Tuesday, February 04, 2014

A real life "Castaway," Chromecast SDK lurches forward and U2 battles irrelevance


- There are many dumb reasons to get oneself kicked off a college basketball team – bongs are prominently involved in many of them – but Oklahoma State freshman guard Stevie Clark managed to find one of the most insipid entries on the list. Clark was dismissed from his team following a Sunday arrest on suspicion of outraging public decency, which only sounds like a prudish and outdated ordinance from the 1800s that should have gone the way of corsets and forced servitude. In truth, it’s a very real and very current law in the state of Oklahoma and it netted this fool his second arrest in the span of a month. Clark was arrested at 12:46 a.m. Sunday and subsequently released after posting bond following an incident in which police responded to a call about a man urinating out of a vehicle window. Yes, a dude taking a leak out the window of a car. While police did not charge Clark with any alcohol-related offenses, it’s not difficult to imagine a circumstance in which alcohol would be involved with a college guy dropping trou and letting it rip out of a car window. Booze or not, pissing out a car window is not the wisest move for a dude who was arrested one month prior on suspicion of possessing marijuana after a traffic stop for a seatbelt violation. The ganja arrest occurred Jan. 1 in Edmond, Okla., about an hour from the OSU campus in Stillwater. Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford let the first arrest slide, relatively speaking, and didn’t kick Clark off the team. The second arrest in four weeks was simply too much and Ford announce Clark’s dismissal in a statement that read,” "We care about Stevie and wish nothing but the best for him. We want him to find success in his future, [wherever] that may be." Not exactly what a team that has lost three of its last four games to tumble out of the top 10 needs……….


- Homicidal (or suicidal) kooks, this is your chance to make your mark on the world…..by ripping some menacing creatures from it. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission needs your help, but only if you meet certain strict, stringent standards for its crusade to wipe out nuisance-causing alligators in Osceola County. Yes, the powers that be (extremely desperate) are being overrun by gators and they need the assistance of souls who are both blessed with an abundance of free time and do not place a high value on their own life or well-being. If that sounds like you, then you need to know that the FWC is accepting applications for contracted nuisance alligator trappers. Obviously, no government agency is going to accept every kook desperate enough to apply, so go in knowing that you must a) reside in Osceola County, b) have no criminal history, c) have no fish or wildlife law violations and d) be technologically competent enough to  own a valid email address. Those are high marks to aim for and they will undoubtedly weed out some would-be trappers (as will actual weed because anyone sitting around all day and thinking they’d like to trap gators for fun has an excellent chance of being high), but those who remain must turn their application in to the FWC by Feb. 14. Ladies, you could even submit an application for your man as a surprise Valentine’s Day gift. Once the applications are in, FWC officials said, preference will be given to applicants who reside east of the turnpike………


- Give Bono credit for honesty. The biggest rock star in the world and arguably the most iconic frontman of his generation has been at the forefront of rock for nearly three decades, but the Irish rocker admitted recently that U2 are "on the verge of irrelevance.” Speaking as the band’s new single was made available for a free download in support of AIDS research and treatment and ahead of the release of its new album, Bono conceded that U2 does not occupy the place it once did in music and suggested that there was much riding on its new release. “We're on the verge of irrelevance. You have to make stuff relevant to you and where you're at, make an honest account of what you're going through,” he said. “If that's relevant to other people, great. But we don't know.” The new album will be U2’s 13th studio release and it remains untitled, although Bono did suggest that the project would have roots in the band’s original sound, back when he rocked a mullet and had yet to discover the iconic sunglasses he now wears everywhere he goes. "We went back to why we wanted to be in a band in the first place,” he added. “We were listening to the Ramones and Kraftwerk – you can hear both on 'Invisible.’ It opened up a whole valve for me writing, it was like a dam burst of sorts." While vague on the details, Bono said the new record is still being worked on "in this great capital, in a dank basement" and would be finished in two months. When it’s done and the time comes to tour in support of the project, Bono said he and his crew will likely eschew the large stadiums in which they played on their 360 Tour of the past few years and focus on more “intimate” venues like London’s famed, 20,000-seat O2 Arena. Ah, to be successful enough that such a venue is considered quaint and intimate……..


- Who’s ready to Chromecast? Chromecast SDK is Google’s platform to favorite online entertainment options on your HDTV—movies, TV shows, music, and more from Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, Google Play Movies and Music and Chrome. In other words, it takes content from the smaller screens of computers to the flatscreen in your living room. The platform is run from a plug-in device that retails for $35 and Google is now working to add new content for that device. According to the company’s official product page, the list now stands at 15. Expect that list to grow more rapidly now that Google has finally opened Chromecast up to developers, allowing them to add a cast button to any app or website. A few select developers have had Chromecast access in order to preview the platform, but they were not able to publish apps because Google didn’t believe the setup was ready for a full rollout yet. In the interim, the company has worked on ways to make the service more reliable as well as adding ways to send media to Chromecast. The more substantial and nuanced the app the more work it needs in order to make it work. Along the way, Google made the SDK part of the Google Play Services framework so people can get access to Chromecast-capable apps without the need to update Android itself. Experts expect the new SDK to enable a wide range of apps aside from media-streaming ones and Rishi Chandra, Chromecast's director of product management, believes there is potential for all manner of gaming apps. Chromecast launched last July with support for Netflix and YouTube, Google Play Music and the ability to play content purchased through the Google Play store and has since added Pandora, Hulu Plus, HBO Go, Plex, Vevo, Songza and others………


- Tom Hanks and Wilson, you have company. Meet Jose Salvador Albarengo, an El Salvadorian man who washed ashore on the Marshall Islands over the weekend  and immediately claimed to have survived more than a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean, drinking turtle blood and catching fish and birds with his bare hands. Albarengo told local officials set sail on a shark fishing trip from Mexico in late December 2012, but somewhere along the way he was blown out to sea. By the time his journey ended, he had traveled some 6,200 miles to the place where he was found in a disoriented state on a remote coral atoll. Officials estimated he washed up some time early in the weekend in his 22-foot fiberglass boat. A police patrol boat spotted him and transported him to Majuro, the capital of the islands, for medical attention. "It was supposed to be a one-day fishing expedition, but they were blown off course by the northern winds," said Thomas Armbruster, the U.S. Ambassador to the Marshall Islands. One-day expeditions and three-hour tours have a propensity for ending badly, but this case had a happy ending. When Albarengo arrived in Majuro, he was assisted down the gangplank by a male nurse and rushed away to a hospital for medical checks. Witnesses told tales of a man struggling off the boat with a bushy bear, emaciated legs and looking much worse for the wear. Albarengo reportedly set sail with a teenage companion, but his sailing partner died a month into their odyssey. In a statement, El Salvador's Foreign Ministry said it was working with Mexican authorities to return him to Mexico, and then on to El Salvador. Ending up in the Marshall Islands, with a miniscule population of 68,000 people spread over 24 coral atolls, could be the perfect ending for Hanks next “stranded at sea” dramas, but judging by the pictures circulating of Albarengo, he won't have to lose quite as much weight this time……….

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