CLIPS from a porn movie were shown to American football fans as they watched the closing minutes of the Superbowl. The Comcast cable company has described the incident as "an isolated malicious act", the Arizona Daily Star reports.
Part of a movie being aired on an adult channel was broadcast to viewers in Tuscan, Arizona, with less than three minutes left on the clock.
The incident happened just after the Arizona Cardinals scored a touchdown to put the team in the lead. It is not known how many Superbowl fans were affected by the interruption -- which featured full male nudity -- but Comcast said viewers with high-definition televisions would not have seen the clip.
Those that witnessed the mistake told the Star they saw a woman unzipping a man's pants before the pair engaged in a graphic act. Some said they thought it was an advertisement at first.
"I just figured it was another commercial. ... then he did his little dance with everything hanging out," viewer Cora King said.
Comcast spokeswoman Kelle Maslyn said the clip was not a result of a technical problem. "We did an extensive preliminary check on our technical systems, and everything appeared to be working properly when the incident occurred," Ms Maslyn said.
The US Attorney's office said it was looking into the incident.
Click to see a great picture
There are some games in which cheering for the other side feels better than winning.
They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.
It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.
Did you hear that? The other team's fans?
They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.
It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players onby name.
"I never in my life thought I'd hear people cheering for us to hit their kids," recalls Gainesville's QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. "I wouldn't expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!"
And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he'd just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.
But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of fivehandcuffs ready in their back pocketsand marched them to the team bus. That's because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.
This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robberymany of whose families had disowned themwearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.
So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fansfor one night onlycheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. "You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth."
Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan's office and asked, "Coach, why are we doing this?"
And Hogan said, "Imagine if you didn't have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."
Next thing you know, the Gainesville Tornadoes were turning around on their bench to see something they never had before. Hundreds of fans. And actual cheerleaders!
"I thought maybe they were confused," said Alex, a Gainesville lineman (only first names are released by the prison). "They started yelling 'DEE-fense!' when their team had the ball. I said, 'What? Why they cheerin' for us?'"
It was a strange experience for boys who most people cross the street to avoid. "We can tell people are a little afraid of us when we come to the games," says Gerald, a lineman who will wind up doing more than three years. "You can see it in their eyes. They're lookin' at us like we're criminals. But these people, they were yellin' for us! By our names!"
Maybe it figures that Gainesville played better than it had all season, scoring the game's last two touchdowns. Of course, this might be because Hogan put his third-string nose guard at safety and his third-string cornerback at defensive end. Still.
After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that's when Isaiah surprised everybody by asking to lead. "We had no idea what the kid was going to say," remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: "Lord, I don't know how this happened, so I don't know how to say thank You, but I never would've known there was so many people in the world that cared about us."
And it was a good thing everybody's heads were bowed because they might've seen Hogan wiping away tears.
As the Tornadoes walked back to their bus under guard, they each were handed a bag for the ride homea burger, some fries, a soda, some candy, a Bible and an encouraging letter from a Faith player.
The Gainesville coach saw Hogan, grabbed him hard by the shoulders and said, "You'll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You'll never, ever know."
And as the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they'd never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.
Anyway, with the economy six feet under and Christmas running on about three and a half reindeer, it's nice to know that one of the best presents you can give is still absolutely free.
Hope.
Fast forward to NFL Commish Roger Goodell's Friday news conference
Remember Kris Hogan, the Grapevine, Texas, high school football coach who asked half his fans and cheerleaders to cheer for the other team one night?
Story goes, Hogan's guys were playing a prison team from Gainesville that not only hadn't won a game all year, but had to play every game on the road. So over 200 fans sat on Gainesville's side of the field and cheered on the players by name.
They made a spirit line and a banner for the team, and even sent them off with dinner and some gifts.
Well, Troy Aikman read it, then made sure NFL commissioner Roger Goodell read it. Goodell thought so much of Hogan he brought him Tampa for the Super Bowl. The Commish even honored Hogan during his Friday news conference. "I hate it that this thing that we did is so rare," Hogan said. "Everybody views it as such a big deal. Shouldn't that be the normal?"
