- This isn't going to placate animal rights maniacs who
continue to believe that Shamu is the ultimate prisoner of war, but SeaWorld
Orlando is nonetheless hailing its latest aquatic life triumph. The
animal-centric amusement park announced earlier this week that it is caring for
its 500th rescued manatee since the launch of its animal rescue program nearly
40 years ago. Florida Fish and Wildlife officers in Brevard County rescued an
orphaned male manatee from the Banana River, near Cape Canaveral, after
receiving a report from a concerned resident who spotted the manatee swimming
alone in shallow water. After offices apprehended the lonely manatee, the
285-pound sea cow was transported to SeaWorld Orlando, where he became the
500th manatee to be cared for at the theme park since 1976. Sadly, that did not
earn the manatee free fish treats for life or a season pass to all of the park’s
great attractions, but he did receive a complete health exam, including
antibiotic treatment, from SeaWorld's animal rescue team. Park officials said
they are "cautiously optimistic" that the manatee will make a full
recovery. "The goal, as with every rescue, is to return the manatee back
to his natural environment once he's strong enough to survive on his own,"
SeaWorld said in an official statement. Making the story all the better is the
knowledge that there are undoutbedly kooks from People for the Ethical Treatmet
of Animals who are readying their angry emails demanding the park release the
manatee back into the wild immediately and ceasing their torture of the poor
sea cow. Tortured or not, this rescued manatee is the sixth taken in by
SeaWorld Orlando so far in 2014……..
- Microsoft is desperate and reaching as far as possible to
move units of its Xbox One gaming system. To push its struggling product
forward, the company will sell a cut-price Xbox One for $399 – without the Kinect voice and
gesture controller. "We've heard from people that they just like to play
games with a controller in their hand and what we wanted to do was make sure
that for those people there's a version of Xbox that really meets the exact
needs that they have," said Xbox executive Phil Spencer. Spencer claimed
that 80 percent of Xbox One users use Kinect to control their console, with an
average of 120 voice commands per user per month addressed to Kinect.
"Xbox On," "Xbox Broadcast," and "Xbox Record
That," are most popular command, according to Microsoft. Research shows one
in five people don't use voice commands and for those who use voice command to
turn the console off and on every day for a month, that's 60 commands taken
care of right away. In other words, folks just don’t like chatting with Xbox. Additionally,
there aren’t many games that specifically require the Kinect system that those
that do aren’t big sellers. To make the stripped-down version more enticing,
users can buy it and add a Kinect later. All of this represents a big paradigm
shift for Microsoft, which has long maintained that Kinect was essential to the
Xbox experience. At first, the console wouldn't work without Kinect attached.
That feature was eliminated after Microsoft executives bowed to privacy
concerns. The full Xbox One package with a Kinect controller continues to
retail for $499, but this cheaper version is aimed at competing head-to-head
with the Sony PlayStation 4 on price. So far, Sony has b*tch-slapped Microsoft
in sales in the U.S. market and by slashing the price and allowing users to
access streaming applications such as Netflix, Skype, YouTube and even Internet
Explorer on Xbox consoles is clearly a desperate attempt to close that gap……….
- The stoners of the NFL are winning. It might seem that
potheads like Josh Gordon and Will
Hill are actually losing on account of them facing lengthy suspensions for
violations of the league’s current drug policy. However, a longer-term view
would suggest otherwise. Yes, missing an entire season will sting for these
idiots and their bank accounts, but in a grander sense they are helping wear
down the NFL’s resolve to continue waging war against the evils of Mary Jane.
