- There is the distinct possibility that Major League Baseball commissioner Bud
Selig is just a bitter, crotchety old man who is crabby about everything and
wants nothing more in life than for THOSE DAMN KIDS TO GET OFF HIS LAWN OR ELSE
HE’S GOING TO GET IN HIS CAR AND RUN THEIR LOGN-HAIRED, TATTOOED BUTS DOWN! At 78
years old, Selig is in just as much danger from the Grim Reaper as he is from
forced retirement and he sounds the part. Speaking during a question-and-answer
session at the All-Star Game, this delusional old kook had the temerity to
insist that "this sport is
cleaner than it's ever been." He refused to disclose any details about the
timing for decisions on the sport's investigation of the closed anti-aging
clinic Biogenesis for allegedly distributing performance-enhancing drugs to
players, even with rumors swirling that MLB could attempt to discipline former
MVPs Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun and a collection of other players. As the
days have passed and speculation has turned to the possibility that baseball
might try to tag the accused players with multiple offenses against its drug
policy, thereby giving it license to suspend them for an entire season or
longer, Selig appears to have grown steadily crankier. When it was suggested
that baseball's drug-testing program came far too late because it came after
decades of rampant cheating and use of performance-enhancing drugs by players
while the sport’s powers that be did nothing, Selig responded angrily.
"People say, 'Well, you were slow to react.' We were not slow to
react," he said. "In fact, I heard that this morning, and it
aggravated me all over again." One has to wonder how baseball fans should
feel about the fact that players, owners and the commissioners did nothing
while a dirty sport lurched forward with a steroid-soaked record book…….
- Does the "Buddhist bin Laden" and the "face of Buddhist
terror" really exist? He does, although it is debatable how true those
characterizations are. U Wirathu is a Buddhist monk who has been accused of inciting violence
against Myanmar's Muslim minority with angry sermons claiming that the
growth of Islam is putting Buddhism and Burmese culture at risk. So far, nearly
200 people have been killed by violence since religious riots erupted in June
2012, while tens of thousands of other could have been killed had they not
first fled after homes they owned were burned by angry mobs. Wirathu did once
compare himself to the deceased al Qaeda leader as "a joke," but he’s
not joking what he alleges that Islamic beliefs can encourage people to have
"bad characters." He also does not dispute that he espouses a form of
radical Buddhism that doesn’t sync up with the image of peace and acceptance
most people think of when they picture Buddhism. Wirathu maintains that he does
not advocate violence against Muslims, who make up just 5 percent of the
country's 60 million people. "I believe Islam is a threat not just for
Buddhism, but for the people and the country and the religion," he said.
Various publications have dubbed him as the face of the Buddhist terror
movement, but he dismisses the idea that he is the "Buddhist bin
Laden." His words carry weight in Burmese culture because in his country,
monks are generally seen as beyond question because of their holy status. Tensions
in the country remain high, especially in the western state of Rakhine, which
borders predominantly Muslim Bangladesh. Buddhist mobs also burned Muslim homes
in the northern city of Lashio in May. Human rights groups have denounced the
violence and seem genuinely distressed by the fact that tens of thousands of
Muslims have been effectively trapped in displacement camps after clashes saw
an estimated 200 people killed and villages destroyed last year.
