- Even the über-smart among us swing and miss from time to time. Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is one of the wiser guys in the NBA and has a staff full of math wizards who compute all manner of statistics upon which the Rockets base roster and personnel decisions. The sabermetric approach helps keep the Rockets consistently competitive even though they can't always afford to be among the league’s big spenders. But even Morey misses on a player from time to time and red-hot New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin is one such player. Lin was released in late December by the Rockets to make room for Houston's signing of Samuel Dalembert and after a short stint in the NBA Developmental League (NBDL) he was called up by the Knicks. His call-up came after Knicks stars Amare Stoudemire (death in the family) and Carmelo Anthony (groin strain) were lost indefinitely. Since joining the Knicks, the undrafted former Harvard standout has scored 25.3 points and handed out 8.3 assists in three games and inspired asinine terms and headlines like “Linsanity” amongst the New York media. Seeing a player he cast aside vault to (probably temporary) stardom doesn’t feel too great for Morey. "We should have kept (Jeremy Lin). Did not know he was this good," he wrote on his official Twitter account on Thursday. "Anyone who says they knew misleading U." He went on to praise Lin, writing "Finally, really happy for (Lin). Very hard working, nice, & humble. He has a great, great future." With Anthony out and the city awash in the joy of the Giants’ Super Bowl win, Lin has seized some of the spotlight as part of a remarkable journey that has taken him from Golden State in the preseason to Houston and on to Manhattan. Next stop? Who knows………..
- Vermont: Where they’ve got a little something extra in their seafood. Depending on your point of view, that something extra might be bad…..or extremely bad. Seems that fish in the northern part of Vermont are radioactive like the fish living in the waters near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. A new report from the Vermont Department of health found that these fish have radioactive elements in their bones. Scientists found traces of radioactive materials in Lake Carmi's fish "Strontium-90 and Cesium-137," said Bill Irwin, the radiological and toxicological sciences program chief for the Vermont Department of Health. Hmm, sounds nutritious. The obvious question is whether those two added ingredients make the fish inedible or just unappealing. "If fish were healthy to eat two days ago before anybody heard about this, it's still the same," Irwin said. What makes the find odd is the similarity to radioactivity found in fish at the southern end of the state two years ago. Because Lake Carmi and the Vermont Yankee power plant are on opposite ends of the state, more than 150 miles apart, seeing the same type of radioactivity raises many questions. “What we thought, that that plant has not yet leaked any kind of radioactive materials of this nature into the environment where it could harm public health, is currently true," Irwin explained. His working theory on the radiation is that the source is from before Vermont Yankee's time. "Most of it came from weapons testing in the Atomic era -- the 1940s, '50, and '60s," Irwin declared. So maybe the situation isn't dire or life-threatening, but the chance of pulling a two-headed fish out of Lake Carmi is apparently much better than anyone realized……….
- The nightmare for tech companies just might be over. For more than a decade, tech menace Michael Doyle and his patent-holding company Eolas Technologies — named after the Irish word for knowledge — have been a looming threat seeking to establish claims to some very valuable technological properties. Their efforts hit a significant snag Thursday after an eight-member federal jury in East Texas deliberated and concluded that all of Eolas’ asserted claims of ownership to technology allowing access to the interactive web were invalid. The ruling led to the immediate cancellation of three upcoming trials that were scheduled to rule on infringement and damages, for Google, Yahoo and other companies. None of the eight defendants who resisted the lawsuits will have to pay anything to Eolas or its partner, the University of California, for using the web. Eolas attorneys had argued that its patents entitled the company to royalty payments from just about anyone running a website with “interactive” features, like rotating pictures or streaming video. At the heart of its claim was whether the first computer program that allowed access to an “interactive web” was created by Doyle, a lesser-known biologist from Chicago, where he runs Eolas. Defendants in the case put on Internet developer after another on the stand, each of them claiming to have developed a program or website component that further facilitated the growth of interactive sites. Millions of dollars were wasted spent trying the case and in the end, eight people not intelligent enough to find a way out of jury duty sided with the defendants. Had the jury upheld the patents, there would have been a potentially lethal damages phase in which Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Amazon, Adobe, JC Penney and Staples would have been sued for infringement and been asked for more than $600 million in damages, with the majority of that coming from Google and Yahoo. Instead, patents Eolas had claimed for years but which no one outside the company or its shareholders recognized where ruled invalid and the decision almost certainly spells the end for Eolas. Now that, friends, is knowledge……….
