- This needs to stop right about now. Take “this” to mean
the trend of weekend hackers with too much time on their hands and a strange
obsession with knowing all of the obscure and byzantine rules of the game of
golf picking up their iPhone and frantically calling in to report alleged rules
violations in PGA Tour events they are watching on television. The trend has
grown quickly in recent years and had its most visible example during last
month’s Masters, when two viewers called in to accuse Tiger Woods of taking an
illegal drop during his second round. Woods was ultimately assessed a
two-stroke penalty, but avoided disqualification after signing his scorecard for
the wrong score due to what the rules committee deemed to be its error. Now,
the world’s 14th-ranked golfer has suffered the wrath of the 25-handicap
masses. Sergio Garcia nearly faced a two-stroke penalty of his own and discussed
a possible rules violation with PGA Tour officials at Quail Hollow Golf Club
after a television viewer called in because it appeared he had marked his ball
improperly on the 17th green of Friday’s second round. Garcia was eventually cleared
of the infraction, but actually told rules officials he would rather take the
penalty if there was any hint of wrongdoing. "I said to them, 'The way I've been brought up in this game by my
father is the game is bigger than anybody else,' " Garcia said. “If this
is going to make anyone think I'm a cheater, I'd rather get a two-stroke
penalty and move on than not to get a two-stroke penalty and think I'm
cheating.” No penalty was assessed and Garcia shot a 68 for the round, ending
it tied for 13th, five strokes behind leader Phil Mickelson. Mark Russell, the
tour's vice president of competition, reviewed the incident with Garcia and even
called the United States Golf Association to get clarification. Coincidentally,
Russell was one of the officials at the Masters three weeks ago when
Woods went under the microscope of dopes watching from thousands of miles away
and trying to show how cool and powerful they were by narcing him out for
violation.........
- Less tersely-worded statements, more angry action, labor unionists,
aboriginal activists and environmentalists of Ecuador. Calling for the
Ecuadorean government to suspend its auction of oil concessions in the
country's Amazon rainforest in a press release is not going to do much. An
activist group called Amazon Watch is the group behind this attempted war of
words versus profits and the group has delivered a declaration of opposition
from five of Ecuador's indigenous nationalities whose rainforest communities
would be affected by the concessions. So far, the protest has delivered little
beyond a statement issued as Ecuadorean government officials met with Canadian
investors and oil-company executives Wednesday at the Telus Convention Center
in Calgary. Ecuador’s government called the 11th oil-licensing round last
November and invited interested companies to bid up through the current month
of May. This block of licensing calls for 13 blocks in Pastaza and Morona
Santiago provinces, located in the southeastern Amazon region. There will also
be three additional blocks in the area developed by state-run oil company
Petroamazonas. “We have here a declaration of opposition coming from the indigenous
communities whose lives and livelihoods will be devastated by these blocks...it
is extremely important for the children and grandchildren of these people that
this project does not go forward," said Michelle Thrush, an award-winning
actress and aboriginal activist who protested the meeting. The argument being
pushed by the indigenous groups is that the Ecuadorean government hasn't
obtained free, prior and informed consent to strike the new agreement. That
type of consent is an internationally recognized human rights benchmark intended
to protect the rights of indigenous communities whose lands are affected by
extractive mega-projects such as oil drilling. If a commercial discovery of oil
is made, the contracts for this licensing round will be for a four-year exploration
period and a 20-year development period. Sounds like it’s time to add a few Molotov
cocktails and torched police cars to this protest effort……..
