- Uh-oh. If you excitedly picked up a commemorative “Shrek” drinking glass from McDonald’s recently and have taken it home to occupy a prominent place in your kitchen, I have some bad news for you. McDonald's is recalling 12 million "Shrek" drinking glasses because the paint used contains cadmium, which can pose health risks. Whose bright idea it was to use a toxic chemical to design the glasses, I don’t know. The responsible party notwithstanding, McD’s announced the recall Friday in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Making matters worse, these weren’t giveaway items; customers purchased the 16-ounce glasses for $2 each at McDonald's locations across the country in May and June. The obvious idea was to promote the new movie "Shrek Forever After 3D," but promoting possible cadmium poisoning was also part of the project, it seems. Each glass features one of four painted designs and all designs are part of the recall. If you own one of the glasses, you are advised to keep the glasses away from children and to return them to McDonald's for a refund - unless you like the idea of inadvertently poisoning your kids, that is. So who’s to blame for the defective, dangerous glasses? That would be ARC International, a manufacturer of the products is, based in Millville, N.J. Thankfully, no injuries or illnesses have been reported as a result of the cadmium-laced glasses. The levels of cadmium in the glasses is relatively low, but long-term exposure to the metal can cause adverse health effects because the metal is a carcinogen that can cause kidney and bone damage. The glasses were above any accepted level of cadmium for consumer products, with a statement from McDonald's stating that the glassware was evaluated by an independent third-party lab that is accredited by the CPSC. Cadmium has actually been having quite a run of it lately, with the CPSC recalling children's jewelry made in China that was found to contain cadmium. Good to know that we here in the United States can keep up with China in at least some areas……….
- How intent is North Korea on launching World War III and ensuring that it is a true Armageddon? Intent enough that Kim Jong Il and Co. are allegedly helping Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, acquire components for a nuclear weapons program, including technology for uranium enrichment and long-range missiles. A Burmese defector - an army major and deputy commander of a top-secret nuclear facility - escaped the country with thousands of files detailing a secret nuclear and missile program and a story to tell. “The purpose is they really want a bomb. That is their main objective," said Sai Thein Win. "They want to have the rockets and nuclear warhead." Win also claims to have attended meetings at which the new technology was demonstrated and seen the missile installations in person. He has turned over his evidence to ABC News, which disclosed that the pictures and blueprints show missiles, components for uranium enrichment and the secret nuclear facility, located near the city of Maymo. According to Win, that’s where Myanmar intends to build a nuclear reactor and enrich uranium for weapons. Paranoia about an attack by the United States has long influenced Myanmar’s actions and policies, with that paranoia doubled by the internal threats its government feels from its own people, who staged an uprising in 2007. This revelation has already affected one American politician, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. Sen. Webb canceled a trip to Myanmar Thursday to study the evidence and the United Nations had also seen the report and considers it credible. Assuming that all of Win’s evidence is in fact legitimate, this goes even further toward proving that North Korea is absolutely, 105 percent serious about not allowing Iran to beat it to the punch as the instigator of WWIII………..
