Sumo Babies

Sumo baby : University student sumo wrestlers attempt to make babies cry during the "Baby-cry Sumo," an annual contest which is supposed to bring good health, at Tokyo's Sensoji temple in Tokyo.(AFP/Toshifumi Kitamura)

Weird. Sounds kinda mean, too.

Last Night on "Heroes"

The seven-week hiatus was excruciating, but last night's episode was pretty meaty.

Hiro met up with his future self. Not sure where that's going.

Niki/Jessica continues to work for Linderman, despite the fact that D.L. threatens to take Micah from her.

Linderman wants Micah to do something for him. I bet he wants the kid to mess with electronic voting machines and swing the election to Nathan.

Peter manages to survive his second encounter with Sylar, but only because he has Claire's super healing ability. Mohinder takes Peter's "body" back to his family and Claire pulls a huge shard of glass out of his brain, which revives him.

Nathan listens to Linderman's spiel about saving the world and buys into his plan. The plan is evidently to rig the election, let most of New York get blown up by an exploding Peter, and then position Nathan as some savior that's going to "lead people out of darkness."

Claire gets to know her granny, who is a really calculating old woman. Granny Petrelli showed no emotion when Mohinder showed up with Peter's body. She actually suggested to Nathan that they hide Peter's body until after the election. Is she really that cold, or did she know that Peter wasn't dead?

Mohinder. Dude, what is your problem?? He underestimated Sylar, then he got jacked up and stuck on the ceiling. But then Peter shows up and Mohinder manages to knock Sylar out... and he leaves Sylar alive and escapes with Peter's body!! Is he insane or what? At the very least if he was unable to kill him for personal moral reasons he should've, I dunno, broken both his legs, tied him up, put the IV back in him... SOMETHING! Jeez!

Matt. Matt is the butt monkey of the show. Luckily, Mr. Benett told him exactly what to do to escape from Primatech. Now we have the unlikely trio of Matt, Mr. Benett and Ted, the radioactive guy.

Last but not least, Isaac. I couldn't believe Isaac gave himself up like that and literally laid back and let Sylar cut his head open in a pseudo crucifixion scene. That pissed me off. I have to assume that something about having Isaac's power will have a negative impact on Sylar, but I hated that. He went out soft.

I guessing the comic book pages and sketchbook Isaac gave to the Asian guy moments before Sylar showed up has some clues the remaining heroes will use to kill Sylar.

Questions: Where's Mrs. Bennet? Where's Mr. Muggles? What happened to the Haitian?

Alec Baldwin Gets Nasty with Daughter

Whoa! TMZ.com broke an ugly tirade from Alec Baldwin directed at his 11-year-old daughter. He's going through a seriously nasty divorce from Kim Bassinger and it looks like he's taking it out on his daughter.

From TMZ:

An enraged Alec Baldwin unleashed a volcanic tirade of threats and insults on his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, calling her a "thoughtless little pig," and bashing her mother Kim Basinger -- and TMZ has obtained the whole thing unfiltered and raw. And we've learned, a family law judge was so alarmed after hearing the tape, she has temporarily barred Baldwin from having any contact with his child.

After Ireland failed to answer her father's scheduled phone call from New York on April 11, Alec went berserk on her voice mail, saying "Once again, I have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone," adding, "you have insulted me for the last time."

Switching his train of thought, Baldwin then exercised his incredible parenting skills and took a shot at his ex-wife, declaring, "I don't give a damn that you're 12-years-old or 11-years-old, or a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn't care about what you do." The irate Baldwin went on to say, "You've made me feel like s**t" and threatened to "straighten your ass out."

"This crap you pull on me with this goddamn phone situation that you would never dream of doing to your mother," screamed Baldwin, "and you do it to me constantly over and over again."

Before hanging up, Baldwin warned the child, "You better be ready Friday the 20th to meet with me."

Listen to the mp3.

Nasty! I feel threatened, and he ain't talking to me.

Read more...

The Walk-off: Part Deux

New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez, right, celebrates with teammates and coaches after hitting a two-out, walk-off, three-run home run in the Yankees 8-6 win over the Cleveland Indians in their baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York, Thursday, April 19, 2007. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Who Was Seung-Hui Cho?

Today the tragic and senseless Virginia Tech massacre got even stranger. NBC news in New York received a package sent to them by the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, after the dorm shooting but before the engineering building shootings.

