- Prepare yourselves for one of the rarest of all political
commodities, world: humor. Not only humor, but great humor, courtesy of an
extremely unlikely source. Russian despot Vladimir Putin is selling
the world and especially his own people on the idea that he actually wants fair
rules and standards applied to political protests in Russia. So far, the only
standards Putin and his regime have applied to protests is crushing the wills
and basic rights of anyone who opposes them by any means they like. But according
to Putin, he wants to European legal norms applied in response to major
protests like the massive opposition rallies that have seized Russia in recent
weeks. Perhaps doing some political brown-nosing while speaking at a
joint news conference with EU leaders, Putin gave true lip service by stating
that holding protests was "normal.” However, he maintained that Russia
should "transfer into our legislation those norms of European law that are
applied in many European countries to regulate such events." However, he
failed to explain how such a move would address the concerns of human rights
activists and scores of Western politicians who have accused him of looking to
choke out democracy. Putin also failed to address the bill making its through the
Russian parliament that would set much higher maximum fines for people holding
unauthorized demonstrations: 300,000 roubles ($8,740) for individuals and
600,000 roubles for legal organizations. While Putin spoke, opposition leaders
in St. Petersburg distributed leaflets listing people they described as
political prisoners. One of them, former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was
once Russia's richest man but has been in jail since his conviction for fraud
and tax evasion in 2005. He accused Putin’s regime of corruption prior to his
arrest, so there are more than a few shady details lurking around his case. But
it’s all good because dictator Putin wants to apply European legal norms to dissidence from here on out………..
- Hit the eject button before you start your decline. Starz network is
looking to bail out on its highly successful "Spartacus" saga before
the still-young series straps on its skis, grabs the rope, circles the lake and
jumps that ridiculous shark. “Spartacus” has been hugely successful for the
cable network and given the difficulty most networks have in developing and
sustaining successful series, pulling the plug on a show while it remains a
viable commodity is extremely unusual. Yet there was Starz, announcing Monday
that it will conclude the action-adventure series after its next season. The
show, which stars Liam McIntyre as the Thracian-slave-turned-revolutionary
who's out to topple the Roman Empire, has had something of a difficult run
despite its success, as Andy Whitfield stared in the title role in the first
season, stepped down due to illness and passed away from cancer in September
2011. McIntyre has made the role his own and carried the show well, helping
“Spartacus” draw six million viewers this past season, a ginormous number for a
paid subscription channel. As part of an announcement that the series’ fourth
season (or fifth, counting a "prequel" season), creator-executive
producer Steven S. DeKnight promised a "stunningly epic" final
season. The 10-episode cycle will start in January and filming is already
underway in New Zealand…………
- American flags: a symbol of pride for some, fuel for the
fire for others and a safety hazard to The Phillipsburg (N.J.) Housing Authority. It is
the last of those three that is making life difficult for Phillipsburg resident
Dawn Paulus. Paulus inexplicably thought it would be a good idea to hang three
small American flags from her balcony at her home in a Phillipsburg housing
project. She has lived through world wars, cold wars and recessions and thought
the flags would be a great way to honor veterans who gave their life fighting
for freedom. “I think the veterans, they fought for us and this is why we have
our freedom. My ex-husband was in service, brothers, nephews, cousins — to me
this is a big thing,” Paulus said. “I feel I have a constitutional right to fly
a flag.” The Philadelphia Housing Authority disagrees. Paulus’ flags were
identified as a safety hazard and she was sent a cease and desist order
demanding that she take the flags down. The order explained that she violated
the lease on the apartment she pays $400 a month for and that she would be evicted
if she didn’t remove the flags immediately. On the surface, the housing
agency’s stance on the issue may seem intolerant, but it’s executive director
insists it is not. “I don’t want to be that guy. I don’t want my legacy to be I
kicked anyone out over a flag,” Paul Rummerfield said. He has received death
threats over the issue but maintains that his agency is no unpatriotic, just
safety conscious. “We’re not anti-American. It’s just a lease provision that
says nothing can be on the balconies,” he explained. Adding a dose of irony to
the issue, Paulus lives less than a mile from the town’s Civil War Memorial.
