- Simply “pinning” posts about recipes or memes about NFL
quarterbacks with cigarettes superimposed onto existing images of them on the
sideline during games on your digital corkboard isn’t enough, right, Pinterest
users? There is a chance that on the Pinterest board you so diligently post
items that all but your two friends who also use the site ignore, someone you
don’t want seeing your recipe for snicker doodle cookies decorated like
reindeer for the holidays will see what you have posted. Because privacy is
always an issue on any social networking site, Pinterest has announced that it
is adding a new feature called "Secret Boards.” The concept is simple: Anything
"pinned" to secret boards doesn't show up elsewhere at Pinterest and
the only people who can see and add to the content are those invited by
creators. "We thought the holidays were a perfect time to test one of our
most frequently requested features: Secret Boards," said Evrhet Milam, a Pinterest
software engineer. "You can
use secret boards to keep track of holiday gifts, plan a special event, or work
on a project you aren't yet ready to share with the rest of the world."
Unfortunately, users won't be able to make their existing boards secret because
other Pinterest users may have already repinned from those boards. In
conjunction with the Secret Boards concept, the site also updated its privacy
policy and made a few minor, cosmetic changes to the site as well. For those
who don’t pay attention to obscure social networking sites used primarily by
women to share lifestyle interests, recipes or fashion likes, Pinterest is a
relatively new site that users can theoretically use to post items showcasing
their interest in anything from food to sports, fashion or travel……….
- Line up the typical wheat grass and tofu jokes about
Southern California because the weirdos in the place where traffic always
sucks, the weather is always 75 and sunny and Botox is served with your
cornflakes at breakfast are at it again. The city council approved a resolution
this past week declaring all future Mondays in the City of Angels to be "Meatless
Mondays." It is part of an effort to persuade people to eat less meat, as
per the brainstorming of Councilwoman Jan Perry. Perry, along with Councilman
Ed Reyes, cited the environmental impacts of meat production and pointed out
that a high-meat diet has been linked to health problems such as colon,
prostate, kidney and breast cancers, as well as heart disease. "Eating
less meat can prevent and even reverse some of our nation's most common
illnesses," Perry said. "We've become disconnected in some ways from
the simple truth that our health is directly affected by the foods we eat.'' If
all of that sounds like a load of total bullsh*t, that’s because it is. Some
silly resolution by a council most Los Angelinos couldn’t name a single member
of isn’t going to change anyone’s eating habits. After all, L.A. is the
spiritual home of the hamburger and Ground Zero for iconic burger chain
In-N-Out. There are health-conscious, organic-food-eating segments of the
population, but joining an international campaign to cut down on meat
consumption for health and environmental reasons is still a reach. Perry didn’t
come up with the idea herself, but instead took it from a nonprofit initiative started
in 2003 by Johns Hopkins University's public health school. That’s good news
because when everyone ignores Meatless Mondays and doesn’t give a damn about
helping out the animals and (allegedly) the environment by shying away from
beef, chicken, turkey and fish one day a week, Reyes won't have to shoulder all
of the blame. More than half of Los Angeles County residents may be obese or
overweight, but Meatless Mondays will not be the answer………
- James Bond still has it. “Skyfall,” the latest installment
of the iconic spy movie franchise, took out its rocker-propelled grenade
disguised as an umbrella and blasted away all competitors for an easy win in
its debut weekend at the box office. With $87.8 million in domestic earnings, “Skyfall”
boat-raced the field and more than doubled up last weekend’s top movie, “Wreck
It Ralph,” which fell to second with $33 million and has amassed $94 million in
domestic earnings through two weeks. “Flight” claimed third place with $15.1
million, giving Denzel Washington’s latest project $47.7 million after two
weeks. Fourth place belonged to “Argo,” which slipped one spot and brought in
$6.8 million for a five-week haul of $85.7 million and counting domestically. “Taken
2” proved it still has some Liam Neeson ass-kicking magic left in it and ranked
fifth with $4 million. With $131.2 million in its first six weeks of release,
the sequel to the 2008 action favorite has proven enough that a third
installment is in the works. “Here Comes the Boom” showed surprising bounce-back
ability by rising three spots from ninth to sixth in its fifth weekend, edging
out “Cloud Atlas” with $2.6 million for an overall total of $39 million. “Cloud
Atlas,” which has been disappointing by Tom Hanks’ usual standards, boasts a
cumulative total of just $22.7 million in its first three weeks. “Pitch Perfect”
also rose three spots from last weekend and re-entered the top 10 at No. 8 on
the strength of a $2.5 million weekend, good for an overall bank roll of $59
million. “The
Man with the Iron Fists” plummeted five spots to ninth in its second weekend
and has mustered a mere $12.7 million in its first two weekends playing to
(mostly empty) theaters. “Hotel Transylvania” closed out the top 10 with $2.4
million and has accumulated $140.9 million thus far. “Paranormal Activity 4”
(No. 11) dropped out from last weekend’s top 10……….
