- Whiny opponents looking for another excuse as to why
they can’t roll into Idaho and beat the Boise State Broncos on the football
field get to keep one of their favorites. The push to ban the Broncos from
wearing their all-blue uniforms on their distinctive blue turf has crashed and
burned after the
NCAA's playing rules oversight panel denied the Football Rules Committee's
proposal to require an institution's uniform to be a different color from the
field of play. Boise State, the first non-power conference team to regularly
make a dent in the Bowl Championship Series party and win a BCS game, likes to wear
all-blue uniforms on its blue-turfed home field. Sadly, the ass hats who run
the Mountain West Conference banned them from doing it last season after opposing
coaches who knew their teams couldn’t compete with the Broncos and wanted some
excuse to use in their defense said it could give Boise State an unfair
advantage. However, Boise State gained leverage when it decided to leave the
Mountain West, putting the league in danger of fracturing as other schools
considered a similar move. When the Broncos doubled back and elected to stay in
the Mountain West instead of moving to the Big East, the conference relented
and lifted the ban on the Broncos' blue-on-blue look. Had the haters of the
monochromatic turf-and-gear combination convinced the NCAA to ban such looks,
the ruling would have trumped the Mountain West's agreement with Boise State.
Instead, Boise State can roll in style because the pane ruled that the proposal
would not "enhance the image of the game." Whatever works for
y’all……..
- 3-D printing and scanning technology has never been
better. That’s mostly because very little has existed in the field up ‘til now,
but that has officially changed after the same company that showed up at the
South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Tex. four years ago with a
prototype of its first desktop 3-D printer has crafted a 3-D scanner to go with
its printer. MakerBot co-founder Bre Pettis debuted the 3-D printer at the
festival in 2009 and took it around to bars, where he won patrons over by
“printing” out plastic replicas ofshot glasses. "They were pretty
popular," he said. Pettis returned to SXSW on Friday and instead of bar
hopping, he was a keynote speaker before a packed hall of 3,000 people. He
toted a prototype of a desktop device that can scan small three-dimensional
objects. Dubbed the MakerBot Digitizer, it is intended to be paired with the
company's Replicator printer, allowing users to scan objects, then feed the
resulting digital files to the Replicator to be printed. The Digitizer uses two
lasers and a webcam and has the capacity to scan objects up to a diameter of
eight inches. The scanning process takes about three minutes and once the scan
is completed, an object can be printed right away. MakerBot hopes to sell the
product to those who might otherwise use software to design a digital printing
model from scratch. "This is something you would envision being science
fiction, but in fact, it is real -- and it is so cool," Pettis added. He
billed the Digitizer as a tool for archiving or replicating prototypes, models,
parts, artifacts, sculptures and other objects. When the scanner hits the
market this fall, it won't exactly be a device to give a friend or family
member at Christmas. The cost of MakerBot's printers -- $2,000 to $3,000 –
suggests that a 3-D scanner won't be below four figures either………
- Let the weapons bonanza begin. The ministers of the Arab League have decided
that all Arab states are free to offer military support to rebels fighting the
forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if they wish. That means every
country in the league is free to go Oprah Winfrey on the rebels and give them
rocket launchers, tanks, surface-to-air missiles, automatic weapons and the
like. The decision is a reversal of the league’s previous stance that the Syrian
opposition and rebels should be supported by humanitarian and diplomatic means.
In their final statement on the issue after a meeting in Cairo, the ministers said
they had "stressed the right of each state according to its wishes to
offer all types of self defense, including military, to support the resilience
of the Syrian people and the Free (Syrian) Army." Arab League
Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby also extended a gesture of recognition to the
opposition Syrian National Coalition - an umbrella body for anti-Assad
political and rebel groups – by inviting the coalition to occupy Syria’s seat at
the League. The spot has remained vacant after the al-Assad regime was suspended
from the organization in 2011. In its statement, the league called on the
coalition to choose a representative to attend a League meeting to be held in
Doha, Qatar on March 26-27. It’s fitting timing, as Qatar has led a push
against Damascus in the League, a push that has met with stiff resistance from
Lebanon, Iraq and Algeria. The trio were the only nations that refused to
endorse the final document's sections on Syria, so the fight might not be over
just yet………
- A big theft in the world’s smallest park has caused a
modest stir in Portland, Ore. Mill Ends Park occupies just 452 square inches of
not-so-prime Portland real estate, tucked inside a concrete circle just 2 feet
across. It’s a quirky place created in 1948 by Oregon Journal columnist Dick
Fagan, who planted flowers in an unused hole in the median outside his newsroom
office after claiming a tiny leprechaun named Patrick O'Toole granted him a
wish of having his own park. The city’s parks department allowed Fagan to
construct the miniature park and Fagan frequently wrote about it in the years
before his death in 1969. His tales became a regular feature on the paper’s
pages and Fagan shared tales involving O'Toole and other leprechauns. The city
took custody of the park on St. Patrick's Day in 1976 and city workers have
tended to it ever since – undoubtedly taking a coffee break or five during
their time caring for the park each week. Sadly, the park has now become the
world’s smallest crime scene. Its lone tree, a diminutive evergreen, was stolen
last week from the downtown street-corner park. The Portland Parks and
Recreation Department first noticed the theft and in a rare show of
bureaucratic expediency, moved quickly to buy a replacement tree. Granted, it
only cost $3.25 for a new tree and someone could have simply dipped into the
petty cash jar for the money, but give credit where it’s due. The new tree has been
planted and the parks department is hoping that O’Toole will not seek
retribution against their fair city for the theft of his tree. "It was
important to replace it so the leprechaun there had some shade from the
sun," department spokesman Mark Ross said of the new Douglas fir sapling……..
- World, we have all been forewarned. It’s been eight long
and painful months since the world was first subjected to the musical horror
that is Korean pop (K-pop) “artist” Psy’s wretched excuse for a hit, “Gangnam
Style.” The ubiquitous song and its equally inane dance spawned thousands of
lame YouTube parodies from anyone with access to a camera of any type and even
led to a performance at the American Music Awards in November with one-hit wonder and rap
has-been MC Hammer. Now, Psy is threatening to release another awful song on
the world and he broke the news on Twitter. “Allright PPL~!!! I'm Uploading the video
at my @YouTube acc. It's regarding a #NewSingleInfo and
#PSYdoingGangnamSHAKE!!! Plz WAIT!!,” he tweeted. Then, as if so attempt a
mash-up of two of the most moronic and played-out pop culture trends of the
past 12 months, he posted a link to a YouTube video that showed his take on the
"Harlem Shake" video trend, stupidly titled named "Gangnam
Shake." His new single could drop as soon as April 13 and to maximize its
potential damage on the world’s collective ear drum, it will be unveiled at a
YouTube-broadcast concert in Seoul World Cup Stadium for the globe to
hear/recoil in horror from. As unfathomable as it seems because every day with
“Gangnam Style” in the world feels like a year, it was July of last year when
the song went viral. Its accompanying music video made history as the first
YouTube video to crack a billion views and just this week, an entire EP of
"Gangnam Style" remixes dropped, called "Remix Style." Here’s
hoping the new single receives the complete indifference it will undoubtedly
deserve……..
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