- It must be spring. No, the gradually improving weather
isn’t the indicator here, nor is are the impending festivities of the Masters,
golf’s first major tournament of each year. Actually, the tip-off that it’s
finally spring does come from the state of Georgia, but it hails from Athens
instead of Augusta. In what has become a regular late-March staple, the blotter
for the Athens Police Department features fresh ink courtesy of the football
felons at the University of Georgia. It’s not officially spring until some of
coach Mark Richt’s players have ended up taking a ride downtown in a squad car,
but it didn’t take long for the Bulldogs to make their mark this year. The
quartet of criminal masterminds that is starting
safety Tray Matthews, defensive linemen Jon Taylor and James DeLoach and wide
receiver Uriah LeMay were charged with receiving double payments for checks of
$71.50 issued by the Georgia athletic department in a scam that can only be
described as equal parts idiocy and greed – but probably more idiocy that
anything else. According to police, Matthews, Taylor and DeLoach deposited the
paper checks they received from the university through a mobile app, then
sprinted to an off-campus convenience store with the thought of cashing the
physical check before the digital version was processed. It would have worked
if not for the fact that the world is not totally run by ass hats and when the
same check showed up twice on the bank’s transaction list, someone was bound to
notice. Once their scam was unearthed, the players were arrested by University
of Georgia police and hit with misdemeanor charges of theft by deception.
Richt, who isn't exactly know for dropping his authoritative hammer on misbehaving
players, said this week that he is still deciding on the proper discipline for
his latest group of criminals. All of the players are participating in spring
practice, but Richt claimed he has not determined their fate. "I wouldn't
put anything out of the realm of possibilities right now," Richt said.
"Right now we're just allowing them to continue to work. There's more to
come. "I'm just thinking it through real good." So far, extra work in
practice is the only crackdown the players have suffered………
- Hospitals: A place to go to get well or get yourself a new
infection? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
the answer could be yes. A new CDC report shows that 722,000 people admitted to
U.S. hospitals last year acquired infections during their stay, meaning 1 in 25
persons was listed as contacting infections following hospital admission, with 11
percent of elderly patients dying from such instances. CDC Division of Health
Care and Quality Promotion Deputy Director Michael Bell, who
is responsible for patient safety issues in many of the nation’s
hospitals, noted that there have been improvements in this area but
stressed the need for additional studies. “There is still much work to be done,”
Bell said. He went on to state the blazingly obvious, admitting that most
people will spend some time in hospitals during their lifetime and doubling
down on his obviousness by pointing out that some people get better, others do
not. The CDC is studying ways to reduce
the rates for patients who do no fare well on the improvement track to
wellness. For those who pick up an unwanted infection while spending time in a
hospital, the most common areas for infection are around the lungs, unitary
tract, stomach and surgical sites. Blood stream infections also rank high on
the list and all of them thrive on the involvement of bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant
infections stemming from staph, MRSA and CRE are among the treats patients
often enjoy and CRE is a real joy because no current antibiotic on the market
is able to treat this particular strain of infection. CDC data shows
improvement with varying differentials across states for bacteria strains and
infections, including a 20-percent decrease in infections related to procedures
requiring surgery and a 44 percent degrease in line associated bloodstream
infections. Yet another reason why these health care havens are places to avoid……….
- Now this has gone too far. Russia has stepped over
virtually every acceptable line in its ongoing intrusion into Ukraine,
attempting to hijack the Crimea region and extending a giant middle finger to a
disapproving world in the process. Its many violations of international
standards and laws is one thing, but the sh*t got a little too real this week
when the invasion moved from taking over Ukraine's military bases in Crimea to seizing control of
the always-dangerous Ukrainian dolphin fleet. Yes, Ukraine has dolphins as part
of its security forces and according to Russian state media, the dolphins are
now under Russian control — but
purely for defensive purposes. The marine mammals were said to have been
trained in the 1960s and '70s to attack divers and plant explosives on enemy
targets, so clearly Russia has reason to be fearful of them. When the Soviet
Union collapsed, the military training facility in Sevastopol was converted to
civilian use and the bottlenose dolphins shifted to civilian life, including such
as swimming with disabled children. Reports swirled in 2012 that the Ukrainian
Navy was reviving the military program, perhaps even attempting to pull a Dr.
Evil and outfit the dolphins with knives and pistols on their heads. Those
reports are almost certainly a complete fabrication and one Russia is
now using in a feeble attempt to justify another truly ridiculous action, so
here’s hoping that the Geneva Convention includes a section laying out what
sort of discipline a country receives if it wrongly seizes control of another
nation’s marine military mammals………
- Scoring a breaking-down, aged-out action star/former
governor to return to the most iconic role in his career was remarkably easy
for the producers of “Terminator: Genesis,” but filling
out the rest of the cast for the bloated-budget sci-fi epic is taking time. Arnold
Schwarzenegger will also return to the franchise for the film, which makes
sense because he has nothing better to do with his time than make a futile grab
as past glory. He will be joined by “Game Of Thrones”
star Emilia Clarke, who will play Sarah Connor, and Jai Courtney playing Kyle
Reese. Courtney knows something about failed sequels, as he played Bruce Willis’
son in the crap-tacular fifth installment of the “Die Hard” franchise, 2013’s “A
Good Day to Die Hard.” “Thor: The Dark
World “filmmaker Alan Clarke will helm the project and he needs more big
names to put on top of the smoldering pile of monkey crap that is his movie so
that movie goers will look not at the crappy script, the terrible dialogue or
the ridiculous and predictable plot sure to ensure with the needless revival of
a franchise that has long been dead, so he is reportedly pursuing “Attack The Block” actor John Boyega
to join the cast. Boyega’s addition is not official, but multiple reports have
suggested that he could play the son of scientist Miles Dyson in the film. The
hang-up in him agreeing to join the project stems from his flirtation with
being a part of “Star Wars: Episode
VII,” which falls into the same needless sequel category as “Genesis,” but
might offer a bigger payday. He is reportedly the favorite to land the
part of a Jedi apprentice in JJ Abrams' reboot of the outer space series. As
for “Genesis,” it is expected to hit theaters next June……..
- Starbucks, take notice. If only the international (and
internationally overpriced) coffee shop chain would take notice of what a small
bakery in Burlington, Vt. is doing, its thousands of locations around the globe
would be so much better off. August First is a typical small-town bakery in
Burlington and owner Jodi Whalen has experienced the same societal trends that
coffee shops, cafés, bakeries and restaurants around the world have experienced
in recent years, namely people toting their laptops and tablets with them do
stay connected to the world outside. Starbucks patrons are typically the worst
offenders, with some setting up what amounts to their own office inside their
favorite coffee shop and doing everything short of using the restroom at their
own executive bathroom. Whalen has seen too many people lug in their laptop,
set up their printer and hold conference calls at one of her prime tables, so
she is taking action. Under its owner’s direction, August First has banned what
is known as cybersquatting, where
customers stay for hours, taking up tables without ordering much. "It's a
nice place to come and work, but we can't be a workplace," Whalen said. "Sometimes
five or six hours and it prevented other customers from finding seats.” The
policy is not some knee-jerk reaction, either; Whalen studied the number of
lost customers due to lack of seating and estimated that freeloaders cost her about
$15,000 in potential profits last year because would-be patrons left when they couldn’t
get a table. "We have tried to compromise for years," Whalen added.
"But we just reached the point where we have to make this big
change." Under the new policy, laptops and tablets are no longer welcome. Some
customers have complained about the practice, but others have applauded the
removal of some annoying digital intrusions from a small part of their lives………
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