- As the television season nears its typical holiday hiatus, with shows taking breaks because of holiday-themed programming based on the notion that people are either busy with holiday parties, shopping or otherwise occupied with the busyness of Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s also the time when networks begin plugging in their midseason shows in place of their ill-fated new series that have failed to make it through even half of a season. The idea is to inject life into a moribund night of programming and trying something new and hopefully better. Bearing this in mind, what the hell is CBS thinking? The Eye has cut five episodes from "Rules of Engagement" and while that is a good idea because “Rules” is awful, replacing anything with a show starring Rob Schneider is an automatic downgrade no matter who else is associated with the project. This is, after all, the guy who was at the heart of the Deuce Bigalo: Male Gigolo franchise, so he need not be anywhere near a TV or movie screen ever again. But Schneider has somehow Jedi mind-tricked CBS into giving him a new and unimaginatively-named new sitcom called "iRob!” The new (supposed) comedy series will start airing on Thursday, Jan. 12 in the 8:30 p.m. time slot. The elimination of the five “Rules of Engagement” episodes will make way for the show and CBS will also bring back its "Undercover Boss" reality show to fill the gap left by the end of the current season of "The Amazing Race,” one of the two watchable reality competition shows on television. “Amazing Race” will return with a new season later in the year, while “Undercover Boss” will be making its third foray into the CBS schedule. Sounds like a winning recipe to me…………
- The New York Jets don’t seem too worried about the Denver Broncos’ offense heading into Thursday night’s primetime matchup in the Mile High City. After the Broncos threw the ball just eight times in Sunday’s division win at Kansas City and the charismatic Tim Tebow completed just two of those eight passes, the ever-bombastic Jets aren't exactly showering Tebow and his offense with praise. Despite having just three days to prepare before flying to Denver for the midweek game, Jets star cornerback Darrelle Revis had some pointed thoughts about the future of Tebow and Denver’s gimmicky, option-centric offense. Asked if the scheme could work long-term, Revis said no - barring miraculous circumstances. "Yeah, if you have Michael Vick and, I don't know, Chris Johnson at running back," he said. "Yeah, it can work. Those are probably the two fastest guys that can probably get out on the edge on you." Revis, generally recognized as the best cornerback in football, implied that his biggest battle on Thursday night will be fighting boredom as he has to line up outside to theoretically cover Broncos receivers like Eric Decker who won't be getting the ball anyhow. "We can't fall asleep back there in the secondary," Revis said. "It can get boring, especially when a team just keeps running the ball, series after series, play after play." Against the Chiefs, it wasn’t necessarily Tebow who was doing all of the running despite his fullback’s physique and lack of throwing ability. He ran nine times for 43 yards and a touchdown and in the process became the first quarterback since 1974 with more rushes than passes in a game in which he threw every pass for his team. Nearly everyone questions whether the Broncos can continue winning with a quarterback who can't throw the ball, but they are 3-1 with Tebow as their starter even though everyone knows they’re going to run on almost every down. The Jets are expecting more of the same, but that doesn’t mean they can stop it. Facing the option-running Broncos just four nights after a Sunday night matchup with pass-happy New England and their actually competent quarterback Tom Brady will be a jarring change. "You just have to take a different mentality into the game," said safety Jim Leonhard. A different mentality, just not a lot of respect………….
