- After releasing a disappoint, overly poppy first album with his new band Beady Eye, legendary blowhard Liam Gallagher will surely tone down the rhetoric and be more humble and realistic, right? Umm, no. Have you ever heard anything that comes out of Gallahger’s mouth? The guy is a legendary blowhard, dummy. Major success, minor success or no success, he loves him some him and there is no end to his arrogance. Thus, he is promising that Beady Eye's second album will be packed with "great anthems and epic tunes.” Those promises come even as the band’s debut effort “Different Gear, Still Speeding” was released to a tepid response in February. Gallager, the former frontman for British rockers Oasis, confirmed this week that Beady Eye have already started writing material for the follow-up to “Different Gear” and will hit the studio in February 2012 with plans to have a "storming" record out next summer. "We've started and it's sounding good – we're not messing about. We'll have bits of time off but we won't be sitting around watching Jeremy Kyle, we'll be in the studio,” Gallagher stated. So what might some of the inspirations be for the new album? Possibly watching his beloved Manchester City win the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium last Saturday, right? That may inspire Gallagher in the writing process, but it hasn’t placed that burning fire in Gallagher’s heart to play larger venues with Beady Eye. "I'm not in the mood for doing big gigs just yet. Our [Beady Eye's] first tour was great – it was great starting off again and playing the smaller venues," he said. Wow…..Liam Gallagher saying he’s okay without the ego stroking of thousands of fans singing along to every line and chanting rabidly for an encore. Maybe the experience of Oasis ending and starting over from scratch with a new band truly has changed Liam Gallahger……hahahahaha, just kidding. He’s still as pompous as ever and don’t ever think otherwise…………
- Orlando, Fla. residents, today is a big (and dangerous) day for you, for today is the day your metropolitan area has officially been ranked as the most dangerous for pedestrians out of the 54 largest metropolitan areas, according to a report released by Transportation for America. The report, which covers the decade from 2000 to 2009, found there were 557 people killed while walking in the greater Orlando region. Additionally, researchers found that the highest pedestrian fatalities occur among minorities, the elderly and children. Compared to non-Hispanic whites, the rate of pedestrian deaths among Hispanics were 37 percent higher and for blacks, they were 48 percent higher. At a time when soaring gas prices are leading many to seek alternative means of transportation (walking on short errands close to home or riding their bike to work or the store), the Orlando area suddenly has an even bigger concern on its hands. Citizens and local leaders aren’t handling the problem well, which is obvious because many of these sad souls are looking to Congress to provide aid money to make roads pedestrian friendly in order to reduce pedestrian casualties. “Some in Congress have questioned the federal interest in keeping pedestrians safe, believing it to be a strictly local issue,” said James Corless, director of Transportation for America. “But 67 percent of all pedestrian fatalities in the last 10 years occurred on federal-aid roads -- roads eligible to receive federal funding and with federal guidelines or oversight for design.” Nice thought, Jimmy, but Congress isn't chipping states off an extra cash to make roads more pedestrian-friendly. Even if most roads in Orlando aren’t designed with pedestrian traffic in mind, as this report claims, the state’s Department of Transportation isn't likely to leap to action to address the problem. The TA should know this because later in its very own report, the organization claims that state departments of transportation currently give 1.5 percent of federal funds to projects that help make roads safer. That 1.5 percent is not a number anyone should be looking to see increase drastically any time soon……………
- His place in baseball history was already cemented with five championships, the most postseason saves in baseball history and more World Series saves than any other reliever, but he added another amazing notch to his baseball belt Wednesday, making his 1,000 career appearance against the Toronto Blue Jays and becoming the first pitcher to reach the 1,000-appearance plateau with one team. While he is the 15th pitcher in major league history to appear in 1,000 games, no other pitcher has played for one team long enough to do it in a single uniform. The age-defying Rivera, who is still going strong and as effective as ever on the mound, retired the side in the ninth inning of the Yankees' 7-3 win over Toronto. "It's a blessing to be able to be on the same team and do that. It's not too often you see that. But the most important thing is that we won," Rivera said after the game. Ever the humble, quiet star, Rivera admitted that he was "surprised" by the accomplishment. "It is because you've got to have the right combination. The organization you're with (has to be) willing to keep you and you've got to do the job and take care of yourself. All of that has to be in place," he explained. To say that no one would have predicted this sort of longevity for Rivera when he made his first major league appearance on May 23, 1995, against the Angels would be a drastic understatement. That day, he was the starting pitcher and was shelled for five runs on eight hits in 3 1/3 innings. After a brief stint as a starter, he was moved to the bullpen and never left after making his first relief appearance on Aug. 1 and blowing the save against Milwaukee. It was 10 appearances into his rookie season when Rivera began throwing his vaunted cut fastball that has made him arguably the greatest closer in baseball history. He has appeared in the postseason 15 times and has a record 42 career saves in the playoffs -- 11 of which came in the World Series. His sparkling 0.71 ERA in 94 postseason games is the lowest playoff ERA of all time for pitchers with at least 30 innings and if the Yankees make it back to the postseason in this, his 16th year, he will be the guy they hand the ball to when it comes time to close out games. "It just shows you, tells you how great he is at his trade," manager Joe Girardi said of Wednesday’s feat. Ironically, Girardi was an active player with the Yankees when Rivera made his debut and after the game Wednesday, he recalled the first time he caught Rivera in 1996. "I had to catch him in the bullpen and I'm like, 'Who's this kid?'" Girardi said. "His stuff was electric. He was throwing 97 (mph), throwing it wherever he wanted to. He could cut, he could elevate. I'd never even heard of him." Now, Girardi and everyone else who knows anything at all about baseball knows exactly who Mariano Rivera is………….
