Unusual help for the NFL, attempting greatness and a sweet coup attempt

- Crisis averted…..or not. The NFL is almost certainly headed for a work stoppage after its current season, with the owners set to lock the players out once the collective bargaining agreement expires in March. Anyone who follows, covers or has any part in the league whatsoever is basically resigned to a lockout and the reality that part or all of next season could be wiped out. Everyone except AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, that is. Trumka sees a possibility for resolving the impasse between the players and owners and he believes that his own negotiating skills are the key to unlock that door. In a letter sent to both the league and NFL Players Association, Trumka offered to sit down with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and determine the parameters for a new collective bargaining agreement. "I would like to invite you both to meet with me to discuss how an agreement might be reached," the letter reads. "I believe such a meeting would be an immediate and important step toward saving football for the 2011 season and avoiding the significant job losses that will occur if owners lock out the players and cancel games." That’s right, a guy who heads up one of the most powerful unions in the nation and fights for the right of overpaid, coffee-break-loving union members to take two-hour lunches and enjoy exorbitant salaries (just kidding, union members) thinks he can resolve a dispute between billionaire owners and millionaire players. I really should stop mocking unions because I don’t want to end up wearing concrete shoes at the bottom of the nearest lake or ground to pieces inside some heavy machinery at a local factory (again, just pimping you a little bit, union members). But it truly hilarious that my man Richie Trumka thinks he can just waltz into what will be one of the most contentions labor battles in the history of professional sports and sort everything out. Who knows, maybe this week’s fruitless bargaining session in Washington will inspire the two sides to try something different, but I doubt it. To say Trumka’s offer comes out of altruistic motives would be a lie; he too has a horse in this race. Just two weeks ago, he sent a letter to all 32 team owners, warning that a lockout could cost thousands of Americans their jobs and cities more than $140 million in revenue. He has also reiterated the NFLPA’s request to Goodell that the league provide profit or loss statements and operating expenses of NFL teams that would justify the need for a lockout. The bottom-line issues for the negotiations are the league’s desire for an 18-game regular season, the implementation of a rookie wage scale, HGH testing for players and the league’s desire to reduce the 59.6 percent of designated NFL revenues that players currently receive. Those are four huge issues to tackle and with no answer in sight, one Richard Trumka may be our last hope……..or not………


- Not enough people attempt something - anything - great in their lives. They’re either too lazy, not motivated enough, too weighed down by the necessities and vagaries of everyday life to truly aim for anything monumental. Suffice it to say, Karl Meltzer is not one of these people. Meltzer, a man renowned for attempting amazing and insane feats of endurance, is currently churning away on a project that commands respect and admiration. How does a man who ran the entire Appalachian Trail in 54 days in 2008 top that feat? By running 2,000 miles across what was the Pony Express route, that’s how. Meltzer is tackling a trail that crosses the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains from Sacramento, California, to St. Joseph, Missouri. For the history clueless out there, the Pony Express was the primary mail service for the country in the 1860s before the big dreamers and big thinkers of the day invented the telegraph. He began his trek on Sept. 15 and in the two-plus weeks since, has run an amazing 782 miles. That leaves more than 1,000 more miles to go, but so far Meltzer is going strong and he has the luxury of being able to sleep in an RV each night. Asked about the motivation for his run, he said exactly what you would expect a man attempting a 2,000-mile run to say. "I wanted to do something that was historic, above and beyond what anyone else has done," he said. "And you've got so much time out there. When I'm by myself, I'm constantly taking it all in, being reminded of how cool it is to do this for a living." He has a sponsor for the race - energy drink manufacturer Red Bull - and a paid crew of four people attending to his needs, making sure he consumes plenty of calories for breakfast and gets copious amounts of carbs and sugar throughout the day. His pace is a solid 7 mph clip, which won't win you any road races but is still moving well. The pace allows him to cover approximately 50 miles each day and at the end of each day, a doctor checks his vitals. Meltzer expects to complete his adventure in late October and in between now and then, you can follow his progress at www.karlmeltzer.com. I’d advise you do that because you just might be inspired to attempt something great yourself………


- Pretty much nothing fires me up like a good coup attempt. The little guy marshaling all his resources and trying to overthrow The Man is as good as it gets for an anti-establishment enthusiast like me. Bearing that in mind, I think you can imagine how I feel about the current scene in Ecuador, where a state of emergency has been declared after President Rafael Correa accused the opposition and security forces of a coup attempt. Correa made his outrageous claim at the end of a long day in which he was forced to flee a protest in the capital, Quito, after tear gas was fired. Also, troops have seized control of the main airport, forcing it to close. Cities and towns around the country have been gripped by unrest and things have become so tenuous that Peru closed its border with Ecuador. Why are so many angry protestors out in the streets? Well, they’re a tad cranky about a new law passed on Wednesday that ends bonuses and other benefits for public servants. Ripping people’s bonuses is a reason to go and clearly, Ecuadorians are looking for a fight. When members of the armed forces and police are included in an offended group, your problems increase exponentially. They can then set up road blocks across the country and even engage in protest activities they are normally looking to stop, things like setting tires on fire in the streets of Quito, Guayaquil and other cities, occupying the National Assembly building and threatening to topple the current regime. Correa gave a daring speech to the angry troops from Quito's main barracks, saying: "If you want to kill the president, here he is. Kill him, if you want to. Kill him if you are brave enough. If you want to seize the barracks, if you want to leave citizens undefended, if you want to betray the mission of the police force, go ahead. But this government will do what has to be done. This president will not take a step back." His speech was great……right up to the point where he was forced to flee the barracks wearing a gas mask shortly afterwards when tear gas was fired by the protesters. He was later treated for the effects of the gas at a police hospital, where he detailed his version of the attack. "They threw tear gas at us. One exploded near my face. It stunned me and my wife for a few seconds, probably minutes," he said. "I had to put on a gas mask and some cowards took it off me so I would suffocate. I mean they shot at the president - it's incredible - our security forces, our national police. It is a coup attempt led by the opposition and certain sections of the armed forces and the police.” My man, that is what you would call the start of a revolution. Lobbing tear gas at the president is how you take a big swing at the establishment. Taking control of the runway at Quito's Mariscal Sucre International Airport and causing flights to be grounded is another way. Some citizens are wondering if they should withdraw their money from the country's banks amid reports of looting, further ratcheting up the tension. Peruvian President Alan Garcia saw the melee and ordered his nation's border with Ecuador closed until Correa's "democratic authority" was re-established. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen any time soon………


- Is Big Brother just not invasive and voyeuristic enough for your tastes? Do you want to infringe on the privacy of total strangers even further and get into their personal space in a truly disturbing way? If so, the tools who run the CW have just the show for you. Their new project, The Frame, will jam pit seven or eight teams of two players — couples, siblings, etc. — against one another by forcing them to live in a single room as small as 10-feet-by-10-feet, with a camera recording everything they do (outside of possibly using the restroom). They will also compete in various challenges and viewers will vote as to who should get booted off the show. But wait, there’s more. If you just can’t get enough of the contestants during the two weekly broadcasts, you’ll also be able to watch a continuous live stream available on the Internet. Now, one could fairly point out that for someone who routinely slams the CW for churning out a nonstop line of cookie-cutter shows about rich, privileged, beautiful people living in either New York or southern California and attending fancy parties at one another’s multimillion dollar homes or penthouses, this show is at least a departure from that genre. That’s a fair point…..until you consider how moronic this new concept is. Look, I understand that we live in a voyeuristic society wherein privacy is an increasingly scarce commodity, but I just don’t need to be in such close quarters with random people whose sole goal in life is to become famous without doing or being anything to actually justify that fame. Jamming the Big Brother concept into a prison cell-sized box and trying to turn a concept that is currently airing (and apparently succeeding somehow) in Spain into the latest reality show travesty to make the trip across the Atlantic is a terrible idea and thus an idea you know could only come from the CW………..


