- Rise up, mistreated German train drivers of the world. The
ongoing battle ‘twixt a union representing drivers for railway operator Deutsche
Bahn and the company has dragged on for months and while there aren't any
groundbreaking issues at stake here, the fair treatment of the working man is
always worth talking – and fighting – about. The union has called on its
members to strike Wednesday and Thursday in a long-running dispute with the
national railway operator and that’s bad news for anyone looking to take one of
the many beautiful routes across Deutschland on its thousands of miles of rail
line. According to the GDL union, passenger services will be hit from 2 a.m. Wednesday
through 9 p.m. Thursday and while that isn't exactly the sort of negotiating
hammer that will bring Deutsche Bahn to its knees, it’s better than merely
walking off the job for a day. Coupled with freight train workers walking off
the job Tuesday afternoon and returning to work Friday morning, it gives the
union some more momentum in its push to achieve its stated goal of a 5-percent
pay increase and shorter working hours. Those are demands that damn near every
employee of every company in the world would make if they could, but the union
is determined to negotiate not just for train drivers but for other railway
staff who are traditionally represented by a larger rival union. It’s an
ambitious ploy on one that could end in a giant, fiery ball of failure, but
everyone knows that when you’re trying to bring a massive, government-run rail
line to its knees, you go big or you go home and drown yourself in the world’s
best beer……….
- Hey people who missed out on being selected to die in
space as part of the Mars One mission, there’s a slightly more Earth-bound and
less final alternative for you. You may not be headed to space to die in
oblivion with a bunch of other losers, but you can take up residence in an old Montana gold mining outpost that has become a ghost town but
is starting its rebound – with the help of four history buffs to be chosen by
the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The agency is offering four folks who
believe that that damn technology is ruining our lives to live in Garnet, a
preserved mining town on public land in Montana, where they will help to
maintain the town sans the creature comforts of modern times. “It’s primitive,
to say the least,” U.S. Bureau of Land Management Ranger Nacoma Gainan said. “It’s
for people who love the outdoors and want to give back. There’s no electricity,
no Wi-Fi and no running water. But there are trails to explore, artifacts to
inspect. Volunteers are really left to their own devices after the visitors are
gone.” Response to the offer has been strong and the BLA has received interest
from 400 would-be Ted Kaczynski’s when all the needed was four. The volunteer
residency program is conducted every September and usually lasts about a month,
with those chosen stationed in quarters consisting of a private, furnished
cabin with propane and wood stoves and a refrigerator. There is obviously no
monetary compensation, but volunteers receive a food stipend, which they earn
by providing visitor information, leading tours and staffing souvenir stands.
They work until 4:30 p.m., after which the town turns into their own personal
loser paradise. For fun, they can work with maintenance teams for the town or assist
with special events and developing exhibits……….
- Speaking of nerds, dorks and losers…… Disney and
LucasFilm have revealed plot details for Star
Wars spin-off film “Rogue One.”
The film is the first in a wave of Star
Wars spin-offs being developed by Disney and LucasFilm and while the
details were few in the tweet announcing the plot, fanboys will parse every
word for meaning and significance about the project starring British actress
Felicity Jones, who received an Oscar nomination earlier this year for her
performance in “The Theory Of
Everything.” “A band of resistance fighters unite for a
daring mission to steal the Death Star plans in Star Wars anthology film, Rogue
One,” the tweet reads. Godzilla director Gareth
Edwards will helm the movie and work from a script by Chris Weitz, the
Oscar-nominated writer of “Cinderella,”
“About A Boy” and “Antz.” At a dork symposium, er, Star
Wars Celebration event in Anaheim, California, LucasFilm President Kathleen
Kennedy revealed that the collection of spin-off films will officially be known
as the Star Wars Anthology
Series. A panel discussion during the event gave the pale, pasty basement
dwellers in attendance a first look at a brief teaser clip for “Rogue One.” Within minutes, low-quality
copies of the footage shot by smartphone were uploaded to YouTube,
sparking a minor tiff that ended with the clips being yanked down following
copyright claims by Disney and LucasFilm. “Rogue One” is due to start shooting this summer in London with a
target release date of December 16, 2016. "I couldn't sit in a cinema and
know that someone else made this film," Edwards set at the nerd unity
rally when speaking about why he signed on – besides the massive paycheck and
blank check for the film’s budget – to direct a movie guaranteed to make
boatloads of money simply because the words Star Wars will be attached to its
name………
- Major League Baseball is having its usual tough time
grabbing much of the sports spotlight in the early weeks of the season. The NBA
playoffs are revving up, even the NHL postseason is drawing eyeballs and with less
than 10 percent of the MLB season in the books, there is still far too long to
go for the casual fan to give a damn about America’s national pastime. That’s
why moments like the ones that went down Sunday in the finale of the Oakland-Kansas
City series are a great thing for baseball, even if the powers that be would
never say so. One day after Royals ace Yordano Ventura was ejected after
hitting Oakland third baseman Brett Lawrie with a pitch following Josh Reddick's
home run, the two teams continued their mutual disdain society with a series of
flare-ups in which four more Royals were ejected. The benches emptied for the
third straight day simply because Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera threw a 100
mph fastball shoulder-high behind Lawrie in the eighth inning and to the casual
observer, it might seem the Royals have a bit of a beef with that particular
player. Herrera didn’t exactly pretend like it was an accident and after he was
ejected, he pointed at his head as he left the field. Royals bench coach Don
Wakamatsu also was tossed by plate umpire Greg Gibson and even Athletics closer
Sean Doolittle, who is on the disabled list, jumped into the fray via social
media. “Bush
league. Don't point at your head after you throw at someone that's
hot garbage,” Doolittle tweeted. Wakamtasu was ejected rather than Royals
manager Ned Yost because Yost was long gone, having gotten the heave-ho in the
first after Lorenzo Cain was hit by a pitch from Scott Kazmir. Yost came out to
argue and was immediately ejected and so was pitching coach Dave Eiland. This
all may or may not have something to do with Lawrie's hard slide into Alcides
Escobar, which injured the shortstop's knee Friday and caused the benches to
clear. It was easily the most heated series of the young season and could be
the kind of accelerant that makes this a bitter and ugly rivalry for years to
come. Win and win………
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