Iranian idiocy, South Korea's leaflet warfare and D-list celebrity dancers

- Attention, one and all. ABC has completed its latest collection of D-listers, has-beens and rejects willing to humiliate themselves by donning sequined outfits and excessive amounts of makeup and doing all manner of absurd ballroom dancing on national television, a freak show otherwise known as Dancing With the (D-List) Stars. The new incarnation of the series that will have your wife, fiancée or girlfriend glued to the couch two nights and a week and attempting to guilt you into wasting two hours of your life, er, watching it with her, has been finalized and ABC certainly has outdone itself this time. While the collection of rejects may be stronger, top to bottom, than any that has come before it, it’s the “heavy hitters” at the top of the lineup that set this group of misfits apart. For starters, there is weight yo-yo Kirstie Alley, who may show up looking relatively svelte or may weigh in at 450 pounds, depending on which way the pendulum is currently swinging in her life. When she’s not repping weight-loss companies, she’s bulking up to weights that would put the average NFL lineman to shame, so there’s no telling with her, but I would reinforce the dance floor just to be sure. Then there’s professional wrestler Chris Jericho, who has tried and failed to make the crossover from wrassler to entertainer with his band Fozzy and other forays into television that have ended badly. Next on the list is actress Chelsea Kane, whose most prominent acting gig to date has been on a Disney Channel series with the Jonas brothers, to give you an idea of her acting chops. D-list rapper/hip-hopper Lil’ Romeo (or Romeo, depending on what he feels like being called today) is also a part of this circus and while he’s probably counting on the show to boost his sagging album sales, I wouldn’t count on it. As for former Hugh Hefner arm candy and Playboy skank Kendra Wilkinson, she somehow managed to find time to pull away from her oh, so successful E! reality series about…..well, whatever it’s about and she will also try to win whatever trophy ABC bestows upon the best D-list dancer. The other “big name” on the cast is kooky radio personality Wendy Williams, who is probably around simply for comedic relief. And to think that you can spend weeks and weeks watching these captivating, yet irrelevant personalities compete to see who can tango or cha-cha the best while wearing a lime green sequined dancing outfit……………


- Users of Google’s popular Gmail service did not have what you would call a relaxing end to their weekend, for the most part. Waking up on a Sunday morning and finding you have missing e-mails, contacts and chat histories will do that to a person, let alone tens of thousands of people. Google went to work on the problem and by 11 p.m. Sunday night, Google engineers noted on the Apps Status Dashboard that e-mail services were restored to "some" users and that they expected to fix the problem for everyone in the "near future." However, specifics on just how many users had their Gmail services restored and how soon everyone else should expect to get their services back were few and far between. The only exact figure given by Google was when a company spokesman said Monday afternoon that the company's estimate of the number of users affected by the outage has dropped from Sunday's figure of 0.08 percent to 0.02 percent. That may seem like a small number to you, but that reduction drops the number of affected users down to about 35,000, as opposed to earlier reports of 150,000. That same spokesman confirmed that, as of Monday afternoon, Google engineers had restored service to about a third of those affected and hope to have everyone back to normal in about 12 hours. However, no one is quite sure what caused the outage. Speculation on message boards and in chat rooms placed the blame on a hacker, but the same Google spokesman called those reports "completely false" adding, "I can say absolutely that it was something on our end." That sounds very much like something a tech company would say if someone hacked its system and it was trying to save face and reassure users. Google also suggested that it may soon release a short report explaining what caused the outage. Not everyone is happy with how Google has “fixed” their malfunctioning account, as some users have reported that their accounts seemed to have been reset so they appeared to be brand new. For the people who never delete any emails and have messages from five years ago still lurking in their inbox somewhere, all of this made for a scary end to the weekend…………


- Warfare looks different these days, I suppose. With technology advancing faster than the world can adapt, battles are bound to look different than they did even a decade ago. But warfare is even more drastically different on the Korean peninsula, where South Korea remains technically at war with North Korea since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a cease-fire but accusations are flung back and forth more often than actual munitions of any kind. However, South Korea has employed a much more interesting technique of late as it looks to capitalize on world events to sow seeds of dissent in its neighbors to the north. South Korea’s military has dropped leaflets on North Korea spreading the news of pro-democracy revolts in the Middle East with the purpose of inspiring an uprising against Kim Jong Il’s totalitarian regime. It sounds like a World War II propaganda technique, but maybe going old school is crazy enough to work. The pamphlets detail the many citizen-led uprising across Africa and the Middle East, especially the riots that toppled Egypt’s government and have thrown Libya into turmoil, explaining that “a dictatorial regime is destined to collapse.” Song Yong Sun, a member of the National Assembly’s defense committee, spoke about the propaganda drops in an official statement released Monday. In truly kid-like fashion, the South launches the leaflets in balloons that drop their cargo when they burst. Thus far, South Korea has sent over 3 million leaflets across the border. You really can’t blame the South for engaging in its own brand of psychological warfare after North Korea shelled one of its islands in November, killing four people, after (allegedly) sinking a South Korean ship last year. “North Korean people’s protests may also be able to bring a change to the regime,” Song, a member of the Future Hope Party, said in the statement. “South Korea’s military and government should also be ready for any revolt inside North Korea.” And lest you think that South Korea is merely looking to sow seeds of dissent and not provide much-needed help, it has also started sending rice, clothing, medicines and radios in baskets tied to balloons this month for the first time in 11 years, Song said. Well played, South Korea, well played…………


- Sure, blame is on the possums. Any time there’s a major electrical problem resulting in a fire that leaves four families displaced from their homes, the automatic reaction is to blame it all on the nearest possum. So while I wish I could say that I’m surprised to hear that fire investigators in San Antonio are blaming a fire at a multi-family structure in the 1000 block of W. Huisache Avenue just before 6:30 a.m. Monday, I just can’t do it. Firefighters responded to the blaze and found smoke inside two front units of the building, which houses four families. Putting out the fire was obviously the top priority, but once the blaze was extinguished it was time to begin assessing blame. As investigators scoured the scene for any clues, they found the charred remains of a possum inside a roof overhanging the porch. In a typical rush to judgment by those looking to scapegoat a possum for starting a fire, officials casually tossed out a tall tale of a theory about how the rodent chewed through electrical wiring and started the fire. Never mind that there are plenty of other possible causes for the fire or that no witnesses recalled seeing the possum doing the alleged wire-chewing, let’s denigrate this poor rodent now that he’s passed on. How do you think that makes his grieving possum family feel to hear him talked about like that? Oh, and all residents in the building at the time of the fire, including a man in a wheelchair, got out safely, but those facts wont get top billing here. The first story people will hear and the one they will ultimately remember when the day is done is the tale of a mischievous, malicious possum forcing four families out of their home because of senseless wire-chewing. Never mind that the possum may have inadvertently pointed out some faulty wiring that could have eventually led to a similar fire (no one is promoting this theory yet, so remember that you heard it here first)…….let’s vilify this one wayward rodent…………


- Only you, Iran, only you. Only you could come up with something so ridiculous and use it as an excuse to threaten a boycott of the 2012 London Olympics. Oh, and only you could be delusional enough to believe the world gives a damn about a relatively small, athletically inferior nation with no hopes of winning any medals skipping the Games and staying home. But for humor’s sake, let’s give this story a legitimate look. Iran is pissed because of the logo for the 2012 Games and as you might guess, the rationale is predictably insane. Seems that, in the minds of Iranian officials, the logo is racist because it resembles the word "Zion." To be sure, the logo is butt-ugly and the numbers are in bizarre shapes bearing little resemblance to 2012, but only an insanely oversensitive, mentally unstable country looking for any reason to start a fight would look at them and believe they spell out “Zion.” However, insanity is the current policy for all matters in Iran and so the secretary general of Iran's National Olympic Committee said Iran sent a letter to International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge objecting to the logo and threatening a boycott if it is not changed. Secretary general Bahram Afsharzadeh said the letter urges other Muslim states to oppose the "racist logo" and join a potential boycott. "There is no doubt that negligence of the issue from your side may affect the presence of some countries in the Games, especially Iran which abides by commitment to the values and principles," the letter said. This so-called negligence stems from the fact that Zion, of course, is a biblical term widely recognized to refer to the city of Jerusalem. Given that Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel's destruction and questioned historical accounts of the Holocaust, you can see where that might be an issue – if Iran’s claims were true, which they are obviously not. In the past, Iranian athletes have refused to compete against Israelis – probably for fear of getting their asses kicked. In spite of this dicey history, objecting to the London logo showing the numbers "2012" in four jagged figures was something no one saw coming. Plenty of others have objected to the logo, but only on the grounds that it’s just plain ugly. Thankfully, the IOC confirmed receipt of the letter and after its members stopped laughing, the committee joined London organizers in rejecting Iran's complaint. "Our response is as follows: The London 2012 logo represents the figure 2012, nothing else," the IOC said. “We are surprised that this complaint has been made now.” Considering the source, maybe none of us should be all that surprised…………

