- The UFC has standards when it comes to when and where
its fighters unleash their fists of fury? Believe it or not, it’s true. While
Dana White and his outfit pay dozens of men and women big money to climb inside
the octagon, they aren't so tolerant of those fighters throwing their weight
around outside the combat zone. Feathweight fighter Will Chope had his
scheduled bout with Diego Brandao on
Sunday night canceled after UFC officials learned Chope was discharged from the
Air Force in 2009 for assaulting his wife. The bout was to take place during a
televised portion of a UFC Fight Night event in Natal, Brazil, but instead
Chope was pulled from the card and his contract was terminated. UFC released a
statement early Sunday morning announcing the decision. "Tonight's
featherweight bout between Will Chope and Diego Brandao has been canceled after
UFC officials were made aware of Chope's previous military conviction,"
the statement read. "The UFC does not condone behavior of this nature
whatsoever and Chope has been released from his contract." That the
assault occurred nearly five years ago seems to have had little impact on the
UFC’s decision. A military judge convicted him of three specifications of
assault consummated by a battery for threatening his wife with a knife and
stifling her cries for help with a pillow or blanket when the two of them
argued about charges on a joint credit card account. Ditching their resident
domestic abuser wasn’t so difficult for UFC given that Chope just made his UFC
debut in January, losing to Max Holloway via TKO in the second round. He hadn't
accomplished much for the promotion, so firing him was easier to stomach.
"My fight has been canceled for a 5-year-old mistake I made," Chope
wrote in a Facebook page. "I am truly sorry to all the fans and will do
everything I can to make this right. "I have spoken with my ex-wife on the
phone and she supports what I am doing and together we will make a formal press
release as soon as I get back to the USA on Wednesday." Never abusing another
woman would be a great place to start doing everything you can………
- Does Microsoft have a right to snoop on the private
communications of users not smart enough to realize that no one who has moved
past 1995 still uses Hotmail? It’s a rhetorical question, at least according to
the house Bill Gates built. Microsoft is defending its right to break into customers'
accounts and read their emails. That unpopular stance became very clear last
week when the company admitted in federal court documents that it forced its
way into a blogger's Hotmail account to track down and stop a potentially
catastrophic leak of sensitive software. "In this case, we took
extraordinary actions based on the specific circumstances," said John
Frank, one of the company's top lawyers, in a blog post. An FBI complaint
alleges that in 2012, Microsoft discovered that an ex-employee had leaked
proprietary software to an anonymous blogger. Its attorneys approved emergency
"content pulls" of the blogger's accounts to track it down. Company
investigators hacked the blogger's Hotmail account and reviewed instant
messages on Windows Live. The investigation led to the arrest of Alex Kibkalo,
a former Microsoft employee based in Lebanon. The official Microsoft stance is
that when a person uses its communication products -- Outlook, Hotmail, Windows
Live – they agree to "this type of review ... in the most exceptional
circumstances," Frank wrote. In this case, the company’s legal team
believed there was enough evidence suggesting the blogger would try selling the
illegally obtained intellectual property. Law enforcement would typically
acquire a warrant in such cases, but Microsoft did not believe it was necessary
because the information in question was contained on servers located on its own
property. How very Big Brother of you, Microsoft………
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Madrid is rojo caliente with rage
of late thanks to the ongoing anti-government
sentiments of an opposition movement that continues to rage against ongoing
economic inequalities in the Iberian Peninsula nation. The impetus for the most
recent uprising was a wide-ranging protest that drew tens of thousands to the
Spanish capital, sparking a massive outbreak of violence that yielded at least
19 arrests and featured inspiring scenes of protestors hurling firecrackers,
bottles and stones at riot police, who responded by charging at demonstrators
and firing rubber bullets. Dozens were injured in the massive melee, including
several police officers. The violence was an uplifting end to what began as a
bland, boring and mostly peaceful gathering. Part of what made the event so
great was that the protestors were united by dozens of causes, yet they found a
way to come together and rise up against The Man. Many of those assembled were
there to lash out at the conservative government’s austerity measures for their
perceived role in worsening Spain’s economic crisis. The Madrid gathering came