- This has been a great week for cybercrime that sounds like it was ripped right from an old 24 script. First, an advanced virus targeting mechanical components at nuclear power plants is revealed to be circumnavigating the globe and potentially targeting a plant in Iran, of all places. Now comes word that federal and state officials have broken up an international cybercrime ring run by alleged hackers who used phony e-mails to obtain personal passwords and drain more than $3 million from U.S. bank accounts. The ring includes 37 individuals charged with using a malicious computer program called Zeus Trojan to hack into the bank accounts of U.S. businesses and municipal entities. The U.S. Attorney's Office announced the indictments along with a related case in which Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance charged 36 individuals for allegedly stealing $860,000 from dozens of individuals and corporations, including JPMorgan Chase. Thursday was a big day in the first case, as law enforcement officials arrested 10 of the defendants Thursday after 10 had already been taken into custody. I’ll do the math for you on this…..10 defendants already in custody, 10 more arrested Thursday……which means there are 17 suspects still being sought in the United States and abroad. "This advanced cybercrime ring is a disturbing example of organized crime in the 21st Century -- high tech and widespread," Vance said in a statement. His words are backed by complaints unsealed in Manhattan federal court that detail how defendants used the Zeus Trojan program to covertly obtain personal information and then hack into victims' bank accounts. From there, the thieves allegedly made unauthorized transfers of "thousands of dollars" to the bank accounts belonging to co-conspirators. As with so many Internet scams, this one began with malware that was typically sent as an "apparently-benign e-mail" that embedded itself in the victims' computers once it was opened. In other words, if you weren’t a moron, you avoided this scam. If you weren’t, then you opened the door to recorded keystrokes and allowing hackers to steal your private account information, passwords and other "vital security codes." The operation was based in Eastern Europe and also used one of my favorite groups in any criminal enterprise, mules. The "money mules" transported the stolen money overseas using student visas or fake passports, according to the federal complaint. "The Zeus Trojan allegedly allowed the hackers, from thousands of miles away, to get their hands on other peoples' money," said FBI Assistant Director Janice Fedarcyk. "But their scheme didn't eliminate risk. Like the money mules, many, if not all, will end up behind bars." Ultimately, Fedarcyk is correct and she and her colleagues can be very proud that at the end of a year-long investigation conducted by several state and federal agencies, they have gotten the job done and were able to bring charges including conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to possess false identification documents, among others, against those involved. Somewhere, the writers of the 24 movie should be taking notes………

Google censors you, Ted Leonsis welcomed to the NBA and conjuring memories of the good ol' days under Joe Stalin

- Umm, did someone forget to tell new Washington Wizards majority owner Ted Leonsis that this isn’t the NHL? Leonsis, who also owns the NHL’s Washington Capitals, needs to realize that he’s now an NBA owner as well and things he could do when he only owned a team in the irrelevant, oft-ignored world of professional hockey won't fly with NBA commissioner David Stern and his crew. Take, for example, Leonsis’ comments to local business leaders Wednesday that he expects the NBA soon will have a hard salary cap similar to the NHL's model. While speaking to a group of Northern Virginia business leaders before the Wizards' daily training camp session, Leonsis attempted to explain where he sees the NBA’s salary structure heading as the league teeters on the verge of a lockout after the coming season. "In a salary-cap era -- and soon a hard-salary cap in the NBA like it is in the NHL -- if everyone can pay the same amount to the same amount of players, it's the small nuanced differences that matter," he said, adding that the bigger a team’s fan base, the more money it has to spend and thus the better its chance to sign and retain good players. Somewhere along the way in making those comments, he seemed to realize that he was crossing a line or two and when asked after the speech to clarify his remarks, Leonsis backpedaled, saying he was not authorized to speak about the ongoing NBA labor negotiations. "It's working," he said of the NHL’s system. "The teams are very, very competitive. There is no way that big markets teams can outspend small market teams. So when the season starts everyone thinks their team can compete for the Stanley Cup." Unfortunately for Leonsis, Stern heard his comments, contradicted them by insisting that rumors of a hard cap are not necessarily true and then fined Leonsis $100,000 for "unauthorized public comments regarding the league's collective bargaining negotiations." Stern then laid out Leonsis verbally, calling him out for his misstep. "We're negotiating and that was one of our negotiating points," Stern fumed, "but collective bargaining is a negotiating process, and that was not something that Ted was authorized to say and he will be dealt with for that lapse in judgment. In other words, welcome to the NBA, b’otch………


- So now that Google Instant has debuted, providing instant, live-time updating search results that pop up without regard to sorting in terms of categories like images, videos, news, etc., there are obvious concerns. For example, what happens if a person types in a few letters that could produce offensive search results, but only until they complete the word or phrase they are typing? Is a child exposed to something he or she should not see because of Google’s newfangled search setup? The answer to that question is a definitive “no,” because Google has also set up a list of words that are restricted by Google Instant. Simply put, there are some terms the web giant's new instant search feature won't work with. The company wants to ensure that no one sees pornographic or violent results they might fight disturbing unless they really mean to search for them. Asked about the feature, Google's Johanna Wright said the restrictions are in place to protect children. But omitting certain results has also caused problems because some users may not be aware of what’s going on and take offense when terms like "bisexual" and "lesbian," which are among the restricted words, don’t produce instant search results. If you type any of the banned words, the instant search will immediately stop delivering new results. You have to hit enter to confirm that you indeed do want to search for them. The entire system is based on data collected over the years about previous users' searches, which then uses an algorithm to predict what a user will type next. A company spokesperson responded thusly when asked about the sticky situation: “There are a number of reasons you may not be seeing search queries for a particular topic. Among other things, we apply a narrow set of removal policies for pornography, violence, and hate speech. It's important to note that removing queries from Autocomplete is a hard problem, and not as simple as blacklisting particular terms and phrases. In search, we get more than one billion searches each day. Because of this, we take an algorithmic approach to removals, and just like our search algorithms, these are imperfect. We will continue to work to improve our approach to removals in Autocomplete, and are listening carefully to feedback from our users. Our algorithms look not only at specific words, but compound queries based on those words, and across all languages. This system is neither perfect nor instantaneous, and we will continue to work to make it better." In other words, welcome to Google, censorship………


- Am I the only one who doesn’t see a problem with having a Halloween festival for children located right next to a strip club? Apparently so, at least when it comes to the south Kansas City neighborhood where many locals are outraged that a children's pumpkin patch would set up right next to an adult nightclub. These conservi-nazis argue that going to a pumpkin patch next to a building where skanks take off their clothes for money is dangerous to kids and as such, they want the pumpkin patch with games and rides for kids to be shut down. That doesn’t sit well with owner Michelle Brown, who says her operation is all about family fun. "I want children. We love kids and a pumpkin patch is all about having kids around," Brown said. Unfortunately, some residents don’t feel the same way and worry that locating Funtown right next door to the adult nightclub "Pure" could spell disaster. "You don't have adult entertainment and put a children's play area, for one month or five weeks out of the year, and it be okay," said neighbor Wanda Buehr. Right, because I’m sure the strippers will be wandering through the pumpkin patch on their way to work and they’ll be asking kids to shove $1 bills into their G-strings as they go. It’s worth noting that Brown could be a bit biased, as she’s a member of the family that owns the bar and the pumpkin patch land. Still, there is a nine-foot-tall chain link fence and a trailer that block part of the view of the club from the pumpkin patch and even if those obstacles weren’t there, it would seem far-fetched to suggest that kids who show up to pick out a pumpkin would have even the faintest concept of what went on next door. "Nobody even knows that's really, truly a strip bar," said Brown. "They're completely safe. It has nothing to do with Pure. This is its own entity. I had not one person concerned or worried about this weekend.” Some of the more ignorant neighbors in the area mistakenly believe that the law would prevent children’s attraction place from setting up next to a strip club, but the law was actually written to keep adult businesses from locating within one thousand feet of schools and day cares. When the adult-oriented business is there first, it’s a different story. Simply put, there is nothing illegal about the setup and anyone who has a beef with it will simply have to take their children or grandchildren to a different pumpkin patch………….


- Has the question of what to buy the ridiculously wealthy person in your life for Christmas already been weighing on your mind? Might I suggest purchasing one of the five of the exclusive new $1 million advent calendar made by German car manufacturers, Porsche? This gem contains 24 bedazzled windows -- representing each December day before Christmas -- that hide 24 epic gifts for the upper-tax-bracker friend in your life. The gifts include: a pair of 18 carat gold sunglasses, aluminum fountain pens, a lambskin jacket, a limited edition chronograph watch, a customizable designer kitchen and oh yeah, a luxury eight-meter yacht. Should you score one of these calendars - measuring more than six feet tall and made of brushed aluminum - you will be the only person on your continent with one, as Porsche has decreed that only one can be sold on any continent in which they do business (sorry Antarctica). "This is the first time we've ever offered such an item," said Dr. Juergen Gessler, CEO of the Porsche Design Group. "We think it will make for a very precious Christmas." The yacht is the standout gift for sure, and rest assured that the "Royal Falcon Fire 28" or "RFF28" was specifically designed by Porsche for the calendar, so you know it will be good. The craft is powered by a 525 horsepower engine, making it more powerful than many of the company's über-popular cars. “The motor yacht showcases the timeless, purist and functional design which characterizes all of our products," Gessler beamed. However, the yacht does pose one problem, as it won't actually fit inside the calendar's aluminum tower. Instead, your disappointed gift recipient will find a mounted back-lit photographs. But the proud owner of the yacht will be able to have it dropped off at the port of his or her choice, courtesy of Porsche. Thus far, only one “serious” buyer has stepped up to make an offer on a calendar, but something tells me that even the world’s brutal economic climate won't be enough to prevent the wealthy and opulent from reveling in excess once again……….


