- With all the hazards in the Gulf of Mexico, cannibal shrimp may get lost in the mix. That would be a mistake. A new menace has emerged in the Gulf and it comes in the form of the black tiger shrimp, the biggest saltwater shrimp in the world. Named for their tiger-like stripes, black tiger shrimp “are cannibalistic as are other shrimp but it’s larger so it can consume the others,” according to Tony Reisinger, country extension agent for the Texas Sea Grant Extension Service. While they may not be quite the hazard that millions of gallons of crude spilled into the water by a lackadaisical oil titan, black tiger shrimp are a major threat to the region’s native shrimp and oyster population. "Our oystermen right now are hurting because the oyster season is shut down due to a red tide. But this (black tiger) shrimp poses other concerns,” Reisinger said. The species first appeared about 25 years ago, but had not been seen much of late. “The first time they started appearing was in the late 1980s on the East Coast,” Reisinger explained. “Then they disappeared in 1991.” Following the record-breaking hurricane season of 2005, black tiger shrimp began reappearing in the Gulf. TSGES officials estimate that there are more than 1,000 black tigers in the Gulf at present and five have been caught in recent weeks off the coast of Texas. Reisinger spoke at a meeting of the Brownsville-Port Isabel Shrimp Producers Association recently to warn them about the shrimp but discovered that many already knew about the problem because they had caught black tiger shrimp and thrown them back. Maybe someone should toss one of them in a pan with some butter and cumin and see how it tastes…………
- He may have been part of a failure last season as the Heatles - a.k.a. the Miami Heat - failed to begin delivering on LeBron James vow to win “not one, not two, not six, not seven” NBA championships, but Heatles coach Erik Spoelstra has still earned an extension from the team just before starting the last season under his existing contract. "We have one of the great young coaches in the league and (he) is an absolute member of this family," Heat president Pat Riley said. "He's the perfect coach for this team now. The reason why we did it was to extend him and keep him in the family and (not) have somebody come steal him away from us." Well, that and Riley believed the media would try to create even more drama for the league’s biggest soap opera. "He wouldn't have been a lame-duck coach even though (the media) would've made him one," Riley said "We want him to become a Hall of a Famer." Ah, blaming the media for calling a lame-duck coach a lame duck coach. Don’t fault the media for properly applying a term to someone who is the definition of it, Riles. Teams that value their coach and want him around long-term typically don’t allow him to get to the final year of his contract before extending him. Spoelstra has posted a record of 148-98 and made the playoffs each of his three years at the helm of the Heatles. He has the grammatically inaccurate support of his star player as well. "Me and Erik, our relationship will continue to grow," James said. "It's much better today than it was the first day of practice last year. We didn't know each other at all. We were still learning each other. We'd seen each other from a distance. I'd seen him coach from the sideline ... he'd seen me play while he was coaching from the sideline. Our relationship is really good right now.” Riley declined to provide details on the length or financial value of the extension, but Spoelstra had been one of the league’s lowest-paid coaches, earning a base salary of less than $2 million per season. Last week, Spoelstra insisted he wouldn't allow his contract situation to be a distraction from the team and did not plan to address the subject with the media, but now that won't be a concern. He can merely focus on how to get James to actually show up in the fourth quarter of big games………….
