- Caffeine
addicts, you have a fight on your hands in Deutschland. Germany is going to war
against environmentally unfriendly coffee pods and while the country tends to
fare poorly in wars, the city of Hamburg is determined to win this fight.
Hamburg has banned coffee pods from government-run buildings as part of a push
to become more environmentally friendly. In announcing the decision, city officials
said they will no longer spend taxpayer money on products that don't meet Hamburg’s
high sustainability standards. Coffee capsules such as those sold by the
Nestle, Keurig and other brands are in the crosshairs for the city and are specifically
mentioned in the city's new guidelines on account of creating unnecessary waste
and containing aluminum. A spokesman for the city claimed the pods contain 3
grams of waste for every 6 grams of coffee and while those numbers might seem
like an acceptable tradeoff for the caffeine junkies, it’s not all right with
Hamburg’s leaders. Coffee pods are just one item affected by the new rules,
which also include plastic cutlery and plates, water, beer, and soft drinks in
disposable packaging, as well as certain cleaning products and even wall
paints. "The city can help ensure that environmentally harmful products
are purchased less frequently and that sustainable products achieve even
greater acceptance in the market. Our objective is to increase the share of
environmentally friendly products significantly in order to help combat climate
change," said Hamburg senator Jens Kerstan. Keurig has promised to make
all K-Cups recyclable by 2020, but that’s not going to do much to keep its pods
in the hands of civil servants for the next few years………
- No
longer will second base be the site of high-impact games of wipeout in Major
League Baseball…. or at least that’s the plan. MLB and the players' union have
banned rolling block slides to break up potential double plays, a move spurred
on by plays like the takeout by the Los Angeles Dodgers' Chase Utley that broke
a leg of New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada in last year's playoffs. That was
the most visible example of a trend that has grown in baseball over the years,
with runners clearly going out of their way to make contact with a second
baseman or shortstop trying to jump over them and throw to first base to
complete a double play. A rules change announced this week dictates that a
runner must make a "bona fide slide," defined as making contact with
the ground ahead of the base, being in position to reach the base with a hand or
foot and to remain on it, and sliding within reach of the base without changing
his path to initiate contact with a fielder. Should the runner fail to do so, an
umpire can call both the runner and batter out. Utley, still living in a state
of outright denial, said he didn't think
the play in which Tejada was injured was the singular catalyst for change.
"From my understanding, I think we have been trying to work on this for a
few years now, trying to get on the same page, and now obviously we are,"
Utley said. "I don't think that one instance really determined anything.”
Yes, but your play was the tipping point that finally pushed this over the top
and for that, you should stand up and take credit, bro………
- Duuuuuude,
this is totally bogus. Part of the reason you go to college is because you want
to enjoy every last party possible and there is no place where the party kicks
more ass on a nightly basis than spring break. Whether it’s Florida, Texas,
Hawaii, South Carolina or elsewhere, bros and ladies from schools all over the
country flock to places with warm weather and beautiful beaches so they can
walk around in their bathing suits 24/7, drink copious amounts of alcohol all
day long and hook up with total strangers they won't ever see again. That makes
it decidedly d-baggish that Chicago State University plans to cancel spring
break in the name of staying afloat financially. The school isn't axing spring
break in the name of student safety or being a wet blanket for the beer bong
lovers on campus, but rather to accelerate the end of the semester before the
school runs out of cash. Yes, much like the stoner sophomore who blew through
all the money his parents sent him halfway through the semester and is now
wearing the same clothes for weeks on end because he’s out of coins to do
laundry and stealing other people’s food out of their shared dorm room mini
fridge, CSU is staring down a growing budget crisis and now intends to end the
semester on April 30, instead of May 15. Finals will take place the final week
of April and if there’s enough money to keep the lights on for graduation, the
ceremony will take place on April 28. University
president Thomas Calhoun Jr. wrote in a memo to the university community that
budget issues at the state level are to blame and said the school “cannot spend
what we do not have and so we obviously have to be in cost cutting mode in
order to extend what we have in the absence of a state allocation.” That means
cancel those spring break plans from March 14-19 and hopefully that deposit you
put down on the fleabag motel in Panama City Beach for the week is refundable………
- It’s
happened to every legit rock star at some point, so Bruce Springsteen need not
feel bad. The Boss was playing a gig in Cleveland
earlier this week when he pulled out the patented, go-to pander-to-the crowd
tactic of shouting out the name of the town in which he was performing. “Party
noises, Pittsburgh!” he exclaimed, only to have it dawn on him seconds later
that he was not in Pittsburgh, but rather a city that hates Pittsburgh down
deep in its soul. When he realized his error, Springsteen shouted, "And
Cleveland, too!" Given who he is and that well into his 50s he remains a
rock and roll iron man who plays shows in excess of two hours on a nightly
basis, the crowd elected not to tar and feather him and according to reports
from the show, Springsteen made up for the mistake later in the night by taking
a selfie while crowdsurfing. It’s also worth noting that bands such as The
Rolling Stones, Guns ‘N Roses and virtually every other artist worth a damn has
at some point misidentified the city in which they were performing, so for a
guy who is known for literally criss-crossing the entire globe and putting on
epic shows for millions whether they speak his native tongue or not, this is
hardly a memorably bad moment. Besides, no one had to clue him in on his
mistake, he self-corrected and went on with the show. Artists like Springsteen
zip from city to city, often playing back-to-back nights and seeing little of
their temporary home beyond a hotel room, the inside of their tour bus and the
bowels of the arena where they’re performing that night. It has to be easy to
lose track of where you are from time to time, even if fans paying $100 or more
a ticket probably don’t enjoy you calling them by the name of a city they
despise with every fiber of their being. Still, the show was by all accounts a
good one and The Boss left his loyal (and aged-out) fans happy with all of his
usual favorites, so let’s just chalk this up to road fatigue and keep
moving……..
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