- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! The force (of rage) is strong
around the globe right now and the dueling leaders of this movement of mayhem
are Bangkok and Kiev, where opposition movements are looking to topple what
they believe to be corrupt governments. Anti-government rioters in Ukraine
fired the latest shot at both their government and their Thai rivals Sunday
when large crowds of pro-EU demonstrators rallied in
Ukraine's capital against new laws that aim to curb public protests. In a
beautiful piece of irony, those laws inspired a massive clash as rioters
bum-rushed the parliament, which was cordoned off by rows of police and buses. Police
responded with stun grenades and flares, leading to demonstrators attacking
police as opposition politician and former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali
Klitschko tried to stem the violence. The weekend’s clashes came after the new
laws were hurriedly passed with a quick show of hands on Thursday by MPs loyal
to President Viktor Yanukovych. Opposition leaders accused the ruling party of
a coup and European Union officials expressed concern over the legislation. The
anti-government movement has been in a frenzy since late November, when Yanukovych
elected to withdraw from a landmark treaty with the EU. At Sunday’s gathering, opposition
politicians called on their followers to disregard the new laws banning rallies
that pro-EU protesters have been staging for the past two months. Most of the
violence occurred as rioters headed away from the main square towards
parliament, encountering cordons set up by police. In the day’s most
badass move, a large group of demonstrators attempted to overturn a bus
used by police. The bus was eventually set on fire after being hit by homemade
fuel bombs crafted by rioters. Rear Adm. Ihor Tenyukh, who was fired by Yanukovych
in 2010, warned the assembled mob that the current regime “will enslave you
too.” Nothing proclaims a refusal to be enslaved quite like Molotov cocktails,
fuel bombs and a fist to the face of The Man……….
- Some people, they don’t believe, Jamaica has an
Olympic-qualifying bobsled team…again. No movie will be made about this story,
but that doesn’t make the accomplishment any less impressive for the two-man
bobsled team of Winston Watts and Marvin Dixon, who qualified to represent
Jamaica in next month's Olympic Games in Sochi. Qualifying for the Olympics
that no one actually wants to attend for fear of being blown up in a terrorist
attack or having to spend two-plus weeks stuck in Russia is a real feat for
Jamaican athletes and especially for Watts, who will be appearing in his fourth
Olympics. He competed in 1994, 1998, and 2002, with his first two appearances
coming in the four-man sled event that was depicted in the classic John Candy
film “Cool Runnings.” Jamaica has not had a bobsled team qualify for the Games
since 2002 and in a twist that is straight out of “Cool Runnings,” Watts and
Dixon now face an uphill battle to get to Sochi. They have a spot if they can
find a way there, but a lack of funding has put their trip from their Caribbean
home to the land of Siberian gulags in doubt. The duo are hopeful that the
Jamaican Olympic Association steps in, or donations will come from elsewhere. g
"In truth, we still don't really know at the moment if we'd even have
enough funds or sponsorship to fly to Sochi itself for the Games itself,"
Watts said. The idea of a Jamaican bobsled team sitting at home while the
world’s best compete is a sad one, so don’t look for the funding issue to be a
problem. Maybe the JOA can sell the film rights to this tale to make ends meet
and the whole story can have a dream ending in which this team brings home the
first Winter Olympic medal in Jamaican history……..
- Are Las Vegas visitors tired of getting jobbed by shady
cab drivers? Of course they are. No one wants to throw unnecessary cash away on
the ride from McCarran Airport to the Strip when they could have more fun
throwing that money away at the MGM Grand, Bellagio or the Mirage. Taxi long-hauling has been an ugly
not-so-secret secret in Las Vegas for years; cabbies taking naïve visitors the
long route to their destination in order to gouge them for extra money. The
Nevada Taxicab Authority has heard the complaints and taken steps to rectify
the problem by establishing a system to inform customers about what they should
be paying for a given ride. The NTA has erected signs around McCarran Airport detailing
what it should cost to get to most hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.
