- While I’m not sure what qualifies one to write a cookbook, I know one thing you most definitely do not need: a strong musical resume of well-written, high-quality songs that don’t put people to sleep. If that were one of the prerequisites for penning your own book of recipes, then suffice it to say that Sheryl Crow would be nowhere near a cookbook. Instead, she’s playing off one of her better-known (and yet still crappy) songs, If It Makes You Happy, and coming out with a cookbook on March 29 called If It Makes You Healthy, which losers who preorder things that will in no way, shape or form ever be in danger of running out of supplies if they waited and ordered when the item was actually available can now preorder on Amazon. Seeing that she has a cookbook, you might think that Crow enjoys spending time in the kitchen and at least fancies herself as something of an amateur chef. Not so, she says. The book is actually co-written by her personal chef, Chuck White, which was a wise choice because in a video to promote the book, Crow admits she doesn’t really have many culinary skills. "I'm not that comfortable in the kitchen, I'd much rather be in the studio,” she explains. White has been Crow’s personal chef since she was battling breast cancer and she credits him with teaching her about healthy eating. What can one expect if he or she throws away their hard-earned money on this tome? According to Crow, the book is 125 "rock-and- roll flavored" recipes and is arranged seasonally. Presumably, it will be easier to suffer through than one of her albums………
- RIOT WATCH! RIOT WATCH! Sorry for the ALL CAPS, but an epic day of rioting deserves that sort of emphasis, especially when the entire world knew that day of rioting was coming and no one could do anything to prevent it. The scene in Egypt today truly was epic as darkness fell and thousands of angry Egyptians defied a government curfew, shook off police tear gas and marched through the streets of Cairo and other cities demanding change. Even as thick-headed haters like the United States government tried to encourage Egyptians to show restraint in their protesting, the sounds of gunfire and outraged citizens were the order of the day. Even though the Egyptian government knew Friday’s uprising was coming, they were still fighting an uphill battle against tens of thousands of livid locals who clashed with thousands of riot and plain-clothes police and the force of the army in armored personnel carriers equipped with gun turrets. That show of force could not back down rioters, who fought back by chanting, screaming, throwing rocks, lighting things on fire and causing as much mayhem as possible. Ironically, it was embattled President Hosni Mubarak who imposed a nationwide curfew from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. Mubarak’s ouster is one of the main ends that protsters are demanding, so it’s fitting that he would be the one to tell them that couldn’t gather due to the "hooliganism and lawlessness" of the protesters over the past few days. If it doesn’t fire you up to see vVans packed with riot police driving around Cairo neighborhoods before the start of weekly prayers in the afternoon, followed by Egyptian soldiers filling the streets and still have that not be enough to stop the people from taking to the streets……then I’m afraid you don’t have a pulse. This is the first time the army has been deployed to quell unrest since 1985, so it’s something of a momentous occasion. Responding with riots, marches and chants of "God is Great" and “Down, Down, Mubarak" darn near brings a tear to the eye of this riot lover. Setting the ruling political party’s headquarters on fire and then watching smoke billow over the Nile also make for a great day of rioting. After spending the entire day firing tear gas, one has to wonder if police in Cairo have any left. In between firing off canisters, police were busy thieving cameras from tourists who dared to take pictures of the action. Thankfully, no protestors heeded the advice of U.S. Secretary of State Hank Clinton, who urged dissidents to “refrain from violence and express themselves peacefully." Cairo may have been ground zero for the riots, but things were also hopping in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, where at least 1,000 protesters gathered and chucked rocks through black clouds of gas. The same scene unfolded in Suez, where 15,000 riot police were out, using tear gas to disperse crowds. Other protests and riots too place in Ismailia, Fayoum and Shbin Elkoum, according to the anti-government group Egyptian Liberation. From start to finish, it was an inspiring and uplifting day of riots and here’s hoping the rage just keeps on flowing………
