- Well, at least it’s not a movie remake. That’s one definite positive of Monday’s announcement that the new stage musical version of the hit 1990 movie "Ghost" is opening on Broadway in April. Those rocking "Unchained Melody" in their cars or on their iPods will undoubtedly be fired up to hear this……once someone gets their attention and mimes for them to take their ear buds from their ears. Although no actors or theater have been announced yet, some details are known. The musical is penned by Bruce Joel Rubin, who won an original screenplay Oscar for the movie, while the musical scored was written by Dave Stewart, of the band the Eurythmics, and songwriter-producer Glen Ballard. "Ghost" opened in London earlier this season in a production directed by Tony-winner Matthew Warchus ("God of Carnage") and has gotten mostly positive reviews. The London version of the production stars Caissie Levy and Richard Fleeshman as Molly and Sam -- the characters played by Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in the movie. Another of the film’s best-known characters, Whoopi Goldber’s Oscar-winning Oda Mae Brown, a fraudulent psychic, is played by Sharon D. Clarke. Reviewers have noted that the musical utilizes "Unchained Melody" at several points, fitting because the song served as a recurring character of sorts in the movie, most notably in the film’s most-famous scene that involved a pottery wheel, a lump of clay and a whole lot of sexual innuendo. For the ghostly version of Swazye’s Sam character, the London production utilizes multimedia special effects. For those stuck in 1990 and unable to move past a time when leg warmers and fanny packs were cool, the U.S. theatrical take on the movie should be a nice chance to reach back to the past and pretend that cheesy, syrupy sweet love stories from the ‘90s are still plausible today………….
- Really, America? Really? Deep-friend Oreos and sticks of butter were one thing and deep-fried Twinkies seemed like the apex of your food excess, but clearly you were only getting started. Cheeseburgers were already unhealthy enough, with their wedges of melted cheese, strips of bacon, mayo and other condiments to top them off. As of now, the cheeseburger has officially taken a colossal step toward becoming quite possibly the unhealthiest food offering on any restaurant menu thanks to the National Hamburger Festival in Akron, Ohio. Perhaps fearing that none of the festival’s offerings could out-unhealthy the Iowa State Fair’s fried butter, founder Drew Cerza and a local hamburger chef came up with…….wait for it……the country's first deep-fried cheeseburger. This burger of coronary death made its debut alongside 30 other varieties of hamburgers served by 15 different vendors at the festival. "We cook the cheeseburger, put it on a bun and dip it in batter before dropping it in a deep fryer," said Cerza. He was inspired to come up with the idea while working alongside a chef at a local burger restaurant. Rather than continue eating two of his favorite artery-clogging favorites separately, Cerza wanted a way to combine hamburgers and chicken wings. The solution came in the form of a special better he describes as a cross between funnel-cake batter and pancake batter, making the deep-fried cheeseburger both sweet and savory. "We'll serve it with a side of Lipitor," Cerza chuckled. Not funny, bro. Akron may be one of several places claiming to be the birthplace of the burger, but that doesn’t mean it needs to contribute to America’s growing girth problem. "I just said, 'Let's just do it (in Akron) and stake the claim,'" Cerza said of the festival. He even played up the controversy during the festival's first year by allowing each of the four cities claiming to be the birthplace of the burger to send representatives to make their case to a "burger commission." Seymour, Wisconsin; Athens, Texas; and New Haven, Connecticut all sent emissaries to Akron and the jury was hopelessly hung. That left it to an online poll to decide and voters named Seymour, Wisconsin, the home of the hamburger by popular vote. "We had a lot of fun with it," Cerza said, "Everyone is very proud of their influence on the hamburger." This year’s festival attendance was expected to surpass 20,000, some of whom took a giant leap toward their first and second heart attacks by eating a deep-friend cheeseburger while listening to a Jimmy Buffett cover band, enjoying a beauty pageant populated by ladies who are not scarfing down fried anything on a regular basis or watching individuals with no dignity or self-respect bobbing for burgers in a pool full of ketchup. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go eat some carrot sticks and drink some green tea…………
- The end is near, as it has been for some time now. Inch by inch, Moammar Gadhafi’s 42-year reign of terror in Libya is coming to a close. Rebel forces have secured much of the capital city of Tripoli, but forces loyal to Gadhafi continued to fight back in bloody conflicts Monday. The rebels are hoping for the kill shot that could ends the months-long war; apprehending their embattled dictator. "The real moment of victory is when Gadhafi is captured," National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil said. Three of Gadhafi’s sons have already been captured, including Saif al-Islam who, like his father, is wanted by the International Criminal Court. Gadhafi’s own whereabouts are unknown and depending on who you ask, he is either hiding out in Tripoli (the United States’ take) or may have fled to neighboring Chad or Algeria (the prevailing theory among opposition leaders. “We believe he's still in the country," Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan said Monday. "We do not have information he left the country." President Barack Obama spoke about the demise of Gadhafi’s regime and the future of Libya in taped remarks. "There remains a degree of uncertainty and there are still regime elements who pose a threat," President Obama stated. "But this much is clear. The Gadhafi regime is coming to an end and the future of Libya is in the hands of its people." United Nations officials have been "been trying to get in touch with" Gadhafi, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday. With the fierce fighting throughout Tripoli, the despotic dictator isn't likely to poke his head out into daylight any time soon even if he remains in the city. Journalists have holed up at the Rixos hotel close to Gadhafi's compound and reported sporadic gunfire and explosions coming from the direction of Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound all day. Playing a fun game of “Where is Gadhafi?” is actually a great distraction from the reality that a nation is imploding before our very eyes and people are dying every day fighting for freedom and change. As for Gadhafi’s compound, it has already been decimated by NATO airstrikes, and a fight for the compound might be more symbolic in nature. Rebels are focusing most of their efforts elsewhere, including the creation of an offensive to seize full control of the city. Snipers atop buildings remain a concern along with the knowledge that forces loyal to Gadhafi might stage a last-ditch attack against civilians. "If there is a last ditch effort we want to protect civilians," said a senior NATO official speaking on condition of anonymity. Whenever the conflict ends, there will be the major question of what to do with Gadhafi and his sons – assuming no one puts a bullet in their soon-to-be-former leader’s head before the battle ends. The International Criminal Court has warrants for the arrests of Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and Abdullah al-Senussi, the head of military intelligence, but those warrants guarantee very little. The general flow of information in Libya remains erratic, exacerbated by the apparent rebel seizure of control of of state TV, which had gone black. Gadhafi's forces in Tajoura, on the eastern outskirts of Tripoli were negotiating their surrender Monday morning and in Zawiya -- a key coastal city that appeared to be under rebel control -- residents celebrated by firing guns in the air, setting off fireworks and chanting, "Libya is free!" That much is known, but beyond those facts it is a massive game of waiting, guessing and speculating…………..
- Technology has the power to divide, the power to turn otherwise functional human beings into mindless Facebook or YouTube junkies detached from the rest of the flesh-and-blood world – or the power to unite. In the case of automakers Ford and Toyota, technology (and the potential for massive profits) is drawing them together for a new collaboration effort to develop a hybrid system for rear-wheel-drive light trucks and SUVs. The two companies jointly announced the project Monday along with a plan to establish next-generation standards for in-car telematics, which is the fusing of telecommunications and information technologies in vehicles. They have signed a memorandum of understanding on their new project, with a formal agreement expected next year. While the prospect of two competitors working together does seem odd, if the effort benefits the auto-making industry and leads to greater fuel efficiency while creating alternative-fuel vehicles that normal people can actually afford, it will be a great success. Still, why cooperate with a company you’re normally trying to beat down? The companies believe that by working together, they can implement hybrid technologies more quickly and affordably than if they were working on their own and still competing against one another. As part of their new partnership, Toyota and Ford will also seek to establish standards and technologies required for a safer and more convenient in-car experience. The scope of the work will be limited specifically to standards and technologies as the two companies will develop their own in-car products and features separately. One existing tie between the two auto titans is that both have Microsoft as a corporate partner. Toyota announced back in April that it would be harnessing the Windows Azure cloud platform for its next-gen telematics and Ford has worked with the manufacturer of the world’s worst operating system previously. Needless to say, this should all be very interesting going forward………..
- U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! Say it with me, Americans! Certain days are just prouder than others to rep the red, white and blue and today is one of those days. The deadline for hosting the world’s largest sporting event, the Summer Olympics, and its 2020 Games is nearing. That deadline sits perilously close, Sept. 1, and given that the U.S. was stoned in recent bids for the World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, there was a decent chance that well-documented American pride and resolution would kick in and result in the U.S. making a pitch to host the Summer Olympics in nine short years. That nightmare was avoided Monday when t he U.S. Olympic Committee notified all interested cities that it will not submit a bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. This epic news because hosting the Olympics, either summer or winter, is a headache no nation needs or should want. While having the world’s eyes upon you seems desirable, the reality of making the bull’s-eye on your back for terrorists bigger, pouring billions of dollars into construction projects that will be useless and forgotten once the three-week Olympic experience ends and putting up with the lodging and logistical nightmares that come with hosting the Games makes the gig decidedly undesirable. Bearing that in mind, residents of Chicago, New York and Dallas should be toasting one another and fist-bumping like crazy all day long. Leaders of those three cities had expressed interest in putting forth a bid to host the games, acting like typical short-sighted politicians. Thankfully, the bid will not be submitted because there has been no resolution of the long-simmering revenue-sharing conflict between the USOC and the International Olympic Committee. "I can confirm the US will not be bidding for the 2020 Olympic Games,”
USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky confimed Monday on Twitter. Asked what went into the decision, Sandusky replied, "With such little time left in the process, we don't believe we could pull together a winning bid that could serve the Olympic and Paralympic movement.” No qualms with that line of reasoning, Pat. With no process in place to select a city, as there was for 2016, when Chicago beat out finalists Los Angeles and San Francisco to become the U.S. representative, America stood little chance even if it did enter the fight. With Monday’s announcement, it is now official that there will be at least a 20-year gap between Olympics in the United States. The U.S. hasn’t hosted the Games since the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002 and the last Summer Olympics were the Atlanta Games in 1996. It’s a streak we need to fight hard to keep alive and New York’s crushing loss for the 2012 Summer Olympics followed by Chicago finishing fourth of four finalists for the 2016 Games suggests we’re capable of a nation as doing exactly that. In other words, put a cork in your yapping about hosting the 2022 Winter Games, Denver and the Reno/Tahoe area. If the IOC demanding more in revenue sharing than USOC leadership is willing to give is what it takes to keep the headache-in-waiting that hosting the Olympics is from happening, then so be it. Leave it to announced competitors Rome, Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul, Turkey to fight it out while America sits smartly on the sidelines. Then, when the Games happen, we’ll show up and win the most medals like we always do and get to leave the messy and lengthy process of cleaning up after the party to someone else………..
Monday, August 22, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Communist despot sleepovers, movie news and Peyton Manning problems
- Certain situations can bring about no positive results. One of the world’s most despotic dictators/communist leaders visiting another communist haven portends evil for all and when North Korea’s state-run media is confirming said visit, that adds a touch of unease to the proceedings. The despot in question is North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who arrived Saturday via armored train in Russia, where he is to discuss economic projects and meet with President Dmitry Medvedev. Russia confirmed the visit in an official statement labeling the meeting between the leaders as the “main event” during Kim’s trip to the Far East and Siberian regions. The visit could be part of a ploy to curry favor with a major world power as North Korea faces mounting international pressure to resume nuclear talks, suspended since early 2009. South Korean media reported that Kim would meet with Medvedev on Tuesday in Ulan Ude, a Siberian town several hundred miles northwest of Vladivostok. If the thought of a heinous dictator and a the leader of a communist world power meeting in Siberia doesn’t send chills down one’s spine, then it is time to question whether one has a spine to begin with. K.J. Il, as he is known in the hip-hop world, has traveled to Russia since coming to power, traveling exclusively by train because the big, bad dictator has a notorious fear of flying. He is, however, a big fan of visiting fellow communist nations and has made three trips to China since May 2003. This time it was Medvedev who extended the invitation to visit in light of Russia’s government making a push in recent weeks for North Korea to cooperate on plans to connect a railway and a gas pipeline that would run from Russia through the divided Korean Peninsula. Such a project would be extremely unusual in North Korea, which has remained largely a no-go zone for massive foreign projects and allows outside economic investment allowed only in special development zones. The pipeline project would have Russian exporter Gazprom will annually sending 10 billion cubic meters of gas to South Korea for three decades and pay heavy handling fees to the North. In other words, free money for no actual work. Making another friend besides China would also be beneficial for K.J. Il and crew, given the dictator’s propensity for sparking major international incidents and crises. Either that or K.J. Il visiting Russia will take the world one step further toward China, Russia and North Korea v. the world in World War III……….
- The second weekend proved to be the money weekend for the critically acclaimed The Help, which won at the box office by overcoming a weak crop of new films and several holdovers from the previous weekend. After finishing as a runner-up last weekend to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Help outdid the apes with $20.5 million to boost its two-week domestic total to $71.8 million. Apes slid to second with $16.3 million and has made $133.7 million through three weeks in proving that movies need be neither original nor good to make a lot of money. The top new film on a weekend with an exceedingly punchless collection of them was Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, which somehow could not finish higher than third despite the always-winning inclusion of an international-crime-fighting baby in its absurd plot. A $12 million opening weekend was all Spy Kids could muster, but that was enough to best the exceedingly disappointing Conan the Barbarian, which flopped to the tune of a scant $10 million in domestic earnings against the backdrop of a $90 million budget. The last of the top five was The Smurfs, which hauled in another $8 million and has scored a solid $117.7 million domestically in its first month of release. The latter half of the top 10 had a couple of new films as well and broke down thusly: Fright Night ($7.9 million in its debut weekend), Final Destination 5 (not faring well at No. 7, down four spots from one week ago and with just $7.7 million to add to its cumulative total of $32.3 million), 30 Minutes or Less (No. 8 after making $6.3 million and with a two-week tally of $25.7 million), newcomer One Day (No. 9 with $5.1 million in limited release) and Crazy, Stupid, Love.(No. 10 with $4.9 million and $64.4 through four weeks). Dropping out of the top 10 from the previous weekend were Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (No. 11), Cowboys & Aliens (No. 12), Captain America: The First Avenger (No. 13) and mega-flop The Change-Up (No. 14)………….
- In case you missed it, Google’s quest for global (Internet) domination recently came to include YouTube. With the Internet’s most popular video site under its corporate umbrella, it only made sense for Google to roll YouTube into the mix for its new Google+ social networking service. Now, underneath every video on YouTube, members of Google+ can click an icon to start a ‘hangout.’ Users must click the share button under a video, which then reveals a little icon with a sign next to it saying: “Watch with your friends. Start a Google+ Hangout.” Tech observers have characterized the addition as a move to boost the new social network’s numbers and interaction levels. At present, Google+ is only available to users invited by Google and friends those invitees have in turned invited. Embedding the tool should make it easier to watch videos on YouTube with friends. Brian Glick, Google+’s product manager, announced the addition, fittingly enough, via his profile on the social network. Glick explained that the eventual plan is to allow Google+ members to activate hangouts around content which is being live streamed on the site. Of course, social media competitor Facebook felt compelled to comment on the new Google+ idea and of course, those words were critical. “Google has emulated aspects of our system, which is what they have the right to do. We just need to be better," said Sean Ryan, Facebook’s director of game partnerships. Hmm, nice backhanded compliment there, Sean-O. They copied our system and now we must find ways to improve. But Ryan wasn’t done. He also blasted Google’s supposed edge in revenue sharing arrangements with game developers. Face book currently takes 30 percent, while Google+ takes just five percent. “Google is at 5 per cent because they don't have any users," Ryan scoffed. He went on to lambaste Google by comparing its tactics to McDonalds copying Starbucks by selling coffee. Maybe a short history lesson would be beneficial for Mr. Ryan, a reminder that Google+ has already accrued 25 million users in a few short months as compared to the 10 months it took Facebook to reach 1 million users back in 2004………….
