Confederate flags v. Iowa, "Grease" the musical on Fox and enraged Washington Redskins

- Every professional athlete entering the last year of his contract wants to have his best year and thereby earn the biggest possible payday when he becomes a free agent. That motivation leads to some remarkable seasons and often nets contracts that players never live up to once they’ve already been rewarded with big money, but Washington Redskins pass rusher Brian Orakpo doesn’t sound like he’s using his impending free agency as motivation for the season ahead. With new Redskins coach Jay Gruden saying he’s content letting Orakpo play out the season on a franchise tag, Orakpo insisted he isn't using that perceived disrespect as motivation. "I have to prove myself again, huh?" during a luncheon for his cancer charity. "I don't have to prove myself to anybody. I'm already proven in this league. I don't have to prove anything to anybody. That goes for fans, that goes for media. Anybody. I'm well-proven in this league. If it doesn't work out, then it doesn't work out, but I don't have to prove anything to anybody." His stance is slightly different than many players who hate the franchise tag because it prevents them from grabbing the lucrative, long-term contract they desire, but playing under the $11.45 million franchise tender he signed earlier this offseason isn’t exactly a massive sacrifice for the 13th overall pick in the 2009 draft. In the Redskins’ defense, Orakpo has never been a game-changing player and his career-best sack total is 11, which was set as a rookie. He has played in all 16 games just twice in his career and Gruden didn’t sound overly desperate to ink him to an extension when he spoke at the owners' meetings last month. "I wouldn't mind letting him play out this franchise tag and see what happens," Gruden said. "He's a talented player. I think he can do a little better, we can ask more of him to where he could be more productive." Orakpo should have the necessary chance to shine this season, as he said defensive coordinator Jim Haslett has expressed a plan to give both of the team’s outside linebackers more chances to make plays. That matters a lot when dollars are on the line……….

- How do you create what may be the thinnest, smallest wires ever made? That is not a trick question. Junhao Lin, a Vanderbilt doctoral student and visiting scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, has cooked up a method of using finely focused beam of electrons to build what are already being touted as among the smallest wires ever made. With his focused beam, Lin was able to make flexible metallic wires only three atoms wide. The wires are 1/1,000th the width of the microscopic wires used to connect the transistors in today's integrated circuits and tinier wires clearly means smaller devices needing less space to fit their no-longer-bulky wiring. In order to build these minute miracles, Lin and his fellow researchers used a special family of semiconducting materials that naturally form monolayers. Called transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), these unique materials are created by combining the metals molybdenum or tungsten with either sulfur or selenium. Beyond their use here, monolayers are favorites within the tech world due to the number of remarkable qualities they possess. They are renowned for their strength, transparency flexibility and high electron mobility. They vaulted to scientific prominence in 2014 with the discovery of an easy way to create graphene and have grown in popularity ever since. Now that these mini-wires have been created, the next step is figuring out what sorts of applications they have in the real world. Possibilities include tablets and television displays as a sheet of paper, which of course would fetch an absurd price that early adopters would be all too happy to pay……..

- What the eff is wrong with you, Germany? You’re such a cool country and aside from the ugly decade where you were ruled by a genocidal maniac who lacked both a soul and a basic respect for humanity, you’ve brought a lot to the world in the past few centuries. Your beer is wonderful, your chocolate is solid and your bratwurst of all varieties is amazing – not to mention the culinary greatness that is schnitzel. So why the hell are there fools among you that insist on yanking Deutschland in the wrong direction by fueling a rise in politically-motivated crimes, specifically a spike in left-wing violence and other illegal activity. The German Interior Ministry said Tuesday the far-right accounted for most such crimes with 17,042 acts in 2013, down 3.3 percent from 2012. In the absence of far-right crimes, their extremist counterbalance on the far-left side of the spectrum saw their crimes rise 40.1 percent to 8,673 acts in 2013, nearly half of which were property damage. More than two-thirds of the right wing’s crimes were classified as propaganda, such as displaying the swastika or other banned symbols, but its violent crimes dropped 0.6 percent to 837. For the left wing, violent crimes rose 28.4 percent to 1,659 — primarily attacks on police and others during demonstrations. Perhaps on the strength of their most polarized people, the Germans saw their anti-foreigner crimes soar 11.2 percent to 3,248. However, in a refreshing turn of events, there was a 7.2-percent drop in anti-Semitic incidents to 1,275. It might seem like a small note in an otherwise ugly story, but for a country that once attempted to eradicate an entire race of people from the face of the Earth, even a small step forward is a positive step. None of that excuses the belligerent and bigoted views of those on opposing extremes of the political continuum, but every country has its resident kooks and the chances of ever fully eradicating these morons aren't high………

- Let the awkward scenes of people signing their way through life continue. NBC has seized the early lead for major TV networks airing live TV musicals with the strong performance of December’s airing of a live broadcast of "The Sound of Music" starring Carrie Underwood and the Peacock has already announced plans for a live production of "Peter Pan" for next December. Clearly, no rival network can sit back and ignore the strong ratings “Music” pulled in and so it is that Fox is entering the fray with a wholly predictable and likely to be lame three-hour live version of the musical "Grease" that will feature "a young ensemble cast.” That cast has yet to be named, but in reality, the legions of stuck-in-time tools who enjoyed the movie and are still hung up on the mythos of the story probably won't care whether Adam Lambert, Zac Effron, Jonah Hill or Robert Pattinson are involved. All these sycophants want to see are iconic “Grease” songs such as "Summer Nights," ''Greased Lightnin'," ''We Go Together" and "You're the One That I Want." The original movie was released in 1978 and played a large role in boosting the fledgling careers of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. It has been done to death and then some by numerous high school and community theater groups over the years and while a live TV version isn't exactly going to bring anything new to the table, expecting Fox to sit idly by and lose more ratings battles would be foolish. Your move, ABC and CBS……..

- Stockton, Iowa…who would have thought that a place where cornstalks outnumber people 1,000,000-to-1 (all numbers approximate) would be such a hotbed for racially charged issues surrounding one of the most inflammatory symbols in American history? Bizarre as it may be, the small town in rural Iowa is embroiled in a scandal thanks to the reaction of some locals after one of their own was targeted by an anonymous letter to the city council for flying a Confederate flag outside their home. The letter came in expressing outrage that a backward-thinking ass hat would dare to hoist the colors of an ugly and repressive entity that fought for its right to continue enslaving other human beings based solely on their skin color and when that letter arrived, it was a decisive moment for some around town. In response to the letter and moreover to the unwillingness of its author to sign his or her name to it, some residents began flying the Confederate flag outside their homes as well. That includes Mayor Melissa Fowler, who has not commented publicly on the issue yet but has nonetheless kept the flag flying. Those on the pro-flag side of the issue believe that people have a right to their beliefs – no matter how ignorant and steeped in hate they may be – and therefore won't demand that anyone stop flying the Confederate colors. Others believe that having a town’s mayor pimping for one of the ugliest eras in American history sends a bad message to children and families. City council member Donnalee Holmes argued that the flag represents some residents’ southern heritage and is therefore no big deal. “I don’t see what would be offensive about it, I really don’t,” Holmes said. “This city needs a lot of things and fussing over a flag seems silly.” Ah, lessons on racial sensitivity from the heartland………

