Cartels v. hackers, a dark day for the ladies of Cleveland and protests using sheep

- Ladies of Cleveland, today is truly a dark day for you. Well, most every day is a dark day by virtue of the fact that you live in Cleveland. No area of the country has more cloudy, overcast days than Northeast Ohio and Cleveland isn't exactly a pick-me-up place to live. But Oct. 31 will forever be remembered by the women of C-Town as the end of an era - an era of left-handed handsomeness in center field for their beloved Indians. Today is the day the Cleveland Indians have declined outfielder Grady Sizemore's $9 million contract option for 2012, making the former All-Star eligible for free agency. Sizemore has never fulfilled his immense on-field potential mainly because he hasn’t been able to stay on the field consistently. A rash of injuries has led to five surgeries, two on his knees, in three years. The Indians have been relatively patient with the oft-injured Sizemore, who hit 33 homers and stole 38 bases in 2008. He has played just 210 games the past three seasons, including a career-low 33 games in 2010 and just 71 games in 2011. His home run total (28) and stolen base total (17) for the past three seasons have not come close to matching his All-Star seasons and with the unpalatable option of paying him $9 million or setting him free and replacing him with a cheaper alternative, the Indians made the wise choice. They did couple that with the stupid choice of exercising overweight, underperforming pitcher Fausto Carmona's $7 million for next season, but batting .500 isn't bad. It's possible the Indians may try to re-sign Sizemore, but he may be able to get a better offer elsewhere. As for Carmona, he was the Indians' opening-day starter last season but went just 7-15 with a 5.25 ERA in 32 starts. Sizemore must be fired up to know that someone with those impressive credentials was wanted in Cleveland but he wasn’t…………


- Oh, this should be fun. Two groups accustomed to getting their way and known as experts in their respective fields are set to do battle and the stakes are extremely high. On one side if the Zetas cartel, a ruthless Mexican drug gang known for killing anyone who stands in its way and lately for taking the fight to bloggers who have criticized the cartel and expressed any negative thoughts on its operations. On the other side is a group that has both fans and detractors galore and is likely playing on an entirely different level than a Mexican drug cartel: the hacker group known simply as Anonymous. Anonymous is known for online attacks against banks and government institutions and appears to be angry over the cartel’s attacks on those who criticize it online. A video purportedly from the international hacker ring threatens the Zetas, warning that the names, photographs and addresses of cartel supporters can be published "if necessary." To Anonymous’ credit, the group realizes where its strengths lie and where they are deficient. "We cannot defend ourselves with a weapon," a masked man says in the footage. "But we can do this with their cars, homes, bars and whatever else they possess. It will not be difficult. All of us know who they are and where they are located." The figure, clothed in g a suit and tie and speaking with a Spanish accent, claims the cartel has kidnapped an Anonymous member in the Mexican state of Veracruz. "We demand his release," the man says. So far there has been no official confirmation that Anonymous is responsible for the video, which does not mention a victim name or provide specific details about the alleged kidnapping. However, its existence underscores how prominent a part social media have come to play in Mexico’s increasingly deadly drug war. A debate erupted on Twitter shortly after the video surfaced and security experts warned that lives will be lost if Anonymous releases the identities of individuals cooperating with cartels. These experts believe rival cartels will use the information to attack and fear that could exacerbate the level of violence exponentially. Hash tags of #OpCartel were a frequent sight Monday, with many questioning the legitimacy of the video and others claiming Anonymous had called off its plans to target the Zetas. Taking on a cartel would be a bold and brave move for Anonymous, whose typical mode of battle is launching distributed denial-of-service attacks, in which multiple people use scripts to repeatedly access a website, slowing it badly or shutting it down if its servers can't handle the traffic. Taking on PayPal, Master Card, Visa and the Church of Scientology are much different endeavors than fighting a drug cartel that basically controls an entire country. The idea of the group draining the bank accounts of Zetas leaders and members or removing their security measures to allow others to steal from them is amusing, but does Anonymous really have the means and kahones to pull any of this off………..


- Jon Huntsman isn't doing well right now in the Republican presidential race. The former Utah governor is lagging behind the likes of Mitt Romney, Herman Cain and Rick Perry in every poll that matters and at this point his major contribution to the process is stimulating widespread discussion on whether he is still in the race and if so, why. Life somehow got even worse for Huntsman while stumping in New Hampshire this weekend. While trying to wow Granite State voters and show them what they could expect from a Huntsman presidency, he ran afoul of some local livestock and could not escape unscathed. A goat named Izak attempted to take a major bite out of Huntsman’s leg at an event in Dover and although Huntsman (and his pants) were not seriously harmed, this would seem to indicate that Huntsman will not be picking up a significant portion of the furry quadruped vote in the Republican primary. Izak’s owner, Bill Higgins, did his best to defend his animal by telling assembled media the goat was just “taste-testing” Huntsman’s trousers, calling it a “friendly nibble.” To Huntsman’s credit, he shook off the vicious attack and laughed it off before shaking Higgins’ hand and patting Izak on the head when he left. Huntsman later joked about the incident at a campaign stop at the McConnell Community Center. “He took a bite out of my kneecap,” Huntsman said “Is there a better indicator in the state of New Hampshire than how well you do with the goat? Actually, there is. It’s called running for the Republican nomination for president and having less than five percent of voters choose you in every single state where you’re on the ballot until you join luminaries like Rich Santorum and Tim Pawlenty in dropping out of the race…………


- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! This is a different brand of uprising, but the sentiment is the same. Instead of pipe bombs, rocks and angry fists, Spanish shepherds are fighting back against The Man the best way they know how: with sheep. Dozens of angry shepherds led flocks of sheep through the streets of downtown Madrid on Sunday in defense of ancient grazing, migration and droving rights threatened by urban sprawl and man-made barriers. A shepherds council established in 1273 led the revolt and council president Jesus Garzon said some 5,000 sheep and 60 cattle crossed the city to exercise the right to droving routes that existed before Madrid grew from a rural, backwater town to the capital city it is today. The effort was awesome because it hailed back to an ages-old tradition of a chief herdsman paying 25 maravedis — coins first minted in the 11th century — to use the crossing. Under Spanish law, shepherds have a right to use 78,000 miles of paths for seasonal livestock migrations from cool highland pastures in summer to warmer grazing in winter. The process is called transhumance and in Spain it involves around a million animals, mostly sheep and cattle. Many of the paths have been used annually for more than 800 years and modern-day Madrid is in the way of two north-south routes, one of which dates back to 1372. Madrid is an extremely modern city by European standards, becoming Spain’s capital city and administrative center when King Philip II moved his court to the city in 1561. Since that time, the city has grown up all around the migration routes and the Puerta del Sol - a large plaza that is the site for regular demonstrations, tourist-seeking kooks in superhero outfits looking to rip people off by convincing them to pose for pictures and plenty of pedestrian traffic - now straddles one of the routes. In response to the city’s continued trespassing on one of their routes, shepherds have halted traffic in the fall for the last 18 years to assert their rights to cross the city. In actuality, many Spaniards have great respect for ancient shepherding customs and do not object to the annual march through the city. The herds that made the trek Sunday had spent the summer grazing in Brieva de Cameros, 185 miles north of Madrid, Garzon said..........


- Scarlett Johansson, you have company. The buzz might not be as intense as when nude pictures of the voluptuous Johansson were leaked online by various gossip sites after a hacker pilfered them from Johansson’s phone, but topless pictures of country/pop star Taylor Swift are a headline-grabber too - whether they’re authentic or not. Swift, who has had her share of personal attacks and difficult moments in the public eye, is on the offensive after a gossip site called Celebrity Jihad posted a photo of a curly-haired blonde girl lying topless across a bed, claiming that it was a leaked photo of Swift. Swift, who once wrote a song and filmed a video in response to a bad review reacted swiftly and her representatives sent a cease-and-desist letter to the site demanding that the photo be taken down because it was not in fact Swift. The site acknowledge receiving the letter, but the picture remains up. If the site doesn’t change its mind and take the image down, a formal lawsuit could be the next step. What’s funny about the entire “controversy” is that the picture obviously isn't of Swift. One look at the face (the face, guys, the face and nothing else) confirms that the country/pop starlet is not the one topless on that bed and in theory, the drama should end quickly. However, the situation affirms several evident truths any remarkably hot or interesting female star under the age of 45 or so must deal with: 1) If a gossip site can find a topless image of you, they will use it and if they can’t locate such an image they will happily fake it to drive up page views and 2) No one can hack a nude photo of you if no such image exists. In other words, if you don’t snap it, they cannot steal it. The same goes for sex tapes, in case anyone was wondering……………

Movie news, battling a despot and dirty NFLers

- Murder and violent crime have been trending downward in New York City for some time now. In related news, cops need something to occupy their time now that murder and violent crime are trending downward in New York City. Sixteen members of the New York Police Department have found that something special: a "highly organized, systematic" and large-scale ticket-fixing operation as part of an even larger scandal. These 16 officers were indicted on charges they were involved in misconduct that included the ticket-fixing scam and a litany of other wrongdoing. It is the second major scandal in a week to hit the department, coming just a few days after five active and three retired officers were among 12 people charged with conspiring to transport and distribute firearms and stolen goods across state lines. The ticket-fixing operation is old-school, with officers allegedly using their positions to take care of citations for family members and friends. The indictments allege that officers tampered with the tickets to have them thrown out, according to a press release from the Bronx District Attorney's Office. "It's difficult to have to announce for the second time this week that police officers have been arrested for misconduct," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a press conference. "Their misdeeds tarnish the good name and reputation of the vast majority of police officers who perform their duties honestly and often at great risk to their own personal safety." Friday’s announcement was three years in the making. The police department's Internal Affairs Bureau began investigating the scam in December 2008 after some anonymous snitch ratted out the nice little arrangement these officers had created. The first tip came in about a police officer in the Bronx allegedly "engaged in various illegal business activities with a reputed drug dealer," the district attorney's office said. From there, detectives continued to discover more suspected misconduct, including the alleged ticket-fixing operation and even "the alleged failure of police officers to make an arrest and subsequent attempt to cover up an assault" by a suspect connected to the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. A whopping 1,500 felony and misdemeanor charges were filed in connection with the investigation, including attempted robbery, attempted grand larceny, theft, tampering with public records, official misconduct, conspiracy and assault. Five civilians were also charged and all of the individuals indicted pleaded not guilty, the district attorney's office said…………