Iran's nuclear woes, weekend movie news and NFL combine drama

- Not so cocky now, eh Iran? Your quest to build your own nuclear arsenal and wipe Israel off the map - or, as you claim, create a new power source for your faltering nation, has hit a snag. Removing the nuclear fuel from your Bushehr nuclear power plant makes you a little less intimidating, doesn’t it? According the Iran, the removal of the fuel is due to a “serious” problem at the plant. That’s the story the Iranians sold to the United Nations nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency last week, anyhow. In keeping with the whole “just for energy purposes” scam, the newly completed nuclear reactor was supposed to soon start generating electricity for the national grid. "Based on the recommendation of Russia, which is in charge of completing the Bushehr atomic power plant, the fuel inside the reactor core will be taken out for a while to conduct some experiments and technical work," explained Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's representative to the IAEA. Iran has been loading fuel into the reactor since October, so having to remove it is in fact a significant setback. The nuclear reactor is a joint project with Russia, so the communists are involved as well, if that makes you feel better. The project has cost upward of $1 billion thus far and much like Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, it has wasted a lot of money while enduring numerous setbacks and has not been able to get up and running. The difference here is that the plant has been delayed at least five times in the past 15 years, whereas the musical has merely been in production for a few months. Construction actually began in 1975 under a contract with Germany, which pulled out following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Russia jumped on board in 1992, taking over the contract the Germans abandoned. Undoubtedly, the laundry list of nations opposing Iran’s nuclear program will be happy about this news of a problem at the Bushehr plant. The United States and other nations that have imposed sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program are probably holding quite party right about now. Oh, and the situation has a certain comedic element to it because Iranian officials vehemently deny that the Stuxnet computer worm, which some say has set back Iran's nuclear program by several months or years, has anything to do with the problem……………


- This has been a battle in the making for some time. You may not have seen it and most of us blew right by the warning signs because we were simply too busy with more important matters, but make no mistake about it: The goats are coming for us. Goats have been disrespected by humans, used for their milk and put out to pasture with no consideration for what they’d actually like to do with their lives. So with that disrespect and discontent simmering and goats obviously unable to vocalize their anger, sooner or later they would act out in a way that grabbed humans’ attention. That acting out came Saturday evening on Interstate 5 just outside of Galt, Calif. That’s where at least 100 goats ran onto the interstate just south of Twin Cities at about 7:15 p.m. To underscore just how livid these goats were and how intent they were on making their point, these beasts undertook their mission knowing that, for some of them, it was a suicide mission. That’s right, approximately 30 to 40 of the goats were kamikaze goats, placing their bodies directly in the paths of oncoming cars. Multiple vehicles wrecked attempting to avoid the goats and others were unable to do so, plowing right into the brave animals and killing them. In the aftermath of the multiple collisions, one female driver was transported to the hospital for treatment. All lanes on both sides of the interstate were closed after the accidents and remained that way for several hours. So even though many of them had to give their lives to make it happen, it’s safe to say that the goats got what they came for. They stepped up and demanded humans’ full attention and after this display, they should have it. Never again can any of us drive down a road in the immediate vicinity of a farm, large or small, and not wonder if we won't be subjected to the same sort of bold, decisive goat attack…………


- For any NFL draft prospect, the NFL combine is a dangerous place. The combine is, in essence, the proving ground for draft picks to show off their physical and mental skills to teams. They are asked to run 40-yard dashes, show off their vertical leap, bench press 225 pounds as many times as possible, conduct one-on-one interviews with teams, take the Wunderlich intelligence test and be put through every other measure of their on- and off-field skills that teams can cook up. Some players, especially high-profile quarterbacks, go and interview with teams but do not throw because they only want to throw in a controlled environment, i.e. their on-campus pro day workout at their school. Former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton probably wishes he had taken that route after the weekend he had at the combine. Two weeks after a staged, very controlled throwing session in front of the media in southern California in which he drew rave reviews, Newton was extremely inaccurate on 20-plus passes he threw Sunday during a session at the combine. Nearly half of his passes were overthrown and the performance instantly re-raised questions about his accuracy and NFL readiness. Worse still, the poor throwing performance came on the heels of an incident that occurred during an interview at the combine on Thursday night in which an unidentified team rattled Newton when one of its assistant coaches questioned Newton about why he disobeyed his coach's orders in the BCS National Championship Game. Instead of taking a knee as he was instructed, Newton ran a quarterback sneak. The play in question wasn’t noteworthy in a game full of drama and big plays and even a diehard Auburn fan probably wouldn’t recall it if you asked them their memories about the game. But NFL teams are looking for anything they can get that will get under a player’s skin, including an incident last year in which the Miami Dolphins asked a receiver Dez Bryant if his mother was a prostitute. If they can pick out one simple play and use it to rile up a player, they’ll do it. When called out on his decision to run the sneak, Newton did not have a favorable reaction, according to league sources. He became extremely defensive and did not handle the query well. Afterward, he was asked about the incident and said, "Each and every team keeps you on your toes." As if all of this drama wasn’t enough, there was also the small matter of his pre-combine comments in which Newton described himself as "not only as a football player, but an entertainer and icon." Displaying that much of an ego before taking a single NFL snap doesn’t usually endear a player to teams, so Newton also needed to do some spin control on those poorly chosen words. “First and foremost, I understand that my obligation is to be the best possible football player I can be," he said. "I know and believe that." Those were the words coming out of his mouth, but they were counterbalanced by the fact that in roughly 12 minutes at the podium, he referred to himself in the third person three times. Considering that his entire junior season at Auburn was embroiled on controversy over whether his father Cecil was openly soliciting payments from schools in order for his son to play for them, all of this buzz is just about the last thing Newton needs at this point……………


- You knew it couldn’t last. Hollywood makes too many terrible movies to have last weekend’s solid performance at the box office turn into two straight good weekends and sure enough, the earnings totals bottomed out this weekend in resounding fashion. The top film for the weekend - Gnomeo and Juliet - barely cracked the $14 million mark with a whopping $14.2 million total in its third weekend, boosting its three-week tally to $75.1 million. The competition was so uninspired that Gnomeo leapt from third to first, something that rarely happens in a movie’s third week of release and especially if it’s nothing more than a mediocre animated film. In second place was one of only two newcomers in the top 10, Hall Pass, a film that tried to ride the immense and varied acting talents of Owen Wilson (and yes, that was heavy sarcasm) and failed miserably with a first weekend of $13.4 million. Even with a middling budget of $36 million, this film is going to have a difficult time turning much of a profit. The same cannot be said for Unknown, which may not be a great film but has proven once again that people love seeing Liam Neeson kick people’s asses. Despite dropping from first place in its debut last weekend to third this weekend, Unknown made $12.5 million to up its cumulative tally to $42.9 million and counting. Adam Sandler’s Just Go With It held its spot in fourth place with an additional $11.1 million and while it might be the typical bad Sandler comedy, it’s also the typical bad Sandler comedy that’s on track to make a lot of money. In three weeks, this D-level comedy has made $79.3 million. Completing the top five was, ironically enough, I Am Number Four, which narrowly missed out on fourth place but cashed in with $11 million and upped its two-week take to $37.7 million. The rest of the top 10 was comprised of: Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (No. 6 with $9.2 and a three-week total of $62.7), The King's Speech (riding some good Oscar buzz to rake in $7.6 million, making it the lone film to increase its earnings from last week - 16.7 percent - and elevate its 14-week earnings to a whopping $114.5 million), the top 10’s worst film by far in Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son (No. 8 with $7.5 million and a 53.7 percent dropoff in its second weekend of release for a $28.57 running total), newcomer Drive Angry (No. 9 with $5.1 million) and The Roommate (a distant No. 10 with a scant $2 million for a four-week total of $35.92). Needless to say, not the strongest weekend ever at the ol’ box office……….


- Sometimes, science actually accomplishes something worthwhile and does more than simply confirm things everyone already knew. This is one of those times and best of all, it involves cute little mice. Researchers have discovered that one-day-old mice could regenerate 15 percent of their heart tissue within three weeks of an injury, an ability they lost a week or so after being born. While it was previously known that some fish and amphibians could regrow parts of their hearts after major injuries, there was no evidence that mammals could do the same. Following their injuries, the mice underwent heart scans that showed parts of the organ that had been surgically removed had not only grown back but were functioning normally. Extrapolating from those results ,the obvious hope is that the human heart may also have a natural ability to heal itself. If there were a way to trigger that sort of self-healing in humans, it could save hundreds of thousands of people currently living with heart damage. "When a person has a heart attack and heart muscle cells are lost, the heart loses pump function, causing heart failure and eventual death," said Eric Olson, a molecular biologist at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. "Now that we know that the mammalian heart indeed possesses the potential to regenerate, at least early in life, we can begin to search for drugs or genes or other things that might reawaken this potential in the adult heart of mice and eventually of humans." To read more about this (actually) exciting study, simply stroll over to your magazine rack in your home and pick up the last issue of the journal Science, which I’m sure you subscribe to. In their report, the researchers explain how surgery to remove the bottom tip of the heart from newborn mice caused healthy heart muscle cells to multiply and repair the injury. Their findings could be invaluable for heart attack survivors, who are typically left with scar tissue that impairs the heart's ability to pump blood around the body. That can lead to permanent disability and a greatly diminished quality of life. Thanks to a bunch of cute little mice and researchers who do things besides confirm that eating two pounds of bacon a day is bad for you and exercising is good for you, all of that could soon change……….

