- There is no shortage of irony in the most recent idea from politically concscious Chilean-born artist Sebastian Errazuriz. Errazuriz, who once planted a magnolia tree at midfield of Chile's National Stadium where dictator Augusto Pinochet tortured and killed political prisoners in 1973 and made a coat out of teddy bears as a statement on the comeback of fur on fashion runways, now resides in the place where many aspiring artists flock: Manhattan. He has seen the disenfranchised masses who gave rise to the Occupy movement as they marched, dressed in ridiculous outfits and occupied the hell out of public parks. Like any true artist and friend of outsiders, Errazuriz knew he had a duty to the Occupy movement and he is now fulfilling that duty – by attempting to turn a profit from it. Simply put, he scanned the signs and placards hoisted high by Occupy demonstrators during their 15 minutes of fame and turned them into art that he is now attempting to sell to the same “1 percent” the Occupy movement despises with every fiber of their collective being. Errazuriz painted some of the movement's slogans onto wooden folding chairs and put them on display at the Cristina Grajales Gallery booth at the Armory Show, an annual modern art fair in Manhattan that began Thursday and runs through the weekend. There are eight different designs and 10 of each design for sale with messages like, "Hungry? Eat a Banker," "Kill Corporate Greed" and "Too Big to Fail is Too Big to Allow." Mass producing art you directly ripped off from someone else for profit is awesome, right? "The artist wishes to support the 99% by inviting collectors (representing the 1%) to purchase the complaints as art or furniture, thus introducing the ideas of one group into the homes of another and at the same time getting the rich to support the cause of the 99%," a news release explained. Translated from B.S. speak, that means the artist is inviting rich people to condescend and patronize the 99 percent by treating their complaints as if they are trendy art to be bought and sold instead of scathing denouncements of the system screwing them over. For someone who once planted 1,100 crosses under the Brooklyn Bridge to highlight the number of deaths in New York each week, Errazuriz seems to have swung and missed badly this time………….
- Nothing helps a cause stand out quite like good, old-fashioned nudity. Cycling activists in Lima, Peru know this too well and it’s why they selected a naked ride through the capital city as a means of calling attention to safety conditions on the city's roads. Technically, some of the hundreds of riders who took to the streets of the city Saturday were only scantily clad and not fully nude, but together they were able to form a convoy that cut off roads along a 6.8 mile route through the main thoroughfares of Lima. Many participants painted slogans and signs on their bare skin and advocated potential changes to improve road safety for cyclists and pedestrians. "I have gone naked because it's the way to raise awareness of our rights for example the bicycle lanes that are never free, there are always taxis parked, police sleeping," protester Milagro Esquivel proclaimed. Esquivel and his fellow protestors reiterated claims that thousands have been killed on the roads because of reckless driving. Because in their minds they put their bodies on the line each time they go out for a ride, turning themselves into mobile, fleshy billboards was a logical choice. "This is our body. With this, we go out in the streets. We don't have a car to protect us," event organizer Octavio Zegarra said. An estimated 300 to 500 cyclists took part in the rolling protest. No official response was issued by the city, which means it might be time to ramp things up a notch for the next round of protests. Whoever figures out what is more extreme than getting naked for one’s cause, raise your hand and share with the rest of the group……….
- The much-hyped newcomer stumbled out of the gate and ultimately fell short in its quest to knock off the defending box office champion. “John Carter” certainly did not fail for lack of promotional effort on Disney’s part, but a bad start to the weekend doomed it to a second-place finish for the weekend behind “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” which cashed in to the tune of $39.1 million for a second victory in two weeks. Its cumulative total stands at $122 million in domestic earnings alone. That sort of success seems far-fetched for “John Carter,” which was made on a whopping $250 million budget but mustered a mere $30.6 million in its debut. Party flick “Project X” was third in its second weekend of release, scoring $11.5 million for a two-week tally of $40.1 million. “Silent House” debuted in fourth place with $7.1 million, a decent but uninspiring start for the horror flick. “Act of Valor” continued its strong performance with $7 million to raise its cumulative total to $56.1 million in three weeks of release. That was enough to defeat the bomb-tastic debut of the latest movie sure to make fans wonder what the hell happened to Eddie Murphy’s comedic skills (and his ability to choose roles that don’t suck), “A Thousand Words.” In its debut, “Thousand Words” finished sixth with a paltry $6.4 million. Spy thriller “Safe House” was seventh with $5 million, while “The Vow” was eighth with $4 million as both films spent their fifth weekend in theaters. The news wasn’t good for “This Means War,” in which Reese Witherspoon is still freaking hot, but that wasn’t enough to keep it from falling to ninth with just $3.8 million and $46.8 million for four weeks of work. “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” rounded out the top 10 with $3.7 million in its fifth week, while “Tyler Perry's Good Deeds” (No. 11), “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” (No. 14) and “Wanderlust” (No. 15) all fell out of the top 10…………..
