- Wonder if American election workers have the same fear……but highly doubting it. As Nigeria’s April elections near, tensions are high in oil-rich nation and not because the people are curious as to who the new leaders of their nation will be and if their policies will negatively impact the average Nigerian. No, employees of the Independent National Electoral Commission are concerned for their lives. In fact, they are so concerned that they have asked the country’s election chief, Attahiru Jega, for life insurance and police protection without having to pay bribes ahead of the elections. Those concerns might seem excessive to outsiders, but past elections have been marred by rigging, intimidation and violence and the problems have escalated over the past decade, ever since the nation become a democracy. Election workers are concerned and assurances from Jega that the elections will see the problems of the past "brought down to the barest manageable levels" have done little to calm those fears. Little time remains to resolve any potential problems, as Nigerians will vote April 9 in a presidential election and for state and federal positions in two elections to be held later in the month. Showing up for work without having to fear that someone will wave a gun in your face, threaten to blow up your house or kill your family unless you alter votes to achieve their desired result seems like a reasonable concern, but merely possessing a reasonable concern does not mean that those in power have the will or the resources to address said concerns. In other words, don’t expect that extra life insurance and unless one or two extra police officers with guns outside your polling location is the bulked-up law enforcement presence you’re hoping for, I wouldn’t bank on that either…………
- New browsers season has arrived, in case no one told you. As of last Tuesday, the makers of three of the four major browsers commonly used on computers ‘round the world released new versions of their products, led by Google and the release of Chrome 10. The revised Chrome still sucks but has increased speed, a new settings interface, and a more secure Flash implementation. Google releases an updated version of Chrome every other week it seems, so the sizzle isn't quite there. The versions are all terrible, taking away even more of the sizzle. One day later, Mozilla announced the availability of the long-awaited Firefox 4.0. Firefox is a significantly better and better-designed browser than Chrome and its release has been dragged out for nearly a year. The new Firefox looks markedly different than its predecessor, and brings the browser more in line with the trend of fast, minimal interface browsers on the market. The third “big” browser release announcement came from the maker of the world’s worst operating system, Microsoft, which announced Monday that Internet Explorer 9 was available in its "release to Web" final form. Much like Firefox (in the most irrelevant way possible), IE9 is drastically different than the browser it is replacing. It is still abysmally bad, but it also features slightly improved speed, revised user interface capabilities and better standards support to (unsuccessfully) address areas where Internet Explorer lagged behind its competitors. Common among all three new releases are the theme of a minimal interface, improved speed and support for HTML5. Credit for the minimalist trend in browsers goes in large part to Apple’s Safari and Chrome. For those who need to trick out their browser and personalize it by adding a theme, only Chrome and Firefox allow users to add different colors, patterns, and images. IE9 does not allow themes but instead lets users "pin" sites, meaning they'll get a permanent button in the Windows 7 taskbar with jump lists to take users to frequently needed site sections. Pinned sites then alter the browser with their own icon and predominant color. All three of the new browsers make it possible to drag tabs out into their own windows and close background tabs, so no advantage there. Or you can simply stick with whatever you’re currently using and not give it a second thought…………
- Residents of Bennington, Vt. are advised to be on the lookout for a small, furry, rodent-like assailant who likes to attack from above and often strikes without warning. This silent assassin has already pounced on one of Bennington’s own three times and how Kevin McDonald has lived to tell the tales, I am not sure. The attacks all occurred while McDonald cleared snow from his front yard earlier this month. A gray squirrel jumped onto his back three separate times and three times, McDonald fought the beast off. "It kind of startled me and I whirled around to look and saw this furry thing on my back and it was a gray squirrel," McDonald said. So was this merely a case of a slightly insane squirrel mistaking a human being for a bird feeder? Not according to McDonald, it wasn’t. "This wasn't an accident, this was an attack," he proclaimed. In fact, McDonald likened the scene to something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, except with a squirrel instead of birds. After the first attack, the squirrel wasted little time in ambushing his target again. The squirrel leapt onto McDonald’s person a second time and began to claw at his upper right arm. He tossed it off and the relentless rodent jumped onto him a third time. For some odd reason, neither McDonald nor wife Kristin was upset by the incident and both were laughing it up as they retold the tale. “He's a prankster. He's really big on practical jokes. So I thought he was kidding. I thought there was going to be some joke after he said that," Kristin McDonald said. Perhaps if the McDonalds had taken all of this more seriously, what happened next could have been averted. See, when Kevin McDonald neglected to take his snow shovel and clock the squirrel as hard as possible in order to render it dead or at least unconscious, it went on to attack two of his neighbors-- biting one of them. He then realized that the animal might have rabies or some other disease that was wrecking its mental faculties, but by that point it would have been too late for the neighbor who was bitten if the animal was indeed rabid. Just because McDonald escaped his attack with only a few scratches doesn’t mean that others will be so fortunate. Bludgeon the f’ing squirrel when you have the chance. Swing the shovel now, ask questions later………
