- Not many people noticed when Google bought storied restaurant review
service Zagat back in 2011. The tech giant hasn’t given anyone much reason to
notice that it has been in control of Zagat since then, as the essential nature
of the service has continued unchanged. Sure, Google integrated the Zagat data
into products like Google Maps and search, but that was the extent of the
“change.” That all changed Thursday as the company unveiled the new Zagat. The
revamped version is launching in nine cities worldwide and for now, only those
nine cities have rankings. Those for all other locations are gone and Zagat
reviews are only available in Austin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New
York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. According to Google, the
new Zagat will expand to 50 more areas soon, but angry users in other cities
who lean on Zagat to tell them which fancy restaurant with $100 steaks and
$1,000 bottles of wine is better than the other fancy restaurant with $100
steaks and $1,000 bottles of wine aren't pleased. There will be a searchable
database of old reviews on the Zagat website in a few days, but that is not
expected to be part of the app going forward. Instead, Google seems intent on
turning Zagat into a slightly different kind of service—something more
editorially driven and showing off more multimedia content. The Android and iOS
apps for the service are getting a major overhaul and will give location-aware
quick access to an aggregated review of a restaurant, along with the menu and
OpenTable reservations. It will eventually include how-to’s, interviews and
foodie news as well. One change that should be popular with everyone is Google
removing the requirement that users sign in with Google+. Since no one uses
Google+, taking it out of the equation was a no-brainer……..
- The NFL’s quest to polish the meaningless turd that is the
Pro Bowl continues. An empty exhibition game that features a bunch of
replacement selections filling in for the top stars who were picked for the
contest but didn’t want to play going at half speed and not caring who wins is
tough to fix, but the league and its players’ association are trying. The
biggest change is eliminating the
AFC-NFC format in favor of captains picking 43 players per team regardless of
conference. Players will still be selected by the same means, but voting will
be regardless of conference. Once the players are selected, they will be
divided into teams by the two top vote getters, two celebrity coaches and two
top fantasy football players from NFL.com. Additionally, kickoffs will be
eliminated from the game as a safety measure even though punts will still
happen. Not having a kick returner eliminates players like Oakland Raiders
returner Josh Cribbs, who has been a perennial Pro Bowler and said in a link
from his twitter page that the game was now "tainted." Instead of a
kickoff, a coin toss will determine which squad gets the game's opening
possession and the ball will be placed at the 25-yard line at the start of the
game and after scoring plays. The kick returner roster spot will be replaced with
an additional defensive back spot. In order to speed up a game that no one
wants to see anyhow, the clock will start after an incomplete pass on the
signal of the game referee except during the two-minute warnings and the final
five minutes of the game. However, Changes will be made to the game clock
during the two-minute warning, with the clock stop in the final two minutes of
each quarter if the offense doesn't gain at least 1 yard, in order to encourage
offenses to try to gain yardage at the end of each quarter. Defensive players
should be fired up because they will now be allowed to play Cover 2 and press
coverage instead of the man coverage that was the only allowed defense in the
past, except for goal-line situations. The driving force behind the changes was
NFL Players Association president Domonique Foxworth, who said players “we
wanted to keep the Pro Bowl to honor excellence in individual performance and
connect with the fans in a different environment.” Nothing about the Pro Bowl
says excellence………
- Gilberton, Pa. was not on the map for anyone outside of eastern
Pennsylvania before the past couple of weeks. Many more people know where it is
now thanks to Police Chief Mark Kessler. Kessler is the maniac who went on
profanity-laced video rants against those who disagreed with him on gun laws
and suffered a 3-day unpaid suspension for it. The borough council in the coal
town determined that the chief used "borough property for non-borough
purposes without prior borough permission" when he made the video where
he's seen shooting semiautomatic and automatic weapons. The meeting where the
vote took place brought thousands of gun-rights activists to the town of 750,
many of them toting their weapons. "I make no apologies and I have no
regrets," Kessler proclaimed to the council after its 5-1 vote. He
informed them that he would be back "30 days from tonight." Not
content with those bold words, he later posted a statement on his website
saying that Mayor Mary Lou Hannon and two council members -- Eric Boxer and
Daniel Malloy -- "are conspiring behind closed doors for full termination.
