- Apparently his ever-expanding waistline isn’t the only thing Axl Rose has problems with these days.
The Guns N' Roses frontman also has a healthy hatred of ex-bandmate Slash working for him and it’s the latter of these two dueling struggles that has Rose livid right about now. He has filed a $20 million lawsuit against Guitar Hero maker Activision claiming its use of the GNR song "Welcome to the Jungle" violated an agreement not to include any imagery of ex-GNR guitarist Slash in the popular music-themed video game. Slash, real name Saul Hudson, is long gone from GNR, as are good music, compelling live shows and Rose being able to look down and see his feet. But even FAT people can file lawsuits and Rose filed his in Los Angeles Superior Court in conjunction with his company, Black Frog Music, claiming that Activision Blizzard fraudulently tricked him into authorizing "Welcome to the Jungle" for use in Guitar Hero III by assuring him during negotiations that it wouldn't feature any reference to Slash or Slash’s current band, Velvet Revolver. "[Activision] began spinning a web of lies and deception to conceal its true intentions to not only feature Slash and VR prominently in GH III but also promote the game by emphasizing and reinforcing an association between Slash and Guns N' Roses and the band's song 'Welcome to the Jungle,' " the complaint claims. Furthermore, the suit alleges that when Rose found out that a Slash-like character and Velvet Revolver songs would be included the game, he immediately rescinded the authorization for "Jungle." However, Activision allegedly lied and told him the inclusion was just for the purposes of a trade show. A placated (and probably grubbing) Axl went on his way and didn’t give it another thought until someone showed him the GH III box with "an animated depiction of Slash, with his signature black top hat, long dark curly hair, dark sunglasses and nose-piercing," according to the complaint. So what sort of damages does Rose want from Activision? How about a whopping $20 million?
"This lawsuit is about protecting Guns N' Roses and 'Welcome to the Jungle' and is about holding Activision accountable for its misuse of these incredibly valuable assets," Rose lawyer, Skip Miller, stated. "The relief we are seeking is disgorgement of profits and compensatory and punitive damages." Disgorgement of profits……that sounds painful……..
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Sometimes the most sleep-loving, bong-hitting among us has to rise up and speak out for himself or herself. Yes, I’m looking at you, college students. Take notice of the example set by a crowd of students who marched through central London on Wednesday, disrupting traffic and shouting angry slogans in a protest against an increase in university tuition. The London protest was one of many across Britain, with marches also taking place in cities that included Leeds, Cambridge and Birmingham. Tuition hikes are the simplest and obvious means of sparking an uprising on any campus, as students need meal and beer money and paying more to actually attend classes doesn’t fit into their plan. The march in London was a rousing success, with an estimated 25,000 students turning out. "Students are starting to self-organize," organizer Clare Solomon said. "If we can get 25,000 on the streets with no major organization, it's a sign of things to come." Here’s hoping, C. She and her fellow students worry that the British system is modeling itself too closely after its American counterpart, where students have to pay large tuition fees and seek loans or grants themselves if they can't pay. Thus, certain segments of the populace are excluded from higher education. To make their point known, students held signs saying "Stop Education Cuts," "Education not Segregation" and "Unite and Fight." I especially like the last of those three because a fight is what it will take to make a change. Bearing that in mind, big ups to the students who became tired of the containment area police had penned them into, got free and broke into a police van inside the containment area in Whitehall after smashing the windshield, spray-painting the sides and trying to topple it. They blew right past some spineless, weak fellow students who for some odd reason attempted to stop them. Other students set off firecrackers in the crowd to incite a bit more panic and uproar. The protests came on the heels of even more impressive efforts two weeks ago, hen protesters invaded the building holding the headquarters of the Conservative Party. Police reported 15 arrests in London and one each in Oxford and Glasgow, Scotland on Wednesday. The actual tuition hike that sparked the protest is part of a governmental plan to allow universities to charge as much as 9,000 pounds (about $14,200) a year in tuition fees, a ginormous rise from the current cap of 3,000 pounds (about $4,700). That’s the solution the government sees for reducing its massive budget deficit, along with eliminating some subsidies for university students. Defenders of the change insist that universities will not necessarily raise tuition as much as allowed under the caps, but those people are either stupid or in denial. Either way, let’s see more students spray-painting anarchy symbols, breaking windows, setting off flares and clashing with police. Riot on, y’all, riot on………..
