- Just because the NBA is willing to go all NASCAR and
whore out its uniforms for extra cash doesn’t mean Major League Baseball is
willing to do the same. After the NBA Board of Governors approved the use of the
patches to help raise revenue, estimating it could produce $100 million in a
sport where the owners are already billionaires or nearly there, MLB Baseball
commissioner Bud Selig said his sport won't be in a rush to join the NBA.
Citing the historic significance of his sport's uniforms, Selig expressed his
usual reluctance to change anything having to do with baseball. "You learn
never to say never, but you know, with us, uniforms are really important,"
Selig said "They're history. You can close your eyes, and that Cub
uniform, my goodness gracious, I can remember (that from) when I was 10 years
old, and that's a long time ago. And there's the Yankee pinstripes, and the Red
Sox and so on and so forth, so I've been pretty consistent on that." Of
course, Selig has also consistently dragged his feet on the necessary change of
increasing the role of replay in the sport as well, but that is gradually
changing. Replay will be expanded to include trapped balls and balls his down
either foul line next season after a 14-man committee of managers, front-office
personnel and MLB officials approved the idea. Still, Selig insisted America’s
pastime need not change significantly. "Baseball is a game of pace,"
Selig said. "I'm not going to comment on other sports, but I know our
sport, I know it well. ... I obviously talk to a lot of people every day.
We're going to expand it to -- as I call them -- bullets hit down the right and left field line, and trapped balls
in the outfield. I must tell you that not only that committee unanimously, but many others have said, 'Commissioner,
boy that's enough now.' And I agree with them.” It is statements like that
which cause one to remember in a hurry that Selig is creeping up on 80 years
old and thinks like a crotchety old-timer on most issues. Still, not putting
ads on jerseys is one area where he just might be correct…………
- In case you didn’t know or couldn’t tell from watching crappy
reality TV shows on Bravo, there are a lot of surgically enhanced, Botoxed,
plastic women over the age of 40 in Southern California. This species of
female, commonly known as the cougar, is always on the prowl here in their
six-figure luxury car, designer clothes and sunglasses and with their
implanted-boosted racks proudly displayed in revealing attire. Of course, that
many cougars lurking means finding good-looking younger men with no real
standards or souls is tougher, which is where CougarLife.com comes in. It’s a
site designed specifically for or older women who pursue significantly younger
men and a billboard on Sunset Strip in Hollywood for the site is creating a lot
of controversy. The billboard shows a blond cougar sipping a cocktail next to
the text: "CougarLife.com for Motherf***ers." Even for a site that
bills itself as itself the leading online dating site for "sexy single
moms and divorcees" and is seeking to pull clients in what it deems the
"epicenter of America's Cougar Capital," the billboard does seem a
bit low-brow. "Millions of
women are having fulfilling relationships with younger men," CougarLife
president Claudia Opdenkelder declares on the site. "So what are you
waiting for? You don't have to be Courtney
Cox or Jennifer Lopez to
land a cute cub." No, but apparently you do have to drop profane
billboards in Hollywood and get exactly the sort of publicity you’re looking
for by doing something quasi-controversial………….
- Because “American Karaoke” is like the villain in bad horror
movie and simply will not die, maybe it’s time to develop a Plan B while still
pursuing the primary goal of ending this travesty. If we cannot end “AK,” maybe
it can be transformed into a sort of musical leper colony, where we send the
musically ill, irrelevant or just plain awful and allow them to mingle with
their own kind. Jennifer Lopez has already started the trend and now that she’s
moving on, why not add an equally worthless and totally insane pop singer to
replace her? Mariah Carey, step right up. Carey could join the show’s judging
panel for next season, according to sources close to the situation. The
Grammy-winning artist is nearing a deal to join the Fox show and would reportedly
receive a salary of more than $17 million. As it heart-breakingly heads into
its 12th season, “AK” lost two judges as Steven Tyler, a shell and self-parody
of his former self, and Lopez moved on. Both had been on the show for two
seasons and with their exits, record producer Randy Jackson, who has been on the
judging panel since the show's 2002 debut, is the only remaining judge. Carey
is the leading candidate to join him and the panel will likely be rounded out
by a hack picked from a list that includes Adam Lambert, Aretha Franklin and
Charlie Sheen - yes, Charlie Sheen. Carey has been rumored to be in the search
for a judging spot before and has worked with Jackson previously. Ironically,
“AK” creator and serial music bastardizer Simon Cowell also pursued Carey for “X
Factor Karaoke.” It might finally be time to welcome her to the leper
colony……….
- No one likes mosquitoes and very few enjoy dengue fever. Ironically
enough, mosquitoes may soon find themselves at the forefront of the fight
against the disease. Brazilian health authorities have they
expanded their program fight against dengue fever by opening opened a
large-scale mosquito farm in the northeast state of Bahia to produce
genetically engineered mosquitoes to fight the illness. The genetically
modified male mosquitoes are bred to carry a lethal gene against the dengue
virus. They are then released into the wild to mate with female mosquitoes (who
are actually the ones who bite humans – since they need the blood for their
eggs). Once the lethal gene is passed on to the offspring they die in the
larvae stage and never make it to adulthood. In short, they are rigging male
mosquitoes’ DNA to turn them into unintentional killers of their own families.
There currently is no vaccine for dengue fever and prevention is difficult in
poorer countries The World Health Organization classifies dengue as a
mosquito-borne viral infection that causes a severe flulike illness and
sometimes a potentially lethal complication called hemorrhagic dengue, so
combating the illness is paramount. The WHO reports that the incidence of
dengue has increased 30 fold over the last 50 years in sub-tropical and
tropical areas in the world. Some statistics 50 million to 100 million
infections are now estimated to occur annually in over 100 endemic countries,
putting almost half of the world’s population at risk. Brazil has nearly
500,000 recent cases of dengue, providing the impetus for the farm in Bahia,
which is a partnership between the Brazilian government and Moscamed, an agency
that specializes in the production of transgenic insects for the biological
control of pests. The farm is expected to produce about 4 million modified male
mosquitoes per week. Residents in the areas near the farm have been warned
about the project and educated about its potential consequences. On a positive
note, the project is projected to cost $1.6 million, not an absurd amount for
this sort of idea. If it works, the price will be retroactively evaluated as
cheap…….
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