- Thanks for nothing, police and city officials in Jersey City, N.J. You had the chance to stop the next bastard offspring of the “Jersey Shore” franchise and you whiffed. All the world needed was for someone in power to have the kahones to say no when the producers of a new reality series featuring “Shore” skanks Nicole “Snooki” Palozzi and Jenni “Jwoww” Farley came in asking for a permit to film. Instead, city officials took the coward’s way out and said they would not grant a permit unless producers agreed to abide by some ridiculously simple and basic rules. First, the show must allow at least four Jersey City police officers to be stationed at Jwoww and Snooki's home at all times. Secondly, the officers must be allowed to travel with these two brain-dead b’otches and their camera crew when they leave the house. Third, producers must reimburse the city for all related costs if any additional officers are needed for any reason during the filming of the show. This beign a “Shore” offshoot, the odds of additional officers being needed within the first hour of filming commencing are sky high, let alone for the duration of the show. Jersey City PD officials have made it clear (allegedly) to the show that the officers assigned to the show are taking their duties very seriously and will take action if any state or city laws are broken. Oh, and what a proud and distinguished time this has to be for those unfortunate officers. Going through the police academy and working hard to achieve their dream of becoming an officer, all so they could some day become a babysitter for two IQ-deprived, GTL-ing trolls filming a lame reality show for MTV. Dreams do come true, kids………..
- Carnival could be much more interesting this year in Rio de Janeiro. No, Mr. Gisele Bundchen, a.k.a. Super Bowl-losing quarterback Tom Brady, isn’t planning one of the most awkward, uncoordinated dance routines ever captured on film to accompany the one he uncorked last year at the famed Brazilian festival. Interesting is an extremely relative term and if one isn't down with the idea of being mugged, robbed, shot or stabbed on the street, it may not be the right word. Now that police in Rio are threatening a strike to coincide with Carnival, life in the city is on the verge of becoming utterly chaotic. Government officials appeared to capitulate to police demands by approving a pay raise on Thursday, but the decision may not be enough to avert a strike. Rio's legislature approved a measure giving state security officers, which include prison guards, firefighters, civil and police, a staggered, 39 percent raise divided between this year and the next. Legislators also promised a larger pay raise in 2014. That didn’t seem to placate union leader Helio Oliveira, a major with Rio state police. Oliveira said officers' salaries have been devaluing for decades and insisted 56,000 officers and guards are willing to walk out in protest if their demands are not addressed. "What was approved today does not meet our demands," he fumed. "It's half of what we want, and won't be given all at once. We want a new proposal, with a salary offer that is enough to meet our needs." Being without thousands of security officers during the world’s largest festival, which is slated to begin on Feb. 17, would be a recipe for disaster. Officials in other cities fear the strike idea will spread to other states, as officers in seven of Brazil's 26 states as well as the federal district are considering their own strikes: Roraima, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Goias, Espirito Santo, Parana and Rio Grande do Sul. Sergio Simoes, head of Rio's Civil Defense department, announced during a Thursday press conference that the army was prepared to free up 14,000 soldiers to patrol the streets of Rio state if police went on strike. If officers do strike, they will directly defy Rio Gov. Sergio Cabral, who called on officers to obey their sense of duty and responsibility to call off the work stoppage. "You cannot have a strike in essential services like public safety," Cabral said. "Rio de Janeiro doesn't deserve this. I am sure security professionals will not go along with this demonstration of radicalism." The fact that Carnival pumps more than $200 million into Rio’s economy probably has nothing to do with any of this, eh city officials? Game on……….
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