- There is always one, as in one idiot who thinks it would
be totally funny to take part of their ganja stash, grind it up and slip it
into the brownie batter for the batch of baked treats they take to the office
party. Granted, stoners aren't the smartest lot, but there has to be a special
degree of stupid present for a person to think, “Duuuude, it would be totally
funny if, like, I baked some quality kush into these brownies and everyone at
the office party ate them and was totally tripping!” Northern California elementary
school teacher Teresa Gilmete Badger is that stupid pothead and she was arrested
after she allegedly brought marijuana-laced food to an after-hours employee
potluck dinner. Badger, a 47-year-old teacher at Matthew Turner Elementary School
in Benicia, cooked up her special treats for a late-November get-together with
her fellow teachers. According to the Benicia Police Department, the fallout
was extensive. Several people reported feeling ill, a police statement said,
including a 15-year-old who also got sick after someone at the party brought
leftovers home. "One of the partygoers was rushed to the hospital with
severe reactions; she was hospitalized," Lt. Frank Hartig said. “The very
next morning, another partygoer was taken to the hospital, because she
continued to feel like she was under the influence of something." Rather
than enjoy a free high, this person sought medical treatment and after she
tested positive for THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), the principal intoxicant in marijuana,
police launched a six-week-long investigation that ended with Badger’s arrest According
to a police statement, Badger had "allegedly confessed her involvement to
individuals who were also in attendance at the party." She refused to
speak to arresting officer and was booked into the Solano County Jail in
Fairfield. Sounds like someone else is going to have to bring the fun to the
teachers’ next party………
- Everyone who had a washed-up ‘80s pop star as the next
logical collaborator for British songstress Adele’s much-awaited new album,
raise your hand. One of the best voices in music today could work with damn
near anyone she chose, so the fact that Adele is (allegedly) working with
light-years-past-his-prime Phil Collins on new music is jarring to say the
least. Collins is the one making the claims even though he also said he hasn’t
really heard too much about his new collaborator. How anyone who remotely lieks
music is ignorant of Adele is almost inexplicable, but in spite of his
professed ignorance, Collins said he is writing new music with her and is impressed
with her voice and level of success. “I've just started to work with Adele. She
contacted me to write together," the former Genesis drummer said. “I
wasn't actually too aware [of her]. I live in a cave [but] she's achieved an
incredible amount and I really love her voice and I love some of that stuff
she's done. So, to me, it's always an eye-opener. Educational.” Rumors of
Adele’s next project have swirled since April of last year, when it was
reported that she had started work on the successor to “21,” which has now sold
over 26 million copies worldwide. Other rumored collaborators prior to Collins
have included Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford and singer-songwriter Kid
Harpoon, who has previously worked with Florence & The Machine and Jessie
Ware………
- TiVo Inc., the
San Jose-based maker of DVR technology, has become an afterthought in the tech
world in recent years as a slew of competitors have crowded the DVR field.
Shares of TiVo sank more than 2 percent Thursday and remained down Friday after
a report that the company was planning to wind down its hardware business. Five
of TiVo’s industrial designers have reportedly been laid off, reducing its
hardware division to a bare bones unit with little support. TiVo denied the
report….sort of. “We don’t confirm, deny or acknowledge staffing moves,” said
Steve Wymer, the company’s vice president of public relations and corporate
communications, in a statement. “We shift around our engineering
department all the time. All I can say is, it is not true that we’ve dumped our
hardware division. We are fully capable of delivering on our current and future
hardware plans, whatever is in the roadmap.” Thanks for talking a lot while
saying nothing, Steve-O. All you told the world is that your hardware division
still exists (for now) and can deliver on whatever vague, unspecific plans you
have for the future. Layoffs or not, TiVo currently employs around 900 people,
most of them in the company’s Silicon Valley offices. Approximately 80 percent
of them are on the engineering or technical side of the business. Despite its
non-denial denial, TiVo has been public about its shifting focus, from hardware
to cloud-based digital video solutions in the face of competition from Apple, Google
and even smaller players like Roku. This latest report is a stark contrast to
the positive third-quarter earnings numbers TiVo posted and its best-ever
quarter for new subscribers through cable partners, bringing its total
subscriber base to a total of approximately 3.9 million. Even its net income of
$12.5 million exceeded guidance. The most recent DVR box from TiVo, the Roamio,
included cloud-based apps for mobile devices and debuted late last year. Overall,
the company’s the company’s research and development spending has been down and
experts have questioned its commitment to innovation in an increasingly crowded
market. The official TiVo response is that it is slashing its development
budget in order to focus on securing deals with cable operators such as Virgin
Media, RCN and Grande Communications……..
