- Sorry, über-rich dudes of the world, but there is one
super-exclusive club you won't be able to join any time soon. According to incoming
NBA commissioner Adam Silver, rich folks with too much money to spend on
vacation homes and luxury cars won't have a chance to purchase one of the
league’s 30 franchises. Franchise values are skyrocketing a lucrative TV rights
deal is on the horizon, so the sale of any team would certainly net a massive
profit. Maybe Silver is merely politicking or positioning to further drive up
the value of franchises that could be sold in the near future and if so, it’s a
solid tactic. Several lower-tier teams, including the Minnesota Timberwolves, Milwaukee
Bucks and Toronto Raptors, have all been on the market recently, but Silver said
none of them are presently available. "As we look at the coming domestic
television deal and a great playoffs and Finals, there's a great buzz around
the league right now," Silver said. "There aren't any teams for sale
but if there were [the price] would be robust." In the past three years,
nine NBA franchises have been sold and each of them represented a significant
gain for the seller compared to the price they paid for the team as a buyer. In
2011, Michael Jordan purchased a controlling interest in the Charlotte Bobcats
for less than $200 million and the Philadelphia 76ers changed hands for a
reported $280 million. The league itself even got in on the fun, temporarily
owning the New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans for nearly 18 months from 2010-12 as it
waited for an overwhelming offer. Eventually, the franchise sold for $338
million and from there, the sale price for teams has soared. The Memphis
Grizzlies sold last fall for $377 million and in May, Vivek Ranadive bought the
Sacramento Kings for a record valuation of $534 million. Hearing that no teams
are available (allegedly) won't sit well with Seattle hedge fund manager Chris
Hansen, who tried to buy the Kings and when he failed, bankrolled a secret
effort to undercut Ranadive's arena deal in Sacramento………
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Poland can occasionally be
overlooked because it’s on the far eastern side of Europe and outside of
pierogies, doesn’t exactly have a signature claim to fame globally. Even when
it is struggling financially, some of its fellow European Union members are in
such a financial hole that its tough times seem a not as bad by comparison. Maybe
an ongoing uprising in the capital, Warsaw, can change that paradigm. Tens of thousands
of Poles have marched through the capital in the last of four days of protests
against proposed labor law changes and their demands are strong. They are
calling on the government to provide a higher minimum wage, greater job
security and the repeal of a law raising the retirement age to 67. Some
demonstrators aimed even higher, toting banners calling for Prime Minister
Donald Tusk to resign. Tusk presides over a center-right coalition whose popularity
has plummeted to its lowest level since he took power in 2007. Anyone doubting
the validity of that approval rating need look only at the ongoing strife in
Warsaw, where the largest protest in recent years is unfolding with seemingly
divergent groups from both the right and the left of the political spectrum
uniting in their hatred of The Man. Organizers claimed 120,000 people
participated in the march, although city officials pegged the total number at
about 100,000. Regardless of the exact number, those who gathered waved flags
and blew whistles as they marched through the streets with banners reading, "We
are Coming to Get You'' and "Tusk's government Must Go.” A few Molotov
cocktails and crude weapons used against police would have helped make the
point more emphatically, but it’s a solid start and possibly the first step to
pushing through reforms that help Poland avoid becoming the next Greece or
Spain……..
- Beware the bobcat, Ponte Vedra, Fla. Residents of the
Seaside community in Ponte Vedra learned that lesson in temporarily scary
fashion Friday afternoon when Robert Wilsie's camera captured a large, wild cat
roaming the area. Fearful neighbors called police after the cat harassed
several people and Wilsie said the animal had been a menace for several hours,
describing it as emaciated, erratic and aggressive – not unlike disgraced San
Diego Mayor Bob Filner if he missed a few meals. "This animal had been all
around the neighborhood," Wilsie said. "The animal was a danger to
the community.” In a true stunner, deputies were unable to capture the cat,
which was eventually identified as a Florida bobcat. Believing their inability
to catch the bobcat left them with shooting it as their only option, deputies
readied their guns only to find that not everyone was on board with the plan.
