- New England Patriots fans now have another reason to
hate Baltimore
Ravens safety Bernard Pollard – not that they needed one. Pollard, playing with
the Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Texans and Ravens, Pollard has ended the
seasons of Patriots stars Tom Brady, Wes Welker and Rob Gronkowski with vicious
hits to various parts of their anatomy over the past six years. On Sunday, he
obliterated running back Stevan Ridley with a massive hit that caused a fumble
and left Ridley woozy on the ground as the Ravens celebrated a turnover that
led to a game-icing score. But that wasn’t Pollard’s only lasting mark left on
the Pats from the game as immediately after it ended, Pollard began crusading
for the NFL to discipline Brady for a play during the final minute of the first
half when the quarterback slid to the ground to end an impromptu run and had
one leg raised a few feet off the ground. That leg struck Ravens safety Ed
Reed, who emerged from the play without injury. The NFL has now fined Brady
$10,000 for the slide, an amount that may not placate Pollard but definitely
gives New England fans all the more reason to despise the veteran safety. Reed
wasn’t running his mouth about the play afterward, but his defensive backfield
mate certainly was. "If you want to keep this going in the right
direction, everyone should be penalized for their actions," Pollard said. "(Brady)
knew what he was doing. It has to go both ways." Brady actually reached
out to Reed to apologize and clearly realized that regardless of his intent, the
play looked bad for him. "I told him -- you know, we talked," Reed said.
"We talked actually not too long ago; we talked on the phone. He actually
reached out to me, texted me. I tried to text him back, but the message exploded
after 12 seconds, so I had to call him ... and he just apologized and what not.
But I told him, 'You know, it's good, man.'" Maybe Reed should pull
Pollard aside (and off of the Patriots) and pass that message along…….
- Swimming in the Limpopo River is not an entry to cross off
the ol’ bucket list any time in the next few months. That long-awaited trip to
dip into the pleasant waters of the South African river will have to
wait…unless, of course, possibly being eaten by one of the suddenly large
number of crocodiles now swimming in the river is also on your bucket list. A
slight mishap at a South African reptile farm during a flood this week has resulted in
the escape of some 15,000 crocodiles and about half of them are still on the
loose in and around one of southern Africa's biggest rivers. "There used
to be only a few crocodiles in the Limpopo River. Now there are a lot,"
said Zane Langman, whose in-laws own the farm in the northern part of the
country. Langman confirmed that only half the escaped crocodiles from the
Rakwena Crocodile Farm close to the Botswana border had been recaptured and
explained that the reptiles escaped after the farm gates were opened out of
fear the rushing flood water would crush the crocodiles. The plan seems faulty
on account of crocdiles being wild and dangerous animals unlikely to hang
around during the flood and line up politely at the door to be put back in
their pens once the floodwaters subsided. Farm officials have not commented on
the incident, but reports had one crocodile apparently from the farm being captured
about 75 miles away at a school rugby field. The flooding that has bombarded Mozambique
and South Africa in recent weeks has led to heavy rains and flooding that have claimed
at least 20 lives in and led to the evacuations of thousands of people………
- America, are you finally catching on to the fact that
“American Karaoke” is a ridiculous musical abortion of a show that embodies
much of what is wrong with the music industry? Let’s not go that far, but there
is always joy to be found when Fox’s long-running reality karaoke shows sees
its ratings dip even after a completely manufactured and overdramatized fight
between two of its pop hack judges, Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj. The tension
between the two manufactured pop personalities has been built up by the network
and the show’s producers for weeks now, but their interpersonal theatrics did
not translate into big ratings for “AK” on Wednesday night. Its ratings dipped 10 percent from last week’s
12th season premiere, bringing in 16 million viewers and a 5.4 rating. That was
still enough for Fox to win the ratings battle for the night as ABC and its
lineup of mediocre sitcoms fronted by “The Middle” and “Suburgatory” and CBS’
lineup built around two episodes of “Criminal Minds” both improved this week in
the adult demographic but could not run down a terrible reality karaoke show. In
the “American Karaoke” episode, viewers were exposed to the same contrived dispute
between the judges, a debate sparked by a question over whether a contestant should
feel “forced” to “do the country thing.” Maybe Fox could have generated more
buzz and interest among viewers had it not chosen to edit out most of the
profane exchange that followed, but it is network television and the FCC
probably would have hammered “American Karokae” if it had aired the exchange
without heavily editing it. Carey and Minaj will simply have to script their
next “argument” with fewer gratuitous profanities if they want it to reach the
on-air version of the show………
- Put down that cancer stick, ladies. Reasons to hate
smoking are plentiful, but here’s one more just for the hell of it: Women smoking nowadays are far more likely to die as a result of their
habit than they were in the 1960s. That’s according to a new study carried out
by researcher
Dr. Michael Thun and his team, a study showing that women starting their
smoking habit earlier and consuming more cigarettes has unsurprisingly led to a
massive uptick in the fairer sex’s risks of lung cancer. While women may not
have caught up with men in some areas of business and society yet, their death
rates from smoking certainly have, according to Thun and his team’s findings.
