- Now this sounds like good, old-fashioned union “negotiation” tactics at their finest. With a snowstorm blasting New York City over the weekend, storm warnings abounding for cities up and down the eastern seaboard and worried travelers wondering when they would be able to make it home after the holidays, how great is it to think that NYC sanitation workers may have intentionally delayed cleanup efforts over frustrations regarding citywide budget cuts. Just four days after the blizzard blasted Manhattan, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he will investigate the allegations of an intentionally delayed cleanup. "It would be an outrage if it took place," Bloomberg said Thursday. He explained that the focus is on clearing streets in the city's outer boroughs as opposed to Manhattan. But clearing the streets in Staten Island or Queens did not seem to be all that important to sanitation workers, as some neighborhoods remained snowbound for days after the storm. That sparked rumors across the five boroughs that sanitation officers ordered rank-and-file workers to slow down cleanup efforts in retaliation for the city's belt-tightening measures. The source of those rumors, from an official standpoint, was city councilman Dan Halloran, who said three sanitation workers and two Department of Transportation supervisors came to his office saying their supervisors ordered the slowdown. According to Halloran, those supervisors told workers, "The mayor will see how much he needs us" and that "there will be plenty of overtime." Wow…..very thoughtful of you. Nothing like screwing over your neighbors and friends by refusing to clean up the streets in a timely manner because you feel like you need to prove a point to the mayor. Bloomberg defended the cuts, which have not yet taken effect, saying "the state is facing a budget deficit that's going to filter down to us." I’m certain that, if true, the purposeful slowdown of snow cleanup would have fired up the morning commuters, first responders and aircraft service personnel who were unable to get where they were going in a timely manner because the slugs who work in the sanitation department felt the need to make a political statement. It wasn’t until Thursday that many neighborhoods in the city had been cleared. Predictably, the head of New York's sanitation workers' union, Harry Nespoli, said he was not aware of any slowdown and doubts there was a protest by workers. Nespoli instead marveled at the magnitude of the storm, calling it “ one of the biggest blizzards I've ever seen." He then blamed harsh winds and budget cuts as reasons for the slow response. "We were 400 people short," said Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association. "There are certain services that should not be affected. The people pay taxes for it." A bit of a conflicting message, but I like the idea of a conspiracy enough to roll with this one for the time being…….
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! We’re two days into an inspiring uprising by Bolivian education workers and bus drivers over a sharp spike in gasoline and diesel prices. The protest broke out after the government’s announcement last weekend that it was ending gas subsidies that kept the price at Bolivian pumps artificially low. The end of those subsidies caused prices to skyrocket as much as 73 percent for gasoline and 80 percent for diesel. For some odd reason, those hikes did not sit well with bus drivers, who staged a partial strike as the general Bolivian population broke into a collective uproar. To illustrate the jump, regular gas went from $1.97 per gallon to $3.42, which I’m guessing would spark plenty of outrage in the United States as well. Diesel prices rose from about $1.90 per gallon to $3.61 per gallon. Why did the government eliminate the subsidies? Because the move would save the country $380 million and was allegedly needed to make prices comparable to neighboring countries, thus putting ending the problem of fuel being smuggled out of the country. "That money belonging to Bolivians that was exiting abroad without benefiting the country, that's why the government has decided to use those resources to implement social development programs that truly help the development of the nation," said Ivan Canales, a government spokesman. Those words did little to placate angry citizens, nor did it help when he accused right-wing interests of trying to stir up dissent to get the subsidies reinstated. Unfortunately for Canales, the protests involved people came from all socio-economic levels. It wasn’t just the poor or the working class; it was everyone. Citizens of Bolivia’s capital city wondered openly how they were going to cope. "This is completely sad. Now, we don't know how we are going to handle the situation," said La Paz resident Nestor Yujra. National media have taken to calling the new policy the "Gasolinazo," or "The Big Gasoline Hit." The proudest moment of the two-day (and counting) unrest was Thursday, when protesters clashed with police in riot gear. The strike by bus drivers other public transportation drivers would be more effective if it was a total strike, but one step at a time I suppose. Those drivers who remained on the job attempted to gouge customers for as much money as they could. "We regret that some drivers have increased their (prices) by as much as 100 percent," Canales said. All of this took place as President Evo Morales was conveniently out of the country on an official visit to Venezuela. Nothing like jamming up your constituents and not being there to face their wrath………
- If New Year’s Eve in Times Square feels a little less trashy and lowbrow than you were expecting this year, just know that your mind is not playing tricks on you. The evening would have been every bit as class-deprived as you were anticipating if MTV had been able to successfully execute its plan to cram "Jersey Shore" cast member Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi in a large ball and drop her from a building during MTV's New Year's Eve bash from Times Square. Unfortunately for MTV, those plans conflicted with the traditional celebration in the heart of Manhattan and they were forced to come up with a Plab B. MTV originally wanted to drop their ball with the "Jersey Shore" skank from their own building in Times Square, but when that dream died the show’s producers decided to take her back where she belongs - New Jersey. The ball drop will still take place, but it will happen in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, the original setting for the show. "We love our Times Square home and while we're disappointed there won't be a Snooki ball drop there, she cannot be denied!" MTV said in a statement. "So we're taking a road trip to the place where it all began, Seaside