Guns N' Roses rumors, Riot Watch! Bangladesh and Derrick Rose detractors

- The Chicago Bulls continue to be the most surprising story of the NBA playoffs. A team whose superstar hasn’t played since tearing his ACL one year ago and may never return to the court at the rate he’s going (and the way he’s dragging his feet) and with another of its stars out the past few games due to an illness and botched spinal tap somehow keeps on beating more talented teams. After dispatching fourth-seeded Brooklyn in a first-round matchup with Derrick Rose still on the bench and Luol Deng out as he recovers from that bad spinal tap, the Bulls marched into Miami on Monday and beat the 66-win Heat in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. They did so without Rose, Deng, injured guard Kirk Hinrich and with starting center Joakim Noah limping up and down the court with a bad case of plantar fasciitis. Their 93-86 win sent shockwaves through the league and it also seems to have fired up the outspoken Noah, who delivered an impassioned message for the haters who continue to crack on Rose for not returning to action even though he was medically cleared to play two months ago. Noah went out of his way to make the statement by veering off course in responding to a question about how much pride he and his team feel being able to win without Rose while so many people count them out. and he went off on an emotional defense of his close friend. "Derrick's a brother," Noah said. "And to see him go through this is tough, but at the end of the day it's really funny how quick people are to judge. But people don't know what it's like to lead a team, especially after you tore your ACL. "Everybody who hasn't been in that situation before should really shut up because I feel like it's just so unfair to him and to this team.” Rose hasn’t done himself any favors, practicing and reportedly looking good in doing so, and warming up before game in plan view to further fuel the debate. He perpetuated the drama Monday when he said that his status for this series was "still up in the air. I might have a chance.” A chance of creating false hope for something that won’t happen……..

- Take two giant steps back, NASA. All of a sudden, the space agency is emplying scare tactics by warning that if it is to land humans on Mars by the 2030s, as President Barack Obama has directed, time is running out to finalize a plan and develop the technologies required. "Interest in sending humans to Mars I think has never been higher," NASA chief Charles Bolden said at the Humans 2 Mars Summit here at George Washington University. "We now stand on the precipice of a second opportunity to press forward to what I think is man's destiny — to step onto another planet.” What Captain Fearmonger didn’t say in his speech was that sending astronauts to the Red Planet will likely require at least three missions: one to launch the crew and the vehicle that will take them to Mars, one to launch the habitat humans will live on at the planet's surface, and one to launch the vehicle that will lift off from Mars to take the crew home. Some 400 metric tons of equipment would have to be launched from Earth's surface for the project and approximately  40 metric tons of that mass will have to be delivered to the surface of Mars at one time. To this point NASA has been able to land only 1 metric ton at a time – when the agency landed the Curiosity rover last summer. As difficult as that exercise was, it is not as tough as the return, when the astronauts will have to lift off from the surface of Mars and travel home. "To me this is one of the biggest challenges," said Mike Raftery, director of space station utilization and exploration at Boeing, the primary contractor for NASA's heavy-lift rocket being developed to go to Mars. "We have to essentially land a launch pad on the surface that's then ready to launch the crew back to Earth." Factor in the life-support systems, medicine, food, communications systems and navigation equipment Mars crews will have to bring with them and this begins to sound like both a time suck and a resource drain that is simply unnecessary given America’s debt-ridden financial state. According to Sam Scimemi, NASA's International Space Station director, the deadline for choosing an architecture for the mission, including what type of propulsion to use to get to Mars, and how many launches are required, is 2020 if the agency is to meet Obama’s deadline. Nice try, NASA scare tacticians, but no dice………

- The world is a scary place these days. Maniacs are setting off bombs at marathons, terrorists are trying to hijack planes and federal agents are raiding caches of weapons in mobile homes located in rural corners of Minnesota. In fact, the world has grown so scary that even cardboard can strike terror into the hearts of folks just looking to go about their daily routine. Look no further than Mission College in Santa Clara (Calif.) for proof of the panic-causing power of some well-placed cardboard. The small school went on lockdown Tuesday afternoon for about 45 minutes after a cardboard cutout of a gun was mistaken for the real thing. A school spokesman explained the situation and added that the situation was a big misunderstanding that took place when a sociology of criminology class project involving students dressing up as criminals took an unfortunate turn. As part of the exercise, one student wore a ski mask and carried a cardboard cutout of a gun, school spokesman Peter Anning said. Before class started, this would-be method actor was outside the classroom taking pictures and an overreactive fellow student panicked and called Santa Clara police at 2:47 p.m. to report a person with a gun. Because every threat needs to be taken seriously at least until place know that the person reporting it is a total kook, Mission College went into lockdown at 2:53 p.m. Police rushed to the scene and began searching for the student in question. Officers were able to locate and speak with the student and the lockdown was lifted about 45 minutes later, Anning said. Maybe next time the professor teaching that class should alert school officials what he or she is up to, just in case………

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Bangladesh has given the world plenty of anger-fueled uprisings in recent months, but few have been better than the display that started this week. The streets of the city’s capital, Dhaka, were filled with the lovely sounds of gunfire, explosions and tear-gas canisters as Islamist protesters demanding laws against blasphemy scraped with police. Four deaths were reported as tens of thousands of supporters of the Hefazat-e-Islam movement blocked nearly all the roads leading into the capital. Their uprising was built on a list of demands that included an anti-blasphemy statute. The day’s festivities may have remained mundane had a group of Hefazat activists not tried to break a police cordon. Once that happened, the sh*t was on and street battles raged on for hours. Police used rubber bullets and rioters responded with homemade explosives and chunks of brick. Local police reported a litany of injuries, including police officers and journalists. Syed Ashraful Islam, secretary-general of the ruling Awami League and a government minister, accused rioters of setting fire to the Communist Party of Bangladesh office and ransacking several other business establishments in Purana Paltan in central Dhaka. At the end of the day, Hefazat leaders proclaimed that they would not leave the capital until their demands were met. As part of the demonstrations, rioters called for tough laws against bloggers and writers who they believe insult the Prophet Mohammed. Hezafat wants an anti-blasphemy law to silence a group of bloggers, online activists and authors they have called "atheists" and accused of denigrating Islam and Mohammed. In February, those targeted by the campaign launched a sit-in campaign at Dhaka's Shahbagh Square, demanding a ban on Bangladesh's largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami. Let’s just say neither side is changing their position on this one……….

- If the rumors are true, Guns N' Roses are already light years ahead of where they were the last time they were preparing to release an album. The band that these days consists of a 300-lb. Axl Rose, his 600-lb. ego and a rotating cast of characters Rose plugs in to keep the band alive and that incarnation of what used to be one of the biggest rock bands in the world is reportedly on track to release a new album next year. According to GNR guitarist Richard Fortus, the band’s sixth studio album is mostly finished, but probably won't be released until 2014. Of course, by virtue of not taking a decade to make and devolving into an album that probably should have been released by “Axl Rose and Whoever He Can Convince to Work With His Pompous Ass For More Than Five Seconds,” this new album will have a huge head start on its predecessor, the long-awaited and much-maligned “Chinese Democracy.” By the time “Democracy” dropped in 2008, its recording and production costs had ballooned to a record $13 million. That qualified it as the most expensive album ever made and given how much it sucked and how many critics and fans slammed it as a worthless exercise in egotism, the return on that investment wasn’t exactly high. In other words, it wasn’t the kind of album that fans were after when a 15-year gap exists between its release and the album before it, the 1993 release '"The Spaghetti Incident?" in this case. For the new, as-of-yet-untitled new album, that buildup should be smaller and everyone can enter the process of releasing it with the realization that Rose is now a total has-been whose voice is a shell of what it used to be and that the album itself will most likely suck donkey balls……..

