- The tactic is old, it’s tired and it’s incredibly predictable, but that doesn’t mean it isn't still amusing. Take two rival teams in any major American professional sport, drop a prime free agent into the mix that would benefit both teams but is only a logical fit for one of them and watch the hilarity ensue. The scene played out last offseason when the Boston Red Sox pursued free-agent outfielder Carl Crawford and ended up giving him a bloated, $140 million contract that he promptly failed to live up to by playing one of the worst seasons of his career. But part of that elevated contract price may be directly attributable to Boston’s biggest rival, the New York Yankees. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman admitted to feigning interest in Crawford even though the Bronx Bombers had no real interest in him. They played along to drive up the asking price for the Red Sox - and it worked. Fast-forward to this offseason and its biggest free-agent prize, slugger Albert Pujols. Pujols made it clear to the St. Louis Cardinals that he wouldn’t talk contract once this past season began and sure enough, no talks for a new deal took place. The season ended with a World Series title, but it also ended with Pujols free to sign with any team he wants. And lookee here, the Cardinals’ biggest rival just happens to be among the interested parties. The Chicago Cubs have reached out to the agent for Pujols to express their interest in the three-time Most Valuable Player. Discussions between new Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer and agent Dan Lozano are in the early stages, but the Cubs are doing their best to make it appear that they will join the Cardinals and Miami Marlins in an active pursuit of Pujols. The Cubs are also in the hunt for the other big-name free agent first baseman on the market, former Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder, so they seem to be hoping to add a big bat while dealing a blow to one of their major division rivals in the process. Either that or they are looking to inflate the asking price for one or both players so the Cardinals and Brewers have that much less money to spend on the rest of their rosters even if they do keep their big stars. Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said Tuesday that he supports Epstein fully in whomever his new top baseball executive pursues. "Like I've always said, there is one person responsible for making those decisions, and one person accountable for those results," he said. "So if (Epstein) believes strongly that's what's in the best interests of the team, then he's got my support." Yeah, but the odds of this all being a clever competitive ploy are still fairly high…………
- And America’s billboard oversensitivity continues. Following outrage over a Halloween billboard in Pittsburgh featuring the silhouette of a person hanging and the uproar over a billboard for a law firm in Bridgeport, Ct. that featured the slogan, “Got Drunk?” there is now a feud over a New York billboard carrying the controversial slogan "Christmas quality at Hanukkah pricing" as a way of selling Wódka vodka. The billboard features the image of two dogs, one wearing a Santa hat, the other wearing a yarmulke, topped off with the tagline that has created anger amongst Christians and Jews alike. Well, mostly it has angered the Anti-Defamation League, a group that fights anti-Semitism, but a few actual Christians and Jews are probably offended as well. But let’s hear from the offended parties and see what they have to say. "In a crude and offensive way of trying to make a point that their vodka is high quality and inexpensive, the billboards evoke a Jewish holiday to imply something that is cheap and of lesser value when compared to the higher value of a Christian holiday," said Ron Meier, the ADL's New York Regional Director, in a press release. "Particularly with the long history of anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and money, with the age-old notion that Jews are cheap, to use the Jewish holiday in dealing with issues of money is clearly insensitive and inappropriate." The billboard is located in a prominent spot New York City's West Side Highway, said Brian Gordon, the creative leader on the campaign, who is in fact Jewish. "It's important that people understand where we're coming from because we never intended to offend people," Gordon said in a phone interview. "But if we’re actually offending or upsetting people that’s not in the spirit of our marketing so we're taking it down." Wait…..wha…..you’re taking it down? Why? Just because you got exactly what you wanted out of it and don’t need to continue antagonizing people by leaving it up? This is what Wódka does and what Wódka will continue to do. The company is known for controversial marketing approaches, with past ads boasting "Hamptons Quality. Newark Pricing" and "Escort Quality. Hooker Pricing." Two complaints to the ADL about the latest billboard referenced Wódka's past marketing slogans. However, Gordon insisted the point of the campaign was to liken the brand to Hanukkah as the "understated" holiday of the season because Wódka vodka offers equal quality "with less pomp and circumstance." Fair enough, but most people (outside of Russia) aren't looking to get blasted on vodka for the holidays. That’s what eggnog is for……………
- See, there is a great reason why Americans hate soccer and it’s only largely because it’s a slow-moving, low-scoring game played by greasy-haired, ridiculous-goal-celebration-conducting losers who fake the pain and suffering of a gunshot injury every time someone passes within 10 feet of them on the pitch. But another reason to hate soccer has much more to do with health than with it only being a terrible game to watch. According to a new study led by Dr. Michael Lipton, lead researcher and associate director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, regular "heading" of soccer balls by amateur players may cause brain damage leading to subtle but serious declines in thinking and coordination skills. That’s right, playing soccer makes you dumber. Lipton and his team used an advanced MRI technique to analyze changes in brain white matter of 32 adult amateur soccer players who headed balls 436 times a year on average. They learned that players who were high-frequency headers -- with 1,000 or more a year -- showed abnormalities similar to traumatic brain injuries suffered in car accidents. "This is the first study to look at the effects of heading on the brain using sophisticated diffusion tensor imaging," Lipton said. "We found the real implication for players isn't from hitting headers once in a while, but repetitively, which can lead to degeneration of brain cells.” Lipton and his team deserve a lot of credit for their work. Paying attention to soccer for more than two seconds is a Herculean feat in and of itself. Sure, they only studied 32 individuals, but does anyone really want to attempt to pay attention to hundreds or thousands of soccer players over a prolonged period of time? Comparing neurological images of 32 study participants should be more than enough. These comparisons found those players with the highest volume of headers had abnormalities in five areas of the brain, responsible for attention, memory, physical mobility and high-level visual functions. Serious negative changes started occurring in the neuro-regions when players surpassed threshold levels of about 1,000 to 1,500 headers a year, according to the study. Its findings will be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, in Chicago. On the heels of conflicting reports on the so-called "cognitive" consequences of frequently heading soccer balls in the past year, the study should stimulate plenty more research and discussion, if not action. Still, how can this problem be fixed when heading is as inherent a part of soccer as flopping and lame goal celebrations? Most head injury experts recommend proper heading technique - striking the ball with the forehead as the head, neck and torso are set in a solid line without any twisting - to reduce force on the head. Coaches and teammates would have a difficult time observing any effects from too many headers because cognitive problems develop gradually, Lipton said. "There are threshold levels where we don't see brain abnormalities, which means heading is not absolutely bad," Lipton said. "Rules could be developed to alleviate adverse affects by limiting the number of headers allowed for certain age groups or skill levels of play." Or everyone could just stop playing soccer and that would fix the problem………….
- How typical of the pope is this? The guy trots around the globe, arrogantly issues opinions and proclamations and acts as if he runs the world. So when the papal posse rolls into Germany for an appearance, what are the odds that Pope Benedict XVI is going to respect the local traffic laws and act responsibly? Zero, that’s what. Following a recent Germany in which he motored down a street in the city of Freiburg, the pop is now facing a lawsuit from an unidentified citizen for allegedly failing to wear a seatbelt “for more than an hour.” The pope had the gall to motor along in the Popemobile at an average speed of 6 mph while deliberately and blatantly refusing to wear a seatbelt as per national laws. That Pope Benedict XVI is a German native makes his actions all the more appalling. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Johannes Sunderman, defended his client as not being an “anti-clerical fanatic” but someone on “a personal road-safety crusade” who is “concerned about the pope’s safety too.” If a German court finds the video evidence of the incident convincing enough, the pope could be found guilty of a misdemeanor and face a fine between $50 and $4,000. According to the lawsuit, two-high ranking officials will be called as eyewitnesses to the violation, including the Archbishop of Freiburg (Germany’s highest Catholic authority) and the president of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Of course, the Pope is head of state of the Vatican, so he could also skate on all charges simply by hiding behind the cloak of diplomatic immunity. Just another example of papal pomposity at its apex………….
- Considering the critical and industry praise it has received, it seems like Tony-winning hit musical The Book of Mormon should have been turning a profit long before now. But the show, created by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone with Avenue Q’s Robert Lopez, has just now turned the corner and covered all of its production costs and other expenses. The play, which is believed to have cost around $9 million to produce and $600,000 per week to stage, has been raking in an average of $1.1 million weekly since it opened last March. With total earnings now north of $45 million, the show’s producers have finally declared that the project is in the black financially. So far, Mormon has had 310 performances and sold more than 338,000 tickets for those shows. As of Sunday, it has broken 22 house records at the relatively modest-sized Eugene O’Neill Theatre. The theater also hosted fellow Tony winners Nine, Spring Awakening, and The Full Monty, but never a play that has generated quite the financial upswing as Mormon. Still, the size of its home theater has limited the show to being the fourth-highest-grossing Broadway musical this year (behind Wicked, The Lion King, and Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark). At a bigger theater and with the star power of Stone and Parker attached to it, Mormon just might be at the top of that list. Its airline-style differential pricing policy has also played a big role in its financial success based on its ability to charge top dollar for seats based on availability. The average ticket price for the show is a whopping $134.35 and for those looking to score the best seats at choice performances, that cost skyrockets to a thoroughly ridiculous $470………………
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Flammable printers, Congo election chaos and Goodwill thievery
- Football is not exactly the source of pride on the University of Colorado campus that it is at most Div. I schools across the United States. The Buffaloes are bad this year and have been for quite some time, posting a 3-10 record overall and 2-7 record in Pac-12 play this season after being so bad in previous years that combustible head coach Dan Hawkins was fired after five seasons with a combined 19-39 record. New coach Jon Embree stepped in this season and the Buffaloes were terrible once more, giving fans a wealth of regrettable memories to carry them through until next season. One female student on the school’s Boulder campus can add another CU football-related memory to that list courtesy of freshman receiver Austin Traig Vincent. It seems Vincent either does not understand the gender-designation signs on restroom doors or feels every one of them should be unisex, because he was arrested late Friday night on suspicion of indecent exposure and second-degree criminal trespassing after allegedly entering a women’s restroom in Willard Hall while a female student was showering and exposed himself to her. According to the police report, the alleged victim heard a man enter the restroom and announce to her he was going to take a shower. Vincent then allegedly attempted to make small talk as if his actions were normal. He even asked to borrow her shampoo and opened the curtain to her shower stall, allegedly standing before her naked as she tried to cover herself up with the curtain. Undaunted, Vincent allegedly went back into his shower stall as the woman wrapped herself in a towel and fled the restroom. When asked why she never asked Vincent to leave, the victim told officers she felt "vulnerable" and "exposed." She was able to easily identify Vincent because he lives next door to her in the dorm and had made flirtatious comments to her in the past. Another female student has since claimed that Vincent previously had entered the women's restroom while she was showering, but he did not open her curtain and a building RA informed police she had told Vincent before to stop using the women's restroom. However, both of the misdemeanor charges against Vincent may go away because he has a great explanation for his actions: He admitted to taking a shower in the women's restroom, but only because the men's showers were filthy, according to the police report. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is free on bond from Boulder County Jail, but is not allowed to return to Willard Hall pending an investigation. Ladies and gentlemen, your Colorado Buffaloes football team…………
- Election day in the Democratic Republic of Congo was a bit chaotic this time around. As the first results emerged from the voting, many voters still had not been able to cast their ballot and allegations of fraud tainted with widespread election violence cast an ugly shadow over the proceedings. Still, organizers forged ahead with the presidential and parliamentary elections in the Central African nation. Despite logistical delays and complaints over the process that could taint the results, the election continued to move forward. The U.N. mission in Congo known as MONUSCO is monitoring the election and as of Tuesday morning, workers were s still delivering electoral materials to some areas which have yet to vote, according to mission spokesman Mounoubai Madnodje. Among the areas yet to vote is the central province of Bandundu. "We've offered our helicopters to transport materials, so yes, we're still continuing to help," Madnodje said. The primary election is President Joseph Kabila facing off against 10 rivals, including veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi. There are also 500 open seats in parliament and a whopping 18,500 candidates seeking them. Essentially, that is one seat for every 37 candidates. The country’s election commission described the ballot as "satisfactory," with voting in some areas carrying on into the night. Other voters were asked to wait until Tuesday to cast their ballot after some ballot papers did not arrive on time. Voter complaints streamed in from across the country over confusing voter lists and sporadic violence at some stations. Allegations of fraud sparked the violence and even those who were an active part of the process expressed skepticism over its integrity. "Here in Kinshasa we don't have any confidence in the process but in this polling station we have worked hard (to stop fraud)," said Henriette Kilonda, an election official at the Ecole de la Gare voting center in Gombe, central Kinshasa. Full provisional results are not due till Dec. 6, so the next week should be an extremely tense time throughout the country. Even the election commission did not have accurate figures on how many people were unable to vote on Monday or when they would do so, but a representative for an international election monitoring group put the figure in the hundreds of thousands. Further complicating matters for voters, some ballot papers in the legislative vote were dozens of pages long. "We have 63,000 polling stations. If of those we have even 1,000 which cause problems, that's manageable. For us we just want everyone to be able to vote," election commission spokesman Matthieu Mpita said Monday evening. The most prominent incident of violence occurred in the province of Katanga in the south, where at least three people were killed when masked gunmen attacked a polling station. TDH, a human rights group in West Kasai province, claimed that at least 12 polling stations had been torched in the provincial capital, Kananga, after residents allegedly discovered ballots already marked in favor of Kabila. Others claimed some voters weren't even allowed to go into polling stations unless they voted for a certain candidate. Congo is still relatively new at the whole free election thing, as its first post-war election was held in 2006. Ironically, that vote was largely seen as free and fair and was less chaotic than the current vote………
- Finally…….remotely flammable printers are here and just in time for Christmas! Thanks to the wicked smart Ivy Leaguers on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the world now knows that Hewlett-Packard sells printers with a flaw that could let hackers gain remote control over the device, thereby stealing personal information, attacking networks and even setting printers on fire by feeding them a continuous stream of instructions designed to heat them up. Two security researchers at Columbia University have accused HP the supposedly dysfunctional printers. Their work, funded by government and industry grants, unearthed the flaw. It was reported to federal officials and HP this month and Columbia PhD student Ang Cui and Professor Salvatore Stolfo performed a demonstration of how the printers could be hacked this week. HP admitted that it is still reviewing the details, but denied that the problem is as extensive as Cui and Stolfo claim. The two researchers claim they can remotely install malicious software onto HP LaserJet printers because the printers accept software updates without examining digital signatures and check for updates each time they accept a print job. In one of their demonstrations, Cui and Stolfo showed how a hijacked computer could be fed instructions that would steadily heat up the printer’s fuser, which dries ink once it’s applied to paper, eventually causing the paper to turn brown and smoke. From there, the fire was only a formality. Yes, a thermal switch inside the printer automatically shuts it down before a fire started, but Cui and Stolfo believe other printers without thermal switches might be used as fire starters. Armed with these remote-controlled tools of destruction, hackers would have a dangerous new weapon that would allow them to start fires from afar. Not only that, the researchers also showed how a hacked printer can be forced to send tax forms and other sensitive documents to a source of the hacker’s choosing and also disable printers by the thousands. Oh, and any printers hooked directly into a computer could also be used to launch attacks and join botnets. HP Chief Technologist Keith Moore did his best to debunk Cui and Stolfo’s claims, insisting HP's printers have required digitally signed firmware upgrades since 2009, that the majority of users have InkJet printers that do not allow remote upgrades and that printers behind a firewall are not vulnerable to the flaw. That’s not what Cui and Stolfo say; they allege that vulnerable printers are still readily available at most retail stores. In other words, the pyromaniac in your life just added a new entry to the top of their holiday wish list…………….
