- The fighting spirit was on display across the NBA on Wednesday. There was the resurfacing story of Chicago Bulls forward Carlos Boozer renting out his house to Prince and having the Freaky One purple the place up with monogrammed carpet in the bedroom, a new paint job that included purple stripes on the sidewalk outside and other bizarre touches, with the revelation that Boozer wanted to fight Prince once he found out about the remodel before the Freaky One scratched him a $1 million check to cover the “damages.” In Washington, D.C., 6-foot-4 Wizards point guard John Wall took two elbows from 7’3 Miami Heat Center Zydrunas Illgauskas and responded with a closed fist to Illgauskas’ chest that got him ejected from the game. But the best fight of the night took place in Atlanta, where Hall of Famer and Atlanta Hawks television analyst Dominique Wilkins being attacked by a fan at the Hawks’ game against the Orlando Magic, a fan who was actually a former NBA referee turned clothing designer who claimed that Wilkins owed him money for suits purchased several years ago. Rashan S. Michel was arrested and charged with two counts of simple battery after storming press row where Wilkins, a vice president and broadcaster with the team, had just finished working Atlanta's 85-82 victory Wednesday night, and punching Wilkins. Michel claimed he was approaching Wilkins to confront him about a $13,000 debt for suits purchased several years back. After landing one punch, Michel then morphed into a human speed bag as Wilkins worked him with multiple punches to the face and head, leaving his attacker with a left eye that was swollen shut and in the custody of the Atlanta police department, wearing a pair of the silver bracelets. Wilkins was not injured, unless you count bruising his fists on Michel’s face as an injury. Police said Michel also struck a security guard before hitting Wilkins, who probably would have sent him to the hospital instead of the local precinct had arena security not finally gotten around to doing its job and restraining Michel, who was released from jail early Thursday morning on $1,000 bond. Michel worked as an NBA referee between 1997 and 2001 as Wilkins’ NBA career was winding its way to an uneventful end in between stints playing professionally in Europe. He also owned his own custom clothing company, but if he had as much trouble collecting from the rest of his clients as he supposedly did from Wilkins, it’s no wonder he wasn’t a success in the fashion world. All in all, an entertaining night of rage in the Association…………
- While not as familiar with the geography and demographics of India and its population as I’d like to be, it doesn’t take a trained sociologist to know that Haryana, which has become something of an economic success story in a struggling nation and has produced some of the country’s best female role models in sports in recent years, is not a good place for a single Indian fella to move if he’s looking for a new lady friend. Haryana may be an economic and gender-achievement success, but it also has one of the worst male-to-female ration of any state in the country. At 877 females per 1,000 males, Haryana has the second lowest sex ratio among the states. That ratio is worse than the 861 females per 1,000 males in the last such survey, conducted in 2001, and was nearly enough to hold off Haryana Delhi (with the lowest sex ration of 866 to 1,000) for the lowest in all of India, according to the early results of the 2011 national census released by the registrar general and census commissioner C. Chandramauli said on Thursday. The future isn't any brighter for Haryana, as it has reported the worst sex ratio of 830 girls per 1,000 boys in the 0-6 years age group, Haryana, followed by Punjab with 846. Haryana also has the two districts - Jhajjar and Mahendergarh - with the lowest sex ratio of 774 and 778, respectively. The numbers are not a huge surprise in a state where the people show a marked preference for sons and killing of unborn girls continues unfettered. Still, hope can be found in the increasing sex ratio, making Haryana one of just seven states and union territories recording an improvement in the last decade. The child sex ratio (which sounds really bad if taken out of context) has shown a decline over the 2001 census in the remaining 27 states and union territories. On a more positive note, the census also showed that the effective literacy rate in the state has also gone up to 76.6 percent from 67.9 percent in the 2001 census, with women recording a higher percentage of growth. Still, better-educated ladies in Haryana doesn’t translate to more available ladies and for Indian dudes looking for the love of their life, there are simply better options…………
- In its rush to beat Google and Apple to the punch in debuting its new "music locker" service this week, Amazon may have actually undercut its effort by opening the door to a litany of new copyright challenges. Amazon’s new cloud-based music service known as Cloud Drive is based on the principle of allowing users store the songs they purchase on Amazon's servers and play them from almost anywhere, which is a smart way of including cloud computing into the digital music world. However, doing so may not be entirely legal under copyright law, hence the copyright issues. The dispute over whether a service that offers consumers access to music via the cloud must first acquire licenses from the music labels that control the copyrights on that music is predictably heated given the amount of potential licensing fees to be paid or ignored. Amazon has insisted that is needs no such license and company spokesperson Cat Griffin stated that "the functionality of saving MP3s to Cloud Drive is the same as if a customer were to save their music to an external hard drive or even iTunes." Surprisingly, some power players in the recording industry agree with Amazon’s stance. Others, like Sony, are noncommittal when it comes to a possible lawsuit to prevent Amazon from moving forward with Cloud Drive. Sony spokeswoman Liz Young cryptically stated that the company is "keeping all our legal options open." A bit player in the digital music scene, startup company MP3Tunes, has been fighting a similar legal battle that has yet to be resolved, so the outcome of Amazon’s case is likely to have an impact far beyond the Cloud Drive project. If Amazon proceedings unencumbered, then Apple and Google would essentially have a green light to launch similar projects that each has been working on. The MP3Tunes case centers on a specific record label, EMI, and it could also affect Amazon’s own battle. The EMI v. MP3tunes case is pending in the Southern District of New York and is over EMI’s contention that MP3tunes is directly liable for copyright infringement for allowing users to publicly perform, reproduce, and distribute their copyrighted works. MP3Tunes countered that it actually maintains a separate copy of each song for every user that uploads it. "What is retrieved from the system is the user's own unique copy--that is a copy of the music file that was created as a result of that user's direction to store the original file on the MP3tunes system," the company’s lawyers from Duane Morris wrote in their brief. "To our knowledge, no court has ever ruled that rudimentary software storage functionality constitutes copyright infringement..." The copyright issue is one of first impression for the courts and appears destined for a protracted and costly legal battle. Digital music services are pinning their hopes largely on a Second Circuit's ruling in the 2008 Cablevision case that determined a DVR system that allows cable viewers to record their favorite shows does not violate copyright law. Similar principles apply in the case of digital music, although the two cases are not identical. But if Amazon’s service - storing separate copies of every song purchased and uploaded to the locker - is deemed by the court to be similar to Cablevision’s, Cloud Drive should enjoy the same immunity from liability under copyright law. That could lead to record labels challenging the decision in court and initiate a legal battle that could drag on for years as copyright law in the area of digital content continues to be defined…………
- Still with the Betty White fascination, America? Has the goodwill from her wildly overrated Snickers commercial during Super Bowl XXIV not worn off yet? Not to rain on your entertainment parade, but White isn't that funny and honestly, she never was. The Golden Girls was never a good show and never anything but a ridiculous caricature of how bad a sitcom can truly be when you center it around a bunch of kooky, geriatric women. As for anything White has done since her Snickers spot, including her current sitcom Hot in Cleveland for TV Land, none of it has been great either. Yet there is NBC, the same network that handed her a chance to host Saturday Night Live even though her comedic skills are amusing only because they’re so bad and laughable, giving White her own show as the octogenarian version of Ashton Kutcher. Even Kutcher has long since moved past the Punk’D phase of his life, pranking unsuspecting celebrities with over-the-top stunts like stealing their luxury cars, framing them for theft or other costly missteps. NBC clearly feels there is life left in the hidden-camera comedy show genre and announced Wednesday that it will broadcast Betty White's Off Their Rockers, a new hidden-camera comedy show hosted and executive -produced by White. The show’s initial run will consist of 12 half-hour episodes following a band of seven senior citizens who play pranks on unsuspecting younger people. Of course, most everyone on the planet is younger than White, so she could conceivably roll up on a retirement home and hide patients’ wheelchairs and swap out their medications for kicks. "People have been telling me that I'm 'Off My Rocker' for years -- now I can prove it," White cracked in a news release put out by NBC. With this surefire gem hitting the air soon, Hot in Cleveland having been picked up for a third season and her new book If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) to be released by Penguin on May 3, White is busier now than she’s been at any point since Golden Girls left the air and honestly, it makes no sense at all because SHE’S NOT THAT FUNNY. Apparently the power of Super Bowl candy bar commercials is stronger than anyone realized…………
- All U.S. Navy personnel looking for a good time while on land in the Hampton Roads area now have one less option on their plate. The Navy announced Wednesday that is has placed the Atlantis Gentlemen's Club in Virginia Beach off-limits to all Navy personnel in the area due to recent news reports and history of illegal activity at the establishment. That’s right, alleged illegal activities at a strip club, it is shocking indeed. And no, illegal activities does not refer to the questionable food offerings at any strip club that may or may not meet health code standards or the standards for what qualifies as actual food. Believe it or not, Atlantis was the scene of a major police operation when a search warrant regarding drug distribution was executed at the club on March 25. Drugs at a strip club? Wow. By wow, I mean that the police in any town could roll into any strip club in their zip code and find plenty of illegal narcotics simply by searching the lockers of the “aspiring law students” donning G-strings and pasties and shaking their moneymaker on stage for dozens of lecherous losers who can’t find a woman to take her clothes off for them of her own volition as opposed to being paid in $1 increments for doing so. Doesn’t every stripper have a coke habit? Thus, police could make a bust at every strip club in their precinct every day if they chose to do so. During execution of the search warrant, Virginia Beach police also issued summonses to two individuals inside the club - one for possession of marijuana, the other for indecent exposure and yes, a person can indecently expose themselves in a place where others are paid to expose themselves. The bust followed in October incident in which Norfolk police officer Victor Decker was last seen alive at the club before later being shot and killed just a couple hundred yards away from the club by a passing motorist. Because of those incidents, the business at 446 Oceana Boulevard, near Naval Air Station Oceana, has been placed off-limits to naval personnel as of March 28 by Rear Adm. Mark S. Boensel, Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic (CNRMA). Naval officials say the commander has the authorization to temporarily place civilian establishments off-limits based on situations that are considered dangerous to the health and well-being of Navy members. The order applies to all active-duty Navy personnel and Navy Reserve personnel on temporary active-duty, although enforcing that ban could be difficult. The Armed Force Disciplinary Control Board of Southeastern Virginian and Northeastern North Carolina will now review the matter and determine if the business will be formally placed off-limits to all military personnel………….
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Links 'twixt physical and emotional pain, hollow change in Myanmar and hockey players are still badass
- Hollow, meaningless change intended to placate the people? Check. No actual change in the power structure and how your repressive nation operates on a daily basis? Check. Yes, it’s business as usual in Myanmar, where a supposedly civilian government took office on Wednesday but little actual change took place because the military, which has ruled for a half-century, maintained its grip on power. There was plenty of pomp and circumstance was Thein Sein, a retired military officer who leads the military-backed majority party in a newly elected Parliament, was sworn in as president. Sein formally replaced the military junta that has been headed by Senior Gen. Than Shwe for the past two decades, but the chances of actual change in the day-to-day existence of an oppressed people is somewhere between zero and -10 percent. Gen. Shwe will remain in power behind the scenes and have the right to override civilian rule by decree, so lots of luck trying to push through any real changes. Ultimately, a nation that has been under military rule since 1962 and ruled by the current junta since 1988 continues to be ruled by that same system. The country may now be called Myanmar instead of Burma, but its governmental system can still be classified as stifling and unfriendly to the basic rights of its citizens. Even when a military-backed party was routed in an election in 1990, the army refused to give up power. Opposition Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was freed last November after spending nearly 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest, but her party, the National League for Democracy, chose not to take part in the parliamentary election held just before her release. The NLD has no representation in the new Parliament and is little more than a lone voice shouting futilely in the desert at this point. But like the rest of us, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters can get a good laugh out of the supposed culmination of a “roadmap to democracy” that included a constitutional referendum in 2008 and the election last year. No one outside of those already in power viewed that roadmap as anything other than a plan to keep the current system in place while pacifying those demanding change. Evidence of this can be seen in a quick glance at the new constitution, which reserves 25 percent of the seats in Parliament for serving military officers. The military and the military-backed party control about 84 percent of the seats overall, so any chance of passing anti-military legislation is about as high as Drew Carey’s chances of winning a bodybuilding competition. All government ministers and senior judges currently in place were appointed by Gen. Shwe as well, so put another nail in the coffin of potential change. Simply put, Myanmar, different day, same sh*t…………
- Rejection by a member of the opposite sex hurts at any age, but the pain could extend beyond emotional anguish, according to a study led by researcher Edward Smith, a cognitive neuroscientist at Columbia University in New York. Smith and his team discovered that the experience and the memory of getting dumped by a loved one trigger brain regions linked with physical sensations of pain. Because terms like "hurt" and "pain" have long been used across cultures to describe both physical and mental suffering, researchers decided to examine whether the sensations were activating the same parts of the brain. Smith saw a definite link between the two and theorized that vulnerability from rejection “might be why this link evolved between rejection and pain, to make us want to avoid rejection." There is not a large body of evidence suggesting a tie between emotional and physical suffering from rejection and the two phenomena triggering similar pain areas in the brain. Smith saw deficiencies in those studies because they attempted to elicit feelings of rejection in test subjects by telling them they had been excluded from a game or activity, disappointments that would not produce severe feelings of rejection. "We wanted something bigger," Smith said. To recruit participants for their study, Smith and his colleagues put out fliers in Manhattan and placed online ads on Facebook and Craigslist looking for people who had been through an unwanted breakup in the last six months. Forty volunteers responded and their brains were scanned through functional magnetic resonance imaging as they split time between looking at photos of their ex and photos of a friend. During this time, participants were asked to focus on experiences they shared with the people in the pictures. Researchers also place probes on participants’ forearms that could get painfully hot and compared the pain from the emotional trauma to that of the physical suffering. A comparison of the scans from the two types of pain being experienced showed that parts of the brain linked with physical pain also lit up when individuals were remembering bad breakups. "Rejection literally hurts," Smith said. Using their findings, the researchers are now examining possible techniques for easing such mental suffering, including methods that therapists already use. "For instance, one piece of advice when thinking about rejection is to view experiences with an ex-partner as an outside person from a distance," Smith said. "We want to see if this really does help at the level of the brain." Not that everyone reading this doesn’t already subscribe to the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, but the study’s findings can also be found on the journal’s website as well for those looking to infuse a little scientific knowledge into their day…………
- What is the world coming to when a person can't fire up their video game console, pop in their favorite game and slap around some b*tches and ho’s? Why must there always be a group of uptight squares who insist that such games send a bad message to children and should be banned? The latest uproar over a supposedly over-the-top, violent game is taking place over a new Duke Nukem video game to hit the market in June. Plano, Tex.-based game maker Gearbox is set to release the first Duke Nukem game in 12 years and after waiting more than a decade for it, gamers are pumped…….but the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center is not. The center objects to the game on the account that it serves to perpetuate a culture of violence against women. " We're never going to be able to stop it, as long as these kinds of games, are put in the hands of the public," said Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center Executive Director Jana Barker. First and foremost, it’s important to state that any group or organization seeking to prevent rape and assist victims of a truly horrible crime should be supported and commended. Rape is right behind murder as the worst act one human can do to another and anything that actually perpetuates such an act is definitely to be condemned. The thing is……'Duke Nukem Forever' doesn’t perpetuate anything other than losers with no friends and no social life sitting on their couch, glued to their Wii, Xbox or PlayStation, gaming online with other likeminded losers. Just because players can log on and play as a character who roughs up women doesn’t mean they will seek to replicate those feats in real life. Millions of people play “Call of Duty” every day and I don’t see anyone forming their own battalion, arming themselves with automatic weapons, grenade launchers and surface-to-air missiles and seeking to storm the next town and take it over. Barker doesn’t even have a full grasp of what the game is all about because like the general public, she has only seen a trailer for the game. Normally, groups that campaign against violent video games do so to keep them out of the hands of children, but Barker believes the game is not suitable for anybody. Specifically, she objects to a feature of the game called "Capture The Babe" mode, where users have to kidnap and slap women. "Is this how you want your mother, your sister, your daughter to be treated. Is this the message you want to bring to people that this is how you treat women?" Barker asked. Well, if my mother, sister or daughter ever becomes a fictional character in a video game, then sure, go for it. That’s the beautiful thing about video games; their characters aren’t real and feel no pain. Arguing that these games cause people - especially adults - to change their behavior patterns is a huge, huge reach with no real basis in reality. That hasn’t stopped Barker from calling for a boycott of the game. "If you really believe in violence against women and stopping it and changing our society's view towards women, you have to do it," she said. Unfortunately for her, all her crusade is likely to do is create more publicity for the game and drive up sales even further…………
- Chalk this up as the 5,117th reason why most of us could never, ever play hockey. For anyone who has ever been cut severely enough to need stitches, the experience is invariably painful enough that you do everything in your power to make sure you never go through it again. If getting four or five stitches between you fell and cracked your head on the side of the porch at your house is that painful, how bad would it be to receive more than 40 stitches to close a nasty cut above your right eye after being hit by the skate blade of another player during an NHL game? The unfortunate soul on the receiving end of that blow would be Boston Bruins forward Shawn Thornton, who received that gaping hole in his face above his right eye after he was hit by Chicago Blackhawks forward Fernando Pisani’s skate in the second period of Boston's 3-0 win Tuesday night at TD Garden. "I'm fine," Thornton said after the game. "I guess I was lucky. It could have been worse. It could have been on the eye. No headache, no concussion, no nothing. It was just throbbing a little bit from getting stitches, but nothing bad." The collision occurred while Thornton was on the forecheck early in the second period. Thornton and Pisani collided behind the Chicago net and within a few seconds Thornton was back on his feet, skating toward his team’s bench and dripping a trail of blood behind him. Referee Don Van Massenhoven assisted him off the ice but as the two skated past the Blackhawks' bench, a Chicago player shouted something at Thornton and despite bleeding heavily from a cut that would have most of us on the verge of passing out, he tried to charge whoever was talking smack to him and had to be held back before exiting the ice. "Something was said," Thornton said. "Obviously I can't swear when I talk to [the media]. There was some stuff said that I'm not happy about. I'm going to find out who it was and I will deal with it in my own way. Those guys on their team chirp a lot. I don't know if it is right when someone's face is half across the other side of their face, but it's a tough game and people have to live with their actions. If you guys ever find out who it is, don't be afraid to send me a Christmas card." After all of that, Thornton went to the training room and was stitched up and in the locker room talking to the media after the game. He also plans to be back on the ice for the Bruins’ next game, proving once again that hockey players are as tough as they come……….
