- Wiley doesn’t do refunds. The British MC may have only stayed onstage
for just 15 of the 45 minutes he was due to play at Cockrock Festival earlier
this month, but he clearly believes that 15 minutes of Wiley is equal to or
more valuable than 45 minutes of any other artists because he is refusing to
return his reported £15,000 fee for the show. Part of his problem may be that
he hates festivals, as evidenced by him lighting up the Cumbrian-based festival
and those attending the event, labeling them "pagans", after he was
booed off stage on July 20. He took to Twitter to brag about earning £15,000
for a quarter of an hour's work and that didn’t seem to sit well with
organizers, who then confirmed that they would be seeking legal advice and
later confirmed that they have asked Wiley to return his performance fee.
"They say it's a charity event and they want their money back," Wiley
said. "I've just stood on stage and been coined and bottled. Obviously I'm
not giving the money back." His attitude was terrible before even arriving
at the festival and pre-show tweets featured Wiley b*tching about having to
travel from London to Cumbria for the festival. He boldly admitted that those
tweets may have contributed to the poor reception he received. "When I
went on I knew some people were going to be unhappy," he added. "The
escalation on Twitter is uncontrollable. The woman who was looking after us
said if it gets too much, come off. After 15 minutes I looked at the floor and
it was covered in coins. Any one of those coins could have taken my eye
out." However, Wiley was not backing down from his use of the word
"pagan" to describe the Cumbrian festival-goers, saying:
"Pagan's just a word but they don't know that yet. It's a London thing. I
don't want them to think I hate Cumbria." Add all of this to his Twitter
rant against Glastonbury Festival, after which he left the site before his
scheduled appearance and ripped the festival for being too interested in making
lots of money and the festival circuit doesn’t seem like the place for Wiley to
be……..
- France may not be known for securing and protecting its
borders like a boss, but give the French credit for effort. Following the theft
of an
estimated $136 million worth of diamonds and jewels in possibly the world’s
biggest heist, French authorities increased border security this week while the
manhunt for the lone robber who made off with the loot continued. Investigators
confirmed that checks had been stepped up on the country's borders with Spain,
Italy and the principality of Monaco after Sunday's theft at the Carlton
Intercontinental Hotel in Cannes on the French Riviera. The value of the heist
was officially raised to nine figures on Monday, surpassing t the $100 million
raid on a Paris store in 2008. Lead investigator Philippe Vique, a prosecutor
in the nearby town of Grasse, said officers have interviewed staff at the
glamorous hotel and continue to review security camera footage for clues,
although the man covered his face with a scarf, cap and wore gloves. “We are
exploring all hypotheses,” Vique said. He confirmed that the robber entered
through a French (ironic, yes) door at the side of the hotel on the famed La
Croisette seafront. There were no signs of forced entry, so investigators are
unsure if it was left open or whether the thief had cracked it open.
Once inside, the thief moved quickly to the temporary jewelry exhibit
held over the summer by the prestigious Leviev diamond house, owned by Israeli
billionaire Lev Leviev. He used a handgun to threaten three private security
guards, two vendors and a manager of the sale before shoveling the jewels into
a briefcase. In total, he escaped with 72 pieces, including rings, pendants and
diamond-encrusted earrings. His take could have been larger, but he dropped
some of the jewelry as he made his escape. Less than a minute after entering,
the thief exited through a different French door and jumped about three feet onto
the terrace next to the hotel before darting onto a side street……...
- Houston Rockets
forward Terrence Jones appears to be a complete and total piece of crap. It’s a
harsh description, but such is life when one is arrested after being seen
stomping on a homeless man's leg. Jones’ chance to wear the silver bracelets
and take a squad car ride downtown came Wednesday in Portland, Ore., where a police
sergeant making sure people remained orderly while they left a downtown club
shortly after 2 a.m. saw the 6-foot-9 Jones walk by a doorway where two
homeless men were sleeping and yell "Wake up!" Maybe Jones was being
a typical drunk a-hole and was too hammered to realize what he was doing and
maybe he just has no soul and likes treating people he believes are inferior
like crap. Either way, screaming in the faces of two homeless dudes wasn’t
quite a-holish enough, so Jones then lifted his foot and stomped on one man's
leg, said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a Portland police spokesman. For that act, he was
booked into the Multnomah County Jail on a misdemeanor harassment charge before
later being released on his own recognizance. His victim, identified as
46-year-old Daniel Kellerher, had a minor injury that did not require immediate
medical attention, Simpson said. Jones, a Portland natives, was selected by the
Rockets with the 18th pick of the 2012 draft. He didn’t exactly turn in a
superstar effort in his rookie season, averaging 5.5 points in 19 games.
