Something to think about before sitting down to enjoy the Super Bowl
American style football is extremely damaging to the people that play it. Specifically, it’s extremely damaging to their brains.
The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) has studied brain tissue collected from retired NFL players collected after they have died and the results show that the long term brain damage sustained from concussions is far worse than what was earlier believed.
Of course the NFL is planning on conducting their own study of the long term effects of concussions and I’m sure their findings will be the complete opposite of the CSTE. In fact, their “independent” study will probably show that concussions are actually good for the brain.
It should really be no surprise that helmet-to-helmet collisions between two NFL players is causing damage to their brains. Perhaps when a player needs to be carted off the field strapped to a stretcher, it should be a clue that we need to find something less dangerous to our fellow man to entertain ourselves with.
I used to enjoy watching professional wrestling. I of course knew it was fake, but that was one of the reasons I enjoyed it. It was theater. Something happened that ruined it for me. It was the pay-per-view when Owen Hart fell from the rafters in Kansas City and as a result of his injuries from hitting the top rope, he died. We were watching that event live. The thought that someone died while trying to entertain me troubled me. I never felt the same way about professional wrestling again. It was not a conscious decision. It was just something I felt.
I don’t want to think that someone has to be harmed so I can be entertained. I definitely don’t want to think that someone is getting brain damage. How about you?
Link (CNN)
When did Kurt Warner’s wife stop looking like Cloris Leachman?
Brenda Warner, wife of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner looks a lot different than she looked back when husband Kurt played for the Saint Louis Rams. Back than, she had short, gray spiky hair. She kind of looked like Cloris Leachman.
Ten years ago when husband Kurt emerged on the national scene, she was often mistaken for his mother. Now she actually looks like the wife of a quarterback playing in the Super Bowl.
Blagojevich is out as Illinois governor
The Illinois Senate voted to impeach Governor Rod Blagojevich. What a nut job. I watched the vote live on CNN in a television built into the treadmill I was using at Anytime Fitness. How cool is that? It’s like I was working out in the future.
The Illinois Senate did the right thing. As this video shows, he’s clearly insane as well as being corrupt.
Why is it news that Jessica Alba is kind of a dummy?
Actress Jessica Alba wanted to let people know that she’s not dumb, so she got on MySpace to get the message out. In my opinion, if you are using MySpace to convince people you are intelligent, you’ve already lost.
What caused people to question Alba’s intelligence? She evidently confused Switzerland with Sweden.
The story goes, a reporter walked up to Alba at an Obama inauguration event and before the reporter could ask her any questions, Alba asked the reporter what he thought Barack Obama’s greatest characteristic was. When the reporter said he felt uncomfortable answering because he was a journalist, Alba replied, “be neutral – be Sweden about it.”
Everyone knows that Switzerland is known for it’s neutrality and Sweden is known for it’s meatballs.
I’ve never quite understood Jessica Alba’s celebrity. She’s a terrible actress. Most of her movies have been complete bombs. Other than the Fantastic Four movies and maybe Sin City, her movies have been both critical and financial disasters. The two Fantastic Four movies were skewered by the critics, but for some unknown reason, people actually went to the movies to watch them.
How does Jessica Alba keep getting acting gigs? I don’t get it.
Earl Douglas is no longer on the Ron and Fez Show
Yesterday on the Ron and Fez Show, Ron Bennington confirmed what most Ron and Fez fans had been fearing. Executive producer Earl Douglas is officially out of a job at Sirius XM radio. Evidently he was informed by someone from the HR department at Sirius XM that his on-air resignation was considered official.
He will be greatly missed.
Some of the most funniest moments on the Ron and Fez Show have involved Earl Douglas. Granted, he was usually the uncomfortable victim of whatever bit they were doing, but it was funny. The time East Side Dave and Lilly got under Earl’s skin by impersonating Earl’s grandmother is probably the single most funniest thing I’ve ever heard on the radio. I never really even cared for Lilly that much. I laughed so hard I cried.
Earl brought out the funny in everyone else.
First Sirius pulls the plug on the Punk channel. Now they let Earl Douglas quit. I just might have to write a letter.
Why can’t Jimmy Carter be this funny?
When it comes to the funny, no ex-presidents are funnier than the comedic duo of Bush and Clinton.
Woman worries that her son might get his secret girlfriend pregnant
A woman is troubled by the way her 17-year old has been acting of late and decides to do what any sane and rational person would do in a similar situation; she posted her problem to Yahoo! Answers:
I’m concerned that my son has a secret girlfriend?
My 17 year old son has been very secretive with me lately, recently he has started to refuse to go to church with the family and tonight when I was going through his room I found a magazine with naked men in it. He obviously has a girlfriend that he is hiding from me that brought that magazine into my home and I am afraid they are having intercourse and I am greatly concerned that he is going to get her pregnant.What should I do about this?
