Saturday, July 06, 2013

Urban Meyer the narc, heroin seized in the other Georgia and cheese: the lactose-laden merchant of death


- Yeah Yeah Yeahs filmed a music video on top of the Empire State Building a few weeks ago and now grunge will offer its retort. Veteran grunge rockers Mudhoney are to play a gig on top of the Space Needle in their hometown of Seattle next week as part of a 25th anniversary celebration for longtime indie rock record label Sub Pop. The show is set for Thursday and during their performance, Mudhoney will be tethered to the top of the building, which is 605 feet tall. It should be quite a spectacle and just the right novelty to kick off a celebration that will rage on into the weekend, with a free one-day festival being hosted by the label in the Georgetown area of the city on July 13. Mudhoney will continue their busy weekend by playing the Georgetown event alongside other indie and grunge veterans such as Dinosaur Jr's J. Mascis, Built To Spill, Pissed Jeans, Chad VanGaalen and many more. Sub Pop has been rooted in the indie ethos since its inception, although the label has veered much closer to the mainstream in recent years as the mainstream has sought to co-opt the genre and cash in on its nerd appeal. However, back in the ’90s, Sub Pop was infamous for its grunge-focused roster that included Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr, Fugazi and Afghan Whigs. It was officially founded on April 1, 1988, and later the same year, Mudhoney released their first single, “Touch Me, I’m Sick.” These days, Sub Pop is linked to the likes of Metz, Male Bonding and King Tuff. It’s a far cry from the early days of the label, but maybe a Mudhoney performance from 60 stories up will re-infuse some rock credibility into the label. As for Mudhoney, they released their ninth album, “Vanishing Point,” earlier this year and will release their autobiography this fall……..


- The Georgia that used to be a Soviet republic and not a member of the Confederate States of America is no fan of heroin. In fact, the powers that be in Georgia have dealt a serious blow to heroin addicts everywhere by seizing 116 kg of heroin and arresting two foreign citizens in what appears to be one of its biggest-ever drug busts. The Georgian Interior Ministry confirmed the seizure of 232 packages of heroin each 500 grams, worth “tens of millions of U.S. dollars,” according to an official statement. The Interior Ministry said the bricks of smack were hidden in a Mercedes-Benz Atego light truck that entered Georgian territory on July 3 via Ninotsminda border crossing point, which is located on the Georgian-Armenian border. Along with their statement, police released a video footage showing officers taking packages from within walls of cargo area of the box truck. A Turkish citizen was at the wheel of the truck, which a definite international feel, coming from Armenia with Moldavian license plates. The driver had a Moldovan citizen as his passenger and both have been detained, according to the Interior Ministry. Not surprisingly, the e Interior Ministry said drugs were intended for “international transit.” “Investigation is in progress in order to clarify factual circumstances of the case,” the ministry added. Georgia is considered “a transit and destination country” for illicit drugs produced in other country, according to the international community, which is a nice way of saying it’s easy to pass drugs through. One known drug route takes narcotics from Afghanistan and Iran through Azerbaijan and Georgia, to destinations in Western Europe, Turkey, and Russia. Ukraine, Moldova and Bulgaria are the most common destinations for shipments that pass through Georgia and according to the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, less than one-tenth of one kilogram of heroin was seized between January and June of 2012……….


- There aren't enough reasons for most non-Eskimos to visit Alaska on an average day, but maybe this will change that reality. The appeal of finding a really old and really ugly fish is just the sort of thing that sends the tourists a-flockin’, right? If so, Henry Liebman of Seattle has done for the Alaskan tourism industry what so many lovely sunsets from the deck of a cruise ship and days with round-the-clock sunlight could not. Liebman was deep-sea fishing off the coast of Alaska on June 21 when he hooked a record-setting shortraker fish from a depth of approximately 900 feet. On the other end of his line was  40-pound shortraker fish that experts believe is 200 years old. “I knew it was abnormally big (but I) didn’t know it was a record until on the way back we looked in the Alaska guide book that was on the boat,” Liebman said of his big catch. The pinkish, ugly fish won't be going into a museum or onto anyone’s dinner plate; Liebman says he plans to have the fish mounted. Shortraker fish, with their made-up-sounding name and incredibly ugly appearance, are not common in more southern waters, but are frequently caught in Alaska and are common targets for both commercial and recreational fishermen in the state. They reside at depths of more than 2,500 feet, which simultaneously makes them more difficult to catch and hides their butt-ugly appearance from the rest of the world. It’s an aquatic win-win that only changes when some lucky guy on a fishing trip with his buddies hooks a shortraker fish before he’s downed too many Molson Canadians to properly bait his hook and cast his line over the side of the fishing charter………


- Cheese: Great sandwich topper or lactose-laced merchant of death? In this case, it is the latter. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, A listeria outbreak linked to cheese might have killed one person and sickened four others in four states. The agency confirmed the five cases, one of which was a pregnant woman who suffered a miscarriage. The culprit is Les Freres cheese distributed by Crave Brothers Farmstead Classics, a Wisconsin producer, the FDA said. All five of those allegedly sickened by the cheese were infected with the same strain of listeriosis. Two of the cases occurred in Minnesota and both involved older adults who were hospitalized after eating the cheese, the Minnesota Health and Agriculture departments confirmed. Ohio, Illinois and Indiana were the sites of the other three illnesses and as soon as its two cases were identified, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture went about testing samples of the cheese. Initial results indicated the presence of listeria, though confirmation is pending. In the meantime, Minnesota health officials are warning consumers not to consume the Les Freres, Petit Frere and Petit Frere with Truffles cheeses. They have also advised grocery stores and distributors to pull the products until the matter is clarified. All of those who became ill with listeria were between the ages of 31 and 67 and their diagnoses came between May 20 and June 17, the FDA said. For the listeria-ignorant, listeriosis is a serious infection usually caused by eating food contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes and it primarily affects older adults, pregnant women, newborns and adults with weakened immune systems. Symptoms include fever and muscle aches, sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms, as per the wicked smart people of the Centers for Disease Control……..


- Urban Meyer is the best. The Ohio State football coach presided over a program rife with lawbreakers, knuckleheads and one (alleged) future murderer in the utterly despise-able Aaron Hernandez while at Florida, stepped down while claiming he wanted to spend more time with his family, returned after one year away to coach the Buckeyes and now finds himself in the middle of another controversy. The drama centers on an alleged illegal "bump," i.e., contact, between Florida running backs coach Brian White and Brooklyn Erasmus High School running back Curtis Samuel, a possible violation that Meyer reportedly knew about and endorsed the reporting of it. Meyer insisted those rumors were "absolutely not true" and there was "zero coach involvement." His claims were repeated by an Ohio State spokesman despite the fact that a source with knowledge of the situation said Meyer not only knew about the situation, but gave a thumbs up on reporting it. Ultimately, the Southeastern Conference investigated the allegation and ruled that no NCAA violation had been committed. As Ohio State tells the tale, the university's compliance office learned of possible illegal contact between White and Samuel and forwarded the information to the Big Ten office. As those not employed by OSU see it, Ohio State director of player personnel Mark Pantoni read about the possible "bump" on a recruiting website and informed Meyer of the incident, after which Meyer gave his approval for reporting it. While it’s not uncommon for schools to report possible violations to their conference's offices, it isn’t exactly kosher when two schools are recruiting the same player and one narcs the other out for alleged illegal contact. Oh, and it just so happens that both Ohio State and Florida are recruiting Samuel. But oh well, Ohio State went 12-0 last season and is considered a national title contender for the coming season……..

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