- Don’t believe the rumors, fans of actual quality rock music. Just because some ass hat out there started and went to great lengths to perpetuate the rumor that British rockers Muse had parted ways doesn’t mean it’s actually true. Whoever this loser is, he or she went to great lengths to make the hoax seem real, even setting up a fake website mimicking popular British music site NME.com that featured a story alleging that the band had split after an argument. The news came as a surprise for Matt Bellamy and Co. after they headlined Reading And Leeds Festivals earlier this year and headed to the studio to begin work on their sixth album, which is due to be released in late 2012. Hearing that the band was breaking up even as they were starting to record the follow-up to the band's 2009 LP “The Resistance” just seemed wrong and out of place and sure enough, it was. Even though the story quickly circulated throughout Twitter and on the band's official message board, Board.Muse.mu, a representative for Muse adamantly denied the story. The denial may take a while to sink in given the temporary uproar caused when the rumor first surfaced, but hopefully the responsible party is identified, tracked down, flogged and forced to listen to a truly crappy band that really does need to break up, someone like Nickelback, the Hack Eyed Peas or Maroon 5. There are enough quality bands who don’t last for any number of reasons, both internal and external, that break up before their time. The world does not need some tech-savvy ass hat setting up fake music news websites claiming to break news that one of the better rock bands in the world is calling it quits…………
- I’ve long suspected Goodwill is one giant scam and this essentially confirms it. Look no further than an unidentified 80-year-old Moline, Ill. resident who has been fleeced out of $13,000 by his local Goodwill store. This poor octogenarian was looking to do a good deed by donating some of his old clothing to Goodwill, like so many kind people do every day. However, one of the suits he donated had $13,000 in cash stuffed in its pockets and he didn’t realize his mistake until at least a week after he donated the clothing. One could attempt to fault this old guy for not being more cautious or for leaving that much cash inside suit pockets, but just remember that he is 80 years old and probably forget things. As for who keeps $13,000 in cash in an old suit and forgets about it……who knows? Maybe he’s a former pimp and hasn’t been slapping around his hos for a decade or two, or perhaps he’s a retired drug dealer who hasn’t sold an eight ball of coke since 1990. Either way, this poor guy is attempting to care for his terminally ill wife and he needs his money back immediately. Goodwill claims it’s attempting to assist him and track down the lost loot. "We're sorting through the donations that came in at the time," said Goodwill spokeswoman Dana Engelbert. Engelbert claimed the Moline store was searched, but the item could have already been sold. Employees and volunteers are also sifting through donated clothes in bins transferred from Moline to a warehouse in Iowa City. "We're hoping it's still there and we can find it for them," Engelbert said, "It's their life savings. It's important." A likely story, Engelbert. The man who a ccidentally donated his life savings has elected to remain unidentified because he is so "devastated and embarrassed" by the costly mistake, according to his family, which is offering a $1,000 reward if the new owner comes forward and "does the right thing." Of course, it could easily be argued that someone so forgetful and careless would eventually be bilked out of their life savings by some unscrupulous Ponzi schemer who preys on old people sooner or later, so maybe it doesn’t matter……….
- Election day in the Democratic Republic of Congo was a bit chaotic this time around. As the first results emerged from the voting, many voters still had not been able to cast their ballot and allegations of fraud tainted with widespread election violence cast an ugly shadow over the proceedings. Still, organizers forged ahead with the presidential and parliamentary elections in the Central African nation. Despite logistical delays and complaints over the process that could taint the results, the election continued to move forward. The U.N. mission in Congo known as MONUSCO is monitoring the election and as of Tuesday morning, workers were s still delivering electoral materials to some areas which have yet to vote, according to mission spokesman Mounoubai Madnodje. Among the areas yet to vote is the central province of Bandundu. "We've offered our helicopters to transport materials, so yes, we're still continuing to help," Madnodje said. The primary election is President Joseph Kabila facing off against 10 rivals, including veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi. There are also 500 open seats in parliament and a whopping 18,500 candidates seeking them. Essentially, that is one seat for every 37 candidates. The country’s election commission described the ballot as "satisfactory," with voting in some areas carrying on into the night. Other voters were asked to wait until Tuesday to cast their ballot after some ballot papers did not arrive on time. Voter complaints streamed in from across the country over confusing voter lists and sporadic violence at some stations. Allegations of fraud sparked the violence and even those who were an active part of the process expressed skepticism over its integrity. "Here in Kinshasa we don't have any confidence in the process but in this polling station we have worked hard (to stop fraud)," said Henriette Kilonda, an election official at the Ecole de la Gare voting center in Gombe, central Kinshasa. Full provisional results are not due till Dec. 6, so the next week should be an extremely tense time throughout the country. Even the election commission did not have accurate figures on how many people were unable to vote on Monday or when they would do so, but a representative for an international election monitoring group put the figure in the hundreds of thousands. Further complicating matters for voters, some ballot papers in the legislative vote were dozens of pages long. "We have 63,000 polling stations. If of those we have even 1,000 which cause problems, that's manageable. For us we just want everyone to be able to vote," election commission spokesman Matthieu Mpita said Monday evening. The most prominent incident of violence occurred in the province of Katanga in the south, where at least three people were killed when masked gunmen attacked a polling station. TDH, a human rights group in West Kasai province, claimed that at least 12 polling stations had been torched in the provincial capital, Kananga, after residents allegedly discovered ballots already marked in favor of Kabila. Others claimed some voters weren't even allowed to go into polling stations unless they voted for a certain candidate. Congo is still relatively new at the whole free election thing, as its first post-war election was held in 2006. Ironically, that vote was largely seen as free and fair and was less chaotic than the current vote………
- Finally…….remotely flammable printers are here and just in time for Christmas! Thanks to the wicked smart Ivy Leaguers on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the world now knows that Hewlett-Packard sells printers with a flaw that could let hackers gain remote control over the device, thereby stealing personal information, attacking networks and even setting printers on fire by feeding them a continuous stream of instructions designed to heat them up. Two security researchers at Columbia University have accused HP the supposedly dysfunctional printers. Their work, funded by government and industry grants, unearthed the flaw. It was reported to federal officials and HP this month and Columbia PhD student Ang Cui and Professor Salvatore Stolfo performed a demonstration of how the printers could be hacked this week. HP admitted that it is still reviewing the details, but denied that the problem is as extensive as Cui and Stolfo claim. The two researchers claim they can remotely install malicious software onto HP LaserJet printers because the printers accept software updates without examining digital signatures and check for updates each time they accept a print job. In one of their demonstrations, Cui and Stolfo showed how a hijacked computer could be fed instructions that would steadily heat up the printer’s fuser, which dries ink once it’s applied to paper, eventually causing the paper to turn brown and smoke. From there, the fire was only a formality. Yes, a thermal switch inside the printer automatically shuts it down before a fire started, but Cui and Stolfo believe other printers without thermal switches might be used as fire starters. Armed with these remote-controlled tools of destruction, hackers would have a dangerous new weapon that would allow them to start fires from afar. Not only that, the researchers also showed how a hacked printer can be forced to send tax forms and other sensitive documents to a source of the hacker’s choosing and also disable printers by the thousands. Oh, and any printers hooked directly into a computer could also be used to launch attacks and join botnets. HP Chief Technologist Keith Moore did his best to debunk Cui and Stolfo’s claims, insisting HP's printers have required digitally signed firmware upgrades since 2009, that the majority of users have InkJet printers that do not allow remote upgrades and that printers behind a firewall are not vulnerable to the flaw. That’s not what Cui and Stolfo say; they allege that vulnerable printers are still readily available at most retail stores. In other words, the pyromaniac in your life just added a new entry to the top of their holiday wish list…………….
- Don’t believe the rumors, fans of actual quality rock music. Just because some ass hat out there started and went to great lengths to perpetuate the rumor that British rockers Muse had parted ways doesn’t mean it’s actually true. Whoever this loser is, he or she went to great lengths to make the hoax seem real, even setting up a fake website mimicking popular British music site NME.com that featured a story alleging that the band had split after an argument. The news came as a surprise for Matt Bellamy and Co. after they headlined Reading And Leeds Festivals earlier this year and headed to the studio to begin work on their sixth album, which is due to be released in late 2012. Hearing that the band was breaking up even as they were starting to record the follow-up to the band's 2009 LP “The Resistance” just seemed wrong and out of place and sure enough, it was. Even though the story quickly circulated throughout Twitter and on the band's official message board, Board.Muse.mu, a representative for Muse adamantly denied the story. The denial may take a while to sink in given the temporary uproar caused when the rumor first surfaced, but hopefully the responsible party is identified, tracked down, flogged and forced to listen to a truly crappy band that really does need to break up, someone like Nickelback, the Hack Eyed Peas or Maroon 5. There are enough quality bands who don’t last for any number of reasons, both internal and external, that break up before their time. The world does not need some tech-savvy ass hat setting up fake music news websites claiming to break news that one of the better rock bands in the world is calling it quits…………
- I’ve long suspected Goodwill is one giant scam and this essentially confirms it. Look no further than an unidentified 80-year-old Moline, Ill. resident who has been fleeced out of $13,000 by his local Goodwill store. This poor octogenarian was looking to do a good deed by donating some of his old clothing to Goodwill, like so many kind people do every day. However, one of the suits he donated had $13,000 in cash stuffed in its pockets and he didn’t realize his mistake until at least a week after he donated the clothing. One could attempt to fault this old guy for not being more cautious or for leaving that much cash inside suit pockets, but just remember that he is 80 years old and probably forget things. As for who keeps $13,000 in cash in an old suit and forgets about it……who knows? Maybe he’s a former pimp and hasn’t been slapping around his hos for a decade or two, or perhaps he’s a retired drug dealer who hasn’t sold an eight ball of coke since 1990. Either way, this poor guy is attempting to care for his terminally ill wife and he needs his money back immediately. Goodwill claims it’s attempting to assist him and track down the lost loot. "We're sorting through the donations that came in at the time," said Goodwill spokeswoman Dana Engelbert. Engelbert claimed the Moline store was searched, but the item could have already been sold. Employees and volunteers are also sifting through donated clothes in bins transferred from Moline to a warehouse in Iowa City. "We're hoping it's still there and we can find it for them," Engelbert said, "It's their life savings. It's important." A likely story, Engelbert. The man who a ccidentally donated his life savings has elected to remain unidentified because he is so "devastated and embarrassed" by the costly mistake, according to his family, which is offering a $1,000 reward if the new owner comes forward and "does the right thing." Of course, it could easily be argued that someone so forgetful and careless would eventually be bilked out of their life savings by some unscrupulous Ponzi schemer who preys on old people sooner or later, so maybe it doesn’t matter……….
Monday, November 28, 2011
Idiots celebrate touchdowns, space's most inhabitable planets and Iran gets cranky
- Attention everyone who is actively seeking a home elsewhere in the galaxy: An international team of scientists has done its due diligence and come up with a list ranking which planets in outer space are the most inhabitable. Technically, their work is focused on which moons and planets are most likely to harbor extra-terrestrial life, but let’s not split hairs. The international team came up with two ratings systems to assess the probability of hosting alien life, based on two different indices: an Earth Similarity Index (ESI) and a Planetary Habitability Index (PHI). Obviously, the ESI rates planets and moons on how Earth-like they are, accounting such factors as size (which does matter clearly), density and distance from their parent star. Conversely, the PHI looks at a different set of factors, such as whether the world has a rocky or frozen surface, whether it has an atmosphere or a magnetic field and the energy available to any organisms. The PHI also factors chemistry into the mix - account chemistry, that is. Account chemistry focuses on whether organic compounds are present and whether liquid solvents might be available for vital chemical reactions. Factoring all of those standards into the mix, which celestial bodies came out on top? The most inhabitable alien worlds are……….Saturn's moon Titan and the exoplanet Gliese 581g - thought to reside some 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra. Note that the results don’t mean that there ARE aliens on these moons and exoplanets, but merely that researchers believe all of the key ingredients are there for life. Also, it’s on you to hitch a ride with Sir Richard Branson or one of the other private contractors currently launching humans into space if you want a ride to Titan or Gliese to check out some real estate there……….
- Ooooh, look at big, bad Iran. Passing a bill to downgrade its diplomatic ties with Iran and compelling its government to expel the British ambassador in retaliation for sanctions imposed over Tehran's nuclear activity is so, so badass. Iran’s Guardian passed the measure Monday in lightning-quick fashion after its parliament voted for the British ambassador’s expulsion. The council is a panel of 12 clerics and jurists who judge whether legislation is Islamic and their willingness to act so quickly underscores just how angry Iran feels about the sanctions announced by Britain last week. The British reaction came in response to a Nov. 8 report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog presenting intelligence it suggested Iran had worked on designing an atomic bomb. Iran quickly disputed the allegation and kept up its lie that its nuclear program is for peaceful, energy-generating purposes only. Thus, the condemnation of the British sanctions and the measure expelling with British ambassador to Iran. "The members of the Guardian Council, after examination of the plan, have approved it unanimously," council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai said. The bill mandates the departure of the British ambassador within two weeks, after which a charge d'affaires will be left to run the embassy. In response, the British government termed the legislation "regrettable" and "unwarranted." Its passage wasn’t exactly a surprise after legislators - legislators, not angry protestors in the street - chanted "Death to England" on Sunday. To an outsider, it certainly looks like a petulant reply to the British government’s decision to ban all of its banks from dealing with Iranian ones, including the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). Just so the rest of the world remains clear on where it stands on the issue, members of the Iranian parliament stated they would take similar action against any other countries that follow Britain's example. The list could expand quickly with European Union foreign ministers due to meet on Thursday to approve new sanctions that could cut financial links and ban oil imports from Iran. The EU fired an early salvo in that looming skirmish when Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was allegedly refused entry to EU air space to attend a meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Netherlands on Monday. Sources close to the situation claimed that Tehran had summoned the Hungarian ambassador to explain why Salehi's plane had been refused permission to cross the EU country's air space because claims of technical problems from Hungarian authorities were "unconvincing." Ultimately, the United States is leading the charge against Iran’s nuclear program even though the Obama administration stopped short of imposing sanctions that would stop other countries dealing with Iran's central bank. Such sanctions could affect Iran’s oil industry and as recent history has shown, the U.S. is wary of doing anything that could affect its supply of liquid gold……………
- Christian Bale is adamant: He is officially done playing the role of Batman on the big screen. No, seriously, dude is REALLY adamant. Last November, he spoke about next summer’s The Dark Knight Rises and made it clear he had no plans to play the Caped Crusader ever again. “This will be, I believe, until Chris [Nolan] says different, the last time I’ll be playing Batman,” Bale said then. “Absolutely, we want to go all out with it.” Those words have either been forgotten or were ignored all together because with hype for the film’s release already building to a near-fever pitch, Bale obviously felt the need to make it explicitly clear that he is done with the role and will not reprise it. “I wrapped a few days ago so that will be the last time I’m taking that cowl [Batman hood] off,” he insisted. “I believe that the whole production wrapped yesterday, so it’s all done. Everything’s finished. It’s me and Chris, that will be the end of that Batman era.” Neither Warner Bros. nor Bale’s representative responded to requests for comment on the issue, but it has long been common knowledge that Bale was signed for just three Batman films. He has also signed to film two Terrence Malick films back-to-back and likely wouldn’t have time for any additional films in the near future anyhow. With Bale out of the picture, the question then becomes whether the franchise can or should continue. Unlike the asinine decision to continue the Bourne franchise without Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) himself, the Batman franchise existed - albeit in crappy fashion - prior to Bale’s and Nolan’s involvement. With its established fan base and Hollywood’s propensity for keeping franchises alive long after they should be killed off, seeing another Batman movie a few years down the road doesn’t sound at all unrealistic……………
- Memo to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback: Picking a fight with a high school senior over a supposedly offensive - but not threatening - tweet is probably not a solid use of your time. That’s why 18-year-old Emma Sullivan received a direct apology from the governor Monday for his staff’s “over-reaction” to an insulting tweet she sent last week. Sullivan sent out the tweet, was inexplicably ordered by her principal at Shawnee Mission East High School to apologize and rightly refused, touching off a national incident that has seen her Twitter followers increase from 60 to more than 6,000. “My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize. Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms,” Brownback said in a statement. Way to step up and boldly issue an apology……in a written statement instead of face to face, Mr. Governor. Along with Brownback’s weak apology, the school district dropped its request that Sullivan write an apology and said it will leave that decision up to her. The district did try to spin its blatant attempt to stifle a person’s right to free speech with its own written statement. “The district acknowledges a student’s right to freedom of speech and expression is constitutionally protected. The district has not censored Miss Sullivan nor infringed upon her freedom of speech,” it said a statement. “She is not required to write a letter of apology to the Governor. Whether and to whom any apologies are issued will be left to the individuals involved.” Right, but your apology comes AFTER YOU TRIED TO CENSOR HER AN RESTRICT HER RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH. Saying you did not attempt to harm someone after you shoot them in the face from close range doesn’t mean you didn’t just blast a burning slug into the their grill, you idiots. Sullivan and her family made it clear that any apology would be insincere because she had done nothing wrong and didn’t want to give any more power to the governor. Sullivan posted offensive tweet from a youth event at which Brownback gave a speech. “Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot,” she tweeted. Odds are #heblowsalot wasn’t a common hash tag before the incident, but it probably will be going forward. Sullivan did not actually meet Brownback in person, nor did she tell him he sucked, but rather grew out of a discussion she was having with a friend, talking about what they would tell Brownback if they were to meet him. The joke was blown out of proportion when the government’s staff, which monitors comments on Facebook and Twitter containing his name, reported Sullivan’s tweet to Youth in Government, the program’s organizer. “That wasn’t respectful,” Brownback’s communications director Sherriene Jones-Sontag said. “It was important for the organization to be aware of the comments their students were making.” It might be important for YOU to be aware of it because Sullivan is one of Brownback’s constituents, but it’s not anyone else’s problem unless she’s threatening to harm the governor. Ironically, she now has more than double the number of Twitter followers Brownback has and greeted those followers with a tweet on Sunday explaining her decision not to write a letter of apology to the governor. “I’ve decided not to write the letter but I hope this opens the door for average citizens to voice their opinion & to be heard! #goingstrong,” Sullivan tweeted. Well said, Emma………….
