- A 1-3 start is not what the NFL’s supposed “Dream Team” had in mind for the 2011 season. But being bad is one thing and quitting is another. The Philadelphia Eagles have been the former for much of the first four weeks of the season, but an opposing player who squared off against them last Sunday believes they were also the latter when it mattered most. San Francisco 49ers running back Frank Gore, who ran for 127 yards in a 24-23 comeback win at Lincoln Financial Field and completed the rally with a 12-yard touchdown with three minutes to play, said this week that the Eagles packed it in when the game got close. The 49ers rallied from a 20-point deficit to win and according to Gore, the rally was easier because the Eagles quit. "We just kept pounding and kept pounding and making plays and we kind of knocked the fight out of them," Gore said. "I think playing that second half and the way we came out, the Eagles didn't want to play no more." Accusing a team or player of quitting is just about the worst thing a person can say about an athlete in any sport and the Eagles were in no mood to hear Gore’s critique of their effort. "I don't think the team quit," Eagles quarterback Michael Vick said. "I think we put up the effort for all four quarters." In which case, they’re not quitters and merely chokers. The loss dropped the Eagles to last place in the NFC East and ironically enough, made a 49ers team no one expected much from - at least outside the organization - 3-1 and in first place in the NFC West. Vick and his supposed top weapon, receiver DeSean Jackson, haven’t produced the sort of big-play magic expected of them and now they have to carry the added burden of people believing that they will quit and roll over if you punch them in the mouth. Vick did his best to dismiss Gore’s comments and shift the focus back to Sunday’s matchup with the 3-1 Buffalo Bills. "He can say that," Vick said of Gore. "But we can't dwell on last week. It's over." Yes, it is over. So is your run as a prohibitive favorite to win the Super Bowl or even make the playoffs………..
- We’ll believe it when we see it, Ali Abdullah Saleh. You can sell it all you want, you stepping down as “president” of Yemen, but until you actually follow through with the threat then you will continue to be nothing more than an oppressive dictator fond of lying to save his own ass. Saleh, one of the more unpopular dictators at the moment in a world full of them, said on Saturday he would leave power in the coming days, the closest he has come to announcing he plans to step down after nine months of mass protests against his 33-year rule. "I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days," Saleh promised in a speech on state television. Those words stand in stark contradiction to his insistence over the past ninth months that he would remain in power and not give the people of Yemen what the majority of them seem to want. Opposition groups have demonstrated on a near-daily basis since the uprising began and ruling party representatives have discussed a formula to see through a transition-of-power deal. "I call on my supporters to persevere and to confront any challenge," Saleh said defiantly later in the speech. The riots and protests have nearly paralyzed the country for most of the year and the weakened government has struggled to remain control over some areas of the country. The instability has increased fears that al Qaeda's regional wing may use the upheaval to expand its sphere of influence in Yemen. Saleh has contributed heavily to the problem by thrice backing out of agreed-to, Gulf-mediated power transition deals. He is still holding up the transition process, according to opposition members, by having his regime stall negotiations following his return from Saudi Arabia, where he had gone for treatment after a June assassination attempt. Just man up and step down, Saleh, and a lot of the turmoil will cease…………
- The Home Shopping Network is always seeking new means of prying ridiculous amounts of cash from the wallets of discipline-poor losers who actually call in to purchase cheap, tacky, gimmicky products they see pitched on a cable shopping network. Its latest experiment is taking place this weekend, as viewers watching HSN can scan their TV screens with a smartphone to learn more about the products on display. HSN’s hope is that shoppers will then be more likely to buy the items in question. The network began the experiment on Friday, running so-called QR codes, patterned data squares similar to bar codes, on its high-definition channel. The codes appear in one corner of the screen and correspond to products for sale. By scanning them, viewers will be taken to a product page on HSN’s mobile Web site or its app, where there is a link to the checkout page. Never mind that a person could simply Google a given product and find that information just as quickly because as everyone knows, Americans are all about less steps and less effort to reach the same end result. Scanning QR codes in magazine ads or store windows with a smartphone is not new, but HSN claims this is a first for television. Should the experiment go well over the weekend, the network said a scan-to-buy feature used to put the product directly in the viewer’s online shopping cart could be next. Current market research indicates most shoppers do not use QR codes, but that hasn’t