- He is the NFL’s reigning iron man now that Brett Favre has retired, but Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning may have his own consecutive games started streak ended if he can't make a semi-miraculous recovery by the team the Colts begin their regular season on Sept. 11. Manning, who underwent neck surgery in May to repair a nerve, has been on the Colts' physically unable to perform list since the start of training camp. The Colts have already said Manning will not play in any preseason games and coach Jim Caldwell said he isn't sure when his signal caller will return to the practice field. Owner Jim Irsay went a step further, tweeting, "We r evaluating the QB sitch,#18 healing but we must 2 b prepared 4 early season possibility without him,defense has 2 pick it up,big time!" Early season being the regular season, of course. Manning himself said he will use the final two weeks of the preseason to try to get healthy, but that timeline that could put his streak of 227 consecutive starts in jeopardy. "I certainly want to be out there, and it's hard to keep track of the hours I've spent in rehab," he said. "I was short-changed a little bit by the lockout and I'm going to need every bit of the next two weeks, and then I can give you more of an update with where I am." Any team would struggle if it had the only four-time MVP in NFL history and he was unable to play at the start of a new season, but the Colts would be in especially dire straits. Manning is the maestro of the Indianapolis offense, making play calls on the field and changing plays at the line in a way that makes him the de facto offensive coordinator during games. Because of his durability, backup quarterback Curtis Painter has spent his entire career with the Colts and never started a single regular season game. That durability lead the Colts to award Manning a five-year, $90 million contract in July after the league’s 4½-month lockout ended. Colts president Bill Polian painted the most graphic picture of just how dicey Manning’s health situation is, saying, "Once the nerves regenerate properly, he'll be ready. When that happens, he'll be ready to ramp up immediately. It's impossible to predict." Any time nerves and neck surgeries are involved, that would qualify as an extremely serious situation. Colts fans haven't had to worry about who would be under center in games that matter since Manning was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1998 draft. From that point on, he has started all 208 regular-season games and 19 more in the playoffs, the second-longest streak for a quarterback in league history behind only Favre. Two neck surgeries in 15 months could end that streak and if he misses more than one or two regular season games, the Colts’ playoff hopes could also be terminated…………
- It is a big, big weekend for stoners in the Pacific Northwest (although most weekends could be classified as big for potheads in this corner of the world) where Hempfest Seattle is taking place for the 20th year at Myrtle Edwards Park. Starting Friday and continuing all week, the festival is a gathering place for dreadlocked, showering-averse, hackey-sack-loving fans of the ganja who get together for a political protest rally seeking to change America's pot laws and to educate the public on the many uses of the cannabis plant," according to the event’s website. "Hempfest is first and foremost But this year's festival promises to stoke even more conversation, with Washington's medical marijuana laws undergoing a transformation over the summer. It is no longer legal to operate a medical marijuana dispensary in the state,” the site explains. The reference to the state of Washington’s new marijuana laws of course alludes to the allowance for "collective gardens" wherein 10 licensed patients can grow up to 40 medical marijuana plants for their use. Unfortunately, several very square Washingtonian cities, including Kirkland and Tacoma, have enacted a temporary moratorium on the gardens to more closely examine the law. "Of course Hempfest is about cannabis," reads the website, "industrial hemp, medical marijuana and recreational use by otherwise law abiding, responsible adults..." Way to be honest, stoners. Don’t try to sell us on you being all about hemp rope and hemp necklaces and hemp bags because we all know better. Oddly enough, The Man will be making an appearance at this year’s Hempfest in the form of former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D, Ohio) and state representatives Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle) and Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland). Kucinich has a certain amount of stoner cred because he publicly supports legalizing marijuana across the U.S. If only he could get that message through to the rest of Congress………….
- The second weekend proved to be the money weekend for the critically acclaimed The Help, which won at the box office by overcoming a weak crop of new films and several holdovers from the previous weekend. After finishing as a runner-up last weekend to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Help outdid the apes with $20.5 million to boost its two-week domestic total to $71.8 million. Apes slid to second with $16.3 million and has made $133.7 million through three weeks in proving that movies need be neither original nor good to make a lot of money. The top new film on a weekend with an exceedingly punchless collection of them was Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, which somehow could not finish higher than third despite the always-winning inclusion of an international-crime-fighting baby in its absurd plot. A $12 million opening weekend was all Spy Kids could muster, but that was enough to best the exceedingly disappointing Conan the Barbarian, which flopped to the tune of a scant $10 million in domestic earnings against the backdrop of a $90 million budget. The last of the top five was The Smurfs, which hauled in another $8 million and has scored a solid $117.7 million domestically in its first month of release. The latter half of the top 10 had a couple of new films as well and broke down thusly: Fright Night ($7.9 million in its debut weekend), Final Destination 5 (not faring well at No. 7, down four spots from one week ago and with just $7.7 million to add to its cumulative total of $32.3 million), 30 Minutes or Less (No. 8 after making $6.3 million and with a two-week tally of $25.7 million), newcomer One Day (No. 9 with $5.1 million in limited release) and Crazy, Stupid, Love.(No. 10 with $4.9 million and $64.4 through four weeks). Dropping out of the top 10 from the previous weekend were Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (No. 11), Cowboys & Aliens (No. 12), Captain America: The First Avenger (No. 13) and mega-flop The Change-Up (No. 14)………….
- In case you missed it, Google’s quest for global (Internet) domination recently came to include YouTube. With the Internet’s most popular video site under its corporate umbrella, it only made sense for Google to roll YouTube into the mix for its new Google+ social networking service. Now, underneath every video on YouTube, members of Google+ can click an icon to start a ‘hangout.’ Users must click the share button under a video, which then reveals a little icon with a sign next to it saying: “Watch with your friends. Start a Google+ Hangout.” Tech observers have characterized the addition as a move to boost the new social network’s numbers and interaction levels. At present, Google+ is only available to users invited by Google and friends those invitees have in turned invited. Embedding the tool should make it easier to watch videos on YouTube with friends. Brian Glick, Google+’s product manager, announced the addition, fittingly enough, via his profile on the social network. Glick explained that the eventual plan is to allow Google+ members to activate hangouts around content which is being live streamed on the site. Of course, social media competitor Facebook felt compelled to comment on the new Google+ idea and of course, those words were critical. “Google has emulated aspects of our system, which is what they have the right to do. We just need to be better," said Sean Ryan, Facebook’s director of game partnerships. Hmm, nice backhanded compliment there, Sean-O. They copied our system and now we must find ways to improve. But Ryan wasn’t done. He also blasted Google’s supposed edge in revenue sharing arrangements with game developers. Face book currently takes 30 percent, while Google+ takes just five percent. “Google is at 5 per cent because they don't have any users," Ryan scoffed. He went on to lambaste Google by comparing its tactics to McDonalds copying Starbucks by selling coffee. Maybe a short history lesson would be beneficial for Mr. Ryan, a reminder that Google+ has already accrued 25 million users in a few short months as compared to the 10 months it took Facebook to reach 1 million users back in 2004………….
- He is the NFL’s reigning iron man now that Brett Favre has retired, but Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning may have his own consecutive games started streak ended if he can't make a semi-miraculous recovery by the team the Colts begin their regular season on Sept. 11. Manning, who underwent neck surgery in May to repair a nerve, has been on the Colts' physically unable to perform list since the start of training camp. The Colts have already said Manning will not play in any preseason games and coach Jim Caldwell said he isn't sure when his signal caller will return to the practice field. Owner Jim Irsay went a step further, tweeting, "We r evaluating the QB sitch,#18 healing but we must 2 b prepared 4 early season possibility without him,defense has 2 pick it up,big time!" Early season being the regular season, of course. Manning himself said he will use the final two weeks of the preseason to try to get healthy, but that timeline that could put his streak of 227 consecutive starts in jeopardy. "I certainly want to be out there, and it's hard to keep track of the hours I've spent in rehab," he said. "I was short-changed a little bit by the lockout and I'm going to need every bit of the next two weeks, and then I can give you more of an update with where I am." Any team would struggle if it had the only four-time MVP in NFL history and he was unable to play at the start of a new season, but the Colts would be in especially dire straits. Manning is the maestro of the Indianapolis offense, making play calls on the field and changing plays at the line in a way that makes him the de facto offensive coordinator during games. Because of his durability, backup quarterback Curtis Painter has spent his entire career with the Colts and never started a single regular season game. That durability lead the Colts to award Manning a five-year, $90 million contract in July after the league’s 4½-month lockout ended. Colts president Bill Polian painted the most graphic picture of just how dicey Manning’s health situation is, saying, "Once the nerves regenerate properly, he'll be ready. When that happens, he'll be ready to ramp up immediately. It's impossible to predict." Any time nerves and neck surgeries are involved, that would qualify as an extremely serious situation. Colts fans haven't had to worry about who would be under center in games that matter since Manning was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1998 draft. From that point on, he has started all 208 regular-season games and 19 more in the playoffs, the second-longest streak for a quarterback in league history behind only Favre. Two neck surgeries in 15 months could end that streak and if he misses more than one or two regular season games, the Colts’ playoff hopes could also be terminated…………
- It is a big, big weekend for stoners in the Pacific Northwest (although most weekends could be classified as big for potheads in this corner of the world) where Hempfest Seattle is taking place for the 20th year at Myrtle Edwards Park. Starting Friday and continuing all week, the festival is a gathering place for dreadlocked, showering-averse, hackey-sack-loving fans of the ganja who get together for a political protest rally seeking to change America's pot laws and to educate the public on the many uses of the cannabis plant," according to the event’s website. "Hempfest is first and foremost But this year's festival promises to stoke even more conversation, with Washington's medical marijuana laws undergoing a transformation over the summer. It is no longer legal to operate a medical marijuana dispensary in the state,” the site explains. The reference to the state of Washington’s new marijuana laws of course alludes to the allowance for "collective gardens" wherein 10 licensed patients can grow up to 40 medical marijuana plants for their use. Unfortunately, several very square Washingtonian cities, including Kirkland and Tacoma, have enacted a temporary moratorium on the gardens to more closely examine the law. "Of course Hempfest is about cannabis," reads the website, "industrial hemp, medical marijuana and recreational use by otherwise law abiding, responsible adults..." Way to be honest, stoners. Don’t try to sell us on you being all about hemp rope and hemp necklaces and hemp bags because we all know better. Oddly enough, The Man will be making an appearance at this year’s Hempfest in the form of former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D, Ohio) and state representatives Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle) and Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland). Kucinich has a certain amount of stoner cred because he publicly supports legalizing marijuana across the U.S. If only he could get that message through to the rest of Congress………….
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Spiders and Kevlar, new movies from "Up" directors and questionable football injuries
- Squashing spiders is still a whole lot of fun and the task of cleaning off their webs from doorways and in corners where they take up residence is still a nuisance, but maybe it’s time to give arachnids credit for something other than turning Peter Parker into New York’s web-slinging crime stopper of a hero. It turns out that spiders might be able to manufacture a sort of natural Kevlar, otherwise known as the material used in bulletproof vests and clothing. A new project from, oddly enough, Dutch artist Jalila Essaidi, along with Forensic Genomics Consortium Netherlands, created a swatch of nearly bulletproof skin made from spider silk and human skin cells. The project is called 2.6g 329m/s, deriving its name from the maximum weight and velocity a Type 1 bulletproof vest can withstand from a .22 calibre Long Rifle bullet. Essaidi and the FGCN team were able to graft spider silk between the epidermis and dermis and create skin capable of stopping a bullet that was fired at a reduced speed. Unfortunately, the synthetic skin failed to repel a bullet that was fired at normal speed from a .22 caliber rifle. Essaidi, showing her artist side more than her scientific mindset, was perfectly okay with failing to create a fully bulletproof skin hybrid. "With this work I want to show that safety in its broadest sense is a relative concept, and hence the term bulletproof," Essaidi said. "The work did stop some partially slowed bullets but not the one at full speed." Umm…….thanks for nothing? There are plenty of materials out there that cannot stop bullets, so you adding one to the list to underscore how there truly is no “safety” when it comes to guns and bullets seems a fruitless exercise. But Essaidi believes her project will generate plenty of beneficial discussion. "But even with the skin pierced by the bullet the experiment is still a success. It leads to the conversation about how which form of safety would benefit society," she explained. Anyone who wants to see the project in person need not scour some obscure scientific journal; it is part of an exhibition called Designers & Artists 4 Genomics at the Naturalis biodiversity museum in Leiden, Netherlands, which runs until Jan. 8……………
- After battling the his own team all training camp long over his contract and demands for a renegotiated deal, New York Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora finally decided to drop his demands and report to camp to play the year out under his current contract. Umenyiora, a two-time Pro Bowl defensive end who had 11.5 sacks and 10 forced fumbles last season, was part of a 10-player lawsuit against during the league’s four-month lockout, a lawsuit Umenyiora joined because he claimed the Giants promised back in 2008 to either rework his current deal or trade him to a team willing to do so if he was still playing at a high level at this point. His stats from last season confirm that level of play, but the team offered him only performance incentives to be added to his contract, an offer he rejected. The Giants also gave Umenyiora and his agent permission to seek a trade, although they made any trade an impossibility by slapping a demand of a first-round pick on Umenyiora. After second-year defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul played very well in the Giants’ first exhibition game, Umenyiora decided to end his holdout. However, when he showed up in training camp he did little more than ride a stationary bike on the sidelines, complaining of an injured knee. The conspiracy theorist would argue that he was playing up his injury – if it existed at all – and that conspiracy theory just got juicier after Umenyiora had arthroscopic surgery to clean out his trouble right knee on Friday and will now miss three to six weeks, if not longer. Teammate Justin Tuck is not among those who doubt the legitimacy of Umenyiora’s injury and said as much Saturday. "We had already talked about it and what his plans were going to be," Tuck said. "He came out in practice with every intention of letting his knee be dealt with in the offseason. After a couple practices it swelled up on him, and him and the Giants made a conscious decision to take care of it now. It wasn't like he planned on it. He planned on playing the season with it, but seeing how it was the first week of practice, he felt like the best idea was to take care of it now." Umenyiora himself issued a statement Friday through the team, which read in part, "It was going to have to be done; the only question was when. If I'm going to miss a little while, I would prefer it be now than at the crucial part of our season. It's the best decision for the team and myself." At least one part of that statement is true, but the other half…………
- Every new business needs an angle, something to make it unique and help it stand apart from scores of similar competitors. The right gimmick can mean great success while the wrong one can doom a promising start-up to failure. It may be too soon to say for certain which side of the continuum Fort Wayne Dust Bunnies will fall on, but early returns suggest that the presently anonymous owner of this new venture has found something good to capitalize on: the pervy nature of most members of society. See, this unidentified man has created a maid service with a twist, the twist being that he pimps out his maids to clean in the nude. It sounds like a recipe for trouble, but each maid travels with a security guard whose sole job is to make sure no desperate dude (or woman) orders a naked maid and tries to get some, um, more personal services from her. As a quick aside, if your maid rolls with a security guard to ensure she isn't sexually assaulted or propositioned, that’s a good sign your business fall under the heading of shady. Still, business has been good thus far and the owner sat down for an anonymous interview with a local television station to speak about his odd business model. “We're to the point now that we're working almost every day and we’re getting repeat business,” he said. So what does an average cleaning job look like for a Fort Wayne Dust Bunny look like? Maids are limited to light housekeeping duties: washing dishes, vacuuming, and dusting. They earn roughly $30 an hour, according to the owner, who charges customers $60 an hour. There is a two-hour minimum for any job and local government officials have already said there is nothing about the business that violates any local codes or ordinances. However, free maid porn on the Internet is still a more cost-effective option……….
- Of all the animated success stories Pixar has created in the past decade, few have produced as many laughs and quotable lines as “Up,” the tale of an aspiring Cub Scout and a crotchety old man who float off to South America in a house buoyed by hundreds of helium-filled balloons. The success of “Up” has led Disney to hand big opportunities to the film’s two co-directors. As Disney and Pixar revealed at the D23 Expo Saturday, the two projects will be drastically different but both helmed by “Up” co-captains. "From director Pete Docter comes an inventive new film that explores a world that everyone knows, but no one has seen: inside the human mind," Disney and Pixar tweeted. That doesn’t say much about the film’s overall slant and scope, but it gives at least as much information as a tweet about the second film. "What if that life-changing asteroid missed Earth? Director Bob Peterson’s hilarious tale depicts a world where dinosaurs never went extinct," the second message read. Both Docter and Peterson have significant cinematic clout based on the commercial and critical succcess of “Up,” which was nominated for a best picture Oscar, won for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures and Best Animated Feature Film of the Year and grossed more than $730 million worldwide. The D23 Expo is taking place in Anaheim, home of Disney Land, and it offers fans access to all things Disney, including films, television and theme parks. The name is a reference to 1923, when Walt Disney opened his studio. Docter and Peterson hope they will be able to channel ol’ Walt’s magic with their new films……….