- We’ve been here before. The houses look familiar, we passed those trees a while ago and that street sign has passed by our window before…..are we really just going around in one big loop when it comes to Buffalo Bills receiver Steve Johnson? He’s once again causing drama and failing to catch key passes at crucial moments in big games. Last season, he dropped what would have been a game-winning touchdown catch in what ended up as a 19-16 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He had a surefire touchdown on the tip of his fingers, no defenders close to him and he dropped the ball. "I had the game in my hands and I dropped it," Johnson said after the. "Humbled. Humbled. I'll never get over it. Ever." For a great young receiver with a massive ego and plenty of swag, staying humble clearly does not last long. Nearly one year later to the exact date, Johnson is once again at the center of a crap storm for doing something dumb and for failing to catch a potential game-winning TD pass. After scoring in the second quarter of a loss to the New York Jets and giving his team a 14-7 lead they could not protect, Johnson pretended to shoot himself in the leg, mocking Jets receiver Plaxico Burress, who spent almost two years in prison after accidentally blasting a hole in his leg at a New York nightclub three years ago and then attempting to cover up the incident. Oddly enough, officials hit Johnson with a 15-yard penalty for excessive celebration and with a shorter field to navigate for their next drive, the Jets tied the game with a touchdown just before halftime and went on to win 28-24 to deal the Bills their fourth straight loss after a 5-2 start. The win was aided by Johnson dropping a key pass for a potential long gain on the Bills’ final drive of the game and then missing a throw in the end zone with eight seconds left that would have put the Bills ahead. After the game, an emotional Johnson once again claimed he would be better going forward. "It hurt our team. It was very stupid of me going through that, and I feel like I cost our team by doing that," he said. "It was a bad decision. It's irrelevant whether or not I rehearsed it or not. At the end of the day, it cost our team seven points. I have to apologize to everyone and talk to Coach. I can't be doing that. I need to be mature about the situation." Burress rolled with it and didn’t seek to keep the battle going after the game, although he did get a good dig in at Johnson. "I don't have any reaction to it. I'm a big fan of his,” Burress said. "He's a great, young talent, and I love to watch him play. I've seen worse, and I've heard worse. So, it doesn't bother me at all. The result I'm looking at is we won the football game ... and he turned around and dropped three wide-open balls to lose it for his team. And that should end that discussion……….
- Ooooh, look at big, bad Iran. Passing a bill to downgrade its diplomatic ties with Iran and compelling its government to expel the British ambassador in retaliation for sanctions imposed over Tehran's nuclear activity is so, so badass. Iran’s Guardian passed the measure Monday in lightning-quick fashion after its parliament voted for the British ambassador’s expulsion. The council is a panel of 12 clerics and jurists who judge whether legislation is Islamic and their willingness to act so quickly underscores just how angry Iran feels about the sanctions announced by Britain last week. The British reaction came in response to a Nov. 8 report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog presenting intelligence it suggested Iran had worked on designing an atomic bomb. Iran quickly disputed the allegation and kept up its lie that its nuclear program is for peaceful, energy-generating purposes only. Thus, the condemnation of the British sanctions and the measure expelling with British ambassador to Iran. "The members of the Guardian Council, after examination of the plan, have approved it unanimously," council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai said. The bill mandates the departure of the British ambassador within two weeks, after which a charge d'affaires will be left to run the embassy. In response, the British government termed the legislation "regrettable" and "unwarranted." Its passage wasn’t exactly a surprise after legislators - legislators, not angry protestors in the street - chanted "Death to England" on Sunday. To an outsider, it certainly looks like a petulant reply to the British government’s decision to ban all of its banks from dealing with Iranian ones, including the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). Just so the rest of the world remains clear on where it stands on the issue, members of the Iranian parliament stated they would take similar action against any other countries that follow Britain's example. The list could expand quickly with European Union foreign ministers due to meet on Thursday to approve new sanctions that could cut financial links and ban oil imports from Iran. The EU fired an early salvo in that looming skirmish when Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was allegedly refused entry to EU air space to attend a meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Netherlands on Monday. Sources close to the situation claimed that Tehran had summoned the Hungarian ambassador to explain why Salehi's plane had been refused permission to cross the EU country's air space because claims of technical problems from Hungarian authorities were "unconvincing." Ultimately, the United States is leading the charge against Iran’s nuclear program even though the Obama administration stopped short of imposing sanctions that would stop other countries dealing with Iran's central bank. Such sanctions could affect Iran’s oil industry and as recent history has shown, the U.S. is wary of doing anything that could affect its supply of liquid gold……………
- Christian Bale is adamant: He is officially done playing the role of Batman on the big screen. No, seriously, dude is REALLY adamant. Last November, he spoke about next summer’s The Dark Knight Rises and made it clear he had no plans to play the Caped Crusader ever again. “This will be, I believe, until Chris [Nolan] says different, the last time I’ll be playing Batman,” Bale said then. “Absolutely, we want to go all out with it.” Those words have either been forgotten or were ignored all together because with hype for the film’s release already building to a near-fever pitch, Bale obviously felt the need to make it explicitly clear that he is done with the role and will not reprise it. “I wrapped a few days ago so that will be the last time I’m taking that cowl [Batman hood] off,” he insisted. “I believe that the whole production wrapped yesterday, so it’s all done. Everything’s finished. It’s me and Chris, that will be the end of that Batman era.” Neither Warner Bros. nor Bale’s representative responded to requests for comment on the issue, but it has long been common knowledge that Bale was signed for just three Batman films. He has also signed to film two Terrence Malick films back-to-back and likely wouldn’t have time for any additional films in the near future anyhow. With Bale out of the picture, the question then becomes whether the franchise can or should continue. Unlike the asinine decision to continue the Bourne franchise without Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) himself, the Batman franchise existed - albeit in crappy fashion - prior to Bale’s and Nolan’s involvement. With its established fan base and Hollywood’s propensity for keeping franchises alive long after they should be killed off, seeing another Batman movie a few years down the road doesn’t sound at all unrealistic……………
- Memo to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback: Picking a fight with a high school senior over a supposedly offensive - but not threatening - tweet is probably not a solid use of your time. That’s why 18-year-old Emma Sullivan received a direct apology from the governor Monday for his staff’s “over-reaction” to an insulting tweet she sent last week. Sullivan sent out the tweet, was inexplicably ordered by her principal at Shawnee Mission East High School to apologize and rightly refused, touching off a national incident that has seen her Twitter followers increase from 60 to more than 6,000. “My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize. Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms,” Brownback said in a statement. Way to step up and boldly issue an apology……in a written statement instead of face to face, Mr. Governor. Along with Brownback’s weak apology, the school district dropped its request that Sullivan write an apology and said it will leave that decision up to her. The district did try to spin its blatant attempt to stifle a person’s right to free speech with its own written statement. “The district acknowledges a student’s right to freedom of speech and expression is constitutionally protected. The district has not censored Miss Sullivan nor infringed upon her freedom of speech,” it said a statement. “She is not required to write a letter of apology to the Governor. Whether and to whom any apologies are issued will be left to the individuals involved.” Right, but your apology comes AFTER YOU TRIED TO CENSOR HER AN RESTRICT HER RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH. Saying you did not attempt to harm someone after you shoot them in the face from close range doesn’t mean you didn’t just blast a burning slug into the their grill, you idiots. Sullivan and her family made it clear that any apology would be insincere because she had done nothing wrong and didn’t want to give any more power to the governor. Sullivan posted offensive tweet from a youth event at which Brownback gave a speech. “Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot,” she tweeted. Odds are #heblowsalot wasn’t a common hash tag before the incident, but it probably will be going forward. Sullivan did not actually meet Brownback in person, nor did she tell him he sucked, but rather grew out of a discussion she was having with a friend, talking about what they would tell Brownback if they were to meet him. The joke was blown out of proportion when the government’s staff, which monitors comments on Facebook and Twitter containing his name, reported Sullivan’s tweet to Youth in Government, the program’s organizer. “That wasn’t respectful,” Brownback’s communications director Sherriene Jones-Sontag said. “It was important for the organization to be aware of the comments their students were making.” It might be important for YOU to be aware of it because Sullivan is one of Brownback’s constituents, but it’s not anyone else’s problem unless she’s threatening to harm the governor. Ironically, she now has more than double the number of Twitter followers Brownback has and greeted those followers with a tweet on Sunday explaining her decision not to write a letter of apology to the governor. “I’ve decided not to write the letter but I hope this opens the door for average citizens to voice their opinion & to be heard! #goingstrong,” Sullivan tweeted. Well said, Emma………….
- We’ve been here before. The houses look familiar, we passed those trees a while ago and that street sign has passed by our window before…..are we really just going around in one big loop when it comes to Buffalo Bills receiver Steve Johnson? He’s once again causing drama and failing to catch key passes at crucial moments in big games. Last season, he dropped what would have been a game-winning touchdown catch in what ended up as a 19-16 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He had a surefire touchdown on the tip of his fingers, no defenders close to him and he dropped the ball. "I had the game in my hands and I dropped it," Johnson said after the. "Humbled. Humbled. I'll never get over it. Ever." For a great young receiver with a massive ego and plenty of swag, staying humble clearly does not last long. Nearly one year later to the exact date, Johnson is once again at the center of a crap storm for doing something dumb and for failing to catch a potential game-winning TD pass. After scoring in the second quarter of a loss to the New York Jets and giving his team a 14-7 lead they could not protect, Johnson pretended to shoot himself in the leg, mocking Jets receiver Plaxico Burress, who spent almost two years in prison after accidentally blasting a hole in his leg at a New York nightclub three years ago and then attempting to cover up the incident. Oddly enough, officials hit Johnson with a 15-yard penalty for excessive celebration and with a shorter field to navigate for their next drive, the Jets tied the game with a touchdown just before halftime and went on to win 28-24 to deal the Bills their fourth straight loss after a 5-2 start. The win was aided by Johnson dropping a key pass for a potential long gain on the Bills’ final drive of the game and then missing a throw in the end zone with eight seconds left that would have put the Bills ahead. After the game, an emotional Johnson once again claimed he would be better going forward. "It hurt our team. It was very stupid of me going through that, and I feel like I cost our team by doing that," he said. "It was a bad decision. It's irrelevant whether or not I rehearsed it or not. At the end of the day, it cost our team seven points. I have to apologize to everyone and talk to Coach. I can't be doing that. I need to be mature about the situation." Burress rolled with it and didn’t seek to keep the battle going after the game, although he did get a good dig in at Johnson. "I don't have any reaction to it. I'm a big fan of his,” Burress said. "He's a great, young talent, and I love to watch him play. I've seen worse, and I've heard worse. So, it doesn't bother me at all. The result I'm looking at is we won the football game ... and he turned around and dropped three wide-open balls to lose it for his team. And that should end that discussion……….
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Movie news, the Iron Curtain rises again and T.O. stays delusional
- From its high-grossing beginning, there was really nowhere to go but down for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 in its second week in theaters. And so in its second weekend, the film centered on hunky vampires declined 70 percent and still whipped the competition’s ass. Breaking Dawn earned $42 million this time around, boosting its overall domestic gross to $221.3 million and counting. Newcomer The Muppets landed in second with $29.5 million for the weekend and with some income from limited earlier release factored in, the movie has garnered $42 million and counting. In its second weekend, Happy Feet Two scored a third-place finish with an unimpressive $13.4 million and through two weeks it has limped to a cumulative total of $43.7 million. Another newbie snared fourth place as Arthur opened modestly with $12.7 million despite having a relatively wide opening nationwide. The third new film of the top five was Hugo, which landed in fifth with $11.4 million in its debut. The bottom half of the top 10 included: Jack and Jill (No. 6 and about 100 spots higher than Adam Sandler’s latest dud should be with $10.3 million and $57.4 million in cumulative domestic earnings), Immortals (No 7 and falling four spots with a haul of $8.8 million and a three-week tally of $68.6 million), family-friendly Puss in Boots (No. 8 with $7.5 million and an impressive $135.4 million through its first month in theaters), the lame-tastic Tower Heist (No. 9 with $7.3 million and just $65.3 million after its own first month in theaters) and The Descendants (No. 10 despite still being in extremely limited release (433 theaters) by making $7.2 million for a higher per-theater average than any other film on the weekend). Films dropping out of the top 10 from last weekend were: the snooze-inducing J. Edgar (No. 11), A Very Harold & Kumar 3D (No. 13) and In Time (No. 14)……………
- The dangers of climate change are all around us, yet so many of us are oblivious to some of the greatest threats posed by rising temperatures on Earth. Thankfully, men like Dr. Sanliang Gu are thinking for the oblivious masses and contemplating a world too hot to grow fine grapes suitable for the making of fine wine. Gu lives in Fresno, Calif. and for years, he has been obsessed with finding ways to manipulate the growing cycle of grapes around Fresno, California's hottest and earliest-ripening wine region. If successful, his work could be vital to growing grapes should Earth’s surface temperatures skyrocket due to global warming. As of this week, Gu has achieved that success. A 2011 vintage that normally would have been picked in July or August came off the vines two days before Thanksgiving and a full three weeks after Napa's weather-delayed harvest ended. Extra time on the vine is extremely valuable in the wine business, where that extra time adds complexities to flavors and thus makes wine more valuable. Gu’s results were met with eager enthusiasm by the wine industry and those associated with his work. "If this can help incrementally improve the quality, it means big money for growers, especially in a global market," said Joe Bezerra, executive director of the California State University Agricultural Research Institute, which is helping to fund the project at Fresno State University. The project actually has two main goals: first, to add complexities to the 150,000 acres of wine grapes grown in California's San Joaquin Valley, along with opening up marginal areas for growing to substantially higher production. "I hope it doesn't get any hotter in Fresno," Gu said, "but it doesn't matter because we know now that we can manipulate the growing season." The San Joaquin Valley is home to 44 percent of the state's crop, so improving its production and heartiness would be a major step forward. The valley stretches for 220 miles from Stockton to Bakersfield and is the most prolific grape-growing region not only in the state, but in the entire country. Massive tracts of wine grapes are mechanically harvested for popular labels such as Gallo's economy brands and Bronco's popular Charles Shaw, aka Two Buck Chuck, and included in higher-end wines. However, grapes in the region ripen quickly and growers must harvest them before the acids and tannins that contribute to a flavorful wine can fully develop. Being the esteemed professor of viticulture he is, Gu managed to solve that problem by pruning off the first crop of clusters in June, which forces the vines to generate a new crop just as the weather really heats up in July. His idea worked and on Tuesday, he watched as his students donned winter jackets and harvested the grapes before carrying macro bins of cabernet sauvignon to the school winery. "This is exciting," Gu said. "We're picking wine grapes in Fresno at Thanksgiving. That has never happened before." Gu tried many other means to force a later harvest in previous years, but nothing worked until this year’s crop. "Nothing made a difference because the overriding factor is temperature," he said. The world’s pretentious and contemptible wine lovers will be happy to know all of this…………
- Still at it, Drew Rosenhaus? The NFL season is two-thirds of the way over, teams across the league have suffered injuries at the wide receiver position and yet Rosenhaus’ most attention-starved client still hasn’t found a job. Seven months removed from major knee surgery, 37-year-old Terrell Owens has held public workouts, posted videos of himself doing agility drills and made his desire to return to football well-known. So far, he has yet to receive an official contract offer from any of the league’s 32 teams……but wait. According to the equally bombastic Rosenhaus, one NFL team is currently "very interested" in his client. However, Rosenhaus quickly added that this supposedly interested team is sensitive about being publicly mentioned and so he is keeping its identity a secret. Honestly, it sounds like exactly the sort of bogus PR ploy Rosenhaus used to Jedi mind-trick the Buffalo Bills into drafting running back Willis McGahee in the first round of the 2003 draft even though he had just blown out multiple knee ligaments three months prior in his final college game at Miami. By faking a phone conversation with a team supposedly interested in picking the injured McGahee, he managed to pressure the Bills into pulling the trigger and picking his client when there was no other team in the mix. So him lying or exaggerating the truth in some last-ditch attempt to keep alive the notion that Owens could find work before the season is through sounds perfectly reasonable. Teams just aren't all that eager to sign a receiver coming off knee surgery in April and who turns 38 years old on Dec. 7, even if he did play 14 games for the Cincinnati Bengals last season, making 72 receptions and scoring nine touchdowns. Still, Rosenhaus and his nonstop shenanigans are always amusing if nothing else………
- Ah, the Iron Curtain rises again. Bad Vlad Putin hasn’t even officially been “elected” back to the position of power he never actually left in Russia and already he’s extending a giant communist middle finger to the rest of the world. With a parliamentary vote this weekend that his party is expected to win on tap, Putin took a moment to tell the West to eff off and get out of his country's internal affairs. Putin also chided western powers to stop funding human rights groups that he disdainfully likened to Judas. "We know that representatives of some countries meet with people they fund, so-called grant receivers, and give them instructions and guidance for what work they need to do to influence the election campaign in our country," he fumed. He then executed a thoroughly sarcastic jab at the United States and the European Union, saying such countries would do better "to use the money to pay back their domestic debt” instead of supporting human rights groups. The comments played very well to a group of 11,000 sycophants gathered in a Moscow soccer stadium. The lovefest was regularly interrupted with rabid applause and chants of "Putin," "Russia" or "The people trust Putin!" The event was truly a throwback to the old Soviet days even if it was theoretically for Putin’s United Russia party to endorse him as their official candidate for March's presidential election. The vote was predictably unanimous even though the party’s popularity has declined in recent months. Still, an iron group on state media and other levers of power should ensure a comfortable win for both Putin and in the parliamentary vote. The supposed current despot in power in Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, is expected to swap jobs with and become the prime minister. That’s the post Putin has pretended to occupy while Medvedev has pretended to be president for the past few years. Putin was in fine form at the commie rally, issuing the sort of fiery rhetoric that one would have heard at the height of the old U.S.S.R. "We know better than anyone else what needs to be done in our next stage of development," Putin proclaimed, accusing liberal opposition politicians of ruining Russia during the 1990s. He finished by standing tall for Russia's national interests on the international stage. "All our foreign partners need to understand this: Russia is a democratic country and a reliable and predictable partner with which they can and should reach agreement but on which they cannot impose anything from the outside." Hopes for democracy’s growth in Russia thoroughly trampled, Putin wrapped his speech up and went off to mock people waiting in two-day-long bread lines………….
