- Baltimore
outfielder Adam Jones is having himself an outstanding week. First, he
laid out a pair of idiot fans who ran
onto the field during the Orioles' 14-5 win over the New York Yankees at Yankee
Stadium. Saying what many athletes would certainly like to say about the
beered-up morons who go from zero to “Hey, you know what would be cool? Me on
the field, holding up the entire game and trying to deke 350-poound security
guards in yellow windbreakers,” Jones went off. "I let them know how I
felt, obviously a lot of choice words because I think it's idiotic for people
to run on the field and I think the punishment needs to be a lot harsher,"
Jones said after the game. “And they should let us have a shot to kick them
with our metal spikes on because it's stupid. I’d [advocate] that people get
tased. I’d enjoy that. You don’t run on the field and just disturb a game
that’s going on.” But that was merely the first verbal salvo Jones was to fire
off for the week, even if his next missive wouldn’t be quite as awesome or
entertaining. After facing $155
million Japanese right-hander Masahiro Tanaka and watching his team come away
with a 5-4 win, Jones was nonplussed when asked his thoughts on the Yankees’
latest overpriced import. "Why don't you ask Tanaka about me? I'm the one
who's been over here in the major leagues for a while," Jones said. “Congratulations,
he did it over there. Don't make it like he's the dirtiest guy in the world. He
was 24-0 -- in Japan.” Jones’ remarks were made so much better because he struck
out twice against Tanaka and still wasn’t impressed. "Am I [supposed] to
go home and say I faced Tanaka tonight? Just go throw a party that I faced
Tanaka? It's another pitcher," Jones snapped. "Another pitcher in the
rotation. Nothing special to me. It's just another guy that we have to go
through to get to where we want to be." It may only be the second week
of the season, but Jones is already in midseason form when it comes to that
chip on his shoulder……..
- Dropbox wants
more. The popular online cloud storage service is well-known for being a place
to dump copious amounts of photos, videos or music, but it wants to expand its
role in the lives of tech users. The next big aim for the company is becoming
the primary way folks access and share the digital copies of their favorite
images. To facilitate this development, Dropbox has launched Carousel, a new iOS and Android app
that serves as a gallery for photos and videos. The app shows photos from every
folder in a person’s Dropbox account and can be accessed through both mobile
devices and traditional ones such as laptops and desktops. There is one glaring
limit on the app and it’s a familiar one to veteran Dropbox users; the storage
amount permitted by a given Dropbox plan. Users start with 2 GB of storage and
receive more either by paying for it or by referring friends and having them
sign up for an account. By utilizing the Carousel app, users can share
collections of photos with their email and phone contact lists regardless of whether
the recipient has a Dropbox account or not. “We designed this to feel like
chat...to feel like SMS,” said Gentry Underwood, co-founder of Mailbox, which
was acquired by Dropbox last year. Another interesting feature of the app is
that it has a setting in which any video and photo on a person’s smartphone is
automatically backed up to Dropbox at full resolution. Using the feature would
allow users to free up precious space on their mobile device so they can cram
the latest Katy Perry album onto it. All of this theoretically puts Dropbox in direct
competition with industry leaders like Google, Facebook and Yahoo, but the blue
box has a long way to go to reach that level……….
- The whole Nazi era is still something of a sore spot for
Germany. Displaying the Third Reich’s infamous salute in public can lead to
massive fines for all and deportation for visitors, so clearly Deutschland is
prickly about the period of history when virtually the entire world hated it on
account of its maniacal, fascist dictator trying to exterminate an entire race
of people for no viable reason. That makes this week’s unfortunate occurrence
at a small, Berlin-based German furniture store chain all the more awkward for all
involved. Zurbrueggen found itself in a tough spot after an employee who is
probably enjoying a permanent, unpaid vacation by this point inadvertently
ordered 5,000 coffee cups bearing a faint portrait of Adolf Hitler from China.
