- Technology rocks. Technology makes it possible for a
former man-bander to revive the biggest online pedophile haven in the history
of the Internet and on the eve of Thanksgiving, that is a fact we can all be
thankful for. It has been more than one year since Justin Timberlake and his
absurd man-bander legacy bought Pedophile Central, a.k.a. MySpace, and
Timberlake is set
to re-launch it as an artist-centric service with co-owners Chris
and Tim Vanderhook. In addition to providing a place for sexual predators to
track down future victims, MySpace has also played a crucial role in furthering
the burgeoning careers of artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen.
Ultimately, its chaotic and half-assed appearance and approach led to it
falling off the social networking map as competitors such as Facebook and
Twitter rose quickly. At its apex, MySpace was valued at $580 million, but that
value had slipped to $35 million by the time Timberlake purchased it from
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation last year. Timberlake and his partners have
smartly looked to sever any ties or links to the old MySpace and try to sell
everyone on the idea that they are creating something completely new. "We
never looked at this as some sort of rebranding or reinvention. This was for us
a completely new platform,” he explained. “The name was acquired but I think that
was a good thing for us. The important thing up until this point was to really
give it an identity." The new MySpace is designed to be simpler, but it
will have some carryovers from the old site, including showing a user’s top
eight friends and a profile song to stream. Separate sections for music, videos
and photos will be condensed into a single section called “Mixtapes.” While the
average social networking users may not be fired up over MySpace’s return, the
5 million unsigned artists who still use the site probably are……….
- Bigotry and proudly saluting one of the ugliest times in
American history is about to take a hit in one North Carolina town. Yes, a new proposal being looked at by Haywood
County commissioners would place a limit on what could be placed at the
Confederate monument in Waynesville, N.C. While local Confederate groups have
insisted that the old Confederate flag still carries significant (and
non-racist) meaning for them, the county commissioners believe that placing the
flags by the obelisk that honors whose who died for the Confederacy in the
Civil War is no longer appropriate. The story the commissioners are selling is
that local groups kept Confederate flags around the monument for longer than
they were supposed to. "We (have) the memorial on the courthouse lawn, we
don't have a problem with that," said Commissioner Michael Sorrells.
"It's just that the battle flag is a divisive figure in certain populations."
Divisive? For who? For African-Americans who see it as a blatant reminder of
slavery or for anyone who thinks back to a time when an entire race of people
were treated as less than human and has a problem with something commonly used
to represent bigotry and hate during that era (and ever since)? The proposed
ordinance states, “At no point shall the Confederate Battle flag be displayed
on Haywood County Grounds." However, the proposed law would allow the
First National Flag of the Confederacy, which is different in appearance from
the Confederate Battle Flag, to be posted. "The policy was a little more
strict than what we were hoping for," lamented Derrick Shipman, Commander
of the Haywood County Sons of the Confederate Veterans. Sorrells expressed curiosity
over the amount of attention the issue has raised, attention that seems poised
to grow in between now and the time the commissioners take the issue up again
on Dec. 17……….
- Isn't it amazing how “lost” music from deceased artists
always seem to exist in never-ending quantities years and years after these
individuals have shuffled off this mortal coil? How many previously un-released
efforts from Tupac or the Notorious B.I.G. have surfaced since their deaths?
Add rock icon and guitar legend Jimi Hendrix to the mix (again) now that a new
album of his previously
unreleased material is set to be released in 2013. The project, titled “People,
Hell and Angels,” was recorded in 1968 and 1969 and its tracks were initially
intended for inclusion on “First Days of the New Rising Sun,” the follow-up
album to Hendrix’s famed “Electric Ladyland” release. However, Hendrix passed
away during the recording of “First Days” at the age of 27 and the tracks have
been mothballed ever since. With all of the production advantages and modern
touches that 2012 has to offer, the newly polished release will hit stores in
the United States on March 5, 2013. For fans who want to see a slightly different
side of Hendrix, “People, Hell and Angels” might be just the project, as it reportedly
features Hendrix experimenting with horns, keyboards, percussion and a second
guitar. In between now and then, the rock legend’s famed set from the 1969 Woodstock festival is set to
receive a cinematic release later this month, when it will be screened at
theaters around the world to celebrate the 70th year of Hendrix's birth. It
will play alongside the film “Live at Woodstock,” which features
interviews with band members Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell, as well as engineer
Eddie Kramer and Woodstock promoter Michael Lang……….
