- Former Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning is not known for being an easy guy to deal with. He does a lot for charity with his own foundation to promote awareness of kidney disease, but has a reputation for being prickly and disagreeable at times. The non-charitable Alonzo Mourning was apparently was the one who showed up early in the morning on July 17 at the scene of a multi-car accident in Miami Beach. Mourning was apparently on his way home from current Heat star Chris Bosh’s wedding with his wife when they came upon a wreck that had just occurred. According to Miami Beach police, Mourning was unable to avoid hitting one of the cars. That car belonged to a Miami college student who claimed he was nearly killed in the collision and filed a civil lawsuit against Mourning last week. William Candelario claimed in the suit that he was driving home from Miami Beach early Sunday morning when a blue Porsche driven by the former Heat star crashed into Candelario’s 2010 Audi, causing the car to flip over several times. Candelario’s attorney, Spencer Aronfeld, filed the suit and alleged that Mourning left the scene of the accident without exchanging insurance information. Mourning admitted to police that he left the scene but claimed he and his wife Tracy returned to the scene in her SUV 40 minutes later. The official Florida Highway Police report states that Mourning got out, went over to check on the men, who told him they were OK and that they had already called police. He then continued to his home and came back to the accident scene on the Julia Tuttle Causeway nearly an hour later. To Mourning’s credit, he did call police, but that won’t stop the FHP from citing him for the second-degree misdemeanor of leaving the scene of an accident with property damage and failure to leave information at the scene. He may not have been able to control whether or not he struck Candelario’s silver Audi, but he definitely had control over how he reacted to the accident and made the wrong choice in a criminal way. A former NBA star who probably has a fair amount of bank left from his career earnings can afford a slight insurance premium hike on account of an accident, or he could just buy a new car for the guy whose ride he hit and whom he (allegedly) nearly killed………….
- All of those stories dudes tell about the hostility they feel sitting in the room for the one women’s studies course they are forced to take in college to fill their humanities quota, maybe they are true and not exaggerated. If the fine alumnae of Peace College in Raleigh, N.C. are any indication, the femi-Nazis who populate those women’s studies classes and women’s colleges aren’t very friendly to the opposite sex. With their esteemed institution of higher learning facing the same financial pressures that nearly every other university and business in the United States, hundreds of these distinguished graduates are none too happy with the plan school administrators have formulated to deal with them. The 154-year-old women's college has always been all-female and it has always known was Peace College, but as of this fall it will be called William Peace University and more importantly, it will admit male students. Peace College President Debra Townsley said the decision is based on noting more than simple economics. "We know that two percent of women will look at a women's college. That means 98 percent won't," she said. "We're also not appealing to any men, so you lose a large portion of that market as well." It’s a simple and honest enough explanation, but not satisfactory for alums like Class of 2000 graduate Jamie Averette Mitchell. Mitchell gathered with hundreds of other alumnae on the campus Sunday to speak out against the planed changed and called them a "travesty." Other rally attendees complained that the school did not confer with them before making its decisions on the name change and admissions policy. "To be disrespected and not given an opportunity to speak about out dissatisfaction, it's an ultimate insult," fumed Billie Burney-Scott, class of 1987. The most coherent demand from the group as a whole was that school officials open a dialogue with alumni about the changes. Townsley, who has been the college’s president for just one year, has not responded directly to the request but conceded admitting men is just another measure to bring in more money. Unless the angry alums are planning on a ginormous fundraiser to generate a few million dollars annually for the school, it seems unlikely they could say much in any potential dialogue to change the reality of the situation and keep their beloved college man-free………….