- So who’s ready for a revival of the happy go lucky, fun-loving days of Joseph Stalin? No, I’m no teasing you about reviving the regime of one of the most vile and horrible despots in world history, at least not if you believe long-time Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Just one day before being forced out as maor, Luzkhov penned a letter in a Russian magazine accusing President Dmitry Medvedev of leading Russia back into Stalinism. "Fear to express one's opinion in our country has existed since 1937," Luzhkov wrote, referring to the apex of Stalinist repression. "If the country's leadership is supporting those fears with its own remarks... then it is easy to come to a situation where we have only one leader whose words are carved in stone and who should be followed strictly and unquestionably. How does that correlate with your appeal to 'develop democracy?'" His letter was published in The New Times and so far, Medvedev hasn’t even bothered to acknowledge its existence. Cynics might argue that Luzkhov was just bitter over being removed from office on Tuesday, tagged with claims by Medvedev that he has lost confidence in the mayor’s ability to run the city. Somehow, Luzhkov had managed to run the massive metropolis since 1992 and has just now become incompetent, fit to be replaced by his first deputy, Vladimir Resin, who was appointed acting mayor. Medvedev pointed to the fact that there are more than 20 corruption investigations underway into Moscow officials, but said they are not connected to the firing of the mayor. Uh-huh, sure they weren’t. According the Luzhkov’s letter, he was originally asked to resign voluntarily on September 17. He was then given a day, then a week to consider it and he wrote that the week "allowed me to formulate a number of questions which are of concern not just to me.” Luzhkov also threw out the radical concept of resuming direct elections for Moscow mayor, abolished when current prime minister Vladimir Putin was president. After that, the letter torches Medvedev for saying at a recent forum on democracy that those who disagree with him can join the opposition. "This reminds me of another quote which went down in history: 'Those who are not with us, are against us,'" Luzhkov wrote, paraphrasing Russia's Communist revolution founder Vladimir Lenin. Another accusation in the letter is that Medvedev staged a smear campaign against Luzhkov to drive him from office. Medvedev has in turn alleged corruption, ineffective leadership and failure to solve some of the city’s most basic problems, like massive traffic jams. All in all, a thoroughly hate-filled and bitter dispute that makes one thankful not to live in Russia……so we can watch with amusement from afar………..

Tiger taunted, Iran's flying ship of death and Riot Watch! on the docks in Jersey

- Wow, the old Tiger Woods would not have needed a 21-year-old, up-and-coming golfer who has never won anything of note to make some arrogant remarks about the state of the No. 1 ranked player in the world’s game in order to get fired up for the Ryder Cup. But this is a new day and a new Tiger, down a few million in divorce and alimony payments, down one hot Swedish wife and nowhere near the player he once was. The last of those facts appears to have emboldened European Ryder Cup team member Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland. As the Ryder Cup approaches (it will take place this weekend in Newport, Wales at the Celtic Manor course), McIlroy has been outspoken in recent weeks about getting the opportunity to play in the Ryder Cup against Woods. "I would love to face him," McIlroy said. "Unless his game rapidly improves in the next month or so, I think anyone in the European team would fancy his chances against him." Woods didn’t seem happy when asked about McIlroy’s comments, saying only, "Me, too." Asked if he wished to elaborate, Woods said, "No." Well, then. To be fair, if the old Tiger were alive, he would have marched into captain Corey Pavin’s office, demanded to be matched against McIlroy in every possible foursome or singles match and proceeded to stomp a mudhole in the cocky Irishman and walk it dry. After all, McIlroy won the Quail Hollow Championship in May for his first PGA Tour victory, so he’s not exactly an accomplished player on the PGA Tour. But Tiger Woods in 2010 is just another decent golfer with a jacked-up swing, confidence problems and a screwed-up personal life. He might still carry grudges like no other and he might be seething about McIlroy’s hubris, but the question of whether he can actually do anything about it……not so sure. McIlroy made his remarks one week after Woods hacked it up at the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, posting his worst 72-hole tournament as a pro and finishing third from last. “So he wasn't playing too well at that time," McIlroy said. "He's obviously getting his game together, and he's working with Sean Foley and he's making a few swing changes. I said this week and last week, I don't mind who. I just want to win points against the team." Now, my pessimism about Woods’ ability to make McIlroy eat his words if and when they match up at the Ryder Cup doesn’t mean that I’m not rooting for the rumors that Woods approached McIlroy at the recent BMW Championship near Chicago to basically say, "Be careful what you wish for," to be true. I sincerely hope that they are 100 percent accurate, but the reality is that even in his prime, Woods was far from a dominating Ryder Cup player. His overall record of 10-13-2 is obviously mediocre, so how much worse will he be now that he’s a mere mortal struggling to break par like everyone else? But maybe the impossible will happen and the old Tiger will come to play this weekend, if only for a few days…………

- What are the odds? TLC introduces a new show called Sister Wives and after just one episode, police in Lehi, Utah, are knocking down the door of the show’s protagonist and launching an investigation for a possible charge of felony bigamy. Lehi police said Monday that salesman Kody Brown and his four wives had actually been on their radar before the show premiered Sunday, but having a nationally televised display of the possible bigamy probably spurred them on a bit. "At the conclusion of the investigation, the evidence will be forwarded to the Utah County Attorney's Office for review and possible prosecution," says Lt. Darren Paul. Police. Paul also acknowledged that the buzz over the show's debut propelled the case forward. May I say, as a quick aside, that TLC and the idiots involved in this train wreck of a show aren’t doing any favors in dispelling all of the stereotypes and beliefs that Utah is just a bunch of Mormon polygamists running around marrying multiple spouses and having families large enough to comprise a small army. Those stereotypes are grossly exaggerated, but many Americans simply aren’t smart or sophisticated enough to realize that one polygamist family in Utah does not an entire state of polygamists make. And just so you know, bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah even though it is rarely investigated. The show centers on Brown and his wives Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn, who have 13 children and three stepchildren as a group. They’re extremely committed to their bigamy and say that if need be, they will follow in the footsteps of David Koresh, those kooks in Heaven’s Gate and all of the other groups of whack-a-doos who have separated themselves from society and formed a cult of their own in order to live by their twisted beliefs and world views. "If we raise productive, contributing members of society who are moral and ethical, that's our final goal, whatever their path is," declared Janelle, who has six children with Kody. I think the state of Utah might have a little something to say about that, J…………

- OH NO! The Iranians have done it! First, they fire up a nuclear reactor under the pretense of creating a new energy source for their nation and next thing you know, they’re launching flying boats. Don’t believe me? Just ask the Iranian news agencies reporting that despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Co. unveiled three squadrons of new flying boats on Tuesday. The Bavar 2 (not Babar the cute, cuddly cartoon elephant that kids love) comes equipped with a machine gun and carries surveillance cameras, so it’s actually something of a flying death machine/spy craft. "Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the few countries which managed to design, build and use flying boats in a short time," said Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, who was there to oversee delivery of the aircraft at the Bandar Abbas naval facility on the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz. The unveiling coincided with the celebration of Iran’s Week of Sacred Defense, which honors the country’s bitter, bloody and successful eight-year-long resistance to the 1980 Iraqi invasion. The boats bear a striking resemblance to a craft Iran used during Persian Gulf war games in April 2006 and footage from those games includes a video of a flying boat taking off. At the time, pundits poked fun at the flying boat and mocked it as something that looked like an oversized model boat anyone could buy from a magazine ad or their local toy and hobby store. But who’s laughing now, caustic pundits? Iran and its flying ships of death could soon be hovering over your neighborhoods and you may not think it’s so funny then………

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! We haven’t had enough good, solid American protests and riots of late and I don’t want to be a guy who forgets where he’s from and ignores American social dissidence when it occurs. So it’s time to salute the brave and bold workers also blocked the entrances at cargo ports in Staten Island, Brooklyn and Bayonne and left freighters loaded with cargo sitting idle on silent docks as shipping into and out of New York harbor came to a halt Tuesday. Thousands of dockworkers, members of the International Longshoremen's Association, defiantly walked off the job in order to show solidarity with union members from Camden, New Jersey. Workers there are angry because of rumors that the Del Monte fruit company plans to unload its ships at a cheaper port despite millions of dollars in union concessions. To save their jobs, the Camden union members walked off the job and have now been joined by their union brethren in New York harbor, leaving truckers with nowhere to drop their cargo, circling the harbor and fuming all the while. The shipping association that runs the harbor’s operations made no bones about its feelings on the strike, saying in an official statement that, "We feel strongly that these actions by the ILA, in refusing to cross a non-bona-fide line, are a violation of the no-strike clause of our current collective bargaining agreement.” Whatever you say, shipping association. Workers like Kevin O'Hara, one of the dockworkers who stand to lose their jobs in the Del Monte dispute, and longshore worker Maryellen Reilly have to stand up for their livelihood and back one another up. Here’s hoping they and their fellow union members defy an order by a district court judge agreed that the striking workers to return to their jobs. So what if the work stoppage left 12 ships waiting to be unloaded in the ports of New York and New Jersey? The working man and working woman need to make their voice heard and sometimes life has to grind to a halt in order for that to happen……..

