- The Blue Angels have long been one of the best-known
groups in the United States’ military machine. Anyone who has ever thought
about becoming a pilot has at some juncture dreamed of soaring with this elite
group of wingmen and performing all manner of amazing aerial stunts to delight
the masses. Now that the world knows how the Angels roll, don’t expect that
line to get any shorter – at least among dudes whose idea of fun at work is
making their female co-workers and anyone who lacks even a shred of sensibility
and decency - because the top flyers in the Navy know how to have fun.
Specifically, the dudes who dip, duck, dodge and dive through the skies are the
bomb – pun intended – when it comes to sexual harassment and depravity.
According to a new Navy study, members of the Blue Angels openly
passed around pornography and flew with it in their cockpits during shows, all
under the command of Capt. Gregory McWherter. Porn is obviously not enough to
have fun at work, so the Angels also cursed gays and talked about women in
deplorable terms to the point that they turned the squadron into a hostile
workplace, a Navy investigation into the shenanigans said. McWherter, who was
reprimanded after a disciplinary proceeding this week and was previously
relieved of his duties as an executive officer, allegedly led the charge on
this tomfoolery by setting a solid example for this bad behavior. The 63-page
report details a script straight out of a ridiculous porn flick, describing how
the squad's Ready Room was part “Animal House” and part Adult Video Network
late-night production. That could be a problem for a group that is the friendly
face of the U.S. Navy and Marines, what with an oversized penis being painted
in the blue and gold colors of the Blue Angels adorned the roof of an airplane
hangar on such a large scale that it could literally be seen by satellites and
appeared on Google Maps images. Stay classy, Blue Angels………
- Klaxons are not one of the better-know British indie
rock bands of the moment. They are going three-dimensional to change that fact
and if nothing else, the curiosity factor should be high around the band’s
upcoming tour. The quartet have announced plans for the first-ever 3-D printed
tour, which will see them hit the road around Britain in October and November, with everything
seen on stage - including guitars, amps and lights - created using the latest
technology in 3-D printing. To launch the tour, Klaxons posted a 3-D printing
press and showed how their tour gear will be created. Klaxons lead singer Jamie
Reynolds explained the thinking behind the tour, although he didn’t merely rub
his thumb and index finger together in the universal sign for someone wanting
to be shown the money. "We're going to do something nobody has ever done
before. Something big, something fresh. Why not?" Reynolds asked somewhat
cryptically. The tour, good or bad, will be in support of the band’s new album
“Love Frequency,” which is set to drop on June 16. The album itself took more
than three years to record and was created with the assistance of a
star-studded lineup of producers including LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, Tom
Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers, DJ/producer Erol Alkan and electro duo
Gorgon City. The album will have four months to marinate in the minds of fans
and critics before Klaxons begin the tour on Oct. 25 with a show at Norwich
Waterfront. From there, it’s merely a matter of how long their 3-D
printer-created instruments hold up to the wear and tear of life on the road…….
- France’s capital city has plenty of eccentric and original
displays of art, but many of them are found in museums scattered throughout the
City of Lights. One that is much more accessible and can be seen for free is
currently causing a lot of problems for Parisian officials. Over the years, thousands
of couples have latched padlocks to the Pont des Arts bridge and thrown their
keys into the Seine River as symbols of lasting love. To some, that is a
fitting tribute in a place that is viewed as one of the most romantic cities in
the world. For others, the display has grown into a hideous blight on their
beautiful city. The locks are now in danger – thanks to the supposed danger to
public safety they pose – but not due to the supposed aesthetic damage they do
to Paris’ lofty reputation. Under the weight of the heavy locks, the fencing to
which the locks were attached tumbled onto the pedestrian bridge below over the
weekend. The possibility of falling fencing is not good for the tourist
business, especially given the prominent role the Seine and its many bridges
play in the city’s touristy center year round. Deputy mayor Bruno Julliard said
the city was already soliciting suggestions from artists on what to do with the
locks before the fencing collapsed and now, they can justify whatever decision
they make by using public safety as a reason. One part of the potential plan is
to convince those who would come to the bridge to declare their eternal love to
show that affection and commitment to one another in a way that leaves less of
a tangible impact on the city’s infrastructure. So far, the alternatives to
locks aren't impressive, with included ribbons and a dedicated sculpture at the
top of the list. If Paris really is a place of art and creativity, then maybe
its powers that be can come up with a more original and innovative solution to
this perceived problem……..
