- The world can rest easy. With the biggest soccer
tournament in the world a mere three months away, a gaping hole in the musical
universe has finally been filled thanks to English pop singer Gary Barlow.
Barllow headed to at Sarm Studios in London, the place where a host of stars gathered
to record Band Aid's chart-topping single “Do They Know It’s Christmas” way
back in 1984, and laid down England's official 2014 FIFA World Cup single. The
track, which should probably be titled “How to Deliver Gut-Wrenching Disappointment
to an Entire Nation,” features the Take That singer joined by a host of pop
stars and ex-soccer players trying to sign while not sounding completely
ridiculous. The list of hacks cycling in and out of the booth included former
Spice Girls members Mel C and Emma Bunton, former Girls Aloud member Kimberley
Walsh, “Match Of The Day” host Gary Lineker, 1966 World Cup hero Geoff
Hurst and footballer-turned-talking head Michael Owen, Conor Maynard, Eliza
Doolittle, Katy B and Pixie Lott. All in all, it’s a truly impressive lot of
losers who will now be linked to a song that both they and everyone with the
misfortune of hearing it upon its debut as part of Sport Relief on BBC One on March
21 will soon which had never happened. Just ask anyone who was a part of the “Please
Stay LeBron” music video that attempted to convince LeBron James to stay in
Cleveland in the summer of 2010 if they wish that musical abomination had never
happened. Given England’s tortured history in the World Cup and the likelihood
that the Three Lions will return home with more bitter Cup memories as opposed
to a shiny trophy, skipping an official song was probably the right move………
- America proudly protects its bigots, racists and fools.
So says the United States Constitution and so say the defenders of the right to
free speech. So says Boca Raton, Fla. resident K. Hayes. Hayes, who wants to be
identified publicly only by his first initial and last name, is a proud Ku Klux
Klan member who has no problem flying his hate high for all to see in his front
yard on a daily basis. Several of Hayes’ neighbors have expressed outrage over
Hayes flying a red KKK flag in his yard alongside a “Members Wanted” sign and a
noose, but Hayes isn't backing down. "They never said anything to my face and
they're entitled to their own free speech as well as I am," he said. Neighbors
who oppose the display say it reminds them of the United States’ ugly racist
past, but Hayes doesn’t give a damn. He proudly rocks a business card
identifying him as a recruiter for the Knights Party of the Ku Klux Klan. Ask
his neighbors and they will tell you that his recruiting has extended all the
way down to neighborhood children to whom Martin has distributed literature and
made speeches to spread his views. As one would expect in such a situation set
in a place where the odds of all participants being well-educated, intelligent
and reasonable human beings with the ability to carry on a responsible and
progressive dialogue are über-low, both sides are tossing around the angry
rhetoric and demanding that the other side see things their way. "I called
code enforcement and they said it's perfectly legal to put up any kind of flag
you want," said Nick Scalice, President of a nearby homeowners’
association that does not include Hayes' home. What? A homeowners’
association that doesn’t feel it has the right to dictate home appearance terms
to residents whether they reside in its area of official influence or not? That
is absurd. Hayes, emboldened by the reasonable anger and offense of his
neighbors, says
he has no intentions of removing the flag. "Absolutely," he said of
his plans to keep flying his hate flag. "It's my patriotic duty."
Whatever you say, kook………
- Yes, professional athletes are still overgrown children
posing as adults and making millions of dollars to play a children’s game. That
much is evident to anyone who has spent even one second in the vicinity of a
locker room, but Detroit Tigers
outfielder Torii Hunter and teammate Justin Verlander provided a ringing
reminder Tuesday. Verlander, arguably one of the best pitchers in baseball, and
Hunter, a former All-Star and respected veteran, provided a memorable Instagram
moment when Verlander brought a small alligator into the Tigers’ Lakeland, Fla.
