- The villagers are angry in Wukan, China, and they’re just getting started. After an inspiring week of protests, the people of Wukan are facing government suppression attempts and spitting in the face of those attempts. The locals have vowed to carry on protests this week and appear to be digging in for a prolonged standoff with Chinese authorities despite heightened security in the region. Neighboring villages are sending support in the form of bags of rice and other essential supplies and despite a quiet Sunday evening, residents left benches and a stage set up for more rallies planned later this week. Protest leaders spent the day discussing ideas for the week, including the potential for a march outside the village later in the week. Clearly, anyone who viewed Wukan as nothing more than a sleepy little fishing village of 20,000 in southern China's relatively prosperous Guangdong province drastically underestimated its residents. They have become the emblem of the current state of unrest in China and the disdain of citizens for the manner in which local and national government officials conduct business and stifle dissent. The primary concern in Wukan is over the conduct of local officials. Protestors have appealed to Beijing for intervention and have also called for an investigation of local government corruption. At the center of the mess is village Communist Party chief, Xue Chang, who has served in the position for about 40 years. Observers are looking at the tenuous situation in Wukan as an indicator of how government leaders will handle unrest if China's economy slows further or if dissent grows louder. During the uprising, the villagers have essentially been policing themselves and some have set up their own barricades to keep police out while smartly setting up an impromptu media center where foreign reporters can get electricity. Getting the word out about what’s going on is wise and occupying the local offices of the Communist party and the public security bureau is smarter still. Oddly enough, the scene inside the village has been somewhat surreal and even Rockwell-ian. Residents gather to watch movies on an outdoor screen, other set off fireworks and some sip tea in their living rooms. All of the benign activities belie the incident that took the uprising to a more intense level: the death of Xue Jinbo, who authorities say died of a heart attack while in custody but who many villagers believe was murdered. Xue’s body has not been returned and angry villagers went from enraged to nuclear when they first learned of his death. Microblogging sites have cryptically reported a steady buildup of security forces around the village in recent days, portending a fight that has a definite potential to become extremely violent in rapid fashion. Should be fun……………
- James Harrison has inspired the National Football League. He has also fueled quite a few of its charitable causes via his regular donations for illegal hits. But Harrison’s unquestionable legacy as the king of violent and illegal hits to quarterbacks and defenseless receivers now has the league seriously looking at expanding the ban on launching and helmet hits. Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay, the co-chairman of the league's competition committee, suggested that the topic will be discussed by the committee during the offseason and potential changes could be presented to the owners next spring. "I think the launch will be discussed more and more and eventually we will see helmet hits modified in the open field," McKay said. The competition committee is a group of coaches and executives that recommends rules changes to the owners, who then vote on them at the annual March meetings. It was the committee that played a key role in outlawing the technique of launching -- when a player leaves his feet and leads with his head -- against defenseless players. Based on what the league has observed this year, McKay and his cohorts could propose a complete ban on launching for next season. "Coaches felt there were too many circumstances where players could be perceived as doing it and were not really," he said. "It is a big step, not something I expect membership gets comfortable with over a year's time." At present, a 15-yard penalty is enforced for anyone who leaves both feet before contact to spring forward and upward into an opponent and delivers a blow to the helmet with any part of his helmet. Commissioner Roger Goodell and league officials then review all such tackles and determine whether to assess fines, ejections and suspensions. In a humorous twist, McKay claimed Harrison's hit on Browns quarterback Colt McCoy on Dec. 8 is not the inspiration for further discussions even though Harrison became the first player suspended for such a hit under the NFL's new guidelines. "I don't like the fact one play would drive the discussion more than a need to do it for a bigger reason: a lot of plays that are putting players at risk," McKay said. "Our game has taken some real steps in a safety direction and we see, culturally, some modifications. We need to continue in that direction." Just do everyone a favor, call it the James Harrison Rule and keep on moving………..
