Praying Hitler statues in Poland, fighting The Man with a hockey rink and baseball criminals on the mound

- Why so serious, people of Warsaw, why so serious? Just because a despotic madman who may be the worst person ever to live attempted to exterminate an entire race of people and used your country in his quest, why should you have a problem with a statue of Adolph Hitler kneeling in prayer in a courtyard in the former Warsaw Ghetto? On the surface, such a statue in the very area where hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced by Nazis to live in inhumane conditions during World War II could be construed as upsetting. Predictably, the over-reactors at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish Advocacy group, have deemed the statue to be “a senseless provocation which insults the memory of the Nazi’s Jewish victims.” These bleeding hearts are upset because prior to World War II, Warsaw had the largest Jewish community in Poland and Europe and during the war, about 300,000 Jews in the ghetto died – most of hunger and disease and after being sent to concentration camps where they were killed. Those responsible for the statue contend it is intended to be thought-provoking and the exhibition’s catalogue says art “can force us to face the evil of the world.” The fact that virtually no one has ever forgotten how evil Hitler was does not seem to factor in to their argument. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan created the statue in 2001 and it was installed in Warsaw last month. Titled “HIM,” the display has drawn thousands of viewers since it was placed. The statue depicts a schoolboy kneeling in prayer and the head is made to resemble that of the fundamentally evil German dictator who wasn’t even German. It is visible only through a hole in a wooden gate and is the work of an artist known for being deliberately provocative. Cattelan has also made an effigy of Pope John Paul II being crushed by a meteorite and that work was also displayed in Poland, a deeply Catholic country. He may just dislike Poland, although Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, was consulted about the installation and said he believes it has educational value……….

- Welcome back, Charlie Sheen. His world-class charade of general insanity and vitriol toward anyone in his path (and his own body with the yearlong cocaine bender he mixed in along the way) had seemingly faded as his new basic cable series “Anger Management” got off the ground and achieved a modest amount of success, but ugly and hateful Charlie Sheen resurfaced over the weekend in a favorite vacation getaway of rich people who want the cachet of traveling internationally while not giving up the actual experience of being in the United States, also known as Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. That’s where Sheen recently opened a new lounge, the Epic Bar in the swanky El Ganzo Hotel. Unimaginatively named (calling it the Winning Bar may have been the only lamer option), the nightspot was graced with Sheen’s presence and a heartwarming scene in which he berated the audience with an anti-gay epithet. “How we doing . . . Lying bunch of f----t a--holes. How we doing? You guys suck!” That warm greeting certainly grabbed the attention of the capacity crowd, which included Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, who performed later in the night. With those dignitaries on hand, maybe Sheen was simply inspired to give them a memorable night. Sadly, someone must have pulled him aside after he pulled his face out of the pile of coke he was snorting and off the hooker he was sexing up later in the night because Sheen eventually issued a sort-of apology, saying, I meant no ill will and intended to hurt no one, and I apologize if I offended anyone. I meant to say maggot, but I have a lisp.” Good one, Chuck. Let us know when you’re going to start being funny again………

- Good news, all 30 teams in Major League Baseball. A former flame-throwing reliever who also enjoys throwing flames at workers on his family’s ranch in an attempt to murder them is now free and clear…..of the Venezuelan penal system. Former major league pitcher Ugueth Urbina was freed on Sunday after serving 7½ years in prison for the attempted murder of five workers on his family's ranch and he is already excited about a return to the game he loves. Newly freed, Urbina took the field in his native country to play for the Caracas Lions and described himself as "more mature" and said he was "very excited to play baseball again." "I'm excited to be here," Urbina said prior to a game against the Zulia Eagles. Now 38 years old, he was released from prison after serving roughly half of his 14-year sentence for attempted murder during a dispute over a gun on Oct. 16, 2005. That dispute saw him attack and injure workers on the ranch with the help of a machete and several co-conspirators. Urbina was convicted of attempting to murder the workers by dousing them in gasoline and setting them on fire at the ranch, located about 25 miles from Caracas, although he has repeatedly denied involvement with the incident and claimed he was sleeping at the time of the attack. There is no guarnatee that Urbina, who pitched for the Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers, Florida Marlins, Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies and saved 237 big league games from 1995-2005, will ever have as much as a tryout with a major league team, but least he can still play Venezuelan winter-league baseball and recall those fond memories in the 2003 World Series to help the Marlins beat the New York Yankees. For now, he is holding out hope that he will play professional baseball in the United States again. "The first order of business is pitching in Venezuela," he said. No, the first order is actually staying out of prison…….

- Stick it to the Man, Lund family of Gurnee, Ill., stick it to The Man….with your small-scale outdoor hockey rink in your suburban yard. Everyone fights their own battle with a different totalitarian regime and for the Lund family, that regime is the local government that is ordering them, much like Ronald Reagan did do the Russians in 1990, to tear down this wall……or haphazard home hockey rink. For the second straight winter, the Lunds decided to construct a hockey rink for the neighborhood children to enjoy. The rink, with plywood wall boundaries, covers their side yard and it has drawn the ire of at least one neighbor who has courageously chosen……to remain anonymous while b*tching to county official. “It became a nuisance,” said Lake County administrator Barry Burton. “And again, they’ll be asked to remove it.” According to this bureaucratic despot of doom, the county’s property laws include a very specific provision of  “no ice rinks in your yard.” It seems like an obscure ordinance and it is, but if it does exist, then the Lunds are now repeat offenders and Burton will not allow their ridiculous rink to stand. “We don’t want to be a Scrooge,” he added. “This is in fact too large for that type of area.” One neighbor complained that kids playing late in the evening are disturbing him with their über-loud slap shots and likened the sound to that of a hammer pounding on his door. Kim Lund has no intention of backing down from the city in this fight and sounds ready to freeze herself to the ice to protect it should anyone come to tear it down. “It has been red-flagged,” she said. “To me, it’s the principle. We are not violating any ordinances. We have consulted with an attorney. It’s a neighbor issue more than anything to me.” Should her family choose to keep the ring up in an act of hockey-based defiance, they could be fined………

- Samsung needs an edge. It doesn’t have the tech arsenal to compete with the iPhone or Droid, so finding a competing operating system to capture the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers is the company’s new mission. In this quest, Samsung will soon become the first to sell a smartphone running on the Tizen operating system through Japanese carrier NTT Docomo and other partners. Beginning early next year, Samsung will offer the Tizen-based phone, which runs the Linux-based operating system that emerged from the death of Nokia's MeeGo. Samsung took over the development of the operating system from Intel, which originally worked with Nokia on MeeGo, and the Linux Foundation is also involved. One advantage for Tizen is that it is generally viewed as more open than Google's Android, which has developed a reputation among some developers of being overly legalistic and byzantine with its numerous restrictions for apps. These policies have hampered the company’s ability to make massive changes to the underlying platform for the operating system and the companies working on Tizen see it as a viable alternative to the Droid and the closed iOS operating system Apple’s iPhone uses. A cynic could argue that Samsung is simply desperate as it watches its market share dwindle and the Droid and iPhone seize a stranglehold on the market, but the company is somewhat hedging its bets by also carrying devices running on Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. Predictably, as with anything running a Windows OS, these phones have failed miserably and left Samsung in need of better options. Tizen is also being developed with an idea to use it for other devices as well, including televisions and tablets………..

