Rich people stupidity, the costs of FAT and E! expands its crappy lineup

- Hiring a Hall of Fame coach to lead your struggling college basketball program has to be great news, right? For Southern Methodist University, bringing in 71-year-old Larry Brown incurred some criticism because of Brown’s age and status as a perpetual basketball nomad, but the program hasn’t won 20 games in a season since 1993. In other words, they’re not hiring the best of the best, like a John Calipari or Bill Self. Snagging someone who has won a national championship is as good as they could hope for, but Brown’s arrival hasn’t exactly been great news for all SMU players. According to several now-former Mustangs, after Brown conducted an evaluation of the roster and held individual meetings with players, they were in essence ushered out the door. SMU athletic director Steve Orsini confirmed the evaluation process and while he didn’t say how many or which players wouldn't stay on the team, he referred to "these young men" in his statement released by the school. One of “those young men” is starting point guard Jeremiah Samarrippas, who told the school's student newspaper that Brown basically told him that he "wasn't good enough to play for him." The 5-foot-10 guard started all 31 games last season and averaged 6.9 points and 4.2 assists a game. Along with Samarrippas, reserve forwards Leslee Smith, Ricmonds Vilde and Eric Norman reportedly will not be back. All three would have been sophomores next season. "During each meeting, there was honest, straight-forward discussion about the future of the program," Orsini said. "No player was told his scholarship would not be renewed." Ah, nothing like letting a guy know that he’s not good enough to play and will be buried on the bench for the rest of his time with the team, but that he’s welcome to remain at SMU as a student on scholarship. Then again, a team that was 13-19 last season probably needs to make some significant changes in order to move forward…………

  

- There is no easier target than FAT people. And that’s not just because they’re so large and don’t move well, although both of those factors do make them easier to aim at. The fact is, the obese are taking a huge toll on the United States and that’s readily apparent when hospitals are replacing wall-mounted toilets with floor models to better support obese patients, cities are equipping buses to support the added girth of passengers and cares are burning nearly a billion gallons of gasoline more a year than if passengers weighed what they did in 1960. Yes, the cost of obesity is ginormous and a new study suggests that the rising financial burden is double previous estimates and exceeds even those of smoking. Congrats to FAT for blowing right by the menace of smoking and seizing that top spot on the list of unnecessary medical expenses. Making matters worse, the cost is being absorbed by the thin. Higher health insurance premiums across the board are the most obvious example of this reality. FAT is impacting the population as a whole just as powerfully as choking down toxic, secondhand smoke-laden air created by loser smokers. This new study was conducted by the Campaign to End Obesity, which brings together representatives from business, academia and the public health community. Its findings were disturbing, to say the least. "As committee chairmen, Cabinet secretaries, the head of Medicare and health officials see these really high costs, they are more interested in knowing, 'what policy knob can I turn to stop this hemorrhage?'" said Michael O’Grady, co-author of the study. Enablers masquerading as advocacy groups formed to "end size discrimination" are fighting for the FAT and trying to deny that these facts are true. FAT enablers are part of the reason the percentage of Americans who are obese has tripled since 1960, to 34 percent, while the incidence of extreme or "morbid" obesity has risen sixfold, to 6 percent. Obesity leads to health problems, health problems lead to missed days of work and decreased productivity and the ball only rolls downhill from there. If only the obese paid the price, then the debate might be different. However, those of a healthy weight pay higher taxes to support Medicaid and higher health insurance premiums through no fault of their own. Obese women raise such “third party” expenditures $3,220 a year each; obese men, $967 a year, according to the study. Time to step your game up, push away from the all-you-can-eat buffet table and hit the treadmill, FAT people………….

- Can one of the biggest abortions of a weekly TV schedule be salvaged? Furthermore, how long can a network subsist on the strength of the teeth-bleaching, overly tanned, tip-frosting tool that is Ryan Seacrest and the vapid stupidity and superficiality of the Kardashian family? The E! network isn't going to press its luck and see how long it can ride those two deficient horses. Instead, the network has announced expansion plans that include a new music series from "American Karaoke" producer Nigel Lythgoe, a reality series with the oldest member of the Jonas Brothers and a talk show starring Whitney Cummings. If none of those sound even remotely appealing, congratulations because you actually have decent taste in your entertainment choices. Given Seacrest’s presence on the network, it makes sense (not in a positive way, but still) that a bad “American Karaoke” rip-off would be among the network’s new offerings. The Jonas-themed addition will be "Married to Jonas," featuring Nick Jonas and Danielle Deleasa, a hairstylist in training, and will debut in August. Lythgoe's "Opening Act," which conveniently lends itself to “Opening Hack,” debuts July 9. On the show, producers will pick an unknown musical act that has posted work online and surprise them with a chance to open a concert for acts like Rod Stewart, Brad Paisley and Nicki Minaj. Mary J. Blige, an unlistenable hack in her own right, will host the show. "You'll see us keep our fun and keep our attitude," said E! President Suzanne Kolb. "I think you'll see us be a little broader. We feel like E! is to pop culture what ESPN is to sports and I think we need to fully realize that." No, Suzy, you’re not. ESPN is a solid outlet that provides useful sports knowledge to the masses, whereas your network merely spreads the disease of shallow, empty and mindless entertainment. To add some star power to its lineup, E! will also add Clint Eastwood and his wife, Dina, in "Mrs. Eastwood & Company," which begins on May 20 in a show featuring the actor's two daughters and a singing group that Dina discovered on a trip to South Africa. The thought behind all of these terrible shows in the making, Kolb explained, is to increase the network’s original programming so viewers see fewer reruns. If the shows are all the same low level of garbage, rerun or new episode doesn’t seem to matter as much………..

- New York City police can’t win. Occupy protestors b*tched about how the fuzz handled their demonstrations and now, lawmakers are on the attack as well. Four legislators sued the city Monday over its handling of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Their lawsuit is pinned to the belief that the city’s police conduct is so problematic that the force needs an outside monitor. In their federal civil rights lawsuit, the city council members argued that the city and police violated demonstrators' free speech rights, used excessive force, arrested protesters on dubious charges and interfered with journalists' and council members' efforts to observe what was going on. "This unlawful conduct has been undertaken with the intention of obstructing, chilling, deterring and retaliating against (the) plaintiffs for engaging in constitutionally protected protest activity," the lawsuit stated. It was filed one day before Occupy and labor activists were scheduled to hold a massive May Day march. The city Law Department has yet to respond to the lawsuit, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended police handling of the protests. "This police department knows how to control crowds without excessive force. They do allow you to protest, but they don't let it get out of hand," Bloomberg declared in response to council members who complained about what they called police brutality at a March Occupy demonstration. The lawsuit is an upgrade over previous Occupy complaints, a nearly 150-page compendium of lament with a local Democratic Party official, freelance journalists and Occupy activists joining the council members as plaintiffs. They are seeking justice for a police official's use of pepper spray on penned-in protesters in September, the temporary removal of demonstrators from Manhattan's Union Square in March and other offenses. The end goal is an independent eye to review police tactics and the four lawmakers — Letitia James, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane Williams — decided to go over City Hall’s head to seek justice. "We need accountability, we need relief and we're not going to just sit idly by," Williams said. Damn right, councilman…………

- Reviving “Titanic” in 3-D form had the potential for disaster all over again and not just the disaster of men everywhere being dragged by their significant other to waste four more hours of their life and another $20 to see James Cameron’s monstrosity of a movie. Movies can inspire people in other ways and clearly, this particular movie has inspired one very rich, very bored Australian billionaire who decided to pick up where the creators and passengers of the original Titanic left off. Billionaire and noted eccentric Clive Palmer announced Monday he has signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned Chinese company CSC Jinling Shipyard to build the Titanic II. The ship will be a high-tech replica of the Titanic, constructed at a Chinese shipyard and set to make its maiden voyage in late 2016 from England to New York, just like its namesake planned. Palmer’s announcement came just weeks after the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the original Titanic. "It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic, but ... will have state-of-the-art 21st-century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems," Palmer said in a statement. In a true load of politically correct bullsh*t, he called the project "a tribute to the spirit of the men and women who worked on the original Titanic." Either that or a publicity grab and a testament to the lengths rich people will go to in order to have something to lord over their rich friends and keep themselves amused. Palmer built a fortune on real estate on Australia's Gold Coast tourist strip and went on to multiply his fortune in the coal mining business. According to BRW magazine, he was Australia's fifth-richest person last year with a net worth of more than $5.2 bullion. He believes his project will succeed where previous attempts have failed because of better financial backing. The Titanic II will be modernized while looking as close a replica of its namesake as possible. Here’s hoping the ship meets a similarly water-logged ending, except before its maiden voyage begins so no one has to perish this time…………

