Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Muse isn't happy, cockpit brawls and giving to a homeless Jesus statue

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- Soccer is the best. Whenever sports gets bland or boring and someone needs to step up, light a Molotov cocktail and hurl it into the morass of meh, soccer is there to make something go boom. Most of the time, it comes from Europe, where soccer is known as football and fans care far too much about a game that produces more scoreless nights than hanging out with a group of mechanical engineering majors for a weekend. Often, it involves actions that would seem insane to fans of other sports in other parts of the world, actions like those of unidentified assailants who attacked the team bus of reigning Turkish champion Fenerbahce after their victory against Rizespor. Fenerbahce have called for the Turkish Super Lig to be suspended after their team bus was shot at – SHOT AT! – in what seems like a possible militant act but was probably just a few liquored-up Rizespor fans with nothing to do after the game and with plenty of spare ammunition in their trunk. . "We consider that as long as this attack is not solved in a way that satisfies Fenerbahce and public opinion, a suspension of the championship is inevitable," Fenerbahce officials said in a statement. "Blood ran and football was silenced. Finding and punishing the culprits is of vital importance for Fenerbahce." Fenerbahce vice-president Mahmut Uslu denounced the attack and the working theory for police is that the attack was possible carried out by a lone assailant with a shotgun. Uslu decried the incident as "very wrong" before adding: "We came here to do sport, we come to play football." An investigation into the incident is underway, but finding one whack job fan with a gun and a thirst for revenge is like trying to find a striker capable of scoring a goal in a Turkish Super Lig mid-week tilt……….


- In need of some spare cash and unfortunate enough to be in the greater Buffalo area? Head on over to St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, where you’ll find a statue depicting a homeless Jesus sleeping on a park bench and if you’re lucky, money, food and other items left at the bronze sculpture by passersby who figure that rather than actually go inside the church and give their money or perhaps give diectly to an actual homeless person in need, they’ll dump their cash on a park bench and hope for the best. The statue was unveiled last Tuesday outside the church, which raised money for the public art project through private donations. With their haul of disposable income, the church commissioned Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz to create the work of art showing a blanket-shrouded Jesus, identifiable only by the crucifixion wounds on his feet. Shortly after the statue was unveiled, offerings apparently meant for Buffalo's homeless began showing up on the statue. Church officials and members have collected money, food, books, a Buffalo Bills cap and a scarf from the statue and in the process, illustrated a valuable lesson: If you’re an enterprising person of dubious morals and you need a few spare dollars in your pocket, find some way to crank out a semi-decent statue of a religious figure as a homeless person and drop that bad boy outside a local church. Then, wait for the donations to roll in. In this case, those looking to five-finger discount donations to the almighty need to act quickly because the church collects the items each day and donates them to a local organization that helps the homeless………


- When a band names its new album “Drones,” it’s reasonable to expect that it won't be a warm, fuzzy release with a lot of romantic ballads. When that band is politically minded and socially conscious British rockers Muse, the chance for warm fuzzies dips even further and that makes it the least surprising news ever that there “isn't a lot of love on this album." That’s according to Muse frontman Matt Bellamy, who took a few minutes to break down “Drones,” which is scheduled to hit the market in June. The album is the trio's seventh studio album and the band have debuted two songs from the project so far. One of them is “Dead Inside,” which centers on Bellamy’s split from his wife, actress Kate Hudson, last year. Bellamy said the song is about "a relationship ending and a person becoming dead inside themselves.” The rest of the album isn't much sunnier, according to Bellamy. "I went very internal, very into my paranoias, weird feelings and life experiences. It’s quite personal,” he said, calling the album "a modern metaphor for what it is to lose empathy." Much of the project is literally built on the idea of actual drones, a subject that clearly resonates with an fascinates the members of Muse. "I think that through modern technology, and obviously through drone warfare in particular, it’s possible to actually do quite horrific things by remote control, at a great distance, without actually feeling any of the consequences, or even feeling responsible in some way,” Bellamy said. “The next step in drones is gonna be autonomous drones, which actually make ‘kill’ decisions themselves, where no humans are involved.” It’s a dark view of a dystopian future commonly theorized about by kooks in nuclear bunkers with tin foil helmets on and cans of SPAM clutched in their hands, but hearing a world-famous rock band sing about it is always fun………


- What the hell is going on inside the cockpits of planes around the world? After the horrific Germanwings tragedy that saw one mentally troubled co-pilot commit a heinous murder-suicide that ended the lives of 150 people, it’s safe to say that there is an intensified level of security on cockpit security and the mental status of the men and women flying planes full of people. It’s safe to say that if an airline captain and his co-pilot are going to throw hands at any point in the flight process, that’s a problem. Tensions in the cockpit of an Air India flight thankfully took place while the Airbus 320 was on the ground in Jaipur, India and not in the air, but that doesn’t make what went down any less disconcerting. The flight was bound for Delhi and about to take off when the commander asked his co-pilot to perform a routine task: writing down important statistics needed for the flight, including the number of passengers on board, the plane’s takeoff weight and fuel intake. “The co-pilot took offense at this and reportedly beat up the captain," an airline spokesperson said. Dude, no one likes their boss ordering them to perform menial tasks that require little skill or intelligence, but you really cant respond by looking to kick their ass when you two are about to fly hundreds of people over a long distance. The co-pilot reportedly beat up the senior pilot, but Air India is officially denying that any fisticuffs took place. Credit to the senior pilot, who decided to continue to fly AI flight 611 to Delhi because reporting the incident before the flight took off would have led to a flight cancellation and passengers left stranded, for calming himself down and doing his job. Both pilots have been removed from duty following the incident and the airline is investigating, but the conclusion of this one seems rather certain. The co-pilot has reportedly faced similar charges in the past, according to sources, originating from confrontations with both co-workers and supervisors. It might be time for this hothead to find a new gig………

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