So This Is Thursday....

The world's longest cat Stewie - 4 ft long

Happy Thursday - or Friday or whenever you're reading this. Not much going on today. Still too freaking warm outside - near 80 degrees approaching Halloween- sheesh! Though it DID get down to around 30 degrees about 94 miles away from here this morning. As of Thursday afternoon, me and the missus have no “big” plans for my bi-weekly Friday/Saturday/Sunday off.


On Yahoo! News this afternoon, one of the afternoon's headlines reads "Obama says elections could set nation's future". NAH, REALLY? How Bush-esque...

What do you think of the "racy" photos at GQ of the cast of TV's "Glee"? I think the pedophilia concerns are kinda muddled because, as with most shows, you have early/mid 20 year olds playing high school teens.

Look for Jimmy McMillan of New York’s The Rent Is Too Damn High (www.rentistoodamnhigh.org/) political party to possibly make a cameo on this weekend's Saturday Night Live.


Conan O'Brien is lining up the expected "big" guest list for the initial week of his show debuting November 8th.


Katy Perry and Jack Sparrow imitator Russell Brand are getting married in India.


Why did NPR fire (terminate the contract of) analyst Juan Williams for telling Bill OReilly that one time on a plane people appearing to be Muslims dressed in religious garb frightened him?


A new study indicates that eating whole grains instead of refined grains may have benefits for your waistline. Will they ever come out with a whole grain cheesecake?

How do you feel about Collin Ferrell being in a "Total Recall" remake?


Looks like the on again/ off again production of "The Hobbit" is becoming just as long and drawn out as the movie/story will be.

Penthouse founder Bob Guccione Sr has died.


And finally, a U.S. satellite has detected increased activity at a North Korean nuclear weapons test site, suggesting it could be preparing for a third test, a South Korean government source was quoted as saying. If we went into Iraq because of alleged WMD's and the argument is being made that even though the WMD's were moved out of Iraq and it's a GOOD thing Saddam is gone, can't we make the same argument concerning Kim Jong Il/Nam/Nong?

Happy Tuesday!

Good Tuesday!

Today finds me exhausted- for a variety of reasons not just because of work. Yesterday was very busy here at work and like yesterday, today I'm playing around with fire trucks and helicopters again.

Some things I saw yesterday and this morning on the net was.....

Haiti's still in the dumper and despite progress being made, the photo ops and rubber bullets are flying. Regardless of which political jersey you wear, Haiti IS politicized by the White House. These things usually are in my opinion. Rahm Emanuel was crucified in the press and the right wingers by making the statement "never let a good crisis go to waste"- or " never let a serious crisis go to waste". While it is appalling and a weasel like statement at first, it's pretty much a smart way to react to something unavoidable that you HAVE to deal with politically.

Hugo Chavez and the French are criticizing the US's "occupation" of Haiti. --Feh..

Students at Ebinport Elementary in Rock Hill, SC have raised over $1,000.00 at their Haitian Relief Lemonade stand.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Conan O'Brien is close to signing a nearly $40 million deal to walk away from his job hosting NBC's "The Tonight Show," in a new move that will also award severance pay to his employees. The deal, which has been fiercely negotiated for the last week, will give O'Brien $32.5 million to go on garden leave until September. This would prevent him from hosting any other TV shows if he pockets the cash, but gives him an option to sign other deals. The remaining $7.5 million will go in severance pay to about 200 of Conan's "Tonight Show" employees after they expressed outrage about the prospect of going penniless after relocation across the country months ago.

Jay Leno FINALLY gives us his version of how this whole debacle began - http://www.hulu.com/watch/121471/the-jay-leno-show-jays-pov#s-p1-sr-i1

New Jersey's 55th crime boss/governor, Christopher J. Christie will be sworn in today.

Meanwhile Fox News is projecting Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown as the winner in the special election today. Not really, but it sure seems like that. Obama made the obligatory appearance over the weekend for fellow Democrat State Attorney General Martha Coakley. Apparently George Soros and his money are no where to be seen as I can tell. This is important obviously as it will take away the Democrat's invulnerability in regards to a filibuster proof senate.

Japan Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection today

A Michigan weapons company is under fire for branding thousands of rifle scopes used by US soldiers and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan with passages from the Bible. U.S. military rules prohibit any service member from proselytizing while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, which are primarily Muslim nations.

British candy maker Cadbury has accepted a takeover offer worth $19.5 billion from U.S. food conglomerate Kraft Foods.