- There aren’t many places in the world right now where tensions are higher than the border between Egypt and Israel. The Egyptian military reinforced its security along the border with Israel on Friday to secure the crossing after terrorists from the cell that infiltrated Israel on Thursday and killed eight Israelis tried to return to the Gaza Strip from Sinai. Additionally, several Egyptian security personnel were reportedly killed and wounded after a suicide bomber blew himself up on the Egyptian side of the Philadelphi Corridor, the line that separates Sinai and Gazan sides of the city of Rafah. Israeli officials speculated that the suicide bomber likely belonged to the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), which was behind the intricate, multi-stage attack near Eilat on Thursday that killed six Israeli civilians, an IDF soldier and a border policeman and wounded 33 others. For its side of the story, Egypt is denying that the soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber and said that they were hit in an explosion caused by bombs that were planted along the border, likely by the terror cell. Tensions were amped up further Friday morning when the Egyptian military claimed that three of its men were killed in an Israeli air strike along the border. An army official explained that the men from the paramilitary Central Security Forces were killed as the IDF chased terrorists along the border near Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Taba, just west of Eilat. Just prior to that announcement, Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke with a number of senior Egyptian officials in an effort to coordinate ways to prevent similar attacks in the future. “There seems to be an understanding in Egypt following the attacks that the situation there needs to change,” a senior IDF officer said on Friday. “We hope the attacks will serve as the wake-up call for Egypt, which will need to work hard to regain control of the peninsula.” Egyptian officials met with leaders of the three main Beduin tribes on the Sinai Peninsula Thursday to brainstorm ideas to stop the violence in the peninsula. Turning it into a heavily militarized zone should probably help in that endeavor………
- After battling the his own team all training camp long over his contract and demands for a renegotiated deal, New York Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora finally decided to drop his demands and report to camp to play the year out under his current contract. Umenyiora, a two-time Pro Bowl defensive end who had 11.5 sacks and 10 forced fumbles last season, was part of a 10-player lawsuit against during the league’s four-month lockout, a lawsuit Umenyiora joined because he claimed the Giants promised back in 2008 to either rework his current deal or trade him to a team willing to do so if he was still playing at a high level at this point. His stats from last season confirm that level of play, but the team offered him only performance incentives to be added to his contract, an offer he rejected. The Giants also gave Umenyiora and his agent permission to seek a trade, although they made any trade an impossibility by slapping a demand of a first-round pick on Umenyiora. After second-year defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul played very well in the Giants’ first exhibition game, Umenyiora decided to end his holdout. However, when he showed up in training camp he did little more than ride a stationary bike on the sidelines, complaining of an injured knee. The conspiracy theorist would argue that he was playing up his injury – if it existed at all – and that conspiracy theory just got juicier after Umenyiora had arthroscopic surgery to clean out his trouble right knee on Friday and will now miss three to six weeks, if not longer. Teammate Justin Tuck is not among those who doubt the legitimacy of Umenyiora’s injury and said as much Saturday. "We had already talked about it and what his plans were going to be," Tuck said. "He came out in practice with every intention of letting his knee be dealt with in the offseason. After a couple practices it swelled up on him, and him and the Giants made a conscious decision to take care of it now. It wasn't like he planned on it. He planned on playing the season with it, but seeing how it was the first week of practice, he felt like the best idea was to take care of it now." Umenyiora himself issued a statement Friday through the team, which read in part, "It was going to have to be done; the only question was when. If I'm going to miss a little while, I would prefer it be now than at the crucial part of our season. It's the best decision for the team and myself." At least one part of that statement is true, but the other half…………
- Every new business needs an angle, something to make it unique and help it stand apart from scores of similar competitors. The right gimmick can mean great success while the wrong one can doom a promising start-up to failure. It may be too soon to say for certain which side of the continuum Fort Wayne Dust Bunnies will fall on, but early returns suggest that the presently anonymous owner of this new venture has found something good to capitalize on: the pervy nature of most members of society. See, this unidentified man has created a maid service with a twist, the twist being that he pimps out his maids to clean in the nude. It sounds like a recipe for trouble, but each maid travels with a security guard whose sole job is to make sure no desperate dude (or woman) orders a naked maid and tries to get some, um, more personal services from her. As a quick aside, if your maid rolls with a security guard to ensure she isn't sexually assaulted or propositioned, that’s a good sign your business fall under the heading of shady. Still, business has been good thus far and the owner sat down for an anonymous interview with a local television station to speak about his odd business model. “We're to the point now that we're working almost every day and we’re getting repeat business,” he said. So what does an average cleaning job look like for a Fort Wayne Dust Bunny look like? Maids are limited to light housekeeping duties: washing dishes, vacuuming, and dusting. They earn roughly $30 an hour, according to the owner, who charges customers $60 an hour. There is a two-hour minimum for any job and local government officials have already said there is nothing about the business that violates any local codes or ordinances. However, free maid porn on the Internet is still a more cost-effective option……….
- Of all the animated success stories Pixar has created in the past decade, few have produced as many laughs and quotable lines as “Up,” the tale of an aspiring Cub Scout and a crotchety old man who float off to South America in a house buoyed by hundreds of helium-filled balloons. The success of “Up” has led Disney to hand big opportunities to the film’s two co-directors. As Disney and Pixar revealed at the D23 Expo Saturday, the two projects will be drastically different but both helmed by “Up” co-captains. "From director Pete Docter comes an inventive new film that explores a world that everyone knows, but no one has seen: inside the human mind," Disney and Pixar tweeted. That doesn’t say much about the film’s overall slant and scope, but it gives at least as much information as a tweet about the second film. "What if that life-changing asteroid missed Earth? Director Bob Peterson’s hilarious tale depicts a world where dinosaurs never went extinct," the second message read. Both Docter and Peterson have significant cinematic clout based on the commercial and critical succcess of “Up,” which was nominated for a best picture Oscar, won for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures and Best Animated Feature Film of the Year and grossed more than $730 million worldwide. The D23 Expo is taking place in Anaheim, home of Disney Land, and it offers fans access to all things Disney, including films, television and theme parks. The name is a reference to 1923, when Walt Disney opened his studio. Docter and Peterson hope they will be able to channel ol’ Walt’s magic with their new films……….
- There aren’t many places in the world right now where tensions are higher than the border between Egypt and Israel. The Egyptian military reinforced its security along the border with Israel on Friday to secure the crossing after terrorists from the cell that infiltrated Israel on Thursday and killed eight Israelis tried to return to the Gaza Strip from Sinai. Additionally, several Egyptian security personnel were reportedly killed and wounded after a suicide bomber blew himself up on the Egyptian side of the Philadelphi Corridor, the line that separates Sinai and Gazan sides of the city of Rafah. Israeli officials speculated that the suicide bomber likely belonged to the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), which was behind the intricate, multi-stage attack near Eilat on Thursday that killed six Israeli civilians, an IDF soldier and a border policeman and wounded 33 others. For its side of the story, Egypt is denying that the soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber and said that they were hit in an explosion caused by bombs that were planted along the border, likely by the terror cell. Tensions were amped up further Friday morning when the Egyptian military claimed that three of its men were killed in an Israeli air strike along the border. An army official explained that the men from the paramilitary Central Security Forces were killed as the IDF chased terrorists along the border near Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Taba, just west of Eilat. Just prior to that announcement, Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke with a number of senior Egyptian officials in an effort to coordinate ways to prevent similar attacks in the future. “There seems to be an understanding in Egypt following the attacks that the situation there needs to change,” a senior IDF officer said on Friday. “We hope the attacks will serve as the wake-up call for Egypt, which will need to work hard to regain control of the peninsula.” Egyptian officials met with leaders of the three main Beduin tribes on the Sinai Peninsula Thursday to brainstorm ideas to stop the violence in the peninsula. Turning it into a heavily militarized zone should probably help in that endeavor………
Friday, August 19, 2011
China says no to NBAers, Lohan lawsuits and HP quits
- Hey NBA stars looking for other basketball options during the lockout…….that China thing, it’s no longer an option. Stars like Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul had all expressed interest in playing in the Chinese Basketball Association if the lockout drags on as expected and wipes out part or all of the season. Bryant and Orlando center Dwight Howard already have huge fan bases in China and ostensibly viewed balling in China as a way to both make a lot of money and expand their brand, so to speak. However, the CBA has no interest in being anyone’s fallback plan, to be jettisoned the instant the NBA lockout is resolved. As per its announcement Friday, the CBA will restrict contracted NBA players from playing for domestic teams in the event the NBA season is canceled. Only current NBA free agents would be permitted to play and those players would be required to play an entire season in China. Any player with an existing contract would be barred and left to choose from options in other countries such as Turkey, Germany, Spain and Greece, all of which seem to have no problem with an NBA player being under contract and certain to bolt when the lockout is lifted. According to state media, contracts with Chinese teams would also designed to discourage players from ducking out for dubious reasons, such as suspect injuries or unverified family problems at home. Of course, those places may not be as attractive as China and its 1 billion citizens in terms of marketing and advertising, but the primary aim of an NBA player looking for a new team abroad during the lockout should be basketball, right? But a decision need not be made now, as the Chinese season is not scheduled to tip off until Nov. 20. Of course, the CBA is allegedly planning to introduce further restrictions on NBA players wishing to play for one of its teams in between now and then, so inking to play in Turkey or Israel just might be the way to go…………
- If you suck abysmally at something for a prolonged period of time, it’s best just to quit. That is the valuable lesson being taught to one and all by Hewlett-Packard, which is radically restructuring its entire company and as part of that effort is looking to spin off its struggling personal computer business. The decision is surprising particularly because HP just launched its much-hyped and heavily advertised TouchPad tablet last month. Included in the massive kill-off will be the company’s webOS smartphone line. HP went to great lengths to obtain the webOS software by acquiring Palm last year, but vowed in its gloom-and-doom proclamation that it will continue trying to "optimize the value" of its purchase. That the TouchPad is dying such a quick death isn't so stunning, as it had failed so miserably (despite a huge ad campaign feautring celebrities like Manny Pacquiao) that HP almost immediately cut the tablet's price by $100. Furthermore, the company admitted none of its webOS products reached the company's internal sales targets. Yet in the midst of the bad news, HP tried to offer a glimmer of hope by announcing its purchase of British software developer Autonomy for roughly $10.2 billion in cash. Oddly enough, HP will run Autonomy as a separate company, but HP will "look for synergies." Stock prices for HP have been all over the map but mostly down in the past month (but what stock hasn’t) and fell 6 percent during regular hours Thursday and an additional 6 percent in afterhours trading. HP CEO Leo Apotheker did his best to keep a positive outlook, but in the end could not outrun May predictions that the company needed to put greater investment into its "value-added services" or it will "be left with a business that is running out of steam." There is also no outrunning the reality that consumer PC sales have slumped industry-wide for the past several quarters, as tablets like Apple's iPad have slowed netbook and mini-notebook sales. HP’s consumer sales fell a whopping 17 percent between May and July. "The tablet effect is real," Apotheker said. "Consumers are changing how they use PCs." Yes, they are changing to not using PCs at all. In lieu of actually selling computers, HP’s new plan calls for a transition into faster-growing, more profitable businesses like software, servers and corporate technology services. Axing its consumer computer business is still huge, as HP's Personal Systems unit accounts for about one-third of the company's annual revenue. In light of the news, HP reduced its full-year revenue forecast by 9 percent and lowered its profit forecast by 16 percent. HP Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak admitted that the outlook was "definitely the toughest one for me as CFO." All of this underscores just how quickly the computer business changes, as just 10 years ago it was HP buying Compaq in a contentious deal that eventually helped cost then-CEO Carly Fiorina her job. HP became the largest PC manufacturer in the world and has held that position right up to now. It still sells more PCs than any other vendor, shipping 14.9 million PCs last quarter for a 17.5 percent share of the market. Dell and Lenovo are close behind, but after HP waved the white flag there is more of the market to be grabbed. Who will acquire HP’s Personal Systems unit, you may ask? Well, the company said its board of directors has authorized executives to explore "strategic alternatives" for the unit and it plans on making a final decision within the next 12 to 18 months. For consumers, it simply means there is one less brand of computer on the market to run the world’s worst operating system………..
- March’s massive earthquake that struck Japan may have shaken the country in a literal sense, but it clearly has not shaken the core values of the Japanese people. The earthquake and resulting tsunami have left much of Japan’s coastline ravaged, but in the recovery process the country’s trademark honesty has been prominently on display. In the five months since the tsunami struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets found in the debris, containing $48 million in cash. Additionally, more than 5,700 safes that washed ashore along the coast have also been hauled to police centers by volunteers and search and rescue crews. The safes have yielded an additional $30 million in cash, including one safe containing the equivalent of $1 million. The National Police Agency confirmed that most of the valuables have been successfully returned to their owners. "In most cases, the keyholes on these safes were filled with mud," said Koetsu Saiki of the Miyagi Prefectural Police. "We had to start by cutting apart the metal doors with grinders and other tools." Matching the safes with their owners proved relatively easy, as Saiki says most kept bankbooks or land rights documents inside the boxes, containing their names and address. However, locating people in the nature-ravaged area has been extremely difficult. Many were either killed in the tsunami or have been evacuated to safer locales. "The fact that these safes were washed away, meant the homes were washed away too," Saiki said. "We had to first determine if the owners were alive, then find where they had evacuated to." To find the rightful owners of the returned loot, police fanned out across the region, searching for names of residents posted at evacuation centers, digging through missing person reports at town halls, sorting through change of address forms at the post office, to see if the owner had moved away. If these efforts yielded no results, police called listed cell phone numbers, met with mayors or village leaders to see if they recognized the names. As these searches went on, the number of safes turned in continued to increase as the clearing of tsunami debris led to more discoveries. All manner of unusual and valuable items have been found inside the safes, including bars of gold, antiques and even crafted boxes containing a child's umbilical cord. The quest to return these items will likely stretch on for many weeks…………
- Wait a minute…….insulting Lindsay Lohan is a problem now? If a quick reading of a lawsuit by the angry, oft-intoxicated, Colombian-nose-candy-loving actress is to be believed, yes. After hack, bubble gum “rapper” Pitbull lampooned Lohan in his latest single "Give Me Everything," Lohan and her legal team responded with a lawsuit against Pitbull and the track’s producers. "I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan," the seemingly harmless line reads. Yet that was enough for Lohan and her attorney, Stephanie Ovadia, to claim that the line "by virtue of its wide appeal, condemnation, excoriation, disparaging or defamatory statements by the defendants about the plaintiff are destined to do irreparable harm to the plaintiff." Wait…..telling the truth is disparaging? Lohan was locked up, after all. No one is disputing she was in jail (and probably will be back soon), so why the huffing and puffing? A further read of the lawsuit provides some priceless comedy material, noting Lohan is "a professional actor of good repute and standing in the Screen Actors Guild" who is suing under the New York civil-rights laws, which protects individuals from having their name exploited for commercial purposes. Among other penalties, the suit seeks an injunction to stop all the defendants — in addition to Pitbull, Ne-Yo and Afrojack, who wrote "Give Me Everything," are named — from broadcasting the song. Lohan is also demanding unspecified damages. She was successful in a similar suit filed last year against financial services company E-Trade after the company aired one of its über-terrible talking baby Super Bowl commercial that referred to an infant as "That milkaholic Lindsay." That suit never made it to court and was withdrawn in September, with E-Trade reportedly paying Lohan "a confidential sum." One possible option for Lohan if she wants to avoid future incidents of this type, and it is radical, would be to stop coking up, getting drunk, stealing things and spending time rocking orange jumpsuits and residing behind bars. It is virtually impossible to mock a person for being a coke head, a lush and a felon if they aren’t doing cocaine, getting drunk and living in an 8x10 cell at a local correctional facility.……….
- Care for a little subtle racism with your skincare advertisement, gentlemen? If so, skincare company Nivea is just the one for you. Nivea ran what turned out to be an extremely controversial ad in the September issue of Esquire magazine, an ad so controversial that the company has issued an official apology. The ad for Nivea for Men appeared and featured a clean-cut, African-American male holding what appeared to be a mask of a black man with an Afro hairstyle and a beard. That image was tagged with accompanying copy that read, "Look Like You Give a Damn. Re-civilize Yourself." Predictably, a picture of the ad was quickly uploaded to someone’s Twitter account and it went viral, leading to a massive outcry that made the ad a trending topic on Twitter on account of those complaining that it was insensitive and racist. Within hours, #nivea became a trending topic on Twitter and the company was scrambling to do damage control. Beiersdorf AG, the parent company of Nivea, released an official statement regarding the controversy: "We are deeply sorry to anyone who may take offense to this specific local advertisement. After realizing that this ad is misleading, it was immediately withdrawn. Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of NIVEA: The brand represents diversity, tolerance, and equal opportunity. We value difference. Direct or indirect discrimination must be ruled out in all decisions by, and in all areas of our activities. This applies regardless of gender, age, race, skin color, religion, ideology, sexual orientation, or disability. Nor should cultural, ethnic, or national origin, and political or philosophical conviction be of any significance." And yet, none of that seemed to be on the mind of whatever ad agency account executive and creative team came up with the idiotic ad in the first place. Maybe next time………..
- If you suck abysmally at something for a prolonged period of time, it’s best just to quit. That is the valuable lesson being taught to one and all by Hewlett-Packard, which is radically restructuring its entire company and as part of that effort is looking to spin off its struggling personal computer business. The decision is surprising particularly because HP just launched its much-hyped and heavily advertised TouchPad tablet last month. Included in the massive kill-off will be the company’s webOS smartphone line. HP went to great lengths to obtain the webOS software by acquiring Palm last year, but vowed in its gloom-and-doom proclamation that it will continue trying to "optimize the value" of its purchase. That the TouchPad is dying such a quick death isn't so stunning, as it had failed so miserably (despite a huge ad campaign feautring celebrities like Manny Pacquiao) that HP almost immediately cut the tablet's price by $100. Furthermore, the company admitted none of its webOS products reached the company's internal sales targets. Yet in the midst of the bad news, HP tried to offer a glimmer of hope by announcing its purchase of British software developer Autonomy for roughly $10.2 billion in cash. Oddly enough, HP will run Autonomy as a separate company, but HP will "look for synergies." Stock prices for HP have been all over the map but mostly down in the past month (but what stock hasn’t) and fell 6 percent during regular hours Thursday and an additional 6 percent in afterhours trading. HP CEO Leo Apotheker did his best to keep a positive outlook, but in the end could not outrun May predictions that the company needed to put greater investment into its "value-added services" or it will "be left with a business that is running out of steam." There is also no outrunning the reality that consumer PC sales have slumped industry-wide for the past several quarters, as tablets like Apple's iPad have slowed netbook and mini-notebook sales. HP’s consumer sales fell a whopping 17 percent between May and July. "The tablet effect is real," Apotheker said. "Consumers are changing how they use PCs." Yes, they are changing to not using PCs at all. In lieu of actually selling computers, HP’s new plan calls for a transition into faster-growing, more profitable businesses like software, servers and corporate technology services. Axing its consumer computer business is still huge, as HP's Personal Systems unit accounts for about one-third of the company's annual revenue. In light of the news, HP reduced its full-year revenue forecast by 9 percent and lowered its profit forecast by 16 percent. HP Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak admitted that the outlook was "definitely the toughest one for me as CFO." All of this underscores just how quickly the computer business changes, as just 10 years ago it was HP buying Compaq in a contentious deal that eventually helped cost then-CEO Carly Fiorina her job. HP became the largest PC manufacturer in the world and has held that position right up to now. It still sells more PCs than any other vendor, shipping 14.9 million PCs last quarter for a 17.5 percent share of the market. Dell and Lenovo are close behind, but after HP waved the white flag there is more of the market to be grabbed. Who will acquire HP’s Personal Systems unit, you may ask? Well, the company said its board of directors has authorized executives to explore "strategic alternatives" for the unit and it plans on making a final decision within the next 12 to 18 months. For consumers, it simply means there is one less brand of computer on the market to run the world’s worst operating system………..
