- Oops, did we do that? Yes Iran, you did. You just “accidentally” handed over a shipment of arms to Nigeria because of what you claim was a giant mix-up. A shipment of arms intercepted Monday in Nigeria was shipped from a private company and destined for another West African country, according to Iran's foreign minister. "A private company which had sold conventional and defensive weapons to a West African country had transferred the shipment through Nigeria," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said. That, however, is not the story being told by security forces in Nigeria, who said last week they believed the shipment was bound for Nigeria. Nigeria’s security service said it seized 13 shipping containers in the port of Lagos filled with illegal weapons, including rockets, grenades and bullets. Sounds like a recipe for a helluva Fourth of July party…..followed by a small war launched against a neighboring town. Inside each shipping container was 20 wooden crates full of war-starting goodness and the shipping company that transported those crates quickly explain that the weaponry came from Iran. That led to a representative of the shipping company meeting with Nigerian authorities to explain what had….what ha---….well, what happened. "Our enemies had insinuated that the shipment was intended for Nigeria," Mottaki fumed. He and his Nigerian counterpart, Odein Ajumogobia, also met Thursday. The best part of the situation is that no one involved in this mess actually wants to take responsibility. The company that shipped the arms, CMA CGM, claimed it was a victim of a false cargo declaration. Someone definitely did falsify those shipping documents because paperwork filed by CCA CGM listed the materials inside the containers as "packages of glass wool and pallets of stone." Now, unless that’s super-secret shipping code for sh*t that you could use to launch a violent coup to overthrow a government, then someone lied. The containers have been traced to Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran, where they were loaded before being discharged in Lagos in July. Next time, let’s try to figure out who is shipping what to where and keep track of it, k………
- Gosh, I love scientific “research” that confirms blatantly obvious truths about the world that no one is bothering to dispute, don’t you? So let’s give a big round of applause to Amelia Arria, PhD, director of the Center on Young Adult Health and Development at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, in College Park, who is the lead author on a truly revolutionary study that unearthed the shocking news that combining caffeine and alcohol can pose a risk to young people even when the substances aren't mixed in the same can or cup. That’s right, even if you’re not downing caffeinated alcoholic beverages such as Four Loko and are merely chasing a can of Red Bull with a beer or shot of vodka, you could be in danger. According to this study, college students who consume nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Red Bull at least once a week are more than twice as likely as their peers to show signs of alcohol dependence, including withdrawal symptoms and an inability to cut back on drinking. "The odds were fairly strong, especially when you look at the dose of energy drink used," Arria said. Her study, which appears in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (which is the magazine you want to quote at parties to impress chicks, no doubt), was based on interviews with about 1,100 college seniors - the ones who were sober enough to answer questions, I suppose. The problem with the study is that no pattern of cause and effect is shown, so there is no way to definitively link energy-drink consumption to alcohol problems. In other words, being on a lot of benders and to a lot of frat parties and keggers could simply lead to students too worn out to do any school work without the aid of a Five Hour Energy or Red Bull. Or, researchers theorize, caffeine-laden energy drinks can prolong drinking sessions and mask the feeling of drunkenness, potentially raising the risk for dangerous binges and behavior. "Caffeine keeps you awake but just as impaired," Arria says. "You may feel as if you can get into a car or play a risky game. That's why this feeling of wide awake drunkenness is more dangerous." As you might expect, the American Beverage Association, a trade group that represents the makers and distributors of nonalcoholic beverages including Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar, and Amp, was quick to dispute the findings on the grounds that they do not prove a direct link between energy-drink consumption and alcohol problems and “do not show that energy drinks encourage misuse of alcohol in any way and state that further research is warranted," the association said. We’ll see how the Food and Drug Administration feels about that assertion because the agency is expected to make an announcement about caffeinated alcoholic beverages on Wednesday and Sen. Charles Schumer (D--N.Y.) said Tuesday that the FDA "will rule that caffeine is an unsafe food additive to alcohol beverages," effectively banning the sale of the beverages in the U.S. Looks like battle lines are being drawn………
- Planning to fly Delta any time soon? Better make sure you don’t have any visible tattoos that could possibly offend or worry your fellow passengers because you could end up in the same situation as traveler Adam Pearson of Los Angeles after he attempted to take a Memphis-bound Delta flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Memphis. Pearson, who sports several colorful ink jobs on different parts of his body, admits that some people find his body art a tad frightening, especially the tats on his fingers that read "Atom Bomb." However, tattoos scaring someone because they think the person sporting them is a legitimate threat to kick their ass in a bar fight is one thing; having that person temporarily removed from a flight because of them is something else entirely. The latter is what happened to Pearson, who was temporarily removed from the flight before eventually being allowed back on board the plane after he explained the tattoos stand for a childhood nickname and that he works as a food stylist and not a terrorist. "Someone was uncomfortable with my appearance and that caused an interrogation of me," Pearson said . "And I don't understand that whole process. It just struck me as a weird experience.” Ironically, Pearson is a Gold Medallion member with Delta Airlines who has flown more than 140,000 miles this year alone. You know, the people you curse under your breath at the gate because they get to board first and don’t have to wait through the same über-long line you have to suffer through at the top of the jetway. Still, the story has made him something of a trending topic worldwide. "My assistant's sister is in Indonesia and it made the news there," he said. "It's gone worldwide.” So Delta has to compensate him somehow for the inconvenience and harassment, right? Umm, not exactly. Seems that all Pearson wants is an apology from Delta, but he has yet to hear anything from the airline…………
