- Fights over flags are not just for American ignoramuses
who continue to display the Confederate flag and willfully salute one of the
ugliest times in the history of the United States. No, the trend also extends
across the Atlantic Ocean to Northern Ireland, where some residents are on the
verge of rioting over new rules dictating when the British flag can be flown.
In a nation known for its rioting talents, those rules basically invited an
uprising when they led to the decision to stop permanently flying the British flag outside
Belfast City Hall. That decision might sound minor, but it has already sparked
some of the worst violence since the 1998 Good Friday peace deal. Following the
announcement, riots have broken out on a nightly basis as dozens of police officers
have been injured in attacks by enraged protesters who have hurled stones,
bottles, fireworks and always-awesome Molotov cocktails in a show of anger that
police believe is orchestrated by the Ulster Volunteer Force, a pro-British
paramilitary group. Over the weekend, the riots included gunshots that police
later claimed were blanks used to disperse crowds. That was followed by a
boring, peaceful display on Monday night that included police using water
canons and firing plastic bullets at the crowd. A pro-British politician
belittled the demonstrators by suggesting they are staging a “revolution with a
small r” against attempts by Irish nationalist parties to “remove their
Britishness.” Irish nationalists put a different spin on the situation, saying they
wanted to stop flying the flag from outside city hall because it is also used
by pro-British paramilitaries and others to mark out their territory in the
divided city and “intimidate” Catholics. There is a long way to go to match the
furor over the Good Friday Agreement, which is credited with largely ending
three decades of sectarian violence known as "The Troubles," during
which British troops were sent in to patrol the streets and at least 3,600
people were killed. That agreement created an elected Northern Ireland assembly
and devolved government in which power is shared between all sides. That
assembly meets in a building, Stormont, over which the British flag flies
for just 15 pre-agreed days each year. Now the flag battle has extended well beyond
Stormont and into the streets………
- All is not well in Dallas. In fact, very little is well
for the city’s NBA franchise at the moment. The Mavericks dropped to nine games
below .500 with their ninth loss in 10 games Monday night and their star
player doesn’t sound hopeful that the season will turn around any time soon. Dirk
Nowitzki, who recently returned after missing the first 27 games of the season
recovering from a knee injury, is doubtful about the front office's plan for
the franchise's future and after making his first start of the season, wondered
aloud whether it'd be in the Mavericks' best interests to trade him. Maybe it’s
the frustration of knowing that the team’s 12-season playoff streak in serious
jeopardy and there is little he can do about it, but Nowitzki is clearly
unhappy. He expressed particular distaste for Mark Cuban's decision to let
Tyson Chandler and other key members of the 2011 title team leave in light of
the failed second half of the plan saw the team failed to land a legitimate
superstar in his prime to complement Nowitzki in the latter stage of his career.
When the quest to acquire Chris Paul and Dwight Howard fizzled because both
players were traded to new teams and did not hit the free-agent market, Dallas
was left twisting in the wind and they also swung and missed on top free agent
Deron Williams. That left them with a hobbled, aging superstar, a group of
mismatched parts and the last fumes of their 2011 title run to keep them
afloat. "It's going to be tough
now," Nowitzki said. "I
always liked to think you don't want to build your franchise on hope.” So far,
building on hope has left the Mavericks 6.5 games out of the last playoff spot
in the Western Conference……..
- When someone hands you the gift of a 300-pound gorilla statue
that mysteriously appears in your neighborhood, it’s best to just say thank you
and cherish this impressive work of art. Residents of an Overland Park, Kan.
neighborhood should have remembered that lesson when just such a statue showed
up in their ‘hood over the weekend. Resident Judy Day was planning to take her
dog for a walk when she spotted an unusual sight near the neighborhood gazebo.