- March’s massive earthquake that struck Japan may have shaken the country in a literal sense, but it clearly has not shaken the core values of the Japanese people. The earthquake and resulting tsunami have left much of Japan’s coastline ravaged, but in the recovery process the country’s trademark honesty has been prominently on display. In the five months since the tsunami struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets found in the debris, containing $48 million in cash. Additionally, more than 5,700 safes that washed ashore along the coast have also been hauled to police centers by volunteers and search and rescue crews. The safes have yielded an additional $30 million in cash, including one safe containing the equivalent of $1 million. The National Police Agency confirmed that most of the valuables have been successfully returned to their owners. "In most cases, the keyholes on these safes were filled with mud," said Koetsu Saiki of the Miyagi Prefectural Police. "We had to start by cutting apart the metal doors with grinders and other tools." Matching the safes with their owners proved relatively easy, as Saiki says most kept bankbooks or land rights documents inside the boxes, containing their names and address. However, locating people in the nature-ravaged area has been extremely difficult. Many were either killed in the tsunami or have been evacuated to safer locales. "The fact that these safes were washed away, meant the homes were washed away too," Saiki said. "We had to first determine if the owners were alive, then find where they had evacuated to." To find the rightful owners of the returned loot, police fanned out across the region, searching for names of residents posted at evacuation centers, digging through missing person reports at town halls, sorting through change of address forms at the post office, to see if the owner had moved away. If these efforts yielded no results, police called listed cell phone numbers, met with mayors or village leaders to see if they recognized the names. As these searches went on, the number of safes turned in continued to increase as the clearing of tsunami debris led to more discoveries. All manner of unusual and valuable items have been found inside the safes, including bars of gold, antiques and even crafted boxes containing a child's umbilical cord. The quest to return these items will likely stretch on for many weeks…………
- Wait a minute…….insulting Lindsay Lohan is a problem now? If a quick reading of a lawsuit by the angry, oft-intoxicated, Colombian-nose-candy-loving actress is to be believed, yes. After hack, bubble gum “rapper” Pitbull lampooned Lohan in his latest single "Give Me Everything," Lohan and her legal team responded with a lawsuit against Pitbull and the track’s producers. "I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan," the seemingly harmless line reads. Yet that was enough for Lohan and her attorney, Stephanie Ovadia, to claim that the line "by virtue of its wide appeal, condemnation, excoriation, disparaging or defamatory statements by the defendants about the plaintiff are destined to do irreparable harm to the plaintiff." Wait…..telling the truth is disparaging? Lohan was locked up, after all. No one is disputing she was in jail (and probably will be back soon), so why the huffing and puffing? A further read of the lawsuit provides some priceless comedy material, noting Lohan is "a professional actor of good repute and standing in the Screen Actors Guild" who is suing under the New York civil-rights laws, which protects individuals from having their name exploited for commercial purposes. Among other penalties, the suit seeks an injunction to stop all the defendants — in addition to Pitbull, Ne-Yo and Afrojack, who wrote "Give Me Everything," are named — from broadcasting the song. Lohan is also demanding unspecified damages. She was successful in a similar suit filed last year against financial services company E-Trade after the company aired one of its über-terrible talking baby Super Bowl commercial that referred to an infant as "That milkaholic Lindsay." That suit never made it to court and was withdrawn in September, with E-Trade reportedly paying Lohan "a confidential sum." One possible option for Lohan if she wants to avoid future incidents of this type, and it is radical, would be to stop coking up, getting drunk, stealing things and spending time rocking orange jumpsuits and residing behind bars. It is virtually impossible to mock a person for being a coke head, a lush and a felon if they aren’t doing cocaine, getting drunk and living in an 8x10 cell at a local correctional facility.……….
- Care for a little subtle racism with your skincare advertisement, gentlemen? If so, skincare company Nivea is just the one for you. Nivea ran what turned out to be an extremely controversial ad in the September issue of Esquire magazine, an ad so controversial that the company has issued an official apology. The ad for Nivea for Men appeared and featured a clean-cut, African-American male holding what appeared to be a mask of a black man with an Afro hairstyle and a beard. That image was tagged with accompanying copy that read, "Look Like You Give a Damn. Re-civilize Yourself." Predictably, a picture of the ad was quickly uploaded to someone’s Twitter account and it went viral, leading to a massive outcry that made the ad a trending topic on Twitter on account of those complaining that it was insensitive and racist. Within hours, #nivea became a trending topic on Twitter and the company was scrambling to do damage control. Beiersdorf AG, the parent company of Nivea, released an official statement regarding the controversy: "We are deeply sorry to anyone who may take offense to this specific local advertisement. After realizing that this ad is misleading, it was immediately withdrawn. Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of NIVEA: The brand represents diversity, tolerance, and equal opportunity. We value difference. Direct or indirect discrimination must be ruled out in all decisions by, and in all areas of our activities. This applies regardless of gender, age, race, skin color, religion, ideology, sexual orientation, or disability. Nor should cultural, ethnic, or national origin, and political or philosophical conviction be of any significance." And yet, none of that seemed to be on the mind of whatever ad agency account executive and creative team came up with the idiotic ad in the first place. Maybe next time………..
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Unimaginative Hollywood, international basketball brawls and Turkish bloodshed
- College basketball teams are permitted to take a foreign tour every four years to play international competition over the summer. Programs use the trips as something of a team-building exercise along with a chance to cram in extra practice hours during a time of year when coaches are otherwise not permitted to work with players in a practice setting. The trips often involve long flights and games against college and professional teams in places like Italy, Germany, China or Russia. What those trips do not typically involve are all-out brawls between the college teams and their opponents. Yet that very sort of international incident took place Thursday in a game between the Georgetown Hoyas and the Bayi Rockets, a Chinese professional team. The Hoyas were in the midst of an 11-day trip through China and playing in their second game after beating the Shanxi Brave Dragons in a game attended by United States Vice President Joe Biden. Witnesses characterized the game as extremely physical and as is to be expected in a game involving a local team against a squad from abroad, the Rockets racked up a sizeable 57-15 advantage in free throws taken. The referees either didn’t have any interest in stemming the physicality or figured those evil, capitalist Americans were getting what they deserved, because the game spun out of control and by the time it reached the fourth quarter, something bad was going to happen. After two players exchanged words earlier in the game and a Rockets player even berated Georgetown coach John Thompson III after the Hoyas' coach yelled at his team, the Hoyas rallied to tie the score a 64 midway through the fourth quarter. At that point, two players began swinging on one another and it was on. The benches emptied, water bottles were hurled onto the court from the stands along with other projectiles and one Georgetown player, Henry Sims, was reportedly hit by a chair. Thompson pulled his team off the court and they rushed back to the locker room to avoid further danger. "Tonight, two great teams played a very competitive game that unfortunately ended after heated exchanges with both teams,'' Thompson said in a statement. "We sincerely regret that this situation occurred. We remain grateful for the opportunity our student-athletes are having to engage in a sport they love here in China, while strengthening their understanding of a nation we respect and admire at Georgetown University.'' Right, because nothing says respect and admiration quite like a game-ending brawl involving projectiles, punches and chair shots…………
- Is it really too much to ask that American cities and their public works and utilities departments keep crap out of their water supplies - literally, crap. Less than a month after a waste processing plant in Harlem began leaking massive amounts of waste into the Hudson River on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, an estimated 2.4 million gallons of sewer overflow spilled Tuesday into Baltimore’s Back River, according to the Baltimore City Department of Public Works. The culprit in this case was a heavy rainfall in the area Sunday afternoon, according to DPW officials. Massive quantities of rain led to a sewer overflow shortly before 12:30 p.m. Officials placed part of the blame on construction upgrades at the plant, which teamed with the massive rainfall to infiltrate sewer lines that were already well above normal levels and cause chaos. But for those concerned about 2.4 million gallons of material that not long ago was exiting someone’s toilet, fear not. "It's not 2.4 million gallons of material from the toilet. It is mostly rainwater. The circumstances just came together in a perfect storm, and an overwhelming amount of rain infiltrated our pipes," DPW official Kurt Kocher cautioned. Mostly rainwater or not, the sewage overflow prompted health officials to close Rocky Point Beach and post alerts on Cox's Point and Edgemere Park. The warnings did not seem to bother most beachgoers at the latter two locations, with crowds at normal levels despite the cautionary messages. There is no definite timeline for when the beach will be reopened and the warnings lifted, but officials plan to monitor water samples and lift the alert once they return to normal. The test results are expected by the end of the week, so the wait should not be long. Coincidentally, DPW officials said they are about to embark on a billion-dollar rehabilitation project for the sanitary system to prevent future overflows. Very timely, fellas, very timely…………
- All or nothing. That is the new plan for AT&T for text messaging. The carrier will completely overhaul its texting pricing system to focus on unlimited offerings starting August 21, it confirmed Thursday. Left out in the overhaul is a plan that currently offers 1,000 messages for $10 per month. Instead, new customers can choose either a per-text payment plan or an unlimited plan for $20 per month, while families can get an unlimited plan on up to five phones for $30 per month. The best new is for current AT&T customers with “tweener” plans, because they can keep their current plans and only new customers will be screwed over. "We regularly evaluate our offers and are making some adjustments to our messaging lineup," AT&T said in a statement. "The vast majority of our messaging customers prefer unlimited plans and with text messaging growth stronger than ever, that number continues to climb among new customers." Without an unlimited plan, users pay 20 cents per message. Couple with AT&T announcement two weeks ago that it will throttle the data speeds of mobile customers who use an "extraordinary" amount of data, even if they are on an unlimited plan, it’s safe to say the company is pissing a lot of people off. AT&T has attempted to fend off the coming storm of rage for the slowdowns - which will begin Oct. 1 – by insisting the change will only affect the top 5 percent of its heaviest data users and that "this change will never impact the vast majority of our customers." Users impacted by the slowdowns will have their data speed drastically reduced until their next billing cycle begins. These data hogs will supposedly receive "multiple notices, including a grace period," before their speed is slowed, according to AT&T. Those notices will likely go ignored while these data devotees are staring intently at whatever über-important data they are currently accessing on their smartphone, but at least AT&T can warn them before giving them a giant service middle finger by not providing the data speed they were promised when they signed their overpriced two-year contract……….
- Booyah! There is no one in their right mind who doesn’t enjoy a good aerial assault across international borders and Turkish military provided just such an experience by launching an assault on Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq overnight Wednesday, hitting 60 targets by plane and another 168 with artillery from across the border. The all-out attack came in response to the killing of nine Turkish soldiers in southeastern Turkey Wednesday by Kurdish separatists. The strikes targeted a region "frequented" by the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has been defiantly fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey for decades. Both the Turkish and U.S. governments classify the PKK as a terrorist organization and its practice of operating from hideouts in the mountainous border region between Iraq and Turkey doesn’t exactly dispel that notion. It had been far too long (the summer of 2010) since Turkish military planes last bombed inside Iraq, so Wednesday's ambush against the Turkish soldiers was a welcome sight – to everyone but the targets of the ambush, of course. The attack was quickly hailed as the deadliest attack on the military since a campaign against the Kurdish autonomy movement began in July. One of the deadliest incidents of the movement was a July 13 attack by the rebels on the Turkish military that killed 30 soldiers. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan really had no choice but to respond to the attack with force, as he is under immense pressure to improve stability and prove his strength as a commander after his top military leaders resigned en masse last month. That left Erdogan in full control of the military and he was immediately faced with the quandary of fighting back against the Kurds or making concessions to them, which would be a major risk politically. On the other hand, the PKK refuses to give up violence unless its demands, meaning the conflict is likely to rage on for some time. What are those demands? They include the use of the Kurdish language in public education and an amnesty for militants hiding in northern Iraq, are met by Turkey. After Wednesday’s attacks, Turkey quickly tagged the violence with warnings that similar attacks could happen in the future. "Such operations will be carried out within and outside of Turkey with determination until the separatist organization is neutralized," a military report said. Speaking at a meal to break the Ramadan fast on Tuesday following the ambush on the Turkish soldiers, Erdogan foreshadowed Wednesday’s events, warning that "a new period is starting" in the conflict. He has done a fair amount of work attempting to improve relations with Turkey's Kurds, going so far as to admit that the government made mistakes in its treatment of the country's largest minority. Those comments have seemingly done nothing to assuage the rage of the Kurds, whose main party in parliament boycotted the swearing-in for new lawmakers, despite winning a larger number of seats in June's elections, because the government disqualified some of the party's candidates. Yes, this is going to be a long, bitter and bloody one…………
- Now this is getting depressing. When I first started spouting my conspiracy theory about Hollywood having a goal of remaking every movie ever made and turning the entire industry into an endless cycle of only remakes, sequels and prequels, it seemed too absurd to be true. Now…….not so much. It slid under the radar initially, but back in March, Hollywood production company Alcon Entertainment acquired rights to the "Blade Runner" property. The original film was about "replicants" (robots that are indistinguishable from humans) traveling illegally to a dystopian Los Angeles, with Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard character chasing down the replicants to destroy them. It was the quintessential box office underachiever that became a cult favorite on TV and home video, giving studios the misguided impression that it would be a good franchise to revive. Alcon purchased the rights to the franchise in March and began working toward the goal of making “Blade Runner” the rare ‘80s movie remade by a director didn’t who grow up in that era and now wants to put his own spin on a supposed classic. Scott was the director for the original “Blade Runner” film and Alcon immediately made it clear he was their top choice to helm the new project. Inking Scott for the project, Alcon executive Andrew Kosove said, "is something we think would be wonderful." Under the terms of purchase, Alcon can make either a prequel or a sequel and Scott will likely play a big part in that decision. Alcon also has the right to build off scenes from the original film along with passages from the book that inspired the film, Philip K. Dick's source novel, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" For whatever reason, Alcon executives believe that three decades lurking in cinematic no man’s land will somehow make “Blade Runner” a smash hit in the 21st century. "The 'Blade Runner' lore is kind of irresistible," Kosove beamed. "And the extraordinary pace of technological advancement since the movie came out means that there are a lot of opportunities to do something fresh." Yes, something fresh like recycling the general concept of a movie that has already been made. Wisely spoken, Andrew…………
- Is it really too much to ask that American cities and their public works and utilities departments keep crap out of their water supplies - literally, crap. Less than a month after a waste processing plant in Harlem began leaking massive amounts of waste into the Hudson River on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, an estimated 2.4 million gallons of sewer overflow spilled Tuesday into Baltimore’s Back River, according to the Baltimore City Department of Public Works. The culprit in this case was a heavy rainfall in the area Sunday afternoon, according to DPW officials. Massive quantities of rain led to a sewer overflow shortly before 12:30 p.m. Officials placed part of the blame on construction upgrades at the plant, which teamed with the massive rainfall to infiltrate sewer lines that were already well above normal levels and cause chaos. But for those concerned about 2.4 million gallons of material that not long ago was exiting someone’s toilet, fear not. "It's not 2.4 million gallons of material from the toilet. It is mostly rainwater. The circumstances just came together in a perfect storm, and an overwhelming amount of rain infiltrated our pipes," DPW official Kurt Kocher cautioned. Mostly rainwater or not, the sewage overflow prompted health officials to close Rocky Point Beach and post alerts on Cox's Point and Edgemere Park. The warnings did not seem to bother most beachgoers at the latter two locations, with crowds at normal levels despite the cautionary messages. There is no definite timeline for when the beach will be reopened and the warnings lifted, but officials plan to monitor water samples and lift the alert once they return to normal. The test results are expected by the end of the week, so the wait should not be long. Coincidentally, DPW officials said they are about to embark on a billion-dollar rehabilitation project for the sanitary system to prevent future overflows. Very timely, fellas, very timely…………
- All or nothing. That is the new plan for AT&T for text messaging. The carrier will completely overhaul its texting pricing system to focus on unlimited offerings starting August 21, it confirmed Thursday. Left out in the overhaul is a plan that currently offers 1,000 messages for $10 per month. Instead, new customers can choose either a per-text payment plan or an unlimited plan for $20 per month, while families can get an unlimited plan on up to five phones for $30 per month. The best new is for current AT&T customers with “tweener” plans, because they can keep their current plans and only new customers will be screwed over. "We regularly evaluate our offers and are making some adjustments to our messaging lineup," AT&T said in a statement. "The vast majority of our messaging customers prefer unlimited plans and with text messaging growth stronger than ever, that number continues to climb among new customers." Without an unlimited plan, users pay 20 cents per message. Couple with AT&T announcement two weeks ago that it will throttle the data speeds of mobile customers who use an "extraordinary" amount of data, even if they are on an unlimited plan, it’s safe to say the company is pissing a lot of people off. AT&T has attempted to fend off the coming storm of rage for the slowdowns - which will begin Oct. 1 – by insisting the change will only affect the top 5 percent of its heaviest data users and that "this change will never impact the vast majority of our customers." Users impacted by the slowdowns will have their data speed drastically reduced until their next billing cycle begins. These data hogs will supposedly receive "multiple notices, including a grace period," before their speed is slowed, according to AT&T. Those notices will likely go ignored while these data devotees are staring intently at whatever über-important data they are currently accessing on their smartphone, but at least AT&T can warn them before giving them a giant service middle finger by not providing the data speed they were promised when they signed their overpriced two-year contract……….
