- How great is it to see the Nassau County Police Department taking its recycling efforts
to a whole new level? Some über-cynics might say otherwise, but it is inspiring
to see the NCPD not only supporting reusing and recycling materials – even if
some of its discarded documents ended up as part of the confetti used to rain
down on parade goers at the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade. Along with marching bands, balloons,
cheerleaders and clowns, those lining the parade route also had shredded paper
tossed their way and when Tufts University student Ethan Finkelstein, who was
home on Thanksgiving break, took
a closer look at some of the pieces of paper that landed on him, he noticed
something unusual - social security numbers and banking information for police employees,
some of whom are undercover officers. Finkelstein was watching the parade at
65th Street and Central Park West when he and a friend noticed a strip of
confetti stuck onto her coat. "It landed on her shoulder,"
Finkelstein explained. “says 'SSN' and it's written like a social security
number, and we're like, 'That's really bizarre.'” At that point, the pair were
curious and began picking up other pieces of paper lying on the ground around
them. They found phone numbers, addresses, more social security numbers,
license plate numbers and a series of incident reports from police. One piece
contained information from an arrest report detailing an incident in which “at
4:30 A.M. a pipe bomb was thrown at a house in the Kings Grant area." Oh,
and there was also some clutch information about Mitt Romney's motorcade, apparently from the final presidential
debate, which took place at Hofstra University in Nassau County last month.
Still, the most concerning piece of data unintentionally shared with anyone curious
enough to pick up a piece of loose confetti had to be the identities of
undercover Nassau County detectives. When asked about the situation, NCPD
spokesman Kenneth Lack hid behind typical bureaucrat-speak, saying, "The
Nassau County Police Department is very concerned about this situation. We will
be conducting an investigation into this matter as well as reviewing our
procedures for the disposing of sensitive documents." No one is sure how
the paper ended up in the pile to be shredded for confetti for the parade, but
now would be an excellent time to figure it out………..
- Who doesn’t need another reason to avoid the filthy,
disgusting habit of smoking? How do memory loss and trouble with reasoning and
memory strike you? Those wonderful side effects could be yours if you keep
choking down those cancer sticks, according to a new study performed by King’s College of
London researchers. The study shows that smoking “rots” the brain in addition
to the hellacious impact it has on the body. For the study, researchers
examined more than 8,800 people over the age of 50 and found that smoking had a
higher impact on a person’s brain that being overweight or having high blood
pressure. The initial focus of the project was to probe the link between
probability of having a heart attack or a stroke and the state of one’s brain,
but its scope expanded as the research team collected about the lifestyle and
health of participants. The participants were tested on learning new words and
naming as many different animals as possible in one minute. They were given the
same tests four years later, then eight years later. What the results showed
was a strong correlation between the risk of heart attack or a stroke and the
decline in cognition, with those having the highest risk showing the most
decline. There were also consistent ties between lower scores on the different
tests and smoking and even after the researchers adjusted for the normal causes
and effects of age on cognitive function, the link to smoking remained strong. Not
nearly as strong as the case to avoid smoking, but there really isn't anything approaching
that level of strength………
- It seemed like the perfect promotion. The
Cleveland Browns are a terrible NFL team that was preparing to play its biggest
rival, a rival that has kicked its ass 16 of the last 17 times they had met and
the team’s marketing department had perfect promotion set up for the occasion:
a white-flag giveaway. As the Browns readied for Sunday’s home game with the
archrival Pittsburgh Steelers, the marketing department was planning to hand
out white flags to fans before the game. The philosophy behind the giveaway was
never explained, but theoretically it could have been rip-off of the “Terrible
Towel” that Steelers fans wave at home games. Unfortunately, white flags
symbolize surrender and for a team with a 2-8 record that seems to be waving a
symbolic white flag every single Sunday during the season, the symbolism was
too much for Browns fans and players to bear. After both groups expressed their
displeasure with the promotion, the front office finally clued in and decided
to cancel the promotion. Browns spokesman Neal Gulkis said in a statement on
Saturday that the team scrapped the idea "in the best interests of
everyone. It is something that was intended to be fun for our fans and that
they could rally around, and we regret that some didn't perceive it that way."
