- And another idiot removes himself from the gene pool and makes the world a smarter place by his absence. That may sound like a cruel description of a man dying while attempting to steal copper wire from an electrical vault that exploded……but this tool was attempting to steal copper wire from an electrical vault that exploded. The attempted theft took place in South Gate, Calif., where this fool and his wife were looking to thieve valuable copper wire and likely sell it for a lot of money. Lowlifes do it all the time and it’s the reason many states have enacted laws requiring anyone wishing to sell copper wiring or other scrap metals to prove where they got the materials from before they can be paid. In this case, the unidentified man and woman were looking to snag some free copper wire from an empty lot in the 3000 block of Firestone Boulevard and instead found themselves as the direct cause of a massive transformer explosion reported about 4:15 p.m. Saturday morning. The man was killed and his wife was left with critical burns. "I believe they thought the power was off," said Lt. Keith Hupp of the South Gate Police Department. "It was a pretty ugly scene." Police officers who responded to the call found the two people next to a burning transformer. The man died at the scene and the woman was taken to a hospital. Police believe the woman was burned when she grabbed her husband trying to save him. "I just heard a loud explosion and a lady screaming," said witness Jose Carrasco. "I saw her half burned and she was crying, asking for help." As disastrously great at this story seems thus far, there’s even more to it. When they arrived at the scene, officers found two children, a 3-year-old and 6-year-old, in a truck parked near the lot - children believed to belong to the copper-thieving couple. The two youngsters were unharmed and taken into protective custody. Police have not released the names of the victims pending notification of next of kin, but suffice it to say that the kin are probably every bit as ashamed of these two as any of us would be……….
- That certainly didn’t take long. Just three days after a disappointing end to their season, the New York Yankees have already began whacking guys who were associated with their “failure” of a year, so designated because they only advanced to the American League Championship Series and lost in six games to a better team, the Texas Rangers. What would be a successful campaign for most teams is a massive letdown for the Yankees and as such, someone has to pay. In this case, that someone - the first someone, at least - is Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland. The team fired Eiland Monday, with Yankees general manager Brian Cashman announcing the decision and then cryptically refusing to explain it. "I'm not going into any detail about what the reasons were," Cashman said. Typically, a team will at least say compulsory niceties about a coach or manager that they fire and try to be nice to him or her on the way out the door because there’s no sense in kicking a guy you just put down. Cashman didn’t even bother to say kind things about what a hard worker Eiland is or how dedicated he was to the team, i.e. nice compliments that don’t have much meat to them. All the GM would do was label the decision a "private" one. It’s worth noting that Eiland missed nearly a month just before the All-Star break and during that time, A.J. Burnett’s season fell apart. Burnett is the combustible starting pitcher the Yankees are paying a crapload of money to be a world-beater and who drastically underachieved this season. Not that Eiland missing a month would have turned Burnett into Cliff Lee, but the Yankees clearly don’t have faith in him as a pitching coach any longer. The one man who did stick up for Eiland on his way out the door is Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who is himself a free agent and currently waiting to begin negotation on a new deal with the franchise. "Dave spent his entire coaching career with the Yankees organization, and there is little doubt the impact he had on a great number of pitchers during his tenure," Girardi said in a statement. "He was a passionate and knowledgeable pitching coach on the major league level, and he played a valuable role in our team's achievements in recent years. I wish him continued success moving forward as his baseball career continues to evolve." Knowing the Yankees and how they operate, this is the first of what will surely be many moves from this bunch of arrogant, white-collar baseball underachievers this offseason………
- Noooooooooo! Say it ain’t so, Somali pirates. Tell me that in the brief period of time since I last shone a much-needed light on your bold, courageous activities, you haven’t fallen so far that you’re now getting outsmarted and outdone by a crew aboard a cargo ship from a German-based company. Nothing against the Germans, whom I love, but no cargo ship crew should be outwitting, outplaying or outlasting the freaking Somali pirates. Yet that’s what happened Monday when the crew of the MV Beluga Fortune was rescued after one day under siege. The crew locked themselves in a panic room and switched off the main engine, cut off the fuel supply, blocked the bridge and reported the Indian Ocean attack to military forces. In decidedly un-piratey fashion, this group of ragtag high seas menaces was unable to figure out a way to get to the crew and formally take them hostage before law enforcement came on the scene. The crew of the ship, owned by the German-based Beluga Shipping company, was rescued Monday and the pirates’ plan for a million-dollar ransom was foiled. "The excellent behavior of our colleagues on board made such a swift and happy ending of the capture possible," said Niels Stolberg, president and CEO of Beluga Shipping GmbH. That might be your spin on it, Niels, but not mine. Naval forces riding to the rescue and ruining an attempted hostage-taking robs me of a great story, it further deteriorates the public’s already-eroding opinion of the Somali pirate and the competency of pirates overall. They go from swashbuckling scourges of the high seas to a bunch of jokers who can be shut down by any crew with access to a panic room. Thanks for nothing, everyone involved in this sad situation………
- Another reality dancing show? Super, just what we don’t need at all. Who could possibly be responsible for subjecting the world to yet another reality dancing show? How’s about noted pedophile haven MySpace, which is teaming with its old pal Ben Silverman to create a dance contest called Jerk All-Stars. Jerk All-Stars will focus all of its worthless attention on jerkin’, which is a dance style marked by loose knees and a bouncy style. I suppose a person looking for a silver lining to what is certain to be a complete and total train wreck could cite the fact that at least MySpace is finally involved in a project in which pedophiles won't (or at least shouldn’t) be a part. I’m not one of those optimists and all I can see is a foul-smelling, wretched stinkbomb of a show that should fail within a few weeks of its premiere, along with all 10 of the dance crews that will comprise its cast. But hey, mix in some profane language (which can be heard in a promotional video for the show) and a guy who has ties to MySpace from back in the days when the site was actually relevant in the social networking world and not just a laughingstock where sex offenders and 11-year-olds can congregate in one big, unsavory mix and you’ve got a recipe for a disaster that just might be horrifically bad enough to cause an implosion that will give us all a nice spectacle to look at for a few minutes before we just keep moving. So MySpace, I wish you all the success you deserve on this new project and I’m sure you’ll find that success sooner rather than later………
- Maybe it’s just me, but the world is moving closer and closer to a bizarre, sci-fi world that used to be a Hollywood creation but is inching ever nearer to reality with each passing day. The latest stride toward this tech-pocalypse is Square, an application that turns a smartphone into a what amounts to a mobile cash register. Square, created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, uses a free download and plastic card reader to allowers users to accept credit card payments. Much like merchants pay a certain percentage of a sale to credit card companies whose cards customers swipe at their checkout counter, Square charges users 2.75 percent of the transaction cost plus a 15-cent fee. If that seems high, know that, according to Dorsey anyhow, that rate is comparable to what retail stores pay for accepting cards. "No one carries cash any more," Dorsey said. "Everyone carries a little plastic card and nobody carries their checkbook. So being able to accept credit cards means more money, more volume." He sees the app benefitting small businesses and fundraisers, who can now accept on-the-spot donations from people who just don’t roll with greenbacks in their wallet any longer. Square is available for most major smartphones and mobile devices, including several phones using Google's Android system -- including the Droid, Droid X, HTC Evo and Samsung Galaxy S -- and the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. In keeping with the spirit of the app, Dorsey announced its launch via Twitter on Friday. "The doors are (finally) open @Square & we're going big," Dorsey tweeted. To download Square, visit its official Web site or the app stores for the different operating systems for which it is currently available………
No comments:
Post a Comment