- R.A. Dickey has lived something of a storybook life since
debuting in Major League Baseball in 2001. Despite doctors discovering after he
was drafted by the Texas Rangers that he was missing an ulnar collateral
ligament in his right elbow, re-inventing himself mid-career by becoming a
knuckleballer and rarely throwing faster than 85 mph, he has carved out a long
career even though he has a career record of 49-51. His tale took another twist
prior to this season, when he wrote a book in which he revealed that he was
the victim of sexual abuse, first by a female babysitter when he was just
eight, then by a teenage boy when he was in fourth grade. In the book, he also
detailed his family's relative poverty, his father's absence, his mother's
decline into alcoholism and his own infidelity to his wife and failings as a
father. Maybe the soul cleansing was good for him because he has been one of
the best pitchers in baseball this season. His magical ride continued Saturday,
one day after Johan Santana made New York Mets history. Dickey took the mound
and followed up Santana's no-hitter by shutting out St. Louis as the Mets beat
the Cardinals 5-0. The win lifted him to 8-1 with a 2.69 ERA and kept the
surprising Mets rolling. "It's no easy chore to follow Johan," Dickey
said, "I went to bed reminding myself to bring what I bring and be
myself." He was definitely himself, riding a fluttering knuckler that he
could throw at speeds from 59 to 80 mph, to his eighth win of the season to
help his team win for the sixth time in eight games and tie Miami for second
place in the NL East, a game behind Washington. "I think what's awesome
about it is we don't have to explain it. It's organic," Dickey said. At
age 37 and coming back from being on the verge of being out of baseball
entirely, Dickey is enjoying the sort of year he probably couldn’t have dreamed
of. He has 30 strikeouts and just one walk in his last three starts and hasn't
allowed a run in 17 1/3 innings overall. No matter where the trail leads from
here, Dickey’s year has been about as remarkable as it could possibly be…………
- Traditional vending machines are boring. The
‘Swap-O-Matic’ vending machine at Ample Hills Creamery in Prospect Heights,
Brooklyn, is no traditional vending machine. Depending on the day of the week,
the machine could be offering anything from toys to shoes to original artwork.
However, there is no need to put money into the machine or even take out your
credit card to pay. Instead, the machine allows you to swap and trade items,
rather than buy them. “The Swap-O-Matic recognizes that there is a thrill in
getting things. The vending machine satisfies our desires for instant
gratification, but it co-ops it and re-appropriates it to something that is a
more sustainable method of acquisition,” said Lina Fenequito, the creator of
the Swap-O-Matic. Fenequito says she wanted to call attention to issues of
overconsumption and needless waste and set out to find a creative way to
encourage trading and reusing. The project began as her senior thesis at
Parsons School of Design. Fenequito built a basic, low-cost version of the
machine and improved on it last August with the help of visual designer Ray
Mancini and electrical engineer Rick Cassidy. The Swap-O-Matic now has a
machine with touchscreen capability and digital locks. Using the machine is
simple: Enter your email address on the screen and choose whether you want to
donate, receive, or swap an item. There are no values assigned to the items and
all transactions work on a credit system. New users receive three credits and
from there on, they receive a credit each time they donate an item and spend a
credit every time they receive something. A straight-up swap of one item for
another does not require any credits. There are no restrictions on items, as anything
that fits into the machine can be swapped and traded. “There have been a few
personal items like some original artwork and handwritten poems [swapped in the
machine.] And there’s been some kind of oddball items, like there was a jar of
Miracle Whip in there, and so that was kind of funny,” Fenequito explained. She
credited her parents with imparting the philosophy of recycling and reusing as
an inspiration for the machine and has received feedback from as far away Brazil,
Thailand, the United Kingdom and Italy on her idea that just might start a Bohemian
revolution………
- Charlize Theron is a busy woman and a very successful one
at the moment. She’s one of the stars of the über-hyped “Prometheus” project
from director Ridley Scott that drops in a matter of days, but for now she’s
the central figure in the new film “Snow White and the Huntsman,” which
opened in first place this weekend. With a total of $56.2 million, “Snow White”
nearly doubled up its closest competitor, “MIB 3.” The latest bad sequel in the
sci-fi franchise fell one spot to second place, making $29.3 million in its
second weekend for a two-week domestic total of $112.3 million. The presumptive
biggest movie of the year, “The Avengers,” remained solid in third place with
$20.3 million and has earned a whopping $552.7 million domestically in five
weeks of release. The disastrous voyage of “Battleship” continued as the
big-budget action flick sank to fourth, made a measly $4.8 million and inched
its three-week total to just $55.1 million against its massive $209 million
budget. Sacha Baron Cohen’s “The Dictator” was fifth, adding $4.7 million to
its coffers for a three-week total of $50.8 million. Sixth place went to “The
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” which remained in limited release but crept up two
spots on the earnings list by virtue of a $4.6 million weekend. It has made
$25.4 million so far and has earned a high amount of critical praise along the
way. A film that has definitely not been a critical or financial success is “What
to Expect When You're Expecting,” which slipped to seventh place in its third
weekend with $4.4 million in earnings and an overall total of $30.7 million. Johnny
Depp’s “Dark Shadows” hasn’t overwhelmed either and a weekend of $3.9 million
to up its overall haul to $70.8 million in four weeks won't change that
reality. “Chernobyl Diaries” has been nearly as big of a disaster as the
nuclear plant meltdown upon which it is based, turning in back-to-back subpar
weeks since its debut. A ninth-place finish with an even $3 million and a
two-week total of $14.4 million suggest that this meltdown is headed out of the
top 10 next weekend. “For Greater Glory” secured the No. 10 spot with $1.8
million in very limited release (757 theaters), while “The Hunger Games” (No.