- Welcome to this week’s edition of “Places You Might Live in Outer Space,” wherein NASA tries to locate planets and other celestial bodies wherein life could exist. The newest possible real estate listing in the great beyond is "Kepler-22b" (the name could use some work), a planet some 600 light-years away that circles its star squarely in a "habitable zone" — the orbital distance where a world's surface temperature would neither boil nor freeze water, perhaps allowing oceans to survive as on Earth. With water widely viewed as one of life's vital ingredients by planetary scientists, Kepler-22b has one major advantage working in its favor. Compared to other proposed habitable zone worlds reported by astronomers, Kepler-22b is actually a decent moniker. Other recent suggestions include "55 Cancri f" and "HD 85512 b.” More than 700 possibly habitable planets have been suggested in the past two decades and the Kepler space telescope team estimates that in our Milky Way galaxy alone, some 500 million planets likely orbit inside their star's habitable zone. "We have many candidates in that region," said Kepler principal scientist William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Borucki spoke at a briefing unveiling Kepler-22b to his colleagues and showed a chart depicting more than 50 possible habitable zone planets, as well as Kepler-22b, among the 2,326 planetary candidates detected by Kepler since its 2009 launch. The numbers are impressive, but when you pay $591 million for a space telescope, results should probably be expected. Kepler focuses unblinkingly at roughly 170,000 stars within 3,000 light years along the "Orion Spur" of stars in our Milky Way and searches for habitable spheres by detecting dips in starlight, eclipses called "transits," that planets cause when they circle in front of their stars. Borucki cautioned would-be Kepler-dwellers that Kepler-22b isn't really Earth-like and seems more like a smaller version of the gas-shrouded world Neptune. Kepler-22B is likely about 14 times heavier than Earth and at that weight, Kepler-22b likely has an atmosphere nothing like Earth. Estimates from the Kepler team put Kepler-22b’s average temperature at around 72 degrees Fahrenheit, but despite the balmy climate even Borucki and colleagues admit the presence of life on the planet "not very likely." The only hope for life in the Kepler-22b ‘hood is the possible discovery of moons where life could have a better chance of thriving. Once again, hopes for a new Earth are dashed before they can truly be realized or even enjoyed for a moment……………
- Are crackheads or crack dealers typically the smartest people in the world? No. Not to insult all the friendly neighborhood crack dealers and lovers of eight balls of blow out there, but they tend to be slightly less than Ivy League educated. So why, oh why are Houston residents so upset about a sweatshirt being sold at a local discount store that basically serves as a how-to guide for making crack cocaine? A thrift store known as DD’S Discounts was selling the crack shirt for $8 and the typically overreactionary response from the general public was to lash out at that which threatens their beloved cultural norms. “I can’t believe they’re selling something like this,” said shopper George Wyatt while standing in the parking lot of the store, which is located at Wilcrest Drive and Beechnut Street. “I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say.” How about thank you? As in, thank you for teaching people how to properly make their crack so they don’t blow up their house? Crack heads are going to make what they want anyhow, so why no educate them? Even for someone who has never smoked, shot or snorted cocaine in their life, the shirt is an easy how-to manual complete with baking soda, spoon and an open flame. Rather than appreciate the educational assist, local anti-drug activists were quick to rip the shirt and the store for selling it. Sadly, DD’S Discounts relented and took the item off its shelves late in the week because it is “committed to addressing issues quickly as they may arise,” according to a corporate spokesperson before adding that DD’s didn’t make the shirt and said it was only selling it. Way to stifle the rights of free trade and commerce, Houstonians…………..
- On a weekend where the real question was how much it would trump every other film by, “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” didn’t exactly deliver a knockout effort. It registered just $40 million in its opening weekend, enough to best the field but not enough to be in the area code of any cinematic records. Fellow newcomer “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked” was not that far behind at $23.5 million in its own debut and was mildly disappointing in its own right. However, the true disappointment for the weekend had to be “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol,” which bombed out to the tune of $13 million in domestic earnings and cost a whopping $140 million to make. Even with international box office numbers mixed in, Tom Cruise and Co. may have finally discovered that the “Mission: Impossible” franchise just doesn’t have any life left in it. Opening so weakly with as much hype as the film received suggests that it might be time to pull the plug on Ethan Hunt as a hero. Fourth place went to last week’s top film, the star-stocked “New Year’s Day.” A 43-percent decline and $7.4 million effort gave the project $24.9 million in domestic earnings through two weeks. For the second consecutive week, it finished one spot ahead of the Jonah Hill vehicle “The Sitter,” fifth this time around with a mere $4.4 million and $17.7 million for its first two weeks of release. The latter half of the top 10 had some big names and titles in it, with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 falling to its lowest point in five weeks in theaters at No. 6 thanks to a $4.3 million weekend that boosted its cumulative tally to $266.4 million and counting in the U.S. alone. Charlize Theron and her new project “Young Adult” finished at No. 7 with $3.7 million in limited release and the film has earned $4.1 million through two weeks. “Hugo” was the No. 8 film for the weekend after cranking out $3.6 million and has a four-week total of $39.1 million. “Arthur Christmas” snagged the No. 9 spot in its fourth weekend by adding $3.5 million to its coffers and has accumulated $38.5 million in one month of release. The last spot in the top 10 went to “The Muppets,” which made $3.4 million and found a way to hang on in the top 10 despite dropping off more than 50 percent from the previous weekend. “The Descendants” (No. 11), “Jack and Jill” (No. 12), “Happy Feet Two” (No. 13) and “Immortals” (No. 15) could not avoid the same fate and all dropped from the list this time around……………
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