So, the woman goes snooping around her son’s bedroom and finds a nudie magazine with nothing but naked men in it and she assumes that her son has a secret girlfriend who not only enjoys male nudie magazines, but likes to bring them to her secret boyfriend’s house.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I don’t think she has to ever worry about her 17-year old son impregnating women. Not now, not ever.
When will the multiple birth madness end?
Through the miracle of modern medical science, yet another woman has given birth to eight (8) children. This one happened in southern California at a Kaiser Permanente hospital.
Doctors are saying the babies are doing well, but these are the same schmucks that didn’t even know there were going to be eight births until the eighth and final baby popped out. The babies each weighed between 1 pound and 15 ounces to 3 pounds and four ounces.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand the logic of developing fertility drugs on a planet with 6.7 billion people. It seems to me that coming up with new ways of putting more people on an already overpopulated planet isn’t a good idea.
How are these people going to possibly care for eight newborn babies? Not everyone gets a lucrative TV show (and a book deal) when they choose to use fertility drugs and reproduce like rabbits.
Will we ever transition to digital TV?
The U.S. Senate approved a bill that would push back the date in which broadcast TV would change from analog signals to digital.
From the Washington Post:
The transition date would move to June 12 from February 17 under the bill that was fueled by worries that viewers are not technically ready for the Congressionally mandated switch-over. It would also allow consumers with expired coupons, available from the government to offset the cost of a $40 converter box, to request new coupons. The government ran out of coupons earlier this month, and about 2.5 million Americans are on a waiting list for them.
Who knew people with 20 year old TVs had so much power? And to think all they would need is a $40 converter box. This is starting to remind me of when we were supposed to go over to the metric system.
My name is Rick and I have diabetes
A few years ago, I was diagnosed with type II diabetes. I won’t waste any time here trying to explain what the disease is. Instead I’ll just refer you to the American Diabetes Association’s website for an in-depth description of what the disease entails.
It’s not a lot of fun. I have to take medication for it and test my blood at least once a day. I also have to have blood work done every three months followed by a visit to the doctor to have the results of said blood work looked at . My doctor then decides whether or not I need a change in my medication or if things can just remain the same.
When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, I got real hard-core serous about my health. I cut way back on what I ate. I lost a bunch of weight. I got regular exercise. Frankly, the diagnosis scared me to death. I was worried that my feet were going to fall off and that I was going to go completely blind.
Gradually over time, I’ve gotten complacent when it came to my diabetes. I stopped being so fearful of going blind or my appendages falling off. I started eating stuff I shouldn’t. Pretzels, pizza, chips and salsa, etc. I came up with excuses when it came to getting exercise. I put on some weight.
As a result of all this complacency, my glucose levels have gone way up. I had a doctor’s appointment last Tuesday and my A1C test was the worst it’s ever been. It was the wake-up call I think I needed. I’ve been eating much better and I’ve exercised nearly every day since.
In the future, I’m going to be taking my diabetes much more serious.
Joe Torre dishes the dirt on the Yankees
What happens when a baseball team refuses to pay their manager twice as much as the next highest paid manager in baseball? In the case of the New York Yankees and their former manager Joe Torre, the manager goes west to manage the Los Angeles Dodgers and he writes a book slamming the Yankees.
From the New York Post:
In an explosive new book called “The Yankee Years,” Torre gets most personal in his attacks against Alex Rodriguez, who he says was called “A-Fraud” by his teammates after he developed a “Single White Female”-like obsession with team captain Derek Jeter and asked for a personal clubhouse assistant to run errands for him.
This is hillarious. By refering to A-Rod as having a a “Single White Female”-like obsession with Derek Jeter, doesn’t that mean that both A-Rod and Jeter are women?
The Yankee Years comes out February 3.
Madden NFL players are more knowledgeable about football
A recent survey conducted by the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center (and paid for EA) revealed the NFL fans that play Madden NFL 09 are 60 percent more knowledgeable about the game than fans that don’t play the popular video game.
Of course they are. Anyone that’s ever played Madden NFL can tell you that it’s not an easy game to play. A person has to have an in depth knowledge of the real game and the terminology associated with it to play the video game.
Madden NFL is not like the old Nintendo Tecmo Bowl game. In that game, all you had to do it select the Los Angeles Raiders and just have Bo Jackson run on every play. If you didn’t amass 600 yards rushing, you were doing something wrong.
This is why Circuit City is going out of business
I stopped by Circuit City today to see if they had marked everything lower than the messily 10 to 20 percent things were originally marked down the day the liquidators came in. Unfortunately, everything still seems to be priced what it was last week.
I did see something though that was both funny and really quite telling. It was over in the computer section. It was the sign showing that all of the PC TV tuners were marked down 10 percent. As you can see from the above photo, whoever made up the sign referred to them as “thingamajigs”.