The "Justice League" movie, stoner tourism and soccer racism

- Miguel de Cervantes: Prototypical tortured artist and for Spain, another draw to bring tourists to a country that already has plenty to offer. Spain's greatest writer lived a famously tortured existence and died flat-broke in Madrid, his body riddled with bullets. Cervantes’ original burial place was a tiny convent church no larger than the entrance hall of an average house and it was largely forgotten until the rediscovery of a novel by the 16th-century author featuring an eccentric character called Don Quixote. Now, four centuries after his death, Spain plans to use Cervantes’ fame to its advantage by searching for his remains and trying to unearth them in order to promote a new tourist site. The estimated cost of the operation is $138,000 and it is expected to take the remainder of the year at the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians in Madrid's historic Barrio de las Letras -- or Literary Quarter. The three-phase search will be closely watched in a country already strapped for cash, but it could pay off big if it is successful. Cervantes had long since penned "The Adventures of the Ingenious Nobleman Don Quixote of La Mancha" when he moved to Spain's capital in 1606, but like so many great artists, his true fame came long after he died. His initial legacy was that of an ill-fated soldier who was wounded in battle and spent years captive in Algiers. He was captured by Turkish pirates and wasn’t freed until the Trinitarian order negotiated his release and helped pay a ransom that ruined Cervantes' family. He became an errand runner for the convent to give thanks for his deliverance and lived in a typical Spanish neighborhood full of artists, criminals, wine and tapas. He was ignored by famed authors such as Luis de Gongora and Francisco de Quevedo and died in 1616 at the age of 69. When the chapel in which he was buried was expanded to its current state, his burial place was lost in the process. Fernando Prado, the historian in charge of the project, is confident of finding the unmarked grave. "We know he is buried there," Prado said. "History teaches us that churches never throw bones away. They might relocate them under roofs and vaults if necessary, but no one would dare throw them into a common ossuary." The search team will first use radar to seek any altered terrain pointing them in the right direction and from there, a forensic anthropologist will take over. The third possible portion of the process will be forensic identification on any bones found in the search. Battle wounds Cervantes sustained in combat are expected to be a valuable clue in ascertaining his identity……….

- Racism and bigotry in sports: They’re not just a Donald Sterling thing. As European soccer fans are so adamant about proving on a regular basis, they too can be heinous, reprehensible assholes with backwards-thinking views on the world. Instances of racism against black players have remained part of the ugly side of the fabric of European soccer even as the world has moved forward and on Sunday in a game at Villarrea, Barcelona defender Dani Alves delivered a legendary performance in response to a hatemonger in the stands who came prepared to make a heinous statement that doesn’t belong anywhere in humanity. Alves was doing his job, flopping with no actual contact and running around a large grassy field while not scoring any goals, when a fan hurled a banana in his direction because…..you know, it’s cool to refer to people with dark skin as some sort of primate. The banana landed at Alves’ feet and in a baller move, he casually picked up the hurled fruit, peeled it and took a bit before proceeding to take a corner kick. He explained after the contest that humor is the best way to combat racism in sports. "We have suffered this in Spain for some time," Alves said. "You have to take it with a dose of humor. We aren't going to change things easily. If you don't give it importance, they don't achieve their objective." Alves has experience dealing with racist chants from fans and deemed the fight against racism  "a lost war" in January 2013 after segments of Real Madrid's fans mocked him with monkey chants during a match. Despite the fruit-based bigotry, Alves stepped up to spark his team's 3-2 comeback when his off-target shot was turned into an own goal by Villarreal's Gabriel Armando in the 65th minute. Moments after the banana toss, he launched a cross that Mateo Musacchio headed into his own goal in the 78th before Lionel Messi scored Barcelona's winner. It would be awesome if this incident had any chance of snuffing out the indefensible hate and bias that so many fans (and NBA owners) have in their hearts, but sadly, ass-hattedness will persist and is still alive and unfortunately well………

- One could look at Microsoft’s admission that a new zero day vulnerability has been found to affect every version of Internet Explorer as a big problem….or one could ask the obvious question that comes in response to such a proclamation. That question, of course, is who the hell is still using Internet Explorer in 2014? So many better options exist – Safari, Chrome, Firefox to name a few – that anyone actually using any version of IE is both laughable and proof that technologically ignorant people remain one of the world’s most prevalent commodities. As for the vulnerability in question, attacks taking advantage of the vulnerability are largely targeting IE versions 9, 10, and 11 in something called a "use after free" attack. Attackers corrupt data as soon as memory has been released, often after ignorant users have been foolishly lured to phony websites. Because of the nature of the vulnerability, Internet Explorer accesses an object in memory that has been deleted or has not been properly allocated. It corrupts a device’s memory in a way that allows hackers to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer. In so doing, that attacker could create a bogus, specially crafted website designed to exploit said vulnerability and lure users to that site. Microsoft admitted that the problem exists and will investigate thoroughly before releasing an out-of-cycle security patch to take care of the problem. Most estimates – stunningly and questionably – peg the number of IE users across all incarnations of the troubled browser at 25 percent, so that makes this a noteworthy problem. Windows XP users will not receive the patch, meaning that anyone still running the now-unsupported software will need a defense of their own……….

- Zack Snyder will take the next crack at a superhero blockbuster and given the almost-guaranteed success of any movie that includes a hero of any studio vintage – DC Comics, Marvel, etc. – he had best not screw it up. Snyder has been tabbed to helm a "Justice League" film after Warner Bros. confirmed its plans over the weekend for a DC Comics super-team film. Snyder was a logical choice after directing last year's Superman reboot "Man of Steel" and having already been tabbed to lead the forthcoming Superman sequel. "It will be a further expansion of this universe," Warner Bros. president of worldwide production Greg Silverman told. "'Superman vs Batman' will lead into 'Justice League.'" Ah, the ol’ “Superman vs. Batman” project, a film thus far know primarily as the movie that has pissed off legions of fans before filming a single scene because its producers made the decision to cast Ben Affleck joining as Batman. Snyder has plenty of work on his plate before getting to “Justice League,” with the Henry Cavill- and Affleck-starring "Man of Steel" follow-up due out in May 2016 with Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. A large part of the Warner Bros. push to get its own superhero team-up flick on the big screen undoubtedly owes to the massive success of Marvel's superhero-filled "The Avengers," which made more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office. As for the “Justice League’ project, the script is still a work in progress and Silverman coyly offered no hint as to which characters will appear in the film. Not that it matters, as fanboys everywhere will flock to see it regardless and give Warner Bros. the massive payday it is seeking……..

- Where there are flocking stoners seeking a vastly overpriced, yet finally legal high, there will surely be people looking to cash in. Colorado has seen both positives and negatives in legalizing marijuana, but while the tax revenues from making it kosher to burn kush haven't been as high (pun intended) as expected, one unexpected group of people still sees plenty of green in its future. That would be homeowners who have neither a respect for their own property nor the appropriate desire to keep unwashed, unsavory stoners from vegging out on their couch and burning a bowl of the good stuff while plowing through a ninth straight day of not showering. These would-be pot profiteers have seen the surge of pot tourists flocking to the Centennial State and they realize that there may not be enough hotel rooms to house all of these real-life Lebowskis. Like fans who live near the site of extremely popular golf tournaments and rent their homes out to fans and players in town for a weekend of great action on the links, these Coloradans can rent out their home through a company all too willing to facilitate this unholy union. A company calling itself airTHC recently launched its website offering to link up out-of-towners with marijuana-friendly vacation homes in Colorado. The project is the brain child of airTHC co-founder Jordan Conner, who views himself as a visionary leading the charge for a new type of tourism. “We can provide places like this where they can come, they can ski for the day and enjoy cannabis legally, and not necessarily bring a bad image to Colorado,” Conner said. “As a property owner you will have a profile, and as a tenant you will have a profile. So as you stay in places you acquire a reputation. You will also be able to contact the person before they come and stay in your place.” Acquire a reputation? Stoners already have a reputation and it is cloaked in hemp garments, flip-flops, Cheetoh dust and bongs. Anyone who rents to a stoner knows what he or she is doing, simply put. Conner can promote his business as giving people options, but those who enlist the help of airTHC have already made their ill-fated choice………