- America overdosed on the drug that is Charlie Sheen two weeks or so ago, but that hasn’t stopped Sheen from continuing to ride his crazy train wherever it may take him and to continue making up asinine names and terms for himself and his act as he goes. Now that he’s debuted a horrifically bad online talk show, managed to get himself fired from a lucrative gig with CBS and gone on every radio and TV talk show that will have him, what’s next for a man who is clearly milking his insane act for as long as possible? If you guessed hitting the studio with one of the most motley crews ever to record together, then you’re a winner. Despite being a relative newcomer to Twitter, Sheen (or someone in his crew) clearly understands how to use the popular micro-blogging sites various features because earlier this week, Sheen linked a photo on his Twitter.com page, Twitter.com/charliesheen, showing him with rapper Snoop Dogg and former Korn guitarist Rob Patterson, working in a studio. Sheen did not reveal the nature of the project nor hint at if or when the collaboration would be released. Instead, he tweeted, "Warlock [a name Sheen has been referring to himself by for the last few weeks] meets his makers-music makers that is Snoop Dogg and Rob Patterson. Get ready to rock the Sheenius within!" Oh good, he’s still making up dork-ish-sounding names for himself and coining moronic new phrases built around his name, sweet. Charlie, I hate to be the one to burst your “Sheenius” bubble, but the rest of us jumped off your bandwagon long ago, right around the time you aired your epically awful U-Stream talk show with you, your skanks, er, goddesses and your crew rambling on about nothing at all for nearly an hour. Suckering Snoop Dogg into a publicity stunt, er, recording session with you is impressive and all, but clearly what you’re doing is one big show and with a collective attention span rivaling that of an ADD-addled fruit fly, America has moved on……….
- Rejection by a member of the opposite sex hurts at any age, but the pain could extend beyond emotional anguish, according to a study led by researcher Edward Smith, a cognitive neuroscientist at Columbia University in New York. Smith and his team discovered that the experience and the memory of getting dumped by a loved one trigger brain regions linked with physical sensations of pain. Because terms like "hurt" and "pain" have long been used across cultures to describe both physical and mental suffering, researchers decided to examine whether the sensations were activating the same parts of the brain. Smith saw a definite link between the two and theorized that vulnerability from rejection “might be why this link evolved between rejection and pain, to make us want to avoid rejection." There is not a large body of evidence suggesting a tie between emotional and physical suffering from rejection and the two phenomena triggering similar pain areas in the brain. Smith saw deficiencies in those studies because they attempted to elicit feelings of rejection in test subjects by telling them they had been excluded from a game or activity, disappointments that would not produce severe feelings of rejection. "We wanted something bigger," Smith said. To recruit participants for their study, Smith and his colleagues put out fliers in Manhattan and placed online ads on Facebook and Craigslist looking for people who had been through an unwanted breakup in the last six months. Forty volunteers responded and their brains were scanned through functional magnetic resonance imaging as they split time between looking at photos of their ex and photos of a friend. During this time, participants were asked to focus on experiences they shared with the people in the pictures. Researchers also place probes on participants’ forearms that could get painfully hot and compared the pain from the emotional trauma to that of the physical suffering. A comparison of the scans from the two types of pain being experienced showed that parts of the brain linked with physical pain also lit up when individuals were remembering bad breakups. "Rejection literally hurts," Smith said. Using their findings, the researchers are now examining possible techniques for easing such mental suffering, including methods that therapists already use. "For instance, one piece of advice when thinking about rejection is to view experiences with an ex-partner as an outside person from a distance," Smith said. "We want to see if this really does help at the level of the brain." Not that everyone reading this doesn’t already subscribe to the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, but the study’s findings can also be found on the journal’s website as well for those looking to infuse a little scientific knowledge into their day…………
- What is the world coming to when a person can't fire up their video game console, pop in their favorite game and slap around some b*tches and ho’s? Why must there always be a group of uptight squares who insist that such games send a bad message to children and should be banned? The latest uproar over a supposedly over-the-top, violent game is taking place over a new Duke Nukem video game to hit the market in June. Plano, Tex.-based game maker Gearbox is set to release the first Duke Nukem game in 12 years and after waiting more than a decade for it, gamers are pumped…….but the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center is not. The center objects to the game on the account that it serves to perpetuate a culture of violence against women. " We're never going to be able to stop it, as long as these kinds of games, are put in the hands of the public," said Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center Executive Director Jana Barker. First and foremost, it’s important to state that any group or organization seeking to prevent rape and assist victims of a truly horrible crime should be supported and commended. Rape is right behind murder as the worst act one human can do to another and anything that actually perpetuates such an act is definitely to be condemned. The thing is……'Duke Nukem Forever' doesn’t perpetuate anything other than losers with no friends and no social life sitting on their couch, glued to their Wii, Xbox or PlayStation, gaming online with other likeminded losers. Just because players can log on and play as a character who roughs up women doesn’t mean they will seek to replicate those feats in real life. Millions of people play “Call of Duty” every day and I don’t see anyone forming their own battalion, arming themselves with automatic weapons, grenade launchers and surface-to-air missiles and seeking to storm the next town and take it over. Barker doesn’t even have a full grasp of what the game is all about because like the general public, she has only seen a trailer for the game. Normally, groups that campaign against violent video games do so to keep them out of the hands of children, but Barker believes the game is not suitable for anybody. Specifically, she objects to a feature of the game called "Capture The Babe" mode, where users have to kidnap and slap women. "Is this how you want your mother, your sister, your daughter to be treated. Is this the message you want to bring to people that this is how you treat women?" Barker asked. Well, if my mother, sister or daughter ever becomes a fictional character in a video game, then sure, go for it. That’s the beautiful thing about video games; their characters aren’t real and feel no pain. Arguing that these games cause people - especially adults - to change their behavior patterns is a huge, huge reach with no real basis in reality. That hasn’t stopped Barker from calling for a boycott of the game. "If you really believe in violence against women and stopping it and changing our society's view towards women, you have to do it," she said. Unfortunately for her, all her crusade is likely to do is create more publicity for the game and drive up sales even further…………
- Chalk this up as the 5,117th reason why most of us could never, ever play hockey. For anyone who has ever been cut severely enough to need stitches, the experience is invariably painful enough that you do everything in your power to make sure you never go through it again. If getting four or five stitches between you fell and cracked your head on the side of the porch at your house is that painful, how bad would it be to receive more than 40 stitches to close a nasty cut above your right eye after being hit by the skate blade of another player during an NHL game? The unfortunate soul on the receiving end of that blow would be Boston Bruins forward Shawn Thornton, who received that gaping hole in his face above his right eye after he was hit by Chicago Blackhawks forward Fernando Pisani’s skate in the second period of Boston's 3-0 win Tuesday night at TD Garden. "I'm fine," Thornton said after the game. "I guess I was lucky. It could have been worse. It could have been on the eye. No headache, no concussion, no nothing. It was just throbbing a little bit from getting stitches, but nothing bad." The collision occurred while Thornton was on the forecheck early in the second period. Thornton and Pisani collided behind the Chicago net and within a few seconds Thornton was back on his feet, skating toward his team’s bench and dripping a trail of blood behind him. Referee Don Van Massenhoven assisted him off the ice but as the two skated past the Blackhawks' bench, a Chicago player shouted something at Thornton and despite bleeding heavily from a cut that would have most of us on the verge of passing out, he tried to charge whoever was talking smack to him and had to be held back before exiting the ice. "Something was said," Thornton said. "Obviously I can't swear when I talk to [the media]. There was some stuff said that I'm not happy about. I'm going to find out who it was and I will deal with it in my own way. Those guys on their team chirp a lot. I don't know if it is right when someone's face is half across the other side of their face, but it's a tough game and people have to live with their actions. If you guys ever find out who it is, don't be afraid to send me a Christmas card." After all of that, Thornton went to the training room and was stitched up and in the locker room talking to the media after the game. He also plans to be back on the ice for the Bruins’ next game, proving once again that hockey players are as tough as they come……….
- America overdosed on the drug that is Charlie Sheen two weeks or so ago, but that hasn’t stopped Sheen from continuing to ride his crazy train wherever it may take him and to continue making up asinine names and terms for himself and his act as he goes. Now that he’s debuted a horrifically bad online talk show, managed to get himself fired from a lucrative gig with CBS and gone on every radio and TV talk show that will have him, what’s next for a man who is clearly milking his insane act for as long as possible? If you guessed hitting the studio with one of the most motley crews ever to record together, then you’re a winner. Despite being a relative newcomer to Twitter, Sheen (or someone in his crew) clearly understands how to use the popular micro-blogging sites various features because earlier this week, Sheen linked a photo on his Twitter.com page, Twitter.com/charliesheen, showing him with rapper Snoop Dogg and former Korn guitarist Rob Patterson, working in a studio. Sheen did not reveal the nature of the project nor hint at if or when the collaboration would be released. Instead, he tweeted, "Warlock [a name Sheen has been referring to himself by for the last few weeks] meets his makers-music makers that is Snoop Dogg and Rob Patterson. Get ready to rock the Sheenius within!" Oh good, he’s still making up dork-ish-sounding names for himself and coining moronic new phrases built around his name, sweet. Charlie, I hate to be the one to burst your “Sheenius” bubble, but the rest of us jumped off your bandwagon long ago, right around the time you aired your epically awful U-Stream talk show with you, your skanks, er, goddesses and your crew rambling on about nothing at all for nearly an hour. Suckering Snoop Dogg into a publicity stunt, er, recording session with you is impressive and all, but clearly what you’re doing is one big show and with a collective attention span rivaling that of an ADD-addled fruit fly, America has moved on……….
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Guatemalan drama, Facebook depression and NBA vagabonds
- Facebook has officially hit the big time. No, it’s not because a movie was made about its creation, nor is it because the site has hit a certain benchmark for users or made a certain amount of money. The reason Facebook has truly, truly arrived is the creation of its very own psychological disorder, coined as “Facebook depression.” A new study by the American Academy of Pediatrics has proposed Facebook depression as a new disorder on the basis that youths who spend a lot of time on social media sites are at risk of "Facebook depression.” The study, published online for the first time Monday, theorizes that despite similarities to the symptoms and the resulting harmful behavior of traditional depression, “Facebook depression” is actually a new phenomenon. The new clinical report, “The Impact of Social Media Use on Children, Adolescents and Families,” lays out both the negative and positive effects of social media use on youth and families. It states the obvious - the number of preadolescents and adolescents using such sites as Facebook and MySpace has increased dramatically during the last five years - and cites statistics showing the share of visitors to Facebook under 18 years of age increased over the past year to 11.1 percent. Gwenn O’Keeffe, MD, FAAP, co-author of the clinical report, also points out an even more obvious phenomenon: that social media, rather than face-to-face interaction, is the primary way many youths interact. “A large part of this generation’s social and emotional development is occurring while on the Internet and on cell phones," she stated in the report. "Facebook is where all the teens are hanging out now. It's their corner store.” Wow…..you needed to waste time and research dollars figuring that out? Credit O’Keeffe and her fellow researchers for not only researching the negative aspects of social media usage, but also examining increased connection with friends and family, making new friends, community engagement, and enhancement of creativity to the regular use of Facebook and other social media sites. Those are balanced out by cyberbullying, social anxiety, severe isolation, and now what doctors are now calling Facebook depression. "Acceptance by and contact with peers is an important element of adolescent life. The intensity of the online world is thought to be a factor that may trigger depression in some adolescents," the report states. O’Keeffe pointed to basic Facebook features and data like the number of friends a person has on the site, status updates and photos of happy people as possible causes of Facebook depression. Of course, if kids weren’t depressed by seeing those reminders of how unpopular they are online, they would still be seeing them in real life, but never mind that. How are parents to cope with possible Facebook depression in their child? The AAP study doesn’t offer any concrete solutions, but the general idea seems to be the same measures that are used to detect and combat traditional depression. Thanks for nothing, American Academy of Pediatrics researchers and congrats to you, Facebook, for your big achievement………….
- Aren’t Californians supposed to be chill? Someone should alert Sacramento city councilwoman Angelique Ashby of that fact because she is far too uptight and far too close-minded for she and her city’s own good. Her uptightness reared its ugly head when a billboard advertising for medical marijuana evaluations went up on Highway 160, a main highway heading into downtown Sacramento. The billboard is an advertisement for 420 Relief, a business that owner Steve Macki insists is a legal operation exercising its right to free speech. "We have had some positive response and we look forward to issuing recommendations," Macki said. And yes, his business is in fact called 420 Relief, an homage to the time of day stoners say is the absolute best time to burn a fattie. The billboard has drawn the ire of Ashby, who wants to see it taken down. "I would prefer we have different advertisements there," said Ashby. Why? Because you’re too good for stoners, councilwoman? Could you look down your nose any more at a group that hasn’t done anything to harm you or your city - or anyone else for that matter? Stoners are mellow, laid back and unlikely to get off the couch to do anything that would disrupt the daily goings on of Sacramento. Why would you want to deny the First Amendment rights of a business that has the potential to carry your state’s economy going forward? Stoners, er, medical patients in need of medicinal hippie lettuce are always going to seek the chronic and if advertising can help grow that business, so be it. Macki has admitted that his business has increased since the sign went on display, so there is definitive proof for you right there. Also, it is worth mentioning that if city council members in major California cities are going to act like a bunch of uptight squares, the state is going to lose its reputation as one of the coolest, chillest states in this great nation……….
- Oprah Winfrey has become one of the richest, most influential and successful people in the media game by making good decisions. She wields a lot of power on account of her good choices, but that doesn’t mean she won't make a terrible decision from time to time. This is one of those times. According to the foul-mouthed, crass, classes blob known as Rosie O’Donnell, her new talk show will call Oprah Winfrey's OWN Network home this fall. "I just wanted to say hi, and I'm coming to Chicago," O'Donnell said in the video blog. "It's a huge thrill for me, and I'm beyond the beyond." We’re all beyond something, O’Fat, but I believe what the rest of us are beyond is belief and horror. Just look to O’Fat’s run of terror as a co-host on The View, when she openly clashed with every other co-host on the show and displayed her lack of class and intelligence at every turn. She said incredibly stupid and ill-informed things for no defensible reason, other than possibly trying to create controversy and keep herself on the air. She seemed to be on the verge of a full-on fistfight with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck every time the two of them were on the set together and her idiocy also prompted an all-time great rant from one of her targets, Donald Trump, as he absolutely eviscerated her and ran down a laundry list of her many negative attributes as if he were ordering lunch of the menu at his favorite high-end eatery. O’Fat then launched a magazine she named after herself and that too was an epic failure that lasted only a few months. Yes, she did win multiple Emmys in a row for her previous talk show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, which ran from 1996-2002, but that was before the world really got to know what a crass, lowbrow slob she was and still is. What inspired Oprah to hand her air time on a her brand-new cable network, we’ll never know. Sure, Oprah needs to fill the 24 hours in every day and she can't do it all herself, but O’Fat? Needless to say, O’Fat was effusive in her gratitude and praise for Winfrey and OWN. "Thank you Oprah, and thank all of you who will be sticking around and helping us make a kick-ass show for the Oprah Winfrey Network," she said. Not only has Winfrey backed O’Fat by giving her a show, but her Chicago-based studio has already purchased 130 episodes of future talk show. Winfrey said in a statement: "I'm delighted to welcome Rosie to the studio I've called home for so many years. Speaking from experience, she will be working with the best team in television in one of the greatest cities in the world." Not that I’ve ever been a huge fan of Winfrey show, but the idea of a foul-mouthed, slovenly, classless train wreck of a comedienne desecrating that studio with her horrible brand of talk show hosting just doesn’t seem right………..
