- All Internet video is not created equally. Most of what
a person can find online is mindless, superficial and a ginormous drain on both
time and intellect. That cannot be said of some dramatic footage that made its
way online this week, with Thai government official Paiboon Pansanit in a
starring role. In the video, Pansanit is seen getting into his car and sitting
down before a gunman walks up to the vehicle and fires several shots. In total,
the gunman fired off at least seven rounds at point-blank range at the driver's
window. Unfortunately for this would-be assassin, he didn’t do his research
before attempting to off a public official because none of his shots did any
damage to Pansanit because the glass comprising the car’s windows was bulletproof.
The only successful part of the operation was the getaway, as the gunman and an
accomplice were able to get away on foot. The two fled the scene and police are
now seeking the suspects, although they have precious little information to
work with. Pansanit himself admitted that he did not know who was responsible
for the attack and had no idea who might want to kill him. "How would I know?
It would be good to know,” he said. One clue to the assassination attempt could
be the destination Pansanit was visiting at the time of the attack. He had been
visiting one of Thailand's most notorious mafia figures – Somchai Khunpluem,
known as Kamnan Poh – at a hospital in Chonburi province, so the attacker could
have taken issue with his connection to an exceptionally sketchy character. Regardless
of motive, Pansanit can be thankful that Thai assassins are slacking off on
their research and planning efforts and/or not bothering to bring the proper,
bulletproof glass-piercing ammunition when they roll up on a public official and
attempting to send them shuffling off this moral coil……..
- San Francisco Giants pitcher Chad Gaudin pitcher five
solid innings Friday night to help his team earn a win over the San Diego
Padres. It was possibly the only solid development for Gaudin last week, given
the fact that news broke that he was arrested Jan. 27 and charged earlier this
month with open and gross lewdness. According to Las Vegas police, Gaudin was charged
with lewdness after a woman told police he touched her breast at a Las Vegas
hospital while she was on a gurney earlier this year. According to police
reports, Gaudin (shockingly) appeared drunk when he approached a 23-year-old
woman on a gurney in the emergency room lobby at Desert Springs Hospital. He
slurringly informed the injured woman that she was gorgeous and touched her
face and breast. A paramedic witnessed the incident and told police he
instructed Gaudin to leave the woman alone. As drunk people are wont to do,
Gaudin refused and had to be restrained by hospital security until police
arrived, the report said. "I asked Gaudin several times how he ended up at
the hospital and each time he told me that he didn't know," the officer
wrote in the report. "Gaudin
appeared to be intoxicated. He had slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, trouble
standing still, obeying commands, an odor of alcoholic beverages and couldn't repeat his house number,
where he lives, the same way twice in a row." The good news is that Gaudin's
lawyer, Dominic Gentile, explained in a statement that his client were merely
ill at the time of the alleged incident and denies any wrongdoing. "Chad
Gaudin was examined in the emergency room of a local hospital while
experiencing symptoms believed to be related to acute renal failure due to a
condition known as rhabdomyolysis. The symptoms included confusion, dehydration
and loss of orientation and/or consciousness," Gentile wrote. Gentile
added that there are differing accounts of what took place that night and
conveniently ignored the fact that common causes for rhabdomyolysis include
alcohol or drug use. For a journeyman pitcher who has played for San Francisco,
Miami, Washington, Oakland, Toronto, Tampa Bay, San Diego, the New York Yankees
and Chicago Cubs and is married with a son, drunk and groping women in
emergency rooms is a decidedly bad look……..
- The end is near for BlackBerry, even if the company is
loathe to admit it. A new consumer report has confirmed the inevitable, namely
that the company’s share of the smartphone market in the United States has all but
disappeared. According to the report, for the three-month period ending
in May 2012, the once-dominant phone maker had a market share of 4.6 percent.