How much red meat to eat, The Man persecutes a reggae star and NBA conflicts of interest

- The Man never quite understands. He never quite gets the mindset and lifestyle of the artist, what it takes for the brilliant creative minds among us to bring about great works of music, painting, sculpture, etc. For some artists, men like Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg, that something is burning the hippie lettuce incessantly. For others, the Colombian nose candy is the muse that makes their art possible. Such is the case of Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton, who is now facing up to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of three charges relating to him setting up a cocaine deal in 2009. Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, was inexplicably convicted of conspiracy to possess five or more kilograms of cocaine with the intent to distribute. The conviction is explicable because……well, because the man is a Jamaican reggae singer. Using all manner of illegal drugs is part of the job description. Dare I say, if you’re a Jamaican reggae singer and you don’t like to bake or snort, your career is going nowhere. Banton’s case is a bit more complicated because he was also found guilty of possession of a firearm and of another drug trafficking offense. Unfortunately for Banton, his fate was in the hands of 12 idiots not smart enough to get out of jury duty in Tampa, Fla. That jury found Banton not guilty of a fourth charge of attempted cocaine possession but convicted him on the three other charges. Upon what (probably fabricated) evidence did they base their erroneous decision? Well, there were the video and audio recordings relating to the case created by an informant and by Drug Enforcement Administration personnel. But if that’s your entire case……I’m not sure that’s a leap in judgment I can make. The jury in Banton’s first trial knows what I’m saying because that trial ended when they were hopelessly deadlocked and unable to reach a unanimous verdict. But the second time around, federal prosecutors trotted out the footage of Banton allegedly tasting cocaine in a warehouse and put on a nice dog and pony show in which the jury also heard that the informant was given $135,000 by one of Banton's co-defendants. With all of this hanging over his head and having been in custody as he awaits sentencing, I’m guessing that Banton hasn’t even been able to properly enjoying winning Best Reggae Album at the Grammy Awards earlier this month for his latest album 'Before The Dawn' won, all thanks to The Man holding him down…………


- Can you say conflict of interest? Actually, conflicts of interest might be more appropriate given the situation in which the NBA currently finds itself on account of its ownership of one of its own teams, the New Orleans Hornets. The NBA took over ownership of the Hornets from George Shinn on Dec. 6. It funds the organization and set an operating budget, which led to immediate criticism from coaches and others around the NBA because having the league in control of a team, let alone a team in contention for a playoff spot, presents a lot of problems. Lakers coach Phil Jackson was one of the first to express concern about how the league could run the Hornets and potentially make trades to better the team even though it is supposed to be fair and unbiased in how it oversees each of its 30 teams. But the sh*t really hit the fan Wednesday when the Hornets completed a trade with the Sacramento Kings in which the financially troubled franchise sent guard Marcus Thornton, who is earning $762,195, plus cash to Sacramento for forward Carl Landry, who is earning $3 million. The Hornets/league taking on a salary difference of $2.24 million quickly caught the attention of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who technically owns 1/29th of the Hornets along with every other owner in the league. Cuban ripped the NBA on Wednesday for allowing the Hornets to make the trade and take the salary hit. "If New Orleans is taking back $2 million and the team is losing money and I own 1/29th of it, I'm going to go against the grain and say that's just wrong," Cuban said. "There's no way, with their payroll, having to dump salary before they were sold to us [NBA owners]; now they can take on more salary while they're losing money. That's just wrong every which way." His issue, according to him anyhow, is not the completion of the trade itself but the added financial burden the Hornets (and the league by association) are taking on. "I don't have a problem if they go dollar-for-dollar, great, more power to them," Cuban said. "You could see if it was like a marquee guy and he's going to bring in lots of dollars. No disrespect to Carl Landry, but I don't see that's the way it works. It's just wrong. I'm one of the owners. The league is supposed to just give them a budget and it never dawned on me that the budget would say you can spend more money to bring in players." The cynic might argue that Cuban, whose Mavericks currently have the second-best record in the Western Conference, count the Hornets as a rival in the Southwest Division and could see them in the first round of the playoffs, is also angry about a competitor getting better via trade. Yes sir, conflicts of interest do abound here………..


- Panda democracy is an interesting concept. Can renting someone a pair of cute, fuzzy panda bears really make a difference in strained relations between your two nations? China is certainly hoping so. That’s why the Chinese are sending two giant pandas to Japan in the hope that the gesture could ease tensions between the countries amidst a heated territorial dispute. Those tensions came after boat collisions off some small islands in the East China Sea last October, with the detention of crews from those boats sparking nationalistic rhetoric and protests on both sides. Couple all of that with Japan’s sagging economy and you begin to understand the thought process behind renting the two 5-year-old pandas, which arrived at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo on Monday. The zoo hasn’t had any pandas since the 2008 death of its beloved giant panda Ling Ling and zoo officials are clearly excited about having the two pandas on hand to draw in visitors. The zoo and its surrounding area have been ramping up for the pandas' arrival for weeks, hanging banners decoarated panda cartoons and local shops stocking up on novelty items. Japanese media outlets have camped out at the zoo Anchorman-style. The panda pair -- female Xiannu and male Bili - landed at Japan's Narita airport one day after leaving the panda preserve in southwestern China's Sichuan province and were taken straight to the zoo as the entire scene was broadcast live on Japan's public broadcaster NHK. For the next month, the pandas will undergo health checks and other procedures and then debut for the public in late March. "I hope the pandas become popular and many Japanese people get to see them so that their impression of China would improve further," Japan's Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Friday. That impression probably would have improved a significant deal more if the Tokyo metropolitan government had been loaned the pandas instead of renting them for $950,000 a year, but maybe I’m simply being too cynical. China will use that infusion of nearly $1 million annually to rebuild a Sichuan panda sanctuary that was nearly destroyed by a May 2008 earthquake and to fund Japan-China joint breeding projects. The Japanese are obviously banking on tourism dollars from the pandas’ presence to offset the cost of the rental and predict that the fuzzy black and white bears will boost the local economy by about 10 percent a year. With the number of visitors to Ueno Zoo having fallen to around 3 million a year from 3.5 million since Ling Ling's death in 2008 at the age of 22, doing nothing and hoping that people will suddenly choose to spend their money on zoo visits in a terrible economy doesn’t seem like an option. Perhaps the pandas aren’t a guaranteed fix, but they seem to be the best available option. The outpouring of love and support when Ling Ling, also acquired from China, passed away was overwhelming. Relying on that same sort of connection to Xiannu and Bili is now the plan of attack for the Ueno Zoo…………


- If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it too many times. Voodoo sex ceremonies are one of the biggest fire threats in this world and yet, no one listens. Maybe now, those warnings will be heeded, now that candles used in voodoo sex ceremony caused a fatal five alarm fire after they tipped over and ignited bed sheets in an apartment building in Brooklyn, N.Y. The blaze left an elderly woman dead and injured 20 firefighters and three Brooklyn residents, all because some clumsy voodoo priest allegedly placed the candles on the floor around the bed on Saturday as part of a ceremony with a sexual component that was meant to bring his client good luck according to a New York Fire Department statement. While it would be easy to rip the voodoo priest (a notoriously unreliable lot) for the fire, you have to realize that if you hand some kook $300 for a sexually-based voodoo ceremony and expect it to be a smashing success, you’re hoping for far too much. Thus, a healthy percentage of the blame must also be placed on the woman herself. At some point during the ceremony, one of these two whack jobs knocked over the candles, leading to the priest attempting to douse the flames with water and then opening a window in an effort to clear smoke from the room. The notion that adding more oxygen to a burning fire was a bad idea never occurred to him, clearly. When he opened the window, 40 mile-per-hour wind gusts pushed the flames back inside the room, it said, creating a "blowtorch effect” redirected the fire into the building's fourth floor hallway. "Time and time again we respond to tragedies that could have been so easily prevented," Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano said in the statement. "This fire had so many of those elements ... hopefully others will learn from this tragedy." They could learn…..but the problem is that we have far too many morons running loose in this world and those morons are going to continue doing stupid things like holding voodoo sex ceremonies in small Brooklyn apartments and sparking fires that necessitate 200 firefighters from 44 companies spending seven hours to bring the resulting fire under control. If only those morons were the only ones harmed when an incident like this occurred………


- Are you a fan of red meat? Carnivores be warned, as the British government is targeting your favorite dinner staple and advising its citizens against eating too much red meat. In its first new dietary guidelines since 1998, the British government advised people to help prevent cancer by cutting down on steaks, hamburgers, sausages and other red meat. How little of it should the average Brit consume? Health officials say people should eat no more than 1 pound) of red meat a week, or 2.5 ounces per day. Those figures represent a significant drop from what was previously recommended. In 1998, these same officials said people could safely eat as much as 3 ounces a day and that the only people in serious danger were those who consumed more than 5 ounces daily. The new guidelines reinforce the long-held belief by many scientists that people who eat a lot of meat like lamb, roast beef and ham have a higher risk of bowel cancer. A prominent 2005 study conducted by researchers in Europe found people who ate about 5.6 ounces of red meat a day increased up their bowel cancer risk by one third compared to people who ate the least meat. With a 1 in 19 chance of developing bowel cancer in a lifetime, that definitely merits concern on the part of any individual. However, it’s worth noting that the British are not suggesting everyone should immediately become a vegetarian and never consume another steak or burger in their life. Finding a happy medium in which you include fish, chicken, turkey and other non-red meats alongside the occasional porterhouse or ribeye is a good compromise to strike. If you’re wondering why red meat is so often under attack, there are a few competing theories on the issue. Some experts suspect that haem, the pigment that gives red meat its color, damages cells in the digestive system, which may lead to cancer. Others believe that cooking meat at high temperatures may produce cancer-causing chemicals. Oh, and don’t be so hard on the Brits for recommending lower levels of red meat consumption. Their new guidelines mirror advice issued by the World Cancer Research Fund in 2007, when the agency advised against eating too much processed meat like sausages or bacon and said children should never eat such products. Not everyone is adhering to the World Cancer Research Fund’s advice quite as tightly as the British. Scandinavian countries recommend people eat a slice of red meat about the size of a small pork chop every day and the U.S. currently has no official guidelines for the consumption of red meat, although federal guidelines say people can eat nearly double the amount of protein recommended by Britain. So in the end, as with so many health-related issues, it’s up to you to sort through all of the conflicting claims and advice and figure matters out for yourself…………