German Pirates, amusement park pollution and wayward golf shots

- The more people become glued to their smartphones, the more companies and entrepreneurs there will be looking to create content for those devices. So where is the focus now for those seeking to cash in on the content crusade for Droids, iPhones and the like? Social networking apps, of course. No one wants to be without the Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for any length of time and the average amount of time that a smartphone owner spends on social networking apps is up to 24 minutes a day, which equals the average amount of time spent on games. Previously, games have been the primary focus, whether it’s Angry Birds, Draw Something or any of the thousands of other available game options for smartphones. All together, smartphone owners use apps for an average of 77 minutes each day. With 24 minutes each, on average, spent on games and social networking apps, that means 31 percent of that app time is devoted to games and 31 percent is devoted to social networking. Maybe that means the more social smartphone user is looking to connect via social media and the loner is hammering away as their screen to play games, but the pendulum is clearly swinging in the direction of social networking. The numbers are staggering. The social networking category recently ended a 40-month streak by the gaming category as the top app activity and just one year ago, smartphone owners played games for an average of 25 out of 68 minutes of total app activity each day — or 37 percent. Also last year, social networking apps took up only 15 minutes of a user's daily app allowance, or approximately 22 percent. Put it all together and social networking app activity has risen nine percent between the first quarters of 2011 and 2012, while gaming has declined by 3 percent. Experts believe gaming may have reached its saturation point, while social networking apps are a few steps behind in the evolutionary process and still reaching their apex. Ultimately, however, it’s all about what will make developers the most money and right now, that seems to be social networking apps………..

- Dammit, America. Did we or did we not have this discussion just one week ago? Having “Think Like a Man” as the top film at the box office in the United States is a terrible look for us. It damages our cinematic credibility. And yet, here we are with this comedic crap at the top of the earnings list for a second time in as many weeks. Yes, “Think” made just $18 million, but that was still enough to score first place. Clearly, the message did not reach enough people to see anything – ANYTHING – other than “Think,” even if anything includes a claymation children’s film like “The Pirates! Band of Misfits.” By comparison, “Pirates” might as well be “Citizen Kane,” “The Usual Suspects” and “The Shawshank Redemption” rolled into one. However, it landed in second place with $11.4 million in its debut. That narrowly bested what has rightly been called the single-worst movie ever adapted from a Nicholas Sparks book, the Zac Effron-led “The Lucky One.” In its second week of release, “Lucky One” brought in $11.3 million and has a two-week domestic total of $39.9 million. Fourth place went to “The Hunger Games,” which made another $11.2 million in its sixth week to elevate its cumulative domestic total to $372.5 million and counting. Newcomer “The Five-Year Engagement” continued to odd trend of razor-thin margins within the top five by scoring $11.1 million in its debut. “Safe” was so-so in its own debut with $7.7 million, good for sixth place. Yet another new film, the John Cusack-fronted “The Raven” could scare up just $7.2 million in fairly wide release, finishing seventh. “Chimpanzee” was eighth on the list with $5.5 million and through two weeks it has made $19.2 million. The underwhelming run continued for “The Three Stooges” as the film dropped to ninth place with $5.4 million and has managed just $37.1 million in three weeks of release. “The Cabin in the Woods” completed the top 10 with a $4.5 million effort in its third weekend in theaters. “21 Jump Street” (No. 11), “American Reunion” (No. 12), “Mirror Mirror” (No. 13) and “Titanic 3D” (No. 15, mercifully) all dropped out from last weekend’s top 10………….

- Masters champion Bubba Watson garnered credibility, respect and recognition by winning his first major earlier this month at Augusta National. He might need some of that goodwill after beaning a fan in the head with a hooked drive during Friday's second round of the Zurich Classic. Watson’s errant drive on the second hole at the TPC Louisiana struck the back of Radd Leonard's head, drawing blood. Ironically, the wayward shot came from the head by the very player he came to see. Leonard, a 52-year-old motorcycle shop owner from Baton Rouge, was quickly tended to by medics and insisted he was fine in spite of the minor blood loss. He was also able to assist Watson by bouncing the ball back into the fairway by using his noggin to do so. "I saw it coming and it looked like it was hooking right at me. I wanted to see that big hook, you know, and I got to see it. I turned and ducked and it still hit me," Leonard said. "It gave him a good bounce, anyway." Watson, a fan favorite on the tour, walked over to Leonard, put on a new golf glove, signed it, then took it off and gave it to Leonard and shook his hand. His caddie, Ted Scott, cracked a joke by pointing down the fairway toward the hole and deadpanning, "We're glad you're all right, but if you could just angle your head a little differently." Even Leonard laughed as he held a towel with ice to his head and remained kneeling on the edge of the fairway with spots of blood on his gray shirt. In truly manly fashion, he refused to go to First Aid and remained on the course after medics wrapped a bandage around his head. In addition to his signed glove from Watson, tournament officials gave him a new red Zurich Classic golf shirt as he continued to follow Watson on the front nine. The lesson, as always: Life’s rough, wear a helmet……….

- Arrrrrggggghhhh! Shiver me timbers, matey. Pirates are lookin’ to plunder Germany’s political system and pilfer a few wenches, if possible. A group that began as a fringe club of computer nerds and hackers demanding online freedom has risen in popularity as an antiestablishment movement has lured many young voters to the polls. The resulting wave of support has propelled the party into two state parliaments in less than a year. The all-volunteer group doesn’t really have a unified platform or list of core values, instead focusing on their foundational policies of near-total transparency and an unrestricted Internet. Apparently that’s enough substance for Germans to make them the country’s third-strongest political force, vaulting the Pirates past more established parties. Their membership now stands at 25,000 and with their convention this weekend, the party now must deal with the fact that it has some clout and is no longer a loose collection of misanthropes behind a computer screen. The convention brought together 1,500 members in the northern Germany city of Neumuenster to discuss the group’s growth and decide where it should go next. Polls have indicated that the Pirates would win seats in two more state legislatures in May and earn about 9 percent of the vote in both states. Political pundits have suggested that support for the Pirates is a form of protest for many, a sort of sign of unhappiness with the functioning of the established parties. While some might find a country with a growing economy and low unemployment a reason to celebrate, many Germans are still unhappy with the established parties because of bailouts for banks and businesses to save the economy from collapsing in the wake of the financial crisis across Europe. Last year, thousands of Germans caught Occupy fever and took to the streets to protest. What remains of their outrage seems to have transferred to the Pirates, who readily admit that they have no answers for the continent’s debt crisis. In that sense, they are much like those already in power, except that the Pirates are willing to admit they don’t have a solution instead of pretending they do…………

- No longer are the biggest health and environmental hazards at amusement parks the exorbitantly overpriced gruel being presented as food at concession stands. At Six Flags Magic Mountain in California, the real hazard just might be the waste produced by the park itself. Local environmental groups have targeted the park for allegedly polluting the Santa Clara River. Worse still, these tree huggers claim that the park has tried to keep its polluting ways secret. “We were surprised to see, to hear actually, from an employee at the park and several community members, that they thought that there was some pretty serious pollution coming off Magic Mountain,” said Liz Crosson, the Executive Director of Santa Monica Bay Keepers. “We found really high levels of things like toxic metals. We found a lot of trash, unfortunately, it’s really pretty gross down by the river right next to the facility.” Did everyone read that? It’s “pretty gross,” and that’s about as strongly worded a condemnation as anyone can offer. Fellow enviro-kooks at the California Coast Keeper Alliance and Wishtoyo Foundation started investigating the theme park last year and say they have found some revolting revelations. “We had a whistle-blower come to us, who was concerned about the park’s practices, wash-down practices, after operating hours. And we went out to investigate. And we found from Magic Mountain’s own water quality monitoring reports during storm events and our own monitoring events, that the quality of the water being discharged into the river was much worse than we could have imagined,” said Jason Weiner of the Wishtoyo Foundation. His group took pictures of trash with Magic Mountain’s logo on it floating in the river, headed out to the Pacific Ocean. Weiner promised legal action against the park if it does not clean up its act. “We’ve issued Magic Mountain a 60-day notice of intent to sue under the Clean Water Act,” Weiner said. The enviro-alliance sent a letter last Friday with 20 pages of violations and concerns to the park last Friday, but representatives said they have not received a response. The park did issue a written statement to local media, saying that it was “concerned about the environment and feels a responsibility to improve the storm water process.” Glad to know everything has been resolved ……….