- Politics 1, Love 0. That’s the current tally on the scoreboard in Guatemala, where the country’s first lady has decided to end her eight-year marriage in order to succeed her husband as president. Because Guatemala's constitution prohibits members of a president's extended family from running for the presidency, Sandra Torres de Colom could not follow husband and current President Alvaro Colom in office. Rather than honor her wedding vows and run for office in the next election, Sandra Torres de Colom has elected to commence divorce proceedings, which began Monday, and if both parties agree, the divorce could be final in about a month. President Colom cannot run for re-election, so someone has to step up to lead and Torres announced March 8 that she will be the presidential candidate of the governing National Unity for Hope party in the September election. The cynic could argue that the divorce is a total sham designed to circumvent the Guatemalan constitution, which was written in 1985 when a right-wing military was in power and sought to restrict access to the presidency. How great would it be if Torres were elected in September, took office and announced that she and Colom were going to re-marry? Also, how will Guatemalans react to what could definitely be seen as a de facto continuation of a regime that has been beset by allegations of corruption in a country famous for them? A WikiLeaks diplomatic cable characterized Torres as the "most able" member of the government and also the "most abrasive." Right now, Torres is trailing in every single presidential poll and she is already facing pointed criticism from opponents and constitutionalists who have denounced the divorce for political purposes as "immoral." It will be difficult for Torres to preach the importance of family and moral values when she sacrificed her marriage just to run for president, but everyone has their choices to make…………
- The Sacramento Kings and the city of Sacramento do not appear to be headed toward a positive resolution of their long-running battle over the NBA team’s future in California’s capital city. Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof have hinted for months at the possibility of moving the team if they cannot secure a new arena to replace the club’s outdated current home, the Arco Arena. That speculation has firmed up in recent weeks as the Maloofs filed paperwork with the NBA to extend its normal deadline of March 1 for any team wishing to relocate prior to the next season. While filing that paperwork, the Maloofs were busy researching a move to Anaheim, where the city-owned Honda Center would be a perfect landing place for the Kings. Despite openly looking into the move, neither of the Maloofs had ripped the city of Sacramento publicly for failing to secure financing for a new arena - until Monday. Joe Maloof made his first public comment Monday about the franchise's possible relocation to Anaheim, cracking on a letter sent between the cities' governments. He was asked about a letter written by Sacramento Assistant City Manager John Dangberg to officials in Anaheim claiming that a move could cause "irreparable harm to the City of Sacramento" if the Kings default on a $73 million loan from the city. In the letter, Dangberg also called Anaheim's negotiations with the Kings "bad public policy at a minimum," and requested contractual assurance the Kings will pay their debt before they get more bonds from Anaheim. "That letter is completely wrong, and it was uncalled for -- below the belt -- and it's a shame it had to come out of his office," Maloof fumed. "We tried to be classy and not get in arguments in the media, but I [have to] make this comment. We will continue on with our business and do what is best for the viability of the franchise -- what's best for the franchise and what's best for the league." He seemed particularly irate about Anaheim’s request in the letter for Anaheim not to authorize $75 million in bonds to aid the move. Whether or not the letter impacts the Anaheim city council’s decision will be seen Tuesday night when the council meets to vote on a financial plan to entice an NBA team to move there. "It's not for the mayor or anybody to interfere with our business," Maloof stated. "That's what I think they're doing, and it's not right. We would appreciate that they not interfere with our business." That vote will determine how the Maloofs proceed prior to the April 18 deadline the NBA has set to start the process of moving. A move would also require a vote among the league's other owners, who are unlikely to object. The Bonds Dangberg alluded to were issued in July 1997, when the city loaned the team money two years prior to the Maloofs purchasing the franchise. The Kings will owe Sacramento roughly $77 million if they leave this summer, which Anaheim’s authorizing $75 million in bonds would offset. If only Sacramento had fought as hard to get a new arena as they are in making it difficult for the Kings to move to Anaheim, perhaps the situation would not have devolved to this point……….
- Aren’t Californians supposed to be chill? Someone should alert Sacramento city councilwoman Angelique Ashby of that fact because she is far too uptight and far too close-minded for she and her city’s own good. Her uptightness reared its ugly head when a billboard advertising for medical marijuana evaluations went up on Highway 160, a main highway heading into downtown Sacramento. The billboard is an advertisement for 420 Relief, a business that owner Steve Macki insists is a legal operation exercising its right to free speech. "We have had some positive response and we look forward to issuing recommendations," Macki said. And yes, his business is in fact called 420 Relief, an homage to the time of day stoners say is the absolute best time to burn a fattie. The billboard has drawn the ire of Ashby, who wants to see it taken down. "I would prefer we have different advertisements there," said Ashby. Why? Because you’re too good for stoners, councilwoman? Could you look down your nose any more at a group that hasn’t done anything to harm you or your city - or anyone else for that matter? Stoners are mellow, laid back and unlikely to get off the couch to do anything that would disrupt the daily goings on of Sacramento. Why would you want to deny the First Amendment rights of a business that has the potential to carry your state’s economy going forward? Stoners, er, medical patients in need of medicinal hippie lettuce are always going to seek the chronic and if advertising can help grow that business, so be it. Macki has admitted that his business has increased since the sign went on display, so there is definitive proof for you right there. Also, it is worth mentioning that if city council members in major California cities are going to act like a bunch of uptight squares, the state is going to lose its reputation as one of the coolest, chillest states in this great nation……….
- Oprah Winfrey has become one of the richest, most influential and successful people in the media game by making good decisions. She wields a lot of power on account of her good choices, but that doesn’t mean she won't make a terrible decision from time to time. This is one of those times. According to the foul-mouthed, crass, classes blob known as Rosie O’Donnell, her new talk show will call Oprah Winfrey's OWN Network home this fall. "I just wanted to say hi, and I'm coming to Chicago," O'Donnell said in the video blog. "It's a huge thrill for me, and I'm beyond the beyond." We’re all beyond something, O’Fat, but I believe what the rest of us are beyond is belief and horror. Just look to O’Fat’s run of terror as a co-host on The View, when she openly clashed with every other co-host on the show and displayed her lack of class and intelligence at every turn. She said incredibly stupid and ill-informed things for no defensible reason, other than possibly trying to create controversy and keep herself on the air. She seemed to be on the verge of a full-on fistfight with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck every time the two of them were on the set together and her idiocy also prompted an all-time great rant from one of her targets, Donald Trump, as he absolutely eviscerated her and ran down a laundry list of her many negative attributes as if he were ordering lunch of the menu at his favorite high-end eatery. O’Fat then launched a magazine she named after herself and that too was an epic failure that lasted only a few months. Yes, she did win multiple Emmys in a row for her previous talk show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, which ran from 1996-2002, but that was before the world really got to know what a crass, lowbrow slob she was and still is. What inspired Oprah to hand her air time on a her brand-new cable network, we’ll never know. Sure, Oprah needs to fill the 24 hours in every day and she can't do it all herself, but O’Fat? Needless to say, O’Fat was effusive in her gratitude and praise for Winfrey and OWN. "Thank you Oprah, and thank all of you who will be sticking around and helping us make a kick-ass show for the Oprah Winfrey Network," she said. Not only has Winfrey backed O’Fat by giving her a show, but her Chicago-based studio has already purchased 130 episodes of future talk show. Winfrey said in a statement: "I'm delighted to welcome Rosie to the studio I've called home for so many years. Speaking from experience, she will be working with the best team in television in one of the greatest cities in the world." Not that I’ve ever been a huge fan of Winfrey show, but the idea of a foul-mouthed, slovenly, classless train wreck of a comedienne desecrating that studio with her horrible brand of talk show hosting just doesn’t seem right………..
- Politics 1, Love 0. That’s the current tally on the scoreboard in Guatemala, where the country’s first lady has decided to end her eight-year marriage in order to succeed her husband as president. Because Guatemala's constitution prohibits members of a president's extended family from running for the presidency, Sandra Torres de Colom could not follow husband and current President Alvaro Colom in office. Rather than honor her wedding vows and run for office in the next election, Sandra Torres de Colom has elected to commence divorce proceedings, which began Monday, and if both parties agree, the divorce could be final in about a month. President Colom cannot run for re-election, so someone has to step up to lead and Torres announced March 8 that she will be the presidential candidate of the governing National Unity for Hope party in the September election. The cynic could argue that the divorce is a total sham designed to circumvent the Guatemalan constitution, which was written in 1985 when a right-wing military was in power and sought to restrict access to the presidency. How great would it be if Torres were elected in September, took office and announced that she and Colom were going to re-marry? Also, how will Guatemalans react to what could definitely be seen as a de facto continuation of a regime that has been beset by allegations of corruption in a country famous for them? A WikiLeaks diplomatic cable characterized Torres as the "most able" member of the government and also the "most abrasive." Right now, Torres is trailing in every single presidential poll and she is already facing pointed criticism from opponents and constitutionalists who have denounced the divorce for political purposes as "immoral." It will be difficult for Torres to preach the importance of family and moral values when she sacrificed her marriage just to run for president, but everyone has their choices to make…………
- The Sacramento Kings and the city of Sacramento do not appear to be headed toward a positive resolution of their long-running battle over the NBA team’s future in California’s capital city. Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof have hinted for months at the possibility of moving the team if they cannot secure a new arena to replace the club’s outdated current home, the Arco Arena. That speculation has firmed up in recent weeks as the Maloofs filed paperwork with the NBA to extend its normal deadline of March 1 for any team wishing to relocate prior to the next season. While filing that paperwork, the Maloofs were busy researching a move to Anaheim, where the city-owned Honda Center would be a perfect landing place for the Kings. Despite openly looking into the move, neither of the Maloofs had ripped the city of Sacramento publicly for failing to secure financing for a new arena - until Monday. Joe Maloof made his first public comment Monday about the franchise's possible relocation to Anaheim, cracking on a letter sent between the cities' governments. He was asked about a letter written by Sacramento Assistant City Manager John Dangberg to officials in Anaheim claiming that a move could cause "irreparable harm to the City of Sacramento" if the Kings default on a $73 million loan from the city. In the letter, Dangberg also called Anaheim's negotiations with the Kings "bad public policy at a minimum," and requested contractual assurance the Kings will pay their debt before they get more bonds from Anaheim. "That letter is completely wrong, and it was uncalled for -- below the belt -- and it's a shame it had to come out of his office," Maloof fumed. "We tried to be classy and not get in arguments in the media, but I [have to] make this comment. We will continue on with our business and do what is best for the viability of the franchise -- what's best for the franchise and what's best for the league." He seemed particularly irate about Anaheim’s request in the letter for Anaheim not to authorize $75 million in bonds to aid the move. Whether or not the letter impacts the Anaheim city council’s decision will be seen Tuesday night when the council meets to vote on a financial plan to entice an NBA team to move there. "It's not for the mayor or anybody to interfere with our business," Maloof stated. "That's what I think they're doing, and it's not right. We would appreciate that they not interfere with our business." That vote will determine how the Maloofs proceed prior to the April 18 deadline the NBA has set to start the process of moving. A move would also require a vote among the league's other owners, who are unlikely to object. The Bonds Dangberg alluded to were issued in July 1997, when the city loaned the team money two years prior to the Maloofs purchasing the franchise. The Kings will owe Sacramento roughly $77 million if they leave this summer, which Anaheim’s authorizing $75 million in bonds would offset. If only Sacramento had fought as hard to get a new arena as they are in making it difficult for the Kings to move to Anaheim, perhaps the situation would not have devolved to this point……….
Monday, March 28, 2011
Lessons for musicians, concussions in hockey and an orca-FAT Chinese toddler
- Dear pop music hacks of the world (that means YOU, Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, Maroon 5, every man band in existence and every American Karaoke contestant in that show’s disastrous history), please take note of the following story and adjust your songwriting and recording practices accordingly. Your music will still suck abysmally because you lack talent and musical ability, but you could go from an F- to a straight-up F and if nothing else, that is improvement in the truest definition of the word. Brilliant indie rockers Fleet Foxes went into the studio in 2009 and spent most of the year recording their new album “Helplessness Blues.” At the end of the process, the band sat down and listened to the final mixes of the songs for the albums and decided that the songs simply were not good enough, singer Robin Pecknold revealed in a recent interview. At that point, the band had a decision to make. Were they like the proverbial crappy pop artist, they would have simply cobbled together the best of what they knew wasn’t their finest work and the label would have pushed it out, promoted the heck out of it and hoped for the best. And honestly, that approach probably would have worked because the majority of listeners have horrible taste in music and would never have known the difference. But instead, the band sat down and collectively decided to return to the studio and re-record much of the album. "When we did the first mix of the album it was like, 'This is where we're at, not where we want to be'," Pecknold said. "I felt there were things that could be improved. I wasn't being precious about it. I wanted the album finished and out as much as anyone. But as soon as we started re-tooling one or two of the tracks, that opened the floodgates." Bassist Christian Wargo added: "It just sounded weird, not what we wanted. We just thought we could do a better job. That's what we all thought. I wasn't just Robin not wanting to let go of the thing." Because of that decision, an album that was to be released late in 2010 will now drop on May 2. The band's 2008's self-titled debut was universally well-received and buzz for “Helplessness Blues” has remained high despite the delay. True fans of good music will appreciate the extra effort on Fleet Foxes’ part as well as Pecknold’s explanation of their reasoning for returning to the studio: "There was absolutely no chance I was going to ever put out something that I wasn't totally convinced was as good as it could possibly be. I didn't care how many times we had to re-record stuff." Now THAT is the sort of attitude that more bands would do well to emulate…………
- Ready to join the push to forever abolish the Guinness Book of World Records, world? The longer we all allow this farce to continue, the more no-talent morons we’ll having lining up to “accomplish” asinine feats like growing their fingernails out longer than anyone else in history, accumulating the longest ball of yarn or playing the opening lick of “Smoke on the Water” with thousands of other idiots in the same place at the same time. But because some of you obviously are not yet convinced and fully behind this crucial cause, let us examine the story of the “World's Largest Whoopie Pie” in Portland, Me. and see if you don’t change your mind. Like all tales of tools attempting worthless feats in the name of setting a record, this one began with a few idiots having a dream and no one around to tell them that their dream was the worst idea they’ve ever had. No, this isn't raining on someone’s parade as they attempt something great that other are too timid to try; it’s alerting a person to the fact that they are about to waste their time and the valuable time of others pursuing something that will benefit no one and will make the world a worse place. Our idiots for this story are Jon Armond and Eva Matteson from Portland's Coast 93.1 Morning Show and Amy Bouchard from Wicked Whoopies, who decided to try and settle the ongoing battle between Maine and Pennsylvania over who could claim the whoopie pie as 'their' dessert. The trio of fools teamed up to create the 'World's Largest Whoopie Pie' Saturday at the Maine Mall in South Portland by beating Pennsylvania's largest whoopie record of more than 200 pounds. To that end, the endeavor was a success. The supposed world’s largest whoopie pie weighed in at 1,062 pounds and a crowd of equally pathetic people with nothing better to do gathered at the mall to watch the pie come together. Once it was completed and weighed, the giant whoopie pie was cut and sold by the slice. All proceeds from the event will be used to send Maine made whoopie pies to our troops serving overseas, which seems like a noble cause until you realize that a) troops need phone calls home and other amenities more than they need a damn whoopie pie and b) any respectable soldier, sailor or airman who finds out the story behind the whoopie pie on their plate will immediately throw it in the trash because they will want no part of encouraging ass clowns to attempt pointless feats in the name of setting world records that matter to no one…………
- Crossing tech dorks and especially video game enthusiasts is never a good business decision. Rogers, one of the largest Internet service providers in Canada, is finding that out after inadvertently screwing over thousands of World of Warcraft players. The online game is a huge draw for pale, pasty, no-life-having nerds the whole world ‘round and in Canada, where winter in an 11-months-a-year ordeal, being able to connect with the outside world despite the five feet of snow on the ground outside is crucial. Rogers was impeding WOW players’ ability to participate in their favorite games and allegedly doing so as part of its efforts to clamp down on peer-to-peer file sharing. Last month, WOW player Teresa Murphy filed a complaint with Canada's telecoms regulator, the CRTC. The agency ordered Rogers to investigate Murphy's claims that its filters couldn't tell the difference between P2P and her game. Sure enough, the cable provider determined that Murphy’s complaints were accurate and that its filters really couldn't tell the difference between P2P file sharing and World of Warcraft. Rogers then attempted to argue that problems only arise when players use P2P software at the same time as the game, but Murphy insisted she didn't use P2P software at all. Whether that is true or not, Rogers has announced that a fix for the problems that she and other players were experiencing wont be ready until June. The battle over WOW access is part of a larger debate over Internet usage in Canada, where last month the Canadian government vetoed a ruling by the CRTC that would have allowed fairly stringent usage-based Internet following a vociferous opposition of the ruling by the public. All of the issues surrounding the country’s Internet usage policies could be resolved if Canada were to join nearly every other Western nation in offering offer broadband plans with unlimited data. So put down the round bacon and maple syrup and get to it, Canucks……….
