- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! The 11-months-of-winter-a-year
wonderland that is Russia may be knee-deep in snow and neck-deep in Communist
bullsh*t right about now, but that wasn’t enough to prevent thousands of opposition supporters from gathering
Saturday outside the old KGB headquarters in central Moscow to mark a year of
mass protests against Vladimir Putin and his fascist regime. While the turnout
was far smaller than the tens of thousands who filled Moscow streets after
fraud-plagued parliamentary elections last December, simply seeing the spirit
of dissidence alive and well was inspiring. Those who attended risked arrest
and heavy fines because shortly after cheating his way back into power, Putin
pushed through a law raising the fine for participating in unauthorized rallies
to the equivalent of $9,000, nearly the average annual salary. Concerns about
opposition leadership have also plagued the dissidence movement, meaning many
Russians hate the current regime and simply despise the opposition movement. After
2 1/2 hours, police dispersed the rally and several prominent opposition
figures were among dozens detained in the course of the gathering, but all were
released within hours. The police present was heavy throughout the rally in
Lubyanka Square, which is outside
the headquarters of the Federal Security Service, the main successor agency of
the Soviet KGB. Some protestors laid flowers at the Solovetsky Stone, a
monument to the victims of political repression during the Soviet era, located
in the square. "The people who have come here are free, honest and decent
people," said Boris Nemtsov, a veteran Russian politician now in the
opposition. "I'm very proud of our people, of Muscovites, of Russians.
They (the government) wanted to scare us, there's a helicopter flying over us
and they've surrounded us with policemen. They think that we're slaves, but
we're not. We're free people, and thank God for that." Some protestors
were arrested after marching around the monument chanting "Free political prisoners."
Sadly, no buildings were torched or looted and no tear gas or water cannons
were utilized……….
- Bears. They are a menace to all of humanity and these
long-toothed killing machines are always a threat, no matter what hour of the
day it may be. That’s what makes the tale of Lunenberg County (Va.) resident
D.J. Lacks so uplifting. Lacks recently scored a big blow for all of mankind
when he killed
a massive black bear with his rifle, shooting it from 75 yards away in the
woods of the rural county. The massive mammal stood nine feet tall and weighed
674 pounds and took the remainder of the day to drag out of the woods. “This is
the first one ever,” Lacks said. “It’s bringing more attention than I want, but
it comes with the territory.” Spoken like a badass hunter who accepts the risk
that people will care about him for 15 minutes because he put a bullet in a
ginormous killing machine whose huge hide will make a nice rug or five for the
den in his home. “Everybody has pictures. It’s on Facebook too. It’s a huge bear.”
The bear will be processed at Duffey’s Mini Mart, where owner L.B. Duffey also
has a meat processing plant. Killing this big bear will prevent it from turning
up at a campsite and terrorizing a family or wandering into a nearby town and
wreaking havoc, something bears have been doing at an alarming rate in many
states over the past few months. “I’m pretty sure that is one for the record
books,” Game Warden Lee Walker said. “As Virginia grows and more rural areas
become more urbanized we’re going to be having more interaction with wildlife.
Remove the food and you’ll remove the bear because the bear will move on
looking for something to eat once the food is gone.” Removing the bear is also
an option and with Virginia’s Game and Inland Fisheries estimating that there
are 17,000 bears living in the state, busting a cap into some of them is
essential. Game and Inland Fisheries will measure the size of the bear’s head
to determine if it’s the largest black bear ever caught in Virginia……….
- That was definitely not close. “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
rode the power of higher 3-D ticket prices and the allegiance of socially
awkward dorks around the United States to a crushing victory in its debut
weekend at the box office, stomping its way to $84.8 million for the frame.
