- A$AP Rocky says he is looking to pioneer new territory with his next
album – by not saying a word. The rapperr revealed in a radio interview that he
is working on his next album and described it as an “instrumental” project. He
suggested that he would not contribute any vocals on the project, but said he
had been working on making his own beats for the record and was planning on
releasing it without any fanfare. "I'm working on an instrumental album
right now," he said. "I'm doing all my own beats. It's going to be
interesting to see how people react towards my production. I'm going to put it
out, I'm not even going to announce it. Just drop it." Saying those things
and actually following through on them are two very different things and his
label will undoubtedly have something to say in the matter, but for now A$AP
Rocky is electing to keep his plans vague. When asked about the release date
for the project, he cryptically replied: "Sometime soon." If the new
album is indeed fully instrumental, that means it won't have anything to say
about a certain controversial hip-hop topic that he weighed in on last month.
Speaking on the topic of gay rappers and Snoop Dogg/Lion’s comments that a gay
rapper likely would not be accepted within the genre, A$AP Rocky said it is
"crazy" that criticism of gay rappers is seen as an issue. He has
gone on the record saying that homophobia in hip-hop needs to end. "For
instance, one big issue in hip-hop is the gay thing. It’s 2013, and it's a
shame that, to this day, that topic still gets people all excited. It's crazy,”
he said. “It makes me upset that this topic even matters when it comes to
hip-hop, because it makes it seem like everybody in hip-hop is small-minded or
stupid — and that's not the case." A$AP Rocky released his latest album, “Long.Live.A$AP,”
on Jan. 14 and that release did have lyrics and vocals……….
- The world didn’t end in November, but science insists that
the Mayans weren't wrong about everything. Pennsylvania State University
archaeologist Douglas Kennett and his team of researchers have been working to
gain a better grasp on all the angles of the Mayan calendar. They used modern
methods to double-check the match between the Mayan Long Count calendar and the
modern European calendar to probe the theory that climate change spelled the
Mayans’ doom. Matching carved Maya historical records with dates in the modern
calendar is a complicated task, as the Long Count calendar is essentially
a cyclical count of days, known as k'in. The k'in are counted in 20-day cycles
called winal or uinal, which in turn are catalogd in 360-day cycles called tuns,
with 20 tuns comprising a 7,200-day k'atun (about 20 years). Twenty k'atuns
then make a b'ak'tun, which is 144,000 days long, representing a little less
than 400 years. The ending of one of these b'ak'tuns was used to predict the
end of the world on Nov. 21, 2012. However, this particular base-20 Long Count
calendar fell into disuse in the Maya empire before Spanish explorers arrived
in South and Central America in the 1500s and there is a dearth of historical
records that can be used to link the Long Count with European methods of
tracking time. A researcher named Joseph Goodman proposed a conversion formula
in 1905, eventually renamed the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson (GMT) correlation. University
of Pennsylvania researchers used radiocarbon dating on two wooden lintels from
Tikal, Guatemala, a major Maya city, in 1960 and their findings seemed to
confirm the GMT correlation. Kennett and his team doubled back on the
topic using modern technology and were surprised at what they found. "When
looking at how climate affects the rise and fall of the Maya, I began to
question how accurately the two calendars correlated using those methods,"
Kennett said. His team’s analysis pegged the lintel's carving at around A.D.
658-696, an overlap that backs up the original GMT correlation estimates. "These
events and those recorded at cities throughout the Maya lowlands can now be
harmonized with greater assurance to other environmental, climatic and
archaeological datasets," the researchers wrote……..
- Tour guides can be über-annoying. They talk for a
living, tell corny jokes and are always looking for tips. Everglades Adventure Tours guide Tommy Owen
is exempt from that line of thought in light of his act last week. Owen was
taking a group on a boat tour of the famous South Florida swamplands when their
boat encountered a 10-foot python. The tourists had a front row seat as their
guide jumped out of the boat and started wrestling one of nature’s most
dangerous species. "I grew up here, so this is pretty standard for the
most part," Owen said. The family he was guiding at the time caught the
entire incident on video as Owen wrestled and subdued the massive python. "I
didn't even realize it was 10 feet - definitely thought it was over 6 feet -
definitely bigger than me. I didn't realize it was three times the size of my
arm," Owen continued. Asked why he would get out of the safety of the boat
and go on the offensive against a snake that could kill him, Owen was
nonplussed. "They don't belong here and that was literally running through
my head," he said. "I just launched on it essentially, ambushed it
like any other predator out here and just got it - had the best grip on it and
never let go the entire tussle." He won the battle using a few ferocious minutes
of what he calls "snake jujitsu" and got the snake to a point where
his fellow tour guide could kill it. The
other guide, took the shot when Owen exposed the animal’s neck, slicing the
beast with his knife for the kill shot. Of course, a few weeks back, media
members, politicians and general kooks hit the Everglades to hunt pythons and
attempt to rid South Florida of them. Maybe the powers that be should have
simply sent Tommy Owen and his machete out to take care of the problem…….
