- 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……….
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