- MTV, are you sure you want to do this? Over the past decade, it has become increasingly clear that the network whose initials stand for Music Television wants less and less to do with actual music and more to do with low-brow reality shows featuring camera-whore hacks with no discernable talent who are looking to do nothing more than launch their acting careers. But MTV does have a secondary network, MTV, and that secondary network needs programming to fills its airwaves. MTV could come up with a new, original idea for a show to meet that need……or it could simply recycle an old one. Because the latter of those two options seems more like MTV, the network announced Thursday that "120 Minutes," the alternative music showcase that premiered back in 1986 and ran through 2000, with a brief revival from 2001-2003, will return to MTV2 as a monthly show beginning later this year. To give the revival a modern twist, the show will also appear as a weekly online show, "120 Seconds," beginning Friday morning on MTV Hive. Making the show’s new life that much better, host Matt Pinfield will also be back to show his favorite videos. It’s hard to believe that a fast-rising talent like Pinfield hasn’t landed a more prominent gig over the past few years, but I’m sure MTV is fired up to have him back for its ‘90s revival. "I am elated and proud to be part of bringing back one of the most influential and longest-running music shows in the network's history," Pinfield said in a statement. "Everywhere I go, people from all over the world talk about how much '120 Minutes' shaped their musical tastes and how much they missed it. The show helped expose, and ultimately, break new artists. MTV's historical role in breaking artists of all genres can never be underestimated." Left unanswered is how the new version of “120 Minutes” will adjust for the fact that the "alternative music scene" that was its focus the first time around really doesn’t exist any longer. Every possible genre of interest has been tapped, explored and exploited and the idea of anything being truly alternative musically at this point is hard to fathom. But when one is on a nostalgic trip, reason does not apply. MTV is obviously on one of those trips, as it announced earlier this year that it would update "Beavis & Butthead" with new episodes. Get out the ripped jeans and flannel and grow their hair out long, all, because the ‘90s are on their way back…………
- If there actually is an NFL season come this fall, players may well return from the lockout to find harsher rules and penalties for illegal hits and changes to instant replay and kickoffs. Ray Anderson, the league's chief disciplinarian, said Wednesday that repeat offenders or players committing flagrant illegal hits will have a much greater chance of being suspended during the 2011 season. No players were suspended during the 2010 season despite the NFL's crackdown on such hits, largely because "we were operating under the principle unless you have given sufficient advance notice of what the results could be, you need to be more lenient," Anderson said. That notion didn’t seem to jive with what players felt because their primary complaint was specifically that: the league changing the rules on the fly. The tipping point came one weekend in October when Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison was fined $75,000 for an illegal hit and Atlanta Falcons cornerback Dunta Robinson and New England Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather were dinged with $50,000 penalties for hits to defenseless opponents. With a few weeks of play to adjust to the revised focus on illegal hits, the league feels players should be able to make the necessary adjustments. "Frankly, now that the notice has been given, players and coaches and clubs are very aware of what the emphasis is and we won't have that hesitation," Anderson said. "Everyone will be very clearly on notice now that a suspension is very viable for us and we will exercise it ... when it comes to illegal hits to the head and neck area and to defenseless players." To determine who the repeat offenders are when it comes to illegal hits, Anderson explain the league will reviews two years’ worth of plays. The rules defining a defenseless player will be expanded and now will include eight categories: a quarterback in the act of throwing; a receiver trying to catch a pass; a runner already in the grasp of tacklers and having his forward progress stopped; a player fielding a punt or a kickoff; a kicker or punter during the kick; a quarterback at any time after change of possession; a receiver who receives a blind-side block; a player already on the ground. In addition to those changes, the league’s competition committee will propose moving the kickoff up to the 35-yard line and bringing a touchback out to the 25 during next week's owners meetings in New Orleans. These rule changes will undoubtedly be met with rabid enthusiasm by the locked-out players, wherever they may be…………
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