- Score one for the power of the family film over the might of the scary film on Halloween weekend. Puss in Boots debuted in first place, racking up $34 million and nearly doubling up reigning box office champion Paranormal Activity 3. Paranormal dropped one spot to second place, making another $19 million to raise its cumulative total to $86.4 million and counting after a massive opening last weekend. Newcomer In Time rode Justin Timberlake’s wave of former man-bander appeal to a third-place finish and garnered $12 million in the process. From the top three, there was a massive dropoff in earnings as the crappy remake of Footloose secured fourth place with a scant $5.5 million and has somehow thieved $38.3 million from moviegoers in its short run in theaters. Johnny Depp’s new flick The Rum Diary held down the final spot in the top five, making $5 million in its opening weekend, a more modest opening than the film’s backers had hoped for. The latter half of the top 10 consisted of the “Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots” movie, a.k.a Real Steel (No. 6 with $4.9 million and $74.1 in cumulative earnings thus far), the disappointing Three Musketeers (No. 7 with $3.5 million and with $78.3 million in total earnings as Mila Jovovich continues to seethe somewhere over Summit Entertainment’s lack of promotion behind the film since its U.S. debut), George Clooney and Ryan Gosling’s political drama The Ides of March (No. 8 with $2.7 million and an extremely disappointing $33.5 million in its first month in theaters), Moneyball (No. 9 and not able to convert the enthusiasm over a thrilling and just-concluded World Series into interest in a baseball movie, making $2.4 million to raise its cumulative tally to $67.4 million and counting) and Courageous (No. 10 with $1.8 million and $27.6 million overall). Dolphin Tale, the abysmally awful Johnny English Reborn, The Thing and 50/50 all dropped out of the top 10 from last weekend……….


- Dammit, this has gone too far. Climate change is a global concern but until now, its true impact hasn’t been felt. With the news that swathes of Australia's seaweed are shifting south to escape warming oceans, it’s fair to say this has gone from passing concern to über-serious matter. Again, SEAWEED IS BEING DISPLACED, ALL. If that doesn’t shake you to your core, then nothing will. Marine ecologist Dr. Thomas Wernberg, of the University of Western Australia, and his team of researchers recently conducted a survey and have reported their findings in Current Biology. "Temperate species are moving to cooler environments," Wernberg stated. "In Australia there are no cooler environments beyond the south coast, so if they are pushed to go beyond that they basically go extinct.” Wernberg believes that too much of existing climate change research to this point has focused on corals and that seaweed research has been neglected. Why worry about the affect of climate shifts on seaweed? He says while seaweeds might seem bland and uninteresting, they are an important habitat and food resource for underwater animals and plants. "Just as trees in the forest provide living space for birds and other animals, so do the seaweeds in the oceans. There's a large amount of biodiversity associated with seaweeds," he explained. Unlike coral reefs, which tend to be restricted to tropical waters, seaweeds are more widespread and any impacts on them could have a broader cascading effect on marine ecosystems. Wernberg and his research group analyzed records of seaweed from Australia's Virtual Herbarium and looked specifically at how seaweed communities comprising up to 300 species had changed over time. By comparing distribution of 52 species of seaweed along the east and west coasts of Australia during the period 1940 to 1960 with seaweed distribution during the period 1990 to 2009, they were able to draw some disturbing conclusions. A key difference between the two 20-year sample periods was a slight increase in ocean temperatures, leading to seaweed migration. "What we saw is that the seaweed communities migrated south towards the cooler environments," Wernberg said. The temperature shift and seaweed migration occurred on both the east and west coasts, but researchers found that seaweeds moved further south on the east coast where the warming had been greater. Seaweed species on the east coast moved about 125 miles south, while those on the west coast moved about 32 kilometers. What does all of that mean? "If this rate of shift continues a relatively large number of species could go extinct," Wernberg explained. According to the study, once a species reaches the south coast it will not be able to move any further south and if temperatures continue to rise, that species will have no alternative habitat to move to. Extrapolating out, Wernberg estimates as much as 25 percent of temperate species in Australia could go extinct by 2070. Let’s do what we can to support the seaweed, all…………


- One of the most consistent storylines thus far in the NFL season has been the scrutiny on Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh allegedly being a dirty player and incurring fines and penalties galore from officials and the league office for his excessively violent hits. Suh has also been called dirty by opponents and was accused of talking smack to injured Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan in a Week 7 game while Ryan lay hurting on the turf. A player in Suh’s position could react in any number of ways; lash out at the haters, ignore all of the criticism…….or go straight to the source of the problem. Suh has chosen the third option and will soon be heading to Park Avenue to visit with commissioner Roger Goodell. No, Suh has not been summoned to Manhattan by the commish - he requested the meeting. Suh reportedly wants clarification as to why he gets flagged and fined and there is no better source on that subject than the man who hands down the fines and presides over the league. Some might think that Suh wants the chance to win Goodell over and convince him that the supposedly dirty tactics the burly defensive tackle uses aren't illegal or fine-worthy, but that is not necessarily the goal. That would be nice, but Suh apparently wants to figure out where the line is so he can avoid having money taken out of his pocket on a regular basis. Expecting him to change his game entirely and stay on the right side of that line is implausible and given the impact his physical, bruising style of play has had on the Lions and their turnaround, an all-around bad idea as well……….


- Nice. Finally, someone other than the United States, United Nations and most of the international community is picking a fight with Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The fight comes from within this time, as the Iranian parliament is set to summon President for questioning over an economic scandal and his polices after the required number of lawmakers signed a petition Sunday. It is the latest strike in a prolonged battle between the president and his rivals. In a twist that will surely put a smile on the faces of all the Ahmadinejad haters in the world (approximately 6.4 billion of the world’s 6.5 billion people), he would be the first president to be hauled before the Iranian parliament. Tensions between Ahmadinejad lawmakers and Iran's powerful clerics have been building for quite some time and it came as little surprise that at least 73 lawmakers signed the petition to question Ahmadinejad, just above one-quarter of the 290 members required by Iran's constitution to call in a president. The parliament recently found Ahmadinejad's economics minister guilty in relation to a $2.6 million fraud case, considered the largest in Iran's history, and it was the latest in a series of economic misconduct cases that target Ahmadinejad allies. The controversial despot has been bickering with parliament and the clergy over in the run-up to parliamentary elections in March and a presidential election in 2013 that he will undoubtedly rig in order to remain in office. Rigging the vote may be necessary if his support continues to erode and the same hard-liners who brought him to power continue to turn on him. Dozens of his political allies have been arrested or run out of public life by hard-line forces in recent months and his protégé and top aide, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, has been basically blackballed from succeeding Ahmadinejad by a series of reputation-killing accusations that include leading a "deviant current" that seeks to challenge the system of theocratic rule and ties to the $2.6 billion bank fraud. Ahmadinejad has had a rough run of late and been fighting some very bitter political battles since he challenged Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, in April over the choice of intelligence minister. The fraud case opened the door for lawmakers wishing to call Ahmadinejad in for questioning and the parliament's presiding council acknowledged receiving the petition Sunday. Economy Minister Shamsoddin Hosseini is set to be impeached Tuesday over the case. One conservative lawmaker, Ali Motahari, resigned earlier this month to protest the parliament's failure to summon Ahmadinejad for questioning but said Sunday he would withdraw his resignation if Ahmadinejad is actually questioned. The fraud case involved the use of forged documents to obtain credit from at least two Iranian state banks to purchase state-owned companies and centers on Iranian businessman Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, who has been accused of masterminding the scam. Should be an entertaining scene in Tehran this week for sure…………

How to pimp your cause, Hollywood remake mania and more canceled NBA games

- Recycling Mania: It’s ripping through Hollywood like Axl Rose through an all-you-can-eat buffet on a cruise ship and the disease is spreading from the film industry to the small screen. Even though a shameless and ridiculous attempt to revive the Charlie’s Angels franchise crashed and burned after less than a month on ABC earlier this TV season, you cannot quench the entertainment industry’s passion for “new” ideas that involve no real creative work or originality. Up next of the list of shows to turn into failed retreads is apparently “In Living Color,” which according to multiple reports is being revived by Fox. Keenen Ivory Wayans, the original producer of the show, clearly has nothing better to do and no great offers for his un-funny brand of comedy elsewhere and so he will reportedly serve as the revamped program’s host and executive producer. To kick-start the process, Fox has allegedly ordered two half-hour primetime specials that will air midseason. The network hopes this will spark renewed interest in the show and lay the groundwork for a full return. The original “In Living Color” aired from 1990 to 1994 and produced a long list of overrated, overhyped and under-talented “stars” who have gone on to torment the world with spectacularly bad movies, music and television shows. There’s actor Damon Wayans, comedians/actors Jim Carrey and Jamie Fox and “Fly Girl” dancer Jennifer Lopez, currently getting after it as a spokesperson for cheap compact cars. Damon Wayans currently has his own show now as a co-star of “Happy Endings,” so odds are that he won't be available for the return of “Living Color” - until “Happy Endings” is canceled later this season, of course. In its day, “In Living Color” was in some ways black America’s alternative to “Saturday Night Live,” giving audiences new characters like Homey the Clown and a different comedic perspective. Way to stay original, Hollywood…………