Google irritates many, confusing cell phone research and accepting blame for the Super Bowl ticket debacle

- This is just confusing. Is using a cell phone good for your health or bad for your health? We already know that cell phones are idiot magnifiers that take the true morons of society and magnify their idiocy for all to see. But the rumors that heavy cell phone use ultimately leads to cancer and/or brain damage have been circulating for years. Now…..science is telling us something else entirely. Researchers now say that talking on your cell phone for less than an hour can increase brain activity in the area closest to the phone antenna.“The dramatic worldwide increase in use of cellular telephones has prompted concerns regarding potential harmful effects of exposure to radio frequency-modulated electromagnetic fields,” the study’s authors wrote in a prepared statement. Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and her team conducted the study in order to determine several issues related to cell phone usage and health. Ultimately, they concluded…….not to conclude much of anything. “Whether cell phone radiation actually causes brain tumors is an issue that remains unresolved,” the statement continues. “Although we cannot determine the clinical significance, our results give evidence that the human brain is sensitive to the effects of radio frequency-electromagnetic fields from acute cell phone exposures,” Volkow said. Undoubtedly, the findings of this study - whatever they actually are - will stoke the flames of the years-long controversy over the health effects of cell phone use. Perhaps the most definitive stance taken by the study’s authors is, shocker of all shockers, that we need further studies to determine whether the increased brain activity by cell phones has any other health effects. When they actually got down to work on this project, researchers tested 47 participants between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of 2009. They placed cell phones on each ear but did not tell participants whether the phones were turned on or not. On some occasions, the cell phones were off. On another occasion, the phones were muted but would receive calls and texts. This went on for 50 excruciating minutes, after which each person was given a PET scan to measure their brain activity. The results of those scans showed that when the phones were turned on, there were significant increases in the brain glucose metabolism closest to the phone antenna. “The linear association between cell phone-related increases in metabolism and electric field strength suggests that the metabolic increases are secondary to the absorption of RF-EMF from cell phone exposures,” Volkow explained. “Further studies are needed to assess if the effects we observed could have potential long-term consequences.” To dig further into this successful attempt to muddy the waters on an already unclear issue, check out the study in print in the latest issue of the Journal of American Medical Association, released to an anxiously awaiting public on Wednesday…………


- Well, well. It only took three weeks or so, but someone has finally stepped up and taken blame for the Super Bowl seating fiasco at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex. The NFL sold some 1,250 tickets that it didn’t have seats to go with, then inexplicably allowed those fans to show up for the game knowing it had nowhere to put them, then crammed them into makeshift holding areas outside the stadium before finding seats for 850 of them but forcing the other 400 fans to watch the game from standing-room-only locations around the stadium. The league began throwing compensation offers against the all immediately after the incident to see what stuck. First, the fans were offered triple the face value of their tickets and given free food and merchandise at the game. Next, the league upgraded that offer to the cash, perks and tickets to next year’s Super Bowl. That offer was amended to include an option of $5,000 cash or trip expenses, whichever was greater, and a ticket to next year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis or a ticket to a future Super Bowl of each fan’s choosing, complete with travel expenses and lodging. Yet no one from the NFL has stepped up and directly admitted responsibility for the f*ck up thus far. Instead, Dallas Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones is the first to somewhat own the blame and do so for both he and the league. "I do, along with the NFL, take responsibility for the seating issue and some of the things that we would like to improve on regarding the seating issues," Jones said. "The informing of the fans that were involved, the NFL and I take responsibility for. You always like to look at areas you can do better, get better. We certainly intend to and will get much better in terms of the seating and how that is handled." Probably something you should have figured out in the years you had to plan the event, J. But then again, the city of Dallas didn’t do any better in handling the winter weather that blew into town during the week leading up to the Super Bowl. Four words best sum up that debacle: sand to melt snow? Yes, the city tried to use sand to melt snow and ice from the roads because it didn’t have the stuff that actually works for that sort of thing, salt. As for the seating issue, a company called Seating Solutions failed to have the temporary seats in place before kickoff. When it became clear they could not get the job done, another company was asked to complete the job and also could not get the seats installed in time. The league normally takes complete control of stadium preparations prior to a Super Bowl, but that step in the process was delayed this time for reasons that remain unclear. "One thing I would point out is that our stadium is certainly, the concept of the stadium, it was designed for the flexibility of temporary seating," Jones said. "You can note those, but we have had several world-class events that were very much enhanced by the way our stadium is designed to increase our capacity by our temporary seating. So that is not at issue as much as it is evaluating what we did to create the criticism, to create the issue, and to do better in the future." Umm, sure. Just know that the two lawsuits this mess has precipitated aren’t going away and neither is the perception that Dallas simply was not ready to handle an event of this magnitude………


- Warning! Warning! Kanye West’s music videos may be hazardous to your health - literally. West was already taking heat for allegedly ripping off the animated intro to his new video "All of the Lights," but he may have bigger problems on its hands if claims from a U.K.-based group called Epilepsy Action are true. The group sent West’s music video to be analyzed by Cambridge Research Systems, which analyzed the video using the "HardingFPA" machine. After breaking down the video, CRS found that the rate at which the lights flash in the video could trigger seizures. That led Epilepsy Action to condemn the "All of the Lights" video. "This machine looks at whether video footage is likely to cause seizures," Epilepsy Action said in a statement. "We have today had confirmation that it contains material that may cause seizures in some people with photosensitive epilepsy." Lest you characterize this as a bunch of radical, mentally unstable kooks just looking for their 15 minutes, know that - according to Epilepsy Action representatives - the video has been pulled from YouTube.com and will be banned from television, at least in the United Kingdom. "Ofcom regulations mean that this video should not be broadcast on UK television," Epilepsy Action cautioned. "However, it is available online in a number of places. We are in the process of trying to contact Kanye West’s agent, YouTube and other online sources of the video to ask that they take it down. We have also contacted MTV and other TV stations to make them aware of the issue." On the one hand, you would think that having one of his music videos banned would infuriate a pompous blowhard like Kanye West, a man who once self-glossed himself “the voice of this generation.” But on the other hand, anything that brings him more attention and strokes his ego is more than likely something West enjoys…………


- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! All riots are great, but one that takes place on a day when Baghdad is “locked down” by the government is great and then some. Instead of meekly accepting the lockdown, thousands of angry Iraqis took to the street in a "day of rage." If the idea of a day of rage doesn’t bring a tear to your eye…..I don’t think you have a soul. Best of all, the riots were not limited to Baghdad. They rocked other Iraqi cities as well, as demonstrators burned or tried to storm government buildings from the southern port of Basra to the northern cities of Mosul and Huwaijah. Yes, the protests in the south did lead to five protesters being shot to death by security forces, but that is one of the inevitable side effects of any great riot. You can't blame Iraqis for their angry uprising, not after a pathetic half-hour’s warning that, starting at midnight, vehicles would be banned from the roads until further notice. That feeble attempt to stave off demonstrations only provoked them and led demonstrators to walked for hours to reach Tahrir (Liberation) Square. Police estimated the gathered in the square at 4,000 people, which means it was probably closer to 10,000. So why the riot? Because even though the United States came in, started a war that never should have happened and did so based on fabricated intelligence, then kept the war going for years and years and all but refused to leave and allow Iraqis to run their own country, most Iraqis say their lives are just as difficult today as they were under Saddam Hussein. That can definitely inspire a riot and a riot large enough to shut down Baghdad’s international airport, and cause officials to seal off the fortress-like green zone, a mini-city housing the Iraqi government and the U.S. embassy. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tried to use scare tactics to prevent the protests, claiming they would be infiltrated by Saddam Hussein loyalists and targeted by Al Qaeda suicide bombers. The main elements missing from the riot in Baghdad were bombs and shootings, but Jumhuriya Bridge, the main access point to the green zone, did turn into something a battleground in Friday’s demonstration when protestors tried to breach newly installed concrete barriers. Many protestors lamented a lack of jobs and public services and of the perception that corrupt officials are hoarding the nation’s wealth for themselves. A small group broke off from the protest at the bridge and began hurling hurl stones, sticks, and even shoes at riot police stationed in front of the blast barriers near the foot of the bridge. That led to a near stampede with people almost crushed against the walls as the police surged forward, looking to pummel the protestors with their batons. But hey, big ups to security forces for apparently adhering to orders not to use live fire or rubber bullets to subdue the crowd. “If this were in Saddam’s time, every one of those demonstrators would have been shot dead,” says a police spokesman. Ah, the bad old days…………


- Google is not making many new friends this week. The Web search giant made one of the biggest changes ever to its search results this week, resulting in an immediate and noticeable effect on many Web properties that rely on the world's most popular search engine to drive traffic to their sites. The basic idea is filtering out spam generated by content farms, preventing such drivel from appearing at the top of Google's search rankings. While the changes will affect only 12 percent of Google's results, according to an official company blog entry posted late Thursday, the outrage over the change has been swift and loud. "Our goal is simple: to give users the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible," said Gabriel Stricker, Google spokesman. "This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content -- both good and bad -- comes online all the time. Recently we've heard from our users that they want to see fewer low quality sites in our results." This is not the first time Google has tweaked its search algorithm, but the changes generally go unnoticed. Tech experts say the IP address 64.233.179.104 displays Google search results as they would have appeared before the recent algorithm change, should you want to do a firsthand comparison. Google refused to confirm that IP address uses the older algorithm. Content farms are predictably upset by the changes but in the end, it’s something of a zero-sum game. The search results will ultimately turn up X number of entries, it’s simply a matter of which ones are ranked highest. Various tech Web sites quickly filled up with posts from site operators complaining that traffic to their sites dropped immediately after Google’s change and the common theme seemed to be “YOU'RE KILLING OUR BUSINESSES!" In truth, that’s been Google’s M.O. for a few weeks now, as the company recently penalized Overstock.com and JC Penney in its search results after the companies were found to have set up fake websites that linked to their own, causing Google's algorithm to rank them higher. But to listen to Google, all of the complaining could be much ado about nothing. "As might be expected, a content library as diverse as ours saw some content go up and some go down in Google search results," Larry Fitzgibbon, the company's executive vice president of media and operations, wrote in a blog post. "It's impossible to speculate how these or any changes made by Google impact any online business in the long term -- but at this point in time, we haven't seen a material net impact." In other words, quit whining……….