- There are a lot of freaks in the world and those freaks are usually willing to go to great lengths to satisfy their twisted desires. Some of those freaks clearly reside in Germany and one of them has just been convicted of animal cruelty for letting her freak flag fly for money and filming it. This nut bag filmed herself stamping on mice for a man with an "animal crushing" fetish after being promised "a considerable amount of money" to stomp the mice while wearing high heels. She went on trial in a court in Darmstadt, western Germany, where she and an alleged female accomplice were convicted of animal cruelty after stomping the mice to death and also using a car to run over 12 mice before filming themselves burning the rodents with lit cigarettes. But that was only part of the fun. In addition to entertain their pervy fans, these two skanks also stomped two lizards and three geckos to death. In a move that had to be torture for the court (literally, because who the heck gets off on that sort of perversion), the video they made was used as evidence in the case. "Customers who watch films with such content satisfy themselves, according to our information, by watching beautiful women slowly and painfully trample on the animals while wearing socks, high heels or while barefoot," the prosecutor said. For her twisted crimes, the star of the video was given a nine-month suspended sentence and told to pay €500 ($674) to an animal protection organization. Her co-star remains at large and thus could not be sentenced Tuesday. No additional details about the sick soul who paid the women for the video were provided, but he is being charged in a different case. And what defense did the animal stomper provide in her defense? Her attorney argued that his client took no pleasure from torturing the animals and described the sentence as particularly harsh. "One has to see that my client did not torture the animals for fun, rather that she needed the money that she had been promised in advance," he said. No, she may not have taken joy in the act, but she did take the money and that’s enough to constitute a crime. Her dreams of moving to the United States have now been dashed, as she would no longer be allowed in the country, the lawyer added. Too damn bad, rodent stomper……………
- High-definition signals have existed for some time, but viewers have not always had occasion and opportunity to access them. Gadget maker Boxee hopes it can change that with its new Live TV stick add-on for its streaming media set-top box that will allow owners to gain access to live television channels. The company announced the new device Wednesday and the Live TV stick will be available in January for $49. In essence, it is a a high-powered HD antenna that provides Boxee Box owners with local channels like ABC, CBS, Fox, CW and NBC with no monthly fee. Why anyone would want to see the crap programming CW churns out in high-def is unclear, but Boxee is banking on it along with free basic live TV channels and videos from services such as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Vimeo and others to convince users to end their cable subscriptions and save money in the process. With cable bills often blowing right past the $100 mark each month, Boxee’s formula may work. Previously, its devices have struggled to gain a foothold because consumers did not want to give up the local channels they received as part of their cable package. Boxeee itself pointed out that 89 of the top 100 shows on television last year were on broadcast networks last year. Boxee CEO Avner Ronen wrote in an official blog post that he was inspired to create the Live TV stick by an unusual source. “Cable companies keep telling the press and investors that cord cutting is not real, and that if it exists then it’s limited to people who can no longer afford cable. We are sure they are conducting objective and unbiased research, but we are meeting more and more ‘cord never getters’ and ‘cord cutters’ every day. They are more than just people tightening their belts in tough economic times, these are people who have left cable TV behind because it does not fit their lifestyle. They are part of a changing culture, with a changing expectation of how they watch the shows they love. The cord cutters we talk to have changed the way they watch TV,” the post stated. By explaining how the Live TV stick will essentially be an HD antenna, Boxee has finally addressed speculation that the add-on would merely be complimentary to cable services like Comcast, Dish Network and DirecTV. However, the Live TV stick won’t turn the Boxee Box into a DVR it also can’t compensate for areas in the country with poor HDTV signal strength. Odds are it will gain a minor following, but not create a total television revolution……………
- Connecticut residents or those who sent mail to Connecticut residents living in the vicinity of Eastford in the past few weeks, there may be an explanation as that mail never reached its destination. Somehow - and even the U.S. Postal Inspection Service still isn’t sure, piles of mail ended up in the Natchaug State Forest over the weekend. No one with the USPS seems to have a clue, but the organization has apparently ruled out a disgruntled employee going, well, postal. "It does not appear to be an employee issue at this time," said Maureen P. Marion, a USPS spokeswoman. A small group of hikers found the mail and rather than foraging through it looking for some birthday checks from grandma or some gift cards from Uncle Frank they could pilfer, these do-gooders contacted the park ranger, who recommended calling the postal service. "The good citizen hikers bundled the mail and contacted their home post office to begin that effort," Marion said. Chaplin resident Janeen Rose was one of the hikers who found the misplaced mail in the woods while horseback riding in the forest on Sunday afternoon. She called the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to report the discovery. Oddly enough, the ranger didn’t come and after waiting 15 minutes, Rose called back and the surprised ranger greeted her with an interesting query. "He said, 'What do you mean? This isn't you?" Rose said. Apparently, she and her group were not the only ones who found a bag of mail in the woods. The ranger had stopped when he met a woman and a man who had flagged him down and handed him a garbage bag full of mail that they had found in the woods. Figuring there would be only one group of people waiting for him with a bag of discarded mail in a state park on a Sunday afternoon, he assumed he had found Rose. Once the reality of the situation dawned on him, the ranger drove over to Rose and her friends to collect it. Rose and her friends found about 150 pieces of mail, including bills and bank statements, addressed to numerous people. Much of the mail came from nearby Mansfield, while some was from more-distant. Chaplin and Hampton, she said. "Really, it was the weirdest thing to think that someone's stealing mail down there," Rose said. Stealing it and discarding it once they find what they want, apparently……………
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