Want to see pics from upcoming movie called "Predators"? http://www.collider.com/2010/01/16/behind-the-scenes-pictures-from-nimrod-antals-predators/

“Paranormal Activity 2 will be released October 22 of this year. One of the SAW movie series directors is set to helm.

JJ Abrams is working to get a sequel to 'Cloverfield" made this year.

Ghostbusters 3 is still set to begin production later this year.

Oh yeah, there are plans to remake Hawaii 5-0 and bring it back to television.

Mark Strong, who played the villain Lord Blackwell in "Sherlock Holmes" is rumored to play Sinestro in DC Comics big screen adaptation of 'Green Lantern'. According to Variety, the 1980s comic book origin story "Emerald Dawn" as a basis for the film.

It looks like Marvel Comics is ending all 4 monthly issues of 'The Avengers' in April. Haven't read for how long or when an eventual restart would begin.

A 42-year-old Taiwanese man with a history of high blood pressure has died of a stroke likely triggered by over-excitement from watching the blockbuster "Avatar" in 3D, a doctor said Tuesday

Today in RECALL news- Some 390 tons of ground beef produced by a California meat packer, some of it nearly two years ago, is being recalled for fear of potentially deadly E. coli bacterium tainting, U.S. officials said on Monday.

Chrysler is recalling many of it's 2009/ 2010 vehicles (Jeep included) because of potential faulty brakes. Chrysler also bought a 60 second Super Bowl ad.

and finally, drivers in downtown Moscow squinted in disbelief as an electronic highway billboard blazed a two-minute pornographic video instead of its regular advertising clips. Late-night traffic on one of the Russian capital's busiest roads slowed Thursday as a couple's explicit escapades appeared on the 9-by-6-meter display.
The screen's owner, 3 Stars, told the AP that a hacker attack was likely to blame. Some people took pictures of the sight with their mobile phones and posted them on the Internet.

CRAZY Monday Afternoon Goings On

In SHOCKING, NO! REALLY!?!?!?! news (thanks Keith Larson)

Sarah Palin has officially joined the Fox News Network in a variety of roles on the Business and News sides of the network. Fox News said that while Ms Palin would not have her own program, she would appear on the channel on a regular basis as part of a multi-year deal.

Mark McGwire finally came clean Monday, admitting he used steroids when he broke baseball's home run record in 1998.

Simon Cowell has confirmed today that this IS his last year on "American Idol". He's bringing his English show, the "The X Factor" here to the states for Fox. This puzzles me as he already produces the same show formula but as an American version of the show on NBC called "America's Got Talent".

Many news outlets are reporting that the current host of "The Tonight Show" is very upset. Five months after relocating his family, his company, and everything else in his life to Los Angeles, Conan O'Brien is reportedly ready to leave NBC over talks to move Jay Leno back to his old spot on the late-night lineup. I don't blame him. The REAL winner of this is Jimmy Fallon and Carson Daly (yes, he's STILL on TV).

in NOT so SHOCKING! NO! REALLY?!?!?! news:

While (not because of) production on Spider Man 4 is temporarily delayed, Marvel Studios has begun production on Kenneth Brannaugh's "Thor" movie- TODAY actually. Nathalie Portman will play the love interest in this.

Whitney over at USA Today's Pop Candy is reporting that Stan Lee will guest star on The Big Bang Theory

Slash says he has turned down millions to reunite with Guns N' Roses.

Another Star Trek movie concerning the NEW timeline and new kids on the bridge is set for a 2012 release.

In other stuff,

5.China's online game revenues hits $4 billion in 2009. The US in 2009 had about $1 billion

Former NBA star Jayson Williams, his personal life in shambles, took responsibility for accidentally shooting his limousine driver to death eight years ago by pleading guilty Monday to assault and agreeing to serve at least 18 months in prison.

While Marvel sues to keep it's main comic book characters, it's also suing to invalidate the Kirby family's copyright claims. In a lawsuit filed today in New York City, lawyers for Marvel assert that Kirby's work for the company was "for hire," invalidating the claims of the heirs.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

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Happy Friday!!
Happy 75 years young to the late (?) Elvis Presley

Looks like we've escaped the worse of the winter weather here in GreenVegas, SC. Still though, I cannot remember this many consecutive days where the low temperature was in the teens or twenties. Although this morning, the low only dipped down into the mid 20's, it's only expected to get as high as 33 degrees today. Better than wind chills hitting 35 below in eastern Nebraska, minus 45 in parts of South Dakota and negative 50 in North Dakota. Is it cold where you are?