Sean Payton plays it well, Death Valley is the heat king once more and Big Brother still watching

- A hobbit continued to reign supreme at the box office for the final weekend of the year. “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” held off the controversial “Django Unchained” in the latter’s debut, posting a weekend tally of $33 million to elevate its three-week domestic total to $222.7 million and counting. “Django,” taking heat because of its humorous depiction of the slavery era in the United States, debuted in second place with $30.6 million, heading up a trip of new films trying to knock off “The Hobbit.” Fellow newcomer “Les Miserables” landed in third place with $28 million, part of a tight grouping at the top of the list that finished well ahead of the rest of the pack. Leading that subpar pack was the underwhelming “Parental Guidance,” which brought in $14.8 million in its opening weekend for fourth place. “Jack Reacher” fell to fifth in its second weekend, adding $14 million to its coffers for a two-week domestic total of $44.6 million. “This is 40” fell three spots to sixth in its second weekend and made an additional $13.2 million for an overall bank roll of $37.1 million. “Lincoln” claimed a spot in the top 10 for the eighth time in as many weekends of release, garnering $7.5 million and boosting its domestic total to an impressive $132.1 million. The crap-tacular “The Guilt Trip” continued its uninspiring run with an eighth-place finish, somehow suckering moviegoers into buying $6.7 million worth of tickets with money they would have been better off lighting on fire directly. In two weeks, “Guilt Trip” has made $21.1 million. “Monsters, Inc. (3D)” was ninth with $6.3 million and has banked $18.5 million in its return to theaters. “Rise of the Guardians” snagged the final spot in the top 10 with $4.9 million and has managed $90.2 million in its six weeks in theaters. “Skyfall” (No. 11), “Life of Pi” (No. 13) and (finally!) “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2” (No. 14) all fell out from last weekend’s top 10……..

- Who says the U.S. government can't get things done before deadlines? Fiscal cliff or no fiscal cliff, the House of Representatives and Senate were not about to miss out on their chance to grant the government five more years of legally invading the privacy of an any person they damn well choose…..and even a few they don’t choose and happen to stumble upon by chance. That’s right, the Senate approved a five-year extension of a George W. Bush-era surveillance law that allows U.S. intelligence to conduct wiretapping on foreign citizens without a warrant. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, approved by the House of Representatives in September, cruised through the Senate with a 73-23 vote and broad bipartisan support. Of course, a few foot-draggers tried three times s to add oversight and privacy safeguards to the elements of FISA that authorize the warrantless wiretapping program that was begun under Bush, without congressional authorization, after the September 11, 2001 attacks, but that didn’t happen and instead, the bill now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. The core of the law is allowing the collection of intelligence on Americans when they communicate abroad with foreigners designated as potential terror suspects by agencies like the CIA and the National Security Agency. Those potential terror suspects could be goat herders in Pakistan or a banana farmer in Belize and as long as the CIA or NSA says they’re a terrorist, that’s all that matters. While forward-thinking critics have raised concerns that the communications of everyday Americans may be getting swept up in a vast electronic collection of phone calls and emails, Congress will be damned if it’s going to allow a practice that began in 1978 in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal to die off. Safeguards to prevent against unlawful wiretaps of U.S. citizens were eased after 9/11 so that intelligence agencies could better track foreign targets and there simply isn't any tolerance for dissenters, not even Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), who introduced an amendment that would require greater disclosure of information about the highly secretive wiretapping program and how it is being used. "This is an important time for American security," Wyden said. Indeed it is, Ronnie, so get the hell out of the way because the government has eavesdropping to do……..

- Heat supremacy is back in the U.S.A., baby. Not only is America doing more than its part to fuel global warming and wreck the environment with harmful emissions, but it has also reclaimed its status as the home to the hottest place on earth. Although Death Valley has long had the reputation of the world’s biggest sweat box, the actual title has gone since 1922 to a city on the northwestern tip of Libya. Al Aziziyah snagged the record with a claimed reading of 136.4 degrees on Sept. 13, 1922 and for more than 90 years, no one could dethrone the town – until now. After a yearlong investigation by a team of climate scientists, the World Meteorological Organization, the climate agency of the United Nations, rejected the 90-year-old mark, returning the title belt to Death Valley on the strength of a 134-degree reading registered on July 10, 1913, at Greenland Ranch. That mark is now the official world record and there is no place hotter in the world, unless one counts the seat on which Barack Obama and Congress sit with the fiscal cliff looming. Needless to say, Death Valley dwellers are thrilled. “For those of us who survive here in the summer, it was no surprise that it’s the hottest place on the world,” said Charlie Callaghan, a Death Valley National Park ranger who personally recorded a 129-degree day in the area a few years back. To commemorate the occasion, a new exhibition at the National Park Service visitor center off Highway 190 was recently unveiled with the words” “Hottest. Driest. Lowest.” Lowest is a reference to a spot in Death Valley, Badwater Basin, which at 282 feet below sea level is the lowest place in North America. With the 100-year anniversary of the record-setting head recording looming next summer, there are discussions about an official celebration of the record-setting measurement next July. If that celebration happens, everyone can thank Christopher C. Burt, a meteorologist with Weather Underground, who led the charge to have the Libyan claim reviewed. “The more we looked at it, the more obvious it appeared to be an error,” he said. Burt presented his case to members of the World Meteorological Organization and from there it was a matter of time and due diligence…….

- Rich French people, you have dodged a Socialist scud. An attempt by embattled President Francois Hollande to strong-arm the ultra-wealthy in to paying a 75 percent income tax rate was dealt a severe setback Saturday when France's highest court threw out the plan, saying it was unfair. The constitutional council ruled Saturday that the way the highly contentious tax was designed was unconstitutional and rejected it with pointed criticism of those responsible for it. If it ever is put in place, the tax would target incomes over 1 million euros ($1.32 million). What makes the court’s decision humorous is that the higher tax rate was a largely symbolic measure that had meaning mostly in the fact that it would have represented Hollande and his Socialist Party fulfilling one of his flagship campaign promises. However, it would only have affected a miniscule number of taxpayers and brought in an estimated 100 million to 300 million euros. Stack that amount up against France's roughly 85 billion euro deficit and the picture comes into clearer focus. Window dressing, symbolic gesture and hollow government action all apply in this case. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault was ready with the official response immediately after the court’s decision, saying in a statement following the decision the government would resubmit the measure to take the court's concerns into account. In rejecting the tax, the court objected not to the size of the rate, but with the way it discriminated between households depending on how incomes were distributed among its members. The plan would have singled out households where a single earner made 1.2 million euros or more while allowing households where two earners each making under 1 million euros (but more than that figure combined) to be exempt………

- Well played, Sean Payton. As his one-year suspension for his role in the New Orleans Saints bounty program winds down, Payton has played his hand beautifully. He has mostly laid low, stayed off the radar and allowed rumors of his future plans to swirl after commissioner Roger Goodell refused to validate a 2011 agreement on a contract extension between the team and Payton because of a clause that permitted Payton to leave the franchise if general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended, fired or otherwise left the front office. That decision made Payton a coaching free agent and with a Super Bowl win under his belt and his intact reputation as a great offensive mind, every team with a coaching vacancy (or soon to create one) was salivating over the chance to land him. Even though smart money was on him staying in New Orleans all along, he allowed those tales of him potentially jumping to Dallas make the rounds and worked his negotiating position and the Saints’ subpar season (7-8 going into Sunday’s season finale) well. How well? Well enough to land a five-year contract extension with the Saints that is expected to make him the NFL's highest paid coach at more than $8 million annually. Although the contract still must be approved by the NFL – which it wasn’t last time – it is being reported that Payton and Saints owner Tom Benson have agreed in principle to the extension, leaving some of the contract’s language to be cleaned up before it is done. The team Payton returns to after one year away may bear little resemblance to the one he left. Some $15 million over the salary cap and facing the prospect of shedding key veterans from a defense that ranks as the worst in the NFL this season, the 2013 Saints could be a major rebuilding project for Payton and Loomis. If he can pull it off and return to team to contender status, maybe Payton really will be worth more than the current highest-paid coach in the league, the curmudgeon-y Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots at reportedly just under $8 million per season. Payton is eligible for reinstatement on Feb. 4, the day after New Orleans hosts the Super Bowl………