Residents objected to the plan and the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office called
in wildlife experts to determine for certain if the creature was a bobcat or a
Florida panther, the latter being highly endangered, with only about 100 still
in existence. Experts determined that the cat was not a panther, judging by its
size and the shape of its face. With that determination made, officers opened
fire, killing the bobcat. The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office said in a
statement deputies were confident it was bobcat before taking action and did
not need to call Florida Wildlife Control officials first, as they are required
to do before shooting an animal if its identity is in question. An FWC
spokesman said the agency believes police acted properly because the cat was
visibly ill and a danger to people in the community. The dead bobcat has been
turned over to state health officials to determine if it was rabid or not………
- Pharrell Williams is one of the pop music world’s current über-producers,
but being really famous and really successful doesn’t entitle him to
shamelessly rip off other artists. That is the allegation facing Williams after
he co-wrote and produced Robin Thicke’s controversial, extremely explicit track
“Blurred Lines.” The estate of late soul legend Marvin Gaye took notice of the
track because part of the song sounds like an outright plagiarism job on the
part of Williams and Thicke. Sensing that a sh*t storm was coming, Thicke’s
legal team reportedly offered Gaye's estate a six-figure sum in order to head
off potential copyright dispute. That offer on came after Gaye's three children
accused Thicke and Williams of plagiarizing “Got To Give It Up,” a 1977 single
by the late soul singer. Amazingly, the Gaye family allegedly turned down
Thicke's offer. The lesson, as always, is that when someone is so quick to
offer six figures to settle a dispute before the case has a chance to go to
court, press for more. After the family rejected the offer, Thicke and the
co-writers of 'Blurred Lines', Williams and Clifford Harris Jr., filed a
lawsuit to protect their song, requesting a ruling that “Blurred Lines” does
not plagiarize “Got To Give It Up” and another track, “Sexy Ways” by
Funkadelic. That’s right, they allegedly thieved from not one, but two
different songs. Williams has finally spoken out on the issue and he’s spouting
the expected lines about there being no real problem at all. "If you read
music, all you have to do is read the sheet music. It's completely
different," Williams insisted. “(Gaye) is the king of all kings, so let's
be clear about that. And we take our hats off to him. But anybody that plays music
and reads music, just simply go to the piano and play the two. One's minor and
one's major. And not even in the same key." Yes, Vanilla Ice singing the “different”
versions of the “ding ding da-da-ding ding” that supposedly showed he didn’t rip
off David Bowie’s “Pressure” for his lone hit “Ice Ice Baby” would undoubtedly
concur that Williams and his pals are correct………
- Want to explore the Galapagos Islands but lack the cash,
time and will power to get your lazy ass off the couch? Now, that chance is
yours thanks to Google and its partnership with Galapagos National Park
Directorate and the Charles Darwin Foundation. The trio announced Thursday that
they had teamed up to add brand-new, 360-degree images from the isolated
volcanic islands to Google Street View. "Now, you can visit the islands
from anywhere you may be, and see many of the animals that Darwin experienced
on his historic and groundbreaking journey in 1835," said Raleigh
Seamster, project lead for Google Earth Outreach. "The extensive Street
View imagery of the Galapagos Islands will not only allow armchair travelers to
experiences the islands from their desktop computer, but it will also play an
instrumental role in the ongoing research of the environment, conservation,
animal migration patterns, and the impact of tourism on the islands." To
partner with the new Street View imagery, the Charles Darwin Foundation and
iNaturalist, a website for citizen scientists, launched a new interactive Web
project on Thursday called Darwin for a Day. The site is designed for users to “step
into Darwin's shoes by exploring the Galapagos Islands through Google Street
View and document its unique plants and animals," Seamster added. As users
“walk” around the island, they can enter their best guess for the identity of
any unusual plant or animal they come across and that guess will be shared with
the iNaturalist community and CDF to contribute to research of the Galapagos.
To compile the images for the entire project, the Google Street View team spent
months on the islands working with Trekker, a 40-pound wearable backpack with a
15-camera system on top, to capture 360-degree view. Part of the reason for the
effort is to raise awareness for the threats facing the Galapagos, such as invasive
species, climate change, and other human impacts, along with increasing
revenues for Google. Of course, that doesn’t mean armchair travelers everywhere
can’t enjoy the Galapagos’ natural treasures, including hundreds of wildlife
species found nowhere else on the planet………
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