Sources close to the league have indicated that the ongoing negotiation over
the league’s drug policy has taken a turn in favor of the herb and while the
current proposal reportedly calls for testing for human growth hormone, it will
also reportedly significantly increase the threshold for a positive marijuana
test and reduce the punishments for violations involving that drug. Critics –
both players and others – have long argued that the NFL's policy on marijuana
is outdated and frequently cite the World Anti-Doping Agency’s higher threshold
for a positive test. Additionally, the NFL Players Association has expressed to
the league an interest in studying the medical research that has led to the
legalization of marijuana in many states for medicinal use. The biggest barrier
for a new drug agreement is a standoff over arbitration of discipline,
specifically commissioner Roger Goodell serving as detective, officer, bailiff,
judge, jury and executioner in cases wherein a player is found guilty of a
violation through a means other than a positive drug test. "He wants to
hold all the cards and he wants to be the judge, jury and executioner, and
we're not going to go for an un-American system like that,” union president
Eric Winston said last week. Yes, but when there is a chance to get baked and
face more lenient penalties, maybe you can let the smaller (and more sober)
issues go………
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Vietnam is where it’s at right now
for angry, anti-foreigner rage and no place is hopping more than southern
Vietnam, where anti-China mobs torched up to 15 foreign-owned factories and
trashed many more amid rising anger over China's recent installment of an oil
rig in disputed Southeast Asian waters. While unrests at industrial parks is
normally limited to parking space beefs and someone violating the 15 mph speed
limit, this particular outbreak of violence was directed at locations established
to attract foreign investors. The riots represented the most serious outbreak
of public disorder in the tightly controlled country in years and could be a
harbinger for rough waters ahead for the government as it manages public anger
at China while also protecting its own ass in regard to Chinese actions in a
part of the South China Sea it claims as its own. This round of riots took
place at a Singapore-run industrial park and when coupled with protests by up
to 20,000 workers at the complexes in Binh Duong province, it was quite the
full day for dissidence. The best performance of the day came by small mobs
that attacked factories they believed were Chinese-run. Part of the reason
these attacks were so great is because the attackers didn’t bother to verify
that their targets were actually Chinese-owned. Some were Taiwanese or South
Korean, but the point was made nonetheless: Dammit, we are angry and we’re
going to destroy sh*t no matter who it belongs to. The day after the attack, riot
police had been stationed around the area and private security guards patrolled
as well. In a shameless effort to curry favor with the locals, many
foreign-owned factories hung banners on the gates of their factories that read,
"We love Vietnam" and "Hoang Sa, Truong Sa - Vietnam,"
using Vietnamese terms for the Paracels and Spratlys Islands, island chains
claimed by both Vietnam and China. Nice try, but it’s only delaying the
inevitable, fools………..
- Channing Tatum may not exactly be the next
Daniel Day Lewis, but he’s good-looking and he can capably deliver lines in
ridiculous comedies alongside Jonah Hill, so people like him and give him important
parts in movies. Clearly, his work in such cinematic classics as “21 Jump
Street” and “Magic Mike” have caught the attention of producer Lauren Shuler
Donner, who confirmed earlier this week that Tatum is her choice for a
recurring role in future editions of the X-Men franchise. Not only will Tatum
have a role in future movies in the series, but he could also receive a
possible stand-alone project for his character Gambit. "He's a rogue, he's
a rascal, just like Remy LeBeau," Donner said. "He can handle the
action, as we know, and he's got a real good heart…I know him personally."
Oh, well if you know him personally, then you should definitely hire them.
Tatum will not appear in “X-Men: Days Of Future Past,” which is directed
by accused sexual predator Brian Singer later this month, but that hasn’t dampened
his possible future producer’s love what he brings to the table, or screen, or
wherever he appears. "He'll be great for Gambit, and he's a southerner
too, he understands that world, and you know Gambit loves New Orleans,” Donner
added. With our without Tatum, “Days of Future Past” is neck-deep in star
power, with Michael Fassbender, Hugh Jackman, James MacAvy, Jennifer Lawrence,
Halle Berry, Anna Paquin and Ellen Page sharing screen time and alternating
poorly written dialogue. With box office earnings projected to be immense for
the project, look for a slew of future X-Men films in which Tatum can ply his
trade………
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