But with her living situation on the line, would she really face eviction for
three small flags hung on the balcony of a sixth-floor apartment? Yes. “I’ll
put my things in storage and hang my hat wherever,” she proclaimed. When
maintenance workers came to take the flags down, she stopped them. Once her
eviction notice is served, she will have 30 days to take the flags down or else
her fate will be in the hands of a judge………..
- Dear science: Stop giving lazy, FAT people excuses not to
exercise. Is that too much to ask? Clearly, it is. Dr. James O’Keefe, a cardiologist at the Mid America Heart Institute
of St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, led a study suggesting that what he and
his team deemed excessive exercise is bad for humans. “As great as exercise is,
it’s like a powerful drug,” he said. “More is better up to a certain dose, but
after that there is a point of diminishing returns, and it may actually detract
from [heart] health and even your longevity.” In a study that reeks of laziness
in its own right, O’Keefe’s team examined previous r studies of people who
trained and participated in endurance events such as marathons, triathlons,
ultramarathons and long bike races. They found that individuals who exercised
on a regular basis benefited significantly and increased their lifespan by an
average of seven years over those who didn’t exercise, but that people who
engaged in “extreme” physical activity actually experienced more side effects
than benefits. Why? According to the results of this study, extreme physical
activity leads to increased levels of the enzyme troponin. The heart releases
troponin when its muscle is in distress and during extreme exercise it can
climb as heart muscle fibers start to tear under the pressure of constantly
pumping at a high level. Over time, scar tissue forms in the heart and endurance
athletes end up having thicker right atria and larger right ventricles. That
leads to a thickened and scarred heart that is more susceptible to abnormal
heart rhythms, O’Keefe explained. Joining in on the lazy parade was co-author Dr.
Carl Lavie, medical director of cardiac rehabilitation and prevention at the
John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, who postulated that the
best amount of running for increased longevity is about 10 to 15 miles per
week. “Not only did the runners not get more benefit, but the more they did,
the faster they ran, the more frequently they ran, the more miles they ran,
they actually seemed to lose any benefit to the heart,” Lavie said. Their
excuse-making study can be found in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings………..
- So close, NFL Players Association, so close. And by so
close, of course, take that to mean you had no chance in hell and this outcome
was inevitable. The NFLPA challenged commissioner
Roger Goodell’s authority to discipline New Orleans Saints players for their
role in a bounty system and it lost definitively. An arbitrator ruled Monday
that Goodell has the power to do exactly what he did, namely impose penalties
for what the league says was a three-year bounty program that targeted specific
players. Arbitrator Stephen Burbank, a University of Pennsylvania law
professor, took a mere five days to determine that Goodell has the power to
punish the players under the collective bargaining agreement reached last
August to end the lockout. As a refresher, Goodell suspended Saints linebacker
Jonathan Vilma for the entire 2012 season, dinged defensive end Anthony
Hargrove, now with Green Bay, was suspended for eight games, hit Saints
defensive end Will Smith for four games and docked linebacker Scott Fujita, now
with Cleveland, three games. All four players have appealed their suspensions
and the union predictably said Monday it expects to appeal Burbank's decision
because it believes salary cap violations are involved in the payment. In the
NFLPA’s reasoning, that would give Burbank the authority to rule on penalizing
any players involved. Maybe the union will have better luck with a separate
grievance filed with a different arbitrator, Shyam Das, claiming the new CBA
prohibits Goodell from punishing players for any conduct before the CBA was
signed. Das has yet to rule on that grievance, making it one of many unresolved
legal battles ongoing between the league and the NFLPA. Vilma’s lawsuit against
Goodell for defamation in a U.S. District Court in New Orleans is still alive
and the players also have sued the league in U.S. District Court in Minnesota,
claiming the owners colluded in the uncapped 2010 season to have a secret
salary cap. The spirit of cooperation is alive and well in America’s biggest
sport this offseason……….
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