- What is it with being an NFL receiver and having the urge to start your own drug ring? In the past two months, two current NFL players who just happen to line up at the far side of the offensive formation and catch passes for a living have been charged with buying and distributing illegal narcotics. The more noteworthy of the cases is now-former Chicago Bears receiver Sam Hurd, who was arrested after meeting with an undercover federal agent to set up an operation in which he would buy millions of dollars of marijuana and cocaine on a weekly basis to distribute in the greater Chicago area. Hurd was busted at a Morton’s Steakhouse just outside Chicago after telling the informant that he wanted to buy "five to 10 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 pounds of marijuana per week for distribution in the Chicago area." His tale is more sensational, but Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson’s saga began first. Federal authorities confiscated a package containing 2.5 pounds of marijuana that was allegedly shipped from California to Simpson's northern Kentucky home in September and found six more pounds of marijuana inside the house, as well as drug paraphernalia such as packaging materials, scales and smoking devices. The case dropped from the public eye for a while as the investigation proceeded, but Simpson was indicted on drug charges Thursday in Covington, Ky. He is charged with trafficking in more than eight ounces and less than five pounds of marijuana, a felony, Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders confirmed. Simpson faces up to five years in prison if convicted. The indictment puts a bit of a damper on his über-amazing highlight play against Arizona on Dec. 24, when he jumped over a defender at the goal line and did a full flip in mid-air before landing in the end zone for an epic touchdown catch. Evading justice proved to be more difficult and odds are that even the felon-friendly Bengals won't bring him back after an erratic season capped with felony drug charges……….
- Finding alternative fuels requires creative thinking. Natural gas, solar energy and fuel made from French fry waste are good options, but the brainstorming session cannot stop there. That’s why a team with Bio Architecture Lab (BAL), a company based in Berkeley, Calif., is working to turn seaweed into another option for affordable renewable fuels. As odd as it sounds, seaweed is packed with a specific type of carbohydrates that make it a great option to convert into fuel. "About 60% of the dry biomass of seaweed are fermentable carbohydrates, and approximately half of those are locked in a single carbohydrate - alginate," company CEO Daniel Trunfio said in announcing the research. BAL researchers have discovered a way to extract the major sugars in seaweed and convert them into fuel. The team working on the project described seaweed as an ideal feedstock for making biofuels, because it has a high sugar content, does not require arable land or freshwater to grow and is environmentally friendly. By engineering an enzyme to degrade the alginate and a pathway to metabolize it, BAL researchers can now take the seaweed they grow in economically viable quantities at the company’s four farms in Chile into biofuel using a $17.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy it received in 2010. The final product is called isobutanol and Burbaum said the technology can be combined with commercial-scale seaweed cultivation promises to produce renewable fuels without forcing a tradeoff with food crops such as corn or sugarcane. Read all about this riveting find in the Jan. 20th edition of Science magazine…………
- Is Greensboro, N.C. looking to secede from the United States and form its own self-sufficient nation? Probably not, but it’s a viable question to ask any time a city south of the Mason-Dixon line starts making noise about creating its own currency. The city is mere months away from joining Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and New Orleans as major cities with their own currency and will joining fellow North Carolina town Pittsboro, southwest of Raleigh, in the club. Pittsboro has the Plenty and Greensboro’s yet-to-be-named paper money will be accepted by businesses within the city limits beginning in the spring. Like actual U.S. currency, the Greensboro Dollar will be printed on paper with security features and can be used either alone or with U.S. dollars. The Bank of Oak Ridge will support the currency's creation and circulation and it will be overseen by a nonprofit with a governing board. Organizers of the effort hope to sign on 50 businesses by the time it's circulated and in the interim, they are soliciting help from local students and the community at large in choosing a name for the currency. "The local money has to stay here. There's no other place for it to go, so it really will stimulate local commerce," said Signe Waller Foxworth, an activist who came up with the idea three years ago. Mahi's