- Booyah! There is no one in their right mind who doesn’t enjoy a good aerial assault across international borders and Turkish military provided just such an experience by launching an assault on Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq overnight Wednesday, hitting 60 targets by plane and another 168 with artillery from across the border. The all-out attack came in response to the killing of nine Turkish soldiers in southeastern Turkey Wednesday by Kurdish separatists. The strikes targeted a region "frequented" by the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has been defiantly fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey for decades. Both the Turkish and U.S. governments classify the PKK as a terrorist organization and its practice of operating from hideouts in the mountainous border region between Iraq and Turkey doesn’t exactly dispel that notion. It had been far too long (the summer of 2010) since Turkish military planes last bombed inside Iraq, so Wednesday's ambush against the Turkish soldiers was a welcome sight – to everyone but the targets of the ambush, of course. The attack was quickly hailed as the deadliest attack on the military since a campaign against the Kurdish autonomy movement began in July. One of the deadliest incidents of the movement was a July 13 attack by the rebels on the Turkish military that killed 30 soldiers. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan really had no choice but to respond to the attack with force, as he is under immense pressure to improve stability and prove his strength as a commander after his top military leaders resigned en masse last month. That left Erdogan in full control of the military and he was immediately faced with the quandary of fighting back against the Kurds or making concessions to them, which would be a major risk politically. On the other hand, the PKK refuses to give up violence unless its demands, meaning the conflict is likely to rage on for some time. What are those demands? They include the use of the Kurdish language in public education and an amnesty for militants hiding in northern Iraq, are met by Turkey. After Wednesday’s attacks, Turkey quickly tagged the violence with warnings that similar attacks could happen in the future. "Such operations will be carried out within and outside of Turkey with determination until the separatist organization is neutralized," a military report said. Speaking at a meal to break the Ramadan fast on Tuesday following the ambush on the Turkish soldiers, Erdogan foreshadowed Wednesday’s events, warning that "a new period is starting" in the conflict. He has done a fair amount of work attempting to improve relations with Turkey's Kurds, going so far as to admit that the government made mistakes in its treatment of the country's largest minority. Those comments have seemingly done nothing to assuage the rage of the Kurds, whose main party in parliament boycotted the swearing-in for new lawmakers, despite winning a larger number of seats in June's elections, because the government disqualified some of the party's candidates. Yes, this is going to be a long, bitter and bloody one…………
- Now this is getting depressing. When I first started spouting my conspiracy theory about Hollywood having a goal of remaking every movie ever made and turning the entire industry into an endless cycle of only remakes, sequels and prequels, it seemed too absurd to be true. Now…….not so much. It slid under the radar initially, but back in March, Hollywood production company Alcon Entertainment acquired rights to the "Blade Runner" property. The original film was about "replicants" (robots that are indistinguishable from humans) traveling illegally to a dystopian Los Angeles, with Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard character chasing down the replicants to destroy them. It was the quintessential box office underachiever that became a cult favorite on TV and home video, giving studios the misguided impression that it would be a good franchise to revive. Alcon purchased the rights to the franchise in March and began working toward the goal of making “Blade Runner” the rare ‘80s movie remade by a director didn’t who grow up in that era and now wants to put his own spin on a supposed classic. Scott was the director for the original “Blade Runner” film and Alcon immediately made it clear he was their top choice to helm the new project. Inking Scott for the project, Alcon executive Andrew Kosove said, "is something we think would be wonderful." Under the terms of purchase, Alcon can make either a prequel or a sequel and Scott will likely play a big part in that decision. Alcon also has the right to build off scenes from the original film along with passages from the book that inspired the film, Philip K. Dick's source novel, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" For whatever reason, Alcon executives believe that three decades lurking in cinematic no man’s land will somehow make “Blade Runner” a smash hit in the 21st century. "The 'Blade Runner' lore is kind of irresistible," Kosove beamed. "And the extraordinary pace of technological advancement since the movie came out means that there are a lot of opportunities to do something fresh." Yes, something fresh like recycling the general concept of a movie that has already been made. Wisely spoken, Andrew…………
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Ungrateful Big Tobacco, a still arrogant T.O. and drama in Libya
- Big Tobacco still doesn’t get it. For some reason, these kooks continue to not only thrive on making billions of dollars with products that kill degenerates too weak in willpower to stop using them, but they act completely indignant every time the government imposes further restrictions on their products of death. For example, five members of Big Tobacco including some of the largest in the United States, filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Tuesday, alleging that government-mandated graphic warning labels on cigarette packages unconstitutionally infringe on the companies' rights. "The primary complaint is that we think it violates the First Amendment for the government to require people who produce a lawful product to essentially urge prospective purchasers not to buy it," says Floyd Abrams the attorney for the plaintiffs. These ungrateful a-holes have filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and now it will be R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard, Commonwealth, Liggett, and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco against the Food and Drug Administration, its chief, Margaret Hamburg, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The suit comes two months after the FDA unveiled nine new warning labels, complete with graphic photos and the phone number 1-800-QUIT-NOW. As per FDA regulations, starting in September, 2012, half of each cigarette package will have to display one of those new labels. The only thing that could make the labels better is if they carried the “Smoking Kills” message in size 72 font that cigarettes in western Europe must sport. Just don’t tell that to Abrams, a well-known First Amendment expert. "The government has lot of power to require warnings, but it doesn't require half of a cigarette pack to scream out, 'Don't buy this product!," he fumed. "What is at issue is putting photographs of diseased people on every cigarette pack, include a phone number, and ask people to stop smoking. It's the direct advocacy to not buy the product, as opposed to a straightforward warning." And the problem is? The world would be a better place with those labels – for everyone but your clients, which again is not a problem. Go ahead and seek some sort of preliminary injunction against the warning labels before the statute goes into effect next year, but know that you’re going to fail. This is one of the rare government actions that both makes sense and makes the world a better place. For the first time in 25 years, the FDA has revised warnings on cigarette packaging and given loser smokers one more slap in the face they clearly need…………
- Leave it to free-agent receiver Terrell Owens to hype free-agent receiver Terrell Owens like no one’s business. Owens has always loved him some him and despite tearing his ACL earlier this year (the date of the injury remains unclear) and undergoing surgery to repair the tear, he remains bullish on a return to the NFL. The normal recovery time for an athlete to get back onto the field is anywhere from eight months to a year, but Owens boasted earlier this week that he's ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation and hopes to contribute to an NFL team this season. "The doctors said the timetable was six to eight months, and up to a year, of rehab process. Obviously, they gave someone of my caliber a four- to six-month window. Four months is very ambitious, and that's where I'm at now: four months and four or five days out from surgery," Owens sai. "Talking with the doctors, going through my personal training in L.A. and in Pensacola (Fla.), they stressed that I'm way ahead of schedule. I'm giving myself the timetable of maybe two or three weeks into the season that I'll be ready. That's giving myself a grace period, for setbacks. I'm rehabbing my butt off to get back on the field." He still stonewalled when asked for details of how the injury occurred, saying, "It's nobody's business." He cited his faith in keeping him on track and motivated during his recovery, which included him recently posting a video online of him running some agility drills to show off his progress. He also has to be concerned about finding a team after fellow veteran receiver Randy Moss spent the offseason – without being injured – getting into “freakish” shape in the hopes of finding a new team and ended up retiring because none of the teams he wanted to play for had any interest. Owens understands that reality but is content, unlike Moss, to wait until the inevitable wave of receiver injuries hits the NFL mid-season. "I'm not going to rush into it. But injuries are going to occur during the course of the season. Some receivers are going to go down. I'm going to prepare myself. I'll be ready when the time comes," he said. Owens also insisted that no matter what role he takes when joining a new team, he will ultimately prove that he is still a dominant force. "I still feel like I can do the same thing that I did when I went into Buffalo. They said, 'You're not going to be penciled in as our No. 1 guy. We have our No. 1 guy and our No. 2 guy.' I'm like, all right, fine, I'll let my play do the speaking for me. They had Lee Evans there, but if you look at the end-of-the-year statistics, that'll tell you the tale [55 receptions, 829 yards, six TDs]. Then, I go to Cincinnati last year. Obviously, they had a great receiver there, Chad [Ochocinco]. Again, look at the statistics -- and I missed two or three games [14 games, 72 receptions, 983 yards, nine TDs].” In other words, I’m going to end up as the No. 1 receiver no matter what it says on the depth chart. As always, just T.O. being T.O…………
- Muammar Gaddafi is still clinging to power in Libya, but the country’s National Transitional Council is already outlining plans for the country's path to democracy after the end of Gaddafi's 42-year reign of tyranny. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chair of the council, defended the legitimacy of his un-elected council in speaking of the post-Gaddafi future. The council has become the de-facto government in the rebel-held east of Libya. "This (transition) period is needed to establish stability... it will not exceed eight months, maybe it will be much less. After which Libyans will be called upon to elect a national congress," Jalil said at a news conference. That call should be chaotic to say the least, but it is what most observers would prescribe to keep Libya on a path toward democracy and to avoid the country descending into chaos. Jalil also explained that a referendum on a new constitution would come with 20 months. Elsewhere in Libya, Gaddafi regime officials were in talks with a special UN envoy on Tuesday night as rebels claimed they would take Tripoli by the end of the month. The United States is on record as proclaiming that the dictator’s “days are numbered.” The settlement meetings between representatives of both sides of the conflict continued Wednesday in Tunisia, with Abdel-Elah al-Khatib, the former Jordanian foreign minister appointed by the United Nations to try to negotiate an end to the saga, presiding over the talks. However, the rebel leaders' Transitional National Council denied that its representatives were involved. They believe that Gaddafi’s control has waned to the point that they no longer need to offer concessions on their demand for his exit from Libya or unconditional surrender. Four days after his supply lines were cut off, the rebels believe Gaddafi is on his last legs. Mansur Saif Al-Nasser, the rebels’ ambassador to France, said they hoped end the war by the conclusion of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in two weeks' time. "Our forces totally control Zawiyah, which will open the way to Tripoli," Al-Nasser said in a radio interview. "This will allow the population there to revolt. We are entering a decisive phase. Soon we will liberate all of southern Libya. We hope to celebrate the final victory at the same time as the end of Ramadan." Those sentiments were shared by U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who proclaimed, "I think the sense is that Gaddafi's days are numbered." Confident proclamations or not, fighting continued Wednesday in Zawiyah, the oil refinery town 30 miles to the west of Tripoli which controls the supply route to the border with Tunisia. No one is quite sure of Gaddafi’s exact whereabouts or his plans once he is ousted from power, but there has been speculation that he might seek exile in Venezuela, which just happens to be run by fellow despot Hugo Chavez. What a pairing that would be………….
- The battle is old and tired, but at least there is a new voice in the interminable war of words between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, formerly of the British rock band Oasis. The band split more than a year ago and the brothers Gallagher haven't stopped sniping at one another since then. Liam Gallagher, now fronting his new band Beady Eye along with other former Oasis members, has done most of the talking. Noel has responded from time to time, but it was Liam who fired off caustic, thinly tweets cracking on his brother the day Noel released the first single from his upcoming solo album. The other former members of Oasis have remained largely silent in the fight, but former Oasis and current Beady Eye member Andy Bell decided this week to chime in Noel Gallagher's comments over the demise of their former band. Noel Gallagher has long claimed Oasis pulled out of their planned performance at the Chelmsford leg of V Festival in 2009 because his brother "had a hangover" and also alleged that a key reason for Oasis' split was that he had tried to charge brother Liam to advertise his clothing company Pretty Green in the band's tour program. Bell denied both of those claims and when asked about the band’s breakup while in Paris, he could not have been more direct in excoriating Noel Gallagher for both his words and his part in the drama. “Bollocks! He lied about a lot of things. The argument about Pretty Green was lies, what he said about V Festival and the fake laryngitis was lies - I don't know, maybe he's convinced that's the truth. I don't know what goes on in his head. I know him, so I'm not disappointed,” Bell fumed. “That's what he's like. I know how he spins the press. He's used the press for years. Interviews and press are secondary for us, that's his life.” As for the claims that it was Liam who was most culpable for the breakup, Bell insisted that was not the case and pointed to the majority of the band staying together and forming Beady Eye without Noel speaks volumes about who was really to blame. “I'm not going to add more fuel to the fire. But I've ended up in a band with Liam, Gem, Chris, with the same management, road crew,” Bell pointed out. "We drove back to the hotel, had a few beers, sat together and said there's nothing to keep us from playing together. We agreed it wouldn't be the end just because Noel left." And the clock is now ticking on either Noel or Liam Gallagher to unleash their own verbal salvo in response to Bell and keep this drama dragging on for as long as possible…………
- Good news, America! We finally have a use for Rhode Island. Just kidding, Rhode Islanders. We’ve always had some use – I think - for our smallest state, but the federal government wants to add another. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday that the government is seeking proposals to develop wind energy farms off the coasts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The announcement, which Salazar made at Quonset Point — a former Navy installation turned industrial park - was met with rapt enthusiasm by Rhode Island leaders, who hailed the announcement as a significant step in efforts to bring wind turbines and jobs to the Ocean State's coast. Salazar called the announcement a "major milestone" and said he hopes the federal government can sign leases with wind energy developers as soon as next year. "Rhode Island is poised to be very much at the point of the spear in developing offshore wind," Salazar proclaimed. Rhode Island officials have long touted Quonset Park’s potential as a hub for wind turbine assembly. If the government actually does the unusual and follows through on something it has promised to do, the effort could create hundreds of jobs for a state that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the U.S. "There is no single project that has a better hope for a significant change in unemployment," U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said of the project. The announcement definitely drew out all of the state’s major political figures for a sure-thing photo opportunity and a chance to attach their parasitic selves to a project that could boost their approval rating significantly if it succeeds. Gov. Lincoln Chafee was also on hand to blow major smoke up everyone’s ass, talking in glowing terms about what the wind energy push will do for his state. "This is very exciting for Rhode Island, for the jobs that are going to be created," Chafee said. As part of the plan, the federal government also wants to place wind energy farms on and across the state’s shared border with Massachusetts, centered in a 285-square-mile area between Block Island and Martha's Vineyard. Those who want in on the bidding have 45 days to notify the Department of the Interior. Projections for wind farm projects currently underway in the region have the projected date of actual turbines in actual bodies of water by 2016 or 2017 at the earliest. That means there is plenty of time for whiny environmentalists to chime in with their predictable complaints……….
- Leave it to free-agent receiver Terrell Owens to hype free-agent receiver Terrell Owens like no one’s business. Owens has always loved him some him and despite tearing his ACL earlier this year (the date of the injury remains unclear) and undergoing surgery to repair the tear, he remains bullish on a return to the NFL. The normal recovery time for an athlete to get back onto the field is anywhere from eight months to a year, but Owens boasted earlier this week that he's ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation and hopes to contribute to an NFL team this season. "The doctors said the timetable was six to eight months, and up to a year, of rehab process. Obviously, they gave someone of my caliber a four- to six-month window. Four months is very ambitious, and that's where I'm at now: four months and four or five days out from surgery," Owens sai. "Talking with the doctors, going through my personal training in L.A. and in Pensacola (Fla.), they stressed that I'm way ahead of schedule. I'm giving myself the timetable of maybe two or three weeks into the season that I'll be ready. That's giving myself a grace period, for setbacks. I'm rehabbing my butt off to get back on the field." He still stonewalled when asked for details of how the injury occurred, saying, "It's nobody's business." He cited his faith in keeping him on track and motivated during his recovery, which included him recently posting a video online of him running some agility drills to show off his progress. He also has to be concerned about finding a team after fellow veteran receiver Randy Moss spent the offseason – without being injured – getting into “freakish” shape in the hopes of finding a new team and ended up retiring because none of the teams he wanted to play for had any interest. Owens understands that reality but is content, unlike Moss, to wait until the inevitable wave of receiver injuries hits the NFL mid-season. "I'm not going to rush into it. But injuries are going to occur during the course of the season. Some receivers are going to go down. I'm going to prepare myself. I'll be ready when the time comes," he said. Owens also insisted that no matter what role he takes when joining a new team, he will ultimately prove that he is still a dominant force. "I still feel like I can do the same thing that I did when I went into Buffalo. They said, 'You're not going to be penciled in as our No. 1 guy. We have our No. 1 guy and our No. 2 guy.' I'm like, all right, fine, I'll let my play do the speaking for me. They had Lee Evans there, but if you look at the end-of-the-year statistics, that'll tell you the tale [55 receptions, 829 yards, six TDs]. Then, I go to Cincinnati last year. Obviously, they had a great receiver there, Chad [Ochocinco]. Again, look at the statistics -- and I missed two or three games [14 games, 72 receptions, 983 yards, nine TDs].” In other words, I’m going to end up as the No. 1 receiver no matter what it says on the depth chart. As always, just T.O. being T.O…………
- Muammar Gaddafi is still clinging to power in Libya, but the country’s National Transitional Council is already outlining plans for the country's path to democracy after the end of Gaddafi's 42-year reign of tyranny. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chair of the council, defended the legitimacy of his un-elected council in speaking of the post-Gaddafi future. The council has become the de-facto government in the rebel-held east of Libya. "This (transition) period is needed to establish stability... it will not exceed eight months, maybe it will be much less. After which Libyans will be called upon to elect a national congress," Jalil said at a news conference. That call should be chaotic to say the least, but it is what most observers would prescribe to keep Libya on a path toward democracy and to avoid the country descending into chaos. Jalil also explained that a referendum on a new constitution would come with 20 months. Elsewhere in Libya, Gaddafi regime officials were in talks with a special UN envoy on Tuesday night as rebels claimed they would take Tripoli by the end of the month. The United States is on record as proclaiming that the dictator’s “days are numbered.” The settlement meetings between representatives of both sides of the conflict continued Wednesday in Tunisia, with Abdel-Elah al-Khatib, the former Jordanian foreign minister appointed by the United Nations to try to negotiate an end to the saga, presiding over the talks. However, the rebel leaders' Transitional National Council denied that its representatives were involved. They believe that Gaddafi’s control has waned to the point that they no longer need to offer concessions on their demand for his exit from Libya or unconditional surrender. Four days after his supply lines were cut off, the rebels believe Gaddafi is on his last legs. Mansur Saif Al-Nasser, the rebels’ ambassador to France, said they hoped end the war by the conclusion of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in two weeks' time. "Our forces totally control Zawiyah, which will open the way to Tripoli," Al-Nasser said in a radio interview. "This will allow the population there to revolt. We are entering a decisive phase. Soon we will liberate all of southern Libya. We hope to celebrate the final victory at the same time as the end of Ramadan." Those sentiments were shared by U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who proclaimed, "I think the sense is that Gaddafi's days are numbered." Confident proclamations or not, fighting continued Wednesday in Zawiyah, the oil refinery town 30 miles to the west of Tripoli which controls the supply route to the border with Tunisia. No one is quite sure of Gaddafi’s exact whereabouts or his plans once he is ousted from power, but there has been speculation that he might seek exile in Venezuela, which just happens to be run by fellow despot Hugo Chavez. What a pairing that would be………….
