- Was that really necessary, FBI? Yes, after a person passes away their FBI file tends to become a matter of public record, but couldn’t the Bureau have handled the release of former Wu Tang Clan rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard’s file better? Maybe redact some of the more damning material so as not to disparage the sterling, upstanding reputation of one of hip-hop’s most iconic groups by alleging he was "heavily involved" in "murder, car-jackings and the sale of drugs and illegal guns." That is all according to ODB’s newly released FBI report, which was released this week. The rapper died of a drug overdose in 2004, but it took nearly eight years for the FBI to release his file. Along with the headlining allegations, the file also contains an extensive list of arrests for offences that include resisting arrest, injuring a child, common assault, attempted murder of a police officer, refusing to pay child support and the illegal possession of body armor. Actually, scratch the whole idea of it impugning ODB’s character. He was a freaking rapper, after all. If anything he would love all of this information leaking out and enjoy a nice boost in street cred. The full report is 93 pages long and connects the rapper, whose real name was Russell Tyrone Jones, with the infamous Bloods gang as well as two murders and an incident in January 1998 in which he himself was robbed and received treatment for a bullet wound. Ironically, the FBI describes Wu Tang Clan as a sort of criminal gang, stating that "once individuals have proved themselves as good and loyal members [of Wu Tang Clan], they are offered record contracts to record rap type music." Doing ODB proud, FBI……….
- Doing the Nazi solute is a crime punishable by fines and prison time in Germany (or deportation for foreigners), so holding a torchlight neo-Nazi parade is probably verboten as well. That could be why raids were carried by police in four states in eastern Germany and netted a large volume of evidence linking 41 neo-Nazi suspects to an illegal torchlight parade held in the region. Suspects in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Brandenburg are suspected of participating in a September march in the town of Stolpen, east of Dresden, adorned in black clothing with black hoods, white masks and carrying torches. This sort of march is typically used to promote a violent, far-right ideology. Investigators worked over the last three months of last year to gather evidence on the march and on Friday said they confiscated torches, white masks, far-right propaganda, weapons and other evidence in raids on 44 homes and garages Thursday. Despite Thursday’s evidence discovery, police say the investigation of the suspects for breaking public assembly laws is ongoing and no arrests have been made. As always, at least it’s reassuring to know that the hateful and despicable Nazi philosophy lives on through a new generation of ass hats……….
- Airlines, you can keep on charging über-FAT people extra because they can't keep their flabby physique in a single seat like everyone else. Those individuals have control over their girth (theoretically), but hitting up exceptionally tall people because they want exit row or bulkhead seats with extra leg room is bogus and you know it. Now the world will know it as well thanks to Malcolm Johnson, a 6-foot-7-inch architect from Edmonton, Alberta, who has started a brawl with Air Canada to stop charging the fee for those choice seats. Johnson rightly argues they should be available to tall travelers without the added cost. He launched his campaign last year by filing a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency, but the agency predictably rejected it in December on the grounds that he didn't fully qualify as a disabled person with a special condition. His appeal of the decision will likely be rejected as well and that doesn’t sit well with Johnson because he flies on the airline from Edmonton to France twice a year. Oh, and Canadian law also makes exceptions for extremely chubby travelers, allowing some who can't fit into one seat a free extra seat. "It's a penalty for tall people ... to pay for those seats -- they're the only seats on the craft that we can fit into," Johnson lamented. His woes are further compounded because there are no direct flights available from Edmonton to France and he must pay the fee for each of the two flights it takes to complete each leg of the trip. That means four flights for a round trip, meaning Johnson ends up paying $200 extra. If his wife travels with him and they actually want to sit together, the couple ends up paying $400 extra. In the past, Air Canada allowed him to have the seat without an extra charge. As of last year, that is no longer the case. Johnson admits other passengers haven't been very sympathetic to his cause and suggested he fly first class or just shut up and pay the fee. “People have said, well, why don't you just suck it up and sit down and shut up? And I say, that's fine for you because you're 5-foot-2 and it's all right. For tall people, it's a little different." Johnson said. Way to sell out your fellow passenger, you short a-holes. Here’s hoping the airline finds a way to stick it to you when you need assistance getting your bags into and out of the overhead bins………
