- Sounds like someone is trying to curry some favor for his party ahead of upcoming elections, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Razak has announced plans to repeal a tough 51-year-old law allowing detention without trial and other pieces of legislation criticized by rights groups and to the cynic, that could be viewed as a shameless attempt to pander to the masses should the prime minister do as expected and call an early election. Should Razak’s proposals be adopted, the despised Emergency Ordinance and the Internal Security Act (ISA) will be abolished. The law, which was initially used to battle a communist insurgency, has also been used to detain suspected terrorists in recent years. Thousands have been detained under the law and oddly enough, many just happened to be vocal critics of the country’s hard-line government. In addition to removing the law (allegedly), the government also plans to revise publishing laws that require newspapers and other media outlets to seek an annual license in order to publish. Media rights groups and critics have rightly argued the government uses this law to muzzle the media and silence critical voices. Those same critics expressed skepticism over how quickly and thoroughly Razak’s proposals would be adopted and considering the repeal of the ISA was promised two years ago, most are not getting their hopes up. Eliminating the detention laws is viewed as more significant because of the many rules and measures associated with the current policy. Should the licensing for media outlets change, the government would supposedly allow newspapers and other entities to keep their license without a yearly renewal. However, the government would retain the power to revoke the license at any time. But wait, there's more! The government has also vowed to review laws requiring police permission to stage public gatherings. Such a review would be an excellent idea in light of an ugly scene in July in which pro-electoral reform rallies in Kuala Lumpur turned violent after police deemed them illegal and proceeded to beat and tear gas protesters. Bundled together, the above developments have led to declining popularity for the current regime and Razak just might want to throw out an electoral carrot before calling for an early election.………
- If the sound of rejoicing is coming from the general direction of the music world, there is good reason for the jubilation. As lovers of good, non-homogenized quasi-rock crap braced themselves for the musical tragedy that is a new No Doubt album, news came down from the abysmal SoCal rockers themselves that they are pushing back the release of their upcoming album until next year. "Ideally our new record would be coming out this year but it's just not ready yet. We don't want to rush this album just to get it out," the post states. "This collection of songs means everything to us and our only priority right now is to make sure that it's the best album we can possibly make. There is still more work for us to do." Of course, there is no such thing as a great No Doubt album and no matter which songs the band chooses, the album is going to be unlistenable and musically detestable. There is too large a body of evidence suggesting that not a single member of No Doubt has even one good song in them for these losers to craft anything other than a musical train wreck. The terror of this album being released has hung over the music world since January, when the band announced on their Twitter page that they were hard at work with "10 new songs written." The album - whenever it drops and whichever 10 or 11 gawd-awful songs the band chooses - will be its first in over 10 years, following 2001's "Rock Steady." No Doubt reunited for a summer tour in 2009 and has since performed for Paul McCartney and President Obama at the Kennedy Center Honors. Three of its members have had children since “Rock Steady” and yet, they continue to make the world their children live in worse by cranking out more of the garbage they call music. It’s unconscionable………….
- The only real shock about controversy over “Men at work” signs that are used to alert motorists to the presence of (slacking) road workers on streets is that it took this long for the controversy to happen. The scene of this showdown is Fort Worth, where female road crew members are taking great offense to the presence of "Men and Equipment Working" signs along the Trinity Trail. In a world where every possible issue has someone who will object to it on the grounds of being racist or sexist, the sexist claim is being lodged by members of the crew working on the trail. Even though Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that 1 in 10 construction workers is a woman, some companies and organizations still use the “Men at work” markers. The city of Fort Worth uses gender-neutral signs, but the Trinity Trail project is being done by the Tarrant Regional Water District. The district’s crews claimed the sign was merely litter found in a creek that they dug out and posted as added warning for those who use the trails. That explanation has not placated a large group of women who work in the construction industry in north Texas, who have complained that the signs reading 'men working' basically invalidate their work. Although no official movement or petition has been created to demand the total elimination of “Men at work” signs, that fact does not undermine she sheer absurdity of this entire debate. Memo to you, female road crew members: No one cares who is working on the road. Men, women, children, aliens (illegal or ones from other worlds), animals, midgets, vampires, zombies…..as long as the work gets done. Our beef is not with proper recognition for the efforts of those doing the work, but rather that they stop taking eight coffee breaks a day, figure out a way to have more than one out of every eight crew members working at any given moment and get the freaking job done on time………….