Thingamajigs? It’s entirely possible that whoever is handling the liquidation of the Hagerstown Circuit City store made all the signs and they are just completely ignorant when it comes to computer technology, but it appears the Hagerstown store is still fully staffed with red shirt Circuit City employees.
Back in May of 2007, Circuit City fired 3,400 of their long-term and knowledgeable employees and replaced them with lower paid, less knowledgeable replacements. Things for Circuit City went pretty much down hill from there. Your chances of getting a technical question correctly answered by a Circuit City employee after the great purge was about nill.
I am worried about Rush Limbaugh
I guess Rush Limbaugh sat down with Sean Hannity and the two talked about how bad things are now that we have a socialist from radical Islamic jungles of Hawaii as our president. Rush reportedly said that he hopes president Obama fails. He also made some kind of weird reference to bending over and being sodomized.
I don’t really understand the reference, but I don’t watch Fox News.
When I saw the clip on the news, I was surprised just how bad Rush Limbaugh looked. He looks unhealthy. He looks puffy and pasty. He looked much better when he was an out of control drug addict. Maybe he should go back to inhaling Oxycontin and Vicodin like it’s Pez candy. Sure, his drug addicted resulting in his loss of his hearing, but at least he looked halfway human.
He looks really bad. This should be Rush’s golden time. Instead of having to spend his three hours a day on the radio excusing the blunders of George W. Bush, he’s got a charasmatic black liberial president to set his sights on.
Rush needs to turn that frown upside down and maybe get a little Sun. He lives in Florida, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at his pasty face.
Sirius XM satellite working hard finding new ways to rip off their customers
Starting March 11, Sirius XM will be charging customers an extra $2.99 a month to listen to it’s Internet streaming service. When Sirius and XM struck a deal with the FCC to merge, a rate-freeze was one of the conditions mandated by the FCC.
One of the things not covered by the FCC rate-freeze was the free Internet streaming service. Not that it was every really free. It was part of the basic $12.99 a month subscription.
Not only does Sirius XM want customers to now pay for their Internet streaming service, they want customers to purchase a $200 mono wireless Internet radio from them to do it.
From Sirius:
This stylish tabletop wireless Internet radio makes it easy to enjoy SIRIUS Internet Radio at home. SIRIUS offers the ideal premium Internet radio service, with loads of programming choices and no files, ripping or playlists required. Just turn on, subscribe, tune in and enjoy SIRIUS programming in your home.
View artist and song title on the large display. Easily scroll through SIRIUS Internet Radio channels to discover new music. Set your five favorite stations for easy access.
What Sirius fails to mention is that you can also very easily listen to their streaming service in stereo on any computer with Internet access. In fact, you don’t even need a wireless router to do it. With their $200 mono wireless Internet radio, you do.
Sirius and XM never should have been allowed to merge.
Judge Judy: “Your honor, because I like-ed the phone”
I saw this yesterday on Judge Judy. It was on the DVR, so I’m not really sure what day it was broadcast. Judge Judy asked Rhonda Layne, a 19-year old single mother of two who gets by on public assistance why she spent $350 on a cell phone. Her ex-boyfriend broke the cell phone because she was going to use it to call the police on him. She said it was because she “Like-ed the phone“.
She tried to justify it to Judge Judy by saying that she purchased the phone with money she “made on the side” doing hair.
She obviously never watched Judge Judy, nor did she bother to read my advice to anyone planning on appearing on the Judge Judy program.
Meteorologists stink, and I don’t like them
On my iGoogle page, I have a gadget that shows the weather for Hagerstown. It shows not only the current weather, but the forecast for the next three days.
When I looked at it this morning, it showed that today’s forecast called for a high temperature of 40 degrees and a low of 25 degrees. The problem is, the current temperature was already ten whole degrees lower then the “forecasted” low.
Why do they still show the forecasted low of 25 degrees if they know that it’s wrong?
This is why people don’t trust meteorologists. They are the modern equivalent of witch doctors. Even their name is wrong in that they usually, oddly enough, know absolutely nothing about meteors. They pretend to embrace modern technology (e.g. Doppler radar, satellites, etc.), but in reality they are just making stuff up. At least a witch doctor has to shake a stick and throw some bones on the ground.
Meteorologists can’t even be bothered to update their “forecasted” low even when they know that it’s incorrect.
2009 Oscar nominations
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the list of the nominees for this year’s Oscar awards.
BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
- Richard Jenkins–The Visitor
- Frank Langella–Frost/Nixon
- Sean Penn–Milk
- Brad Pitt–The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Mickey Rourke–The Wrestler
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
- Josh Brolin–Milk
- Robert Downey Jr.–Tropic Thunder
- Philip Seymour Hoffman–Doubt
- Heath Ledger–The Dark Knight
- Michael Shannon–Revolutionary Road
BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
- Anne Hathaway–Rachel Getting Married
- Angelina Jolie–Changeling
- Melissa Leo–Frozen River
- Meryl Streep–Doubt
- Kate Winslet–Revolutionary Road
BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
- Amy Adams–Doubt
- Penelope Cruz–Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- Viola Davis–Doubt
- Taraji P. Henson–The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Marisa Tomei–The Wrestler
BEST DIRECTOR
- David Fincher–The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Ron Howard–Frost/Nixon
- Gus Van Sant–Milk
- Stephen Daldry–The Reader
- Danny Boyle–Slumdog Millionaire
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
- Frozen
- Happy-Go-Lucky
- In Bruges
- Milk
- Wall-E
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
- Eric Roth–The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- John Patrick Shanley–Doubt
- Peter Morgan–Frost/Nixon
- David Hare–The Reader
- Simon Beaufoy–Slumdog Millionaire
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
- Bolt
- Kung Fu Panda
- Wall-E
BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Frost/Nixon
- Milk
- The Reader
- Slumdog Millionaire
I guess the biggest surprise for me is that academy voters didn’t shower The Dark Knight with lots and lots of nominations. I thought I was in the minority thinking The Dark Knight wasn’t one of the best movies last year. Heath Ledger was by far the best part of The Dark Knight and because of this fact, received the lone nomination.
That doesn’t mean I think he should actually win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. In my opinion, that award should go to Robert Downey Jr. for Tropic Thunder.
Unfortunetly, I haven’t seen most of the other movies nominated for awards. I’m looking forward to seeing Slumdog Millionaire next month when it comes out on DVD/Blu-ray.
Where’s Earl Douglas?
Towards the end of Friday’s Ron and Fez Show on Sirius/XM radio, executive producer Earl Douglas announced that he was stepping down from his position on the show and would be perusing other opportunities. Whatever that means.
I assumed while listening to it that it was just a radio bit. Who in their right mind voluntarily leaves a job in radio at a time when jobs in radio are hard to get? The radio industry is not what you would call a growth industry.
When I listened to Ron and Fez yesterday, it was clear that Earl wasn’t there. Ron mentioned Earl’s absence through out the day. He seemed just as surprised by Earl’s Friday announcement as were the listeners.
I’m hoping that it’s just a bit. My hope is that he wasn’t there yesterday because he decided to travel down from New York to Washington D.C. to witness the Obama inauguration.
Erik Larsen feels ripped off
Erik Larsen, one of the co-founders of Image Comics and the writer, artist, and creator of Savage Dragon is in a tizzy over the fact that Marvel Comics chose to put president-elect Barack Obama on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man. Obama is also featured in a story in the comic.
The decision by Marvel has resulted in a massive amount of publicity for the comic book publisher, along with extremely strong sales for the Obama issue. Why does this upset Larson so much? Because he put Obama on the cover of Savage Dragon a few months ago.
Larsen wrote:
As far as Marvel goes– I can’t help but feel very betrayed. They duplicated the incentive cover–and preempted my upcoming one–and even used the “terrorist fist jab.” Clearly those in the “house of ideas” looked at what I did and found inspiration.
I hear that they’re even doing a story similar to the one I did four years back, where an image-altering villain disguises himself as the President (in my story the Impostor replaced President Bush and took his place for a speech–in theirs the Chameleon, the shape-shifting villain, is going to spoil a speech being given by President-Elect Obama). The whole mess just feels really underhanded. I feel betrayed and, frankly, ripped off and in the real world–the one outside our funnybook bubble–Marvel will spin themselves as these great innovators who came up with this terrific publicity stunt–instead of the thieves they are.
You know how you can ensure someone else doesn’t rip off one of your gimmicks? Don’t use gimmicks.
Gimmicks are stupid, especially comic book gimmicks.
At least when Larsen put Obama in Savage Dragon, Obama actually looked like Obama. The artwork is so bad in Amazing Spider-Man that you wouldn’t know it was Barack Obama if you weren’t told it was him. He looks like a poorly drawn generic black man.
This is what I call really bad ad placement
If you watched the Battlestar Galactica Friday, you might have witnessed this really inappropriate commercial immediately after a very heavy and important scene involving an important Battlestar Galactica character, Anastasia “Dee” Dualla.
Wow, it doesn’t get any worse than this.
Don’t watch this clip if you aren’t up to date with your Battlestar Galactica viewing. Also avoid watching it if you are at all squeamish.
Also, on another note, what is the deal with Felix Gaeta’s fake leg? They can’t make him something better than that? They somehow are able to make faster than light (FTL) drives for their ships, but they can’t make a better fake leg than that? Drunken pirates in the 18th century had better fake legs than that thing.