- This is very literally getting old quickly. Dammit America, why are we wasting our time flying into a rage over everything that goes up on a billboard that we drive by once or twice a day, at most? Halloween imagery, non-clever alcohol-related puns on tired ad campaigns for dairy products……and of course, fictitious quotes from important historical figures. Credit a group of atheists from Costa Mesa, Calif. for that last entry on the list. The group, called Backyard Skeptics, includes atheists among its other disagreeable members and its behind a billboard located near Newport Boulevard that purportedly quotes Thomas Jefferson saying, "I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature. It is founded on fables and mythology." The quote is a damning and controversial one to be sure, but there is a problem with it. Seems that there is no evidence the president ever said it. The Jefferson Library has no written record or other account of Jefferson ever making the remark. When those behind the billboard were confronted with this challenge, they backpedaled like a scared little girl running away from a fight because she doesn’t want to get her Hello Kitty t-shirt dirty. "I realized after the billboard was put up that it was a misquotation. There is no historical documentation of that," said Bruce Gleason, the head of Backyard Skeptics. "The billboard hurts us, because there are other religious people who have said, 'Look at those atheists, they're misquoting Jefferson.' Well I take it upon myself to say, yes I made a mistake." You made a mistake……or did you? Seems that a billboard is in theory designed to grab attention for a group, company or cause and this billboard has done exactly that. Atheists aren't a group that has to concern itself much with whether its public perception is positive or negative because religious people will always dislike them and the small segment of the world that agrees with their view will support them. No one is coming off their point of view based on a billboard. Backyard Skeptics is getting exactly what it wanted from this billboard and then trying to pretend to do the noble thing and admit its mistake. I’m guessing those behind the billboard knew the quote was bogus from the start. But Gleason still believes Jefferson would have no issue with the billboard if he were still alive. "Jefferson wouldn't be upset if he saw the billboard. He'd probably say, 'Yea, I kind of agree with that,' because all the other quotations that he's had are in the same vein," Gleason postulated. Whatever you need to tell yourself, B…………


- Ummm…..maybe Apple should have done some more research and development on the tweener iPhone model it is currently hawking to coax more dollars out of its rabid followers in between the release of the iPhone 4 and much-anticipated iPhone 5. Battery life for the stopgap iPhone 4S has been disturbingly short for those who threw away money for it and tech experts and lovers have been kicking around theories about why this is occurring. So far, the leading theory in the clubouse is that a flaw in Apple's location services system in its new iOS 5 software is the cause of rapid battery drain for owners of the iPhone 4S. Many users have found that the "Setting Time Zone" element of the Systems Services within the broader Location Services product runs on their iPhone 4S even when there is no chance that the user would have moved to a different location or time zone. An icon beside the setting shows whether it has been used within the past day and the presence of that icon indicates that it is running repeatedly to access the phone's location even when there is no apparent reason to do so. Location services can be a huge drain on any smartphone's battery because they use a combination of the Wi-Fi network name plus mobile mast data and GPS sensor input, to calculate the phone's position. One example of the date used in these services is mobile mast data, which is typically calculated by comparing the strength of signals from the three nearest phone masts and triangulating against them. When the calculation is made too often, it severely drains battery power. Somehow, iOS 5′s release introduced a bug that causes the Setting Time Zone function to keep the location tracking circuitry running constantly. Switching it off seems like a logical fix, but that means the iPhone will no longer set its own time zone when a person travels. When weighed against miniscule battery life, this seems like a relatively fair trade. Message boards are lighting up with theories and ideas on the problem an at some point, Apple will have to address the issue with an official fix. Or users can just wait for the iPhone 5 and hope that it doesn’t have the same struggles…………


- Aaaaaaand never mind that nonsense about saving the 2011-12 NBA season and perhaps even playing a full 82-game schedule. Less than 24 hours after a second straight day of prolonged negotiations wrapped and both sides in the dispute hinted at the possibility that the entire season could be salvaged if a deal were reached by the start of next week, NBA commissioner David Stern canceled the rest of the November games Friday, saying there will not be a full NBA season "under any circumstances." In other words, allow the multi-billion-dollar pissing match to continue. As has been the case throughout the lockout, the latest round of negotiations broke down when both sides refused to budge on how to split the league's revenues. Owners want players to accept a 50-50 split and players continue to insist that is too much of a decline from the 57 percent they were receiving under the previous collective bargaining agreement. Following 15 hours of talks Wednesday and another full day of them Thursday, many in and around the situation expressed hope for a deal soon. Stern dealt those hopes a blow Friday and didn’t seem to offer any shred of hope as he did so. "We held out that joint hope together, but in light of the breakdown of talks, there will not be a full NBA season under any circumstances," he said. "It's not practical, possible or prudent to have a full season now.” Stern went on to reiterate his warnings that the proposals might now get even harsher as the league tries to make up the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be lost as the lockout continues. "We're going to have to recalculate how bad the damage is," Stern said. "The next offer will reflect the extraordinary losses that are piling up now." The words were a marked departure from comments just one day prior, when Stern had said he would consider it a failure if the sides didn't reach a deal in the next few days. Failure appears beyond inevitable if players refuse to accept less than they 52.5 percent of basketball-related income they stipulated in their most recent proposal. Right now, the two sides are about $100 million apart annually and union leader Billy Hunter sounds even less optimistic about the state of the talks than Stern. “Derek (Fisher) and I made it clear that we could not take the 50-50 deal to our membership. Not with all the concessions that we granted," Hunter said, alluding to players’ association president Derek Fisher of the Lakers. "We said we got to have some dollars." All of the back and forth obscured optimistic comments by NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver, who said there was essentially a "tentative agreement" on most system issues outside of BRI. Just not enough of an agreement to save any basketball before December…………


- Flying to, from or in France any time soon? If not, why not? France is an amazing place and you should absolutely visit it. But if you’re going, you may find your travel plans affected by an ongoing strike by Air France flight attendants. The strike began this weekend during an extended school holiday and at the start of a long weekend in France. Its stated purpose is to oppose protest against cuts to cabin crews. So far, the strike has not had a drastic impact on air travel in France and is affecting mostly short- and medium-haul flights out of French airports. Ten long-haul flights were also canceled Saturday and the airline announced it has canceled about 20 percent of its flights because of the strike. The scene at Paris' main airport, Charles de Gaulle, was largely normal throughout the day Saturday and most passengers on canceled flights were rebooked on other airlines, according to Air France. There were more problems at Paris' Orly airport, where about 200 passengers were waiting to be rebooked. The striking workers picked a four-day weekend to start their walkout and that’s a good start, but they can still do more. As evidence by the Occupy _____________ (fill in the blank with the name of your desired kook-tastic cause or target of rage) have shown, every uprising or revolt needs a catchy (or ripped-off) moniker. Name your strike, brand it and turn it into a global movement because the world is in a pissed-off frame of mind and willing to jump on board the bandwagon of just about any cause centered around sticking it to The Man. Even if they have no affiliation to the cause or incentive to stand behind it, people want to rage against the machine. Give them that opportunity and this could go next level…………

Space taxis, gender eqaulity in the U.K. and God in the World Series

- Congress does not seem sold on the idea of NASA’s space taxis. When leaders of various commercial space companies appeared before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, members of the panel expressed serious skepticism over the projected costs and benefits of helping to develop commercial spaceships, part of NASA's plan to focus on exploration rather than transportation. When the space industry executives encouraged lawmakers to support the effort, committee members questioned whether there will be enough of a market in space transportation and tourism to justify taxpayer investment in new, private vehicles. The lawmakers all seemed to return to the reality that such ships will need more customers besides NASA astronauts to be profitable, the lawmakers said. "NASA seemingly takes the position of 'Build it and they will come,'" said committee Chairman Ralph M. Hall, R-Texas. "From my perspective, the business case is not very compelling." Not compelling? Who doesn’t want to be shot into outer space, Ralphie? And let’s face it, Earth-bound taxis are not expensive enough and getting shot into space is the only real way to see cab fares that are astronomical in more ways than one. Yet Hall raged on, postulating that if there are no customers beyond NASA to buy seats on these new spaceships, it "could put the government in the position of supporting, or bailing out, commercial companies" in order to preserve a national space transportation capability. Speaking out against Hall, billionaire founder and chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Elon Musk (whose name still sounds like some bad department store cologne), said he "will personally guarantee" that taxpayers won't have to bail out his company. Also on hand for the hearing were executives representing Boeing, Sierra Nevada Space Systems, ATK Space Launch Systems and United Launch Alliance. All of the executives said their businesses would be successful even if NASA were the only customer for their space transportation services. They cited other likely sources of income for their private space taxis, such as cargo transportation and satellite servicing, as well as selling rides to private citizens and to astronauts from countries without their own space programs. "It's been demonstrated that there are individuals that would pay to fly to the space station," said John Elbon, vice president and general manger of Boeing's Space Exploration Division. "There are also other countries in the world that would like to have their own space program but can't afford the infrastructure associated with that." Those arguments did not sway lawmakers either, who seemed much more enthusiastic about what they view as a cheaper mode of transport: Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. A cost of $63 million per passenger may not seem cheap and that rate is expected to rise to $80 million in the future, but the idea still sounds appealing to Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C. "It certainly appears that we're paying a lot more per seat than we're paying the Russians now," Miller said. "It sounds like it's a lot more expensive than the deal we have now." Musk was adamant that his company could bring the ticket price per astronaut down to $20 million, but the overall vibe from the meeting was best described as negative for those trying to win over the committee……….