Their research examined more than two million women in the United States, reach
back to the first generation of women smokers, who typically started choking
down lung darts during the 1950s and 60s. At that time, women who smoked were
nearly three times more likely to die from lung cancer as people who had never
smoked. By examining medical records from women who smoked between 2000-2010,
researchers discovered that these lucky ladies were 25 times more likely to die
from lung cancer than their non-smoking friends. Men reached those levels in
the 1980s, but their lady friends have run them down and that probably is not
the sort of progress feminists like Gloria Steinem want to see. "The steep
increase in risk among female smokers has continued for decades after the
serious health risks from smoking were well established, and despite the fact
that women predominantly smoked cigarette brands marketed as lower in tar and
nicotine,” Thun said. "So not only did the use of cigarette brands
marketed as 'Light' and 'Mild' fail to prevent a large increase in risk in
women, it also may have exacerbated the increase in deaths from chronic
obstructive lung disease in male smokers, since the diluted smoke from these
cigarettes is inhaled more deeply into the lungs of smokers to maintain the
accustomed absorption of nicotine." Thanks for the positive,
life-affirming news, science…….
- In an era when too many of America’s college and
universities are teaching meaningless fluff courses on subjects like the
television legacy of Pee Wee Herman or Nickelback’s cultural impact, it is
refreshing to see a school instilling vital knowledge with real-world relevance
in its students. Hinds Community
College, in Raymond, Miss., deserves a wealth of praise because it has become
one of the few institutions of higher learning in the country offering courses
in the flying and maintaining drones. Sure, drones could be described in many
cases as oversized radio-controlled airplanes, but they are growing in
popularity and have been used with deadly efficiency by the CIA. They come in various
shapes and sizes ranging in costs from $130 to millions of dollars and as
anyone who has been paying attention to the war in Afghanistan knows, they can
be used to efficiently blow sh*t up even when the attacker is hundreds of miles
away. In the instance that a person wants to wage war on their neighbor for
allowing their dog to poop in someone else’s yard or let their leaves fall over
their property line, an unmanned aerial vehicle is the perfect way to gain some
sweet revenge. The nine HCC students in the drone class for the current
semester attend class at the John Bell Williams Airport north of Raymond and
learn from instructor Dennis Lott, who is also a consultant for the school and has
spent his entire life flying remote controlled airplanes. "The last U. S.
manned fighter is the F-35," said Lott. "All future development is
unmanned." Lott and drone program leader Randy Pearcy believe their
students will see a wealth of job opportunities open up for them because of
their skills piloting drones, which are limited to 400-foot altitudes unless
they belong to the military or law enforcement. However, Congress has ordered
the FAA to change that, allowing domestic use, by 2015, so bombing your
neighbor’s backyard barbeque is about to become that much more realistic. It’s
good to know that America will have people trained to take advantage of that
opportunity……..
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