- The Indiana Hoosiers do plenty of things well
athletically, but football is rarely one of them. The IU football team has played in only one bowl game since
1994, has gone just 5-19 over the past two seasons and won just two Big Ten
games last season. The odds of them being good this season and contending for a
league championship are somewhere south of zero and knowing that, the powers
that be at the university are hoping to distract the world from how much
they’re going to suck by getting colorful and futuristic with their gear. With
the magic of YouTube, the school unveiled six helmet designs the Hoosiers will
wear this season, including more traditional fare and a sparkly design that
looks like it was ripped straight out of a science fiction flick. Of course,
the real reason for the new helmets is to sell more merchandise and appeal to
recruits and according to head coach Kevin Wilson, the new bonnets have already
been successful. "It's sparked some interest in the recruiting,"
Wilson said, adding that each helmet will be used at least once during the
season. Changing uniforms has become common practice in college sports and IU
has shifted its look several times over the years, including the italic
pitchfork logo on a red helmet Sam Wyche introduced when he became coach in
1983. Bill Mallory tweaked that look the next year, changing the helmet color
to crimson and using a block "I" that remained the norm for the rest
of his coaching career. In 1997, new coach Cam Cameron swapped that design out
for a black helmet with a circular IU logo. He was fired in 2001 and he
Hoosiers reverted to their traditional crimson helmets with the non-italic
pitchfork design. This will be the first major redesign since then and even
though the Hoosiers won't have as many looks or options in their lockers as
Nike charity case Oregon, their crimson-and-chrome candy-striped helmet is
unlike anything else in college football. There is also a helmet rocking the
design from the state flag. "The chrome stuff is in vogue and the candy stripe
look is unique to Indiana and basketball and swimming in particular,"
Wilson said. "We don't want to be gimmicky, but the helmets are
cool." If only they were worn by a team that didn’t suck……..
- Immigrants are not as eager to get into Spain as they once
were – most of them, anyhow. A nose-diving economy and a government in crisis
can have that effect, but at least one foreigner still could not wait to crash
the southern border of the Iberian Peninsula nation. This unidentified
daredevil was arrested by Spanish police after he secretly clung onto a catamaran ferry in Morocco and traveled to Spain
by holding onto the rear of one of its engines. Authorities released photos of
this kook barefoot and shirtless, stowed away and partially hidden at the stern
of the ship. He held onto the ship as it zipped across the Strait of Gibraltar
and clung to the craft for dear life as its engines roared and the ocean flew
by a few feet below him. He was apparently planning on diving into the water as
the ferry approached Tarifa, swimming to safety and illegally entering Spain. Tarifa,
a port in southern Spain, is a common point of entry for illegals seeking to
sneak into the country. Spain’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that the
48-year-old suspected illegal immigrant from Algeria was arrested as the ship
was about to complete its journey from Tangier, Morocco, to Tarifa. His plan
may have been (infinitely) flawed and his execution of that plan may have been
subpar and then some, but no one can question his willingness to put his life
and well-being on the line in order to escape his old life and venture out in
search of a new one. Either that, or he was merely looking to get to Pamplona
in time for next month’s San Fermin festival to run with the bulls and this was
the best option he had to traverse the ocean blue……..
- Never underestimate the joy folks derive from watching the
rich ripped from their gated homes, violently assaulted and overrun by the
common man – even if it is completely fictional. That basic plot drives the new
scare flick “The Purge” and it propelled the project to the top of the box
office earnings list for the weekend with a $36.4 million debut. “The Purge”
bumped the champion of the previous two weekends, “Fast & Furious,” from its
perch and into second place with $19.7 million. Through three weeks, “Fast
& Furious” has amassed $202.9 million in domestic earnings. “Now You See
Me” saw its spot on the earning list drop one spot to third, adding $19.5
million to its coffers for a two-week tally of $61.4 million. Fourth place
belonged to newcomer “The Internship,” which banked on the tired formula of
Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson teaming up and acting like goofballs and didn’t
exactly hit a home run with an $18.1 million opening weekend. The not-so-epic
run of “Epic” continued in fifth place for a second straight weekend as the
animated film managed just $12.1 million and has banked $84.2 million in three
so-so weeks. Next on the list was “Star Trek Into Darkness,” claiming sixth
place with $11.7 million to push its four-week bank roll past the $200 million
barrier domestically at $200.1 million and counting. A predictably bad run for
Will Smith’s latest predictable and tired post-apocalyptic movie, “After
Earth,” continued with $11.2 million for the frame. It has brought in a scant
$46.5 million in two weeks, not a good number for a film that was made on a
$130 million budget. “The Hangover Part III” has been relatively disappointing
and tumbled to eighth place this weekend after a 55-percent earnings drop.
