- Different international competition, same Hope
Solo. The same woman who was
essentially kicked off the squad at the 2007 World Cup and sent home from China
separately from the rest of the players after she criticized coach Greg Ryan
for benching her for the semifinals is at it again. Instead of knifing a
teammate in the back like she did fellow keeper Brianna Scurry by suggesting
the U.S. would have won a game if she had taken Scurry’s place in goal, Solo
elected to lay out former player Brandi Chastain on Saturday for
comments made during the broadcast of the Americans' 3-0 win over Colombia at
the Olympics. Why Solo was aware of or concerned with what a TV commentator was
saying during an Olympic match is unclear, but she went on a Twitter rant
against Chastain because of her criticism of U.S. defender Rachel Buehler
during the NBC telecast. Chastain explained that a defender's responsibilities
are: "Defend. Win the ball. And then keep possession. And that's something
that Rachel Buehler actually needs to, I think, improve on in this
tournament." Somehow, Solo got word of those remarks, which are actually
good observations if that’s what a commentator sees on the field, and she
rattled off four tweets about Chastain. "Its 2 bad we cant have
commentators who better represents the team&knows more about the
game," Solo said in butchering both grammar and punctuation. She added
that Chastain needed to "lay off commentating about defending" and
goalkeeping "until you get more educated" and "the game has
changed from a decade ago." Anyone who thought she might be humbled after
having what is believed to be the first
positive drug test in the history of the U.S. women's soccer program three
weeks ago was clearly mistaken. Solo received a warning from the U.S. Anti-Doping
Agency for the banned substance Canrenone and blamed the positive result on a
premenstrual medication prescribed by her doctor. If anything, the incident
seems to have emboldened her. "I feel bad 4 our fans that have 2 push
mute," she tweeted in a parting shot at Chastain. It’s too bad all of this
comes too late to make the pages of her book "A Memoir of Hope,"
scheduled for release two days after the end of the London Olympics…………
- Air travel is a virtual minefield of biohazards. There are
the ticking time bombs of illness that are small children with their poor
sanitary habits, the germ-riddled travel pillows and blankets people carry, the
massive number of people passing through a confined space on a daily basis, the
compromised immune systems of people who are stressed out and not necessarily
eating well and any dozens of other dangers. So an obvious question might be
which airports are the germiest and therefore the biggest health threats. The
wicked-smaht researchers at MIT have tackled that question and after taking a variety of factors
into account for determining which airports are most likely to be the hubs of
global disease spread, singled out New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport as
the biggest biohazard. The team from the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering at MIT designed a simulation using airline data collected
from 2007 to 2010 to analyze 1,833 U.S. airports and New York’s JFK placed No.
1 with Los Angeles’ LAX a close second. A surprising entry in third place was
Honolulu, which has passengers from around the world flying in and out every
day as they move between the United States, South America and Asia. In the
simulation, the researchers constructed a grid of major U.S. airports, ranking
them in terms of their “geographic spreading centrality” or how widespread
their connections are. “You are a good spreader if your neighbors are good
spreaders,” explained Ruben Juanes,
one of the MIT researchers. Another big-city entry in the top 10 was Washington
Dulles. Just a little something extra to ponder on your next flight as the
orca-FAT dude in the next seat oozes over the armrest into your space and the
crying infant behind you blasts away at full volume……….
- Time to assign a new name to one of your flagship
reality shows, Discovery Channel. “Deadliest Catch” has followed the exploits
of crab fishermen in Alaska and made for several years of compelling television
for the cable channel, but fishing for Alaskan king crab is no longer the nation's most
dangerous job. For years, commercial fishing has long topped the Bureau of
Labor Statistics' list of jobs with the most fatalities. In this dangerous line
of work, crabbing in the Alaskan waters is by far the most lethal form of
fishing. But in the face of new government rules regulating the industry, there
has been only one death in the Alaskan crab fishery in the past six years. That
number represents a significant improvement from the 1990s, which saw an
average of 7.3 deaths a year, according to Edward Poulsen, director of the
Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. Part of the decline in fatalities stems from the
fact that the industry no longer engages in "fishing derbies"
where fishermen rush to fill their quotas in a few short
days. "The gun went off and everyone scrambled," Poulsen said.