- Have you been told that your mouthwash can take inches off your waistline, get you in the best shape of your life, cure the common cold, add six inches to your height and make you infinitely more attractive to the opposite sex? If so, the Food and Drug Administration has a message for you. On Tuesday, the FDA warned Johnson & Johnson, CVS and Walgreen to stop making "unproven" claims about their mouthwash products. Now, the actual claims to which the agency was referring centered on these mouthwashes being effective in removing plaque or preventing gum disease, but there could well be a mouthwash manufacturer out there making the outrageous claims I laid out as well. The FDA fired off a terse letter to each company, specifically targeting Johnson & Johnson's "Listerine Total Care Anticavity Mouthwash", CVS's "CVS Complete Care Anticavity Mouthwash" and Walgreen's "Walgreen Mouth Rinse Full Action." The letter spelled out exactly what concerns the agency has with the claims being made about the mouthwashes and how those claims might mislead consumers. "These mouth rinse products contain the active ingredient sodium fluoride. The FDA has determined that sodium fluoride is effective in preventing cavities but has not found this ingredient to be effective in removing plaque or preventing gum disease," the agency said in a statement. "It is important for the FDA to take appropriate enforcement action when companies make false or unproven product claims to ensure that consumers are not misinformed or misled," added Deborah Author, director of the Office of Compliance with the FDA. Federal law prohibits companies from claiming their product successfully treats a disease unless the FDA has reviewed and approved those claims. All three companies now have 15 days to take "appropriate action" to fix the violations or else the FDA could begin seizing product and/or imposing other civil or criminal penalties. All three companies acknowledged receiving the letter from the FDA but declined further comment. For Johnson & Johnson, it’s just another fire burning in their kitchen that needs to be put out. Already preparing for a hearing Thursday before Congress related to a string of recalls of its non-prescription drugs such as Tylenol, Benadryl and Motrin, the company now has the government on its ass for something else. The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has been investigating the case since May, when it held the first hearing on the matter. During that delightful (for Johnson & Johnson executives, anyhow) powwow, lawmakers revealed that McNeil (Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical arm) attempted to conduct a secret recall of more than 88,000 Motrin tablets in June 2009 for a possible defect in the drugs. Johnson & Johnson CEO William Weldon, who did not testify at the May hearing, might want to consider showing up this time around…………

One coach drops trou to inspire his team, asking for a beatdown and irony for Segway's owner

- It’s hard to find good role models for kids nowadays. That makes this next story all the more curious. When a man like Boys and Girls High School (N.Y.) volunteer assistant football coach William Miller is watching over and leading your children, I can’t see where parents or administrators need to have a single concern. Who, when the going gets tough, doesn’t want their assistant football coach dropping trou and mooning the crowd and the referees? I know that’s the kind of role model I want in my life. Yet somehow Miller has been fired after exposing his backside to opposing fans following an altercation with school safety officers and referees during a game Saturday? I don’t get it and I’m not sure how in good conscience New York City Department of Education spokeswoman Margie Feinberg can callously announce Miller’s termination by Boys and Girls principal Bernard Gassaway after the incident. "He's a volunteer, he's not a DOE [Department of Education] employee," Feinberg said. "So the principal can ban him from being an assistant coach." If the principle is a moron, he certainly can. Look, I realize that coaches are important figures in the lives of the players they coach. That being said, what lesson do you want your kids learning? To just roll over and accept it when an official screws them over? Miller was pissed about a controversial call late in the fourth quarter of Boys and Girls' 16-6 loss to Campus Magnet in a Public Schools Athletic League game in Queens. Not only has the school overreacted, but so has the league. PSAL commissioner Alan Arbuse, who was at the game, announced Sunday afternoon "an investigation is under way." Boys and Girls head coach Barry O’Connor could also face discipline after he and assistant coach Clive Harding engaged in a shoving match with school safety officers after officials ejected both coaches from the game. But neither of them showed the competitive fire that Miller unleashed when he approached Campus Magnet fans behind a fence on the side of the field, dropped his pants and mooned them. The entire mess stemmed from Campus Magnet’s two-point conversion attempt after scoring a touchdown to take a 14-6 lead in the fourth quarter. On the try, Campus Magnet running back Raeshawn Lewis was apparently stripped of the ball as he crossed the goal line but officials decided that he had crossed the goal line with possession of the ball and awarded Campus Magnet two points. That was huge because it meant that Boys and Girls would need to score twice to win or even tie the game. The conversion had barely been ruled good when the Boys and Girls coaches went ape sh*t. They began screaming profanities at the officials and within minutes, five school safety officers rushed the field and pulled out their handcuffs. The game officials eventually ejected O'Connor and Harding and called the game, awarding Campus Magnet the victory with 3:49 remaining. When Campus Magnet fans heckled the ejected coaches, Miller responded with his bare-butted salute. Once again, so much for teaching kids what a competitive spirit truly is…………

- There are just certain things in life that you don’t do and if you decide to do them, you’re basically asking for an ass kicking. Spitting in a person’s face is one such thing, throwing a drink at someone is another and showing up anywhere - and I do mean anywhere - dressed as Elmo is another. So zero sympathy points for the tool who walked into the Guitar Center at the Winter Park Village, Fla. dressed as Elmo on Saturday afternoon. This idiot strolled into the Guitar Center at about 3 p.m. Saturday while taking a break from an appearance at a children's event at the Winter Park Village. He scarcely made it through the door when a man walked in, took one look at Elmo and went straight after the furry Sesame Street character. The two men brawled, punches were thrown and the attacker actually broke several of his fingers in the process. Elmo was actually able to fight off his attacker despite not having opposable thumbs and the assailant was apprehended and taken to Florida Hospital Orlando, where he was treated for the broken fingers and temporarily detained for a mental health evaluation. Police say no children saw the fight, but hopefully anyone who dares to dress up in a furry, oversized mascot costume will see this story and take heed. If you’re working as Elmo (or any other furry mascot-like creature) at a children’s event and you want to take a break, then you change out of that ridiculous outfit, into normal clothes, before you go anywhere else. Because if you don’t, some brave civilian is going to spot you and issue a five-fingered reminder of why people hate mascots and that’s something none of us needed reminded about……….

- Segway……irony lives here. There’s just no other conclusion to draw when the owner of a company that produces to stupid-looking, made-for-lazy-bums, two-wheeled motorized vehicles falls off a cliff and dies while riding one of his company’s vehicles. James Heselden is the owner in question and he has died, apparently in an accident involving one of his upright two-wheeled vehicles, after falling into the River Wharfe in northern England some time late Saturday or early Sunday. Heselden’s body was pulled from the river Sunday afternoon along with a Segway-type vehicle. Police say the incident is not being treated as suspicious and Heselden's family said in a statement that "there is absolutely nothing to suggest it was anything other than a tragic accident.” The statement continued, "Our family has been left devastated by the sudden and tragic loss of a much-loved father and husband. The exact circumstances of the accident are still being clarified and will, of course, be the subject of an inquest." Heselden was actually an extremely successful businessman beyond Segway, serving as chairman of Hesco Bastion, a company that manufactures protective walls used by military troops. During his life, he was extremely philanthropic, having donated 10 million British pounds (nearly $16 million) to a local foundation earlier this month, raising his lifetime charitable giving to 23 million pounds (over $36 million). Unfortunately, he seems to have died making a mistake with one of the very products he should have known best………

- It’s amazing how some recording artists can go into the studio with crappy, inane lyrics that they (or typically some professional songwriter working for them) have taken weeks, months or years to write and belt out horrible vocals that have to be auto-tuned in order to sound even mildly passable and other artists can go into the studio and ad-lib all of the lyrics on Caleb Followill has admitted in an interview for a UK music magazine that all the lyrics on the band's new album were ad-libbed. According to Followill, he hammered out the improvised lyrics during the recording process and figured he would change them later if need be. However, when he attempted to make the revisions later on in the recording process, he was unanimously vetoed by the other members of the band. "I didn't write lyrics," he admitted. "I went in and ad-libbed, I free-floated everything. The closer it got to the end, I felt like, 'Man, you didn't do your job.' I kept thinking, 'When I go back and redo the lyrics, then I'll get it. But when I went back in to try to do that, everyone was like, 'What are you doing? You can't change those lyrics. Those are the lyrics.'" So what gave him the needed boost of confidence to stick with the album as it was? Apparently it was that which inspires all men and inflates their ego with pride and confidence: the approval of a woman. When Followill played the album for his girlfriend, model Lily Aldridge, she loved it. "I played her one song, and when I did, she looked at me and went, ‘Why haven't you played me this? What are you scared of?'" he said. "Before you know it, we had listened to every song, and she just loved it. That gave me the confidence to say, 'All right, well, maybe I'm in my head too much'." The rest of the world will have a chance to see if Aldridge knows what she’s talking about when 'Come Around Sundown' is released on October 18………..

- Throw another entry into the battle royale that is the tablet computer market. Japanese tech giant Sharp announced has joined the fray, announcing that it would launch a 5.5-inch and a 10.8-inch tablet named Galapagos, as well as an electronic bookstore in December. However, Sharp has no intention of challenging the iPad here in the United States, as its tablet will go on sale in Japan only. Both version of the Galapagos will feature Wi-Fi communication and are Android-based. Those who opt for a smaller, easier-to-wield version will have a 1024 x 600 LCD screen, while the larger version will sport a 1366 x 800 pixel resolution. There will be three color choices for both devices: red, silver and black. The LCD screens on both will be color as opposed to black and white, but Sharp made it clear in announcing the Galapagos that the device is intended first and foremost as an electronic reader. To that end, in December, Sharp will launch its e-bookstore, which will boast an “Automatic Scheduled Delivery Service” for periodicals as well as delivery of free trial versions of Sharp-recommended content. The e-bookstore’s library will feature about 30,000 tomes at the time of its launch, with plans to add movies, games and even music over the course of the next year. But just because Sharp isn’t looking to tangle with Apple in the U.S. doesn’t mean the two won’t do battle, as the iPad was introduced in Japan four months ago, and Sony has recently launched new versions of its three e-book readers. Still, Sharp expects to sell 1 million units of the tablet and is has held discussions with Verizon in the United States about a possible overseas launch……….