- Is there no word for “no” in Mandarin Chinese? Apparently not, because if there were, then Lu Hao, a three-year-old toddler in China, would not currently be tipping the scales at an astonishing 132 pounds -- five times the normal size of a child his age. For a baby that weighed less than six pounds at birth, packing on 126 pounds should take at least a decade, not three years. Why is he so FAT and why isn't someone putting the kid on a diet? "We have to let him be, as if we don't feed him he will cry non-stop," said Hao's mother, Chen Yuan. "For a meal, he can eat three big bowls of rice," Hao's father, Lu Yuncheng, stated. "If we don't feed him he will cry non-stop." Hey mom and pop, who’s in charge here? You or your orca-FAT toddler? If the kid won't stop crying, then you buy some ear plugs, feed him a normal portion for a three-year-old and allow him to cry his FAT head off. What’s worse: Having your child cry because you won't let him eat himself into a food-induced stupor or allowing him to each as much as he wants and possibly become so FAT that his body gives out by age 10? Even if doctors in China have unable to diagnose what's behind the Lu Hao’s abnormal weight gain, that doesn’t mean you just continue to throw food at the problem. No three-year-old should be plowing through enough ribs and rice to feed an NFL offensive tackle and then going back for seconds because his parents can’t say no to his appetite. Making matters worse, Lu Hao seems to have a decidedly American approach to life in that he hates exercise so much that his parents take him to kindergarten on a motorcycle. Just an idea, but why not use the kid’s aversion to walking to your advantage? Place his food all the way across the room and when he walks over to take a bite, move it back to the other side of the room so he has to traverse the distance again. Repeat the process until he is too tired to keep walking and falls asleep…..and the problem is solved. Hao’s parents have also installed a basketball hoop to encourage him to exercise, but they claim exercise only makes him hungrier and that typically results in him gaining even more weight. Multiple specialists in China have examined him and doctors at the Guangdong Children's Hospital told the parents their child's weight gain could be caused by a hormone disorder. Others have suggested Hao shows signs of Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. Those problems aside, his biggest liability is parents who are epic failures at doing their jobs as the adults in the family…………
- The more concussions become an issue in sports at all levels, the more likely it becomes that athletes will take a more active role in managing their health and well-being, especially when it comes to brain injuries - or so one would hope. The “tough guy” mentality that has reigned in sports for years, especially at the professional level, is still entrenched but the occasional athlete will buck the trend and make a decision about their career based on personal health concerns as opposed to an obligation to get back on the field of play early and put their well-being at risk in the process. Concussed Boston Bruins center Marc Savard could be one such athlete. Savard is having "real memory problems and he's quite worried about it," a source claimed recently. He was placed on long-term injured reserve in early February with his second concussion in less than a year after being injured in the Bruins' Jan. 22 game against Colorado. A vicious smash into the end boards' glass by former teammate Matt Hunwick concussed Savard, who also sustained a concussion against Pittsburgh on March 7, 2010. The first concussion kept him out of action until the second round of last year’s playoffs and he also missed the first 23 games of this season. Even after returning, Savard played in just 25 games and tallied two goals and eight assists in limited playing time. He signed with Boston as a free agent in 2006 and was re-signed in 2009 to a seven-year extension that takes him through the 2016-17 season, but of late he has talked like a man who is anything but certain of a return to the ice. "I'm not going to make any decision about my future until I get some more medical stuff done. I've just got to be patient going forward," he said. "My agent talked to me a lot, and he gave me time to think about a lot of things. It's going to be tough, especially watching them play." Ending a 13-year career that also includes stops with the New York Rangers, Calgary Flames and Atlanta Thrashers would be difficult under any circumstances, let alone due to an injury, but when the choice is between walking away from the game while you’re still able to walk and doing so with long-term brain damage…….well, the choice becomes clearer. Savard’s post-concussion symptoms are similar to those of teammate Patrice Bergeron, who suffered a concussion in 2008 and reported a persistent sleepiness and the phenomenon of things around him moving slower than normal. If those symptoms persist, it would be difficult to imagine a circumstance in which Savard would or could return to the ice…………
- Ready to join the push to forever abolish the Guinness Book of World Records, world? The longer we all allow this farce to continue, the more no-talent morons we’ll having lining up to “accomplish” asinine feats like growing their fingernails out longer than anyone else in history, accumulating the longest ball of yarn or playing the opening lick of “Smoke on the Water” with thousands of other idiots in the same place at the same time. But because some of you obviously are not yet convinced and fully behind this crucial cause, let us examine the story of the “World's Largest Whoopie Pie” in Portland, Me. and see if you don’t change your mind. Like all tales of tools attempting worthless feats in the name of setting a record, this one began with a few idiots having a dream and no one around to tell them that their dream was the worst idea they’ve ever had. No, this isn't raining on someone’s parade as they attempt something great that other are too timid to try; it’s alerting a person to the fact that they are about to waste their time and the valuable time of others pursuing something that will benefit no one and will make the world a worse place. Our idiots for this story are Jon Armond and Eva Matteson from Portland's Coast 93.1 Morning Show and Amy Bouchard from Wicked Whoopies, who decided to try and settle the ongoing battle between Maine and Pennsylvania over who could claim the whoopie pie as 'their' dessert. The trio of fools teamed up to create the 'World's Largest Whoopie Pie' Saturday at the Maine Mall in South Portland by beating Pennsylvania's largest whoopie record of more than 200 pounds. To that end, the endeavor was a success. The supposed world’s largest whoopie pie weighed in at 1,062 pounds and a crowd of equally pathetic people with nothing better to do gathered at the mall to watch the pie come together. Once it was completed and weighed, the giant whoopie pie was cut and sold by the slice. All proceeds from the event will be used to send Maine made whoopie pies to our troops serving overseas, which seems like a noble cause until you realize that a) troops need phone calls home and other amenities more than they need a damn whoopie pie and b) any respectable soldier, sailor or airman who finds out the story behind the whoopie pie on their plate will immediately throw it in the trash because they will want no part of encouraging ass clowns to attempt pointless feats in the name of setting world records that matter to no one…………
- Crossing tech dorks and especially video game enthusiasts is never a good business decision. Rogers, one of the largest Internet service providers in Canada, is finding that out after inadvertently screwing over thousands of World of Warcraft players. The online game is a huge draw for pale, pasty, no-life-having nerds the whole world ‘round and in Canada, where winter in an 11-months-a-year ordeal, being able to connect with the outside world despite the five feet of snow on the ground outside is crucial. Rogers was impeding WOW players’ ability to participate in their favorite games and allegedly doing so as part of its efforts to clamp down on peer-to-peer file sharing. Last month, WOW player Teresa Murphy filed a complaint with Canada's telecoms regulator, the CRTC. The agency ordered Rogers to investigate Murphy's claims that its filters couldn't tell the difference between P2P and her game. Sure enough, the cable provider determined that Murphy’s complaints were accurate and that its filters really couldn't tell the difference between P2P file sharing and World of Warcraft. Rogers then attempted to argue that problems only arise when players use P2P software at the same time as the game, but Murphy insisted she didn't use P2P software at all. Whether that is true or not, Rogers has announced that a fix for the problems that she and other players were experiencing wont be ready until June. The battle over WOW access is part of a larger debate over Internet usage in Canada, where last month the Canadian government vetoed a ruling by the CRTC that would have allowed fairly stringent usage-based Internet following a vociferous opposition of the ruling by the public. All of the issues surrounding the country’s Internet usage policies could be resolved if Canada were to join nearly every other Western nation in offering offer broadband plans with unlimited data. So put down the round bacon and maple syrup and get to it, Canucks……….
- Is there no word for “no” in Mandarin Chinese? Apparently not, because if there were, then Lu Hao, a three-year-old toddler in China, would not currently be tipping the scales at an astonishing 132 pounds -- five times the normal size of a child his age. For a baby that weighed less than six pounds at birth, packing on 126 pounds should take at least a decade, not three years. Why is he so FAT and why isn't someone putting the kid on a diet? "We have to let him be, as if we don't feed him he will cry non-stop," said Hao's mother, Chen Yuan. "For a meal, he can eat three big bowls of rice," Hao's father, Lu Yuncheng, stated. "If we don't feed him he will cry non-stop." Hey mom and pop, who’s in charge here? You or your orca-FAT toddler? If the kid won't stop crying, then you buy some ear plugs, feed him a normal portion for a three-year-old and allow him to cry his FAT head off. What’s worse: Having your child cry because you won't let him eat himself into a food-induced stupor or allowing him to each as much as he wants and possibly become so FAT that his body gives out by age 10? Even if doctors in China have unable to diagnose what's behind the Lu Hao’s abnormal weight gain, that doesn’t mean you just continue to throw food at the problem. No three-year-old should be plowing through enough ribs and rice to feed an NFL offensive tackle and then going back for seconds because his parents can’t say no to his appetite. Making matters worse, Lu Hao seems to have a decidedly American approach to life in that he hates exercise so much that his parents take him to kindergarten on a motorcycle. Just an idea, but why not use the kid’s aversion to walking to your advantage? Place his food all the way across the room and when he walks over to take a bite, move it back to the other side of the room so he has to traverse the distance again. Repeat the process until he is too tired to keep walking and falls asleep…..and the problem is solved. Hao’s parents have also installed a basketball hoop to encourage him to exercise, but they claim exercise only makes him hungrier and that typically results in him gaining even more weight. Multiple specialists in China have examined him and doctors at the Guangdong Children's Hospital told the parents their child's weight gain could be caused by a hormone disorder. Others have suggested Hao shows signs of Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. Those problems aside, his biggest liability is parents who are epic failures at doing their jobs as the adults in the family…………
- The more concussions become an issue in sports at all levels, the more likely it becomes that athletes will take a more active role in managing their health and well-being, especially when it comes to brain injuries - or so one would hope. The “tough guy” mentality that has reigned in sports for years, especially at the professional level, is still entrenched but the occasional athlete will buck the trend and make a decision about their career based on personal health concerns as opposed to an obligation to get back on the field of play early and put their well-being at risk in the process. Concussed Boston Bruins center Marc Savard could be one such athlete. Savard is having "real memory problems and he's quite worried about it," a source claimed recently. He was placed on long-term injured reserve in early February with his second concussion in less than a year after being injured in the Bruins' Jan. 22 game against Colorado. A vicious smash into the end boards' glass by former teammate Matt Hunwick concussed Savard, who also sustained a concussion against Pittsburgh on March 7, 2010. The first concussion kept him out of action until the second round of last year’s playoffs and he also missed the first 23 games of this season. Even after returning, Savard played in just 25 games and tallied two goals and eight assists in limited playing time. He signed with Boston as a free agent in 2006 and was re-signed in 2009 to a seven-year extension that takes him through the 2016-17 season, but of late he has talked like a man who is anything but certain of a return to the ice. "I'm not going to make any decision about my future until I get some more medical stuff done. I've just got to be patient going forward," he said. "My agent talked to me a lot, and he gave me time to think about a lot of things. It's going to be tough, especially watching them play." Ending a 13-year career that also includes stops with the New York Rangers, Calgary Flames and Atlanta Thrashers would be difficult under any circumstances, let alone due to an injury, but when the choice is between walking away from the game while you’re still able to walk and doing so with long-term brain damage…….well, the choice becomes clearer. Savard’s post-concussion symptoms are similar to those of teammate Patrice Bergeron, who suffered a concussion in 2008 and reported a persistent sleepiness and the phenomenon of things around him moving slower than normal. If those symptoms persist, it would be difficult to imagine a circumstance in which Savard would or could return to the ice…………
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Movie news, Pakistan's new friend and artificial clouds
- Pakistan has kept its mission but found a new friend to help accomplish it. Instead of partnering with the United States to beef up its arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles, the Pakistani government is instead turning to China as its new strategic arms partner. After successfully test-firing a nuclear-capable missile earlier this month test-fired from an undisclosed location – the second in a month of try-outs for its short-range surface-to-surface Hataf 2 class rocket, co-developed with the Chinese - it became clear where the U.S. stood in the equation. Pakistan and China have partnered together on an increasing number of projects over the past decade as they seek to balance out the growth of über-confident neighbor India, which has American support. The U.S. was once Pakistan’s chief weapons supplier, but began to back away from that role after years of difficult and unpredictable relations following the 9/11 attacks. Being in business with the world’s eighth most-powerful nuclear nation just wasn’t as appealing to the U.S. as it once was. The American government does not fully support the military ambitions of a Pakistani regime that is being destabilized by an insurgency running amok, rising radicalism and anti-Westernism and internal corruption. Where the United States saw an unpalatable relationship, China saw an opportunity. The Chinese quickly stepped in to supply the weapons, development and training that Pakistan needed. Even when the U.S. delivered some of the 18 F-16s it had pledged to Pakistan in November, the Pakistani government announced it had ordered an arsenal of SD10 mid-range homing missiles and radar systems to equip its JF-17 Thunder jet fighters from China. China will also send Pakistan 250 JF-17s over the next five to ten years and the two nations also have a $1.3 billion deal to buy J-10 fighters and an order for six submarines with an air independent propulsion system. A Pakistani government official recently said it was imperative for the navy to acquire more submarines to combat "the pressure we will definitely come under" due to the rapid expansion of India's naval capability. "Our Chinese brothers have always come to our help and we are asking them for assistance once again," the official stated. With China constructing state-of-the-art fast attack missile crafts for the Pakistan Navy as you read this, many are asking how Pakistan can afford to spend so lavishly on its military with its current economic problems. From an American point of view, it’s time to find a new friend to pimp our military wares to…………
- Remember back when Kimbo Slice was a YouTube sensation who had parlayed lighting up suckers in parks or on playgrounds after paying them $20 to take a devastating hit on camera and not some exposed fraud whose 15 minutes of fame had come and gone? It was nearly three years ago when Slice, a.k.a. Kevin Ferguson, turned his YouTube following into a contract with third-rate mixed-martial arts outfit EliteXC. EliteXC pinned all of its hopes on Slice’s rising star even though those in the sport were adamant that he had neither the skills nor the experience to be a legitimate MMA star. But before the rest of the world found that out when Slice began losing to one also-ran after another, EliteXC set up a contract with CBS to televise its events on a semi-regular basis. Slice was scheduled to fight MMA icon Ken Shamrock in the main event of EliteXC-CBS on Oct. 4, 2008 before Shamrock was forced out of the fight due to a cut. At that point, Ken Shamrock, an assigned commentator for the show, offered to take the fight on late notice. However, EliteXC matchmaker Jared Shaw claimed recently that Ken Shamrock offered to do much more than take the fight. "Frank Shamrock pulled me in the back of a room, turned the music up and offered to work the fight against Kimbo Slice," Shaw said before adding that Shamrock also offered to take a dive against Slice. Frank Shamrock quickly responded to those claims with a resounding denial issued during an appearance on The MMA Hour. "No, absolutely not," Shamrock said. "That's some movie BS right there." When asked why Shaw would make such a statement if it were not true, Shamrock didn’t have a great theory, other than Shaw’s MMA career being over and him possibly needing to make money by selling his story. "It sounds like he's trying to sell a book or something, or write a movie script," Shamrock postulated. "Where would I get the music at? What are you talking about here? Do I just carry a beatbox with me?" So who is to be believed? The former MMAer alleging that a current fighter offered to take a dive or the fighter in question who insists that he would have never "fiddled with the truth" and disrespected his sport? Shaw’s story does seem hard to believe, but either way, it’s generating attention that MMA could very much lose, so I suppose the rest of the sport should thank both men for putting on a show. And hey, Shaw and Frank Shamrock could always settle their differences in the octagon…………
- Reason No. 474 that you want to step forward and claim your nine-figure lottery prize before you engage in the requisite “I just won a nine-figure lottery prize” bender: If you party first, you might be so hung over or otherwise incapacitated that you can't actually gather yourself to step forward and claim said nine-figure lottery prize. Now, that may be just one possible explanation as to why no one has stepped forward to claim the $319 million prize in the Mega Millions jackpot, but don’t pretend like you’re going to come up with anything better. Rumors have been circulating that seven state government workers are in possession of the winning ticket, but as of Sunday no one had come forward to claim the prize, a New York Lottery spokeswoman confirmed. The jackpot was $312 million, but last-minute sales from people desperate enough to believe that they had a good chance of winning and changing their life by throwing away $5 they could have spent on gas or food raised the amount to $319 million. Although the winner or winners have not stepped up to claim their prize, lottery officials know that the winning ticket was bought at Coulson's News Central in Albany, New York. The winners were seven IT specialists from New York's Housing and Community Renewal, if you believe Emanuel Biondi, public employees federation council leader for the agency. No one has confirmed that report, so it is not known whether the supposed winners chose a one-time, lump-sum payment or to have their winnings paid out over a span of years. If they picked the cash option when buying the ticket, they will receive a one-time payment of $202.9 million. It is the sixth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history and the single largest sole jackpot-winning ticket ever for Mega Millions sold in New York. The winning numbers drawn Friday night were 22, 24, 31, 52 and 54 and he Mega Ball number was 4. If the winner(s) are waiting to step forward until they can officially claim their winnings, they will be able to do so Monday morning in the lottery’s Schenectady, N.Y., office, Hapeman said. For the millions of disappointed Mega Millions players who missed out this time, keep playing and keep hoping against hope……….