Hipster art gallery rock, contested dinosaur remains and cashing in on terrorism tragedy

- These are sad times for Palestine. No, this has nothing to do with its interminable conflict with Israel because that’s just a way of life, another entry on the calendar each and every day. This is a much scarier situation because it involves a menace that does not discriminate against any race, creed or culture: reality television. Yes, reality TV has infected Palestine and because Palestinians aren’t going to shack up in a tricked out penthouse with six of their 20-something peers, get drunk every night and sleep with at least half of those roommates and at least that many strangers, the world now has “The President.” It’s a reality show filmed mostly in a ballroom in the occupied West Bank’s only luxury hotel, where well-dressed young people compete for a panel of judges’ approval and for the public’s votes. There is no karaoke, no dancing, no tequila shots at the bar….just competitors vying for a faux political position that won't actually give them any real power. The winner of "The President" won’t become a real head of state, but he or she and three runners-up will be named unofficial youth envoys to three European countries and Russia. They will also receive a chance to shadow a Palestinian Authority minister.  The pool of candidates for the show may not have numbered in the tens of thousands like the hordes of losers who camp out for days on end – proving their lack of a life – to sing for 30 seconds in the hopes of being cast on “American Karaoke,” but there were 1,000 folks who wanted in on this one. The finalists will be put through their intellectual and rhetorical paces by a five-person panel of judges made up of the cream of Palestinian and Arab-Israeli society, with a winner chosen June 25. “If negotiations (with Israel) don’t work, as 'The President' it is my right to achieve a Palestinian state through resistance,” contestant Sewar Salman explained. She is one of 13 remaining contestants and hails from the West Bank city of Hebron. Adham Hosari is the show’s director and he has put himself in an odd position by admitting the prize for winning his little charade doesn’t matter. “The final material prize is not important,” Hosari said. “We want the people to know about the problems the Palestinians are facing politically and socially.” It would appear Palestine has much to learn about reality TV……..

- While Floyd Mayweather Jr. is winning fights easily and making $32 million guaranteed before he steps into the ring, the man he once ducked fighting in the one bout everyone wanted to see is not faring nearly as well. Former pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao, who never did fight Mayweather as both men used every excuse they could find not to fight one another back when such a fight would have mattered, was last seen being knocked out cold by rival Juan Manuel Marquez in December. The Filipino icon and congressman will return to the ring this fall, but unlike Mayweather he won't be boxing in Las Vegas or making $32 million for the bout. Instead, he will fight outside the United States for the first time since 2006 and the fight will take place at the CotaiArena at the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel in Macau, China on Nov. 24. China isn't exactly a haven for big fights, but Pacquiao will face brawler Brandon Rios after Rios agreed to terms Monday evening, according to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum. Pacquiao will face Rios at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds and despite its odd location, the 12-round bout will be televised on HBO PPV. Because of a large time difference between the site of the fight and the location of its target pay-per-view audience, it will take place in the morning in Macau for a usual primetime telecast in the U.S. Nothing says big-time bout like a mid-morning start because a breakfast of blood, sweet and Cocoa Puffs is always a delight. Rios isn’t exactly a fighter on the rise. The former lightweight titlist has split his last two fights with someone named Mike Alvarado. Rios knocked out Alvarado in the seventh round in October and lost a close unanimous decision to him in their March 30 rematch. Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz explained why his client chose Rios even though he is coming off a loss. "The two fights with Alvarado were both very close fights and either guy could have won either fight," Koncz said. "We looked at styles and Rios has the better style for Manny. He'll come forward and throw a lot of punches. Given the way Pacquiao looked against Marquez a few months back, even this might be a dangerous opponent for him………

- Dignity for dinosaurs is important. That’s what makes the treatment of the Tyrannosaurus bataar so disappointing. This ancient beast and former fearsome predator was uprooted and dragged across three continents before being left to collect dust in a basement in Queens. The skeleton has been at the center of some archaeological drama after Gainesville, Fla., paleontologist Eric Prokopi pleaded guilty to illegally importing fossilized remains of numerous dinosaurs that had been smuggled out of their homelands. The prized Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton was part of his collection, but he agreed to forfeit it as part of a plea deal. Since he turned it over, the skeleton has sad idly in storage. That changed Monday when prosecutors and customs officials Monday loaded up boxes containing chunks of the 70-million-year-old dinosaur to ship him home to Mongolia. "We are very pleased to have played a pivotal role in returning Mongolia's million-dollar baby," said Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. When fully assembled, the Tyrannosaurus bataar is 24 feet long, about 8 feet high and weighs in at 2 tons. Prokopi imported the skeleton and other fossils from a dealer in Great Britain and prosecutors accused him of lying about what he was importing in order to sneak the crates through customs. To perpetuate the scam, he valued the contents of the crate at just $15,000. That’s a mighty low price for a predator that ruled the food chain of the ancient floodplains that are today's Gobi Desert. However, the sale was soon nullified as prosecutors, the Mongolian government and customs officials began to unravel the mystery surrounding the shady deal. It’s now back to Mongolia for Tyrannosaurus bataar………

 

- Why so serious, families of 9/11 victims, why so serious? Yes, you lost someone you loved in the worst terrorist attack in American history, but that is no reason to be outraged over the National September 11 Memorial Museum's decision to charge admission for visitors. Overreactors such as Sally Regenhard, assistant chairwoman of the group 9/11 Parents and Families of Firefighters and WTC Victims, are going way, way beyond the necessary when they call the admission charge a "slap in the face.” "Patriotic people from all corners of the country go to teach their children something and show respect, and now they will be faced with this fee? It is outrageous," Regenhard said. "This feeds the idea of New York City being money-hungry. It is taking advantage of tourists." So? Taking advantage of toursits is what New York City and all major metropolitan areas that attract large numbers of visitors is all about. It’s why McDonald’s has set up 25 locations in every major city and found a home in major metropolises around the globe. It’s why there are 751,687 souvenir shops in Manhattan and why street vendors always keep plenty of “I (Heart) New York” t-shirts on hand. "Making people pay to grieve is going to prevent people from paying their respects and learn about the victims,” Regenhard whined. In response, 9/11 Memorial communications manager Anthony Guido made it clear that an exact price has not yet been set, but said it will range from $20 to $25. Maybe Regenhard and her ilk should stop whining because unlike the rest of us, she and other family members of 9/11 victims are exempt from all memorial-museum fees and charges. The museum is set to open in 2014 and according to Guido, museum officials took their cue from similar institutions in the country for guidance on admission charges, such as the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, which charges $12 for adults. Profiting off tragedy: the new American way……..

- This should totally quash all of those haters who like to make fun of indie rockers and their fans for being hipster tools. The National, a Brooklyn-based indie band that has attained such lofty heights that its song “Mr. November” was used in President Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008, played Sunday night at an art gallery in New York as part of a collaboration with artist Ragnar Kjartansson called A Lot Of Sorrow. Playing an art gallery in and of itself seems rather hipster-ish, but The National kicked it up a notch by performing the same song over and over and over and over and over….until they had played it a resounding 105 times. That’s right, they ran through “Sorrow” a full 105 times. The track is from their well-reviewed album “High Violent” and for anyone who had listened to the other tracks on the album 106 times but had only listened to “Sorrow” once. Fans who attended the gallery event filmed it and posted it online and the band actually had a good sense of humor about the evening, posting a picture on its Facebook page show a “set list” with the song’s title written over and over again, accompanied by the joke, "For the encore, The National played 'Sorrow'." All of this gun took place at Moma PS1 in Long Island City, so it at least ventured out of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, i.e. hipster nirvana. The gallery pompously recapped the evening in a press release that read, "By stretching a single pop song into a day-long tour de force the artist continues his explorations into the potential of repetitive performance to produce sculptural presence within sound. As in all of Kjartansson's performances, the idea behind A Lot of Sorrow is devoid of irony, yet full of humor and emotion. It is another quest to find the comic in the tragic and vice versa." The only member of The National who was unable to gut out all 105 renditions of the song was drummer Bryan Devendorf, who sat out one take of the track. The mild amount of attention generated by this bizarre effort should help drum up more publicity for The National’s forthcoming sixth studio album, “Trouble Will Find Me.” Oddly enough, the band elected to perform two tracks from the album during a recent appearance on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” and performed each of the songs just once………

