- Beast Mode has been in silence mode this season for the
Seattle Seahawks and the NFL has taken notice. Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch is one of the league’s most
punishing runners and this season, he has punished local and national media
looking for good quotes by refusing to speak to them. Ever conscious of its
public image and the role it plays in making the league a $9 billion business,
the NFL does not allow players to refuse to speak to the media. Because Lynch
has disregarded that mandate and maintained radio silence, the NFL slapped him
with one of its stiffest fines of the season last week. According to a source
close to the situation, the league dinged Lynch $50,000 for not speaking to the
media throughout this season until Friday, when he finally deigned to give
reporters a few minutes of his time. One short media session clearly was too
little and far too late to comply with the rule that players talk to the media.
Still, any player who makes seven figures a season, knows the rules and goes
out of his way not to talk to the media probably isn’t going to be too bothered
by a $50,000 fine. If that’s the price of peace and quiet and not having to
answer questions you don’t like, then Lynch obviously doesn’t mind paying it.
His play spoke volumes on the field as Lynch recorded the fifth 1,000-yard
season of his career, tallying 1,257 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns to go with
a career-high 316 receiving yards and two more scores through the air. Lynch
and his teammates were able to relax and enjoy the first weekend of the
playoffs after earning a bye with the league’s best record. They will host New
Orleans on Saturday in a divisional playoff games……
- Google is most definitely not neutral in the tech world. Snatching
up rising developers, app makers and their companies is the way this cutthroat
world works, even when the start-up in question is a team of Swiss Android
developers. Google’s latest acquisition is Swiss tech firm Bitspin, the maker
of an Android alarm clock app. Spending an unspecified amount of Swiss francs
to acquire the maker of one particular app might seem curious, but the more
likely story is that Google ponied up that cash to bring the Bitspin team on
board and have their creative intelligence on board. ”We’re thrilled to announce
that Bitspin is joining Google, where we’ll continue to do what we love:
building great products that are delightful to use,” Bitspin said in a company
blog post. The Zurich firm is made up of a small team that studied computer
science at ETH (Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule) Zurich, according to the
company’s website, and its team includes Jorim Jaggi and Adrian Roos—both
previously Google interns according to their Google+ profiles—and Selim Cinek.
Perhaps Google was simply overly excited to find someone who did not currently
work for it who also uses Google+ (a number that appears to stand at zero now
that Jaggi, Roos and Cinek are technically Google employees) and wanted to
reward those people. Bitspin confirmed the acquisition but said in its statement
that its Timely app “will continue to work as it always has.” Google has yet to
confirm any of these details, keeping with the playbook that major tech
companies follow in such instances………
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! OK, so technically it wasn’t a
riot, but a massive (and disappointingly peaceful) uprising over the weekend in
Tel Aviv by thousands of African migrants is still a massive uprising
in Tel Aviv by thousands of African migrants. The migrants in
question marched in the city to protest against their treatment by the Israeli
government. The crowd, largely Eritreans and Sudanese, are upset about a law that
allows illegal immigrants to be detained for a year without trial. It’s a
decidedly Guantanamo-esque arrangement, one the protestors want to end
immediately along with being granted the right to work legally and for their
asylum bids to be processed. An Israeli police spokeswoman confirmed that the
march was peaceful, which is disappointing but not the end of the world in a
city continually plagued by other types of violence. "We are all
refugees" and "Yes to freedom, no to prison!" protestors chanted
in response to the new law on detention, which crushed hopes that a recent
crackdown would be halted. Many of those affected by the law have been in
Israel for years as refugees, working low-paid jobs to escape persecution and
conflict back home in Eritrea and Sudan. They now find themselves in the
unenviable position of spending time in an Israeli prison or being sent home.
However, the dangers in their home countries mean they cannot be forcibly
returned. Following the weekend’s protests, demonstrators said they plan to
hold further demonstrations outside United Nations offices and foreign
embassies in Tel Aviv. Ultra-Orthodox MP Eli Yishai was not a fan of the
protest, denouncing the demonstrators as having been encouraged by
"anti-Zionist human rights organizations.” Hang on to your hats because
this one could yet produce some violent clashes……..
- Fittingly, a movie about ice, snow and frigid temperatures
was the top movie on a weekend when more than one-third of Americans were
slammed with a wave of wintry weather. “Frozen” snagged the top spot on the
earnings list with $20.7 million on a weekend with just one new movie of note, bumping
its seven-week domestic total to $297.8 million. The lone new film in the top
10 was “Paranormal
Activity: The Marked Ones,” which more than tripled its modest $5 million
budget with an $18.2 million debut. “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”
ranked third, accruing $16.3 million for the weekend to boost its total
earnings to $229.7 million in four weeks of release. The F-bomb-heavy “The Wolf
of Wall Street” finished fourth for the frame with $13.4 million and has
scammed movie goers out of $63.3 million in its first two weeks of release. “American
Hustle” hustled its way to $13.2 million and has now amassed $88.7 million
domestically in an impressive four-week run. The under-the-radar profitability
of “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” continued as the Ron Burgundy experience
finished sixth on the earnings list and generated $11.1 million to push past
the $100 million mark at $109.1 million and counting. “Saving Mr. Banks” was
next in seventh place thanks to its $9 million effort, good for a four-week
total of $59.4 million. There was no secret about the disappointing results for
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” which could do no better than eighth place
with $8.2 million, good for a two-week bank roll of $45.7 million. Ninth place
went to “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” as it crossed the $400 million
barrier with $7.4 million. The “Hunger Games” sequel has now raked in an
amazing $407.5 million in seven weeks. “Grudge Match” barely hung on for the
final spot in the top 10, adding $5.4 million to its earnings total and making
for a two-week tally of just $24.9 million. “47 Ronin” (No. 11) and “Walking
with Dinosaurs” (No. 12) both fell out from last week’s top 10………
- The tales of mountains of snow and temperatures creeping
into negative numbers have been the focal point in New York City recently, but adding
a troubled small plane to the mix always ups the fun. When that small plane
makes a forced weekend landing on a busy highway in the Bronx, injuring three
people, the intrigue only increases. The scene near the East 233rd Street exit
on the Major Deegan Expressway on Saturday afternoon was truly bizarre, as a
1966 Piper PA-28-180 aircraft landed about 3:20 p.m. The single-engine plane,
suffering from apparent engine trouble, somehow managed to avoid cars on the
normally busy highway that connects the Bronx with Westchester County. Witnesses
recounted tales of seeing the struggling plane descending toward them and ending up on its belly near the
snowy edge of the highway. Several noted that the plane did not appear to
strike any cars or suffer any sort of damage during its emergency landing.
According to police, there were three people on board: the pilot and two
passengers. All three were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, fire department
spokesman Frank Dwyer said. A hospital spokesman, Steve Clark, confirmed that one
man and two women were transported, but said two of them refused treatment and
a woman was treated for a minor head injury. All three were discharged as tales
of their harrowing saga leaked out. Images from the scene spread quickly via
social media, showing the small plane on the highway, surrounded by emergency
vehicles and first responders. The northbound lanes on the Major Deegan
remained closed until about 6 p.m., police said. The identity of the passengers
was not released, but the plane is registered to a resident of Westchester
County………
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