- Suddenly there is a bum rush to sign aging, temperamental wide receiver Terrell Owens, but it isn’t exactly the NFL’s elite looking to ink one of the league’s biggest malcontents. Nope, the basement-dwelling St. Louis Rams and the up-and-down Cincinnati Bengals are the two teams vying for Owens’ services, with sources close to the situation suggesting that Owens could sign with the Rams as soon as Monday. That can’t be encouraging news for Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer, who has been working out regularly with Owens in California and has been highly impressed, according to a team source. In fact, Palmer has been so wowed by Owens’ game that he has spoken to team officials about signing the loud-mouthed pass catcher even though the Bengals already have one big ego-sporting, reality TV-starring wide receiver in Chad Ochocinco and also signed free agent receiver Antonio Bryant earlier this offseason to bolster their receiving corps. The Rams appear much more interested in signing Owens and faced with the prospect of going to a last-place team that may have been the NFL’s worst last season or sitting out the start of the year while waiting for a better offer, Owens appears ready to accept the offer. Arrogant agent Drew Rosenhaus may not earn a ginormous commission on Owens’ salary this time around, but he did say early last wee that he was "very confident" that Owens would have a new team "within the next few weeks." For the Bengals, the lack of action on Palmer’s pleas appears to come in light of hesitance on the part of the front office to bring in another high-maintenance, temperamental player who could alter the team’s locker room chemistry and derail a team that won the AFC North last season before flaming out in spectacular fashion at home against the New York Jets in the first round of last season’s playoffs. Hope you’re ready to be the No. 2 receiver on a 3-13 team and have a rookie quarterback sailing passes 10 yards over your head this season, T.O., because I know I’m going to have fun watching it……….
- Rock on, Northampton (Mass.) Board of Health, rock on. No one hates smoking and by association, smokers, as much as I do. These menaces willingly foist toxic secondhand smoke on the rest of us while also drastically upping their own chances for lung cancer and emphysema, reducing their lung capacity, turning their faces into greenish, leathery catcher’s masks and their voices into raspy, breathy sounds of horror. Banning smoking in any and all public places is a given at this point (you should give it a try, Europe) and to their credit, most states, cities and towns have taken that step. Smokers have been relegated to second-class citizens (a few classes above where they actually belong, by the way) and that’s great. However, don’t think I’m cool with those horrific "e-cigarettes" that smokers are turning to as a way around bans on actual cigars and cigarettes. No, those things need to be banned as well and that’s why I’m applauding the Northampton Board of Health, which held a hearing on a proposal to add electronic smoking devices to their “No Smoking in Public Places” regulations. Hopefully the board didn’t give too much weight to the words of nincompoops who showed up at the meeting to fight for the rights of those who use these detestable devices and argued that electronic cigarettes help people quit smoking. These yahoos contended that there are no health issues or second-hand smoke impact from the e-cigs. "It makes a visible vapor that you can see, but it disappears," explains Spike Babaian, the President of the National Vapers Club. "It doesn't linger like smoke. It doesn't float like smoke. It doesn't make smoke when you're not using it. It doesn't make smoke ever. It makes vapor. It makes steam." Sorry, Spike, if that’s even your real name (and God help you if it is). No matter what your argument is, these devices represent smoking and keep it as a part of our culture and for that, they need to go. No traces, imitations or knock-offs of actual smoking should be allowed anywhere in this country and I defy you to provide evidence that anyone is healthier as a result of cigarettes, cigars or electronic smoking devices as opposed to using none of these things. So while the board did not make any decisions about adding e-cigarettes to their tobacco regulations at this meeting, I hold out hope that they will add e-cigarettes to the ban and continue the oh, so justified persecution of smokers (and faux smokers) in their town………
- Is it bad if authorities at a Mexican prison released and armed several inmates to attack a group of people during a birthday celebration last week, resulting in a killing spree that left 17 dead? Part of me thinks it probably is, but part of me thinks that surely these officials had a good reason for unleashing such horrible human beings on the world……right? Not if you believe top officials in the Mexican government, they didn’t. Ricardo Najera, a spokesman for Mexico's Interior Ministry, said authorities allowed a group of inmates to leave the Cereso prison in Gomez Palacio, in Mexico's Durango state, and to drive police vehicles on their killing spree as they launched a violent attack on innocent civilians at a farm in Torreon, in the neighboring state of Coahuila. "The delinquents were committing their executions as part of a debt-settling scheme against members of rivaling groups from organized crime," Najera said. "Unfortunately, in these executions, these delinquents also cowardly murdered innocent civilians." Following the attack, the inmates allegedly returned to the prison as if nothing had happened. Right, because no one is going to notice a bunch of dudes in prison uniforms barreling down the road in police vehicles, slaughtering 17 people and then taking off. Implicated in the scheme were four top Cereso Gomez Palacio prison workers -- including the prison's director. Right now, the Mexican interior ministry will only say that the four suspects had been "detained," but not whether charges had been filed. However, police have already managed to trace the weapons used in the attack and link them to other violent attacks, Najera said. In discussing the attack itself,
- It’s been quite a trip for the crew of "Plastiki" -- a ship made out of thousands of plastic bottles -- and now that the unusual watercraft is nearing the end of its journey of 8,000 nautical miles and nearly four months at sea, we should probably give some respect to the team responsible for piloting the plastic boat along its route. Expedition leader David de Rothschild and his team overcame brutal southern storms and numerous technical challenges on their eco-adventure and succeeded where others had fallen short."It feels amazing," de Rothschild said. "I think what's happened with the Plastiki has really captured the world's imagination... the impact has really surpassed my expectations." The journey will officially end Monday morning when Plastiki pulls into Sydney, ending a 125-day journey. But really, the story goes back longer than that, back to several years of planning and preparation. De Rothschild cited the 2006 United Nations report on plastic littering the world's oceans as his inspiration for the trip, leading him to assemble a vessel made of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and engineered using the most sustainable methods possible. He and his team hope their vessel and trip will serve as an inspiration for others to build upon and tackle other, non-nautical problems posed by plastic bottles and other debris littering the planet and its oceans. "I was inspired to go out and really build Plastiki to showcase waste as a resource," said de Rothschild. "And here we are nearly four years to the day just pulling in to a little harbor just north of Sydney, ready to sail in tomorrow [Monday]." The end result was a 60-foot catamaran, one that has survived massive storms, gale-force winds and adversities that have driven the crew off course and ashore for safety several times during the trip, including a stop in Mooloolaba, Queensland, on July 19. After docking in Sydney, the Plastiki will remain on display for a month as crew members hold special events aimed at raising awareness of plastic waste in the ocean. After that, de Rothschild hopes to take the boat on tour around the world, displaying it to inspire other dreamers and big thinkers like he and his team………
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