- How much better do you feel about the United States losing out on its bid for the 2022 World Cup to Qatar now, American soccer fans? At the time, the idea that a Middle East nation with no real soccer history or tradition whatsoever and with no real existing infrastructure to host the event, a place where summertime temperatures can soar well over 100 degrees……it was a slap in the face to every other nation bidding for the Cup. Joint bids from the Netherlands and Belgium and the combination of Portugal and Spain seemed to be the odds-on favorites, but American fans held out hope that FIFA would forget that the United States as a whole could not care less about their sport and award the bid to the U.S. But like any international sports governing body, FIFA is wholly corrupt and can be bought. Qatar bribed them enough, er, um, mounted a convincing enough case to secure the votes needed to win. Now that Qatar has the games……it is probably a good idea to figure out how games will be played in 110-degree heat without players passing out and/or dying on the field. Soccer players are known for ending up on the turf after flopping and faking injuries after an opponent passes within 10 feet of them, but playing in sweltering heat could actually send them to the turf legitimately. Realizing this threat, tournament officials have gone to work on a way to solve this problem and instead of the obvious - building dome stadiums - they have instead elected to channel their inner George Orwell and think sci-fi. Instead a dome, the idea they have chosen is……man-made clouds. Thanks to researchers at Qatar University's engineering school, artificial clouds that look like giant flying saucers will be the method of choice for preventing World Cup stadiums from turning into giant outdoor ovens. The faux clouds will be remotely controlled and be made up of high-tech materials that will be positioned between the sun and the stadiums in the Gulf emirate. “Artificial clouds will move by remote control, made of 100 percent light carbonic materials, fueled by four solar-powered engines and will fly high to protect direct and indirect sun rays to control temperatures at the open playgrounds,” said Saud Abdul Ghani, the university’s department head, in a statement. Ghani believes the artificial robotic cloud could potentially drop the temperatures on the pitch by 10 degrees Fahrenheit. The project has passed the initial engineering phase Ghani’s team plans to make a 4-by-3 meter prototype by the end of this year to test the concept. The finished product, which would obviously be much larger, would be a rectangle made up of carbon fiber and solar panels the size of a jumbo jet. Never mind the potential dangers of flying a giant UFO cloud over a stadium full over people - i.e. it falling from the sky and crashing down on the stadium, killing thousands - because this baby will use sophisticated monitoring gear to track the transit of the sun and four electric-powered engines to maneuver to the right position to cast a cool shade across the stadiums. Moving a fake cloud back and forth above a stadium may seem ridiculous in theory, but anyone thinking that way is obviously focusing too much on that part of the equation and not on the really awesome bribes the selection committee scored for itself by awarding the Cup to Qatar…………
- In a truly rare occurrence, a family-friendly film has emerged victorious at the weekend box office and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is that film. In its first weekend of release, Diary made $24.4 million to outpace fellow newcomer Sucker Punch for the top spot. Made on a modest $21 million budget, Diary is already playing with house money after a solid opening weekend. The same can't be said for Sucker Punch, an action film that didn’t generate nearly enough action at the box office to justify the $82 million Warner Bros. spent to make it. With a haul of $19.1 million, Sucker Punch has a long way to go before it can turn a profit. Last week’s top movie, Limitless, dropped to third in its second weekend and added $15.2 million to its total for a cumulative tally of $41.3 million and counting. That was enough to keep it ahead of The Lincoln Lawyer, which held its spot in fourth place while proving once again that Matthew McConaughey movies featuring him with his shirt off most of the movie are more profitable than those in which he is fully clothed for the majority of his screen time. Lincoln Lawyer earned $11 million, a scant 16-percent drop and yet has made just $28.9 million after two weeks. The last member of the top five was Rango, which declined 35 percent from the previous weekend but still raked in $9.8 million to finally push itself over the $100 million barrier at $106.3 million. The rest of the top 10 consisted of: Battle: Los Angeles (continuing its freefall by sliding to No. 6 with $7.6 million and a three-week total of $72.6 million), Paul (No. 7 and still proving that hybrid live action/animated movies about bird-eating aliens are a tough sell with a $7.5 million weekend and just $24.6 million for its first two weeks in theaters), Red Riding Hood (No. 8 after another so-so weekend of $4.4 million and a cumulative haul of $32.4 million after three weeks), The Adjustment Bureau (No. 9 with $4.2 million and $54.9 million after one month in theaters) and Mars Needs Moms (No. 10 with $2.1 and $19.2 in its first three weeks of release). Dropping out of the top 10 from last weekend were Beastly and Hall Pass, down to Nos. 11 and 12, respectively………….
- Remember back when Kimbo Slice was a YouTube sensation who had parlayed lighting up suckers in parks or on playgrounds after paying them $20 to take a devastating hit on camera and not some exposed fraud whose 15 minutes of fame had come and gone? It was nearly three years ago when Slice, a.k.a. Kevin Ferguson, turned his YouTube following into a contract with third-rate mixed-martial arts outfit EliteXC. EliteXC pinned all of its hopes on Slice’s rising star even though those in the sport were adamant that he had neither the skills nor the experience to be a legitimate MMA star. But before the rest of the world found that out when Slice began losing to one also-ran after another, EliteXC set up a contract with CBS to televise its events on a semi-regular basis. Slice was scheduled to fight MMA icon Ken Shamrock in the main event of EliteXC-CBS on Oct. 4, 2008 before Shamrock was forced out of the fight due to a cut. At that point, Ken Shamrock, an assigned commentator for the show, offered to take the fight on late notice. However, EliteXC matchmaker Jared Shaw claimed recently that Ken Shamrock offered to do much more than take the fight. "Frank Shamrock pulled me in the back of a room, turned the music up and offered to work the fight against Kimbo Slice," Shaw said before adding that Shamrock also offered to take a dive against Slice. Frank Shamrock quickly responded to those claims with a resounding denial issued during an appearance on The MMA Hour. "No, absolutely not," Shamrock said. "That's some movie BS right there." When asked why Shaw would make such a statement if it were not true, Shamrock didn’t have a great theory, other than Shaw’s MMA career being over and him possibly needing to make money by selling his story. "It sounds like he's trying to sell a book or something, or write a movie script," Shamrock postulated. "Where would I get the music at? What are you talking about here? Do I just carry a beatbox with me?" So who is to be believed? The former MMAer alleging that a current fighter offered to take a dive or the fighter in question who insists that he would have never "fiddled with the truth" and disrespected his sport? Shaw’s story does seem hard to believe, but either way, it’s generating attention that MMA could very much lose, so I suppose the rest of the sport should thank both men for putting on a show. And hey, Shaw and Frank Shamrock could always settle their differences in the octagon…………
- Reason No. 474 that you want to step forward and claim your nine-figure lottery prize before you engage in the requisite “I just won a nine-figure lottery prize” bender: If you party first, you might be so hung over or otherwise incapacitated that you can't actually gather yourself to step forward and claim said nine-figure lottery prize. Now, that may be just one possible explanation as to why no one has stepped forward to claim the $319 million prize in the Mega Millions jackpot, but don’t pretend like you’re going to come up with anything better. Rumors have been circulating that seven state government workers are in possession of the winning ticket, but as of Sunday no one had come forward to claim the prize, a New York Lottery spokeswoman confirmed. The jackpot was $312 million, but last-minute sales from people desperate enough to believe that they had a good chance of winning and changing their life by throwing away $5 they could have spent on gas or food raised the amount to $319 million. Although the winner or winners have not stepped up to claim their prize, lottery officials know that the winning ticket was bought at Coulson's News Central in Albany, New York. The winners were seven IT specialists from New York's Housing and Community Renewal, if you believe Emanuel Biondi, public employees federation council leader for the agency. No one has confirmed that report, so it is not known whether the supposed winners chose a one-time, lump-sum payment or to have their winnings paid out over a span of years. If they picked the cash option when buying the ticket, they will receive a one-time payment of $202.9 million. It is the sixth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history and the single largest sole jackpot-winning ticket ever for Mega Millions sold in New York. The winning numbers drawn Friday night were 22, 24, 31, 52 and 54 and he Mega Ball number was 4. If the winner(s) are waiting to step forward until they can officially claim their winnings, they will be able to do so Monday morning in the lottery’s Schenectady, N.Y., office, Hapeman said. For the millions of disappointed Mega Millions players who missed out this time, keep playing and keep hoping against hope……….
- How much better do you feel about the United States losing out on its bid for the 2022 World Cup to Qatar now, American soccer fans? At the time, the idea that a Middle East nation with no real soccer history or tradition whatsoever and with no real existing infrastructure to host the event, a place where summertime temperatures can soar well over 100 degrees……it was a slap in the face to every other nation bidding for the Cup. Joint bids from the Netherlands and Belgium and the combination of Portugal and Spain seemed to be the odds-on favorites, but American fans held out hope that FIFA would forget that the United States as a whole could not care less about their sport and award the bid to the U.S. But like any international sports governing body, FIFA is wholly corrupt and can be bought. Qatar bribed them enough, er, um, mounted a convincing enough case to secure the votes needed to win. Now that Qatar has the games……it is probably a good idea to figure out how games will be played in 110-degree heat without players passing out and/or dying on the field. Soccer players are known for ending up on the turf after flopping and faking injuries after an opponent passes within 10 feet of them, but playing in sweltering heat could actually send them to the turf legitimately. Realizing this threat, tournament officials have gone to work on a way to solve this problem and instead of the obvious - building dome stadiums - they have instead elected to channel their inner George Orwell and think sci-fi. Instead a dome, the idea they have chosen is……man-made clouds. Thanks to researchers at Qatar University's engineering school, artificial clouds that look like giant flying saucers will be the method of choice for preventing World Cup stadiums from turning into giant outdoor ovens. The faux clouds will be remotely controlled and be made up of high-tech materials that will be positioned between the sun and the stadiums in the Gulf emirate. “Artificial clouds will move by remote control, made of 100 percent light carbonic materials, fueled by four solar-powered engines and will fly high to protect direct and indirect sun rays to control temperatures at the open playgrounds,” said Saud Abdul Ghani, the university’s department head, in a statement. Ghani believes the artificial robotic cloud could potentially drop the temperatures on the pitch by 10 degrees Fahrenheit. The project has passed the initial engineering phase Ghani’s team plans to make a 4-by-3 meter prototype by the end of this year to test the concept. The finished product, which would obviously be much larger, would be a rectangle made up of carbon fiber and solar panels the size of a jumbo jet. Never mind the potential dangers of flying a giant UFO cloud over a stadium full over people - i.e. it falling from the sky and crashing down on the stadium, killing thousands - because this baby will use sophisticated monitoring gear to track the transit of the sun and four electric-powered engines to maneuver to the right position to cast a cool shade across the stadiums. Moving a fake cloud back and forth above a stadium may seem ridiculous in theory, but anyone thinking that way is obviously focusing too much on that part of the equation and not on the really awesome bribes the selection committee scored for itself by awarding the Cup to Qatar…………
- In a truly rare occurrence, a family-friendly film has emerged victorious at the weekend box office and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is that film. In its first weekend of release, Diary made $24.4 million to outpace fellow newcomer Sucker Punch for the top spot. Made on a modest $21 million budget, Diary is already playing with house money after a solid opening weekend. The same can't be said for Sucker Punch, an action film that didn’t generate nearly enough action at the box office to justify the $82 million Warner Bros. spent to make it. With a haul of $19.1 million, Sucker Punch has a long way to go before it can turn a profit. Last week’s top movie, Limitless, dropped to third in its second weekend and added $15.2 million to its total for a cumulative tally of $41.3 million and counting. That was enough to keep it ahead of The Lincoln Lawyer, which held its spot in fourth place while proving once again that Matthew McConaughey movies featuring him with his shirt off most of the movie are more profitable than those in which he is fully clothed for the majority of his screen time. Lincoln Lawyer earned $11 million, a scant 16-percent drop and yet has made just $28.9 million after two weeks. The last member of the top five was Rango, which declined 35 percent from the previous weekend but still raked in $9.8 million to finally push itself over the $100 million barrier at $106.3 million. The rest of the top 10 consisted of: Battle: Los Angeles (continuing its freefall by sliding to No. 6 with $7.6 million and a three-week total of $72.6 million), Paul (No. 7 and still proving that hybrid live action/animated movies about bird-eating aliens are a tough sell with a $7.5 million weekend and just $24.6 million for its first two weeks in theaters), Red Riding Hood (No. 8 after another so-so weekend of $4.4 million and a cumulative haul of $32.4 million after three weeks), The Adjustment Bureau (No. 9 with $4.2 million and $54.9 million after one month in theaters) and Mars Needs Moms (No. 10 with $2.1 and $19.2 in its first three weeks of release). Dropping out of the top 10 from last weekend were Beastly and Hall Pass, down to Nos. 11 and 12, respectively………….