- Score one for gender equality in the United Kingdom. As of today, sons and daughters of British monarchs will have an equal right to the throne thanks to changes to the U.K.'s succession laws agreed to Friday, British Prime Minister David Cameron said. The announcement came after leaders of the 16 Commonwealth countries that have the queen as head of state approved the changes unanimously at a Commonwealth of Nations summit in Australia. While the individual governments of those 16 countries still must agree to the changes for them to take effect, those votes are expected to be a formality. Under the new laws, a first-born girl would have precedence over a younger brother and would also allow a future British monarch to marry a Catholic. These laws would apply to any future children of Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, who married this year. Cameron hailed Friday's agreement by the heads of government of the 16 nations as "something of a historic moment." He cited the decision as evidence that attitudes and cultural norms and values have changed fundamentally over the centuries, meaning outdated rules should evolve with them. Speaking in a televised address from Peth, Cameron appeared alongside his Australian counterpart Julia Gillard. "The idea that a younger son should become monarch instead of an elder daughter simply because he is a man, or that a future monarch can marry someone of any faith except a Catholic -- this way of thinking is at odds with the modern countries that we have become," Cameron said. "Put simply, if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were to have a little girl, that girl would one day be our queen." Cameron also announced plans to eliminate the Act of Settlement, a law passed in 1701 which bans the UK monarch from marrying a Catholic. The purpose of the act at that time was to ensure that Protestants held the throne and remained head of the Church of England. "Let me be clear: the monarch must be in communion with the Church of England, because he or she is the head of that church, but it is simply wrong that they should be denied the chance to marry a Catholic if they wish to do so," Cameron said. "After all, they're already quite free to marry someone of any other faith." The constitutional change is supported by Buckingham Palace and is expected to be approved by parliament in the United Kingdom and the other 15 countries that have the queen as head of state. In detailing the new measures, Cameron observed that the current standard under which a younger brother would take precedence over a first-born sister is discriminatory under European law. The U.K. has long lagged behind on this issue, as Denmark changed its rules to make them gender neutral in 1953, Sweden followed suit in 1980 and other countries across Europe have since followed suit. Spain still has laws mandating male primogeniture, or male heirs taking precedence over female ones, in place. In other news, Spain needs to get with the times…………


- It’s now official: Charlie Sheen is headed for TV screens again. For the first time since being fired from his gig as the highest paid actor on TV for his work on "Two and a Half Men," Sheen will return to the small screen as a permanent cast member for a show. John Landgraf, president of FX Networks, announced Friday that Sheen's new project, "Anger Management," will air on cable network next summer. Yes, Sheens’ big return is on basic cable and yes, the show is named after and based on a crappy, über-forgettable 2003 Adam Sandler-Jack Nicholson film. Naming anything after a Sandler movie doesn’t exactly portend acting and screenwriting greatness, but the network has ordered 10 episodes of "Anger Management." If the show starts well, FX will order another 90 episodes. "We think that (producers) Bruce Helford, Joe Roth and Charlie Sheen have come up with a wonderful, hilarious vehicle for Charlie's acting talents — and a character we are very much looking forward to seeing him play," Landgraf said in a statement. What incentive is there for Sheen to stay on track and not go, well, go Charlie Sheen? He has stated repeatedly that he wants to do the show because he will have a significant ownership stake in it. "I chose 'Anger Management' because, while it might be a big stretch for me to play a guy with serious anger management issues, I think it is a great concept," Sheen said in a statement back in July. "It also provides me with real ownership in the series, a certain amount of creative control and the chance to be back in business with one of my favorite movie producers of all time, Joe Roth." One detail that has not been unearthed so far is what Sheen will be paid for the show. His salary probably won't approach the bloated amount he received on “Two and a Half Men,” but at this point he (allegedly) doesn’t have the cocaine habit to support so his money should go further………..


- The topic of God and sports is always a testy one. Those who are religious and those who have no use for God don’t see eye to eye on the issue and even within those two groups, there is often disagreement. Most people seem to agree that God isn't up in the sky steering the outcome of sporting events because there are bigger things to be concerned with, but the Almighty’s potential influence in Game 6 of the World Series is now up for debate after Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton said God told him he'd hit a homer Thursday night. The supposed message proved prophetic after Hamilton belted a towering home run into the Busch Stadium lights in the top of the 10th inning to stake the Rangers to a 9-7 lead and moved the franchise for a second time in two innings to the brink of its first World Series championship. Ultimately the win was not theirs to claim as St. Louis third baseman David Freese hit a walk-off homer in the 11th for a 10-9 win. Hamilton, who has been playing with a painful injury this postseason that is believed to be either a sports hernia or a groin pull, was undeterred by the loss and said divine intervention took over when he stepped to the plate in the 10th. "He told me, 'You haven't hit one in a while, and this is the time you're going to,' " said Hamilton, who had gone 65 at-bats in the postseason without a home run. "You know what? I probably had the most relaxed, peaceful at-bat I've had of the whole series at that moment. It's pretty cool. You ought to try it sometime." Unfortunately for Hamilton and the Rangers, God promised him a home run but did not promise that Hamilton’s team would win the game. "There was a period at the end of [the sentence]," Hamilton said. "He didn't say, 'You're going to hit it and you're going to win.'" And so it was that Hamilton smacked Cardinals closer Jason Motte's first-pitch fastball high and deep, well beyond the right-center wall and into the bleachers. For the sake of Hamilton and his team’s choking bullpen, hopefully God makes some more promises in their favor for Game 7………….


- Students at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg may not feel all that secure if this is the sort of service and protection they’re going to receive. Having one of your campus’ finest going Plaxico Burress on himself doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the men in blue. And no, “going Plaxico Burress” doesn’t mean going up high to catch a fade pattern in the corner of the end zone from one of your buddies in a pickup football game at the local park. In this case, it means failing to successfully control a loaded gun, blasting yourself in the leg and making a run to the emergency room because of it. The officer in question, Simeon McClain, was participating in a training session at the state police barracks in Greensburg when he attempted to holster his weapon and it went off. A bullet grazed his leg and McClain was taken to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian Hospital, where he was treated and released. The university’s website states that “Campus police officers are armed and on duty 24 hours a day. They're certified through the Pennsylvania Police Officer Educations and Training Commission as municipal police officers." Mmm hmm, sure. In all fairness to McClain, he is a campus police officer and not a real cop. His job is enforcing noise ordinances and issuing citations for underage drinking, not using his weapon to stop hardened criminals in their tracks. State police officials are investigating why the gun discharged but have not issue any official statement thus far. Maybe next time, just give McClain a flashlight and a rape whistle and keep everyone safer…………

Offensive Shakespeare films, Dropboxing it and a sport free of labor strife

- Don’t confuse getting your ass kicked because you are verbally challenged with not having any use in showing up for future Republican presidential debates, Gov. Rick Perry. Not wanting to be embarrassed because you lack the charisma and capacity for quick, independent thought in stressful settings does not mean that you should just give up on debating. Yet according to Perry’s camp, that’s exactly what the gun-toting W. clone may do. "We're about 60 days away from votes being cast," communications director Ray Sullivan said Wednesday in an interview with CNN. “The candidates need to spend time in Iowa doing those town halls and spending a lot more time with the voters, who oftentimes have the best questions and press the candidates the hardest. There's no way that the candidates can do all those debates.” In other words, the excuse is that there are too many debates and they eat up too much of Perry’s time. He wants to spend that time glad-handing voters and posing for photo ops, as cameras are less likely to challenge him with difficult questions on foreign policy, education and taxes. Maybe it is simply one big coincidence that Perry is considering skipping the remaining debates even as his poll numbers have slid after a series of uneven debate performances. He and his staff have done everything within their power to tear down the debates and place blame for his failings on the format and not on the lack of competence on the candidate’s part. "These debates are set up for nothing more than to tear down the candidates," Perry said on Fox News. "It's pretty hard to be able to sit and lay out your ideas and your concepts with a one-minute response." Yes, and it seems to be much harder for Perry than it is for every other candidate on the platform. In spite of his deficiencies, Perry has agreed to take part in at least one more debate, on Nov. 9, hosted by CNBC with the Michigan Republican Party and Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. From that point on, his debate schedule is wide open. Sullivan insisted the Perry campaign needs to be in several key battleground states, including Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and Nevada, where hopefully voters aren't concerned with candidates who talk well and think quickly on the fly……………


- Who’s ready for a major professional sports league in the United States that doesn’t have labor issues? The NFL already slogged through a four-month lockout and reached an agreement in time to save its season, while the NBA continues to resort to all-out trench labor warfare in its ongoing lockout as it nears the four-month mark. The NHL could also have a serious labor fight when its current collective bargaining agreement expires on Sept. 15, 2012. That leaves Major League Baseball, whose labor agreement expires on Dec. 11. How are Bud Selig and Co. progressing on their negotiations? Shockingly well, it turns out. The relatively minor issue of signing bonuses for amateur draft picks is the last major issue left in talks for baseball's new labor contract. While their NBA counterparts muddled through a 15-hour negotiation session elsewhere in Manhattan, representatives for MLB players and owners met Tuesday in New York, according to multiple sources. Selig is pressing for Bud Selig wants a system of fixed signing bonuses that tie the amount to when a prospect is drafted, known as slotting. Players are against pre-determined bonuses and believe they should be able to extort as much money as possible from teams, er, negotiate a fair amount. This practice often leads to prolonged negotiations and top picks electing to return to or attend college rather than take a smaller bonus than they want. Bonuses are also tied to other parts of the agreement, such as the luxury tax, the reserve system and the minimum salary. One hurdle that mirrors the NFL’s labor battle is testing for human growth hormone, which still has not been implemented in football. According to sources close to the MLB negotiations, players and owners have come to an general understanding on how to handle testing for HGH, but not necessarily a definitive agreement. That baseball is the one sport in the least trouble or crisis on the labor front is incredibly ironic given the sport’s eight work stoppages from 1972. Since losing the 1994 World Series to the eighth of those strikes, MLB has maintained relative labor peace. If the few remaining obstacles can be overcome, that trend will continue…………


