- Having a heart abnormality has never been this profitable. For free-agent forward Chuck Hayes, finding a new team once the NBA lockout ended was more challenging than he expected but the end result of his journey was a deal that will net him a $1.1 million more than he was to receive under the terms of the original deal he signed with the Sacramento Kings. Hayes thought he had a contract with the Kings earlier this week, but Sacramento voided the deal after Hayes failed a physical because a heart exam showed an abnormality that would require Hayes to undergo further testing, the Kings said. Hayes went to see the experts at the Cleveland Clinic and underwent further testing as his career and long-term health hung in the balance. After more tests, Hayes was given clearance to play and his agent, Calvin Andrews, resumed negotiations with the Kings. With the original four-year, $21.3 million offer off the table, Hayes was somehow able to score another four-year offer worth $22.4 million. Discovering a heart abnormality made him an extra $1 million-plus and in a statement released by Andrews, he expressed what he had been through over the course of a fairly unpredictable week. "It's been an incredible week of emotional highs and lows," Hayes said in the statement. "The Kings have been very supportive during this process and I feel very comfortable with the relationships that I have started there. After reviewing my options, the Kings were still the choice for me." Making $5.6 million a season for four seasons seems like a high price for a player who averaged 3.4 points and 4.7 rebounds in 17 minutes per game in six seasons with Houston, but Hayes is known as a rugged, physical defender and excellent chemistry guy who does all of the dirty work for his team. Andrews was also thrilled about the outcome of the negotiations and showed some holiday goodwill in assessing how the situation played out. "I want to make it clear there were never any bad feelings between Chuck and the Kings," Andrews said. "We understood the process and their medical staff had to take the necessary precautions when it came to seeing any abnormalities of the heart.” As usual, truckloads of cash salve a lot of wounds……….
- China is at it again, although in truth the Communist Party never truly stops. Oppressing people is what the commies do in China and trampling the basic rights and freedoms of men like human rights campaigner Chen Wei is par for the course. Because Chen dared to post blog entries denouncing the Chinese government and advocating Chinese citizens’ right to free speech, he was found guilty of "inciting subversion of state power" on Friday after a two-hour trial. That’s right, the trial lasted two whole hours. The court clearly took its time hearing evidence and deliberating Chen’s case. The most potent moment of the trial came after the verdict as Chen ominously warned the court: "Dictatorship will fail, democracy will prevail." Chen was one of more than 130 dissidents arrested by security officials in February after taking part in calls for what they deemed a Jasmine revolution in China to mirror the Arab Spring uprisings. Chen's wife Wang Xiaoyan was in the courtroom for the trial and said her husband and other dissidents would not have their spirits broken by their excessive punishment. She blasted the sentence as a measure designed to scare and intimate those who continue to dare speak out against Beijing's Communist leadership. "His behavior will be tested by history," Wang wrote in a post on China's version of Twitter, Weibo, shortly after the trial. "They don't allow people to speak. There is no freedom of speech.” Chen’s specific crime was writing four articles for foreign websites in which he criticized the government and championed a civil society. He contended that he was merely expressing his opinions as allowed under the Chinese constitution, clearly forgetting that the Chinese constitution has about as much validity as a contract signed by a man in a coma. The trial itself was also a farce, taking place behind closed doors and featuring a whopping 35 minutes of deliberations by the justices after the “evidence” was presented. Wang said he husband would not appeal the verdict because there "is no point.” Chen is no stranger to being jailed for speaking out as he was previously imprisoned for taking part in the famed 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protest the government crushed by sending in the army. Welcome to China, where every day is oppressively the same and has been for decades…………
- Someone really should clue Odd Future's Tyler, The Creator in to the fact that he’s not Angus Young, Ozzy Osbourne, Dr. Dre or Jay-Z. The musical legends have accumulated years of success and built reputations as world-class stars. If they act like a rock star and cause a scene by trashing a hotel room or destroying property, so be it. Tyler, The Creator seems to believe he’s in the same class as those musical icons and subsequently forgetting that, well, he’s Tyler, The Creator. He illustrated that point perfectly after Odd Future's Christmas show at the famed Roxy club in Los Angeles. Following the group’s set, the rapper allegedly trashed sound equipment at the venue and Roxy staffers contacted the police. Officers showed up and arrested Tyler, The Creator on suspicion of vandalism and took him for a ride to the station in the back of a squad car. Making the scene that much better, Tyler, The Creator was reportedly handcuffed and arrested in front of his mother, who had been at the Roxy to see the show. The arrest came on the heels of Odd Future’s other half, 'Left Brain' Vyron Turner, getting arrested in November and charged with assault for the incident in which he allegedly slapped a female photographer. Freelance photographer Amy Harris claimed Turner struck her during a show, a claim an Odd Future representative disputed in a statement insisting there was "no truth to the accusation.” Once he clears up his latest legal issues, Tyler, The Creator will start work on this third album, 'Wolf.’ The album is set to drop in May and Tyler, The Creator has promised that the new album will move away from the grisly subject matter of 2010's 'Goblin' because he is tired of "talking about rape and cutting up bodies." Glad to hear that brutal crimes no longer interest you, T……….
