- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Now THAT is how you conduct a
riot, Egypt. Angry over a blatant power grab by newly elected President
Mohammed Morsi and a proposed constitution that jams both women and minorities,
tens of thousands of protestors crashed the presidential palace in Cairo Tuesday as
thousands more bum rushed streets throughout the city to demonstrate against
the assumption of nearly absolute powers by the nation's Islamist leader.
In response to the wave of protestors trying to overrun the presidential
palace, police fired tear gas to stop the push after rioters pushed aside a barricade
topped with barbed wire several hundred yards from Morsi's palace walls.
Although there were no immediate reports on casualties, any time tear gas,
barbed wire and clashes with The Man are involved, someone being injured or
dying is a definite possibility. The uprising in Cairo was the main course on
the day, but in the coastal city of Alexandria, some 10,000 opponents of Morsi
gathered in the center of the country's second largest metropolis and chanted
slogans against the Egyptian leader and his Muslim Brotherhood. Both uprisings
are being fueled by rising anger over the draft charter and decrees issued by
Morsi giving himself sweeping powers and a proposed referendum on the draft
constitution on Dec. 15. On one side of the battle are Morsi and his
fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, along with Salafi Islamists, and on the
other side are youth groups, liberal parties and large sectors of the public. Morsi's
Nov. 22 decrees placed him above oversight of any kind and immediately
afterward, the constitutional panel then rushed through a draft constitution
without the participation of representatives of liberals and Christians. The
draft that will be voted upon in 11 days has been ripped for not protecting the
rights of women and minority groups. Before then, here’s hoping for many more
scenes of throngs of rioters clashing with hundreds of black-clad riot police,
with the rioters angrily chanting, "Freedom or we die." If nothing
else, give Morsi credit for uniting many groups that openly hate one another,
all brought together by the belief that his decrees need to be rescinded
immediately. Riot on, Egypt………
- Life is good (i.e. profitable) for mediocre actress Kate
Bosworth. Bosworth has starred in a steady stream of forgettable movies (“Win a
Date With Tad Hamilton!”, anyone?) over the past decade and along the way,
apparently fostered a healthy love of the fashion industry. She’s bringing that
love of fashion and her subpar singing talents together for an endorsement deal
with popular United Kingdom retail chain Topshop this holiday season. Bosworth
has partnered
with the chain for its 2012 holiday campaign and the partnership has already
produced a short film based on the famous piano scene with Michelle Pfeiffer in “The Fabulous
Baker Boys.” Bosworth also managed
to score a directing gig for her fiancé, Michael Polish, who helmed the two-minute Topshop ad featuring Bosworth
in a wine-colored sparkly dress. The short film, titled “Winter Wonderland,”
showcases Bosworth as a high-fashion vision of holiday sparkly-ness with a pair
of glittery pumps. In the video, Bosworth stands atop a piano and attempts to
sing the lyrics to the popular holiday song. "We wanted to create
something cinematic," Bosworth explained. "To marry fashion and
cinema.” The ad just so happened to drop, coincidentally enough, as Topshop is
beginning its campaign building toward the launch of its first Los Angeles
store at the Grove shopping mall Feb. 14. There is no better way to celebrate a
day all about the commercialization of love than standing in line to buy
overpriced clothing from an international retail chain. For those who can’t get
enough of an A-list actress indulging her long-harbored dream to become a pop
singer, Bosworth’s version of “Winter Wonderland” is currently available for
download on iTunes…………
- Apple is having a huge week. It started the fun by
releasing the crap-tacular iTunes 11, the latest version of its popular music
and media program. As millions of users installed the new iTunes, groaned and
frantically searched online for the process necessary to uninstall the horrific
version of the program and downgrade to iTunes 10.7, the company was already
moving toward its next big piece of news: the expansion of the iTunes store
into 56 new countries. With the addition of those 56 nations, Apple has nearly
doubled the geographical footprint for its online music marketplace. That is
noteworthy because with increasingly stiff competition from services launched by major rivals Microsoft
Corp. and Google Inc., along with music streaming services such as Spotify and
Netflix, Apple needs all the new markets it can find. Yes, iTunes remains the
dominant force in the digital music world, with more than 400 million users and
more than half the market for music downloads, but complacency in the face of
such dominance inevitably leads to a major downfall eventually. As bad as it
is, the iTunes 11 update is the most extensive overhaul of the program since
the software debuted more than a decade ago. Proponents of the new iTunes argue
it simplifies the overly complicated setup of previous versions, while haters
claim it rips key features such as the Cover Flow view for albums, the display
for album artwork in the bottom left corner of the window and the ability to
stop music entirely rather than just paused it, among others. The new iTunes
also features a stronger integration between the media player and the iTunes
Store, but iTunes still doesn't offer a streaming subscription service, an
increasingly popular method of consuming both music and video. Eve with the
revisions, users can only buy music, movies or television episodes through
iTunes. Netflix is certainly growing after some down times and had 29.9 million
paying subscribers across North America, Latin America and several European
countries by the end of September. Microsoft, which can always be counted on to
throw away a lot of money on terrible ideas, launched Xbox music, a streaming
service that is available on the latest version of its horrible Windows
operating system. With the iTunes expansion to 56 new countries, Apple’s market
for the program adds an estimated 137 million Internet users in India, 68
million in Russia, 37 million in Turkey and 9 million in South Africa. Those
people now have access to the 20 million songs offered in the iTunes library
and they too can pay too much money for a single song they’ll get tired of in a
week………
- New York Yankees fans will be able to feel much less
guilty next year as they high-five each other after the team announced Alex
Rodriguez will be out for the entire 2013 season. On the surface, owing $114
million over the next five seasons to a busted-up, 38-year-old third baseman
who goes missing every year when the playoffs start would seem to be a problem.