on the heels of several so-called “Dignity Marches” all over Spain and many of
those who came to the capital walked hundreds of miles from cities around the
country so they could be a part of the demonstration. Unemployment in Spain
remains a major concern, hovering around 26 percent, and analysts say Spain’s poor have been hit harder by the crisis
than in any other European Union member country. Protestors carried banners
declaring their various causes, including health car, education, public safety,
government corruption and the economy. Many of those assembled carried the
country’s Republican flag, a direct shot at the declining popularity of the
monarchy………
- Swing and a miss, Georgia, swing and a miss. Your state
could have become the latest stoner-friendly haven in the United States, but
instead your legislature has failed you – and humanity – by rejecting a bill allowing the limited use of medical
marijuana. The state senate rejected the bill late last week, doing so in
cowardly fashion less than two hours until the 2014 legislative session ended. The
vote came just after the House of Representatives voted 168 to 2 to approve the
limited use of medical marijuana for seizure patients. That overwhelming vote
sent the bill back to the senate, but the bill was never brought to the floor
for a vote as time ran out. Had it passed, the bill would have allowed patients
to use cannabis oil to treat some seizure disorders. It was a start for the
ganja movement in the Peach State and supporters claim the oil helps patients
deal with the disorder that can cause hundreds of seizures a day and can be
deadly in some instances. Although the oil is derived from the cannabis plant,
users and their supporters say it does not provide any sort of high. The bill’s
failure is a prime example of government red tape in (in)action, as the senate
unanimously approved the original bill, but tagged it with an amendment requiring
insurance companies to cover the cost of treating autism in children. It is the
sort of move legislators use all of the time to torpedo bills they don’t like
and the addition put both proposals in jeopardy when representative Allen
Peake, (R) Macon, the author of the marijuana bill, said he did not support the
insurance mandate. Sen. Renee Unterman introduced the amendment and should
shoulder much of the blame for the bill’s failure. “We gave them a clean bill
that would provide protection from prosecution from possession of cannabis oil
when it was obtained legally from another state. We felt like the focus needed
to be on that. It was a big first step for our state, and it didn't need to be
tied up with any other bill, and they chose not to vote on it and I am
disappointed in that," Peake said. "Everybody loses not just the
children with disabilities, not just the parents fighting for their own
children.” Well said, senator………
- It was “Divergent” and then everyone else at the weekend
box office, with the new dystopian future epic banking $56 million in its debut
to b*tch-slap the field. A trio of new films anchored the top five on the
earnings list, with “Muppets Most Wanted” claiming second place thanks to a
$16.5 million weekend, placing a distant second to its bigger-budget
competitor. Reigning box office king “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” fell two
spots to third place, adding $11.7 million to its domestic total for a
three-week gross of $81 million and counting. “300: Rise of An Empire” also
tumbled two spots, placing fourth with $8.7 million. Through its first three
weeks, the war epic has amassed $93.8 million and still has $17 million to go
in order to earn back its $110 million budget. The third newcomer to the top
10, “God’s Not Free,” ranked fifth with an $8.6 million effort in its first
weekend of release. The free-falling “Need for Speed” throttled down to sixth
place with a modest $7.8 million weekend and in two uninspiring weeks of work,
the high-speed drama has managed just $30.4 million in total domestic earnings.
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” added 238 theaters to its stable but remained in
limited release, earning $6.8 million in its third weekend for an overall haul
of $12.9 million. “Non-Stop” could do no better than eighth place, raking in
$6.4 million and boosting its four-week earnings to a solid $78.6 million. Ninth
place went to “The LEGO Movie,” which accrued $4.1 million for the frame and
has now banked a whopping $243.3 million in just seven weeks in theaters. The
last spot in the top 10 went to “Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club,” which
plummeted five spots and managed just $3.1 million. In two weeks, the
flop-tastic film has earned $12.9 million. “Son of God” (No. 11), “The
Monuments Men” (No. 12) and “Frozen” (No. 13) – out of the top 10 for the first
time in its 18 weeks of release – all lost their spots on the list from last
weekend……….
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