College football, weekend movie news and FAT-burning coffee

- The top 10 teams in college football had a fairly good weekend and even managed to produce some interesting and exciting games as most good teams welcomed in their last non-conference cupcake for the season in order to sufficiently rest up for league play. The marquee game of the day was undoubtedly played in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where the top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide needed a late-game interception spree by Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett to escape with a 24-20 win that kept their national championship dreams alive. Undoubtedly, SEC honks will cite the game as more evidence of what a meat grinder their league is and thus the close win will do nothing but boost Alabama’s profile. The same cannot be said for Texas, which not only saw its title dreams dashed but also had its manhood ripped in a humiliating, thorough and swift 34-12 home beatdown at the hands of unranked and mediocre UCLA. The Bruins came into Austin, were gift-wrapped five Texas turnovers and won despite being outgained in total yards and posting a grand total of 27 passing yards. The loss showcased how far the Longhorns have to go to truly replaced departed all-American quarterback Colt McCoy. But perhaps no one needed a big win more than No. 3 Boise State, which definitely could not afford a loss or even a close victory in a home contest against No. 24 Oregon State if it hoped to maintain legitimate aspirations of a national championship. The Bronocs are already fighting an uphill battle because of their membership in the WAC instead of an elite, BCS automatic qualifier conference, so a failure to not only win but win convincingly would provide that much more ammunition to their critics. The Broncos did their part to silence the doubters with a 37-24 win in which standout quarterback Kellen Moore looked like a legitimate Heisman candidate with 288 yards passing and three touchdowns, never trailing and winning what could be their last game against a ranked opponent during the regular season. The other top games were No. 17 Auburn eking out a 35-27 win over South Carolina, No. 8 Oklahoma sweating out a late rally by Cincinnati and new Top 25 arrival and No. 14 Arizona slugging out a butt-ugly 10-9 home win over California that won't earn them any style points but will at least keep them in the Top 25. Overall, it was a fairly decent weekend of football but one that should quickly be overshadowed as conference play begins in earnest next week and the true carnage begins……….

- Never again tell me that you need a fresh idea and originality to succeed in Hollywood. If you needed either of those qualities, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps would not have been the top film at the box office this weekend. “Bong Hit” Oliver Stone directed this rip-off of his own 1987 classic, which really isn’t any better than doing an unnecessary sequel to someone else’s movie. Wall Street brought in $19 million for the weekend, falling just below expectations on a mostly lackluster weekend at the box office. To be fair, he did team Michael Douglas with Shia LeBeouf, who successfully murdered the Indiana Jones franchise by team with aging star Harrison Ford, so Stone at least had a blueprint to follow. Second place went to a family-friendly film that also failed to meet expectations, Warner Bros. animated flick Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. Director Zack Snyder led the movie to a $16.3 million take, significantly below expectations. Add in the fact that the film also opened in 3-D and IMAX and you get a better picture of how disappointing Guardians was. Not far off the pace set by those two films was last weekend’s top film, The Town, which raked in $16 million to boost its total gross to $49 million. That showing was an encouraging one for Ben Affleck’s bank robbery movie and bodes well for a successful run long term. Fourth place went to Easy A, which was also in its second weekend in theaters. A 40-percent drop resulted in a take of $10.7 million, meaning a movie that took $8 million to make has now earned $32.8 million in just ten days of release. Last in the top five was another new release, Disney’s You Again. A big-name cast featuring Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver and Betty White (Is it mandated that she be in every movie produced from here on out?) wasn’t enough to lure in the film’s target demographic (women, obviously) and the movie made just $8.3 million. The rest of the top 10 was populated by: M. Night Shyamalan’s Devil (No, 6 after a fall 47 percent for a haul of $6.5 million and a two-week gross of $21.7 million), Resident Evil: Afterlife (No. 7 after grossing $4.9 million for a $52 million cumulative tally), Alpha and Omega (No. 8 with $4.7 million its second weekend in theaters, Takers (hanging around at No. 9 with a $1.6 million weekend) and the movie that refuses to give up its spot in the top 10 despite being in its 11th weekend of release, Inception (No. 10 with $1.2 million its 11th weekend in theaters for a total haul now standing at $287 million). Next weekend, we finally will be free of those ubiquitous commercials for the Facebook biopic The Social Network because it will finally hit theaters alongside the horror remake Let Me In and Case 39………..

- Americans are looking for any way to stop being FAT……as long as it doesn’t involve actual exercise or exertion on their part. So if you ask me how the concept of fat-burning coffee will go over, I’m going to take an optimistic point of view. That’s right, fat-burning coffee. It comes courtesy of a Florida-based company called Boresha International. "The products change lives, and people's health. It's been really neat to see what's happened for some people," said Mimi Shackley, Boresha International's Diamond Director. "It's the world's only thermogenic, fat-burning coffee. It's low glycemic, so it doesn't spike the blood sugar." Those claims are all nice and sparkly, but can a company really use coffee to fight diabetes and obesity. Shackley believes so and she cites an unusual quality of her company’s coffee as the primary reason why. "It makes a really smooth low acidic cup of coffee. Coffee that's roasted over open flames doesn't have that claim. People that normally get acid reflux from coffee, won't get it from our coffee," Shackley stated. Beans in Boresha International’s coffee are roasted using infrared, rather than direct roasting. The coffee is also unique in that it makes use of a patented formula owned by a Nobel Prize nominee, Dr. Ann De Wees Allen. The coffee shop pioneering this interesting brew is the Skinny Cafe in Port St. Lucie, where Boresha International’s blend sells for $1 a cup. The shop features before and after portraits showing off the supposed benefits of drinking its best-known coffee, coffee Shackley claims will give a person “great energy, for hours.” And as an added benefit, Boresha International’s coffee is safe for diabetics, so if you can indulge your sugar habits, at least you can still be a caffeine addict………

- Road rage I know about. Rail rage? Not so sure. But just because I haven’t heard of it doesn’t mean I don’t love it instantly when it comes to my attention. So big ups to you, angry train passengers in Brazil who decided that you’d had just about enough of your local railway’s slow service and in response, took out your frustrations not on the people providing the slow service but rather on the trains that you ride. Furious residents of the capital city of Sao Paulo, Brazil went berserk on trains in their city, smashing windows and doing serious damage to at least 17 train cars Tuesday. Some trains stopped moving Tuesday morning, Conrado Grava de Souza, operations director of the Sao Paulo Metro, explained to national media. Clearly not a group this is going to put up with commuting delays for long, displayed a short fuse when the triggering device to open one of the train's doors malfunctioned, causing one of the trains to stop. That set off a chain reaction in which several other trains stopped and just like a traffic jam on a highway, a few trains stopping at one location dispersed like ripples in a pond and soon, many trains were immobile. Impatient passengers used emergency buttons to get off the train and began walking on the tracks. Their presence led to even more trains having to stop because running over passengers just isn’t a practice any railway likes to engage in. By the time the situation bottomed out, an estimated 150,000 people were disrupted by the interruption in train service. This led to the aforementioned rail rage, with the smashed windows and vandalism aboard the stopped trains. The Sao Paulo Metro reacted to the damaged trains quickly and had all 17 of them back in service by the end of the day…………

- Ilia Spilca is clearly not your average man. Most guys who have their day made if they found themselves in what sounds like a scene straight from a sleazy, low-rent porn flick. Instead, Spilca took great offense to being the lone male in a scene featuring two (possibly hot) bikini-clad police officers off a freeway exit in Albuquerque, N.M. The incident occurred in Junem when Spilca said he was driving to work on northbound Interstate 25 and was pulled over by the two hot lady cops in bikinis. As he exited the freeway, the swirling red and blue lights appeared behind him and he pulled over. “They said, 'What do you have to drink?' I said, 'Nothing, water.' 'I'm going to ask you again what do you have to drink?' I said (for the) second time, 'Water, that's it,'” Spilca said. The problem was Spilca’s choice of water bottles, as he was drinking water from a bottle that looks like a bottle of alcohol. I’m not sure where one procures a water bottle that looks like a bottle of whiskey, gin or tequila (perhaps why Jack Daniels doesn’t make water bottles), but I can see where such a water bottle might cause problems. Spilca was not issued a ticket and went on his way with nothing more than a scare and possibly s new fantasy to brighten his day, but for some odd reason he was more angry than anything else and last Friday, three months after the fact, he filed a citizen's complaint with the city’s Internal Review Office. In the complaint, Spilca claimed the two officers who stopped him were wearing bikinis and had guns tucked into their shorts. Who were these bikini-sporting cops? As it turns out, they were off-duty Albuquerque Police Department officers assisting an on-duty officer, the complaint stated. “I was very angry; I was shaking,” Spilca said. In defense of his officers, APD Commander Steve Warfield said the department has rules for police dress codes, but due to the 24/7 nature of the job, off-duty officers often respond to calls not wearing their uniforms. “There are numerous circumstances where off-duty officers have rendered assistance, have rendered aid (and) assisted on-duty officers with incidents on a daily basis,” Warfield said. Spilca doesn’t exactly have the odds working on his side, as the IRO indicated that more than half of all citizen complaints on police have been found false or aren't proven to be true. This year has been an especially bad year for complaint filers, as only 12 percent of the complaints have been found to be true………