$12 flights to New York, bitter Donovan McNabb and Lady Gaga puts down the bong

- After a month of holiday-related gatherings and the requisite amount of cookies, fudge and other treats being consumed, too many people across the United States must now figure out how to shed those extra pounds they added during the month of December. Thankfully, science is here to help…or at least pretend to help. A newly published study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have furthered  the understanding of the so-called “food clock” that determines how the human body responds to sudden changes in eating habits. The project identified a particular molecule that resets an individual’s food clock every time he or she changes their eating habits. Researchers named the newly identified protein PKCy and believe it could prove key to new weight-loss strategies. In their report, the researchers explain that when a person begins eating to excess or eating at unusual times, the food clock, or  “food-entrainable oscillator,” becomes unsettled. That throws off a person’s metabolism and makes it much more difficult to avoid overeating and weight gain. Lead researcher and UCSF neurologist Dr. Louis Ptacek explained how he and his team were able to pinpoint a mechanism by which a major change in schedule can affect how much an individual eats and how those eating habits affect weight gain. He described the effects of a  “desynchronized food clock,” saying that the network of biochemical processes known as the food clock anticipates meal times and tells our bodies what to do with the nutrients about to be ingested. According to the study’s findings, when PTCy binds with another protein called BMAL, stabilizes BMAL, which then shifts the clock. Mice were used for the study and researchers compared how mice that lacked the PTCy protein reacted to being fed at night versus how normal mice reacted. Those normal mice woke up to eat, while mice without PTCy slept through their feedings). Based on what they learned, Ptacek and his team believe the greater understanding the molecular action of PTCy could lead to new ways to control the food clock and regulate metabolism regardless of external influences. Or people could eat less junk and get off the couch for exercise on a daily basis………

- In a time when no pop album could truly be considered risky, none other than Lady Gaga is trying to drum up hype for her new album by claiming that it is "very risky.” Speaking in an online conversation with her fans on her Little Monsters social networking site, Gags said that her upcoming album “ARTPOP” is risky because it was important to her to break boundaries with the project. “My favorite things about 'Born This Way' album is that it was risky and its own thing. 'ARTPOP' is very risky. If you're not taking a risk you're not breaking any boundaries,” she explained. Part of the reason the creative process took so long, she added, was due to her insistence on writing all her own material and not accepting songs written by other people. "I feel so bad. I know you all wanna kill me," she said. "But nobody writes my songs for me. Every single song you've ever heard by me, I created from nothing with friends. So it takes some time. New inspiration. New sounds. New experiences.” The entire chat eventually morphed into one big love-in between the singer and her rabid followers, although there was the interesting revelation that “ARTPOP” was not a weed-fueled effort. "No weed on 'ARTPOP. No," she joked. "Weed in the bathtub though. Hahaha."
That chat was part of a busy week in which Lady Gaga also announced she is currently making a documentary-style movie with famed photographer Terry Richardson. That came on the heels or her showing up on stage with The Rolling Stones during the band's final date of their 50-year anniversary gigs at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J………

- Wise move, Venezuelan opposition leaders. While your ailing dictator is in Cuba undergoing more treatment for his recurring battle with cancer, slide in with a request to his government to consider amnesty for 125 people in prison or exile. Dictator Hugo Chavez is recovering from cancer surgery in Havana, but opposition lawmaker Edgar Zambrano announced that he submitted case files Friday on 80 people in exile and 45 others listed as "political prisoners" to the office of Vice President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s hand-picked successor. Making the request now is wise because a) a prompt response is unlikely with Chavez laid up in Cuba, allowing the opposition to claim the government is dragging its feet and b) if Chavez does respond, maybe his own adversity will soften his stone heart a bit. The names on the list are people such as Pedro Carmona, a business leader who temporarily took over the presidency during a failed coup against Chavez in 2002 and later fled to Colombia, and Maria Lourdes Afiuni, a judge under house arrest for freeing a banker from prison while he was awaiting trial on charges of flouting currency exchange controls. Securing their freedom will be difficult in large part because the government continues to deny that Venezuela has political prisoners. Maduro announced Friday night that he was traveling to Cuba to visit Chavez, so maybe the two of them will have a thoughtful discussion about this very important issue. Venezuela’s second-in-command made the announcement during the inauguration of a state governor, adding that he and other government officials would fly to Cuba and leave Energy Minister Hector Navarro in charge of government affairs in the meantime. Chavez had remained out of public view since undergoing his fourth cancer-related surgery Dec. 11 and there is growing speculation that he may not be able to return in time for his scheduled Jan. 10 inauguration for the new six-year term he “won” with rigged elections earlier this year………

- Bitter down, Donovan McNabb, bitter down. McNabb was much-maligned during his time with the Philadelphia Eagles and was even booed on draft day by the very fans for which he was going to play. He led the team to five NFC championship games during his 11 years in an Eagles uniform, but only reached the Super Bowl once and came up small in that one shot at the big game. He was eventually released, gained a lot of weight and bounced around the league before reluctantly ending his career when it became clear no one wanted a 36-year-old, overweight quarterback. Wait…..what’s that? McNabb still thinks he can play and is hoping another team will sign him? Well, for now he’s an analyst for Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia and with the Eagles poised to cap a truly forgettable season with a meaningless game this Sunday, McNabb was asked what Andy Reid's legacy will be in the city assuming the team does the expected and fires him after the season. The Eagles are 4-11 and after owner Jeffrey Lurie announced prior to the season that Reid needed to do better than last season’s 8-8 record or he would likely be terminated. "You look at everything he's been able to accomplish, I think it outweighs what you've seen the last two years," McNabb said before turning his attention to the fans who so often maligned him as a player. "Making it to the NFC Championship is not easy, and I think they're starting to see that right now, that getting to the playoffs and going to the NFC Championship consistently, it's just not that easy.” He ultimately arrived at his central point, namely that the he and the coach shouldn't be judged unfavorably because they weren't able to win a title. It’s good to know that at least McNabb doesn’t still have a colossal chip on his shoulder…….

- Because everyone wants a cheap flight from Lebanon, N.H. to Boston or New York, discount airline Cape Air is taking action. That taxing trip of 268 miles (or 121 miles to Boston) typically costs about $130 round-trip, but for the final few days of 2012, fares will be a mere $12 each way from Lebanon Airport to Manhattan or Boston. “Your trip to New York City is really neat. You can fly from here to White Plains (in an) hour and a half. Included in the fare is ground transportation to Manhattan, which takes about an hour. So, door-to-door from where we are standing here to Midtown Manhattan, two and a half hours,” said Rick Dyment, the Lebanon Airport manager. That’s right, ground transportation from the airport into Manhattan is included in the offer. It’s a great deal and not just because it allows people to get the hell out of Nowheresville, N.H. in the middle of the winter. But why would any airline offer such a sweetheart deal to travelers? Because it’s part of an effort to boost the number of passengers flying out of the airport for the year to 10,000, that’s why. Of course there’s an ulterior motive because no one in any business takes any action unless it nets them more profits of valuable positive PR. By reaching the 10,000-passenger mark for the year, the airport will be awarded an additional $850,000 in funding from the FAA that can be used for airport projects. “Runway repaving, tree-clearing, safe areas off the end of the runway to make sure those are smooth to FAA-designed criteria, and projects like that,” Dyment added. The airport and Cape Air are teaming up for the lower fees, which are essentially free because the $12 covers fees and taxes. Airport officials say they are just a few dozen passengers away from hitting the FAA's threshold and to meet demand for the über-cheap flights, Cape Air has temporarily added several additional daily flights to New York and Boston………