- Should you be among the no-life-having losers preparing to bash other no-life-having losers’ brains in for the right to buy cheap crap at 5 a.m. on Black Friday, this next bit of news is for you. Retailers know that you’re pathetic enough to be in line and waiting when they open their doors and they also know that you love social media, so they’re looking to combine the two, with many retailers offering shoppers discounts for "checking in" on location-based services like Facebook Places, Foursquare, and Gowalla during the busiest shopping day of the year. For example, Gowalla is giving out a $50 dollar Amazon.com gift code to hundreds of random shoppers who check-in at malls and discount stores around the country. Toys R Us is getting in on the check-in fun by offering a 15-percent discount for purchases over $150 to the first 3,000 people checking in from 1,500 of its stores around the country on Facebook Places, Foursquare, and Yelp. Not to be outdone, RadioShack is offering a number of discounts for checking in on Foursquare, including 10 percent simply for checking in, 15 percent if they are the mayor and 20 percent for unlocking the "Holiday Hero" Badge. Just a few things to keep in mind as you pathetically set your alarm clock for 3 a.m., get up while it’s still dark, trudge out into the freezing cold and stand in line elbow-to-elbow with your fellow losers and await the chance for a discounted laptop or whatever the heck the hot toy for kids is this year………
- Do drunks and nuclear weapons mix? I say yes, but I’m in that kooky minority that enjoys the idea of an entire corner of the world becoming radioactive because a couple of guys who were supposed to be watching over or transporting nuclear material couldn’t put down the rum and Coke, Irish car bomb or fifth of Jack and do the job they are being (over)paid to do. Others probably weren’t enthused to learn that federal agents responsible for driving nuclear weapons and other sensitive materials sometimes got drunk and were detained by police while on the job, according to a new watchdog report released Monday by the Energy Department's Office of Inspector General. The reported cited 16 alcohol-related incidents between 2007 and 2009 involving personnel with the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Surface Transportation (OST), which employs about 600 OST agents responsible for safely transporting or shipping nuclear weapons and other materials across the country. Sure, it seems like an important gig and on spy dramas like 24, nuclear weapons always seem to be heisted while in transit, but what are the actual chances of something bad happening just because an OST agent is trucking along with a .07 blood-alcohol level with radioactive material in the trailer? Let’s not panic over the fact that an agent was arrested in 2007 for public intoxication, and two agents were handcuffed and temporarily detained by police officers in 2009. Pay no mind to the part of the report that warns, "Alcohol incidents such as these, as infrequent as they may be, indicate a potential vulnerability in OST's critical national security mission." I choose to focus on the positive, like NNSA spokesman Damien LaVera pointing out that NNSA officers have safely transported the nation's nuclear materials more than 100 million miles without a deadly accident or release of radiation. Besides, let’s face it: Some people drive extremely well when they’re drunk….and transporting deadly materials. It’s also vital to not that the report did not find evidence that agents were driving while intoxicated. Additionally, the office requires its agents to undergo alcohol testing at least once every 12 months or when there is reasonable suspicion of alcohol use and OST commanders ask agents during roll call whether they are fit for duty, so this report is much ado about nothing. With rules in place prohibiting agents from consuming alcohol 10 hours before reporting to work and there is NO way that any government employee isn’t following the rules, right……….
- Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee is a ginormous ass hat. Wait, that’s not fair. Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee is the world’s biggest ass hat. There…..that fits better. How else do you describe a man ignorant and asinine enough to insist that a) even if TCU and Boise State run the table, they still don't deserve to be in the Bowl Championship Series title game and b) that if the Bowl Championship Series ceased to exist, he would “vote immediately to go back to the bowl system," i.e. not deciding an actual national champion? This fool even admits that he knows nothing about football and is still making these moronic suggestions. "Well, I don't know enough about the Xs and Os of college football," said Gee, formerly the president at West Virginia, Colorado, Brown and Vanderbilt universities. "I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer's row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day. "So I think until a university runs through that gantlet that there's some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to [be] in the big ballgame." Hey ass hat, maybe you should bother to look at Boise State or TCU’s schedule before you open your ignorant mouth. Among the quality opponents the two have played this year are Top 25 teams like Virginia Tech, Utah and Nevada, quality programs like Baylor, Hawaii and Fresno State. It’s ironic that you are the president at the university with the largest athletic program in the country because you are also the biggest tool in the world of intercollegiate athletics. How can I say that? Just read the following gem and see for yourself: "If you put a gun to my head and said, 'What are you going to do about a playoff system [if] the BCS system as it now exists goes away?' I would vote immediately to go back to the bowl system." Gee actually said that….really. If you all need a volunteer to actually put a gun to Gee’s head, I’ll be in the front of that line. Even his take on a potential national championship game is idiotic to the core. "It's not about this incessant drive to have a national championship because I think that's a slippery slope to professionalism," he said. "I'm a fan of the bowl system and I think that by and large it's worked very, very well." Well for whom, you moronic fool? What problem is there with a championship game? It works for every other level of college football -EVERY ONE - and none of them seem to be on a “slippery slope toward professionalism.” But really, no one should be surprised by Gee’s ignorance and stupidity on this issue. While he was at Vanderbilt, he abolished the athletic department since it was underwritten by the university's general fund. Thank God this guy has no actual power when it comes to the issues he speaks so ignorantly about………
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