- Technology can help people…when the effing government gets
its ass out of the way and lets it happen. That subtle poke is directed as you,
Federal Aviation Adminsitration, for your indefensible efforts in prohibiting a
Minnesota brewery from distributing its frosty beverage to local ice fishermen
via drone. Lakemaid is the name of this fine local establishment and it was
recently testing
a new drone delivery system to airlift frosty cases of beer to fishermen holed
up in ice shacks on Mille Lacs Lake. By virtue of the fact that they live in
the perpetually frozen hellscape that is Minnesota and endure its inhumane
winters, these fishermen should qualify for beer however and whenever they want
it. Yet after spotting a Lakemaid YouTube video of one of Lakemaid’s unmanned
aerial vehicles on a test run, the squares at the FAA contacted Lakemaid and
told the company to cease and desist. For now, it is illegal the law to fly
drones for commercial purposes or above 400 feet in the United States. The
FAA’s bureaucrats are crafting a comprehensive set of rules and regulations
that will pave the way for commercial drone flight, but such laws are at least
one year away. In response to having technology’s latest attempt to improve the
life of mankind thwarted, a WhiteHouse.gov petition has been launched and with
183 of the necessary 100,000 signatures needed to mandate a presidential
response already secured, a mere 99,817 John Hancocks remain. Tech enthusiast
and sometimes Republican d-bag Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ken.) has previously expressed
his support of aerial beer delivery on Twitter. Until the new laws are in
place, only amateurs can fly drones and they are limited to small vehicles
under 55 pounds. National companies such as Amazon and Domino’s Pizza have
broached the idea of delivering their products by drone, but right now it’s
just talk……..
- Being a Tiger Woods apologist must be impossibly difficult
right now. He still hasn’t won a major since plowing into a fire hydrant and
tree with his SUV on Thanksgiving night in 2009 and now, he’s setting dubious
personal records that even his staunchest supporter cannot explain away. After
missing the cut in his first tournament of the year, the Farmers Insurance
Open, at a course (Torrey Pines) he usually rules, Woods took the long flight
to Dubai and proceeded to finish tied for 41st at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic. That leaves him with two finishes
outside the top 20 in his first two starts of a season – ever. He fired a 1-under-par
71 at Emirates Golf Club in his final round and lost to someone named Stephen
Gallacher, who played the first two rounds with Woods and won the tournament by
one shot on Sunday. "Unfortunately I turned it around too late. I drove it
great today, I piped it all day," Woods said. "My iron game was not
as sharp as I'd like, and I didn't make anything. I had seven lip-outs. That's
quite a few lip-outs.” Lip-outs or not, Woods needs to find answers quickly as
he watches the Super Bowl in United Arab Emirates and then flies to India for
an outing on Tuesday. He won five tournaments last year and reclaimed the No. 1
spot in the world rankings, sure, but he was so far from the dominant Tiger
Woods that once reigned in the golf world that the two weren't even distant
cousins. Finishing not only outside the top 20, but outside the top 40 (80th at
the Farmers event) in two straight events suggests that he’s closer to the
Champions Tour than he is to winning another major. His previous worst
two-tournament start to the season was in 2011, when he tied for 44th at Torrey
Pines and followed with a 20th-place finish in Dubai. He has won one of his
first two tournaments nine times in his 18 years on tour, but wasn’t close to
that this time around. Event tournament organizers are talking junk about him. "He's
obviously not on top of his game, everyone wants to see the real Tiger,"
said Adrian Flaherty, the tournament director for the Dubai event. Well said,
A……..