Low-end computer news, NFL stoners and lady neo-Nazis in Germany

- Trying to demolish a person’s house can be a contentious exercise. People can become defensive when a crew comes to tear down the place they call home and have built their life. Yet when a demolition crew attempted to mistakenly tear down the domicile of Butler County (Ohio) resident Daniel Clemons, Clemons wasn’t the one who lost his mind. He lives in a subdivision in Butler County and his small parcel of land is at the center of a very big dispute. Clemons bought the land in 2006, but structures in the area are being torn down to make way for a new development. He was under the impression his home wasn’t one of them, which caused a problem when a demolition crew was sent to his home. The crew showed up, a confrontation ensued and in a video that has made its way to YouTube, a member of the demolition crew screams at Clemons, "I'll knock your (bleeping) head off!" The company, L and L Distribution of Springfield, Ohio, had a letter from Ross Township's administrator, Robert Bass, giving them permission to clear the land. Even after Clemons’ family showed up with the deed and tried to give it to the police officers who'd been summoned, the officers allowed the crew to being the demolition process. Clemens estimates that he lost about $40,000 in property, including piles of what appeared to be junk but were actually his livelihood as one of the glorified junk collectors who buys crap at auctions and then tries to pawn them off for more money to schmucks at flea markets. The shed where Clemons stored that junk and a motor home parked on his property are now gone. "This was wrong to do to a person," Clemons said. "What is to protect the next person out there from this happening to them?" Be quiet, NRA, be quiet. Clemons was in the right; he does still own the property and he only lost a piece of land on the other side of the fence in a foreclosure. However, the Butler County Recorder's office claimed the deed to the parcel he still owns had a typo on it when a Cincinnati attorney submitted it to them. Officials explained that one piece of property has a parcel number that ends in 0033, while the one right next to it ends in 0032. All of this is fascinating, but the real issue here is a showdown in which Clemons claims he was trying to get a motorcycle out of his yard and a blue-collar thug threatened to rearrange his face. L and L owner Duane Grigsby claimed that Clemons and his family harassed the crew and stood by the actions of his workers……. 

- That was awkward. Watching “Iron Man 3” obliterate the competition the way Robert Downey Jr. has to so many villains in the course of the superhero franchise he now anchors was a bit uncomfortable to the point of feeling bad for every other movie at the local multiplex. The third installment in the franchise banked $175.3 million in its opening weekend, nearly matching its $200 million budget with its domestic earnings alone. It is the second-highest opening-weekend total ever and was more than enough to trounce last week’s box office champ, “Pain and Gain,” which dropped to second. The Mark Wahlberg-led project brought in $7.6 million to up its two-week domestic tally to $33.9 million. “42” claimed third place with $6.2 million and after four weeks, its overall haul stands at $78.3 million. Fourth place went to “Oblivion,” which mediocre-ed its way along with a total of $5.8 million and has earned $75.9 million in three weeks. “The Croods” rated as the top family film in fifth place on the strength of a $4.2 million weekend and has made $168.7 million through seven weeks – or $6.6 million less than “Iron Man 3” made in one weekend. “The Big Wedding” continued its disappointing run by fading to sixth place and has managed a mere $14.2 million in its first two weeks of release. “Mud” landed in seventh place despite remaining in limited release, slopping its way to $2.2 million for an overall bank roll of $5.1 million. “Oz The Great and Powerful” actually rose five spots to return to the top 10, churning out $1.8 million to give it $228.6 million after nine weeks. In ninth place was “Scary Movie 5” with $1.4 million, good for a four-week haul of $29.6 million. “The Place Beyond the Pines” completed the top 10 by making $1.3 million and has brought in $18.7 million and counting so far. “G.I. Joe: RetaliatioN” (No. 11), “Olympus Has Fallen” (No. 12) and “Jurassic Park 3D” (No. 13) all dropped out from last weekend’s top 10……

- So…..this week should be fun in the German city of Munich. Fun, of course, is a relative term, but anyone who enjoys the trial of a woman dubbed the "Nazi Bride” should enjoy what’s ahead. Beate Zschaepe is allegedly the sole surviving member of the National Socialist Underground, a neo-Nazi terror cell accused of a seven-year racist killing spree, and has in many ways become the face of right-wing militancy in Germany. Her trial began Monday on charges of complicity in the murder of eight ethnic Turks, a Greek and a policewoman, two bombings and 15 bank robberies. Zschaepe is accused of being not only the ride-along girlfriend of the far-right group’s leader, but the person who gave the terror cell "the appearance of legality and normalcy towards the outside,” according to German federal prosecutor Wolfgang Range. "I am convinced that she wasn't just an accessory or merely a companion, but was in fact acting on the same level as the others,” Range said. The prosecutor described Zschaepe as a "unified killing commando" responsible for a series of execution-style murders. Her case is projected to be the most in-depth examination to date of the growing role that women are playing in the neo-Nazi scene. Statistics show that nearly 20 percent of executives in Germany's extremist NPD party are women, a much higher number than in many smaller mainstream parties. As many as 40 far-right women's organizations alone have reportedly been established since 2000, giving German women a chance to show that like their male counterparts, they too are über- violent and fully politically motivated in their actions. German government's domestic intelligence agency estimates that there are more than 22,000 active members in the country's right-wing scene, including 9,800 violent extremists, but has not pegged the number of women in those groups. Zschaepe has kept quiet since her arrest, but with a trial expected to last a year or more, she will have plenty of chances to speak. She turned herself in to police in November 2011, shortly after two accomplices committed suicide. Germany’s intelligence community has been vilified for failing to detect the group and focusing too much on left-wing extremism and Islamists instead. Extremists, it seems, are on both ends of the political continuum……

- It’s Gus Bradley’s first year as an NFL head coach, so maybe he can be excused on this one on account of his naïveté. The first-year Jacksonville Jaguars coach inherits a team that tied for the worst record in the league last season at 2-14 and needs both its new players and its returning ones to play well above their talent level in order to turn things around in 2013. One of those players is troubled wide receiver Justin Blackmon, who was suspended last week by the NFL for the first four games of the coming season for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy. The league dropped a four-game ban on Blackmon after his second violation in less than a year, which would seem to point to him having status as a full-fledged addict or junkie because he’s one season into his NFL career and he’s already n the verge of wrecking it (and his franchise along with it) because he can’t put down the bong and sober up. However, both Bradley and Jacksonville general manager Dave Caldwell say they stand behind Blackmon and believe he will turn his life and career around. "I told Justin I do trust him," Bradley said. We both have to earn each other's trust, and I don't want trust to be mistaken for being naive." Sadly, that’s an incredibly naïve statement to make and Bradley might just been looking through rose-tinted glasses and hoping for the best from a talented-yet-troubled athlete who led his team in catches as a rookie last season. Bradley admitted he has had "six or seven" conversations with Blackmon since the league alerted the team and player of the ban and insisted that Blackmon “understands we're disappointed in what took place.” Blackmon hasn’t exactly owned his actions, apologizing only in a written statement after his suspension was handed down. He’s going to have a tough time matching his totals of 64 receptions for 865 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie while playing in a maximum of 12 games this season………..

