- Don’t forget about Mark Mulder. The two-time
All-Star and former staff ace with the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals
may have retired in 2009 after two surgeries on his left shoulder, but like so
many former athletes, he couldn’t get the game out of his system. That’s why
Mulder is now chasing the baseball dragon once more, leaving his steady gig as
an analyst for ESPN and attempting a return to the mound. His change of heart
came in October, when he watched Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Paco Rodriguez on
TV and found something in Rodriguez's delivery that he could emulate. The
spurred Mulder to spend the month of November working himself into shape at a
Phoenix-area facility run by former big-league catcher Chad Moeller. Once that
mission was accomplished, he went back to pitching and recently threw off the
mound for three unspecified teams near his home in Scottsdale. With a fastball
he says topped out at 89-90 mph, Mulder hopes to audition for more clubs and
land an invitation to a spring training camp. "I can't even begin to tell
you how excited I am," Mulder said. "To be honest with you, I never
anticipated this five or six weeks ago. It was just a flat-out fluke.”
Completing the comeback and getting on a major league mound again would be a
minor miracle for a pitcher who began his professional career with Oakland in
1998 as the No. 2 overall choice in the draft. In 2001, Mulder went 21-8 with a
3.45 ERA to finish second to Roger Clemens in the American League Cy Young
Award balloting. Along with Tim Hudson and Barry Zito, Mulder formed a powerful
triumvirate that led the Oakland A’s rotation to four straight playoff
appearances from 2000 through 2003. Mulder was traded to St. Louis in December
2004, but his career was derailed by shoulder surgeries in 2006 and 2007.
Amazingly enough, watching a random reliever on TV six years later clued Mulder
into the fact that he could tweak his delivery by raising his hands near his
head similar to the way Rodriguez does during his delivery and pitch effectively.
Score one for the power of television…….
- Stoners, now is the time to start applying for Uruguayan
citizenship. If living in a state such as Washington or Colorado just isn't your
thing or you feel the need for an entire pot-loving country in a warmer
climate, then the South American stoner utopia could be the place for you. Uruguay's
Senate hit a ganja home run earlier this week when it passed a landmark
marijuana legalization measure, making it the first country in the world to
have a system regulating legal production, sale and consumption of the drug. President
Jose Mujica has long championed the law and will soon sign it into law and not
a moment too soon. Applause and cheers rang out in the senate after the
high-profile vote at the end of a lengthy debate on the bill, which passed
Uruguay's lower house in July. Supporters have boldly and presciently argued
that the law could inspire other Latin American nations to take a similar
approach. "It is understood that a regulation-based policy has positive
consequences for health and public security, given that, on the one hand, it
can produce better results when it comes to education, prevention, information,
treatment and rehabilitation in relation to the problematic uses of
drugs," said Sen. Roberto Conde of the Broad Front Party, which supported
the measure. Predictably, the squares who opposed the measure argued rather
lamely that legalizing marijuana could have dangerous consequences. "This
bill, which proposes an experiment in social engineering, as it was described
in the public health commission, does not comply with any of the ethical
safeguards of experimentation with human beings," said Sen. Alfredo Solari
of the Colorado Party. Yes, a member of the freaking COLORADO PARTY opposed the
deal to legalize pot. Revel in that irony, but do it while readying the snacks
and rolling tape on the “Beavis and Butthead” reruns, because the time to roll
a fattie and toke up has finally come to Uruguay. Under the proposed law,
individuals would be able to grow up to six plants of marijuana and possess as
many as 480 grams for personal use. It would also provide for fun cabals known
as marijuana clubs, where anywhere from 15 to 45 members would also be allowed
and granted permission to grow up to 99 plants at a time……….
- Welcome to the party, Dell. The maker of subpar personal
computers and laptops has unveiled its first Chromebook offering, a wee 11.6-inch laptop
aimed at the educational market. Critics may argue that the Chrome OS is too
limiting for day-to-day to use, but supporters contend that it is that very
characteristic could make it well-suited for educational use. "The Dell
Chromebook 11 will give schools and districts another tool to consider as they
plan their digital content and curriculum strategies, and its competitive
pricing will help open access to technology for more students around the
country,” said Neil Hand, Dell's vice president of the Tablet and Performance
PC Group. So what’s inside this chintzy, sure-to-break hunk of techno-garbage?
