- Ragnar is not only the comically stereotyped mascot of the
NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, he may also soon have his own series on the History
Channel. Historical
fiction guru Michael Hirst is seeking to build a following for a new series
about the legendary Viking raider and hopes the project becomes a long-running
franchise. “Vikings” debuts Sunday after five months of filming in Ireland and
dramatizes the mythical story of Ragnar Lothbrok, leader of a Viking people
typically Medieval thugs in horned helmets. Hirst’s series doesn’t feature
those horned hats because Vikings never actually wore them. “Vikings” is the
largest production ever by the History Channel with a reported budget of $40
million. It follows the Norsemen as they butcher defenseless Christians and
loot their way through Europe and with Gabriel Byrne starring, should have some
name recognition. "It's always been in the background of my mind to do a
Viking project," Hirst said. Much of the filming took place in the Wicklow
hills south of Dublin and Hirst said he loved examining the oft-misrepresented
history of a misunderstood group, in this case 8th-century Scandinavian
warriors. By definition, not as much is known about the Dark Ages. This is
particularly true of the Vikings who were pagans and didn't write anything
down," he said. "Because not a huge amount is known, that gives me
some liberty. But I like working from historical material. I always start
projects by reading as much research as possible." Production and costume
designers for the project have Emmys to their credit, so there is talent all
around the set. The series is the first to film at Ireland's brand-new Ashford
Studios and also did some work on the shores of Lough Tay. Byrne portrays a
ruthless chieftain threatened by Ragnar's ambition and former “Heroes” cast
member Jessalyn Gilsig plays his power-hungry wife. Ragnar is played by Australian
actor Travis Fimmel, a former Calvin Klein underwear model with a low-key
acting career. Hirst hopes the series is successful enough for a four- or
five-season run………
- Golf’s best player had one of his worst outings and an
even worse response at the Honda Classic on Friday. Looking to defend his title
at the event in Florida, Rory McIlroy instead flamed out and stormed off the course on his ninth hole. He
didn’t bother stopping in the clubhouse and went straight to his car,
withdrawing from the tournament after going 7 over par. The world's No.
1-ranked player didn’t offer much insight on his departure, saying to reporters
in the parking lot that, "I'm not in a great place mentally. I can't
really say much, guys. I'm just in a bad place mentally." Knowing how bad
the scene looked, the PGA Tour quickly fired off an official statement saying McIlroy
cited "wisdom tooth pain" for the withdrawal. In a later statement,
McIlroy said: "I sincerely apologize. I have been suffering with a sore
wisdom tooth, which is due to come out in the near future. It began bothering
me again last night, so I relieved it with Advil. It was very painful again
this morning, and I was simply unable to concentrate.” He also tweeted an
apology to fans and hid behind a PGA Tour rule that a player may withdraw
during a round "because of injury or other disability which requires
medical attention, or serious personal emergency." The withdrawal comes
one week after McIlroy was eliminated in the first round of the WGC-Accenture
Match Play Championship in Arizona and bodes poorly for the change he made
prior to the season to new clubs after signing a lucrative deal to endorse Nike.
He admitted earlier this week that he “knew coming into it that it was going to
be a bit of a process,” but the process is off to a very rocky start. He also missed
the cut with rounds of 75-75 at golf's season-opening event in Abu Dhabi and
his crash and burn reached a new low Friday when he hit his approach into the
water at the par-5 18th, took a drop, played again and signaled to his caddie
that he was leaving before walking off mid-hole……….