You regret that your fans didn’t perceive waving thousands of surrender flags
as a way to support their team and cheer it on to victory? Only the Cleveland
Browns would think that way and it’s why they’re the Browns. Amazingly enough,
the Browns managed to force eight Pittsburgh turnovers in the game and without
any white flags to fire them up and they somehow managed to beat the Steelers,
20-14. Maybe next home game, the Browns can have all of their fans kneel down
and place their hands behind their heads before the game in another symbol of
unconditional surrender………
- Leaving trash on one of the world’s natural wonders is a
garbage move. Turning that trash into interesting art is a prime example of
finding treasure in someone else’s trash. That task recently befell 15 Nepali artists
who secluded themselves for a month to take on the task of turning 1.5 tons of
trash picked up from Mount Everest into works of art. When they emerged from
their seclusion one month later, they had created 75 sculptures of things such
as yaks and wind chimes, all fashioned out of aluminum ladders, crampons,
boots, ropes, empty oxygen bottles, gas canisters, food cans, torn tents, plates,
twisted and torn plastic bags that were lost or simply discarded over the past
few decades by bold souls endeavoring to summit the world's highest mountain. Kripa
Rana Shahi leads an art group named Da Mind Tree, which undertook the project
and produced the resulting exhibition in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu. Shahi
explained that the art was aimed at increasing awareness about keeping Mount
Everest clean. "Everest is our crown jewel in the world," Shahi said.
"We should not take it for granted. The amount of trash there is damaging
our pride." Since New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
Sherpa first scaled the mountain in 1953, nearly 4,000 people have followed
them to the top. Climbers are required to deposit $4,000 with the government
and their deposit is refunded only after they provide proof of having brought
the garbage they generate while on the mountain. Even with this caveat,
monitoring littering is difficult and climbers often report encountering a
mountain dotted with rubbish. Sherpa climbers collected the garbage in 2011 and
2012 and carried it down using porters and trains of long-haired yaks. The yaks
were then saluted in some of the artwork alongside works like empty oxygen
cylinders mounted on a metal frame to make Buddhist prayer wheels. "It
shows that anything can be utilized in an artistic way and nothing goes to
waste in art," said fine arts student Siddhartha Pudasaini, who worked on
the project. The art is on sale for prices from $15 to $2,300, with part of the
proceeds going to the artists and the rest to the Everest Summiteers'
Association, which sponsored the collection of garbage from the mountain………
- Disappointing news has broken in the entertainment world,
where the concept of keeping Rihanna busy with anything that doesn’t involve
her making the drivel she calls music has suffered a significant setback. The
hack-tacular pop/R&B “singer” was reportedly the frontrunner for the role
of a villain in “Fast and Furious 6,” a franchise that
seems destined to go on indefinitely even if it ran out of material for
credible sequels about three movies ago. In April, rumors swirled that Rihanna
was the odds-on favorite for the role, even though her publicist denied the
reports. Maybe that PR flack knew what was coming because that role has been
ripped from Rihanna’s hands and given to British pop hack Rita Ora. Sources
close to the project have suggested that despite Rihanna’s well-received
performance in the epic disaster and box office bomb that was “Battleship,” her
schedule simply never lined up with the production schedule for “Fast and
Furious 6.” She played a naval officer in the cinematic clunker and reviews
were mostly positive for her first role in a major movie. Additionally, Ora
reportedly auditioned very well and producers were impressed by both her look
and her attitude, so she landed the role. The movie has been shooting in
England since July with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson and Michelle
Rodriguez are all reprising their roles from previous films in the series, but
Rihanna’s absence is a crushing blow because there will probably be eight more
“Fast and Furious” films and if she had latched on to a recurring role, that
could have kept her busy and away from the recording studio for years. Then she
wouldn’t be able to release any more disasters like her latest album,
“Unapologetic,” and the world would be a much better place for it…………
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