- Miami Heat
forward Michael Beasley is off to a hard-hitting start in his second stint on
South Beach. The problem for the troubled, pot-loving pro baller is that the
hard hits he’s delivering are to his own head. Beasley needed treatment to
reduce swelling above his eye following Thursday's preseason game against
Detroit and after punching himself in the head out of frustration for mistakes
on the court, it appeared he had no one to blame but himself and his fists of
self-fury. However, the Heat are now telling everyone who will listen that the wasn't
for a self-inflicted punch. Beasley admitted that he struck himself in the face
because he was angry with himself for a turnover, but he, coach Erik Spoelstra
and team officials said the wound above Beasley's right eye was the product of an
inadvertent blow he took from Pistons forward Jonas Jerebko as he attempted to
block a shot in the third quarter, not from a self-inflicted skull strike. "I
watched the video, and it does look like I knocked the mess out of
myself," Beasley said. "I had everybody in the world calling me and
asking, 'Why you so crazy?'" It’s a fair question for a guy who has a
wealth of mental health issues and multiple arrests for drug offenses on his
record, not to mention one who just went Floyd Mayweather on his own grill. Beasley
should feel comfortable in Miami, where he was drafted second overall in 2008
out of Kansas State and returned this offseason after three disappointing
seasons in Minnesota and Phoenix. Damaged or not, Beasley was back in the
lineup Friday night, scoring 13 points in 19 minutes. He insisted he doesn't
need to cause any distractions or draw any negative attention to himself in his
second opportunity in Miami. “I don't want to be the reason the ship falls. I'm
definitely taking it more serious than my first two years,” he said. Too late
for that, Mike…….
- A lowlife attorney who scammed people out of millions of
dollars using a fraudulent charity? No way. Add this to the ever-growing list
of lawyer joke topics because a Florida attorney being convicted of using a
veterans' organization as a front for a $300 million gambling operation needs
to be sufficiently mocked. Attorney Kelly Mathis of Jacksonville was convicted
Friday in a case that led to the resignation of the state's lieutenant governor
and caused the Legislature to ban Internet cafes. It took six jurors just 14
hours of deliberations to find Mathis guilty of possessing slot machines,
helping to operate a lottery and racketeering. He racked up an impressive
99-percent conviction rate, escaping a guilty verdict on just one of the 104
counts against him. Mathis is a free man until his sentencing in February, when
he faces the possibility of dozens of years in prison. For some reason, he described
the verdict as "shocking" and promised to continue the fight by
appealing on the ground that his attorneys were constrained in their defense
presentation by a judge's ruling that limited the evidence they could
introduce. "I gave legal advice as an attorney. Attorneys all over the
nation need to be very afraid when six years after you give legal advice,
somebody disagrees with that legal advice and they convict you of a crime,” Mathis
said as he left the courtroom. Mathis had the honor of being the first of 57
defendants to go to trial in a case that led to the resignation of Lt. Gov.
Jennifer Carroll, who had worked as a consultant for the Allied Veterans
charity. Oddly enough, Carroll wasn't charged with any crime. However, the
arrests were enough to cause the e Florida Legislature to ban Internet cafes in
the state earlier this year. According to prosecutors, Mathis and his
associates built up the network of casinos by claiming they were businesses
where customers could buy Internet time, when in reality most customers played
slot machine games on computers and didn't use the Internet. They operated
under the auspices of Allied Veterans of the World (which sounds shady and
should have been a tip-off) and yet, very little of the $300 million the Allied
Veteran affiliates earned actually went to veterans. Prosecutors said Mathis
and his law firm earned $1.5 million a year from the Allied Veterans scam and
brought in witnesses who recounted tales of gambling away their life savings.
It was enough to convince the jury to send Mathis away, unless of course he
flees the country in between now and February…….