LC is bach where she belongs, auto racing brawls and a new DOD book club

- I could tell you I’m surprised…..but I’d be lying. When the only reason anyone knows who you are is reality television and the only thing keeping you quasi-famous is reality television, extracting yourself from that world is next to impossible. It’s like a mix of crack and heroin for E-list reality show cast members and Lauren Conrad is the perfect illustration for this phenomenon. Conrad, the girl next door from Laguna Beach who parlayed having rich, upper-class parents and living in the right SoCal town and being a part of LB into her own MTV reality series, The Hills, was supposedly done with the world of reality and made an emphatic point of declaring herself done with the show not even two years ago. But like the attention whore she has proven to be, Conrad announced Friday that she will soon be returning to the MTV reality family for her third run. Why is she coming back, aside from the obvious need to stay in the spotlight? Well, as it turns out she is basically being handed a half-hour-long weekly commercial for her fashion designing business. Both she and MTV have confirmed that the new series will focus almost exclusively on her professional career as she tries to start her own fashion house. During an interview with teeth-bleach, tip-frosting tool/American Karaoke host Ryan Seacrest, Conrad said that filming will start around October, with Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun will produce. "I am so excited to be rejoining the MTV family," Conrad in a statement through MTV. "The new project will follow me as I develop my new contemporary line and also touch on my other businesses." If this is to be believed, it would mean very little of her personal life in the show, which is hard to believe because the personal drama is pretty much the overriding factor that convinces anyone to watch any MTV reality series (or any other reality series for that matter). But attention whore or no, the reality is that ratings for The Hills flatlined after Conrad exited the show in 2009 and the futile attempt by producers to inject life and create controversy by installing Conrad’s high school enemy Kristin Cavallari as a cast member failed miserably. Anyhow, good to see Conrad back where she clearly belongs……….

- For the record, auto racing is still not a sport and it never will be. Dudes (and chicks) sitting in a car, driving around in circles, cutting others off, making left turns without signaling and driving really fast is not a sport, period. That being said, I can still enjoy angry drivers ramming and sideswiping one another in practice because they’re a bunch of overgrown, immature babies who can’t react with grown-up emotions to things they don’t like and instead try to turn their cars into weapons. I’m talking directly to you, Kevin Harvick, and you, Denny Hamlin. Apparently bent over Hamlin's comment on Friday that Clint Bowyer's RCR team intentionally violated NASCAR's tolerances by 60/1000ths of an inch with its winning car at New Hampshire, Harvick rammed the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing car twice in the right rear quarterpanel, then sideswiped him during the first lap of Saturday's practice at Dover International Speedway. Hamlin must have known it was coming because he clearly was not surprised by what transpired. "He got into me on pit road before we went on the track," Hamlin said Saturday. "I had a hint," Hamlin said. "Their crew guys they stare and made little comments through the day, 'Good luck today.' So I knew we were going to have to deal with some issues." Not to get too much into auto racing issues because I neither know nor care what NASCAR, IndyCar or any other racing circuit mandates of its cars and drivers, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that some hothead driver not weaponize his car and turn another driver into a flaming wreck on the side of the track. NASCAR officials sat down for a nice chat with both drivers while their cars were being fixed for the second practice and amazingly, no one rammed, sideswiped or rear-ended anyone in that second practice session. And no, NASCAR fans, this is not an example of what makes your little driving competition so exciting and intense. This is a prime example of why auto racing is not a sport and why it’s basically a lowbrow, simpleton’s excuse for a way to spend a weekend………

- Who knew the Department of Defense had such a voracious appetite for reading? I mean, how else do you explain the DOD purchasing thousands of copies of an Army Reserve officer's memoir? I can only assume the department has a book club that meets every other Friday and was looking to snatch up 9,500 copies of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's new memoir "Operation Dark Heart” because their book club has merely grown to a ridiculous size that necessitates 9,500 books. Wait a second……you mean to tell me that there is no DOD book club and that the department purchased those books for the purpose of destroying them in an effort to safeguard state secrets? That’s no rumor, as it was confirmed by a DOD spokeswoman Saturday. "DoD decided to purchase copies of the first printing because they contained information which could cause damage to national security," Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. April Cunningham said. So not only did the DOD channel its inner Nazi and have a good old-fashioned book burning, defense officials observed the September 20 destruction of the books. Shaffer sounded none too pleased about selling out the entire first printing of his book. “The whole premise smacks of retaliation," Shaffer fumed. "Someone buying 10,000 books to suppress a story in this digital age is ludicrous." Shaffer was also sold out by his published, St. Martin's Press, which caved in released a second printing of the book that it said had incorporated some changes the government had sought "while redacting other text he (Shaffer) was told was classified." There are literally entire paragraphs of blacked-out text in the book's 299 pages. Apparently the Defense Intelligence Agency has been chasing this case for a long time and attempted for nearly two months to get a copy of the manuscript. A statement from the DIA stated that its investigation "identified significant classified information, the release of which could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to national security." Included in that information were details about secret activities of the U.S. Special Operations Command, CIA and National Security Agency. Shaffer, through his attorney, claimed that the book was reviewed by Shaffer's military superiors prior to publication. The Pentagon first contacted St. Martin's Press in early August to express concerns about the book, but by then the first printings were just about to be shipped from its warehouse. That led to the harried mass book purchase by the DOD and the subsequent second printing that had the author incredulous. "When you look at what they took out (in the second edition), it's lunacy," Shaffer said. Of course, any time mass quantities of something are destroyed and a few are left, those with a copy in their hands want to make a few bucks off of it. In this case, one eBay user has already posted an alleged first-edition printing of the book for an asking price of nearly $2,000…………

- Umm, I don’t think this is going to help settle the ever-explosive tensions in the Middle East. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas throwing down the gauntlet by saying Saturday there will be no peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish state stops settlement construction in areas the Palestinians claim for their future state is not going to put out that fire of hatred. "Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements," Abbas said during his address to the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting. The U.N. has been the site of plenty of theatrics over the past few days, mostly due to Iranian despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but Saturday it was Abbas who broke out the heavy verbal artillery. His words came undoubtedly out of frustration after direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians stalled out a mere three weeks after starting in Washington in early September. A key issue in the negotiations has been the impending end of a 10-month freeze on new Israeli settlement construction on land claimed by the Palestinians. Abbas insisted that the Palestinians are committed to achieving a peace agreement but laid the blame for the stalled negotiations on the Israelis. "We have decided to enter into final status negotiations. We will continue to exert every effort to reach an agreement for Palestinian-Israeli peace within one year in accordance with resolutions of international legitimacy ... and the vision of the two-state solution," Abbas stated. Sunday’s deadline for Israel to resume the contested building could exacerbate tensions even more and the Palestinians are clearly looking to the U.S. to help break the stalemate. President Barack Obama has continued to emphasize the situation as part of his foreign policy efforts and U.S. special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell did meet with Abbas on Saturday. However, it’s dubious that Mitchell can do anything to abate Abbas’ anger over what he perceives as Israel's repeated flouting of U.N. resolutions. Abbas has been adamant that he will be forced to walk away from the direct negotiations if construction resumes. His position, of course, is firmly rooted in the belief of Palestinians that all of the West Bank belongs to them as part of a future state. Thus, with 300,000 Jewish settlers currently calling the land home and the threat of expanding settlements on the horizons, the Palestinians believe Israel will make it all but impossible for them to establish a viable country. The situation became that much more combustible when pro-settler activists hauled construction equipment into the Revava settlement in the northern West Bank on Saturday. All in all, I’d say we’re headed for an explosive (no pun intended) future in a region that is certainly no stranger to such drama………

- Color me flat-out stunned. You’re telling me that Tweets from Ashton Kutcher don’t change people’s lives? According to a stunning study conducted at Northwestern University and unleashed on the world this past week, those Tweets from your favorite celebrity just don’t have that much of an impact on your day-to-day life. Researchers used a mathematical algorithm to measure the effects of the countless tweets that appear on celebrities’ pages on a given day and while they found that experts in certain fields were much more likely to cause topics of discussion to become trends, Tweets from people who are famous for acting in bad movies and hosting reality prank shows on MTV are mostly ignored, resulting in little if any influence. If nothing else, the findings go hand in hand with recent findings by social media analytics company Sysomos that celebrities’ Twitter followers don’t have any influence either. These Northwestern findings do call into question Twitter’s prior claims that 3 percent of the network’s servers are dedicated to tweets from Bieber and the retweets from his followers. The researchers at Northwestern compiled their own list of Twitter trending topics and instead had topics related to the upcoming Brazilian music awards at the top of the rankings. Northwestern professor Alok Choudhary and graduate student Ramanathan Narayanan concocted this curious system and found that the only way a celebrity’s Tweets could have a consistently high impact is for a celeb to Tweet about his or her area of expertise. But if, for example, LeBron James Tweets on the upcoming Senate races for his new home state of Florida, his thoughts wouldn’t generate as much of a buzz as someone who is actually in politics. Also, it’s worth wondering……if a celebrity’s Tweets on a topic they have no direct expertise on are ignored, how unnecessary and unnoticed are the Tweets or random, anonymous strangers…………

