- Arrrrrggghhhh! A very pirate-y idea be takin’ shape in
Somalia, mateys. The modern haven for pirating has to find some place to stash
its wealth of high seas scourges and the solution is a new prison specifically
for pirates. Going forward, Somali
pirates captured on the high seas and prosecuted in other countries will be
transferred to a new prison in Somalia. The issue of prosecuting and punishing
pirates has become a sore spot as the U.S. and other countries continue to
catch pirates and turn them over to countries like Somalia that are willing to
prosecute them. Needing a place to put these swashbucklers, Somalia has
established a new prison in the self-governed northern part the country and it
began accepting its first prisoners a few weeks ago The United Nations Office
of Drugs and Crime is paying for the transport and the prison facility, taking
much of the burden off the Somali government. The first wave of prisoners came from
the tiny island nation of Seychelles, located off the east coast of Africa.
They were transferred from an overcrowded detention facility to the new prison in
Hargeisa, the capital of the self-governed breakaway enclave of Somaliland.
Autonomous since declaring its independence in 1991, the region has remained
relatively violence-free and self-sustaining. The Somaliland government will
run the facility, offering a boost to Seychelles, Kenya and Mauritius, which have
offered to prosecute and hold pirate prisoners. Most governments around the
world realize such a facility is one small step in solving a much larger
problem and the numbers back that up. According to statistics provided by the
U.N., Seychelles has undertaken 31 prosecutions and already convicted 22
suspects while Kenya is trying 69 suspects, having convicted 50. Scores more
pirates await trial and slowing piracy’s roll is much more complex than simply
finding a place to incarcerate those convicted………….
- Snakes know it.
Villains in galaxies far, far away know it. New York Times film critic A.O.
Scott either does not know it or simply does not care. Don’t effing mess with
Samuel Effing L. Jackson. Scott was tasked with reviewing THE blockbuster film
of the year so far, Joss Whedon’s superhero epic “The Avengers.” The film
smashed box office records around the world and unlike many blockbusters that
succeed largely on the immensity of their hype, promotion and production value,
“The Avengers” has been almost universally well-received by critics and fans.
Scott, however, was not impressed. The veteran critic arrogantly dissected the
moving, writing, "'The Avengers' is hardly worth raging about, its
failures are significant and dispiriting ... The light, amusing bits cannot
overcome the grinding, hectic emptiness, the bloated cynicism that is less a
shortcoming of this particular film than a feature of the genre." Not
exactly the most scathing criticism, but definitely not positive. Considering
all of the positive run the movie has received, one negative review shouldn’t
carry that much weight, even if it is the New York Times. Yet Scott’s review
came to Jackson’s attention and the man who played eye patch-wearing Nick Fury,
head of spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D., in “The Avengers” had plenty to say about
Scott’s words of criticism. "#Avengers fans, NY Times critic AO Scott
needs a new job!," Jackson tweeted. "Let's help him find one! One he
can actually do!" A few Twitter users came to Scott’s defense, smartly
pointing out that a) Scott is entitled to his opinion like any human being, b)
he’s a critic who is paid to give an honest review of a movie and c) making a
lot of money doesn’t necessarily mean a film is good. Jackson replied,
"Actually, sometimes IT DOES!" He didn’t clarify why or when those
“sometimes” are, so the world must now try to decipher what Jackson meant. What
Jackson also needs to explain is why one of the highest-grossing stars of
all-time is so bent out of shape over one negative review…………
- Don’t f*ck with
bikers, Rye (N.H.) police chief Kevin Walsh. They’re fit, they have endurance
and they are battle-tested by virtue of spending hours each week skirmishing
with idiot drivers who like to hassle them by doing über-close drive-bys or
simply refusing to cede ground on the edge of the road. Bizarrley enough, Walsh
is targeting cyclists instead of drivers in a misguided attempt to improve road
safety in his small nook. At Walsh’s behest, town officials set up an
electronic message board by the side of the city’s main thoroughfare flashing alerts aimed at bicyclists, including,
"Bikes single file," and, "Roads for riding, not chatting!"