- Interesting things have been happening on buses this week. First, the Son of God showed up on a bus in Connecticut and smashed a window when fellow passengers attempted to force him off the bus. Technically, it may have been a mentally unstable kook who thought he was Jesus, but that is neither here nor there. Compared to what happened a few hundred miles away in Philadelphia on Tuesday, a smashed window is actually getting off cheap. There was no appearance by Yahweh on this bus, but rather a brief lapse in judgment by a student at a Boston conservatory who left a rare violin worth $172,000 on a bus after arriving in Philadelphia. The New England Conservatory student got on a Megabus in Boston with the 176-year-old violin and briefly went brain-dead when she exited the bus and left her instrument behind. Muchen Hsieh told police she forgot the violin in an overheard bin and did not realize her mistake until after she was picked up from the bus stop. Investigators are now asking for the public’s help in recovering the valuable violin, which was lent to Hsieh by the Chi Mei Culture Foundation in her native Taiwan while she studies in the U.S. “I’m a violin major, so I really hope that the person that took it can give it back to me so I can continue my studies because right now, I can’t do anything,” Hsieh explained. She frantically dialed the bus company to see if anyone had turned in the instrument, but it was no longer on the bus by the time she called. The instrument is so valuable because it was made in 1835 by Vincenzo Jorio in Naples, Italy. When Hsieh left it on the bus, the violin was in a reddish case with two straps on the back, police Lt. John Walker said. “We believe that somebody may have grabbed the item without realizing its value,” Walker said. Either that or they immediately recognized its value and were looking to cash in. Stealing it and selling it are two very different endeavors to be sure, as the violin has a serial number, original label and is extremely rare. Whoever has the instrument can either fence it and make some quick (and illegal) cash or they can hand the violin over to Philadelphia police with no questions asked. Your move, anonymous Philadelphia violin thief…………
- Smartphones are gradually emerging as the death of many things (common sense, common decency, intelligence while in public places, competent driving just to name a few), but they are also in the process of killing off low-end digital still cameras and video cameras. According to tech research firm the NPD Group, the point-and-shoot camera market saw a 17-percent decline in the first 11 months of the year compared to the same period in 2010 and that decline is directly attributable to smartphones with their own serviceable cameras. Video camera sales fell by 13 percent and an online survey conducted by NPD Group suggested users were also more likely to opt for their phone camera to snap pictures or record video. In the survey, respondents said they were more likely to use their smartphone to take pictures or video of "fun, casual or spontaneous moments” than to reach for a traditional camera. For the first time, NPD's suggested that the total share of photos taken on a camera represented less than half of pictures taken for any purpose. Forty-four percent of images were taken on a camera for the first 11 months of 2011 as opposed to 52 percent for the previous, according to the survey. "There is no doubt that the smartphone is becoming 'good enough' much of the time," said NPD's senior imaging analyst Liz Cutting. "But for important events, single purpose cameras or camcorders are still largely the device of choice." High-end cameras remain an exception to this trend, as NPD found that 12 percent more detachable lens cameras - including SLRs - were sold over the last 11 months. Professional photographers - or merely overzealous sports parents willing to splurge $1,500 on a camera to take pictures of their 9-year-old’s youth soccer game - still need the performance of a high-end camera. However, those who just want to snap a picture of themselves and their buddies at the bar on a Friday night or at the epic rager at their apartment complex for a given weekend are turning more and more to smartphone apps including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for their imaging needs. Data from Yahoo-owned Flickr's photo sharing site backs that notion up, as Apple's iPhone 4 is the most popular camera in its community. Considering how expensive most smartphones are, they probably should be serviceable for more than just making calls, texting and browsing the Internet……….
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