- What the world truly needs, besides a way to kill off all reality karaoke shows and Justin Bieber’s career, is a whale resolution. For three decades, the battle between environmentalists and whalers has raged on with neither side able to effectively end the debate. A group of researchers believes it may have the solution with a bold proposal: The world should put a price on killing whales and give everyone - whalers and whale lovers - the right to bid on them. A group of two marine scientists and an economist published a commentary in the journal Nature on Wednesday that suggested the International Whaling Commission (IWC) could allocate catch quotas between whaling and anti-whaling nations but keep a few back for an open auction. Calling it "a market that would be economically, ecologically and socially viable for whalers and whales alike," the group said its proposal could diffuse tensions between the two sides. The Obama administration has already shown interest in the idea, as have some environmentalists who have become frustrated by the difficulty in enforcing global whaling moratorium rejected by Japan, Iceland and Norway. Since 2008, an average of nearly 2,000 whales have been killed annually those three nations alone, more than double the yearly toll in the 1990s. Both the Obama and W. administrations attempted to strike a worldwide deal that would have allowed whaling nations to hunt whales legally as long as there was a quota in place. Japan’s annual whale catch is about 1,000 whales "for scientific purposes," while Norway and Iceland catch a combined 600 annually. When 2010 came and went without an agreement, conservationists and whale hunters became even more belligerent toward one another. Christopher Costello, the paper's lead author, labeled the current system "totally ineffective" because "everyone thinks they either have a right to whale or let whales live." To correct this, he and his two co-authors, Bren School dean Steven Gaines and Arizona State University ecologist Leah Gerber, want to create a "whale-conservation market" that would allocate whale allowances to IWC members to hunt whales at "sustainable harvest levels" and have the option of harvesting their quotas, holding onto them for a year or permanently retiring them. "Somehow you have to come up with a way to allocate whales between those two visions,” Costello said. "Both sides have something to gain, and fewer whales will be killed." Making whale allowances tradeable in a global market could be a fun side project for bored day traders tired of working on the futures market and speculating on stock prices and derivatives………..
- Syrupy, sappy and sugary sweet human interest stories are what make the Olympic Games go. Networks love churning out compelling tales of athletes overcoming immense hardships to qualify for the Games and viewers eat up such stories because otherwise there is no way synchronized swimming, ice dancing or equestrian competitions would be watchable. Legendary American swimmer Janet Evans is looking to write one of those stories for this summer’s Games in London. Evans, who set world records in the 400 and 800 in 1988 and 1989 but last faced elite competition in the 1996 Olympics, is trying to make a comeback in her two signature events at the age of 40. She took the first step by clocking 4 minutes, 17.27 seconds in a preliminary heat of the 400-meter freestyle at the Austin Grand Prix on Friday. That time was good enough to win her heat and qualify her for the U.S. Olympic trials in June. The four-time Olympic gold medalist easily bested the qualifying standard of 4:19.39 for the Olympic trials. "I'm super excited to make my trials cut, that was my goal, to go 4:19, so to go 4:17 is a bonus," Evans said after winning her heat by more than 5 seconds. "My only disappointment was that once again, I took my race out and looked around in the first 50 (meters) and there was no one there. We came here for some competition. Obviously I'll be swimming against some girls that are going about the same times tonight.” Evans began her comeback in late 2010, training with former coach Mark Schubert at the Golden West Club in Huntington Beach, Calif. She competed in two Masters meets last summer, set age group world records in the 400 and 800 freestyle events and built from there. Her heat victory was all the more noteworthy given that she entered the Austin Grand Prix seeded 51st in the 400 with a time of 4:22.87…………
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