Riot Watch! Malaysia, sharks in peril and precocious MLB stars

- The future is now for the Washington Nationals. They enter the weekend 14-5, star pitcher Stephen Strasburg is back from Tommy John surgery and carving batters and now, precocious 19-year-old outfielder Bryce Harper is about to make his Major League Baseball debut. Harper, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 amateur draft, was recalled by the Nationals from Triple-A Syracuse. He joins the Nationals in Los Angeles for their series against the Dodgers and takes the roster spot of third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who is going on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation in his right shoulder. Widely considered the top prospect in all of baseball and known for his bombastic, opponent-irritating ways, Harper isn't assured of a long run with the Nationals this time around. "Suffice it to say, this isn't the coming-out party for Bryce that we had in mind," Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said Friday. "This isn't the optimal situation developmentally." Then again, Harper has done nearly everything ahead of schedule in his baseball career. He skipped his final year of high school, earned his GED and played one season of junior college baseball at the College of Southern Nevada before entering the draft to get a head-start on his professional career. He signed a five-year, $9.9 million contract in August 2010 and has been on the fast track to the majors ever since. Calling him up now wasn’t part of the plan, but a need is a need and right now, the Nats need Harper. “We had a need here for a left-handed bat. We're trying to get more of a left-handed presence in our lineup, and he is the guy who fit that role,” Nats manager Davey Johnson explained. Harper has toned down his act some as he has progressed, ditching the face paint he wore early in his career and stopping his bad habit of blowing kisses to opposing pitchers after homering off of them. He has also adjusted well after playing primarily catcher in college and being shifted to the outfield after being drafted. Rizzo has confidence he will continue to succeed even with his career trajectory altered. "This is a very confident person, and we expect him to do well in the major leagues," Rizzo said. "He's the type of guy who will handle anything that is thrown at him and will be the better for it." Should be interesting………..

- Life is hard for reef sharks. Doubt that fact? Then explain how and why as much as 90 percent of reef sharks have disappeared from reefs near populated islands, as discovered in a study led by Marc Nadon, a doctoral candidate at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science. Nadon and his team are the first to conduct a large-scale estimate of reef sharks in the Pacific, a group of species that includes the gray reef shark, the whitetip reef shark and the tawny nurse shark. Explaining why the numbers for these species are down isn't difficult, according to Nadon. "We estimate that reef shark numbers have dropped substantially around populated islands, generally by more than 90 percent compared to those at the most untouched reefs," he said. "In short, people and sharks don't mix." To prove that shocking claim, researchers collected shark-sighting data from more than 1,607 dives at 46 reefs in the central-western Pacific, which included reefs near the Hawaiian islands and American Samoa, along with remote reefs almost entirely devoid of human influence. To hone their study, they excluded sharks that aren't dependent on reefs. That left out three of the eight species they saw on their dives, including hammerheads. The remaining species to be counted were gray reef sharks, blacktip reef sharks, whitetip reef sharks, Galapagos sharks and tawny nurse sharks. Their numbers were small and humans, apparently we are the reason why………

- Nicki Minaj is all about the kids. Yes, a singer (note: Minaj is NOT a rapper, no matter how much she wants to think she is) who regularly works "p*ssy," "d*ck" and b*tch" in her lyrics is concerned about children mimicking her foul speech. She explained in a recent interview that she would be "very upset" if she heard children singing along to the "dirty" versions of songs like “Dirty Hoe.” And yes, there is apparently a “clean” verison of a song titled “Dirty Hoe.” Minaj laid out her point of view very logically and not at all hypocritically. "I don't want children cursing," she said. "I'm very strict on my nieces and my little brother. They have to listen to clean versions of music." In her flawed mind, there is a magical wall that can divide the music an artist releases into versions heard only by adults and versions suitable for everyone. "If you asked any adult, 'Would you like your children knowing every part of your life and speaking exactly the way you speak when you talk to adults?' they'd say no, so I'm a firm believer in children remaining children," Minaj said. Of course, she immediately contradicted herself by lashing out at those who suggest she should tone down her lyrics for her young audience on the grounds that their request is sexist. "Why do people ask me to lose swear words? Do people ask Eminem to lose swear words? Do they ask Lil Wayne to lose swear words? Nobody stops them and says 'Would you stop swearing... for the children, please?'" she lamented. Actually, N., Eminem has regularly gotten such criticism and the lyrics for his hit “The Real Slim Shady” specifically address the frequent criticisms he receives because, “Will Smith don't gotta cuss in his raps to sell his records; well I do, so f**k him and f**k you too!” But Minaj can’t be expected to have a clue what she’s talking about before she opens her mouth. Her remarks came while promoting her suck-tacular new album, “Roman Reloaded.” Oh, and the "explicit" version of the music video for the album’s lead single features her dancing in a pink bikini on a tropical beach. A clean version of the video hasn’t surfaced yet, for some odd reason……….

- A good name is half the battle for a new restaurant. Sure, a great location and tasty food also help, but a good name evokes certain connotations in the mind of potential customers and just might be enough to entice a would-be patron to dig for more information about a new eatery. For Paul Ardaji, owner of a new West Palm Beach (Fla.) restaurant called Fuku, the right name came during a trip to Memphis with his business partner. "We were walking down the street and I said fuku he looked at me strange but he got where I was going," said Ardaji. Fuku means good fortune, wealth and prosperity in Japanese and given the restaurant’s theme, it made perfect sense. Unfortunately for Ardaji, not every is able to rise above their inner 8-year-old and get past the sophomoric, juvenile pronunciation of the name that the moniker so easily lends itself to. And while no one can stop Ardaji from using the name, state officials can some him from trademarking it. When Ardaji sent a letter to the state to trademark the name, he was summarily turned down. "I believe they're culturally unaware of what the word means," his attorney, James D'Loughy said. "I think there is some puritanical viewpoint based on the letter we received." Uh-oh, not a puritanical blast. That means (legal) war. But D’Loughy isn't just reaching for the most controversial point to draw attention to the issue. In its explanation of the denial, the Florida Department of State Division of Corporations sounded extremely puritanical. "The mark consists of, compromises or includes immoral, deceptive or scandalous matter,” an official statement explained. Ardaji doesn’t believe the name fits any of those three descriptions and he worries that if the restaurant opens without the trademark, it's vulnerable to the name being used by other businesses. "The state looks at things from a very narrow scope. I think they'll realize it's not our intention to be scandalous or deceptive," he said. Sadly, Ardaji and his business partner may not have the resources to fight a drawn-out legal battle to obtain the trademark……….

