- The Tour de France has returned to sporting irrelevance of
late, with über-cheater Lance Armstrong in the rearview mirror and the
mainstream sports world with better things to do than care about dudes on
expensive bikes riding up the sides of mountains in France. Maybe urine
throwing can bring it back to prominence. British rider Mark Cavendish may have
inadvertently stumbled across something when he had urine thrown at him by a
spectator during Wednesday's stage 11 time trial in the Tour de France. Oddly
enough, he refused to answer questions after completing the 20-mile stage from
Avranches to Mont-Saint-Michel. However, his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team was
kind enough to confirm what had happened out on a course packed with fans.
"I regret this. I always felt that cycling fans were gentlemen, enthusiastic
people,” team manager Patrick Lefevere said. "Mark is sad. He is not upset
- just sad. I cannot blame anyone. There are 100,000 or 200,000 people on the
road, and one person decided to do this." Whoever threw the urine likely
did so because of the controversy the British national champion was embroiled
in controversy on Tuesday, when a crash late on stage 10 sent Tom Veelers to
the floor and ended Cavendish's hopes of a stage win. Cavendish was cleared of
any blame by the race organizers, but angry cycling fans (both of them) angrily
criticized his actions on social media. Cavendish's French teammate Jerome
Pineau confirmed the urine-chucking actions of a fan and addressed the incident
on Twitter. "Yesterday I was so proud to see the support at the race but
today I am ashamed," he wrote. "Ashamed when my friend @MarkCavendish
tells me he has been whistled and even sprayed with urine on the course. It is
scandalous." Following the stage, Cavendish remained on the team bus after
the stage and offered only a shake of the head when asked to comment on the
incident. A team staff member confirmed that there had "been a smell"
when Cavendish entered the bus…….
- Microsoft may suck exponentially, but at least it’s
trying. The Washington-based tech giant has launched its biggest internal overhaul in
five years in an effort to streamline the development of products in all forms.
Having fallen behind in mobile and cloud computing and plagued by a consistent
lack
of coordination and infighting, Microsoft has been unable to overcome the fact
that it makes the world’s worst operating system. With $74 billion in revenue
and 98,000 employees, getting everyone on the same page would probably be
helpful. With the new hierarchy, all development of the aforementioned world’s
worst operating system, Windows, will be headed up by a group led by Terry
Myerson. Myerson’s focus was previously only on Windows Phone, but he will now
oversee the honing of the flagship operating software for devices ranging from
the traditional PC to tablets and gaming consoles. Counterpart Julie
Larson-Green, previously the co-chief of the main Windows division, will lead a
department responsible for all hardware devices, from the Surface tablet to the
Xbox. Virtually every senior manager within the company has been given a new
job in the quest to make over the company that Bill Gates built. The changes
represent an inherent move away from the idea of software, which drove
Microsoft in its early days. Of late, Microsoft has been struggling with declining
personal computer sales that cut into its software revenue, with worldwide PC
shipments dipping 11.4 percent in the second quarter, the fifth consecutive
quarter of year-on-year decline. Current CEO Steve Ballmer seems to be
solidifying his grip on the company and moving to quash infighting at the same
time. No new hires were made as part of the moves, but Microsoft also said it
does not plan to lay anyone off at present. A few more quarters of declining
sales could change that……..