- Isn't PBS supposed to be the television station of the common man, a free, user-supported entity dedicated to educating, inspiring and edifying the everyman? If so, why is PBS jerking what might be the only mildly funny joke Tina Fey has ever told in public from its airwaves? That’s what happened over the weekend, as Fey’s joke about Sarah Palin and conservative female politicians was edited by PBS during Sunday’s broadcast of the Mark Twain Prize ceremony. Somehow, Fey snagged the mildly prestigious comedy award and during her acceptance speech, she said, “And, you know, politics aside, the success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good for all women — except, of course, those who will end up, you know, like, paying for their own rape kit ‘n’ stuff. But for everybody else, it’s a win-win. But for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us. Unless you believe in evolution. You know what? Actually, I take it back. The whole thing’s a disaster.” Obviously, Fey isn’t a big fan of the conservative or religious points of view on the big issues of the day, but the fact that PBS is censoring someone who was honored on one of its very own broadcasts……seems a bit incongruous with what the network is all about (or is supposed to be about). For what it’s worth, the entire unedited video can still be viewed on PBS’s official web site. A PBS executive quizzed about the decision to edit Fey’s joke out had nothing to do with politics and was rather a matter of keeping the broadcast on schedule. “We had zero problems with anything she said,” said executive producer Peter Kaminsky, who claimed the ceremony had run 19 minutes too long. “We snipped from everyone.” Oh, I see. So the primary comment you chose to cut just happened to be critical of a conservative kook whose interests just so happen to align more with your own than with the liberal left with what Fey seems more closely in tune? And what network doesn’t have an awards show run long? They all run long and they’re all insanely boring and self-serving, but that’s what the speech-ending music is for, to get long-winded people off stage. Next time, just go “Gong Show” and cut Fey off mid-speech, before she says anything truly offensive………
- Fans are down on the idea of an 18-game regular-season format in the NFL, current and former players hate the idea and yet, the owners keep pushing it for the simple reason that it will make them more money. Realizing that they are backed into a corner and don’t have the clout to stop the 18-game season from becoming a reality if the owners decide to exert their will, the NFL Players Association has made what it says is a "good-faith" counterproposal that addresses the player safety risks incumbent with an expanded season. That counterproposal would largely target the number and length of offseason activities, thus balancing out the added time and physical burden on players by two added regular-season games. The proposal lays out multiple ideas, including: reducing offseason workouts would be reduced from the current 14 weeks to five weeks or 20 days, significantly reduced contact between players during training camp with four practices a week consisting of helmetless and padless periods, two in-season bye weeks (up from one),
the expansion of rosters from the current 53 to 56 or 57, in addition to practice squads, increased pro-rated salaries for players under contract and reduction of the amount of games players need to become vested to qualify for post-career health care and pension benefits. One could argue that the players are making these demands because they know the owners will reject them and they will then be able to point to the fact that they made a proposal and tried to work with the league, only to be shot down. The league is refusing comment on the counterproposal, which was delivered to the league's labor negotiation team near the end of October. At present, negotiations between the two sides have all but ground to a halt and no one in or around the league seems to hold out much hope for a new collective bargaining agreement to avert a potential work stoppage in 2011. "We have responded to every one of the league's proposals and concerns in an effort to keep negotiations progressing in good faith," said George Atallah, the NFLPA's assistant executive director of external affairs. "There are obvious concerns about an 18-game season in the absence of real information that we await." Pressed about what data the NFLPA needs in order to move forward, Atallah said, "injury data, financial information and a logical explanation as to why they are canceling their obligation to post-career and current health care [next March when the current CBA expires]." Although the league hasn’t made public its plan for an 18-game schedule and what concessions it would make on the issues raised by the union, we do know that the NFL calendar would undergo significant changes under an 18-game format with two byes, including the possibility that the Super Bowl will be played on President's Day weekend -- three weeks into February. As complicated as all of this sounds (and is), the unfortunate reality is that the 18-game schedule is but one of many issues that must be resolved in order for a new CBA to happen……….
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