- Adapt or die. That is the message being sent from Australia to the grouping of former British colonies - the Commonwealth - spread around the globe. As Commonwealth leaders are gathering in the Western Australian city, Perth, for a summit that is held every two year, Australian officials have bluntly cautioned attendees at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting that they are falling behind the rest of their world and at risk of losing their place in that world. The Commonwealth’s government has been labeled cumbersome and unwilling to make tough decisions, leading to tensions with the international community. It is bound by a shared history as former British colonies and has more than 50 members across six continents, including Ghana, India, Tonga and Malaysia. Australian Special Minister of State Gary Gray maintained that the Commonwealth is still relevant, but in need of drastic changes. “I think CHOGM has an enduring purpose. Anything that brings together 50 or more of the world's prime ministers and presidents to engage in global issues - CHOGM represents every continent," Gray said. "CHOGM represents a multitude of global organizations from the G20, the G8, the African Union. It is an organization which is as cosmopolitan as our globe itself.” The grouping’s most senior officials ordered a sweeping review of its entire organization two years ago to assess its direction and purpose.
At the meeting, Commonwealth officials are expected to recommend the establishment of a charter of Commonwealth values and the appointment of commissioners for democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Its critics have long argued that the Commonwealth lacks real authority because of its reclusive, secretive means and methods of solving issues behind closed doors. Media reports have characterized the Commonwealth as plagued by organizational “decay” that has allowed members to breach human rights and democratic conventions.
Calls for accountability on these topics have gone largely ignored. Other issues on the agenda for the meeting in Perth will be food security, the status of women and alleged human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. The gathering officials fires up Friday when
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth officially opens the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. From there, let the political hijinks begin…………


- To the cynic, it might seem that director Roland Emmerich is getting exactly what he wants. Emmerich, a director known for apocalyptic blockbusters, has ventured into the unfamiliar world of period pieces with his latest project “Anonymous,” a supposedly historical portrayal of the true story of good ol’ Bill Shakespeare. As with any director launching a film, Emmerich would undoubtedly love to stir up hype for the film any way he can. Picking a fight, even passive-aggressively, with the academic and literary communities has proven to be a brilliant strategy thus far. The movie hasn’t even opened and already scholars are excoriating it for its contention that Shakespeare was a simpleton, a fraud and perhaps a murderer who never wrote a word of his great plays. "A new low for Hollywood," ranted Columbia University professor James Shapiro. The source of the outrage from Shapiro and others like him is the recycling of the old notion that the true author of Shakespeare’s plays was the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere. Others believe it was playwright Christopher Marlowe, or even Queen Elizabeth I herself. Emmerich’s film goes a step further by injecting Shakespeare into a political drama involving a fight for succession using the plays as propaganda. Many critics have also decried the portrayal of Queen Elizabeth, known as the Virgin Queen? In Emmerich’s version of the story, she’s more of the Slut Queen, having secretly had several children, one born of incest. So far, the defense from Emmerich has been the tried and true “creative license” refrain, which hasn’t silenced the haters. Then again, silencing anyone is the last thing Emmerich wants. The more people talk about his film, the better. While it doesn’t help that Sony, the film’s studio, has worked with an educational company to prepare study guides for educators on the authorship question because any ties to academia should be the last thing “Anonymous” has, all of this just feeds the hype machine. The questions have also reached the film’s actors, who don’t quite understand the drama. "It's a political thriller," said Rhys Ifans, who plays de Vere. "It's a historical piece, a visual banquet. And it shows the potency of the theater as a vital form of change." Ifans went on to explain that Emmerich is merely updating the plays and stories. "That's what Roland is doing," Ifans declared. "He's cleansing the plays, elevating them. It's really refreshing." Ultimately, those who are enraged over the movie are in the wrong on this one because no one said this is a historically accurate documentary; it’s a fictional take on a tale that may have some elements of fact or theory mixed in. Deal with it and suspend your disbelief just like you do when you watch Robert Downey Jr. put on a massive iron suit and vanquish bad guys or Hugh Jackman protrude Adamantium claws from his hands and slice up his cinematic foes…………


- Do you have Dropbox? If you don’t know what that means, consider yourself behind the technological times. Dropbox is an online file-sharing service that allows users to upload files into a sort of cloud where others can access and download them. The service is competing with big companies like Google, Apple and Amazon.com, which all offers y sophisticated ways to store, share and sync files. Dropbox users can upload and can access files, like documents, photos and music, on any device wherever they are, without having to compress them or attach them to multiple emails. The basic version of the service is free but users can pay for additional storage beyond 2 GB. But Dropbox is not content with targeting individuals users and is gradually expanding its focus to include businesses as well. The company is now offering a service for businesses, Dropbox for Teams, introduced Thursday. Dropbox was founded in 2007 and has accured more than 45 million users who save more than 2 billion files each week. It also received a reported $4 billion valuation from venture capitalists earlier this year, but has drawn concerns and criticisms about security from users, especially on the corporate side. In fact, a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission says Dropbox misled users about privacy. The company insists it uses the same security measures as banks, with all files encrypted and access by Dropbox employees restricted. “These are all things we take very, very seriously because our reputation and the confidence and trust people have in Dropbox is what we’ll succeed by,” said ChenLi Wang, team leader for business and sales. Standing in stark contrast to its free service, Dropbox for Teams starts at $795 annually for five users. However, it does offer 1,000 gigabytes of storage, phone customer support and gives I.T. departments control to add or remove users. Still, security experts in general have expressed doubt about Dropbox security and believe added features like security controls to automatically stop people from sharing confidential documents or to put files on home computers on legal hold are needed. Those concerns aside, Dropbox is still a valuable addition to the tool belt for most tech lovers…………

Free money, secret codes and delusional man banders

- Sooooooo…..what did do with your bye-week free time, New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski? Did you spend it in a manner befitting a player on the most buttoned-up, robotic team in all of professional football? Or did you spend the time kickin’ it with a porn star and taking suggestive pictures you then gave her permission to post on Twitter? Option B it is. Gronkowski, one of the Patriots’ talented young pass catchers, is now spending his time apologizing to team owner Robert Kraft and the organization in general after adult film star BiBi Jones posted photos of herself in Gronkowski's jersey standing in front of him as he stood shirtless and gesturing at her. Jones appeared on a sports talk show on Monday and said that the two of them share a mutual friend who played football with him at Arizona. Hence, Gronkowski’s presence in Arizona during the bye week. "I went into the room to take a picture with him and he said, 'Put on my jersey,'" Jones said. "I asked him, 'Can I put these on my Twitter?' He was cool with it because I have more Twitter followers than him and he wanted me to get him more Twitter followers." The obvious next question is whether anything actually happened between the two of them and Jones was adamant that nothing happened, adding: "I wish something happened, but nothing happened." Sensing that suggestive pictures with a skank who takes it on camera from strangers might not reflect well on his employer, Gronkowski issued a general, uninspired apology Tuesday, saying, "I didn't send anything to hurt the reputation of anyone on the New England Patriots or on behalf of Robert Kraft. That's all, just a simple picture, that's all. From here on out, I'm just here to talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers and the big game this weekend." Oddly enough, the media kept pressing the issue and Gronkowski tried to deflect the questions before giving in and quasi-apologizing again. "[I was] not intending to hurt anyone or ruin the reputation of the New England Patriots in any way," he said. "[It's a] good organization here. ... I can't wait to get out to practice and focus on the Pittsburgh Steelers. That's all I'm worried about. It's all I care about." Thanks for clearing that one up, Robbie…………


- It’s 1975 all over again, y’all! House Speaker John Boehner is tossing out allegations of Russia attempting to reinstitute Communist Party policies as Bad Vlad Putin prepares for a return to power and now China is stepping up its oppression game in a way that would make the commie despots of years past shed a tear of joy. The latest step to wrest back Communist Party control over cultural industries that are fueling more independent viewpoints and poisoning the minds of the Chinese people by challenging them to think for themselves, Communist Party leaders will strictly limit the number of entertainment and reality programs shown on satellite television stations. Limit the viewpoints citizens are exposed to and don’t allow them to get any high-minded ideas in their heads about impractical things like basic human rights and freedoms, always a good call. Technically, the order from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television applies to shows that are vulgar or "overly entertaining." The overly entertaining part of the order is especially hilarous. Enjoy a show, just don’t enjoy it too much. What is “excessively entertaining,” by the way? If a show causes a viewer to laugh but not laugh so hard that milk or soda comes shooting out of their nose, does that count as overly entertaining? Some concrete standards need to be put in place because otherwise - and no one wants to see this happen to those high-character commie bastards - people may get the impression that this is some arbitrary, blanket moratorium on anything the government doesn’t like for any reason. The order singles out programs dealing with marital troubles and matchmaking, talent shows, game shows, variety shows, talks shows and reality programming. Banning reality shows and “talent” shows (i.e. American Karaoke, X-Factor) is a brilliant move and one every nation should consider, but this isn't strictly a crusade against shows that make talent-less hacks famous and gives them the impression that they matter. In lieu of these shows will be news and cultural programming. The order follows a Communist Party meeting last week that asserted the need for strengthening social morality and boosting China's cultural influence abroad, apparently be dragging it kicking and screaming back to the 20th century…………