- Lurking in the shadows of a dimly lit parking lot and bashing someone over the head with a blunt object isn't the only way to steal from them as they do their holiday shopping. In fact, doing your thieving online is probably a lot easier, with a near-zero chance of bloodshed and a much higher likelihood of getting away with your crime. So as the pepper spray from Black Friday evaporates, the sounds of police sirens wailing fades into the distance and trampled shoppers are released from the hospital to return home, the keyboard tapping and mouse clicking of Cyber Monday loom. Shoppers will head online looking for the same sorts of great deals offered in stores Friday and when they arrive, scammers and hackers will be waiting to rip them off with too-good-to-be-true offers. There will be great deals from legitimate merchants to be sure, but security experts are already warning shoppers that scam artists will be amping up their efforts for the biggest online shopping day of the season. Last year, Cyber Monday blew right by Black Friday as the highest-volume day for holiday shopping, with close to $1 billion in online sales. Of course, this year’s Cyber Monday has to be bigger and better and shoppers are expected to do more than a third of their holiday shopping online, in the neighborhood of $1.2 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. More dollars means more scammers looking to poach those dollars, obviously. "Even more holiday shopping will happen online this year than last, and that means more scammers will be looking to do some shopping of their own—possibly at your expense," said Stephen Cobb, a security analyst for ESET. In the month of November alone, searches for "Cyber Monday Deals" have increased 400 percent, according to search statistics available from Google. So far, cyber thieves seem to be targeting keywords such as "tech," "jewelry" and "toys" that factor prominently into searches for deals and setting up fake websites to lure in naïve shoppers. When these clueless customers visit the fake site, they are redirected to other malicious sites that download malware onto their computers or trick them into divulging personal information. Businesses could also be in danger on Cyber Monday because of the high number of slacker employees expected to peruse the Internet for great deals on gadgets and designer clothing instead of actually doing the work they are paid to do. In 2009, nearly 60 percent of the nearly $900 million in online purchases two years ago on Cyber Monday were made from the workplace, according to security software maker McAfee. By shopping from their desk or cubicle, employees will be putting their organizations at risk for malware, spam, phishing scams and other threats. To top off their Cyber Monday efforts, scammers are also sending out malicious emails in bulk, offering special Cyber Monday deals alongside the usual collection of spam consisting of Nigerian inheritance scams, scams involving people stuck in London with their wallet and travel documents stolen and scams involving crank-enhancing little blue pills. In short, try to be smarter than most people typically are when doing anything online. Assume everyone is out to get you and operate accordingly…………
- The dangers of climate change are all around us, yet so many of us are oblivious to some of the greatest threats posed by rising temperatures on Earth. Thankfully, men like Dr. Sanliang Gu are thinking for the oblivious masses and contemplating a world too hot to grow fine grapes suitable for the making of fine wine. Gu lives in Fresno, Calif. and for years, he has been obsessed with finding ways to manipulate the growing cycle of grapes around Fresno, California's hottest and earliest-ripening wine region. If successful, his work could be vital to growing grapes should Earth’s surface temperatures skyrocket due to global warming. As of this week, Gu has achieved that success. A 2011 vintage that normally would have been picked in July or August came off the vines two days before Thanksgiving and a full three weeks after Napa's weather-delayed harvest ended. Extra time on the vine is extremely valuable in the wine business, where that extra time adds complexities to flavors and thus makes wine more valuable. Gu’s results were met with eager enthusiasm by the wine industry and those associated with his work. "If this can help incrementally improve the quality, it means big money for growers, especially in a global market," said Joe Bezerra, executive director of the California State University Agricultural Research Institute, which is helping to fund the project at Fresno State University. The project actually has two main goals: first, to add complexities to the 150,000 acres of wine grapes grown in California's San Joaquin Valley, along with opening up marginal areas for growing to substantially higher production. "I hope it doesn't get any hotter in Fresno," Gu said, "but it doesn't matter because we know now that we can manipulate the growing season." The San Joaquin Valley is home to 44 percent of the state's crop, so improving its production and heartiness would be a major step forward. The valley stretches for 220 miles from Stockton to Bakersfield and is the most prolific grape-growing region not only in the state, but in the entire country. Massive tracts of wine grapes are mechanically harvested for popular labels such as Gallo's economy brands and Bronco's popular Charles Shaw, aka Two Buck Chuck, and included in higher-end wines. However, grapes in the region ripen quickly and growers must harvest them before the acids and tannins that contribute to a flavorful wine can fully develop. Being the esteemed professor of viticulture he is, Gu managed to solve that problem by pruning off the first crop of clusters in June, which forces the vines to generate a new crop just as the weather really heats up in July. His idea worked and on Tuesday, he watched as his students donned winter jackets and harvested the grapes before carrying macro bins of cabernet sauvignon to the school winery. "This is exciting," Gu said. "We're picking wine grapes in Fresno at Thanksgiving. That has never happened before." Gu tried many other means to force a later harvest in previous years, but nothing worked until this year’s crop. "Nothing made a difference because the overriding factor is temperature," he said. The world’s pretentious and contemptible wine lovers will be happy to know all of this…………
- Still at it, Drew Rosenhaus? The NFL season is two-thirds of the way over, teams across the league have suffered injuries at the wide receiver position and yet Rosenhaus’ most attention-starved client still hasn’t found a job. Seven months removed from major knee surgery, 37-year-old Terrell Owens has held public workouts, posted videos of himself doing agility drills and made his desire to return to football well-known. So far, he has yet to receive an official contract offer from any of the league’s 32 teams……but wait. According to the equally bombastic Rosenhaus, one NFL team is currently "very interested" in his client. However, Rosenhaus quickly added that this supposedly interested team is sensitive about being publicly mentioned and so he is keeping its identity a secret. Honestly, it sounds like exactly the sort of bogus PR ploy Rosenhaus used to Jedi mind-trick the Buffalo Bills into drafting running back Willis McGahee in the first round of the 2003 draft even though he had just blown out multiple knee ligaments three months prior in his final college game at Miami. By faking a phone conversation with a team supposedly interested in picking the injured McGahee, he managed to pressure the Bills into pulling the trigger and picking his client when there was no other team in the mix. So him lying or exaggerating the truth in some last-ditch attempt to keep alive the notion that Owens could find work before the season is through sounds perfectly reasonable. Teams just aren't all that eager to sign a receiver coming off knee surgery in April and who turns 38 years old on Dec. 7, even if he did play 14 games for the Cincinnati Bengals last season, making 72 receptions and scoring nine touchdowns. Still, Rosenhaus and his nonstop shenanigans are always amusing if nothing else………
- Ah, the Iron Curtain rises again. Bad Vlad Putin hasn’t even officially been “elected” back to the position of power he never actually left in Russia and already he’s extending a giant communist middle finger to the rest of the world. With a parliamentary vote this weekend that his party is expected to win on tap, Putin took a moment to tell the West to eff off and get out of his country's internal affairs. Putin also chided western powers to stop funding human rights groups that he disdainfully likened to Judas. "We know that representatives of some countries meet with people they fund, so-called grant receivers, and give them instructions and guidance for what work they need to do to influence the election campaign in our country," he fumed. He then executed a thoroughly sarcastic jab at the United States and the European Union, saying such countries would do better "to use the money to pay back their domestic debt” instead of supporting human rights groups. The comments played very well to a group of 11,000 sycophants gathered in a Moscow soccer stadium. The lovefest was regularly interrupted with rabid applause and chants of "Putin," "Russia" or "The people trust Putin!" The event was truly a throwback to the old Soviet days even if it was theoretically for Putin’s United Russia party to endorse him as their official candidate for March's presidential election. The vote was predictably unanimous even though the party’s popularity has declined in recent months. Still, an iron group on state media and other levers of power should ensure a comfortable win for both Putin and in the parliamentary vote. The supposed current despot in power in Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, is expected to swap jobs with and become the prime minister. That’s the post Putin has pretended to occupy while Medvedev has pretended to be president for the past few years. Putin was in fine form at the commie rally, issuing the sort of fiery rhetoric that one would have heard at the height of the old U.S.S.R. "We know better than anyone else what needs to be done in our next stage of development," Putin proclaimed, accusing liberal opposition politicians of ruining Russia during the 1990s. He finished by standing tall for Russia's national interests on the international stage. "All our foreign partners need to understand this: Russia is a democratic country and a reliable and predictable partner with which they can and should reach agreement but on which they cannot impose anything from the outside." Hopes for democracy’s growth in Russia thoroughly trampled, Putin wrapped his speech up and went off to mock people waiting in two-day-long bread lines………….
- Lurking in the shadows of a dimly lit parking lot and bashing someone over the head with a blunt object isn't the only way to steal from them as they do their holiday shopping. In fact, doing your thieving online is probably a lot easier, with a near-zero chance of bloodshed and a much higher likelihood of getting away with your crime. So as the pepper spray from Black Friday evaporates, the sounds of police sirens wailing fades into the distance and trampled shoppers are released from the hospital to return home, the keyboard tapping and mouse clicking of Cyber Monday loom. Shoppers will head online looking for the same sorts of great deals offered in stores Friday and when they arrive, scammers and hackers will be waiting to rip them off with too-good-to-be-true offers. There will be great deals from legitimate merchants to be sure, but security experts are already warning shoppers that scam artists will be amping up their efforts for the biggest online shopping day of the season. Last year, Cyber Monday blew right by Black Friday as the highest-volume day for holiday shopping, with close to $1 billion in online sales. Of course, this year’s Cyber Monday has to be bigger and better and shoppers are expected to do more than a third of their holiday shopping online, in the neighborhood of $1.2 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. More dollars means more scammers looking to poach those dollars, obviously. "Even more holiday shopping will happen online this year than last, and that means more scammers will be looking to do some shopping of their own—possibly at your expense," said Stephen Cobb, a security analyst for ESET. In the month of November alone, searches for "Cyber Monday Deals" have increased 400 percent, according to search statistics available from Google. So far, cyber thieves seem to be targeting keywords such as "tech," "jewelry" and "toys" that factor prominently into searches for deals and setting up fake websites to lure in naïve shoppers. When these clueless customers visit the fake site, they are redirected to other malicious sites that download malware onto their computers or trick them into divulging personal information. Businesses could also be in danger on Cyber Monday because of the high number of slacker employees expected to peruse the Internet for great deals on gadgets and designer clothing instead of actually doing the work they are paid to do. In 2009, nearly 60 percent of the nearly $900 million in online purchases two years ago on Cyber Monday were made from the workplace, according to security software maker McAfee. By shopping from their desk or cubicle, employees will be putting their organizations at risk for malware, spam, phishing scams and other threats. To top off their Cyber Monday efforts, scammers are also sending out malicious emails in bulk, offering special Cyber Monday deals alongside the usual collection of spam consisting of Nigerian inheritance scams, scams involving people stuck in London with their wallet and travel documents stolen and scams involving crank-enhancing little blue pills. In short, try to be smarter than most people typically are when doing anything online. Assume everyone is out to get you and operate accordingly…………
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Man flesh stew, line drives to the face and science changing its mind again on climate change
- How was your Thanksgiving meal? However good or bad it may have been, there is no doubt that it had to be more appetizing than the meal a Pakistani woman is accused of cooking up earlier this week. Zainab Bibi, a resident of the southern city of Karachi, was allegedly facing a difficult situation with her husband. She claims he wanted a physical relationship with their daughter and rather than allow him to commit that incestuous act, she elected to cook herself a little man flesh stew - using her husband as the main ingredient. Bibi is being held on suspicion of killing her husband, cutting him up and trying to cook the pieces, Karachi police said Friday. She was arrested in connection with the murder Ahmad Abbas and her nephew, Zaheer Ahmed, is accused of helping Bibi stab Abbas to death and carve his body into small pieces. The best part of the story is unquestionably the fact that Bibi isn't protesting her innocence of claiming she has been set up or framed. She spoke to Pakistani domestic satellite channel ARY News from the police station where she is being held and in an interview broadcast late Thursday, she claimed to have killed her husband because of his planned incest and was adamant that she did not regret her actions. "I killed my husband before he dared to touch my daughter," she declared. But why not off her husband and bury him in some remote mountain area where he would decompose in isolation, never to be found? Police said she wanted to cook her husband's body parts so she could dispose of them without being caught. The plan might have worked if not for the fact that cooking man flesh stew tends to create a rather pungent odor and neighbors became suspicious when they caught the foul scent wafting through the air. That holiday fruitcake Aunt Irene brought to the family Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t sound so bad now, does it……………
- Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano cannot catch a break. Except in this case, that’s a positive. After another controversial, injury-shortened season full of tantrums, outbursts and ugly incidents in which he won just nine games, Zambrano headed south to his native Venezuela to play for Caribes de Anzoategui in the Venezuelan Winter League. Many major leaguers play winter ball in the Caribbean even though they obviously have some additional injury risk in so doing, so Zambrano isn't doing anything out of the ordinary. But even in playing winter ball, the man known as Big Z can't avoid trouble. He is recovering Saturday after being hit in the face with a line drive during Friday night's start for Caribes de Anzoategui. Zambrano was removed from the game after the liner hit him below the right bottom lip in the fifth inning and received 16 stitches to close the wound at a local hospital. "He's a bull," Caribes general manager Sam Moscatel said. "He's OK. We spoke (Friday) night after he had the surgery, and he said he wants to make his next start on Friday." Despite that wish to make his next start, Zambrano will remain sidelined for now and will not start another game until Dec. 6. He was actually pitching extremely well in the Venezuelan Winter League prior to being dotted by the line drive, compiling a 3.29 ERA and 12/6 K/BB ratio in 13 2/3 innings over his first three winter league outings. Perhaps it is the motivation of meeting with new Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein in Chicago and being informed that he will have to “earn his way back” to staying with the team for the final guaranteed year of a five-year, $91 million contract that has led to Zambrano’s mini-turnaround. Now if he could only stop batters from turning around his pitches and sending them back into his face………….
