- The revolt is on! What revolt? The Argentinean uprising
against the tyranny and evil that is Wal-Mart and its megamarket brethren, of
course. If you didn’t know – and how could you not – now you know that
Argentineans are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it any longer.
Looters across the country stormed supermarkets in several cities on Friday,
bringing back pleasant memories of the country's economic crisis 11 years ago.
The most violent scenes occurred in the capital of Buenos Aires, where police
and rock-chucking youths squared off as the latter looted a supermarket owned
by French retailer Carrefour, one day after the festivities kicked off in the
Patagonian ski resort of Bariloche. Rioters in the southern city stormed a
supermarket owned by the local unit of Wal-Mart and made off with flat-screen
televisions and other goods, which could be a late wave of Black Friday
shopping rage gone awry or a sign of a much bigger problem. In the capital,
police responded with teargas and rubber bullets to stop dozens rioters while government
officials condemned the violence and sent 400 military police to Bariloche to
quell the uprising. Violce was also the order of the day in the central city of
Rosario, where two people were killed, and in the northern province of Chaco.
Across Agrentina, nearly 250 people were arrested in total in four different
provinces and police continued to work to prevent the spread of the revolt in
the urban sprawl that encircles Buenos Aires. "When you see that they're
taking flat-screens, you know it's not hunger," said Daniel Scioli,
governor of Buenos Aires province. Wrong, Danny boy. It’s a hunger, all right,
just a hunger for high-quality entertainment with the wealth of HD and sports
programming now available to the masses. President Cristina Fernandez's
administration was quick to denounce the uprising as the work of opposition
trade union leaders, who rallied in the capital this week to demand wage rises
and lower taxes due to double-digit inflation. "There are elements in
Argentina that want to provoke havoc and violence and stain our holiday season
with blood," national security secretary Sergio Berni said. Blood….the
holiday gift that literally everyone can use……….
- On a Christmas weekend, a poor hobbit was given a
magical gift….the top spot on the weekend box office earnings list. “The
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” held the top slot for another weekend with $36.7
million in domestic earnings, giving the film $149.8 through two weeks. Tom
Cruise’s over-the-top comedy/action flick “Jack Reacher” debuted in second
place with a so-so $15.6 million, holding off fellow newcomer “This Is 40,”
which was equally mediocre with $12 million in its opening weekend. “Rise of
the Guardians” snagged fourth place with a mere $5.9 million and after five
weeks, has brought in $79.6 million. The weekend brought another top-five
finish for “Lincoln,” which fell two spots to fifth and notched $5.6 million
for a seven week domestic tally of $116.7 million. A resounding flurry of
indifference greeted the horrifically bad Seth Rogen/Barbara Streisand newcomer
“The Guilt Trip,” which began what is sure to be a short run in theaters with a
sixth-place finish and just $5.4 million for the frame. The 3-D return of “Monsters,
Inc.” to theaters staked its claim to seventh place but could manage only $5
million in its latest debut. “Skyfall” slid to eighth place, its lowest ranking
yet, and added $4.7 million to its coffers for a seven-week bank roll of $279.9
million. “Life of Pi” was the ninth-place finisher with $3.8 million and has
made $76.1 million in five weeks, while “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part
2” held on in the top 10 for one more weekend in tenth place thanks to a $3.8
million weekend to up its overall haul to $281.6 million and counting. “Wreck-It
Ralph” (No. 12), “Silver Linings Playbook” (No. 14) and “Red Dawn” (No. 16)
fell out of the top 10……..
- Don’t like the current fish options available in the deli
at your local grocery store? Soon enough, you may be able to engineer your own
salmon, which is somewhat like Build-A-Bear, but smellier and more expensive. That
dream took a colossal leap forward Friday when government regulators moved a step closer
to allowing the first genetically engineered animal — a fast-growing salmon —
to enter the nation’s food supply. The Food and Drug Administration announced
its finding that the salmon would have “no significant impact” on the
environment and said that the salmon was “as safe as food from conventional
Atlantic salmon.” From here, the agency’s draft environmental assessment will
be open to public comment for 60 days and after that, it’s onward toward
approval. Oddly enough, the environmental assessment is dated May 4 and appears
to have been held back because the Obama administration was afraid of an
unfavorable consumer reaction before the election in November. Predictably,
enviro-rights kooks immediately criticize the decision as being s bad for the
consumer, bad for the salmon industry and bad for the environment. Such views
neglect the fact that it is excellent news for naturally engineered salmon, but
whatever. For AquaBounty Technologies, the company that developed the salmon,
the approval was a victory at the end of a decade-long tunnel. “We’re
encouraged by this,” Ronald Stotish, the chief executive of AquaBounty, said on
Friday before admitting that the battle is not over yet. “We’re not so foolish
as to be wildly enthusiastic” that Friday’s action will definitely lead to approval
Stotish added. The decision would undoubtedly anger some ass-hatted members of
Congress who have attempted to block the FDA from approving the fish. Known as AquAdvantage
salmon, the genetically engineered fish is an Atlantic salmon that contains a growth
hormone gene from the Chinook salmon and a genetic switch from the ocean pout,
an eel-like creature. That gene switch keeps the gene on so that the salmon
produces growth hormone year round, rather than only during warm weather. It
allows the salmon to reach market weight in about 18 months instead of three
years. After deciding that the salmon was safe to consume, the FDA spent the
past year-plus conducting a more detailed environmental analysis that has now
come to the same conclusions. Haters argued that there was a chance the
genetically engineered salmon could escape and establish themselves in the
wild, with detrimental environmental consequences, but the FDA disagreed and
said the chance this would happen was “extremely remote.” The salmon will be
grown inside inland tanks and even if they manage to escape, FDA investigators
said the conditions in open water would be too inhospitable for the genetically
engineered fish to survive……..