- So many parents want to be the “cool mom” or “cool dad,”
but so few are willing to do what it takes to earn that title. South
Glens Falls, N.Y. mother Judy Viger is one of the few and unfortunately, it
could cost her up to one year in prison. Viger wanted to throw her son a
kick-ass 16th birthday party and she knew that cake, candles, presents and
laser tag were not going to get it done. So what is a mom to do? Buy beer for
her son and his friends? No, because that is clearly illegal and extremely
dangerous. Viger chose the next best option: strippers. She allegedly hired two
strippers to perform lap dances on guests at the party, which was held not at
her home or a friend’s home, but in the oddly public setting of a bowling
alley. The party was held at the Spare Time Bowling Center and guests included
both teenagers and adults. The strippers performed what police described as
“personal and intimate” dances with the party guests, some of whom were as
young as 13. To Viger’s credit, she did rent a private room for the party, so
at least families looking to roll a few games and eat nachos didn’t have to
catch an eyefull. She hired the women from a company called Tops in Bottoms and
arranged for them to perform at the party, where 80 friends and family members
were in attendance. The fun may have gone off without a hitch if not for a
15-year-old party guest whose mother saw some of the photos on her son’s Facebook
page and alerted South Glens Falls authorities. Keep higher security settings
on your Facebook page and that doesn’t happen, kid. Viger now faces five counts
of endangering the welfare of a child. “The charges stem from an allegation
that she endangered not only the welfare of her own child, but the welfare of
the 14- and 15-year-old children that were at the birthday party as well,”
Saratoga County District Attorney James Murphy. Hilariously, Tops in Bottoms
said that the dancers were unaware that the kids at the party were underage and
insisted the incident was being “blown out of proportion.” Yes, because a
13-year-old boy who can’t grow facial hair is easy to mistake for someone who
is 18. Then again, bowling alleys do tend to be poorly-lit places………
- Bravo, science, bravo. Most scientists could focus their
energy on curing cancer, increasing crop production to feed the world’s
starving people, developing more sources of renewable energy and the like, but
what fun would that be? A team of Tufts
University researchers know that and it’s why they just spent a year cutting
out the tiny eyeballs of tadpole embryos and sticking them back on to the
tadpoles' tails. Their efforts paid off when they managed to affix the eyeballs
well enough that a few of the tadpoles could actually see out of the eyes on
their tails. Eyes are typically attached to a large nerve that carries signals
to the brain, which then processes the information into a three-dimensional
picture of what a person – or animal – has in front of them. However, recent
experiments have shown that the central nervous system - including the brain
and spinal cord – can adapt and evolve as needed. In other words, if one area
of the brain is damaged and can't function, then another part of the brain may
take up some of its tasks. That line of thought inspired the team at Tufts to
study whether the brain could function with an eyeball attached somewhere other
than the head. They also wanted to know if a different part of the nervous
system could process those signals on their own, without help from the brain.
To examine this hypothesis, they performed tadpole eyeball transplant surgery
on the animals while they were still developing so their transplanted eyes would have time to put down nerve roots that
could potentially hook up to the rest of the tadpoles' nervous systems. More
than 200 tadpole embryos underwent the procedure and from there, the
researchers tested their subjects' vision. They put the tadpoles in a well
where half of the dish was illuminated with red light and the other half with
blue light and inverted the lights at regular intervals. Tadpoles were zapped
with a small amount of electricity when they went into a red-lit area and they
were later tested to see whether they had learned to associate the red light
with electrical punishment. The tadpoles never developed a preference for one
side of the dish or the other, but seven of the tadpoles with transplanted eyes
learned to stay in the blue light, thereby verifying that they could see
through their grafted eyes. Those seven could see from the transplanted eyes because
their new eyes sprouted nerves after the transplants and those nerves extended
all the way to the animals' spinal cords. Six of the seven seeing tadpoles fell
into this group………
- While it may be wrong to admire or praise drug smugglers,
there is no situation in which the words “drug cannon” are not awesome. That
innovative approach by a group of smugglers looking to launch their product
across the U.S.-Mexico
border was discovered recently by Mexican authorities. Smugglers have tried
boats, tunnels and human drug mules, but cannons are a new concept. In theory,
the cannon would shoot bags of cocaine, heroin or marijuana across the border
where they can be retrieved by conspirators. Mexican police recently
confiscated one of these awesome drug cannons in the bed of a pickup truck in
Mexicali, not far from the shared international boundary with Calexico,
California. U.S. customs officials confirmed it is the first such cannon they
are aware of. "Well, I've been in (law enforcement) for over 20 years, and
it seems like within the last five to 10 years they have gotten really, really
creative in how they bring their drugs across," said Andy Adame, special
operations supervisor for the Joint Field Command Arizona of U.S. Customs and
Border Protection. "This is the first one that I've seen.” What makes drug
cannons so awesome? First, men have always loved lighting fuses and making
things go boom, so there’s guaranteed fun right there. Secondly, the true
greatness of the entrepreneurial spirit never ceases to amaze. Third, this represents
a huge upgrade over a drug catapult Mexican authorities seized last year.
Fourth, this explains how U.S. authorities found 33 cans of marijuana embedded
in Arizona farmland last December, as if they dropped out of the sky. The only
bad news here is that someone is now sans their best drug cannon after police
found the large tube in the back of an abandoned Dodge Ram pickup truck……….
No comments:
Post a Comment