Israel drops its iPad ban, Ukrainian lawmakers brawl and a great day for grenade fishing

- And another corner of the world opens its doors to the iPad. Israel, which has dropped a vindictive ban on Apple's tablet computer, has reversed field and decided that travelers can bring in the device without worrying that customs officials will seize it. Following "intensive technical scrutiny" of the device, the country's communications ministry gave the iPad the all-clear. "The scrutiny conducted by the ministry technical team vis-a-vis Apple's team, International laboratory counterparts confirmed that the device which could be operated in various standards will be operated in Israel in accordance to the local standards," the communications ministry said. For the past two weeks, anyone entering Israel at Ben Gurion Airport - Israelis and tourists alike - have had their iPads taken by customs officials because the device's Wi-Fi standard does not match Israel's standard. Why that means an iPad needs to be ripped from its owner, I don’t know. So the computer doesn’t meet your lofty Wi-Fi standards, so what? Making matters worse, Yechiel Shavi, spokesman for the ministry, said the ban only applied to iPads built for the American standard. In case you aren’t aware, Israelis have a reputation for being fairly tech-savvy and being early adopters for the latest high-tech consumer goods, including Apple's iPhone, which took off in a big way when it was released in Israel last year. The overturning of the iPad ban can largely on the efforts of Israeli computer users, who spoke out vocally against the ban and convinced government officials to do the same. Now, the ban is history and if you are one of the suckers, er, early adopters who forked over several hundred dollars for a glorified iPod touch/iPad, you can take a trip to Israel without worrying about having to part with your iPad…………

- This next story is one I am thrilled to see. With all of the industries suffering in our sagging economy, the grenade fishing business has taken some of the hardest hits. Grenade fisherman have suffered as much or more than anyone and hearing that workers at the Fair Tide Shellfish plant in New Bedford, Mass. found 126 World War II era grenades as they began to process a load of clams that had been dredged up off Long Island and shipped to New Bedford for processing on Friday, that warmed my heart. Sure, it’s fairly common for East Coast fishermen to find grenades and other old munitions in their traps, but a haul of this size is remarkable. Better still, some of the vintage grenades even had pins still in them and all were viable enough to be considered potentially dangerous. "Come to find out, based on what the Navy said, they were live. They were loaded for bear so to speak," said employee Tom Slaughter of Fair Tide Shellfish. Even more amazing, workers found entire cases of grenades still intact in their original wooden crates, covered in thick debris from decades spent in deep waters. "We thought they were like big chunks of black coal, the kind used in old ships. When one broke open, we found all the grenades inside. The cases were encompassed in black coal-like marine life," Slaughter said. And sure, the plant had to be evacuated and the bomb squad and U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal team had to come in, but a find like this could stimulate the entire grenade fishing industry up and down the eastern seaboard. You could well see harbors chock full of ships heading out to look for grenade crops and grenade processing plants spring back to life all along the coast. The explosives from this particular find were transported from the processing plant in a dump truck full of sand, taken to a nearby jetty and detonated by experts in a controlled setting. The blast was felt more than a mile away, a nice seismic reminder of the vital part that grenade fishing plays in the American economy…………

- What do WNBA players and your average roadside billboard have in common? For one, nobody pays any attention to either one of them. But secondly, both are sporting a healthy dose of advertising as their sole means of sustaining their sad existence. Whereas a highway billboard might sport a faded, peeling ad for a political candidate in a past election or for an ambulance-chasing attorney looking to make a quick buck off of your suffering, WNBA teams are increasingly turning their players into human NASCAR vehicles, adorning their uniforms with ads in the hopes of offsetting the fact that the league costs a lot of money to operate, makes nothing resembling a profit and is basically kept alive as a misguided charity project of NBA commissioner David Stern. The WNBA's Seattle Storm became the latest team to embrace the uniforms-as-billboards concept, teaming with Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp.'s search engine Bing in a partnership announced Wednesday. The two announced a multiyear partnership that will put the Bing logo front and center on Storm game jerseys beginning this season. Players like……well….um…..whoever plays for the Storm will find their jerseys with a nice, colorful addition that in no way says, “My league is irrelevant, ignored and unimportant in the eyes of American sports fans and needs ads on uniforms to keep itself afloat.” The Storm become the third WNBA team to have a primary corporate sponsor on its jerseys, joining the Phoenix Mercury (with corporate sponsor LifeLock) and the Los Angeles Sparks (with Farmers Insurance). Both Storm CEO Karen Bryant and Bing general manager Danielle Tiedt declined to provide specifics of the deal, but Bryant did confirm in an interview that it is the richest financial partnership in the team's 11-year history. While that isn’t saying much, it must be quite a proud day for Storm fans…..both of them………..

- If you’re like me, seeing a massive fire at a federal prison inspires you to ask some questions, questions like, “How the heck to inmates find the tools and fuel to start a massive fire at a federal prison?” That was exactly what I asked myself in the wake of a fire at the Atlanta Federal Prison last year and at long last, we have an answer as to what caused that fire. Rest assured, it is a freaking awesome explanation and one that makes the story that much better. It seems that prisoners trying to make illegal alcohol started the blaze, according to a report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The report shows the December 13, 2009 fire at the prison caused $200,000 in damages and all of that damage came because some intrepid inmates needed to get their buzz on and tried to make some hooch. The report states that “the residents of cell block B are known for using clothing containers to make hooch (alcohol)” and that the prisoners attempted to ignite combustible materials inside a second-floor shower cell. Now I think we all know that second-floor shower cell hooch is the best sh*t you can get, so I can see where these inmates might feel that starting a fire that has been classified as “incendiary" was a worthwhile risk to take in the pursuit of getting hammered. The fire forced the evacuation of inmates in cell block B, but no one was injured. In other words, it’s a win-win because we get a great story to laugh and marvel at, yet no one is harmed in the process. Good times………….

- Did you catch the scene in the Ukrainian parliament Tuesday? Allow me to throw out a few key words and paint a beautiful picture for you: punches thrown, eggs hurled, smoke bomb set off. Those were some of the amazing antics that took place as lawmakers in Ukraine brawled with each other, looking to cave in faces and pelt people with eggs as parliament met to ratify a treaty with Russia that extends the Russia’s navy presence in the Ukraine's Crimean peninsula until 2042. Following massive protests over the weekend by opposition groups outside parliament, it was sweet to see lawmakers truly embrace the spirit and wishes of their constituents by adopting their angry, fist-throwing tactics. Images of a smoke-filled lesiglative chamber were some of the most awesome scenes I have ever seen and even though the ruling Regions party eventually ratified the treaty, it wasn’t without a fight. Big ups to whoever was able to set off a smoke bomb inside the building, because that really took things to another level. Watching Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn duck and cover behind an umbrella as he was pelted with eggs was also a cool sight. However, it is important to thank all who heeded the call of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who said at Saturday’s rally that the ratification must be prevented at all costs. I didn’t expect the lawmakers to take it so literally, but I’m thrilled that they did. Regardless of where you come down on the issue of Ukraine hosting foreign military bases after 2017 and agreeing to work around that mandate in exchange for a 30-percent cut in the price of natural gas that Russia sells to Ukraine, I think we can all agree that anything that causes massive protests and legislative brawls with smoke bombs and thrown eggs is a good thing. Thank you to each and every great Ukrainian who took part in these festivities and even if your side wasn’t able to achieve the result it was aiming for, just know that you may soon be called upon again to riot, protest, fight, throw eggs, set off smoke bombs or look to throw hands with fellow lawmakers and we all need you to be ready when that day comes so we can see another great show…………