- In the world of cheap, low-end computers, Acer is a busy bee. The bargain basement tech company is always hard at work with all manner of chintzy machinery and is at it once again. Acer is adding a new line of Windows 8 based Aspire R7 laptops to its hardware lineup, on the heels of a week where it introduced a new Aconia A1 line of ultra low-cost Android tablets and “accidentally” announced the first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet. Acer’s new addition, the Aspire R7, is interesting in a sense because while it’s a lightweight in the tech world overall, it is also a new kind of laptop-tablet hybrid, relying on Ezel technology to transfer the screen back and forth for either keyboard or touchscreen input. It also endeavors to present a different take on the Windows 8 hybrid theory, in contrast to Microsoft’s own Surface Pro, which is more of a tablet than a PC. Before introducing the Aspire R7, Acer showed why it’s on the lowest rung of the tech ladder by f-ing up and letting slip another Windows 8-based product. Amazon was also involved, accidentally posting an early listing for Acer’s new Windows 8 based tablet, the first 8-inch tablet from any vendor to run the Windows 8 operating system. Microsoft probably wanted to be the first to make such an announcement, but Amazon incompetence allowed Acer to beat it to the punch. Acer is also battling in the Android tablet arena and has introduced the Aconia A1 in a bid to scrape new depths in terms of price and quality. The result is a $169 tablet that costs little and does less. The company’s idea of expensive seems to be the Aspire R7 touchscreen laptop, which is projected to cost around $1,000…….

Moving on from "Gossip Girl," ancient Earth stank and nuclear power plant pranks.......

- This needs to stop right about now. Take “this” to mean the trend of weekend hackers with too much time on their hands and a strange obsession with knowing all of the obscure and byzantine rules of the game of golf picking up their iPhone and frantically calling in to report alleged rules violations in PGA Tour events they are watching on television. The trend has grown quickly in recent years and had its most visible example during last month’s Masters, when two viewers called in to accuse Tiger Woods of taking an illegal drop during his second round. Woods was ultimately assessed a two-stroke penalty, but avoided disqualification after signing his scorecard for the wrong score due to what the rules committee deemed to be its error. Now, the world’s 14th-ranked golfer has suffered the wrath of the 25-handicap masses. Sergio Garcia nearly faced a two-stroke penalty of his own and discussed a possible rules violation with PGA Tour officials at Quail Hollow Golf Club after a television viewer called in because it appeared he had marked his ball improperly on the 17th green of Friday’s second round. Garcia was eventually cleared of the infraction, but actually told rules officials he would rather take the penalty if there was any hint of wrongdoing. "I said to them, 'The way I've been brought up in this game by my father is the game is bigger than anybody else,' " Garcia said. “If this is going to make anyone think I'm a cheater, I'd rather get a two-stroke penalty and move on than not to get a two-stroke penalty and think I'm cheating.” No penalty was assessed and Garcia shot a 68 for the round, ending it tied for 13th, five strokes behind leader Phil Mickelson. Mark Russell, the tour's vice president of competition, reviewed the incident with Garcia and even called the United States Golf Association to get clarification. Coincidentally, Russell was one of the officials at the Masters three weeks ago when Woods went under the microscope of dopes watching from thousands of miles away and trying to show how cool and powerful they were by narcing him out for violation.........

- Less tersely-worded statements, more angry action, labor unionists, aboriginal activists and environmentalists of Ecuador. Calling for the Ecuadorean government to suspend its auction of oil concessions in the country's Amazon rainforest in a press release is not going to do much. An activist group called Amazon Watch is the group behind this attempted war of words versus profits and the group has delivered a declaration of opposition from five of Ecuador's indigenous nationalities whose rainforest communities would be affected by the concessions. So far, the protest has delivered little beyond a statement issued as Ecuadorean government officials met with Canadian investors and oil-company executives Wednesday at the Telus Convention Center in Calgary. Ecuador’s government called the 11th oil-licensing round last November and invited interested companies to bid up through the current month of May. This block of licensing calls for 13 blocks in Pastaza and Morona Santiago provinces, located in the southeastern Amazon region. There will also be three additional blocks in the area developed by state-run oil company Petroamazonas. “We have here a declaration of opposition coming from the indigenous communities whose lives and livelihoods will be devastated by these blocks...it is extremely important for the children and grandchildren of these people that this project does not go forward," said Michelle Thrush, an award-winning actress and aboriginal activist who protested the meeting. The argument being pushed by the indigenous groups is that the Ecuadorean government hasn't obtained free, prior and informed consent to strike the new agreement. That type of consent is an internationally recognized human rights benchmark intended to protect the rights of indigenous communities whose lands are affected by extractive mega-projects such as oil drilling. If a commercial discovery of oil is made, the contracts for this licensing round will be for a four-year exploration period and a 20-year development period. Sounds like it’s time to add a few Molotov cocktails and torched police cars to this protest effort……..

- Who doesn’t love a good nuclear power plant prank? Sadly, officials at the Perry (Ohio) Nuclear Power Plant don’t and it’s their loss. There aren't may good pranks a person can pull when nuclear power is involved, what with the whole potential for blowing up an entire city and killing thousands of people thing to consider. For that very reason, whoever was responsible for leaving a pitcher containing radioactive water and two goldfish inside the plant deserves some credit – even if it’s unclear what the actual purpose of the prank was. According to FirstEnergy spokesperson Todd Schneider, the prank was carried out in a restricted area that holds large pipes carrying steam from the reactor, giving the effort an added degree of difficulty. Two plant workers discovered the fish while they were taking down scaffolding and they immediately reported their find to security. The water inside the pitcher was determined to be a) radioactive and b) taken from the plant. However, it was not harmful to the fish. The fish did later die, but plant officials insisted it was not because of the radioactive water but rather due to the poor treatment they had received during the course of the prank. To find out who done it, plant security is reviewing surveillance footage and scouring schedules and employee lists to determine who had access to the area and would have been working during the time when they fish are believed to have been left. The search could take a while because nearly 1,000 outside contractors also had access to the plant because of a refueling outage that was taking place. Here’s hoping that the culprit is never found because that would lend an air of mystery to the entire ordeal, one that simply wouldn’t exist if some pasty, scrawny assistant for an air conditioning repairman was at the heart of this unusual stunt……..

- Earth stinks. More specifically, it stunk. A lot. Many, many years ago, that is. According to Martin Brasier, a paleobiologist at Oxford University in London, the planet was a smelly place back in the day. He and his team used advanced imaging techniques to examine fossils (allegedly) 1.9 billion years old that were collected from rocks around Lake Superior, Canada. They discovered that spherical and rod-shaped bacteria chowing down on the cylindrical outer shells of another, larger bacterium known as Gunflintia, led to the use of oxygen atoms taken from salts, or "sulfates," in seawater, which would have resulted in those sulfates being released into the atmosphere. One of the byproducts of this process is hydrogen sulfide, which produces a stench commonly known as "the rotten egg smell.” "The whole world didn't smell of rotten eggs," Brasier said. "But if you had a sensitive nose, it would have been very widespread indeed." The images from this study are the first evidence of this type of feeding, called heterotrophy. "For the first time in the early fossil record, we see one kind of creature eating another creature," Brasier added. Gunflintia is important because it is believed to have been a type of cyanobacteria or blue-green algae, a class of photosynthetic microbes that played a crucial role in the production of oxygen for Earth's atmosphere, paving the way for future life forms. "This is the group that was producing the oxygen we now breathe," Brasier added. Gunflint bacteria were first discovered in 1953 and yet, scientists are still discovering new aspects of their existence….