Silvio Berlusconi can't stop won't stop, movie news and FAT people delusions

- The box office taught us a valuable lesson this weekend. A movie need not be good or even watchable in order to top the earnings list for a weekend and “The Other Woman” proved that point emphatically with its debut victory. At $24.7 million, Fox’s absurd comedy that basically has appeal only because dudes like watching Kate Upton bounce around in a bikini and/or have a crush on Cameron Diaz led the way and toppled reigning box office champion “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” “Winter Soldier” slid to second place with $16.1 million and has amassed a whopping $224.9 million in domestic earnings through four weeks in theaters. “Heaven is for Real” fell one spot to third and made $13.8 million in its second weekend to creep up to $52 million in total domestic take. Fourth place went to “Rio 2,” which scored $13.7 million to creep to the brink of the $100 million barrier in overall earnings at $96.2 million in three weeks of release. Paul Walker’s presence didn’t bring strong returns for “Brick Mansions,” which debuted in fifth place and managed just $9.6 million in its first weekend. “Transcendence” continued on its path to being the biggest bomb of 2014, slotting sixth with a scant $4.1 million to gently lift its two-week total to $18.5 million against a whopping $100 million budget. “The Quiet Ones” slinked to seventh place with $4 million in its debut, living up/down to its name in the process. “10 Bears” claimed eighth place with $3.7 million in its second weekend, declining 24.5 percent by still increasing its domestic bank roll to $11.2 million. “Divergent” finished seventh for the weekend and made $3.6 million for a six-week tally of $139.5 million. The last spot in the top 10 went to “A Haunted House 2,” which conjured up minimal laughs and minimal dollars with a $3.3 million weekend. In two weeks, the ridiculous comedy has scored just $14.2 million and counting. “Draft Day” (No. 12) and “Noah” (No. 14) both fell out from last weekend’s top 10……….

- Columbus Day has always been a thorough ridiculous holiday. A wayward explorer takes a wrong turn, wipes out an indigenous people and a government that had no link to him honors him with a special day each year. It’s about damn time someone recognized that Columbus Day should not exist and ranks somewhere behind Arbor Day and National Doughnut Day on the list of reasons to pause and remember what someone or something means to America. That someone – or in this case, someones – are the members of the Minneapolis City Council. These brave men and women have taken a stand on an issue that has been debated for years, voting to change the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. While Indigenous People’s Day sounds like the name of a trendy indie rock band, it will now be the official way to refer to the holiday on all city communications. “This has been a long time coming and people are going to feel really good about how we’re moving forward and advancing a racial equity agenda that really elevates the voice and contributions of American Indian people,” said council member Alondra Cano, the author of the resolution. Columbus Day has been a federal holiday since 1937, but several states do not observe it, including Oregon, Hawaii, South Dakota and Alaska. Those states have long held that it is wrong to credit Christopher Columbus with the discovery of America when Native Americans were already living there, but

bureaucracy being what it is, there’s no way the federal government will ever take any real stance on the subject……..

- Megatron won't back down. Detroit Lions star receiver Calvin Johnson is all but assured of double-digit visits to the end zone every season for the foreseeable future and that makes him one of the targets of a new NFL rule banning players from using the goalposts as a part of any touchdown celebration, including Johnson’s popular ploy of dunking the ball over the crossbar. A new rule passed earlier this year deemed the goalpost to be a prop which cannot be used to celebrate a touchdown. Johnson could simply fall in line and find another way to commemorate each score, but he has a plan of his own. "I'm still going to dunk," Johnson said. "I just won't touch the rim." In other words, he’s going to do what Blake Griffin gets so much credit for on several occasions each season by throwing down a ferocious faux-dunk in which his hand never actually touches the rim. The 6-foot-5 Johnson should have no trouble getting up and rising above the crossbar to throw one down and if he can match the 84 catches for 1,492 yards and 12 touchdowns he posted last season, the league office and officials working Lions games will have plenty of occasions to decide whether Johnson’s attempt to circumvent their new rule is acceptable or not. The supposed spirit of the rule is safety because dunking can tilt the goalposts and could theoretically cause them to topple, so dunking without touching the post should be just fine. Then again, before worrying about how to mark his touchdowns, Johnson should probably focus on recovering fully from surgeries on his knee and finger so he can be ready for the start of the season he plans to fill with high-flying touchdown-celebrating dunks……….

- Here is another true stunner from science. Courtesy of lead researcher Dr. Takehiro Sugiyama of the University of Tokyo, a new study has emerged letting the world know that people who take the common cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins may feel a false sense of security and eat a more. Yes, FAT people with poor eating habits that led to higher cholestrol in the first place are likely to return to those crappy eating habits if they take a medicine designed to mitigate one of their many health problems – stunner. Sugiyama and his team surveyed American adults taking statins in 1999-2000 and found them to be eating fewer calories than people not taking the drugs, but eating about the same amount as non-users by 2009-2010. "We believe that physicians need to reemphasize the importance of a healthy lifestyle to statin-users," Sugiyama said. As stain users seem to not know, wolfing down excess calories and fat would not only compromise the cholesterol-lowering effect of statins, but would also increase a person's risk of becoming obese and developing diabetes. Statins such as Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor function by inhibiting the production of cholesterol, which is used to build new cells and keep the body functioning. Too much of it and a person’s blood vessels begin to narrow like Donald Sterling’s chances of ever being seen as a human being with an actual soul. The latest recommendations from the American Heart Association puts the number of U.S. adults eligible to take the drugs north of 50 million, which is both disturbing and not the last bit surprising. In this particular study, statin users were consuming about 2,000 calories per day in 1999-2000, which was nearly 200 fewer calories than non-statin users. A decade later, that gap was gone. Calorie consumption among statin users increased by about 10 percent during the decade and that number does not seem destined to drop in the near future……….

- Silvio Berlusconi can't stop, won't stop and literally does not seem physically capable of stopping. The former Italian premier is born to offend and say inappropriate things – as well as host his famous bunga bunga sex parties – and even though he is awaiting sentencing on convictions for corruption charges and his party has gotten its butt whipped in recent elections, Berlusconi is still at it. His latest controversial comments came as he was presenting his center-right Forza Italia party's candidates Saturday in Milan for May's European Parliament elections. Rather than simply introduce each candidate and explain why voters should support them, Berlusconi elected to go off script and off the reservation by claiming that Germans deny that Nazi-run death camps ever existed. Maybe it was meant as some misguided show of solidarity from one nation on the wrong side of World War II to another, but Berlusconi clearly could not have gone in a worse direction than mentioning a 2003 gaffe he made comparing current Parliament president Martin Schulz to a concentration camp guard. He then tried to explain what he meant by saying he didn't want to offend Schulz, then added that, "the Germans, for them, concentration camps never existed." German Families Minister Manuela Schwesig proved that Twitter can be used for more than inserting the names of breakfast foods into the monikers for popular bands, tweeting that Berlusconi's remarks were "unspeakable" and urging a fight against right-wing "populism." Those are the sorts of remarks once tends to expect from someone who lost his Italian Senate seat and is banned from running in elections because of a tax fraud conviction but still leads his party………..