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! The Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur was the scene on Saturday as thousands of angry Malaysians calling for fair elections converged on the city center for a massive protest that powerfully challenged the government’s reformist credentials and could alter the timing of national polls. With an estimated 25,000-plus protestors on hand, the demonstration remained boringly peaceful at the outset, with demonstrators waving banners, chanting slogans and singing the national anthem. However, police did their part to escalate the situation by bringing in tear gas grenades and chemical-laced water to break up what they say was an unlawful assembly. Protesters dressed in yellow T-shirts had to know a violent end was ahead when they showed up at Merdeka Square and were met by riot police and barbed wire. They made repeated attempts to cross the square and were warned to disperse. The heavy police presence was there to enforce a court order that the protesters should not enter the symbolically important site. Thankfully, the Bersih (Clean) group responsible for the protest ignored the ban and made sure protestors marched as close as possible to the square. By marching toward the square, they all but ensured a repeat of violent clashes that marked Bersih’s last major protest in July 2011. The exact number of protestors wasn’t immediately know, but the number appeared to be less than the 100,000 organizers hoped to draw. Still, the message to the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak is clear: Fair elections or else, asshole. If obtaining those fair elections means ignoring a bogus rule that a historic square is reserved for military parades and national celebrations, so be it. In truth, the day may have ended without significant violence had one bold, inspirational group not made a sudden attempt to break through police ranks. Props to those maniacs, because they made a good protest a great one. Tear gas, water cannons and chemical water resulted and it was freaking on. Police and protestors battled for half an hour and baton-wielding cops chased demonstrators to neighboring streets. Still, only 20 protestors were detained. The government continues to insist that opposition groups’ demands are excessive, which is code for “might threaten our 55-year hold on power.” Sounds like more angry uprisings are needed…………

Tasers for the masses, Wiz Khalifa lives up to his rep and music as a PED

- In the least-shocking piece of news ever, Wiz Khalifa was busted for marijuana possession last weekend. Yes, a guy whose breakout album was named, “Rolling Papers” was busted for possession of the chron. Oddly enough, Khalifa was staying at a Holiday Inn – not exactly the definition of luxury – in Nashville when some squares staying in rooms near his complained to the front desk of a strong odor that smelled decidedly marijuana-like wafting from under Khalifa’s door. Hotel officials contacted the police and unforunately for the cops, they had no idea they were about to bust a true stoner icon. Thinking fast but not fast enough, the hip-hop star allegedly threw his spliff out of the window when officers arrived on the scene. The rapper - real name Cameron Jibril Thomaz - was served with a citation rather than being arrested after admitting that the ganja was his. Thomaz is the heir apparent to Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg as the artist whose tour bus police around the country could easily follow and bust everyone onboard for marijuana possession everywhere the bus goes. He has been extremely vocal about his pot use and has even credited the habit for his musical success. "It’s not just about the weed thing. It’s bigger than that. My career really took off when I started smoking papers," he said when talking about the album last year. In that respect, he continues in the footsteps of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and scores of other artists whose drug-fueled efforts have become immense musical successes. Thomaz is also staring down a $2.3 million lawsuit by Maxamillion, who claimed that Thomaz/Khalifa’s hit single “Black And Yellow” stole elements from his song “Pink N Yellow.” Of course, there is one great way to relieve stress when facing serious legal issues………

- This is simply hilarious. As funny as a blind legal activist and inspirational figure in China's rights movement fleeing the house arrest he has lived under and getting away to a secret location in Beijing can be, anyhow. Chen Guangcheng's escape sparked a frantic police search for him and those who helped him and if he is ultimately successful in making it out of the country, his flight would be a huge boost for a beaten-down civil rights community facing rising arrests and other harassment. Fellow activists told a tale of a daring escape in which Chen slipped away from his well-guarded rural village on Sunday night, transported by activists and then transferred to others who brought him to Beijing. Bob Fu, an activist based in Texas who runs the China Aid Association and who was in contact with people helping Chen, confirmed that as of Friday afternoon, Chen "was 100 percent in a safe location.” The frantic police search left in the wake of the escape will undoubtedly lead to arrests and menacing threats from The Man. Chen surfaced, relatively speaking, in a video that was recorded this week and that activists sent Friday to the overseas Chinese news site Boxun.com and was later posted in part on YouTube. "I am now free. But my worries have not ended yet," Chen said in the video. "My escape might ignite a violent revenge against my family." Chen is a self-taught lawyer blinded by fever in infancy who served four years in prison for exposing forced abortions and sterilizations in his and surrounding villages. He has lived under house arrest since his release in September 2010 despite a total lack of legal grounds for doing so. Even in his home, he has suffered several beatings from local police. He nearly received a visit from actor Christian Bale, but Bale was hassled and turned back by locals paid to keep outsiders away. In Beijing, he could be snuck into foreign embassies that could provide asylum. His escape is a huge black eye for the country’s authoritarian, Communist government and rumors about his heroic adventure are already swirling. Some believe he sought protection at the U.S. or another foreign embassy, but those stories are unsubstantiated. Police have already detained a blogger who admitted in an interview earlier Friday hat she had driven Chen from Dongshigu village on Sunday night out of Shandong province to "a relatively safe place." Further heightening the sheer comedy of the oppressive government being de-pantsed, authorities in Dongshigu have had surveillance cameras and checkpoints in place since Chen's release in 2010. In spite of those measures, a blind dude embarrassed them and quickly surfaced in an online video to decry their tactics and policies. "Including party leaders, police and other civilians, around 90 to 100 people have been involved in the persecution of my family. I hereby request to you, Premier Wen, to start an investigation into this case," Chen said. It is a truly inspiring story of one man fighting the power……….

- Athletes and workout warriors everywhere are always looking for an edge. If a person can put a substance into their body to gain an advantage over the competition and get away with it, a lot of the time that person is going to shoot or ingest that substance. Whether it’s banging out a few more reps at the gym or getting back on the field for a professional team quicker, those who rely on their body for living or just are extremely proud of it want every boost they can get. According to a new book by Costas Karageorghis and Peter Terry, titled “Inside Sport Psychology,” there might be a performance-enhancer out there available to literally everyone with a pair of ears and which cannot be detected by any drug test. In the book, Karageorghis and Terry suggest that music can have the same effect on the body during sports as performance enhancing drugs. They write that athletes who listen to music can have their performance boosted by up to 15 percent, a figure that, if substantiated, could be equated to a legal version of forbidden performance-enhancing drugs. Another interesting point in the book is that elite athletes typically fall into the 'associators' category, meaning they derive their motivation from internal sources, most non-elite athletes (regular people) are 'dissociators,' which means they need some sort of external stimulus to motivate them to push their bodies harder, to get past the proverbial “wall.” Musica can be that motivator and anyone who has witnessed a marathon or endurance race of any sort, either on foot or bike, can attest to how many competitors are plugged in to their portable music device of choice to keep them going strong…………..

- Aaaaand the pendulum swings back the other way. When the story first broke that former LSU defensive back and newly minted Dallas Cowboys first-round draft pick Morris Claiborne reportedly had a score of 4 on the Wonderlic intelligence test administered to prospects at the NFL scouting combine, the tale looked bad for him. Too many people assumed he was just another dumb jock who survived in school because people cut him breaks and gave him preferential treatment because of his skills on the field. The Wonderlic consists of 50 questions that must be answered in 12 minutes and scores are supposed to be confidential, but Claiborne’s score leaked. In the aftermath, news broke that he suffers from a learning disability and that seemed to explain why he may have struggled on the test. The revelation also raised questions about why neither Claiborne nor his agent, Bus Cook, alerted combine officials to his learning disability and requested the allowed testing exception for those who have legitimate disabilities. Perception swung back in Claiborne’s favor and the anonymous jerk who leaked his test score looked like the real loser in the story. However, Claiborne may not be quite as sympathetic a figure in the saga as he appeared just a couple of weeks ago. In fact, he seems to have treated the Wonderlic like the stereotypical meat-headed jock that he was initially perceived to be when his score leaked. "I mean, I looked on the test and wasn't nothing on the test that came with football, so I pretty much blew the test off," Claiborne said after being selected sixth overall Thursday night. "When it came out, some of the things that were said ... I'm human, so I had a problem with some of it, but I didn't let that get me down. I know what type of person I am. I know that test doesn't reflect on how I learn or what type of a person I am." He makes a fair point in that a Wonderlic score means little to the success of a player’s career, but blowing it off isn't a positive sign either. Registering the lowest reported score in a dozen years is going to stick with a player, especially when you score a 4 and the average score for NFL prospects is 21. Despite blowing the test off, Claiborne admitted that he was bothered by some of the public mocking he endured over his low score. The man who will be signing his paychecks for the next few years, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones, insisted Claiborne's low Wonderlic score was "not an issue at all." At least the mystery of the 4 has finally been explained……..