- Wow……shocking news from the music world. Two of the biggest hacks in all of the business released new albums within the past week and neither Rihanna nor Mary J. Blige are off to a resounding start. Early figures for Rihanna’s new album, Talk That Talk, are down significantly from her equally crappy previous album Loud, which managed to move more than 207,000 copies in its first week. This time around, Rihanna’s digitially enhanced, auto-tuned, synthesized, over-produced musical drivel sold just under 180,000 copies for its first week and although it did land at No. 2 on the (utterly meaningless) Billboard Top 200 charts, the decline from her last album is noteworthy because its lead single “We Found Love” has been popular on lame Top 40 stations that don’t actually give a damn about good music and simply pander to the crappy musical tastes of the general public. The single has also been well-received on iTunes, but it was not enough to keep Rihanna from losing out on the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart to…….the Bick! That’s right, Bickelnack, a.k.a. Nickelhack, a.k.a. Nickelback! The Bick will be taking the top stop on the Billboard Charts with their latest release, Here and Now, which somehow sold over 225,000 copies. That’s a lot of gag gift for white elephant Christmas gift exchanges, to be sure. Coincidentally, Rihanna’s albums and number two fit very well together, if you caught that bathroom-humor pun. Compared to R&B crooner Mary J. Blige, however, Rihanna may as well be double platinum already. Blie, whose last album, Stronger With Each Tear, sold over 332,000 copies in its first week back in December 2009, sold less than 140,000 units in the first week of release for her new album, My Life II…The Journey. Even a slight jolt from Black Friday sales (because who wasn’t in line getting pepper-sprayed, Tased or stomped half to death because the one item they wanted was the newest Rihanna or Mary J. Blige album), neither of these ladies is likely to register as anything other than the disappointments they are in general when it comes to their first-week sales………….
- The effects of changing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels on global temperatures: Important topic or totally overblown? If a new study is legit, those effects are substantially less than what science previously believed. Lead author Andreas Schmittner of Oregon State University and his team said people should still expect to see "drastic changes" in climate worldwide, but that the risk was a little less imminent than previously thought. Previous climate models have relied on meteorological measurements from the past 150 years to estimate the climate's sensitivity to rising CO2, but this approach makes it difficult for scientists to narrow their projections down to a single figure with any certainty. Instead, such models typically produce projections of a range of temperatures that scientists expect given a doubling of atmospheric CO2 from pre-industrial levels. Using palaeoclimate data incorporated into existing models, Schmittner and his team then attempted to project future temperatures with more certainty. Schmittner explained that by looking at surface temperatures during the most recent ice age - 21,000 years ago - when humans were having no impact on global temperatures, his team was able to show that this period was not as cold as previous estimates suggest.
"This implies that the effect of CO2 on climate is less than previously thought," he said. By mixing this newly discovered "climate insensitivity" into their models, the international team was also able to reduce uncertainty in its future climate projections. The new models predict that given a doubling in CO2 levels from pre-industrial levels, surface temperatures will increase by 3.1 degrees to 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit. That range is much smaller than the one produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report, which projected a rise of as much as 5 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the results do not mean threat from human-induced climate change should be treated any less seriously, explained palaeoclimatologist Antoni Rosell-Mele from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, who is a member of the research team. "At least, given that no one is doing very much around the planet [about] mitigating CO2 emissions, we have a bit more time," he pointed out. Climatologists surveyed about the study’s results generally fell on the side of caution in assessing the seriousness with which it should be weighed. Most suggested more research (shocker) to verify its conclusions. To learn more and draw your own conclusions, peruse the latest issue of the journal Science…………..
- Animals are raging back against endurance athletes, but no one has yet explained why. The trend first came to light when an epic YouTube video surfaced of a wild antelope in South Africa absolutely OWNED mountain biker Evan van der Spuy of Team Jeep South Africa at the Time Freight Express MTB race at Albert Falls Dam. The vide quickly went viral and with good reason, as the sight of the antelope coming from the right side of the screen, leaping to decimate van der Spuy and leaving the rider in a crumpled heap on the ground is still just as awesome nearly two months later. The wild beast rage crossed the Atlantic Ocean on Thanksgiving, as two runners in a 5K race in Savannah, Ga. were on the receiving end of a hard collision with a renegade deer. At Savannah Christian Church's Ten Can 5K race, runners showed up ready to compete and also ready to help out the less fortunate with donations of canned food. Nearly 350 runners took part in the race, but only two of them were injured when a deer came running from a wooded area onto the course and knocked them to the ground. Both runners were bruised and suffered a few cuts to their hands and arms, but were able to get back up and finish the race. They crossed the finish line, received their race t-shirts and did their part to support a worthy cause. "I think probably a historic event for races in Savannah. We had two runners who were taken down by some deer. It was very scary. They had some nice bruises and cuts to go with it but I think they are okay but very sad they didn't get to finish the race," said Dan Pavlin, race director. Yeah, it’s fine for you, Dan-O. You’re just the race director and not an endurance athlete who must now live in fear that a deer, antelope or wildebeest will come sprinting from the underbrush looking to truck you on your long run or ride……………
- Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano cannot catch a break. Except in this case, that’s a positive. After another controversial, injury-shortened season full of tantrums, outbursts and ugly incidents in which he won just nine games, Zambrano headed south to his native Venezuela to play for Caribes de Anzoategui in the Venezuelan Winter League. Many major leaguers play winter ball in the Caribbean even though they obviously have some additional injury risk in so doing, so Zambrano isn't doing anything out of the ordinary. But even in playing winter ball, the man known as Big Z can't avoid trouble. He is recovering Saturday after being hit in the face with a line drive during Friday night's start for Caribes de Anzoategui. Zambrano was removed from the game after the liner hit him below the right bottom lip in the fifth inning and received 16 stitches to close the wound at a local hospital. "He's a bull," Caribes general manager Sam Moscatel said. "He's OK. We spoke (Friday) night after he had the surgery, and he said he wants to make his next start on Friday." Despite that wish to make his next start, Zambrano will remain sidelined for now and will not start another game until Dec. 6. He was actually pitching extremely well in the Venezuelan Winter League prior to being dotted by the line drive, compiling a 3.29 ERA and 12/6 K/BB ratio in 13 2/3 innings over his first three winter league outings. Perhaps it is the motivation of meeting with new Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein in Chicago and being informed that he will have to “earn his way back” to staying with the team for the final guaranteed year of a five-year, $91 million contract that has led to Zambrano’s mini-turnaround. Now if he could only stop batters from turning around his pitches and sending them back into his face………….
- Wow……shocking news from the music world. Two of the biggest hacks in all of the business released new albums within the past week and neither Rihanna nor Mary J. Blige are off to a resounding start. Early figures for Rihanna’s new album, Talk That Talk, are down significantly from her equally crappy previous album Loud, which managed to move more than 207,000 copies in its first week. This time around, Rihanna’s digitially enhanced, auto-tuned, synthesized, over-produced musical drivel sold just under 180,000 copies for its first week and although it did land at No. 2 on the (utterly meaningless) Billboard Top 200 charts, the decline from her last album is noteworthy because its lead single “We Found Love” has been popular on lame Top 40 stations that don’t actually give a damn about good music and simply pander to the crappy musical tastes of the general public. The single has also been well-received on iTunes, but it was not enough to keep Rihanna from losing out on the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart to…….the Bick! That’s right, Bickelnack, a.k.a. Nickelhack, a.k.a. Nickelback! The Bick will be taking the top stop on the Billboard Charts with their latest release, Here and Now, which somehow sold over 225,000 copies. That’s a lot of gag gift for white elephant Christmas gift exchanges, to be sure. Coincidentally, Rihanna’s albums and number two fit very well together, if you caught that bathroom-humor pun. Compared to R&B crooner Mary J. Blige, however, Rihanna may as well be double platinum already. Blie, whose last album, Stronger With Each Tear, sold over 332,000 copies in its first week back in December 2009, sold less than 140,000 units in the first week of release for her new album, My Life II…The Journey. Even a slight jolt from Black Friday sales (because who wasn’t in line getting pepper-sprayed, Tased or stomped half to death because the one item they wanted was the newest Rihanna or Mary J. Blige album), neither of these ladies is likely to register as anything other than the disappointments they are in general when it comes to their first-week sales………….
- The effects of changing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels on global temperatures: Important topic or totally overblown? If a new study is legit, those effects are substantially less than what science previously believed. Lead author Andreas Schmittner of Oregon State University and his team said people should still expect to see "drastic changes" in climate worldwide, but that the risk was a little less imminent than previously thought. Previous climate models have relied on meteorological measurements from the past 150 years to estimate the climate's sensitivity to rising CO2, but this approach makes it difficult for scientists to narrow their projections down to a single figure with any certainty. Instead, such models typically produce projections of a range of temperatures that scientists expect given a doubling of atmospheric CO2 from pre-industrial levels. Using palaeoclimate data incorporated into existing models, Schmittner and his team then attempted to project future temperatures with more certainty. Schmittner explained that by looking at surface temperatures during the most recent ice age - 21,000 years ago - when humans were having no impact on global temperatures, his team was able to show that this period was not as cold as previous estimates suggest.
"This implies that the effect of CO2 on climate is less than previously thought," he said. By mixing this newly discovered "climate insensitivity" into their models, the international team was also able to reduce uncertainty in its future climate projections. The new models predict that given a doubling in CO2 levels from pre-industrial levels, surface temperatures will increase by 3.1 degrees to 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit. That range is much smaller than the one produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report, which projected a rise of as much as 5 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the results do not mean threat from human-induced climate change should be treated any less seriously, explained palaeoclimatologist Antoni Rosell-Mele from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, who is a member of the research team. "At least, given that no one is doing very much around the planet [about] mitigating CO2 emissions, we have a bit more time," he pointed out. Climatologists surveyed about the study’s results generally fell on the side of caution in assessing the seriousness with which it should be weighed. Most suggested more research (shocker) to verify its conclusions. To learn more and draw your own conclusions, peruse the latest issue of the journal Science…………..
- Animals are raging back against endurance athletes, but no one has yet explained why. The trend first came to light when an epic YouTube video surfaced of a wild antelope in South Africa absolutely OWNED mountain biker Evan van der Spuy of Team Jeep South Africa at the Time Freight Express MTB race at Albert Falls Dam. The vide quickly went viral and with good reason, as the sight of the antelope coming from the right side of the screen, leaping to decimate van der Spuy and leaving the rider in a crumpled heap on the ground is still just as awesome nearly two months later. The wild beast rage crossed the Atlantic Ocean on Thanksgiving, as two runners in a 5K race in Savannah, Ga. were on the receiving end of a hard collision with a renegade deer. At Savannah Christian Church's Ten Can 5K race, runners showed up ready to compete and also ready to help out the less fortunate with donations of canned food. Nearly 350 runners took part in the race, but only two of them were injured when a deer came running from a wooded area onto the course and knocked them to the ground. Both runners were bruised and suffered a few cuts to their hands and arms, but were able to get back up and finish the race. They crossed the finish line, received their race t-shirts and did their part to support a worthy cause. "I think probably a historic event for races in Savannah. We had two runners who were taken down by some deer. It was very scary. They had some nice bruises and cuts to go with it but I think they are okay but very sad they didn't get to finish the race," said Dan Pavlin, race director. Yeah, it’s fine for you, Dan-O. You’re just the race director and not an endurance athlete who must now live in fear that a deer, antelope or wildebeest will come sprinting from the underbrush looking to truck you on your long run or ride……………
Friday, November 25, 2011
A drug to replace alcohol to cure insomnia, sham freedom in Zimbabwe and raging Lions
- Am I completely off base, or wasn’t there already a drug specifically designed to help with insomnia? In fact, I’m fairly certain it’s called alcohol. So why is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration even bothering to approve a drug called Intermezzo (zolpidem tartrate sublingual tablets) for use as needed to treat insomnia? The disorder, characterized by middle-of-the-night waking followed by difficulty returning to sleep, plagues millions of Americans and this is the first time the FDA has approved a drug specifically for the condition. The FDA said in issuing its approval that Intermezzo should not be taken if alcohol has been consumed or with any other sleep aid, but it just makes sense that if a person consumes enough alcohol, they shouldn’t need Intermezzo at all. Sure, the excessive daytime sleepiness and lack of energy caused by insomnia can be a pain in the ass and those affected by the disorder often have trouble focusing on tasks, paying attention, learning, and remembering and tend to be anxious, depressed, or irritable, but wouldn’t a beer or six fix all of that? Zolpidem tartrate was first approved in the United States in 1992 as the drug Ambien, but it has been altered slightly in Intermezzo, which is a lower dose formulation of zolpidem. The FDA recommends 1.75 milligrams for women and 3.5 mg for men, taken once per night and in a lower dose for the ladies because their bodies clear zolpidem from their system “For people whose insomnia causes them to wake in middle of the night with difficulty returning to sleep, this new medication offers a safer choice than taking a higher dose of zolpidem upon waking,” said Robert Temple, M.D., deputy center director for clinical science in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “With this lower dose there is less risk of a person having too much drug in the body upon waking, which can cause dangerous drowsiness and impair driving.” Before approving Intermezzo, the agency did its due diligence and Intermezzo was studied in two clinical trials involving more than 370 patients. After using Intermezzo, patients in both studies experienced a shorter time to fall back asleep after waking compared to people taking a placebo. And hey, they only suffered side effects including headache, nausea and fatigue. Coincidentally, those are the same effects getting really drunk tends to have on a person. Taking Intermezzo gives you all of that without the fun of spending a night as a stumbling, slurring, goofy drunk. Sounds like a lose-lose…………
- Wow……who could have seen this one coming? A former American Karaoke contestant shows up somewhere for a “live” performance and is exposed as a lip-syncing fraud? No way! Given the prevalence of lip-syncing and general phoniness of reality karaoke shows like AK, the real miracle would be a former contestant appearing on stage and a) sing live, b) have music that doesn’t suck and c) not single-handedly setting the music industry back 50 years. But big ups to former AK contestant Scotty McCreery, who showed up Thursday as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in Manhattan to “sing” his latest song, “The Trouble With Girls.” Ignoring the reality that the problem is not with girls but rather with his hack-tacular attempts at song, McCreery perched atop a festive float and his “song” began. The only problem? His lips weren't moving. Uh-oh! Video of the embarrassing incident quickly hit the Internet and millions got another hearty holiday laugh as they heard the opening lyric, “The trouble with girls,” then saw McCreery awkwardly attempt to get his mouth moving as quickly as possible to mitigate the damage. He quickly raised the microphone to his lips and the director of the TV broadcast reacted like a pro in having the parade cameras zoom out, but it was too late to save McCreery’s sorry, lip-syncing self. But hey, when you’re a country pop karaoke show hack getting ready for a tour with the likes of Brad Paisley, properly preparing for a measly parade attended by hundreds of thousands and viewed by millions more around the world clearly takes a back seat. McCreery also spent time butchering the national anthem prior to Game 1 of the World Series last month, so he’s been busy. In his defense (not that he deserves it), but he is far from the only performer to lip-sync at the parade…..he’s just really bad at it and got exposed as a result. Fear not for him, as his 15 minutes will be up soon and he’ll fade into obscurity before you know it………….
