- Welcome back, soccer. It’s been a while since your
absurdity and ridiculousness were on the world’s radar, but if there is one
characteristic for which soccer is renowned and counted upon, it is an ability
to deliver moronic acts of rage and violence. Credit for this particular act of
idiocy goes to Newcastle manager Alan Pardew, who hijacked attention from
his team’s 4-1 win over Hull after he was sent to the stands for headbutting
Hull attacker player David Meyler. Pardew and his Magpies were leading 3-1 with
20 minutes to go when Meyler made the fatal mistake of sprinting off the field
to retrieve the ball and colliding with Pardew. Either Pardew has a really
short fuse or he forgot that soccer is supposed to be devoid of actual
physicality, because he pushed his head into Meyler’s face and sparked a melee
that ended with referee Kevin Friend sending Pardew off while Meyler was
booked. Afterward, the coach insisted he meant Meyler no harm but conceded that
he let both himself and his team down by losing his head and using it as a
battering ram. "I did not mean any damage to the guy but I have moved my
head forward,” he said. "I tried to push him away with my head but I
should not have done that. "I apologize to everyone. I should not have got
involved in it. I will sit down from now on and send [assistant manager] John
Carver out there.” You tried to “push him away” with your head? My man, people
do not typically use their head as a means for relocating people, not unless
they are also looking to relocate their fist into that same person’s face. Hull
coach Steve Bruce praised Meyler for his response in the midst of the chaos,
but seemed to somewhat excuse his counterpart’s actions by noting the extreme
stress on all Premier League coaches. “We've all done silly things in the heat
of the moment,” Bruce said. Right, but Pardew is the only one
head-butting opposing players……..
- It may be 22 years in the past, but Croatia isn't letting
it go. The former Soviet republic is asking the International Court of Justice in The Hague
to rule that Serbia committed genocide in the city of Vukovar and elsewhere in
1991. Croatian officials want the United Nations’ top court to address Serbian
leaders’ alleged denial over a policy
of genocide carried out in Croatian territory in the 1990s. Vukovar was
at the epicenter of a region that was devastated in the 1991-95 war when it was
occupied by Serb and the tension has remained high for more than two decades. Serbia
has filed a counter claim over the expulsion of 230,000 Serbs from Croatia in
1995, while Croatia is irate over the estimated 20,000 people who e died during
Croatia's four-year war of independence during the breakup of Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav
army and Serb paramilitaries murdered hundreds of Vukovar citizens in 1991 and
some 2,000 people were murdered four years later, during and after the Croatian
counter-offensive, entitled Operation Storm. Serbia's countersuit will be heard
by the ICJ next week and the ongoing legal drama threatens to undermine
improving relations between the two nations. Serbian officials became enraged
in 2012 when the commander of Operation Storm, Ante Gotovina, was cleared on
appeal by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Now it
is Croatia’s turn to be irate and they are happy to play the part. "Many
political leaders in Serbia have maintained an attitude of denial," said Vesna
Crnic-Grotic, the head of Croatia's legal team, in remarks to the court on
Monday. Crnic-Grotic cited remarks made by Serbain President Tomislav Nikolic
in 2012, when he e disputed that genocide had been committed in the Srebrenica
massacre of 1995. The Croatian legal team claimed that the first phase of
genocide emerged out of hate speech and demonization directed at Croats. They
argued that the Yugoslav People's Army was a de facto Serbian national army in
control of Serbian paramilitaries. In response, the Serbian legal team argued
to the court that the terrible crimes that took place “did not have the
characteristics of genocide.” The court will ultimately decide whether one
country or both are guilty of genocide……..
