- Both are a long, long ways off, but that won't stop
fanboys everywhere from geeking out about the announced release dates for two
new superhero films. The release dates for sequels to “The Wolverine” and “The
Fantastic 4” are both years away, but the fact that they exist at all is proof
enough that Hollywood’s tireless pursuit of both comic book dorks and
unoriginal script ideas is alive and well. The “Wolverine” sequel is the
follow-up to the spinoff of the X-Men franchise. The original film served as a stand-alone
saga for Hugh Jackman's character and it was released in last summer.
Fox confirmed this week that the “Wolverine” sequel will hit theaters on the
not-anywhere-close date of March 3…..2017. Yes, a mere three years is all fans
will have to wait to see a movie that will likely be both overly predictable
and be made for far too much money. Jackman will have company in that realm as
the next “Fantastic 4” sequel will hit the local multiplex a few months later
in July 2017. All four of the titular characters will be re-cast from the
original two “Fantastic 4” films, with Jessica Alba, Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans
and Michael Chiklis out and the quartet of Kate Mara, Miles Teller, Michael B.
Jordan and Jamie Bell in the roles of the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, Mr.
Fantastic and the Thing. Alba, Gruffudd, Evans and Chiklis all appeared in both
the original “Fantastic” remake in 2005 and 2007’s sequel “Rise Of The Silver Surfer.” Both
movies did well at the box office, but were critical flops. Movie franchises
generally don’t get better simply by re-casting them and doing another sequel
mere years after their predecessors (“The Amazing Spider-Man,” anyone?), but
that won't stop Fox from cranking this one out and spending as much money as
possible to make it happen………
- The world may have moved ahead significantly in its
technology and methods of transportation in recent years (still no flying cars,
dammit!), but people’s fascination with digging out passageways beneath the
ground is alive and well. There are drug tunnels running under the U.S.-Mexican
border, old tunnels used to smuggle freed slaves north during the Civil War and
of course, the just-discovered sophisticated tunnel a that stretched hundreds of
yards into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip and could have been used to
attack or kidnap Israelis. The Israeli military announced the find and military
spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner revealed that soldiers discovered fresh
footprints and tools inside the tunnel from southern Gaza, suggesting that it
had been worked on even “in the last few days,” and that its design, with many
offshoots, made it “the most advanced tunnel that we’ve exposed.” The tunnel
did not directly reach any Israeli town or village, but Lerner said, “It wasn’t
that far – a quick sprint and you could attack a community.” The army’s
nemesis, the militant Palestinian faction Hamas, downplayed the significance of
the tunnel – and of Israel’s intelligence feat in finding it. A Hamas spokesman
said the tunnel had been exposed by bad weather, which also caused parts of it
to collapse. He claimed the tunnel was old and not suitable for use, therefore
making it a relatively meaningless find by Israel. Uh-huh, sure thing. That
response was straight out of the hostile militant handbook, Page 1. The Israel
Defense Forces found three similar tunnels under the Gaza border fence last
year, but Lerner characterized the newest discovery as “the most substantial.” Palestinian
militants used a similar tunnel in 2006 to enter Israel, kill two soldiers and
kidnap a third, Gilad Shalit, who was held for five years. Regardless of how
calm the ongoing showdown because Israel and Palestine is, the two sides are
always one hastily fired rocket away from an all-out bloodbath that sends the
world into a full-fledged frenzy. There will always be incidents like the one
last week in which Islamic Jihad and smaller militant Palestinian groups fired
about 100 rockets into southern Israel over three days, prompting several
rounds of Israeli airstrikes. Keep tunneling, raging and avoiding peace
deals like the plague, fellas……..
- The NFL draft is a huge three-day span for the hundreds
of players picked to continue their football careers in the biggest league in
all of American professional sports. In the weeks and months leading up to the
draft, players make or lose themselves millions of dollars by how they perform
at the league’s draft combine, their own workouts for teams and off the field.
With that hanging over them, it is perennially amazing that so many prospects f*ck
up their chances to be a top pick by acting like an idiot/criminal/straight-up
stoner/Neanderthal before they can hear their name called at the draft by
commissioner Roger Goodell. Former
Michigan offensive lineman and first-round NFL draft prospect Taylor Lewan
is the latest member of the club now that he has been charged with one
count of aggravated assault and two counts of assault or assault and
battery stemming from an incident on Dec. 1, 2013, according to court records.