- Can a person become “blacker” depending upon the
circumstances? Stifle that joke about racist police officers in New York City
stopping and frisking random African Americans for no reason at all, because
science is ready to weigh in on the subject. According to a new study by Amy
Krosch, a doctoral candidate in NYU's Department of Psychology, the cultural
construct of race can actually shift as a result of changes to the perceiver's
social goals and motivations. That’s right, how black a person is or isn’t
depends upon the mind of the person perceiving them. Specifically, the study examined
whether exposure to resource scarcity could similarly alter racial perceptions.
First, researchers had female and male non-black people complete a
questionnaire assessing their concerns about economic competition between black
and white Americans. The items were embedded in a questionnaire that was
otherwise irrelevant to race so as to hide the researchers' main interest.
Next, participants viewed a series of 110 morphed faces that ranged in racial
content from 100 percent white to 100 percent black at 11 different increments.
The images appeared randomly and participants were asked to designate each as
black or white. If physical elements were the only rubric, then any face that
was mostly black would be rated as such and vice versa for white folks. Instead,
it turned out that whites and blacks had a lower threshold for identifying
mixed-race faces as black than did subjects who did not hold these zero-sum
views. "The study's findings point to a new challenge to discrimination
reduction since perceptual effects appear to operate without a person's
awareness," Krosch said. "People typically assume that what they see
is an accurate representation of the world, so if their initial perceptions of
race are actually distorted by economic factors, people may not even realize
the potential for bias." While the study did limit the researchers to
testing the correlation between perceived scarcity and race perceptions, they
did tweak the concept for a second run in which different phrases were flashed
on the screen prior to the images appearing. In this second tests, participants
had a significantly lower threshold for identifying mixed-race faces as black
than those in either the neutral or negative conditions. The research team
concluded that African Americans are more likely to be seen as "blacker"
and to bear stereotypical features in bad times. Well done, science………
- How much of a handicap is living or doing business in
Cleveland? While an exact mathematical formula hasn’t been figured out, it
would appear that the curve is steep enough that a Cleveland team must throw
nearly nine figures at a coach whose only professional coaching experience was
an abject failure more than a decade ago. The Cleveland Cavaliers are still a
team without a coach and despite holding both the No. 1 pick in this month’s
NBA draft and delusional hopes that LeBron James will opt out of his contract
in Miami and return to Northeast Ohio this summer, the Fightin’ Dan Gilberts
cannot find anyone to lead their squad – and they’ve tried. Like the desperate
dork seeing a last-minute date to the prom, they’ve thrown cash and affection
at once coach after another, beginning with Florida's Billy Donovan and Michigan State's Tom Izzo, widely
considered two of the top college coaches with NBA potential. When those two
wisely rebuffed Cleveland’s offers, the Cavs turned their attention to the hot
commodity of the moment, Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie. Ollie, fresh off a
national championship, leveraged that interest for a lucrative extension with
the Huskies and left Cleveland hanging. But perhaps the most embarrassing
development yet in the Cavs’ futile coaching search was revealed over the
weekend when it was leaked that the Cavaliers' recent pitch to Kentucky coach
John Calipari was a 10-year offer worth nearly $80 million and included the
role of coach and team president. Being a basketball dictator with a massive
salary would normally be enough to lure any coach, but Calipari realized he has
a much better job where he’s at and like Ollie, he worked his current employer
for a big extension, inking a new seven-year deal worth $52.5 million
guaranteed. The next rumored target on the Cleveland search list is Los
Angeles Clippers assistant coach Alvin Gentry, who is set for a second
interview this week. Perhaps the Cavs can throw $100 million and a four-year
guaranteed stint as the mayor of C-Town at him……….
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