- A Festivus for the rest of us has finally arrived in
Florida. What began as a fictional holiday created by George Costanza’s
eccentric father Frank on “Seinfeld” has become something real and beautiful, a
fake holiday become real and beloved by many. It is known simply as Festivus
and one of the central tenets of Festivus is an aluminum pole in place of a
Christmas tree. That plays nicely into the idea that Christmas has been
overcommercialized and needs to be brought back down to Earth. That spirit has
inspired Floridian hero says
Chaz Stevens, who marched into the Capitol building on Wednesday morning
clutching a case of empty Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans and a 6-foot pole made of
PVC pipe. With those supplies, Stevens erected a makeshift Festivus pole as the
latest protest exhibit after a Nativity scene was set up in the rotunda last
week. Stevens explained that he heard about the Capitol Nativity scene and knew
he had to take action. "This is
about separation of church and state," Stevens said. "The government shouldn't be in this business of
allowing the mixture of church and state." All of the displays in the
rotunda are allowed because the state has designated the space as "a
public forum." All sorts of weird and wacky groups have set up displays,
something Howard Simon of the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties
Union noted was mandatory because the state cannot discriminate. "They're
not going to be allowed to discriminate. It's going to be a public forum for
all forms of speech and expression and displays," Simon said. Fact is,
Simon is right. If a man wants to celebrate a holiday that includes gathering
one’s family around the table for the Airing of Grievances and the Feats of
Strength, he should be able to do so. If only others around the United States
were bold enough to bring Festivus to their towns and public places………
- Japan is dreaming big, Juno-style. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe let
some big news drop in a meeting with his Malaysian counterpart Thursday,
revealing his latest plea for the country's high-speed train technology as part
of his bid to boost infrastructure exports. Abe explained to Malaysian Prime
Minister Najib Razak that Japan's rail know-how was second to none as a way of
getting Razak on board with the idea in advance of a special summit between
Tokyo and the fast-growing Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). "For
the high-speed rail that will link Malaysia and Singapore, I strongly requested
(Malaysia) to choose Shinkansen technology," Abe said in a joint statement.
The pair’s meeting came on the eve of an annual gathering of heads of
government from Japan and the 10 members of ASEAN, set for Tokyo this weekend. The
idea of a high-speed rail system linking the two nations together in more ways
than one is intriguing, as it Abe’s grand ambitions for Japan’s future as a
leader in the Pacific Rim region. He e has visited all members of ASEAN since
he came to power last December, as part of a drive to boost Japan's influence
in the region at a time of increased wariness of China. That wariness includes
growing friction between several members of the consortium and China in regards
to overlapping territorial disputes. After pitching his idea for really fast
trains to Razak, Abe reiterated his criticism of China's announcement of an Air
Defence Identification Zone over the East China Sea, a dispute that sadly
cannot be resolved by high-speed trains or any other fancy transportation
technology. Then again, a nice ride in a comfortable, air-conditioned train car
through some beautiful Asian scenery could soothe a lot of tensions………
- Enjoy those old highlights of Pete Rose barreling over
catcher Ray Fosse in the 1970 Major League Baseball All-Star game, baseball
fans, because that sort of scene is about to become a relic of a bygone era. MLB
plans to eliminate
home plate collisions, possibly as soon as next season but no later than by
2015, depending on how fast its rule committee can push through the necessary
changes. The rules committee reportedly has a strong desire to fast track the
specific rule changes in time for next season and if those changes are made,
catchers will not be allowed to block home plate and runners will not be
permitted to target the catchers. Umpires will be able to use immediate video
replay to determine whether or not the plate was blocked or the runner targeted
the catcher will be reviewable, which would actually be part of an expanded
role for replay in the game. Catchers or runners who violate the new rules will
be subject to disciplinary action, according to New York Mets general manager
Sandy Alderson, chairman of the rules committee. Alderson announced the
proposed changes at the MLB winter meetings. "This is, I think, in response to a few issues that have
arisen," Alderson said. "One is just the general occurrence of injuries from these incidents
at home plate that affect players, both runners and catchers. And also kind of the general concern about
concussions that exists not only in baseball but throughout professional sports and amateur sports today.