- Who doesn’t love a good nuclear power plant prank? Sadly,
officials at the
Perry (Ohio) Nuclear Power Plant don’t and it’s their loss. There aren't may
good pranks a person can pull when nuclear power is involved, what with the
whole potential for blowing up an entire city and killing thousands of people
thing to consider. For that very reason, whoever was responsible for leaving a
pitcher containing radioactive water and two goldfish inside the plant deserves
some credit – even if it’s unclear what the actual purpose of the prank was. According
to FirstEnergy spokesperson Todd Schneider, the prank was carried out in a
restricted area that holds large pipes carrying steam from the reactor, giving
the effort an added degree of difficulty. Two plant workers discovered the fish
while they were taking down scaffolding and they immediately reported their
find to security. The water inside the pitcher was determined to be a)
radioactive and b) taken from the plant. However, it was not harmful to the
fish. The fish did later die, but plant officials insisted it was not because
of the radioactive water but rather due to the poor treatment they had received
during the course of the prank. To find out who done it, plant security is
reviewing surveillance footage and scouring schedules and employee lists to
determine who had access to the area and would have been working during the
time when they fish are believed to have been left. The search could take a
while because nearly 1,000 outside contractors also had access to the plant
because of a refueling outage that was taking place. Here’s hoping that the culprit
is never found because that would lend an air of mystery to the entire ordeal,
one that simply wouldn’t exist if some pasty, scrawny assistant for an air
conditioning repairman was at the heart of this unusual stunt……..
- Earth stinks. More specifically, it stunk. A lot. Many,
many years ago, that is. According to Martin
Brasier, a paleobiologist at Oxford University in London, the planet was a
smelly place back in the day. He and his team used advanced imaging techniques to examine fossils (allegedly) 1.9 billion
years old that were collected from rocks around Lake Superior, Canada. They
discovered that spherical and rod-shaped bacteria chowing down on the
cylindrical outer shells of another, larger bacterium known as Gunflintia, led to the use of oxygen
atoms taken from salts, or "sulfates," in seawater, which would have
resulted in those sulfates being released into the atmosphere. One of the
byproducts of this process is hydrogen sulfide, which produces a stench
commonly known as "the rotten egg smell.” "The whole world didn't
smell of rotten eggs," Brasier said. "But if you had a sensitive
nose, it would have been very widespread indeed." The images from this
study are the first evidence of this type of feeding, called heterotrophy. "For
the first time in the early fossil record, we see one kind of creature eating
another creature," Brasier added.
Gunflintia is important because it is believed to have been a type of
cyanobacteria or blue-green algae, a class of photosynthetic microbes that played
a crucial role in the production of oxygen for Earth's atmosphere, paving the
way for future life forms. "This is the group that was producing the
oxygen we now breathe," Brasier added. Gunflint bacteria were first
discovered in 1953 and yet, scientists are still discovering new aspects of
their existence….
- Shaking the stink of "Gossip Girl" six seasons have
moved on and all are facing a long road to shake the characters they played on
the show. Actor Penn Badgley, whose character Dan Humphrey was actually the
titular female blogger for “Gossip Girl,” is one of those trying to prove he
can be more than the brooding, dramatic character he played alongside Blake
Lively and Taylor Momsen on the small screen. Badgley will look to prove he has
more to offer by taking on the task of starring in a movie about cult favorite
indie rocker Jeff Buckley. Badgley will star in "Greetings From Tim Buckley," in which he plays the
troubled musician, who drowned in Tennessee's Wolf River at the age of 30. The
entire film takes place over about a week-long period as Buckley’s young son prepares
to perform at a tribute concert for his father. Playing the character will be a
strong challenge for Badgley, who will have to show some singing ability to
pull it off successfully. "Jeff was a certain kind of influence on me when
I was a teenager," Badgley said. "I grew up being really passionate
about music to the point that I would call it my first passion over acting, so
you know, it was somebody who I respected and admired." In explaining why
he was drawn to the project beyond his admiration of Buckley, Badgley explained
that he felt the script stayed true to the life of the man it was purportedly
profiling. "It was a story being told in an incredibly delicate and artful
way, respectful way, not exploiting his tragic end or anything of that kind of
typical mythic rock-star stuff," he said. Buckley, best known for the
still-popular and oft-covered track “Hallelujah,” had a unique vocal style and
seeing Badgley attempt to replicate it should be interesting. "Greetings
From Tim Buckley" is currently playing in New York and Los Angeles and is
also available through online media marketplaces………
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