stopped retailers from drooling over them as a potentially lucrative form of marketing. Major brands like Ralph Lauren, Rachel Zoe and Original Penguin have begun adding icons and color to the predominantly black-and-white codes in a futile effort to make them more appealing to consumers. HSN is taking the process a step further by calling this weekend’s experiment a chance to educate its viewers about the codes so they could be used more extensively in the future. “I’m sure consumers are seeing these QR codes, and we’re actually going to explain to people how to download a QR reader, how to scan it,” said Jill Braff, the network’s executive vice president for digital commerce. Many marketing experts have criticized the codes for being too complicated for shoppers to use, but as smartphones become a common part of more people’s daily lives and as more free QR code-scanning apps became available, retailers hope that belief will prove erroneous. The battle is a large one, as just 6.2 percent of mobile users in the United States scanned a QR code in June. HSN could have more success because many viewers were buying products by using the Web browser on their mobile phones rather than calling the network. That inspired this weekend’s experiment, Braff explained. “They are watching us on TV and using a mobile device as a faster, more convenient means of checkout,” she said. “We thought about what if we married the two — what if we allowed people to scan a QR code during a product demonstration, which would bring them directly to that product page on the mobile device?” It’s worth a try because HSN doesn’t exactly have a highbrow, never-fails reputation and maintaining its dignity isn't something the network needs to worry about…………
- Snoop Dogg has been heading toward the mainstream of pop culture for quite a while now, so he may as well take the final step toward being in the same category as Top 40 pop, overhyped blockbuster movies and familiar faces on late-night network talk shows. He is reportedly set to do just that by starring in a new family sitcom, playing a father for an as-yet-untitled NBC project to be written by sitcom veteran Don Reo. Reo has been responsible for some truly awful series such as Two And A Half Men, Everybody Hates Chris and Blossom, along with iconic series like MASH and The Golden Girls. He previously worked with Snoop on the Fox sitcom Brothers and the two of them apparently decided that there weren't enough unwatchable half-hour sitcoms in prime time television. Snoop will also have a producer's credit on the show and has been flexing his comedic muscle of late in apparent preparation for stepping into the sitcom world. He invited a retired Welsh farmer to his Cardiff concert this week because he wanted to learn gardening secrets from the grower to help him in his, um, pursuit of growing quality hippie lettuce. Anchoring a sitcom will be a definite change from being the centerpiece of his reality TV show Snoop Dogg's Father Hood, which documented life with his wife and three children. He has also made major strides toward the mainstream with roles in films including Training Day and Starsky & Hutch. He was also recently cast as the lead in the biopic 'The Legend Of Fillmore Slim' and made numerous commercial appearances as well in cementing his reputation as America’s favorite stoner rapper. He may not have anywhere near the edge or badass rep he once possessed, but the draw of mainstream celebrity and adoration is simply too big for some to resist………
- Who in the world wouldn’t like to turn the tables on the cops and issue a ticket to the smug, condescending pricks who pull you over and slap you with a $125 speeding ticket because you dared to go 61 in a 55 mph zone? Anyone who has ever received a traffic citation of any sort would love the chance, but there simply isn't any way to make the dream a reality - or is there? For Albuquerque resident Tyree Appleberry, the time had come to answer that question. According to the Albuquerque Police Department, Applebee took the law into his own hands by posing as a police officer and pulling over a motorist who just happened to be a real detective. Police claim Applebee turned on his strobe lights on his white Chevy Tahoe in an attempt to stop a driver, who turned out to be an undercover officer. Applebee reportedly approached the officer’s civilian vehicle and tried to give him a citation. Unfortunately, he had a warrant out for his arrest for failing to appear in court for a reckless driving charge at the time and was summarily arrested on charges of impersonating a police officer as well as for the outstanding warrant. In his defense, Applebee said he was not impersonating an officer and was instead asking the driver why he was in the parking lot next to an auto auction yard where his friend works. Because as we all know, random citizens always have police strobe lights on top of their vehicle and turn them on to have a friendly chat with a stranger who pulls into a parking lot adjacent to - not on - their friend’s property. And if a non-law enforcement officer is going to put on such a charade, doing it while wanted on an outstanding warrant would be the worst possible circumstances. Then again, Applebee does not come across as an incredibly intelligent individual in the first place…………
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