- Make room in the ol’ holster, Michigan residents trained and licensed to carry concealed pistols. Under legislation approved Wednesday by the state House, these gun lovers will also be able to possess and use an electro-muscular disruption device, a.k.a. a Taser. Technically, an EMD is defined as a device that delivers a shock through probes attached to wires. It is commonly known as a stun gun and thanks to fine lawmakers like state Rep. Joel Johnson, it is legal to carry. Johnson, who is a concealed pistol license holder, voted in favor of Senate Bills 29 and 30. "I respect that many people are not comfortable carrying a gun," said Johnson, R-Clare. "Tasers offer a self-defense option for personal protection that is non-lethal to the assailant but gives the victim enough time to get away from the danger and seek help.” Plus, blasting people with a few dozen volts of electricity is always fun. Johnson views using a Taser as a small matter for someone who is already licensed to carry a handgun. "People who have the training for using a lethal weapon, such as a concealed pistol, would definitely be qualified to operate this type of equipment," he explained. If passed into law, the legislation would subject stun gun use to the same requirements and prohibitions as a concealed pistol. Requirements or not, every confrontation and bar fight in the state of Michigan just became that much more interesting………..

3-D futures, science actually helps and dating sites for the poor and hot

- When Al Gore invented the Internet,  this has to be what he had in mind. The ol’ World Wide Web is a great place to find travel deals, it’s a great place to find the new love of your life and now, there’s a place to combine the two. Thanks to a great American and aspiring entrepreneur, Brandon Wade, Misstravel.com now exists. The site launched April 9 and according to its founder, the site connects rich people with good-looking people who want to travel but also happen to be poor, or at least not in the 1 percent. The theory is that the rich, theoretically ugly or at least socially stunted, person will pay for the privilege of having someone (probably) much younger and sexier than them as a travel companion. "We are a meeting space like a nightclub or a bar for people who are interested in talking," Wade said. "This isn't an escort service." To make sure hookers, er, escorts don’t join the site, Wade has posted a very official-looking "Escorts are not welcome" disclaimer linked on the site’s main page. Of course, that message is easy to miss when most of the page is dominated by a massive image of a young woman sitting very-girlishly in a short skirt, head tilted, on a pink suitcase. Click on a video play button and a sexy female voice speaks as a cartoon pitches the site to the lonely and/or poor. "Are you attractive but you don't have the money to travel?" she asks. "What if you could travel around the world, stay in five-star resorts, dine at top-rated restaurants and do the fun things travelers do, all for free?" Cartoon images of doctors, lawyers, bankers, athletes and other wealthy people appear and the voice teases, "Best of all, they have the money, and they are willing to spend it on you." Although the site is new and no one has arranged any trips through it that Wade knows about, he wants to make sure no one goes looking for travel deals on a site named misstravel.com. It only provides a platform for people to create profiles and communicate. Users fall into two categories: "attractive" and "generous." Supposedly attractive people can register for free, while the “generous” user pays a minimum of $50 to be able to communicate with 10 attractives and $250 to communicate with up to 100 attractives. Let the shallowness begin……….

- The heart of the PGA Tour’s season is just over the horizon and the British Open looms just a couple of months away. As usual, fans can expect plenty of flat, barren landscapes, few trees and courses that generally look like places herds of goats have been grazing for weeks on end. However, those tree-less goat tracks will be significantly more expensive this year after Royal and Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson announced that the St. Andrews-based organization has invested $16 million in toughening and tightening all courses used to host the Open Championship. That amount includes efforts to lengthen the courses for the 2012 and 2013 editions. According to Dawson, a fund was created to bring the nine courses used for the Open "into the modern era" and an average of about $800,000 was spent on each course. “I would say it’s money well spent,” Dawson said. This year’s venue at Royal Lytham and St. Annes has undergone significant changes and Dawson announced Wednesday that changes have already been put in place for the 2013 Open venue at Muirfield. "Everything has been done at Muirfield and it has been done for a few years now," he said. "There are quite a few changes, but they are very subtle." Among the changes at Muirfield are a new back tee at the ninth hole and a shift of the 10th fairway. With the alterations, the course will play some 200 yards longer than when the British Open was last held at Muirfield in 2002. Asked about the new Donald Trump course at Aberdeen, he explained that the bombastic “Celebrity Apprentice” host would need to make the course commercially viable to the R&A to take golf's oldest major to the venue. This year’s British Open tees off on July 19………….

- Kazakhstan has plenty to be angry about. If some jackass DJ/stadium sound guy at the Arab Shooting Championships in Kuwait isn't disrespecting them by playing the spoof national anthem from “Borat” when one of their athletes wins a gold medal, than someone is mispronouncing their nation’s name or btuchering its spelling. However, none of those causes are the reason President Nursultan Nazarbayev is currently raging against the machine. No, the president of the oil-rich former Soviet nation has ripped the West for what he believes as a shameless attempt to impose its values on the rest of the world. In an interview with Russian state-controlled channel Rossiya-24, Nazarbayev (or N-squared as his friends call him) lamented that the use of modern mass media to influence internal political developments in certain countries creates security risks. The remarks are a bit contradictory given Kazakhstan’s recent flexible diplomatic position of cultivating warm ties with the West remaining on good terms with its former Soviet partners and China. His remarks signal a growing discomfort with the democracy embraced by Western governments and sync up with the position adopted by neighboring Russia. Authoritarian regimes are the order of the day in Central Asia and close proximity to the tumult of the Middle East hasn’t softened the belief that a strong, authoritarian regime is the way to go. "The varying mentalities, histories and traditions of different peoples are not being taken into consideration," Nazarbayev declared. "Western culture, which is propagandized by the United States, cannot simply be transplanted." Maybe his comments are simply a knee-jerk reaction to criticism by international democracy groups and foreign governments. Avoiding a turn toward democracy would also allow Nazarbayev’s regime to continue its increasingly brutal crackdown on Alga, the most vocal opposition political group in Kazakhstan. So on second thought, maybe it is time to cue the “Borat” version of the Kazakh anthem…………

- The future of movies, aside from an endless onslaught of unnecessary remakes and sequels, seems to be 3-D. Not only do 3-D movies allow theaters to charge more for tickets and thus allow studios to make more money, but 3-D has an undeniable cool factor to it. That reality lurks even for cinematic icons like Ang Lee, who has embraced the 3-D revolution in shooting his forthcoming film "Life of Pi." Lee admitted that making the leap to three dimensions was difficult. "I'm dealing with a kid, a tiger and water... so the learning curve is enormous," Lee said in a speech to theater owners at CinemaCon on Wednesday as part of a panel discussion with Martin Scorsese. Lee said that he literally had to teach himself a new way of seeing and thinking because he had become so used to shooting in two dimensions. Mix in the larger cameras required to shoot in 3-D and the challegne becomes that much tougher. "It's like operating a refrigerator," Lee said. Scorsese has already made the jump to 3-D with his 2011 project “Hugo,” and did not seem to struggle with the transition. In his comments as part of the panel, Scorsese admitted that filming “Hugo” on a sprawling Parisian set helped when it came to working with the bulky cameras. He also cited inspiration from 1950s films that used 3D like "Dial M for Murder" and "House of Wax.” Recalling comments he made to his crew, he said, , "Let's push it. Let's see what happens. We'll keep pushing it and when you complain, we'll stop." In one of the panel’s lighter moments, he joked that the bigger challenge was working with a young cast that could only be shooting for four hours a day. "The biggest obstacle was really the child labor laws in England," Scorsese said. As for Lee's "Life of Pi," it is an adaptation of Yann Martel's best-selling novel about an Indian boy who is shipwrecked in a boat with a Bengal tiger. It is not an explosion-filled, action-packed superhero movie of the sort that typically play well in 3-D form. When “Life of Pi” drops in a few months, the world will be able to see if an old cinematic dog can indeed learn new tricks……….