However, if A-Rod is unable to play
in 2013 following surgery on his hip scheduled for January, he Yankees are
insured for a good portion of the $114 million they owe him. If something goes
wrong or he simply cannot recover from the surgery because he’s getting older
and his body doesn’t have his normal regimen of illegal steroids to rely on,
the Yankees could reportedly recoup at least 75 percent, and perhaps as much as
100 percent, of the money it would still have to pay him. In order for the team
to begin collecting any insurance money, A-Rod would have to be disabled for at
least a full season. Its deal with Team Scotti, a Pittsburgh-based insurance
firm that provides insurance to Major League Baseball teams, would provide
relief after 12 months. What’s amazing is that there is NO WAY the Yankees
could have foreseen such a complication back in 2007 when they signed the
reigning American League MVP, then 33 years old, to a 10-year, $275 million
extension. Former steroid users approaching 40 never break down or have
physical issues. The Yankees announced on Monday that Rodriguez would undergo
surgery on the labrum in his left hip, a procedure similar to the one that was
performed on his right hip before the 2009 season. Estimated recovery time for
the procedure is four to six months, meaning Rodriguez is unlikely to be back
on the field before the All-Star break, at the earliest. Yankees general
manager Brian Cashman made sure in announcing the surgery that the injury was
not the reason A-Rod achieved his usual level of terrible postseason play in
2012, saying Rodriguez was "asymptomatic" and not in any pain during
the playoffs, when he batted .200 and was benched for three games………
- Note to officials in Charleston, S.C.: Before any future
events involving live animals, it’s an excellent idea to check and make sure
said live animals are not easily spooked by large crowds or loud noises like
the ones emanating from confetti cannons. Had anyone thought of this before the
city’s tree-lighting
ceremony in downtown Charleston Saturday, major problems could have been
averted. Instead, a giraffe named Melman, based on the popular “Madagascar”
movies, nearly put a major damper on the festivities. The plan for the night
called for the giraffe to introduce Santa as part of the tree-lighting skit
but as the
giraffe's handlers led the animal along a path near the crowd, it began to
resist and started shaking its head and neck. "There were a number of
people that crowded around and took a lot of pictures with flashes, that got
the giraffe a little stirred up," said Ellen Moryl, Charleston's cultural
affairs director. The giraffe and two zebras were brought to Charleston for the
event and according to owner Mark Nisbet, nothing at the event Saturday night
should have posed a problem. "What we are is an interactive, educational
animal exhibit," Nisbet explained. "We have a unique variety of
animals from antelopes to zebras to giraffes. He's been in downtown New York
City. He's been in parades.” Parades or not, a few kooks with iPhones
snapping pictures set the beast off and just when it appeared Melman had
settled down, a confetti cannon seemed to scare the animal again. "They
never had anything like that before, so we just assumed it would be similar to
the way it was before because we were walking the same path the year
before," Nisbet continued. After the confetti cannon scare, the giraffe’s
handlers backed it away from the crowd. Following the incident, some attendees
took to Facebook to question why a giraffe was included in the ceremony in the
first place because the long-necked mammals have never really been a part of
Christmas anywhere in the world. Moryl said the city will learn from the incident and attempt
not to repeat a scenario in which an easily agitated giraffe is given just
eight feet of space in a crowded public setting…………
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