Technically that means BlackBerry still has a small sliver of the market, but compared
to the 50-percent stake it had just a few short years ago, it is a miniscule
amount. Oh, and for the three months ending 2013, that market share had fallen
all the way to 0.7 percent, which is much closer to 0 than it is to any number
other than 1. That would suggest that BlackBerry’s hopes for a comeback on the
strength of its new operating system 10 and its accompanying Z10 and Q10 units
were both misplaced and completely erroneous on all counts. Sales figures
suggest that these new models may have affected slight increases in overall
units sold, but they have failed to make enough of a dent in the smartphone
market to give any non-delusional, non-BlackBerry-employed individuals hope
that a comeback is likely or even possible. The good news for the company is
that it makes and sells more than just smartphones that people don’t want.
BlackBerry also offers a number of communications infrastructure services,
primarily to business users. In that arena, the company continues to hold
a large share of the market and compete well enough to avoid looking like tech
roadkill. Bearing that in mind, the powers that be at BlackBerry might be wise
to accept the present reality they face and abandon hope of making a smartphone
rally. Ditching its remaining smartphones, selling off whatever assets it has
left in this area and focusing on products it makes that people do actually
want might be the only viable option remaining……..
- Being FAT can be costly. An unidentified Midland County,
Mich. man is finding that lesson out in difficult fashion and has hired an
attorney because of it. The man was employed as an installation technician for Multiband Field Services Inc., installing
satellite dishes for a living. The key word in the discussion is “was,” because
this fatso was fired several months ago. The company has not commented publicly
on the termination, but the fired employee has filed a lawsuit alleging that was
terminated from his job because he weighed more than 250 pounds. "Oh, he
was devastated. He couldn't believe his weight would be the sole reason that he
was denied employment," said attorney Julie Gafkay. Gafkay may have a case
if she can prove that her client was fired specifically for his weight, but
finding such evidence in personnel files and company communications could be
difficult. There is also the possibility that having an über-FAT guy who was
nearing 300 pounds climbing around on people’s roofs and installing satellite
dishes might be dangerous both for the FAT guy in question and for the
structural integrity of the roof, so if Multiband Field Services Inc. is
looking to defend itself in court, that might be a good starting point.
However, Gafkay believes the case has the potential to become a class-action
lawsuit and likens it to a 2010 lawsuit brought by a Michigan Hooters waitress
who was fired from her job wearing skimpy orange shorts and a tube top and
serving subpar chicken wings to lecherous losers after her bosses allegedly
told her she needed to lose weight. Michigan law does not allow discrimination
based on weight and while providing an extra crutch to obese people is enabling
them in a sense, the law is the law……..
- Hugh Jackman has done most everything in the entertainment
world, from big-budget superhero movies to Broadway and hosting the Tony
Awards, but the Australian actor, has another big dream in mind. The star of one of
the worst movies on the past decade, the “Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots” movie
(a.k.a. “Real Steel”), wants to create a superhero team-up movie by taking an
existing superhero team-up movie – “The Avengers” – and combining it with the
“Spiderman” franchise and the franchise of which he is the shining star,
“X-Men.” Jackman, who fills the leading man role in the new “X-Men”
spin-off “The Wolverine,” wants to star in a cross-over film with “The
Avengers,” “X-Men” and “Spiderman.” He is seeking to have
Marvel to approve the idea for a mass superhero collaboration between some of its
most popular titles. Jackman was asked about the possibility of such a project
and said he had a similar conversation recently with a Marvel executive. "I
literally asked the same question the other day to Tom from Marvel who works
with all the other studios, he works with Sony and Fox, that's his job to
liaise,” Jackman said. "I said, 'Man, can this happen?' and he goes 'Look,
it's not gonna be easy because you're working with different studios and
they're their properties'. But I believe - maybe I'm optimistic, I understand
at Marvel they've got The Avengers, they've got a lot of big things going on,
but at some point I just find it almost impossible that there's not a way to
bring Iron Man, all the Avengers characters, Wolverine, the X-Men characters,
Spider-Man, and somehow get them in together.” Seeing both dollar signs dancing
from a massive payday and a chance to cement his status as one of the biggest
action stars in Hollywood, Jackman added that he would be “totally up for it.”
He has five appearances as Wolverine in “X-Men” movies to his credit and
has been confirmed for the next installment, “Days Of Future Past,”
which is due in July 2014……..
No comments:
Post a Comment