Why any factory in any country anywhere in the world is making any kind of
drinking vessel with the likeness of arguably the worst person ever to live is
another matter entirely, but the cups were made, they were ordered and
according to Christian Zurbrueggen, co-owner of the furniture chain, 175 of them
were sold before customers reported the problem. Zurbrueggen said he wants to
take the cups "out of circulation” and he’s willing to take a small
financial hit to make it happen. The 4,825 unsold cups have been destroyed and
the owner said he is offering a 20-euro ($28) voucher for the return of the
others, which were sold for 1.99 euros each. The tacky challises feature a
semi-transparent Nazi-era stamp bearing Hitler's portrait and a postmark with a
swastika in the background overlaid with another layer of decoration. Someone
with Zurbrueggen ordered the glasses from a trade fair in China and they were
delivered last month. Theoretically, no one took a close look at them before
they went on the shelves and it would have been quite a blast to overhear the
first conversation in which an alarmed customer altered a store manager to the
fact that the fuhrer was staring back at them from the mug they drink their
Italian roast from in their cubicle each morning……….
- Any time an angry mob demands the removal of a
controversial billboard, it’s worth pausing, leaning back and enjoying a good
laugh at the expense of the offended party or parties. After all, the visceral
and outraged reaction is exactly what those responsible for the billboard
wanted in the first place. They erected a massive display with offensive or
provocative words and/or imagery because they wanted to create a stir and in so
doing, promote the business, product or brand they represent. In this
long-standing spirit of provocation, let’s all give a slow clap for the Moonlight
Bunny Ranch, a legal brothel in Carson City, Nev. that has been in business
since the 1950s. The raunchy ranch and its skanky reputation are nationally
known and in that sense, advertising what it offers isn't really the point of
any ad or billboard. Instead, putting up a roadside billboard advertising a
place where skanks with cocaine habits, er, intelligent young women trying to
put themselves through law school sell their bodies to total strangers. The
billboard that has some locals livid sits in the town of Colfax, along
Interstate 80. The billboard is bright pink and reads, “Bunny Ranch Bar &
Cigar.” “It’s all about branding,” Bunny Ranch owner Dennis Hof said. “The
billboard doesn’t have hookers on it, it’s got a picture of me and it is
selling a lifestyle; smoking cigars, drinking liquor and some good food.” Yes,
because what draws dudes in quite like a picture of a middle-aged man inviting
them to come get drunk, increase their chances of lung cancer and roll around
in the hay with a much younger woman who is paid to be in their company? Besides,
both escorts and billboard advertising escorts are perfectly legal in the state
of California. This is one of three billboards advertising one of Hof’s
newest enterprises, the Bunny Ranch Bar and Cigar. The bar is located 1 1/2
miles from the Moonlight Bunny Ranch and Colfax City Manager Mark Miller
admitted there is nothing the government can do about either the business or
the billboard………..
- Replacing late-night TV icon David Letterman certainly was
a lot easier than finding the next man up behind his biggest rival. Finding Jay
Leno’s replacement and convincing Leno to retire was a prolonged fistfight for
NBC, but CBS was much quicker and less combative in handling Letterman’s exit
and finding his successor. Comedy Central talker Stephen Colbert will succeed Letterman as
host of "The Late Show," CBS announced Thursday, a mere week after Letterman
told his audience that he would retire sometime in 2015. Colbert, who has
hosted Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" since 2005, inked a five-year
contract to helm the iconic late-night broadcast. On “The Colbert Report,”
Colbert plays an über-conservative extremist. When he makes the move to CBS
next year, he will not take that character with him and will instead play it
straight in his new capacity. "I won't be doing the new show in character,
so we'll all get to find out how much of him was me. I'm looking forward to
it,” Colbert said of the move. CBS explained that "specific creative
elements" would be determined and announced at a later date, apparently
referring to how much of the current “Late Show” format would be retained and
whether Colbert would bring any of his “Report” gimmicks with him to broadcast
television. The choice for Letterman’s replacement is no surprise, as Colbert’s
name has been bandied about in such discussions for years. When Letterman
dropped his R-bomb on April 3, Colbert quickly emerged as the most popular
pick. "I'm very excited for him, and I'm flattered that CBS chose
him," Letterman said. "I also happen to know they wanted another guy
with glasses." He also called Colbert a true friend and another of
Colbert’s true friends also chimed in on the move. Jon Stewart the host of
"The Daily Show," said his former fake news correspondent has “gears
he hasn't even shown people yet. He would be remarkable.” CBS said in its
announcement that Colbert’s debut date would be announced after Letterman
determines his official retirement date………
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