Wirathu is the leader of a pro-Buddhist movement, known as 969, that has pushed
businesses to certify that they are pro-Buddhist and pressured consumers to
choose these businesses over Muslim-run ones. The 969 logos have become
increasingly common at rallies and on pamphlets issued by religious and nationalist
organizations describing Muslims as a threat. In spite of this, anyone accusing
Wirathu of spurring people to violence should know that he "does not
believe that violence will solve the problems." Take that, haters………
- Some bands have embraced Internet-based music streaming
services, but Thom Yorke’s Atoms For Peace are no longer among them. AFP member
and frequent Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich is none too happy with Spotify and
has yanked all of the band’s music down from the service based on claims that
the streaming service is "bad for new music." Godrich expounded on
his reasons for the move on his Twitter feed. "I'm not b*tching about not
getting paid. It's about standing up for other artists rights,” he said. "The
reason is that new artists get paid f*ck all with this model. It's an equation
that just doesn't work." To prove he wasn’t angry to the core, Godrich did
thank fans for engaging in a discussion on the topic and estimated that the fan
response on the topic was “about 70% positive and supportive 10% negative and
20% confused." He accused Spotify of having “secret deals” with major
labels and cutting smaller producers and labels out of any significant payouts
from the service. His conspiracy theory posits that the money is divided up by
percentage of total streams and because big labels have massive back catalogues,
even a 40-year-old album by a deceased artist earns the same amount as a
brand-new track
by a new artist. Labels, Godrich reasoned, cut such deals in return for cushy
royalty rates. With large portions of their catalogues being streamed, they
receive a big payout and smaller producers and labels get much less for their
comparatively few streams. Still, Godich wants to make it clear that
he’s not upset about not getting paid. He may be telling the truth because he’s
made a sh*t load of money working with Radiohead and other big-time artists.
Then again, a big-timer claiming to be standing up for other artists’ rights is a bit
rich. In its defense, Spotify has argued that its long-term goal is to make
sure artists are properly remunerated for putting their music on the service………
- Doctors must be brutally honest in difficult situations
and deliver harsh news to people who may or may not be prepared to hear it. Dr.
Timothy Sweo, who plies his trade in Tennessee, understands this lesson and he
proved it in April when he had a very frank discussion with 55-year-old Terry
Ragland. Ragland went to Sweo to find out what was causing her back pain and
received a surprising answer. She had, the good doctor informed her, a bad case
of GB: ghetto booty. “He said ‘I know what the problem is. It’s ghetto booty,’”
Ragland recalled. “I think I blacked out after he said ghetto booty. I think my
mind was just stuck on the phrase because I couldn’t believe he said that.” Not
only did Sweo say it; he stood behind his diagnosis. Doctors at his office had
seen Ragland several times previously and she recalled those as positive
visits, but the April visit was her first time seeing Sweo. “It’s one of those
things where my hip seems to slip, like it’s slipping out of place a little
bit. It’s painful when you get up to go walk it kind of slips, you know,”
Ragland added. Her pain has increased with the perceived slight from Sweo, so
much so that Ragland has filed a complaint with the Tennessee Department of
Health. “He said there’s no cure for it but I could give you something if
you’re having pain,” she recalled. In her telling of the tale, she told an
office manager about what happened and received an apology on the spot.
Sweo allegedly sent an apology letter a few weeks later in which he wrote, “I was trying to
take a technical conversation regarding your lower back and make it less
technical.” He added that he was trying to explain to Ragland that she had
“lumbar lordosis,” the medical term for a curve in her spine. However, she is
of the opinion that he was insulting her intelligence by not using the proper
medical term along with straight-up insulting her by using such ghetto-rific
language…….
- Apple is working on technology for an updated TV set top
box or TV platform equipped with a service that would let TV viewers to skip
commercials – or isn’t it? As with all things Apple, the tech giant is being
über-secretive about the entire situation. Despite the cloak and dagger routine that Apple goes through
every time such a rumor circulates, the commercial-skipping feature sounds
logical. It would reportedly be included as part of a "premium"
service Apple TV owners would buy into. The subscription fee would have to be
pretty freaking high if this story is true, because Apple would allegedly pay networks
when skipping occurred. The rumors have yet to be substantiated and in its
present form, Apple's TV set top box remains limited to prerecorded content
instead of live TV channels. To date, it has attempted some modest efforts to
offer its own presentations, like keynotes and concerts, live. One of the other
juicy rumors is that Apple wants to expand its television empire from selling
content a la carte to a subscription that would rival what people purchase from
their cable providers. That sounds like more of an Apple move than anything
mentioned above even though it is no longer the house that Steve Jobs built and
has slipped a bit in recent months with tepid reception to some of its new
hardware offerings. Believe it or not, when asked about the possibility that it
would branch out and diversify its TV menu, Apple simply refused to comment on
the story and attempted to dismiss it as nothing more than rumor and speculation……..
No comments:
Post a Comment