- It was headed this direction for quite some time. The real question was when the world would arrive at this point. In the end, the answer to the question of when Black Friday will officially go from a bunch of pathetic, no-dignity-having kooks camping out and trampling each other for discounted electronic and toys at massive chain stores the day after Thanksgiving to all-out assault and hand-to-hand combat is 2011. Credit an unidentified woman at a Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch, Calif. as the one who definitively drove this point home by pepper spraying fellow shoppers to get an edge in the race to the toy department or home electronics - wherever this ass hat was headed. Either way, police were called and officers described the incident as a deliberate attempt to get more "door buster" merchandise. "This was customer-versus-customer 'shopping rage,'" said Los Angeles Police Lt. Abel Parga. "She was competitive shopping." Competitive shopping? Really? Because that sounds a lot more like a delusional nut job who has lost touch with reality, checked out on humanity and taken a blow torch to what remained of her soul. Even worse, the woman reportedly used the pepper spray multiple times "to gain preferred access to a variety of locations in the store," said Los Angeles Fire Capt. James Carson. Seriously, who says to themselves and their friends prior to heading out for some Black Friday shopping, “Look, it’s going to get ugly in there. People will be pushing and shoving and I need to protect myself. Has anyone seen my pepper spray? What about my truncheon and billy club? Oh, and don’t forget my Glock.” Maybe you carry pepper spray in case someone attempts to mug you on your way out of the store or in the parking lot, but in unprovoked assaults on fellow shoppers because they had the angle on you to get to Aisle 42B first? Several Wal-Mart shoppers complained of minor skin and eye irritation and sore throats and police are searching for the woman. They are having difficulty getting a clear description of her, but one would imagine that with the plethora of security cameras around the store the search should eventually prove fruitful. Finding one person amidst the chaos in the fight for $5 Bratz dolls, $10 Wii video games and $29 tricycles could take some time, obviously. One witness recounted the insanity of the scene as the pepper spraying and general mayhem occurred. "I heard screaming and I heard yelling," said shopper Matthew Lopez. "Moments later, my throat stung. I was coughing really bad and watering up." Ah, another cherished holiday memory for the ages……………
- Thanksgiving football in Detroit was supposed to be different this year. The Lions host a noon game every single Turkey Day and for the previous seven seasons, they have lost in what can usually be described as embarrassing and non-competitive fashion. Rolling into the game with a 7-3 record and legitimate playoff hopes, the Lions were supposed to be a different team and give the nation a game it could enjoy from a competitive standpoint against the unbeaten Green Bay Packers. For 2.5 quarters, that premise held up. Near the end of the third quarter, it unraveled as the hands of the man who has been at the center of a never-ending series of controversies and allegations of dirty play since he debuted in the NFL last season. Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh was ejected from the game after he stomped on Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith. Replays showed Suh and Dietrich-Smith scuffling on the ground briefly after a play deep in Detroity territory, with Suh thrice pushing Dietrich-Smith’s head into the ground. When other Packers players pulled Suh up from the ground and attempted to restrain him, he then stomped on Dietrich-Smith’s upper right arm. Officials saw the act and immediately ejected Suh from the game. Making matters worse, his temporary loss of his mind came after an unsuccessful third down pass play and had he not stomped Dietrich-Smith, the Packers would almost certainly have attempted a field goal and at best, increased their lead to 10-0. Instead, the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave the potent Packers offense first and goal from the Detroit 1 and they proceeded to score a touchdown and use the motivation from Suhs indefensible assault to rout the Lions. Although the final score was 27-15 thanks to two late Detroit touchdowns, it was 24-0 at the end of the third quarter and the outcome was never in serious doubt. Suh was still in denial after the game and took a defiant tone in the postgame press conference when asked about the incident. "I want to apologize to my teammates, my coaches and my true fans for allowing the refs to have an opportunity to take me out of this game," Suh said. "What I did was remove myself from the situation the best way I felt, with me being held down." Fine….except Dietrich-Smith wasn’t holding you down. You were on top of him and then he remained on the ground as you were pulled away. Suh continued to lie by insisting he didn’t intentionally stomp anyone. "My intention was not to kick anybody, as I did not, removing myself," he said. "I was on top of a guy, being pulled down, and trying to get up off the ground -- and why you see me pushing his helmet down, because I'm trying to remove myself from the situation, and as I'm getting up, I'm getting pushed, so I'm getting myself on balance." On balance? Wow. Balancing yourself by putting cleat marks in someone’s arm is a new tactic, for sure. It seems safe to say that Suh should be missing a few games based on the precedent set in October 2006, when then-Tennessee Titans defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth drew a five-game suspension for stomping on former Dallas Cowboys center Andre Gurode's head. Oh, and the day ended with an eighth straight Thanksgiving loss for the Lions, so some things clearly do not change………….
- Ah, the sweet smell of media freedom - sort of. It’s a small (and possibly meaningless) step, but two Zimbabwe commercial radio stations were issued licenses to compete for the first time with the country’s lone government-owned broadcaster loyal to the president/dictator Bob Mugabe. Zimbabwe's state broadcasting authority announced the decision on the licenses Friday, but independent media watch groups complained nonetheless on the grounds that the new stations were not fairly chosen because the licensing decisions were made by officials appointed by the information ministry controlled by Mugabe's party. The two lucky recipients of broadcasting licenses were Zimbabwe Newspapers, publishers of the main pro-Mugabe daily Herald, and ZiFm. The Herald will launch a talk radio channel, while ZiFM is operated by a black empowerment campaigner and ardent supporter of Mugabe's party who says his new station will go on air within six months. Fair or not, the licensures were a long time coming. They were a part of coalition deal with the former opposition in 2009 designed to end the three-decade monopoly of Mugabe's Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. However, finding an end-around to circumvent the spirit and letter of the new law clearly proved difficult and it wasn’t until now that Mugabe’s regime figured out how. It took mere hours for opposition leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party to decry the licensing decisions as an unacceptable betrayal of the power sharing deal. "This is a sad day for the media and showcases the brazen and deliberate undermining" of Tsvangirai's authority in the coalition, his spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said. Why? Just because ZiFM is owned by a media firm headed by Supa Mandiwanzira, who was named by Mugabe's party as a likely parliamentary candidate for elections proposed next year? Or because the government has owned the majority stockholding in the Herald since the 1980s when Mugabe's party took a near-total control of its journalists? Let’s not be hasty in judging just because of irregularities in the selection of members of the board that issues licenses. Just appreciate the fact that these sham licenses were the first issued since independence from colonial-era rule in 1980 and be happy…..or not…………
- Wow……who could have seen this one coming? A former American Karaoke contestant shows up somewhere for a “live” performance and is exposed as a lip-syncing fraud? No way! Given the prevalence of lip-syncing and general phoniness of reality karaoke shows like AK, the real miracle would be a former contestant appearing on stage and a) sing live, b) have music that doesn’t suck and c) not single-handedly setting the music industry back 50 years. But big ups to former AK contestant Scotty McCreery, who showed up Thursday as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in Manhattan to “sing” his latest song, “The Trouble With Girls.” Ignoring the reality that the problem is not with girls but rather with his hack-tacular attempts at song, McCreery perched atop a festive float and his “song” began. The only problem? His lips weren't moving. Uh-oh! Video of the embarrassing incident quickly hit the Internet and millions got another hearty holiday laugh as they heard the opening lyric, “The trouble with girls,” then saw McCreery awkwardly attempt to get his mouth moving as quickly as possible to mitigate the damage. He quickly raised the microphone to his lips and the director of the TV broadcast reacted like a pro in having the parade cameras zoom out, but it was too late to save McCreery’s sorry, lip-syncing self. But hey, when you’re a country pop karaoke show hack getting ready for a tour with the likes of Brad Paisley, properly preparing for a measly parade attended by hundreds of thousands and viewed by millions more around the world clearly takes a back seat. McCreery also spent time butchering the national anthem prior to Game 1 of the World Series last month, so he’s been busy. In his defense (not that he deserves it), but he is far from the only performer to lip-sync at the parade…..he’s just really bad at it and got exposed as a result. Fear not for him, as his 15 minutes will be up soon and he’ll fade into obscurity before you know it………….
- It was headed this direction for quite some time. The real question was when the world would arrive at this point. In the end, the answer to the question of when Black Friday will officially go from a bunch of pathetic, no-dignity-having kooks camping out and trampling each other for discounted electronic and toys at massive chain stores the day after Thanksgiving to all-out assault and hand-to-hand combat is 2011. Credit an unidentified woman at a Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch, Calif. as the one who definitively drove this point home by pepper spraying fellow shoppers to get an edge in the race to the toy department or home electronics - wherever this ass hat was headed. Either way, police were called and officers described the incident as a deliberate attempt to get more "door buster" merchandise. "This was customer-versus-customer 'shopping rage,'" said Los Angeles Police Lt. Abel Parga. "She was competitive shopping." Competitive shopping? Really? Because that sounds a lot more like a delusional nut job who has lost touch with reality, checked out on humanity and taken a blow torch to what remained of her soul. Even worse, the woman reportedly used the pepper spray multiple times "to gain preferred access to a variety of locations in the store," said Los Angeles Fire Capt. James Carson. Seriously, who says to themselves and their friends prior to heading out for some Black Friday shopping, “Look, it’s going to get ugly in there. People will be pushing and shoving and I need to protect myself. Has anyone seen my pepper spray? What about my truncheon and billy club? Oh, and don’t forget my Glock.” Maybe you carry pepper spray in case someone attempts to mug you on your way out of the store or in the parking lot, but in unprovoked assaults on fellow shoppers because they had the angle on you to get to Aisle 42B first? Several Wal-Mart shoppers complained of minor skin and eye irritation and sore throats and police are searching for the woman. They are having difficulty getting a clear description of her, but one would imagine that with the plethora of security cameras around the store the search should eventually prove fruitful. Finding one person amidst the chaos in the fight for $5 Bratz dolls, $10 Wii video games and $29 tricycles could take some time, obviously. One witness recounted the insanity of the scene as the pepper spraying and general mayhem occurred. "I heard screaming and I heard yelling," said shopper Matthew Lopez. "Moments later, my throat stung. I was coughing really bad and watering up." Ah, another cherished holiday memory for the ages……………
- Thanksgiving football in Detroit was supposed to be different this year. The Lions host a noon game every single Turkey Day and for the previous seven seasons, they have lost in what can usually be described as embarrassing and non-competitive fashion. Rolling into the game with a 7-3 record and legitimate playoff hopes, the Lions were supposed to be a different team and give the nation a game it could enjoy from a competitive standpoint against the unbeaten Green Bay Packers. For 2.5 quarters, that premise held up. Near the end of the third quarter, it unraveled as the hands of the man who has been at the center of a never-ending series of controversies and allegations of dirty play since he debuted in the NFL last season. Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh was ejected from the game after he stomped on Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith. Replays showed Suh and Dietrich-Smith scuffling on the ground briefly after a play deep in Detroity territory, with Suh thrice pushing Dietrich-Smith’s head into the ground. When other Packers players pulled Suh up from the ground and attempted to restrain him, he then stomped on Dietrich-Smith’s upper right arm. Officials saw the act and immediately ejected Suh from the game. Making matters worse, his temporary loss of his mind came after an unsuccessful third down pass play and had he not stomped Dietrich-Smith, the Packers would almost certainly have attempted a field goal and at best, increased their lead to 10-0. Instead, the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave the potent Packers offense first and goal from the Detroit 1 and they proceeded to score a touchdown and use the motivation from Suhs indefensible assault to rout the Lions. Although the final score was 27-15 thanks to two late Detroit touchdowns, it was 24-0 at the end of the third quarter and the outcome was never in serious doubt. Suh was still in denial after the game and took a defiant tone in the postgame press conference when asked about the incident. "I want to apologize to my teammates, my coaches and my true fans for allowing the refs to have an opportunity to take me out of this game," Suh said. "What I did was remove myself from the situation the best way I felt, with me being held down." Fine….except Dietrich-Smith wasn’t holding you down. You were on top of him and then he remained on the ground as you were pulled away. Suh continued to lie by insisting he didn’t intentionally stomp anyone. "My intention was not to kick anybody, as I did not, removing myself," he said. "I was on top of a guy, being pulled down, and trying to get up off the ground -- and why you see me pushing his helmet down, because I'm trying to remove myself from the situation, and as I'm getting up, I'm getting pushed, so I'm getting myself on balance." On balance? Wow. Balancing yourself by putting cleat marks in someone’s arm is a new tactic, for sure. It seems safe to say that Suh should be missing a few games based on the precedent set in October 2006, when then-Tennessee Titans defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth drew a five-game suspension for stomping on former Dallas Cowboys center Andre Gurode's head. Oh, and the day ended with an eighth straight Thanksgiving loss for the Lions, so some things clearly do not change………….