- Rock and roll is NOT fun – not for everyone, anyhow. The Killers are
arguably one of the biggest rock bands in the world and should be riding high,
but at least one member of the band isn't exactly rolling with the party. Guitarist
Dave Keuning said that he is "sick" of touring with the band and is
looking forward to “the end,” although he didn’t specify whether he meant the
end of the current tour or the end of his time with the band. "I am sick
of this. I'm done. The end is in sight. Some people might go, 'Why are you
complaining?' But you haven't done what I have done, so you can't relate,”
Keuning said. “We just toured a sh*tload." He may not be the only member of
The Killers who is wearing down, as bassist Mark Stoermer did not perform at a recent
gig in Shanghai due to "personal reasons.” Frontman Brandon Flowers and
drummer Ronnie Vanucci both commented on Stoermer's absence from the band's
Asian gigs and their remarks cast an ominous tone for the band’s future. "I'd
hope we'd keep trucking on. But at the same time, it isn't the same band,” Vanucci
said of what might happen if Stormer quit. “I don't want to blow the top on it.
Being part of this machine is physical and mentally exhausting.” Meanwhile,
Flowers said he plans to spend 2014 writing and recording a new solo album and
will turn his attention toward the project once he finishes touring with his
band. Maybe the time off will recharge everyone’s batteries and in the
meantime, The Killers are doing what all successful bands do when they want to
make money without crafting any new tunes or touring: release a greatest hits
album with two new songs to try to coax fans into spending $15 to buy an album
from which they already own 95 percent of the music……..
- Iraq is getting good usage out of its antiquated means of
execution…and that’s a problem for some people. According to the country’s justice ministry,
42 individuals have been executed in the past week and that has the United
Nations mission in Iraq concerned. The executions took place on Tuesday and
Wednesday following a surge in sectarian violence the bleeding hearts of Amnesty
International described the news as "extremely alarming." The
executed included one woman and all were quickly tried, convicted and offed for
mass killings and other "terrorism" offenses. Both the U.N. and Amnesty
International urged Baghdad to immediately suspend the death penalty, which
seems unlikely given that Iraqi authorities have shown an increasing fondness
for it in recent years. For example, a mere 68 death sentences were carried out
in 2011, according to Amnesty, with this week’s total alone representing nearly
two-thirds of that total and one-third of the number put to death in all of
2012, when Iraq ranked third in a list of countries that carried out the most
executions, behind China and Iran. "The criminals were found guilty of
terrorist crimes... (that) led to the deaths of dozens of innocent citizens, as
well as other crimes aimed at destabilizing the security and stability of the
country and causing chaos and terror among the people," Minister of
Justice Hassan al-Shimary said in a statement. Sectarian violence has resulted
in more than 6,000 deaths in Iraq this year and arguing that executing those
responsible is the correct response is the only possible argument to make when
whacking 42 people in a matter of two days. Who knows….maybe these mass
executions are simply an attempt to make up for the period from 2003-05, when the
U.S.-led interim authority suspended the death penalty following American’s
invasion of the country. Executions returned at the tail end of 2005, but Iraq
has been playing catch-up ever since. In a nation where kidnapping, murder and
even lesser offenses like damage to public property punishable by death,
execution numbers have a realistic chance of rising even higher in the years
ahead……..
- Tony Stark is a fictional movie character…right? That
may be true, but Stark’s spirit is alive and well in the technology being
developed by the United States Army to give its troops supposedly superhuman
strength. The army is calling on the technology industry, government labs and even the nerds
of academia to help build a “revolutionary” Iron Man-style suit. Although the
army has already tested exoskeletons that allow soldiers to carry large loads
much further, the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (Talos) would also have
layers of smart materials fitted with sensors. It would also boast wide-area
networking and a wearable computer similar to Google Glass and as per the
specifications provided by the army, it would also need to be made of smart
material fitted with sensors to monitor body temperature, heart rate and
hydration levels. Such an exoskeleton could be attached to arms and legs and be
supplemented by hydraulics to greatly increase strength. "The requirement
is a comprehensive family of systems in a combat armor suit where we bring
together an exoskeleton with innovative armor, displays for power monitoring,
health monitoring, and integrating a weapon into that," said Lt. Col. Karl
Borjes, a science adviser at the US Army's research, development and
engineering command. "It's advanced armor. It's communications, antennas.
It's cognitive performance. It's sensors, miniature-type circuits. That's all
going to fit in here, too.” Army officials believe such a project will
necessitate collaboration across multiple industries and are looking to scientists
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for help. An MIT is already developing
liquid body armor made from fluids that transform into a solid when a magnetic
field or electrical current is applied. The official goal is to have the Talos
suit out in the field within three years……
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