The facts are these: Just after 1 a.m. February 3, 1959, a three-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza went down about five miles northwest of Mason City Municipal Airport, near Clear Lake, Iowa. The plane crash took the lives of the pilot, Roger Peterson, and three musicians: Charles Hardin Holley, better known as Buddy Holly, 22; Ritchie Valens (originally Valenzuela), 17; and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, 28.
It has become famous, in Don McLean's "American Pie" formulation, as "the day the music died."
The event has echoed through rock 'n' roll history for 50 years, representing, if not the end of rock 'n' roll itself, the close of an era, the end of the first bloom of rock anarchy and innovation.
"It was like a curtain coming down," said Terry Stewart, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, which is co-hosting a series of events in Clear Lake for the anniversary, including classes putting the event in historical context.
As they have for decades, visitors have been making the pilgrimage to the resort town about 110 miles north of Des Moines. On Monday night, the 50th anniversary of the trio's deaths, the city's Surf Ballroom and Museum will host a huge concert in conjunction with the Rock Hall.
KiloBravo reports heavy snow at her mum's house near the Mersey in the Northwest. LONDON, England (CNN) -- The worst snowstorm to hit Britain in 18 years forced the cancellation of more than 650 flights at London's Heathrow airport Monday and shut down the city's bus network, partially paralyzing the British capital.
Heathrow, one of the busiest transport hubs in the world, closed both its runways for more than two hours Monday morning and operated with just one for the rest of the morning, according to BAA, the company which runs it. London City airport is also closed, while the British capital's other two airports, Stansted and Gatwick, were operating with severe delays, BAA said. British Airways canceled all flights out of Heathrow until 5 p.m. except for Edinburgh and Lisbon routes.
One of the city's largest cab companies was in such high demand it stopped taking cash and credit card bookings, serving only customers with accounts, it said. Dial-a-Cab, which has a fleet of over 2,500 vehicles, served mainly blue-chip companies trying to get employees into work, said Keith Cain a Control Room manager for the company.
Jochen Jaeger, 36, found himself stranded at Heathrow, unable to fly home to Zurich or to get back into the apartment he rented in London. "I will stay here at the airport," he told CNN. "There is no other option. I may have to spend the night here."
Jenny Leslie, a shop worker at Heathrow's Terminal 2, said it was so quiet at the airport "you can hear a pin drop."
Southampton Airport, southwest of London, was also closed for several hours Monday morning, but re-opened by noon (7 a.m. ET).
London's famous red buses were pulled off the roads on Sunday night as the snow got deeper. "Bus services were suspended throughout London last night on the grounds of passenger safety due to the unsafe road conditions resulting in a large number of traffic incidents across London," Transport for London, the city's transit agency, said. "Services remain suspended but we aim to restore services as soon as possible once roads have been treated and it is safe to recommence services."
The city's subway system was experiencing severe delays, leaving normally bustling central London something of a ghost town. Snow in the Underground?
On a regular weekday, London's transit system handles more than three million passenger journeys.
The Federation of Small Businesses estimated that at least one in five workers nationwide -- about 6.4 million employees -- failed to make it into work Monday morning. But the figure was estimated to be far higher -- around two in five -- in London and southeast England, which is home to around a fifth of all British businesses.
Monday's disruptions are likely to cost businesses £1.2 billion ($1.7 billion), FSB spokesman Stephen Alambritis told CNN.
Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, issued severe weather warnings for all of England and much of Scotland and Wales for both Monday and Tuesday. It reported eight inches of snow in Balham, south London, and six inches at Canary Wharf in east London.
The last time such widespread snowfall affected Britain was in February 1991, the Met Office said.
The snow meant a break from school for the region's children as classes gave way to snowball fights. In the southern English seaside resort of Brighton there was a carnival atmosphere as dozens of people who were unable to get to work threw snowballs and built snowmen on the beach.
Mother-of-three Fiona Robbins, 45, added: "Everyone is very excited to be able to show their children proper snow for the first time."
Tuesday's forecast is expected to bring some relief, with the snow expected to stop and temperatures to rise above freezing.