- Ah, the sweet smell of media freedom - sort of. It’s a small (and possibly meaningless) step, but two Zimbabwe commercial radio stations were issued licenses to compete for the first time with the country’s lone government-owned broadcaster loyal to the president/dictator Bob Mugabe. Zimbabwe's state broadcasting authority announced the decision on the licenses Friday, but independent media watch groups complained nonetheless on the grounds that the new stations were not fairly chosen because the licensing decisions were made by officials appointed by the information ministry controlled by Mugabe's party. The two lucky recipients of broadcasting licenses were Zimbabwe Newspapers, publishers of the main pro-Mugabe daily Herald, and ZiFm. The Herald will launch a talk radio channel, while ZiFM is operated by a black empowerment campaigner and ardent supporter of Mugabe's party who says his new station will go on air within six months. Fair or not, the licensures were a long time coming. They were a part of coalition deal with the former opposition in 2009 designed to end the three-decade monopoly of Mugabe's Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. However, finding an end-around to circumvent the spirit and letter of the new law clearly proved difficult and it wasn’t until now that Mugabe’s regime figured out how. It took mere hours for opposition leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party to decry the licensing decisions as an unacceptable betrayal of the power sharing deal. "This is a sad day for the media and showcases the brazen and deliberate undermining" of Tsvangirai's authority in the coalition, his spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said. Why? Just because ZiFM is owned by a media firm headed by Supa Mandiwanzira, who was named by Mugabe's party as a likely parliamentary candidate for elections proposed next year? Or because the government has owned the majority stockholding in the Herald since the 1980s when Mugabe's party took a near-total control of its journalists? Let’s not be hasty in judging just because of irregularities in the selection of members of the board that issues licenses. Just appreciate the fact that these sham licenses were the first issued since independence from colonial-era rule in 1980 and be happy…..or not…………
Thursday, November 24, 2011
The League of Fascist Depots lives, the fakeness of J-Lo and raging tattoo-loving NBA players
- The League of Fascist Despots lives, everyone! Men like Bashir al Assad, Bob Mugabe, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong-Il and Hu Jintao have to stick together because they are a dying breed. These repressive ass hats can commiserate over their knack for trampling the basic human rights of their people, ruling with an iron fist and crushing dissent like a fly on the window. Their kinship warms the heart, especially on Thanksgiving Day, even if none of them are actually celebrating the holiday. But in a sense, Chavez and Jintao are celebrating, just not in a conventional way. Instead, China has agreed to a new $4 billion loan to help Venezuela boost its oil output and will also help upgrade power plants and increase production of iron and aluminum. Venezuelan officials announced the deal Wednesday as the latest move toward China becoming Venezuela's biggest foreign lender. The communist nation has previously agreed to more than $32 billion in loans and its investment in Venezuela has risen swiftly in recent years. Rather than repaying the loans through conventional means, Chavez's government is settling its debts with oil shipments. Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez revealed during a meeting with Chinese officials that the new $4 billion loan agreement would be signed soon with the purpose of increasing oil production involving Venezuelan and Chinese companies from about 100,000 barrels a day to about 330,000 barrels a day. Under the new deal, oil production involving Chinese companies should reach about 1.1 million barrels a day by 2014 as Venezuela seeks to increase its overall oil output from what it says is now roughly 3 million barrels a day to about 4 million barrels a day by 2015. Coincidentally, the infusion of cash from China comes just in time for Chavez to rig next year's presidential election in Venezuela, er, um, fuel his re-election campaign. Chinese companies are helping with upgrades to power plants, building public housing for the government and constructing railways. The two governments are also discussing plans to boost iron ore production, expand a pier, dredge the Orinoco River and "expand our capacity of rail transport for transporting iron ore," Ramirez said at the televised meeting. The extra oil being shipped from Venezuela to China is expected to come from a vast reservoir of heavy crude in Venezuela's eastern Orinoco River basin. It is one more infusion of fuel to keep the League of Fascist Despots going strong……………
- Nothing about Jennifer Lopez is all that authentic or talented. Even when she’s selling out for a car commercial that is as artificial and produced as anything an artist can do, she can’t pull it off without some cheating. The woman who once sang about being the same “Jenny from the block” she used to be growing up clearly doesn’t have an authentic, real bone in her body, even when filming a commercial for a car that is wildly popular in Europe but pretty rare in the United States. Serving as the omnipresent new face of Fiat, Lopez appears in a commercial in which she drives one of the automaker’s compact cars through a city while some of her crappy music plays and also does a bit of dancing as men throughout town are captivated by her mere presence and that of her shiny new ride. Anyone who has watched a single primetime show, sporting event or news broadcast over the past few weeks has seen the incessant ad more than once and watched Lopez drive the Fiat 500 through the Bronx on what is supposed to be a heart-warming inspirational drive down memory lane. "Here, this is my world," Lopez coos in voiceover as she's shown behind the steering wheel with scenes of her hometown passing by outside the car. "This place inspires me to be tougher, to stay sharper, to think faster. They may be just streets to you, but to me, they're a playground." Shockingly, the entire ad is a total sham. Lopez never actually went anywhere near the Bronx to film the commercial and instead depicted the borough that so inspires her by filming all of her dreamy, close-up shots from the safety and warmth of Los Angeles. A body double was used for the low-speed drive through the Bronx and the shots of Lopez behind the wheel were combined with the body double's driving work to make it appear as if it was the musically talentless pop hack who was driving the entire time. Fiat didn’t exactly do Lopez any favors by issuing a press release to go with the 60-second "My World" spot declared that the commercial showed Lopez "driving a Fiat 500 Cabrio as she travels through the streets of Manhattan to the Bronx where she grew up." Lopez has not commented on the controversy, but Fiat did issue a statement Wednesday acknowledging that some cinematic magic went into filming the spot without issuing any apology for its deception. "Both commercials featuring Jennifer Lopez were indeed filmed in the Bronx as well as outside locations," the statement explained. "As you may know, in today's world, people are increasingly mobile and their work takes them to a variety of locations. As a result, we took the opportunity to film wherever Ms. Lopez was working at the time to accommodate her schedule. The commercial tells the story of how the simple elements of our upbringing can help explain who we are, where we're going and serve as a source of inspiration to achieve our goals in life. One does not need to be in a specific location to be inspired or continue to be inspired." Wow. That is an impressive load of corporate bullsh*t………………
- Black Friday takes its toll on a person. Rolling out of bed at 3 a.m., battling insane traffic and parking four miles from there store of your choosing before battling hundreds of other pathetic losers in line for prime position to grab a super cheap laptop or digital camera is tough on one’s mental (and physical) well-being, so who is there to tend to the hurting souls after a tough day pounding the carpet and linoleum at the local mall? In Kennesaw, Ga., missionaries James and Monica Satcher are stepping up to fill that void. Knowing that shoppers headed home on Black Friday will be exhausted and possibly demoralized, the Satchers have a plan to lift people’s spirits by shepherding them into a prayer service without ever having to leave the comfort of their vehicle. "Life changes, the pace of life has gone through the roof, people are so fast-paced these days," said James Satcher. "We're trying to adapt with it, give people what they need." Adapting for the Satchers in this case means a drive-through prayer service, which they plan to advertise with large banners along Cobb Parkway on Friday. The signs will point people to the parking lot of the church where the couple is based, , just north of the corner of Highway 41 and Acworth Due West Road. "We want to keep the church, and keep Christ relevant, to people's lives," James Satcher explained. "We'll be praying with people as they come through. So they can even stay in their car and tell us what they need." There will be two prayer services for weary shoppers, one on Black Friday and the other on Saturday, with both running from
9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. What better way to cap a hectic morning of trampling senior citizens, trucking 10-year-olds in the Barbie aisle at Toys R Us and beating some desperate soccer mom with four kids in her van to the last available parking spot at the mall than to stop by God’s house for some prayer time in your car…………
- Disliking Dallas Mavericks guard DeShawn Stevenson is difficult. Anyone who inks the Linc, i.e. gets a beastly tattoo of the $5 bill with Abraham Lincoln’s likeness on it, on the front of their neck is a bonafide badass. But disliking the colorful tattoo lover became much easier for one member of the NBA Players Association hierarchy after Stevenson took a nuclear-level run at him on Wednesday. Stevenson, a role player who is certainly not on the same level as stars like Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant and LeBron James and is not paid like them, expressed his frustration with the job performance of players association executive director Billy Hunter during the lockout. "I felt like we should have decertified in July," Stevenson said prior to a charity exhibition game in California. "I feel like Billy Hunter is doing a horrible job because basically now [the owners] know our hand. The media knows our hand. The owners know our hand." Stevenson went on to say that he believes the NBA's labor impasse will wipe out the entire season. His take is that there is too much animosity between the players and owners for a deal to be reached and the season to be saved, largely because the owners have ignored the significant concessions the players have made during negotiations. "For me, personally, I don't think there will be a season," Stevenson said. "Right now there is just a lot of bad blood and [the owners] keep putting offers out that we're rejecting. So we're not going anywhere." The two sides did resume talks late Wednesday with the aim of resolving the anti-trust lawsuits after negotiations broke off on Nov. 14 when the players walked away from the owners' final proposal and dissolved the union. The next day, two groups of players filed class-action antitrust lawsuits against the league in California and Minnesota, respectively, taking the fight from the negotiating table to the court room. The two lawsuits have since been consolidated in Minnesota, but the lockout has still dragged into its 147th day as of Thursday. Stevenson’s comments were quickly relayed to Hunter, who did his best to diffuse a combustible situation. "DeShawn is entitled to his opinion," Hunter replied. "It would be much more meaningful if he were more directly involved and would have understood what fully transpired and understood the issues. I think he'd be better informed. "I respect DeShawn's right to say and feel what he is saying. I can't fault that. I don't have nothing negative about DeShawn. He said it. It's not justified, but he has every right in the world to say what he thinks." Okay…..so he didn’t really attempt to diffuse the situation and instead lit Stevenson up for being lazy, ill-informed and speaking out of turn, but other than that, everything is cool. Perhaps Stevenson is still bitter because he and his Mavericks teammates have yet to receive their championship rings for winning the title last season after knocking off the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. They were to receive their championship rings and raise their championship banner on Nov. 1, the scheduled season opener against the Chicago Bulls, but that obviously hasn’t happened and won’t any time soon………….
- Online censorship is a hot-button issue everywhere in the world where Internet access exists, but not everyone views the issue the same way. That point was made crystal clear Wednesday when the European Court of Justice, based in Luxembourg, ruled that content owners cannot ask ISPs to filter out illegal content. The ruling could have far-reaching implications for the creative industries as they attempt to crack down on piracy because the court ruled that while content providers can ask ISPs to block specific sites, wider filtering was in breach of the E-Commerce Directive. That contradicted a previous ruling by a Belgian court that a local rights holder could force an ISP to filter content. The original case that led to the higher court’s ruling stemmed from 2004, when SABAM, a Belgian company responsible for authorizing music rights, discovered that customers of local ISP Scarlet were downloading music illegally via peer-to-peer networks similar to Napster (when it was still Napster) and LimeWire (before it was gutted and rendered impotent). When the case went before the Brussels Court of First Instance, justices ordered Scarlet to make it impossible for its customers to send or receive files containing music from SABAM's catalogue on such networks. Scarlet appealed to the Brussels Court of Appeal on the grounds that the injunction failed to comply with EU law. Its attorneys argued that the obligation to monitor communications on its network was in breach of the E-Commerce Directive. Seven long years later, the European Court of Justice agreed. The court’s justices determined that the lower court’s decision could affect Scarlet's ability to do business because it would have to "install a complicated, costly, permanent computer system at its own expense.” Also, the court ruled that the filtering could infringe the rights of customers and their right to protect their own data. The original ruling could also lead to legal content being blocked, another infringement of individuals’ rights. "Such an injunction could potentially undermine freedom of information since that system might not distinguish adequately between unlawful content and lawful content with the result that its introduction could lead to the blocking of lawful communications," the court said in a statement. Other telecommunications companies are currently engaged in legal action against the UK's Digital Economy Act, claiming it is also in breach of the E-Commerce Directive. Online freedom organizations hailed the high court’s decision as a blow struck for the rights of the common man, something we can all be thankful for on this day, no matter where we reside……………
- Nothing about Jennifer Lopez is all that authentic or talented. Even when she’s selling out for a car commercial that is as artificial and produced as anything an artist can do, she can’t pull it off without some cheating. The woman who once sang about being the same “Jenny from the block” she used to be growing up clearly doesn’t have an authentic, real bone in her body, even when filming a commercial for a car that is wildly popular in Europe but pretty rare in the United States. Serving as the omnipresent new face of Fiat, Lopez appears in a commercial in which she drives one of the automaker’s compact cars through a city while some of her crappy music plays and also does a bit of dancing as men throughout town are captivated by her mere presence and that of her shiny new ride. Anyone who has watched a single primetime show, sporting event or news broadcast over the past few weeks has seen the incessant ad more than once and watched Lopez drive the Fiat 500 through the Bronx on what is supposed to be a heart-warming inspirational drive down memory lane. "Here, this is my world," Lopez coos in voiceover as she's shown behind the steering wheel with scenes of her hometown passing by outside the car. "This place inspires me to be tougher, to stay sharper, to think faster. They may be just streets to you, but to me, they're a playground." Shockingly, the entire ad is a total sham. Lopez never actually went anywhere near the Bronx to film the commercial and instead depicted the borough that so inspires her by filming all of her dreamy, close-up shots from the safety and warmth of Los Angeles. A body double was used for the low-speed drive through the Bronx and the shots of Lopez behind the wheel were combined with the body double's driving work to make it appear as if it was the musically talentless pop hack who was driving the entire time. Fiat didn’t exactly do Lopez any favors by issuing a press release to go with the 60-second "My World" spot declared that the commercial showed Lopez "driving a Fiat 500 Cabrio as she travels through the streets of Manhattan to the Bronx where she grew up." Lopez has not commented on the controversy, but Fiat did issue a statement Wednesday acknowledging that some cinematic magic went into filming the spot without issuing any apology for its deception. "Both commercials featuring Jennifer Lopez were indeed filmed in the Bronx as well as outside locations," the statement explained. "As you may know, in today's world, people are increasingly mobile and their work takes them to a variety of locations. As a result, we took the opportunity to film wherever Ms. Lopez was working at the time to accommodate her schedule. The commercial tells the story of how the simple elements of our upbringing can help explain who we are, where we're going and serve as a source of inspiration to achieve our goals in life. One does not need to be in a specific location to be inspired or continue to be inspired." Wow. That is an impressive load of corporate bullsh*t………………
- Black Friday takes its toll on a person. Rolling out of bed at 3 a.m., battling insane traffic and parking four miles from there store of your choosing before battling hundreds of other pathetic losers in line for prime position to grab a super cheap laptop or digital camera is tough on one’s mental (and physical) well-being, so who is there to tend to the hurting souls after a tough day pounding the carpet and linoleum at the local mall? In Kennesaw, Ga., missionaries James and Monica Satcher are stepping up to fill that void. Knowing that shoppers headed home on Black Friday will be exhausted and possibly demoralized, the Satchers have a plan to lift people’s spirits by shepherding them into a prayer service without ever having to leave the comfort of their vehicle. "Life changes, the pace of life has gone through the roof, people are so fast-paced these days," said James Satcher. "We're trying to adapt with it, give people what they need." Adapting for the Satchers in this case means a drive-through prayer service, which they plan to advertise with large banners along Cobb Parkway on Friday. The signs will point people to the parking lot of the church where the couple is based, , just north of the corner of Highway 41 and Acworth Due West Road. "We want to keep the church, and keep Christ relevant, to people's lives," James Satcher explained. "We'll be praying with people as they come through. So they can even stay in their car and tell us what they need." There will be two prayer services for weary shoppers, one on Black Friday and the other on Saturday, with both running from
9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. What better way to cap a hectic morning of trampling senior citizens, trucking 10-year-olds in the Barbie aisle at Toys R Us and beating some desperate soccer mom with four kids in her van to the last available parking spot at the mall than to stop by God’s house for some prayer time in your car…………
- Disliking Dallas Mavericks guard DeShawn Stevenson is difficult. Anyone who inks the Linc, i.e. gets a beastly tattoo of the $5 bill with Abraham Lincoln’s likeness on it, on the front of their neck is a bonafide badass. But disliking the colorful tattoo lover became much easier for one member of the NBA Players Association hierarchy after Stevenson took a nuclear-level run at him on Wednesday. Stevenson, a role player who is certainly not on the same level as stars like Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant and LeBron James and is not paid like them, expressed his frustration with the job performance of players association executive director Billy Hunter during the lockout. "I felt like we should have decertified in July," Stevenson said prior to a charity exhibition game in California. "I feel like Billy Hunter is doing a horrible job because basically now [the owners] know our hand. The media knows our hand. The owners know our hand." Stevenson went on to say that he believes the NBA's labor impasse will wipe out the entire season. His take is that there is too much animosity between the players and owners for a deal to be reached and the season to be saved, largely because the owners have ignored the significant concessions the players have made during negotiations. "For me, personally, I don't think there will be a season," Stevenson said. "Right now there is just a lot of bad blood and [the owners] keep putting offers out that we're rejecting. So we're not going anywhere." The two sides did resume talks late Wednesday with the aim of resolving the anti-trust lawsuits after negotiations broke off on Nov. 14 when the players walked away from the owners' final proposal and dissolved the union. The next day, two groups of players filed class-action antitrust lawsuits against the league in California and Minnesota, respectively, taking the fight from the negotiating table to the court room. The two lawsuits have since been consolidated in Minnesota, but the lockout has still dragged into its 147th day as of Thursday. Stevenson’s comments were quickly relayed to Hunter, who did his best to diffuse a combustible situation. "DeShawn is entitled to his opinion," Hunter replied. "It would be much more meaningful if he were more directly involved and would have understood what fully transpired and understood the issues. I think he'd be better informed. "I respect DeShawn's right to say and feel what he is saying. I can't fault that. I don't have nothing negative about DeShawn. He said it. It's not justified, but he has every right in the world to say what he thinks." Okay…..so he didn’t really attempt to diffuse the situation and instead lit Stevenson up for being lazy, ill-informed and speaking out of turn, but other than that, everything is cool. Perhaps Stevenson is still bitter because he and his Mavericks teammates have yet to receive their championship rings for winning the title last season after knocking off the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. They were to receive their championship rings and raise their championship banner on Nov. 1, the scheduled season opener against the Chicago Bulls, but that obviously hasn’t happened and won’t any time soon………….