- LSU couldn’t get the job done against Southeastern Conference rival Alabama in last season’s BCS championship game. The Tigers crossed midfield on offense just twice in the game and suffered a humbling 21-0 defeat that left them looking for answers. Perhaps one of those answers stands at 6-foot-1, weighs 190 pounds and used to suit up for the school’s soccer team – its women’s soccer team, that is. Former LSU women’s soccer goalie Mo Isom, the first LSU athlete to be voted homecoming queen, was one of the top goalkeepers in the Southeastern Conference for three years. After wrapping up her soccer career last fall, Isom went in search of her next sports quest and has become is one of a few students trying out for placekicker on LSU's football team this month. Like any would-be walk-on, male or female, she faces immense odds. The Tigers return field goal kicker, who tied for the nation’s best field goal percentage at 88.9% last year, and kickoff specialist James Hairston. Aside from the uniqueness of her presence at the tryouts, Isom doesn’t have a lot working in her favor. Just don’t tell her she has no shot. “Do you see my size?” Isom on Thursday, the second day of placekicker tryouts. “Everyone thinks that I am the average size and weight of a female. I am 6-foot-1, almost, and weigh about 190 pounds. Yes, I just said that on camera. It is all muscle." Unfortunately for Isom, coach Les Miles said there is little chance his team will add a walk-on kicker unless that individual is insanely good. “There has to be an advantage to the team,” Miles said. “The good thing about this is that she’s an athlete. She’s been through team before, and she understands commitment. I would have much less reservations with her than I would with any number of other people who frankly didn’t know what they were getting into.” A YouTube video surfaced early last week of Isom hitting a 40-yard field goal indoors and despite some struggles in tryouts, she reportedly hit two 50-yard field goals outdoors on Thursday. There have been other female kickers on Div. I teams, but Isom would undoubtedly be on the best team ever to field a female kicker if she makes the squad………..
- Forget hell freezing over (the Chicago Cubs aren't winning a World Series any time soon), the world is having a difficult enough time getting the Great Lakes to freeze over right now. As per a study published recently by the American Meteorological Society, the amount of ice covering the Great Lakes has declined about 71 percent over the past 40 years. Due to trends the study’s authors blame partly on climate change from global warming, only about 5 percent of the Great Lakes surface froze over this year. “There was a significant downward trend in ice coverage from 1973 to the present for all of the lakes,” lead researcher Jia Wan of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab in Ann Arbor wrote. The study, which appeared in the AMS’ Journal of Climate, involved in-depth analysis of U.S. Coast Guard reports and satellite images taken from 1973 to 2010. Researchers found that ice coverage was down 88 percent on Lake Ontario, 79 percent on Lake Superior and 37 percent on Lake St. Clair, which is between Lakes Erie and Huron. Wang attributed the decline to several factors, including general climate change and smaller cyclical climate phenomena like El Nino and La Nina. He also explained that diminished ice can accelerate wintertime evaporation, causing water levels to fall. Lower water levels could also lead to earlier and increased algae blooms that can damage water quality and expedite erosion by exposing more shoreline to waves. Although the study does not include data from the current winter, satellite photos show that only about 5 percent of the Great Lakes surface froze over during the past few months. Compare that to 1979, when there was as much as 94 percent ice coverage, and the severity of the change becomes much clearer. Combined with previous studies showing higher surface water temperatures on Lake Superior in recent years, this research is going to make it more difficult for the head-in-the-sand, anti-science conserva-Nazis who insist global warming is a figment of the liberal left’s imagination. Those conserva-Nazis should head up to Lake Superior’s protected Chequamegon Bay, just north of Ashland, Wis., and see how a body of water that usually freezes enough for trucks to drive on it, has been largely ice free this winter to the extent that the local Madeline Island ferry was able to operate all season, which has only happened once before……….
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