Monday, March 14, 2016

Man + jammer v. phones on trains, DUI draft prospects and Riot Watch! Morocco


- It seems like the most un-rock-and-roll thing ever. One of the biggest rock bands in the world is supposed to be rocking out with its c*cks out, saying damn the consequences that come with unending days of too-loud music, copious amounts of drugs and getting busy with as many overly made-up groupie skanks as possible while staying up until all hours and traversing the world….not handing out earplugs to fans to make sure their hearing is properly protected from the decibels pulsating from the speakers at shows. Yet here are Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam, teaming up with MusiCares to protect their audience's hearing at their shows. The band will offer earplugs in a custom Pearl Jam case to all audience members in exchange for a small donation to the charity in the wake of AC/DC's Brian Johnson announcing he had been advised to stop performing live due to severe hearing damage that could leave him permanently deaf. "Don't be careless and lazy at loud rock shows or cranking tunes through an old Walkman like I was thirty years ago,” Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament said. "Wear hearing protection or you'll end up with a 1.5K ring in both ears every night when you go to bed or worse when you are trying to enjoy the serene quiet of an empty desert or forest, again like me." Right, but if you don’t want the noise and pulsing sonic wave that hits you at a show for a band like Pearl Jam, then what’s the point of going to the show in the first place anyhow………


- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! The rage is real in northwestern Africa, where hundreds of thousands of Moroccans are demonstrating to protest the United Nations’ chief's remarks about its contested Western Sahara territory. Morocco is a bit angry after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon used the word "occupation" after a visit this month to refugee camps for the region's native Sahraouis in southern Algeria, viewing the remarks as a great offense because it considers the vast mineral-rich region as its "southern provinces.” Despite the fact that Ban also called for renewed peace efforts during his trip, all that Moroccans heard was the leader of a major world organization not so subtly calling for the taking away of what they own. Thus, thousands upon thousands of protestors filling filled the streets of Rabat after leading Moroccan political parties, unions and non-governmental groups called for a national demonstration. Rioting because The Man told you to is about the least badass reason to rise up and given who’s responsible for the protests, there is clear reason to doubt authorities’ claims that as many as 3 million people took part in this weekend gathering. Ban’s comments are the latest stage in the U.N.’s long-running push to hold a referendum on independence for the territory, which was annexed by Morocco when Spain withdrew in 1975. Rather than, you know, holding any sort of vote, Moroccan authorities are swinging the other way and have called for increased autonomy instead. It’s a heated situation in a country that knows what it feels like to have the mercury rise………


- The inability of certain NFL draft prospects to stay in their shoes, not do anything illegal and not go brain-dead in the two or three months leading up to the biggest moment of their lives so far is astonishing on an annual basis. Whether it’s failing a drug test at the NFL combine, getting into an altercation with a lady friend at a bar or doing what former Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott did this week, guys on the verge of making millions of dollars are inexplicably incapable of staying down, staying out of trouble and giving NFL teams no reason to question their character. Prescott proved he’s a professional-level idiot when he was arrested early in the morning on a DUI charge. He was pulled over shortly after midnight while driving a white 2016 Cadillac Escalade in Starkville, Mississippi, the same day he hosted a camp attended by more than 200 children. Two days earlier, Prescott had worked out for scouts from 30 NFL teams at his school's on-campus pro day in Starkville, then he apparently downed a 40 or two and got behind the wheel. Not exactly what you want if you’re projected to go anywhere from the second to fourth round of the draft next month and don’t need anything to push you further down teams’ draft boards. Completing more than 66 percent of your passes last season and tallying 29 touchdowns and five interceptions while leading your team to a 9-4 record and bowl win only gets you so far, and if it appears that you’re a guy with character and judgment issues who already had serious questions about how he would fit at the next level, that DUI is going to take dollars out of your wallet………


- Dennis Nicholl needs to find out if the Unabomber’s cabin in Montana is back on the market yet. Nicholl, a financial analyst at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago, was arrested this past week for a crime that proves he might not be well-suited to exist in the smartphone/social media age. This techno-phobe was outed for disrupting cell phone use of fellow commuters on trains around the greater Chicago area by Chicago IT worker Brain Raida, who singled out Nicholl as the cause after sharing a photo on Reddit of the man with the jammer in one hand and a can of beer in the other. The case began in late 2015, when Chicago residents noticed their calls being dropped or lacking service altogether while traveling on area trains, sparking a search that uncovered Nicholls’ illegal device that is capable of shutting down cellphone and radio signals throughout the vicinity. The Chicago Police Department, Chicago Transit Authority and the Federal Communications Commission knew they couldn’t arrest someone based simply on a social media photo, so this cadre of government authorities conducted an undercover sting operation to catch Nicholl in the act. He was taken down without much trouble and subsequently charged with a felony, as jammers can shut off police radios and block emergency calls. If convicted, he faces jail time and a fine of up to $100,000, but some Windy City residents have rallied to his support because they too are irritated by those around them talking loudly or being completely entranced by their phones while riding the train. As for Nicholl, he doesn’t really have a strong case for his innocence. . “He’s disturbed by people talking around him,” his attorney, Charles Lauer, said. “He might have been selfish in thinking about himself, but he didn’t have any malicious intent.” Oh, well in that case, what he did was totally OK and not in the least bit illegal……….

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