Two climbers were found dead Monday morning on Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, after being reported missing Sunday night, North Wales Police said. It was not clear if their deaths were related to the storm.
#1
Yes, snow in the underground. The way the Underground is designed you have several sub-surface lines like the District & Circle and Hammersmith which have large sections above ground. Also, a number of the deep lines like Picadilly and Northern have surface sections. It affects the whole system. Not as bad as wet leaves on the tracks of the passenger rail systems:)
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/02/2009 10:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
A train should be able to get around in snow, even on above-ground tracks. I have never seen trains stopped from snow unless it is so deep that the locomotive can not push through it. Even when the rails are covered in ice, as soon as the wheel hits, the ice shatters and exposes the bare rail.
I have seen trains moving after an ice storm back East and you can see the ice flying from the first set of wheels.
#3
Keep in mind this is like having snow in Columbia, SC, which happened when I got to Ft. Jackson in early 70. Inch or two paralyzed the place. They just don't know how to drive in snow.
Or ice in Dallas. My daughter got a day off because of that last week.
Further north? No biggie, until the lines come down and there's no power and the trees block the roads.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/02/2009 12:03 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Crosspatch:
Its not so much the snow as freezing temperatures. Unless the points (switches) have heaters then you can't switch since they freeze. Also ice on tracks for transit cars is different than ice on the track for a heavy diesel or electric-diesel engine. Snow and freezing temps screw up systems like London's where this is more unusual than usual.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/02/2009 13:18 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Obviously the Gore Effect is increasing in both power and distance. Is there no way we can stop The Goracle before his cryogenic monsterousness sends us all into the next Ice Age?
In a rare phenomenon, residents of Dubai were pleasantly surprised as heavy snowfall blanketed a mountain region in neighbouring Ras Al Khaimah with many rushing there to witness the dazzling white snow.
Most newspapers carried out front-page photographs of snow fall on the mountains of Ras Al Khaimah on Friday night, leaving the Jebel Jais range covered in a thick white blanket of snow. The government news agency Wam said about 20cm of snow covered the mountains.
"The sight up there this morning was totally unbelievable with the snow-capped mountain and the entire area covered with fresh, dazzling white snow," Major Saeed Rashid Al Yamahi, Manager of the Air Wing of RAK Police, who flew a helicopter to the top of the Jebel Jais mountain said.
"The snowfall started at 3 pm on Friday afternoon and heavy snowfall began at 8 pm and continued till midnight, covering the entire area in a thick blanket of snow," he said.
He told the media that the entire area was covered with 10cm of snow.
This spell of snowfall brought the temperature on top of the mountain cluster, situated at a height of 5,700feet, to as low as -3 degree celsius on Friday night, as the snow blanketed an area extending over 5kms.
Anecdotal evidence suggest this as the second instance of snowfall in the emirate after December 2004.
The temperature on top of the mountain cluster remained extremely cold during the daytime on Saturday with the temperature rising to just 1 degree celsius in the afternoon.
A SUDANESE man has been sentenced to 30 lashes for smoking on a domestic Saudi Arabian Airlines flight, local media reported today.
The unnamed man had refused to put out his cigarette on the flight to the Red Sea port city of Jeddah from Qurayyat in northern Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Gazette said. He was arrested by police when the aircraft landed in Jeddah and sentenced to 30 lashes by a local court yesterday.
The man apologized and said he was attending clinic to help him stop smoking, according to the report.
Leaders and activists of Airport police station unit of Awami League (AL) and its front organisations yesterday took control of the cab service counters at Zia International Airport after driving out the three lessees of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB).
Posted by: Fred ||
02/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The MoD is guarding the canons at a secret location, and 39 more guns have been identified on the sea bed, making it the largest collection in the world. In a related story the Royal Navy said today that it expects to be able to finally equip its new frigates with state of the art 18th Century firepower for the 21st Century :D
Radical environmentalists accused Japanese whalers of attacking them with high tech sound guns which can cause nausea, disorientation and hearing damage in the latest round of their annual confrontation in the frozen seas off the Antarctic.
Members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society claimed that crew members of the whaling ship Nisshin Maru used the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) against rubber launches attempting to disrupt their annual hunt in the Southern Ocean.