- Japan is a place known for great history, cramming more people into tight living quarters than any place outside of Manhattan and being at the forefront of advances in technology. Rolling aspects of several of those areas into one story, Japan has issued a series of major renewable energy announcements recently and among them was the revelation that all new buildings may come with solar panels in Japan soon. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said during a recent speech that the country would abandon its plan to build 14 new nuclear reactors in the face of this year's Fukushima tragedy and needed to "start from scratch" and create a totally new energy policy. Kan stated that focus would have a heavy emphasis on clean, renewable energy and energy conservation. At the front of that green parade is a plan for a requirement to put solar panels on all new buildings by 2030. With the country already a leader when it comes to cutting fossil fuel use, solar panels would be a logical next step. Scaling back its nuclear expansion plans is also smart given the fallout (pun intended) over the Fukushima tragedy and the realization that a similar disaster could occur again if the search for better energy sources doesn’t take a new path. Solar power is becoming increasingly feasible and doable and making it a fundamental part of new infrastructure and buildings is a logical step. If the policy goes forward as planned, Japan will have one of the strongest policies in support of solar energy in the world by a wide margin. "Taking [Fukushima] as a lesson, we will lead the world in clean energy such as solar and biomass, as we take a step toward resurrection," Kan said during a news conference last month. An official unveiling of the plan to make it mandatory put solar panels on all new buildings is expected to be unveiled at the upcoming G8 summit in Deauville, France as one component in the larger plan to increase renewables and energy conservation. Tree huggers the whole world ‘round will undoubtedly rejoice on that day…………
- Not believing in God equals better sex? That’s the word from Darrel Ray, raised a fundamentalist Christian in Topeka, Kan., who left the church in the late 1970s and has since made studying sex and religion his life’s passion. He recently wrapped up research on his hypothesis that religion and good sex don't mix and in an online survey of 14,500 people who had come from a religious background, he discovered that once they had abandoned their churches, their sex lives improved. The survey, "Sex and Secularism," was published last week and in it, Ray drew a direct correlation between guilt and sexual behavior. “We find guilt is a pretty big thing," said Ray. He concluded that atheists have the best sex of all. "They can speak with some authority," he said. "They were raised in very secular homes." Ray, who has also penned a book titled "The God Virus: How God Infects Our Lives and Culture,” surveyed respondents over 18 and adhering to all sexual orientations about what happened once they abandoned their churches and described themselves as agnostic or without a religious belief. According to Ray’s findings, more than 50 percent saw improvements in their sex lives once they left religion. Just 29.6 percent saw no change and 2.2 percent said it was worse, with those who had grown up in the most conservative churches reported the highest satisfaction levels after leaving religion behind. Oddly enough, all of the people who were questioned were found to have sex around the same number of times a week before and after leaving their religion. Respondents who were raised Mormon tended to have the strictest religious views on sex and also rated highest among those who had sexual guilt with an average score of 8.19 out of 10. In their statistical ballpark were Jehovah's Witness, Pentecostal, Seventh Day Adventist and Baptists. At the low end of the guilt scale were Catholics at 6.34, Lutherans at 5.88 and atheists and agnostics at 4.71 and 4.81, respectively. As for the man behind the survey, Ray is now an “independent” researcher who has worked as an organizational psychologist in corporations and a former clinical psychologist. "For decades I have heard that people felt their sex life was better once they left religion --- any religion -- but no one seemed to have examined this scientifically," he said. With assistance from Kansas University psychology student Amanda Brown, Ray launched his online survey. It generated 2,500 responses an hour and included only those who had said they were once religious, not those who still practice their faith. Still, Ray was blown away by the level of response. “I was blown away," he said. "People wanted to tell us their life story. This is not just about sex, it's about emotions.” Or it’s about making sure he continues to take shots at the religious world he was once a part of and his since rejected, but one or the others…………
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