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Musical disaster in Vegas, no Coach K in L.A. and the debut of Google Music
- Fish sandwiches are back at your local Wendy’s, so you know what that means. It’s Lent and Lent also means the return of the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter that is considered a sacred time for members of the Catholic faith, especially when it comes to the practice of confession, a key part of the church’s system of belief. But in our modern world with all its trappings and enticements where it is easy to get caught up in a fast-paced, hectic lifestyle with no time to stop by the local Catholic church to confess your sins to the priest, how is a faith to grab the attention of its followers? The Archdiocese of Miami believes it has an answer and that answer is the magic of television. The archdiocese is launching a television campaign to encourage people to confess their sins this Lent. “Confession is for Catholics the way to have the sins that they have committed after Baptism to be forgiven,” said Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Saint Martha’s Church in Miami. “The sacrament of penance is more about knowing we are loved, that our god is merciful, and that he forgives us.” Wenski came up with the idea for the commercial to remind Catholics of the meaning behind confession. The basic idea of the commercial is to eliminate anxiety attached to the sacrament of confession, i.e. a guilt trip laid on them by the priest because they haven’t dropped in for confession since Dawson’s Creek was still heating up the airwaves for the WB. “I don’t want to hear [people say] that when I went to confession I got yelled at by a priest. Don’t believe all the jokes all the comedians talk about. Confession truly is a conversation with God,” said Mary Ross Agosta, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Miami. Along with Wenski’s 30-second TV spot in which he addresses the importance of confession, the archdiocese is also hitting it hard with literature advertising Reconciliation Weekend, which is April 15-16 and offering tips on how to go to confession. During Reconciliation Weekend, the archdiocese’s 40 parishes will offer extended hours for confessions. Why the archdiocese didn’t find a way to work Facebook and Twitter into the mix, I’m still not sure…………
- No again, Los Angeles Lakers fans, front office personnel and players. Phil Jackson may actually be serious about retiring and remaining retired this time, but don’t think that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is any more likely to take the job than he was the last time Phil Jackson retired from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2004. At that time, the Lakers made a strong push to lure Krzyzewski away from Duke and he admitted to seriously considering the move before eventually turning the Lakers down. With Jackson adamant about retiring at the end of the current season, Krzyzewski was asked Wednesday if he would consider another offer from the Lakers. He quickly shot the idea down, saying his answer would be the same if Jackson goes through with his plan to retire after the season and the Lakers decided to call him again. "I've never thought of ever leaving Duke for another school but there were three serious times where I almost left to go to the pros," Krzyzewski said. "One was when Dave Gavitt took over the Celtics [in 1990], another was with the Trailblazers [in 1994] and the one that I took to a really far level was the Lakers situation. They were great with me. I just could not give up what I've done and gotten at Duke. It just wasn't worth it." Those words are not at all surprising for a coach who has won four national titles at Duke and is one of the most respected coaches in college basketball. Even if the Lakers bettered the five-year, $40 million deal after general manager Mitch Kupchak reportedly offered around the time of the 2004 NBA draft, leaving Duke at this point in his career would be stunning for Krzyzewski. He said as much back in 2004, stating, "Your heart has to be in whatever you lead. It became apparent that this decision was somewhat easier to make because you have to follow your heart and lead with it and Duke has always taken up my whole heart." Despite forming a close relationship with Bryant and Lamar Odom as the head coach of Team USA, even those two guys had to know that there was no way Krzyzewski would be coaching them anywhere other than the international level…………
- The next competitor on the digital music market is currently rumbling down the runway and could be set for takeoff soon. Care to guess who might be behind this enterprising endeavor? How about the tech giant bent on world domination on every conceivable front, Google? The company has reportedly begun testing Google Music internally and allowing its employees the first crack at he much-anticipated service that is nearly ready to launch, according to music industry sources. Google Music differs from Apple’s iTunes in that its primary focus is a streaming service that users would be able to access from Internet-connected devices as opposed to a solely digital music store. The hang-up for Google Music is a lack of content, which would definitely be a big hurdle for a service that, well, is all about content. But Google officials were telling executives at the top four record companies last year that the target launch for the service was late 2010, so the project appears headed in the wrong direction at this point. A revised estimate of demonstrating the service earlier this month at the SXSW conference came and went and once again, the launch of Google Music was pushed back. Google has saved face in some sense because it has never set an official launch date, but that does not necessarily mean that those involved in the project won't get frustrated as it is delayed over and over. The company is still in talks with some of the top publishers and four largest record labels about providing content for Google Music and negotiations are progressing slowly because Google is negotiating for cloud music rights and not just the authorization to distribute the songs themselves. In other words, the search giant wants to be able to store users' existing music libraries on the company's servers. Apple is in similar talks for its own music services, but to this point labels have never given out licensing rights for digital music catalogs. One would think that the recording industry would be eager for Google Music to launch because its presence as a viable competitor to iTunes would mean that Apple’s chokehold on the industry could be relaxed. But hopes or no hopes, Google Music has yet to get off the ground and has no official launch date. The most likely option would be the Google I/O 2011, which is taking place in May. If not then…………
- Visitors to Cape Town, South Africa, you can now travel to a truly amazing place without the fear that an angry, starving baboon will attack your vehicle and attempt to rob you. For months and months, visitors to Cape Town had to live in mortal fear of a baboon, named Fred, known for raiding cars and attacking tourists in Cape Town. With some 400 baboons roaming Cape Town's outskirts, particularly the popular scenic route to the Cape of Good Hope, along with a steady stream of tourists, it was only a matter of time before a problem arose. Although baboons are a protected species in South Africa, when these primates cross the line in their pursuit of food, problems are sure to ensue. City officials blamed Fred's violence on "misguided efforts" by tourists to try to befriend and feed the animal, which is typical dumb tourist behavior 101. Just as one does not feed the animals at the zoo, do not feed them in the wild either. If you do, they will come to expect food from every human they see and when those humans do not have food, wild animals do not have the intellectual capacity to comprehend that they should simply allow that person to pass without attempting to rip their non-existent food supply from them. Fred became violent and forced local officials into a "difficult decision" to euthanize him. "The decision to have him (Fred) euthanised was not taken lightly and not without extensive discussions between all role-players involved," Cape Town's Baboon Operational Group said in a statement. "This baboon's aggression levels had recently escalated to the point where the safety of tourists, motorists and other travellers along the road past Smitswinkel Bay was being threatened.” When animal protection groups are admitting that an animal needs to be put down, you know the situation has become dangerous. Fred’s attacks reached a crescendo in 2010, when he attacked and injured three people as he searched for food in the city. All of this because some vapid tourists just had to give human food to that cute baboon by the side of the road…………
- Having never had the urge to travel to Las Vegas, I can confidently state that never have I been happier NOT to be in Sin City than Friday night, when not one, but two of the more cancerous influences on pop culture in the past decade were in the same place at the same time in what can only be described as an entertainment apocalypse. The first celebri-tool in the house at Rain nightclub inside the Palms Casino and Resort was new resident DJ Pauly D of "Jersey Shore" notoriety. He was doing the job that the Maloof brothers, owners of the Palms, are unfortunately paying him big money to do. After Pauly D blasted through a set of indistinguishably identical dance/techno songs, a video montage of Britney Spears' best video moments played. How one picks the best moments from a career that has had none of them and instead produced a steady string of increasingly unlistenable pop drivel, I’m not sure, but the montage ran and once the videos wrapped, the crowd was “treated” to (or tortured by) a live performance by Spears. She rambled onstage wearing a sequined bodysuit and performed her first song of the night, "Hold It Against Me," the lead single from her new album. Lest people focus on the total lack of vocal talent and songwriting ability she brings to the table, Spears was flocked by a quartet of scantily clad male dancers and threw in some hair-tossing and a wind machine to pump the crowd up. She chased that abysmal first song with the will.i.am-produced track (Combining Spears and the Hack Eyed Pears? Can anyone say “biggest musical abortion ever?”) "Big Fat Bass." For that disaster, Spears donned a body-hugging latex bodysuit and her mancers hit the stage in bright yellow. Yes, it’s safe to say that music was set back several eons by this train wreck………
- No again, Los Angeles Lakers fans, front office personnel and players. Phil Jackson may actually be serious about retiring and remaining retired this time, but don’t think that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is any more likely to take the job than he was the last time Phil Jackson retired from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2004. At that time, the Lakers made a strong push to lure Krzyzewski away from Duke and he admitted to seriously considering the move before eventually turning the Lakers down. With Jackson adamant about retiring at the end of the current season, Krzyzewski was asked Wednesday if he would consider another offer from the Lakers. He quickly shot the idea down, saying his answer would be the same if Jackson goes through with his plan to retire after the season and the Lakers decided to call him again. "I've never thought of ever leaving Duke for another school but there were three serious times where I almost left to go to the pros," Krzyzewski said. "One was when Dave Gavitt took over the Celtics [in 1990], another was with the Trailblazers [in 1994] and the one that I took to a really far level was the Lakers situation. They were great with me. I just could not give up what I've done and gotten at Duke. It just wasn't worth it." Those words are not at all surprising for a coach who has won four national titles at Duke and is one of the most respected coaches in college basketball. Even if the Lakers bettered the five-year, $40 million deal after general manager Mitch Kupchak reportedly offered around the time of the 2004 NBA draft, leaving Duke at this point in his career would be stunning for Krzyzewski. He said as much back in 2004, stating, "Your heart has to be in whatever you lead. It became apparent that this decision was somewhat easier to make because you have to follow your heart and lead with it and Duke has always taken up my whole heart." Despite forming a close relationship with Bryant and Lamar Odom as the head coach of Team USA, even those two guys had to know that there was no way Krzyzewski would be coaching them anywhere other than the international level…………
- The next competitor on the digital music market is currently rumbling down the runway and could be set for takeoff soon. Care to guess who might be behind this enterprising endeavor? How about the tech giant bent on world domination on every conceivable front, Google? The company has reportedly begun testing Google Music internally and allowing its employees the first crack at he much-anticipated service that is nearly ready to launch, according to music industry sources. Google Music differs from Apple’s iTunes in that its primary focus is a streaming service that users would be able to access from Internet-connected devices as opposed to a solely digital music store. The hang-up for Google Music is a lack of content, which would definitely be a big hurdle for a service that, well, is all about content. But Google officials were telling executives at the top four record companies last year that the target launch for the service was late 2010, so the project appears headed in the wrong direction at this point. A revised estimate of demonstrating the service earlier this month at the SXSW conference came and went and once again, the launch of Google Music was pushed back. Google has saved face in some sense because it has never set an official launch date, but that does not necessarily mean that those involved in the project won't get frustrated as it is delayed over and over. The company is still in talks with some of the top publishers and four largest record labels about providing content for Google Music and negotiations are progressing slowly because Google is negotiating for cloud music rights and not just the authorization to distribute the songs themselves. In other words, the search giant wants to be able to store users' existing music libraries on the company's servers. Apple is in similar talks for its own music services, but to this point labels have never given out licensing rights for digital music catalogs. One would think that the recording industry would be eager for Google Music to launch because its presence as a viable competitor to iTunes would mean that Apple’s chokehold on the industry could be relaxed. But hopes or no hopes, Google Music has yet to get off the ground and has no official launch date. The most likely option would be the Google I/O 2011, which is taking place in May. If not then…………
- Visitors to Cape Town, South Africa, you can now travel to a truly amazing place without the fear that an angry, starving baboon will attack your vehicle and attempt to rob you. For months and months, visitors to Cape Town had to live in mortal fear of a baboon, named Fred, known for raiding cars and attacking tourists in Cape Town. With some 400 baboons roaming Cape Town's outskirts, particularly the popular scenic route to the Cape of Good Hope, along with a steady stream of tourists, it was only a matter of time before a problem arose. Although baboons are a protected species in South Africa, when these primates cross the line in their pursuit of food, problems are sure to ensue. City officials blamed Fred's violence on "misguided efforts" by tourists to try to befriend and feed the animal, which is typical dumb tourist behavior 101. Just as one does not feed the animals at the zoo, do not feed them in the wild either. If you do, they will come to expect food from every human they see and when those humans do not have food, wild animals do not have the intellectual capacity to comprehend that they should simply allow that person to pass without attempting to rip their non-existent food supply from them. Fred became violent and forced local officials into a "difficult decision" to euthanize him. "The decision to have him (Fred) euthanised was not taken lightly and not without extensive discussions between all role-players involved," Cape Town's Baboon Operational Group said in a statement. "This baboon's aggression levels had recently escalated to the point where the safety of tourists, motorists and other travellers along the road past Smitswinkel Bay was being threatened.” When animal protection groups are admitting that an animal needs to be put down, you know the situation has become dangerous. Fred’s attacks reached a crescendo in 2010, when he attacked and injured three people as he searched for food in the city. All of this because some vapid tourists just had to give human food to that cute baboon by the side of the road…………
- Having never had the urge to travel to Las Vegas, I can confidently state that never have I been happier NOT to be in Sin City than Friday night, when not one, but two of the more cancerous influences on pop culture in the past decade were in the same place at the same time in what can only be described as an entertainment apocalypse. The first celebri-tool in the house at Rain nightclub inside the Palms Casino and Resort was new resident DJ Pauly D of "Jersey Shore" notoriety. He was doing the job that the Maloof brothers, owners of the Palms, are unfortunately paying him big money to do. After Pauly D blasted through a set of indistinguishably identical dance/techno songs, a video montage of Britney Spears' best video moments played. How one picks the best moments from a career that has had none of them and instead produced a steady string of increasingly unlistenable pop drivel, I’m not sure, but the montage ran and once the videos wrapped, the crowd was “treated” to (or tortured by) a live performance by Spears. She rambled onstage wearing a sequined bodysuit and performed her first song of the night, "Hold It Against Me," the lead single from her new album. Lest people focus on the total lack of vocal talent and songwriting ability she brings to the table, Spears was flocked by a quartet of scantily clad male dancers and threw in some hair-tossing and a wind machine to pump the crowd up. She chased that abysmal first song with the will.i.am-produced track (Combining Spears and the Hack Eyed Pears? Can anyone say “biggest musical abortion ever?”) "Big Fat Bass." For that disaster, Spears donned a body-hugging latex bodysuit and her mancers hit the stage in bright yellow. Yes, it’s safe to say that music was set back several eons by this train wreck………
Friday, March 25, 2011
Rhinos in danger, lying football coaches and ecstasy dangers
- The warnings are not getting through to America. Despite anyone and everyone within shouting distance insisting that downing whatever pill the guy handing out the glowsticks at this weekend’s rave is pushing, those who enjoy techno music, strobe lights and bounce pits are simply opening up the hatch and downing all manner of bad ecstasy. As a result, ecstasy-related emergency room visits have skyrocketed in over the past several years, according to a study released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). In fact, hospital visits associated with the drug commonly known as X have jumped 75 percent since 2004. A whopping 17,865 visits occurred in 2008, up from 10,220 in 2004. Not surprisingly, 69.3 percent involved patients between the ages of 18 and 35, while 17.9 percent involved partiers between 12 and 17 years of age. Oh, and believe it or not, in most cases at least one another substance of potential abuse was involved and typically, that substance was alcohol. Who would ever guess that both alcohol and ecstasy would be found in the same place and be used in tandem? The SAMHSA study prompted a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Rafael Lemaitre, to demand that young people should be adequately warned about the risks of ecstasy. “The latest numbers show we need to work urgently and collaboratively to warn young people about the harms of drug use. Now is the time when a lot of young adults and high school kids are going on spring break trips, and this is, unfortunately, when young people often experiment with substance abuse,” Lemaitre said. For those who have never danced to Sandstorm while adorned with a glowstick necklace, a drink of unknown origins in one hand and an ecstasy pill in the other, all while raving with hundreds of total strangers inside an abandoned warehouse somewhere random, ecstasy is known to induce feelings of euphoria and intimacy with others. While studies in cognitive and psychological therapy indicate that it can also be beneficial if administered in therapeutic settings, it seems safe to say that those showing up in emergency rooms from taking it are not therapy patients. While limiting it to treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety related to terminal cancer would be ideal, no one is naïve enough to believe that will happen. Ecstasy is even criminalized under a United Nations agreement, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming the go-to drug for the global rave and club scene………….
- Save the rhinos, Africa. Whether you realize it or not, this amazing beast is in serious jeopardy on your continent in large part because rhino horns sell for more than gold on a per-ounce basis. Conservationists are extremely concerned about the fate of Africa's rhinos, which are facing their worst poaching crisis in decades. The biggest poaching offenders are organized crime syndicates have killed than 800 African rhinos in the past three years alone, the Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature said Friday. The demand for rhino horns is high globally, especially in Southeast Asia, where the horns ground up for use as alleged aphrodisiacs and medicines or turned into decorative dagger handles. Poachers have created incredibly sophisticated operations using the best in modern technology, including helicopters, night-vision goggles and high-powered rifles to track and kill rhinos, which are plagued by poor sight. The poachers are well-backed financially and have significantly better technology than the African wildlife officials attempting to stop them. The countries where poaching is most common are South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, where sophisticated criminal organizations are entrenched. South Africa has suffered the biggest losses to its rhino population, with 333 poached last year and 70 more so far this year. Scientists fear that Africa's remaining 24,990 rhinos might start to decline again in numbers unless poaching can be curtailed. The rhino population in Africa consists of 4,840 black rhinos and 20,150 white rhinos, up from 2007, when there were 4,240 black rhinos and 17,500 white rhinos. Anti-poaching efforts have made minimal progress, but not nearly enough to alleviate fears of rhinos ending up on the endangered species list - or worse. The figures from South Africa are disturbing because the country a has more than 90 percent of the world's rhino population. The northern white rhino is the most highly endangered mega-vertebrate (the animals can weigh in excess of 6,000 pounds) on earth. Black rhinos are the more endangered of the two, as their population has fallen from a 65,000 across Africa in the 1970s to its current number. Rhino horns have been banned in commercial trade by the U.N.'s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species since 1993, but the black market demand for the horns has only increased since then. A large part of the blame goes on Chinese traditional medicine, which prizes the horns as a cure for everything from colds and fevers to high blood pressure. Efforts to convince the horn-loving kooks that their beloved cure-all has no special chemical qualities have failed miserably. Looks like it could be all on you to stay alive, rhinos, because we humans are failing miserably to protect you……….