- Shaking the stink of "Gossip Girl" six seasons have moved on and all are facing a long road to shake the characters they played on the show. Actor Penn Badgley, whose character Dan Humphrey was actually the titular female blogger for “Gossip Girl,” is one of those trying to prove he can be more than the brooding, dramatic character he played alongside Blake Lively and Taylor Momsen on the small screen. Badgley will look to prove he has more to offer by taking on the task of starring in a movie about cult favorite indie rocker Jeff Buckley. Badgley will star in  "Greetings From Tim Buckley," in which he plays the troubled musician, who drowned in Tennessee's Wolf River at the age of 30. The entire film takes place over about a week-long period as Buckley’s young son prepares to perform at a tribute concert for his father. Playing the character will be a strong challenge for Badgley, who will have to show some singing ability to pull it off successfully. "Jeff was a certain kind of influence on me when I was a teenager," Badgley said. "I grew up being really passionate about music to the point that I would call it my first passion over acting, so you know, it was somebody who I respected and admired." In explaining why he was drawn to the project beyond his admiration of Buckley, Badgley explained that he felt the script stayed true to the life of the man it was purportedly profiling. "It was a story being told in an incredibly delicate and artful way, respectful way, not exploiting his tragic end or anything of that kind of typical mythic rock-star stuff," he said. Buckley, best known for the still-popular and oft-covered track “Hallelujah,” had a unique vocal style and seeing Badgley attempt to replicate it should be interesting. "Greetings From Tim Buckley" is currently playing in New York and Los Angeles and is also available through online media marketplaces………

$10 Manhattan apartments, Icelandic rock on the rise and a foot-based video game system

- Canada has done gotten itself some fancy new currency. The new Canuck cash is a printed-polymer $5 bill and because no self-respecting frozen tundra of a nation can just announce new money at a lame-o press conference, Canada elected to give the redesigned $5 bill a miles-high sendoff. Canadian hero and International Space Station commander Chris Hadfield unveiled the new paper money earlier this week and as the country’s best-known spaceman, he was a logical choice. Hadfield is an accomplished photographer, a musician and composer and has demystified such outer-space phenomena as vomiting in zero-G. The Bank of Canada tabbed him to introduce one of the last currency notes to be converted to counterfeit-resistant polymer and judging by the number of people who had no idea what had happened, the decision wasn’t exactly a home run. One side of the new bill recognizes Canada's contributions to space exploration, including the space station's Canadarm2 and DEXTRE robot, so rolling it out live from outer space made sense. The other side of the bill features a rather boring portrait of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who was Canada's prime minister from 1896 to 1911."I just want to tell you how proud I am to be able to see Canada's achievements in space highlighted on our money," said via a space-to-Earth video link. As he addressed his fellow man from thousands of miles above, he plucked a bill from the wall of the station's Destiny laboratory and let it spin in zero gravity in front of the camera. Bank of Canada spokeswoman Julie Girard described the launch ceremony as "quite a few months in the making." In what can only be described as an incredibly efficient use of time and resources, the polymer note was flown up to the space station with Hadfield back in December. It was held in reserve until this week because you never know when some sticky-fingered Russian cosmonaut might thieve it. "We wanted to be the first to unveil a bank note in space," Girard added. Both the new $5 bill and Canada's new $10 note, which was unveiled at the same time in Ottawa, complete Canada's conversion to polymer-based currency. They are equipped with transparent areas and hologram markings to make them more difficult to counterfeit and as an added bonus, the Bank of Canada says these notes should last two to three times longer than the country's cotton-based paper bank notes……..

- The San Diego Chargers were not good last season. They finished 7-9, missed the playoffs and endured arguably the worst season of quarterback Phillip Rivers’ career. Their meltdown led to the firing of their coach and general manager and also appears to have inspired the team’s new management to reach out to one of the greatest players in franchise history in an attempt to convince him to come out of retirement and play again. LaDainian Tomlinson pulled the lamest ploy in all of professional sports, playing his final game with another team – the New York Jets – then trying to pretend he was retiring as a member of the Chargers by signing a one-day contract with them and then leaving football. He didn’t play last season, but he claims that new Chargers general manager Tom Telesco and first-year coach Mike McCoy tried to convince him to make a comeback in 2013 when the three of them spoke at the NFL scouting combine in February. “At first I thought they weren't really serious, but they kept talking about it, and I realized it was real. They said, 'You can come back and carry it 10 or 12 times a game. We'd like to have you here,'" Tomlinson said. In Telesco and McCoy’s defense, Tomlinson is the Chargers' all-time leading rusher (12,490 yards) and their team was 27th in the NFL in rushing last season, so they need to consider all options if they’re not satisfied with an injury-prone backfield depth chart that includes Ryan Mathews, Ronnie Brown and Danny Woodhead, who signed with the team as a free agent this offseason. However, Tomlinson has made it clear he’s not coming back and has no interest of returning to the NFL grind. “When I made the decision to walk away, I wrestled with it long and hard, and I knew it was final. Once I retired, that was it. My mind is in a different place. Mentally, going back would have been too hard," he concluded…….

- Kickstarter strikes again. It has been used to fund feature films and new businesses and it has made significant inroads in the technology world, where would-be investors are plentiful and their need for startup cash inescapable. The makers of the Stinky Gaming Footboard are the latest to use the online funding website as a means to their desired end. The Stinky Gaming Footboard is a USB controller that features four buttons with screens that allow the player to adjust resistance and more and while the concept and name are slightly odd, the product is an interesting departure from a gaming world where virtually everything is centered around the hands. Systems such as Xbox Kinect have gotten other parts of the body involved in the gaming experience, but there seems to be concrete support for the Stinky Gaming Footboard based on the Kickstarter response to the initial funding request. The project began with a $75,000 goal and managed to bring in $79,562 before the donation period ended Thursday. With the funding goal met, the Stinky Gaming Footboard can now go into production and move toward its slated release in June. Those who donated to the campaign and pledged at least $89 will receive one of the first Stinky Gaming Footboards to roll off the production line, although Kickstarter projects are known for production delays and later-than-projected releases………

- Icelandic indie rock is finally breaking through. Sigur Ros, the (probably) one and only Icelandic band anyone who isn’t a hardcore indie/hipster dork knows – apologies to Of Monsters and Men and their fans – knows, is about to get cartoonish with it. The band will make a guest appearance in an upcoming issue of long-running adult cartoon “The Simpsons,” which is wrapping up its 24th season. Sigur Ros will appear in the season finale in which the show will take a fictional trip to Iceland. As part of their visit to cartoon land, the band has also composed original music for the episode. Their appearance puts them on a long and distinguished list of recording artists who have made a guest appearance in the series, including U2, Tom Waits, Daft Punk, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, The White Stripes, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lady Gaga and The Decemberists. Their appearance will get some extra air time as well, with the episode airing in two parts. Titled “The Saga of Carlson,” it will air on May 19. Oh, and in what can only be described as an incredible and wholly improbably coincidence, Sigur Ros just so happens to be releasing their new album, Kveikur,” on June 17. It’s not as if an appearance on a hugely popular network show just one month before the release of a band’s new album and the resulting exposure to millions of potential new fans who have never heard of said band before could have any impact whatsoever on the sales figures for that new album. Sigur Ros will also tour the United Kingdom and Ireland this fall to further support their new release…….

- What does a person have to do to find affordable housing in Manhattan? The answer is relatively simple: be displaced by a construction project and have an annual household income between $37,284 and $55,000. The folks who fall under that heading have a unique opportunity to snatch up a prime piece of New York City real estate, right in the heart of the East Village. A tony new building called Jupiter 21 is being built at the corner of 2nd Avenue and First Street, where the legendary Mars Bar used to be. It’s the sort of address that should cost millions of dollars, but the developer behind the project has dangled the nine apartments for a mere $10 to those who fit very strict guidelines. Nine folks who were displaced by construction will be able to buy an apartment in the building for $10 and tax free as part of way to balance luxury rentals and commercial space with much needed affordable housing, explained Joseph Ferrara, principal owner of developer BFC Partners. Not surprisingly, the $10 apartments have all been spoken for even though those taking them must pay maintenance fees between $500 to $1,000 per month, depending on the size of the apartment. In New York City, where people pay twice that much for domiciles half that size and in much shadier locations, chipping off $750 for maintenance fees in a good location is a reasonable price to pay. The cheap apartments are gone, but Jupiter 21 does still have four other apartments available at a mere $150,000, much less than market value, so act now……..

