- Even a Super Bowl win wasn’t enough to win over some of
Joe Flacco’s critics. After leading the Baltimore Ravens to a title, winning
Super Bowl MVP and landing what was at the time the richest per-season salary
for a quarterback in NFL history, Flacco is still not a favorite of the family
of one NFL legend. The family of NFL hall of famer Johnny Unitas is a house divided after Flacco was cast in the role of
the legendary signal caller in an upcoming movie. The movie, "Unitas We
Stand," is being co-produced by Joe Unitas, the late quarterback's son
from his second marriage, but his choice of Flacco is not sitting well with
Unitas’ oldest son from his first marriage, John Unitas Jr., and his grandson,
J.C. Unitas. John Unitas Jr., slightly unimpressed by Flacco’s impressive 2012
season and the six-year, $120.6 million contract he signed earlier this
offseason, called Flacco a "goofball" and said he is considering
taking legal action if Joe Unitas makes any profits from his father's name.
This isn't the first time the different branches of the family have battled
over who has the right to gravy-train on the Unitas name and Unitas' second
wife, Sandra, unsuccessfully sued John Unitas Jr. in the past for control of
Unitas Management Corp., which controls the rights to Johnny Unitas' name. "If
you want a quarterback, go with Peyton Manning," John Unitas Jr. fumed. "My father was just like
that. This is a joke." Wow…tell us how you really feel, John. His son,
J.C., went a step further in a post on his Facebook page, writing that it is an
"embarrassing choice.” J.C. Unitas went on to slam Flacco by reminding
everyone that “Trent Dilfer also won a Super Bowl while playing for Baltimore.”
In response to all of the heat, Joe Unitas responded with a letter, writing
that he'd "like to apologize to Joe [Flacco], his family, agent, and the
Ravens organization for any embarrassment these comments may have caused. Joe
is a respectable man, a great player, and very similar to my Dad in many ways.
The Ravens organization is top notch and I respect them very much. Both deserve
better." Barring a casting change, Flacco will portray Johnny Unitas in
scenes of the 1958 NFL championship game, in which Unitas led the Colts to
victory over the New York Giants in a contest that has been called the greatest
NFL game ever played………
- Hewlett-Packard is aiming for the moon…or at
least a Moonshot. The tech company has launched its Moonshot program,
which it says is designed to create "software-designed servers" customized
to the workloads they're running. HP has started shipping its
ultra-low-power Project Moonshot servers, which are the first two be powered by
Intel's Atom S1200 Centerton chip. As Moonshot progresses, HP plans to add more
systems running on other processors from the likes of ARM partners Calxeda,
Texas Instruments and Advanced Micro Devices. During a press event to promote
the launch, HP executives, including President and CEO Meg Whitman, talked up
the servers as a significant step forward for the entire server industry in the
move from mainframes to Unix systems and the introduction of x86 servers.
Moonshot servers are predicated upon the idea of designing for particular
workloads, ranging from cloud computing to big data to mobile. The draw is that
the server can be built to suit the specific customer and Dave Donatelli,
executive vice president and general manager of HP's Enterprise Group, called
the new systems the industry's first "software-defined servers.” HP
introduced Moonshot in November 2011 with a promise to work with Calxeda to
develop very-low-power servers powered by ARM-designed chips that would run
Internet workloads in more modern, dense data centers. The plan shifted
slightly last year when executives announced that the first of these systems
would be powered by Intel's Centerton. In the beta portion of the program, more
than 50 companies took part and each worked on a slightly different concept. Whitman
spoke of trends as big data, cloud computing and greater mobility while
promoting Moonshot, as well as a need for more compact servers. "Right
now, we're on a path that is not sustainable in space, power or cost
perspectives," Whitman said. The Moonshot systems also have an
eco-friendly appeal in that they use 89 percent less power and 80 percent less
space than traditional systems while reducing overall costs by 77 percent,
according HP………
- Let’s be careful in calling anything “the perfect
robbery,” Italian police, because now you’re just begging for other would-be
world-class thieves to formulate an even better plot and try their hand at
pulling off the heist of the century. Heck, it inspired Edward Norton to
double-cross Mark Wahlberg, Donald Sutherland and Mos Def and steal all of
their stolen Italian gold on the 2003 remake of “The Italian Job.” The supposed
“perfect” robbery occurred in northern Italy on Monday when bandits made off
with millions of Euros in an ambush on two armored security vans. Their
meticulous plan involved about a dozen armed men firing off smoke bombs and
more than 50 shots to frighten security crews on the trucks. Either the
attackers were great shots and made sure no one was hurt or they were lousy
shots who didn’t manage to hit anyone, because no one was injured in the hail