"Some boats loaded too many crab pots and capsized. Others pushed their
crews to work too long." While boats could pull in hundreds of thousands
of dollars worth of crab and earn half their annual income in the derbies,
others would be shut out and deaths were far too common. About 80 percent of
crab fishery fatalities are from drowning, but a new catch-share system put in
place by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the State of Alaska in 2006 has
reduced the danger significantly with quotas that can be bought, sold and even
leased, so crab captains are able to acquire the shares of other boats. Along
with other small changes, crab fishing is no longer the hazard it once was and
the deadliest gig in America no longer holds its unwanted title………..
- Befitting a blockbuster, “The Dark Knight Rises” held
the top spot at the box office for the second time in as many weeks of release,
trouncing a weak field with $64 million to boost its cumulative domestic total to
$289 million. Second place went to “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” which
earned $13.3 million in its third week and has cranked out $114.8 million
overall. The weekend was not a good one for new comedy “The Watch,” which
didn’t exactly look like a winner coming out of the chute with $13 million.
Fellow newcomer “Step Up Revolution” fared even worse, making a scant $11.8
million to barely edge out five-week veteran “Ted,” which slogged its way to an
additional $7.4 million for a cumulative tally of $194 million. “The Amazing
Spider-Man” hung in sixth place in its fourth weekend by making $6.8 million
and has left the break-even mark in the rearview mirror with $242.1 million in
domestic earnings along through its first month of release against a $230
million budget. “Brave” scored seventh place by making $4.2 million for a
six-week tally of $217.2 and has been fairly consistent during its run. Male
stripper epic “Magic Mike” pole-danced its way to $2.5 million and has done
decently with $107 million during its five-week stint in theaters. “Savages”
kept Oliver Stone in the top 10 for another week, ranking ninth with a paltry
$1.7 million for a lowly cumulative total of $44 million after four weeks. Critical
darling “Moonrise Kingdom” continued its strong performance in limited release,
adding $1.4 million to its coffers for a 10-week haul of $38.4 million and
counting. “Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection” (No. 11) and “To Rome with
Love” (No. 12) terrifically took their rightful places outside the top 10 after
residing on the list last weakened……….
- Uprisings look different in different places around the
world. In Japan, where politeness and civility are valued, violent protests are
hard to find. Instead, one learns to settle for large-scale gatherings where
thousands of people form a human chain around Japan's parliament complex to demand the
government abandon nuclear power. Sunday’s demonstration was the latest in a
series of peaceful gatherings on a scale not seen in the nation for decades.
Elsewhere in the country, an election for governor of southwestern Yamaguchi
prefecture was closely watched because it featured an outspoken anti-nuclear
candidate, although early exit polls showed he was expected to lose by a solid
margin. Protestors in the human chain in Tokyo were angry the government
restarted two reactors earlier this month despite safety worries after the
multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in March last year.
Instead, the reactors were the first to return to operation since May, when the
last of Japan's 50 working reactors went offline for routine checks.
Unfortunately for the protestors, banging on drums and waving balloons and
banners and marching from a Tokyo park to parliament doesn’t have the same
impact as clashing with police, burning overturned cars and hurling rocks.
Chanting "Saikado hantai," or "No to restarts," and
lighting candles just seems weak by comparison. Ordinary Japanese don’t protest
often, so maybe they deserve a little slack, but not much. These demonstrations
have been held outside the prime minister's residence every Friday evening for
weeks and when you mix in a July 16 holiday rally at a Tokyo park featuring a
rock star and a Nobel laureate that drew nearly 200,000 people, it is time for
Japan to step its dissidence game up. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is standing
behind his decision to restart the two reactors at Ohi nuclear plant in central
Japan as necessary to maintain people's living standards, so more uprisings are
clearly needed and a more combative attitude will be essential as well……….
No comments:
Post a Comment