Mosquito-sized flying robots, Venezuelan political fights and NBA playoff toughness

- On NBC’s hit freshman drama “Revolution,” the plot revolves around tiny robots known as nanites that float in the air and can multiply or block the movement of electricity, The wicked-smaht folks at Harvard has come up with some mini-robots of their own and on Thursday, they revealed a penny-sized robot that can hover like a housefly, beating its wings 120 times per second. "As far as we can tell, this is the world's smallest flying robot," said Kevin Ma, a graduate student at Harvard's Wyss Institute and a member of the robot team. Another member of the team, lead researcher Rob Wood, also sounds fired up about this tiny new robot. "It's hard to argue that anything is more agile than a housefly — I think anyone who's tried to swat [one] would agree," Wood added. "This is the first controlled flight of an insect-scaled robot." The flying penny robot has two mechanical muscles that control the flapping and twisting motion of its wings. Prototypes of the robot would crash soon after they took off, but the newest version is equipped with motion capture sensors and guiding algorithms that correct its movements during takeoff. A robot capable of flying on its own is still a ways off and at present, this mini-bot is mostly suited to help physicists and biologists study the dynamics of motion in a controlled environment. Sadly, Woods estimates science is still about 30 years away from being able to pack in the power and sensors required for a fully environment-aware robo-bug. The possibilities are endless if such a robot is ever developed: serving as surrogate bees in pollination efforts, spying on enemy combatants, spying on one’s own citizens…..good times. Heck, the Senate Judiciary Committee was enraptured by the idea of mosquito-sized future drones during a March hearing. "Presumably at some point you could have one the size of a mosquito that has a battery that operates for weeks and you could have the mosquito following you around and not be aware of it,” Al Franken, D-Minn, said. "God help us if an adolescent boy gets hold of one of these.” Well said, senator, well said……

- Steven Spielberg has found his project and he’s going military for it. The legendary filmmaker will next climb into the director’s chair to helm “American Sniper,” an adaptation of the autobiography of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Spielberg also will produce with Andrew Lazar under the umbrella of his Mad Chance Productions along with Peter Morgan and his leading man will be Bradley Cooper, who appears to be on a mission to take on roles that don’t revolve solely around him being hunky, taking his shirt off and making female audience members swoon at movie theaters worldwide. Cooper is set to star and has been developing the project as a producer, with Jason Hall (“Spread”) writing the script. The project will now be a Warner Bros./DreamWorks co-production and the studios are targeting a release date in the first three months of 2014. The book, titled “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History,” tells the story of how Kyle, a Texas native, racked up the highest number of sniper kills for an American. It success in print has been largely attributed to its no-holds-barred first-person account of a warrior who shoots from far and close distances. Kyle was tragically was killed at a shooting range by a fellow vet in February and because the macabre always sells, the book picked up steam and spent 18 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and 13 weeks at No. 1. Spielberg had been on a prolonged search for a new project since finishing up his award-winning biopic “Lincoln” and will clearly be taking a step down in leading men with his new project, as Cooper has never been confused with Daniel Day Lewis……..

- Beware the tiki torch. That life lesson will stick with Jason Chappell of Canonsburg, Pa. for the rest of his life and the scars on his legs will help drive that point home every time he looks down. Chappell is currently hospitalized after he caught fire on Saturday when a tiki torch exploded on him. Like many people in the Northeastern United States who were thrilled to see nicer weather come and got outside to enjoy it, Chappell was hanging out in his back yard when he attempted to blow out an 8-inch tiki torch. Such torches rarely do anything other than provide minimal light while looking like a pathetic attempt to bring Hawaii to your back yard in Harrisburg, but in this case the tiki torch packed quite a punch. According to Chappell’s neighbor, Zachary Puklus, the flames from the torch leapt onto Chappell’s person and reaches as high as 3 feet before Puklus grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the flames as Chappell rolled on the street. Puklus seems like the type of neighbor a person would love to have because not everyone is going to react quickly and have a fire extinguisher handy when a person sets themself on fire because they don’t know how to properly put out a simple back yard decoration. “I've always been taught to use a fire extinguisher, so that's what I did. His foot was pretty badly burned so I'm glad he's OK,” Puklus said. The fire department was called to the scene and authorities said they found the tiki torch about 12 feet from where it exploded. Maybe this torch should have been sold not at Home Depot or Lowe’s, but at that crazy roadside fireworks stand operated by the guy missing three fingers and both eyebrows.……

- Hugo Chavez is one, but the chaos remains in Venezuelan politics. The flamboyant dictator no longer walks among the living, but his spirit of fighting lives on in the Venezuelan parliament, where yelled insults gave way to two-handed shoves, punches and even a few kicks this week as legislators continued to battle in the aftermath of the country’s recent contentious elections. Seven opposition legislators were reportedly injured as the result of the brawl and from the sounds of it, they’re not about to back down. "They can beat us, jail us, kill us, but we will not sell out our principles," proclaimed a visibly enraged Julio Borges, an opposition parliamentarian who spoke while with blood dripped down his face. "These blows give us more strength." Opposition members claim they and their peers were physically attacked while protesting against being blocked from speaking in the National Assembly. In return, the socialist government accused the “fascist” opposition legislators of having started the brawl. President Nicolas Maduro, who allegedly won the election to replace his mentor, defeated opposition candidate Henrique Capriles by 1.5 percentage points. Capriles has refused to recognize the victory and continued to allege vote rigging in the days since the election. The dust-up in the legislature’s chamber came after the government-controlled assembly passed a measure denying opposition members the right to speak in the chamber until they recognized Maduro as president. "Until they recognize the authorities, the institutions of the Republic, the sovereign will of our people, the opposition deputies will have to go and speak (to the private media) but not here in this National Assembly," explained Diosdado Cabello, the head of parliament. Those were fightin’ words for the opposition and in the end, it doesn’t matter who threw the first punch. An awesome brawl between old dudes in suits was the end result and if only the United States Senate and House of Representatives legislated this way, the ratings for C-SPAN would be a hell of a lot higher……..

- Playoff basketball is not a place of love and sympathy. Hard fouls are delivered without remorse, injuries happen without discrimination and tensions are at a constant apex. That’s doubly true when the two teams on opposing sides of a series have a healthy dislike for one another. The Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers have a certain level of animosity between them and no two players exemplify that dislike better than Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph and Clippers forward Blake Griffin. The two All-Star big men have done battle many times, including in a first-round series won by the Clippers last season, and both admit they don’t care for the other. Even a high right ankle sprain Griffin suffered in practice Monday and which still has him hobbled isn’t going to earn him any warm feelings of empathy from Randolph. When it was suggested that Griffin’s injury might have an effect on Friday’s Game 6 and that Griffin should receive less scrutiny because he’s hurt, Randolph was having none of it. "Banged up?" Randolph said. "I'm banged up. You forgot about my ankle? Banged up. My ankle is as big as a balloon. Talk to the trainers. I'm getting treatment every day. It's the playoffs.” Randolph was referring to the ankle he rolled during Game 2 of the series in Los Angeles when he got tangled with Griffin beneath the Clippers' basket. Griffin clearly was not his usual self in Game 5, scoring only four points in 25 minutes during the Clippers' 112-91 loss and exiting the game at the 5:39 mark of the third quarter. "Last year when I played in the playoffs, I wasn't 100 percent, but I was out there, so I had to be 100 percent," Randolph added. "It's the playoffs. It's a big-boy game." Yes, he dropped a “big boy” blast on Griffin and with the Clippers needing a win in Memphis on Friday to stay alive, L.A. doesn’t really need the reminder…….