It's an emerging issue, and one that we in baseball have to address, as well as other sports." While
no one incident directly led to the change, San Francisco Giants star catcher
Buster Posey breaking his leg in a plate collision in 2011 is the most recent
and vivid example of why an alteration is necessary. The final wording of the
rules change will be presented to owners for approval at a Jan. 16 meeting in
Paradise Valley, Ariz. "The exact language and how exactly the
rule will be enforced is subject to final determination," Alderson said.
"We're going to do fairly
extensive review of the types of plays that occur at home plate to determine
which we're going to find
acceptable and which are going to be prohibited." For the changes to go
into effect next season, the players’ union would need to approve them……..
- The bizarre one is headed to sitcom land. Prince, taking
time off from a wildly overrated musical career, is set to appear in a forthcoming episode
of the Zooey Deschanel-led sitcom “New
Girl.” Making the appearance all the more remarkable, Prince himself
contacted the show's producers and asked if he could appear in the series
because he’s such a big fan. He then pitched an idea for a story that involved
one of his infamous pajama dance parties and was given the green light. The
episode is set to air on Feb. 2 and will be the latest in a series of weird
happenings for one of the most overhyped musical acts in recent memory. Back in
October, the Bizarre One hosted a
special gig called “The Breakfast Experience Pajama Dance Party” at
Paisley Park Studio, his home and personal recording complex. He charged people
to attend and required them to dress in sleepwear to get in the door. When guests
arrived, they found Prince clad in a silk robe over a pair of My Little Pony
pajamas. After that, he spent some time working with pop hack Rita Ora one her
next album and the London-based singer confirmed that the pair had
"definitely done some music together.” In addition to popping up on
middling sitcoms and guesting on other people’s albums, Prince also shared a
new track titled “Da Bourgeoisie” on Twitter last month and has been releasing
a slew of material online in recent months via his 3rdEyeGirl website. Oh, and
this all comes a few months after he and his new band embarked on a theatre
tour of North America, with gigs in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San
Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego, Anaheim and Denver. No word on whether
he is also planning an appearance on “Celebrity Jeopardy” and a hosting gig on
“Saturday Night Live” in the weeks ahead………
- Is humanity really still searching for intelligent life
elsewhere in the solar system? You’re damn right it is and that search took a
sharp left turn Thursday with the announcement that Europa, a moon of Jupiter first
discovered by Galileo, shows signs of water geysers erupting from its south
pole. This made sound like the latest bit of overhyped news from the great
beyond, but it could be the best evidence yet that Europa has a subsurface
ocean. Combine liquid water and energy from the moon’s internal tidal forces
and Europa just might be the scientific definition of a habitable world, a
place where life could exist, dark and frigid though that existence might be.
Scientists have long suspected that such a hidden ocean may exist, but no
evidence as emphatic as plumes of water vapor more than 100 miles high had ever
been discovered. The finding must be proven further, but if it is, it will
boost Europa even further as a target for robotic exploration. “If there’s a
geyser 200 kilometers tall, and you could fly a spacecraft through it and
sample the water coming out from Europa, that would be phenomenal. What if
there are organics in it? That’s getting to the question of ‘Are we alone in
the universe?’” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s top official for space science.
Researcher Lorenz Roth o the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio led
the study and helped confirm the existence of an icy ocean NASA has ruminated
about since the late 1970s. The Hubble Space Telescope spotted an occasional
surplus of hydrogen and oxygen appearing in a spatially confined area over a
period of roughly seven hours during a mission last year. The working theory is
that the tidal forces within the moon — created by Jupiter’s immense gravity —
cause Europa to contract and expand, a bit like a stress ball being squeezed
and released. In this working model, when the crust decompresses slightly,
liquid water squeezes through a crack and squirts into the cold vacuum of
space. That water would quickly change form, freezing and then sublimating into
water vapor, and the water molecules would be split into atomic hydrogen and
oxygen in the harsh radiation environment of the Jupiter system. What does all
of this mean to the average person back on Earth? Not so much……..
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