Additionally, the signs list the fastest routes to each property, as well as
what taking interstates, Las Vegas Boulevard and Paradise Road should cost. "We
hope that the drivers are honest and moral, but you can't always assume that
for every single driver, so I think this is a great idea," said Clark
County Commissioner Mary Beth Scow. Scow’s district includes the airport and
while she applauded the effort, she warned that the signs – rigid and
unchanging – won't always provide the most accurate fare information as traffic
conditions change throughout the day. "If there's an event around the
Thomas & Mack Center, the traffic will be much worse," Scow said.
"We don't want our tourists coming in feeling like they're being taken in
the first moment that they step into Las Vegas." It’s a salient point because
as Scow points out, you want tourists throwing their money away at the feet of
billionaire cainso owners who erect massive skyscrapers rather than into the hands
of smelly cab drivers with funny accents…….
- Kevin Hart may not be the funniest man in the world
despite advertising claims to the contrary, but he is one of the kings of the
box office for the weekend after his new film “Ride Along” debuted in first
place. With $41.2 million, Hart’s buddy comedy starring Ice Cube bumped reigning
earnings champ “Lone Survivor” to second place with $23.2 million. In four
weeks, “Survivor” has cranked out $74 million in domestic earnings. Two more
new films held down the third and fourth spots as “The Nut Job” (third with
$20.5 million) and “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” (fourth with $17.2 million) both
delivered a bit less than expected in their debut weekends. “Frozen” fell three
spots to fifth with $11.9 million and has banked an impressive $332.6 million
and counting in its nine weeks of release. The Oscar-nominated “American Hustle”
was next in sixth place thanks to its $10.6 million total, good for a six-week
bank roll of $116.4 million and counting. “Devil’s Due” was the fourth new film
to crack the top 10, placing seventh with $8.5 million. “August: Osage County”
moved down one spot to eighth, bringing in $7.6 million for a four-week
domestic haul of $18.2 million in limited release. “The Wolf of Wall Street”
schemed its way to $7.5 million for ninth place but still hasn’t earned back
all of its $100 million budget at $90.2 million and counting. “Saving Mr. Banks”
rounded out the top 10 with $4.1 million and has scored $75.4 million in six
weeks of release. Despite all of its hype, “Her” (No. 11) could not crack the
top 10 once again, while “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” (No. 12), “The
Legend of Hercules” (free-falling 10 spots to No. 13 in just its second weekend),
“Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” (No. 15) and “Paranormal Activity: The
Marked Ones” all losing their spots in the top 10 from last weekend……..
- Wise choice, Microsoft. Continuing to offer your malware scrubbing program to your world’s
worst operating system is a brilliant move. Windows in any incarnation sucks,
but Windows XP has been a particularly big disaster. For that reason,
continuing to offer the malware program for an additional year after Microsoft
stops patching the subpar operating system will be a huge help for those stuck
using a Windows-based computer. "Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal
Tool is aligned with the company's anti-malware engines and signatures, and as
such the removal tool will continue to be provided for Windows XP through July
14, 2015," a company spokesperson said. The Malicious Software Removal
Tool (MSRT) is updated monthly based on specific major malware families the
company identifies in recent weeks. The tool is distributed through Microsoft's
Windows Update service and the business-grade Windows Server Update Service on
so-called Patch Tuesday, a day that exemplifies the problems the maker of a
crap-tacular OS has by establishing a regular day of the month when it tries to
fix its newest batch of problems. The MSRT then
runs a
seek-and-destroy mission to eliminate malware. It is not an antivirus program,
but rather a cleanup utility aimed at rooting out existing malware. Microsoft
said previously that it would stop shipping Security Essentials' signature
updates to XP PCs after April 8, but that date has been pushed back to July 14,
2015. Official security patches will stop in three months, bringing an end to 13
years of XP support. MSRT is currently No. 2 in the company's Download Center,
underscoring how many clueless computer users with the world’s worst operating
system run into problems on a regular basis. Estimates place the number of
users with XP-based computers at 20-25 percent of the market, proving that
Microsoft’s grip on the market is shrinking, just as it has been and should
continue to be………
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