Seafood Bar and Grill on Lawndale Drive is one of the first businesses to agree to accept the currency, with owner and city councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter expressing optimism for its future. "You have a wide variety of people who have already signed on, and those varieties of trade and business are certainly appealing to Greensboro residents. I certainly believe it's going to grow," Abuzuaiter said. "It stands to reason that if you are going to encourage many more commercial transactions, many more people are going to get paid. Many more people are going to get employed and it's going to stimulate the economy.” Step one is almost done, Greensboro. Now you need to work on raising your own army, building an impenetrable wall around your city, cutting all ties with other towns and finding a way to become completely self-sufficient…………
- Indie rockers Death Cab For Cutie are known as the pied pipers of indie-rock loving dorks and have been for some time. Their music was the soundtrack of glorified dork cult figure Seth Cohen of “The O.C.” fame (Fox’s defunct drama about rich SoCal types and their life problems) and Ben Gibbard and Co. have continued to occupy a special place in the hearts of obscure music lovers ever since. They have thrived on being cool by being uncool and what’s more uncool than going on tour with a full orchestra? That was the dream the band bandied about last may following their release of their strings-tinged album "Codes and Keys" last May. In order to better replicate the original vibe of the album, the band discussed their hopes of touring with an orchestra even though the idea seemed far-fetched. "It would be really fun to take Magik*Magik Orchestra out, but unfortunately, it is kind of a nightmare to try and figure it out," Death Cab guitarist and producer Chris Walla said last year. "It's sort of turned into the Polyphonic Spree dilemma. You can make a living or you can play with an orchestra. They're totally mutually exclusive -- you almost can't do one and the other. But, I do think that we'll be able to do some shows with Magik*Magik somewhere at some point, even if it's not a full tour." Magik*Magik Orchestra is a small San Francisco-based orchestra that contributed all of the string arrangements on "Codes and Keys" and supported Death Cab on the band's 2011 VH1 "Storytellers" special. As DCFC prepares to head out on tour to promote the album, it will do so with Magik*Magik in tow on a 21-stop tour beginning on April 10 in Denver and ending five weeks later in the band’s hometown of Seattle. Fellow indie rockers Youth Lagoon will also be on the road for the second half of the tour, with an opener for the first half of the tour to be announced soon. "Codes and Keys" debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart and was one of the band’s better-selling albums………
- Another military coup to enjoy? Seriously? Don’t ask questions world, just sit back and enjoy. Bangladesh is the scene of the latest alleged coup after the Bangladesh army said Thursday it foiled a military coup plot aimed at toppling the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Brig. General Muhammad Masud Razzaq accused a group of serving and retired army officers "with extreme religious views" of being responsivble for the plot. One of the conspirators was "probably staying in Hong Kong," according to Razzaq. He announced the arrests of two retired officers — Lt. Col. Ehsan Yusuf and Maj. Zakir and said officials are still seeking a third retired officer, Maj. Ziaul Haq. All of those responsible for instigating the alleged plot are Bangladeshis living abroad, Razzaq explained. The army spokesman did not specify when the two officers were arrested but insisted the army has evidence that some 16 officers, both retired and serving, were involved in the "heinous conspiracy." That details of the supposed coup are virtually non-existent isn't an issue, mostly because a scarcity of facts and information only makes the purported coup that much more awesome. Hasina's time in office has been marked by controversy ever since his party, the Awami League, came to power in 2009 in a landslide victory after a military-backed unelected interim government ruled Bangladesh for two years following a wave of protests after disputed polls in January 2007. A huge mutiny occurred just two months after Hasina took office. Seventy-four people, including 57 army officers serving the paramilitary border force, were killed in a mutiny over pay and perks. The government is still in the process of trying more than 800 border guards on charges of killing, arson and looting during the mutiny. Bangladesh has long been the cradle of military coups in the southeastern Asian theater and this latest alleged plots cements that status. In 41 years as an independent country, Bangladesh has suffered four confirmed coup attempts and now that number could stand at five. Good times…………
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