Comedy in Congress, a drastic need for Jack Bauer and the death of rock and roll continues

- Since when does Congress take itself so seriously? Apparently when a television personality whose job it is to often ridicule and belittle them, our nation’s senators and representatives feel the need to put their serious faces on and act all tough. Never was that more evident than Friday, when Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration on Capitol Hill Friday about the conditions facing America's undocumented farm workers. Colbert had filmed a series of humorous video shorts for his show, The Colbert Report, this week and in doing that series he worked with committee Chairman Rep. Zoe Lofgren. Lofgren invited him to Friday’s hearing and the host of The Colbert Report told members of a House Judiciary subcommittee that he hoped to bring attention to the workers' hardships. "I certainly hope that my star power can bump this hearing all the way up to C-SPAN 1," he quipped. "America's farms are presently far too dependent on immigrant labor to pick our fruits and vegetables. Now, the obvious answer is for all of us to stop eating fruits and vegetables. And if you look at the recent obesity statistics, many Americans have already started." All joking aside, Colbert did bring a substantial amount of attention to a hearing that otherwise would have been an also-ran in a normal week in Washington. He added that "we all know there is a long tradition of great nations importing foreign workers to do their farm work." To promote his appearance before the committee, Colbert aired a video on the Thursday edition of his show in which he packed corn and picked beans on a farm as part of a challenge from a pro-immigrant-labor group. "I'll admit I started my work day with preconceived notions of migrant labor," Colbert said. "But after working with these men and women ... side by side in the unforgiving sun I have to say -- and I do mean this sincerely -- please don't make me do this again. It is really, really hard." Colbert sat down alongside several people with actual ties to the issue at hand, including United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez, whose group launched "Take Our Jobs," a campaign that challenged U.S. citizens to replace immigrants in farm work. Amazingly, only seven American citizens or legal residents have taken up the challenge. Rodriguez argued that this is evidence that immigrant workers aren't taking citizens' jobs. As such, he’s pushing for a bill that would give undocumented farm workers currently in the United States the right to earn legal status. In responding to criticisms of his appearance before the committee, Colbert took shots at the various committees who had brought such luminaries as Christie Brinkley and Elmo of “Sesame Street” fame to testify. Yet some members of the committee still wanted to make their displeasure known that someone who might actually be smarter and sharper than they are dared to tread on their hallowed ground. "Maybe we should be spending less time watching Comedy Central and more time considering all the real jobs that are out there -- ones that require real hard labor and ones that don't involve sitting behind a desk," said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. That comment came after Michigan Rep. John Conyers asked Colbert to leave the room before the hearing even began. Conyers claimed he feared Colbert would create a "circus" atmosphere, but after a question-and-answer session with the subcommittee, Conyers conceded that the funny man turned out to be "profound.” Glad to see at least one person kept an open mind in all of this……….

- Whatever you say, Jerr-uh. Dallas Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones can insist all he wants that head coach Wade Phillips' job is not in any jeopardy, but let’s hear Jones say that if the ‘Boys lose to Houston Sunday and fall to 0-3. "I can just give you a very affirmative 'no,' " Jones told a Dallas radio station when asked whether he has lost any confidence in his coach. He maintained that Phillips would not be fired in the event of an 0-3 start, a claim that is easy to make now but might be hard to back up if the 0-3 becomes reality. Sure, Phillips signed a new two-year contract after last season, but last season’s 12 wins and victory in the postseason to end a 12-year playoff win drought might as well be two decades ago. The Cowboys have been receiving plenty of buzz about the possibility to be the first team to both host and play in a Super Bowl, as this year’s championship game will be played in Jones' new $1.2 billion stadium, but that buzz is virtually dead at this point and a third straight loss to open the season would be the ultimate kill shot. Even Phillips referred to this week's game against the 2-0 Houston Texans as an "emergency" situation, so how can his job not be in danger if Dallas loses? "I do believe in Wade and the staff and the players," said Jones. "The thing about it is when you have that kind of commitment, one of the No. 1 things you have it for is those situations. Those people are supposed to really be there in hard times. Hard times. That's when you've got to make your best grade if you're deserving of that commitment and we're in hard times. That's why I'm in the saddle with Wade and in the saddle with the staff and the team." You might be in the saddle now, but odds are you’ll be looking for a new horse if Phillips and offensive coordinator Jason Garrett continue to throw the ball 50 times a game and get beaten by two teams that didn’t even come close to making the playoffs last season. Only five teams in NFL history have overcome an 0-3 start to make the playoffs and the way the Cowboys have looked thus far, they aren’t going to be the sixth……….

- What screams spirit of the Commonwealth Games quite like a nice dose of child labor to get the host country ready for them? The primary concern for the games had been the safety and security of Commonwealth Game athletes, but it turns out that Indian officials should have been paying just as a close an eye to child labor. When children as young as seven are being used in the construction of game venues, that could be a problem. For one, these kids cannot possibly have seen enough “Bob the Builder” episodes to fully understand the construction trade. Secondly, how are you going to get anything done when they keep goofing off, throwing things at one another and calling their boss “doodie head” if he tells them to do anything they don’t feel like doing? Oh, and there’s always the issue of them being about four feet tall and not strong enough to lift most of the materials needed to do the job. Child labor is nothing new in New Delhi and anyone who has spent even a few days there can attest to how prevalent the practice truly is. And we’re not talking about kids helping mom or dad out at the family business; kids are swinging hammers, banging stones, paving entry ways and planting grass for hours at a time. With that work structure already in place, it’s no surprise that when the country needed to work around the clock to prepare for a major international sporting event, child laborers were put to work. They do their labor in conditions best described as sub-human, living in the dirt, going to them behind bushes and trees and eating what most of the rest of the world wouldn’t even consider food. Conditions are so filthy that human excrement was found in the athletes village a few days ago. The child laborers have little to no concept of what’s going on or why they are working so hard, yet they follow orders and don’t ask questions. Indian officials have not responded to the child labor claims directly and when pressed on a Harvard study done on the issue, insisted that they had no knowledge of any such practice. Uh-huh, sure you don’t……….

- Another week, another piece of highly sophisticated malicious software threatening to take over the tech world. This time it’s the Stuxnet computer worm that…..wait for it……targets Windows-based machines. Of course it does. The worm spreads through previously unknown holes in Microsoft's Windows operating system and seeks out a type of software made by Siemens and used to control industrial components, including valves and brakes. As you might imagine with this type of worm, it is targeted at and has already infected an unknown number of power plants, pipelines and factories over the past year. The worm is unique because it is the first program designed to cause serious damage in the physical world. Complicating matters further, Stuxnet can hide itself, wait for certain conditions to occur and give new orders to the components that reverse their normal functions. With such an extremely specified group of commands, the worm is almost certainly aimed at an industrial sector, but officials do not know which one or what the affected equipment might do. Because of its focus on physical destruction, Stuxnet is a very different player in the game of cyberwarfare than previous worms. The matter is serious enough that a closed-door conference about it was held this week in Maryland. At the conference, Ralph Langner, a German industrial controls safety expert, postulated that Stuxnet might be targeting not a sector but perhaps only one plant. As if to make the situation even scarier, he then speculated that it could be a controversial nuclear facility in Iran. Symantec, the tech firm investigating the virus, intends to publish details of the rogue commands on Wednesday and seemed to back Langner’s theory by confirming that Iran has had far more infections than any other country. Because of Stuxnet's knowledge of Microsoft's Windows operating system, the Siemens program and the associated hardware of the target industry, experts have pegged it as the handiwork of a extremely well-financed, organized group. Honestly, it sounds like something out of a James Bond movie except that this time, there’s no quick-quipping Brit with a remote-controlled BMW riding in to save the day. In keeping with the James Bond motif, may experts also believe that the worm is most likely associated with a national government. Stuxnet has actually been spreading for more than a year, but until now the knowledge base on its effects has been rather limited. Microsoft has done its best to patch the vulnerabilities in Windows, but let’s be honest……..it’s still Windows. An anti-virus software package from German conglomerate Siemens has already been downloaded 12,000 times, so the fight has at least begun in earnest now………

- What the heck has happened to rock and roll? There was a time when getting arrested and charged with battery, public intoxication and resisting law enforcement, doing $200 damage to your dressing room and binging on drugs and alcohol would make you the most celebrated rock star of the age. Now…..it’s a reason to go to rehab. That sad development is illustrated by the plight of singer Justin Townes Earle, who posted a statement Thursday on his Web site announcing that he is suspending his tour and entering a rehabilitation facility. His publicist confirmed the announcement and now the 2009 Americana Music Association new/emerging artist winner will become decidedly un-rock and roll by going to rehab instead of celebrating and reveling in his excess and unruliness. He is accused of trashing his dressing room after a Sept. 16 show in Indianapolis, then assaulting the club's owner. That led to his arrest and the subsequent postponement of U.S. and British dates in support of his new album, "Harlem River Blues," through Nov. 14.
For some odd reason, Earle made a point of saying that he is "committed" to confronting his problems with addiction and the New York-based artist will try to sell that story to a judge when he has his next court date in the case on Oct. 19.
For the record, he does deny published descriptions of the altercation. Somewhere, proud papa and Grammy-winning country artist Steve Earle has to be proud, or he would be if his son understood what rock and roll is all about……….