- Winning college basketball games isn’t easy. When your
team has a magical season going and is ranked No. 16 in the country, you
clearly don’t short-circuit that run by keeping one of your best players off
the court, right Iowa State administration and Iowa Supreme Court? These powerful educational and judicial figures
understand the importance of a winning basketball team and with the Cyclones 15-3
and positioned for a top seed in the NCAA tournament with a strong finish, they
will need all hands on deck. One of those hands will be guard Bubu Palo, who
hasn’t played this season while at the center of an ugly court battle with the
Iowa Board of Regents and is now cleared to return to the court thanks to the
justices of the state’s highest court. The court denied a request by the board
of regents to keep Palo off the court following a suspension in 2012 after
being charged with second-degree sexual assault. The charge was eventually
dropped early last year and the university's Office of Judicial Affairs cleared
Palo to return to the team. His return was short-circuited when Palo was found
to have violated Iowa State's student code of conduct by president Steven Leath
and kicked off the team on Aug. 30. Clearly, Leath doesn’t appreciate the
importance of fielding a Top 25 basketball team at all costs, but thankfully
the court does. Sure, Palo was never convicted of anything, but a sexual
assault charge being dropped doesn’t always mean no crime was committed. It
simply means there wasn’t a strong enough case for a conviction. Conviction or
not, Palo was back in uniform against Kansas State on Saturday and assuming he
stays clear of legal trouble in the next two months, he’ll be a part of whatever
run the Cyclones put together this season……….
- Why bother? South Sudan is the world’s newest country and
its biggest train wreck of internal strife and sectarian violence, so there
really is no point in negotiating any sort of ceasefire. Neither side wants or
plans to lay down its arms, so cease with the ceasefire talks and move on to
the next step. Have any doubts? A new peace deal was barely signed before, South
Sudan's government and rebels accused each other of attacks that came after the
ceasefire was supposed to take hold. Information Minister Michel Makeur Lueth
blamed the rebels for the attacks and vowed that if the attacks continue,
government troops will defend themselves. Rebel spokesman Lul Ruai Koang pushed
that blame squarely back on the government’s side of the table. "It is
government forces who are breaking the cease-fire, not us. ... they attacked
our positions and immediately accused us of breaching the cease-fire,” Koang
said. He claimed the attacks took place in Unity and Jonglei states "and
we fought back in self-defense." Prior to the agreement, government
leaders expressed fear that fighters in Jonglei known as the White Army would
not abide by the deal. "These are rebels and they are undisciplined people
and not a regular force and have no central command, and for that matter it is
not strange that they immediately violated it," Lueth said. Ouch,
minister. Not only are you blaming the other side for not abiding by the peace
deal, but you’re talking smack about them being undisciplined as well? In spite
of the continued violence, Lueth insisted the peace deal was not a waste of
time. That seems like a lie and another approach is the next logical step in a conflict
between government forces and rebels loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar
that has forced 500,000 people from their homes and killed thousands since
hostilities broke out Dec. 15. Mix in satellite images of the intentional
burning of some 750 homes near the town of Bentiu and gross violations of human
rights during the conflict and this dumpster fire of a nation is feuding like a
seasoned country with hundreds of years of hatred and injustice……….
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