Netflix: Very Long Wait
I don’t know what’s the deal with Netflix, but I can’t seem to get them to send me movies. Once I select a movie, it sits there in my queue with the words “Very Long Wait” displayed next to it for weeks. I’ve had the movie Pineapple Express in my queue since before it was released on January 6 and it still shows “Very Long Wait”.
At first I thought I was because I upgraded my account to include Blu-ray movies. That was when it seemed Netflix stopped sending my my selections. I went a head and stopped selecting Blu-ray discs and instead just chose old fashioned DVDs. That doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference. It still took me nearly three weeks to get them to send me a copy of Wanted.
I’m not waiting anymore. I’m going to go ahead and cancel my account and just go back to renting movies from the local video store. At least with the old fashioned brick and mortar video rental store, if they don’t have copies to rent me, I don’t have to pay them.
That’s not the case with Netflix.
Darkmavis has lost the connection
Click image to see larger version
Funny, Darkmavis’ connection seemed good when he or she was winning. Sometimes while playing Magic Online, your opponent gets so upset over of the fact that he or she is suddenly losing, they simply exit out of the program. I guess they do this to avoid the disappointment of losing. This is precisely what my opponent did today.
Darkmavis exited out of Magic Online, severing their connection.
It’s the virtual equivalent of throwing the chess board up in the air and storming out of the room when you opponent puts you in check. It used to happen a lot when Magic Online was first released some five years ago. Until today, I can’t remember the last time it happened. It always seemed extremely silly to me. Out of the thousands of Magic Online duels I’ve played over the years, only one ended in a tie. If someone wins the game, someone also has to lose the game.
That’s just the way it is.
LPGA golfer goes the extra mile for one of her sponsors
Top-ranked LPGA golfer Lorena Ochoa is engaged and the lucky guy is one of her sponsors. The 27-year-old professional golfer will marry 39-year-old Andres Conesa, the director general of Aeromexico airline, one of her sponsors.
Why couldn’t Tiger Woods do that? When it came time for him to settle down, he married a Swedish nanny. He didn’t marry a bigwig from Nike or Buick.
This is just one of the reasons the LPGA is so much better than the PGA. The ladies are more committed to their sport than their male counterparts.
Star of ‘Notorious’ movie seen at movie theater shooting
Police in Greensboro, North Carolina had to evacuate a multiplex theater after someone’s gun went off in a theater hallway. The person who was shot was taken to a nearby hospital. The theater was showing Notorious, the movie about the The life and death story of rap artist Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace), on multiple screens.
According to Greensboro police, Jamal Woolard, the actor that played the part of Notorious B.I.G., was at the theater at the time of the shooting. Why would he even be there? It was not the movie’s premiere.
It is kind of ironic that the actor that played the part of Notorious B.I.G. would go to a movie theater that was showing Notorious and a shooting would take place. It would be like if Mark Hamill went to a showing of Star Wars and a lightsaber battle broke out.
So when did Kurt Warner start shaving?
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner looks like he has started shaving. Back when he played with the Rams, he always had a heavy growth on his face. Reportedly it was because he absolutely hated to shave. Instead of using a razor, he would use an electric trimmer. That always sounded worse than shaving to me.
Some said it was because his Christian religion forbade him from taking a razor to his face. Warner is a deeply religious man. Personally, I never believed that. If Billy Graham can shave his face so he doesn’t look like a drunken hobo or a Cleveland Browns fan, Warner can too.
Maybe someone reminded him that he’s a millionaire and can easily pay for a fancy shave at the barber shop.
Circuit City 1949 – 2009
Circuit City is shutting down all 567 of its U.S. stores and will be selling off all their merchandise. At least they will try to. If they were actually good at selling merchandise, they probably wouldn’t be in this situation.
I’m kind of torn on this news in that I have purchased quite a bit of stuff at Circuit City. I’ve probably bought more electronics at Circuit City than Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or Target combined. With that said, the only reason I have ever bought stuff at Circuit City was because I couldn’t find it anywhere else.
I think what really killed Circuit City was that Wal-Mart heavily committed to getting into the high-definition TV business. Circuit City also seemed to go out of their way to hire employees that knew nothing about the products they sold.
Meet the man that safely landed a jetliner on the Hudson River
Not only did Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III safely land an Airbus A320 safely on the Hudson River, he was the last one to leave the downed airplane. He wanted to make one more sweep of the center aisle to make sure everyone was off the aircraft.
You can’t make up someone like this.
Sullenberger has been flying for U.S. Airways since 1980. Before that, he was in the Air Force where he flew the F-4 fighter. He’s a graduate of the Air Force Academy.