The LRAD is a non-lethal weapon used for crowd control by soldiers and riot police, as well as by ships travelling through pirate-infested waters. It consists of a round disc three feet across which directs a beam of shrill sound, extremely loud and off-putting at a range of several hundred yards, and capable of causing permanent ear damage at close range.
This is a military grade weapon system that sends out mid to high frequency sound waves designed to disorient and possibly incapacitate personnel, Sea Shepherd said in a statement. It is basically an anti-personnel weapons system.
The self-styled environmental pirates claimed that two of its crew members were slightly injured over the weekend when the Japanese sailors fired water hoses and threw metal balls at them as they attempted to obstruct the launch of smaller harpoons from the Nisshin Maru.
It is a very dramatic scene out here as ships zig zag back and forth in thick ice and heavy swells, said Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd ship, Steve Irwin. The whalers are deploying water cannons, concussion grenades, acoustic weapons, and throwing solid brass and lead balls at Sea Shepherd crew members.
If we were to do any of the things these thugs are doing, we would be denounced as eco-terrorists. There certainly is a double standard where whale killers can use violence without fear of condemnation from their government, and we can't even defend ourselves without condemnation from our governments. Y'know, Bill Ayers makes pretty much the same argument.
In Japan, the governments Fisheries Agency admitted that water sprays and beeping warning tones had been used against the environmentalists. A spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research, a government funded organisation which campaigns in the whaling cause, did not deny that the LRAD had been put to use. All legal means available will be used to ensure these pirates do not board Japanese ships or threaten the lives of the crews or the safety of the vessels," Glenn Inwood said. If the "pirate" meme sticks, it won't be just whale blood in the water.
The hunting of whales was banned in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission after evidence that the world's largest mammals were being driven towards extinction. Japan continues to hunt whales every year in the guise of scientific research, although most of the 935 minke and 50 fin whales which it hopes to harvest this year will be sold as whale meat.
Every year Tokyo has sought to overturn the moratorium to allow a full and uneuphemistic return to commercial whaling; in recent IWC meetings, it has edged closer to the required three-quarters majority.
Opponents of whaling accuse it of using overseas aid to buy the votes of small countries which have no interest in the industry, but great interest in winning the favour of Japan among the pro-whaling faction expected to be present in Tokyo are tiny island states such as Tuvalu and Kiribati, and Mongolia, which has no coastline.
Captain Watson was a founder of Greenpeace who broke away to form his own more radical group. Sea Shepherds confrontational and sometimes violent tactics are opposed even by those who denounce Japans whaling programme, including Greenpeace and the governments of Australia and New Zealand.
What is important, however, is that despite the violence from the whalers, no whales are being killed, Captain Watson said. They can't get away from us and if we keep on their tail they can't kill whales.
Notable terrorist actions by Paul Watson the media neglects to tell you about:
1979 - He sank the commercial whaling ship the Sierra by ramming it. His ship was equipped with a cement-filled bow.
1980 - He sank the the whaling ships Isba I and Isba II in Vigo, Spain.
1980 - He sank the the whaling ships Susan and Theresa in South Africa.
1981 - He sank the whaling ships Hvalur 6 and Hvalur 7 in Iceland
1986 - Sank half a fleet of Icelandic whaling boats.
1987 - Founded the practise of tree spiking for his other terrorist group the Heart of the Wood.
1992 - He threatened to sink a fleet of ships reenacting the Columbus voyage of the discovery of America.
1992 - He sank the whaling ship Nybraena in Norway.
1994 - He sank the whaling ship Senet in Norway
1997 - He was imprisoned in the Netherlands for ramming a Norwegian coast guard vessel and trying to ram a whaling ship that was tied up at dock.
1998 - He sank the whaling ship Morild in Norway
2002 - He tried to ram a 13 foot shark boat with his ship the Farley Mowat (previously named the Ocean Warrior).
2005 - He attempted to ram the Japanese whaling ship the Oriental Bluebird.
2007 - He attacked the Japanese whaling ship the Kaiko Maru with bottles of butyric acid.