There's a new movie opening this weekend I'd like to see. "Daybreakers" is not the usual vampire movie that's flooding the public consciousness nowadays. This story depicts a future world dominated by vampires. No longer shadowy outcasts, vampire cops try to control vampire riots when the blood supply falters. Vampire scientists work in vampire-run labs. Homeless vampires live beneath city streets and devolve into something far worse than hungry hobos when they can’t find food. Damn interesting to me. Will you see this movie? Are you sick of the recent vampire TV shows, books, and movies?

What's up with the whole Jay Leno thing at NBC. This really doesn't look good for the network as it seems they want to have their Conan and Jay Leno too. NBC executives on Thursday discussed a scenario that would include a half-hour Leno show at 11:35 p.m. EST, sending "Tonight" with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 a.m. and Jimmy Fallon's "Late Night" to 1:05 a.m., according to the infamous "unnamed source" at NBC. Leno even joked about it last (Thursday) night saying "if it's true it will give us time to do some traveling. I understand that (the) Fox (network) is beautiful this time of year."- hahahahaha! No one's mentioned Conan it seems. Sad...What do YOU think? Do you care?

Some good news out of Cleveland football fans. Eric Mangini will return for a second season as Cleveland Browns coach after capping a losing campaign with their longest winning streak since 1994, the NFL team said on Thursday. I believe the "Man-Genius" (thanks Terry) has got a good thing going now and the fickle fans, not only in Cleveland but elsewhere, need to suck it up for at least another 2 or 3 years. GIve the coach and team management a chance to build something successful and long lasting. Cleveland has a tremendous opportunity to reverse the current climate of "win or go away" that pervades sports. Just my opinion, what say you?

Let's see what else I saw on the ol interweb today....


A study of 10 chain restaurants, including Wendy's and Ruby Tuesday, found that the number of calories in 29 meals or other menu items was an average of 18 percent higher than listed. And frozen supermarket meals from Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers, Healthy Choice and South Beach Living had 8 percent more calories than the labels said, according to the study, published in this month's Journal of the American Dietetic Association. The researchers and other experts aren't accusing restaurants and food companies of trying to deceive customers. They said most of the discrepancies can be explained by variations in ingredients, portion sizes and testing methods. For example, the teenager behind the counter might have put too much mayonnaise on one sandwich.

Shooter Jennings Recruits Stephen King For Concept Album | Billboard.com click for entire story

Yemen has rejected direct U.S. intervention in its crackdown on al Qaeda. Where's "W" and the evil Cheney boys when you need them.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has told his Japanese counterpart that he is open to games between the World Series and Japan Series champions, but no steps have been taken for such a matchup. Now THIS would be cool- an ACTUAL World Series...

Floyd Mayweather Jr spoke to journalists today about the on again off again talks for a possible matchup against all world champ Manny Pacquiao. "First and foremost, not only do I want to fight Manny Pacquiao, I want to whip his punk ass."

A new Harvard medical study says men with restless leg syndrome are more likely to have erectile dysfunction, new research suggests, but it's not clear how the two conditions are related.

A sequel to Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider movie is in the works. The film is tentatively titled Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance, and De Luca confirmed that director Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil) and Eva Mendes won’t be returning. The Producers are looking at the film as a reboot for the franchise (a la Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk), it’s currently set in Europe, and there’s a possibility it may get the 3D treatment. De Luca also mentioned that he’s open to Goyer directing the film, it’s all dependent on his schedule.

Good news for cell phone carrying mice- a study in mice suggests using cellphones may help prevent some of the brain-wasting effects of Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. After long-term exposure to electromagnetic waves such as those used in cell phones, mice genetically altered to develop Alzheimer's performed as well on memory and thinking skill tests as healthy mice. The results were a major surprise and open the possibility of developing a noninvasive, drug-free treatment for Alzheimer's, said lead author Gary Arendash of the University of South Florida.

Looks like doctors aren't the only ones who should scrub before surgery. Bathing patients with an antiseptic and squirting medicated ointment up their noses dramatically cut the rate of dangerous staph infections afterward, researchers found. A second study found the antiseptic did a better job of preventing infections than the reddish-brown iodine solution that's been used for decades to swab the skin before an operation. Infections are a vexing problem for hospitals. Some 30 million surgical procedures are done each year, and up to a half million Americans develop surgical-site infections, mostly from staph bacteria.