- NOOOOOOOOOOO! Duck and cover everyone reading this who has ears, duck and cover! Disco is not completely dead, much to the world’s chagrin. One of the biggest perpetrators of the ear-assaultingly bad genre of music known as disco is rising from its musical grave and coming back to haunt us all. Swedish disco divas ABBA plan to release a new version of their last album, featuring a previously unreleased track for the first time since 1994, the group's website said on Wednesday. For over-the-hill baby boomers and others on the wrong side of 50 who are so completely out of touch with what’s good these days in music, ABBA is a go-to standard for road trips or any other occasion when “fun” music is needed. The makers of the critically panned, financially failed “Mamma Mia” movie based on the stage show of the same name breathed new life into the group’s music, sadly. According to the post on the group’s website, a deluxe edition of their final album, "The Visitors," would be released in April. "For ABBA fans, the most sensational inclusion in the package will be the previously unreleased track, 'From A Twinkling Star To A Passing Angel (demos)',” the statement said. “This is the first time since the 'Thank You For The Music' box set in 1994 that ABBA have opened the doors to the tape vaults to release previously unheard music from the group's heyday.” If only those vault doors had remained closed and “The Visitors” had remained merely another dark stain on the musical wasteland that was the 1980s……but alas, the chance to re-release it along with bonus selections and a DVD of rare and previously unreleased material from the archives was too much to pass up. ABBA, comprised of Agnetha Faltskog, Anna-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, terrorized lovers of good music everywhere with a string of abominable disco-pop songs in the 1970s and '80s and to this day remain one of Sweden’s most lethal exports……….
- Get with it or get out of the way, indigenous leaders who stupidly condemned the Aboriginal Tent Embassy protesters who clashed with police and tried to storm an event with Australia’s prime minister and opposition leader Wednesday. More than 200 protestors were outside Old Parliament House in Canberra to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the tent embassy and decided to bum rush an Australia Day awards ceremony at a Canberra restaurant where Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott were in attendance. The sudden surge of protestors forced dozens of police officers to rush to the scene, where the demonstrators were angrily banging on the three glass sides of the restaurant and chanting words like "shame" and "racist.” Gillard and Abbott were rushed from the scene in a display of cowardice. Gillar stumbled and lost a shoe as she was dragged away to a waiting car by security guards. Undeterred by the evacuation, protestors chased the car down the road, banging on its roof and hood. Their rage was fueled by remarks Abbott made in which he said he thought it was probably time to reconsider the relevance of the tent embassy. On a day many Aboriginal people regard as "invasion day,” those words and his presence were enough to spark an uprising. Gillard later attended a function for international ambassadors elsewhere in the city and insisted she was fine, but indigenous leaders still labeled the protesters' behavior as "disgraceful.” Former aboriginal leader Warren Mundine believes the protesters misinterpreted Abbott's comments as a call to demolish the embassy. Mundine tried to spin the remarks as Abbott’s belief that the embassy is outdated but not necessarily in need of demolition. "Quite frankly it's irrelevant to the mainstream of Aboriginal people today," he said. Police have already said they do not plan to file charges against any of the protestors, but an incensed Mundine disagreed. "No human being, let alone the Prime Minister of this country, should be treated in such a way," he said. "I believe the people who instigated, the people who have caused this to happen, the full force of the law should come down upon them." Suck it, Mundine, and shut your mouth. Allow the protestors to seize Gillard’s lost shoe (which they did) and hoist it proudly over their heads (which they also did) without being subjected to criticism……….