- The battle is old and tired, but at least there is a new voice in the interminable war of words between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, formerly of the British rock band Oasis. The band split more than a year ago and the brothers Gallagher haven't stopped sniping at one another since then. Liam Gallagher, now fronting his new band Beady Eye along with other former Oasis members, has done most of the talking. Noel has responded from time to time, but it was Liam who fired off caustic, thinly tweets cracking on his brother the day Noel released the first single from his upcoming solo album. The other former members of Oasis have remained largely silent in the fight, but former Oasis and current Beady Eye member Andy Bell decided this week to chime in Noel Gallagher's comments over the demise of their former band. Noel Gallagher has long claimed Oasis pulled out of their planned performance at the Chelmsford leg of V Festival in 2009 because his brother "had a hangover" and also alleged that a key reason for Oasis' split was that he had tried to charge brother Liam to advertise his clothing company Pretty Green in the band's tour program. Bell denied both of those claims and when asked about the band’s breakup while in Paris, he could not have been more direct in excoriating Noel Gallagher for both his words and his part in the drama. “Bollocks! He lied about a lot of things. The argument about Pretty Green was lies, what he said about V Festival and the fake laryngitis was lies - I don't know, maybe he's convinced that's the truth. I don't know what goes on in his head. I know him, so I'm not disappointed,” Bell fumed. “That's what he's like. I know how he spins the press. He's used the press for years. Interviews and press are secondary for us, that's his life.” As for the claims that it was Liam who was most culpable for the breakup, Bell insisted that was not the case and pointed to the majority of the band staying together and forming Beady Eye without Noel speaks volumes about who was really to blame. “I'm not going to add more fuel to the fire. But I've ended up in a band with Liam, Gem, Chris, with the same management, road crew,” Bell pointed out. "We drove back to the hotel, had a few beers, sat together and said there's nothing to keep us from playing together. We agreed it wouldn't be the end just because Noel left." And the clock is now ticking on either Noel or Liam Gallagher to unleash their own verbal salvo in response to Bell and keep this drama dragging on for as long as possible…………
- Good news, America! We finally have a use for Rhode Island. Just kidding, Rhode Islanders. We’ve always had some use – I think - for our smallest state, but the federal government wants to add another. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday that the government is seeking proposals to develop wind energy farms off the coasts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The announcement, which Salazar made at Quonset Point — a former Navy installation turned industrial park - was met with rapt enthusiasm by Rhode Island leaders, who hailed the announcement as a significant step in efforts to bring wind turbines and jobs to the Ocean State's coast. Salazar called the announcement a "major milestone" and said he hopes the federal government can sign leases with wind energy developers as soon as next year. "Rhode Island is poised to be very much at the point of the spear in developing offshore wind," Salazar proclaimed. Rhode Island officials have long touted Quonset Park’s potential as a hub for wind turbine assembly. If the government actually does the unusual and follows through on something it has promised to do, the effort could create hundreds of jobs for a state that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the U.S. "There is no single project that has a better hope for a significant change in unemployment," U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said of the project. The announcement definitely drew out all of the state’s major political figures for a sure-thing photo opportunity and a chance to attach their parasitic selves to a project that could boost their approval rating significantly if it succeeds. Gov. Lincoln Chafee was also on hand to blow major smoke up everyone’s ass, talking in glowing terms about what the wind energy push will do for his state. "This is very exciting for Rhode Island, for the jobs that are going to be created," Chafee said. As part of the plan, the federal government also wants to place wind energy farms on and across the state’s shared border with Massachusetts, centered in a 285-square-mile area between Block Island and Martha's Vineyard. Those who want in on the bidding have 45 days to notify the Department of the Interior. Projections for wind farm projects currently underway in the region have the projected date of actual turbines in actual bodies of water by 2016 or 2017 at the earliest. That means there is plenty of time for whiny environmentalists to chime in with their predictable complaints……….
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
BART v. rioters, epic protests in Ukraine and a legend makes his decision
- You can shut down your transit system, San Francisco Bay Area Regional Transit authorities, but you cannot shut down the sheer rage of your city’s residents toward BART security personnel. Thus, it was fairly amusing to watch BART officials successively close and reopen all downtown subway stations Monday evening in an attempt to stem the threat of spreading protests. "All BART Stations are Now Open, Trains Running On Time," said a release from Bay Area Rapid Transit. The scene across the downtown area was amusing throughout the evening, as officials rushed to curtail demonstrations and their spread by closing and reopening the Civic Center and Montgomery stations, closing the Powell station, then at least partially reopening Powell to allow riders to disembark. BART officials also called in police officers to stand at the ready in “response gear” at the Civic Center station, with one officer on a megaphone yelling at people, "This is your final warning, the station is closed." The protests were in response to several shootings involving BART police officers -- the latest coming last month and resulting in the death of 45-year-old Charles Hill. Small protests could be spotted on the streets downtown and jamming up public transportation wasn’t the only step the powers that be took in their efforts to quell the unrest. Last week, BART also shut off cell phone service ahead of a protest, a decision officials continued to defend Tuesday as a choice to "temporarily interrupt ... service at select BART stations as one of many tactics to ensure the safety of everyone on the platform." The decision drew an unlikely party into the battle - well-known hacking group Anonymous. Anonymous threatened retaliation for the disruption of service. That apparently happened Sunday, when the group took credit for the apparent hacking of myBART.org, a link off BART's website that showed a page featuring, among other items, the hacking group's logo. Ironically, last week’s protest never materialized and it wasn’t until BART cut cell phone service that the situation flared up again. "All over the world people are using mobile devices to organize protests against repressive regimes, and we rightly criticize governments that respond by shutting down cell service, calling their actions anti-democratic and a violation of the rights to free expression and assembly," Rebecca Farmer from the ACLU's northern California office wrote on the advocacy group's website. "Are we really willing to tolerate the same silencing of protest here in the United States?" You tell ‘em, Becky. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating the matter, as per its bureaucratic protocol. Don’t expect much to come from that. It might be up to Anonymous to settle this score on behalf of the wronged…………
- The acting world has suffered a significant loss today and it could be a long, long time before the thespian community recovers. For on this day, legendary actress Taylor Momsen has decided that instead of appearing in crappy, soap-operatic CW teen dramas, she is going to take her subpar singing voice and mediocre musical ability and pursue a career with her band The Pretty Reckless. "I quit acting. I quit 'Gossip Girl' and now tour and am in a band," the 18-year-old said to Elle magazine's website. "That's pretty much all I want to do. Hopefully, I'll be able to only do that for the rest of my life." Lots of luck with that, T. If your band’s music thus far is any indication, you wont be doing your thing beyond the next year or two, maximum. Not that the acting world is going to miss the vitriolic, pretty-yet-untalented actress who wasn’t exactly conjuring up memories of any acting greats with her performance as Jenny Humphrey on the CW teen soap “Gossip Girl.” In speaking about her decision to abandon acting and pursue music full-time, Momsen actually gave a brilliant insight into the experience of listening to her music - although her mind, she was describing the process of making her music. She described writing songs as “a very tortuous process, but, you know, I would say one of the most rewarding at the end." Glad it’s rewarding for someone because it is definitely not rewarding for those subjected to what The Pretty Reckless flippantly call music. The only people who will be devastated by news of Momsen’s supposed retirement from acting will be the teeny bopper fans of “Gossip Girl,” who were too caught up in the Upper East Side drama of the show to realize how so-so of an actress Momsen is. But give her credit for being consistent and never publicly wavering from her decision to focus full-time on music after taking an indefinite hiatus from the CW series in November. She resurfaced in April and insisted, "[Music] is all I ever wanted to do with my life. I wanted to make records and tour, so it's very exciting that our first record is coming out and people can actually hear it." Unfortunately, that excitement never materialized on the other end of the artist-general public relationship…………
- Waiting patiently for the price of a given piece of technology to go down often proves a wise choice and has proven to be so once again for would-be buyers of Sony’s popular PlayStation 3 gaming system who were a few dollars short of being able to afford their desired purchase. The video game maker has confirmed that it has cut the price of the PlayStation 3 video game console from $299 to $249. The big announcement actually came in Deutschland, a.k.a. Germany, at the Gamescom game event in Cologne. Perhaps Sony simply had no choice but to respond to rumors about the price cut that had been swirling since June. A 16-percent reduction in price isn't immense by any stretch of the imagination, but it does at least reflect Sony’s willingness to get on board with the industry trend of lowering console prices in light of manufacturing efficiencies and higher volumes of systems available. Sony hasn’t cut the price of the PS3 since 2009, when it introduced the PS 3 Slim with cost-reduced components. Aside from jump-starting sales, Sony is obviously hoping to put pressure on competitors like Microsoft and Nintendo to keep pace. Microsoft hasn’t been keen on lowering the price of its systems because as the industry leader, life is good. But after Nintendo reduced the price of its Wii gaming system several months ago and slashed the price of its slow-selling, handheld 3DS from $249 to $169 in the past week, Microsoft just might re-think its gaming approach with its cash cow, the Xbox. Nintendo also has a new system in the works, the Wii U, coming in the near future. To make its own price cut official, Sony also had its “celebrity spokesman” from its current round of commercials, Kevin Butler, confirm the price drop in a tweet, “There are now 50 less excuses for not owning a PS3. #PS3now249.” And the race is on………….
- One of the most epic protests anywhere in the world in this or any other year took place Tuesday in Ukraine, where the controversial trial of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko continued amidst a vociferous outcry from many activist groups. No shots were fired, no stores were looted, no police cars were overturned and no tear gas was unleashed. Instead, two brave members of FEMEN, a Ukrainian women’s activist group that supports Tymoshenko and has condemned her trial, climbed on top of a prison van Tuesday outside the court in Kyiv and did something that would see them heavily rewarded……if they were at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. That’s right, these two ladies stripped to the waist to support their cause and (if anyone was looking anywhere other than their chests) denounce Ukraine's police and politicians, saying they were the ones who belong in custody. The demonstration – much to the delight of men in downtown Kyiv – went on for several minutes before police arrested the women and took them away. Somehow, FEMEN has been conducting this sort of protest regularly in the past few years to draw attention to issues ranging from the exploitation of women to corruption and they haven’t received nearly enough credit for this work. In case anyone was too distracted by the sight of two topless Ukrainian women gyrating and shouting atop a police van at the center of the capital and forgot what the hubbub was about in the first place, here is a refresher: Tymoshenko is charged with abuse of power stemming from a 2009 deal that ended Russia's cutoff of natural gas to Ukraine. She insists her prosecution is merely a vendetta against her by the man who vanquished her in the country’s most recent presidential election, President Viktor Yanukovych. Of course, all of that is irrelevant as long as Tymoshenko’s trial is inspiring the fine ladies of FEMEN to take off their clothes in protest…….just kidding, femi-Nazis…………
- Bubba Starling has stared down a decision anyone would love to have even though it had to be incredibly difficult for him to make. Starling, likely the most celebrated high school athlete in Kansas history, was a three-sport star growing up in Edgerton, Kan., and after graduating in the spring he was faced with the no-lose choice of playing football at Nebraska or playing play baseball for the Kansas City Royals. On the one hand, sign with one of the most storied programs in college football and the program that nearly every Midwestern kid who has ever stepped onto a football field has imagined playing for at some point. On the other hand, sign for millions of dollars and play baseball for the only Major League Baseball team with the word “Kansas” in its name. In the end, Starling went for the money and signed with the Royals for a team-record rookie signing bonus of $7.5 million spread over three years. He grew up about 30 minutes southwest of Kauffman Stadium, the Royals’ home park, and the team made him the fifth player taken in the June baseball draft. "Things really didn't heat up until probably the last 5 or 6 minutes," said general manager Dayton Moore. "It came down pretty quick. I've got a lot of adrenaline going through me right now. We had had some talks earlier today and just kind of left it at that. We just kind of reached out together." Starling’s negotiations with the Royals were even tougher because he is represented by the obnoxious, arrogant, greedy and widely despised Scott Boras, the agent known above all other for having players hold out and extort every last dollar out of teams. In this case, Boras and Starling could use the threat of him going to play football for the Cornhuskers to hold the Royals hostage. The deal was finally struck just moments before the 11 p.m. CDT deadline. "I sweat them all out," Moore said. "This was particularly tough. We knew on draft day and prior to draft day that this had a chance to work really, really good or had a chance to go wrong." Now that they have him in the fold, the Royals can think back on inviting Starling to watch games at Kauffman Stadium and hit in their underground batting range and know it was all worthwhile. As he starred in basketball, baseball and football at Gardner-Edgerton High School, the team had to sweat out his future and where it would lead. The sweating is over and now the Royals can sweat something new: wondering if the guy they just invested $7.5 million in will be worth it or not…………
- The acting world has suffered a significant loss today and it could be a long, long time before the thespian community recovers. For on this day, legendary actress Taylor Momsen has decided that instead of appearing in crappy, soap-operatic CW teen dramas, she is going to take her subpar singing voice and mediocre musical ability and pursue a career with her band The Pretty Reckless. "I quit acting. I quit 'Gossip Girl' and now tour and am in a band," the 18-year-old said to Elle magazine's website. "That's pretty much all I want to do. Hopefully, I'll be able to only do that for the rest of my life." Lots of luck with that, T. If your band’s music thus far is any indication, you wont be doing your thing beyond the next year or two, maximum. Not that the acting world is going to miss the vitriolic, pretty-yet-untalented actress who wasn’t exactly conjuring up memories of any acting greats with her performance as Jenny Humphrey on the CW teen soap “Gossip Girl.” In speaking about her decision to abandon acting and pursue music full-time, Momsen actually gave a brilliant insight into the experience of listening to her music - although her mind, she was describing the process of making her music. She described writing songs as “a very tortuous process, but, you know, I would say one of the most rewarding at the end." Glad it’s rewarding for someone because it is definitely not rewarding for those subjected to what The Pretty Reckless flippantly call music. The only people who will be devastated by news of Momsen’s supposed retirement from acting will be the teeny bopper fans of “Gossip Girl,” who were too caught up in the Upper East Side drama of the show to realize how so-so of an actress Momsen is. But give her credit for being consistent and never publicly wavering from her decision to focus full-time on music after taking an indefinite hiatus from the CW series in November. She resurfaced in April and insisted, "[Music] is all I ever wanted to do with my life. I wanted to make records and tour, so it's very exciting that our first record is coming out and people can actually hear it." Unfortunately, that excitement never materialized on the other end of the artist-general public relationship…………
- Waiting patiently for the price of a given piece of technology to go down often proves a wise choice and has proven to be so once again for would-be buyers of Sony’s popular PlayStation 3 gaming system who were a few dollars short of being able to afford their desired purchase. The video game maker has confirmed that it has cut the price of the PlayStation 3 video game console from $299 to $249. The big announcement actually came in Deutschland, a.k.a. Germany, at the Gamescom game event in Cologne. Perhaps Sony simply had no choice but to respond to rumors about the price cut that had been swirling since June. A 16-percent reduction in price isn't immense by any stretch of the imagination, but it does at least reflect Sony’s willingness to get on board with the industry trend of lowering console prices in light of manufacturing efficiencies and higher volumes of systems available. Sony hasn’t cut the price of the PS3 since 2009, when it introduced the PS 3 Slim with cost-reduced components. Aside from jump-starting sales, Sony is obviously hoping to put pressure on competitors like Microsoft and Nintendo to keep pace. Microsoft hasn’t been keen on lowering the price of its systems because as the industry leader, life is good. But after Nintendo reduced the price of its Wii gaming system several months ago and slashed the price of its slow-selling, handheld 3DS from $249 to $169 in the past week, Microsoft just might re-think its gaming approach with its cash cow, the Xbox. Nintendo also has a new system in the works, the Wii U, coming in the near future. To make its own price cut official, Sony also had its “celebrity spokesman” from its current round of commercials, Kevin Butler, confirm the price drop in a tweet, “There are now 50 less excuses for not owning a PS3. #PS3now249.” And the race is on………….