Debating Derrick Rose, the cost of an astronaut and Riot Watch! Turkey

- Shows about the most powerful men (and women) in America are gaining popularity these days. ABC has built a solid following for its president-centric drama “Scandal” and HBO has found itself a schedule staple with the Julia Louis-Dreyfuss-fronted comedy “Veep.” The show is currently winding through its second season, but the cable network has already seen enough to keep it around for at least one more season. HBO officially renewed the show on Wednesday, ordering 10 new episodes to air next year. The second season kicked off on April 14 and while the ratings for the season premiere were lower than Season 1, they have been on the uptick in the past three weeks and hit a season-high number this past weekend. After seeing those numbers for the third episode of the year, HBO executives decided they had enough evidence to make their decision. Renewing the show isn’t a surprise, as it debuted with strong numbers last spring and did well enough to earn Louis-Dreyfuss an Emmy for her role as Vice President Selina Meyer. Shows that have extremely successful first season tend to face bloated expectations when their second campaign rolls around, but the fact that “Veep” has been doing better as the current season has progressed bodes well for its future. Louis-Dreyfuss is the only über-recognizable name among the cast, with Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky, Reid Scott, Matt Walsh and Timothy C. Simons joining the former “Seinfeld” star  to give HBO a rare comedy to slot alongside its other lineup entries that skew heavily on the dramatic side. The show remains in the 10 p.m. time slot on Sunday nights, which isn’t the best spot for a show but hasn’t proven detrimental to its fortunes so far………

- Waiting in line to get into the club can be such a drag….even more so when that club is the United States and you’re looking to get across the border in Nacogdoches, Tex. and waiting in a long line while standing in 100-degree heat. Standing in the sweltering heat while border agents check ID’s is a giant pain in the ass and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection service isn’t exactly known for passing out ice-cold glasses of lemonade for those waiting to enter the country. An average of 10,000 people cross the border daily and most wait at least half an hour at the checkpoint. That time can grow to an hour and half on weekends and holidays and for those who make the trip regularly, the experience becomes a dreaded one. That’s why a new piece of technology being used by USCBP agents at the Nacogdoches checkpoint is such a welcome sight for those on both sides of the security process. In this new-fangled system, Travelers place their identification -- passport or other ID -- in a slot in a kiosk. A scanner in the kiosk then reads the person’s data, which is stored in a radio frequency identification chip embedded in the card. Rather than wait for an agent to check their ID, individuals can simply swipe and go – assuming their chosen form of ID doesn’t set off any red flags. Because the kiosk is new and most people are clueless idiots when it comes to technology, agents are assisting people in using the system for now. The checking process is relatively simple with the kiosk, as the data from each scan is sent to a customs officer a few feet ahead, who quickly checks for any red flags, before the traveler gets to the turnstile. The kiosks are also being implemented at ports of entry in other states and USCBP officials say the system has already cut down significantly on wait times for travelers……..

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Everyone’s favorite overview of social dissidence the whole world ‘round is back and rocking in Istanbul, where May Day protests turned into full-fledged riots on Wednesday. Turkish riot police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who were guilty of….wait for it….defying a ban on demonstrations. Thousands of riot police were stationed around the city for May Day, shutting down roads around Istiklal Street – a major pedestrian street that leads to Taksim Square, Istanbul's city center. Trade unions had petitioned the government to march on Taksim, but officials denied the requests on the grounds that construction work there would make any gathering of protesters too dangerous. Any good dissident worth his or her salt isn't going to honor such an ass-hatted decision by their government and fortunately, thousands of Turks lived by that belief. They took to the streets, raised hell and refused to accept the fact that , riot police had blocked the entrances to Istiklal and the roads around it. These bold souls clashed with The Man and by the time the smoke – both literal and metaphorical – cleared, at least 28 people were injured and 72 arrests were made. Even on a non-riot day, hundreds of thousands of people traverse Istiklal Street – the most popular pedestrian street in the city, lined with 19th century buildings and all sort of shops and eateries. The scene was much different on Wednesday, as public transportation was disrupted across the city and tourists had to cope with fewer taxis and increased congestion. Police insisted they were merely doing their job and seeking to keep the common man safe from the big, bad protestors. “What we did today was to protect ordinary people,” police officer Selcuk Oney, who was on the street near Taksim, explained. May Day has long been a contentious one in Istanbul, which is why protests on May 1 had been banned for decades, until they were reinstated in 2010. Wednesday’s scene was a bit calmer than the one in Taksim Square in 1977, when unknown assailants fired shots in the air, sparking panic and leading to 37 deaths. The government declared the day an official holiday in 2010 and agreed to allow protests in the square under tight security……..

- As the Chicago Bulls creep closer to the second round of the NBA playoffs, the window for injured star guard Derrick Rose to return has to be opening wider, right? Not really. Although his brother/agent, Reggie Rose, has suggested that his little brother is closer to the peace of mind he needs to achieve in order to play again, Rose has given no indication that he will come back this postseason. The cries from fans and media members for him to get back on the court have grown louder, but the only ones doing much talking about Rose’s return date are his coaches and teammates. Head coach Tom Thibodeau chose to take an indirect route in responding to recent comments from analysts who suggested that Rose owes it to his teammates to return this season if at all possible. "Derrick owes it to what's right," Thibodeau said. "And the more I'm around him, the more I'm impressed with this guy's character. He's not being swayed by anybody. He's not quite there, and we made that clear to him from the beginning. We're going to support him in every way possible. I would never question him. Ever." Thibodeau also said it is unfair to compare Rose’s injury and recovery time to anyone else, even though Bulls center Joakim Noah is playing with plantar fasciitis. "There's a big difference between the type of injury he's had and all these other injuries," Thibodeau added. Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich seconded his coach’s thoughts and made it clear that none of his teammates are questioning why their franchise player won't tough it out and play now. "We don't feel that way," Hinrich said. "It's been a very difficult year for Derrick. I've never experienced any sort of injury like that, and I'm not one to speak on how anybody else's body feels.” Now imagine what Hinrich might say about the topic of his team’s best player being medically cleared to play but refusing to do so if he were speaking off the record………..

- Going into space isn't cheap, but it has never been more expensive for the United States than it is now. Because of budget cuts, NASA no longer shoots people into space on its own and must contract out on such endeavors. Russia is the top option when seeking a space taxi these days, but this is no cheap ride into the stratosphere. What is the going rate for a ride into the cosmos? How about $70.7 million per seat? That’s the amount NASA will pay under a new deal that will keep American astronauts flying on Russian spacecraft through early 2017. That is about $8 million more per astronaut than the previous going rate, but the $424 million deal did secure six seats aboard Russia's Soyuz space capsules, so clearly the group rate helped. Soyuz vehicles will now ferry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station through 2016 and the deal also extends return and rescue services until June 2017.  The old agreement allowed U.S. astronauts to travel to space for a paltry $62.7 million per seat, but inflation is no one’s friend. NASA famously retired its space shuttle fleet in July 2011 and has been dependent on the Soyuz ever since. Riding with the Russians is one component of NASA’s space travel plan, complemented by a push to have American private spaceflight firms develop their own astronaut taxis under its Commercial Crew Program. That part of the program has been slowed due to Congress' failure to fully fund Commercial Crew, meaning the goal of having at least one homegrown crew-carrying spaceship by 2015 is a dream that will go unfulfilled. According to NASA chief Charles Bolden, NASA officials are now targeting 2017 for the first American astronauts to fly on commercial spacecraft. To this point, Congress has approved grants of $489 million and $406 million for Commercial Crew, well short of the $830 million and $850 million laid out in President Barack Obama's federal budget requests. "Because the funding for the President's plan has been significantly reduced, we now won't be able to support American launches until 2017," Bolden said in a blog post. SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Boeing are the three leaders in the private space race and in the meantime, NASA has signed billion-dollar deals with two American firms, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., to fly robotic resupply missions to the International Space Station………