- Where do former man-banders go when they’re plowed through
their 15 minutes of fame for their crappy pop, found another 15 minutes by
marrying an A-lister and bleached their teeth so many times that Clorox is
their beverage of choice? To VH1, of course. Enter former 98 Town Sync Men
Degrees member Nick Lachey, who is
trying to recapture the magic he and his tip-frosted, pop-and-locking buddies
had in the old MTV video music request show “Total Request Live” by hosting VH1's
“Big Morning Buzz Live.” The pop
culture and celebrity-driven morning show welcomed Lachey as its new host
Monday and he smartly noted that it was a chance he couldn’t pass up – probably
because it was the only one he had. "It was something I jumped all over
because just being a musician, and being on a network like VH1, and being able
to do live morning TV from Times Square every day just seemed like such a great
fit," Lachey said. “[I'm] so very excited to be here and excited they
thought of me and can't wait to get started.” Translation: “I’m a washed-up
man-bander whose music no one cares about and whose love life doesn’t interest
people the way it once did when I was married to Weight Watchers spokesperson
Jessica Simpson. You’re damn right I’m happy to get this gig.” “Big Morning
Buzz Live” will air live
from the Total Request Live Studios every week day in New York City's Times
Square, where Lachey and his man band had so many memorable moments waving to
screaming teenage girls 15 years ago. His wife, Vanessa Minnillo, was a “TRL”
host for several years, adding a nice layer of nostalgia for Lachey. For his
first show, Lachey welcomed “The Real” co-host Adrienne Bailon and “Chicago PD” star Sophia
Bush, accented by a performance from pop-rockers The Fray. Lachey said his
dream guest would be none other than one of the stars of the biggest winner at
Sunday night’s Oscars, “Gravity” leading man George Clooney. Clooney and Lachey
are both from Cincinnati, which is where their similarities end, even if Lachey
likes to think he has a lot in common with a guy who has actual talent and
game. “He's a Cincinnati guy. I'm a Cincinnati guy. We have so much in common,
George and I,” Lachey said. Whatever you want to tell yourself, Nick………
- Karma strikes again. Making fun of or reveling in the
suffering of a person dependent upon medical oxygen to breathe and survive on a
daily basis is normally bad form, but the equation changes when that person
gives a giant middle finger to their health problems by lighting up a lung dart
WHILE THEY ARE USING SAID MEDICAL OXYGEN. An unidentified 57-year-old
Lakeland (Fla.) man is an absolute moron but fortunate to be alive after he
ignited a flash fire while smoking and using medical oxygen, authorities said.
This fool and his ridiculous nicotine fix suffered possible life-threatening
burns to his face and hands while he was choking down a cancer sticks at the
Lakeland Presbyterian Apartments, an independent living facility on S. Florida
Avenue, around 1:30 p.m. After failing to put the facts together and realize
that pure oxygen and the spark from his lung dart would spell disaster, the man
lit up and put the rest of his building in danger with a fire that fortunately
did not spread beyond his small sphere of ignorance. First responders
transported the man by ambulance to a nearby landing zone and he was
transported by helicopter to Tampa General Hospital. Amazingly, the man’s apartment
sustained no fire damage and no other residents were evacuated, according to
the Lakeland Fire Department. Authorities did not confirm whether the man has
an IQ of less than 10, as his actions would suggest, but with this level of
ignorance and stupidity on display, it should be only a matter of time before
he lights up again while taking oxygen and brings paramedics rushing to the
Lakeland Presbyterian Apartments once more……..
- A fuel for the future could be in the works. Led by SLAC National
Accelerator Laboratory staff scientist Felix Studt, a research team has
discovered a potentially clean and low-cost way to convert carbon dioxide into
methanol. Methanol is a key ingredient in the production of plastics, adhesives
and solvents and a possible alternative fuel source, so finding ways to
manufacture it cheaply and safely would be huge. The NAL team identified a new
nickel-gallium catalyst that converts hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methanol
with fewer undesirable byproducts than the conventional catalyst. "Methanol
is processed in huge factories at very high pressures using hydrogen, carbon
dioxide and carbon monoxide from natural gas," Studt said. Studt went on
to say that his team is now seeking additional materials from which they can
make methanol from clean sources under low-pressure conditions while generating
low amounts of carbon monoxide. "Eventually we would also like to make
higher alcohols, such as ethanol and propanol, which, unlike methanol, can be
directly added to gasoline today," said study co-author Jens Norskov, a
professor of chemical engineering at the Stanford University. The project began
with the team researching methanol synthesis at the molecular level. From
there, they sought a new catalyst capable of synthesizing methanol at low
pressures using only hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Nickel-gallium emerged as the
top candidate thanks to a research group at the Technical University of
Denmark. The Danish scientists did the leg work for synthesizing nickel and
gallium into a solid catalyst and found that nickel-gallium produced more
methanol than the conventional copper-zinc-aluminum catalyst and considerably
less of carbon monoxide byproduct. "You want to make methanol, not carbon
monoxide. You also want a catalyst that is stable and does not decompose. The
lab tests showed that nickel-gallium is, in fact, a very stable solid," explained
Ib Chorkendorff of the Technical University of Denmark. Work on the concept
continues with the goal of developing a large-scale manufacturing process that
is non-polluting and carbon neutral using clean hydrogen………
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