- One archaeological discovery simply wasn’t enough for Kevin Knight, a computer scientist with USC's Viterbi School of Engineering who recently helped crack the Copiale Cipher, a secret society's 18th century manuscript. Knight and his team are now working on discovering the secret behind an even more mysterious book, found in a chest of books outside Rome by a dealer in antique books. The Voynich manuscript has remained one of history’s biggest mysteries since its discovery, with its aging parchment coated in unknown characters. For decades, no one has been able to decipher it. Knight, however, believes the same techniques he used on the Copiale Cipher could also work for the Voynich manuscript. “We have decipherment algorithms, but we also have tools that just look for patterns,” Knight declared. “Those pattern-finders helped us find similar sets of letters in Copiale, and they have already started helping us find patterns in the Voynich manuscript.” Most people would have been content after cracking the Copiale Cipher - a mysterious cryptogram bound in gold and green brocade paper - and its 250-year-old coded document self. By breaking it, Knight and his colleagues unearthed the inner workings of an 18th-century secret society. Doing so meant starting without knowing the language of the encrypted document and playing a hunch about the Roman and Greek characters distributed throughout the manuscript. Some 80 different languages later, the researchers realized the characters were actually meant to throw them off. With this knowledge, they began to administer algorithms such as expected word frequency and a few phrases began to emerge: “Ceremonies of Initiation,” followed by “Secret Section.” Inspired by his success, Knight is now attempting to crack other famous coded messages, including ciphers the Zodiac Killer sent to the police in the 60s and 70s, the C.I.A.’s “Kryptos” sculpture and even the infamous Voynich manuscript. The manuscript is owned by Yale University and was discovered in the Villa Mondragone near Rome in 1912 by antique book dealer Wilfrid Voynich while sifting through a chest of books offered for sale by the Society of Jesus. Voynich futilely attempted to unlock the book’s mysterious messages for the remaining 18 years of his life. Now, Knight and his team of Swedish and American researchers will attempt to do the same and if they’re fortunate, maybe they won't die before accomplishing their goal the way Voynich did……………


- Maybe being in a man band really does make you stupid for the rest of your life? How else can one explain former N’Suck tip-froster/in-unison-dancing tool Justin Timberlake’s recent comments about his time on The Mickey Mouse Club. Timberlake, who of course has gone on to torment the world with the utter garbage he calls his solo music, believes that he and fellow MMC member Ryan Gosling were a pair of colossal badasses during their time on the popular kids’ show. "We used to do terrible things," Timberlake laughed. "We stole a golf cart. And we we're like, 'Yeah, man. We're stealing a golf cart.' But meanwhile, you know what? It's like on a backlot. There's just golf carts everywhere." But wait, the “criminal mischief” didn’t end there. "So, we stole the golf cart, and we drove into MGM Studios, which is totally illegal by the way," Timberlake continued. "I was like, 'What you want to do, thug?' And [Ryan] was like, 'I don't know, cuz.' Because that's definitely how we talked. I was like, 'I don't know man. I'm in the mood for some vanilla.' He was like, 'I'm in the mood for some chocolate.' So, we went and got milkshakes." Wow…..milkshakes and golf carts? I’m pretty sure that’s how they roll in Compton, yo. What a bunch of thugs in the making these two must have been when they lived together for six months when they were about 10. How these two ever stayed out of jail and on the straight and narrow long enough to avoid being inmates at a maximum security prison doing 25 to life, no one may ever know. If it were a crime to make crap-tacular pop music and unleash it upon the general public, perhaps that wrong could be righted…………


- One of the quickest ways to ascertain a person’s character is to put a giant pile of cash in front of them that does not have an easily identifiable owner and see how they react. A few fortunate Oklahomans got that chance Tuesday when they were driving west on Interstate 40. Several thousand dollars in cash were blowing freely across the road, just waiting to be claimed.. “Everyone is just shocked,” said motorist Dorinda Rose, one of the people who stopped to pick up the cash. “There were lots of people who were saying they were getting new shoes, new this and new that." Rose and her fellow good-luck-club members were driving on I-40 near Meridian when the money storm began raining good fortune down upon them. “We saw money going across the interstate. Lots of people were stopped. They almost caused an accident. People were running across the interstate picking up all this money,” Rose said. The sudden influx of cash caused a minor panic, leading to many drivers pulling over to the side of the road and getting out of their vehicles to grab as much as they could. Rose collected $430 before the fun was ruined by Emergency Medical Services Authority workers who stopped to investigate when they saw the traffic jam and found the bag where the money originated. Those wet-blanket EMSA workers then turned the money over to police, who have since determined that the money came from a customer at the First Enterprise Bank in Oklahoma City. So far, no one has stepped forward to claim the money…………

Lohan's next move, Europe's humility and too much Jets smack talk

- It’s the next logical step in her career, but will Lindsay Lohan take it? She clearly has drug and alcohol issues, isn't reliable and has huge problems with authority. No director wants to blow a massive chunk of change on insurance to have her as part of a movie and her music career might be the only part of Lohan’s troubled life that is more laughable than her acting career and sobriety. So while she endures the indignity of court-ordered community service as part of the cleaning crew at the morgue in Los Angeles, Lohan really should consider the offer she has allegedly received from none other than Hugh Hefner. That’s right, Lohan apparently has an offer to pose for Playboy. Her publicist is neither confirming nor denying the reports, but the rumors of a $1 million offer are out there. For a serious actress, posing for a skin mag is unthinkable because it’s one step above porn star or stripper, one of the last stops before you’re taking some from a stranger on film for a few hundred dollars. However, Lohan isn't a serious actress and hasn’t been for a long time - if ever. On top of that, Lohan isn't exactly known for her modesty and she has made a definite point of trying to liken herself to sex icon and former Playboy model Marilyn Monroe. Lohan went so far as to reenact Monroe's last nude photo shoot for New York magazine and named her company, 6126, for Monroe's birth date. Lastly, there is the reality that Lohan has ceased to be relevant as anything other than a punchline for late-night monologues and doesn’t really have a way back to the top. So why not nosedive for the bottom, grab a $1 million payday along the way and cash in while you still can? In 10 years, when she’s lying down on a filthy mattress in some back alley in Chatsworth, making “The Boner Identity 5” and thriving in her role as the queen of adult films, $1 million to take off her clothes and pose for some pictures is going to look like a great offer. Take it now before even Playboy thinks you’re too much of a loose cannon, L…………


- Not so cocky now, eh Europe? You had plenty of fun laughing at the bumbling Americans as the United States staggered through its financial crisis earlier this year and chuckled as the U.S. had its credit rating downgraded. But how does it feel now that the eurozone is itself on the brink of a meltdown thanks to crises on multiple fronts? European leaders insist they are making progress on a comprehensive plan to address the eurozone's debt and banking crisis, but these leaders have been short on details so far. Delays have plagued the process and so far, no concrete plan has emerged. Perhaps that will change on Wednesday, when government heads from all 27 members of the European Union will gather for a second time, following a summit over the weekend. The euro is facing its most serious threat since the common currency was launched over a decade ago. Financial experts maintain that the crisis threatens the very existence of the eurozone, necessitating a wide-ranging, comprehensive package to alleviate the crushing pressure on many EU nations. The three major issues in the current round of talks are: restructuring the Greek government's crippling debt load, strengthening European banks and improving the effectiveness of a limited rescue fund. Hopes are not high for the new round of talks, as it took nearly three months for relatively modest crisis measures announced in July to be approved by all 17 euro area governments. November’s Group of 20 summit is expected to provide more answers, as the world's most powerful leaders will gather in Cannes, France and try to find solutions to the EU’s lingering monetary problems. Greece’s debt crisis is the most troubling of the financial problems facing the EU, especially determining the role the private sector could play in restructuring its ginormous debt. Banks and investors may have to voluntarily accept larger writedowns on the value of Greek government bonds to resolve the crisis. On the heels of a 21 percent reduction in July, bondholders likely won't be so welcoming of reductions closer to the 50-percent writedowns many analysts believe are necessary. Talks with the Institute of International Finance, which represents the interests of banks that hold Greek debt, have not gone well. IIF president Charles Dallara cited limits to how much the private sector will tolerate and warned that any "unilateral actions would be tantamount to default." There also exists a danger that other cash-strapped nations will seek a similar deal to what Greece receives. European banks are struggling as well and must raise capital reserves to withstand a default by Greece or another euro area government. That total could rise as high as €200 billion and the debate over where the money should come from has been heated. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have led those who believe that banks should first try to raise capital from private investors before seeking government aid. One part of the equation nearly everyone seems to agree on its that the European Financial Stability Facility, a €440 billion fund recently empowered to intervene in sovereign debt markets and lend money to governments that need to boost bank capital, is insufficient. So where’s the laughter now, Europe? Umm…..nowhere, actually. Pretty much the entire world is in deep financial sh*t and the picture isn't brightening any time soon…………


- Rarely is there so much talking after a Week 7 NFL game between two teams that are long shots at best for the Super Bowl. But when the New York Jets and cherubic head coach Rex Ryan are involved, normal isn't especially relevant. After a week in which he inadvertently insulted Chargers head coach Norv Turner by suggesting he would have won multiple Super Bowls if the Chargers had hired him instead of Turner in 2007, Ryan got over when his team rallied from a 21-10 halftime deficit for a 27-21 win. Just don’t expect the Chargers to give the Jets credit for the win or for the Jets to win with class, because neither one of those things is happening. Chargers tight end Randy McMichael lit that fuse after the game when he refused to give the Jets credit for holding his team scoreless and rallying in the second half. "The San Diego Chargers beat ourselves, OK?" McMichael said. "It's all about us. We took our foot off the gas pedal, and we lost because of it. ... Their secondary isn't anything. It's our fault. It had nothing to do with anybody on their team. It's all about the guys in this locker room. We lost the game. They didn't do anything." His words didn’t sit well with former Charger current Jet (and serial impregnator) Antonio Cromartie, who did not have complimentary things to say about his former team. "Honestly, when you're up by 11 points in the fourth quarter and you can't even finish the game up?" Cromartie mused. "That shows what kind of team you are -- a team that can't finish and that's been San Diego the whole time. There it is." Yes, there it is. The 4-3 Jets running smack like they’re 7-0 - Ryan also let rip with a “Stay classy, San Diego” blast Monday - and the Chargers refusing to admit they were not the better team even after quarterback Phillip Rivers’ second-half meltdown that was the linchpin for an offensive tank job rarely seen by the NFL team from Ron Burgundy’s home town………….