- Is there such a thing as a badass French gangster? That
question may have found its answer in the form of Redoine Faid, who has etched his name on the
list of the most wanted criminals in the world after a daring prison break from
a detention center in the northern city of Lille on Saturday. Faid, who
patterned his own criminal career after his favorite big-screen criminals –
going so far as to wear a hockey mask like Robert DeNiro's character in
"Heat" – and pulled off daring attacks on armored trucks, is free
after holding five people, including four guards, at gunpoint and escaping.
According to prison officials, he detonated his way to freedom by setting off explosives
to destroy five doors. To the cynic, it might appear that all of this means
Faid was lying when he said that more than a decade in prison had led him to
leave his evil ways behind. Of course, if that were true then he wouldn’t have
ended up back in prison in 2011, one year after his autobiography containing
that audacious claim was published. Going back to prison didn’t seem to be on
his life plan and hence, his escape making him the subject of an international
manhunt. No one is sure where he is, but French Justice Minister Christiane
Taubira said Saturday that a European arrest warrant covering 26 countries has
been issued and Interpol is also working to track Faid down. Faid's lawyer,
Jean-Louis Pelletier, was to meet his client in preparation of an upcoming
trial tied to a May 2010 attack in Villiers-sur-Marne, east of Paris, in which
a policewoman was killed. "He is remarkably intelligent, and he is using
his intellect to serve his ambitions," Pelletier said after the escape.
"(And Faid) cannot stand being imprisoned anymore." If his past is
any indication, Faid could literally be anywhere. In 1998, he was captured
after three years on the run that included time spent living in Switzerland.
After that arrest, he spent more than 10 years in high-security prisons around
France before being released, writing his book and becoming something of a
celebrity. While the manhunt continues, questions linger in the wake of Faid’s
escape, namely how an inmate got his hands on guns and explosives and how he
was able to use those devices to force his way out of the prison, delivering a
healthy dose of street cred to French gangsters in the process………
- All-American
defensive end Jadeveon Clowney doesn’t seem like he’s considering sitting out
his junior season or concerned about his health in a sense of protecting his
status as the presumed No. 1 pick in the 2014 NFL draft. Clowney, whose
football future has been the subject of much debate because he won't be
eligible for the draft until next year but would be the top pick this year if
he could leave school now, may be sitting out spring practice as he recovers
from a concussion, but he still showed up on the field at South Carolina’s
spring game on Saturday – sort of. Ever irascible Gamecocks coach Steve
Spurrier had Clowney run his patented annual
pass-to-someone-coming-off-the-sideline play late in the spring game. Clowney,
wearing sneakers, shorts and no pads, found his way onto the field and caught a
pass from freshman Connor Mitch. He slipped to the ground before he could reach
the end zone, which should have ended the play, but the referee
"missed" him hitting the ground and Clowney raced into the end zone
for the touchdown. He fired the ball into the stands after the 54-yard
touchdown, the perfect punctuation mark for Spurrier’s laid-back approach to
the spring game wherever he has coached. With no real rosters, players can line
up for both sides and the Ol’ Ball Coach boosts scoring by having bonus kicks
with just a snapper and holder after each quarter and not allowing defenses to
blitz. "Spring practice is important for the younger guys. I guess one
reason I don't get all fired up for spring practice is I only went through one
of them in my three years of them at Florida. I got hurt the other two --
nothing serious," Spurrier said, referring to his playing career with the
Gators in the mid-1960s. Whether the Gamecocks improve on back-to-back 11-win
seasons and contend for a Southeastern Conference title and national
championship in 2013 depends largely on Clowney being the most dominant
defensive force in college football again next season. His crushing hit on
Michigan's Vincent Smith in the Outback Bowl should serve as a nice reminder of
his abilities for South Carolina fans until next season rolls around………
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