Heights, and droppin' it all there." Try to put a happy face on this one if you will, MTV, but don’t act like you’re not disappointed. Whether you drop it from some building on the boardwalk, from the roof of the town hall or the local library, it just won't be the same. But leave it to "Jersey Shore" creator Sally Ann Salsano to insist that "there is no better way to ring in the New Year" than with Snooki. "She's a party in a box," Salsano said. No, she’s an instant STD in a box, she’s a walking advertisement for what an alcoholic looks like and she’s a complete and total freak show, but party in a box isn’t how I would describe her. If your looking for someone to blame, point the finger at the organizers of the traditional celebration in Times Square, who claimed that MTV’s request "came too late and was too impractical to fit in to our outdoor events." Whatever excuse you need to keep MTV from GTL-ing up your celebration, go for it. The party in Times Square will look like it has for decades, with a lighted ball is dropping from a building to signify the new year's beginning. For those not fortunate enough to be in Manhattan and with no standards for entertainment, you can watch Snooki drop inside the ball in New Jersey, live on MTV's "New Year's Bash 2011," on December 31, beginning at 10:30 p.m. EST, with appearances by other members of the cast of "Jersey Shore" and "Saturday Night Live's" Bobby Moynihan and a musical performance by hip-hop star Flo Rida and others…………
- If you’re like me, you want to have no idea what’s going on and feel nothing if you are ever to undergo major surgery. Blood, guts and gore are not my thing and if I need a serious surgical procedure done on me, I want to be numb and unconscious. Having said that, I’m not fired up to learn that the brain under general anesthesia isn't actually "asleep" as surgery patients are often told. According to a new study published in the Dec. 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the brain is technically placed into a state that is a reversible coma. The study, conducted by three neuroscientists who have published an extensive review of general anesthesia, contradicts commonly held beliefs about the effects of anesthesia. If these findings are applied as the authors hope, they could eventually lead to new approaches to general anesthesia and improved diagnosis and treatment for sleep abnormalities and emergence from coma. The big reveal in the findings stems from the fact that a fully anesthetized brain is much closer to the deeply unconscious low-brain activity seen in coma patients, than to a person asleep. Being put into a coma doesn’t sound appealing, but it’s certainly better than being awake and seeing what actually goes on during a surgery. As long as I don’t know any of that, it doesn’t matter if I’m “asleep” or in a coma that is drug-induced and reversible. The one major difference between the drug-induced coma and a coma that is unintentional is recovery time, with recovery from in minutes to hours and recovery from coma in hours to months to years, if ever. Understanding how patients recover from general anesthesia could help to better understand how both processes occur, so that’s a plus. Study co-author, Dr. Nicholas D. Schiff, a professor of neurology and neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College and a neurologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center (wow that’s a lot of words in a title) explained that the findings are “very exciting, because it gives us new ways to understand each of these states.” Knowing more about the functioning of the brain circuit mechanisms may also allow doctors to "tweak the circuits as needed, to help us in the areas where we don't do well, such as abnormalities of sleep and, especially, emergence from a coma," Dr. Schiff said. Just as long as surgery goes off without the patient awake or aware of what’s being done to them, I don’t think there will be many objections………
- I completely agree with University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma when he says that his team will learn something from the ending of its NCAA-record 90-game winning streak. It’s what Auriemma’s team will learn from the streak’s demise that causes he and I to differ. "It's where we go from here that will define this team more than the 90 wins," Auriemma said. "How we play going forward will be this team's defining moment. The 90 wins just belonged to a few of these guys. What happens for the rest of the season will belong to them. And I am excited about that." See, Auriemma believes that his team will learn about itself, its weakness and where it can improve. A 71-59 loss at Stanford will supposedly be the catalyst for that learning. "This losing stuff is getting old, I hate it," Auriemma joked at the postgame press conference. "I just wish we could catch a break every once in a while so these kids can have some success." Hey oh, look at who made a funny! In all seriousness, the UConn women’s team will learn an important lesson, one they probably should have known by now but which can always use reinforcement. That lesson, simply put, is that no one gives a rat’s ass about women’s basketball. ESPN, which has the misfortune of broadcasting a lot of women’s college basketball games, did its best to drum up interest in the streak by cramming it down viewers’ throats on every one of its shows and broadcasts, but with the winning streak over, there will be no more of that talk. Now, UConn is just another women’s basketball team with a good record that no one cares about. Whether they win their third straight national title or not, no one cares. The average sports fan still can't name a single player on the team, not even star Maya Moore. Coincidentally, Moore had a thoroughly mediocre game in the loss, scoring just 14 points and missing missing her only free-throw attempt with her team trailing by six points late in the game. When the Huskies lace ‘em up for their next game, against Villanova on Jan. 5, all of the lights and cameras will be gone and they will play the rest of their season in the same obscurity as all other women’s college basketball teams. So keep pumping up the lessons you can learn from this defeat, Geno, but know that you’re off base on this one. “When we show the mistakes to them again, it will mean a lot more this time because now they'll know what the result can be," Auriemma said. "I've used this example before: You tell a kid don't touch a hot stove and they don't listen until they burn themselves. Now, they won't touch it. You can tell kids all you want about problems, but if they never get beat ...” If they never get beat, then they actually have people caring about them a bit….a small bit. But now? Nothing…………
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