- Iranian rappers: They do exist. Not only do they exist, but one of
them is facing death threats
and has a $100,000 bounty on his head for a song that some say insults an
Islamic Shiite imam. That’s right, Iran could have its own Tupac/Biggie
situation on its hands, except in this case those putting the bounty out are
not the opposing side in an East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry, but Islamic
extremists. Shahin Najafi, who sings in Farsi and lives in Germany, is the man
at the center of the Farsi lyrical farce. He is adamant that the song
"Naghi" is not about a religious figure, but about the state of
society in Iran. "The story with 'Naghi' was just a pretext," Najafi
said. "For me it is more of an excuse to talk about completely different
things. I criticize Iranian society in the song. It seems as though people are
just concentrating on the word 'imam.'" That’s not how Islamic extremists
see the song and they have labeled the track an affront against Imam Hadi (7th
Imam of Shias). “His apostasy sentence has been issued by Ayatollah Safi
Golpayegani," Iran's official Fars News Agency said of Najafi in a website
posting in Farsi. If you’re not up on your grand ayatollah hierarchy details, Golpayegani
is a grand ayatollah, which means the highest- ranking authority in Shiite
Islam after prophets and imams. Being called an apostate, or someone who
forsakes Islam, is kind of a bad thing because it means a person can be
punished by death under Iranian law. "If the song contains any insults or
indecency towards Imam Naghi, then it is blasphemy, and God knows what to
do," Golpayegani said. According to Golpayegani, Najafi’s case falls under
article 513 of Islam’s penal code, which states that anyone who insults the
sanctity of Islam, anyone of the great prophets, the Imams, and Sadigheh
Tahereh (the prophet’s daughter) should be executed. To make sure that happens,
the Iranian website Shia-Online.ir
is offering $100,000 to anyone who kills Najafi. A supposed “philanthropist” in
an unidentified Persian Gulf state is putting up the bounty money. Wonder if
Roger Goodell is going to start handing out suspensions……..
- Google is trying to think like a human and revise its
search engine accordingly? So that must mean that 75 percent of all searches
will generate results for porn sites from here on out, right? That much remains
unclear, but the search giant did announce Wednesday the debut of Knowledge Graph, a
significant change to how search results are delivered that will supposedly
change their search engine to think more like a human. "The web pages we
[currently] return for the search 'kings,' they're all good," explained Jack
Menzel, director of product management at Google. "You, as a human,
associate those words with their real-world meaning but, for a computer, they're
just a random string of characters." What will change with Knowledge
Graph, which has already begun to roll out, results will be arranged according
to categories with which the search term has been associated. For example, a
search for diamonds would turn up different results for the precious stones,
baseball fields and singer Neil Diamond. From there, users can click on the boxes
to only get results for the specific topic they were searching. "It hones
your search results right in on the task that you're after," Menzel said.
Returning to the diamond example, more specific searches like one for Neil
Diamond, will result in boxes with basic information, as well as links to what
Google believes are possibly related searches. According to Google, the pilot version
of Knowledge Graph has information on 500 million people, places and things and
uses 3.5 billion defining attributes and connections to create categories. It
debuted Wednesday afternoon for some users in the United States and will
eventually be available for computers, mobile devices and tablets, and will
expand to other languages in the coming weeks………..
- Is the newly minted NBA Most Valuable Player supposed to
whine about how tough his job is? If not, someone should pull Miami Heat
forward LeBron James aside for a chat. After he and his team executed an epic
choke job in Game 2 of their series against Indiana Tuesday night in which he
clanked two free throws in the last minute as the Heat trailed by one, lamented
on Wednesday just how difficult his gig has become. With All-Star forward Chris
Bosh out with an abdominal strain, the 6-foot-9, 275-pound James is playing extended minutes at power forward,
Bosh’s position. Despite being more than big enough and strong enough to battle
with the bigger players at the power forward position, James took a moment to
complain about the task. "It's a lot more taxing being in there with
bigger guys," James said. He
added that defense "is the biggest difference. When you're on the
perimeter, there's more space. The interior is more cramped and physical."