John Boehner's orange comedy, anti-neo-Nazi protest c*ck blocks and "Girls" Season 4 shapes up

- The Riot Watch! c*ck-block is a rare thing, but when done correctly and well-timed, it can be every bit as uplifting and inspiring as a quality uprising. Germany isn't normally a hotbed of dissident activity these days, but there is the occasional exception on account of the pockets of imbecilic neo-Nazis who try to bring the insipid and indefensible policies and beliefs of the Third Reich into the modern era. On Saturday, Berlin was home to a demonstration of this phenomenon, but an attempted march through the German capital by a group of right-wing extremists was thwarted by thousands of bold Berliners who were having none of it. Knowing full well what was coming their way, an estimated 2,000 people stood in the way of the planned route of a demonstration organized by the far-right National Democratic Party. According to Berlin police, the National Democratic Party, known by its acronym NPD, planned to march through Berlin's Kreuzberg district, which has a large immigrant population. That seemed like a recipe for disaster, given the possibility that immigrants would not take kindly to their new countrymen marching down their streets specifically to make the point that they are not welcome in Deutschland and should get the hell out. Police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf said the 100 far-right activists were able to march only for a couple of hundred yards before their path was blocked and "it's unlikely they'll get any further today." Indeed, the racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic march soon fizzled out and by mid-afternoon, four NPD supporters and nine counter-demonstrators had been arrested. All in all, a successful day for anyone with a soul and an IQ above 14 and proof that not everyone simply rolls over and plays indifferent why Hitler-esque theology comes their way………

- And so the crackdown begins. International viewers have enjoyed Hulu’s video streaming services for virtually as long as the site has existed, doing so through the technological workaround of a virtual private network (VPN) services. The time of VPN access is coming to an end, as those who have been using one to trick Hulu’s servers into believing that they are in the United States in order to watch its TV and movies will now have to find a new means of illegally accessing their favorite content. Hulu is starting to block VPN services from accessing its content using a long block list of IP addresses used by a number of common VPN services. Anyone attempting to use such a service to access Hulu will receive a forceful notification that their kind is not welcome around these here parts. "Based on your IP-address, we noticed that you are trying to access Hulu through an anonymous proxy tool. Hulu is not currently available outside the U.S. If you're in the U.S. you'll need to disable your anonymizer to access videos on Hulu," the message reads. Of course, no blanket solution for a single problem is ever without its drawbacks and this one will have the unsavory side effect of boxing out legitimate VPN users who turn to the services for the increased privacy they offer. A user who goes through a VPN service to otherwise encrypt what he or she does when accessing public Wi-Fi would be unable to watch Hulu-streamed content unless they took down their VPN privacy shield. As always, those looking for loopholes will undoubtedly find them. The block list includes only for IP addresses Hulu has in its database, so tech-savvy sneaks will simply search out new UP addresses, possibly by paying out for a dedicated IP address from their VPN service — one that isn't shared by any other user — that's likely remain free from Hulu's blacklist. The battle for free video content is a long way from over………

- Whatever you may say about embattled Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni, never say the man doesn’t have a massive, brass pair. D'Antoni, 62, has posted a 67-87 record since being hired by the Lakers early in the 2012-13 season to replace Mike Brown and his high-octane style has meshed poorly with a severely taelent-deprived roster so far. This year’s incarnation of the Lakers went 27-55, its first full campaign under D'Antoni, registering the second-worst winning percentage (.329) in team history, the worst 82-game record in team history and their lowest win total since the franchise relocated from Minnesota. To say they were an embarrassment would be a grand understatement, even if Kobe Bryant missed virtually the entire season and the players who filled in for him belonged on a CBA roster more than in Lakers purple and gold. In spite of all of this, as D’Antoni and the team have talked over the past week about his future with the team, he is not only pushing to return next season, but has asked management to pick up the team option on the fourth year of his current contract. The logic behind the demand is solid, as no coach wants to start a lame-duck season knowing players will begin tuning him out because he has no guarantee of being back next season. However, coaches who have failed miserably in their current gig and produced no discernable positive results and are reportedly on the wrong side of their star player tend not to have much of a hammer in their hand when it comes to contract status. The Lakers and D'Antoni have yet to formally meet since exit meetings after the season, so any official decision is still in the works even though multiple reports have indicated that the Lakers have decided to retain D'Antoni for next season. The Lakers hold a $4 million team option on him for 2015-16 and regardless of whether the option is picked up or not, he will make another $4 million next season. Earning a long-term future with the franchise is admirable, but other than still paying the last coach they fired – current Cleveland coach Mike Brown – and not wanting to pay three coaches for another non-title season, one has to wonder where the motivation is to keep a coach who earned $148,148.14 per win last season……..

- Lena Dunham’s most-famous creation is picking up steam as it readies for its fourth season. HBO’s hit drama “Girls” is already the subject of much debate among fans and critics and details about the next run of episodes are slowly leaking out. In the fourth season, Dunham's character Hannah Horvath take a class at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and she will encounter a pair of new characters played by Desiree Akhavan and Peter Mark Kendall. The episodes will be set at the University Of Iowa, but the show won’t actually intrude on the campus of one of the biggest party schools in America despite filming in multiple locations around Iowa City. Akhavan recently made her film debut in “Appropriate Behaviour,” which she directed and starred, showing the picture at Sundance Film Festival. Kendall, like so many of the actors who have helped lift “Girls” through a sucessful first three seasons, is a relative unknown. He has appeared on screen a few times and not in any roles that have landed him on the radar of the average movie or TV fan. There could be more celebrity cameos in store for the fouth season after former Sonic Youth member Kim Gordon appeared in Season 3 playing Mindy, a cranky member of support group in a rehab facility attended by Jessa, played by actress Jemima Kirke. At this point, Dunham’s intelligent writing and the show’s strong resonance with a growing fan base suggest it will be fine with or without any famous faces on screen, but keeping the mix interesting and dynamic never hurts and the best shows do everything possible to avoid slipping into a state of complacency………..

- House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is an Oompa Loompa-orange ass hat who double-talks, connives and plays the political game in truly dubious fashion on a daily basis. In other words, he’s like every other member of Congress except that he does all of this while rocking skin the same shade as a nice Florida citrus and has slightly more power than his peers. But Boehner has another gear, one he showed on Thursday during a meeting at the Middletown Rotary Club in his home state, when he tried to channel his inner comedian and instead came across like the pompous ass-hat he is. Boehner was speaking to his constituents about his House colleagues' attitude toward dealing with the combustible issue of immigration reform. "Here's the attitude: Oh, don't make me do this. Oh, this is too hard," Boehner said, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he scrunched up his face and tried his best to be funny. "We get elected to make choices. We get elected to solve problems, and it's remarkable to me how many of my colleagues just don't want to … They'll take the path of least resistance.” In truth – something at which Boehner does not excel – he was actually doing fine right up until the last sentence there. Instead of saying “they’ll” take the path of least resistance, Boehner needed only to include himself in that group to be on point. Instead, he erroneously attempted to separate himself from the rest of Congress and pretend that he has boldly been leading the fight to bring the issue to the forefront on Capitol Hill. "I've had every brick and bat and arrow shot at me over this issue just because I wanted to deal with it. I didn't say it was going to be easy," Boehner added. For the record, the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill last June, but Boehner’s GOP-controlled House has yet to pick it up because the bill includes a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. Oh, this is too hard………

