- Ish
just got real in South America. As one might suspect when there is the potential
for a wholly unnecessary armed conflict on that particular continent, Venezuela
is involved. This time, the president of Guyana is accusing Venezuela of
deploying troops to a contested border region in what he calls a
"dangerous" escalation of a long-running dispute between the two
South American nations. President David Granger fanned the flames of dispute
when he claimed to have received reports of what he called "extraordinary
military deployments" along what Guyana considers its western border. In
light of this egregious breach of boundaries, Granger said his defense
officials were meeting to discuss a response. In a very civil move, Guyana has
asked the U.N. to mediate the border dispute and Granger is expected to raise
the issue at the upcoming General Assembly. Just don’t expect Venezuelan
dictator Nicolas Maduro to back down because that’s not really his thing, not
when Venezuela has long claimed a resource-rich jungle territory known as the
Essequibo that comprises about two-thirds of Guyana. In essence, Venezuela
thinks it owns Guyana the way Russia thinks it owns anything shiny that catches
Vlad Putin’s eye. Not only is it trying to take over Guyana, Venezuela has also
recently sent troops to its border with Colombia in a crackdown on smuggling. The
dictatorship that Hugo Chavez built is spreading itself a bit thin these days,
but such is the price of doing business as a blatant dictatorship……….
- A lot
of people would like to miss the upcoming women’s Asian Cup soccer tournament. As
in, anyone not being paid to play for or work at the tournament - and probably
even a few of those people - would like to avoid an international women’s
soccer tournament. Ironically, one of the people who is supposed to play in the
event won't be able to make it. That would be Iranian women's soccer captain
Niloufar Ardalan, who will be absent from the competition due to what could
generously be called a domestic dispute. Ardalan’s husband, sports journalist Mahdi Toutounchi,
has ripped his wife’s passport to keep her from leaving the country and missing
their son's first day of school. If that seems unfair, that’s because it is. If
it seems like it should be illegal, it’s not. Toutounchi is acting within the
given legal parameters of Iranian law, which allows a husband to deny his wife
the ability to travel beyond the country's borders if he chooses. Iran isn't
known for behind ahead of the times socially, but even this is ridiculous.
Iranians and supporters on social media have rallied around Ardalan, demanding
that the law be changed in a country that doesn’t change laws for any reason
other than it giving more power to its authoritarian government. Ardalan tried
to minimize the situation in an Instagram post that was surprisingly
militaristic for a woman who plays soccer for a living. "I am only a
national soldier who fights to raise flag of our country," she wrote.
"I wish a law would be approved that allows female soldiers to fight for
raising the flag." Chill out, N. It’s only soccer; in real war, people who
fall to the ground as if they were shot, it’s because they actually were…….
- America,
it’s time to find out how FAT you are and which state is creating the heaviest
burden on gravity’s shoulders these days. Not surprisingly, it’s the same
people who were weighing this country down last year: Arkansas, West Virginia
and Mississippi. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control,
those were the states with the highest adult obesity rates. A state-by-state
analysis showed that adult obesity rates remain steady in the United States,
but they’re still disturbingly high. The Midwest had the greatest prevalence of
obesity, narrowly edging out the South, which boasted seven of the states with
the highest obesity rates in the nation. Obesity rates have soared since the
1990s, thanks in large part to Mississippi and West Virginia, which in 2013 were
the first two states to ever report more than 35 percent of their adult
population as obese. According to the CDC, more than a third of U.S. adults are
obese and even worse, 17 percent of children are obese. The numbers are equally
disturbing for several ethnic groups, as the study puts the obesity rate for
African-American adults at 47.8 percent and Latino adults at 42.5 percent.
White folks can feel only moderately ashamed of their fitness level, as the
study pegs their obesity rate at a paltry 32.6 percent. Credit to Hawaii, the
District of Columbia and Colorado for keeping the obesity rate from going even
higher by rocking the lowest numbers in the study. The rest of America is
veering toward obesity-related conditions like heart disease, stroke, and type
2 diabetes and contributing far too much to the $147 billion the U.S. spends annually
on obesity-related issues. Given that the medical costs of those who are obese
are about $1,500 a year more than someone of normal weight, now would be a
great time to deal with this sh*t………..
- Hey
world, get ready to be amazed….by how miserably “Jurassic World” director Colin Trevorrow fails to
live up to his promise that the sequel to his bloated blockbuster will be a
"different kind of film" than its predecessor. Trevorrow, who won't direct
the next totally unnecessary sequel in the franchise, will serve as one of its
executive producers and is co-writing its script. Universal announced over the
summer that the “Jurassic World”
follow-up will be released in June 2018 and as Trevorrow tells it, a movie that
doesn’t need to reinvent anything to appease the legions of sci-fi sycophants
who will pay $10 or more to see it is going to reinvent everything. "It
will get to be a different kind of film. The audience has given us permission
to a certain extent to take this to the next level, and I don't necessarily
mean in scale,” Trevorrow said. "I
feel very strongly that it's not about more dinosaurs, or bigger and better
dinosaurs. It's about using this as a starting point for a much larger story
about our relationship with these animals and about animals in general and the
dynamic created by bringing them back to life." Oh, but it will be on a
bigger scale and there will be bigger, better dinosaurs because, well,
Hollywood. Both Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are reprising their roles
for the sequel and will keep the storyline going after their characters “opened
Pandora's Box in ‘Jurassic World,’”
Trevorrow added. After banking $1.65 billion worldwide since its release and
becoming the third highest-grossing film of all time, the real stunner is that the
sequel isn't coming out by the end of this year……….
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