According to Walsh, the sign is aimed at improving bicycle safety on the town's
roads. According to cyclists, it’s an offensive display with a wrong point of
view. "It's consistent complaints that have happened over the years, and
the Board of Selectmen have asked me to push a little more awareness this year
and to get the word out in a positive way," Walsh said. Positive is not
the right word to describe the reaction from many cyclists, several of whom
have complained about the tone and wording of the messages. The matter is now
in the hands of the town’s board of selectmen, who are considering an ordinance
that would make single-file riding the law for local bikers and pedestrians. "If
you want to have a conversation, stop and go to the side of the road and have
the conversation," Walsh said. "The road is for driving a car, riding
a bike, walking or running, and that's what you should be concentrating
on." Umm, not really. Walsh clearly does not participate regularly in any
sort of fitness or exercise activity because if he did, he would know that any
such activity becomes infinitely better with a friend to talk to and share the
experience with. State law in New Hampshire allows cyclists to ride two abreast
as long as they don't impede the flow of traffic and Rye officials need to
respect that law. That the new measure would also apply to anyone walking,
jogging or running on the road reeks of small-town idiocy and even in tiny Rye
(Pop. 5,628), enforcing such an asinine law on runners and bikers is going to
be impossible………
- Team USA will look much different than the squad fans watched snare
Olympic basketball gold for the U.S. at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. A rash of
injuries during the current NBA season, including back surgery for Orlando
Magic center Dwight Howard and a torn ACL in the playoffs for Chicago Bulls
guard Derrick Rose, ensured that the American team trying to best Spain for the
gold once more will not have all of its key pieces in place. Their absences
make Dwyane Wade’s suggestion that he may not play for the Olympic team all the
more terrifying for USA Basketball president Jerry Colangelo. Speaking about
the possibility of playing in what would be his third Olympics, Wade sounded
less than committed to the program. “I told them, I said, listen, I’m just
going to see how I feel,” Wade said last week. “This is about being healthy — I
think, for all of us, going into the summer healthy — and taking it from
there.” Colangelo, already trying to figure out how to replace Howard in the
middle, didn’t sound like he expected to hear that sort of non-committal talk
from Wade. “You could, today, probably come up with 10 or 11 that look pretty
solid unless something happens,” he said. “Wade’s one of those guys, but if he
feels like he doesn’t have anything left or doesn’t think he can go, then we’ll
make a decision as to who replaces him. We do have a lot of flexibility because
we have guys who can play so many positions.” With or without Wade and even
minis Howard and Rose, Team USA will be the gold medal favorite with a roster
expected to LeBron James, Kobe
Bryant, Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, Chris Paul and others. Spain,
sporting Marc and Pau Gasol and Oklahoma City forward Serge Ibaka, is the
single biggest threat to the Americans’ gold-medal chances. Wade will probably
cave to peer pressure and play, but being a part of Team USA doesn’t appear to
be as big a draw for him as most would have expected…………
- Dinosaur farts. That brilliant insight is the latest
reason science has given for past climate change. According to a study led by researcher Dave
Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University, dino-flatulence could
have put enough methane into the atmosphere to warm the planet during the hot,
wet Mesozoic era. As a sort of historical precursor for cows and their
modern-day methane emissions, sauropod dinosaurs that roamed the Earth
(allegedly) 150 million years ago and just like big cows, their plant digestion
was aided by methane-producing microbes. Those microbes, Wilkinson theorized,
could have led to massive methane outputs. "A simple mathematical model
suggests that the microbes living in sauropod dinosaurs may have produced
enough methane to have an important effect on the Mesozoic climate,"
Wilkinson said in a statement. "Indeed, our calculations suggest
that these dinosaurs could have produced more methane than all modern sources -
both natural and man-made - put together." Methane is dangerous because it
is a potent greenhouse gas, with as much as 25 times the climate-warming potential
as carbon dioxide. Its effects are serious enough in the 21st century that scientists
have worked to figure out how much methane is emitted by cows, sheep and other
plant-eating animals. Wilkinson and co-author Graeme Ruxton of
the University of St. Andrews enlisted the help of methane expert Euan
Nisbet at the University of London and worked together to hypothesize about
the degree to which gaseous emissions from sauropods could have warmed the
atmosphere. To do so, they tried to work from the same formula used to
calculate methane emissions from modern animals, which depends on a creature’s
total mass. A mid-sized sauropod probably weighed about 44,000 pounds, which
equaled out to about 520 million tons per year of methane output. Methane
emissions, unlike carbon dioxide emissions, have declined since the Industrial
Revolution more than 150 years ago. That decline may not be as large as
the one that occurred when the last of these gas-bag dinosaurs died off……….
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