That was nearly $80 million better than second-place finisher “Rise of the
Guardians,” which notched $7.4 million and has garnered $71.3 million in four
weeks of release. “Lincoln” proved its staying power by rising one spot in its
sixth weekend, making $7.2 million for a cumulative tally of $107.8 million and
counting. “Skyfall” fell three spots to fourth place with its $7 million
weekend and has now banked $272.3 million thus far. Fifth place remained
unchanged as “Life of Pi” banked $5.4 million and has earned $69.5 million in
one month of release. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2” fell to its
lowest ranking in five weeks of release, landing in sixth place with $5.1
million to up its overall domestic earnings to $276.8 million. “Wreck-It Ralph”
locked up seventh place with $3.3 million and has accumulated $168.8 million
through its seventh weekend in theaters. “Playing for Keeps” continued to
underwhelm, sliding two spots to eighth and making a meager $3.2 million to
nudge its cumulative domestic total to $10.8 million after two weeks. Another
disappointing release was right behind as “Red Dawn” mustered just $2.4 million
and has managed just $40.8 million in one month of work. “Silver Linings Playbook”
continued in limited release and rose one spot to reclaim the final spot in the
top 10 with a $2 million weekend for an overall tally of $16.9 million. “Flight”
(No. 11) and the über-disappointing “Killing Them Softly” No. 14 both fell out
of the top 10……..
- Human beings aren’t the only inhabitants of Earth who need
to take part in a census every decade or so. Courtesy of he Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute,
the insects of the Panamanian jungle has undergone their own population survey.
A multinational group of scientists has completed the first ever census of
insects in the Panamanian rainforest and their findings show the amazing
reality that the number of different arthropod species outnumber those of
mammals 312 to 1. Arthropods are a group that includes insects, arachnids, and
crustaceans and they are notoriously difficult to count because of their small
size and generally inaccessible habitat. “They are small and can make a living
out of nearly everything, including other arthropods, decomposing matter, plant
tissues, etc,” said Yves Basset from the Smithsonian Institute team. Project
IBISCA-Panama, as the effort was known, canvassed a 23.1-square-mile area and
focused on categorizing, sorting and sampling the region’s bug life.
Researchers estimated that 25,000 different arthropod species reside in the
region, dwarfing the area’s number of species of mammals. Basset and his team
spent two years in the Panamanian jungle and sent their findings to labs all
over the globe for identification. Once they compiled their results, it took a
group of over 100 scientists more than eight years to process all the findings.
“Arthropods are important in all the functions of the forest: pollination,
early decomposition, [consumption] of leaves in the forest, [providing]
nutrients in soil, and regeneration of [the] forest,” Basset added. Using the
results, the research team predicted that the number of bug species should be similar
even outside the rain forest and even in urban areas. In fact, Basset
hypothesized that in an urban park with 10 different species of trees, there
could be as 200 arthropod species. Arthropods fill a variety of roles wherever
they are, serving as nature’s garbage disposals, pollinators and as a link in
the food chain between their own sources of nourishment and the animals who eat
them………..
- Trying to keep up with the ever-changing face of college
sports conferences is not only futile at this point, it’s downright laughable.
Schools are jumping from conference to conference at a rapid rate in search or
the next big payday, er, the best experience for their student athletes and all
of the musical-chairs playing has officially gutted what was once the dominant
conference in all of college basketball. The presidents of the seven, non-Division I football schools in the
Big East announced Saturday that they have decided to leave the conference and
pursue a new basketball framework. DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence,
St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova voted unanimously to leave the conference
on June 30, 2015, per conference bylaws. Schools are required to give the
conference 27 months' notice, but the league has negotiated early departures
with several schools during the past year. Leaving as a group will allow the
seven schools to avoid having to pay exit fees. "Earlier today we voted
unanimously to pursue an orderly evolution to a foundation of basketball
schools that honors the history and tradition on which the Big East was
established," the seven presidents said in a joint statement. "Under
the current context of conference realignment, we believe pursuing a new
basketball framework that builds on this tradition of excellence and
competition is the best way forward." In other words, PAY US OUR MONEY. With
the seven schools exiting, the Big East is now one big geographical clusterf*ck
comprised of Connecticut, a founding member of the league in 1979, Cincinnati and
South Florida, mixed with a hot mess of new additions from across the entire
country. The Big East still is lined up to have a 12-team football conference
next season with six new members, including Boise State and San Diego State for
football only, along with Rutgers and Louisville, both of which are set to
leave the conference for new leagues after next season. Notre Dame, which is
independent in football but a member of the Big East in all other sports except
hockey, is also leaving to join the ACC, further gutting the conference. Georgetown,
St. John's, Seton Hall and Providence helped form the Big East, which started
playing basketball in 1979, but the shifting landscape of college athletics
(PAY THEM THEIR MONEY!) clearly overrode any inclination to stay and sustain
the league they created and helped build……….
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