Thursday, January 30, 2014

Chinese New Year problems, angry Trent Reznor and raging Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Anger)


- Ready to stop thinking baby fat is just sooo adorable, world? Think again after you check out a new study led by researcher Solveig Cunningham of Emory University in Atlanta. Cunningham and her crew found that 5-year-old children who carry around extra weight may face four times the risk of being obese at 14, compared to their normal-weight peers. Nearly half of the children became obese between the ages of 5 and 14 were overweight in kindergarten and that might seem like science pointlessly confirming something that was already blatantly obvious, but anything to remind America how fat it is and how much it needs to work out and eat better is a brilliant idea. "We wanted to learn what are the ages of vulnerability and greater risk for new cases of obesity. We found that new cases of obesity tended to increase early on," Cunningham said. She and her team also found that socioeconomic status or ethnicity had no impact on obesity. Children followed for the study were from a range of races and socioeconomic status, although children from the wealthiest groups tended to have somewhat lower obesity risks by a negligible margin. Everyone with ears or eyes should know by now that childhood obesity in the United States is a big problem, ballooning g from 4.2 percent in 1963-1965 to 15.3 percent in 1999-2000, according to background information in the study. Specifically, the researchers wanted to determine whether there were times of vulnerability across a child's life span, or if certain groups had a greater risk. They evaluated data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which y included more than 7,700 kindergartners from across the United States. Each child’s weight and height were measured at seven different times until they were in eighth grade. At the beginning of the study, 12.4 percent of the children were obese and another 14.9 percent were overweight. Those numbers skyrocketed to  20.8 percent and 17 percent, respectively, by the time the children were in eighth grade. Simply put, the children who were at high risk already became obese at younger ages and stayed that way. Put another way, fat is NOT adorable, America……..


- The Tennessee Titans not a good football team this season. Tight end Delanie Walker believes he knows why. Walker, one of the many NFL players whose seasons are over but decided to spend time at the Super Bowl anyhow to promote a product or organization, said in a radio interview that the team was dragged down by up to six players who qualified as "cancers" and didn't care that the team wasn't winning. It was the same message he communicated during the season, when he said "cancers" in the locker room needed to be identified and removed. "When we started losing more games, we got to see it more and more, it was just like it was falling apart," Walker said. "And the players that were the cancer were dragging other players into that box with them, and the box was getting bigger and bigger. At first, it was just a small box. The box just got bigger and bigger.” Walker added that the disruptive players were evident to the entire team and expressed hope that while the squad’s 7-9 mark got head coach Mike Munchak fired, he believes new coach Ken Whisenhunt and his staff will see the lack of effort from those six individuals on the game film and get rid of them. “They're going to see what type of players that want to be here and don't want to be here, and he's going to get rid of them,” Walker said of Whisenhunt. Whether Walker’s assessment is accurate or not, there is no question that the season went horribly wrong for the Titans, who started 3-1 but then fell apart, losing eight of their next 10 games, including a home loss to the then-winless Jacksonville Jaguars. They finished below .500 in one of the NFL’s worst divisions and fired Munchak a week after the season ended. Calling an athlete a quitter is about the worst thing you can say about him, but Walker happily piled on by saying that the unnamed quitters he was calling out likely wouldn’t even mind being cut. "Some of the guys that was the cancer, they really didn't care," Walker said. "They'd be happy to get up on out from the organization. You would hear them talk about it, 'I can't wait to get up on out of here.'” Walker added that because it was his first year with the team, he didn’t feel it was his job to confront players. No, calling them out anonymously through the media works just fine……..


- Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) may have a slight rage issue. That is a common opinion for people to have of you after you threaten physical violence against a media member on live television merely because he asked you a question you didn’t like. Scott threatened to beat down NY1 reporter Michael Scotto when the reporter brought up an ongoing federal investigation of the congressman's campaign finances. The incident occurred shortly after President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech as Grimm was being interviewed inside the Rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building, part of the Capitol complex. Scotto began to ask about the investigation, but Grimm was having none of it. "I'm not speaking about anything that's off topic. This is only about the president," Grimm said tersely. He then strode angrily off screen, but as Scotto turned to the camera to speak to viewers back in New York, Grimm bum rushed the shot and went off. "Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this f-----g balcony," Grimm said. "Why, why, I just wanted to ask you ...?" Scotto replied. "If you ever do that to me again ...," Grimm snarled. When Scotto defended his question, Grimm then pulled the “You’re not man enough” card and vowed to “break you in half…like a boy.” For some odd reason, Grimm called Scotto the next day to apologize and issued a written statement admitting his guilt. “I was wrong," Grimm said in a statement issued by his office. I shouldn’t have allowed my emotions to get the better of me and lose my cool.” Best of all, the congressman said he and his new friend/assault victim in waiting planned to have lunch soon to smooth things over. Sadly, Scott accepted the apology and this potential ratings bonanza appears to be over almost before it began………


- Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has rage issues of his own. Reznor and his band joined Queens Of The Stone Age, Dave Grohl and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham for the closing slot at the Grammy Awards Sunday night, but their time on stage shared a dubious commonality with so many awards show acceptance speeches. In other words, it was cut short by producers who decided those on stage had run out of time and needed to be curbed. When the performance was cut short by the closing credits and a commercial break, an enraged Reznor r took to Twitter to blast the organizers, writing "Music's biggest night... to be disrespected. A heartfelt F*CK YOU guys." Airing his grievances on Twitter is kind of Reznor’s thing, as he also lit up Reading Festival promoters and fellow headliners Biffy Clyro last year, saying those people had “"f*cked us on production.” Messing with Reznor’s live performances clearly does not go over well and in a weak attempt to mitigate the damage, Grammys executive producer Ken Ehrlich served up a lame non-apology apology that was somehow supposed to make it all better. "I'm sorry he was upset. I was really thrilled that we were finally getting him on the Grammys,” Erlich said. “The final jam started with Arcade Fire a few years ago, and LL Cool J last year. I wanted to end on a high, an up note. I did tell them we'd take it as long as we could. The number was about five, six minutes long, and we got to within a minute twenty of the end. We got as close as we could possibly get.” In other words, we ran out of time, f*cking deal with it, you prima donna prick. Hopefully other awards shows and festivals continue this trend of pissing Reznor off because unlike the Incredible Hulk, he is likeable (or at least amusing) when he’s angry………..


- China’s pollution problem is reaching new lows…or highs…whichever one is really, really bad. How bad? Bad enough that a key element of the biggest holiday on the Chinese calendar may be forbidden because it could exacerbate the problem. With the Chinese New Year looming, the smog that hangs over so much of the communist nation has state weather forecasters calling for a ban on fireworks because of heavy smog warnings. The start of the lunar calendar is typically marked by over-the-top pyrotechnic displays that leave behind clouds over Chinese cities, but with a nonstop wave of smog expected to blanket central and eastern parts of the country over the holiday, the China Meteorological Administration called for local governments to ban them completely. "Firecrackers and fireworks can release large amounts of toxic gas and particles such as sulfur dioxide, which will cause severe air pollution regionally," CMA spokesman Chen Zhenlin  said at a news conference. Operating on the same line of though, the municipal government in the country’s capital Beijing  said it would suspend sales of firecrackers to citizens and impose a day-long ban on fireworks if air pollution reaches the worst levels on charts. Pollution measurements reached a dangerous high earlier this month, registering over 20 times the recommended exposure levels suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO) and causing residents to wear masks on their faces and crank their indoor air purifiers to their highest setting. Winter is the worst time for pollution in the nation with the world’s filthiest air, as colder temperatures force the cranking up of regional coal-burning power plants to meet heating demands. Still, ruining the biggest holiday of the year because of your toxic air is kind of a bummer……..

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