Ivy League military matters, how drinking may help you and NFL labor fun

- They don’t seem to go together well, an Ivy League school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and the military, and for the past 40 years, Columbia University and the Reserve Officers' Training Corps have been mutually exclusive entities. The school has maintained a ban on the ROTC on its campus for a variety of reasons, but a push to end the ban has taken shape lately and appears to be gathering momentum. To debate the potential lifting of the ban, Columbia officials held a town hall-style meeting on campus Wednesday evening in an attempt to measure public opinion on the issue and help university administrators make the best decision. The best measure of the issue’s relevance was the packed auditorium, with people standing if they couldn’t find a seat just for the chance to weigh in on the debate. The first speaker was a Columbia student who is also a Marine and Iraq War veteran. He urged civility and civility and for the most part, that call was heeded, unlike the debacle that broke out last week at a similar meeting. That meeting thrust the issue onto the national radar largely because a disabled Iraq War veteran and Columbia freshman, Anthony Maschek, was jeered and heckled by an anti-ROTC contingent when he spoke in favor of military service. It was a classless and deplorable display, but many of those attending the most recent meeting believe that the incident has been taken out of context and blown out of proportion by the national media. You know, the same complaint athletes lodge when they say something regrettable they wish they could take back but can’t, so they try to scapegoat the media as the one creating the controversy. Columbia officials have given no indication on which direction they may be leaning in relation to lifting the ROTC ban, but sources say a final decision could come as early as April. And while I can't imagine too many smart kids paying $40,000 a year to attend an Ivy League school are going to rush to commit to military service in any way, shape or form, it might be nice to have the option………..


- For an operation that presents itself as being all about the (musically ignorant) will of the people, “American Karaoke” sure is behind the times when it comes to utilizing the Internet to help decide which of its hack karaoke-ers will be crowned the next “American Karaoke” champion and be given a record deal they do not deserve and will uphold by releasing an album that sells 53 copies before they fade off into obscurity. But alas, “AK” has finally found a way to involve the Internet in its voting mix and the show will start accepting online votes next week, Fox announced on Thursday. Voting will take place on AmericanIdol.com and will be enabled by Facebook, which will act as a security mechanism to verify the identities of voters. Using their Facebook accounts, “AK” kooks will be able to vote up to 50 times per week. That’s right, you can cast 50 votes toward the further bastardization and ruination of music as we know it. The reason this train wreck of a show is in its 10th season is because the public are a bunch of sheep who follow mindlessly along and listen to whatever Top 40 crap is on their local radio station without ever wondering if there is better music out there (which there most definitely is). “American Karaoke” then steps into that void and exploits the average person’s unquenchable desire to feel like their opinion and thoughts actually matter and bam, you have the perfect storm to create world’s largest and most preposterous karaoke contest. Adding online voting to the mix will undoubtedly cause the total number of votes for the show to skyrocket, which I’m sure “AK” producers are ecstatic about because they now have to compete with another reality karaoke show train wreck in the form of “The X-Factor,” the singing competition that “AK” creator Simon Cowell is importing to the United States from Britain. Because “X-Factor” will also have an online voting option, there is no way “American Karaoke” couldn’t have one. For those who want to kick it old school and vote for the next no-hit wonder the same way they always have, the show will continue to accept votes via toll-free phone numbers and, for AT&T customers, through text messages. I would advise everyone to stop voting so we can make this nightmare go away, but I know better…………


- This is a somewhat original tactic. If tens of thousands of your people are in the streets of cities around your nation, demonstrating and demanding your removal from office as you order your military to bomb them and unleash brutal ground attacks, then try to push blame for their uprising off on a) hallucinogenic drugs and b) Osama bin Laden. Muammar Gaddafi doesn’t have many options at this point, so he may get more leeway than normal when it comes to how he tries desperately to stay in power, but even for him these allegations not only border on the absurd but blow right past that border. Speaking Thursday about the uprising, Gaddafi attempted to pin blame for the revolt on bin Laden on Thursday while claiming the protesters were fueled by milk and Nescafe spiked with hallucinogenic drugs. As part of a typical, meandering Gaddafi speech whose core message was (I think) to appeal for calm, the embattled dictator showed a marked departure from his televised address two days ago in which he vowed to crush the revolt and fight to the end. Perhaps he simply felt that his menacing act wouldn’t translate as well in a phone interview on state television as it did when he could actually appear on screen. But let’s take a look at what the good dictator had to say: "Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafe," Gaddafi theorized. "They are criminals ... is it logical that you let this phenomenon continue in any city? ... We do not see what is happening in Egypt and Tunisia happening in Libya, ever! Those (in Egypt and Tunisia) are people needing their governments and they have demands; our power is in the hands of the people.” Wait…..who is giving pills to the protestors? And if those pills are causing them to rise up against an oppressive ruler who strips away their freedoms and rules with an iron fist while insisting that he gives the power to the people, then where can I get some of those pills? My man, I don’t believe you know what hallucinogens are if that’s your take. They can make you see three-headed unicorns riding a Segway with Elvis, but they don’t plant ideas in your head about overthrowing the government. LSD may have helped the Beatles write Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, but it’s not going to inspire the overthrow of any governments, at least not any time soon. So go back to your "Third Universal Theory," draw from your "Green Book," and find some other play call for this one because that take is weak and off-base. The one salient point Gaddafi made was calling Osama bin Laden was "the real criminal" and urging Libyans not be swayed by the al Qaeda leader. Even if Libyan officials have a habit of stereotyping anyone who challenges the ruling system under the umbrella of al Qaeda, pegging bin Laden as the real criminal is a solid move in any situation. Other parts of Gaddafi’s wandering monologue touched on the Iraq war, riots in other African and Middle East nations and the real location of Jimmy Hoffa’s body, I believe………


- Perfect. Alcoholics are always looking for another excuse to have a drink and a scientists at the University of Calgary have just served one up on a silver platter. These geniuses have pored over three decades of research and reached the conclusion that an alcoholic drink a day can help prevent heart disease. The study,
published in the British Medical Journal, showed a 14 to 25 percent reduction in heart disease in moderate drinkers compared with people who had never drunk alcohol. This some group of scientific kooks have also published a related article showing a positive correlation between alcohol and "good" cholesterol levels. They tried to mitigate their damage by insisting that these results are not a reason to begin drinking, but that’s like telling a Major League Baseball player that a new designer steroid will increase their home run numbers by 50 percent and expecting them not to take it. This is obviously not the first study suggesting positive effects from the regular, moderate consumption of alcohol, which actually worked to the benefit of the researchers for this particular study. The reviewed 84 pieces of research between 1980 and 2009 and found that the overall risk of death was lower for those consuming small quantities of alcohol, 2.5g to 14.9g, compared with non-drinkers. They also learned that regular moderate drinking reduced all forms of cardiovascular disease by up to 25 percent. As for the statement about this being an excuse to go on a drinking binge……not exactly. See, the study also found that the risk for strokes and stroke deaths increased substantially with heavier drinking. Professor William Ghali of the Institute for Population and Public Health at the University of Calgary led the research and summed it up thusly: "Our extensive review shows that drinking one or one to two drinks would be favorable. There is this potentially slippery slope, most notably with social problems and alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, but the overall mortality including cancer and accidents shows you would be better with alcohol." Seems fair, or at least it does until you get to the part of the research team’s report in which they suggest that similar results can be achieved by being physically active and eating a balanced and healthy diet. Tell me again why you all did this study in the first place………