50 Cent's guarantee, NBAers cursing fans and robotic Army trash converters

- Christmas night did not go the way Jordan Hamilton and his Denver Nuggets teammates hoped it would. With a national television stage to battle the streaking Los Angeles Clippers, who entered the game with the best record in the NBA, the Nuggets had a chance to make a statement. Playing in the fifth and final game of the league’s big holiday showcase, Denver had a shot to go on the road and beat a team that had not lost since Nov. 26. Instead, the visitors from the Mile High city suffered a 112-100 defeat in which they were never that competitive and Hamilton emerged from the holiday having created an ugly Christmas memory by cursing out fans seated near the court in the closing minutes of a game that had been decided long before he lost his mind. With 3:50 left in the fourth quarter, Hamilton was running the wing on a fast break when he caught a bounce pass and sprinted to the basket, where he was fouled. As happens occasionally during NBA games, Hamilton’s momentum took him into the crowd and sent him tumbling a couple rows into the crowd. After righting himself and turning back toward the court, Hamilton looked back over his right shoulder and uttered an extremely obvious profanity to a Clippers fan seated near the spot where he ended up. Amazingly enough, in a nationally televised game his words were caught on camera and on account of the NBA not taking kindly to its most prominent employees cursing out the paying customers, the league slapped Hamilton with a $25,000 fine for the incident. A great charity will get the money and Hamilton will get a valuable lesson that no matter how idiotic or ignorant a fan’s remarks may be, unless they are racist or some other form of hate speech, players have to shake them off……..

- Soldiers create a lot of trash while in the field. The U.S. Army wants to find a way to be both more efficient and more environmentally responsible, so it must find a way to reuse or recycle its waste and to that end, the Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery II prototype (TGER) is in development. The TGER is mounted on a trailer and can turn about a ton of garbage into electricity. A typical 550-person unit generates about 2,500 pounds of trash a day in the form of paper, plastic, packaging and food waste, but one of these standard 60-kilowatt diesel generator-powered gadgets can turn that trash into synthetic gas. TGER produces enough fuel to run a generator on approximately 75 percent within two hours. Given 12 hours, the device can produce alcohol that, when blended with the synthetic gas, can run a generator on full power. Making units self-sustaining eliminates the need to find or carry power sources and it also eliminates the need to deliver such power sources in combat settings. Fuel convoys travelling to and from base camps in Afghanistan and Iraq are popular targets for militant groups. Additionally, recycling waste on-location will decrease security risks by eliminating the need for contractors who could be co-opted by insurgents. How green is TGER? According to Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, which developed the prototype in conjunction with SAIC, TGER Technologies, Defense Life Sciences and Purdue University, extremely green. “If you start off with 30 cubic yards of trash, you end up with one cubic yard of ash, and that ash has been tested by the Environmental Protection Agency. They call it a benign soil additive. You could actually throw it on your roses," said EBRC senior technologist James Valdes. The first TGER prototypes were tested at Camp Victory in Baghdad over a period of 90 days. "We picked a forward operating base in Iraq because we wanted to really stress the system,” Valdes added. “All other energy systems had been tested in laboratories or under ideal conditions and temperature climates. What we really wanted to do was stress it with heat, sand and real-world trash." After the first round of tests, Valdes' team eliminated a system that made pellets from trash and instead created a horizontal gasifier with an auger device to rotate trash. To change the inert gas being produced into usable fuel, they modified the technology to inject steam into the gasifier, ensuring a larger conversion of usable gas. With those upgrades, the new TGER 2.0 prototype produces 550 BTUs of gas, a threefold increase from the 155 generated by the original model. Factor in an automated touch-screen interface that allows soldiers to monitor every part of the machine, including gasifier-to-ethanol production and power output, and the TGER becomes an easy-to-use machine requiring only one soldier to feed garbage and another to monitor the conversion. TGER could also have valuable scivilian uses, perhaps in disaster relief efforts…….

- Economic peace is an issue confronting not only the U.S. government and the National Hockey League, but also threatening to cripple the shipping industry along the East and Gulf coasts. With the clock ticking toward a Sunday deadline, a strike by the International Longshoremen's Association is just days away and the outlook isn't rosy. The ILA and the U.S. Maritime Alliance are at odds over a new deal and the two sides are battling over container royalties. The ILA wants to keep the fund as it is, while the USMA wants to establish a cap on much money is put into the fund for workers with the goal of eventually eliminating it. A 12:01 a.m. deadline on Sunday looms and if no deal is reached, ports along the East Coast will be plunged into a state of chaos. "Commerce as we know it today, all those that rely on our ports, would be significantly effected if not shut down," said Curtis Foltz, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority. From Texas all the way up to Maine, ports will be impacted by the potential strike. "If there is a coastwide strike, it effectively shuts down the ports from Maine through Galveston, Texas,” Foltz added. ILA members have not gone on strike since 1977, but the painful memories of that three-month work stoppage linger for many in the shipping industry. The 1977 strike crippled many businesses, although some union members later said the strike was a valuable learning experience because it illustrated the need to work better with shippers and manufacturers. What makes a potential strike so dangerous is that unlike a work stoppage in, for example, a single city among members of a transportation union is the wide range of products that pass through ports. All manner of goods, from food to clothing to consumer electronics, come in to ports on cargo ships and manufacturers that are unable to ship anywhere on the East Coast will have no choice but to find more expensive alternatives – or not ship their goods at all. Simply put, consumers will have to pay more while also facing the perils of the federal government sending them over the fiscal cliff…….

- If 50 Cent’s new album sucks, he’s going to have a lot of ‘splaining to do. Expectations for the project, titled “Street King Immortal,” were already high and not just because a) of its name and b) the fact that more than a few of 50’s fans are probably high as well. In addition to being shot nine times and surviving, the man legally known as Curtis Jackson has established himself as one of the biggest names in hip-hop, meaning his albums are awaited with a high level of anticipation by the rap masses. To upgrade those expectations, Jackson took to Twitter the day after Christmas and informed his followers that his new joint will  "not fall short of a classic.” He also vowed to start the New Year with a "new approach" and said hip hop gave him everything he could of dreamed for and then some. "New year,New approach, I'm not afraid of change.this Sh!t is going perfect STREET KING IMMORTAL will not fall short of a classic," he tweeted. The video for the first single from the album, “My Life,” debuted online last month and with production by Symbolyc One (Jay Z, Kanye West) and guest appearances from Eminem and Maroon 5 man-bander hack Adam Levine, the song has raced up the rap charts. Two other tracks, “New Day” and “My Life,” which was produced by Dr Dre, features a guest spot by Alicia Keys and was mixed by Eminem, have also leaked online and both will feature on “Street King,” 50 Cent’s fifth studio album and the follow-up to 2009's “Before I Self Destruct.” The release date for the new album is Feb. 26……….