- The unpopularity of Carrier IQ has soared in a short amount of time. To be fair, the average cell phone user has good reason to be concerned about software that tracks their every movement and keystroke. Sprint has heard those concerns and taken action. The biggest user of Carrier IQ's software announced Friday it has disabled use of the tool in response to customer concerns. The wireless carrier is no longer using Carrier IQ and said in an official statement that it is still deciding what to do regarding the software going forward. "We have weighed customer concerns and we have disabled use of the tool so that diagnostic information and data is no longer being collected," the statement said. "At Sprint, we work hard to earn the trust of our customers and believe this course of action is in the best interest of our business and customers." Sprint also fired off a letter to Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who had earlier sent a letter to Sprint, AT&T and several other companies demanding details on their use of Carrier IQ's software. Franken penned his message in response to security researcher Trevor Eckhart's disclosure last month that Carrier IQ's software could be used to conduct highly intrusive tracking of mobile phone users. In its response to Franken, Sprint insisted that its use of Carrier IQ's software had been limited to reviewing device functionality on its network to better understand issues such as dropped calls and gaps in cell phone coverage. It also disclosed that it had installed Carrier IQ's controversial software on 26 million of its handsets since 2006. In its statement Friday, Sprint stood firm on the claims it made in the letter to Franken. "To be clear, Sprint has not used Carrier IQ diagnostics to profile customers, to serve targeted advertising, or for any purpose not specifically related to certifying that a device is able to operate on our network," the company said. "Sprint does not look at the content of customer messages, emails, photos, videos, keystrokes, etc. using the diagnostic tools offered by Carrier IQ." Yeah…..whatever you say, Sprint. Apple has made the same promise about disabling Carrier IQ on iPhones, so maybe the problem really has been addressed………….
- Hunger strike time! Hunger strikes are always a blast…..unless you’re the one doing the hunger striking, but otherwise they are a giant ball of good times. Three Hungarian journalists are bringing the fun with a protest aimed at ending acts of censorship and increasing government meddling the country’s state-funded media. A new media law went into effect at the beginning of the year and has drawn sharp criticism from international observers. Even the European Union weighed in on the law’s potential ability to restrict press freedoms. Critics have focused largely on the centralization of the state media's news service as a concern. The government hailed the move as one that would eliminate duplication among Hungarian state radio and TV stations, but media outlets countered with claims that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government was seeking to censor content. In response to the perceived censorship, Balazs Nagy Navarro, a foreign affairs editor at Hungary's state TV, and two colleagues have been drinking only water, tea and other liquids since last Saturday. "There is constant pressure from every government to try to influence public media ... but what this current group is doing is unprecedented," Navarro said. "Stories are manipulated daily and (state television) has become a mouthpiece for the government.” No one wants to be a government mouthpiece and it became clear to state TV officials that was what they had become after images of Zoltan Lomnici, a former head of Hungary's Supreme Court but an opponent of the current regime, were pixelated beyond recognition on state television two weeks ago. Media members have argued that they merely want to remain impartial and do their job, not editorialize and advocate against the government. Hungarian officials seem content to build a reputation as the China of Eastern Europe and steadily strip away the relatively wide degree of independence journalists who work for state media in Hungary once enjoyed. To fight for the return of that independent status, Navarro, his two colleagues and two civilian activists who have joined the hunger strike are battling back the best way they know how. Supporters have begun stopping by state television headquarters with bags full of fruit juice and soft drinks to fuel the hunger strikers and for now, it’s a standoff with The Man…………
- Robert Downey Jr. does not come across as an incredibly formal person. Soliciting hookers and dabbling in drugs are not behaviors typically associated with those wrapped up in formality and adhering to social norms, but his flaws and checkered past are part of his charm in a sense. Just don’t tell that to a loser whose claim to fame is as the “quintessential ‘Sherlock Holmes’ expert” in the world. Downey, of course, is the star of “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” premiering this weekend. To make sure the film was accurate and true to the book upon which it is based, producers brought in the “Holmes” expert and had him on set to make sure all of the actors stayed true to the story. The biggest problem causer was reportedly Downey, who offended the continuity director while filming by constantly referring to his sidekick, played by Jude Law, by his character’s first name. “We have a man on the set who makes sure you are being accurate to the book. It turns out the quintessential Sherlock Holmes expert is a tax lawyer who lives in Malibu,” Downey explained. ""After Sherlock two I guess I dropped the ball, he was very upset, I said, 'What happened?' and he said, You called him John.' "So I said, 'Well that's his name, John Watson?' and he goes, 'He would never call him John. Only call him Watson or Mr. Watson.'" In other words, not formal enough. Sure, he was playing a fictional English detective and Brits are known for being a little more formal. Despite his issues with the continuity loser, er, director, Downey did score some points by doing most of his own stunts for the Guy Ritchie-directed movie and coming through injury-free. Too bad the continuity director didn’t get injured for acting like a tool with a stick shoved up his……………
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