11 and out of the top 10 for the first time) and “Think Like a Man” (No. 16)
both dropped out of the top 10 from last weekend………
- Memo to all: Dismantling Serb roadblocks in Kosovo can be
hazardous to one’s health. That much was readily apparent after at least three
Kosovo Serbs and a NATO soldier were wounded in a gunfight on Friday as
peacekeepers tried to dismantle Serb roadblocks blocking traffic. NATO troops
kicked things up a notch by firing tear gas and small arms, leading protestors
to bust out their handguns and return fire because, you know, everyone is
packing in Kosovo. NATO troops in the Kosovo Force (KFOR) in armored personnel carriers
found themselves confronted by hundreds of Serbs who pelted them with stones
near barricades in the villages of Rudare and Dudin Krs outside the town of
Zvecan in a Serb-dominated northern area of Kosovo. Most of the roadblocks in
the area have already been dismantled by KFOR. They were initially erected as
part of a long-running Serb campaign to prevent the government of
Albanian-majority independent Kosovo from imposing its rule, but are no longer
necessary in the eyes of NATO leaders. That philosophy is not shared to Kosovo
Serbs, clearly. "One KFOR soldier has been wounded, has been evacuated and
he is stable," said NATO spokesperson in Kosovo Uwe Nowitzki. "KFOR
will not allow the situation to escalate and will use a proportional level of
force necessary to maintain a safe and secure environment.” The campaign to
remove the roadblocks will continue and so will the fact that Kosovo is 90
percent ethnic Albanian. In spite of that majority, Serbs opposed to
independence dominate in a small swathe of the north bordering Serbia. Their
region continues to function as part of the Serbian state and they are
attempting to fend off efforts by the Kosovo government to extend its
authority. KFOR troops from Germany and the United States led the forces in
Sunday’s clash and received reinforcements over the weekend. Exactly what happened
around the roadblock depends on who is telling the story. Dragisa Milovic, the
mayor of Zvecan, said KFOR had refused to allow Serb medical personnel to help
wounded Serbs. "A (KFOR) commander told me they have the authority to use
deadly force on anyone who throws a stone or uses a weapon," he said. It
sounds like a fair arrangement, really. Kosovo Serbs set up the barricades at
boundary crossings with neighboring Serbia last year in response to authorities
in Pristina and the European Union's police and judiciary mission EULEX
attempting to extend their influence into the area. Trying to remove them is
bad idea unless a Sunday morning shootout with the locals is your idea of a
good time……….
- Michael Bloomberg’s plan is already working. Even if it’s
not in the city where he’s the mayor, Bloomberg’s war on soda is clearly making
an impact. Sure, you might argue that a Sound Transit train in Seattle
colliding with a semi-truck filled with cases of Mountain Dew has nothing to
with the ass-hatted mayor of New York City trying to ban restaurants and street
carts has nothing to do with an “accident” in which a train and truck collide
and gallons of the Dew are spilled near the intersection of Martin Luther King
Jr. Way and South Holly Street about 9 a.m. on Saturday. That would be the
cynical point of view and let’s face it, life is miserable when lived in a funk
of cynicism. Whether part of a sinister bi-coastal anti-soda plot or not, the
train t-boned the cargo section of the truck, shearing it in half and sending
hundreds of cases of soda spilling onto the road. Many of the individual cans
burst open due to the force applied to them, leaving the intersection soaked in
sugary sweet liquid goodness. A few opportunistic passersby scooped up stray
cans and police didn’t hassle them as long as they didn’t attempt to horde a
high number of cans. The accident took most of the day to clean up and an
investigation into the cause of the accident is pending. Regardless of who is
to blame, a whole lot of Mountain Dew was wasted and that is giving soda-phobes
like Mayor Bloomberg exactly what they want…………
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