- Don’t you dare back down, George Lopez. While I still have no time for your kooky circus of a late-night show, that doesn’t mean I cannot support you in your battle against the bulge that is Kirstie Alley. Alley, who is currently taxing the dance floor with her portly and ever-expanding frame as a member of this season’s Dancing With the D-List Stars cast, took great offense when he pointed out the obvious in suggesting on his show Tuesday that she was a pig. While talking about her performance on DWTDLS the previous night Lopez said she "did a nice job, her little hooves tapping away." While the comment might seem a bit harsh, remember that it is Lopez’s job to crack jokes, even if his show is nowhere close to being the best in the late-night race and he has little hope of ever running down the best in the genre. Predictably, Alley couldn’t take a joke and instead reacted like a typical, oversensitive FAT person. She fired back on Twitter, telling the saps pathetic enough to actually follow an obese E-list actress on Twitter: "Don't worry about George's comments...just remember what happens to the big bad, drunk woolf...falls in a boiling pot of vodka. Piggy laughs." At that point, Lopez had a decision to make: apologize and back down or stand his ground and reap the whirlwind. Sadly, he elected to take the coward’s route and in the process, show why he will never run down Colbert, Stewart, Leno or Letterman. He tweeted an apology and fell on his comedic sword. "I misjudged the joke," he tweeted. "No malice was intended and I apologize to Kirstie." That wasn’t enough to satisfy Alley’s appetite (no, not THAT appetite - nothing can accomplish that Herculean feat) for revenge and she tweeted back to Lopez - whose ex-wife donated a kidney to him in 2005 - that, "I don't need or want ur apology...I want your kidney dude..on behalf of ur X and all the women uv insulted...give it back." Wait one minute……how did Lopez insult anyone but you, K. Alley? He didn’t call them FAT; he called you FAT and he was right. Despite the fact that he had nothing to apologize for, Lopez offered another mea culpa Friday on The Billy Bush Show: ”[It was] poor judgment. As they say in my world of golf, ‘bad form on my part.' I’ve apologized. I think she’s accepted my apology, I wish that she had and that she would be guest on ‘Lopez Tonight. I would love to have her on." If only you could find a chair strong enough to support her presence on your set, George…………
- Now this, America, is what our judicial system should be all about. Instead of focusing on matters like who killed whom, whose life savings were stolen, who was assaulted on who swindled investors out of tens of millions of dollars, the courts should be focused on reinstating wrongly dethroned beauty queens. Thank God a Bexar County jury made the right call and cleared the way Thursday for a district judge to return the Miss San Antonio 2011 crown to original winner Domonique Ramirez. The jury found that the Miss Bexar County Organization breached its contract with Ramirez by stripping her of her title simply because she missed official events and packed on a few pounds. The jury’s verdict compelled Judge Barbara Nellermoe to give Ramirez her title back. "Under the circumstances, with a breach of repudiation on one hand as found by the jury and a finding of no breach on the part of the plaintiff, I don't have any choice but to reinstate Domonique Ramirez as Miss San Antonio 2011," Nellermoe explained before a packed courtroom. The controversy began last month when pageant organizers took the crown from Ramirez and gave it to runner-up Ashley Dixon because of allegations that Ramirez was flaking on her royal duties and had chunked up a bit. That led Ramirez and her family to file a lawsuit against pageant officials and then to a heated court battle. After the verdict came down, pageant officials refused to comment and Ramirez was jubilant. "I left it up in God's hands and that's why I felt I had to come here first," Ramirez said after heading straight to her church after the decision came down. She added that she bears no ill will toward Dixon and hopes they can co-exist as title holders. "I don't plan on taking the crown away from Ashley," Ramirez said. "I'm hoping that we'll be able to share the title and she can go to Miss Texas as Miss Bexar County, and we can both share the crown." That view was not shared by attorney Ben Wallis, representing pageant officials and doing a solid job of channeling their requisite arrogance, condescension and lack of contact with reality. "I think the jury was confused, after interviewing them I certainly believe that and I think the judge is mistaken in the law," Wallis fumed, adding he worries the verdict could set a bad precedent for pageants. "I think it could destroy pageants if contestants are allowed to sue over everything." Destroy pageants? My man, that’s like saying one more bad court decision could really send Lindsay Lohan’s life in the wrong direction. Pageants are a joke anyhow, we all know it and no one outside your sad, deluded little world believes otherwise…………
- Very sly, The Ohio State University, verrrry sly. Sliding an announcement that Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel forwarded to a mentor of quarterback Terrelle Pryor emails that had warned the coach his players were in trouble but did not forward the emails to school officials in right before your men’s basketball team plays in a Sweet 16 game Friday night against Kentucky is extremely clever on your part. After all, no one is going to notice that your head football coach has seemingly been caught in another lie after winding up entangled in a host of them over the past few months. Of course, this controversy stems from five members of the OSU football team - including Pryor - selling memorabilia items to a local tattoo-parlor owner under federal investigation and trading other items for free tattoos. Tressel received emails from a Columbus attorney in April 2010 alerting him to the alleged misdeeds but did not tell the university for eight months. Initially, the fact that he hid his prior knowledge of the situation was not known and it didn’t come to light until a few weeks ago. At that point, Ohio State hastily threw together a press conference in which Tressel said nothing of value, but did nod his head when asked whether he had forwarded the emails he received from attorney Christopher Cicero to anyone. Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith prevented Tressel from elaborating, explaining that the case is still under NCAA investigation. Along the way, Tressel has maintained that the reason he sat on the information initially was to protect his players, but if he was forwarding details to Ted Sarniak, a businessman from Pryor's hometown of Jeannette, Pa., who has known Pryor for years, then how confidential was he being. Tressel also claimed to be protecting Cicero’s confidentiality when keeping the information to himself, but forwarding it to Sarniak blows that story out of the water. Also likely to be obliterated is the five-game suspension that Tressel self-imposed after the school hit him with a two-game ban and he lengthened it, seeking to head off the NCAA dropping the hammer on him once it finishes its investigation. Now that it has become clear how many lies he told and the extent to which he perpetuated them, that penalty is likely to extend well beyond five games and if more lies and misdeeds come to light, Tressel could soon see his job in jeopardy…………
- Save the rhinos, Africa. Whether you realize it or not, this amazing beast is in serious jeopardy on your continent in large part because rhino horns sell for more than gold on a per-ounce basis. Conservationists are extremely concerned about the fate of Africa's rhinos, which are facing their worst poaching crisis in decades. The biggest poaching offenders are organized crime syndicates have killed than 800 African rhinos in the past three years alone, the Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature said Friday. The demand for rhino horns is high globally, especially in Southeast Asia, where the horns ground up for use as alleged aphrodisiacs and medicines or turned into decorative dagger handles. Poachers have created incredibly sophisticated operations using the best in modern technology, including helicopters, night-vision goggles and high-powered rifles to track and kill rhinos, which are plagued by poor sight. The poachers are well-backed financially and have significantly better technology than the African wildlife officials attempting to stop them. The countries where poaching is most common are South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, where sophisticated criminal organizations are entrenched. South Africa has suffered the biggest losses to its rhino population, with 333 poached last year and 70 more so far this year. Scientists fear that Africa's remaining 24,990 rhinos might start to decline again in numbers unless poaching can be curtailed. The rhino population in Africa consists of 4,840 black rhinos and 20,150 white rhinos, up from 2007, when there were 4,240 black rhinos and 17,500 white rhinos. Anti-poaching efforts have made minimal progress, but not nearly enough to alleviate fears of rhinos ending up on the endangered species list - or worse. The figures from South Africa are disturbing because the country a has more than 90 percent of the world's rhino population. The northern white rhino is the most highly endangered mega-vertebrate (the animals can weigh in excess of 6,000 pounds) on earth. Black rhinos are the more endangered of the two, as their population has fallen from a 65,000 across Africa in the 1970s to its current number. Rhino horns have been banned in commercial trade by the U.N.'s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species since 1993, but the black market demand for the horns has only increased since then. A large part of the blame goes on Chinese traditional medicine, which prizes the horns as a cure for everything from colds and fevers to high blood pressure. Efforts to convince the horn-loving kooks that their beloved cure-all has no special chemical qualities have failed miserably. Looks like it could be all on you to stay alive, rhinos, because we humans are failing miserably to protect you……….
- Don’t you dare back down, George Lopez. While I still have no time for your kooky circus of a late-night show, that doesn’t mean I cannot support you in your battle against the bulge that is Kirstie Alley. Alley, who is currently taxing the dance floor with her portly and ever-expanding frame as a member of this season’s Dancing With the D-List Stars cast, took great offense when he pointed out the obvious in suggesting on his show Tuesday that she was a pig. While talking about her performance on DWTDLS the previous night Lopez said she "did a nice job, her little hooves tapping away." While the comment might seem a bit harsh, remember that it is Lopez’s job to crack jokes, even if his show is nowhere close to being the best in the late-night race and he has little hope of ever running down the best in the genre. Predictably, Alley couldn’t take a joke and instead reacted like a typical, oversensitive FAT person. She fired back on Twitter, telling the saps pathetic enough to actually follow an obese E-list actress on Twitter: "Don't worry about George's comments...just remember what happens to the big bad, drunk woolf...falls in a boiling pot of vodka. Piggy laughs." At that point, Lopez had a decision to make: apologize and back down or stand his ground and reap the whirlwind. Sadly, he elected to take the coward’s route and in the process, show why he will never run down Colbert, Stewart, Leno or Letterman. He tweeted an apology and fell on his comedic sword. "I misjudged the joke," he tweeted. "No malice was intended and I apologize to Kirstie." That wasn’t enough to satisfy Alley’s appetite (no, not THAT appetite - nothing can accomplish that Herculean feat) for revenge and she tweeted back to Lopez - whose ex-wife donated a kidney to him in 2005 - that, "I don't need or want ur apology...I want your kidney dude..on behalf of ur X and all the women uv insulted...give it back." Wait one minute……how did Lopez insult anyone but you, K. Alley? He didn’t call them FAT; he called you FAT and he was right. Despite the fact that he had nothing to apologize for, Lopez offered another mea culpa Friday on The Billy Bush Show: ”[It was] poor judgment. As they say in my world of golf, ‘bad form on my part.' I’ve apologized. I think she’s accepted my apology, I wish that she had and that she would be guest on ‘Lopez Tonight. I would love to have her on." If only you could find a chair strong enough to support her presence on your set, George…………
- Now this, America, is what our judicial system should be all about. Instead of focusing on matters like who killed whom, whose life savings were stolen, who was assaulted on who swindled investors out of tens of millions of dollars, the courts should be focused on reinstating wrongly dethroned beauty queens. Thank God a Bexar County jury made the right call and cleared the way Thursday for a district judge to return the Miss San Antonio 2011 crown to original winner Domonique Ramirez. The jury found that the Miss Bexar County Organization breached its contract with Ramirez by stripping her of her title simply because she missed official events and packed on a few pounds. The jury’s verdict compelled Judge Barbara Nellermoe to give Ramirez her title back. "Under the circumstances, with a breach of repudiation on one hand as found by the jury and a finding of no breach on the part of the plaintiff, I don't have any choice but to reinstate Domonique Ramirez as Miss San Antonio 2011," Nellermoe explained before a packed courtroom. The controversy began last month when pageant organizers took the crown from Ramirez and gave it to runner-up Ashley Dixon because of allegations that Ramirez was flaking on her royal duties and had chunked up a bit. That led Ramirez and her family to file a lawsuit against pageant officials and then to a heated court battle. After the verdict came down, pageant officials refused to comment and Ramirez was jubilant. "I left it up in God's hands and that's why I felt I had to come here first," Ramirez said after heading straight to her church after the decision came down. She added that she bears no ill will toward Dixon and hopes they can co-exist as title holders. "I don't plan on taking the crown away from Ashley," Ramirez said. "I'm hoping that we'll be able to share the title and she can go to Miss Texas as Miss Bexar County, and we can both share the crown." That view was not shared by attorney Ben Wallis, representing pageant officials and doing a solid job of channeling their requisite arrogance, condescension and lack of contact with reality. "I think the jury was confused, after interviewing them I certainly believe that and I think the judge is mistaken in the law," Wallis fumed, adding he worries the verdict could set a bad precedent for pageants. "I think it could destroy pageants if contestants are allowed to sue over everything." Destroy pageants? My man, that’s like saying one more bad court decision could really send Lindsay Lohan’s life in the wrong direction. Pageants are a joke anyhow, we all know it and no one outside your sad, deluded little world believes otherwise…………
- Very sly, The Ohio State University, verrrry sly. Sliding an announcement that Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel forwarded to a mentor of quarterback Terrelle Pryor emails that had warned the coach his players were in trouble but did not forward the emails to school officials in right before your men’s basketball team plays in a Sweet 16 game Friday night against Kentucky is extremely clever on your part. After all, no one is going to notice that your head football coach has seemingly been caught in another lie after winding up entangled in a host of them over the past few months. Of course, this controversy stems from five members of the OSU football team - including Pryor - selling memorabilia items to a local tattoo-parlor owner under federal investigation and trading other items for free tattoos. Tressel received emails from a Columbus attorney in April 2010 alerting him to the alleged misdeeds but did not tell the university for eight months. Initially, the fact that he hid his prior knowledge of the situation was not known and it didn’t come to light until a few weeks ago. At that point, Ohio State hastily threw together a press conference in which Tressel said nothing of value, but did nod his head when asked whether he had forwarded the emails he received from attorney Christopher Cicero to anyone. Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith prevented Tressel from elaborating, explaining that the case is still under NCAA investigation. Along the way, Tressel has maintained that the reason he sat on the information initially was to protect his players, but if he was forwarding details to Ted Sarniak, a businessman from Pryor's hometown of Jeannette, Pa., who has known Pryor for years, then how confidential was he being. Tressel also claimed to be protecting Cicero’s confidentiality when keeping the information to himself, but forwarding it to Sarniak blows that story out of the water. Also likely to be obliterated is the five-game suspension that Tressel self-imposed after the school hit him with a two-game ban and he lengthened it, seeking to head off the NCAA dropping the hammer on him once it finishes its investigation. Now that it has become clear how many lies he told and the extent to which he perpetuated them, that penalty is likely to extend well beyond five games and if more lies and misdeeds come to light, Tressel could soon see his job in jeopardy…………
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Fat and religion linked, Jordan joins the riot revolution and panic reigns
- The Baltimore Orioles may be the odds-on favorites to finish in last place in the American League East for the fourth straight season, but at least they are starting the season with high hopes and a manager willing to create drama and generate headlines. Buck Showalter may not have the talent or depth on his roster to compete with the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, nor to run down the Toronto Blue Jays or Tampa Bay Rays in the standings, but at least Showalter is willing to take verbal shots at those four teams before they commence beating his squad’s brains in once the regular season begins. In an interview in the April edition of Men's Journal, Showalter took runs at both Yankees captain Derek Jeter and Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. "The first time we went to Yankee Stadium, I screamed at Derek Jeter from the dugout," Showalter said. "Our guys are thinking, 'Wow, he's screaming at Derek Jeter.' Well, he's always jumping back from balls just off the plate. I know how many calls that team gets -- and yes, he [ticks] me off." He then moved on to the Red Sox, the prohibitive favorites in the AL East largely because they made two of the biggest offseason acquisitions in baseball, picking up All-Star left fielder Carl Crawford and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez through free agency. Those moves may have impressed most of the baseball world and earned Epstein kudos from other general managers, coaches and players, but Showalter is not impressed. "I'd like to see how smart Theo Epstein is with the Tampa Bay [Rays] payroll," Showalter snarked. "You got Carl Crawford 'cause you paid more than anyone else, and that's what makes you smarter? That's why I like whipping their butt. It's great, knowing those guys with the $205 million payroll are saying, 'How the hell are they beating us?'" You may like “whipping their butt,” but you actually have to accomplish that on the field in order to enjoy it, something Showalter’s team appears ill-equipped to do this season, just as they were last season, the season before that, the season before that and the season before that. Asked last week if he regretted making the aforementioned remarks, Showalter conceded he may have been better off toning down his comments, but he did not attempt to deny or back off them…………
- Panic reigns in this world in which we live. Natural disasters are occurring all over the globe, man-made disasters are happening frequently and nearly every nation in northern Africa and the Middle East seems to be in the middle of a violent revolution. The possibility of World War III seems more real than ever and when you factor all of these dangers into the equation, it’s not difficult to see why humanity might be a bit on edge. What does all of this mean? Big business for U.S. companies selling doomsday bunkers, that’s what! These ultimate opportunists are seeing sales skyrocket anywhere from 20 to 1,000 percent. One example is Northwest Shelter Systems, which offers shelters ranging in price from $200,000 to $20 million, and has seen sales surge 70 percent since the uprisings in the Middle East began in earnest. In an average year, the company sells four shelters. In less than three months this year, it has sold twelve and demand remains high. "Sales have gone through the roof, to the point where we are having trouble keeping up," said Northwest Shelter Systems owner Kevin Thompson. The field is deep and competitive when it comes to building underground bunkers and the good folks at UndergroundBombShelter.com, which sells portable shelters, bomb shelters and underground bunkers, have seen business pick up as well, especially in the wake of the Japanese earthquake. The company’s inquiries have risen 400 percent since the disaster and sales of its $9,500 nuclear biological chemical shelter tents are at an all-time high. The same goes for Hardened Structures, where inquiries have shot up about 20 percent since the earthquake -- particularly for its apocalyptic 2012 shelters, radiation-protection tents, and nuclear, biological and chemical air filters. But perhaps no company has seen as much of a surge in demand for its doomsday products as Vivos, a company that sells rooms in 200-person doomsday bunkers. Vivos has received thousands of applications since the massive earthquake in Japan, with reservations skyrocketing nearly 1,000 percent last week despite the fact that a reservation requires a minimum deposit of $5,000. "People are afraid of the earth-changing events and ripple effects of the earthquake, which led to tsunamis, the nuclear meltdown, and which will lead to radiation and health concerns," said Vivos CEO Robert Vicino. "Where it ends, I don't know. Does it lead to economic collapse? A true economic collapse would lead to anarchy, which could lead to 90 percent of the population being killed off." Such sunny prognostications, Robert, it’s easy to see why your sunny personality is a light in the day of anyone you encounter. The world hasn’t been this panicked about a possible apocalypse since the Y2K scare, which turned out to be an all-time dud of a disaster. If the prediction of the world’s end in 2010 that the mythic Mayan calendar predicts actually happens, many people will be riding it out in a ginormous bunker Vivos is currently building under the grasslands of Nebraska. This behemoth is 137,000 square feet, can house 950 people for up to one year and withstand a 50 megaton blast. Once completed, it will feature four levels of individual suites, a medical and dental center, kitchens, bakery, prayer room, computer area, pool tables, pet kennels, a fully stocked wine cellar and a detention center to corral anyone who becomes unruly on account of being trapped underground for as much as one year. For those who want to remember that there is still a world outside of their little palace of paranoia, the facility will also have a fortified 350-foot lookout tower. Act quickly, because spots are filling up fast and you don’t want to be left out in the very likely event that none of these monstrosities are actually needed…………
