- Spain, your economic problems could have a simple – albeit
illegal – solution. The Iberian Peninsula nation with major cash flow issues is
in a continual state of financial turmoil and with citizens demanding answers
from a government that has been short on them for months now, perhaps the time
has come for a creative answer that might break a few laws but could pad
everyone’s pockets with some extra euros. It seems that money generated by
drug trafficking, prostitution, smuggling and illegal gambling contributed some
9 billion euros ($11.4 billion) to Spain’s national economy last year,
according to Spain's National Statistics Institute. The institute pegged the
country's gross domestic product at 26.2 billion euros larger — at 1.05
trillion euros — when factoring in estimates for illegal economic activities as
well as money spent on investigation and research and military armament are
included. On the surface, illegal activities represented 0.9 percent of total
economic activity and that doesn’t seem like enough to truly change the course
of an entire nation – and it’s not. That’s the whole point. Maybe if Spain
embraced its dark side and started getting its hands dirty with hookers,
cocaine and gambling, it could erase its national deficit and start having some
extra spending cash to make life a lot more fun. Just because the European
Union is looking to harmonize estimates across member states and get a full
picture of economic activity, whether legal or not, doesn’t mean Spain should
let the organization go all wet blanket on the answer to what ails its people………
- AC/DC won't be the same. Sure, the iconic rockers have revealed
details of a new studio album that will be their first since 2008’s “Black Ice”
and that’s really cool, but there’s a problem with the album and the tour that
will clearly follow. Both will be the first in the group's 41-year history not
to feature founder member Malcolm Young, as Young has decided to step down from
the group due to ill health. Many speculated that Young’s departure would force
the band to hang it up as well, but a statement from the band laid out the
particulars of Young’s departure and the group’s future without him. "Earlier
this year AC/DC released a statement explaining that due to illness, Malcolm
would be taking a break from the band. Unfortunately, due to the nature of
Malcolm’s condition, he will not be returning to the band,” the statement read.
The Young-less album will be titled “Rock or Bust” and is due to drop on Dec.
1. It will consist of 11 tracks and was recorded this spring at Warehouse
Studio in Vancouver with producer Brendan O’Brien and mixed by Mike Fraser.
Although Malcolm Young won't be a part of the project, his brother Angus is
still around and so is his nephew Stevie Young, who plays rhythm guitar on the
album and will accompany the band on tour. Perhaps signaling how much of a
commercialized act AC/DC has become, a preview of the single “Play ball” will be
heard as part of Turner Sports' Major League Baseball Postseason coverage from
Sept. 27. Frontman Brian Johnson previously said considered calling the album “Man
Down” in reference to Young's absence, "But it’s a bit negative and it was
probably just straight from the heart. I like that.” Just a sad story all
around…………
- Rental cars are mysterious places. They’re this nebulous
zone between the world of things you own and care about and the realm of sh*t
you borrow and don’t care about at all, mostly because if anything really
terrible happens to them while in your custody, it’s a major problem. Folks
tend to treat rental cars poorly, but not poorly enough to do serious, lasting
damage. Occasionally, they even forget random items when they return their
rental and thus leave a wacky surprise for the next person who drives the
vehicle. A pair of unwitting women were on the receiving end of this funny
little quirk in the universe when they drove a rental car from Boston to
Kennebunk, Maine this week and popped the trunk of their temporary ride to retrieve
their luggage. When they flipped the latch and the trunk lid ascended, the
women were stunned to find a ball python inside. Ball pythons generally grow
to 3 to 5 feet long and aren't considered dangerous, so it’s not as if they
encountered a king cobra or Tibetan pit viper, but a snake is still a damn
snake and they shouldn’t be left unattended in cars. The snake’s path to the
trunk is unknown, but the ball python is a common pet and odds are that scaly
little fella was someone’s pet at some point. According to Kennebunk Deputy
Police Chief Dan Jones, the two women were so unnerved by finding the snake
that they wanted a new rental car even after the critter was removed and turned
over to the Maine Warden Service. It makes sense because for all they knew,
another snake was going to come slithering out of the exhaust or that open
space above the gas pedal and brake while they drove down the highway at 75 mph…….
- Anyone feeling sorry for Minnesota Twins ace Phil Hughes
needs to take a cue from his reaction rather than lamenting his loss of $500,000 because of a persistent rainstorm
that washed out his shot at a key clause in his contract. Hughes pitched eight
innings Wednesday in the Minnesota Twins' 2-1 victory over the Arizona
Diamondbacks, twirling eight masterful frames for his 16th win of the season.
However, the man who finished with a single-season major league record for
strikeout-to-walk ratio thanks to 186 strikeouts and 16 walks came up short on a $500,000
innings bonus in his contract because of a 66-minute rain delay following the
eighth inning. The delay left Hughes one-third of an inning short of 210 for
the season and his contract stipulates that if he reaches 210 innings pitched,
he gets an extra half a million dollars. He could get that final third of an
inning this weekend, but Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said after the game that
he will not use Hughes out of the bullpen this weekend. The entire saga left
fans and members of the media bemoaning the unfairness of it all and the former
All-Star acknowledged that he is aware of the situation regarding his bonus,
but insisted he’s mot miffed. "I was very aware of it, but some things
aren't meant to be," Hughes said. How is this man so placid despite
missing out on a nice chunk of cash that could translate to a pair of nice,
shiny new Maseratis? Maybe it’s because his base salary is $8 million and he’s already
earned a pair of $250,000 bonuses for reaching 180 and 195 innings. Perhaps
it’s also the satisfaction of shattering the 11.63 strikeouts-per-nine-innings
mark of Bret Saberhagen, who had 143 strikeouts and 13 walks for the New York
Mets in 1994 for an 11.00 ratio. Whatever gives Hughes his outward tranquility,
it’s about time everyone stopped feeling bad for him and realized that the
differences between $8.5 million and $9 million isn't that much after all……….
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