- The dust has settled and the nerds have left after their five-day respite from the dark, poorly-lit basements they call home 360 days a year, but the fallout from Comic-Con is still being felt around the dork world. That is due in large part to Andrew Garfield, star of The Amazing Spider-Man, the latest installment of the Spiderman franchise that will soon hit theaters and begin breaking all sorts of records thanks to fanboys around the world. Stars of movies and TV series showing up at Comic-Con is common because studios and networks realize the power of the nerd masses and want to appeal to them directly at the dork equivalent of Woodstock, but no stars show up quite the way Garfield did Saturday at the San Diego Convention Center. He disguised himself as an enthusiastic fan and hijacked the mic while wearing an über-cheap Spiderman costume, rambling on like an overly hyped-up fanboy before ripping off his mask and sending the crowd into a frenzy. After speaking in an American accent while posing as a fan, Garfield reverted to his natural British dialect and delivered an emotional speech to fans about what Spider-Man has meant to him through the years. "I needed Spidey in my life when I was a kid, and he gave me hope," Garfield stated. "In every comic I read, he was living out my and every skinny boy's fantasy of being stronger, of being free of the body I was born into, and that swinging sensation of flight." He went on to say that not only did the famed web-slinger help him have more confidence growing up, playing Peter Parker and his alter-ego has made him a better person. "I think that we all wish we had the courage to stick up for ourselves more, to stick up for a loved one more, or even a stranger you see being mistreated, and Peter Parker has inspired me to feel stronger," Garfield declared. "He made me, Andrew, braver. He reassured me that by doing the right thing, it's worth it. And I wouldn't be able to stand here in front of you guys right now without feeling that Spider-Man was here with me with his reassuring hand on my shoulder, making sure I don't fall over and concuss myself.” It was quite an address and it would have been truly inspiring had Garfield not concluded his speech by saying what he had just done in front of hordes of virginal, pasty nerds whose primary focus at that moment was the perfect opening line to use on the hottie in the Princess Lea costume at the Star Wars exhibit was the “coolest moment of my life.” But at least Garfield had a better experience than co-star Rhys Ifans, who plays the villain Lizard in the film and was arrested for allegedly getting into a fight with a female Comic-Con security guard. The movie is due in theaters July 3, 2012 and it’s first trailer was just released…………
- Venezuela could be saddled with overbearing despot Hugo Chavez not just for five more years, not for 10 years and not even 15, but possibly 20 more years of dictatorial bliss. Not that anyone expected this power-hungry dictator to go quietly into any night, but Chavez gave his people - and the world in general - even more reason to be concerned over the weekend when he declared his intent to seek a third six-year term as Venezuela's “president” and to remain in power for the next 20 years. "On a personal level, I tell you I have never thought for even an instant of retiring from the presidency. I am determined to arrive at 2031," Chávez said, alluding to the "golden decade" he has promised the Venezuelan people between 2020 and 2030. The controversial madman is currently recovering from surgery last month in Cuba to remove a baseball-sized tumor from his brain and claimed over the weekend that he was cancer-free. His pal and fellow despised dictator, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, confirmed the good news of Chavez’s health. "He told me they found nothing. I have never heard such a short speech by Fidel," Chávez said. "It was very different from how it was a month ago." Chavez has since returned to Venezuela and his primary daily activity, aside from brutally repressing his people and the rights of anyone who dares to oppose him, has since become proclaiming to one and all the news of his good health. "I have medical reasons, scientific reasons, human reasons, reasons of love and political reasons to keep myself at the front of the government and the candidacy with more force than before," Chávez stated before issuing his terrifying proclamation of staying in power for two more decades. Given the mysterious ways in which votes just seem to flow in his direction in every single election, that threat doesn’t seem the least bit far-fetched……………
- Google+ has not been up and operational for long, but it’s already discovering the level of ire to which social networking site users can rise when their beloved site does something they don’t like. The first mini-storm of the Google+ experience struck over the weekend as Google apparently accelerated deletions of Google+ accounts because of the site's requirement that members use their real names. Users began complaining about the policy the same week Google launched the social networking site in late June and Google officials have addressed the issue multiple times over the past few weeks. On July 11, Google+ Community Manager Natalie Villalobos wrote about the policy and responded to complaints in the site's official discussion forum. That did little to stem the flow of complaints on the official Google+ discussion board and in other forums like Twitter and personal blogs. Knowing the policy and agreeing with it are two very different realities and Google has to know it was provoking a much bigger outcry this weekend when it shut down the accounts of some high-profile users. Some users who have had their account deleted seem to have valid complaints, namely that they are in fact using their real names but were targeted for deletion because they have unconventional names or their names contain foreign-language characters or letters. The second group of gripers, who may or may not have a valid beef depending on where you stand on privacy matters, want to use pseudonyms because they don't want to reveal their real names for privacy reasons. A separate controversy involves public figures and companies that have set up Google+ business profiles, which are currently forbidden. Google is deleting their accounts as well from its growing user base of 20 million members. All of this is occurring while the service is in a limited beta trial and people can join only if they are invited by Google or by existing members. Google+ is clearly a very important project for the tech titan as it attempts to challenge Facebook’s current stranglehold on the social networking scene. Past Google efforts to break into the market have failed miserably, but the company contends that Google+'s content-sharing features and privacy settings are better and easier to use than Facebook's. They hope to inspire a mass exodus from Facebook, but Mark Zuckerberg and Co.’s 750 million users would suggest otherwise at this point in time…………
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