- One of the most epic protests anywhere in the world in this or any other year took place Tuesday in Ukraine, where the controversial trial of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko continued amidst a vociferous outcry from many activist groups. No shots were fired, no stores were looted, no police cars were overturned and no tear gas was unleashed. Instead, two brave members of FEMEN, a Ukrainian women’s activist group that supports Tymoshenko and has condemned her trial, climbed on top of a prison van Tuesday outside the court in Kyiv and did something that would see them heavily rewarded……if they were at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. That’s right, these two ladies stripped to the waist to support their cause and (if anyone was looking anywhere other than their chests) denounce Ukraine's police and politicians, saying they were the ones who belong in custody. The demonstration – much to the delight of men in downtown Kyiv – went on for several minutes before police arrested the women and took them away. Somehow, FEMEN has been conducting this sort of protest regularly in the past few years to draw attention to issues ranging from the exploitation of women to corruption and they haven’t received nearly enough credit for this work. In case anyone was too distracted by the sight of two topless Ukrainian women gyrating and shouting atop a police van at the center of the capital and forgot what the hubbub was about in the first place, here is a refresher: Tymoshenko is charged with abuse of power stemming from a 2009 deal that ended Russia's cutoff of natural gas to Ukraine. She insists her prosecution is merely a vendetta against her by the man who vanquished her in the country’s most recent presidential election, President Viktor Yanukovych. Of course, all of that is irrelevant as long as Tymoshenko’s trial is inspiring the fine ladies of FEMEN to take off their clothes in protest…….just kidding, femi-Nazis…………
- Bubba Starling has stared down a decision anyone would love to have even though it had to be incredibly difficult for him to make. Starling, likely the most celebrated high school athlete in Kansas history, was a three-sport star growing up in Edgerton, Kan., and after graduating in the spring he was faced with the no-lose choice of playing football at Nebraska or playing play baseball for the Kansas City Royals. On the one hand, sign with one of the most storied programs in college football and the program that nearly every Midwestern kid who has ever stepped onto a football field has imagined playing for at some point. On the other hand, sign for millions of dollars and play baseball for the only Major League Baseball team with the word “Kansas” in its name. In the end, Starling went for the money and signed with the Royals for a team-record rookie signing bonus of $7.5 million spread over three years. He grew up about 30 minutes southwest of Kauffman Stadium, the Royals’ home park, and the team made him the fifth player taken in the June baseball draft. "Things really didn't heat up until probably the last 5 or 6 minutes," said general manager Dayton Moore. "It came down pretty quick. I've got a lot of adrenaline going through me right now. We had had some talks earlier today and just kind of left it at that. We just kind of reached out together." Starling’s negotiations with the Royals were even tougher because he is represented by the obnoxious, arrogant, greedy and widely despised Scott Boras, the agent known above all other for having players hold out and extort every last dollar out of teams. In this case, Boras and Starling could use the threat of him going to play football for the Cornhuskers to hold the Royals hostage. The deal was finally struck just moments before the 11 p.m. CDT deadline. "I sweat them all out," Moore said. "This was particularly tough. We knew on draft day and prior to draft day that this had a chance to work really, really good or had a chance to go wrong." Now that they have him in the fold, the Royals can think back on inviting Starling to watch games at Kauffman Stadium and hit in their underground batting range and know it was all worthwhile. As he starred in basketball, baseball and football at Gardner-Edgerton High School, the team had to sweat out his future and where it would lead. The sweating is over and now the Royals can sweat something new: wondering if the guy they just invested $7.5 million in will be worth it or not…………
Monday, August 15, 2011
Hating Rex Ryan, one-man arson-based protests and the end of "Kate Plus 8"
- Opposing players, coaches and fans tend to hate New York Jets coach Rex Ryan and his bombastic, boastful ways. Turns out, some of his own players may occasionally share that sentiment. Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, rocking a disturbingly tight, low-cut, fitted man-shirt on the cover of the current issue of GQ magazine, says in an interview inside the mag that he wanted to brawl with his own coach raged last season when Ryan told reporters he considered benching his quarterback in the third quarter of a December loss to the Miami Dolphins. "I wanted to fight him," Sanchez fumed. "I was really mad." Ironically, the episode may have been key in the Jets reaching the AFC championship game for the second straight season. Sanchez was at the time building his credibility in the locker room from incidents like standing up to his coaches during a tense confrontation in practice and playing in pain in a key win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was after his Sanchez's poor performance against the Dolphins, his second straight subpar outing, that Ryan spoke about considering a change at quarterback. Sanchez chafed at the idea and spoke about it at length in the GQ interview: "Rex is super honest. I wish he wasn't that honest at times, especially to say that." The man who would have taken over had Sanchez been benched was veteran Mark Brunell, who had received extra snaps in practice during the time period in question. When coaches told Sanchez to come out and let Brunell get more practice reps in, the third-year quarterback refused to yield to Brunell. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer stepped in to order get Sanchez out of the huddle, reiterating that Ryan wanted Brunell to take reps. Sanchez stood his ground and demanded that Ryan come and talk to him. "It was a tense moment. ... To see him fight back and press back with that, it was good to see," veteran guard Brandon Moore recalled of the incident. Sanchez never apologized for his actions and even Brunell applauded his stance. Sanchez responded by playing one of his most efficient games of the season, leading the Jets to a 22-17 victory. The team eventually reached the AFC championship game, losing in the final quarter as the Pittsburgh Steelers rallied for the win in their home stadium…………
- Protests can take many different shapes, forms and sizes, from the one-man uprising in the street to a horde of thousands with pitchforks, torches and bad intentions storming the palace gates. And of course, one man setting himself on fire is an option too. Such was the choice of a Buddhist monk in a troubled ethnically Tibetan region of western China, a man who allegedly monk set himself on fire Monday for reasons that are still not clear. The reports of his actions come from Chinese state media, so that in and of itself renders the story dubious at best. But the Xinhua News Agency claimed the incident took place Monday in Sichuan province's Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Left unsaid was whether the monk died or any details of how he carried out his supposed act of self-arson or the aftermath of his demonstration. Garze and other extremely remote and heavily Tibetan parts of Sichuan have seen repeated outbreaks of violence in recent years, often sparked by pissed-off Buddhist monks angry with government restrictions on monastic life. Governments across China have learned repeatedly that you do not, unless you want a brawl, f*ck with the monks. While Chinese media did not provide much information on this brave monk, the Free Tibet Network in London identified the monk as Tsewang Norbu and said he shouted "Long Live the Dalai Lama" before setting himself afire. That, of course, would be a direct reference to the famed and the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, for when China bans public veneration. Despite (sadly) stepping down from the political aspects of his post, the Dalai Lama remains Tibet’s spiritual leader and is still intensely popular among Tibetans. Popular enough, it would seem, to inspire at least one man to douse himself in accelerant, light a match and burn, baby, burn…………
- It took TLC long enough to realize that Kate Gosselin is a camera-loving attention whore willing to cash in on her eight children to keep herself in the spotlight, but at long last the nightmare that is TLC’s long-running plan to keep her and her brats in the center of the reality show spotlight is over. Okay, so that’s not why the cable network has decided not to renew its reality show "Kate Plus 8,” but is the reason really that important here? The network tried to blow a bit more sunshine up Gosselin’s ass before canceling her show and issued a ridiculously praise-filled statement to do so. "By the end of this season Kate Plus 8 will have hit the 150 episode mark (including Jon & Kate Plus 8); an exceptional milestone," TLC said in a statement, which held out the possibility that the show would not die entirely. "TLC hopes to check in with Kate and the family periodically with specials in the future." The rest of us hope you forget about your hopes, TLC. Anyone who has blocked Gosselin’s entire deplorable existence out of their consciousness may not remember that she has been the centerpiece of a new incarnation of a show that began with she and her D-bag ex-husband Jon teaming up to exploit their eight children via reality TV. After their marriage improbably dissolved (after living their lives in front of reality cameras……stunner), the show went from “John and Kate Plus 8” to “Kate Plus 8” and centered on Kate’s existence as a single mother of twins and sextuplets, as she negotiates single-parenting, taping a reality show and whoring she and her family out to anyone willing to put them in front of a camera. She did an interview last week with HLN and did not let on that the ax was about to fall on her sorry show. "It's going great," she lied. "We're still having fun. We have some pretty interesting things coming up. A little bit of stress and drama." When pressed as to why her show was not on TLC's fall line-up and if it was in danger of being canceled, Gosselin again stonewalled (or she’s just that clueless). "I know, everybody is saying that," Gosselin said. "But I don`t control TLC's programming and I don't understand. All I need to do is do my thing on camera and then when it leaves me, I don't know what happens." Clearly, there is a lot Kate Gosselin does not know…………
- Just what is the link ‘twixt obesity and an earlier death? Not what most of us believe, if a new study published in the Canadian Medical Journal is itself to be believed. While it is common knowledge that being obese can endanger your health and even your life, weight alone may not be enough to predict serious health problems in all individuals. Researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered that the current method used by doctors to define overweight and obesity — body mass index (BMI), which is a ratio of height and weight — falls short of predicting which people are most at risk of early death from weight-related problems such as heart disease and diabetes. Using data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Dr. Raj Padwal and his team tracked deaths during the study's follow-up period of nearly two decades and tested a new measure of the health effects related to obesity: the Edmonton obesity staging system. This new system utilizes a basic five-stage system, from 0 to 4, for classifying obese patients. Padwal’s group constructed a rubric that takes into account a person’s particular medical history, including everything from high cholesterol and sleep apnea to diabetes, heart problems and even organ damage. It also reflects lifestyle factors, like how well a person can move around and complete daily activities. Here’s how the system functions: the more health conditions a patient has, the higher his or her Edmonton score. The end goal is providing both doctor and patient with a more accurate reading of how dangerous that person's obesity is to his health. What researchers found was that participants with scores of 2 or above were 1.5 times as likely to die during the study's follow-up as those with scores of 0 or 1, while those who scored a 3 were 2.5 times as likely to die during the same time period. "We were surprised by how differently people accumulate [these] comorbid conditions," said Padwal, the study's lead author. "You can take two patients, both of whom are obese, and one might be relatively light compared to the other. Yet that individual might have severe diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and may have disabling joint disease. It never ceased to surprise us." The good doctor was quick to point out that the study’s findings don’t necessarily mean that being obese is a health state, or that some obese people may not need to lose weight to protect their health. Thank God for that, because there are far too many FAT people in the world who think their level of physical conditioning is acceptable. But according to Radwal, the Edmonton system is an indication of the deficiency of BMI in predicting health outcomes. He theorizes that because BMI combines only height and weight, it ignores other, perhaps more important factors associated with obesity that can harm your health. "The major deficiency of the BMI and waist-circumference classifications are that they don't capture the dramatic spectrum of problems that occur with obesity," he stated, "such as joint problems, heart problems, cancer associated with obesity, mental illness, physical limitations and difficulties with daily activities." So……not all obesity is created equal. Big whoop. By simply getting up off the couch, putting down the tablet or remote control, throwing away the 2-liter of Mountain Dew and Oreos and heading outdoors for some much-needed exercise, an obese person can render all of this science irrelevant by dropping a few (dozen) pounds. Now wouldn’t that be world-changing…………
- Have you been shopping all summer long for that perfect landscaping addition and not been able to find it? Or perhaps you’re one of those classic overachievers who start their Christmas shopping before Easter and you just cannot nail down the ideal gift for the person on your list who is the most difficult to shop for. In either case, that state of New Hampshire may have a perfect option for you. This item is rare, it is unique and you can be certain that no one else will buy one like it for that special person on your Christmas list. Yes, the object does present its share of challenges when it comes to transporting and wrapping it, but those can be overcome with the ample time between now and the holidays. The item is none other than the sale and removal of the historic Memorial Bridge. Yes, a veritable hard labor fantasy camp can be yours, with the added bonus of getting to take home your bridge once you remove it. The bridge, which spans the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth all the way to Kittery, Maine, is being sold in three parts: the concrete Portsmouth approach span, the lift bridge and the steel Kittery approach span. Purchasing all three is going to take tact, negotiating skills and a willingness to act quickly. The only downer in a potential sale is that the purchase price does not include plaques or signs on the bridge. Of course, a skillful negotiator can always rework a deal in his or her favor, so those signs could probably be had for the right price. Also, who wouldn’t love the chance to gather a slave labor crew of friends, drive into the scenic New Hampshire countryside and remove a bridge to take home with them? It’s certainly better than any pinecones or pictures you could procure for yourself on a lame-o New Hampshire nature hike…………
- Protests can take many different shapes, forms and sizes, from the one-man uprising in the street to a horde of thousands with pitchforks, torches and bad intentions storming the palace gates. And of course, one man setting himself on fire is an option too. Such was the choice of a Buddhist monk in a troubled ethnically Tibetan region of western China, a man who allegedly monk set himself on fire Monday for reasons that are still not clear. The reports of his actions come from Chinese state media, so that in and of itself renders the story dubious at best. But the Xinhua News Agency claimed the incident took place Monday in Sichuan province's Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Left unsaid was whether the monk died or any details of how he carried out his supposed act of self-arson or the aftermath of his demonstration. Garze and other extremely remote and heavily Tibetan parts of Sichuan have seen repeated outbreaks of violence in recent years, often sparked by pissed-off Buddhist monks angry with government restrictions on monastic life. Governments across China have learned repeatedly that you do not, unless you want a brawl, f*ck with the monks. While Chinese media did not provide much information on this brave monk, the Free Tibet Network in London identified the monk as Tsewang Norbu and said he shouted "Long Live the Dalai Lama" before setting himself afire. That, of course, would be a direct reference to the famed and the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, for when China bans public veneration. Despite (sadly) stepping down from the political aspects of his post, the Dalai Lama remains Tibet’s spiritual leader and is still intensely popular among Tibetans. Popular enough, it would seem, to inspire at least one man to douse himself in accelerant, light a match and burn, baby, burn…………
- It took TLC long enough to realize that Kate Gosselin is a camera-loving attention whore willing to cash in on her eight children to keep herself in the spotlight, but at long last the nightmare that is TLC’s long-running plan to keep her and her brats in the center of the reality show spotlight is over. Okay, so that’s not why the cable network has decided not to renew its reality show "Kate Plus 8,” but is the reason really that important here? The network tried to blow a bit more sunshine up Gosselin’s ass before canceling her show and issued a ridiculously praise-filled statement to do so. "By the end of this season Kate Plus 8 will have hit the 150 episode mark (including Jon & Kate Plus 8); an exceptional milestone," TLC said in a statement, which held out the possibility that the show would not die entirely. "TLC hopes to check in with Kate and the family periodically with specials in the future." The rest of us hope you forget about your hopes, TLC. Anyone who has blocked Gosselin’s entire deplorable existence out of their consciousness may not remember that she has been the centerpiece of a new incarnation of a show that began with she and her D-bag ex-husband Jon teaming up to exploit their eight children via reality TV. After their marriage improbably dissolved (after living their lives in front of reality cameras……stunner), the show went from “John and Kate Plus 8” to “Kate Plus 8” and centered on Kate’s existence as a single mother of twins and sextuplets, as she negotiates single-parenting, taping a reality show and whoring she and her family out to anyone willing to put them in front of a camera. She did an interview last week with HLN and did not let on that the ax was about to fall on her sorry show. "It's going great," she lied. "We're still having fun. We have some pretty interesting things coming up. A little bit of stress and drama." When pressed as to why her show was not on TLC's fall line-up and if it was in danger of being canceled, Gosselin again stonewalled (or she’s just that clueless). "I know, everybody is saying that," Gosselin said. "But I don`t control TLC's programming and I don't understand. All I need to do is do my thing on camera and then when it leaves me, I don't know what happens." Clearly, there is a lot Kate Gosselin does not know…………
- Just what is the link ‘twixt obesity and an earlier death? Not what most of us believe, if a new study published in the Canadian Medical Journal is itself to be believed. While it is common knowledge that being obese can endanger your health and even your life, weight alone may not be enough to predict serious health problems in all individuals. Researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered that the current method used by doctors to define overweight and obesity — body mass index (BMI), which is a ratio of height and weight — falls short of predicting which people are most at risk of early death from weight-related problems such as heart disease and diabetes. Using data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Dr. Raj Padwal and his team tracked deaths during the study's follow-up period of nearly two decades and tested a new measure of the health effects related to obesity: the Edmonton obesity staging system. This new system utilizes a basic five-stage system, from 0 to 4, for classifying obese patients. Padwal’s group constructed a rubric that takes into account a person’s particular medical history, including everything from high cholesterol and sleep apnea to diabetes, heart problems and even organ damage. It also reflects lifestyle factors, like how well a person can move around and complete daily activities. Here’s how the system functions: the more health conditions a patient has, the higher his or her Edmonton score. The end goal is providing both doctor and patient with a more accurate reading of how dangerous that person's obesity is to his health. What researchers found was that participants with scores of 2 or above were 1.5 times as likely to die during the study's follow-up as those with scores of 0 or 1, while those who scored a 3 were 2.5 times as likely to die during the same time period. "We were surprised by how differently people accumulate [these] comorbid conditions," said Padwal, the study's lead author. "You can take two patients, both of whom are obese, and one might be relatively light compared to the other. Yet that individual might have severe diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and may have disabling joint disease. It never ceased to surprise us." The good doctor was quick to point out that the study’s findings don’t necessarily mean that being obese is a health state, or that some obese people may not need to lose weight to protect their health. Thank God for that, because there are far too many FAT people in the world who think their level of physical conditioning is acceptable. But according to Radwal, the Edmonton system is an indication of the deficiency of BMI in predicting health outcomes. He theorizes that because BMI combines only height and weight, it ignores other, perhaps more important factors associated with obesity that can harm your health. "The major deficiency of the BMI and waist-circumference classifications are that they don't capture the dramatic spectrum of problems that occur with obesity," he stated, "such as joint problems, heart problems, cancer associated with obesity, mental illness, physical limitations and difficulties with daily activities." So……not all obesity is created equal. Big whoop. By simply getting up off the couch, putting down the tablet or remote control, throwing away the 2-liter of Mountain Dew and Oreos and heading outdoors for some much-needed exercise, an obese person can render all of this science irrelevant by dropping a few (dozen) pounds. Now wouldn’t that be world-changing…………
