- She hasn’t been on the job long, but International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde has proven quite a bit. Sure, what she has proven is largely negative and not at all encouraging, but proving something is proving something no matter its nature. Selected to lead the IMF after the ouster of Dominque Strauss-Kahn in the midst of a scandal based on allegations that he raped a housekeeper at a New York City earlier this year, Lagarde became the second straight Frenchman (or French person for the politically correct) to lead the organization and after just a few weeks on the job she may have already brought her own scandal to the party. The Court of Justice of the Republic, a special tribunal qualified to judge the conduct of France's government ministers while in office, is investigating allegations that Lagarde may have abused her position as finance minister in France by approving a $440 million payout to a controversial businessman and Nicolas Sarkozy supporter. Lagarde allegedly approved the payment to Bernard Tapie, a convicted soccer match fixer and tax cheat who supported her governing UMP party. If the charges are true, they could cost Lagarde her position while also proving she has a huge pair of stones and freaking nerves of steel. After all, knowing this massive scandal was lurking out in the ether, waiting to be discovered, she still campaigned hard to replace Strauss-Kahn soon after his arrest. Yes, Strauss-Kahn was at the time facing a crime that could lead to as many as 25 years in prison if he were convicted, but Lagarde is also facing a criminal trial of her own, as well as a possible jail sentence. The world is going to get the impression that all French politicians and government officials are integrity-less scumbags who have neither character nor the ability to obey the laws they are supposed to enforce. Lagarde is not the first politician of any nationality to be tied to unsavory characters with large bank accounts, but associating with Tapie was a fairly reckless and stupid move. The former head of sports apparel company adidas’ French arm, Tapie received his alleged boost from Lagarde after claiming he was cheated out of millions by Credit Lyonnais bank when adidas was sold in 1993. Lagarde stepped in and ordered a panel of judges to arbitrate and the panel ultimately awarded Tapie the aforementioned massive payout. Opposition members were enraged and Lagarde was accused of using tax dollars to do favors for political friends. The story eventually quieted down, but has now been revived with Lagarde in a much more important political position. If she’s ultimately forced to step down as head of the IMF, it might be an advantageous time to see a non-corrupt, law-abiding, non-Frenchman to lead the group………..
- Comic books have attained a significant amount of mainstream success and acceptance over the past several years, with Comic-Con growing to the point that the dorks who sustained it for so long began to lament the invasion of the non-nerd world into their own private, pale, pasty, never-kissed-a-girl club. Oddly enough, melancholy British rockers The Smiths have also maintained a certain among of relevance with younger demographics despite not having been together and a viable factor on the music scene since the ‘80s. So maybe it makes sense that a selection of songs by The Smiths have been turned into a series of comic book stories - but it still seems weird for some reason. Unite And Take Over: Comic Stories Inspired By The Smiths is the name of the project and it is being led by Shawn Demumbrum, who has collated 13 artist and writer pairings - one for each song in the comic book adaptation. The comic book will include graphic novel takes on ‘Girlfriend In A Coma’ and ‘How Soon Is Now?’ and contributors include Christian Vilaire, Henry Barajas, Jeff Pina and Shelby Robertson. Fittingly enough, the project will be unveiled at the Tucson Comic-Con on Nov. 5-6. Demumbrum has stated that the comic book won't feature literal re-tellings of the stories in the songs and will instead used the tracks as "an inspiration, a jumping-off point, a theme or a mood.” Asked what inspired him to adapt the music of one of the most dour, macabre bands of their era into comic book form, Demumbrum said: “As a teen in the '80s, one of my favorite soundtracks was the Pretty In Pink soundtrack. While training for cross country, I played the cassette over and over on my Walkman as I ran. There was always something about The Smiths' 'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want'. It tapped into my teenage psyche, a combination of loneliness and yet hopeful optimism, that only Morrissey's vocals seem to capture.” That’s the very take so many Smiths fans have expressed about the band’s music over the years and while converting their angst to graphic novel form may be a leap, it just might be one worth taking…………
- Hewlett-Packard has never been accused of making good or even average computers, but that hasn’t stopped the company from wading into the fast-growing tablet market. Now that the HP TouchPad has debuted, HP is seeking ways to effectively do battle with the iPad and one of the obvious choices is slashing prices on a lesser TouchPad model in the hopes of luring in customers. HP has selected this strategy and will employ it for a three-day sale designed to generate buzz and sales for its first major tablet offering. For a three-day span beginning Friday, customers will be able to purchase the 16 GB model of the TouchPad for a $100 discount from its full $499.99 price. Coupled with this week’s webOS 3.0.2 update for tablets, there might never be a better time to purchase a substandard tablet running a terrible operating system. Along with the $60 price cut HP announced earlier this week and an additional discount being offered exclusively at Staples stores on both the 16 and 32 GB models of the TouchPad, there is really no way anyone should be purchasing one any time soon without receiving a sizeable discount. Some tech observers and pundits have wondered if the multiple price cuts have shown that the TouchPad was never meant to sell for its original price point, but it’s hard to blame HP for aiming high with its first serious foray into the tablet market with the growing popularity of tablets and the success of the iPod and Android tablet offerings. Eventually users will discover that HP tablets are much like HP desktop and laptop models - chintzy, flimsy, poorly made and not worth the time or money you pay to get them - but for now, riding the feel-good wave of tablet love should sustain HP and offering significant discounts will keep that love flowing for as long as possible…………
