- The world has a new biggest Jesus and he resides in Poland. Of course, the previous most sizeable son of God was the 133-foot Cristo de la Concordia in Cochabamba, Bolivia, which held a narrow edge over the 130-foot Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But now, no replica of the savior stands as tall as the 170-foot monster that towers over the countryside near Swiebodzin, Poland. "This is the culmination of my life's work as a priest. I felt inspired to fulfill Jesus' will, and today I give thanks to him for allowing me to fulfill his will," builder Father Zawadzki said after the head was attached by a 700-ton crane. The statue is made of plaster and fiberglass and stands just outside the city limits of a town of 21,000 people. So why build it in the first place? Is there some sort of special religious significance to be found in Swiebodzin, a significance that none of us knew about? Nope. It’s a tourist attraction, plain and simple. "More people will visit Swiebodzin and leave their money," said Dariusz Bekisz, the mayor of Swiebodzin. The only positive in all of this is that tax revenues weren’t used to build the statue. Instead, the entire cost of the statue was covered by local donations. Although the structure is now complete, it won't be officially consecrated until Nov. 21, so there is still plenty of time for you to book a ticket to Krakow or Warsaw, hop a train and make your way to Swiebodzin so you can tell everyone that you were in attendance when the world’s most ginormous replica of Jesus was officially dedicated………
- Gee, never saw this coming. Who ever could have guessed that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wouldn’t go for Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu’s suggestion that active NFL players help in deciding punishment for flagrant hits that merit fines or suspensions. Polamalu made his sure-to-fail pitch after teammate James Harrison couldn’t follow the rules and was fined a third time for excessively violent or dangerous hits this season. Harrison was been fined $100,000 for the three hits, leading him to throw a temper tantrum in which he threatened to retire and then use his off day this past week to go to Goodell’s office in Manhattan to talk about his late hit on Saints quarterback Drew Brees two days earlier, a play for which Harrison was fined $20,000. Harrison also has been fined $75,000 for a helmet hit on Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi and $5,000 for slamming Titans quarterback Vince Young to the ground, upsetting both he and his teammates. With that in mind, Polamalu ripped Goodell because the commissioner wields all the power when it comes to fining and suspending players for “devastating” hits. In response, Goodell magnanimously admitted that he wants to hear players’ opinions on the issue but that the league is opposed to allowing active players or team officials to get involved in deciding punishments. "There are league executives involved and there are former players involved," Goodell said. "I think having active players and active front office executives is something the competition committee has always frowned on." Why? Just because no player would ever fine or suspend one of their own, thus rendering the process toothless? Goodell was quick to point out that he's not part of the fines process, which was set up with the players' association. "I always seek to get players' involvement," Goodell said. "I actually work very hard to make sure we understand the players' perspective. As a matter of fact, bringing James Harrison in last week was an opportunity to be able to hear from an active player -- what he's thinking, what's his perspective, what's he challenged with -- so we can make sure we understand that as we're going forward in the season." The commish’s comments came at a downtown Cincinnati luncheon along with several former Bengals players to promote tonight’s Monday night game between the Steelers and Bengals. I personally think it was nice of the commissioner to take a few minutes out of his day to pretend that he didn’t laugh uncontrollably to the point of tears when he first heard Polamalu’s idea………
- Just how much attention do you pay to what’s going on around you? For example, if there was a fire in your apartment building or neighborhood, how long would it take you to notice and react? If you thought you smelled smoke but had checked and determined that it wasn’t coming from your own domicile, would you bother to check further? Or would you be like the oblivious fools in York County, Pa., who allowed an apartment fire in their building to smolder for more than five hours before it was discovered over the weekend. According to the York County fire chief, it took those five hours for the fire to grow enough to break a window and finally tip off residents that something was amiss. The blaze broke out Saturday night in the 100 block of Hellam Street in Wrightsville as a result of an electrical malfunction. The fire destroyed one home before it was contained and several others sustained smoke and water damage. Still, homeowner Larry Livingston saluted the firefighters who showed up and did their best to protect his family’s home. "They saved so many family pictures and consolidated all of our furniture into the middle of rooms and threw tarps over them," said Livingston. A total of 25 people were displaced by the fire, but one can't help but wonder how many damaged homes could have been avoided if anyone in the area had bothered to pull their nose out of their smartphone, laptop, flat screen or iPad long enough to notice that an apartment not far from them had smoke spilling out of it and/or the growing orange glow that had to have been visible through at least one of its windows………
- Wonder if Jessica Alba might want the following words back: “Good actors never use the script unless it’s amazing writing. All the good actors I’ve worked with, they all say whatever they want to say.” She recently made those comments in an interview with Elle Magazine and that would be fine…….if anyone with an Internet connection couldn’t look up her IMDB page and see that she has worked with such cinematic luminaries as…..Paul Walker, Verne Troyer and Dane Cook. Alba could say that good actors don’t rely on the script if she had actually worked with any good actors. As is, she’s receiving a lot of criticism for her words, including a dumbfounded screenwriter by the name of John August (Big Fish), who addressed the comments on his blog, writing: “I have to believe she was misquoted, or excerpted in some unflattering way … Oh, Jessica. Where to start? … Following your logic, you’ve never been in a movie with both good actors and amazing writing. That may be true, but it might hurt the feelings of David Wain, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. … Screenwriters can be your best friends. We are pushovers for attractive people who pay attention to us. I wrote that bathtub scene in Big Fish because Jessica Lange made brief eye contact with me. So if you’re not getting great writing — and honestly, you’re not — ask to have lunch with the screenwriter. I’ve seen you on interviews. You’re charming. That charm could work wonders.” Ouch. Considering that Alba herself isn’t exactly winning any Oscars for her stellar thespian performances, she might do well to take Ron Burgundy’s advice and just stop talking for a while, maybe sit the next few plays out. Just stand there, look pretty and take whatever roles come your way because at this point, no one is bringing you in as the face of an Oscar-worthy film………
- Finally, our long world nightmare is over. The popular E Ink screens used in electronic book readers like the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader is finally going to improve to feature color, making the easy-on-the-eyes displays that much more user-friendly. Unfortunately, this innovation comes via the Communists, a.k.a. China. Chinese e-reader maker Hanvon will soon debut the world's first color E Ink reader at a tech show in Tokyo, Japan, and the device will be available in China in March. Prices for the color e-reader will start at $440 and the device will feature a 9.68-inch, touch-sensitive screen and 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity. As far as availability in the United States…..that’s expected, but not any time soon. The reason E Ink displays are different than typical screens on phones and table computers is that they don't emit light. Instead, the paper-like screens are easier to read outdoors because the sun reflects off their surface like it would on a normal piece of paper. Glare from direct sunlight can make devices like the iPad or a typical laptop can make their screens all but impossible to read outdoors. Then again, E Ink screens have their drawbacks too; reading off of them in a dark room, for example, requires a book light or a lamp. Otherwise, text on the screen isn't visible in the dark. The push to include color in e-readers has become a hot topic in the tech world because of the success the iPad has achieved even though its e-reader function is typically not the top reason customers purchase it. Critics of the Hanvon device aren’t ready to place it on the same level as the iPad, pointing to its “same low-power, lightweight, high-readability characteristics of its black-and-white cousins” and insisting that “without a power-hungry backlight, the colors won't be as bright as an LCD screen either." So maybe the Communists don’t have as much technological know-how as we initially feared when this new color e-reader was first announced………
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