Initially, she thought it might be a coyote or bobcat lurking in the darkness
of the early-morning hours, but once the sun came up she found herself staring
cross the street at a ginormous gorilla statue that prompted her to call one of
her neighbors and start the rumor mill a-churning. As word circulated, no one
had any idea where the statue came from and no one was certain when it first
appeared next to the gazebo. It had heavy grass stains, indicating that
whoever, um, procured it from its previous home may have done so by dragging it
onto a heavy-duty vehicle capable of toting it to its temporary new location.
Unfortunately, Day and her neighbors could not get their act together in time
to rally the whole neighborhood behind a believable story about how the gorilla
had always been in their possession and someone ended up contacting the police,
who came and retrieved the statue even though they presently have no idea who
its rightful owner is. “Due to the weight, officers couldn’t put it in a car so they had to get
a tow truck there to get it and they just used the crane on the back of the tow
truck to lift it into the flatbed,” Overland Park police officer Jackie Zickel said.
“There have been some things that have disappeared. I think this might be
hopefully maybe just pranksters.” The only identifying mark indicating anything
about the statue is the engraving “DD Statuary” on one of the statue’s corner. Unfortunately,
DD Statuary says hundreds of these molds have been sold throughout the country
and it has no means of knowing who bought this one. The Overland Park Police
Department is now depending on the public to provide tips about where the
statue came from………
- Need to keep an obscure Native American language that very
few people still speak alive? There may soon be an app for that. Technology and
anthropology are uniting in the pursuit of preserving the native language of the Seneca Indian Nation and the men at the helm
of this tech-fueled linguistic effort are Rochester Institute of Technology anthropology
professor Jason Younker and grad student Robbie Jimerson. Less than 50 people
still speak the dialect and Younker describes the project as a “race against
time.” He and Jimerson are developing an app to document and preserve the
language for future generations, with the professor focusing on the language
component and Jimerson working on the technological end. “While we understand
that it is impossible to replace or replicate the language context that our
elder Seneca language speakers provide, we know that this is a drastic time for
the language and it must be preserved the best way we know how—using technology,”
Younker said. Jimerson has close ties to the project because he is a resident
of the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation near Buffalo and explained that his own
grandfather spoke the language. “My grandfather has always said that a joke is
funnier in Seneca than it is in English,” he said. As one might expect, trying
to catalog an entire language with all of its nuances and specificities, the
project is expected to take years to complete, although a $200,000 federal
grant supporting the project is only in place through 2014……..
- He big-timed the London Olympics, but David Bowie isn't
done with music just yet. In fact, the eccentric and egomaniacal rocker has announced his
first new album in 10 years. The project, titled “The Next Day,” will be
released on March 11. It is produced by Bowie's longtime collaborator Tony Visconti and contains 14 tracks,
although those willing to splurge and give Bowie and his record label a few
extra dollars that neither needs will get three extra tracks. To create buzz
for the album, the single “Where Are We Now?” has been released and it comes
complete with a music video directed by New York artist Tony Oursler. The song is a rather
straightforward ballad whose lyrics reference Bowie's Berlin years, including a
mention of Potsdamer Platz, a square in the city and its financial center, and KaDeWe,
the city's most famous department store. "Where are we now? Where are we
now? The moment you know, you know you know,” the words of the chorus say. Bowie’s
previous album, “Reality,” was released in 2003 and is not widely viewed as one
of his better efforts. He toured in support of the project in 2004, but ended
the tour early when he became ill. Since then, he has kept an extremely low
profile, including not appearing at the closing ceremony for last summer’s
Olympic Games in London, an absence organizers compensated for (in pathetic
fashion) by displaying a montage of photos showing Bowie’s image over the years
on oversized canvases. The official announcement of the new album came on his
official website and reads in part: "In recent years radio silence has
been broken only by endless speculation, rumour and wishful thinking ....a new
record...who would have ever thought it, who'd have ever dreamed it! After all
David is the kind of artist who writes and performs what he wants when he
wants...when he has something to say as opposed to something to sell. Today he
definitely has something to say." Yes, he wants to say, “But my album.”
What a message…….
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