From the L.A. Times:

Shortly before Seung-hui Cho gunned down 30 people in Norris Hall, the Virginia Tech senior apparently mailed a large package to NBC News containing rambling messages about his anger at the wealthy and alluding to the slaughter that was about to take place.

"You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option," Cho said in one of the QuickTime videos included in the package, in which he compared himself to Jesus and the two shooters at Columbine High School.

NBC received the package today and broadcast excerpts of the videos this evening on "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams."

The package also contained more than two dozen photos of the Cho, including 11 of him aggressively thrusting pistols at the camera. Cho, 23, did not explain his exact motives for the killings, but expressed rage and resentment in an 1,800-word, profanity-laced diatribe that Williams described as a "multimedia manifesto."

This guy was totally in his own world. I'm still waiting to hear something from his family, or someone who actually grew up with him. There must've been somebody.

I also find it interesting that race hasn't been raised in this case except for NBC's Clint Van Zandt, who hinted (with no evidence) on MSNBC on Monday that Cho's shooting spree may have been an "honor killing" of some kind because he may have been spurned by a woman and "needed to save face." If an alienated black student had shot 32 people, I have no doubt that the massacre would've been painted as a bias incident, and not a mental health incident.

While we're on the mental health issue, I like how in Virginia when one fills out an application for a gun permit, they ask you if you've ever been diagnosed with a mental disorder and they take your word for it when you say no. That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard of.

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Minnesota's Muslim cab drivers face crackdown

From Reuters:

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Muslim cab drivers at Minnesota's biggest airport will face new penalties including a two-year revocation of their taxi permits if they refuse to give rides to travelers carrying liquor or accompanied by dogs, the board overseeing operations ruled Monday.

Gosh, no one in New York has ever denied me a ride when I'm trashed and I have my pooch with me. These Minnesotans are so unreasonable.

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32 Killed in Massacre at Virginia Tech

The Waco Siege ended in April. The Oklahoma City bombing happened in April. Columbine happened in April. Now this.

What is it about April? Specifically the third week of April?

In honor of Jackie Robinson Day...

In honor of Jackie Robinson Day, Mariano Rivera, the last man allowed to wear number 42 as his official number, blows his first save of the year.

**SIGH**

Yankees lose a heartbreaker to Oakland, victim of a walk-off home run with two outs, two strikes on the batter in the bottom of the ninth. The flipside of what A-Rod did to the Orioles last Saturday.

**SIGH**

Unexpected Imus Fallout, Part II: WFAN in Deep Doo Doo

As mentioned in my Thursday post, Imus accounted for a whopping 25% of the revenue for radio station WFAN. In the wake of his firing by parent company CBS, it's an understatement to say that the station is in deep doo doo as they scramble to replace his spot. In the meantime, Mike & The Mad Dog are going to be on twice a day, for a total of something like 8 hours. How can they possibly keep that up?

From the New York Times:

Yesterday there was clearly no succession plan in place for Mr. Imus, but for the next two weeks, Mike Francesa and Christopher Russo, who are the co-hosts of the afternoon “Mike and Mad Dog” show on WFAN, will fill in, working from 6 to 10 a.m., tweaking their two-man act to have a slightly more national flavor. After the midday hosts, Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts, expand their show to 2 p.m., Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo will return to the air for the afternoon drive shift, from 2 to 6, which will be cut temporarily from their usual 1 to 6:30 p.m. slot.

Mr. Russo also said the program would be heard on all the stations that received “Imus in the Morning,” except those in Boston and Washington. A Westwood spokeswoman said she could not verify that.

Mike Barnicle, a frequent guest of Mr. Imus and the host of a talk show in Boston, was considered as an interim replacement, “but it didn’t work out,” said Karen Mateo, a spokeswoman for CBS Radio.

Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo were first teamed at WFAN in 1989, two years after it pioneered the sports-radio format. Mr. Imus was never a sports aficionado, but sports were frequently discussed on his program.

He often tapped Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo — whom he dubbed “Fatso and Fruit Loops” — for their sports knowledge. Ultimately, it was Mr. Imus’s toxic mix of sports and a racist comment that led to his stunningly abrupt fall.

“This place is reeling,” Mr. Russo said by telephone yesterday during a break in their program. Mr. Francesa, also during a break for commercials, added: “He was the rock upon which WFAN’s success and ‘Mike and the Mad Dog’s’ success were built. No ifs, ands or buts.”

Trouble. This is my favorite station. I'd hate to see the whole station go down because of one guy.

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Unexpected Imus Fallout, Part I: NJ Gov. Corzine Critically Injured

Unbelievable! New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine was critically injured on the way to the Rutgers summit between Imus and the girls’ basketball team.