- Science continues to amaze. Mind control has always been a fascinating concept and never more so than an experiment in which a partially-tetraplegic patient in Switzerland can control a robot 60-plus miles away via a head cap sensing electrical signals from his brain. The experiment is believed to be the first time a “mind control” interface has been used by a partially paralyzed person. Better still, the experiment was done without invasive implants. From the relative comfort of his hospital ward in the Swiss town of Sion, Mark-Andre Duc was able to control the robot at Lausanne simply by imagining acts like lifting his fingers. His skull cap sensed the electrical signals associated with those movement and transmitted them to the robot and directed it to move left or right around the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. At Lausanne, a laptop mounted on a mobile platform received the signals and transmitted them to the robot. Duc lost the use of his legs and fingers after a fall and said that on a good day, the robot is easy to control. Fatigue and pain make the process more difficult. To make controlling the robot less taxing for the patient, researchers programmed the robot to continue acting on an instruction until explicitly directed to stop. The same team of researchers in the Institute’s Center for Neuroprosthetics are also working on an “electric skin” in the hope that they could create prosthetics that have the mobility and sensitivity of a human hand. For once, science is working on a project that actually has a tangible, beneficial use………

Israeli drama, Deroit rages and bad Red Sox signings

- In some arguments, everyone is correct. That’s what happens when the foul-mouthed, talent-deprived, classless Rosie O’Donnell’s bloated self attacks the coked-up, parole-violating Lindsay Lohan and Lohan’s old man fires back at O’Donnell. Rosie, who should still be in hiding after Donald Trump’s legendary verbal evisceration of her and her career a few years ago, started the fight by going on the today show, claiming Lindsay Lohan hasn't made a single good film since she was sixteen and isn't capable of portraying Liz Taylor in her new movie, a biopic of the famed actress. Picking Lohan was a curious choice, partly because of her wildness making her difficult to insure and partly because she’s a terrible actress. So in that sense, O’Donnell is correct. However, why is a woman whose new talk show on Oprah Winfrey’s new TV network OWN cracking anyone for their lack of talent? Thus, Michael Lohan is also correct when he claims O’Donnell is a washed-up failure at life who only stayed famous because she adopted a bunch of children. Who the hell is Rosie O'Donnell to judge anyone, especially Lindsay, who has far more talent than Rosie ever had?” Michael Lohan fumed. Unfortunately for him, that is where his argument comes off the rails. His daughter has no discernable talent beyond doing rails off bathroom mirrors and taking her clothes off for skin magazines. “Lindsay's talent isn't limited to being a comedian or getting notoriety for adopting and raising a bunch of kids. Sure, [Lindsay] has her pitfalls, but she is 25, and how old is Rosie?" he asked. He went on to bash O’Donnell for her two failed talk shows, a failed marriage, a failed magazine and a general lack of attractiveness or class. All in all, two people lacking in class and talent did battle on this day and the real winner is anyone who gets to sit back and laugh at their idiocy………

- Rarely has the presence of 30 homes created possible international incident. Yet a fast-approaching deadline to demolish the homes of 30 families in an unauthorized West Bank settlement outpost is threatening to implode Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, with some hard-liners cautioning that the ruling coalition will fall if the buildings come down. Netanyahu is in a precarious position, committed to making peace with the Palestinians but having to balance those promises while making concessions to settlers who have illegally staked claim to territory Palestinians want for a future state. Four years into his term in office, Netanyahu is staring down a May 1 deadline by the Israeli Supreme Court to destroy the houses. Thirty homes seems like a small number, but the situation is a major test of whether he can continue to walk this political tightrope. Netanyahu wants the court to defer the deadline to give officials time to save the buildings in the Ulpana outpost, built on the fringes of the religious Beit El settlement. "We are looking for ways to prevent the demolition of the houses," Netanyahu said in a radio interview. The court ordered the buildings demolished because they were erected on privately owned Palestinian land, a practice the court outlawed decades ago. A 2005 government report determined Ulpana was erected without following proper government procedures even though the court had authorized building on other West Bank territory. Palestine believes there is no point negotiating with Israel if it continues to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, both areas Palestinians claim for their future state. One Israeli government after another has pledged not to build any new settlements, but the Palestinians accuse settlers of continuing to build anyhow, with tacit government support. Some 500,000 Jewish settlers now live in these areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. Netanyahu is talking out both sides of his mouth in some sense, vowing to halt settlement expansion but opposing any division of Jerusalem. "We will not move from here. We will not stop building," he said in a speech on Israel's Memorial Day. Ministers and lawmakers from Netanyahu's coalition haven’t exactly rallied behind him, instead making a series if pilgrimages to Ulpana in recent days. Keeping a six-part coalition functional is a tall task and one that may be about to blow up in Netanyahu’s face. If nothing else, the resulting fireworks show should be entertaining in an post-apocalyptic, World War III sort of way……….

- Google Drive has finally debuted and early reviews suggest that the search giant may have achieved a solid victory with its cloud storage and syncing service that offers a full 5 GB of online storage for free. At first glance, the service appears to be fairly simple and straightforward. Critics may lament its lack of flashy, eye-catching features, but it appears to be efficient in storing files to the cloud and syncing them among multiple devices. The process is no more complicated than saving a file to a local hard drive. The reaction to Drive’s debut depends largely on a person’s expectations going in. Anyone who was expecting a Google Drive/Google Docs combination that would make it easy to edit files in the cloud that you created on a laptop or desk top will be extremely disappointed. Google could still move in that direction, but for now Drive remains basic and utilitarian. In its present form, Google Drive installs as an app for Windows, OS X and Android. A version for iOS isn't yet available, although Google vows that will change soon. Once installed, it shows up as another drive in Windows Explorer or the Mac's Finder app. In many ways, it functions like rival online storage service Dropbox, it can be used like a physical drive and copy or move files to it, and create new files and subfolders inside it. Those files and subfolders are uploaded to users’ Google Drive on the Web and are accessible there. They will also be synced to any other devices onto which a user has installed Google Drive. A document edited on any device with Drive installed will be synced to the cloud and updated on all devices a person has installed the app on. However, it isn't integrated into just Windows Explorer or Finder and shows up like an external storage drive. Installation is a relatively simple process, so Google seems to have hit a home run with this one………..

- No Major League Baseball team needs good news right now more than the Boston Red Sox. They’re four games below .500, mired in last place in the American League East and their new manager has been an abject failure who has already clashed with several leaders in the clubhouse. Fans are panicking and a small morsel of positivity could go a long way right now. In that spirit, Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford is going to see Dr. James Andrews to have the soreness in his left elbow checked out. That’s right, Crawford just heard the three words that strike fear into the heart of every professional athlete: Dr. James Andrews. Andrews, a renowned orthopedic surgeon, is the guy athletes go to see when they need season- or career-ending surgery. He’s worked on more wrecked knees and jacked-up shoulders than just about anyone and the guy who signed a seven-year, $142 million contract with the Red Sox before the 2011 season and proceeded to have one of the worst years of his career could be on his way to season-ending elbow surgery. After hitting .255 with 11 home runs and 18 stolen bases last season and inspiring nearly every Red Sox fan to wonder what the hell then-general manager Theo Epstein was thinking when he gave Crawford that FAT contract. With that terrible season under his belt, Crawford needed to show up and have a big season this year. Instead, he is out indefinitely and not close to returning to action. He has yet to play this season and after undergoing offseason wrist surgery, his future is murky at best. Manager Bobby Valentine admitted he is concerned about Crawford and isn't sure when he will return. "Until a guy is 100 percent, you always have concern," Valentine said. Let the good times roll, Red Sox fans…………

- Forget what you’ve heard from a Chrysler commercial with an Eminem song as a musical backdrop. Detroit is not back yet, it’s still on the brink of financial collapse and its citizens are still extremely angry. Need evidence? How about the 1,000 or so protesters who gathered Wednesday at Hart Plaza and then marched to the Renaissance Center to protest the General Electric shareholders meeting at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. Save the smack about how these people are accustomed to walking because they can’t afford cars or even a bus ride, because you don’t want this angry mob coming after you next. The protest drew participants from as far away as Louisville, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and New York, all of them demanding that GE pay more in taxes. It seems like a generic, clichéd demand, but if it’s enough to bring more than 1,000 people out, that’s still solid. What makes the protest truly hilarious is that these angry citizens, presumably ticked about the financial state of their city, necessitated dozens of Detroit police officers being deployed to keep order around the hotel, using up taxpayer dollars. City officials have pleaded with protest organizers to call off their demonstration because they believe Detroit does not need the bad publicity created by the protests. Umm, wrong call, city officials. Protests are good for a city, not bad. They generate interest, attention and show that your citizens give a damn. In a city currently facing the worst economic crisis in its history, citizens who care is important. GE has been a popular target for Occupy protestors and on Tuesday, protesters interrupted a speech by GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt, yelling, "Pay your fair share." Protestors claim GE pays only an 11-percent tax rate, while the company contends that it pays a 25-percent rate. That discrepancy seems like a good reason to protest…………

