- Zero credit to the city of Laurens, S.C. for backing down from what should have stood as a
monument to the exceedingly rare instance of government officials actually
having a decent sense of humor. The city was tired of people littering -
shocker - and decided that the best way to go about combating the problem was
to post signs that delivered their anti-littering message with a snarky sense
of humor. Three different signs were posted as part of the city's 2014 Don't
Trash Laurens campaign, with the most notable one featuring a message that read,
"Don't litter, Jackass, that means you!" The message featured a
donkey in the place of the word jackass and it was actually pretty funny, right
up to the point someone with a stick up their ass deemed the sign to be inappropriate
and ordered that it be taken down. The other two designs, which do not feature
clever allusions to profanity, will remain up as long as the city gets them
approved through the DOT-permitting process, which spokesperson for the South
Carolina Department of Transportation said was underway. Laurens Mayor Sharon
Brownlee defiantly promised to continue the campaign she launched, saying it is
having the desired effect. "I think the trash on our streets is a whole
lot more offensive," Brownlee said, saying the "Jackass" signs
will now be placed in areas under city jurisdiction. It’s a solid compromise,
but not as good as the city standing its ground and telling the state what a
bunch of jackasses it has running its department of transportation. Oh, and the
signs were created by residents as part of a contest the city held, so is the
city now supposed to go to the winner who designed the “Jackass” sign and take
back their prize? Think about it……….
- Is anyone looking to Courtney Love to validate the careers
of rock icons who have millions of fans spanning the entire planet? That
rhetorical question is brought to you by the sheer absurdity of Love taking a
pointed run at The Boss, a.k.a. New Jersey legend and Chris Christie favorite Bruce
Springsteen. Love decided that her run as the lead singer for the wildly
overrated Hole qualifies her to determine how legit Springsteen is and the
woman who leeched onto Kurt Cobain’s rising star has decreed that "saxophones
don't belong in rock 'n' roll." That is an obvious allusion to
Springsteen’s iconic, longtime saxophone player Clarence Clemons, who passed
away last year. Taking a shot at a deceased man is decidedly douchey, but
douchey is what Love has always been. The comment came as part of a clip
included in Love’s non-amusing YouTube series Courtney Love On…. and
needless to say, it is must-miss viewing. "I really like him," she said
of Springsteen. "He's a nice guy. Cameron Crowe, an old, very dear friend
of mine, took me to the Staples Center for a three-night gig, and I could only
last an hour and a half in a three-and-a-half hour show with the Boss." At
least Love has a dose of realism somewhere inside her mostly empty head, as she
conceded that Springsteen probably isn't a huge fan of her band. "I don't
think he sits around listening to Hole records, do you?" she added. No, he
does not. Love made her comments just days after she joined Cobain's bandmates
Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic to celebrate Nirvana's induction into the Rock N’
Roll Hall of Fame. Somewhere in the midst of hanging with so many actually
talented people, you’d think she would grasp how small and insignificant her
voice is in the rock world………..
- Calgary
Flames interim general manager Brian Burke should probably watch his mouth.
After all, he is the interim general manager of a team that failed to make the
NHL playoffs. Guys like that typically don’t carry a lot of weight around the
league and they look even worse when they take a very public run at one of the
most interesting men in hockey. Yet there was Burke, defending his coach Bob
Hartley and saying Vancouver Canucks coach John Tortorella "oughta keep
his mouth shut." Burke, also Calgary's president of hockey operations, was
returning fire after Sunday's regular-season finale in Vancouver, where the
Canucks won 5-1. Tortorella took exception to Canucks forward Daniel Sedin
being blasted from behind and driven into the boards by Flames forward Paul
Byron late in the second period. Sedin was taken off the ice on a stretcher
after scoring twice in the game and Byron received a five-minute major and a
game misconduct for his hatchet job. Tortorella was not impressed. "It's
embarrassing to coach against the guy across from me tonight," Tortorella
said. "Some of the things that went on when Danny was hurt, it's
embarrassing. I don't like the way he [Hartley] does business. I don't like
him, and eventually I guess why I am talking about it in this way is because I
need to protect my players and a lot of people don't understand that, so I'll
just leave it at that." Sedin later recalled striking his head on the
glass along the boards, trying to lift his head once he fell and being
terrified about the injuries he may have sustained. The coaches’ battle of
words was a continuation of their strife during a Jan. 18 game during which
Tortorella attempted to bum-rush Calgary's locker room following a line brawl
and was suspended for 15 days. Hartley was asked about his rivals comments, but
declined to comment. That’s when Burke stepped in. "Our coach acted
completely appropriately last night and Torts oughta keep his mouth shut,"
Burke said. "Apparently what outraged him was the cardinal sin of our
coach arguing for a penalty while Daniel Sedin was being tended to on the ice.”
