- Conor McGregor stole the show last week at the UFC’s press
conference promoting its UFC 205 pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden. It
appears he also stole interim UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo’s will to
fight in the process. After UFC unveiled a super fight between Eddie Alvarez
and Conor McGregor for the lightweight championship, Aldo - who had campaigned
for a rematch against McGregor after suffering a 13-second knockout loss to
McGregor at UFC 194 last December - is requesting a release from the world's
largest fight promotion. Aldo publicly asked the UFC for his release one day
after the big UFC presser in NYC. "I don't want to fight with nobody. I
want to leave the same way I entered. UFC never gave me anything, neither WEC,
neither nobody. It was all my merit.” Either you “don’t want to fight” with anyone
or you’re throwing a temper tantrum and trying to get the UFC to cave to your
demands, but one or the other. The loss to McGregor ended Aldo’s run of seven
consecutive title defenses and it was his first loss in more than 10 years, one
from which he bounced back with a convincing win over Frankie Edgar at UFC 200
in July. Despite the lopsided loss, Aldo probably should get a rematch at some
point, but McGregor has spent recent months fighting Nate Diaz twice as a
welterweight, in March and again in August. UFC president Dana White is
allowing McGregor to keep the title he won from Aldo while vying for the
155-pound belt as well and Aldo says he was never given that option in all his
years as a UFC champion. "I see that I can't trust any word from the president
Dana White and that who is in charge of the event is Conor McGregor," Aldo
said. Bitter much, bro……….
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Albania is not a big country, but
it was big on rage over the weekend as hundreds of Albanian activists held a
protest in Tirana, the national capital, against a law allowing the importation
of garbage from foreign countries for recycling. Maybe the concept of recycling
got lost in translation because the idea of turning garbage into useful
material is generally yhought of as a positive thing, but the
anti-dumping-slogan-sign-toting protestors fear their country would turn into a
dumping ground with this new law and their response was to gather outside the
main government offices, hoist relatively lame signs and chant things at the
government workers who were probably not inside because it was a weekend and
they’re government workers. Last month the parliament passed a law on importing
garbage and this has been something of a political hot potato in recent years,
having initially been passed by the previous conservative government in 2011
and overturned by the current leftist coalition in 2013 when it came to power.
In the latest flip-flop, the coalition government has done an about-face and
reinstated the law with some amendments. This revised law would seem to be
something of a compromise, as it supports the recycling of non-hazardous waste,
with the government saying it is in line with European Union standards. Coincidentally,
Albania is hoping to launch EU membership talks in the near future……..
- Who would’ve thought sexually violent robots would be such
a combustible topic? J.J. Abrams doesn’t seem to have seen it coming, but he’s
now on the defensive in regards to his new show, “Westworld.” It’s a premium
cable offering airing on HBO and prior to its premiere, haters ripped the show’s
opening scene, which shows a lifelike female robot being dragged away by a male
character who is about to rape her. Abrams, who is one of the series' executive
producers, wants to make it clear that he’s not promoting or condoning sexual
assault, but believes it’s a key part of the sci-fi series’ story. "I
would say the criticism is accurate but you can't tell a story about oppression
without depicting the oppressed. If it was a movie I would say, 'Damn it,
they're 100 percent right.' It's a series and it goes somewhere for a reason,”
Abrams said. “No one was going into this thinking, 'Let's do a show that
somehow dehumanizes women'. This is a show, I would argue, very much about the
opposite. I would say to anyone who says the show might be too violent and
exploitative….and frankly anyone else, keep watching." Ah, well done.
Promote the show, challenge people to keep tuning in and don’t really answer
the question. The show was co-created by Christopher Nolan's brother Jonathan
Nolan and with a cast including Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood,
Thandie Newton and James Marsden, it entered the fall as one of the most
anticipated new shows………
- The United States is buzzing to the defense of some of its
smallest, most productive workers and hoping there’s still time to help seven
bee species native to Hawaii stave off extinction. In a first for bees in the
nation, the species are now protected under the Endangered Species Act after the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the yellow-faced bee species to the
federal list of endangered species after years of research concluded they are
under threat. Those who still feel the need to kill some of these bees can
still do so legally all month long, as the new rule is effective October 31. As
anyone who didn’t sleep through fifth grade science class knows, bees pollinate
plants producing fruit, nuts and vegetables, and are crucial for the nation's
food industry. Despite their importance, their population has declined sharply
in recent years due to various factors, including habitat loss, pesticides,
wildfires and loss of genetic diversity. Environmental analysts project that
native pollinators in these here United States provide essential pollination
services to agriculture which are valued at more than $9 billion annually. Xerces
Society, which was involved in petitions calling for the protection of the bee
species, hailed the new law in support of the bees that during pollination team
with birds and bats to transfer pollen between plants, which allows them to
make seeds and reproduce. By adding bees to the endangered list, federal
authorities can provide recovery programs and get funding for protection for
the insects. It’s a feel-good moment for one an all, at least those who aren't allergic
to bee stings……..
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