Bathing suit trama, Russian political lies and NBA-political pissimg matches

- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sounds bitter. Did someone take his state’s NBA franchise away or did someone take the last jelly doughnut from the kitchen at the governor’s residence? Both are likely to draw an angry response from the cherubic Christie, but it’s the New Jersey Nets playing their last home game ever in the state that has the governor chafing on this day. The Nets played their last home game in Newark Monday night and prior to the game Christie was asked if he planned to attend. I'm not going to the Nets game (Monday night) and my message to the Nets is 'goodbye,'" he fumed. "They want to leave here and go to Brooklyn? Good riddance." The reference to Brooklyn has to do with the brand-new $1 billion Barclays Center the Nets will play in starting next season. By Christie’s reasoning, if the Nets didn't want to stay in New Jersey, the state didn't want them. His views are delusional when it comes to how great a place New Jersey is to live and work and include the belief that Newark in one of the country's most vibrant cities. "(The Prudential Center is) one of the most beautiful arenas in America they have a chance to play in, it's in one of the country's most vibrant cities, and they want to leave here and go to Brooklyn?" Christie asked. "Good riddance, see you later.” Umm….has he actually seen the state, city and arena he’s referring to? Might want to do that before spouting off, C. Ironically, seeing the Nets leave isn't exactly like losing an iconic franchise with a long track record of success. During their 35 seasons in New Jersey, the Nets compiled an NBA record of 1,186-1,634, reaching the postseason just 16 times and never winning a championship. Fittingly, the final home game in Newark was a 107-85 loss for the Nets. Nets coach Avery Johnson was more politically skillful than the governor in responding to Christie’s remarks. "Everybody has an opinion. We're moving on and hopefully we'll move on and be successful in Brooklyn," Johnson said. Probably not with star guard Deron Williams set to opt out of his contract and bolt the team, forward Gerald Wallace set to do the same and forwards Kris Humphries and Gerald Green likely to leave as unrestricted free agents……………

- This will teach people to do kind things for others. Deborah Stevens was naïve enough to believe that her boss hiring her back after she moved from New York to Florida and then back to New York was anything more than a blatant attempt to steal a kidney. Stevens, a mother of two, was an employee at the Atlantic Automotive Group for over a year before she decided to move to Florida. She resigned and left on good terms and when she made a visit back to New York, she stopped by to see her former boss, Jacqueline Brucia. Brucia explained that she was having health problems and needed a new kidney, leading Stevens to offer to donate one if the time came when surgery was necessary. A few months later, Stevens moved back to New York and asked Brucia for her old job back. Clearly seeing an opportunity to snag the kidney she badly needed, er, bring back a valued employee, Brucia gave Stevens her job back and immediately reminded her that she offered a kidney at one time. Not putting two and two together, Stevens agreed to follow through on her promise. "My boss needed a kidney," she said. Stevens went into surgery in August to have her left kidney removed. Unfortunately, the procedure did not go exactly as expected and she went through an extremely painful recovery process. Still in pain, she returned to work on Sept. 6. Her pain was exacerbated when Brucia went full-on dictator on her, finding fault in every aspect of Stevens’ job performance. "She accused me of not doing my job, she'd yell at me every day. She made me feel guilty about the pain I was in," Stevens explained. Stevens eventually spoke to human resources, which confirmed receiving reports from other employees that Brucia was harassing Stevens. Allegedly attempting to fix the problem, they moved Stevens to another dealership fifty miles away…and abruptly fired her. “I felt like my heart was ripped out," Stevens lamented. She is now filing a complaint and lawsuit to the Division of Human Rights against Atlantic Automotive and Brucia……….

- The nightmare continues. “American Karaoke” is going to be around for at least two more years and the overly tanned, teeth-bleaching, tip-frosting tool who hosts the reality karaoke show is staying in place as well. Noted man-blouse wearer Ryan Seacrest has agreed to host two more seasons of the karaoke disaster, extending a contract that was set to expire after this season, the show’s 11th. His salary will reportedly be an astronomical $15 million per season, the same bloated figure he’s earned under his existing contract. Seacrest is a busy man, serving as managing editor and lead anchor of E! News, hosting the weekly syndicated radio program American Top 40 and a morning drive-time show on Clear Channel’s KIIS-FM in Los Angeles and producing a number of E! reality series, including “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and its various spinoffs. He is the very definition of not confusing busyness and activity with quality production and accomplishment. Hosting “American Karaoke” nullifies any good work he might actually do, even if he hasn’t done any yet. For 11 seasons, he’s emceed the world’s biggest karaoke contest and actually seems pretty happy with his efforts in that capacity. “For the last 11 seasons, I’ve had the privilege to be a part of one of television’s most iconic shows,” Seacrest said. “It’s been a wild ride, and I’m excited for my journey to continue.” To add another duty to his to-do list, Seacrest will also have a small role in NBC’s prime-time Summer Olympics coverage from London. As for “American Karaoke,” its ratings are less than half of what they were at their apex and hopefully that decline continues right into TV oblivion………….

- This should have a HUGE impact. Russian despot/president-elect Vladimir Putin has secured an official return to power and reinforced his stranglehold on the country’s political scene, so now he can sever his last link with the ruling but increasingly unpopular party he formed a decade ago and fly solo. Officially, Putin turned control of the party to his future premier and the man who has served as Russia’s puppet president for the past four years, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin has little need for the United Russia Party now that he’s back in power, especially not with the party’s approval rating plummeting and demonstrations in the streets an increasingly common occurrence. Corruption complaints are also skyrocketing and United Russia is the prime target, meaning Putin needs to distance himself from the group as quickly as possible. Since he was never an actual card-carrying member of the group despite chairing it while serving as Medvedev's prime minister and the country’s actual political leader for the past four years, dissolving those ties isn't so painful for him. Still, he and the party became synonymous for many Russians and Medvedev’s charisma-free leadership seems to have little hope for reviving its fortunes. Putin explained his decision as merely following tradition. "We have developed a political tradition under which the president remains a non-partisan figure," he explained. "The constitution does not bar him from being a member of some party or other. But according to its spirit, the president is really a consolidating figure for all political forces.” Consolidation is exactly what Putin stands for, namely a forceful consolidation of everyone behind his point of view. United Russia barely clung to a majority in fraud-tainted December parliamentary elections and massive protests ensued. To counter those negative perceptions, Medvedev attempted to put on a positive front in an address played live across the nation in which he claimed United Russia was going to be a force for good. "Democracy is no longer a swear word," Medvedev said in the speech. It may not be a swear word, but it’s also not a word that Russians have any concept of at all……….

- Will the whining never stop? Every year, when the weather warms up (this week’s freak Northeast snowstorm notwithstanding), women around the United States – and perhaps even the world – face the daunting reality that months (or years) of not exercising, not eating well and packing on the pounds are about to come back and bite them in their upsized backside. Trying on bathing suits to sport during warmer weather months becomes a harrowing experience and according to researcher Marika Tiggemann, a psychologist at Flinders University in Australia, trying on bathing suits is a psychologically traumatic experience for ladies. According to the study, imagining wearing a swimsuit also increases feelings of self-objectification, a practice in which an individual takes an outsider's view of their body, reducing themselves to objects to be evaluated. "Self-objectification has a variety of negative consequences,” Tiggerman said. “It leads to always worrying about how you look, shame about the body, and [it] is linked to eating disorders and depression.” For those looking to excuses their excuse-making, self-objectification is a personality trait, meaning that some women are more likely to objectify themselves in general than others. Apparently those woes are compounded by the mental strain of trying on a bathing suit. "We wear and choose clothes every day," Tiggemann said. "Clothes are controllable aspects of our appearance, in a way that body size and shape are not." She and her colleagues wanted to determine what impact clothing had on those issues, so they wrote four theoretical scenarios to test the impact of clothing on self-objectification. Three of the scenarios had women imaging themselves trying on different types of clothing in a dress room: a bathing suit in one scenario, jeans in another and a sweater in the third. Four the fourth scenario, they were asked to imagine themselves wearing a swimsuit while walking down a beach. All 102 female undergraduates who participated in the study read all four scenarios in random order and then participated in the imagination exercise. After each scenario, they filled out questionnaires designed to measure their mood and feelings about the body and self-objectification. Predictably, imagining wearing a swimsuit made women feel worse about their bodies than picturing themselves trying on jeans. But oddly enough, it was imagining wearing a swimsuit in a dressing room that made women most likely to self-objectify, not the thought of walking down the beach with others watching them. "The physical presence of observers is clearly not necessary," researchers wrote. The dressing room contains a number of potentially objectifying features: mirrors, bright lighting and the virtual demand that women engage in close evaluation of their body." From their research, Tiggerman and their colleagues theorized that self-objectification is not easy to prevent. They offered up some absurd suggestions, such as avoiding mirrors and comparisons with others, and focusing on activities that emphasize the function, not the appearance, of the body, such as yoga or sailing. Or women could not eat fast food or desserts, work out and see where that takes them. Read more about this riveting research in the May edition of the journal Sex Roles…………