Tatted-up pastors, condor comebacks and Seth Meyers to host the Emmys

- Seth Meyers is having himself quite a 2014. After taking over for the promoted Jimmy Fallon on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" in February, Meyers has received largely positive reviews in his new capacity. He already had an Emmy to his credit and earlier this week, he was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. What does a man with those credentials do with himself on a beautiful, sunny August evening in southern California? How about host this year's Emmy Awards? The former “Saturday Night Live” cast member will emcee the 66th Emmys, which are set to air live Aug. 25 from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on NBC. In other words, he’ll come out with a long, meandering monologue in which he mocks/tries to engage without pissing off various famous people in the audience, changes fancy suits numerous times throughout the evening and serve as traffic cop for the A-list presenters who saunter out onto the stage and awkwardly read from the teleprompter despite reciting words other people wrote for a living. "Seth is such a talented performer and writer, and we know he will bring something unique to hosting the Primetime Emmy Awards," said Bruce Rosenblum, chairman and CEO of the Television Academy. Meyers will follow Neil Patrick Harris, who did a respectable job as last year's Emmys host. Unlike his “Late Night” gig, he won't have the advantage of a lead-in from his old pal Jimmy Fallon, but given the current trajectory of his year, Meyers seems like he should be all right in a gig that has proven difficult for more than a few notable names………

- Find a new f’ing fruit, wannabe Tony Montana’s of the world. The Man is clearly onto your sneaky ploy of shipping cocaine in crates of bananas and if you want to avoid having your Bolivian marching powder seized, it’s time to find a new food that conceals coke while also evading detection in ports around the globe. This should have been painfully apparent long before now, but the point was driven home this week as German police seized 265 pounds of cocaine hidden among crates of bananas in a container shipped from Ecuador — their second big seizure of cocaine from South America this year. The Federal Criminal Police Office confirmed the find, saying in an official statement that the bags of the Colombian nose candy were stuffed into travel bags hidden among the boxes of fruit. Although carefully hidden by what are undoubtedly savvy coke dealers, the drugs were found when officials checked over 20 containers that arrived in the North Sea port of Bremerhaven. This mess comes just three months after workers at Berlin supermarkets found 309 pounds of cocaine packed into crates of bananas that had been shipped from Colombia via the German port of Hamburg and at least this time, the cartel shipping the drugs and their cohorts were busted by actual law enforcement officials and not a bunch of minimum-wage grocery store dock workers who only found the drugs because they made the boxes in question heavier and harder to lift, thereby delaying their afternoon beer break. Police office chief Joerg Ziercke said after the seizure that his agency is participating in multinational projects in Peru to curb cocaine smuggling and plans similar efforts in Ecuador. Your move, South American cartels………

- Do call it a condor comeback. Thanks to a Native American tribe that lives along the Klamath River in Northern California and their joint project with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there is a concerted push to restore California condors to Humboldt County. The Yurok Tribe, California's most populous Indian group, resides in the 85-square-mile Yurok Indian Reservation along the lower 44 miles of the Klamath River. The Yurok have struck an agreement with the USFWS to release captive-raised condors in as-yet undetermined locations in the wild country south of the Klamath River. As with any project involving a government agency, this effort won't move quickly. The first release won't happen before next year, but when it does, it will mean a sixth territory for the critically endangered bird. The California condor’s population fellow below 30 in the late 1980s, a paltry numbed compared to the period pre-dating the 19th century, when the big birds ranged from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific Coast. California condors are North America's largest land bird and despite existing as scavengers, they have proved particularly vulnerable to modern industrial society. Ahead of the new project, the Yurok tribe has been surveying potential release sites for such environmental hazards, going so far as to test turkey vulture carcasses for lead shot and checking washed-up sea lions for DDT. The wildlife service has run a captive breeding program for the condors since 1991 and during that time, the species’ wild population has grown tenfold, with 232 birds in the wild as of March. Current California condor populations exist in Big Sur and the Pinnacles National Park, in the Grand Canyon area and in the Sierra de San Pedro Martir National Park in Baja California. It’s been quite a rally for the butt-ugly bird……….

- Now THIS is a pastor that the faithful can rally behind. Lake County (N.C.) pastor Rev. Leon Bloder of First Presbyterian Church in Eustis might seem like your typical Bible Belt-dwelling, suit-wearing man of God who teaches Sunday school before his sermon and dines at the nearest Applebee’s afterward, but Bloder proved otherwise this week. Like so many men of God, he knew his congregation could pull in bigger numbers last Sunday on account of drawing in all of the Creasters (those who attend church only on Christmas and Easter) and so he made a bold offer to members of FBC. Bloder promised his congregation that if they hit a record attendance, he would get a tattoo of the church's emblem and cut his hair. He is far from the first leader of a group to use the promise of getting a tattoo to entice those under his leadership to reach for a goal, but most of the time those people don’t make their living by preaching God’s word and standing in a pulpit every Sunday morning. Sure enough, 850 people attended the Easter service at FBC, thanks in larger part to members of a small church next door who walked over to join the service. That effort – aided by ringers as it may have been – was enough to convince Bloder to honor his word. He stepped up and inked up Thursday, getting his new tattoo to go with his new haircut. He will debut both on Sunday and while this seems like a nice, fun story, it’s worth wondering if the pastor has set a dangerous precedent for future holidays, one that could end up with him looking more like a Hell’s Angels member than someone trying to keep sinners from ending up in the fiery pit………

- The Golden State Warriors may not reach the second round of the NBA playoffs and they may fire a coach who just led them to a 50-win season, but that doesn’t mean they aren't still accomplishing important things. Namely, they are looking into the possibility of changing their name after purchasing a 12-acre property in the Mission Bay district of San Francisco that they plan to use for a new arena. While the franchise will keep the Warriors moniker they've used since they were founded in Philadelphia in 1946, they will solicit fan input on whether to readopt the name for which they were known when they played in San Francisco from 1962-71 -- the San Francisco Warriors. "We're very curious what our fans think of that," Warriors president and CEO Rick Welts said. "I couldn't imagine making that decision in the very near future, but we definitely want to see what our fans prefer." In other words, we want to know what fans like to market the team better and make as much money as possible on new jersey and gear sales. The possible name change and definite move out of Oracle Arena in Oakland to a state-of-the-art venue before the 2018-19 season are part of a chance Welts believes are vital to the team’s long-term success. The move has nothing to do with the atmosphere at games, as the Warriors routinely have the best home crowds in the league and make games a noise nightmare for visiting teams. The proposed new arena will have 18,000 seats, down from the 19,000 at Oracle, but Welts said that the Warriors have guaranteed that every employee at Oracle will have a chance to transfer their job to the new building, located eight miles from the current one. Season ticket holders have also been assured they will retain their seats during the move from the oldest arena in the NBA to what will be its newest one for what promises to be a limited amount of time. Its location near stops for the Bay Area's Rapid Transit (BART) system is another part of the new arena’s appeal and so are its promised unobstructed views of the San Francisco Bay………

One Direction plagiarizes, Herschel Walker talks comeback and Riot Watch! Brazilian Slum Edition

