Bret Michaels: celebrity stoner, $35 tablet computers in India and airlines sticking it to the little guy again

- Anyone watching or attending a game at Fenway Park in Boston for the remainder of the Major League Baseball season will likely notice something missing, especially if that game is a night game. For the next two-plus months, the iconic red, white and blue Citgo sign visible over Fenway Park's famous Green Monster in left field is going dark as part of a makeover. Not many people know that Citgo is a Venezuelan company and thus has direct ties to despotic dictator Hugo Chavez, so perhaps those who miss seeing the sign lit up can add this to the latest reason to hate that dictatorial d-bag. But wherever you assign blame, the company explained that 218,000 LED lights on the 3,600-square-foot sign will be replaced with more environmentally friendly and weather-resistant lights. So on a positive note, the two-month hiatus for the sign will be for a good cause. Five years ago, the 45-year-old sign’s 9,000-plus feet of lights on the sign were replaced, but those lights that saved $18,000 a year in energy costs are now out of production. Just as you don’t want to own a car that is so old you can't find replacement parts when you need them, no one wants to own a ginormous sign illuminated by lights that aren’t replaceable. This isn’t the first time the sign has gone dark, as it also did so for four years starting in 1979 at the height of the energy crisis. The sign’s most vulnerable moment, however, came in 1982, when Citgo announced plans to dismantle it. By that time, it had become such an iconic part of the city’s landscape and so closely tied to Fenway Park and the Red Sox that the team’s fans launched a massive campaign to keep the sign and Citgo eventually relented and agreed to keep it up. By comparison, this two-month respite should be nothing and if the Red Sox manage to rally and make the playoffs, the sign should be back up and running for some October baseball………

- Wouldn’t it be something if North Korea weren’t cantankerous, irritable and itching to start World War III? It’s never going to happen, of course, but I’m just saying it would be nice. The reality is that Kim Jong Il and Co. are perpetually angry and ready to hit the launch button for their (supposedly) non-existent nuclear weapons at any time. The latest round in this battle came Friday as North Korea ratcheted up its threats against upcoming U.S.-supported military exercises after talks over the sinking of a South Korean warship. In a statement issued through its state-run news agency, the government declared that it "will legitimately counter with [its] powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces." By the way, I love the “puppet forces” blast, very condescending and arrogant, North Korea. Nothing livens my day up quite like a communist nation vowing a "physical response" to U.S.-South Korean military drills set to begin Sunday. The U.S. Defense Department was up front, stating the drills are in response to the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, allegedly by the North Koreans. The exercises are intended to send a strong message to my man K.J. Il to stop "provocative and warlike acts." The response from North Korea was swift, hostile and predictable. In a statement issued at a regional security conference Friday. In a replay of every other response it has had to any U.S. military action in its general vicinity over the years, North Korea came out breathing fire and spitting nails. Through state-run KCNA news agency, the government vowed to “legitimately counter with [its] powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces.” Gotta love showdowns in which neither side is being coy or masking its true intentions, but rather extending a giant middle finger to the other side and daring them to respond. Of course, this should add a nice dimension of reality for the 8,000 military personnel from the United States and South Korea who are scheduled to participate in the joint military exercises. Never mind that an international inquiry found North Korea culpable for the March attack on the South Korean ship that killed 46 South Korean sailors. North Korea continues to insist that it had nothing to do with the attack and the rest of the world continues to know that they are full of sh*t, so on we go………

- Having done quite a bit of flying lately, I can attest that proper and responsible handling of checked baggage is an über-important issue. Nothing ruins your day quite like a lost or misplaced bag and when you are paying a fee for each checked bag, expectations of having your bag get where it’s supposed to be and to be on time are heightened. No one understands that issue better than Danielle Covarrubias of Pierce County, Washington, which is probably why she wants American Airlines to pay $5 million because it "has breached its agreements with its passengers every time they have lost or delayed luggage and failed to refund the passengers their baggage fee." Covarrubias filed a class action complaint in federal court earlier this month asking for that hefty amount in damages. American Airlines disputes her version of events and insists that that passengers can always request a fee refund as part of a baggage claim. The story begins with a May trip Covarrubias took from Seattle, Washington, to Grand Rapids, Michigan. At the outset of her trip, she paid $25 in May to check her bag with American Airlines, but the bag was nowhere to be found when she arrived in Michigan. "During the next 24 hours [Covarrubias] called American Airlines to find out the status of her bag. Each time she was informed that they did not know where it was, whether it was lost, or if it would ever be returned," the complaint stated. "In her last conversation with American Airlines, [she] asked what the Airline could do. She was told nothing could be done." Now, if you’ve ever been in that position or know someone who has, you know what a helpless and infuriating position it is. No matter how much the contents of your lost bag area (and the contents of Covarrubias’ bag were worth an alleged $800, plus the $300 she spent on new clothes and toiletries when her bag was lost), losing possessions through no fault of your own sucks. Covarrubias then asked that her baggage fee be immediately refunded, but she was denied a refund, according to the court filing. Now this is where things get sketchy, because American doesn’t offer nonstop flights from Seattle to Grand Rapids. What that means is Covarrubias made a connection through Chicago and that’s when her trip went sideways. Her flight from Chicago to Grand Rapids was canceled, so American booked her on another airline. When she arrived in Grand Rapids and found her bag missing, she spoke with the other airline about the issue, an American spokesman said. American also claims that the bag was found and delivered to her the next day by that airline's representative. The company contends that it has no record of Covarrubias ever contacting or speaking to American about her delayed bag, a possible claim, or checked bag charges. Obviously, someone is lying her and both sides have cause to do so, but there is no happy middle ground on this one. But the reality is that even if Covarrubias’ bag was not lost, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of travelers each month who pay to check a bag and then have that bag lost by their airline. Should that happen, a refund should be automatic as soon as a lost bag claim is filed. It’s the least you can do, greedy airlines………