Corn issues, movie bombs = firings

- Why so angry, Los Angeles Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro, why so angry? Just because one of your two star players on a playoff-bound team continues to be drilled like a tackling dummy every time he drives to the basket is no reason to be upset. Oh, and that star has no perimeter game and attacking the basket is his go-to move. All-Star forward Blake Griffin is known for his high-flying assaults on the rim and bringing the two-handed ruckus is his specialty. However, opponents know this fact well and have taken to hacking Griffin up when he goes to the basket. Because he shoots just over 50 percent from the free-throw line, fouling Griffin is smart strategy for opposing teams. It’s not the fouls themselves Del Negro objects to; it’s the brutal, season-threatening nature of the fouls that the coach has an issue with. "I have an issue that Blake got hit that hard and he is in pain and he is still in pain and the player that did that played yesterday," Del Negro said. "I have a problem with that. I don't know how the league wants us to deal with that because then it will get out of hand." Following a flagrant foul by Phoenix Suns center Robin in a game last Thursday, Del Negro expressed outrage that Lopez was allowed to play in the Suns’ next game while Griffin was still feeling the effects of the hard hit due to a minor injury he suffered when Lopez clotheslined him. What solution does Del Negro propose? "To me it doesn't make a lot of sense when a player gets a flagrant 2 and he's able to play and the other player is still in pain," he said. "To me what makes sense is that player doesn't play until that player is healthy and playing." Well said, V.............

- Props to whoever livened up life in downtown St. Louis early Monday morning by lobbing a Molotov cocktail at the Young Building on Spruce Street. That sort of tactic is usually reserved for Europe or Asia, maybe South America on a good day, but an angry soul who is coincidentally now being sought by authorities brought it to America in the early morning hours. The building houses a variety of federal offices including the Department of Homeland Security, so finding a motive for the small-scale attack shouldn’t be difficult. Shortly after 1 a.m., a late-‘90s gray Chevrolet Camaro with a partial Illinois license plate of N50 rolled past the building an unidentified suspected lobbed the aforementioned Molotov cocktail at the building. No one was injured and the cocktail caused minor damage, so the attack shouldn’t be that big of a deal….right? Not if you ask police, who are treating the case as a terror threat. Along with the Federal Protective Service with Homeland Security in Washington, D.C., St. Louis police are reacting as if a homicidal terrorist is out there looking to blow up buildings and bring America to its knees….with a single, (apparently) poorly made Molotov cocktail. Thanking this unknown citizen for sending a jolt of energy to rouse St. Louis from its Monday doldrums clearly never crossed the mind of these über-serious law enforcement types………..

- Climate change is affecting us all, but corn is taking a major share of the impact. According to researchers Noah S. Diffenbaugh, Thomas W. Hertel, Martin Scherer and Monika Verma, corn is taking more than its fair share of the hit at the world’s thermometer rises. In a study of near-term climate change, the quarter determined that the impact of climate change on corn-price volatility outweighs movements caused by energy market policies and oil prices. In other words, what human beings do to the environment is causing more damage than their bureaucratic bullsh*t. “U.S. corn-price volatility exhibits higher sensitivity to near-term climate change than to energy policy influences or agriculture-energy market integration,” the researchers wrote in their finings. According to their research, the presence of a biofuels mandate enhances sensitivity to climate change by more than 50 percent. Of course, corn is the primary feedstock used to make ethanol in the U.S. and given the focus on alternative energy sources, its 6.5 production decline projected for this year could be an issue. While world corn output is predicted to rise this year, the authors of this study believe that going forward the increase of global temperatures poses a significant problem for corn. “The likelihood of increasing occurrence of severe hot events in response to increasing global greenhouse-gas concentrations poses a particular risk for field crops,” boosting yield variability and price volatility, they postulated. While a corn surplus at the moment seems like a huge positive, the demand for corn is only going to go up as biofuels become more widely used. A higher U.S. corn yield would raise declining stockpiles for the first time in four years, the International Grains Council said April 2. Ethanol has been a government charity case since the Energy Tax Act of 1978 and worst-ever Commander-in-Chief W. made it part of his plan to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil in 2006. W. also doubled the country’s renewable fuels targets in the 2007 law that calls for the U.S. to use 15 billion gallons of the fuel by 2015, meaning corn needs to step its game up to meet the demand. In turn, corn needs humans to step their collective game up by doing what we can to put the brakes on climate change…………

- Someone had to pay. That much was obvious after the film “John Carter” became one of Hollywood's greatest ever flops. Disney cranked out the other-worldly thriller that proved to be not so thrilling and with a $250 million budget, knew the project needed to make a ton of money in order to turn a profit. Instead, it was critically panned and ignored by audiences around the world. It has yet to crack the $100 million barrier in the United States and hasn’t done much better internationally. Current estimates peg the movie for losses of nearly $200 million and it could go down as the biggest flop of all-time. When a movie bombs that massively, someone has to take the fall and the head of Disney's film-making studio, Rich Ross, is the fall guy in this debacle. Ross has resigned a month after “John Carter dropped and sent out an email to his staff over the weekend informing them of the decision in typical business-speak BS. "People need to be in the right jobs, in roles they are passionate about, doing work that leverages the full range of their abilities. I no longer believe the chairman role is the right professional fit for me,” he wrote. Being the head of a studio is clearly not the same as being president of the Disney Channel and overseeing the creation of successful shows such as “High School Musical” and “Hannah Montana,” which Ross did in a previous gig. Maybe if he’d had John Carter dancing and singing in unison with the aliens whose world he was trying to save, the movie would have done much better. On the way out the door, Disney CEO Bob Iger offered a thoroughly ridiculous statement of praise for a man who just cost his company hundreds of millions of dollars with a poor decision. "For more than a decade, Rich Ross' creative instincts, business acumen and personal integrity have driven results in key businesses for Disney. I appreciate his countless contributions throughout his entire career at Disney and expect he will have tremendous success in whatever he chooses to do next," Iger said. Excellent points, B…………

- India is a tad bit sensitive right now. Oh, and mix in a healthy dose of paranoia. That much is clear after the Indian government ordered the deportation of 10 French nationals who police say illegally worked with an Indian advocacy group accused of supporting Maoist rebels. The deportations were announced Monday, marking the second time in a matter of weeks that India has deported foreign citizens working for local non-governmental organizations. According to deputy inspector general of police Paras Nath, the French nationals violated their tourist visas by working for Ekta Parishad, or Unity Forum, a non-governmental organization in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. The four men and six women were initially detained Saturday in a densely forested area of Bihar prior to a meeting of local farmers organized by Ekta Parishad. The incident was not as bizarre as when police expelled a German tourist earlier this month for helping to raise funds for anti-nuclear activists, but it was close. Supporting Maoist rebels is not the role Ekta Parishad sees itself filling. The group says it works to protect the land and water rights of the poor and denies any ties to the Maoist rebels, who have kidnapped several officials and killed dozens of security forces in recent years. Merely being in the vicinity of one of the group’s meetings was enough to get these 10 French nationals arrested and flown to New Delhi on Monday for deportation. Police officials claimed it was the first time that foreign nationals have been deported for working for an organization that supports the cause of Maoist rebels despite Ekta Parishad’s denials of such ties. "We have no links with the Maoists whatsoever. Ekta Parishad is working for people's right to land, forests and water. We are a people's movement," said Aneesh Thillenkery, national advocacy coordinator for the group. As for the French nationals, they are farm activists in their own country who came to India to meet with the leader of Ekta Parishad, P.V. Rajagopal. The French Embassy in New Delhi refused comment on the matter………..