- Isn’t New York City supposed to be the coolest, trendiest city around? Don’t answer that question because it appears some square-tastic Battery Park City already have. These losers are up in arms over plans for a massive beer garden and event space in their ‘hood. Developers are planning to convert the historic Pier A, a space that has sat empty for more than two decades, into a dining and drinking establishment that can bring together more than 1,000 lushes looking to channel their inner German and get their drink on like they’re hanging in Bavaria instead of hopping a train home to the Bronx. The new beer garden is scheduled to open this summer and according to plans, it will be a multi-level entertainment spot larger than any nightclub in Las Vegas and could open as early as 7 a.m. The idea of people with nothing to do and nowhere to go during the day trudging down to the south end of Manhattan and spending their days getting sloshed on overpriced beer is not appealing to locals, some of whom have children who attend a public elementary school, P.S. 276, located two blocks away from the proposed beer garden. Rather than embrace a slice of world culture coming to their borough, these alarmist mothers and fathers are warning of the evils of around-the-clock partying in what is now a family friendly neighborhood. None of these suckers are recognizing the very real possibility that this new business will bring more foot traffic to an area that doesn’t already have a lot of bars and restaurants and therefore would boost the local business community. “Anything that brings additional foot traffic — that gives people a reason to linger, to experience the restaurants, the shopping, of course the culture down here — is a good thing,” said Betsy Aldredge, a spokeswoman for the nearby Museum of Jewish Heritage. The developers for the project are working to allay concerns and the entire problem can certainly be hashed out Monday at a meeting of the state Liquor Authority in Manhattan………

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! The World Cup is coming to Brazil this summer and with the biggest event in international soccer less than two months away, let’s just say that one of the world’s most party-loving nations is not exactly in a state of peaceful unity in which to welcome the world. In fact, residents of one Rio de Janeiro slum that saw deadly clashes with police earlier this week are giving off the distinct impression that they are not going to calm down any time soon. Just days after the über-violent uprising, the residents of the Copacabana beach neighborhood staged a protest to further drive their point home. The protest was spurred by the burial of a young man, Douglas Pereira, whose shooting death sparked clashes Tuesday night between police and residents of the Pavao-Pavaozinho "favela" slum. At first glance, an outsider might ask why people who have beachfront property in a beautiful land like Brazil are angry in the first place, but expand the scope of your narrow world view a bit and you’ll see that this particular slum is sandwiched between two of Rio's highest-rent neighborhoods and just a few hundred meters from a key venue for the 2016 Olympics. The government has ignored, minimized and trampled upon these folks routinely while tending to more important people so it was that sh*t got real earlier this week. Following Pereira’s funeral, several hundred people took to the street on the slum’s main thoroughfare and sadly, an early scuffle between protestors and police failed to materialize into anything more significant. The demonstration remained largely peaceful, which is obviously no way to run a proper revolution…….

- Herschel Walker has always been a physical freak. He was an incredibly physical specimen in a league full of them while playing in the NFL from 1986 to 1997 and even before that, when he won the 1982 Heisman Trophy while balling at the University of Georgia. He did all of that while maintaining a grueling training regimen in which he famously never worked out with any weights, claiming that the only weight he ever used was that of his own body in a variety of sit-ups, push-ups and other exercises. Even after he retired from the NFL after the 1997 season, he remained in amazing physical condition and later took up mixed martial arts, winning both of his fights, the last coming in January 2011.  He is still known for being the centerpiece of the most lopsided trade in NFL history, when he was dealt in 1989 from the Dallas Cowboys to the Minnesota Vikings for five players and six draft picks. If you ask Walker, now 52 years old, he could still bring a little something-something to the gridiron. "I can play in the NFL today," Walker said in a recent interview. "I couldn't take every snap. But running backs nowadays don't play every down. Now they send in the choir section. Physically, I can still do it." Don’t mistake this as some bitter old-timer looking at today’s players and dismissively declaring that they aren't in his class because he want to come back and re-live his glory days…..but only because Walker is busy with several business ventures and isn't thinking of a comeback. Such an effort would make him the oldest running back to play in an NFL game, surpassing the mark of 40 years old set by Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Thorpe in 1928. The idea of a 52-year-old Walker putting on the pads one more time and bringing backfield depth to the downtrodden Cleveland Browns or Oakland Raiders might be appealing, but sadly it isn't going to happen….yet…….

- The end of net neutrality may finally have arrived. Sure, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission may say otherwise and pretend that taking public comments before moving forward with a new set of that sparked controversy the instant they were leaked earlier this week makes it all OK, but it simply isn't so. The FCC will soon release a proposal to tweak net neutrality rules that would allow broadband providers to negotiate with content providers for preferential treatment, the agency confirmed. That proclamation led digital rights groups to denounce the move as the death of net neutrality. For the technologically ignorant, net neutrality is the basic principle that all Internet service providers and governments should treat all Internet data the same, without discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, or modes of communication. The possible change will be up for a vote at an upcoming meeting and the plan has not yet been finalized. Under the proposal, broadband providers would be required to offer a baseline level of service to their subscribers, but could also enter into individual negotiations with content providers. In other words, the poor folks would get a bare minimum level of service guaranteed and like so many other parts of society, the wealthy would be able to buy better service. Yes, all of this will be subject to FCC review and the agency will seek public input on “exactly what the baseline level of service would be, the construction of a ‘commercially reasonable’ standard, and the manner in which disputes would be resolved,” but no one with a working knowledge of how government works believes any of this is going to be fair or unbiased. Net neutrality is based on the principle of nondiscrimination and all of this openly invites discrimination. Broadband providers would be able to charge higher traffic management prices to Web services that they see as competitors. This situation is a direct result of after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s January decision striking down the FCC’s net neutrality regulations, but it seems to be a gross and off-point overreaction that will do plenty of harm to the lesser players in the game while limiting its good to those who can afford its steep price tag………..

- It’s time to play a rollicking game of “Who are man-banders ripping off and shamelessly passing off the bastardized work of as their own today?” and our contestants are British man-banders One Direction. The lads of 1-D have been accused of plagiarism over the video for their new single “You & I.” After the group revealed the video for the single, the latest to be taken from their “Midnight Memories” album, on April 18, it took Australian production company Oh Yeah Wow all of five seconds to accuse the band and director Ben Winston of "regurgitating" a video they shot with Clubfeet for their song “Everything You Wanted” in January 2013. Proving that horny teenage girls have far too much free time and far too little in the way of good musical taste, the One Direction video already has over 13 million views. In attacking the British popsters, Oh Yeah Wow wrote in a blog post that the third act of One Direction's video copies the video they produced, specifically a technique in which members of the group jump into freeze frame shots of themselves. This is far from a new or original video concept, but Oh Yeah Wow contends that they are angry because One Direction are "some affluent young bucks, and a director devoid of creativity, (who) decide to effectively steal (and subsequently dilute) our idea.” That is a terrible thing to say…. because clearly, no one should be that nice to a bunch of man-band hacks. What Oh Yeah Wow misses here is that all pop groups and specifically man bands do is rip off other people’s works. Seriously…..One Direction have been accused of plagiarism on multiple occasions. Last year, The Who's Pete Townshend complained about strong similarities because his band’s iconic track “Baba O’Riley” and One Direction’s “Best Song Ever.” Before that Def Leppard briefly contemplated legal action against the group after Def Lep members Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell complained that the One Direction song “Midnight Memories” was "very similar in structure" to their own “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” It might be quicker to figure out which – if any – One Direction songs haven’t been blatantly thieved from someone much more talented……….