spring training clubhouse. The gator had its jaws tied shut, preventing in from
snapping off anyone’s fingers or toes, and someone (Verlander?) challenged
Hunter to pucker up and kiss the muzzled gator. Because there is no way a grown
man bearing down on the age of 40 can possibly say no to a stupid dare from one
of his boys, Hunter accepted the challenge and planted a brief smooch on the
gator’s snout as a bystander snapped the moment on their smartphone for a
blurry Instagram photo. The entire scene was stupid, funny and ridiculous all
at once, but not quite as ridiculous as Hunter trying to tell media members the
next day that the entire incident was not what it appeared. The veteran
outfielder, who had never before touched a gator, told reporters that he was
just "on the backside of it" and there was no kiss. First-year
manager Brad Ausmus undoubtedly had this sort of moment in mind when he
instituted a daily morning meeting for his team so it could have a unified,
formal start to its day and a chance to share a few laughs before starting out
on the day. All of this would be a surprise if major leaguers weren't the same
guys who routinely light one another’s shoes on fire in the dugout, smash
shaving cream pies in teammates’ faces during interviews and stick bubble gum
bubbles on top of each other’s hats during games………
- Pick up your crap, Mount Everest climbers. Nepal loves
being home of the world’s most famous mountain, but it wants those who pay
thousands of dollars to risk their lives attempting to reach its summit to pick
up after themselves as they go. Nepali officials are instituting new rules
aimed at clearing the tons of rubbish now clogging the world's highest
peak. Beginning this spring, officials at Everest base camp will check that
each climber descends the mountain with approximately 18 pounds of trash - the
amount the government estimates a climber creates somewhere along their route
up and down the mountain. This attempt at zero-sum math is the latest in a
series of attempts to keep Everest from turning into the world’s tallest
landfill. "We are not asking climbers to search and pick up trash left by
someone else," said Maddhu Sudan Burlakoti, head of the mountaineering
department at the Tourism Ministry. "We just want them to bring back what
they took up." The mountain has begun to resemble a large, rocky trash can
in recent years, decorated by crumpled food wrappers, shredded tent remains and
spent oxygen cylinders. Requests for climbers to clean up after themselves have
fallen on deaf ears and threats to withhold $4,000 climbing deposits for
polluting teams have proven to be without any real bite. The new rules could
offer a hint as to why previous clean-up efforts have failed. See, the
government failed to say what action it would take against climbers who descend
without the required amount of trash. Nearly half of Nepal's foreign visitors
in 2013 – some 230,000 people - came last year specifically to trek the
Himalayas, with 810 attempting to scale Everest. More than 4,000 climbers have
scaled the 29,035-foot summit since 1953, when New Zealand climber Edmund
Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay reached the peak. Private companies
control most expeditions up and down the mountain and are supposed to shoulder
the burden of clearing the trash their climbers create – and they don’t. The Nepalese
people believe that deaths and injuries that occur to climbers are the result
of bad karma earned through disrespecting the mountain, but the specter of
negative karma has proven insufficient to convict Everest scalers to clean up
their act………
- Put down that Mountain Dew and shy away from the sugar
cookies, world. The World Health Organization want
to go nanny state on you once more and is telling you how much sugar you should
be consuming on a daily basis. According to new WHO guidelines, the recommended
sugar intake will stay at below 10 percent of total calorie intake a day, with
5 percent the target. This artificial daily limit applies to all sugars added
to food, as well as sugar naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and
fruit concentrates. This may seem like a sudden change for the agency, but in
fact, it is the exact opposite. The WHO passed the recommendation for lowering
recommended daily sugar intake a full decade ago, but just now got around to
actually doing something about it. Under the new guidelines, the average adult
of a normal weight should consume about 50 grams of sugar a day, according to
the WHO. Dr. Francesco Branca, WHO's nutrition director, explained at a news
conference that the 10 percent target was a "strong recommendation"
while the 5 percent target was "conditional.” "We should aim for 5
percent if we can,” Branca said. Because the WHO has no actual clout whatsoever
on a global level, it’s recommendation is just that, nothing more. It will now
go to the public for input and a firmer recommendation is expected this summer.
A cynic might wonder where the WHO came up with its guidelines. They are based
on a review of scientific evidence on the health impact of sugar, including
damage to teeth and the effect on obesity. If obesity is a rubric for any study
or policy, then a 5-percent reduction in sugar, fat, cholesterol or any other
health-affecting food component is not nearly steep enough………
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