Thursday, July 12, 2012

Sheen v. Axl, Pluto's new moon and a World's Worst Mom candidate


- When stories of the world’s truly great parents spread around the globe, it warms the hearts and inspires the souls of everyone who hears these tales of greatness. Take, for example, Eva Cameron of Algonquin, Ill. She is the mother of a mentally disabled daughter who decided to take her 19-year-old daughter on a roadie to Tennessee, go to a bar and leave said mentally disabled daughter alone outside that bad. According to police in Caryville, Tenn., Cameron stopped at the Big Orange Bar in Caryville on June 28 when her daughter, Lynn, needed to use the restroom. Before her daughter could get back to the car, Cameron laid down treat and returned to her home in Algonquin, leaving her daughter standing beside the road in an unfamiliar place. Unfortunately, Lynn Cameron’s age means what her mother did is not a crime, even if it is a crime against humanity. "As terrible as it is, unfortunately there is nothing we can do," Assistant Police Chief Stephanie Smith said. "There is no doubt we need a law for mental health rights, but pending this investigation, we just don't know what else to do. (Lynn) didn't know her age, she didn't know her address, she didn't know her phone number and she didn't even know her name. Police released a picture and requested information from the public and received an anonymous tip on Monday. Police detectives requested a meeting with Eva Cameron on Tuesday and at that meeting, she signed a statement saying that Lynn Cameron was now a ward of Tennessee, officials said. Back in Illinois, she told a local newspaper that she brought Lynn to Caryville because of its concentration of Baptists and because Tennessee has the "No. 1 health care system in the United States of America." That, by the way, is a lie. Eva Cameron dumped her daughter in another state because she is a failure as a mother and a human being, doesn’t want the burden of dealing with a mentally handicapped daughter with a basic vocabulary of 30-40 words and is too selfish to have ever become a parent in the first place………..


- Pluto is no longer a planet, but it may deserve more respect than most are giving it. A team of astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a fifth moon orbiting the icy now-dwarf planet Pluto, with the team admitting they were surprised because they did not expect such a complex system surrounding such a small body. The new moon, unimaginatively named P5, is thought to be irregular in shape and six to 15 miles across. It moves along a 59,000-mile-diameter circular orbit around Pluto, which was unceremoniously demoted from its status as a full-fledged planet in 2006 following the discovery of other similar-sized bodies in the Kuiper belt. The belt is a large region of space located on the outer fringes of the solar system and sporting contains many small icy objects and a number of dwarf planets. The five moons orbiting Pluto "form a series of neatly nested orbits, a bit like Russian dolls," said astronomer Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., who led the team that discovered the new moon. His team believes the moons are relics of a collision between Pluto and some other large object in the Kuiper belt billions of years ago. Pluto’s largest moon remains Charon, discovered in 1976. The second and third moons, Nix and Hydra, were located by Hubble observations in 2006 and more observations in 2011 revealed the fourth moon, known provisionally as P4. More will be known about Pluto and its moons after New Horizons, a NASA space probe, completes its ongoing trip to Pluto for a high-speed flyby in 2015. The flyby will produce return the first detailed images of the system, whose components are so small and distant that even Hubble can barely see the largest features on the dwarf planet's surface. Keep working out, bulking up and adding moons, Pluto, and you just might become a planet again………..


- Auto racing drivers, either NASCAR or IndyCar, are still not athletes. Even if they attempt to cheat and use performance-enhancing drugs like real athletes, they are still not athletes and what they do is not a sport. That memo goes out to suspended NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger, who revealed Wednesday that he had tested positive for a stimulant and was collecting his medicines and supplements in an attempt to figure out what happened. His business manager issued an official statement in which he did not identify the stimulant and said the driver does not know what caused him to fail the random test conducted June 29. NASCAR has not revealed the substance, either, but suspended Allmendinger Saturday. "AJ tested positive for a stimulant. He has no idea why the first test was positive, and he has never knowingly taken any prohibited substance," Tara Ragan, vice president of Allmendinger's Walldinger Racing Inc., said in the statement. "AJ is collecting his medicines and supplements for testing to determine whether an over-the-counter product caused his positive test." Whatever the cause, Allmendinger is the second Sprint Cup Series driver to be suspended under the NASCAR drug policy implemented in 2009. Just like a real athlete would, he Allmendinger has requested his "B" urine sample be tested, and it's not clear when that will occur. He also went with the go-to defense for any athlete who tests positive for a PED or banned stimulant: that he would never "knowingly" take a prohibited substance. "Obviously I would never do anything to jeopardize my opportunity here at Penske Racing or to my fellow drivers. I am very conscious about my training and health and would never knowingly take a prohibited drug," he said. The suspension was handed down ours before Saturday night's race at Daytona International Speedway and Sam Hornish Jr. hurriedly took Allmendinger's place. For the record, NASCAR's drug policy defines a stimulant as "amphetamine, methamphetamine, Ecstasy (MDMA), Eve (MDEA), MDA, PMA, Phentermine, and other amphetamine derivatives and related compounds." Meth head Jeremy Mayfield was the first driver to be suspended under the policy, although he has continued to blame the positive test on a mix of an over-the-counter allergy remedy and a prescription for attention deficit disorder. Now if these guys could only cut holes in the floors of their cars and go Fred Flintstone, they might actually become real athletes………


- Charlie Sheen has a subpar new cable series no one watches and his entire insanity act is fizzling out, so what can he do next to gain attention? How about us the occasion of During Tuesday's ceremony honoring the placement of guitarist Slash's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to take an unprovoked run at Slash's former bandmate, Axl Rose? That’s right, Sheen showed up in Hollywood for the event, where a slew of notables praised Slash, now a member of Velvet Revolver as well as doing solo albums. It was Sheen who created the fireworks, uncorking what was clearly some pent-up rage at the orca-FAT, bombastic and egomaniacal Rose. "I think it's very appropriate that Slash is getting a star on the very street Axl Rose may some day be sleeping on," Sheen lampooned. He also made the requisite jokes about his time spent with Slash doing cocaine in the 1980s, although Sheen could make that joke in reference to just about anyone who was alive in the ‘80s and it was seem at least slightly possible. Even though Sheen and Slash are Hollywood neighbors, it still doesn’t fully explain Sheen’s outpouring of anger. Maybe he’s pissed that his whose new show, "Anger Management," premiered last month on FX and no one really cares. Either way, the GNR beef has never really waned and this won't calm it down. Heck, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year and Rose declined, leaving the band to play at the event without him and leaving nothing more than an angry public letter to explain his absence. Ironically, the Walk of Fame event should have been a chance for Slash to enjoy a GNR-related moment without Rose to hog the spotlight, but Sheen just couldn’t resist………

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