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! In a special Election Day edition
of everyone’s favorite overview of social dissidence ‘round the world, protesters
blocked polling stations and obstructed ballot boxes in parts of Bangkok and
southern Thailand on Sunday, disrupting a contentious national election aimed
at resolving the country’s long-running political standoff. Raging anti-government
demonstrators used a coordinated campaign to prevent some 6 million voters from
casting ballots, according to election officials. Embattled Prime Minster Yingluck
Shinawatra called for the election in Decmber in the hopes of strengthening her
slipping grip on power, but because of the protests it is unlikely that enough
votes will have been cast or enough parliamentary seats would be filled to
allow her to form a new government. Officials suggested that voting in areas
that were disrupted Sunday could be rescheduled, but protestors have already
pledged to keep their efforts to stall any balloting alive indefinitely. How
effective were they? Effective enough that election officials said about 10,000
of the 93,000 voting stations across the country were unable to open, the
majority in the south. A stunned Shinawatra sounded downright despondent when
asked how to resolve the standoff. “I can’t say anything,” she said. Some of
the day’s best dissidence came in Din Daeng district, where protesters
blockaded a polling center, leading to a tense standoff with voters Sunday
morning. Thailand’s main opposition – the Democrat Party, which boycotted
Sunday’s balloting – has been raging against the machine for some three months
now and police have largely left them alone. This mess is far from over, but
more entertaining by the day………
- No one wants to put out a decent new movie in 2014, it
seems, and so the status quo reigned at the box office once more. The
uninspired “Ride Along” retained first place for the third straight weekend,
banking an unimpressive $12.3 million (not quite as unimpressive as the
watchability of the Super Bowl) to raise its three-week domestic earnings total
to $92.9 million. “Frozen” rose two spots in its 11th week of release, bringing
in $9.4 million to make its overall haul $360 million and counting. The first
new movie in the top 10 was “That Awkward Moment,” which claimed $9 million in its debut
to place third. “The Nut Job” finished fourth, earning $7.6 million for a three-week
bank roll of $50.2 million. “Lone Survivor” snagged fifth place on the strength
of $7.1 million in earnings, pushing it past the $100 million mark at $104.8
million in six weeks. “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” was next in sixth place,
making $5.4 million. In three weeks of release, the spy drama has brought in
$38.9 million. The second new film in the top 10 was the romantic drama “Labor
Day,” which opened to $5.2 million amidst relatively little fanfare. Eighth
place belonged to “American Hustle,” owner of a $4.3 million weekend and $133.6
million in total domestic dollars through eight weeks. “The Wolf of Wall
Street” snaked $3.6 million in its sixth weekend, good enough for ninth place
and a $104.1 million domestic tally so far. “I, Frankenstein” followed its
underwhelming debut last weekend with a terrible second weekend, scraping
together $3.5 million for tenth place. “August: Osage County” lost its spot in
the top 10 from last weekend……..
- Some people just don’t learn. We’re all looking at you,
81-year-old Sebring, Fla. resident Mary Musselman. Musselman recently
spent a night in jail and this octogenarian was behind bars for a damn good
reason: feeding bears in her backyard. The Kenilworth Boulevard resident is facing
charges ranging from violating probation to battery on a law enforcement
officer after repeatedly ignoring orders from law enforcement to stop feeding
black bears at her home and getting nasty when police responded to put her
chicanery to a stop. Some of the former gym teacher’s students are opposing her
prosecution, but the positive thoughts of people who learned to play dodgeball
and climb ropes from this woman five decades ago can't make the law go away. Florida
Fish and Wildlife Commission officials say their battles with Musselman began
last year when they had to euthanize a black bear she kept feeding.
"Feeding bears results in bears losing their fear of people," said
FWC spokesman Gary Morse. Morse noted that when a person feeds bears, the bears
become dependent on that support and cannot be relocated. Officers made efforts
to educate Musselman about the dangers of feeding wildlife, going so far as to
show her educational videos and present her with literature. "She told us
she wasn't going to stop," Morse said. Points for honesty, M., but those
points don’t do much good behind bars. Musselman was issued a warning on Nov.
11, but 11 days later officers were back and found her feeding two more bears.
Another incident on Dec. 4 led to a notice to appear in court on Dec. 6. The
judge then ordered Musselan to stop feeding all wild animals and FWC officers
were ordered to check on her residence weekly. The day before Christmas, this
defiant old braod was back in court and admitted feeding two to three bears
large amounts of food. She admitted to putting out as many as 17 or 18 bowls of
dog food, so the judge found her guilty of two counts of feeding wildlife. Even
then, she got off with one year of probation. When the feedings continued, the
judge ordered FWC officers to arrest her. At that point, Musselman bowed up,
went badass and allegedly threatened to kill the officers. She was jailed and
despite prayer gatherings by her supporters and pleas to release her and let
her off the hook because her husband is dying of cancer haven’t made the case
go away……….
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