- Are you hopeful that the NFL and its players' union are going to reach a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement before the current one expires at 11:59 p.m. on March 3, thus averting a potential lockout? To chase that question with another question for anyone who answered in the affirmative, are you a moron? Because at this point, only someone sporting a below-average IQ or a case of extreme and incurable myopathy is holding out hope that these two far-apart sides will agree on all of the major issues facing the game in time to avoid a work stoppage. Even if the two parties have made "some progress" over seven consecutive days of face-to-face meetings, as the federal mediator overseeing the talks said Thursday, they are still miles apart on the major issues. George Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, admitted as much in a statement shortly before noon Thursday in which he conceded that in spite of the alleged progress, “very strong differences remain." Even with negotiations scheduled to resume next week, one has to wonder how much progress Cohen could have made in seven consecutive days of mediated negotiations, covering a total of more than 40 hours. Worse still, mediation has turned the entire situation into a boring, behind-closed-doors, no-comment snore-fest. Cohen asked both sides not to comment publicly on the negotiations and by and large, they have honored that request, leading to mundane and worthless comments like the ones offered up by Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday said as he got into a car after Thursday’s negotiating session. "Just continue talking, man -- that's what we're doing," Saturday stated. "I think ownership -- everybody -- needs to know that we're all committed to it and committed to getting something done." Which tells us……absolutely nothing. At least when the two sides were negotiating (or cancelling negotiation sessions) on their own, we received some entertainment from their veiled shots at one another over perceived sleights and disrespect. Now, all we have are no-comment comments from players and league officials and legal speak from Cohen himself. "During the intervening weekend, the parties have been asked by us to assess their current positions," Cohen droned when asked about the state of negotiations. "At bottom, some progress was made, but very strong differences remain on the all-important core issues that separate the parties." In other words, they still can't agree on how to split the $9 billion in revenues the league generates each year, nor have they found any middle ground on the issue of an 18-game regular season or a rookie wage scale. Seeing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and his crew and union chief DeMaurice Smith his negotiating team stroll into Cohen's office morning after morning is getting boring in a hurry and I suspect that clandestine, gag-order meetings or not, this mess is no closer to a resolution than it was seven days ago. Union lawyer Richard Berthelsen confirmed Thursday that gag order is still in effect, which means that we’re in store for plenty more verbal gems like this one from Smith as he walked toward the union's headquarters Thursday: "We'll see you all next week." Not if you keep offering up boring, worthless remarks like that, you won't. If that’s what’s in store, I and everyone else who used to have at least a mild interest in these negotiations will be bored into a coma…………

Satellite launch fun, political plagiarizing scandals and alternatives to the NFL in the event of a lockout

- It may sound like an academic scandal from your local Division I college in which some dumb jock is accused of buying a research paper or copying someone else’s work, but the uproar over alleged plagiarism is actually a major issue in Germany right now and it’s at the heart of a battle between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and opposition lawmakers. Those opposition members are attempting to tie the ongoing plagiarism scandal surround Merkel’s defense minister to her own reputation and drag her down even though the public seems to have accepted that Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the country's most popular politician, plagiarized large sections of his doctoral thesis without attribution. Guttenberg was grilled by angry lawmakers in the Reichstag Wednesday over revelations that his constitutional law dissertation is rife with passages lifted almost verbatim from newspapers and scholarly journals. Yet in the midst of questioning Guttenberg, may opposition members chose to target Merkel as if she was the one who told Guttenberg to cheat and lie about it. The chancellor has supported Guttenberg since the allegations first surfaced last week and apparently that makes her party to an academic cheating incident that took place several years ago. There can't be any special rights for ministers in Germany," said Thomas Oppermann, a parliamentary leader for the Social Democrats, the main opponent Merkel's Christian Democrat Union. "The chancellor has made a grave mistake. She sacrificed the truth for power, but she won't get away with it." Wow…..a little amped up, are we? Guttenberg has already had his doctorate ripped by the University of Bayreuth - where the dissertation had received a grade of highest honors in 2007 - and that should have settled the matter. Guttenberg has agreed that he will no longer use his doctorate title and conceded that his "clearly faulty" dissertation sent a "poor signal" to academia. However, he insisted that the scandal did not impair his ability to serve as defense minister as the German military undergoes its biggest overhaul since World War II. In the face of pressure to step down, Guttenberg said he faces pressing duties "that I will continue to execute and fulfill with the sense of responsibility that I have up to now." The reason he had to face questioning from parliament is that in addition to unattributed articles and journals, he is also accused of lifting work from parliament's research department, a potential abuse of office. One group that has not turned against Guttenberg is the German public, with a recent poll showing that 70 percent of respondents said the allegations hadn't changed their opinion his trustworthiness. Additionally, 73 percent said he should remain in office. Just don’t tell the Reichstag, because they’re doing their damndest to turn this into a full-blown crisis and take down the current administration…………


- NASA’s budget is being slashed and missions to outer space are soon to be a thing of the past for the space agency, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to give up hope. In fact, NASA will launch a new satellite designed to probe how the sun and the Earth’s atmosphere conspire to shape Earth’s climate early Thursday morning, proving that it still has some life left in it. The satellite, called Glory, will be tasked to monitor the sun and the Earth’s atmosphere simultaneously to see how they interact. It is a small craft, just six feet tall, but it comes equipped with instruments to measure the quantity of solar energy that reaches the top of the atmosphere and measure the concentration of small droplets and particles called aerosols that float suspended in the atmosphere. Studying aerosols is important because atmospheric scientists know that they play a role in shaping the planet’s overall climate, but no one is quite sure of that role. What is known is that aerosols can directly warm or cool an area of the Earth by absorbing heat from the sun or reflecting sunlight into space. These versatile little buggers can also indirectly influence climate by serving as the seeds of clouds and altering certain cloud properties, such as brightness, how long they last and how much they rain. The particles comprising them can come from any number of natural sources, such as volcanoes, sandstorms, forest fires and sea spray. They may also be generated by human activity, such as burning fossil fuels or clearing land by burning plants. Glory is being counted on to differentiate between the different types of particles and determine their purpose by analyzing the physical direction of light reflected off the droplets. If the mission is successful, the findings will provide data for climate models to learn how each aerosol works. Glory will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California at 2:09 a.m. Pacific time after being originally scheduled for launch at the same time Wednesday morning. A last-minute technical glitch forced engineers to scrub the launch, postponing the excitement for a day. “We were in safe mode, and externally received signal to go into safe mode. We don’t quite understand why that occurred,” said assistant launch manager Chuck Dovale. “We’re going to troubleshoot in the next few hours, and certainly won’t continue until we understand it.” Sounds good, but don’t make me wait too long for my satellite launch because having to reschedule my Glory launch party was a pain in the ass…………


- What will NFL players do if there is no season this fall due to a work stoppage? As the league nears the expiration date on its current collective bargaining agreement on March 3 and a new deal does not appear imminent, that question becomes more and more pertinent. For some, the answer is simple. Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie allegedly rolled into Los Angeles for the NBA’s All-Star weekend and ran up a $100,000 bar tab, so he’s clearly ready to party right through any potential lockout. For others, the answer could be more interesting. That’s especially true for incoming rookies, who could be part of a draft conducted with no CBA in place and thus not be able to sign contracts or become an active member of their new team. What do those draftees do? For Washington quarterback Jake Locker, the answer could be baseball. The Los Angeles Angels drafted Locker in the 10th round of the 2009 draft, gave him a $250,000 signing bonus and hold his rights until August of 2015. In the event of an NFL lockout, Locker could simply elect to play baseball and earn his money that way. The Angels are closely monitoring the situation and hope that Locker, whom they drafted as a strong-armed outfielder, will be playing for one of their farm teams this season. Angels general manager Tony Reagins confirmed that Locker has lived up to his obligations under the contract, including commuting to Arizona periodically to work out at the team's minor league facility. "I think there are some factors out there that are going to make his decisions more difficult," Reagins said. "The labor situation is one, where he's selected is one of them. Our eyes are wide open in this regard and we'll see how it plays out. You always have a chance." Baseball might not be the worst choice for Locker, who was once pegged as the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft but saw his stock fall precipitously after an inconsistent senior season. He is now ranked fourth or lower among quarterbacks by most draft experts and channeling his days as a standout pitcher and outfielder at Ferndale High School in Washington might be a solid option…………


- We may not be able to save everyone, but at least we can save the kids. That seems to be the philosophy behind a bill introduced by a state legislator in Ohio that would prohibit the sale of indoor tanning to anyone under the age of 18 unless permission has been granted through a prescription by a physician. Reps. Courtney Combs (R-Hamilton) and Lorraine Fende (D-Willowick) introduced the legislation on Wednesday and if Ohio has a competent state legislature, everyone else in the Ohio House and Senate will support this idea. Presently, the law requires that consumers under 18 obtain written consent from a parent or legal guardian prior to receiving tanning services. Because parents often just want to get their moody teens out of the house and out of their hair, giving them permission to hop in a cancer box and orange themselves up artificially is done without much thought. That would change if House Bill 119 becomes law. The bill aims to prevent teens from getting an early start on a life of skin cancer, heavily wrinkled skin by age 40 and other medical conditions related to too much tanning. "Many have clamored that if we prohibit the use of tanning beds for minors we might as well ban poolside and beach tanning, but that argument is moot," Combs said. "The amount of radiation produced during indoor tanning, in many cases, is stronger that the sun. There is direct evidence that exposure to UV radiation during indoor tanning damages the DNA in the skin cells. Studies have shown that 80 percent of skin damage happens before the age of 18." Those claims are backed up by data from the American Cancer Society, which claims skin cancer cases have rise from 500,000 to 1.2 million annually over the last 20 years. Those most likely to be affected by this bill, teenage girls, eventually become the women between the ages of 25-29 for whom melanoma is the leading cause of cancer-related death and the women between the ages of 30-34 who die from melanoma more often than other forms of cancer, with the exception of breast cancer. For those looking to track the bill’s progress and cheer it on, it will now be referred to a House committee for further discussion and begin to make its way through the long, slow legislative process………….