- Gunners are typically the person on a basketball court
no one wants to play with. Unless they’re delivering a record-shattering
performance to lead your Division III men’s basketball team to a 179-104
curb-stomping to earn it the sort of national attention a D-III team never,
ever receives, that is. Grinnell (Tex.) guard Jack Taylor was that gunner
Tuesday night and while his performance may have led to a) an all-out fistfight
with his teammates if it had been a pickup game at the local YMCA or b) his
teammates simply walking off the court midway through said pickup game,
Taylor’s 138-point night set an NCAA single-game scoring record and led the Pioneers
to a 75-point ass-kicking of Faith Baptist Bible. Taylor was 52-of-108 from the floor and
made 27-of-71 3-pointers, along
with seven free throws on 10 attempts in 36 minutes. His scoring total was 92
points – 92! – more than he had in his team’s first two games of the season
combined. The triple-digit tally easily broke the collegiate scoring mark
previously held by Bevo Francis of Rio Grande. Grinnell, a Division III school
in Iowa. Francis held the NCAA scoring record with 113 points against Hillsdale
in 1954 and more impressively, managed to set the record while playing with the
first name Bevo. The only other player in NCAA history to record 100 points in
a game was Frank Selvy, who scored exactly 100 for Division I Furman against
Newberry in 1954. Big scoring nights are not new at Grinnell, as the previous
school record was 89 by Griffin
Lentsch last Nov. 19 against Principia, but Taylor’s mark should hold steady
for some time……….
- Rise and fire gave way to rise and conquer Tuesday in the eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo. Rebels widely believed to be backed by Rwanda claimed
control of the massive frontier city of Goma, marching boldly through the
municipality of 1 million people as United Nations peacekeepers did nothing to
stop them. Hundreds of fighters from the M23 group bum-rushed Goma after days
of clashes with U.N.-backed Congolese soldiers as tens of thousands of
residents fled in terror. After the Congolese troops left, international
peacekeepers followed them out the door. With no opposition, the rebels marched
right in and kept alive a rebellion that has amped up d tensions between Congo
and its neighbor Rwanda. Congolese officials believe Rwanda’s government says
is orchestrating the insurgency to better its chances of seizing control of the
chaotic region's mineral wealth. Despite the seizure of Goma, Congolese
Information Minister Lambert Mende ruled out talks with the rebels on the
grounds that they were proxies of the Rwandan government. "We will
continue (resisting) until Rwanda has been pushed out of our country ... There
will be absolutely no negotiations with M23," Mende said. Despite Rwanda’s
denials, United Nations experts also believe the country to be responsible for the
M23 revolt. To be fair to Rwanda even if they are a bunch of deceitful d-bags
who pull sh*t like secretly fueling rebellions in neighboring countries to
steal their mineral wealth…..Congo does have a crap-load of valuable minerals
on hand. Its embarrassment of mineral riches includes diamonds, gold, copper
and coltan, a metal used in mobile phones (the tech equivalent of gold in
2012). President Joseph Kabila cannot be thrilled to hear that Goma has fallen
and his relative public silence on the rebellion in recent weeks and probably won't
become chatty with this news breaking as he travels to Uganda, the mediator in
the conflict with the eastern rebels. Small riots in the capital Kinshasa broke
out Tuesday over the fall of Goma, where residents greeted hundreds of M23
fighters and the group’s leader, Sultani Makenga, with shouts of "welcome"
and "thank you." Let the revolt continue………
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