- Maybe money really does ruin some of the better things in
life. Back in the day, rap outfit G-Unit was young, hungry….and dirt
poor. Today, its members have achieved varying degrees of success in the rap
game, ranging from 50 Cent’s superstardom to his right-hand man Tony Yayo’s
more modest success. Yayo believes that his life, along with those of 50 Cent,
a.k.a. Curtis Jackson, and fellow G-Unit member Lloyd Banks, was better when
the three of them weren’t rich and famous. "You know what's crazy? It's like
when we didn't have any money, things were better," Yayo said. Together,
the group made an impact on rap's underground mixtape scene in the early 2000s
and at one point, the group expanded to five members with Young Buck and Game
joining. However, along the way, Jackson’s fame eclipsed that of the group and
by the time they released their sophomore album “T.O.S: Terminate on Sight” in
2008, Game at odds with the group and Buck was on his way out. Even in recent
months, there still seems to be drama simmering between Jackson and Banks and
Yayo believes money is at the heart of their troubles. "When everybody got
money, it's like things just went downhill, so it's like, I dunno, egos,"
Yayo said. "I would love to see a G-Unit reunion. I would love to see me,
Banks and 50 definitely onstage." Just don’t count on Game getting back
with the original three members of the group, not if Yayo has anything to say
about it. "My problem with [Game] is that once he got to the point where
he wanted to be, when he sold 5 million records, it was G-Unot," he said.
Some of Yayo’s discontent could stem from the fact that he has largely fizzled
as a solo artist, releasing one album on a major label and a handful of
mixtapes that have received a tepid response…….
- Breathing is still hazardous in Beijing, in case you were
wondering. Passing the toxic crap the Chinese try to pass off as breathable air
through one’s nostrils has long been hazardous to health, but Tuesday was an
especially sh*tty day in the capital city as über-thick, off-the-scale smog shrouded eastern
China for the second time in about two weeks. Airlines canceled dozens of
flights because of poor visibility and Beijing temporarily shut factories and
curtailed fleets of government cars. An omnipresent white haze cloaked the
entire city and pedestrians donned face masks to guard against the caustic air.
Canceling flights was an unwelcome development with this being the first week
of the country's peak, six-week period for travel surrounding the Chinese New
Year on Feb. 10, but you can't land in place you can't see. Reports on the
ground showed an hourly peak level of PM2.5 — tiny particulate matter that can
penetrate deep into the lungs — at 526 micrograms per cubic meter, or
"beyond index," and more than 20 times higher than World Health
Organization safety levels over a 24-hour period. Flights were canceled in Zhengzhou,
Beijing, Qingdao and Jinan. Ripping air travel from the mix at a time of the
year when China's transport system is consistently overwhelmed with those
visiting for the Lunar New Year holiday is a sign of just how bad the air truly
is. Because shutting a few factories is clearly going to fix the problem, Beijing's
city government ordered 103 heavily polluting factories to suspend production
and told government departments and state-owned enterprises to reduce their use
of cars by a third. The government also advised residents to stay indoors as
much as possible. A lack of wind meant the smog was unlikely to dissipate
quickly. Maybe newly elected mayor Wang Anshun’s plan to remove 180,000 older
vehicles from the city's roads and promote government cars and heating systems
that use clean energy will be the answers Beijing seeks………
- It’s time for college athletes to start cashing in on a
chunk of the money their universities and the hypocrites at the NCAA rake in
every year based on their efforts. On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled against the NCAA's motion that players in an
antitrust suit led by former UCLA star Ed O'Bannon should be precluded from advancing
their lawsuit to pursue a cut of live broadcast revenues. Judge Claudia Wilken
dismissed the motion, which would have prevented football and men's basketball
players from pursuing that money, rejecting it on procedural grounds. The motion argued against players
being able to amend their lawsuit last year to claim a share of all television
game revenues, not just those from rebroadcasts. "Now the (NCAA and its
co-defendants) are facing potential liability that's based on the billions of
dollars in revenue instead of tens or hundreds of millions," said Michael
Hausfeld, interim lead counsel for the plaintiffs. "It's a more accurate
context for what the players deserve." The O’Bannon suits addresses the
fact that college athletes do not have a union or similar body to negotiate a
share of revenues from media and other licensing contracts and does so through
class-action legal activity. Two legendary names in college basketball, Bill
Russell and Oscar Robertson, have joined O'Bannon on behalf of all Division I
players in football and men's basketball. The case is moving at a snail’s pace
and Wilken on Tuesday set the hearing on that motion for June 20. At that time,
the NCAA will be called upon to make its arguments against class certification
on the merits rather than procedural objections such as the one she just
rejected. "Although our motion to strike was denied, the judge has
signaled skepticism on plaintiff's class-certification motion and recognized
the plaintiffs' radical change in their theory of the case," NCAA general
counsel Donald Remy said. Keep telling yourself positive things, Remy………
- Dammit world, how did so many of us miss the threat that
was right before our eyes…..lurking in the corner, playing with a ball of yarn.