- Eminem used to be one of the few voices in the rap game that I had a lot of respect for. Other than Jay-Z, Slim Shady is probably the one rapper whose work I listen to the most. With his new album “Recovery” scheduled for release on June 21, I figured my respect for his work would only increase as the album would likely be pretty good. Looks like I was wrong, at least based on reports about the new album that surfaced this week. As with any true rapper or hip-hopper, Eminem has his share of guests spots and collaborations on his albums. That’s fine and I understand how the game works. Rappers have their crew and the hip-hop scene is all about collaborating, sharing ideas and doing guest spots. Jay-Z does it all the time and so Eminem doing the same isn’t a big issue - or at least it wouldn’t be if the artists he is collaborating with on his new album weren’t pop hacks Rihanna and Pink. That’s right, one of rap’s biggest stars is sharing mic time with a “bad girl” version of Brittney Spears whose chief claim to fame has been dyeing her lettuce pink and naming herself after that ugly ‘do and another pop hack who is best known for being beaten up by boyfriend and fellow pop singer Chris Brown. Eminem spoke about the collaborations and oddly, a guy whose life has been the subject of a feature film and who has won about every award in the music business that a rapper can win is inexplicably excited about these developments. "When we did the track I heard her on it and knew vocally she'd smash it," Eminem said of Pink in a radio interview. He added that he's "always respected" Pink as an artist. For what? Her bad, over-produced pop songs featuring the same angry lyrics over and over? She has as much songwriting skill as a room full of chimps slapping away at computer keyboards. Asked about Rihanna, who is featured on 'Love The Way You Lie', Eminem said: "The same thing with Rihanna [as Pink]. It would be more special with her on it." More special? For who? People who delight in listening to terrible music? Never should you completely trash an album before it’s released (unless it’s a country album, an album from an American Karaoke alumnus, a dance/techno album or an album by a boy band), but literally all of my excitement and anticipation for “Recovery” is now gone and I’m going to have to be won over by some truly amazing tracks on the rest of this album for it to be anything other than a total failure……….
- By now, you should know that I am not a big (no pun intended) fan of über-FAT people. Looking at them is more than a little revolting, they are a drain on our healthcare system and they tend to be unable to do a lot of fun physial activites that the rest of us enjoy (like walking around a store instead of riding in a motorized scooter or powrer chair). As such, I typically support any über-FAT people who want to make an effort to get in shape. Putting all of those factors together, I should be outraged that Sandra Ruiz of Oklahoma City, Okla. made the effort to join Mademoiselle Fitness Center in south Oklahoma City to lose some weight. Okay, so she needs to lose a lot of weight, but I’m not looking to pile on there. Five months after giving birth to her son and ballooning to 385 pounds, Ruiz went to Mademoiselle Fitness Center. "I'm tired of being fat because when I go to the store, I can't find clothes that fit me. I haven't worn jeans in a year," Ruiz said. She began working out regularly at the gym but before long, Ruiz encountered a problem: She was too FAT to use certain pieces of equipment at the gym. "The lady said I couldn't get on the machines because we are overweight," Ruiz said. "Everybody was watching seeing what was going on, and I got very sad because I'm so emotional about my weight right now." Not to be a jerk, but isn’t that kind of a good thing? Maybe if your weight bothered you more prior to beefing up to 385 pounds, you wouldn’t have gotten that FAT to begin with. If more people had let you know how unacceptable that a 385-pound person was, perhaps that message would have sunk in sooner and more emphatically. The equipment that Ruiz was told to get off of was a stationary bike and at that time, gym personnel told her she could instead use their aerobics room to walk in. Ruiz pointed out that if she wanted to just walk, she would do that outside for free. In fact, that she’s exactly what she’s now doing and because she can't fully use the gym she signed up to use, she wants out of her contract and doesn't feel she should have to pay the cancellation fee. "If ya'll didn't want big people to get on your machine, y'all would have told us, and if we would have known, we wouldn't have come here," Ruiz said. According to Mademoiselle Fitness Center management, Ruiz had been informed from the start that there were certain pieces of equipment she couldn't use for her own safety, and also because of the equipment's weight limit, a claim Ruiz disputes. To be fair to the gym, some machines (such as treadmills) do have weight limits set forth by the manufacturer, so there is some merit to that claim. According to the facility’s owner, the gym set up a workout program specifically for Ruiz that included water aerobics, but she was "like a kid in a candy store," saw all the equipment and wanted to try it. Ultimately, the gym’s owners made the decision to allow Ruiz out of her contract (making her the first person in history to ever successfully extricate themselves from a gym membership contract, I believe) and because of the unusual circumstances, to also waive the cancellation fee. Now if she can drop 100 pounds or so, maybe she can be fit enough to rejoin and use all of the equipment…………
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