- Have you been shopping all summer long for that perfect landscaping addition and not been able to find it? Or perhaps you’re one of those classic overachievers who start their Christmas shopping before Easter and you just cannot nail down the ideal gift for the person on your list who is the most difficult to shop for. In either case, that state of New Hampshire may have a perfect option for you. This item is rare, it is unique and you can be certain that no one else will buy one like it for that special person on your Christmas list. Yes, the object does present its share of challenges when it comes to transporting and wrapping it, but those can be overcome with the ample time between now and the holidays. The item is none other than the sale and removal of the historic Memorial Bridge. Yes, a veritable hard labor fantasy camp can be yours, with the added bonus of getting to take home your bridge once you remove it. The bridge, which spans the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth all the way to Kittery, Maine, is being sold in three parts: the concrete Portsmouth approach span, the lift bridge and the steel Kittery approach span. Purchasing all three is going to take tact, negotiating skills and a willingness to act quickly. The only downer in a potential sale is that the purchase price does not include plaques or signs on the bridge. Of course, a skillful negotiator can always rework a deal in his or her favor, so those signs could probably be had for the right price. Also, who wouldn’t love the chance to gather a slave labor crew of friends, drive into the scenic New Hampshire countryside and remove a bridge to take home with them? It’s certainly better than any pinecones or pictures you could procure for yourself on a lame-o New Hampshire nature hike…………
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Bad news for druggiess, weekend movie news and FAT Eddy Curry's NBA comeback attempt
- Another weekend, another blow dealt to the average, friendly neighborhood coke, pot or heroin addict. This time, it is the Mexican military doing the dirty deed by discovering a so-called "narco-tunnel" in Baja California that extends under the U.S. border and would have been used to smuggle valuable, in-demand drugs into the United States for potheads, coke heads and other junkies. The tunnel, unfinished and destined to remain so now that it has been discovered and those working on it have been apprehended, is 977 feet long, more than six feet high and three feet wide. Unfortunately, all of the hard work put into making this tunnel a success will go for naught after ten people, including one woman, were arrested Friday as they carried out excavation work, Mexican military officials confirmed. Additionally, the buzz kills who shut the operation down also confiscated all of the tools from the site. Seeing the tunnel go to waste is a major bummer, especially with its functional lighting and ventilation systems. Work is believed to have been going on for more than a year and at the time it was abruptly halted, the tunnel had reached to within 328 feet from the U.S. border. Odds are it would have gone unnoticed had a d-bag resident in the border city of Tijuana not ratted out those building the tunnel. Mexican news reports have the tunnel originating in a ground floor room of a house in Tijuana. Baja California, despite its name, is located in Mexico and neighbors California, making it an ideal place to construct a secret underground tunnel through which to smuggle tens of millions of dollars in illegal drugs into another country…………
- Life for cell phone maker Research in Motion (RIM) and its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is not nearly as pleasant at the company thought it would be. Sales are not nearly as plentiful as expected (perhaps because RIM waited about three years too long to enter the tablet market) and another big blow came Friday when Sprint announced that it will not be selling a 4G version of the PlayBook on its Wi-Max network. “We apologize for any inconvenience but the BlackBerry 4G PlayBook Tablet that was announced in January for summer availability will no longer be coming to the Sprint network,” Sprint confirmed in a statement. “This was a mutual decision between Sprint and RIM.” As AT&T and Verizon do not currently support the PlayBook on their networks, the PlayBook is a wireless device without carrier support and RIM can only sell a Wi-Fi version of its product. The only carrier support the PlayBook does have is AT&T July promise to support the PlayBook’s “bridge” application, which is necessary for users to access e-mail and calendar functions. The device must now be paired with a Blackberry phone in order to access a carrier’s 3G network. That isn't likely to sit well with customers who believed RIM’s promise that 3G and 4G models were in the works. The only voice speaking out in favor of Research in Motion is…..well…..Research in Motion. “RIM has decided to prioritize and focus its 4G development resources on LTE,” a RIM spokeswoman said in an official statement. In other words, RIM wants to paint itself as the one pulling the plug on its partnership with Sprint and its 4G network based on Wi-Max technology, a competitor of AT&T’s and Verizon’s LTE-based networks. Buying that line of corporate bullsh*t would be to ignore the underwhelming reaction the PlayBook has received from the tech world. Among its noted shortcomings are difficulties displaying Flash animations, which delayed the device’s initial launch a month. The official company line from RIM was a release of the device on the three largest U.S. carriers - Verizon, AT&T and Sprint - but none of the three came to pass. Meanwhile, RIM can look into the next lane on the track in the tablet race and see Apple’s highly successful iPad kicking ass with reported sales of approximately 9.3 million units in the first quarter of 2011, during which time the Wi-Fi-only PlayBook shipped 500,000 units…………
- How can one tell there are no good movies making their debut in theaters for a given weekend? When a returning movie about talking apes is tops at the box office for a second consecutive weekend, that’s how. Two weeks into its theatrical run, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was the king of the screen with $27.5 million, a 50-percent decline from its opening frame but enough to keep it ahead of newcomer The Help. The much-hyped drama/comedy made $25.5 million domestically in its debut and with a scant $35 million budget, it seems destined for a healthy profit margin. Fellow newbie Final Destination 5 cruised to $18.4 million simply by rehashing its predictable and tired plotline of killing lots of people in gruesome ways for a solid first weekend and a third-place finish. The Smurfs held relatively steady after its second-place effort one week ago, declining 35 percent and landing in fourth place with $13.5 million and $101.5 million in domestic earnings through three weeks. Capping the top five was its third newcomer for the week, the over-publicized “comedy” 30 Minutes or Less, led by Jesse Eisenberg. Its $13 million first weekend was so-so at best, but enough to prevent the film from being labeled a total bust. The top 10’s latter half was no more inspiring and its residents were: Cowboys & Aliens (dropping three spots to No. 6 with $7.6 million and $81,476,000 through three weeks), Captain America: The First Avenger (No. 7 with $7.1 and a very respectable $156.8 after one month of release), Crazy, Stupid, Love. (No. 8 with $6.9 and a three-week total of $55.4 million), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (No. 9 after making another $6.8 and having earned a robust $356.9 million domestically through five weeks) and the crap-tacular The Change-Up (bombing out and freefalling from No. 4 to No. 10 in its second weekend with $6.2 and a pathetic $25.7 million in domestic earnings thus far). Two films fell from the top 10 this weekend, as Horrible Bosses (No. 12) and Transformers: Dark of the Moon couldn’t quite hang tough enough……….
- He ate his way out of the NBA and now, portly center Eddy Curry is attempting to fight his way back in as the league slogs through its interminable lockout. The lockout is threatening to wipe out the entire 2011-12 season, which could give Curry extra time to shed some of the many extra pounds he’s currently carrying. He was reportedly in talks with several teams last season, including the Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat, but wasn’t appealing enough to any of those teams to sign. The Heat reportedly remain at the top of his wish list and to strike their fancy, Curry is working out diligently (that’s the rumor anyhow) with noted trainer Tim Grover in Chicago to lose weight and improve his conditioning. However, his weight loss has also shed some light on just how much Curry and those around him were fibbing when they said how much he weighed last season. When the official weight statements of active players were released last fall, Curry was listed at 295 lbs. No one actually believed that figure, but that was the word on the street. When speaking about Curry last week, Grover revealed that since the center’s workout with Miami in late June, he has lost another 28 pounds and is NOW at 300. So that “estimate” of 295 was likely 50 lbs. or so off the mark, but his skills “are there, no question,” Grover said. For whatever reason, Curry - also sporting a possibly life-threatening heart condition - intrigues Miami Heat general manager Pat Riley. The Heat could offer Curry a minimum deal if and when the lockout ever ends. but he would still need to get well south of the magical 300 mark to make that happen. Working out for five months and still being fatter than most Biggest Loser contestants could be discouraging, especially for a man who is/was supposedly a world-class athlete, but the prospect of having an NBA career again and a legit look at a championship just might be the motivation Curry needs to put down the Whoppers, Funjuns, Twinkies and deep-fried everything and keep battling……….
- For those occasions when humans forget that animals in zoos are still wild animals, there are happenings like this. A tour guide driver at the Lake Tobias Wildlife Park in Halifax Township, Pa. is currently recovering after being bitten by a Bengal tiger. The woman, who asked that her name be withheld from the media in consideration for her privacy, was bitten around 5 p.m. Thursday in a non-public area of the park. Don Federaff, Chief of the Halifax Ambulance Company, confirmed that the employee inexplicably climbed over a fence to get into an area that is restricted to the public's use and stuck her hand through the fence into the tiger’s cage. She was reportedly petting one tiger when another tiger, possibly jealous that it was not receiving attention, approached clamped its mouth down over her arm. When she attempted to pull her arm out of the cage, the angry tiger bit down and refused to let go. "She kept saying it was her fault and that it was an accident," said Halifax Fire Chief Bob Stout. Pretty much, Bob-O. It was this nut’s fault, 100 percent. It was definitely not an accident, but it was all her fault. Even if she was adamant that she had pet the animals hundreds of times before, that does not change the reality that THESE ARE WILD ANIMALS AND NOT PETS. They may be cool with you sticking your hand into their cage hundreds of times but the one time they decide it’s not all right and that your hand would make a tasty Thursday afternoon snack, it’s going to hurt and you just might go through the rest of your life sans one hand. In this case, the employee was flown to Hershey Medical Center via helicopter and she underwent surgery for her injuries. She was released from the hospital Friday and is recovering at home. Lake Tobias Wildlife Park issued a statement addressing the incident: “Surgery was performed on her injured arm and, with therapy, she is expected to regain complete use of her arm. Her concern at this time is for the park and the tiger, and expresses her regret for causing undue attention to the park and concern to the public.” One final thought: Perhaps while she is at home recuperating, the unidentified employee should read up on the portion of the park’s Web site that says Bengal tigers are known as one of nature's most feared predators and can kill animals over twice their size. That sort of information could prove very helpful in the right situation……………
- Life for cell phone maker Research in Motion (RIM) and its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is not nearly as pleasant at the company thought it would be. Sales are not nearly as plentiful as expected (perhaps because RIM waited about three years too long to enter the tablet market) and another big blow came Friday when Sprint announced that it will not be selling a 4G version of the PlayBook on its Wi-Max network. “We apologize for any inconvenience but the BlackBerry 4G PlayBook Tablet that was announced in January for summer availability will no longer be coming to the Sprint network,” Sprint confirmed in a statement. “This was a mutual decision between Sprint and RIM.” As AT&T and Verizon do not currently support the PlayBook on their networks, the PlayBook is a wireless device without carrier support and RIM can only sell a Wi-Fi version of its product. The only carrier support the PlayBook does have is AT&T July promise to support the PlayBook’s “bridge” application, which is necessary for users to access e-mail and calendar functions. The device must now be paired with a Blackberry phone in order to access a carrier’s 3G network. That isn't likely to sit well with customers who believed RIM’s promise that 3G and 4G models were in the works. The only voice speaking out in favor of Research in Motion is…..well…..Research in Motion. “RIM has decided to prioritize and focus its 4G development resources on LTE,” a RIM spokeswoman said in an official statement. In other words, RIM wants to paint itself as the one pulling the plug on its partnership with Sprint and its 4G network based on Wi-Max technology, a competitor of AT&T’s and Verizon’s LTE-based networks. Buying that line of corporate bullsh*t would be to ignore the underwhelming reaction the PlayBook has received from the tech world. Among its noted shortcomings are difficulties displaying Flash animations, which delayed the device’s initial launch a month. The official company line from RIM was a release of the device on the three largest U.S. carriers - Verizon, AT&T and Sprint - but none of the three came to pass. Meanwhile, RIM can look into the next lane on the track in the tablet race and see Apple’s highly successful iPad kicking ass with reported sales of approximately 9.3 million units in the first quarter of 2011, during which time the Wi-Fi-only PlayBook shipped 500,000 units…………
- How can one tell there are no good movies making their debut in theaters for a given weekend? When a returning movie about talking apes is tops at the box office for a second consecutive weekend, that’s how. Two weeks into its theatrical run, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was the king of the screen with $27.5 million, a 50-percent decline from its opening frame but enough to keep it ahead of newcomer The Help. The much-hyped drama/comedy made $25.5 million domestically in its debut and with a scant $35 million budget, it seems destined for a healthy profit margin. Fellow newbie Final Destination 5 cruised to $18.4 million simply by rehashing its predictable and tired plotline of killing lots of people in gruesome ways for a solid first weekend and a third-place finish. The Smurfs held relatively steady after its second-place effort one week ago, declining 35 percent and landing in fourth place with $13.5 million and $101.5 million in domestic earnings through three weeks. Capping the top five was its third newcomer for the week, the over-publicized “comedy” 30 Minutes or Less, led by Jesse Eisenberg. Its $13 million first weekend was so-so at best, but enough to prevent the film from being labeled a total bust. The top 10’s latter half was no more inspiring and its residents were: Cowboys & Aliens (dropping three spots to No. 6 with $7.6 million and $81,476,000 through three weeks), Captain America: The First Avenger (No. 7 with $7.1 and a very respectable $156.8 after one month of release), Crazy, Stupid, Love. (No. 8 with $6.9 and a three-week total of $55.4 million), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (No. 9 after making another $6.8 and having earned a robust $356.9 million domestically through five weeks) and the crap-tacular The Change-Up (bombing out and freefalling from No. 4 to No. 10 in its second weekend with $6.2 and a pathetic $25.7 million in domestic earnings thus far). Two films fell from the top 10 this weekend, as Horrible Bosses (No. 12) and Transformers: Dark of the Moon couldn’t quite hang tough enough……….
- He ate his way out of the NBA and now, portly center Eddy Curry is attempting to fight his way back in as the league slogs through its interminable lockout. The lockout is threatening to wipe out the entire 2011-12 season, which could give Curry extra time to shed some of the many extra pounds he’s currently carrying. He was reportedly in talks with several teams last season, including the Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat, but wasn’t appealing enough to any of those teams to sign. The Heat reportedly remain at the top of his wish list and to strike their fancy, Curry is working out diligently (that’s the rumor anyhow) with noted trainer Tim Grover in Chicago to lose weight and improve his conditioning. However, his weight loss has also shed some light on just how much Curry and those around him were fibbing when they said how much he weighed last season. When the official weight statements of active players were released last fall, Curry was listed at 295 lbs. No one actually believed that figure, but that was the word on the street. When speaking about Curry last week, Grover revealed that since the center’s workout with Miami in late June, he has lost another 28 pounds and is NOW at 300. So that “estimate” of 295 was likely 50 lbs. or so off the mark, but his skills “are there, no question,” Grover said. For whatever reason, Curry - also sporting a possibly life-threatening heart condition - intrigues Miami Heat general manager Pat Riley. The Heat could offer Curry a minimum deal if and when the lockout ever ends. but he would still need to get well south of the magical 300 mark to make that happen. Working out for five months and still being fatter than most Biggest Loser contestants could be discouraging, especially for a man who is/was supposedly a world-class athlete, but the prospect of having an NBA career again and a legit look at a championship just might be the motivation Curry needs to put down the Whoppers, Funjuns, Twinkies and deep-fried everything and keep battling……….
- For those occasions when humans forget that animals in zoos are still wild animals, there are happenings like this. A tour guide driver at the Lake Tobias Wildlife Park in Halifax Township, Pa. is currently recovering after being bitten by a Bengal tiger. The woman, who asked that her name be withheld from the media in consideration for her privacy, was bitten around 5 p.m. Thursday in a non-public area of the park. Don Federaff, Chief of the Halifax Ambulance Company, confirmed that the employee inexplicably climbed over a fence to get into an area that is restricted to the public's use and stuck her hand through the fence into the tiger’s cage. She was reportedly petting one tiger when another tiger, possibly jealous that it was not receiving attention, approached clamped its mouth down over her arm. When she attempted to pull her arm out of the cage, the angry tiger bit down and refused to let go. "She kept saying it was her fault and that it was an accident," said Halifax Fire Chief Bob Stout. Pretty much, Bob-O. It was this nut’s fault, 100 percent. It was definitely not an accident, but it was all her fault. Even if she was adamant that she had pet the animals hundreds of times before, that does not change the reality that THESE ARE WILD ANIMALS AND NOT PETS. They may be cool with you sticking your hand into their cage hundreds of times but the one time they decide it’s not all right and that your hand would make a tasty Thursday afternoon snack, it’s going to hurt and you just might go through the rest of your life sans one hand. In this case, the employee was flown to Hershey Medical Center via helicopter and she underwent surgery for her injuries. She was released from the hospital Friday and is recovering at home. Lake Tobias Wildlife Park issued a statement addressing the incident: “Surgery was performed on her injured arm and, with therapy, she is expected to regain complete use of her arm. Her concern at this time is for the park and the tiger, and expresses her regret for causing undue attention to the park and concern to the public.” One final thought: Perhaps while she is at home recuperating, the unidentified employee should read up on the portion of the park’s Web site that says Bengal tigers are known as one of nature's most feared predators and can kill animals over twice their size. That sort of information could prove very helpful in the right situation……………
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