From the New York Times:

Months of painful rehabilitation could well limit Mr. Corzine’s physical and political stamina for tackling such an array of problems that would challenge the healthiest and most established of political figures.

The crash occurred about 6:15 p.m. Thursday in the northbound lanes of the Garden State Parkway, about five miles north of the Atlantic City Expressway. The governor’s Chevrolet Suburban swerved to avoid a Dodge Ram truck that had, in turn, turned to avoid a red pickup that was described by the police as driving erratically.

The Suburban slid into the end of a guardrail, which “penetrated the vehicle, and struck both Rasinski and Governor Corzine,” according to a police report.

Mr. Corzine’s left thigh bone, or femur, was fractured, and it punched two holes through his skin. He lost about half of the blood in his body, requiring seven units during surgery Thursday night, and broke six ribs on each side, along with his sternum, collarbone and a lower vertebra.

Doctors provided few details about the extent of internal injuries, the arc of Thursday night’s treatment, or the prognosis for recovery. Mr. Corzine remained unable to speak because of the breathing tube.

Wow. He’s really messed up, to put it mildly. Very, very scary.

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Outta Here

Good riddance. Dropped by MSNBC yesterday, fired today by CBS.

From Bloomberg:

CBS Fires Imus, Joins MSNBC, After Racist Comments (Update3)

By Don Jeffrey

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- CBS Radio fired talk-show host Don Imus after his racially charged comments sparked protests from civil-rights leaders and advertisers.

CBS Radio said ``Imus in the Morning'' will be off the air permanently, making the decision a day after cable-television network MSNBC canceled its simulcast of the show.

``All of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air,'' CBS Corp. Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said today in an e-mailed statement. New York-based CBS owns CBS Radio.

Imus called the Rutgers University women's basketball team ``nappy-headed hos'' on April 4. CBS and MSNBC reversed an earlier decision to suspend the host for two weeks as calls for his firing grew louder and the show's largest advertisers, including General Motors Corp. and Sprint Nextel Corp., pulled their ads.

Imus's ability to attract high-profile political guests such as John McCain, John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman, drew listeners and made it the top-grossing show on CBS. He generated more than 25 percent of the revenue for CBS's WFAN radio station in New York, or about $12 million, according to Mark Fratrik, vice president of BIA Financial Network, a broadcast consulting firm in Chantilly, Virginia. The show was carried on more than 60 stations across the country.

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Preston Wilson says racial issues remain in baseball

I came across this tidbit a few weeks ago.

From STLtoday.com:

When it announced the first annual Civil Rights Game between the Cardinals and Cleveland Indians less than four months ago, Major League Baseball envisioned this weekend as a commemoration of the civil rights movement and baseball's role in enacting social change.

Cardinals outfielder Preston Wilson, meanwhile, notices that he is part of another change: the game's ever-diminishing minority of African-American players.

The veteran Wilson is the only African-American player on the Cardinals' projected opening day roster. He has witnessed the steady ebb of black athletes from the game for two decades.

"I think the perception is if there's a dark-skinned Latin guy out there, then he's black," Wilson said before Friday's game against the Memphis Redbirds. "A lot of people don't differentiate. But it's not the case. There are a lot of issues involved."

Uh, but Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, Vladimir Guerrero, Big Papi, etc. are black. Right? And I'm pretty certain that African-American kids aren't playing the game because they like other sports more, not because white people are keeping them off the diamond. Right?

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Primatech Paper Company - Heroes Fans

For the Heroes fans out there, I invite you to visit the very nondescript website of Primatech Paper Company.

Find the helix hidden in the logo on the 'About us' page.
Log in with :

id: bennet
pw: claire

Enjoy!

En Fuego!

Unbelievable. Look who came out the box hot – A-Rod, leading the league in homers and RBI and sharing Player of The Week honors with Vladimir Guerrero.

I especially loved Saturday’s game. Two outs in the 9th, three men manage to get on base, A-Rod’s down to his last strike, BOOM! Grand slam. Awesome. I screamed and scared poor Orlando.

Too bad it’s April. If only A- Rod could’ve done this against the Tigers in October. **SIGH**

From Yankees.com:

Alex Rodriguez felt so good after his walk-off grand slam on Saturday he thought he'd add to it, so the Yankees third baseman slugged a two-run homer in his next at-bat the following day.

"I'm having a good time," Rodriguez said Sunday.