- The best athletes are often some of the most bitter athletes as well. Their bitterness over every sleight - real or perceived - fuels them and drives them to work harder and become even better. They remember every critical story written, every condemning comment made and every show of disrespect from opponents. Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose is undoubtedly one of the best, the NBA’s reigning MVP and the unquestioned leader of one of the league’s best teams. Rose is decidedly unhappy right now and it stems from the Bulls’ 95-90 home loss to the Indiana Pacers Wednesday night. The defeat was the Bulls’ first of the season at home and it brought Indiana to within 2½ games of the Central Division leaders. It also gave the Pacers a measure of revenge after losing a hard-fought first-round playoff series to the Bulls last season. Rose wasn’t as bitter about losing the game as he was about how the Pacers reacted to winning it. Pacers players and coached slapped each other with animated high-fives and could be heard whooping and hollering as they headed down the tunnel from the court to their locker room. "I'll never forget how they celebrated just from winning this game," Rose said immediately after the game. "I can't wait to play them again." Bulls guard Ronnie Brewer, who started in place of the injured Luol Deng and scored 20 points, said the Bulls could hear the Pacers' celebration continue from the court to the locker room. "When you're walking off the court, you're in the same corridor," Brewer said. "And we were walking into our locker room, and you could hear those guys celebrating, cheering, screaming, and that kind of hit home with a lot of guys on our team. We're all competitors. They're in our division. Every time we play them it's a tough matchup. And especially in front of our fans, you don't want to have a letdown and lose at home. To hear them do like that adds a little fuel to the fire.” Indiana coach Frank Vogel defended his players while pointing directly back to last season’s playoff loss. "They are just thrilled to get the win here," Indiana coach Frank Vogel said. "They were crushed that we didn't beat them last year in the playoffs." The Pacers were also coming off a difficult home loss to the Orlando Magic the previous night and clearly had memories of last season’s physical, contentious first-round playoff series. After the series, Pacers forward Granger said Bulls center Joakim Noah's play was cowardly. Rose sounds like he feels the same way about the entire Pacers locker room right about now………
- For those seeking it, here is another reason to hate work. Aside from low pay, idiotic co-workers, overbearing bosses and being forced to work in cubicles or windowless rooms and slave one’s life away, a team researchers led by Finnish scientist Marianna Virtanen has determined that working 11 hours a day may not only take a physical toll on workers, but could also leave them depressed. Virtanen and her team studied civil servants in England and found that working excessive hours was linked with more cases of major depressive episodes. Researchers studied 2,123 men and women for an average 5.8 years and assessed each participant for depression. Those who worked 11 or more hours a day was associated with a 2.3- to 2.5-fold increased risk of having a major depressive episode compared with those who worked a standard seven- to eight-hour day. Hmm, so grinding away for an extra three-plus hours doing a job you probably hate with every fiber of your being isn't good for your mental health? Tell me more. Virtanen and crew found that even after adjusting for social and demographic factors, smoking, alcohol use and job strain, the link between working long hours and depression held up. They concluded that working longer hours may cause conflicts between work and family, problems relaxing after a long day and increased amounts of cortisol in a person’s system. Cortisol is a stress-related hormone that, when over-produced by the body, can lead to health problems such as lower immunity and high blood pressure. “Although occasionally working overtime may have benefits for the individual and society," Virtanen said in a written statement, "it is important to recognize that working excessive hours is also associated with an increased risk of major depression." You’re preaching to the choir, M…………
- Why can people not simply say “Thank you” and keep moving when life hands them a great blessing? College students spend an inordinate amount of time bitching and moaning about the ridiculously high cost of textbooks and how little money they receive at the end of the semester when they go to sell back books they’ve rarely used as anything other than a makeshift pillow for when they fall asleep “studying” on Facebook. Operating within this reality, how pumped should a college student be when he or she orders a textbook for a class from an online retailer, receives that book in the mail and opens it up to find a bag with nearly $400 worth of cocaine inside? Sophia Stockton, a junior at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, Kan., this message is directed at everyone, but was inspired by you. See, Stockton bought a textbook, “Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives and Issues,” through Amazon.com for a spring course on terrorism. She received the book and upon flipping it open and looking through it, she discovered a bag of white powder had fallen to the ground. Being the uptight square she clearly is and thus failing to recognize it as a gift of free Colombian nose candy, she feared the white substance was anthrax and took it to the Gardner Police Department the following day. “I told them white powder was in my terrorism textbook and so I put it on the table and they’re like, ‘oh, okay,’ And so he went back and tested it,” Stockton said. “ He comes back and says, ‘you didn’t happen to order some cocaine with your textbook, did you?’ And I was like, no!” Wrong-o, Sophia. You SHOULD have answered “Yes” and if you were one of the cool kids, you would have. Yes, you go to a religious school, but Kansas City is a big places with plenty of other colleges and you need to go to parties at one of them. Learn all about the Bolivian marching powder and maybe next time some stranger gift-wraps a bag of it for you, you’ll know what to do with it…………
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