Well, the Dell Chromebook 11 contains a Haswell Celeron 2955U dual-core
processor, 16GB of solid-state storage capacity, and a 1366 x 768 display. It
also comes equipped with a 720p webcam, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI and
USB 3.0 connectivity. Weighing in at a mere 3 pounds, it will come with a 10
hour battery life, according to Dell. For those willing to pony up $300 or so
for a piece of crap worth a third of that at most, the device will ship in two
configurations, one with 2 GB of RAM and one with 4 GB. The larger model will
be available within the next month, while the smaller version will go on sale
early next year. Once this ill-fated launch is complete, Dell plans to announce
additional Chromebooks for business users and the general public sometime next
year. Don’t rush, guys………
- The legends are slowing coming around to the reality of
the digital music revolution. Holdout after holdout is bowing to the
realization that you cannot escape the digitized world of tunes, including the
Beatles bowing to the pressure of iTunes last year. British rock icons Led
Zeppelin are jumping on the bandwagon as well, making their entire catalogue
available to stream on digital music service Spotify as of Wednesday. Spotify founder and CEO
Daniel Ek announced that the band's music will now be available to listen to
for free on the service, clearing the way for Led Zep fans to enjoy “Kashmir,”
“Stairway to Heaven” and “Ramble On” on their device of choice. That’s
convenient because Ek also announced that Spotify will be available for free on
any platform – including mobiles and tablets. Before now, folks wishing to
stream the new Miley Virus or Justin Timbersuck album on their smartphone or
tablet had to use the pay-to-play version of Spotify. It’s a direct response to
the rising challenge from Apple's iTunes Radio, which is so far only available
in the United States. "Today we’re giving people the best free music
experience in the history of the smartphone and the tablet," Ek said in a
statement. "Whether you're going to the gym, or having a party with
friends. Just sit back and let Spotify serve you great music for every moment
of your life." Ek may be happy with himself, but Spotify opponents such as
Thom Yorke, Foals and David Byrne continue to oppose the service because of
what they deem to be low royalty rates paid to artists who use it. Ironically,
the Beatles remain one of the biggest Spotify holdouts, along with iconic
rockers AC/DC………..
- All these years later, Jewish people are still fighting
the Nazis. This time, the battle is in a federal appeals court in San Diego,
where a local family won a small victory in a decades-old struggle to recover a $20
million painting confiscated by the Nazis. A photo taken in the 1920s shows the
masterpiece by Camille Pissarro hanging on the wall of the home of Lilly Cassirer.
More than a decade later in 1939, 1939, months before World War II officially
began, Cassirer's Jewish family was forced to flee Germany. "A Nazi
appraiser said she could go but had to leave her painting behind and gave it to
him. She did that and it saved her life. Her sister stayed behind to take care
of their mother. Her sister died in a concentration camp," said Stuart
Dunwoody, attorney for the Cassirer family. According to this fine legal
scholar, Cassirer tried and failed to locate the painting after the war,
instead accepting t $13,000 in restitution from the German government. She
passed away in 1962 and 38 years later, her sole heir, her grandson and San Diegan
Claude Cassirer, discovered the painting was hanging in a Spanish museum,
placed there by a German art collector.
He sued to recover it, but a court
dismissed the lawsuit by striking down a new state law allowing the recovery of
lost art dating back as far as a century. The federal appeals court overturned
that decision, clearing the way for a civil trial. The Jewish Federation of San
Diego County is also involved in the lawsuit after being named a plaintiff when
Claude Cassirer passed away. Michael Sonduck, president of the JFSDC, insisted
the court fight is about recovering the legacy of generations of Jews destroyed
by the Nazis. "You can't rebuild it, but every effort to recover a piece
of that life is for the families, and through them, for the Jewish people, it's
quite important," Sonduck said. Fight on, Jewish folks, fight on…….
No comments:
Post a Comment