- Rise up, Iraq, and stick it to The Man. Just because former dictator Saddam Hussein has shuffled off this mortal coil doesn’t mean Iraqis don’t have reason to be enraged at their government and that was borne out Friday as tens of thousands of Iraqi Sunnis angry over perceived second-class treatment by the Shiite-led government gathered along a major western highway and elsewhere around the country for the largest protests yet in a week of uprisings. Well-organized and well-attended, the rallies took place after traditional Friday prayers and showed the world the force wielded by a dogmatic protest movement that appears to be gathering support among Sunnis, who have been increasingly antagonistic in light of an uptick in arrests and prosecutions that they feel underscore Shiite political dominance. Friday’s biggest demonstration occurred along a main highway to Jordan and Syria that passes through the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi in the Sunni-dominated desert province of Anbar, due west of Baghdad. In an inspiring scene, several thousand protestors took it to the streets in Fallujah, carrying placards declaring the day a "Friday of honor." While every Friday should be a Friday of honor, seeing many demonstrators toting d old Iraqi flags used during the Hussein era of terror was a bizarre sight, to say the least. To provide a bit of contrast, other protestors raised the current flag, which was approved in 2008. Yet more rebels flew the banner of the predominantly Sunni rebels across the border who are fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. Similarly large and irate crowds also blocked the highway in Ramadi, further to the west, to demand "fair treatment" from the government and the release of prisoners. Dhari Arkan, the deputy governor of Anbar province, led that effort………

Racist Google apps, Girl Talk isn't legit and woes of the Wailing Wall

- The times, they are a-changin’….at the place where Jewish people go to send up their cries for help to Yahweh. With growing dissent over the recent flurry of recent arrests of women seeking to pray at the Western Wall with ritual garments in defiance of Israeli law, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering changing restrictions on who can pray at the famed wall. Netanyahu has asked Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the Jewish Agency, to study the issue come up with solutions to make the site more accommodating to all Jews. All it took to inspire this request was two decades of civil disobedience by a group called Women of the Wall against regulations, legislation and a 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruling that allow for gender division at the wall. These  dissident ladies are angry over being denied access to one of Judaism’s holiest sites, specifically laws that prohibit women from carrying a Torah or wearing prayer shawls there. Progress in affecting change has been slow and small in Israel because the nation’s ultra-Orthodox retain great sway over public life. On a global scale, the issue has deepened a divide between the Jewish state and Jews living abroad. Factor in the international heat Israel is taking over its settlement policy and the picture gets murkier for the country’s leaders. Leaders of groups such as the Reform and Conservative movements in the United States have argued that the government’s recent aggressive enforcement of restrictions at the wall has turned the wall into little more than an ultra-Orthodox synagogue. “The prime minister thinks the Western Wall has to be a site that expresses the unity of the Jewish people, both inside Israel and outside the state of Israel,” said Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s senior adviser. “He wants to preserve the unity of world Jewry. This is an important component of Israel’s strength.” Anat Hoffman, the chairwoman of Women of the Wall, was unswayed to Netanyahu’s pledge and said it would not prevent the Israel Religious Action Center, of which she is executive director, from filing a Supreme Court petition as soon as next week challenging the makeup of the heritage foundation’s board. All of this over gender discrimination at an internationally known religious landmark……..

- Gregg Gillis doesn’t like to be lumped in with the rest of the DJ world. Even though his musical act, known as Girl Talk, relies entirely on him sampling other artists who actually bother to come up with original material instead of copying someone else’s to create new songs, Gillis doesn’t consider himself a DJ like Skrillex and David Guetta, who both received way too much praise at last year's Grammy Awards. He also doesn’t consider himself long for the spotlight and sounds perfectly content with the knowledge that his 15 minutes of fame could end in the blink of an eye. "I'd be really comfortable if I had, like, 50 total fans again like 10 years from now, and I was back to the day job and it would just be this cool little thing that happened," Gillis said. Without putting much of his own source material into what he does, Gillis may not have to wait 10 years to see his fan base dwindle back to 50 or so after months of packing outdoor venues at festivals this year. Sadly, he may have a point when he suggests that the weak, watered-down, bastardized genre of music known as techno/electronica plays well to the upcoming generation of shallow, ADHD-addled music lovers who comprise much of his own fan base. "Now I think young people are trying to find something to identify with and they wanted this next level of having their own style. I think [this type of electronic music] kind of raised the bar for youth culture," Gillis added. Raise the bar or drag it down into the sewer, one or the other. Still, it is mildly reassuring to know that a glorified club DJ who has managed to repackage enough samples of other people’s work into disposable pop garbage to give himself a small blip of success on the musical radar knows his success is only temporary………

- When smartphones and therefore smartphone apps were first developed, those conjuring up the latest leap forward in communication technology no doubt had in mind the day when borderline racist apps would make it possible to offend people and create societal strife with nary a word being spoken…right? Yet here we are with a full-fledged, small-scale racial drama on our hands because of one Google user who believes it's fun to make yourself look Asian by changing the shape of your eyes and wearing a Fu Manchu mustache and rice paddy hat. “This is just a fun app (that) lets you indulge you and your friends," says the description of the "Make Me Asian" app created by user KimberyDeiss and available on Google Play. There are similar apps to sufficiently insult other ethnic groups -  "Make Me Indian" makes you a Native American with brown skin, war paint and a feather headband – but “Make Me Asian” is generating most of the drama. "You can for a few seconds to make (yourself) a Chinese, Japanese, Korean or any other Asians," the description adds. “Any other Asians?” Really? Even if the app isn't overtly offensive, that imbecilic description of it most definitely is. The online campaign 18 Million Rising, named after the number of Asian-Americans in the United States, is leading the charge against Make Me Asian and has launched a petition to get Google to remove it along with Make Me Indian.  “These racist and offensive portrayals of Asians and Native Americans perpetuate damaging racial stereotypes and should not be distributed on the Google play store," said the campaign through an online post. Google disagrees/enjoys the profits it makes off such apps a little too much and insists the apps are not in violation of the company's policies that protect against hate speech. "We don't comment on individual apps," Google said in a statement. "We remove apps from Google Play that violate our policies." In defense of KimberyDeiss, he/she/they make(s) apps that insult across age and physical appearance lines, such as  "Make Me Old" and "Make Me Fat," and other race-insensitive apps including  "Make Me Russian" and "Make Me Irish." Asian blogs and activist groups have increased the volume of their cries for change in recent days and Washington pastor Peter Chin is largely responsible for the protest on the website Change.org. He wondered how Google's motto of  "Don't be evil" fits with the company’s decision to allow the racist apps to stand. "I wanted to make sure this app isn’t given a pass of approval," he said. "It's not cool.” Well said, pastor Chin……..

- Newt Gingrich wants a colony on the moon, SpaceX founder Elon Musk envisions people living on Mars, but could there be other options for outer-space dwelling places? An international team of astronomers led by Mikko Toumi from the University of Hertfordshire would answer that question in the affirmative after discovering five new planets just 12 light years away from Earth. According to Toumi’s team, as many as two of these planets could actually be habitable for human life. All five of the planets rotate around the star Tau Ceti, which is visible in the night sky and is very similar to our sun. For this study, researchers combined more than 6,000 observations from three telescopes in Hawaii, Chile, and Australia to detect the five new planets. The five new planets are all between two and six times the mass of earth and one them, which is five times the mass of Earth, is located within a habitable zone know as the "Goldilocks zone." This zone is neither too hot or cold to allow liquid surface water, making it a solid candidate to support life. "This discovery is in keeping with our emerging view that virtually every star has planets, and that the galaxy must have many potentially habitable planets," said research team member Steven Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Combined with these few new exoplanets, more than 800 planets have been discovered orbiting other stars, but just  seven of these could potentially support life. Known as superterrans, these potentially habitable exoplanets have all been cataloged in the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog (HEC), a complex computer program created to measure the suitability for life of these emerging galaxies and exoplanets. The program combines data from numerous exoplanet databases, including the Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia and NASA Exoplanet Archive. Information on new discoveries is fed into the system by research teams and that data is then analyzed and incorporated into the database once it is ready for public announcement……..

