- Where is Walter White these days and is everyone’s
favorite meth-making chemistry teacher these days? The answer could be one of
the last places you would expect to find him, namely in the remote Chinese
village of Boshe.
That’s where more than 3 tons of crystal meth were seized this week, authorities
said. The village has garnered a reputation for being a meth factory in
recent years and the provincial public security department said in a statement
late on Thursday that Boshe has supplied over a third of the country's crystal
meth over the past three years. The seizure not only included some 6,000 pounds
of the white trash drug of choice, but also included the arrest of 182 people
allegedly involved with the meth operation. The statistics provided by the government
on the village – which may or may not be accurate – would be staggering and
then some of they are true. According to officials, more than 20 percent of
households in Boshe, which is located in the southern province of
Guangdong, are directly involved in or have a stake in drug production and
trafficking rings. Meth is so ingrained in the culture of the village that
local media reported that several village officials were among those arrested
in the pre-dawn raid. All together, nearly 22 tons of raw materials for drug
production were also seized. In a sad twist that many American trailer park
residents could help with, Chinese police did not reveal the value of the
seizure. Unofficial estimates put the Hong Kong street value of the seizure at
$232 million. The raid is part of the "Thunder Operations" campaign
against drug crimes that Guangdong police launched on July 30. So far, police
claim to have detained 10,836 suspects and seized about 9 tons of drugs……..
- Suspending players for conduct detrimental to the team
is the trendy thing to do this week in the NBA. Still, not all bans are the
same. When the Cleveland Cavaliers suspended the mercurial and enigmatic Andrew
Bynum indefinitely for his act, no one was surprised because Bynum is a loose
cannon with a bad attitude. That isn't the case with well-respected veteran
point guard Andre Miller, who was excommunicated by first-year head coach Brian
Shaw on Thursday. Following a lengthy team meeting, Shaw announced the ban of
Miller, a 15-year veteran who is esteemed highly around the league for his
basketball IQ and professionalism. Miller
was upset after not playing in a 114-102 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on
Wednesday night, the first “Did not play -- coach's decision" of his
15-year career. Shaw had not yet spoken to Miller when he announced the
suspension, but didn’t exactly deny reports that Miller voiced his displeasure
with Shaw over his lack of playing time. "It just came to a boiling point.
We made a decision and we're moving forward," Shaw said. Miller missed
Friday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies and will not travel for a
game Sunday in Los Angeles against the Lakers. "We will have a
conversation before he comes back with the team," Shaw said. "That'll
happen when it happens." Shaw certainly doesn’t sound like he’s in a hurry
to get Miller back, which isn't surprising because the veteran point guard is
averaging just 5.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in 19 minutes per game for a team
that is now 14-18 and has no hope of making any sort of noise in an extremely
deep Western Conference. Shaw is clearly looking to make a point and set the
tone for his team and doesn’t care who he throws under the bus to make that
happen……..
- Does it matter what direction a dog points when it takes a
dump? Zoologist Hynek
Burda of Germany’s University of Duisburg-Essen believes it does and after
doing some research, Burda and his colleagues believe that dogs can actually sense Earth’s magnetic field. According to
the results of the study, dogs preferentially align themselves facing north or
south to do their business. Having good senses of hearing and smell are noted
characteristics of dogs, but being able to act as a canine compass is a new
one. “They do so, however, only when the magnetic field is
calm—something (that) we ourselves are not able to recognize unless we look on
the actual daily magnetograms released by geomagnetic observatories,” Burda
said. In the past, Burda and his team have proven that cows, deer and foxes are
sensitive to Earth’s magnetic field, but this is the first study showing that
any mammal behaves in a specific way in response to natural magnetic field
variations. “To many dog owners who know about the good navigation abilities of
their protégés, the findings might not come as a surprise, but rather as an
explanation for the ‘supernatural’ abilities, although it is not clear to the
researchers what the dogs might use their magnetic sense for,” Burda added. He and
his team have already set up a website for dog owners who wish to test their
own pet’s abilities. In the study, researchers spent two years analyzing the
body orientation of 70 dogs from different breeds as they relieved themselves.