- That’ll show ‘em, Justin Bieber. For everyone (first and foremost, me) who steadfastly believes that Bieber is actually an 8-year-old Canadian girl based on his/her feeble, high-pitched voice, achieving your most success in selling nail polish is probably not the best maneuver. But I’m not an overrated, flavor-of-the-month Canadian pop hack currently enjoying his/her 15 minutes of fame, so let’s set my views aside and see what Biebs and his crew have cooked up. Using some of his music (in which all songs sound the same - crappy), Bieber created One Less Lonely Girl nail lacquer shade and so far, OLLG has sold out of more than 1 million bottles after arriving in stores in mid-December. Nicole by Opi, the makers of the nail polish, announced Wednesday that it has shipped triple the number of bottles to meet consumer demand, and the 14 shades of polish should be in stores Thursday to take advantage of what remains of the quickly fading popularity of Bieber’s Never Say Never movie. Something tells me that most of the people buying this crap are the same musically clueless, captivated-by-looks teenage girls who don’t actually like Bieber’s music or his nail polish as much as they think he’s cute. Were he to pack on 100 pounds, have zits all over his face and put his hair in dreadlocks, something tells me that neither One Less Lonely Girl nail lacquer shade nor Bieber’s music would have any success at all……….

Justice in bulk, reviving dead TV shows and angry dunk contest participants

- Justice came to Ahmedabad, India, in bulk Tuesday. A fast-track court convicted 31 accused and acquitted 63 in the 2002 Godhra train-burning case. The court did exonerate the case’s most prominent defendant, Maulavi Umarji, for lack of evidence, but did impose some conditions on the acquitted, asking them to furnish personal bonds of 10,000 rupis each and sureties and not to leave the country without the court's permission. Designated judge PR Patel labeled the incident an “act of pre-planned conspiracy” after presiding over the trial for 15 months from June 2009 to September 2010. The proceedings were oversized in every way, with 255 witnesses called to the stand and 19 charge sheets filed by the state police. Ironically, the case bore a strong resemblance to the American judicial system in that it took nine years to reach a verdict. The actual crime is so far in the past that most of us need a refresher course, so here goes: Nine years ago, 59 people were burnt to death by a mob on February 27, 2002 at Godhra station in central Gujarat. The incident was the launching point for the country's worst communal riots in Gujarat, leaving more than 1,200 people dead in a three-week-long caravan of carnage across the state. The Nanavati commission was appointed to investigate and in its first report, cited the conspiracy theory as the underlying cause of the incident. One part of the commission’s report that the court ultimately rejected was the assertion that Maulavi Umarji was one of the main conspirators in the case. Along with the criminal case, a petition is still pending in the Supreme Court by Godhra victims' families against the Gujarat High Court's decision to drop charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act against the accused. In its last decision on the petition back on February 12, 2009, the high court upheld the POTA review committee’s decision to drop the charges. It will come up for hearing on March 3. If the court elects to revive the POTA charges against the accused, it could lead to a re-trial of the case. As for Tuesday’s verdict, it was handed down in a courtroom inside the high-security Sabarmati central jail where 80 accused had been lodged since their arrest in 2002. Because no media members were allowed inside the courtroom, we’ll just have to imagine how things went down. “The motive of the conspiracy was to set the train on fire... The verdict is based on oral evidence and eyewitness accounts,” special public prosecutor JM Panchal said outside the court. "The judgment today nullifies all the wrong propaganda of the so-called NGOs that the Godhra train burning incident was not a conspiracy," Gujarat government spokesperson Jaynarayan Vyas added. As a noted fan of mass justice, I have to say I’m pretty pleased with how this all turned out……….


- Do you really want to pay more for the digital music you buy just for a slightly higher quality? Apple and other digital music retailers may soon give you that option as they are in discussions with record labels to improve the quality of the song files they sell. That could mean digital copies of songs that sound truer to their original recordings, obviously for a premium price. Songs are generally recorded in a 24-bit, high-fidelity audio format in the studio, but before the originals are pressed onto CDs or distributed to digital sellers like Apple's iTunes, they're downgraded to 16-bit files. Music retailers sometimes compress the audio even further to minimize the time the music will take to download or to allow it to be streamed on-the-fly over the internet. The transition should not be a huge issue for Mac users, as most Apple computers can play 24-bit sound and iTunes is capable of handling such files. The same does not hold true for most portable electronic devices and other brands of computers. In order to fully utilize the power of 24-bit sound, Apple would have to upgrade future versions of iPods and iPhones so they can play higher-quality files. This is not the first time Apple has upgraded the file quality of its digital music, as back in January 2009, the iTunes Store began offering most tracks in a bit-rate twice as high as its previous standard and free of copy-protection - if users were willing to pay a lot more for their songs. That effort was a partnership with music giant EMI. Presently, ITunes controls about 66% of the paid digital-download market and Amazon MP3 is far behind with 13 percent. Other digital music retailers are also exploring the willingness of customers to pay for higher-quality downloads, so Apple is not alone here. Others, like Shawn Layden, Sony Network's chief operating officer, believe most people don't care, or even notice, if their music is flawed. "The challenges of music right now -- I don't think the primary one is a quality issue," Layden said. "Music lovers worldwide are mostly keen right now on the convenience of access -- make it easier for me to have." Ah, now that sounds like a greedy, soul-less corporate record label executive, no? But for those who truly value the sound quality of their music, the type who still listens to vinyl copies of albums because they have the most genuine sound, this is an issue worth paying attention to………


- New York City just became that much cooler of a place to live or visit. Besides all of the amazing sights, food, entertainment options and more, NYC is now a place where smokers just became even bigger pariahs than they were previously. As of today, smoking is banned in many public spaces around the five boroughs thanks to legislation signed into law by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. This great idea of a law bans smoking in the city’s 1,700 parks and 14 miles of public beaches along with making all city pools and recreation centers smoke free. Better still, smoking is now banned in city pedestrian plazas, where people congregate. The fine is not immense - just $50 - but anything to penalize smokers even more is a brilliant idea because perhaps then they will be less likely to torment the rest of us with their toxic secondhand smoke. And in fact, that is one of the law’s primary goals, along with reducing trash. What this means, hopefully, it less walking down the street and having some idiot’s secondhand smoke wafting back in your face or going for a run in Central Park to get some exercise and having a huddle of smokers negating those health benefits by ruining the air with their cancer sticks. You’re now safe from smoke in restaurants, parks, stores, on the street, in government buildings and just about everywhere else that matters in New York City. As for smokers who are whining about not being able to smoke in the great expanse of Central Park…..suck it. Just because it’s a wide open space doesn’t mean that air needs to be polluted. This isn’t some mayoral crusade wherein Mayor Bloomberg is trying to stick it to you because the city council overwhelmingly approved the measure earlier this month. Smokers, you can still light up on sidewalks next to parks, squares, public places and parking lots…..for now. You also have a 90-day grace period before the law goes into effect, which is about 91 days more than you should get. Just combine this with the existing smoking ban for playgrounds, outdoor sporting events and concerts, as well as at bars and restaurants and follow accordingly. To better understand this great new piece of legislation, go to nyc.gov for more information………


- Turns out, not everyone was happy with how Saturday’s NBA Slam Dunk contest turned out. While Clippers rookie Blake Griffin won the event in disputed fashion by dunking over a compact car with a gospel choir singing R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly” at midcourt, Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan feels like the contest wasn’t on the up and up for several reasons. Asked if he believes he was robbed when he didn't reach the final of the competition, DeRozan replied, "I think so." But losing the contest isn’t the only reason DeRozan is pissed. He also feels like the other competitors, especially Griffin and Oklahoma City center Serge Ibaka, cheapened the contest by utilizing props. "I'm a dunker. Dunk contests, you go out there and dunk. I'm not into all the props and everything," DeRozan said. "I try to come out with a creative dunk and do it and go from there. My fans liked it and you can see the reaction from a lot of people afterward. If there's a dunk contest next year I'll do it. But not no prop dunk contest." Hmm…..a good blend of bitter and thoughtful, not just crabby about losing the contest…..I’ll take it. And if DeRozan is finished competing in the slam dunk contest, then so be it. What DeRozan doesn’t understand or at least won't admit is that the dunk contest has gone on for so many years and so many dunks have been done that the limits of what is physically possible in terms of creating new, original dunks have essentially been reached. If guys don’t bring props into the equation, then the contest is likely to get stale in a hurry. Controversy always helps and Washington's JaVale McGee arguably had a better collection of dunks than Griffin despite finishing second, but the props helped make the contest more watchable. Griffin used the choir and the car, Ibaka used a stuffed toy and a young child and McGee utilized an extra basket. Only DeRozan refused to use a single prop and the disparity was not lost on him. "I think a lot of people probably look at it like that. It seems that way when you watch it," he said. "This year I put thought into it. I practiced, had dunks ready and everything. It is what it is. I did it two years in a row. I'm good." Suit yourself, D., but just know that props in the dunk contest are here to stay…………


- Few things inspire more than grassroots campaigns by fans of endangered television shows or movies as they try to keep their favorite characters alive and well. Such campaigns save shows like NBC’s Chuck and fans of Firefly are hoping for a similar result now that they have launched a Web site and Facebook page trying to rally support to help actor Nathan Fillion buy the rights to the canceled Fox series. Fillion is on the record as saying that he’d be willing to reprise his Firefly role as Captain Mal again. He then sparked the campaign to resuscitate the show by adding, “If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.” Those comments, seemingly benign, inspired the online campaign and also vocal support from others involved with the show during its short run. Jose Molina, a producer on Syfy’s Haven and author of two Firefly episodes tweeted Friday regarding Fillion’s comment: “For what it’s worth, I’ve told him I’d drop what I was doing and follow.” Jane Espenson, also a writer of a Firefly episode and co-creator of Warehouse 13, replied to Molina: “I’m there, if needed.” So people are jumping on board, voicing their support, so perhaps it’s time to ask how much money is actually needed. Well, the $300 million figure Fillion referenced is far too high. Terminator rights sold for about $30 million and that seems like a reasonable amount for Firefly, which should actually be a bit cheaper. But buying the rights is only the first step because the show would then need to actually be produced. Even if Fillion can convince 20th Century Fox to sell the rights to the show (unlikely), finding the financial means to producer the show would be virtually impossible. Just don’t tell that to fans, who are trying to raise money that would likely be good for nothing unless Fox does something it has never done, namely sell the rights to a show. The next best option is trying to revive the show as something like a two-hour TV movie or DVD. Other than that, Firefly fans are simply wasting their time………