- The jury may still be out on whether Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was tough enough during Sunday’s NFC championship game when he could not play the bulk of the second half due to what was later diagnosed as a second-degree sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee, but no one in the Windy City should be questioning the toughness of Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose right now, not after the All-Star missed practice the past two days, spent Wednesday in the hospital undergoing tests for what he thought was heartburn, was diagnosed with two ulcers and yet was still fighting to get on the court for Friday night’s showdown with the Orlando Magic. "I will have to see when I get down [to the United Center]," Rose said. "More than likely I am [playing]. [I'm] just a little fatigued, but I should be fine." Having an ulcer seems odd for a guy who is barely old enough to drink, but the pressure of being an NBA star is definitely something that could weigh on a guy. Battling two ulcers, Rose must now keep close tabs on what he eats. He said Thursday that he's been drinking shakes and smoothies and is on medication, which has caused him to lose six pounds. "It still hurts, but this is a game that I love, so I should be able to play," Rose said. "I've been eating portions of things, but I haven't had a whole meal in three or four days. Still very sore, but it's something I've just got to fight through ... I'm just waiting for it to heal a little bit more so I can feel better." The Bulls have to hope he can go because replacing an All-Star who averages 24.6 points, 8.1 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game is a near-impossible task. Replacing that same player against one of the best teams in the NBA could lead to a beatdown on the scoreboard………
- Typically, passengers can't wait to get off the subway or train in New York City. Not many people enjoy riding public transit even though it’s definitely the way to go in NYC and not nearly as dirty, dangerous or scary as many make it out to be. But for nearly 100 people booted from the N and Q trains at 2 a.m. in a snowstorm Wednesday near the Coney Island station, getting off the train was the last thing they wanted to do. Around midnight, passengers boarded the train at various stops and it inched along, stopped a few times, then at 2 a.m., it reached the Coney Island station. There, passenger Charlie Oliver of Manhattan and his fellow riders were told to get off. "There's no excuse for the lack of communication and there's never any excuse for lack of respect," Oliver stated. "Finally, they say everybody off, get off the train, that's how nice they were too." Railway officials clearly did not want a repeat of the incident that occurred back on Dec. 26, when hundreds of passengers were stuck on a train in between stations for seven hours during a blizzard. When the conductor ordered everyone off the train and into the snow, the angry mob turned on him and refused to go. "Everyone came at him and I said, dude, you're going to kick us out in the snow? He said, take a cab," Oliver recalled. Eventually, passengers were able to reason with the conductor and convince him to allow them to spend the night in the train. And so for four hours, an entire train full of people hung out and waited for the train to start moving again. That finally occurred around 6 a.m. in the aftermath, MTA Chairman Jay Walder defended the response to the situation by saying that MTA officials didn't expect such a large amount of snow. "We worked to be able to move trains into a station where people could leave the train and be able to or get assistance or go to whatever they were doing," Walder offered. Sounds like you fell a bit short on this one………
- The pursuit may be futile, but don’t tell the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its Dutch counterpart BREIN that shutting down 51 torrent sites this month is a waste of time. The two groups formed up for a joint effort that also involved the sites' hosting providers to take them offline, thinking that doing so would stop Internet users from illegally sharing files and scoring pirated copies of movies and television shows. Neither the MPAA nor BREIN was willing to say which sites were shut down, only that 12 of them were in the United States and 39 were in the Netherlands. On the Dutch side, BREIN stated that the torrent sites in question published links to copyrighted movies, leading it and the MPAA to send copyright infringement letters to the sites' hosts. Taking down 51 sites seems impressive on the surface and overall, the organizations claim they have shut down a total of 665. Tech analysts put the number at closer to 1,000, but whatever the number is, it makes no difference. Shutting down torrent sites is like going through your yard in the summer and ripping out dandelions. For every one you cut down, two or three more will spring up in its place. Besides, none of the sites shut down thus far have been major enough to register on the Internet radar. There have been no reports of complaints of major file-sharing sites going down, so the MPAA and BREIN probably shouldn’t celebrate all that vociferously. Google has also joined the battle, announcing Thursday that it has stopped autocompleting searches for certain torrent-related keywords. Sites like BitTorrent, RapidShare, uTorrent. Oh no, not that! Anything but not autocompleting search queries. The lingering question in all of this is why the shuttered sites aren’t being named. BREIN director Tim Kuik explained that it's meant to keep them from being found elsewhere if they pop up under new domains. "New sites are popping up, but we take these down faster and faster so they can’t gain an audience,” Kuik said in a statement posted to BREIN's Dutch-language website. "Our goal is to limit the availability of illegal sites so people rather use legal platforms. BREIN doesn’t publish any names because some sites relocate and start over elsewhere." Hmm…..reading those comments almost makes it sound like you believe that you’re winning this battle. Keep on believing that if it makes you feel better………
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