- Why
the sharp, sudden U-turn, Hungarian government? All of a sudden, Hungary says it's not aiming to drive Uber from the
country and now, the government wants to ensure that the ride-sharing app
sticks to rules ensuring fair competition for all taxi companies. Anti-Uber
rage has been a thing around the world in various nations that don’t deal well
with change and free-market concepts, but the tide began to turn in Hungary
after Ministry of National Development state secretary Janos Fonagy and other
officials met with representatives from Uber for the first time in months and
afterward, Fonagy praised the company's "exceptionally modern"
innovations and claimed they have been mostly adopted by other taxi firms. In
spite of that, he returned to the central point that all companies had to obey
the rules. This all comes against the backdrop of Hungary's parliament debating
legislation increasing penalties for unlicensed drivers and banning apps like
Uber. The ride service, which has fought similar battles in countries across
the planet in the past few years, said it hopes Hungary will wait for upcoming
guidelines from the European Union on "collaborative economy
platforms" like Uber before
deciding. Predicting what Hungary will do is a bit like trying to predict
whether that next Uber passenger you pick up on a Saturday night will be
relatively sober and non-belligerent, so this situation could still take an
ugly turn or five……..
- Shots
fired in the UFC women’s division, where reigning female bantamweight champion
Miesha Tate is taking advantage of the platform afforded her by her title reign
as well as the conspicuous absence of longtime rival Ronda Rousey to land some
haymakers on the ex-champ. Tate spilled the beans on a story involving an
alleged interaction between Rousey and UFC strawweight Paige VanZant as
recounted to her by VanZant, who claimed Rousey "cussed her out"
during a promotional appearance because VanZant publicly congratulated Holly
Holm for defeating Rousey last November. Tate alleged that this is just one of
several examples of Rousey's behavior behind the scenes and called her rival "somewhat
emotionally unstable." But ever the professional, Tate tried to soften the
blow by insisting that being crazy didn’t mean Rousey was worse in the ring. "Doesn't
mean she fights any worse for it. I'm not knocking her as an athlete, but
emotionally, she's just got some things that are a little bit strange, and I
think that that was one of them,” she said of the VanZant incident. She then
implied that Rousey is one way in public and another behind the scenes and said
that’s why the two have a rivalry. A cynic would point out that although Tate
has the belt now, she has suffered two losses to Rousey (12-1) in her career,
in 2012 and 2013. After that second bout, Tate famously extended her hand
toward Rousey, who turned away without acknowledging it. In other words,
there’s plenty of reasons be bitter……..
- You
hurl a gator through the Wendy’s drive-thru window, you pay the price. Such is
life for Joshua James, a Florida man who threw an alligator through a
drive-thru window and was sentenced to a year of probation after throwing
himself at the mercy of the court. James, who appears to be either a total
moron or the sort of tool who combines too much cheap alcohol with too little
self-control and then gets behind the wheel, told the judge that he's sorry he
threw the alligator through the window at a Wendy's last October. As this ass
hat tells it, he found the nearly four-foot gator by the side of the road and meant
to play a prank on a friend at the restaurant. Somehow, it never occurred to
him to merely leave the animal inside the friend’s car or underneath the
vehicle and instead thought that it was wise to hurl the toothy beast into the
restaurant where it could attack and harm people, pollute the food and kitchen
and wreak havoc. For that, he was initially charged with multiple felonies,
including assault with a deadly weapon. Thankfully, one was hurt by the gator,
which was captured and returned to the wild. Because the legal system has a
propensity to not give people the punishment they need and so richly deserve, James
entered an open plea on two misdemeanors and instead of going to jail where he
could have a hell of a time explaining to his fellow inmates why he was behind
bars, he’s going to be on probation where, given his demonstrated level of
intelligence, he’s going to break another law or five and complete his destiny
by wearing a prison jumpsuit………
- Will
the claims of wrongdoing against big-budget action move director Michael Bay
never end? First, there are the wholly substantiated allegations that his films
are bloated, overly CGI-ed pieces of crap with terrible scripts and even worse
acting. But even beyond that, there are the growing claims that he’s a
body-shaming dictator on set, a man who belittles women and treats them like
pieces of meat. That’s the tale being told by actress Kate Beckinsale, who 14
years after the fact is claiming that Bay once body-shamed her after she landed
a role in the 2001 movie “Pearl Harbor.” According to Beckinsale, Bay was
critical of her weight and looks when she was cast. “I think he was baffled by me because my boobs
weren’t bigger than my head and I wasn’t blond,” she said. “I’d just had my
daughter and had lost weight . . . but I was told that if I got the part, I’d
have to work out. And I just didn’t understand why a 1940s nurse would do
that.” He claims fit with previous claims by the marginally talented actress Megan
Fox, who once said the Transformers director “wants to be like Hitler on his
sets, and he is. So he’s a nightmare to work for.” Fox can't act her way out of
a wet paper bag, so maybe Bay has reason be tough on her, but more women saying
critical things about him as a director isn’t good. “Then when he was asked
about me, he’d say, ‘Kate wasn’t so attractive that she would alienate the
female audience,’” Beckinsale added, saying that Bay would gush about her male
co-stars Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett, but bag on her. The good news for fans
of well-directed movies is that Bay is on record as saying that he won't direct
the next “Transformers” movie, which is scheduled for release in 2017 and will
star Mark Wahlberg. Wahlberg also anchored the fourth and most recent
installment in the “Transformers” franchise, “Transformers: Age Of Extinction,”
which came out in 2014 and became the second film in the series to gross over
$1 billion worldwide. At least this one won't suck - if it does - on account of
its director………
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