- What a Christmas gift football fans in Jacksonville have
waiting for them this year. Even though they will have to wait a few weeks to
officially receive an unwrap that gift, Jacksonville owner Shad Khan is
reportedly intent on bringing hometown hero and current New York Jets
17th-string quarterback/personal punt protector Tim Tebow back to the Sunshine
State. Last offseason, Tebow was placed on the trade block by the Denver
Broncos and given his choice of a trade to Jacksonville or the Jets. He chose
the Jets, believing he could beat out the perennially worsening Mark Sanchez
for the starting job. Instead, Tebow has drifted aimlessly through the season
with only a handful or snaps on offense and spent most of the year playing on
the punt team. He is expected to request a trade or his release from the Jets
after their season mercifully ends and when that happens, the Jaguars
reportedly intend to pursue him. With the terrible year he’s having, the Jags
shouldn’t have any competition to land the former University of Florida star.
Now that Jacksonville has suffered through another subpar year from its own
former first-round pick, the ever-erratic Blaine Gabbert, giving Tebow a shot
makes perfect sense for a team struggling to build a following in northern
Florida. Khan has already expressed interest in establishing his team as a
regular participant in the NFL’s annual regular-season game in London, so
clearly he’s striving to generate interest in the Jaguars and acquiring Tebow
would help, at least in the short term. The team is pointing toward an
open quarterback competition for next season with Gabbert and Chad Henne having
done little to seize control of the starting gig. The good news for
Jacksonville is that their offer from last year for Tebow, a fourth-round pick
and $3 million, is probably triple what it will cost them this year, maybe
more.………
- Finally, the pendulum is swinging the other way in the
workplace. For too long, hot chicks have had the upper hand and been able to
use their bodies as weapons against men lacking the willpower to avert their
gaze or just say no. Thanks to the Iowa Supreme Court, that is about to change.
The seven (coincidentally_ male justices ruled that a boss can legally fire an
employee he finds attractive because he and his wife, fairly or not, see her as
a threat to their marriage. "The question we must answer is ... whether an
employee who has not engaged in flirtatious conduct may be lawfully terminated
simply because the boss views the employee as an irresistible attraction,"
Justice Edward M. Mansfield wrote for the all-male high court. The court ruled
that while such firings are unfair, they do not constitute unlawful
discrimination under the Iowa Civil Rights Act, thereby affirming a lower
court’s ruling. Melissa Nelson, the fired employee, was on the losing end of
the decision and her attorney was both livid and willing to point the finger
directly at the female-free high court’s gender ignorance. "We are
appalled by the court's ruling and its failure to understand the nature of
gender bias," said attorney Paige Fiedler. "For the seven men on the
Iowa Supreme Court not to 'get it' is shocking and disheartening. It
underscores the need for judges on the bench to be diverse in terms of their
gender, race and life experiences." The case involves Nelson’s employment
as a dental assistant for James Knight from 1999 to 2009 and her termination
shortly after Knight complained her clothing was tight and "distracting"
and informed her that "if she
saw his pants bulging, she would know her clothing was too revealing.” Those
obviously inappropriate remarks, coupled with an alleged comment Nelson made
about the infrequency of her sex life that led Knight to respond that, [T]hat's
like having a Lamborghini in the garage and never driving it," gave way to
suggestive text messages between the two even though both are married with
children. There were no real fireworks until Knight's wife, who was employed at
the same dental office, found out about those messages in late 2009 and
demanded that her philandering husband fire Nelson. Knight, his wife and their
pastor met with Nelson and Nelson then informed Knight that he had become a "detriment" to
his family and that for the sakes of both their families, they should no longer
work together. He gave her one month’s severance and sent her away even though
he allegedly told her she was the best he had ever had…..umm, best dental
assistant, that is. The legal system has concurred twice now and in the
process, struck a blow for horny dudes everywhere who could just control their
libidos but can now simply fire the hot chick to save their marriage instead………
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