Saturday, June 07, 2014

NY Giants felons, discovering new dinosaurs and Jim Crow bigotry alive and well


- How did Pete Doherty go so wrong? He does know that he’s a British rock star who has been in multiple successful bands and scored God only knows how many hot chicks because of it, right? In that capacity, one is all but assured of downing copious amounts of illegal narcotics and getting away with it because, well, rock stars get away with that kind of sh*t. So why on Earth is Doherty complaining that his drug usage has ruined his life? The self-destructive frontman said that he has "caused so much crap" because of his drug addiction issues that he wants to get clean. "I would like to get rid of the damn drugs," he said. "It's no longer fun. On the contrary, it's just sh*t and kills all my creativity. But it's difficult to stop. My past life is a f*cking mess, a real mess." First and foremost, if you can't appreciate a job where taking massive amounts of drugs is an accepted – even encouraged – part of the job description, then maybe you no longer deserve that job. Secondly, drugs helped open many new horizons for the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and the like, so why is Doherty different? "It’s gone wrong in so many ways. Although I don't believe in regrets - 'cause that offers nothing - but clearly some things I would like to change,” Doherty added. “I wish I had better contact with my family. I have caused so much crap." On the plus side, one of Doherty’s bands, The Libertines, recently announced plans to reunite, with a show at the British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park on July 5. Maybe by then, their self-pitying frontman will have sucked it up and gotten back to sucking down a sh*t ton of coke, pot and heroin……..


- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Haiti is the place and the ouster of President Michel Martelly is the cause for some badass dissidence that rocked the capital city of Port-Au-Prince this week. The scene was a dramatic one as an estimated 5,000 protesters marched through downtown Port-au-Prince, trying to tear their own city to the ground by burning tires, trashing property and blocking off streets in the congested capital. Faced with such a bold display of force by the commoners, police responded by firing off tear gas canisters to break up the riot. Sadly, their efforts were largely successful and highlighted a pressing need among the opposition to regroup and rethink its riot strategies before attempting any further overthrows of the government. Opposition leader Andre Michel is the voice of the movement and explained that he and his followers are calling for Martelly's removal because of widespread corruption in Haiti's government and the failure of his administration to improve jobs, schools and health care in the impoverished country. Those complaints have been true of Haiti for decades, so they’re nothing new, but foolishly promising to eliminate those problems and then failing to do so is a recipe for an angry populace. Predictably, anti-government protests have grown increasingly common in recent months and rather than fight back with irrefutable evidence of his fulfillment of campaign promises – which he doesn’t actually have - Martelly has accused his opponents of fomenting instability and blocking legislation that would help Haiti. That has left the opposition with voter’s remorse, as the president is mid-way through a six-year term. Looks like more riots are needed………


- The real miracle isn't that the first three-dimensionally preserved eggs of ancient winged reptiles that lived more than 100 million years ago have been unearthed in China…what’s truly amazing is that unlike everything else produced in China, the eggs weren’t slathered in toxic lead paint. Five intact eggs were found, along with dozens or more adult fossils, of a brand new type of pterosaur. As all dino-nerds know, the pterosaurs were a group of prehistoric winged reptiles that dominated the skies during the time of dinosaurs. They are believed to be some of the largest flying animals that ever existed. "We found a lot of pterosaur bones which belong to different individuals in the sites, with five eggs," said study researcher Xiaolin Wang, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropologyat the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. At present, the fossil record of pterosaurs is minimal and before this find, a mere four individual flattened pterosaur eggs had been discovered by scientists. The researchers for this project discovered the fossils of the new genus and species, Hamipterus tianshanensis, in an area first excavated in 2005 in the Turpan-Hami Basin, located south of the Tian Shan Mountains in Xinjiang, in northwestern China. They believe there may be thousands of bones remaining in the region where the eggs and skulls of adult male and female pterosaurs were found, the researchers said. The working theory is that the newly uncovered pterosaurs perished in a storm about 120 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period. Wang and his crew found the eggs to be extremely soft and pliable, with a thin, hard outer shell and a thick, soft inner membrane, similar to the eggs of some snakes. Along with the eggs, the researchers also found many adult pterosaur fossils nearby………


- Hey America….you know you’re still home to a disturbing number of heinous racists, right? In case you forgot, enjoy this tremendous tale of reviving the hate, bias and discrimination of the Jim Crow era, when laws were heinously slanted against black people without shame. That spirit is still alive in Memphis thanks to a manager at Atkinson Cotton Warehouse who understands that you cannot simply allow people of another race shared conveniences like using a microwave in the office break room or getting a drink from a water fountain on a hot day. This is the tale of Untonia Harris, who worked at the factory before being laid off earlier this year. Prior to being canned, however, Harris said he used his phone to record his supervisor after feeling discriminated against for months. One recording purportedly contains audio of Harris asking his manager if he could use a microwave. "Hell no!" a man he describes as the supervisor responds. When Harris asks why, the manager smartly explains that it’s because Harris is not where. In another recording, the same supervisor denies Harris a drink from the water fountain. "I need to put a sign here that says, 'White people only,'" the voice says. That’s when the enlightened manager responds to a question about what will happen to Harris he is caught drinking from the fountain. The voice replies, "That's when we hang you." Other places Harris wasn’t allowed to go include a mechanical lift and random locations around the building that probably should not have been off limits without a much better reason. Another African-American employee, Marrio Mangrum, also complained of racism by the supervisor. "He would be like, 'You need to think like a white man,'" Mangrum said. He filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in January, but it wasn’t until Harris produced audio in which the supervisor expresses support for the Jim Crow era between the 1880s and 1960s that this party really kicked into high gear……..


- Are the New York Giants the new Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL? No, not a promising young team with a talented young quarterback who can’t seem to come up big in the playoffs…the Giants, after all, have two Super Bowl titles under their current regime. No, Los Gigantes are pressing the Bengals for a more dubious distinction – that of the NFL’s biggest collection of football felons. A recent spate of arrests has put Tom Coughlin’s crew in position to seize the mantle for criminal activity and the arrests have caught the attention of Giants safety and team captain Antrel Rolle. Rolle mused this week about why his teammates are having so much trouble staying out of trouble with the long arm of the law. His comments came after drug suspensions to cornerback Jayron Hosley and now-former teammate Will Hill. "It's too easy to do right to keep doing wrong," Rolle said. "We don't need to have that pub, people asking, 'What's up with the secondary?' That's a bad reflection. It doesn't look good." Hosley, who has proven little in the NFL thus far in his career, apologized publicly Thursday for his four-game drug suspension. Hill was released by the team earlier this week when Coughlin grew tired of his multiple suspensions and constant drug problems. Hill, now a man without a team, is facing a six-game suspension from the league for violating its substance-abuse policy. It's Hill's third drug suspension in three years, so the Giants broke him off proper. Hosley, the Giants' 2012 third-round pick, is still with the team but will be suspended for the first four games of the season for his violation of the drug policy. According to the young cornerback, he tested positive last season and has been appealing since then, but "the ball didn't bounce my way." "I want to apologize to the ownership of the New York Giants, the general manager Jerry Reese, my coaches and most importantly my teammates and the fans," Hosley said. "I made a mistake, and there's consequences to what you do, and I've got to be man enough to face them and move on." No, J., you did not make a mistake. A mistake is leaving your coffee cup on top of your car and driving away or forgetting a pot of boiling water on the stove and having it foam over the edge, soaking your stove top in starchy H2O. Deciding that you like getting your chron on more than you like an NFL paycheck is foolishness, borderline addiction and sheer stupidity all rolled into one……….

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