I’m just in awe of this man. The hero tag gets thrown around a lot. In the case of Sullenberger, it’s an accurate description of the man. He’s indeed a hero. Who lands a crippled jetliner on a river, saving the lives of over 150 people? Chesley B. Sullenberger III, that’s who.
Jetliner crashes into the Hudson River, everyone survives
A U.S. Airways Airbus 320 taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York and flying to Charlotte, North Carolina crashed minutes later into the frigid Hudson River. Everyone survived. The passengers and crew, over 150 people, were able to get out of the jet and into boats long before the jetliner sunk.
Honestly, I thought stuff like this only happened in movies. Bad movies to be exact.
It’s still too early to say what exactly caused the crash, but they’ve all but ruled out terrorism. That is unless birds can be terrorists. One of the engines may have ingested a flock of birds.
The pilots are true heroes.
Ricardo Montalban 1920 – 2009
Ricardo Montalban has died. He was 88 years old. Born in Mexico City, Montalban enjoyed a long acting career. He appeared in the original Star Trek television show as the villain Khan Noonien Singh. He then later appeared as the same character in the motion picture Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It’s my favorite of all the Star Trek movies and mostly it’s because of him.
He also appeared on the ABC TV series Fantasy Island as Mr. Roarke. The show ran from 1978 to 1984. The show made being home at 10:00 p.m on a Saturday night lots of fun.
He was also the spokesman for the Chrysler Cordoba. The man could say soft Corinthian leather like no other.
He was married to the same woman, actress Georgiana Young, for 63 years. She passed away in 2007.
Ricardo Montalban was a good man.
Is Kevin Bacon broke?
Actor Kevin Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgwick were supposedly among the many people taken by disgraced hedge fund manager Bernard Madoff. Kevin Bacon recently spoke to Life & Style magazine about the situation. He spoke about “obviously” needing to get back to work, almost as if he was now penniless.
What did he and his wife do, invest all of their money with Bernard Madoff?
If that’s the case, than they deserve having all their money taken. I have a hard time feeling sorry for anyone that invests money in hedge funds. I have even less sympathy for people who invest all of their money in hedge funds.
State of New Jersey has Adolf Hitler in custody
From MSNBC:
Authorities in New Jersey removed 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell and his two young siblings from the care of their parents, according to a published report Tuesday.
The state’s Division of Youth and Family Services took the boy, as well as his sisters — JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, 1, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, 9 months — from Heath and Deborah Campbell, according to LehighValleyOnline.com.
The parents were scheduled to make a court visit Tuesday, but the appearance was postponed.
Holland Township Police Chief David van Gilson told LehighValleyOnline.com that he didn’t know why the children were taken, but added that his office had not received any complaints of abuse.
The family made national headlines last year when a cakemaker refused to add the boy’s name to a cake.
Though the original cakemaker refused to personalize the cake for young Adolf, Wal-Mart of course came through and made the cake.
Iranians dislike Barack Obama
The peace loving people of Iran held a demonstration in support of the people of Gaza, in front of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran yesterday. They showed just how much they support the people in Gaza by burning photos of president-elect Barack Obama. They also placed photos of Obama on the ground and then stepped on them.
That’s what I call real class.
How nervous do the people in the Swiss embassy get when they look out their window and see the Iranians whooping it up? We all know just how respectful the Iranian people are of a sovereign nation’s embassy.
Sometimes the Sun can be a real jerk
Scientists are warning against solar outbursts called coronal mass ejections that can cause havoc with electrical grids and electronic devices.
From New Scientist:
The most powerful solar outburst on record happened in 1859. At that time, it merely disrupted telegraph communication. But if it happened today, it could cause lasting damage to electric power grids, with cascading effects on the supply of water, perishable food, medicine and other necessities, the report says.
Damaged transformers, which change the electricity’s voltage, could be a particularly big problem. “If a large number of those were taken out, it could take quite a while to replace them,” says Baker. “There’s not a lot of stock of them, and they have to be built to order.”
So in other words, we would be without electrical power for possibly a very long time. We would find ourselves subjected to ridicule by the Amish and the Mennonites for our dependency on highfalutin electricity.
I for one don’t look forward to that.
John Thompson says Georgetown needs some ‘thugs’
Former Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson put his foot in his mouth again. He was talking on his radio show about Georgetown and it’s lack of rebounding ability. From MSNBC:
Those listening to the John Thompson Show on local station WTEM this week heard the longtime Georgetown coach suggest that the current team was in need of some “thugs.”
I’m sure his son and current Georgetown coach John Thompson III appreciates the advice that he needs to recruit more thugs. It’s not like Georgetown is a Catholic university that places an importance on academics.
Oh, that’s right. They are.
Back before I had an iPod and a satellite radio, I used to listen to the John Thompson Show on terrestrial radio. Not because it was good, but because it was so bad, it was actually entertaining. Some days he wasn’t even there in the studio with his two co-hosts. He would get on the telephone and call it in.