- The NHL lockout will not end any time soon. Owners are rich and have their other businesses to run, but players unable to find a league to play in internationally during the work stoppage and millions of distraught Canadians must find a way to fill their unwanted volumes of free time. Montreal Canadiens defenseman Josh Gorges decided to bridge the gap ‘twixt players and fans at a Montreal rink Wednesday afternoon, during the Boxing Day holiday, by inviting his Twitter followers to join him for a pickup game. Yes, pickup hockey. It actually does exist in Canada and Gorges extended an open invitation to his followers on the social network to join him. To a passerby, the scene looked no different than those playing out at countless parks and ponds across the country, with the exception of the larger-than-normal crowd gathered around a rink in the city's Verdun neighborhood. "I haven't played outdoors in a long time, but I figured we've got some time and I've got nothing else to do," Gorges said during a break from the game. "I was just looking to skate outdoors and I threw it out there on Twitter and so many people were asking where I'd go play. So I thought, 'Why not set a time and place and we'll all come and play?'" His jokes about the game in the days leading up to it created a stir among his 23,000-plus followers on Twitter and hundreds of them from a wide range of age groups and skill levels showed up for their chance to skate with an NHL player. Some fans expressed frustration about the lockout, now in its fourth month, and said that while they appreciated Gorges’ gesture, what they really wanted was to see their beloved Canadiens and the rest of the NHL’s teams back on the ice to play what little remains of the 2012-13 schedule…….

Black market Botox, "Eff you" holiday lighting displays and JJ Abrams' dork code of ethics

- Some holiday lighting displays are a metaphorical “Eff you” to one’s neighbors. Adorning your yard with enough wattage and voltage to land a 757 on the front lawn and illuminate the entire county in the process has nothing to do with Christmas cheer and everything to do with showing off and throwing it in the neighbors’ faces that your display is bigger and better than theirs. That makes it downright laughable that Denham Springs, La. resident Sarah Childs has received so much bile from her neighbors and even local law enforcement for one of the most creative holiday displays in recent memory. Childs found herself embroiled in a dispute with some of her neighbors and decided to send a message with her decorations. She hung her Christmas lights in the shape of a middle finger and the display so rattled her neighbors that they called the police, who threatened to arrest Childs. In response, Childs and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana sued the city. A Baton Rouge judge sided with Childs on Thursday, clearing the way for her to put her literal “Eff you” in lights back up. "I imagine it will be back up before too long," said ACLU of Louisiana executive director Marjorie Esman. Childs has actually been forced to take the lights down from her roof twice, once after a police officer told her she could be fined and again after another officer threatened to arrest her, her lawsuit said. U.S. District Judge James Brady’s decision should hold off ass-hatted city officials for now, but his order temporarily barring them from interfering with the display will only protect Childs until a Jan. 7 hearing. In the two-page order, Brady wrote that the city's "continued efforts" to prevent Childs from displaying her holiday lights will violate her rights to free speech and due process. Denham Springs attorney Paeton Burkett said the city will comply with the order, but the issue appears to be a long way from over. For now, a display showing two hands with extended middle fingers feels pretty freaking festive………

- Berlin, you’ve gotta fight….for your right…..to keep your gas street lamps. That fight has become a pressing one now that Germany’s capital city is pressing forward with a plan to modernize and make itself more environmentally responsible. City officials have announced their intention to phase out the vast majority of Berlin's historic gas lamps as part of a far-reaching project to make the city carbon-neutral by 2050. Berlin currently has nearly 43,000 gas-powered streetlights, more than any other city in the world. More than one of every six streetlights are gas and many of that number date back to the 19th century. Others were erected immediately after World War II by the occupying Soviet forces attempted to restore light to the devastated city. Guided tours to areas of the city where the lights remain prevalent have become popular and the distinctive warm, yellowish glow of gas lamps is akin to Beacon Hill in Boston or San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter. As pretty as the lights are, however, rising fuel costs and maintenance as much as $700 for some lamp models have made the gas lamps an easy target for cost-cutting politicos. Mix in carbon dioxide emissions almost ten times that of an equivalent electric light and the push for electric alternatives picks up steam to the point that a modernization program  to replace 8,000 highway lamps, mostly dating from the early 1950s, with new electric lights has been approved. Officials argue in the modernization plan that the energy used by those 8,000 gas lamps could power 100,000 electric lights and claim that replacing them would cut energy costs by 90 percent. For the tree huggers out there, the appeal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 9,200 tons per year should ring true. Petra Rohland, spokeswoman for Berlin's Department of Urban Development, said the changeover is expected to be completed by 2016. "Five percent of the historic gas lights, especially the candelabra, will be kept as originals in the future," Rohland said. Thankfully, a group known as Gaslight Culture is calling for the dismantling plan to be suspended. The group is pushing for a meeting of all interested parties to seek alternative solutions. Maybe a fundraiser concert fronted by New Jersey rockers The Gaslight Anthem would be a solid idea……….

- For the first time in two and a half weeks, LeBron James was found guilty of a crime – a crime on the court, that is. In a league where stars get blatantly preferential treatment and the obvious benefit on foul calls from officials the NBA insists are calling the game right down the middle, James had not been whistled for a foul since Dec. 8. That streak ended Tuesday when the Miami Heat forward was called for a foul against Oklahoma City's Serge Ibaka with 7:57 left in the first quarter of the teams' NBA Finals rematch, James went up to block a dunk attempt by Ibaka, but instead was whistled for his first foul in 254 minutes, 7 seconds of on-court time. His previous foul came when he was whistled for backing into New Orleans' Lance Thomas with 2:30 left in the first quarter of that game on Dec. 8. James also racked up a technical foul on Christmas, but neither that misdeed nor the first foul he had been called for in weeks – not the first he had committed, just the first he had been called for – were enough to derail the Heat. They bested the Thunder 103-97 by making all of the plays down the stretch as Oklahoma City self-destructed and looked like a 1-year-older version of the team that was outmatched in losing three straight games in Miami in the Finals last season as the Heat closed them out and won the franchise’s second NBA title. As another calendar year ends, it’s reassuring to know that the absurdly preferential treatment for NBA stars remains one of the world’s most-reliable constants……….

- Fools who inject toxins into their face in a futile attempt to stave off the hands of time don’t deserve the protection or efforts of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on their behalf, right? The bureaucrats at the FDA clearly do not agree, otherwise they would not have sent warning letters to eight Massachusetts Botox providers have been sent letters from cautioning them they may have unapproved and unsafe versions of the anti-wrinkle injection. The unsafe Botox (an oxymoron of sorts because its very nature makes it unsafe no matter how it is used) came from foreign suppliers owned by Canada Drugs and so far, the agency has alerted more than 350 medical practices across the country that they may have received the unapproved version. Using unapproved Botox means the agency cannot vouch for the safety and effectiveness of the product or if the box has the appropriate warnings for patients, leaving providers in Hyannis, Framingham, Newbury, Fall River, Melrose, Marblehead and Dartmouth in a plastic surgery pickle of sorts. Included on that list are two plastic surgeons, three oral surgeons, one dermatologist and one spa, all of which received products from suppliers owned and operated by Canada Drugs and known under the names Quality Specialty Products (QSP), A+ Health Supplies, QP Medical, Bridgewater Medical or Clinical Care. This isn't the first time Canada Drugs has tried to ship unapproved and counterfeit medical supplies, according to the FDA. In the past, the company has also attempted to send unapproved and counterfeit cancer drugs. In this case, however, the potential patients receiving the drugs deserve any unexpected side effects or pain they may incur………