Angry Sherpas on strike, MLB replay f*ck-ups and Quentin Tarantino loses and wins

- Expanded replay is not exactly revolutionizing Major League Baseball – at least not in a positive way. What was supposed to make the game more accurate and fair while adding a bare minimum of delays and extra time has instead turned into a giant clusterf*ck that doesn’t appear to be accomplishing its stated mission and is successful only in creating headaches, negative headlines and reasons for pundits to mock MLB officials’ inability to look at a high-definition replay on a massive flatscreen in a cushy office in New York City and decide whether or not a player is out or a batted ball was fair or foul. After admitting to several missed calls despite the use of replay through the first month of the season, MLB officials admitted to their latest screw-up involving Tampa Bay shortstop Yunel Escobar striking out in an at-bat that was completed after a replay review. MLB admitted it failed to correct a pitch count despite STOPPING THE GAME AND REVIEWING THE AT-BAT ON VIDEO SPECIFICALLY TO CHECK THE COUNT. A replay delay of 1 minute, 47 seconds in Tuesday night's game against Minnesota was not enough to correct the error after the count went off balance. Even after the replay review, umpires wrongly ruled the count on Escobar was 3-2. That was a problem because Escobar had already taken four balls and should have been standing on first base. Instead, he returned to the batter’s box and struck out on the next pitch. "An error was made when replay officials and supervisors mistakenly thought one of the pitches was a foul ball when it was actually a ball," MLB said in a statement. Very big of you to admit a mistake the whole world could clearly see without your help, baseball. In spite of the error, Tampa Bay still beat the Twins 7-3………..

- Paying for college sucks. No college or university worth a damn is cheap and few are even affordable, which is why a University of Wisconsin professor is attempting to find a solution to the problem that plagues, frat bros, sorority girls, commuter students and dorm dwellers everywhere. In a paper published earlier this month, professor Sara Goldrick-Rab laid out a model she believes will make college accessible for those who attend public universities by lowering the total cost of tuition – including two years of free schooling. "The financial aid system just is not working out the way it was planned to. It's not good for people to work really hard and then see it not pay off. That's really disconcerting to families and it really undermines the American dream," Goldrick-Rab said. Under the Goldrick-Rab model, students would receive free tuition for two years and would have their books and supplies paid for completely, as well as receive a stipend to help with living expenses. Her plan calls for rerouting financial aid from private institutes to public colleges and universities. Them are fightin’ words for the elitist snobs are private schools – or for whomever those rich people would hire to fight for them – but Goldrick-Rab wants to make it clear she’s not looking for an academic brawl. "It's not really right to tell private schools how to do their jobs. But it also does not seem very right for the tax payer to provide a lot of subsidy as it does right now to private institutions, without being able to extract the kinds of accountability that we would want to have,” she said. The origins of government funding for private schools come from 50 years ago, during a time when public schools were not as established. Goldrick-Rab justified her position by arguing that public campuses can now offer more to students, creating a greater need for federal resources……….

- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s role in the health and wellness world is an important one. Among its many duties, the FDA is charged with evaluating new drugs and medical devices to determine if they are safe and ready for the market. If the FDA does its job well, useful devices that will help save lives and improve the quality of those lives reach the hands of doctors and patients. If the agency does its job poorly, people die. Doing that job also means taking lots of heat from policymakers, patient groups and the medical device industry and to answer gripes that it takes too long to approve medical devices, the FDA has proposed a program aimed at increasing the speed of approving the medical devices for patients who do not have another treatment options. The Expedited Access Premarket Approval Application program is being billed as a change to the existing system rather than an entirely new way for devices to reach the market. Its primary focus will be shortening the time for a product to be developed and removing potential unnecessary hurdles in putting it on the market. It bears similarities to another FDA program meant to accelerate development of certain cancer drugs in clinical trials. Coordination within the agency will be vital if this effort is to succeed and if it does, it could help handle the ever-rising number of new product applications. More applications have led to a slower approval process as the makers of new products must wait in line to prove that their invention has new benefits for its target patients. The FDA does have a fast-track program for well-established medical devices program like wheelchairs and hip implants, while the new version targets approval for high-risk devices like the devices that support or sustain life……….

- Quentin Tarantino may not be winning in court, but he is keeping the name and brand of his potential next big project in the spotlight as he wages what appears to be a losing legal fight. A U.S. District Count judge in California ruled against the director in his case against celebrity gossip website Gawker for promoting a leaked online copy of his script for “The Hateful Eight,” bur don’t assume it’s all bad news for Tarantino. Yes, Judge John F. Walter ruled that Tarantino “has failed to adequately plead facts establishing direct infringement by a third party or facts that would demonstrate [Gawker] either caused, induced, or materially contributed to the alleged direct infringement of those third party infringers,” and on the surface that seems bad. Gawker was one of several sites that covered the leak of the screenplay and posted a link to an online copy, leading Tarantino to sue the site for copyright infringement and contributory copyright infringement. Walter ruled that Tarantino failed to “allege a single act of direct infringement committed by any member of the general public that would support Plaintiff’s claim for contributory infringement. Instead, Plaintiff merely speculates that some direct infringement must have taken place.” That ruling left a slight opening for Tarantino and he now has until May 1 to amend and re-file the secondary claim for contributory infringement against Gawker. However, assuming that “Hateful Eight” is dead and gone is a mistake. After putting this much effort into the project and generating this much buzz, there is no way Tarantino lets the idea go entirely and just moves on……..

- Angry Sherpas are a sight no one wants to see. But that is precisely what the world witnessed in Nepal on Wednesday as dozens of Sherpa guides packed up their tents and left Mount Everest's base camp following the deaths of 16 of their colleagues in an avalanche. The tragedy highlighted a growing resentment among Sherpas over their pay, treatment and benefits. That avalanche has thrown the entire climbing season into disarray and with the Sherpas on strike, government officials announced plans to fly to the base camp to negotiate with the Sherpas and encourage them to return to work. Perhaps not knowing the definition of being helpful, one tourism official blamed the walkout on "hooligans." "It was crowd behavior -- some hooligans were creating problems, but things are getting back to normal," said Sushil Ghimire, secretary of Nepal's Tourism Ministry. Approximately 400 Sherpas were on the mountain at the time of the walkout and while the number of defectors wasn’t immediately known, several expedition companies have already canceled their climbs. The majority of attempts to reach Everest's summit are made in mid-May, when a brief window normally offers better weather. Sherpas are a democratic bunch with no official leader, so negotiating with them will be challenging. Following the avalanche, the government said it would pay the families of each Sherpa who died 40,000 rupees, or about $415. For some odd reason, the Sherpas balked at that offer and demanded better pay, better insurance, more financial aid for the victims' families and new regulations to ensure climbers' rights. A total of 13 bodies were recovered after Friday's avalanche and the three Sherpas still missing in the ice and snow are presumed dead. "It is just impossible for many of us to continue climbing while there are three of our friends buried in the snow," said Dorje Sherpa, an experienced Everest guide. "I can't imagine stepping over them." The avalanche was caused by a massive piece of glacier shearing away from the mountain along a section of constantly shifting ice and crevasses known as the Khumbu Icefall and it is neither the first nor will it be the last tragedy in a dangerous corner of the world. The Sherpas are merely looking for better compensation for their role in it……….

