- It is long overdue, but here is the latest example of a
kook seeing a sign from the Almighty in a random place in nature. Past entries
have included tree bark, piles of grass clippings, grease stains on restaurant
stoves and the burned shapes on a piece of toast. The newest member of the club
is a slightly different story because there is a nice, heartwarming angle to
her tale. On the positive side, Fyffe, Ala. resident Trudy Lott has experienced
a real-life miracle as her husband underwent surgery last year for pancreatic
cancer and is now cancer free and healthy once again. That is the solid,
non-mockable side of the story. On the other hand, it’s difficult not to make
fun of someone who goes all hidden puzzle maze on the side of a horse and
believes she sees the image of a child and a praying man in the fur of
that horse. Lott snapped a picture of the supposed miraculous sign and sent it
to local news outlets along with a message: “This is a picture of a young child facing a man bending over in prayer
that is on the side of my paint horse. I had never noticed it until after I
brought my husband home from the hospital after having surgery for
pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed in October of last year. After surgery and
a series of chemo he at this time is cancer free. I truly believe God had a
hand in this, don’t you?” In short…no. In her husband’s recovery, maybe. In her
seeing something that isn't actually there on the side of a horse? Nope. The
only way there will be an image of a child and a praying man in the fur of
Bandit, the five-year-old paint horse, is if Lott actually paints the scene on
the horse herself. Odds are she’s “seeing” the praying child and man because
she was looking for strength and asked God for a sign, therefore the power of
suggestion is hard at work on her own mind. As always, there is no shortage of
kooks in the world finding signs of the Almighty in random places in nature………
- That didn’t last long. USC’s football program was just
emerging from the darkness of a two-year postseason ban and scholarship
reductions from NCAA rules violations committed under the tenure of former
coach Pete Carroll and the Trojans were riding high to start the 2012 season.
The violations by former USC running back Reggie Bush and others were in the rearview
mirror and new coach Lane Kiffin, in his second year with the Trojans, has his
team ranked No. 1 in the nation at the outset of the new campaign. But before
USC could even kick off their season opener against Hawaii, news broke that the
school is investigating reports that two former athletes received gifts from an
employee of the Los Angeles County assessor's office. The allegations pertain
to former tailback Joe McKnight and former men's basketball player Davon
Jefferson, who allegedly received a car, an airline ticket and cash from Scott
Schenter, a former appraiser under investigation in an apparently unrelated
scandal at the assessor's office. Haden, who took over for Mike Garrett in July
2010 as USC was mired in scandal, said USC investigated reports of McKnight
using a Land Rover registered to Schenter in 2009 but did not find any
violations. He added that the school wasn't aware of additional gifts to the
two athletes, but that USC already has discussed the report with the NCAA and
Pac-12. No explanation has been given as to the connection between Schenter and
the two athletes, but more violations for the football and men’s basketball
programs would be damaging and go to further impugn the already-terrible image
of what the USC athletic department became under Garrett, Carroll and former
men’s basketball coach Tim Floyd……….
- Summer is ending with a fizzle, not a sizzle, for the
movie industry. All of the major blockbusters have dropped and now, a bunch of
lesser-known films are debuting to underwhelming numbers. That trend is
illustrated perfectly by the top of the earnings list this Labor Day weekend,
as newcomers “The Possession’ and “Lawless” scored the top two spots with a
combined total that shouldn’t be enough to lead the way on an average movie
weekend. “Possession” ranked first with $17.7 million in its debut, followed
not so closely by “Lawless” with a meager $9.6 million in its first weekend.