- Give an idiot some attention and this is what you get. Granted, noted ass hat Richard Heene essentially forced the world’s hand by committing a crime to get the attention he so desperately needed, but that’s only part of the equation. If Heene’s name sounds familiar but you can't remember why you hate him, he is the father of Falcon Heene, a.k.a. the international headline-grabbing "Balloon Boy." Richard Heene first tried an appearance on the oh, so forget table reality series Wife Swap and when that failed to catapult him to fame, he pretended his son was stuck in a flying balloon and incited a minor panic as emergency rescue teams tried to save a boy who was in actuality just fine, safe and sound at home. That stunt landed Richard Heene in jail for three months (and should have landed his brat kid in jail with him) and now that he’s out, it’s once again time for the loathsome, IQ-stunted aspiring star to continue chasing his dream of fame. So what’s next for Richard Heene? Sadly, it’s a cheesy music video in which he christens himself "Aluminum Man." Apparently Aluminum Man is Heene's musical alter ego that has brought him from zero to superhero, at least according to the ridiculous, low-rent YouTube video. In this surefire classic, the newly minted crime fighter "lives inside an aluminum can, cooks his eggs in an aluminum can," according to the lyrics. Seriously? Lives inside a can and cooks eggs there? What does any of that have to do with anything? Aside from being an insulting rip-off of Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch, what’s noteworthy about any of that? Some blame also has to go to Count Smokula, the featured singer on the track. Heene tries to pretend he’s something other than a middle-aged white dude, attempting to rap in "gritty" settings like a factory workhouse, a parking lot, the back of a pick-up truck and a grassy field while Smokula and a band play in a basement. The budget for this video had to be the price of Big Gulps and glazed doughnuts for the whole pathetic cast and crew. It even has its own vomit-inducing moment, when someone opens the door on Heene nude, except for a strategically placed sheet of aluminum. Young Falcon also makes an appearance early in the video, which might actually be the high point of this train wreck……………


- Great. Not only is going to the gas station a hazard to one’s wallet, but it is also a legitimate health threat as well. According to a scientific survey released Tuesday, a whopping 71 percent of gas pump handles are highly contaminated with germs most associated with a high risk of illness. Other public places are germ havens as well, with 68 percent of corner mailbox handles, 43 percent of escalator rails, 41 percent of ATM buttons, 40 percent of parking meters and kiosks and 35 percent of crosswalk buttons and vending machines. In other words, Bill Murray’s germophobic character in the film What About Bob? was right to be petrified of nearly every surface he came into contact with. The study, which seems a bit self-serving because it was conducted by Kimberly-Clark Professional, a subsidiary of the tissue maker, was designed with help from environmental microbiologist Charles Gerba, a professor at the University of Arizona. Gerba and a team of trained hygienists took measurements with repeated swabs of the items using the same methods as the food and other industries utilize to monitor sanitary conditions. Aside from instilling an all-out paranoia in any public setting, what are the ramipercussions of the study. Primarily, it showed consumers need to take more precautions against germs at work, on their way to and from work and when they eat out, said Brad Reynolds, leader of the Kimberly-Clark's Healthy Workplace Project. What does Reynolds recommend? An exhaustive daily routine of sanitizing and cleaning, that’s what: washing hands upon arrival at work, swabbing desks with cleaning products and cleaning one’s computer regularly. "As your computer boots up, wipe down your desk and mouse," Reynolds suggested. Wearing a surgical mask and gloves throughout one’s day could also work, but may come across as a bit extreme. Perhaps we can convince oil companies to give drivers an “Our gas pumps are biohazards likely to make you sick” discount of a few cents on their next fill-up…………

NCAA scams, where water comes from and duct-taped planes

- The link is so natural and obvious, it’s amazing no one thought of it before now. When someone says “Florida,” the automatic connotation in the mind of anyone with an IQ over 17 has to be “South Korea.” Thus, it is a no-brainer that from here on out, any Floridian who is age 18 or older, possesses a driver license and lives in South Korea can now exchange his/her driver license for a South Korean non-commercial driver license without taking the written or skills tests. The arrangement will work the other way as well, allowing any South Korean living in Florida and who meets the same criteria to get their Florida permit. Director of Motorist Services Sandra Lambert and the National Police Agency of the Republic of Korea Consul General He Beom Kim made it official by signing a reciprocal agreement Monday at Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles headquarters in Tallahassee. "The agreement streamlines the exchange process for valid South Korean license holders residing in Florida while valid Florida license holders residing in the Republic of Korea enjoy the same benefit," Kim said. “The agreement is another symbol of our strong relationship with the state of Florida and will encourage South Korean visitors to come to Florida.” Apparently the idea came from South Korea, although it was such an obvious choice that it clearly could have come from either party. "When the representatives of the Republic of Korea approached us, we were pleased to work with them," Lambert explained. "Our comprehensive review of the licensing process in the Republic of Korea clearly demonstrated that the South Korean process is consistent with standards in place in Florida. A written and skills test for a South Korean citizen with a valid Korean license would be redundant as it would be for Floridians living in South Korea." Redundant indeed, Sandy. South Korea and Florida are so similar, it’s eerie. Next stop: a similar agreement between Montana and Nepal…………


- Give the NCAA credit. It’s still an incredibly hypocritical organization built entirely for its own self-serving interests instead of looking out for the student-athletes it purports to be all about, but the organization does not how to throw an occasional bone to those who argue it needs to do more to share the wealth with the athletes who bring in its treasure trove of plunder. Its newest cheap ploy is NCAA President Mark Emmert saying he supports a proposal to allow conferences to increase grants to student-athletes by $2,000, "to more closely approach" the full cost of attending college in addition to the athletic scholarships athletes receive for tuition, fees, room, board and books. Emmert informed the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics on Monday that he expects the proposal to be finalized this week, after which he will ask the NCAA Division I Board of Directors to support it. In explaining his no-explanation-needed support of the proposal, Emmert wisely pointed out that student-athletes have limited opportunities to work outside the classroom and playing fields because of their time commitment to their sport. To offset this, he intends to ask the board to allow colleges and universities to provide multiyear grants, instead of year-to-year scholarships. "This week, I'll be asking the board to support a proposal to allow conferences -- not mandate anyone, but allow conferences, not individual institutions -- to increase the value of an athletic grant in aid to more closely approach the full cost of attendance," Emmert said. "We are going to create a model that would allow -- probably ... up to $2,000 in addition to" tuition, fees, room and board, books and supplies. Wow, big ups on that one. With the hundreds of millions of dollars the NCAA rakes in on an annual basis off the efforts of these student-athletes, chipping them off an extra $2,000 is verrrrrry big of the NCAA………..


- Water: It’s everywhere (except falling from the sky in Texas) and yet no one asks where it came from. Not in the “Where does rain come from?” line of thought, but more to the point of asking where the water on Earth came from in the first place. Even researchers have been unable to answer the question fully or to explain how an Earth they believe was far too hot to hold water or water vapor suddenly had oceans appear. A European research team believes it found something that could help answer that question, reporting the discovery of a very cold reservoir of water vapor in space that could explain where the water came from. Their find is located at the outer reaches of a dusty disk surrounding a star 175 light years away. In their current state, the star and disk are in the early stages of forming planets, much as Earth was formed some 4.5 billion years ago - according to science, anyhow. From the discovery, the researchers concluded that water was delivered to Earth via comets and asteroids known to originate in these cold but water-filled zones, which were assumed to also be present when our solar system was forming. “Our observations of this cold vapor indicates enough water exists in the disk to fill thousands of Earth oceans,” said astronomer Michiel Hogerheijde of Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. Hogerheijde, the lead researcher for the team, laid out exactly how the research fits with existing knowledge of water’s presence on Earth. “Scientists have long suspected there were these reservoirs of cold water vapor hiding in the outer regions of planet-forming disks, but until now we’ve only found signs of water vapor in hot regions closer to the suns,” Hogerheijde said. “Since the comets and cold asteroids are formed in the outer reaches, this was a problem for the theory that comets delivered the water to Earth. But now we have the cold reservoir in the region where comets are formed, and so the theory gets considerably stronger.” From there, he and his team concluded that t water has also been delivered to some of the billions of exoplanets known to exist beyond our solar system, meaning there are likely to be many “ocean worlds” throughout the galaxies. Hogerheijde also claimed the star his team examined, TW Hydrae, is the closest planet-forming star yet identified. Water’s existence there was first detected by the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency satellite that looks for infrared light in the galaxy using the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared, or HIFI. Using more powerful instrumentation, researchers were able to identify the water vapor, which Hogerheijde called a small portion of the “ice reservoir” existing in the region. To read more about this riveting find, peruse your copy of the Oct. 21 issue of the journal Science and learn your brains out………..