- Umm, I hate to break it to 15-minutes-of-fame YouTube “sensation” Rebecca Black, but this is getting worse and not better. That does not refer to her music, which was awful to begin with and really can't get much worse. What can get worse is the collection of musical hacks rallying to her support as her song 'Friday' has been widely panned and dubbed 'The Worst Song in the World' by many critics. It’s an accurate assessment because the song is mighty heavy on the auto-tuning, which is one of the biggest reasons pop music sucks today and will continue to suck indefinitely. Untalented hacks tweaking their voice digitally to smooth over their many deficiencies isn't music or art; it’s nothing more than techno-drivel with no musical soul. So of course one of the chief proprietors of crappy pop music, X-Factor and American Karaoke creator Simon Cowell, was the first big name to rally to Black’s defense and claim that she has "done nothing wrong.” But really, there is someone else out there, someone even more eminently qualified than Cowell, who can speak definitively on the subject of untalented hacks creating “music” that is nothing more than subpar singing, computer-generated notes and digitally-enhanced voices and a total lack of artistry: Lady Gaga. Who has milked more publicity and income from those very things than Gaga, who also adds to her persona with all manner of contrived and ridiculous antics and wardrobe choices? No one, that’s who. Thus, it makes perfect sense that Lady Gaga has labeled Black "a genius" and praised “Friday” effusively while doing a recent public appearance. ""I think it's fantastic. I say Rebecca Black is a genius and anyone that's telling her she's cheesy is full of sh*t,” Gaga said. Actually, you kook, no one is calling her cheesy. People are saying her song sucks and they are right. Best of all, Lady Gaga admitted that she hasn't yet seen Black's video, which has racked up some 35 million hits. So you haven’t actually witnessed this train wreck yourself, but you think she’s a genius? Thanks for that. For the record, Black recorded the song after her mother paid $2,000 to the Los Angeles-based Ark Studios and that investment is currently earning the Blacks an estimated $27,000 a week from iTunes sales and YouTube streams. Oh, and it’s also earning them a well-deserved reputation of being at the forefront of the rabid mob of idiots wielding guns, knives, clubs and grenades as they look to kill what remains of good music in this world…………
- Organized religion in its more traditional, conservative form is not having a good week. First, a small town in success is found to be having huge success with Pole Dancing for Jesus, a class for church-going women to work the brass pole to Christian music. Now comes research from Northwestern University suggesting that youths of a healthy weight who frequently participate in religious activities are twice as likely to become obese by middle age than their less-religious peers. Researchers factored in race, sex, education and income, which could independently affect likelihood of obesity, but the result remained the same. They used data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, which monitored weight and a number of physical and behavioral variables, including religious involvement, in more than 2,000 men and women over the past two decades. "We had previously found that those with high religious involvement were more likely to be obese [as middle-aged or older adults], but we wanted to follow people over time to make sure that people who are religious are more likely to become obese, not that people who weigh more are more likely to turn to religion," said Mathew Feinstein, lead author of the study. Previous studies have also drawn a link between high religious involvement and obesity, but those studies didn't necessarily find a connection between religiosity and negative health outcomes, such as markers of cardiovascular disease. Instead, studies have shown an association between faith and an increased lifespan. For Feinstein’s study, those who attended religious services more frequently tend to put on more weight than their less-religious peers - even if Feinstein and his team are uncertain as to why. One obvious explanation is the proclivity of religious and church gatherings of many denominations centering around food in some way. Needless to say, these gatherings and their gastric goodies tend not to be low-calorie health food. Other experts theorize that an increased focus on the afterlife may lead to less concern for physical well-being in the present one, leading religious people to neglect proper diet and exercise and instead place their focus on where they will be headed once they exit their terrestrial realm. That seems fairly asinine, given that focusing sufficient attention on both isn't exactly a Herculean task. Perhaps clarity can be found in a sociological study on the topic which postulated that associations between obesity and faith may have to do with a prioritization of certain sins over others……or not. Sorry, sociologists Krista Cline and Kenneth Ferraro, but your notion that religions tend to focus on sins such as smoking, drinking and promiscuity, while not caring about gluttony is even more absurd than the first two theories just covered. In other words, let’s commission some more studies and drag this thing out as long as possible…………
- Jordanians, I’m not going to lie to you. So many nations in your neck of the woods have already turned in such stellar and captivating riot and protest efforts that you’re going to need to come up with something extremely unique and original merit a blip on the Riot Watch! radar. So far, your endeavor is off to a decent start with hundreds of you setting up a protest camp in a main square in the capital on Thursday to press demands for the ouster of the prime minister and wider public freedoms. Right now, the crowd of 500 or so appears to consist mostly university students or unemployed graduates unaffiliated with any political party. That’s a positive sign because uprisings should unite people, not divide them. Politics tend to become extremely divisive and quickly. Social media have played a key role in many of the recent uprisings across the Middle East and Africa and they are at play in Jordan, as most of the assembled protestors said they met through Facebook last month to launch a group called the Jordanian Youth Movement. What are their plans now that they have set up camp? Group spokesman Ziad al-Khawaldeh said protesters would remain outdoors until Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit resigns. Their other demands include the dissolution of parliament, shutting down the feared intelligence department and giving greater powers to the people. One decision I would question for the group is changing its name so quickly, as it went from the Jordanian Youth Movement to "Youth of March 24" as of Thursday to mark the start of an open-ended demonstration. "Today is the dawning of the Jordanian revolution," said group spokesman Ziad al-Khawaldeh. "We will not move an inch from here until our demands are met." Hmm……the willpower sounds good, but then again, every group seeking to overthrow its government has a strong resolve at the start. Setting up shop outside an area housing the Interior Ministry and police, financial and other government offices is also a solid play, as are banners calling for a "new Jordan, clean of corruption and corrupt officials." The chief corrupt official protestors want to oust is Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit, whom they want to be replaced with a liberal government that would quickly implement reforms. Al-Bakhit has a reputation as a tough military officer incapable of change. If the protestors have their way, his removal from power will pave the way for an election law replacing a one seen as favoring the king's loyalists and stripping the king of some of his powers, specifically in appointing the prime minister. Electing a prime minister by popular vote is a worthy goal to aim for, as is the dissolution of parliament and the holding of new elections. Having said all of that, there’s a long way to go before this village of protestors turns into a fearsome force for change………
- Panic reigns in this world in which we live. Natural disasters are occurring all over the globe, man-made disasters are happening frequently and nearly every nation in northern Africa and the Middle East seems to be in the middle of a violent revolution. The possibility of World War III seems more real than ever and when you factor all of these dangers into the equation, it’s not difficult to see why humanity might be a bit on edge. What does all of this mean? Big business for U.S. companies selling doomsday bunkers, that’s what! These ultimate opportunists are seeing sales skyrocket anywhere from 20 to 1,000 percent. One example is Northwest Shelter Systems, which offers shelters ranging in price from $200,000 to $20 million, and has seen sales surge 70 percent since the uprisings in the Middle East began in earnest. In an average year, the company sells four shelters. In less than three months this year, it has sold twelve and demand remains high. "Sales have gone through the roof, to the point where we are having trouble keeping up," said Northwest Shelter Systems owner Kevin Thompson. The field is deep and competitive when it comes to building underground bunkers and the good folks at UndergroundBombShelter.com, which sells portable shelters, bomb shelters and underground bunkers, have seen business pick up as well, especially in the wake of the Japanese earthquake. The company’s inquiries have risen 400 percent since the disaster and sales of its $9,500 nuclear biological chemical shelter tents are at an all-time high. The same goes for Hardened Structures, where inquiries have shot up about 20 percent since the earthquake -- particularly for its apocalyptic 2012 shelters, radiation-protection tents, and nuclear, biological and chemical air filters. But perhaps no company has seen as much of a surge in demand for its doomsday products as Vivos, a company that sells rooms in 200-person doomsday bunkers. Vivos has received thousands of applications since the massive earthquake in Japan, with reservations skyrocketing nearly 1,000 percent last week despite the fact that a reservation requires a minimum deposit of $5,000. "People are afraid of the earth-changing events and ripple effects of the earthquake, which led to tsunamis, the nuclear meltdown, and which will lead to radiation and health concerns," said Vivos CEO Robert Vicino. "Where it ends, I don't know. Does it lead to economic collapse? A true economic collapse would lead to anarchy, which could lead to 90 percent of the population being killed off." Such sunny prognostications, Robert, it’s easy to see why your sunny personality is a light in the day of anyone you encounter. The world hasn’t been this panicked about a possible apocalypse since the Y2K scare, which turned out to be an all-time dud of a disaster. If the prediction of the world’s end in 2010 that the mythic Mayan calendar predicts actually happens, many people will be riding it out in a ginormous bunker Vivos is currently building under the grasslands of Nebraska. This behemoth is 137,000 square feet, can house 950 people for up to one year and withstand a 50 megaton blast. Once completed, it will feature four levels of individual suites, a medical and dental center, kitchens, bakery, prayer room, computer area, pool tables, pet kennels, a fully stocked wine cellar and a detention center to corral anyone who becomes unruly on account of being trapped underground for as much as one year. For those who want to remember that there is still a world outside of their little palace of paranoia, the facility will also have a fortified 350-foot lookout tower. Act quickly, because spots are filling up fast and you don’t want to be left out in the very likely event that none of these monstrosities are actually needed…………
- Umm, I hate to break it to 15-minutes-of-fame YouTube “sensation” Rebecca Black, but this is getting worse and not better. That does not refer to her music, which was awful to begin with and really can't get much worse. What can get worse is the collection of musical hacks rallying to her support as her song 'Friday' has been widely panned and dubbed 'The Worst Song in the World' by many critics. It’s an accurate assessment because the song is mighty heavy on the auto-tuning, which is one of the biggest reasons pop music sucks today and will continue to suck indefinitely. Untalented hacks tweaking their voice digitally to smooth over their many deficiencies isn't music or art; it’s nothing more than techno-drivel with no musical soul. So of course one of the chief proprietors of crappy pop music, X-Factor and American Karaoke creator Simon Cowell, was the first big name to rally to Black’s defense and claim that she has "done nothing wrong.” But really, there is someone else out there, someone even more eminently qualified than Cowell, who can speak definitively on the subject of untalented hacks creating “music” that is nothing more than subpar singing, computer-generated notes and digitally-enhanced voices and a total lack of artistry: Lady Gaga. Who has milked more publicity and income from those very things than Gaga, who also adds to her persona with all manner of contrived and ridiculous antics and wardrobe choices? No one, that’s who. Thus, it makes perfect sense that Lady Gaga has labeled Black "a genius" and praised “Friday” effusively while doing a recent public appearance. ""I think it's fantastic. I say Rebecca Black is a genius and anyone that's telling her she's cheesy is full of sh*t,” Gaga said. Actually, you kook, no one is calling her cheesy. People are saying her song sucks and they are right. Best of all, Lady Gaga admitted that she hasn't yet seen Black's video, which has racked up some 35 million hits. So you haven’t actually witnessed this train wreck yourself, but you think she’s a genius? Thanks for that. For the record, Black recorded the song after her mother paid $2,000 to the Los Angeles-based Ark Studios and that investment is currently earning the Blacks an estimated $27,000 a week from iTunes sales and YouTube streams. Oh, and it’s also earning them a well-deserved reputation of being at the forefront of the rabid mob of idiots wielding guns, knives, clubs and grenades as they look to kill what remains of good music in this world…………
- Organized religion in its more traditional, conservative form is not having a good week. First, a small town in success is found to be having huge success with Pole Dancing for Jesus, a class for church-going women to work the brass pole to Christian music. Now comes research from Northwestern University suggesting that youths of a healthy weight who frequently participate in religious activities are twice as likely to become obese by middle age than their less-religious peers. Researchers factored in race, sex, education and income, which could independently affect likelihood of obesity, but the result remained the same. They used data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, which monitored weight and a number of physical and behavioral variables, including religious involvement, in more than 2,000 men and women over the past two decades. "We had previously found that those with high religious involvement were more likely to be obese [as middle-aged or older adults], but we wanted to follow people over time to make sure that people who are religious are more likely to become obese, not that people who weigh more are more likely to turn to religion," said Mathew Feinstein, lead author of the study. Previous studies have also drawn a link between high religious involvement and obesity, but those studies didn't necessarily find a connection between religiosity and negative health outcomes, such as markers of cardiovascular disease. Instead, studies have shown an association between faith and an increased lifespan. For Feinstein’s study, those who attended religious services more frequently tend to put on more weight than their less-religious peers - even if Feinstein and his team are uncertain as to why. One obvious explanation is the proclivity of religious and church gatherings of many denominations centering around food in some way. Needless to say, these gatherings and their gastric goodies tend not to be low-calorie health food. Other experts theorize that an increased focus on the afterlife may lead to less concern for physical well-being in the present one, leading religious people to neglect proper diet and exercise and instead place their focus on where they will be headed once they exit their terrestrial realm. That seems fairly asinine, given that focusing sufficient attention on both isn't exactly a Herculean task. Perhaps clarity can be found in a sociological study on the topic which postulated that associations between obesity and faith may have to do with a prioritization of certain sins over others……or not. Sorry, sociologists Krista Cline and Kenneth Ferraro, but your notion that religions tend to focus on sins such as smoking, drinking and promiscuity, while not caring about gluttony is even more absurd than the first two theories just covered. In other words, let’s commission some more studies and drag this thing out as long as possible…………
- Jordanians, I’m not going to lie to you. So many nations in your neck of the woods have already turned in such stellar and captivating riot and protest efforts that you’re going to need to come up with something extremely unique and original merit a blip on the Riot Watch! radar. So far, your endeavor is off to a decent start with hundreds of you setting up a protest camp in a main square in the capital on Thursday to press demands for the ouster of the prime minister and wider public freedoms. Right now, the crowd of 500 or so appears to consist mostly university students or unemployed graduates unaffiliated with any political party. That’s a positive sign because uprisings should unite people, not divide them. Politics tend to become extremely divisive and quickly. Social media have played a key role in many of the recent uprisings across the Middle East and Africa and they are at play in Jordan, as most of the assembled protestors said they met through Facebook last month to launch a group called the Jordanian Youth Movement. What are their plans now that they have set up camp? Group spokesman Ziad al-Khawaldeh said protesters would remain outdoors until Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit resigns. Their other demands include the dissolution of parliament, shutting down the feared intelligence department and giving greater powers to the people. One decision I would question for the group is changing its name so quickly, as it went from the Jordanian Youth Movement to "Youth of March 24" as of Thursday to mark the start of an open-ended demonstration. "Today is the dawning of the Jordanian revolution," said group spokesman Ziad al-Khawaldeh. "We will not move an inch from here until our demands are met." Hmm……the willpower sounds good, but then again, every group seeking to overthrow its government has a strong resolve at the start. Setting up shop outside an area housing the Interior Ministry and police, financial and other government offices is also a solid play, as are banners calling for a "new Jordan, clean of corruption and corrupt officials." The chief corrupt official protestors want to oust is Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit, whom they want to be replaced with a liberal government that would quickly implement reforms. Al-Bakhit has a reputation as a tough military officer incapable of change. If the protestors have their way, his removal from power will pave the way for an election law replacing a one seen as favoring the king's loyalists and stripping the king of some of his powers, specifically in appointing the prime minister. Electing a prime minister by popular vote is a worthy goal to aim for, as is the dissolution of parliament and the holding of new elections. Having said all of that, there’s a long way to go before this village of protestors turns into a fearsome force for change………
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