""They needed to suspend first to allow themselves time to look for
or make up any reason or lie," he wrote. "HEY BOXER, MALLOY , HANNON,
YOU'RE COWARDS, YOU'RE HACKS, YOU PRETEND TO UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION,YOU SICKEN
ME !" Hannor did say Kessler has her support for his freedom of speech. Kessler
has served as Gilberton’s police chief for 14 years and argued that he was not
in uniform in the videos and was exercising in his First and Second Amendment
rights. When initially confronted with the outrage over his videos, he posted a
backhanded apology that showed no contrition for his words and for railing
against Secretary of State John Kerry over his support of a recent U.N. arms
treaty. Kessler dared Kerry to come and take his guns and as the supposed founder
of the Constitutional Security Force, a gun rights advocacy group, he clearly
had no other option……..
- Denzel
Washington is headed back to Broadway. The official confirmation hasn’t
happened, but the Oscar-winning actor is already discussing his return while he
is out promoting his new movie, “2 Guns.” Washington has reportedly agreed to star
as Walter Younger in a revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark 1959 drama “A
Raisin in the Sun,” a story about a black American family’s bid to emerge
from poverty on Chicago’s South Side and carve out a better life for
themselves. “We start previews in March,” Washington said. “I’m trying to keep
up with my wife. My wife has been doing a lot more theater than me.” The
production will have plenty of star power, as Diahann Carroll will return to
Broadway after a 30-year absence to co-star as family matriarch Lena Younger.
Carrol last appeared on the Great White Way in the 1982 play “Agnes of God.”
She also won a Tony Award for lead actress in a musical in 1962 with “No
Strings.” As part of his return to theater, Washington will also reunite with
producer Scott Rudin and director Kenny Leon, who staged the hit 2010
production of August Wilson’s “Fence”s that won the Tony for best play
revival. Along with Carrol and Washington, Anika Noni Rose, Sophie Okonedo and
Stephen McKinley Henderson are also (reportedly) on board with a project that
has been rumored to be on its way for months. It will follow Rudin’s fall
production of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” into the Ethel Barrymore
Theatre and previews will begin Oct. 1 for an Oct. 27 opening. “Betrayal” is
also star-laden, with Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Rafe Spall on stage. Still
two months away from the start of performances, it is already one of the
strongest-selling plays in some time, with advance ticket sales reportedly
exceeding $6.5 million………
- The fight for chron is on in Uruguay. Members of Uruguay's House of Representatives have passed a bill to
legalize marijuana and now the measure moves on to the Senate. If it passes
there, Uruguay
will become the first country to regulate the production, distribution and sale
of marijuana. The bill has the full support of the government of President Jose
Mujica, who says it will remove profits from drug dealers and divert users from
harder drugs. Passing a bill that would give the government sole control over
the sale of marijuana is a forward-thinking approach in the sense that it turns
the government into a ginormous cartel. Under the proposed law, the state would
assume "the control and regulation of the importation, exportation,
plantation, cultivation, the harvest, the production, the acquisition, the
storage, the commercialization and the distribution of cannabis and its
by-products.” Would-be chron buyers would need to register in a database and be
over the age of 18. They would then be allowed to buy 1.4 oz. of the chron per
month in specially licensed pharmacies or grow up to six plants at home. Sadly,
foreigners would be excluded from the measure, so any stoners looking for a new
utopia would need to not only move to Uruguay, but become a citizen in order to
take advantage. A total of 50 of the 96 members of the lower house passed the
bill after an intense 13-hour debate in the capital, Montevideo. Supporters of
the measure argued that the fight against drugs and drug trafficking had failed
and that it was time for “new alternatives.” "The regulation is not to
promote consumption; consumption already exists," said Sebastian Sabini of
the governing centre-left Frente Amplio (Broad Front) coalition, which has a
majority of one in the lower house. The law could not come at a better time, as
marijuana use has reportedly doubled in Uruguay over the past year. With an
estimated 22 tons of ganja sold in the country annually, according to Uruguay's
National Drugs Committee, the government clearly sees dollar signs dancing in
front of its eyes and although opposition lawmakers have vowed to fight it even
if it passes the Senate or not, Uruguay is clearly stepping its game up………..
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