Kings of Leon v. The Man, Fidel Castro back to U.S. bashing, shrinkage in the Earth's thermosphere

- The struggle between artist and record label/management is a perpetual and difficult one. In an ideal musical world, the two sides are operating with two mutually exclusive purposes: the artist in a search to be creative, to produce great music and grow artistically, with the label concerned solely with finding as many ways as possible to squeeze profits out of the artist, creative integrity be damned. Of course, some artists alleviate this tension by simply selling out and going corporate, but thankfully there are still bands out there who hold true to their own muse and not the bottom line of management. I’m not sure that rockers Kings of Leon fall entirely into this category, but at the moment they seem to. As the band is out on the road this summer, they have been playing new, unreleased songs from their as-yet untitled and unscheduled fifth album. Teasing a song or two from a forthcoming album is one thing, but KOL has been playing significant chunks of the new album, a strategy that the label undoubtedly sees as a) risky and b) giving fans a little something free that they don’t deserve, in a sense. "If we were to go out there and play a concert and not play new music, it would feel like we had our hands tied, and I think we would be bored with the show," frontman Caleb Followill said in a recent interview, acknowledging that management would prefer the band not play the new material. "We didn't want to go back out there and give 'em the 'Only By the Night' tour, part two. It's inspiring to be able to go out there and play new songs...Not only are you testing the songs out on the crowd, but we have that, 'Oh, s***!' moment when we're looking at each other -- 'Are they gonna like this? Are they gonna sit down because it's not 'Use Somebody?'" Followill added. He went on to say that crowd reaction to the new material, which the band has gone on the record as labeling “darker” than their previous work, has been overwhelmingly positive. So far, KOL has premiered four songs slated for the new album, its first since 2008's platinum and Grammy Award-winning "Only By the Night." The new tunes have been identified with the working titles "Mary," "Immortals," "Radioactive" and "Southbound." As if those four songs hadn’t rankled the suits at the record label enough, Followill admitted that there's the possibility that -- with the band on the road until Sept. 23 in North America, plus a pair of V Festival performances Aug. 21-22 in the U.K. -- more might make their way into the set lists. "If it was up to us we'd play every one of them, the whole record, every night," he said. As a Kings of Leon fan and a fan of bands pushing themselves in new directions creatively, I am legitimately excited for the new album and love the fact that the band is sticking it to management in the process…………

- Welcome back to the world of U.S. hater-ation, Fidel Castro! Well, not that you ever truly left, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen the former Cuban dictator in a public setting to bash the United States. That hiatus ended earlier this week and on Friday, Castro appeared on the island's state-run television for the second time in less than a week, seizing upon the opportunity to rip blast U.S. foreign policy and warn against nuclear war in the Middle East. He took a seat beside Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and address a crowd of a few dozen people at Cuba's Foreign Ministry in Havana, plus those watching via the magic of television. It’s a marked change from recent years, when the ailing former dictator suddenly became camera shy. All of a sudden, this guy is more of a camera whore than LeBron James and has made five public appearances in less than a week. He popped up at a dolphin show at Havana's aquarium on Thursday as well, so the guy is on some sort of, “Hey, I’m still alive!” publicity tour, I suppose. Castro hasn’t been in power (technically) since 2006, when illness forced him (supposedly) to cede the reins of power to his younger brother Raul. Now, no one believes that Raul is anything more than a puppet while Fidel remains the brains behind the operation, but nonetheless, Fidel has laid low the past four years - until this week, when he felt compelled to remind the world that he’s still alive, ticking and just as bitter at the U.S. as ever. He stopped by Cuba's evening television newscast on Monday, sat down for an interview and repeatedly bashed U.S. foreign policy with North Korea and in the Middle East and warned of a potential nuclear war with Iran. The next day, it was on to an economics institute for another speech. To add a happy boost to his publicity tour, Fidel Castro timed it with the first release of political prisoners to Spain, setting free a group of seven dissidents who were extremely outspoken against the Castro brothers and the condition of their imprisonment during a news conference in the Spanish capital on Thursday. So even if you are as angry, irrational and despotic as ever, it’s good to have you around again, Fidel, you and your hideous military outfits capped off by that world-class beard of yours………