Without Bosh, the Heat were demolished in the paint as the Pacers outrebounded
them 50-40 after the Heat led in that category 45-38 in Game 1 with Bosh in the
lineup for about half the game. Bosh’s offense was also missed, as the Heat
limped to 75 points in Game 2, 52 of them coming from James and Dwyane Wade.
Going forward, the picture isn’t rosy. The Pacers have a decided size advantage
and without Bosh in the lineup during the regular season, the Heat went 4-5. With
averages of 18 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, he was part of the third
top-scoring frontcourt. Following an MRI early this week, Bosh has been ruled
out indefinitely and is not expected back in this series. James knows the games
ahead will be difficult, "but I'm ready for the challenge," he said.
Still, like any big-ego athlete, he believes the situation can work to his
advantage. "I can get more rebounds and start the break," he
explained. Uh-huh, whatever you say, “King.” Maybe it’s time to put on your
hard hat and go to work without whining………..
- There is a lot of crap in Clearwater, Fla., and someone
has to deal with it. The city treats millions of gallons of sewage everyday and
the chemicals needed in the process costs $3 a gallon. In an attempt to reduce
that cost, the city’s waste management department has gone with a sweeter
alternative literally. Monin Gourmet Flavorings, a Clearwater-based company
that produces flavored syrups used in cocktails, milkshakes, and coffees and
does business in 30 countries in Latin America, has linked up with the city to
use one of its flavored syrups to treat the waste. The company’s flavored
syrups are made with Everglades cane sugar and contain high levels of carbon. A
wicked-smart city worker who should probably get a pay raise or a promotion
theorized that the carbon would help to remove nitrogen from the wastewater. A
brilliant plan was hatched and now, when Monin Gourmet Flavorings changes flavors
for a new production run, leftover product is saved and every few days the city
picks up one of the 250-gallon containers. "It started off as an
interesting idea. It's turned out to be a great solution for the
city," said CEO Bill Lombardo. Once the city has the sugary blend, adding
it to the wastewater is simple. A small pump injects the mixture into the tanks
and once the multi-step process is complete, water is clean enough to be used
as reclaimed water or discharged back into waterways.
"It's a great
example of how industry and municipal governments can work together for a
common cause," said David Porter of Clearwater Public Utilities. Nearly
everyone wins with the arrangement, as Monin receives a monthly credit on its
city utilities bill and the city saves about $40,000 a year. Other than those
who would love to buy some cheap leftover syrup byproduct but can’t be the city
is bogarting it, there are no losers……….
-In a disturbing case of life imitating art imitating life,
actor Nick
Stahl is taking his most recent role on the big screen to scary lengths in real
life. Stahl, who played a leading role in the film “388 Arletta Avenue,”
is now missing. Police detectives in Los Angeles have been searching for Stahl
since the actor's wife, Rose, reported him missing to the Los Angeles Police
Department Monday morning. Stahl was last seen on May 9 and those who know him
well say there was no indication that anything was amiss. Randall Cole, the
director of “388 Arletta Avenue,” said he saw no signs of trouble when he shot
the movie with Stahl in Toronto a year and a half ago. "He was fantastic –
not a single problem," Cole said. "He was a total professional and
knew his lines. There was no diva behavior at all." Rose Cole and the
couple’s infant daughter Marlo were also on set and there was no hint of
trouble, Cole recalled. However, in February Rose filed a petition calling for
child support from her husband and asking for full custody with her husband
having eight hours of supervised visitation per week. Stahl was also required
to take a drug test within 24 hours of each visitation. Detectives have begun
the search for him, but so far have not found anything significant. "We
are tracking down a few leads and using internal sources with information we
have to see if we can quickly locate him," explained LAPD Detective Carmine S. Sasso, who is handling
the case. Sasso said Stahl "has got some personal issues that he's trying to work
through.” He also admitted that like many adult missing persons cases, drugs
have some role. He is hopeful that the case will have a happy ending, but even
if Stahl is alive and well, the circumstances surround his disappearance
suggest that he will have plenty of trouble to deal with even when he steps
back into his life…………
No comments:
Post a Comment