Neither his team nor his agent responded to requests for comment, which is
probably wise because trying to defend or explain that kind of behavior is an
exercise in futility and makes the defender in question look as bad as the
piece of garbage they’re trying to defend…….
- Dinosaur brains have been studied quite a bit. But hey, there’s
always another angle for science to use to justify throwing away research
dollars and so Dr. Amy Balanoff of the American Museum of Natural History in New York
and her team analyzed the skulls of feathered but flightless dinosaurs and
learend that these animals (allegedly) developed bigger brains that may have
paved the way for them to take to the air. The dinosaur brains proved to be
very similar to that of Archaeopteryx, which is thought to be the first
bird and lived 150 million years ago. The similarity suggests that other
flightless dinosaurs may have already taken key evolutionary leaps towards
becoming modern birds by developing flight-ready brains. The likeness is most
obvious in the forebrain, which provides the superior vision and co-ordination
necessary for flight. Characterisits seen in Archaeopteryx have been identified in a number of
flightless two-legged dinosaurs, thought to be distant relatives of modern
birds. Having an enlarged brain is another entry on the list of reasons these
particular dinosaurs may have been the ancestors of modern birds. For the
study, Balanoff’s team used CT scanners to examine the brain cases of modern
birds, Archaeopteryx, and several non-avian dinosaurs. The resulting 3-D
images allowed them to reconstruct the skulls' interiors and determine brain
volume. Areas required for smell, vision and the cerebellum, which is important
for the coordination of movement and balance that would have been required for
flight were all studied and found to be similar. "Archaeopteryx has
always been set up as a uniquely transitional species between feathered
dinosaurs and modern birds, a halfway point," Balanoff said. "But by
studying the cranial volume of closely related dinosaurs, we learned that Archaeopteryx
might not have been so special." Dinosaurs and Archaeopteryx both had large brains in relation to their bodies and those bigger dinosaur
brains appear to have possessed much of the flight controller wiring seen in
birds even though they didn’t fly. "If Archaeopteryx had a
flight-ready brain, which is almost certainly the case given its morphology,
then so did at least some other non-avian dinosaurs," Balanoff added……….
- Birds crapping on unsuspecting people is becoming a huge
problem across America. First, it was seagulls sh*t-bombing fans at AT&T
Park in San Francisco when the birds came flocking in to chow down on
left-behind food at the end of San Francisco Giants games. Now, there is a
major issue with pigeons taking a dump on travelers at several elevated subway stations
in Queens. The borough has a battle on its hands and one local politician isn’t
afraid to call the issue what it is. “In all seriousness, we have a war on
pigeon poop,” said City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-26th). Van Bramer has
launched a campaign to take down these winged warriors, labeling them “flying
rats.” He will take no prisoners in this war. “This is a battle that we need to
win,” he said. Van Bramer pointed to the bird feces that litters the pavement
below elevated subway stations where transit riders are merely trying to get to
their daily stops. The train in question is the No. 7 and there are three
problem stops along its route through Queens: 46th Street, 52nd Street and
Woodside-61st Street. “So, at least twice a day, Sunnysiders and Woodsiders are
forced to dodge pigeon poop as if they’re dancing through rain drops,” Van
Bramer said. That is a beautiful image and the power of the story is only
elevated by Van Bramer’s own harrowing tale of being crapped on twice –
presumably by pigeons – when he was campaigning for City Council at 52nd Street.
As part of his anti-avian quest, he has taken a page out of Paris’ playbook and
launched a crackdown on those who illegally feed the pigeons in a nearby park.
Additionally, he has ordered metal caps to be put over concrete shoulders to
eliminate perches, nylon spikes to be installed over pipes and low-voltage
wires and ultra-sonic devices to be put in place at the affected transit
stations to drive pigeons away. The 500,000 commuters who ride the No. 7 line
daily are undoubtedly grateful……..
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