Microsoft mail + Skype, the Dutch get another reason to party and Tim Tebow has options

- There is great news from one Timothy Richard Tebow. Sure, he was released by the New York Jets on Monday, two days after the NFL draft ended and four days after the team drafted West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith in the second round. And yes, Tebow went unclaimed on NFL waivers Tuesday. However, that does not mean that TRT is done as a football player or even as a quarterback. He has options, even if none of those options involves him suiting up for an NFL team in any capacity. On the one hand, he could head north of the border and play for the Montreal Alouettes – as a backup. “We have quarterbacks under contract,” Montreal general manager Jim Popp said. “We’re going to camp in a month. We’ve got a starting quarterback. I’m not out there enticing or trying to convince [Tebow] to come to Montreal because he’s [not] going to be a starting quarterback. He would be coming to Montreal to be a backup player ... to learn the game and, maybe, in the future, he’ll be able to compete for a starting job.” That’s right, he could compete for a second-string job in a third-tier league. If that doesn’t sound like a good option, Tebow could always play indoor football in Nebraska for a whopping $75 a game. The Omaha Beef, know for nothing, called the office of Tebow’s agent Jimmy Sexton on Tuesday to offer a standard player contract. Beef assistant general manager Andrew Mather knows the odds on a return call are long, but he’s hoping against hope that Tebow is interested. As an added bonus, Tebow could learn all about quarterbacking from someone names, James McNear, who is apparently the starting quarterback for the Beef. "I think Tim can learn a lot from me," McNear said. Should both of those options seem unpalatable, there is a third, more glamorous option on the table….as the national quarterbacks coach for the Legends Football League, a.k.a. the Lingerie Football League. Mitchell Mortaza, the league's commissioner, also called Sexton this week and offered Tebow the chance to step into a made-up position created as a total publicity stunt for a niche, lecherous league. Your move, TRT……..

- It’s about freaking time. Where there is a demand, there must eventually be a supply and no one can deny that there is a pressing need for a website such as www.eccie.net. The site, based in North Texas, provides a sort of Angie’s List or Better Business Bureau-like rating service….for hookers. The site, which is tied to several investigations by the Texas Attorney General’s office, has existed for several years but has not been receiving the attention is so richly deserves. Ladies of the night can create profiles on the site and their, um, customers can post reviews about their services. It’s a brilliant idea for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Homeland Security Investigators often scour sites like this for potential human trafficking cases. “A lot of these internet websites are reflective of pure prostitution,” said David Marwell, an Immigration Customs Enforcement special agent. The site also plays an important role in the lives of the degenerates who patronize prostitutes because let’s face it, they don’t have a lot working in their favor. If they are so desperate for sex and simultaneously so unequipped to convince a woman to actually have sex with them, then their life is fairly miserable. The last thing any of these losers needs in his life is to solicit a pro who turns out to be terrible at her job. If a dude can go online and find a quality street walker for a good price and have reviews from fellow degenerates to rely on, then there is a much lower chance of wasting good money on bad paid sex. Not surprisingly, state lawmakers in Texas would like to shut such sites down and the current owner of the site has remained in the dark so far………..

- Public Enemy once urged the world to fight the power and now, member Chuck D (real name Carlton Douglas Ridenhour) is waging his own battle against some of the heaviest hitters in hip-hop. Ridenhour is upset about the use of the n-word in rap and his primary targets are Jay-Z and Kanye West, collectively known as Watch the Throne. The duo’s best-known track as a group is “Ni**as in Paris” and it’s the title of that song that has Chuck D upset. He tweeted about the issue after Public Enemy’s performance at L’Original festival in Lyon on Sunday night, a performance that included a white fan in the crowd using the word. “Standing ovation in Lyon France telling these folks we are African NOT Ngrs In Paris why I gotta travel PlanetEarth cleaning sht from USA?" Chuck D asked. He chased that with a second tweet reading, “Blackfolk are hangin on a cliff in the USA. Calling us NGR & making youth think its normal & diggin it is like pushing us off it. It pay$ well.” Oddly enough, he didn’t fault the white fan in the crowd for what he said and instead shifted the blame to the two men whose song titles and lyrics have made the use of the offensive term more commonplace than ever in hip-hop. “He didn’t know. It’s a language cultural thing where they’ve seen black men call themselves that like happy ass slaves for 20yrs,” Chuck D wrote in a latest tweet. One of his followers defended Jay-Z and West, but Chuck D was having none of it. "Yes JayZ is a very very sharp smart dude and gifted. But with great power comes responsibility, it is necessary to lead forward. When you have mainstream RAP songs basking in it out of context, Sometimes you gotta call time out and demand some respect.” Having three hip-hop heavyweights squaring off could lead to some interesting dialogue on the topic, but the odds of actual change in this area still seems remote……..

- Microsoft wants to upgrade its Outlook.com email service. It really should upgrade all of its subpar software offerings, but starting with Outlook is a practical choice. To that end, Microsoft is readying a Skype video-calling feature for the service’s 60 million users. The company is in the midst of a push to integrate Skype across practically its entire consumer-facing product portfolio and the official Skype-Outlook announcement was made on Monday. With the new feature, users of the Outlook.com email service will be able to initiate Skype video calls or text-based chats directly from Outlook.com's Web-based interface. Microsoft purchased Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011 and has since taken its sweet time integrating the communications technology into its software ecosystem. It moved the process forward with the prominent placement of the Skype app in Windows 8, the company's latest release of the world’s worst operating system, in October. What was once known as Microsoft Messenger has morphed into Skype and earlier this year, Giovanni Mezgec, general manager of Microsoft Lync, announced that the barriers between Lync and Skype would be dissolving this summer. "By bringing the assets that we have on the consumer front with Skype and on the enterprise front with Lync, we can have a unified platform that really brings communications from the living room to the boardroom in a way that makes sense and is rationalized and connected rather than having disconnected islands,” Mezgec said. Douglas Pearce, group program manager of connected services for Microsoft, explained that the Skype integration will start with a "select set of people in the U.K. and then the U.S.” Users will be able to access Skype with their existing Microsoft account and won't have to sign up for a new one. Current Skype account holders will need only to link their Skype accounts to their Microsoft account to expose the added functionality. Both Skype and Microsoft could use the boost that this latest news should bring……..

- Head to the coffee house and smoke a celebratory joint, residents of the Netherlands, because history has been made in your awesome nation. For the first time in more than 120 years, Holland has a king. The change happened when Queen Beatrix abdicated on Tuesday, handing the throne over to her eldest son, Willem-Alexander. A raucous crowd of some 25,000 well-wishers cheered outside the Royal Palace in Amsterdam as the abdication and automatic succession were broadcast live across the small, northern European nation. The crowds arrived in Dam Square from early on Tuesday to see the new king and his wife, Queen Maxima, as they stepped out onto the balcony of the Royal Palace in a scene somewhat similar to the one that occurred in March when a new pope was chosen in Rome. Queen Beatrix signed the abdication document in front of the Dutch cabinet and in her purple dress, she looked thoroughly regal while her son and daughter-in-law took control with happy looks on their faces. "Today, I make way for a new generation," Beatrix said. He will now take on the title of Princess as he son, a 46-year-old water management specialist, takes over. Most royal onlookers expect that Willem-Alexander and his wife, a popular former investment banker from Argentina, will be more relaxed and less formal than his mother. The day was bound to be a party in the Netherlands, abdication or not, as April 30 is known as Queen's Day and is always a day for parties. Many Dutch started the party early, taking Monday off work celebrating Monday night with street bands and music. Amsterdam has been draped in orange, the royal color, for days and bunting hung from many buildings around the canal-ringed downtown area. The royal family remains popular with a 78 percent approval rating, which may have something to do with their limited political power and largely figurehead status…….