The Orioles, however, were not enjoying Rodriguez's success. Their pitching staff was at the mercy of the 2003 and 2005 AL MVP as A-Rod was 5-for-11 against Baltimore (.455) with three homers and eight RBIs.

His performance earned him the distinction of receiving the season's first AL Player of the Week award, which he'll share with Angels right fielder Vladimir Guerrero.

Rodriguez, a 10-time All-Star, went 2-for-5 with a home run and two RBIs on Opening Day against Tampa Bay, and drove in another run Tuesday. It was a refreshing change from the postseason struggles he endured at the end of the 2006 season, and Yankees manager Joe Torre credits part of it to a lack of hesitation in Rodriguez's swings.

Read more...

Happy Easter!

Don Imus: Racist

Just another in a long line of foul comments by this aging piece of filth.

I have a personal take on this situation. I'm forced to watch this guy every morning at work because we have a large screen TV forever tuned to MSNBC. I raised concerns about Imus's racial remarks to the head of Communications at the company I work for seven years ago because the company is a sponsor of the show and of the Imus Ranch. He blew me off. Maybe if sponsorship had been pulled then, these girls from Rutgers never would've be insulted.

So Wrong

From Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters) - A British dentist was found guilty Thursday of urinating in his surgery sink and using dental tools meant for patients to clean his fingernails and ears.

A medical tribunal said it was satisfied the evidence showed 51-year-old Alan Hutchinson, who "routinely" did not wear gloves or wash his hands, had risked the health of "himself, staff and patients" for more than 28 years.

A dental nurse who worked for Hutchinson for 16 years said she had caught him urinating in the sink more than once.

"He was tucking something into his trousers before zipping them up hastily. I walked over and I was behind him. He moved to the left and I could smell urine," the nurse told the tribunal.

A later hearing will decide if the dentist's unhygienic habits impaired his ability to treat patients, and if so, whether he should banned from practicing.

What does he have to do to be banned? That's not enough?? Eww!

Happy Birthday, Orlando!

Coyote makes sandwich run; stops at Chicago Quiznos

From USA Today:

CHICAGO (AP) — For one day, at least, the roadrunner was safe. It seems the coyote was hankering for another kind of fast food.

Employees and customers at a downtown Chicago Quiznos sandwich shop were stunned to see a coyote walk through the propped-open front door Tuesday afternoon and lie down in a cooler stocked with fruit juice and soda.

"It wasn't aggressive at all," restaurant manager Bina Patel told the Chicago Tribune. "It was just looking around."

Employees and customers calmly cleared out of the restaurant, though some took the time to finish their sandwiches and snap some cell-phone photos, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Animal control officers took the passive coyote away after about 40 minutes, after a curious crowd had gathered outside.

"This one definitely I will definitely remember forever. A coyote in downtown Chicago," Quiznos employee Rick Torres told WLS-TV.

LOL! The coyote was kinda cute. They released it to the wild about an hour ago. I remember about two years ago a coyote wandered into Central Park here in New York. It mysteriously died in custody. That happens a lot here. Not the coyote part.

Podcast Delay. Dammit!

**SIGH**

I'm off to a bad start already. I did some tests and I really need a larger hard drive to handle all of the sound files and the new programs I want to install to accommodate this podcast. An external drive doesn't cut it because there're only two USB ports on the laptop and I need those for the trackball and the preamp.

So, I'm going to have to drop off my laptop at Tekserve. I probably won't get it back in time to do my podcast on Sunday, but I'll see what I can do with my ancient G4 Titanium...

Baseball Season 2007: Predictions

I’m starting my baseball season podcast (hopefully) this Sunday, but I felt I needed to put out my predictions ahead of time.

American League

East: Yankees

Central: Tigers

West: Angels

Wild Card: White Sox

National League

East: Mets

Central: Cubs

West: Dodgers

Wild Card: Phillies

Division Series Matchups

American League

Yankees vs. White Sox

Angels vs. Tigers

National League

Mets vs. Dodgers

Cubs vs. Phillies

League Championship Series Matchups

American League

Yankees vs. Tigers

National League

Mets vs. Cubs

World Series

Yankees vs. Mets

World Champs

Yankees (What did you think I’d say??)

Surprise Team of 2007

Milwaukee Brewers. I think they’ll flirt with the Wild Card all year. I’m also pretty confident that Atlanta isn’t going to be a cellar dweller this year.

Lightning McQueen Cake

Orlando's birthday party was today. The cake came out beautiful! Great job by his great aunts on all the food and decorations.