- No one spews Communist propaganda quite like China. Every
day there seems to be a new example of the Communist Party spouting blatant
lies and total fabrications about how well their system works and how thrilled
the oppressed masses are to live under its iron-fisted rule. Friday’s big
(fraudulent) announcement that Tibetans were “very happy” with Chinese rule in
their nation even as six Tibetans
reportedly self-immolated over two days this week to protest Chinese
rule was an especially hilarious moment. Claiming a populace is happy on the
heels of the deadliest week since human rights groups began tracking
self-immolations in March 2011 takes equal doses of hubris and delusion. At
least 60 Tibetans have taken their own lives in protest of Chinese rule since
then and if anything, the pace is quickening. Conveniently, the announcement
came the day after China opened the
18th Communist Party Congress, during which a once-a-decade leadership
change was slated to occur. “Ordinary people and monks in Tibet are not willing
to set themselves on fire, and they also oppose self-immolation, they are very
satisfied with the society,” Qiangba Puncog, Chairman of the Standing Committee
of the People’s Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said. “Happiness is comparative.
They feel very happy.” The problem, of course, is that happiness is neither
relative nor comparative. Are the people of Tibet happier than someone who has
electrodes strapped to his genitals and was just forced to drink a big mug of
battery acid? Maybe, on good days. But either they are happy or they’re not and
confusing them not being bold enough to set themselves on fire because of their
unhappiness with them being geeked up about Chinese rule is just pathetic. Sadly,
the deputy governor of Tibet fell in line with the Communist Party line at the
same event, blaming outside Tibetan exile groups and Nobel Peace Prize winner,
the Dalai Lama, for any bad press and trouble in Tibet. "The overseas
Tibetan separatist forces and the Dalai clique do not spare sacrificing
people's lives in order to achieve their shady political goals, we believe this
goes against human nature and morals,” Lobsang Gyaltsen said. There is nothing
quite as funny as the Communist Party or its sycophants calling anyone else’s
actions shady………
- Maybe Lolo Jones has been in the wrong sport all along. Jones
has crashed and burned in spectacular fashion in her first two attempts to win
Olympic gold in the 110-meter hurdles and her most recent attempt, this summer
in London, ended with her on the “Today” show blasting American media outlets
for daring to do anything other than blindly support and root for her to
succeed. When she finished fourth in her signature race, failing to medal once
again, it appeared her hopes of ever winning Olympic gold, silver or bronze
were gone. She will be 34 when the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro take
place, probably too old to be considered a serious medal threat. Fortune intervened when U.S. Olympic
bobsled coach Todd Hayes invited her and several other track athletes to the
bobsled team’s training camp, theoretically to impart some of their secrets for
speed and international success, but with an outside shot of making the team
and getting into the pool from which the teams for the 2016 Winter Games in
Sochi, Russia will be selected. Both Jones and fellow sprinter Tianna
Madison exceeded expectations and made the team. On Friday, they continued to
exceed expectations in the World Cup opener at Lake Placid. Jones teamed with
driver Jazmine Fenlator to win silver in the race, beating Elana Meyers and
Madison by 0.01 seconds. The Canadian team of reigning world champion Kaillie
Humphries and brakeman Chelsea Valois easily
won the gold, but that fact did little diminish Jones’ excitement. "I'm
kind of in shock," she said. "We've been training with all the other
Team USA members. It's been an inner battle within our own team. I think this
is great that we had a great run today on race day. I'm so used to just so
relying on myself. I've never experienced this level of having a team
before." Fenlator admitted she was shocked as well, conceding that, "In
my wildest dreams, I did not think I would make it to the podium." Hays
was obviously feeling vindication after all of the heat he took for adding
track athletes to his team even though they had no prior bobsledding
experience. "I saw a lot of
tendencies in the week with these girls of adding great velocity to the
sleds," he explained. "It appeared to be a good match to team up the
girls the way we did. Luckily for me, it worked out.” With more than one year
to go before the 2016 Games, U.S. bobsledding fortunes are definitely looking
up……….
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