- Postponing a Broadway opening is nothing new. “Spiderman:
Turn Off the Dark” went through so many setbacks and production delays and
hemorrhaged so much money that it became an all-time Broadway punchline, so
another production pushing back its debut is hardly out of the ordinary.
However, not every forthcoming Broadway musical features songs written by a
successful recording artist and is based on an iconic film. Both descriptions
fit the musical adaptation of the movie “Diner,” which was initially slated to
hit the Great White Way in the spring but will now hit the stage in the fall.
Producers confirmed late Sunday night that the Kathleen Marshall-directed show with songs by
Sheryl Crow will be pushed back by a few months. Producer Scott Zeiger did say
in the same statement that a four-week workshop of the show in November
received good feedback and that the change is due simply to the fact that fall
dates work better for all involved. Like the film, the musical will be set in
Baltimore on Christmas 1959 and its story explores the lives of a circle of
friends in early adulthood, with their tales all set to vintage rock 'n' roll
and doo-wop. There should not be an extreme level of variation from the movie
to the musical as Barry Levinson, who wrote and directed the 1982 film, adapted
it into the new musical. Several future stars received a big boost from the
film, including Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon and Ellen Barkin……….
- Vomiting robots rarely get the respect they deserve. Maybe
that will change now that researchers at the Occupational Hygiene Unit at the Health and Safety
Laboratory in Britain have created a being they have affectionately dubbed “Vomiting
Larry.” Vomiting Lawrence is a
projectile-vomiting robot created to research how far the highly contagious
norovirus particles travel when somebody with the illness throws up. The
researchers wanted to know how the virus is able to spread so easily and
quickly from person to person because on average, someone infected with
norovirus spreads it to about seven other people through direct touch or
contaminated surfaces and food. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention estimate that the virus sickens as many as 21 million Americans each
year, resulting in 70,000 hospitalizations and 800 deaths. Its symptoms,
which include severe projectile vomiting and diarrhea that typically begin 12
to 48 hours after exposure, can last up to 62 hours. To research the virus’
spread, Vomiting Lawrence creator Catherine Makison-Booth concocted a robot
with a body consisting of a cylinder body filled with water mixed with
florescent liquid, a head with an open mouth, and a pump to shoot the water
through the mouth, similar to projectile vomit. Larry throws up the florescent
water and Makison-Booth and her team measured how far the airborne vomit
particles traveled. “Under normal lighting, you can only see the main area
where Larry actually vomited,” Makison-Booth said. “However, under UV light,
you can see the particles spread much further than that – in excess of three
meters.” Based on the findings, the research team says s the area that needs to
be sanitized when someone with norovirus throws up is bigger than previously
thought. The virus can live for up to 12 days, the bleaching all affected
surfaces as soon as possible is key. Using a normal hand sanitizer doesn’t work
because the virus is resistant to most typical cleaning products. Understanding
the virus is vital because norovirus cases in England this winter are already
up 72 percent from last year and there are plenty of ships and planes crossing
the Atlantic every day………
- Believe it when you actually see it, but China wants the
world to believe that it will soon overhaul its draconian, Communist system of
repression, er, re-education of criminals and dissidents through labor.
According to the Chinese government, it will begin reforming the system of re-education
through labor in the coming year. The system is one of the government’s more
widely despised enterprises, but with a new government formally installed late
last year, changing the way it punishes petty criminals, religious dissidents,
petitioners and other perceived social irritants is on the agenda – or at least
giving the appearance of change. Even if it is the most dubious claim ever, the
government did its best to present the lie in an official-sounding way, making
the announcement at a national political and legal work conference held on Monday.
Currently, the system allows police to detain people for up to four years
without an open trial. Oddly enough, some legal experts have claimed that this
policy contradicts high-level laws, including China's constitution. While
specifics on the supposed changes are predictably unavailable, the (fake)
alterations appear to have been spurred by two recent cases. One occurred last
month, when a court in southwest China's Chongqing municipality rejected an
appeal from Ren Jianyu, a village official sentenced to two years in a
re-education through labor camp in September 2011 for spreading "negative
information" and inciting the subversion of state power. The other case
took place in August, at which time a woman in central China's Hunan province
was sentenced to 18 months in a labor camp after demanding tougher penalties
for seven men who were convicted of abducting, raping and prostituting her
11-year-old daughter. The warm-hearted autocrats at the Chinese Bureau of
Re-education Through Labor under the Ministry of Justice claim in their most
recent statistics that approximately 160,000 people are imprisoned in 350
re-education through labor centers nationwide, so changing the system would be
a massive undertaking…….
- Lance Berkman has some fences to mend. The free-agent
designated hitter has reportedly agreed to a one-year deal with the Texas
Rangers and of all the teams he could have signed with, the Rangers are
definitely the most interesting fit and that has nothing to do with his skills
or where he fits in with the rest of the lineup. It has everything to do with
Berkman’s tense relationship with Rangers fans, stemming from his über-critical
assessment of the club a few years ago. Berkman said before the 2011 season
began that he thought the Rangers were going to be an average team despite
making the World Series the previous season and said he though the team's
long-term deal with third baseman Adrian Beltre was "a reach." After
shooting off his mouth and never really thinking he might some day be playing
for the very fans whose team he had insulted, Berkman wants his new fans to
know that he plans to win them over with his play. He initially recanted his
remarks prior to that World Series and reiterated on Sunday that he was wrong. "I'm prepared to let bygones be bygones,
but I understand the fans remembering those comments," Berkman said. "Ultimately, I had to eat some crow
and I was happy to do that. I tend to share an unvarnished opinion and not everyone was going to like that answer.
It was my honest opinion and I was proved to be incorrect in my assessment, and it was not the first time
I've been wrong.” Assuming he passes his physical, he will make $10 million in
2013 and is expected to be the club's primary DH with the potential for limited
time at first base. He is a native Texan, so maybe that will work in his favor
and mitigate some of the negative sentiments………
- No more Joe Boxer, Calvin Klein on Victoria’s Secret for
you, inmates at the Genesee County (Mich.)
Jail. The privilege of friends or family members bringing undergarments from
the outside world for their incarcerated loved ones to wear under their orange
jumpsuits is over and those who have a problem with the change can blame one
man: Flint resident James Kreklau. Kreklau isn't an inmate at the jail, but he
could soon be behind bars somewhere after he was charged with delivery of a
controlled substance and introducing contraband into a jail for his attempt to
sneak drugs into the jail by sewing them into undergarments he brought for a
female inmate. According to Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell, Kreklau tried
to smuggle heroin to a female inmate by sewing it into a bra. The plan might
have worked if Kreklau or whomever he had sew the drugs into the bra had done a
better job, but deputies inspect all clothing coming into the jail and while
inspecting the bra, a deputy noticed the bra appeared to have been re-stitched.
Deputies red-flagged the offending bra and when they opened it up, they found
three small bags of heroin. In light of this discovery, Pickell has issued a
decree that going forward, family and friends can no longer bring outside
clothing items for inmates. The sheriff explained that while he has attempted
to maintain an open mind about the subject because of the financial situation
of the inmates, he can no longer allow the practice. "I tried to go along
with it, but we just can't do it any longer," he said. "I'm being
forced. They'll be the ones to complain about it, the inmates and their
families, but they're the ones that forced me to change the policy by trying to
sneak drugs and money into the jail." Under the new rules, inmates will
be able to meet their undergarment needs by purchasing them through the
jail's commissary………..
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