The top film from the previous two weekends, “Expendables 2,” rode its cast of
has-beens to a third place finish and $8.8 million, raising its three-week
tally to $66.1 million. Fourth place belonged to the Bourne-less “Bourne” movie
known as “The Bourne Legacy,” which made $7.3 million for the frame and yet
still has not crossed the $100 million barrier in domestic earnings after a
month. With $96.2 million thus far, it’s on pace to be the lowest-earning “Bourne”
movie yet. Kid-friendly “ParaNorman” was fifth with $6.5 million and has a
cumulative domestic total of $38 million. Next on the list was “The Odd
Life of Timothy Green,” sixth for a second consecutive weekend with a take of
$6.1 million for a three-week tally of $35.9 million. “The Dark Knight Rises”
hung in the top 10 for another weekend, landing in seventh place with $5.9
million to up its haul to $431.2 million in seven weeks of release. Will
Ferrell’s “The Campaign” was the eighth-place film on the strength of a $5.5
million weekend and has been solid enough to earn $73 million in its first four
weeks in theaters. Republican horror flick “2016 Obama's America” was ninth on
the list and made $5.1 million. It has politicked its way to $18.2 million
through eight weeks. Geezer romantic comedy “Hope Springs” claimed the last
spot in the top 10 with $4.7 million for a four-week bank roll of $52.1
million. “Premium Rush” (No. 11) and “Hit and Run” (No. 12) both fell out of
the top 10 in just their second week of release………
- The name of Dov Moran may not ring a bell even for
the biggest of tech dorks. However, Moran is a meaningful technological mind
for anyone who has a USB flash (or jump) drive dangling from their keychain or
a lanyard around their neck. He was the founder of M-systems, the company that
invented the USB flash drive. M-systems was sold to SanDisk at the end of
2006 for $1.6 billion, but Moran didn’t take his profits from the sale and ride
off into the digital sunset. He kept working, kept inventing and on introduced
his latest gadget, the Smartype, a new computer keyboard that Wednesday, he has
a built in screen that displays and represents the last line typed, making it
possible to keep one’s eyes looking only at the keyboard instead of having to
glance up at the screen. Moran hopes the invention will change the way computer
users operate and believes his invention is one of the first major advances in
keyboard technology since the first one was invented nearly 150 years ago. Like
most great inventions, it was born out of necessity in everyday life. "I
invented Smartype since I had my own problem typing," Moran explained.
"When I typed, I found myself looking constantly back and forth from the
keyboard to the computer screen, checking the spelling and typing
language.” The idea is a simple one and for the Israeli inventor, it could make
him even richer. Morgan hopes the Smartype will help him bounce back from a
significant failure five years ago, when he invented Modu, the first Israeli
mobile phone company. Modu’s quest to build a tiny and simple phone, but then
the iPhone and other smartphone options happened and Modu never caught on. The
company went out of business in 2011 and Moran conceded that the idea was not
one of his best. “I failed with Modu,” he said. "But you need to fall and
bounce back and continue on." Despite the growth of the tablet and laptop
markets and how much people use their smartphones for browsing and other
formely computer-centric purposes, about 100 million keyboards are sold each
year worldwide. Moran is aiming to snag 10 percent of that market with the
Smartype and with a relatively modest cost of $99, he just might be onto
something. To further entice users, the keyboard comes with a set of
applications that can display the weather, time and last email……….
- Never say there aren’t chances for new and exciting jobs
in this world. For anyone who speaks Sinhala or is willing to splurge on
Rosetta Stone and learn quickly, an amazing opportunity has arisen in Sri
Lanka. Time is limited because officials there began interviews Tuesday for the
post of hangman a year after two positions fell vacant. That’s right, hangings
may have gone out of fashion in favor of more modern alternatives to send
convicts shuffling off this mortal coil, but there are still nations just
backwards enough to still utilize the practice. Anyone who wants in needs to
act quickly and buy a plane ticket right away because from the sound of it, the
posts could fill in a hurry. "About 176 applicants are there and
interviews are going on today and tomorrow," Gamini Kulatunga,
commissioner operations at the Prisons Department, told Reuters. "Only
males will be eligible for the post.” Sorry ladies, but you’ll have to find
somewhere else to hang convicted criminals. Whomever Prisons Department
officials select, there is a major question to answer, namely how the two new
executioners are going to fill their days. See, the death penalty has not been
used in Sri Lanka, a predominantly Buddhist country, since 1976. One of the two
men who filled the positions died and the other was promoted, creating the
vacancies. Why fill the spots? With a significant rise in child abuse, rapes,
murders, and drug trafficking since the 25-year war against Tamil Tiger
separatists ended in May 2009, many lawyers and politicians have campaigned for
the death penalty to be reintroduced. With at least 480 convicts on death row
for murder and drugs offenses who could potentially be executed, the gallows
could see plenty of action if the death penalty is reinstituted……….
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