- JJ Abrams has a dork code of ethics. Nerds everywhere who believe there is a clear line drawn ‘twixt “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” and never the twain shall meet should be thrilled to know that Abrams has reportedly turned down the chance to direct “Star Wars: Episode 7” because he wants to remain loyal to all of the Trekkies out there. Abrams is grinding away on his new film “Star Trek Into Darkness” to get the project ready for its May 17 release, but came up for air long enough to admit that he was approached early on by Disney to direct all three of its planned “Star Wars” sequels, an offer he turned down in order to focus on his current sci-fi project. "There were the very early conversations and I quickly said that because of my loyalty to Star Trek, and also just being a fan (of Star Wars), I wouldn't even want to be involved in the next version of those things,” Abrams said. “I declined any involvement very early on. I'd rather be in the audience not knowing what was coming, rather than being involved in the minutiae of making them.” So far, Disney hasn’t found the right cinematic visionary to lead its revival of George Lucas’ outer-space franchise, although “Toy Story 3” writer Michael Arndt will pen the script. “X-Men” director Matthew Vaughn has also been linked to the director search, but nothing is official just yet. What is official is the 2015 target for the release of “Star Wars: Episode VII,” giving the franchise’s dork-tastic fans plenty of time to speculate and salivate over what the movie will look like………

Alcoholic Mormon senators, Spike Lee v. Tarantino and NHL holiday hate

- Aaaand the feud between Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino continues. Even on Christmas, when peace and goodwill toward men are supposed to carry the day, the rocky relationship between the two filmmakers is anything but peaceful or kind. Lee, who has previously ripped Tarantino for what he viewed as excessive use of the n-word in Tarantino’s 1997 movie “Jackie Brown,” now has a beef with his new movie, “Django Unchained.” The way Lee sees it, the slavery-themed flick trivializes what African-Americans went through when they were first brought to America. "I can't speak on it 'cause I'm not gonna see it," Lee said of the movie. "All I'm going to say is that it's disrespectful to my ancestors." He then added a few thoughts via Twitter, writing, "American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust.My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them." He was unclear how or when he would honor his ancestors, or maybe not seeing the movie is how he plans to honor them, but either way he and Tarantino should get in the same room and work out their differences. Back in 1997, Lee zeroed in on “Jackie Brown” and vented about the offensive language used in the film. "I have a definite problem with Quentin Tarantino's excessive use of the n-word. And let the record state that I never said that he cannot use that word—I've used that word in many of my films—but I think something is wrong with him," Lee said at the time. His words might ring a little truer if Lee himself had made a good movie any time in the past decade……..

- Has the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints adopted a new policy relating to alcohol? The house (of worship) that Mitt Romney built (with help from Joseph Smith) has long been known to prohibit the use of alcohol among its members, but that makes the case of U.S. Sen. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho, all the more curious. Crapo (whose name should be spelled Crap-O after this) was arrested early Sunday morning in Alexandria, Va., and charged with driving under the influence, according to the town's police department. Alexandria police spokesman Jody Donaldson confirmed that Crapo was arrested by an officer at 12:45 a.m. ET after the officer noticed Crapo's vehicle running a red light. "Sen. Crapo was identified as the driver and arrested after failing several field sobriety tests," Donaldson said in a statement. "He was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Alexandria Adult Detention Center where he was released on a $1,000 unsecured bond." Rather than follow the traditional politician’s playbook and attempt to fabricate an elaborate lie to deny his crime, Crapo mostly owned his actions, even if he did duck cameras and microphones by issuing a written statement through his office Sunday, saying: "I am deeply sorry for the actions that resulted in this circumstance. I made a mistake for which I apologize to my family, my Idaho constituents and any others who have put their trust in me. I accept total responsibility and will deal with whatever penalty comes my way in this matter.” According to Donaldson Crapo's blood alcohol level was .110 at the time of his arrest, well above the legal limit of .08 in Virginia. In light of this incident, maybe it’s time for the senator to change his official biography on congress.gov from listing his religion as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – Alcoholic Wing………

- Maybe on Christmas, the outright hostility and hatred that has permeated the past three-plus months of NHL labor talks will simmer down…..or not. The league and NHL Players’ Association are seemingly no closer to a new labor deal than they were when the lockout began on Sept. 15, with no meetings scheduled in the next few days and more than half of the season now canceled. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Don Fehr are doing their part to ensure that no hockey is played any time soon and Bettman’s efforts on behalf of the owners have not gone unnoticed by players around the league. With the NHL on the verge of losing an entire season for the second time in eight years, Washington Capitals veterans Jason Chimera and Brooks Laich took time out of their busy holiday schedules to rip the commissioner for her overall ineptitude. “This is all part of Gary Bettman’s book,” Chimera said Friday. “He seems to be bent on ruining the game. If that’s what he’s out to do he’s sure doing a good job of it. It’s disappointing. We’re willing to get a deal done and try to sit down and talk with no pre-conditions and they don’t want to talk. If they set agendas, we’re done. We’ve got to start talking. We’re still not that far apart. It’s just a matter of getting it done. We want to sit down and they don’t want to meet at this point.” The only point in the negotiation process where any actual progress seemed to occur was in early December, but the ground gained at that point dissolved into thin air when Bettman accused Fehr of sabotaging the negotiations by making additional demands on a take-it-or-leave-it offer. Laich was a little more subtle about bashing Bettman, but still fired off a verbal salvo of his own at the commish. “Our guys really care about the game and it’s unfortunate we feel we’re not getting the same passion back from the other side,” he said. “I hope they know something we don’t because I think we’re doing tremendous damage to the game and I don’t see any positive effect of what we’re doing right now.” With accusations flying in both directions as the owners work equally hard to villify Fehr, the holidays seem poised to come and go with no deal, putting what little remains of the 2012-13 season closer and closer to the edge of the NHL’s own fiscal cliff………

- Boy, that escalated quickly. Kenya's volatile coastal Tana Delta region saw its streets run red with a lot of blood over the weekend as raiders killed villagers and burnt homes in an early morning attack in that left 28 people dead. Police said the raid appeared to have been a revenge attack stemming from recent clashes between farmers from the Pokomo tribe and semi-nomadic Orma tribesmen. The two tribes have battled for decades over access to grazing, farmland and water in the coastal region and a series of violent clashes in the region earlier this year left more than 100 people dead. Robert Kitur, Coast Region deputy police chief, reported that the Orma villagers appeared to have been prepared for the attack, perhaps leading to a smaller number of casualties this time around. "About 150 Pokomo raiders attacked Kipao village, which is inhabited by the Ormas early Friday, but the Ormas appeared to have been aware and were prepared,” Kitur said. "A confrontation ensued and as result 19 Ormas and 9 Pokomos were killed." Maybe this is the under-informed perspective of an outside, but this feels like a situation where someone needs to step in and find a way to work out ownership to the region’s natural resources because without such a deal, the Pokomo tribe and Orma seem headed toward a bloody, interminable war of attrition that ends with many people from both sides dead and that prized land of no use to those individuals……..

- SpaceX is moving forward in its pursuit of the top spot in the race for control of space travel amongst private contractors and developing reusable launch vehicles is the latest step in the process. Officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the company released a video Monday showing the test flight of its Grasshopper rocket, which took off and hovered 12 stories off the ground. The test flight for the rocket took place Dec. 17 at SpaceX's rocket development facility in McGregor, Tex. and was considered a success after t he rocket rose 131 feet, hovered and landed safely on the pad using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control. While the entire test lasted just 29 seconds, it showed that SpaceX is moving forward with the development of a reusable rocket, which the company has described as a way to significantly reduce launch costs. Other attempts to develop reusable rockets have failed, further underscoring just how much of an advantage SpaceX would have if it can master the concept. Founder Elon Musk, who also created PayPal, has expressed a dream of sending people to Mars to establish human colonies, so maybe his rockets could stop off at the moon on their way there to drop travelers off at Newt Gingrich’s moon colony. Musk envisions a world where in the Red Planet's new inhabitants can travel back and forth because their new home and their former home planet. To get there, they may travel on the Grasshopper, which stands 10 stories tall and consists of the company's Falcon 9 rocket first stage, a SpaceX Merlin 1D engine, four steel landing legs with hydraulic dampers and a steel support structure. Its Dec. 17 flight was a vast improvement over the Grasshopper's previous flight tests, including two tests that saw it rise six, then 17 feet, and hover only briefly. SpaceX said it plans to gradually increase the level of sophistication in the testing process and eventually build the Grasshopper to a space-ready state of performance………