Katy Perry skanks up Sesame Street, Facebook struggles and turning dog crap into power

- Finally. I’ve been saying for years that what "Sesame Street" needs to push itself over the edge is to skank it up a little bit. Sure, the show is heading into its 41st season of entertaining and educating kids, helping them learn to read, write and count with a cast of colorful characters who have become household names over the past four-plus decades. Still, the show has been missing that little something extra and for its season premiere, I think “Sesame Street” has found it. It, of course, is the pop music awfulness and all-around skankiness of one Katy Perry, who is giving a bad name to both the Perry family and everyone named Katy with her special blend of crap-tacular music and willingness to whore it up in any and all settings. How over the top is her act? Well, when the season premiere began previewing on the Web this week, a cast that included none other than Jude Law, Will.i.am, Colin Farrell, and Run-DMC's Reverend Run created nary a complaint, but Perry’s a two-and-a-half minute video led to angry comments from parents who checked out the video and felt compelled to post statements like, "Couldn't she wear something that was more. oh idk. APPROPRIATE" and "I DO NOT want my five year old lookin at [that]!" So what was the that that Perry was wearing? Perry was sporting a flesh-colored mesh top that went all the way up to her neck, which apparently is offensive to a lot of parents of young children. Now, I would take more offense to seeing Katy Perry singing a reworked version of her 2008 song "Hot N Cold" with Elmo (you can do so much better, Elmo), but I’ll go along with these outraged parents because their outrage has led to Perry’s performance being yanked from the broadcast version of the program. That’s right, Sesame Workshop, the company that produces the show, announced that producers have decided to pull the song. Anyone wanting to watch that crap will have to visit KatyPerry.com and suffer the shame of…….well, of being someone who actually visits KatyPerry.com. "'Sesame Street' has always been written on two levels, for the child and adult," a statement from the show explained. "We use parodies and celebrity segments to interest adults in the show because we know that a child learns best when co-viewing with a parent or caregiver. We also value our viewers' opinions and particularly those of parents. In light of the feedback we've received on the Katy Perry music video, which was released on YouTube only, we have decided we will not air the segment on the television broadcast of 'Sesame Street,' which is aimed at preschoolers." Never did I think “Sesame Street” would have to show the world the way when it came to taste in music, but I guess 41 years later, the show is still imparting life’s most important lessons to kids of all ages……….

- If you heard horrified screams from angsty teenagers, cooped-up soccer moms and tech-savvy grandparents around the world the past two days, fear not. Nothing truly terrible was happening to them (not that we know of); they were just in a panic because for a few hours, they were unable to like ungodly amounts of stupid things, poke people or tag themselves in pictures taken from uncomfortably close range because Facebook was down. After going down for several hours on Wednesday, the site went down once again on Thursday. "Today we experienced technical difficulties causing the site to be unavailable for a number of users," a Facebook spokeswoman explained in an email. "The issue has been resolved and everyone should now have access to Facebook. We apologize for any inconvenience." Thursday’s outage occurred early in the afternoon and was resolved by about 5:30 p.m. ET. Interestingly enough, Facebook insisted that Thursday’s issue was not related to the one from Wednesday, when issues with a third-party network provider shut the site down, or severely hampered its pace, for several hours. Those issues undoubtedly infuriated many of the social networking site’s 500 million users, especially those with no life who spend an inordinate amount of time on Facebook rather than getting out and actually living life in the real world. It’s why Facebook is the world's largest social-networking site and will continue to be. Some explanation for the outages could be found on Facebook's blog for developers, where a post said the site was "experiencing latency issues" with its platform. Cynical observers expressed doubt that the delay on the developers' platform was enough to cause the entire problem, but either way, service was restored late in the afternoon and it’s back to (no-life-having) business as usual for Facebook’s devoted users………..

- Holy (dog) crap. What better place than the city that is home to both Harvard and MIT to take something as omnipresent and foul-smelling as dog crap and turn it into energy? Honestly, dogs taking a dump and it becoming that filthy ground covering you step in is an issue no matter where you live, but not every place has someone quite like Cambridge, Mass. resident Matthew Mazzotta, who came up with the idea for a special methane digester that uses pet waste to produce power. "This is based off of technology being used in India and China. It takes cow manure, puts it into a tank and makes the perfect environment for the little microbes in the manure to put off methane, and this methane can then be used to cook or heat spaces," Mazzotta explained. His project got underway this summer, with locals placing their pet’s droppings in a biodegradable bag and then placing it in the methane digester. From there, the digester converted the poop into power and that power was plentiful enough to power a lamp post in the dog park. “You pick it up in a biodegradable bag. You pop it in here. It sinks to the bottom and the methane rises to the top. If you want to, there's a little wheel here...spins the inside in here. This eventually collects all the methane and it goes over to this lamp up here," Mazzotta said. Unfortunately, the project is coming to an end this weekend. The converted and lamp will be removed and many dog walkers who have made use of the contraption have lamented its departure from their lives. But rest assured, Mazzotta will continue to push for his invention to someday become a viable source of renewable energy. “The bigger implication is what if we start thinking about the city and how all the waste that we have as animals, put into our waste drains, can we tap that thing and actually power part of our city,” he theorized. Here’s hoping, Mateo, here’s hoping………

- Can HBO actually make people care about hockey? The network and its sports department must believe so because it announced Thursday that the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins will star in an HBO series centered around their showdown in the NHL’s annual Winter Classic, which will take place on Jan. 1 at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field. In a joint announcement, the league and the network stated Thursday that four hour-long episodes of HBO's "24/7" franchise will air before and after the contest. "I've got to believe there's going to be some sort of distraction where they'll probably be given access to places we normally are pretty private about," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. "But, listen, it's for the growth of the game, and it's not too often that hockey is going to be featured on HBO. ... Anything that makes hockey grow is great by me." The project has its genesis in an invitation from HBO to several NHL officials to watch a screening of its "Broad Street Bullies" documentary about the 1970s Philadelphia Flyers. The next ingredient in the recipe for certain apathy from most sports fans came when the league picked Sidney Crosby's Penguins and Alex Ovechkin's Capitals to play in the fourth incarnation of the Winter Classic at the outdoor home of the Steelers. "When we learned who the two teams were, it piqued our interest," HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg said. "It helped, there's no question. You're taking the two biggest stars in the sport and the two biggest rivals and putting them on the ice." To be fair to the NHL, it is riding (somewhat high) after the deciding game of Stanley Cup finals between the Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks drew the NHL's highest rating in 36 years. "It's great television," Greenburg said. "I'm getting chills thinking back to that scene that was set in those two buildings in the finals." Normally, HBO’s “24/7” series focus on things people actually want to see, like world championship boxing matches. Of course, HBO has also done well with lame, dud-tacular subjects like NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, so this could work. Anyone actually interested in watching this show can check it out when it premiers Dec. 15 and airs each of the next three Wednesdays……….

- Why do I suspect that Iranian despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not the least bit surprised when delegates from the United States and other nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday as he delivered a that slammed Washington, capitalism and the world body itself? Something tells me that the dictator knew exactly how his comments would be received and he basically pushed the U.S. diplomats out the door when he spouted various conspiracy theories about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. "Some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack," Ahmadinejad told the General Assembly. Old hat, nothing new there, but still offensive. He tagged those comments with a claim that the attacks were aimed at reversing "the declining American economy and its scripts on the Middle East in order to save the Zionist regime. The majority of the American people, as well as most nations and politicians around the world, agree with this view." That was the kill shot for most of the diplomats as representatives from the United States, Britain, Sweden, Australia, Belgium, Uruguay and Spain walked out. Not having been there, I can only imagine what a ranting, raving dictator accusing the

U.S. government of being involved in the attacks or allowing them to happen as an excuse to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq while the entire room cleared out like someone just dropped an especially rank-smelling fart must have looked like. By the time Ahmadinejad spoke, President Barack Obama already had delivered his address to the General Assembly and had left the grounds. The first U.S. response to Ahmadinejad’s speech came from White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, who said the president "found the comments to be outrageous and offensive, given how close we are to ground zero.” The U.S. was joined in its outrage by the entire European Union, with an EU diplomat saying that all 27 member nations had agreed to walk out if Ahmadinejad made inflammatory statements during his address. Not that any of this fazed Ahmadinejad, because he plowed right ahead in comparing the death toll in the September 11 attacks to the casualty count in the wars in Afghanistan in Iraq. "It was said that some 3,000 people were killed on September 11th, for which we are all very saddened," he said. "Yet, up until now in Afghanistan and Iraq, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, millions wounded and displaced, and the conflict is still going on and expanding." He wrapped his diatribe by blasting away at capitalism in a continuation of his Monday address at the Millennium Global Development Summit. Thanks for the entertainment, M., although I may have been the only one listening to your lunacy……….