless exhibition game like the ASG in a vain attempt to inject it with meaning. In spite of this, a group of baseball owners recently approached Selig and asked him to stay on after his contract ends in 2012. Sources close to the situation say that it was a group of five owners that approached Selig and asked if he would be willing to continue his reign of terror beyond 2012. Thankfully, Selig has the offer and will leave his post once his current contract ends in 2012. That will mark 20 years as commissioner for Selig, who took the job when Fay Vincent was forced out of the commissioner's office 1992. Selig, who is 75, told the moronic owners who asked him to stay on that he wants to leave baseball to pursue other interests while he's still able. No word on what those interests are, but I’m guessing they have nothing to do with baseball and more to do with taking long naps and going to flea markets with other old-timers in Florida. Selig owned the Milwaukee Brewers prior to taking over as commissioner, so clearly he has given the majority of his life to baseball and I for one will not be sad to see him move on……..

- Let’s all enjoy an eco-friendly story that should serve as an example to one and all of how construction projects don’t necessarily have to be mutually exclusive to protecting and nurturing the environment. The tiny port town of Edmonston, Maryland is showing the rest of us how it’s done as it breaks ground this week on one of the greenest streets in the nation. Edmonston, located in Prince George's County, is touting the road as the greenest on the East Coast. What makes it so eco-friendly? Well, the road will help clean and filter toxic storm water pollution that drains into rivers, and eventually into Chesapeake Bay. "What we're hoping to do, from top to bottom, is build a street that is completely environmentally sustainable, " said Edmonston Mayor Adam Ortiz. Ortiz went on to explain that the design for the street incorporates native tree cover to cool off the streets, wind-powered street lights that use high-efficiency LED bulbs, and pedestrian and bicycle access. However, the mayor cites the most important feature as the street’s ability to filter rainwater rather than simply having it wash off directly into local rivers’ debris and all. "[It's] not going to be flushed into our local rivers. Instead it's going to be naturally filtered. And that's very important for us to save our rivers and to help save the Chesapeake Bay here in Maryland,” Ortiz explain. Typically, storm water runoff carries toxins and pollution from parking lots, city streets, farms and agricultural lands, depending on its location. The normal setup is to have underground concrete drain systems that collect the runoff and dump it into rivers and streams, pollutants and all. "What we're going to do, instead, is divert that water into natural gardens. To the naked eye it just looks like a regular garden, but actually it's very specially engineered to absorb a lot of water and naturally filter it before it gets into the water table, and to keep it from washing all those pollutants into the river," Ortiz added. This is important for Edmonston in particular because its storm water runoff drains into the nearby Anacostia River, which feeds into the Washington Channel, then empties into the Potomac River and eventually Chesapeake Bay. Cleaning the water at the start of the process will have a positive effect all along the way. As for the system itself, here’s how it works: The includes using porous bricks in building the road and creating bioretention cells or rain gardens. Polluted runoff water is collected and sent through natural filtration systems, coming out much cleaner on the other side. The project is being funded by the Environmental Protection Agency through a $1.1 million Recovery Act grant. The state of Maryland is looking to Edmonston as a model for similar projects elsewhere in the state and officials say that they have already allocated $20 million for other green projects. "Our goal is that other towns and cities and communities will steal our ideas," Mayor Ortiz said. "We'll know we're successful when we see these technologies used in other places." Agreed and agreed. Now, let’s hope that other towns see and follow your solid example………

- Naked mole rats: They’re not just for Disney Channel cartoons like Kim Possible. Scientists like Thomas Park, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, have been studying these curious creatures and finding that the naked mole rat just might have some important lessons to teach us. For starters, naked mole rats don't get cancer, they aren’t seriously affected by encounters with acid and they age so well, some are older than the handling them. "They really are from Mars, I think," Park said. In actuality, the creatures are native to the horn of Africa. Researchers are bringing them into the lab at a rapid rate and trying to learn what makes the naked mole rat so durable and long-living. They're being used to study everything from aging to cancer to strokes. Nearly 1,500 naked mole rats are currently living at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, making it the largest colony in the U.S. At least a half-dozen other universities also have colonies to study the nearly blind, hairless rodents with their wrinkled skin, tiny legs and buck teeth. Average lab mice live about two years, so having naked mole rats and their potential to live for up to 30 years is a nice bonus. Better still, there bone quality doesn't start to diminish until they're about 24 years old. Their appearance belies all of these impressive facts, which you’ll know with one quick glance at a naked mole rat. They are small (several can fit into a palm) and it’s actually possible to see beneath their pinkish skin. Still, don’t underestimate their toughness. Whereas squirting lemon juice on an open wound would cause you or I to wince in pain, naked mole rats don't feel pain because they lack a neurotransmitter known as substance P. Because of this, they’ve become a key asset in the field of pain research. Park and fellow researcher John Larson will publish their findings in next month's journal NeuroReport. Their report will include the revelation that the brains of adult naked mole rats can withstand oxygen depravation for a half-hour or more, which could be extremely beneficial in stroke research. So the next time think of the goofy Rufus the naked mole rat of Kim Possible fame, now you’ll know that it’s not entirely fiction. Rufus and his fellow naked mole rats are much closer to superheroes than any of us could ever have imagined………

- Another weekend, another box office victory for The Twilight Saga: New Moon. You ladies out there just cannot get enough vampire lovin’ and so New Moon raked in $42.5 million over the three-day (Friday through Sunday) weekend, making it the top-grossing movie for the second straight weekend. That take brings its cumulative total to $230.7 million — the sixth highest of the year, just below Star Trek ($257.7 million). Coming in second was a superior movie to New Moon, the Sandra Bullock-led The Blind Side, with $40.1 million despite being a football-centric movie and trying to appeal to decidedly non-football fans. With a $100.3 million total so far, it’s Bullock’s second $100 million hit of the year after this summer’s The Proposal ($164 million). The third-place finisher was end-of-the-world “epic” 2012 with $18 million, proving once again that people would much rather watch a movie about their supposed fiery demise than be out living life to the fullest just in case that supposed demise comes to fruition. Finishing fourth was a true clunker, the Robin Williams-John Travolta “comedy” Old Dogs, with $16.8 million. I put the word comedy in quotes because just like the film it’s basically a rip-off/lame-tastic sequel of, Wild Hogs, this movie is as unfunny a comedy as you’ll ever find on a movie screen. However, Old Dogs has only made $24.1 million total so far and definitively hasn’t been able to draw in the same older, male demographic that drove Wild Hogs to a $39.7 million debut back in 2007. Disney’s A Christmas Carol, the animated holiday flick, was fifth with $16 million and now that Christmas is upon us, this is one film I would expect to receive a strong holiday bump to keep its earnings fairly steady. Up next was a film I saw a crapload of promotion for during a visit to New York a few weeks ago, Ninja Assassin (sixth place, $13.1 million). Meanwhile, George Clooney’s new animated project, Fantastic Mr. Fox, made $7 million . in its first wide-release weekend. Another limited-release film, The Road, grossed $1.5 million at 111 theaters. Overall, the box office raked in an all-time high of $278 million over the five-day weekend. With the holiday season now in full swing, go ahead and expect overall box office revenues to remain high for the remainder of the year, regardless of the actual quality of movies at your local multiplex…………