A Hitler Nativity scene in SoCal, a $99 tablet and misbehaving Kings

- What a ride the DeMarcus Cousins Experience has been (and continues to be) for the Sacramento Kings. The über-talented power forward is averaging a team-high 16.6 points and 9.5 rebounds to go with 2.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game this season, but won't be available to his team for a while after he was suspended indefinitely on Saturday for "unprofessional behavior and conduct detrimental to the team." Cousins has been a head case since entering the NBA in 2010, but his latest incident occurred on Friday night in the locker room during halftime of Sacramento's 97-85 loss at the Los Angeles Clippers. He and embattled Kings coach Keith Smart exchanged words and Smart benched Cousins for the entire second half and ordered him to remain in the locker room. After being grounded for the second half, Cousins was suspended by the team a day later. It is his third suspension this year, with his first coming after a loss at San Antonio on Nov. 9 when the league suspended him two games without pay for confronting Spurs announcer Sean Elliott in a "hostile manner." That was followed by a one-game suspension without pay by the NBA for striking O.J. Mayo in the groin during a loss at Dallas on Dec. 10. Smart explained that the suspension is designed to be wake-up call for his talented, enigmatic big man. "We're trying to set a standard here, and when guys move below that standard, things are going to take place," Smart said. Banning a player you drafted fifth overall and who exhibits the talent to be a perennial All-Star is a bitter pill for a team to swallow, but at least Cousins accepted responsibility for the incident after the game – even if he did thieve a bad tourism catch phrase from Las Vegas in doing so. "What happens in the locker room stays in the locker room. But I was wrong. I was wrong," Cousins said. "I'm a player that definitely wants to win every night, and I'm an emotional player. That's never going to change. But I shouldn't have responded back." He also clashed last season with then- Kings coach Paul Westphal and after Cousins' workout over the summer in Las Vegas with the U.S. select team, which helped Team USA prepare for the London Olympics, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said Cousins "has some growing up to do." Some or a ton, one or the other……..

- The Bnei Menashe have an interesting decision in front of them. They are people from a remote village in northeastern India who claim to be the descendants of a lost biblical Jewish tribe. They say that their people are descended from Jews banished from ancient Israel to India in the eighth century B.C. and as such, they feel entitled to return to the Promised Land. Their efforts received a boost when an Israeli chief rabbi recognized them as a lost tribe in 2005, allowing 1,700 Bnei Menashe to move to Israel before the government stopped giving them visas. Since then, life in Jerusalem has grown more dangerous than ever and merely surviving on a daily basis is an all-consuming task. Still, the Bnei Menashe remaining in India still want to return to their homeland and Israel has officially reversed its policy of denying them visas, agreeing to let the remaining 7,200 Bnei Menashe immigrate. Staying in India and in a place that your people were not originally from may be unpalatable, but jumping into the middle of the burning blaze that is Israeli-Palestinian relations isn't the most appealing option either. Perpahs the Bnei Menashe are simply bolder than most because 53 of them arrived in Israel on Monday and according to Michael Freund, an Israel-based activist on their behalf, nearly 300 others will arrive in the coming weeks. As they arrive, the Bnei Menashe bring with them their families and their entire lives, starting a new existence in a place they have never lived. Many have expressed joy over the realization of an ambition their ancestors worked for over thousands of years and as always, nothing says welcome back like a new round of Israeli-Palestinian missile strikes and/or bombings………

- Much to the surprise of no one, The Rolling Stones have no intention of hanging up their instruments any time soon. According to newly married guitarist Ronnie Wood, the elderly rock legends plan to rock till they drop.
 Having just completed a string of 50-year anniversary concerts in New Jersey last weekend and getting married to his theatre producer girlfriend Sally Humphreys at London's Dorchester Hotel on Friday in a civil ceremony, Wood made it clear that Mick Jagger’s proclamation that one day the shows will end isn't an indication of the band planning to retire. “I think of Howlin' Wolf plugging in to his kidney machine, however old he was, 80 or something, and still playing. You just rock till you drop,” Wood said. Maybe Wood figures that if he can continue to find women to tolerate and marry him, then he, Jagger, Keith Richards and Co. can continue to put up with one another in order to extend their time in the musical spotlight while cashing huge paychecks for tours fueled by nostalgic, aging fans who, like their rock heroes, cannot let the past go. Wood first married Krissy Findlay in 1971 and their wedded bliss lasted for seven years, followed by a seven-year marital hiatus followed by a 23-year union with Jo Wood that ended in 2008 after an alleged affair with 21-year-old Ekaterina Ivanova. Richards joked that he was "sick" of buying the guitarist wedding gifts, but maybe the third time will stick for Wood. If the Stones really do plan to continue rocking out for a while, they would be well-advised to stop f*cking around by allowing pop hacks/publicity whores like Lady Gaga on stage with them, something they did during the final show of their 50 And Counting tour last week at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J……….

- Nearly every technology company in existence seems to be either already making its own tablet or working to get its first one on the market, meaning competition in the tablet battle is more intense than ever. Bottom-tier computer maker Acer is aiming to undercut everyone by launching the Iconia B1 Android tablet for just $99, a major price cut compared to 7-inch tablets like the $159 Amazon Kindle Fire. However, the company’s current plans reportedly call for the discounted tablet to debut in emerging markets even though Acer has submitted the tablet to the FCC. The Iconia B1 Android tablet is being positioned as a rival for Asus' rumored low-price Android slate, which is supposedly also due next year. Selling cheap tablets in countries where higher-end models are neither affordable for most nor the status symbol they tend to be in wealthier nations makes sense and with competitors like the Google Nexus 10 forcing price points down for all tablet makers, smaller players on the scene like Acer have little choice but to follow suit. Along with the Iconia B1 Android tablet, Acer is reportedly also developing a new Intel-based Windows 8 tablet because its current models are too expensive. Those models include the Iconia W510, which is selling for an absurd $549 and up, and the Iconia W700, which starts at $800. If Acer and the Iconia B1 Android tablet don’t break the $100 tablet barrier in the United States, it shouldn’t be long before someone does, not with the number of tablets on the market growing by the day……….

- Christmas just isn't Christmas without a little Nazi fascism, right? One or more currently anonymous souls in Huntington Beach, Calif. seem to believe so, or they just happen to be overly juvenile and not mature enough to refrain from vandalizing Nativity scenes at a Catholic church and a home in the Southern California city. Police in Huntington Beach are searching for the person or people responsible for scrawling “"Hail (sic) Hitler" and drawing a Hitler mustache on the baby Jesus outside a home in Huntington Beach and inscribing a Nazi symbol on one of the wise men with a black pen. Similar graffiti was found about three blocks away on a Nativity scene at Saint Bonaventure Catholic Parish, leading police to suspect that the same vandal or vandals may be responsible for both crimes. Homeowner Richard Candlish reported the vandalism to police and then set about cleaning up the scene he said he spent a month putting up. "It probably took less than 15 minutes for someone just to deface all of it," he lamented. Parishioners at Saint Bonaventure reported the graffiti on their Nativity scene to police and detectives are now investigating. While it certainly could be the case that a neo-Nazi kook trying to bring Hitler’s twisted philosophies to an upscale SoCal community was responsible for these acts of blatant sutpidity, the odds are just as high that some bored, rich teenagers with nothing better to do on their winter break decided, “Hey, let’s draw a Hitler moustache on someone’s Nativity scene!” Lord knows there are enough idiots in the world for that to be the case………