AT&T's uber-high speend Internet, Charlie Strong delivers UT realism and lost Jay Z tracks

- Who needs books these days? Someone on the University of New Hampshire campus understands the growing irrelevance of this heavy things with pages and printed words in them, even if a mob of angry professors at the small school don’t. A few days ago, a dumpster near the Dimond Library was found to be filling up with a mountain of books from the library and when quizzed about the curiosity of tossing perfectly good books in the trash, librarians said they need to make room for new science books. Obviously, books do become outdated from time to time, but art history professor Patricia Emison is adamant that this is neither the time nor the place to start dumping books that could still be useful. “I’m absolutely appalled,” Emison said. “I don’t know what’s going on. I was never consulted. It seems to me a travesty. I don’t know what they think they’re doing. I mean, you need those books to have a sense of the history of your discipline, even if they’re not the latest thing off the press.” Hey Patty….there is this newfangled thingy called technology and it allows people to store literally dozens of books on these tiny devices called….never mind. The fact remains that the library is recycling 36,000 books and putting another 15,000 in storage. That represents a scant  3 percent of Dimond's collection and it’s not as if the move is being made to clear the way for a new hot tub in on the second floor of the building. No, the free space will be used to house new bio-science books, administrators said. Those same responsible administrators claimed the volumes in the dumpster haven’t been checked out in at least 20 years. “Our circulation data goes back to 1994, so it’s possible that it’s been longer than that that they haven’t been used,” said Jennifer Carroll, the school’s collection management librarian. Carroll said the dispatched books mostly deal with automation and computers from the 1980s, so they are both irrelevant and perfectly suited for an incinerator near you……..

- Rappers and lost/forgotten recordings are an inextricably intertwined duo. Both living and deceased artists inevitably have a cache of neglected or abandoned tracks that pop up during a lull in their career or years after their death, when their families and former collaborators are looking to cash in on what’s left of their legacy, er, keep that legacy alive by releasing said forgotten tracks – i.e. songs not good enough to make it onto actual albums. The tale of a collection of lost Jay Z master recordings doesn’t fall under that heading, but the mystery surrounding the cadre of H.O.V.A. offerings is truly bizarre. Los Angeles police – guardians of the rich and protectors of the privileged - have confiscated a the tapes from a producer under curious circumstances. Producer Chancey Mahan, who worked with Jay Z from 2008 to 2009, was allegedly found in possession of Roc-A-Fella Records master recordings, which occurred from 1998 to 2002. According to a police report, the masters went missing in 2002 and Jay Z and his team operated under the belief that they had been lost for the past decade-plus. That all changed last Friday, when Mahan allegedly contacted promoter Live Nation – which is a partner in Jay Z's Roc Nation record label – and claimed to have a large number of the tapes at a storage facility in California. He tried to blackmail Live Nation by threatening to either auction the tapes or give return them for a $100,000 "storage fee.” It seemed like a great plan, right up until the point where we all live in 2014 and every phone call can be traced in under a minute and stolen property from rich people is reason enough for the fuzz to start kicking in doors and kicking asses. Mahan eventually settled on an asking price of $75,000 and not knowing he had been set up, he went to the storage facility to complete the deal and found police waiting for him. He received a ride downtown in a squad car and police are now investigating allegations of extortion………

- This is 2014, right? Just checking because the residents of one über-tiny Spanish village don’t seem so sure. The remote village of Castrillo Matajudios, whose second name means "Kill Jews," finds itself caught in what should not be a dilemma or even a prolonged debate. That sort of name at this time in world history is inexcusable and really, it has been ever since the town was first christened in 1627, more than a century after Spain expelled Jews unwilling to convert to Christianity. That is the earliest records found with the name changed to "Kill Jews.” Yet the part of the story that is the most alarming is that 70 years after the fall of the Nazi regime and the realization that someone – Adolf Hitler, of course – had taken the name of their town and used it as a philosophy with which to attempt a massive genocide project the likes of which the world had never seen, Castrillo Matajudios hasn’t found itself a new moniker. How no one sat back, thought about the meaning of the name and said, “Damn, we might want to change that so we don’t look like a bunch of bigoted, bloodthirsty idiots stuck in the 17 century,” is a true mystery. That mystery may finally be put to rest next month when the village holds a long-overdue referendum to decide if it should change the name that offends outsiders and embarrasses all residents with a soul and a conscience. Mayor Lorenzo Rodriguez Perez said Tuesday the village's 56 registered voters will be asked on May 25 whether they want to keep the name or change it to the similar, but non-offensive name the town once rocked before it went full-on bigot. According to historical studies, the town's original name was Castrillo Motajudios. That translates to the less-offensive  "Jews' Hill" and dates back to 1035, when Jews forced from nearby lands settled there. Here’s hoping the 56 people with a chance to step into the voting booth and do the right thing in a few weeks make good use of that right………

- Roll out the high-speed fiber Internet networks for America, says AT&T. The tech titan has announced a plan that could see rolled out in as many as 100 cities in 21 metro regions throughout the United States. Them are clearly fightin’ words in its battle with Google, which has already begun its own push to dramatically increase Internet speeds in various cities. AT&T’s new offering is cumbersomely called AT&T U-verse With GigaPower and it is capable of delivering broadband at up to 1 gigabit per second – or roughly 100 times faster than current speeds in many parts of the nation. From here, AT&T will commence talks with local leaders in areas it has identified as having suitable existing networks and likely high demand for the service. "This initiative continues AT&T's ongoing commitment to economic development in these communities, bringing jobs, advanced technologies and infrastructure," the company said in a news release. The list of target cities is long and includes: Atlanta; Charlotte, Chicago; Cleveland; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Houston; Jacksonville; Kansas City; Los Angeles; Miami; Nashville; Oakland; Orlando; San Antonio, Texas; San Diego; St. Louis and San Francisco. The company previously revealed plans to install the high-speed network in Austin and Dallas, and says it is in "advanced discussions" with Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, N.C. Google has been hammering away on its Google Fiber project since 2012 and that service likewise promises speeds of 1 gigabit per second, which the company says could allow someone at full capacity to download an entire feature-length movie in 38 seconds – legally, of course. Google’s service is available in tech hotbeds Kansas City, Kan. and Provo, Utah. It runs through fiberoptic cables connected directly to a home or office in order to give users broadband Internet and television service for $70 a month for Internet only and $120 with streaming video. Your move, AT&T………..

- New Texas head football coach Charlie Strong won't win over rabid Longhorns fans this way, but he deserves credit for a smart start to his tenure in Austin. Strong, hired in January from Louisville to replace Mack Brown, inherits a program that has posted four consecutive seasons with at least four losses, including an 8-5 mark last year. He also inherits an impatient fan base that expects national championships and feel slighted when it doesn’t get one, so having a new coach that not all UT fans were excited about hit them with a cold shower of realism before coaching a single game may not sit well with Longhorn Nation. “We have everything available, and I don't know why we can't be successful," Strong told fans in Fort Worth during the first stop on his bus tour to connect with supporters and build enthusiasm for the coming season. There's no reason for us not to be. Now, I can't tell you how soon it's going to be. Don't hold me to that. Don't say, 'Ooh, coach said next year we'll be in the national ...' We will not be in the national championship game." Ouch….that one has to sting for Texas fans. Even though Strong went on to explain that he and his staff must shake their players from a state of complacency before they can move forward, that sort of heady pursuit isn't the type of thing a maniacal fan base will grant a new coach several seasons to accomplish. "A lot of our guys, they feel entitled and they get a little complacent because of where we are," Strong said. "So then as a coaching staff, that's why we have to be so conscious of when the guys feel they are a little better than what they are. He went on to say that the Longhorns have significant questions that must be answered at quarterback and other key positions before they can reach the great heights to which he plans to pilot the program. The message has been sent out and reached the ears of its intended targets, but whether or not it is received and internalized by those who bleed burnt orange is another matter entirely………