of bullets on the A9 highway between Milan and Como. Police said the attack was
"planned with the precision
of a paramilitary operation" and featured attackers dressed in police
clothing who blocked off traffic on the highway by setting fire to a truck
about 7 a.m. When the armored vans arrived in the targeted area, the attacked parked
another truck behind them, blocking them in. Toting Kalashnikov rifles,
the assailants bolstered their attack by setting off a smoke bomb beneath one
of the trucks to fool the guards into abandoning their posts by making it
appear their truck was on fire. Once the truck was abandoned, the thieves started
unloading their loot, including an unspecified haul of gold bullion. So
sophisticated and informed was the plan that the attackers ignored the second
security truck, knowing it was an empty decoy, police said. With their
theft complete, the attackers fled the scene in three cars as police were
slowed by nails the crew had scattered at three different locations. The
resulting traffic jam snarled traffic on the busy motorway, which runs to the
Swiss border, for several hours. The security company, Gruppo Battistolli di
Vicenza, claimed it didn’t know how much had been stolen but estimated that the
tally was likely to be “a few million” Euros………
- Dueling Hercules movies? Only in Hollywood could two
movies about the same character be in production at the same time and have
neither side too worried about it. On one side of this mythological battle is “Hercules 3D,” starring “Twilight” actor Kellan Lutz. Lutz has
been cast in the titular role and after playing hunky vampire Emmett Cullen in
“Twilight,” he clearly hasn’t proven much about his acting skills. His version
of the Hercules story will be helmed by Renny
Harlin, director of “Die Hard 2” and “Cliffhanger.” With a
budget of $70 million, the project shouldn’t have a cheap feel to it, but that
doesn’t mean it’s going to be good – or even watchable. "It takes more
than a good physique to portray the most legendary, mythological personality in
history - and Kellan has exactly that, personality. He's not afraid to explore
the strengths and vulnerabilities of the character, and he impressed me with
his passion and heart,” Harlin said in announcing the casting of his lead. Plot
details are scarce at this point, but “Hercules 3D” will reportedly focus on a love story
between the Greek hero and a beautiful princess from Crete. The film is set to
begin shooting in Bulgaria in May – right around the same time as a rival
Hercules movie starring the current must-have action movie accessory of the
moment, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Johnson’s version of the Hercules story is based
on the acclaimed graphic novel called Hercules: The Thracian Wars and it
is being directed by Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour,” “X-Men: The Last
Stand”) and aims to offer a more realistic view of the Greek hero. Anyone
who has ever seen one of Ratner’s movies typically doesn’t push reality to the
forefront, but perhaps this time will be different – amidst a steady stream of
over-the-top battle scenes, blood and gore. Ian McShane and John Hurt are also
part of the cast and “Hercules: The Thracian Wars” will begin filming in
Hungary this May - the same month as “Hercules 3D” starts shooting………
- So…about that whole Milwaukee, Wisc., was the antithesis
of a gun-free, bullet-deprived place over the weekend and in fact, the
abandoned shopping facility became a post-apocalyptic setting that resembled a scene
straight out of a video game or overpriced Hollywood blockbuster. For one day
and one day only, the shuttered mall was transformed into a simulated war zone
filled with wannabe soldiers who got to pretend that conquering the city of
Cinnabon and overthrowing the Sbarro regime before having a shootout at the Baby
Gap made them a real soldier. “It’s intense. It’s chaos at times. You’re going
through fear, you’re going through excitement, you’re going through every
emotion probably possible,” participant Andre Tillman said. Hundreds of men and
women from across the Midwest flocked to Milwaukee for the event and
although the guns were real, they were filled with air-soft bullets so as to
prevent anyone from trying to go Rambo and putting someone’s eye out with a
kill shot from behind the cell phone kiosk in the center of the mall.
“Soldiers” were divided up into two teams and the Renegades took on the
Federation Army. The faux soldiers called their battleground the “Northride
Biodome” and the battle was an Airsoft Military Simulation that was clearly
more than a hobby for the nearly 300 participants. Tillman is a veteran of the
U.S. Army and Navy and believes the fake battle has plenty of real meaning. “They
pay tribute to what people like myself and others have done,” Tillman said. “We
just get focused on the missions that we have to accomplish. We count on each
other. We have our battle buddies just like in the service.” Real-life Army
Rangers led the participants through the fights and the event helped to raise
money for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command and the Special Operations Warrior
Foundation………
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