Friday, April 27, 2012

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………..

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