- Skool kan bee hard. The Hempstead Union Free School
District knowze this and proovd it with an error-riddled summer reading list
distributed to students to help make them smarter over their break. The errors
abound from the start, with the introduction declaring that the list was for “Eleventh
to Twelve” grades. Once the list got rolling, the real gems started. For
example, the Long Island-based district recommended that students read “The
Great Gypsy” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It’s a clever more because many people
read Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” but few read “The Great Gypsy.” The list
also recommends “1776” by David McCulloch, who allegedly wrote the book instead
of its actual author, David McCullough. Overall, , the list for pre-K to
through 12th-grade students has more than 30 mistakes, including the
aforementioned magled author names, punctuation errors and even missing
words. Another gem is George Orwell’s classic “Animal Farm,” which is
apparently written by George Ornell these days. Famed abolitionist Frederick
Douglass had one too many “s” in his last name and now goes by the moniker
Frederick Douglas. Noted poet Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Caged Bird
Sings” is now known simply as “I Know Why Caged Bird Sings.” A few parents
whose children didn’t smartly ditch the list before mom and dad saw it have
expressed concerns, partially because of the list and partially because Hempstead’s
test scores are below the New York state average in nearly every category. Even
the state’s Board of Regents heared about the reading list and lamented Hempstead’s
lack of “a stable administration for a long time and the kids are
suffering.” In response to the heat it has been taking, the district issued a
weak, non-apology apology statement. “We deeply apologize for any errors
contained on our summer reading list,” the statement said. It iz a nise thinge
two saye………
- The price of failed heroism is high in China. Just ask two
teenage
boys who attempted to rescue their friends from drowning in the southwestern
Chinese province of Sichuan and have now been forced to pay 50,000 yuan
($8,150) for failing to pull their pals from the lake. Neither Wu Bo nor Liu
Hai were charged with a crime, but the two “agreed” to pay the family of one of
the victims in a settlement that is not uncommon in China. The communist nation
does not have any "Good
Samaritan" laws protecting people from criminal liability if they help
someone in danger. When Li Qing and Chen Min, both 17, were holding hands and
walking along the edge of Lotus Lake in Dazhou City, the correct move was
apparently letting them drown if one of the girls stumbled and slipped into the
deep waters, pulling her friend in with her. Instead of taking the smart path, Wu,
who was in the water when he heard the splash, quickly swam over and grabbed
one of the girl's hands. Unfortunately, she slipped from his grasp and sank
under the surface. Wu had been in the restroom during the incident, but ran out
to help when he heard a scream. He attempted to find the girls, but when he
dove into the lake, the murky water made a rescue impossible. As the story from
The Man goes, the two would-be rescuers were so devastated over the drowning of
their friends/overcome by societal pressure to pay some form of compensation
that they agreed to fork over the cash. Along with this incident and a
collection of other similar occurrences in recent years, the push for a national
"Good Samaritan" law to be passed in China may finally get the push it
needs to become reality…….
- Kings of Leon: Friends of drunk fans everywhere. The
Oklahoma natives, no strangers to boozing and rehab, were kind enough to invite
a fan to
share a beer with them after he stripped naked and crowd-surfed during a gig in
Birmingham, England earlier this week. The drunk, since identified as Jimmy Dorris,
went viral after taking off all of his clothes while the band played “Sex On
Fire” at the Birmingham's LG Arena on Tuesday night. YouTube footage spread Dorris’
drunken idiocy worldwide with assistance from pictures posted on Twitter and
Facebook, both by fans at the show and members of the band, including Nathan
and Jared Followill. "Thank you Birmingham. We saw a side of you that
we've never seen before,” Nathan Followill tweeted about what he had witness
from the seat behind his drums. The rest of the band must have been equally
impressed because before the band's second night at the arena on July 10,
Followill invited Dorris via Twitter to come have a drink with Kings of Leon
before the show. "Hey Birmingham sausage man, if you're on twitter, DM me.
We owe you a beer tomorrow night,” Followill’s message read. "Birmingham,
lets do this. I get the feeling that this's going 2 be nuts." Because everyone
is on Twitter whether they have something interesting to say or not, Dorris
received the invitation and returned to the arena to meet up with the band. He
showed up fully clothed, hung with the band and threw back a brew. "Cannot
believe taking my clothes off resulted in this!" he tweeted. The
second Birmingham show ended Kings of Leon’s UK tour, but the band will
return to the UK for V Festival 2013
in August, so maybe they can track Dorris down then………
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