- So guys getting out of the swimming pool aren’t the only ones who experience shrinkage, it would seem. According to researchers at NASA, an upper layer of Earth's atmosphere experiences the phenomenon as well and that layer has shrank so much that they are at a total loss when it comes to explaining the shrinkage. Known as the thermosphere, the layer blocks harmful ultraviolet rays. Its expands and contracts regularly due to the sun's activities, but never to this extreme. The increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the resulting cooling effect at high altitudes also contributes to the contraction, but even that isn’t sufficient to explain the extraordinary contraction. The contraction, though unlikely to affect the weather, can affect the movement of satellites. "This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years," John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab stated in NASA news report. Emmert, the lead author of a paper announcing the finding in the June 19 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, seems extremely concerned about this development and its possible ramiprecussions. "We cannot explain the abnormally low densities, which are about 30 percent lower" than from previous contractions, Emmert worried. For the outer space ignorant among you, the thermosphere lies high above Earth's surface, close to where the atmosphere ends and space begins. It’s altitude is not fixed and can range from 55 to 370 miles above the ground. That’s real estate where meteors, auroras, space shuttles and the international space station tread. The layer’s importance is based largely on the fact that it interacts strongly with the sun and hence is greatly influenced by the sun's solar activity. Its collapse occurred during what's known as a "solar minimum" from 2007 to 2009, during which the sun plunged into an unprecedented low of inactivity. The positive news from all of this is, according to Emmert and his colleagues, the collapse of the thermosphere is unlikely to have a direct effect on our daily lives. "Debris that's up there stays up longer. The amount of orbital debris is a concern for space navigation. There is concern that space debris is building up," Emmert said. The change in the thermosphere could potentially affect other layers of the atmosphere, so maybe we do need to consult Al Gore on this after all. Now, I don’t know that we are to the point where Michael Moore should be called to film the requisite documentary, but at least keep him on speed dial for the time being………….

- Excuses rejected, New York Yankees. Whatever feeble story you’re selling for not being at the funeral of legendary Yankees broadcaster and public address announcer Bob Sheppard on Wednesday, I don’t accept it. Sure, the funeral came the day after the Sunday’s All-Star Game in Anaheim and players were scattered all over the country, but this one of those occasions that a) you cannot possibly be unaware of and b) have to make time for without excuse. Yet only Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who delivered a eulogy, was a noteworthy member of the franchise at the funeral. Even team captain Derek Jeter, who has insisted that a taped recording of Sheppard introducing him be played before every at-bat at Yankee Stadium for the rest of his career, blew off the funeral. "To be quite honest with you, I didn't even know his funeral was yesterday,'' Jeter said on Friday. "Having said that, I don't necessarily think you have to go to a funeral to honor someone. I think a lot of players have honored him. It's the reason why I've recorded his voice throughout the years, and I'll continue to honor him every time I go to the plate for the rest of my career. But I was not aware of it and I don't know how many of the players were aware of it.'' Normally I would be the last guy to rip the Captain, who is as classy and dignified a superstar as there is in baseball, but wrong call, D.J. That is complete, utter and total bullsh*t. Playing a recording of the guy’s voice before your at-bats? That’s cool, but how the heck do you not know when the funeral of a dear friend is? Tell me that you knew Sheppard had passed away, because it was on every sports media outlet in the world. Knowing that and having been alive in this world for more than five years, you should then put two and two together and realize that the funeral would be some time in the days following the death. If you didn’t hear when the funeral would be, then wouldn’t you call whomever you had to in order to find out when it was? The lame excuse that you don’t have to go to a person’s funeral to honor them is as flimsy reason as I’ve ever heard. It’s one thing if you are in the military and stationed in some remote outpost halfway across the world, because then you might not be able to make it back for the funeral. But Jeter and his teammates were all less than three hours away from New York by plane and thus had every opportunity to make it back for the service. Then there was the bogus story floated out there that a bus carrying Yankees players to the funeral got stuck in traffic due to a fatal accident on a Long Island highway. Those reports were deemed false, according to a team spokesman. Another source close to the team was at a loss to explain why Jeter didn’t attend the funeral and why the false reports of the team bus to the service were being circulated. "I don't know why he didn't fly back to New York to attend the funeral," the source said. "We didn't organize any bus for the players," Yankee publicist Jason Zillo added. "I don't know about any bus." Ultimately, it’s a disappointing no-show and a surprising lack of class for a player and an organization that pride themselves on being classy and professional on the field and off it…………

- Any time you can do something kind for a member of the military, you do it. Those who give up so much to serve and protect their country deserve respect and a helping hand, so the decision by a Bellevue (Tenn.) bridal shop to give military spouses and fiancées across the Mid-South free wedding dresses is very cool in my book. Glitz Bridal and Formal has opened its doors to dozens of women and owner Ann Miller is doing so because she has a special military connection. "My son's name is Tyler Miller. He is Senior Airman in the Air Force stationed in Afghanistan. This is his second deployment," Miller explained. She hopes to give away 40 wedding dresses in four days as part of the Brides Across America program, which has given away 3,000 free gowns since it started in 2007. This is Miller’s first year participating in the program and on Wednesday alone, she gave away more than $7,000 worth or about 10 dresses. Under the terms of the program, the gowns are free for any fiancée of an actively deployed military member, as well as wives of active servicemen who did not have a traditional wedding ceremony. "I had a lot of girls call and say, 'Is this a scam? Are you really doing this?' Yeah, we're really giving dresses [away]," Miller said. “Some of them [asked], 'Is there a catch to it? What do I have to do?'" The only catch, if you want to call it that, is that Miller is able to take a charitable tax deduction for each of the 40 dresses she donates. The program runs through Sunday and hopefully as many dresses as possible will be given away to women whose dreams of a fairy tale wedding will come true in part because of this kind gesture……….