It sounds like scintillating work and it undoubtedly is, even though initial
analysis showed no clear pattern of dogs preferring any particular orientation
to do their business. That changed , when researches took into account the
naturally occurring variations on Earth’s magnetic field and factors like the
time of the day, position of sun and wind direction. “The emerging picture of
the analysis of the categorized data is as clear as (it is) astounding: dogs
prefer alignment along the magnetic north-south axis, but only in periods of
calm magnetic field conditions,” Burda concluded…….
- Rick Ross likes to fight. He beefs with hip-hop rivals on
his tracks and he fights with those who tread on his business interests outside
the studio. His latest scrap is with two of the most ridiculous hacks in pop
music today: Los
Angeles-based electro-pop duo of Stefan Kendal Gordy (Redfoo) and Skyler Austen
Gordy (SkyBlu), collectively known as LMFAO. Ross is suing the on-hiatus pop
duo over their use of the phrase "Everyday I'm shufflin'" in their
best-known single, “Party Rock Anthem.” The 2010 single has sold more than 7.5
million copies and Ross believes it has done so by overtly ripping off his 2006
track titled “Hustlin’.” Ross’ song features the line "Everyday I'm
hustling." He and his pal Jermaine Jackson have filed a copyright
infringement lawsuit against LMFAOO in a Florida federal court. The timing of
the suit is odd because, you know, the song came out three years ago and has
been largely forgotten, but those three years do not appear to have mitigated
Ross’ rage at all. "The use of 'Hustlin' in 'Party Rock Anthem' is readily
apparent, despite the slight change from 'Everyday I’m hustlin' …' to 'Everyday
I'm shufflin' …' and constitutes, inter alia, the creation of an unauthorized derivative
work,” the lawsuit claims. Ross is seeking an injunction and maximum statutory
damages, also claims that the phrase is "performed in a manner to sound
like" Ross' own, and "is an obvious attempt to capitalize on the fame
and success of Hustlin’.” Furthermore, the suit argues that the phrase is “so
important to the success of 'Party Rock Anthem,' that LMFAO launched a highly
successful clothing line, Party Rock Clothing, that features the phrase on
T-shirts and other clothing items.” Ross can only hope this legal battle goes
better for him than the one he recently fought and lost with a lesser-known
rapper who co-opted the Rick Ross handle. A court ruling allowed William
Roberts II, known by the stage name “Freeway” Ricky Ross, to keep his moniker………
- Score this one as a win for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The
agents of the CBP are not exactly the most terror-inspiring group, but maybe
folks will start to fear them once the tale of Canadian musician and Moroccan
native Boujemaa Razgui gets out. Razgui has spent the past 26 years traveling
the world with his instruments, 11 neys and two kywalas, in tow. He has a green
card to enter the United States and his nomadic existence is how he supports
his family. Last month, he returned from a visit to Marrakesh and passed
through Madrid and New York en route to Boston, a trip he has made many times. This
trip was different because when he e arrived in New York on Dec. 22, his
suitcase with the instruments and materials he purchased in Morocco to make new
instruments was not there. As anyone who has ever made multiple connections on
an international flight knows, more connections means exponentially greater
chances for bags to go AWOL. Yet agents promised Razgui his bag would meet him
in Boston. That promise turned out to be technically true, but when he opened
the bag Razgui found it to be empty and his prized instruments gone. He contacted
John F. Kennedy International Airport the next day and he said a customs
employee told him that his instruments were "destroyed safely"
because they were considered agricultural products. A spokesperson from U.S.
Customs and Border Protection added another layer to the tale, claiming Razgui
did not claim his bag at JFK. Customs inspections are typically based on what a
person lists on their customs declaration form when they enter the United
States and in this case, customs agriculture specialists at JFK discovered
"fresh bamboo canes approximately three to four feet long inside of
unclaimed baggage arriving on a flight from Madrid, Spain,” according to an
official statement. CBP officials insisted their agriculture specialists did
not find or destroy any instruments, only fresh bamboo. Razgui planned to use
the bamboo to make more instruments, but said would have forfeited the reeds he
purchased in Morocco if it meant keeping his instruments. Razgui's music career
has included performances on songs with Beyonce Knowles and Shakira, so he is a
credibly musician and not some weekend hack playing at the local Elks club. Replacing
his instruments won’t be easy, as the reeds used to make his neys can only be
found in Spain, Morocco and the Middle East, he said. For a temporary fix, he
has borrowed some from a professor at Boston College, but without his full
compliment of instruments his career is in a holding pattern………..
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