- A trip to Argentina for Christmas sounds nice. Escape the
cold, go to a place where the holiday can be celebrated in the right way –
amidst sun, warm temperatures and a chance for all sorts of outdoor activities –
and you have the recipe for a wonderful yuletide celebration. That’s in an
ideal world, or at least a world where man-eating fish don’t bum-rush the beach
where you go for a nice, relaxing Christmas swim. That fate befell 70 people at a
beach near the city of Rosario, on the Parana River, in Argentina. The injured
individuals were attacked by a swarm of carnivorous fish, described by
officials as a relative of the piranha. No one was killed in the attack, but
the swimmers suffered various injuries, including a 7-year-old girl who lost a
part of one of her pinky fingers. Ricardo Biasatti, sub secretary of Natural
Resources for the province of Santa Fe, downplayed the incident, calling it “isolated
and insignificant” when the size of the river is taken into consideration. Julian
Aguilar, president of a local fisherman’s group, also minimalized the
importance of the incident and insisted the likelihood of any repeat attacks
was low. That’s great on a more general level, but describing such attacks as
“occasional” and saying they’re no big deal doesn’t help people who lost chunks
of their flesh because a bad horror movie came to life the day they decided to
have some fun at the beach. Biasatti and Aguilar had better hope they’re right
because the area where the attack occurred a is a popular swimming spot this
time of year in Argentina, where it is summer………
- There’s the Z-Bo we all know, love and fear instinctively.
Memphis
Grizzlies power forward Zach Randolph has been something of a loose cannon
throughout his career, although he has toned down his abject rage in recent
years. But the man who once fractured a teammate’s eye socket with a punch is
still lurking in there somewhere and he showed up after the Grizzlies’ 100-92
loss to the Houston Rockets. Randolph could have simply owned the loss and admitted
his team was outplayed, but chose instead to dump the blame for the defeat
squarely on the three dudes canvassing the court with whistles for 48 minutes.
After the Rockets shot 40 free throws – including 25 by leading scorer James
Harden – to the Grizzlies’ 20 attempts, Randolph claimed it was "eight
against five," referring to the officials being against his team. In the
fourth quarter alone, Harden managed 11 points on just one field goal attempt.
Randolph was bent with the officials long before his postgame rant, as he was
whistled for a technical foul for complaining to the officials with 1:26 left
in the game. Even though the Grizzlies did foul in the final minutes in an
attempt to extend the game, only two of Harden’s 11 fourth quarter attempts came
during that time. Houston had 20 free throw attempts in the final 12 minutes
alone, matching Memphis’ total for the entire game. Cries of biased officiating
are nothing new and given the erratic level of referee performance in the NBA
these days, someone could make such a claim on a nightly basis. However, seeing
it come from Randolph does have a certain nostalgic slant to it………
- Security leaks were not on anyone’s Christmas list this
season – except for you, WikiLeaks-like sites – but scored of Snapchat users
got one under their tree anyhow. Due to a loophole in its coding and API (application
programming interface), the popular video chatting service inadvertently gave
hackers access to the phone numbers and names of the its users. Security
experts discovered the breach and noted that Snapchat was made aware of the
vulnerability weeks ago, but chose to ignore it. That, according to tech
experts, led the users having their names, aliases and phone numbers discovered
via the Snapchat and iOS API -- even if the their account is private. Hackers
would then be able to mine data and build profiles on users, then sell those
profiles for a crap load of money. Similar data stealing services already exist
wherein a buyer pays a few dollars and obtains the phone number and social media
profiles of a person using only their username. That’s the benign version of
the story. The more malicious slant is one in which a buyer could procure data
for scams or use the information to stalk a person. Snapchat allows users to
send photos and videos which can only be viewed for 10 seconds, then vanish
once they are opened. Its executives turned down a $3 billion buyout offer from
Facebook in November, but eventually a buyer will come along with a more
enticing offer and they will sell for a colossal profit compared to what they
have invested up to this point. In between now and that point, maybe Snapchat
can put some time and effort into protecting its users’ personal data just for
the hell of it……….
- Indianapolis resident Kevin Silva is not what you would call a chick
magnet. Silva, 52, is the owner of a new world record – just not the sort of
record that brings women running toward him looking to tear his clothes off.
This overgrown nerd possesses more than 2,500 Batman items in the basement of
his home and he’s pretty freaking proud of his collection. "This is the
bat cave. The official home of Batman, at least in Indianapolis," Silva said.
The collection includes typical fare such as action figures and toys, as well
as phones, skis, guitars and other oddities. Silva’s fascination with the caped
crusader began when he watched Adam West and Burt Ward on the 1960s television
show. Some of hits Batman items have been around since that era, including a
lunchbox his parents gave him when he was young. "It's got the scuff marks
where I threw it down the hall. This is a sought-after piece on
E-bay. The metal lunchbox. They go for $180," Silva said. The
obsession grew quickly and by the time he was 8 years old, he already had his
bedroom walls covered in Batman paraphernalia. He briefly abandoned the Batman
phenomenon as a teenager, but his interested was revived by the wretchedly
awful 1989 Michael Keaton-led “Batman” movie. Most of the items in Silva’s bat
cave come from eBay, including bat skates, a Batman gumball machine, shoes and
a full Batman costume that he wasted $3,600 to have made. When word of his
bizarro accomplishment leaked, the losers at Guinness World Records contacted
him and Silva catalogued and photographer his collection. Earlier this month,
he received the good news that his 2,554 items were 53 more than the existing
record. According to Silva, his collection was appraised at $100,000, although
if he wants to sell it for anything close to that amount, he probably shouldn’t
mention to potential buyers that he has also written a song about his lifetime
fascination with Batman………
- The BBC doesn’t want fans to forget about Sherlock Holmes.
While a modern take on the franchise does solid ratings on U.S. television, the
BBC is working hard for the third run of its own version and for the Christmas
holiday, the network treated fans to a
"mini-episode" teasing the super-sleuth's impending return. The
seven-minute featurette is titled "Many Happy Returns" and to truly
twist the knife of anticipation in the side of anxious fans, it has the show's
supporting cast discussing the possible return of Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes. For those who aren’t diehard fans
up to date on the most recent details of the series, the final episode of the
show’s second run saw Sherlock tumble to his apparent death from a rooftop.
Because he’s the linchpin of the series and fans tend to be a skeptical lot,
many remain convinced that Sherlock is alive and will make a comeback very
soon. In the video, one cast member references a series of tough cases solved
in random, far-flung corners of the world and notes that the one common thread
between all of them is that the methods used to crack them bear Holmes’
fingerprints. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat penned the featurette, which
has generated buzz among fans. Cumberbatch hasn’t become too distanced from the
show following his (bogus) death and recently defended the inclusion of
a bomb plot in the series. Controversy is always a welcome inclusion when
trying to maintain interest in a show in the midst of a hiatus and if the
reaction so far is any indication, the cast and crew of “Sherlock” are getting
exactly what they want during their respite……….
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