2008 - He attacked the Japanese whaling ship the Yushin Maru with bottles of butyric acid.
Posted by: Aussie Mike ||
02/02/2009 17:28 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Mike, those would be useful for the ships off Somalia as well.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/02/2009 18:10 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Mongolia? Did it say freaking Mongolia I have no problems with banning whaling. I do have a problem with Japans Holier-Than-Thou attitude on enviromental issues then they practice this crap.
#7
tu3031---good posting!!! These guys try to foul the propellers with stuff. I am not a fan of large scale commercial whaling, but this guy is over the top. Turn the LRAD on to Max and blast away. The Sea Shepherd people are using the same propaganda playbook as Hamas. Sink em.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/02/2009 19:44 Comments ||
Top||
#8
By reading that list, I fully expect this man to not make it home some day.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/02/2009 20:29 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Greenpeace was started by Brigitte Bardot
who was an employee of a Parisian fake fur
manufacturer.
They managed to destroy the seal hunt in the
Gulf of St Lawrence, which in turn caused a population explosion of the seals, who ate ALL the fish of the grand banks, and poisoned those they missed with a parasite worm.
Now, there is no fishing industry in the North Atlantic, fish prices are gone through the roof
and millions are starving to death, which
is the main objective to the hippie filth
of greenpeace, the peace of the grave for the majority and nature enjoyment for these millionaire parasites.
Of note, Bardot started her anti-fur campaign wearing a REAL MINK FUR COAT in Blanc Sablon, Canada.
Cant blame her, it was damn cold that spring.
Posted by: Ming the Merciless ||
02/02/2009 20:47 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Greenpeace was started by Brigitte Bardot
Huh? Wikipedia: The origins of Greenpeace lie in the peace movement and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament generally, and particularly in the Don't Make A Wave Committee co-founded by Jim Bohlen, Patrick Moore, Paul Coté, and Irving Stowe, followed by an assortment of Canadian and expatriate American peace activists in Vancouver in 1970. Taking its name from a slogan used during protests against United States nuclear testing in late 1969, the Committee had come together with the objective of stopping a U.S. nuclear bomb test codenamed Cannikin beneath the Aleutian island of Amchitka, Alaska.
Posted by: ed ||
02/02/2009 21:02 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Before Bardot, Greenpeace was virtually unknown...
Washington, DC - December 29, 2008, - President-elect Barack Obama and the Democrat controlled Congress is considering sweeping legislation that will provide new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act. AWNAA is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.
'Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society,' said Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA). 'We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing.'
In a Capitol Hill press conference, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pointed to the success of the U.S. Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. According to Reid, approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack any job skills, making this agency the single largest U.S employer of Persons of Inability.
Private-sector industries with good records of non-discrimination against the Inept include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement 'warehouse' stores (65%). At the state government level, the Department of Motor Vehicles also has an excellent record of hiring Persons of Inability (93%).
Under The Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million 'middle man' positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance.
Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given so as to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations that promote a significant number of Persons of Inability into middle-management positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium-sized businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires.
Finally, the AWNAA contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the non-abled, banning, for example, discriminatory interview questions such as, 'Do you have any skills or experience that relate to this job?'
'As a Non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them,' said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan, due to her inability to remember 'righty tightey, lefty loosey.' 'This new law should be real good for people like me,' Gertz added. With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens will finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Said Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL): 'As a Senator with absolutely no abilities, I believe the same privileges that we elected officials enjoy ought to be extended to every American with no abilities. It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her inadequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation and a good salary for doing so.'
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The facts are these: Just after 1 a.m. February 3, 1959, a three-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza went down about five miles northwest of Mason City Municipal Airport, near Clear Lake, Iowa. The plane crash took the lives of the pilot, Roger Peterson, and three musicians: Charles Hardin Holley, better known as Buddy Holly, 22; Ritchie Valens (originally Valenzuela), 17; and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, 28.
LONDON, England (CNN) -- The worst snowstorm to hit Britain in 18 years forced the cancellation of more than 650 flights at London's Heathrow airport Monday and shut down the city's bus network, partially paralyzing the British capital. 