After three weeks at the local multiplex, it has raked in $102.3 million and
plenty of critical scorn. “Iron Man” claimed ninth place and earned $5.8
million in its sixth weekend to inch closer to $400 million in domestic
earnings at $394.3 million. The last spot in the top 10 went to “The Great
Gatsby,” which managed $4.2 million for a five-week total of $136.1 million.
“Mud” (No. 11) fell out from last weekend’s top 10……..
- The wonders never cease from the technology world. Running
Apple’s iOS
software has always meant using an Apple device, but game maker BlueStacks is
changing that dynamic. BlueStacks is the company behind GamePop and CEO Rosen
Sharma claims his outfit has developed a virtualization process known as
"LookingGlass" that is believed to be the first non-Apple device
capable of running iOS. Furthermore, Sharma says this will be accomplished
without using any of Apple's code. Even though iOS applications will be run on
the console through emulation software. Sharma admitted he doesn’t know how
Apple will react to the development because he hasn’t spoken to anyone with the
tech titan. GamePop will also run titles written for Google's Android platform,
providing options for users and possibly upsetting both Apple and Google at the
same time. Apple is more likely to be irritated because GamePop’s Android
support is based on Google's publicly available open source code. iOS is not
open source and for that reason, OS applications to date have remained
exclusive to Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. According to Sharma, his
company plans to work with iOS developers to allow them to make their games
available on the GamePop. BlueStacks is billing the arrangement as another way
for developers to monetize their creations. From the user side of the system,
GamePop players will pay a subscription of $6.99 per month when it launches
later this year, with hundreds of iOS and Android titles promised to be available
at launch time…….
- Not every guy is ready to be a father even after
learning that his lady is pregnant. Of course, these are most often the guys
who aren’t bright enough to think about that fact before sleeping with everything
that is both female and breathing and take preventative measures to prevent
procreation, but idiots can’t always be expected to think ahead and use their
brain cells. For the times they don’t, there has to be a backup plan in place. Carlton
"CJ" Bryan, 21, of Windsor, Ct., had a plan. After his
girlfriend, Shamari Jenkins, informed him that she was pregnant and refused to
have an abortion in order to prevent Bryan from being legally obligated to
support a child he didn’t want, Bryan took action. Specifically, he hired a
hitman to kill Jenkins. As inept as he is as a human being and a boyfriend,
Bryan proved effective at picking a hitman because Jenkins was shot in the back
of the shoulder when she pulled over her Honda sedan at Magnolia and Mather
streets in Hartford on April 29. She was four months pregnant at the time and
on Friday, prosecutors said they believe the killing was over Jenkins’ decision
not to have an abortion. She was shot in the torso and rushed to St. Francis
Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Ironically, Bryan was a passenger in
the car at the time of the shooting and was not hurt. Detectives investigated
and it didn’t take long for them to zero in on Bryan as a suspect. He was
eventually arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, carrying a
pistol without a permit, and making a false statement in the second-degree. To
keep up the charade of his innocence, Bryan showed up at a candlelight vigil
for Jenkins after the murder and also attended her funeral. The case took
another step forward late last week when, police charged Matthew Allen
Hall-Davis in connection to Jenkins’ murder. Hall-Davis is suspected of using Bryan's
gun to kill Jenkins. Finding him wasn’t difficult because Hall-Davis was
already in jail for a robbery that occurred in Manchester on May 23. It doesn’t
sound as if the prosecution is going to have a difficult time proving its case
at trial……..
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