Lewan is projected as one of the top offensive tackles in the draft, but teams
may want to do more research on the type of person he is now that they know he
is facing criminal charges role in an incident taking place on the 1200 block
of South University Avenue around 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 1, following Michigan's
loss to Ohio State. The incident involved two Ohio State fans who claimed they
were assaulted. At the combine last month, Lewan denied any involvement in the
alleged fight. "I went over the Ohio State incident once before. I wasn't
in any fight of any kind," Lewan said. "I was actually breaking
something up and some guy said that I slugged him, but that's not who I am off
the field, that's not the kind of person I am. It might seem that way because
of the way I play football, but that's not the way I am as a person."
Lewan somehow managed to be the only person charged in an incident in which he
was not involved and will be arraigned on April 8 at 9 a.m. in the 15th
District Court in Ann Arbor, Mich. He’s not exactly facing life in a Siberian
gulag if convicted (there is a maximum sentence of 93 days in jail or a fine of
up to $500 if convicted), but the idea of drafting a hotheaded offensive tackle
has become less appealing these days in light of the whole Richie Incognito
train wreck…….
- Take that, human arrogance. Mankind tends to be fairly
proud of itself, but humans took a genetic backseat this week when researchers
at the University of California, Davis found an organism whose genome size
dwarfs that of man. The loblolly pine has a genome that is seven times longer
than the human genome and is now officially the longest genome ever sequenced. “It’s
a huge genome," said David Neale, a professor of plant sciences at
UC-Davis. "But the challenge isn’t just collecting all the sequence data.
The problem is assembling that sequence into order." Neale led the project
to sequence the genome and believes the findings will help scientists better
understand how plants evolve. Addiitionally, the research could deepen
scientific understanding of the best way to breed new and improved loblolly
pines. The hearty tree accounts for the vast majority of America's paper
products and is one of many possible ingredients used to make a renewable
source of biofuel. “Loblolly pine plays an important role in American
forestry," said Sonny Ramaswamy, director of USDA’s National Institute of
Food and Agriculture -- the agency that funded the research project. "Now
that we’ve unlocked its genetic secrets, loblolly pine will take on even
greater importance as we look for new sources of biomass to drive our nation’s
bioeconomy and ways to increase carbon sequestration and mitigate climate
change." Sounds like someone poured money into work aimed at making them
richer, eh Sonny? Just another case of Big Paper flexing its muscle………
- Rarely should there be gunfire down at the local zoo. For
the most part, the animals inside the cages can take care of themselves should
one of the animals from outside who paid for admission and should know better
stumble onto the wrong side of the barricades. The rides are all kid-friendly
and there isn't any need to get into a fight in line over who cut in front of
who. Reasons to carry a gun at a zoo are hard to come by as well, so the odds
of anyone squeezing off a few rounds should be virtually zero. That makes this
week’s scene at the Kansas City Zoo peculiar
and then some. Zoo officials are considering changes to admission policies
after a shooting incident that sent hundreds of panicked patrons running for
their lives. The dispute allegedly began when hundreds of teens who were there
on a free admission day for residents of Jackson and Clay counties. Fights
broke out inside the zoo and spilled into a parking lot, where shots were fired
and fearful zoo goers described a scene in which “all hell broke loose."
Extra security was at the zoo to deal with the larger crowds and dozens of
Kansas City police officers responded to the zoo after the issues erupted about
3:30 p.m. Despite the gunshots, the zoo remained open until its scheduled 4 p.m.
closing time. Once the gun smoke cleared and the chaos settled down, six people
were arrested and a gun was found on top of a fire pit in Swope Park, which
surrounds the zoo. Leaving a gun on top of a fire is always a wonderful
idea because of the amusing potential for the heat to cause the gun to begin
firing bullets in random directions. The zoo quickly suspended free admission
days until the issues that sent this one off the rails are resolved. "We've
asked the Parks Department and Zoo to put a hold on free days at the zoo until
we can come up with a plan that protects public safety," City Manager Troy
Schulte said. A policy banning idiots from the zoo would be an excellent
start……..
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