- Movies can save lives, believe it or not. In addition to saving your life by being the only person in the theater for a midnight showing of Zookeeper instead of venturing out onto busy city streets or bars where other living, breathing human beings are bound to be and possibly ending up in a deadly bar fight or shooting on the street, movies can also teach valuable life and survival skills to keep you alive in dangerous wilderness situations. For Portland, Ore. resident Pamela Salant, a movie she watched no long before a camping trip to Bear Lake may have saved her life. Salant was airlifted out of the woods on Tuesday afternoon by an Oregon Army National Guard helicopter crew after having been missing since Saturday night, when she split off from her boyfriend in search of a campsite near Bear Lake. After the two separated, Salant suffered a 50-foot fall into the Lindsey Creek drainage and broke her lower left leg in two places. She was hiking along the drainage line because she believed it led to the lake. After falling and sustaining the fracture to her tibia, she has to survive until she could be located and Salant turned survival techniques she recently saw in a movie to help her stay alive. She survived on berries and caterpillars and drank from the creek before rescuers found her in the same area where she fell. In addition to her broken leg, she also sustained cuts from pulling herself along the ground down the drainage toward the Columbia River to safety and was covered with insect bites. Her boyfriend, Aric Essig, recalled last seeing her after the two of them arrived at the lake to camp for the evening. "I walked all around the lake expecting to meet up with her at some point, and I walked all the way back to the camp and just didn't see her," Essing said. The break that led searchers to Salant came when two shoe prints were discovered along a trail, one found one on Sunday and a second on Tuesday. "Two shoe prints over a three-day period just to find one shoe print, then another, now we've got hopefully a direction of travel and that's exactly what we followed," Hood River County Sheriff Joe Wampler said. Despite her battered and bruised conditions, Salant is in stable condition and according to a statement released through the hospital, does no plan to speak to the media until next week. A sheriff’s detective said that Salant told him that she could hear the rescue helicopter and knew she had to find a clearing where searchers could find her. To get there, she had to traverse a waterfall. She was able to do so by continuing to rely on the same resource she had turned to all weekend long: the movie "Touching the Void," which is a story about a man surviving in the Andes after being injured. Besides chowing down on bugs, Salant also used the movie’s lesson of covering herself in moss to stay warm after sundown. Had she been watching cinematic garbage like “Cowboys & Aliens” or “The Change-Up,” Salant might not be alive today to share her story…………
- Life is not always easy for college athletes. Coping with high expectations on the field or court, time management issues with squeezing practices, games, studying and fitting a social life into the 168 hours of a given week can lead to a high amount of stress. Succeeding in those endeavors becomes more difficult when not properly equipped and no tool is more vital or essential than a good computer. How else can a student waste hours on YouTube videos, Facebook conversation and status updates and random tweets if they don’t have a good tablet or laptop? Oh, and they can use their computer for late-night cram sessions and last-minute research paper writing as well. UCLA senior basketball player Jerime Anderson understands this reality well and he went to great lengths to ensure that he had a good laptop for the coming semester. Knowing he needed a good lapper and realizing he didn’t have one, Anderson went out and found one……which worked right up until campus police tracked him down Tuesday evening and demanded that a) he turn that laptop over to them because it was stolen and b) he put on a pair of the silver bracelets and take a ride down to the station for stealing the computer. Anderson was arrested and charged with suspicion of grand theft after officers and the computer’s owner used a tracking device on the computer, valued at $1,541, to locate it and Anderson. He was booked at the West Hollywood Sheriff's Station and released on $20,000 bail. (Allegedly) stealing a laptop is probably not a wise move for a player who was a lowly backup last season with modest averages of 5.1 points and 2.6 assists, as coaches don’t tend to extend opportunities for expanded roles to players whose names have landed on the police blotter during the offseason. UCLA coach Ben Howland has already barred Anderson from all team activities following the arrest and suspended the senior from the Bruins' game against Loyola Marymount on Nov. 11. Anderson could miss additional games depending on the outcome of the case and Howland issued the requisite statement condemning his player’s actions. "This is a disappointing and unfortunate situation for Jerime," UCLA Coach Ben Howland said in a statement. "We have a high standard and code of conduct that our student-athletes are expected to follow. He knows that he has made a huge mistake and that he has not represented himself, our program or UCLA in a manner that is required." He may have done (and not done) all of the above, but he did take the initiative to make sure that he was properly geared up for the semester ahead…………
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