Greivis Vasquez has to instruct Maryland students not to boo their own team
From the Washington Post’s Terrapins Insider:
When Vasquez missed a shot or made a mistake, a cluster of Maryland students either booed the guard or yelled for Vasquez to shape up. And Vasquez responded at least three times by turning toward his classmates (once while dribbling the ball), putting his index finger over his lips and telling them to “Shut the [expletive] up!”
And I thought only Redskins fans boo their own team.
Ravens advance to the AFC Championship
The Baltimore Ravens beat the Tennessee Titans on Saturday, 13-10, to advance to the AFC Championship game. They will play their AFC North rival the Pittsburgh Steelers this Sunday night for the chance to go to the Superbowl. Once again, the Ravens are relying on their stellar defense to advance in the post-season.
The NFL being the NFL, there was of course an officiating mistake that helped the Ravens. With less than three minutes in the game and the Ravens on offense, the play clock clearly went down to zero before the Ravens could start the play.
Oops.
Al Franken is not considered an honorable opponent by Minnesota Republicans
It looks as though former Saturday Night Live funnyman Al Franken will be the new freshman senator from Minnesota. He was able to make up for his 225-vote deficit and now holds a slight lead over the Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. Of course Coleman is suing to contest the recount process that gave Franken the slight lead.
From Politico:
“I don’t know if we’ve ever had an opponent who is so disliked by Republicans as Al Franken,” said Minnesota Republican Party Chair Ron Carey, who cautioned that Coleman’s election challenge could still turn the results back his way. “It’s one thing to lose to an honorable opponent, but Al Franken is not considered an honorable opponent by Minnesota Republicans.”
I have to give it to Al Franken. He has a way of getting under some people’s skin. I’m not quite sure yet if that’s a good thing, but than again, I’m not so sure it’s a bad thing either. The man enjoys a good fight. He even enjoys a bad fight. He just likes to fight.
Did Earl Douglas get knocked out or did he faint again?
The end of Friday’s episode of the Opie and Anthony Show and then the Ron and Fez Show on Sirius XM radio made for some very uncomfortable radio. It all started when Earl Douglas, the executive producer of the Ron and Fez Show, and Fez made a visit to the Opie and Anthony show to promote a stupid bit they were doing involving Fez not communicating for a whole week.
Opie wanted to try to get Fez to say something. Earl told Opie that he wouldn’t allow that to happen. While Opie was distracting Earl, some of the Opie and Anthony producers (they have at least 15 producers) were doing their best to get Fez to crack. I think they were spraying some type of foul smelling substance on him. When Earl turned around and saw what was going on, he attempted to come to Fez’s aid.
It was at this point that something happened. What actually happened is hard to say. Earl either fainted or he was knocked down and he hit his head on the ground, causing him to black out.
When Earl came to, he claimed to not remember what happened. At this point someone called for the EMTs. They quickly arrived and decided to take Earl to the hospital. They placed him in a wheelchair and took him downstairs to an awaiting ambulance.
When the Ron and Fez Show began at noon, Fez was still keeping the lame silent bit going. This required Ron to do all the talking which mostly revolved around how Earl was faking the whole thing. According to Ron, the EMTs knew that Earl was faking his injury when they carted him off in the wheelchair.
Ron then talked about the meetings that Sirius XM management was having with members of the Opie and Anthony show. He told listeners how he barged into the meeting and explained to management that Earl was faking the whole thing. That he had done this before. That he had simply fainted and was too embarrassed to admit it.
Earl is kind of famous for his fainting. He once fainted because of the smell of Febreze.
Two hours later, Earl was back from the hospital. The fact that he was released so quickly from the hospital seemed to infuriate Ron. It seemed to confirm his opinion that Earl was faking. Ron argued that if the doctor thought there was even a chance that Earl sustained a head injury, they wouldn’t have released him so quickly.
Earl still claimed to not remember what happened. This just made Ron even more angry. Fez then broke his silence to back up Ron’s assertion that Earl was faking the whole thing. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Fez sound so angry.
The show ended with nothing being resolved. Earl still claimed to not remember anything and Ron and Fez insisted that Earl was faking. At least it brought an end to the whole Fez being silent bit.
I didn’t know that was a derogatory term
Lady Di’s number two son has stepped in it again. A British newspaper has published a video on their website that shows Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, used offensive terms to refer to people from Pakistan and Arab people. The video was shot in 2006 while Prince Harry and his fellow soldiers were waiting in an airport departure lounge to travel to Cyprus. From MSNBC:
The newspaper said in a statement that in the video, Harry referred to one colleague as “our little paki friend” — using a derogatory term for people of Pakistani origin.
