Tuesday 1 May 2012

news feeds may 1



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Is Obama too cool for office? The New Yorker magazine thinks so.  In case it wasn't obvious the 'rubber-chicken' primary has been decided.  Obama, of course, will be running for re-election.  But if you take a few moments and watch the coverage of the White House Correspondent's Dinner (if you didn't see the highlights you can check it out here) you remember why Obama is in office in the first place.  The man is charming, and even his detractors have a tough time disliking the guy when they are in his presence and he's on.  He speaks well.  He dresses well.  And he's sharp, wow is he sharp.  Jimmy Kimmel acted as, what was basically a roast master and this guy who has his own talk show was out-funnied by someone who has no business being this naturally funny.  At least at his job.  The best joke, at least for me, was when he was talking about when he first started his campaign in 2008 and he noted he had black hair, followed by a current picture with greying hair then he ends it up by show a picture of what he'd look like in 5 years if re-elected and a picture of Morgan Freeman comes up.  I know, he probably has incredible writers, maybe it was Kimmel himself, who knows?  But the way he delivers his lines so calmly, so perfectly that you know he knows what he's doing.  If the presidential election becomes on of those elections based on personality, then there is no reason why Obama can't be in office for a second term.  Let's just hope he's done his homework on his political platforms.
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It's been one year to the day since Bin Laden was killed, and the world is still glad to be rid of him.
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When you sign up for a Starbucks Rewards card the coffee giant gives you a free beverage on your birthday with as many add ons as  you can get.  A 22 year old student from Texas thought he would take full advantage of this and try to make the craziest drink he could think of.  His drink: Java Chip Frappucino with sixteen shots of espresso, a shot of soy milk, caramel flavouring, banana puree, strawberry puree, vanilla beans, Matcha powder, protein powder and a caramel and mocha drizzle on top all in the new 'Trenta' sized cup (a super-sized cup presumably only available in the US?)  The bill for a paying customer would have been $23.60.  Describing the taste, the customer called it "Tolerable, but not good.  Imagine a coffee based health food smoothie that will put you in the hospital if you drink it all."  He didn't finish it.  The article, that was posted on Yahoo! also posting results of a survey that stated most Americans spent $3-5 on coffee every morning and the average American spends about $1000 a year on coffee, and it's kind of interesting to see how expensive you can actually make a coffee, especially since Starbucks announced it was raising it's prices by 1% in some regions.  Who knows, in 2015 maybe we're spending $2000 a year on coffee?
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It's too bad when you see the impact of iTunes and piracy when you see people at a good label lose their jobs.  Roadrunner Records have closed their overseas offices losing 36 employees, and an additional 16 staffers will be laid off stateside as well.  Roadrunner founder and CEO Cees Wessels has resigned his post in the wake of the changes initiated by Roadrunner parent company Warner Music Group.  Roadrunner Records started in 1980 as Roadracer Records in the Nethelands originally distributing American metal records in Europe.  They scored some early triumphs with albums by King Diamond, Annihilator and the Scandinavian distributing of early Metallica records.  In the late 80 and 90s the label released records by Sepultura, Obituary, Machine Head, Type O Negative, Vision Of Disorder and Earth Crisis, 3 Inches Of Blood, Biohazard, The Misfits, Shelter among many other. Criticism of the label over the years have included mistreatment of bands to signing and releasing Nickleback records which if it wasn't for the labels excellent legacy I would never listen to another album they put out.  Everyone makes mistakes.  Lennon thought it was a good idea to put out Yoko albums on the Beatles' Apple Records.  Shit happens.
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GIVE ME BACK MY CAREER!!
Mel Gibson has a temper.  After years of speculation it was confirmed by the 56 year old actor on his visit to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Friday night.  Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (who is responsible for such gems as F.I.S.T., Basic Instinct and Showgirls) was down at Gibson's Costa Rica home to show him a script.  Mel disapproved of the script then went on a rant which for some reason Eszterhas was recording him.  Mel said to Leno "Has it really come to the place that you can't blow off steam in your own home?" He may have a point.  "If he put half as much time and effort and creativity and imagination into a screenplay, which he was supposed to write, as he did into that letter, we wouldn't be having this conversation. "  Also possibly true.  As for the infamous 'blow ups' not in his own home blowouts include anti-Semitic, homophobic and racist remarks and more than a couple DUI the first of which or at least the first widely reported incident was in our own back yard.  In 1984 while filming the clunker "Mrs. Soffel" in Toronto, Gibson ran a red light and smoked the back of another car while inebriated.  I think Mel's only redeeming value now is Lethal Weapon and Mad Max.  I can't watch Braveheart with a straight face now.  :/
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The Least Dirty of the Pics
Round two of the playoffs is underway with the Kings and Coyotes leading 2-0 in their series while the Rangers/Caps split the first two and the Flyers are up 1-0 on the Devils.  Who expected the goal explosion by the Kings in the first period last night in St. Louis.  Another big story (kind of) in hockey is Wayne Gretzky's daughter Paulina.  She's pretty good looking let's face it, but she clearly doesn't have an ounce of self respect or shame. But if you ever wondered what Wayne's eldest childs butt looks like, click here for her new set of partying pictures (this is the second time questionable pics of her have been posted on the internet).  It seems like a 180 from their middle child who must have inherited some athletic talent from his father as he played baseball and football at San Diego State University, and was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 2011 MLB Draft and signed a contract shortly thereafter.  Sounds like his career path is much more on track than the 24 year old Paulina, who did not go to college to pursue her career as a pop singer only to spend her time drinking and partying her nights away.  The Paris Hilton of the 2010s?
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The new Miami Marlins jerseys haven't grown on me like I hoped they would.  And it has nothing to do with the fact that they have been a bust through the first month of the season.  I like the colour scheme on the stylized 'M' logo but it just doesn't look very good on the field.  And yes, who cares what the uniform is so long as the product on the field is of a high caliber?  Baseball clubs aren't fashion designers, and throughout the years there has been some hilariously so-bad-they're good uniform designs.  The wave of expansion through baseball brought in new markets that had not seen professional ball in the past and wanted to make an immediate splash in the league by having flashy uniforms.  Other franchises who were around a long time but struggling changed their uniforms to try and generate any kind of excitement.  That's all today folks, so here's the best of the worst baseball uniforms as a parting gift.
Houston Astros 1975-1979
San Diego Padres 1978

Pittsburgh Pirates 1976

Chicago White Sox/Sunday Night Beer League Team 1976

White Sox again? Speechless. 1982-1990

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