- Hearing Jennifer Lopez’s music - or her movies for that matter - associated with uncontrollable weeping is not a surprise. Being subjected to the tone-deaf, lyrically stunted, overly synthesized garbage Lopez tries to pass off as music is enough to bring anyone to tears, as is having to sit through one of her insipid romantic comedies. However, it wasn’t a tortured member of the audience who ended up crying during a Lopez concert at the Mohegan Sun casino in Montville, Conn., on Saturday. She performed one of her terrible new songs (which sounds a lot like her crappy older songs), “One Love,” and the song brought her to tears. Given that she knew the song was coming and how awful it would be, seeing the “singer” broken up by the tune was surprising. Why did it happen? “After I sang the song, I’m standing there, and I realized that I did bare a little bit of my thoughts in this song. I also acted it out, kind of, for the audience. The way they received it was very touching,” Lopez stated. “I think that they felt what I felt, which is, you know, I’m just a girl, just like everybody else, trying to find my way.” Great, but why don’t you find your way off the stage, as far as possible from a recording studio and nowhere near a sound stage or TV camera? If that sounds a bit harsh for a woman who just split from her husband in July, so be it. The truth can be harsh, unforgiving and yet, it will set you free……or in this case, it will set the world free from having to suffer through any more of Lopez’s crap-tacular songs, albums or movies. Making the world a better place is something you must do one small step at a time…………


- What is the single biggest fear most travelers have when embarking on a trip in which flying plays a major part? One word: crashing. For all but the heartiest and most mellow of travelers, the idea that their plane might succumb to the laws of physics and fall from the sky terrifies them like nothing else. Any small turbulence or disturbance that suggests a crash could be looming is met with nervous looks, tightly gripped arm rests and racing minds by most inside a plane. How much worse would your in-flight gripping be if the crew of the plane was busy duct-taping around the edge of the windscreen on the pilot's window before your plane took off? That reassuring scene greeted the 200 passengers aboard a Ryanair plane scheduled to fly from Stansted airport in England to Riga, Latvia. Prior to the flight, the crew reportedly put tape around the windscreen and passengers, some of whom could see what was going on, were told nothing. “We were kept in the dark, and were terrified. I could see guys taping in the windscreen with what looked like duct tape or gaffer tape," passenger Anthony Neal said. In spite of the makeshift, home remedy-style repair job, the flight took off. Twenty minutes into the flight, the pilot decided it was unsafe to continue and turned back. "We were in the sky, then the pilot said due to damage on the windscreen, we were going to turn back," Neal recalled. Ryanair, a low-cost Irish airline known for its no-frills approach, insisted it followed normal procedures and that passengers and crew were never in any danger. Airline officials reportedly said the tape was being used as an extra precaution to secure a new window seal. Even if that’s the case, maybe you want to slap that tape on there a few hours before the flight just to be sure it’s going to stick and that way passengers don’t get the impression their plane is being held together with tape, gum and glue. Oh, and if the tape was merely a backup for the new window seal, then why did the pilot yank the proverbial rip cord on the flight and turn back…………

Movie news, billboard outrage and Cold War-era relics

- The beauty of the Paranormal Activity franchise was on full display this weekend, as beautiful as a terrifying horror movie can be anyhow. One staple of the series is a small film budget, which Paranormal Activity 3 came through on by costing just $5 million to make. The second part of the equation is a massive profit, which the series’ third installment is also well on its way to making that happen after a $54 million debut in domestic earnings alone. That was nearly five times the total of runner-up Real Steel (Let’s make some monnnnnnneeyyyyyyy!), which managed just $11.3 million in its third weekend of release to boost its cumulative domestic total to $67.2 million. The totally unnecessary and awful remake of Footloose landed in third place with $10.9 million and has somehow bilked tasteless moviegoers out of $30.8 million in two weekends in theaters. Fourth place went to newcomer The Three Musketeers, which made $8.8 million and in the process bolstered the case of star Mila Jovovich, who blasted Summit Entertainment earlier last week for not promoting the film enough and shifting its marketing muscle behind the upcoming Twilight sequel. The final spot in the top five went to The Ides of March, which continued to disappoint by raking in just $4.9 million and has scored a total of $29.1 million in domestic earnings through three weeks. That quintet at the top was followed by: Dolphin Tale (still awful, still cheesy and yet still hanging around at No. 6 with $4.2 million and with a five-week total of $64.4 million), Moneyball (No. 7 with $4.1 million and $63.7 million in domestic earnings after five weeks in theaters), gawd-awful newcomer Johnny English Reborn (No. 8 with a measly $3.8 million in its opening weekend), The Thing (in the No. 9 spot with $3.1 million and a paltry $14.1 million domestically after two weeks) and the Seth Rogen-led 50/50 (No. 10 with $2.8 million and $28.8 million overall). The two films dropping out of the top 10 from last weekend were Courageous (No. 11) and The Lion King (in 3D) (No. 12)…………


- All of a sudden, billboards are extremely offensive to a whole lot of people. Clearly, not everyone just blows right past them on the expressway or driving through the city because if that were the case then this next story would not be happening. Less than two weeks after an uproar in Pittsburgh over an image of a silhouette being hanged on a billboard advertising a haunted house, the good (and oversensitive) people of Bridgeport, Ct. are in a tizzy over a new billboard in the city’s Black Rock neighborhood. The billboard reads simple, “Got drunk?” in black and red lettering against a plain white backdrop, with the contact information for a local law firm below. What message is Ganim Law Firm trying to send? "The purpose of the board was to raise awareness of bad decisions being made by good people and the opportunities they have to be properly represented in a court of law. Again, in no way was the billboard intended to promote or encourage the misuse of alcohol. With that in mind, The Ganim law Firm, P.C. and Park Group Solutions, LLC have made a conscious decision to remove the billboard immediately in order to rectify any and all misunderstandings regarding the nature of the message on this billboard. We apologize to anyone that this may have offended," the firm explained in a written statement. Some quality legal speak from a law firm right there, no doubt. Unfortunately, a vocal minority amongst Bridgeport residents have neither a sense of humor nor an extra IQ point to spare and they have vociferously argued that the billboard is sending the wrong message to everybody, including kids. These kooks have argued that children are hearing the message that it is okay to drive drunk as long as you can hire a good lawyer. First off, any child dumb enough to believe that a lawyer you hire after finding your drunk ass finds their name on a billboard has bigger problems anyhow. Secondly, the real complaint to be levied against the billboard is that we’re about a decade past the “Got milk?” ad campaign and trying to parody it at this point is far more offensive than the message itself. So if you want to complain, at least direct your ire in the correction direction………….


- Unlimited music on your Android tablet? Umm, not exactly, but you can now have Music Unlimited on your tablet. After initially being available only on Android phones, Music Unlimited catalog of more than 10 million tracks will now be accessible for owners of Android tablets. With Spotify, MOG, Rdio, and Rhapsody battling it out for the top spot amongst on-demand music providers, Music Unlimited will have a major fight on its hands to grab market share. It is currently available in the U.S., France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand and debuted a new version this week. Version 1.2 of Music Unlimited features compatibility with Android tablets as well as the Sony Tablet S, along with an enhanced user interface. Among the improvements to the service in the new version are: faster playlist creation; easier discovery of related artists/songs; quicker navigation between album and catalog views and enhanced search results. Sony will have two types of monthly subscriptions for Music Unlimited, including $3.99 basic and $9.99 premium plans. "Sony Tablet users who are first-time subscribers to the Music Unlimited service can get a 180-day trial of the Basic subscription plan," according to an official statement. A free 30-day trial is also available for anyone who isn't sold on the service and wants to try it out before making the jump from Spotify or Rhapsody, or merely to find a new way to pirate music from a bigger pool of songs……….


- An international spy scandal with Cold War ties? Is it Christmas already? The news could not be better - at least outside of Germany and Russia - with the revelation that German police have arrested a pair of suspected foreign agents accused of operating as Russian spies since the days of the Cold War, according to prosecutors. The Federal Prosecutor's Office said the two were arrested in a police raid on their home in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hesse state Tuesday. Prosecutors issued a statement Friday explaining that the pair "are suspected of having worked in Germany over a long period of time for a foreign intelligence agency." German media outlets then reported that the suspects are a Russian couple allegedly spying in Germany since 1988 and were arrested following a tip from the FBI, which had uncovered a ring of Russian spies in the U.S. last year. In a fairly obvious tip-off, the woman was reportedly caught listening to coded messages. It’s a hobby precious few people engage in simply for fun any more, so the FBI became suspicious and began investigating. The couple had German names and Austrian passports listing the man's birthplace as Argentina and the woman's as Peru even though neither of them looked all that South American. According to media reports, investigators believe the couple began spying in Germany for the former Soviet KGB (gotta love Cold War relics like the KGB) and more recently for Russian foreign intelligence (SVR). As is to be expected, no one is commenting on the situation and the suspects have denied the charges against them. The Russian government and SVR are also refusing comment. "We will leave these reports without comments," SVR spokesman Sergei Ivanov stated tersely. All right then…………


- Jamie Moyer is like the villain in a bad horror movie, except for the fact that he hasn’t killed anyone….and also that he doesn’t lurk outside people’s homes with various deadly weapons in the middle of the night. But just like those movie villains, you simply cannot kill Moyer when it comes to being a viable Major League Baseball starting pitcher. Moyer, the definition of a crafty left-hander who gets by on guts, guile and mental acuity, missed the entire 2011 season following Tommy John surgery on his left elbow. The surgery has ended the careers of much younger players, but after spending the year working as a studio analyst, Moyer remains focused on returning to the major leagues for the 2012 season and is reportedly on track to do so. Moyer is making e steady progress in his ongoing recovery and despite turning 49 years old next month, he plans to begin contacting big league clubs within the next couple of weeks to gauge interest. While no team is likely to give any sort of guaranteed contract to a 49-year-old pitcher coming off Tommy John surgery, Moyer should be able to find at least a few teams willing to give him an invitation to spring training. “There will be naysayers, but they’ve been there my whole career,” Moyer said last week. “I don’t let them affect me in a negative way. If anything, I turn it into a positive. If this were the middle of July, I’d be at the stage where one more good bullpen session and I’d be ready to go out on a [minor-league] rehab assignment. I’ve gone through this rehab knowing that my arm and body will stop me if they have to. So far they haven’t.” No, no one has stopped Moyer and he did post a 4.84 ERA and nine wins in 2010. He’ll be back and looking to add to his 267 career wins next spring…………