Someone sounds a little sarcastic, B……….
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! This is a special edition of
everyone’s favorite overview of social dissidence ‘round the globe, coming to
us from a Jerusalem
holy site more often known for its prayers and time spent in the presence of
the Almighty than for violent clashes involving Israeli riot police. Police
spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed that officers stormed the compound known to
Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, to disperse a riot after
Palestinian hooligans hurled stones and firecrackers on Wednesday from atop the
site. At that point, riot police entered the site and dispersed the rioters with
tear gas and other non-lethal means. Everyone can agree that there aren't
enough historic, extremely holy sites at which there are riots and tear gas, so
this entire scene was a nice injection of life into a city that is already
teeming with animosity, drama and life. The Temple Mount site is known to
Muslims as the "Noble Sanctuary" and is Islam's third-holiest site.
The fact that Israel ranks it higher on its holy sight list than Muslims do
never dissuades either side from beefing over who has control of the area,
which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war. Clashes at the site are
frequent after Muslims conclude their prayers and Jews typically pray below at
the Western Wall. Of late, more Jews have begun praying at the Temple Mount in
addition to worshipping at the wall and that has yielded even more violent
clashes than normal. For two sides that have been feuding for centuries and
will likely be beefing for a long, long time, the fact that the well of hate
and ire has not run dry is both remarkable and a bit disturbing. Here’s hoping
the Vatican follows suit at some point by having the pope in full riot gear,
swinging a baton at those gathered in St. Peter’s Square as his papal guards
squeeze off tear gas canisters and drive the faithful back with fire hoses……..
- What’s the next big thing in solar energy? Think small.
The wicked-smaht folks at MIT and Harvard University have devised a way to store solar energy
in minute molecules that can then be tapped to heat homes, water or used for
cooking. These amazing molecules can store their heat indefinitely and also be ndlessly
re-used while emitting absolutely no greenhouse gases. In other words, they’re
the opposite of Rush Limbaugh. There is still no feasible way to build a
perpetual heat machine, but the researchers succeeded in the laboratory at
demonstrating the viability of the phenomenon called photoswitching. “Some
molecules, known as photoswitches, can assume either of two different shapes,
as if they had a hinge in the middle,” MIT researchers said in statement about
their work. “Exposing them to sunlight causes them to absorb energy and jump
from one configuration to the other, which is then stable for long periods of
time.” To liberate that energy, the researchers exposed the molecules to a
small amount of light, heat or electricity. When they switch back to their
other shape, the molecules then emit heat. “In effect, they behave as
rechargeable thermal batteries: taking in energy from the sun, storing it
indefinitely, and then releasing it on demand,” the scientists said. To facilitate
the switch, the research team used a photoswitching substance called an
azobenzene, attaching the molecules to substrates of carbon nanotubes. In so
doing, they were able to pack the molecules closely enough together to achieve
a sufficient energy density to generate usable heat. When they failed to pack
fewer than half the number of molecules needed as indicated by an earlier
computer simulation of the experiment, the process fizzled out. When they
succeeded, they produced a whopping 200-percent increase in energy density. Tally
this up as a rare instance when science accomplished something that really is
relevant and has clear positive repercussions……….
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