I honestly didn’t even know this was a derogatory term. I thought it was as harmless as calling someone from Britain a “Brit” or someone form Australia an “Aussie”. People from Canada are often called “Canucks”. Is that derogatory too?
Later in the video, Prince Harry makes a joke about another one of his fellow soldiers looking like a “raghead” because of the piece of fabric he had draped over his head.
7 things I did not like about ‘The Dark Knight’
I watched The Dark Knight for the second time Friday and I’m still surprised just how popular this movie was. I just don’t get it. Instead of seeing one of the best comic book movies ever made, I see a movie with lots and lots of flaws.
Here is a quick list of the things I didn’t like about The Dark Knight:
- They replaced Gotham City with Chicago. In the first Batman movie, Batman Begins, the story clearly took place in a city that was unlike any other city in North America. It didn’t look like New York, Toronto, Chicago, or Seattle. It looked like the fictitious city of Gotham. In The Dark Knight, it was clearly shot in the city of Chicago. There was the elevated train tracks and the river that runs through the city. The only thing that was missing was a shot of Oprah and Stedman sharing a hot dog watching a ball game at Wrigley field. It didn’t look anything at all like the Gotham in Batman Begins.
- Batman sounded stupid. For some unknown reason, any time Batman was in costume, Christian Bale spoke in a low, guttural mumble. At first I thought it was some retarded way of disguising his voice, but even when Batman was with Lucius Fox (played by Morgan Freeman), he spoke in low mumbles. Christian Bale didn’t speak this way in the first movie.
- The part of Rachel Dawes was played by a different actress. In the first movie, Rachel was played by actress Katie Holmes. In this movie, it was played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. If director Christopher Nolan wanted Gyllenhaal to play the part of Rachel, he should have cast her as Rachel in Batman Begins. Changing actresses between movies is just as stupid as changing actresses halfway through a movie. What’s even worse is that the viewer is supposed to just know that Gyllenhaal is now Rachel. It’s as if Nolan thinks everyone has a subscription to Entertainment Weekly and watches Entertainment Tonight on a nightly basis. It’s lazy story telling.
- The whole cellphone powered sonar technology thing. Honestly, this was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t be surprised if this concept was pitched by a Make-a-Wish kid and nobody wanted to break the little tike’s heart by saying no.
- Commissioner Gordon faking his own death even to his family. I can understand him not trusting his own fellow police officers because everyone knows that Gotham City police are corrupt, but allowing his wife and children to think he’s dead makes him just as evil as the Joker.
- Snatching the Asian man from the ground with a C-130. I’ve got to admit this was really cool the first time I watched it in the John Wayne movie, The Green Berets. It just seemed too hard to believe that a C-130 would be able to get in and get out of Chinese airspace without facing some kind of response from the Chinese air defense force. The last time I looked, Hong Kong is an island surrounded by lots and lots of water. It would have been far easier just to sneak the guy out on a boat of even a bat-submarine.
- Batman kills Two-Face. To save Commissioner Gordon’s son, Batman pushes Harvey Dent off a building, killing him in the process. This went against almost everything Batman has ever stood for since he was created decades ago. Batman does not kill. If he is going to kill Two-Face, why doesn’t he also kill the Joker?
There were quite a few things I liked about the movie. For instance, Heath Ledger as the Joker was ridiculously good. He was by far the best thing in this movie. If I owned this movie on DVD instead of Blu-ray, I’d be temped to edit a version of the movie that only contained scenes with the Joker.
Barack Obama to appear on the cover of the comic book
The cover of Amazing Spider-Man #583 will feature Barack Obama doing his best Fonzi impersenation. The book appears in comic book shops everywhere on January 14. I think you can also get this issue without Fonzi Obama on the cover being that this is labeled as a “variant edition” cover.
I think this stunt on Marve’s part has to do with the fact that Obama admitted in an interview that he used to collect Spider-Man comics when he was a kid. That was news to me in that I didn’t know one could buy Spider-Man comics in the radical Islamic jungles of Hawaii. Like most people, I figured he was too busy running around blowing up hospitals with Bill Ayres and memorizing the Qur’an to do anything so ordinary as to collect comic books.
This is kind of creepy
Showtime’s Dexter Michael C. Hall married his co-star Jennifer Carpenter on New Year’s eve. Carpenter plays Debra Morgan, Dexter’s adoptive sister on the show.
I can remember reading a while back that the actor and actress were dating. At the time I thought it was a little creepy that an actor and actress playing the part of brother and sister would be in real life knocking boots. Maybe it would be different if knew them in a different context. With Michael C. Hall, I know him as the gay undertaker from Six Feet Under as well as the Miami police blood splatter expert who moonlights as a serial killer. With Jennifer Carpenter, I know her as Dexter’s Miami police detective sister who looks like she is starving to death.
Seriously, someone needs to feed the woman a sandwich.
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