Saturday, August 20, 2016

Guardians join Avengers, Floridian idiots go Krylon on wildlife and Notre Dame football has a weekend


- It definitely sounds like a recipe for disaster in one of the world’s biggest cities. You take a bunch of drunk, sleep-deprived people ambling about town in the wee hours of the night and jam them into a metal tube shooting along at high speeds….and yet, authorities in London seem to believe their new overnight subway service is all good. The service began this week and city officials expect to host 50,000 riders each weekend. In what will certainly be the only time he sets foot on this particular section of the subway, London Mayor Sadiq Khan took the first Victoria line train on the new service, chatting with passengers and putting a smiling, sober face on this new effort. He and other city leaders hope the new service will make the British capital a truly 24-hour city on the weekends and bolster its economy, something that remains a big concern as Great Britain negotiates its exit from the European Union. London already has a busy flow around the clock and millions venture out to its many restaurants, clubs and night spots each evening, but the new subway service is also aimed at doctors, cleaners and others who work graveyard shifts. Ever the confident lot, police are confident that they will be able to keep liquored-up idiots in check on the overnight subway, with Chief Constable Paul Crowther of the British Transport Police noting that "someone who's had a lot to drink at eleven o'clock is no different from someone who's had a lot to drink at three o'clock." Not really, P. Someone who’s that drunk at 3 p.m. has an entirely different set of problems……..


- Notre Dame football is having itself quite a weekend. Classes may not be in session yet, but that doesn’t mean members of the Fighting Irish had any trouble finding the party and because of that, five of them were arrested after police stopped them for speeding and reported finding a handgun and marijuana in the car. Head coach Brian Kelly must be so proud of senior safety Max Redfield, redshirt freshman cornerback Ashton White, freshman wide receiver Kevin Stepherson, sophomore running back Dexter Williams and sophomore linebacker Te'von Coney, who were each charged with possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor.  Redfield, Stepherson and Williams showed extra initiative by also getting charged with possession of a handgun without a license, also a misdemeanor, after their car was stopped by an Indiana State Police trooper in Fulton County for driving 73 mph in a 60 mph zone. Not that stoners are known for having great judgment, but maybe if you’re out late at night with an unlicensed gun and ganja in the car, you want to follow every conceivable traffic law so you don’t give the cops any reason to notice you. In this case, speeding led to a traffic stop and that stop led to the officer smelling marijuana coming from the car. Enter a police dog, whose efforts indicated that there were drugs in the vehicle. The search turned up the gun and chron, with the university saying it will wait for the case to play out legally before taking any further action. To cap off a great night, Notre Dame cornerback Devin Butler was arrested early the next morning on preliminary charges of battery to law enforcement and resisting law enforcement in a separate incident. Way to play like a champion today, Notre Dame………


- Going Krylon on a slow-moving, easy-to-target animal….how is this a thing, Florida. Arguably America’s weirdest and most unpredictable state, Florida has been providing double-take-worthy headlines for decades, but it’s less wow and more SMDH when it comes to Florida wildlife officials having to issue a public statement pleading with the IQ-deprived segment of their population that insists on taking cans of spray paint to their nearest park and going graffiti on a bird, turtle or other easy-to-tag beast. The announcement came after wildlife officials  rescued a painted white ibis bird this week, days after they found gopher tortoises illegally covered in hues of blue and red. Telling people to keep their aerosol paint work to plywood, cinder block wall or nearest abandoned train car seems to go without saying, but it’s being said anyhow. "Please keep your paint on the canvas and off of wildlife," the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission posted on Facebook. "Tortoises and turtles don't need touch-ups! White ibis are protected in Florida. Not only is it illegal to paint them, but it is cruel to paint any wildlife.” Exaclty….given that the gopher tortoise is considered a threatened species protected by state law and painting its shell can have a major effect on its health. "The paint can hinder their ability to absorb vitamins they need from the sun, cause respiratory problems, allow toxic chemicals into the bloodstream and more," Florida officials said in their statement. Sadly, dispatching wildlife officers to every single location around the Sunshine State where an endangered or threatened species may exist simply isn't possible and in a sense, these poor creatures are at the mercy of humans whose IQ appears to be lower than that of the animals they insist on painting up………..


- You can never have too many heroes in a movie. The more superhero-suit-clad, masked warriors a director can jam into two hours, the better his or her chances of banking a lot of money at the box office. So when Vin Diesel confirms that the Guardians of the Galaxy team will appear in the upcoming Avengers movie, “Avengers: Infinity War,” it made perfect sense. Speaking during a live chat celebrating the fact that his Facebook page has hit more than 100 million followers, Diesel was asked about a picture he posted from his first meeting with Marvel that had an issue of Avengers in the background. "What’s gonna be surreal is that picture is going to come to pass because now the Guardians will be included in Avengers: Infinity War and that’s incredibly exciting," he said. "Incredibly exciting. Incredibly exciting and something that if you were a part of our page you knew before everybody." The Guardians crew includes Diesel, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Rocket Racoon (Bradley Cooper), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), and Drax (Dave Bautista), a couple of whom actually having acting ability. This crew of monotone-ers, grunters and flat-liners will fight alongside the Avengers in their battle against Thanos in the Infinity War. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo will helm “Avengers: Infinity War,” working from a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The project is still in its early stages and isn't slated to hit theaters until spring 2018, so there’s plenty of time to find even more heroes to throw into the mix to truly put this endeavor over the top……..

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