- Of all the potential playoff matchups for the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins to have in the first round of the NHL playoffs, the Washington Capitols were the one they just as soon would have avoided. That fact has little to do with the second-seeded Bruins not liking their matchup with the Caps or not wanting to facing star forward Alex Ovechkin and more to do with starting goalie Tim Thomas returning to the nation’s capital in the wake of skipping the team's visit with President Barack Obama in January out of protest for what he believed to be the federal government “growing grown out of control.” The Bruins were invited to the White House for a visit like every other college and professional team that wins a championship and Thomas declined the invitation, later explaining that he had problems with both political parties because the government has overstepped its bounds. After making his initial statement, Thomas made it clear he would not discuss the issue further and he clearly meant it. Asked after practice on Monday about going back to D.C. for the third and fourth games of the series, Thomas quickly ended the interview. "Thanks, guys," he said with a laugh as he left. "We finally got somebody to get me out early." The first two games of the series will be Thursday and Saturday in Boston before the party moves to the nation’s capital. Thomas should probably be prepared to hear the questions he wants nothing to do with at least another time or two once he arrives in Washington…………
- The debate over high-speed rail travel is alive again in California. As state lawmakers reconvened Monday after a short break, they stared down several major budgetary issues and chief among them is a proposed high-speed rail project. Ignorant, backward-thinking citizens who refuse to see how high-speed trains have become key cogs in the transportation machine in both Europe and Asia have denounced the project and the hefty price tag on the plan is one reason. The cost has varied depending on the source, but the original cost was in the vicinity of $100 billion. However, Gov. Jerry Brown and his administration revised the proposal to address some of the criticisms and the new dollar amount is estimated to be at $68.4 billion. Brown is working hard to make the project more appealing to lawmakers and citizens, knowing that a high-speed rail system would help alleviate some of the state’s transportation issues and headaches. The proposed rail system would feature a bullet train that makes the trip from Los Angeles from San Francisco (and vice versa) in under two hours and 40 minutes. The system would have 24 stations and about 800 miles of track. Along with those decrying the cost of the train, other doubters have questioned whether the train could make the L.A. to San Francisco trip in less than three hours. Critics also point out that a flight between the two cities is twice as fast, although many more people could travel with much less hassle on a train. Forward thinkers realize the high-speed rail project could transform the state's economy and help California keep pace with the rest of the world. Before a massive earthquake detaches it from the continental United States and sends it floating off into the Pacific Ocean, of course…………..
- Props to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for announcing Monday that it plans to widen its efforts to cut the time and cost it takes to approve new medical devices. FDA officials unveiled plans to play a larger role in the early stage of the approval process and in analyzing factors such as how much risk patients are willing to take with new devices. When patients are faced with a terminal illness, many of them are willing to accept more risk than they would in other circumstances," said Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. "Our intent here is to make those perspectives an explicit consideration in our decision-making." The announcement directly affects three devices to help patients with end-stage renal disease, such as an artificial kidney. They are the initial targets of the latest revision of FDA's Innovation Pathway program that officials said will expand further. Some 500,000 Americans suffer from end-stage kidney diseases and the availability of medical devices for treatment is a key issue. The disease rapidly destroys the functionality of a person's kidneys, which filter and remove waste from the body. Artificial kidneys would be huge for patients and a colossal leap forward in treatment. "We think this process could impact the lives of patients by providing access to innovative new technologies they so desperately need," Shuren said. "In turn, this could also have a positive impact on health care, encouraging innovation through smarter regulation that could potentially save companies time and money." Medical companies would obviously benefit hugely from the FDA’s new initiative and they know it. Jack Lasersohn, a partner in The Vertical Group, a venture capital company focused on medical technology and biotechnology, praised the decision and said increased collaboration with FDA could shave as much as a year off the time it takes in designing clinical trials. Monday’s announcement came about one year after the first version of the FDA's Innovation Pathway was announced. That first version dealt with only one device, an artificial arm controlled by a computer chip implanted in the brain. This announcement should have a much wider reach…………
- Some networks (no names mentioned….cough….NBC….cough) have experienced an incredibly bad year in terms of finding successful new series. But not everyone has swung and missed on its freshman dramas and sitcoms. Fox has found success (even if it’s not enough to help the world forget that it’s been torturing the world for years with “American Karaoke”) with new sitcom “New Girl” as part of its strong Tuesday night lineup. Alongside second-season show “Raising Hope” and perennial teenybopper favorite “Glee,” the first season of “New Girl” has given Fox a solid Tuesday lineup and that lineup looks like it will remain intact following Monday’s renewal of all three series. There was never any doubt that “Glee” would receive a fourth season, but “Raising Hope” and “New Girl” were question marks. Ironically, the return of “Glee” from hiatus and the subsequent reshuffling of the rest of the night’s schedule may have allowed the other two shows to boost their ratings. Together, the three shows comprise a two-hour block of Tuesday primetime on Fox and have brought in much-needed viewers in the young adult demographic. “New Girl,” starring Zooey Deschanel, has been the unexpected success story of the season for Fox, which whiffed badly with its other freshman comedy, “I Hate My Teenage Daughter,” which was pulled from the lineup on Tuesday after less than a month on the air and is expected to be officially canceled soon. Batting .500 is still much better than certain other networks have fared this season, so maybe Fox isn't a complete waste of time………..
- In a truly shocking revelation, Josef Stalin was not a good guy. Maybe you thought you knew that. Perhaps you had already been taught that Stalin ordered the deaths of at least 724,000 people and was culpable in the deaths of millions more as a result of the forced labor system in Gulags, the Soviet prison system, under his rule. Stalin also forced millions of others, including entire ethnic groups such as Chechens and Volga Germans, to resettle in Soviet Central Asia. Being one of history’s worst and most heinous dictators would normally cement a person’s status as a bonafide horrible individual. However, a museum in the former Soviet republic of Georgia has honored Stalin since 1937. That museum has finally seen the light and is now being remodeled to exhibit the atrocities that were committed during the Soviet dictator's rule. Georgian Culture Minister Nika Rurua announced Monday that Georgia, which became independent in 1991, can no longer host a museum "glorifying the Soviet dictator." With those words, 75 years of honoring a despot came to an end. The museum’s existence makes a little more sense because Stalin was born Josef Dzhugashvili in the central Georgian town of Gori in 1879. Recognizing one of its native sons, as much of a terrible human being as he was, was obviously important to Georgians back in 1937. The museum opened in 1937, at the height of purges that were later dubbed the Great Terror. Some 47,000 exhibits fill the museum, including Stalin’s personal belongings, the house where he was born and his death masks. It somehow survived the de-Stalinization campaign and denunciation of his personality cult declared by Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev in 1956. Efforts to erase the Soviet era have been slow in Georgia, but the government has made it a point over the past few years to wipe away reminders of that ugly time in its past. The museum attracted mostly foreign tourists and a few die-hard Communists, but those Communists will have to find somewhere else to honor the man they believe led the Soviet Union to victory in World War II and turned a struggling nation into a superpower. They can also continue ignoring the fact that many of Stalin's victims were ethnic Georgians, because Lord knows that’s not relevant…………
No comments:
Post a Comment