- It is a quandary that shoppers have faced for years: Where do you go to find good, used hand grenades? Most of us can’t afford a shiny, new grenade and so we’re forced to scour the market for used grenades, wondering all the while if the grenade is actually still live, whether the pin is missing and a million other questions that need answered before making an ordnance purchase. One lucky shopper at the Goodwill store on Peters Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem, N.C. had his prayers answered Wednesday morning when he found and attempted to purchase a grenade found he on a shelf at the store. Unfortunately, the ninnies at the store didn’t know how to react and rather than allowing the nice man to pay for his explosive device and go on with his day, they called the bomb squad in to remove the grenade and the entire store was evacuated. Way to go, unidentified clerk at the store would called in the grenade and brought the bomb squad out unnecessarily. Bomb squad members are still trying to determine if the grenade contained explosives, but the truly interesting part of this story is that a second grenade - this time a training version - was discovered Monday in some clothing donated to a Goodwill location in the town Madison. "Military ordnance of any kind should not be donated to charity stores," a news release from Winston-Salem police read. "Members of the public that locate military ordnance or need ordnance or ammunition destroyed should contact their local law enforcement agency. Any suspected military ordnance should not be handled." Okay, I have to dispute that assertion. First, if a person can't use their grenade any more and wants someone else to have it, don’t hassle them. Secondly, asking people to call the cops when they find something great like a live grenade is ridiculous. If I find a grenade on a store shelf somewhere, not only am I not calling you coppers, I’m running from the store with it and looking for a place to detonate it……….
- There have been a lot of key votes in Congress on big issues of late, but perhaps none with more long-term impact than the sweeping regulatory overhaul of the financial system passed by the Senate late Thursday night. It is widely considered the most impactful financial legislation in decades and eased through the Senate by a vote of 59-39. The bill imposes more oversight and stronger capital cushions for the largest banks and Wall Street firms, but more importantly, it also looks to put a stop to the ginormous bailouts that have become a symbol of all that is wrong with our financial system in the eyes of many Americans. The 59 votes for the measure are a good sign because it only needed 51 votes to pass. The vote came after the bill overcame a tougher hurdle, a 60-vote threshold needed to end a filibuster. "We've made great progress ... it's been hard to get to this point," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "It's been a good debate. It's been the way the Senate should operate more often than it has." With its passage in the Senate, the bill has broken through its final major obstacle and will finally reach the end of its yearlong journey sooner rather than later. All that remains in Congress is reconciling the Senate and House versions of the bill, which will take place in "conference" negotiations, where differences are ironed out. After those negotiations, both chambers will vote again and the revised bill will be sent to President Obama, who seems certain to sign it. "Wall Street reform will bring greater security to folks on Main Street," Obama said in a speech Thursday. “To families who are looking to buy their first car or their first home; to taxpayers who shouldn't have to pay for somebody else's irresponsibility; to small businesses and community banks who play by the rules; and to shareholders and investors who want to see their companies grow and thrive." Well, that’s certainly a long-winded vote in favor of the bill, which Congress first started working on last spring. The House passed its version in December, leaving the Senate to get its sh*t together and join the party. In the meantime, financial services firms have spent nearly $600 million and hired hundreds of lobbyists to head to Capitol Hill and try to kill or gut the bill. One aspect of the bill that those firms probably won't like is the establishment of a consumer financial protection regulatory agency that could write new rules to protect consumers from unfair or abusive mortgages and credit cards. The bill would also create a council of regulators that would sound an alarm before companies are in position to trigger a financial crisis. Oh, and it would also get around to addressing the confusing financial mess that are derivatives. Derivatives are blamed for bringing down financial companies such as American International Group and Lehman Brothers and make sure that they are handled with more precision and care. So who objects to these seemingly sensible measures? Republicans, of course. They have issues with many of the bill's major provisions, especially parts that establish the consumer agency and create new rules for derivatives. It has been tough to straddle the line of claiming to support more consumer protection and more regulation of derivatives while talking out both sides of your mouth and opposing a bill to address those issues, but Republicans sure are trying. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who helped craft parts of the bill, ripped it in a speech late Thursday, calling it a "massive new consumer bureaucracy.” Look for more of that angry rhetoric in the days and weeks ahead as this bill moves forward…………
- While I’m not sure whether Google’s new Google TV will "change the future of television," as the Internet giant promised when it rolled the system out Thursday, I can say that it should at least steer the television world in a new direction for the immediate future. GoogleTV will run on Google's Android operating system, allowing users search for content from their television, DVR and the web. "Here we are folks -- the multimillion-channel TV," said Google project director Rishi Chandra during a speech at the company's annual I/O conference in San Francisco, Calif. To be blunt, this is the direction the entertainment world has been heading for a long time anyhow. DVR is the preferred method for people to record their favorite shows, everyone likes accessing video content online and so Google is merely looking to bring all of that together. There are an estimated 4 billion TV viewers worldwide, so it still has the Internet beat - for now. "There's still not a better medium to reach a wider and broader audience than television," Chandra said. Bringing the two media together will give users the capability to search for content, from the name of a TV show to the name of a network, in much the same way a normal Google search works. The results will pop up on their screen and they will be able to watch either Internet or TV results on their screen. Another neat feature is voice recognition, allowing users to speak the name of a show or other content and have it appear on their screens. "Videos should be consumed on the biggest, best, brightest screen in your house," Chandra said. "That's your TV." The hardware for Google TV will be sold at Best Buy and on the market this fall, but prices were not part of Thursday’s announcement. From where I sit, consumers should expect to pay through the nose (and possibly ears), but maybe that’s just the cynic in me…………
- Nothing pumps me up like great music and when one of the best bands in the indie rock game is about to release a new album, that’s a good day for me. Montreal-based indie rockers Arcade Fire are just such a band and with their upcoming third album reportedly due out later this year, the group have put up a pair of 30-second samples of new music on their official website as of today. The band unveiled a digital 12" titled "The Suburbs" / "Month of May," with the small snippets of each revealing the sort of layered, textured musical artwork Arcade Fire has become known for. "Suburbs" kicks off with some mellow acoustic guitar strumming and odd piano chords before tearing off into an ominous organ-sounding drone that has appeared on AF songs in the past. The sample doesn’t contain any vocals, but "Month of May" does. Win Butler's vocals slide over top of a ragged, raw, bluesy guitar riff that sounds like the Black Keys crossed with TV on the Radio. "Gonna make a record in the month of May," Butler sings. The release of the two samples was teased by a handwritten postcard on the band’s official website earlier this week. The message informed fans that the 12" single was pressed and would be available in stores within the next few weeks. Amazon lists the release date of the disc as June 1, but you never know with AF. Director Spike Jonze is reportedly working on a video to accompany the single and shot footage in Austin, Texas for the video last month. Unfortunately, there is no official release date for the full, still-untitled album. As of now, the band has only one U.S. concert scheduled for this summer: an August appearance in Chicago for Lollapalooza. Here’s hoping the album comes out before then……….
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