- Color me stunned. There is no way anyone could ever have foreseen police in Dekalb County, Ind., finding marijuana on a tour bus carrying past-his-prime Poison front man and Celebrity Apprentice winner Bret Michaels. You’re telling me that a DeKalb County Sheriff’s deputy pulled over Michaels’ two tour buses just after 11:30 p.m. Wednesday because of a lighting violation and subsequently searched both buses, finding the hippie lettuce on board along with other unidentified controlled substances? Since when do aging, has-been rockers from decades past like to burn tree and get baked? Well, other than all of them, all the time. The real surprise would have been if any rock star from the past 40 years had been pulled over, had their tour bus searched and an ample supply of the chronic wasn’t found on board. No arrests were made at the time, according to Chief Deputy Jay Oberholtzer, but charges have been forwarded to the DeKalb County Prosecutor’s Office. “Two of Bret’s tour buses were pulled over Wednesday night,” Bret Michael’s spokesperson confirmed via email. “Officers on the scene claimed there were no trailer tag lights. No arrests were made. Mr. Michaels allowed an open search of the buses and everything was handled in a professional manner.” Of course, the spokesperson had no comment on the allegation that drugs were found on the buses, but not making a comment is probably better than some vague, non-denial denial that will ultimately be shown to be a complete and total pile of B.S. In the end, let’s just say that every rose has its thorns and every aging rock star has his (or her) fondness for the ganja……..

- They’ve already cornered the market on telemarketing and customer service representatives taking calls about malfunctioning products while sitting in cramped cubicles, so why shouldn’t India introduce a product that will undoubtedly spur many of those angry calls by consumers? That product would be a prototype tablet computer that would sell for a mere 1,500 rupees, or $35, with the price possibly dropping even further as the product’s development moves forward. The flimsy device was introduced by Kapil Sibal, the country's Minister for Human Resource Development, in New Delhi as part of an effort to promote the availability of high-quality education to students across the country. The Indian government seems pretty psyched about the touch-screen device, which also comes with a solar-power option that could make it more appealing for users in rural areas with unreliable power supplies. Both Mac and Windows users have ample reason to dislike the device, as it is a Linux-based computer at first glance that rips off much of its appearance from an iPad. Despite its chintzy nature, the device reportedly offers many of the basic features one would expect for a tablet - a Web browser, multimedia player, PDF reader, Wi-Fi, video conferencing ability, USB ports and 2 GB of RAM. However, it has no hard disk and relies on a memory card for storage, always a dicey proposition. Fittingly, as it is aimed at students, students from several branches of the Indian Institute of Technology co-designed motherboards for the computer. The government hopes that the already-low prices will soon drop to $20 and possibly as low as $10. Right now, it has no name (Crap-pad? Chintzy-Pad?), but is expected to compete with MIT's famed OLPC laptop aimed at children in developing nations. The OLPC launched five years ago with a projected cost of $100, but ended up retailing for $200. Now that India has entered the battle, the OLPC has much more incentive to make good on its promise of a lower price. Still, the Indian tablet faces multiple challenges before it is officially available to the general public. "This is just a prototype," government expert Zubin Malhotra stated. "We need to find people who will be able to manufacture these devices at these price points and continue to develop them going forward." Whenever it launches, the tablet is being counted on as an essential part of a telecommunications system that has seen wireless connectivity expand rapidly across the impoverished nation. Nothing like hinging much of the future progress in that area to a $35 piece of crap computer and hoping it doesn’t let you down, eh India………