- Online censorship is a hot-button issue everywhere in the world where Internet access exists, but not everyone views the issue the same way. That point was made crystal clear Wednesday when the European Court of Justice, based in Luxembourg, ruled that content owners cannot ask ISPs to filter out illegal content. The ruling could have far-reaching implications for the creative industries as they attempt to crack down on piracy because the court ruled that while content providers can ask ISPs to block specific sites, wider filtering was in breach of the E-Commerce Directive. That contradicted a previous ruling by a Belgian court that a local rights holder could force an ISP to filter content. The original case that led to the higher court’s ruling stemmed from 2004, when SABAM, a Belgian company responsible for authorizing music rights, discovered that customers of local ISP Scarlet were downloading music illegally via peer-to-peer networks similar to Napster (when it was still Napster) and LimeWire (before it was gutted and rendered impotent). When the case went before the Brussels Court of First Instance, justices ordered Scarlet to make it impossible for its customers to send or receive files containing music from SABAM's catalogue on such networks. Scarlet appealed to the Brussels Court of Appeal on the grounds that the injunction failed to comply with EU law. Its attorneys argued that the obligation to monitor communications on its network was in breach of the E-Commerce Directive. Seven long years later, the European Court of Justice agreed. The court’s justices determined that the lower court’s decision could affect Scarlet's ability to do business because it would have to "install a complicated, costly, permanent computer system at its own expense.” Also, the court ruled that the filtering could infringe the rights of customers and their right to protect their own data. The original ruling could also lead to legal content being blocked, another infringement of individuals’ rights. "Such an injunction could potentially undermine freedom of information since that system might not distinguish adequately between unlawful content and lawful content with the result that its introduction could lead to the blocking of lawful communications," the court said in a statement. Other telecommunications companies are currently engaged in legal action against the UK's Digital Economy Act, claiming it is also in breach of the E-Commerce Directive. Online freedom organizations hailed the high court’s decision as a blow struck for the rights of the common man, something we can all be thankful for on this day, no matter where we reside……………
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
How to land a freak, the demise of MeAngelo and surrendering massive tuna
- DeAngelo Hall is known as one of the most arrogant players in a league full of them. A guy doesn’t earn the nickanme “MeAngelo” with having a whole lot of love for himself and as one might expect from someone so pompous, Hall likes to talk - a lot. So it wasn’t a surprise to hear him ranting after his Washington Redskins' loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. After the game - in which he was repeatedly torched for long gains by Cowboys receivers - Hall said: "The way I'm playing right now, they need to go and cut me, because I'm definitely not worth what I'm getting." Hall took a run at himself like he’s taken runs at so many others during the course of his long career and said Wednesday that he has received plenty of calls of support from peers around the league because of his rant. He joked that he's had to tell those players that he's not on "suicide watch" because of his harsh self-analysis in the aftermath of the bitter loss. "I had so many calls from other guys in the league telling me how great I was as a corner," Hall said. "And I'm, like, 'Dude, I'm not on suicide watch.' It was amazing, just the reaction that I didn't think it was going to get." Is he doing better now and does he still believe the Redskins should cut him? "I'm perfectly fine," Hall added. "Still swagged out. Still feel like I'm one of the best in the game." Among the players he claims to have received from are Larry Fitzgerald, Ben Roethlisberger, Chad Ochocinco and Ray Lewis, all bonafide stars. He says he also had to assure his mother that he was all right after giving up the completion to Dez Bryant that set up the game-winning field goal in overtime in the 27-24 defeat. "My mom's calling me. She's like, 'Are you OK?' " Hall said. "And I'm, like, 'Mom, I'm good.' If they're going to point a finger, I'd rather them point it at me than anybody else. We don't need anybody else going in the tank, or feeling bad about themselves. We need the best performance out of everybody. I'm the kind of guy, I can take it "I wear this 'C' on my chest for a reason. I hold myself to a higher standard than a lot of other people." In Hall’s defense, he did make the Pro Bowl last year, but even he readily admits that four of his six interceptions in 2010 came in one game. He has just one pick this year and will have a difficult time intercepting passes in future games if receivers are sprinting 10 yards behind him down the field en route to the end zone……………
- The tuna fish sandwich of a lifetime came and went for a Massachusetts commercial fisherman and his crew this week. Captain Carlos Rafael and his crew were out trolling the waters off the Bay State coast when the New Bedford native happened into what should have been the catch of a lifetime. Rafael’s boat, the Apollo, unwittingly caught an 881-pound bluefin tuna in its nets while heading back toward port. Rafael was understandably enthused about the catch and seeing as he as tuna permits for his boats, he should be in the clear………right? Or not. He called a bluefin tuna hotline maintained by fishery regulators to report the catch, then went ashore ahead of his boat and drove his truck to meet it when it arrived so he could sell the fish before it aged. Unfortunately for him, the narcs at the bluefin tuna hotline had notified the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Law Enforcement and agents were waiting at the dock in Provincetown to confiscate the fish because it was caught in a net. "They never brought up you could only catch with a rod and reel, not with a net. Just they tell me this is the size, and time to get it in by and so forth," Rafael said. "So we come in, and Uncle Sam gets the fish." Not cool, NOAA, not cool at all. Instead of Rafael selling the fish for a massive price probably dwarfing the nearly $396,000 paid for a 754-pound bluefin tuna at an auction in Tokyo earlier this year, the fish will be sold on consignment overseas and proceeds will be held pending final resolution of the case. Buying a possibly illegal 881-pound bluefin tuna isn't as glamorous as it seems and the purchase price will likely be less than what Rafael would get had he been able to keep and sell the fish. Just another example of The Man holding the little guy down…………
- Human missions to Mars are still a dream for the distant future and NASA’s budget is shrinking by the day, but the space agency is still working hard to learn more about the worlds beyond our own. Admitting that a manned mission to Mars is still 20 to 30 years in the future, NASA is nonetheless using robotics to collect data from Mars to determine what the effects of longterm space flight will be on astronauts. To that end, it will launch the Curiousity rover next month to help determine if there are resources on Mars that can be used in support of a human crew while they're on the surface. "There are two primary areas that we might utilize local resources. The first is in life support, where we will use resources to extract oxygen, water and even perhaps produce food on Mars for the crew. The second is to develop a propellant for our propulsion systems to send the spacecraft off the surface and back to earth," said Doug Ming, NASA's Manager of Human Exploration. In addition to possible challenges once on Mars, another major difficulty for manned missions to the Red Planet would be the length of time required for the mission. Factoring in six months’ worth of travel to on each leg of the journey and a possible 500-day mission on the planet, anyone wishing to go on such a mission would essentially be conceding a more than two years away from Earth, their family and everything else they love. Dr. John Charles of NASA's Human Research Program said the agency has identified 31 risks that need to be examined for safe travel to Mars. "The unacceptable risks include the radiation issue, especially radiation carcinogenesis — the effects of radiation in causing cander. We have psychiatric and behavior disorders that are possible in a small group of people confined in a small volume for an extended period of time. We have the problem of understanding how to treat illnesses and injuries that occur in space flight and the remote reaches of the solar system," Charles pointed out. Some of those questions should be answered when Curiousity brings back all sorts of information about the surface of Mars. Mission officials say the robotics used in the MSL rover will be vital to both collect data ahead of time and provide assistance to humans if and when they arrive. The Rover is scheduled to set down on Mars in August and will be the largest vehicle ever sent to Mars. It will meander around the surface of the planet for nearly two years and NASA will proceed from there based on what it unearths……………
- Pakistan is clearly not the only country where sending a text message can be hazardous to your health, financial well-being or right to remain free. Pakistan’s government announced this week a list of banned words cell phone users would be prohibited from using in text messages, but compared to the fate of a retired truck driver in Thailand, being forbidden to use certain terms in a text seems lenient. Ampon Tangnoppakul, 61, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for sending text messages that a court deemed insulting to Thailand’s monarchy. Tangnoppakul was sentenced to five years in prison for each message even though he denied sending any messages. “He insists that he does not know how to send text messages. He insists that he loves His Majesty the King,” attorney Poonsuk Poonsukcharoen said of his client. It’s a fair point because if there is one group that isn't adept at texting, it’s the over-60 crowd. Well, them and über-FAT people with super-chubby fingers who can't push the correct keys because their digits are simply too large. The case represents the very real threat of a widely criticized Taiwanese law imposing harsh penalties for making insults or threats directed at King Bhumibol Adulyadej and his family, even in private communications. The law has resulted in a growing number of cases in Thailand and critics worry the measure is reaching far beyond its supposed purpose. The judge in Tangnoppakul’s case ruled that the text messages, which were sent to a senior government official, defamed, insulted and threatened the king and his wife, Queen Sirikit. In typical cloak-and-dagger government bullsh*t, the actual contents of the messages were not revealed in court. Tangnoppakul’s attorneys argued that his phone was being repaired around the time the messages were sent last May, but the judge would have none of it. May was right in the middle of a wave of political tumult in the streets of Bangkok, when criticism of the monarchy was skyrocketing. Government officials hastily set up a “war room” to shut down Web sites carrying material deemed insulting to the royal family. Prosecutors have quickly developed a fondness for abusing and exploiting the country’s lèse-majesté law and people like Tangnoppakul are the ones who are suffering. He, coincidentally, was not in the courtroom on Wednesday because the prison where he is being held is surrounded by floodwaters and had to watch the judge deliver his sentence over a video link, his lawyer said. Not exactly must-see TV……………
- Have you ever wondered how to bag a musically awful, cross-dressing, attention-starved pop hack who loves meat dresses, bizarre modes of transportation and whoring herself and her career out for any chance to be in the spotlight? If so, pay attention because the walking publicity stunt that is Lady Gaga reveals that and more in her new book, “LADY GAGA x TERRY RICHARDSON,” shot by the well-known photographer over the last year. “Talent and perseverance and pushing the boundaries of love and acceptance,” the “singer” said when asked about the message of her book. She was then asked about qualities she looks for in men and didn’t seem to have an answer locked and loaded. “I don’t know. I can’t really say. It ranges from a really big [expletive] to a degree at Harvard,” she continued. “Just about anything.” Whoever does land her must do so with the realization that she - who routinely dresses up in her finest freakery and writes lyrics with the sophistication of a dull butter knife - is not ready to settle down and live anything resembling a normal life. “I’m not ready to buy a house. It feels like marriage or something. It’s like such a commitment. I don’t like it,” she explained. Or maybe she just has a fear of signing deals to acquire any sort of land, but one or the other. She has spent most of the last two years crossing the globe, torturing the world with the gawd-awful crap she so wrongly calls music. When she is home, she says her favorite place to be is at her best friend’s place. “I do love being with my parents, but I also just really fear domestication. I just don’t have a home,” she added. “I actually sleep [at] my best friend Bo’s, in her apartment a lot. She kicks her boyfriend onto the couch and it’s really funny. We stay up and watch movies.” The book hits stores this week and will reveal plenty of (likely disturbing) things that the world at large did not know about Lady Gaga or need to know for any reason. Y’know, things like whether she’s as disheveled-looking as everyone else in the world when she wakes up or how she dresses when she makes a run to the grocery store. “For those of you that ask me, ‘What do you look like in the morning?’ ‘What do you do when you get milk?’ ‘What do you look like at the grocery store?’ You’re going to get all of those answers in this book, because he doesn’t believe in farce,” she declared, referring to Richardson. So he’s doing a book with the walking definition of a farce and he doesn’t believe in them? How ironic. Oh, and Lady Gaga will look to further promote her book with a television special called “A Very Gaga Thanksgiving,” which airs Thursday at 9:30 p.m. on ABC……………
- The tuna fish sandwich of a lifetime came and went for a Massachusetts commercial fisherman and his crew this week. Captain Carlos Rafael and his crew were out trolling the waters off the Bay State coast when the New Bedford native happened into what should have been the catch of a lifetime. Rafael’s boat, the Apollo, unwittingly caught an 881-pound bluefin tuna in its nets while heading back toward port. Rafael was understandably enthused about the catch and seeing as he as tuna permits for his boats, he should be in the clear………right? Or not. He called a bluefin tuna hotline maintained by fishery regulators to report the catch, then went ashore ahead of his boat and drove his truck to meet it when it arrived so he could sell the fish before it aged. Unfortunately for him, the narcs at the bluefin tuna hotline had notified the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Law Enforcement and agents were waiting at the dock in Provincetown to confiscate the fish because it was caught in a net. "They never brought up you could only catch with a rod and reel, not with a net. Just they tell me this is the size, and time to get it in by and so forth," Rafael said. "So we come in, and Uncle Sam gets the fish." Not cool, NOAA, not cool at all. Instead of Rafael selling the fish for a massive price probably dwarfing the nearly $396,000 paid for a 754-pound bluefin tuna at an auction in Tokyo earlier this year, the fish will be sold on consignment overseas and proceeds will be held pending final resolution of the case. Buying a possibly illegal 881-pound bluefin tuna isn't as glamorous as it seems and the purchase price will likely be less than what Rafael would get had he been able to keep and sell the fish. Just another example of The Man holding the little guy down…………
- Human missions to Mars are still a dream for the distant future and NASA’s budget is shrinking by the day, but the space agency is still working hard to learn more about the worlds beyond our own. Admitting that a manned mission to Mars is still 20 to 30 years in the future, NASA is nonetheless using robotics to collect data from Mars to determine what the effects of longterm space flight will be on astronauts. To that end, it will launch the Curiousity rover next month to help determine if there are resources on Mars that can be used in support of a human crew while they're on the surface. "There are two primary areas that we might utilize local resources. The first is in life support, where we will use resources to extract oxygen, water and even perhaps produce food on Mars for the crew. The second is to develop a propellant for our propulsion systems to send the spacecraft off the surface and back to earth," said Doug Ming, NASA's Manager of Human Exploration. In addition to possible challenges once on Mars, another major difficulty for manned missions to the Red Planet would be the length of time required for the mission. Factoring in six months’ worth of travel to on each leg of the journey and a possible 500-day mission on the planet, anyone wishing to go on such a mission would essentially be conceding a more than two years away from Earth, their family and everything else they love. Dr. John Charles of NASA's Human Research Program said the agency has identified 31 risks that need to be examined for safe travel to Mars. "The unacceptable risks include the radiation issue, especially radiation carcinogenesis — the effects of radiation in causing cander. We have psychiatric and behavior disorders that are possible in a small group of people confined in a small volume for an extended period of time. We have the problem of understanding how to treat illnesses and injuries that occur in space flight and the remote reaches of the solar system," Charles pointed out. Some of those questions should be answered when Curiousity brings back all sorts of information about the surface of Mars. Mission officials say the robotics used in the MSL rover will be vital to both collect data ahead of time and provide assistance to humans if and when they arrive. The Rover is scheduled to set down on Mars in August and will be the largest vehicle ever sent to Mars. It will meander around the surface of the planet for nearly two years and NASA will proceed from there based on what it unearths……………
- Pakistan is clearly not the only country where sending a text message can be hazardous to your health, financial well-being or right to remain free. Pakistan’s government announced this week a list of banned words cell phone users would be prohibited from using in text messages, but compared to the fate of a retired truck driver in Thailand, being forbidden to use certain terms in a text seems lenient. Ampon Tangnoppakul, 61, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for sending text messages that a court deemed insulting to Thailand’s monarchy. Tangnoppakul was sentenced to five years in prison for each message even though he denied sending any messages. “He insists that he does not know how to send text messages. He insists that he loves His Majesty the King,” attorney Poonsuk Poonsukcharoen said of his client. It’s a fair point because if there is one group that isn't adept at texting, it’s the over-60 crowd. Well, them and über-FAT people with super-chubby fingers who can't push the correct keys because their digits are simply too large. The case represents the very real threat of a widely criticized Taiwanese law imposing harsh penalties for making insults or threats directed at King Bhumibol Adulyadej and his family, even in private communications. The law has resulted in a growing number of cases in Thailand and critics worry the measure is reaching far beyond its supposed purpose. The judge in Tangnoppakul’s case ruled that the text messages, which were sent to a senior government official, defamed, insulted and threatened the king and his wife, Queen Sirikit. In typical cloak-and-dagger government bullsh*t, the actual contents of the messages were not revealed in court. Tangnoppakul’s attorneys argued that his phone was being repaired around the time the messages were sent last May, but the judge would have none of it. May was right in the middle of a wave of political tumult in the streets of Bangkok, when criticism of the monarchy was skyrocketing. Government officials hastily set up a “war room” to shut down Web sites carrying material deemed insulting to the royal family. Prosecutors have quickly developed a fondness for abusing and exploiting the country’s lèse-majesté law and people like Tangnoppakul are the ones who are suffering. He, coincidentally, was not in the courtroom on Wednesday because the prison where he is being held is surrounded by floodwaters and had to watch the judge deliver his sentence over a video link, his lawyer said. Not exactly must-see TV……………
- Have you ever wondered how to bag a musically awful, cross-dressing, attention-starved pop hack who loves meat dresses, bizarre modes of transportation and whoring herself and her career out for any chance to be in the spotlight? If so, pay attention because the walking publicity stunt that is Lady Gaga reveals that and more in her new book, “LADY GAGA x TERRY RICHARDSON,” shot by the well-known photographer over the last year. “Talent and perseverance and pushing the boundaries of love and acceptance,” the “singer” said when asked about the message of her book. She was then asked about qualities she looks for in men and didn’t seem to have an answer locked and loaded. “I don’t know. I can’t really say. It ranges from a really big [expletive] to a degree at Harvard,” she continued. “Just about anything.” Whoever does land her must do so with the realization that she - who routinely dresses up in her finest freakery and writes lyrics with the sophistication of a dull butter knife - is not ready to settle down and live anything resembling a normal life. “I’m not ready to buy a house. It feels like marriage or something. It’s like such a commitment. I don’t like it,” she explained. Or maybe she just has a fear of signing deals to acquire any sort of land, but one or the other. She has spent most of the last two years crossing the globe, torturing the world with the gawd-awful crap she so wrongly calls music. When she is home, she says her favorite place to be is at her best friend’s place. “I do love being with my parents, but I also just really fear domestication. I just don’t have a home,” she added. “I actually sleep [at] my best friend Bo’s, in her apartment a lot. She kicks her boyfriend onto the couch and it’s really funny. We stay up and watch movies.” The book hits stores this week and will reveal plenty of (likely disturbing) things that the world at large did not know about Lady Gaga or need to know for any reason. Y’know, things like whether she’s as disheveled-looking as everyone else in the world when she wakes up or how she dresses when she makes a run to the grocery store. “For those of you that ask me, ‘What do you look like in the morning?’ ‘What do you do when you get milk?’ ‘What do you look like at the grocery store?’ You’re going to get all of those answers in this book, because he doesn’t believe in farce,” she declared, referring to Richardson. So he’s doing a book with the walking definition of a farce and he doesn’t believe in them? How ironic. Oh, and Lady Gaga will look to further promote her book with a television special called “A Very Gaga Thanksgiving,” which airs Thursday at 9:30 p.m. on ABC……………
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