John Kerry heckled, the best FAT surgery to combat diabetes and Bronx baseball bitterness

- If I didn’t know better, I would suspect that the good people of Massachusetts are not cool with their state’s senior senator. Before we rush to any conclusions, however, let’s give Sen. John Kerry the benefit of the doubt. He visited the town of Northampton in western Massachusetts on Saturday to hold a town hall-style meeting to provide a forum for his constituents to discuss some of the key issues affecting their region and state. Giving the common man a voice and at least making him think that those in power give a damn about his opinion is a key part of any good democracy and you would think that the good folks of Massachusetts would take this chance and use it as the true democratic forum it was intended to be. So we go to the meeting and…….chaos? That’s right, instead of a friendly crowd ready and willing to debate the issues and explore new ideas, Sen. Kerry was confronted by an angry mob that eschewed the chance to talk about the issues and instead focused on excoriating him for his stances on issues like the war in Afghanistan, the government's response to the recession, health care and other important matters. Supporting the war in Afghanistan was a major bone of contention with citizens attending the meeting and a large part of the reason things devolved into a mess of shouting, angry allegations and menacing remarks. Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but any intention Kerry had of running for president at any point the next, say 20 years or so, he might want to shelve those plans. Perhaps after President Obama represents the Democratic Party in next year’s election and four more years pass, the anger that was so prominently on display Saturday will have subsided a bit. When the yelling finally died down at the town hall meeting, those who spoke also expressed strong concern about the need for continuing social programs, such as affordable housing, in western Massachusetts. That’s all well and good, but the only thing people will remember the meeting for in the days ahead will be the verbal beating issued to a sitting United States senator………


- Much like me, Eminem knows that awards shows aren’t where it’s at. Some academy or panel of uptight tools giving you another gold statue for your mantle may help sell a few more albums and get you more photo ops, but the real measure of success for a recording artist cannot be found in how many Grammys, MTV awards or other trophies he or she wins. A much better measure of an artist’s impact is…..page views. That’s right, page views, as in YouTube page views. And in that category, Eminem stands alone, head and shoulders above any other rapper in the game. While he may not have won a Grammy this year, the Detroit native has become the first rapper to have his videos reach a billion views on YouTube. That’s right, billion with a “b.” Now, the pride taken from this honor is dampened somewhat by the fact that Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga were the first two artists to reach the 1 billion mark for YouTube views, but let’s face it: People who use YouTube are morons. You cannot take numbers they generate with anything more than a grain of salt. Think about the sort of person who would spend hours and hours on YouTube watching music videos and you likely come up with a mental picture that, well, doesn’t exactly represent society’s elite or smartest. Considering that Rihanna will soon become the fourth member of the YouTube 1 billion club, any doubts you have about the worth of that number should be gone. Much like 500 home runs no longer has the same meaning in Major League Baseball because so many steroid-aided sluggers have reached that mark, 1 billion YouTube views was significant right up to the point when Bieber, the first to reach it, actually hit the mark……….


- Could this end badly? Is the son of a dictator in an impoverished African nation threatening “rivers of blood” in his country’s ongoing civil strife a harbinger of bad things to come? I’m choosing to maintain optimism, but I can see where Muammar Qaddafi’s son threatening those rivers of blood and deploying security forces on protesters could be viewed in a negative light. The fact that Libya erupted into violence last night after the younger Qaddafi’s comments could just be one big coincidence, right? Probably not. Check that, especially not, not when at least 250 people died in Tripoli alone after troops attacked “terror” hideouts and urged citizens to fight back the “organized gangs that are destroying Libya.” Those lies came directly from state television and came even amidst signs that some officials and troops were deserting. While the world looks anxiously on as the holder of Africa’s largest oil reserves threatens to implode, Libya’s leadership seems poised to use as much excess force as possible to quell the violence. Following in the heels of Yemen, Tunisia and Egypt, Libya is finding out that an angry citizenry is a dangerous citizenry. The difference in Libya may be a regime that is as bitterly entrenched as it can possibly be and one with no intention of stepping down or fading quietly into that good night. In other words, there will be blood and plenty of it. Qaddafi does not care that diplomats in several cities were reported to have abandoned his regime to protest against the violence or that two Libyan warplanes crossed to Malta and requested asylum after refusing to bomb protesters. That’s right, the rivers of blood must come from somewhere and apparently bombing its own citizens is how the government plans to create them. One of the loudest dissenting voices against the regime’s actions is none other than Libya’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Ibrahim Dabbashi. “We find it impossible to stay silent,” Dabbashi proclaimed. “The Libyan mission will be in the service of the Libyan people rather than in the service of the regime.” He went on to accuse the regime of “genocide.” With all of this going on, oil prices surged to their highest levels in months and Dubai’s benchmark index dropped to a six-month low. The conflict seems legitimately on its way to escalating to a civil war, something that did not happen in Tunisia, Egypt or Yemen. This one…..well, it’s going to be irrigated by rivers of blood…………


- We know that getting rid of those dozens of excess pounds is a great way to improving or eliminating type 2 diabetes (and improve your overall health, fatty), but if you can't muster the discipline to exercise and eat better, then gastric bypass surgery may be better than other surgical weight-loss procedures, according to two new studies. Dr. Guilherme M. Campos, lead author of one of two papers appearing in the February issue of the Archives of Surgery, is quick to admit the effectiveness of gastric bypass surgery but cautions overweight people to be careful in selecting their surgeon before embarking upon the process. That shouldn’t be too difficult, considering how common gastric bypass and lap-banding have become and thus, how many surgeons routinely perform the procedures. Campos and his team compared weight loss and diabetes outcomes in 100 patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery with 100 patients who underwent lap-banding and found that in the gastric bypass group, patients lost an average of 64 percent of their excess weight, versus 36 percent for those in the lap-banding group. That seems like a fair outcome, as gastric bypass is considered riskier and more technically demanding than the lap band procedure and those taking a bigger risk should receive a bigger reward. In Campos’ study, all patients were morbidly obese (with a body-mass index higher than 40), and 34 in each group had type 2 diabetes. Nearly 75 percent of study subjects undergoing gastric bypass surgery saw their diabetes improve or resolve, compared to just over 50 percent for the lap band group. As for complications, roughly equal numbers of patients in each study group experienced complications after one year, 12 percent in the gastric bypass group compared to 15 percent in the lap-banding group. A second study, conducted in Taiwan and led by Dr. Wei-Jei Lee of the Min-Sheng General Hospital, focused on a smaller group of 60 obese patients with type 2 diabetes who received gastric bypass surgery or sleeve gastrectomy, a third type of weight-loss procedure. Among the 60 participants, 93 percent of those undergoing gastric bypass surgery had their diabetes resolved, as opposed to 50 percent in the other group. After one year, those numbers fell to 57 percent and 0 percent. As in the first study, those in the gastric bypass group also lost more weight. Theories abound as to why gastric bypass is more effective than the lap band procedure, but these two studies were more focused on their respective impacts on diabetes than comparing their overall effectiveness. Ultimately, putting down the beef burrito supreme and 44 oz. Mountain Dew, backing away from the cherry cheesecake and going outside to get some exercise are the most productive route for FAT people……….


- Bitterness dies last in the Bronx. Not winning the World Series in a given year isn’t the end of the world for most franchises in Major League Baseball because the expectation of a championship on an annual basis does not exist in any city outside of New York and perhaps Boston. But for the men in pinstripes who call Yankee Stadium home, finishing in any place other than first place just won't do. That philosophy was true under the late George Steinbrenner and even after the bombastic owner passed away, it remained true with his sons Hank and Hal running the team. Any doubt about that fact was erased Monday when Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner lit up his team for not winning last year’s championship by suggesting that their celebration of their 2009 World Series championship may have lasted too long. "I think, maybe, they celebrated too much last year," Steinbrenner said. "Some of the players, too busy building mansions and doing other things and not concentrating on winning. I have no problem saying that." When he was reminded that Yankees captain Derek Jeter was building a large multimillion-dollar home in Tampa last year, Steinbrenner immediately tried to double back and avoid pointing the finger at the man typically known as the Captain in the Yankees locker room. "I was just saying, maybe they were riding the wave of '09 a little too much, and it happens sometimes," Steinbrenner said. "This year in spring so far, from what I've seen and what I've been told, they've come in with a real, new drive and determination -- the kind they had in '09." Oh, so you aren’t blaming this year’s team, just last year’s bunch of lackluster losers that was comprised of nearly the same group of players that make up this year’s roster. Either way, it’s reassuring to know that losing to a better Texas team in last year’s American League Championship Series on the heels of a massive fade in the second half of the season and winding up with the AL wild card hasn’t turned Steinbrenner even more bitter than ever. Also, I’m sure that Yankees players don’t at all mind having the boss question their focus, effort and intensity after they busted their butts all season long and came up short against a superior team. Lastly, I’m sure that it was just one giant coincidence that your critique referred to the exact same situation that one of your star players with whom you had contentious negotiations over a contract extension. Gotta love the Yankees and their drama…………