- Dinosaurs with feathers? If you believe a report published on Thursday in the journal Science, the dinosaur world was much more colorful and bird-like than anyone knew. The discovery of colorful feathers which scientists believe belonged to the late Cretaceous period dinosaurs suggests the Mesozoic world of dinosaurs and birds had some Bob Ross-style coloring to it, with feathers ranging from black to brown. Even more exciting, Canadian researcher Ryan McKellar, who discovered samples of colorful feathers, believes that the feathers possibly belonged to an unknown dinosaur species of the late Cretaceous period. New dinosaurs AND they had feathers? It’s almost exciting enough to warrant another crappy Jurassic Park sequel…..but not quite. McKellar examined 4,000 specimens encased in tree resin that later became amber and selected 11 samples, which the journal Science described as "the richest amber feather find from the late Cretaceous period." The historically ignorant may not know when the Cretaceous period was, so here’s a quick filler: The Cretaceous period was about 80 million years ago and came after the Jurassic period. Simple enough? Despite the small number of feathers used in the study, McKellar believes they still "provide novel insights regarding feather formation. Pigmentation varies across the samples from nearly transparent to dark. By finding the feathers, McKellar instantly becomes the envy of paleontologists who have long been scouring the world for dinosaur fossils with feathers. Such a find was viewed as the missing link in explaining the supposed evolution of dinosaur descendants and of the early birds. The samples themselves showcase a wide diversity of feather types at that time, with some featuring a single bristle-like filament and simple clusters, while others are significantly more complex. McKellar pegged the age of the feathers at 70 million years, but the amber preserved them extremely well. He and his team drew connections between the structures of the feathers and those of the earliest non-flying dinosaurs. The feathers could, in fact, have belonged to flying dinosaurs. "The feathers display pigmentation and adaptations for flight and diving," researchers reported. Ultimately, the researchers were unable to determine whether the feathers belonged to dinosaurs or birds, but dinosaurs is obviously the more headline-grabbing theory, so let’s just go with that one. Never mind that there were no fossils or dinosaurs found in the area near Grassy Lake in southwestern Alberta where the feathers were discovered, because allowing science and facts to stand in the way of a good flying dinosaur story is totally lame………….
- Someone should really clue Jack Nicklaus in to a little something the rest of the world calls reality. Because he is the Golden Bear, a living golf legend and ambassador for the game, Nicklaus typically gets a lot of leeway in what he says and does. His opinion carries weight because he holds the current record of 18 career major titles won and the fact that he won his last major when he was nearly 50 years old. However, the longer Nicklaus continues to honk Tiger Woods and claim that the declining Woods can still beat his record of 18 major championships, the worse he looks. Nicklaus has said time and time again that Woods can reach the mark and reiterated it in a recent interview. "I mean Tiger has a great work ethic, he's a great competitor, the most talented kid on the planet right now," Nicklaus said. "He's not going to go away." He believes Woods can set the record "if he gets the five inches between his ears squared out." But that’s the problem with Woods, G. Bear. He can't get his head right and hasn’t been able to since he bounced his whip off a tree on Thanksgiving night in 2009, when his now-former wife Elin (allegedly) chased him from their home with a 9-iron after finding out about his serial infidelity. Mix in a knee that has been operated on at least four times and the inevitable decline all athletes endure as they age and, well………there is simply no chance Woods get back on track and wins five more majors. He hasn’t won a tournament of any kind the past two seasons, finished nearly 20 shots off the lead at the Bridgestone Invitational in August (a tournament he has won seven times) and missed the cut at the PGA Championship, the season’s final major. Stunningly, U.S. captain Fred Couples still decided to include Woods in the 12-member Presidents Cup team that will take on non-European players in Australia in November. Nicklaus, not surprisingly, supports that decision. "How could you not pick him," Nicklaus said. "I mean, he's Tiger Woods, he's the best player in the game. He may not be playing his best today, but he's still Tiger Woods." Again…..no. He WAS the best player in the game. It’s time to stop living in 2004, set aside the delusions and admit that he is just another also-ran on the PGA Tour regardless of his past success…………
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