Cats are ruthless killers and most of you had no idea. Maybe your eyes will be
opened now that scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the
Fish and Wildlife Service have dropped some knowledge on us all. These forward
thinkers have discovered that domestic cats in the United States kill a median
of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals a year. Sure, most of these
deaths are from native mammals like shrews, chipmunks and voles, but these estimated
kill rates are two to four times higher than mortality figures previously tossed
around. To put the death total in perspective, more birds and mammals die at
the mouths of cats, the report said, than from automobile strikes, pesticides
and poisons, collisions with skyscrapers and windmills and other such causes. Simply
put, the domestic cat is one of the single greatest human-linked threats to
wildlife in the nation. “When we ran the model, we didn’t know what to expect,”
said Dr. Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and an
author of the report. “We were absolutely stunned by the results.” Because this
is the first serious estimate of just how much wildlife America’s vast
population of free-roaming domestic cats manages to kills each year, the
numbers should shock everyone who hears them. For their research, the
scientists on Marra’s team sifted through the existing scientific literature on
cat-wildlife interactions and standardized the findings from the 21 most
rigorous studies. Anyone trying to argue that free-roaming cats, i.e. strays,
are the real threats needs to know that this study showed that free-roaming
pets account for only about 29 percent of the birds and 11 percent of the
mammals killed by domestic cats each year. Looks like it’s time to clamp down
on cats, y’all………..
- Quit complaining, Carlos Rivas. Why do people always complain
when their bank gives them counterfeit $100 bills and leaves them wondering how
they will be able to pay their bills or feed their family? Rivas is the latest
example of this trend of entitlement after his Westborough, Mass. bank took his
paycheck and in return, gave him 18 $100 bills, 14 of which just happened to be
counterfeit. Sovereign
Bank in Westborough gave Rivas $1,800 in cash and just because a mere $400 of
that was legitimate legal tender is no reason to complain, but here Rivas is,
complaining. His story is slightly twisted because he cashed the check at Sovereign
Bank, but 45 minutes later he attempted to deposit the same money at Citizens
Bank, where he has an account. He says that it’s the same routine he has
carried out on a bi-weekly basis for more than a decade, but the routine was
thrown off track Saturday when a teller at Citizens Bank informed him that 14
of the bills he attempted to deposit were bogus. A Citizens Bank spokeswoman
spoke about the incident, saying, “We are required by law to confiscate and
report to the United States Secret Service any suspected counterfeit notes that
are presented to us. The Secret Service determines if the notes are counterfeit
or if they are legitimate and can be returned.” Sovereign Bank promised to “begin
an internal review immediately and assist authorities in their investigation.”
Rivas remains in financial limbo while the ordeal is sorted out because his
counterfeit money remains in the hands of law enforcement until the Secret
Service figures out where the bad bills originated and how they arrives at the
bank………
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